The Seeds is the debut studio album by American garage rock band. The Seeds. It was released in April 1966 through GNP Crescendo Records and produced by Marcus Tybalt and Sky Saxon. After the release of two singles for "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and "Pushin' Too Hard" in 1965, the album was released and charted in the United States where it peaked at No. 132 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart. Modern reception of the album is positive, with critics noting the album influence on punk rock a decade later.[2]
Contents[]
Style[edit][]
Like many garage rock bands, lead singer Sky Saxon's vocal style was influenced by the vocals of Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger, but have also received comparisons to the vocals ofrockabilly acts such as Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran.[4]
Release[edit][]
The Seeds released two singles before the album was released in 1966: "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" in June 1965 and "Pushin' Too Hard" in November.[1] The Seeds was released in April 1966 and charted in the United States, peaking at No. 132 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart.[5] The first single to follow up the album's release was "Try to Understand", which failed to chart in the United States.[1] "Pushin' Too Hard" was re-issued in October 1966 and charted in 1967 in the United States, peaking at No. 36 in February.[1][6]
The Seeds has been re-issued several times in the United Kingdom on vinyl and CD.[1] Several re-issues contain bonus tracks while the album itself has also been re-released as a double album on compact disc with The Seeds's second album, A Web of Sound.[7] Some of the re-issues omit the song "Lose Your Mind" from the original album vinyl release.[3]
In 2012, Big Beat Records re-released The Seeds' debut album as a deluxe edition, with the album in remastered mono form, plus ten new bonus tracks of previously unreleased material.[8]
Reception[edit][]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | (reissue)[3] |
Modern reception of the album has been generally positive. In their review for the double disc re-issue, Allmusic gave the album a positive rating of four stars out of five, writing "The Seeds is probably the best album by any of the original American garage bands, without the usual time-filling cover versions and elongated jams, and of course it features the immortal "Pushin' Too Hard" and the even better "Can't Seem to Make You Mine," two classics of the Nuggets era."[3] The British music magazine Uncut gave the compilation a positive rating of four and half stars out of five, describing the album as "...A brilliantly simple, headlong surge of fuzz-drenched guitar, bubbling organ riffs and Saxon's raw, throat-tearing vocals..."[9]
Track listing[edit][]
All songs written and composed by Sky Saxon, except where noted.
| Side one | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" | 3:05 | ||||||||
| 2. | "No Escape" | Jimmy Lawrence, Jan Savage, Saxon | 2:16 | |||||||
| 3. | "Lose Your Mind" | 2:11 | ||||||||
| 4. | "Evil Hoodoo" | Daryl Hooper, Saxon | 5:19 | |||||||
| 5. | "Girl I Want You" | 2:26 | ||||||||
| 6. | "Pushin' Too Hard" | 2:38 | ||||||||
| Side two | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | ||||||||
| 7. | "Try to Understand" | 2:53 | ||||||||
| 8. | "Nobody Spoil My Fun" | 3:54 | ||||||||
| 9. | "It's a Hard Life" | 2:40 | ||||||||
| 10. | "You Can't Be Trusted" | 2:12 | ||||||||
| 11. | "Excuse, Excuse" | 2:21 | ||||||||
| 12. | "Fallin' in Love" | 2:49 | ||||||||
| 2012 Deluxe Reissue Bonus Tracks | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | ||||||||
| 13. | "She's Wrong" | 2:13 | ||||||||
| 14. | "Daisy Mae" | 2:20 | ||||||||
| 15. | "Dreaming of Your Love" | 2:19 | ||||||||
| 16. | "Out of the Question - Take 1" | 3:02 | ||||||||
| 17. | "Out of the Question - Master" | 2:23 | ||||||||
| 18. | "Pushin' Too Hard" | 3:15 | ||||||||
| 19. | "Girl I Want You" | 2:22 | ||||||||
| 20. | "Evil Hoodoo" | 15:59 | ||||||||
| 21. | "It's a Hard Life" | 2:37 | ||||||||
| 22. | "Nobody Spoil My Fun" | 3:50 | ||||||||
Personnel[edit][]
- Musical personnel
- Sky Saxon – bass guitar, harmonica, vocals, producer, concept, cover art
- Rick Andridge – drums
- Chuck Britz – engineer
- Cooker – guitar, bottleneck guitar
- Daryl Hooper – organ melodica, piano, keyboards, vocals
- Jan Savage – guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals
- Production personnel
- Mike Durrough – engineering, remixing, mixing
- David Hassinger – engineering
- Lanky Linstrot – engineering
- Stan Ross – remixing
- Doc Siegel – remixing
- Marcus Tybalt – production, liner notes
- Rafael O. Valentin – engineering
- Alec Palao - Executive Producer
- Neil Norman - Executive Producer