Electric Prunes

I give up on trying to speak English, here's a graph instead   /\ enjoyment                                                    5 |                                                                       4 |                                                                       3 |  __                       ___                                      2 |      \              ___/      \                                    1 |        \__/\__/                \__/\__/\/\____             0  --------------------|--------------------> time                          ~7th song                                 

Some songs were good, some were just completely out of pocket. Felt very dated in sound. I will use Toonerville Trolley as punishment for people who have wronged me in the future.

People seem to think irony as a pop-culture phenomena was a 90s thing, but I’m realizing that there was a whole wave of it in the late 60s as psychedelic bands inexplicably made entire albums of joke songs with ragtime piano. I’m guessing everyone was burnt out by the end of the 60s. I feel like I should like this but it’s just lame, the whole side B is especially kind of unbearable. Favourite track: “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)”

Never heard of them before, but really dug the first tune “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night).” Great song and great lyrics. How have I never heard this before? The second track “Bangles” again drew me in right away. I want to see this lady’s dressing room and vanity. Fantastic fun lyrics. “Onie” took it down a notch into a pleasant, dreamy tune that I liked a lot. Made me wish I was wandering through the streets of a new town gazing into shop windows wearing boots and a mini skirt. After changing my name to ‘Onie’ of course. Clever lyrics abound. “Are You Lovin’ Me More (But Enjoying it Less)”. Great sixties sentiments like “Sold to the Highest Bidder” and “The King Is In His Counting House”. A delightful cover of “About A Quarter to Nine”. Some quality sexy time with “Luvin’” and “Try Me On For Size”. And a couple of transportation songs, “Train for Tomorrow” and “The Toonerville Trolly”. Speaking of… “The Toonerville Trolly” is a generous helping of Cool Whip on this fabulous album! I started literally laughing out loud on a public bus - so much fun! But I found myself wondering if ‘ridin’ the Toonerville Trolly’ might be a euphemism for something else… and imagining all the possibilities. Throw in the artsy album cover featuring the band in the same pose as a modern art rendition of them and it’s pretty much everything I could ask for in a 60s album. So glad to have been introduced to The Electric Prunes!

This would considered a Psychedelic classic were it not for the significant drop in quality on the B side. I still enjoyed it a lot, and it deserves more credit than it gets, but it's clear the longer the album goes on the less ideas the band has. I have no idea what they were thinking with that last song

My left ear enjoyed this one. Cool sound.

i’d never heard of electric prunes but i was pleasantly surprised! love it!

Starts as a psychedelic fever dream but then kinda goes all over the place, ending on a bizarre sarcastic joke. If the material were more consistently psychedelic like the opening track or "Get Me to the World on Time" it'd be 4 stars but I have to round down to 3 for the jarring tone shifts.

WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THE TOONERVILLE TROLLEY I HATE IT SO MUCH. There are some really sorta... creepy at times psychedelia goodness in here, mixed with filler songs. I really enjoyed stuff like "I had Too Much to Dream", and "Get me to the World on Time", "The Highest Bidder" a solid 3/5!

I liked the short songs. not enough people writing 2 minute songs these days

Tired of 1960s Kinks sounding bands right now.

Strong psychedelic pop. The opening track brings this album to 5 stars on its own. Of course it sounds dated, but there wasn't any auto tune or endless overdubbing back then. This was probably laid down on 8 track tape by people who could actually sing and play their instruments. One of the groovier albums from the generator. Dig it.

At its best, the trippy use of sound effects, reverb and awesome guitar sounds, urgent propulsive rhythms and snotty vocals combine to make this a groovy, highly listenable album. Individually, this is more interesting than a lot of the mid sixties albums by more well known American psychedelic groups like The Grateful Dead, The Byrds etc. Although they've got a signature "raw" sound, they're not afraid to mix it up with some mellow jazzy ballads ('Onie', 'About a Quarter to Nine') or even a Greek/Cossack/middle eastern flavour ('Sold to the Highest Bidder'). The singles 'I Had to Much to Dream Last Night', 'Get Me to the World On Time' are both awesome highlights, with a powerful urgency that hook the listener. They would be floor fillers at any respectable retro themed rave-up. Nothing outstays it welcome and even the novelty 'Tunerville Trolley' and baroque/tudor flavoured period piece 'The King is in the Counting House' exude a certain period charm (a bit like the Rolling Stones 'Lady Jane' and 'Something Happened to me Yesterday'). In fact, it comes as no surprise that the Stones Aftermath/Between the Buttons era recordings sound similar; both groups were produced/engineered by Dave Hassinger and recorded in Los Angeles. For my money, this is one of the finest albums from 1967 and the dark LP cover portrays a cool moodiness. Fabulous stuff, love it 😎

A true cornerstone of psychedelic rock, the self-titled Electric Prunes album delivers haunting, dreamy vocals intertwined with swirling guitars and ethereal production. Amidst this sonic landscape, one also discovers heartfelt, tender tracks that add depth to the album's aura. Seamlessly blending psychedelia, garage rock, and avant-garde experimentation emblematic of its time, this record conjures an entrancing and otherworldly atmosphere. 10/10!

Fun and standout psych garage, this honestly surprised me. There was more chaff here than I'd normally allow for a four star album, but the kernels of wheat that came out really were golden.

Another that had a few good tunes, interspersed by Nursery rhymes and rubbish

The Electric Prunes I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) is a garage-psychedelic staple, a Nuggets classic, all ominous bass, fuzzed out guitar and ‘mind-expanding’ lyrics. There’s nothing else quite as good as that, the rest of the songs being either more bluesy-garage-psych in the vein of I Had Too Much to Dream or semi-baroque whimsical hippie psychedelia. The former camp is far better; Bangles, Are You Lovin’ Me More, Train for Tomorrow, Get Me To the World on Time and Try Me for Size are all decent enough, but the latter camp is mostly not very good, About a Quarter to Nine and The King is in the Counting House in particular, and The Toonerville Trolley is absolutely awful. It follows the pattern of a lot of those late 60s psychedelic-garage-acid-blues-hippie rock albums, in that they aren’t that great overall but they have one or two little gems that are worthwhile, backing up the idea that it’s best served as a compilation/playlist genre. It’s on the cusp of 2 and 3, I Had Too Much to Dream is definitely in the plus column, but the sub (Listen to) The Flower People whimsy and the awful Toonerville Trolley mean that I’m unlikely to want to listen again. 🍇 🍇 Playlist submission: I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)

How have I never heard of this band? That’s because they suck.

Probably the most uneven album yet. Some good cuts and some abominations. 2/5

Super fun album that almost sounds like a Beatles greatest hits album. No skip, 5 stars

I really enjoy this band's name

I love a good 60s garage rock.

I really enjoyed this one. It was like... a darker version of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, kinda the way the Wiki page described.

A mix of excellent tracks and the absolute nightmare of The Toonerville Trolley. Jesus.

What an odd little album. I rather liked some of the tracks and others seemed silly, like songs for children.

The biggest crime that 60’s psych bands perpetrated was convincing people that cabaret songs and show tunes could somehow be considered “psychedelic”.

This album feels quite manic, some cool songs and some others I really don't care for at all. First track might be my fav, the rest are sorta meh. Like Toonerville Trolley is sort of horrible. An interesting debut for sure.

Interesting contrast to the Animals.. they focused on politics, prunes focused on girls with more than a touch of misogyny...

Good album which has a lot of missed potential unfortunately, would have wished that the more exotic and medieval sounding songs were more plentyful

Especially liked 'Sold to the Highest Bidder'. Some really fun fast moving tracks on this one. At points it felt like it was straddling the edge of being endearingly goofy and annoyingly so

Pas terrible

It's the now sound, it's what's happening! I first came across the Electric Prunes via a compilation cassette from my mate Peter. He used to often include on his mixtapes a commercial for the Vox wah wah pedal featuring the Electric Prunes. It was made in 1967 and tacked on to the end of Glen A. Baker's excellent 2LP compilation 'Songs of a Psychedelic Age'. Check the commercial out here: https://youtu.be/17h773ldGds?si=SDtPFwACcyQwmceI My next exposure was the track 'I had too much to dream last night', which was a highlight of the famous and influential Nuggets compilation. It is a great piece of 60s garage rock and a longtime favourite track of mine. It's weird and rough and catchy. But the rest of this album is just another mediocre example of the 1960s cult psychedelia that Dimery is obsessed with. I found the rest of this record pretty forgettable. I swear I own at least one Prunes album (possibly even this one) but I can't find it anywhere, and I can't remember the last time I might have played it; probably about 30 years ago. Maybe I sold it and can't remember. "I had too much to dream last night" is a moment of accidental genius that the Electric Prunes never came close to matching. They deserve to be remembered for that (and possibly the wah wah commercial), but on compilations, comfortably nestled between tracks from other similar one song wonders. It's ok if a band only ever produced one song of real lasting value. That's one more than most of us ever manage. And those songs should be remembered and celebrated in a suitable manner; compilations, playlists, mixtapes, radio, DJ sets, placement in tv or movies or videogames or whatever. There are lots of places where a single dong can be heard and enjoyed. But please, Dimery, don't make us sit through whole mediocre albums on the basis of one great track.

Yet another entry in the "too many '60s psych rock albums" category. I definitely don't hate this one, and wouldn't say it's bad, but good lord I never thought I would be this OVER IT. We get it, LSD right? Hippies? Okay, cool, whatever. You'll never be the Doors, or Jimi Hendrix, or any of the other 15-20 more impressive psych rock acts that we've certainly had on here. We do not need to be this far in the weeds, especially when there are way better albums out there. Favorite tracks: Train for Tomorrow, Luvin. Album art: Band photo, looks cool, they look pretty cool but also kind of square. I dig it. I like the inset, art within the art, kind of thing going on. Wish I wasn't so fatigued about '60s rock to enjoy this more, then again, there's better stuff out there. Cover's cool though. 2.5/5

Na ja, die Zeit ist rum.

I could see putting Nuggets on this list (maybe compilations aren't included in the list?) or Too Much To Dream if you were doing a similar list of songs but a whole album by The Electric Prunes? C'mon. This is just cookie cutter generic late 60s psychedlia. It's not even as if I'm not a fan of this genre, Piper at The Gates of Dawn absolutely belongs so does Forever Changes. I won't even argue with the 13th Floor Elevators album but to me this is like putting a Strawberry Alarm Clock or Chocolate Watchband album on here.

Boooooooring

Who the hell chose this? This album blows.

I am struggling to find anything to say about this album. Its just such a blatant doors ripoff. I got through the album no problem but cant say that I would want to go back to it. The Toonerville Trolley is a real piece of shit and is a star demerit.

Actually thought it started ok but quickly descended into some truly awful noise. Some music is timeless. This mess is not.

Gets one star for the effort of actually going to the studio and recording this pish

The album flows really nicely as a collection, really good band

This is definitely one of my favorite ’60s psychedelic albums. The vocals are echoed, reverbed, and hazy, while the guitars are fuzz heavy and distorted, giving the album a surreal effect, not to mention all the experimental studio techniques of the time. On the flip side, much of their material was influenced by producers and songwriters rather than being entirely self written, making their sound more structured. That’s why I think this album is a great introduction to psychedelic music. It captures all the best elements of the genre but presents them in a more polished and structured way, whereas many other albums of the era leaned more into improvisation.

This is definitely one of my favorite ’60s psychedelic albums. The vocals are echoed, reverbed, and hazy, while the guitars are fuzz-heavy and distorted, giving the album a surreal effect—not to mention all the experimental studio techniques of the time. On the flip side, much of their material was influenced by producers and songwriters rather than being entirely self-written, making their sound more structured. That’s why I think this album is a great introduction to psychedelic music. It captures all the best elements of the genre but presents them in a more polished and structured way, whereas many other albums of the era leaned more into improvisation.

4.5/5 Beautiful guitar work, a clear cohesive sound which is fantastical and dreamlike, and charming, delicate vocals. This album is pretty amazing. It starts crazy strong, but the second side is definitely if not weaker then more inconsistent. I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) 5/5 (FAV) Bangles 5/5 Onie 5/5 Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less) 5/5 Train For Tomorrow 4.5/5 Sold to the Highest Bidder 3.5/5 Get Me to the World on Time 5/5 About a Quarter to Nine 4/5 The King Is in the Counting House 3.5/5 Luvin' 5/5 Try Me on for Size 5/5 The Toonerville Trolley 3/5 (LEAST FAV)

Fun novel sound,, interesting throughout

Some delightful very sixties rock. They were the first band to use a wah-wah pedal, but not much evidence here.

Love! It’s pretty old so I feel like the fact that I like it and it’s old makes me like it more.

I loved it. Precursor to heavy metal

my shit

The quintessential 60s vibe. I remember it in my childhood. Instant hope and wonder about life and my world. I love this.

Surprisingly fire guitar tones

Listened to this on the way to the zoo and everything is making me feel like an excited kid. Really interesting first song. Fuck it, 5 stars

Great early psych rock with some baroque and garage elements.

My kind of music

Psychedelic masterpiece!

So funky and fun!

based on the cover and concept alone this feels like it's gonna slap, but let's see if it delivers The description said garage rock but because of the harmless looking 60s dudes in bowl cuts and turtlenecks i was not expecting full on cock music. really feels like the beginning of dudes in their garage just singing songs about getting laid. Still, it also has some deeper tracks with interesting instrumentation, such as About A Quarter To Nine. Toonerville Trolley is like a Fleischer Animation fever dream. Dark and ambienty, but also rough. Strong 4, if not 5. I've listened to this album 4 times in a row back to back tonight from how much i like it. once i fix my speakers i might try to hunt down a physical copy. Rounding to 5 because I've had this on repeat all week.

Loved it.

cool

The essence of psychedelic music

I’m so torn between a 4 or a 5 for this one. I absolutely love it. It’s heavy, it’s psychedelic, it’s eerie. But just about every song is so great. A really overlooked album.

Excellent 60's music.

Ah, grata sorpresa.

Wow! Sometimes, this project really surprises me with this kind of thing: An album and even an artist or band that I never heard about before and became a fan instantly. The first song sounds a little bit ~strange~ but when I got the vibe for it, it's a great album with the right number of songs and an excellent set (more songs could be too much)

Εxcellent album

This album was not available on my music streaming service. Instead, I listened to the second album "Underground". Which was quite good.

I love this album

The Electric Prunes is a pretty hilarious band name and fits right in with their other fruit and vegetable contemporaries Strawberry Alarm Clock, Moby Grape, and Ultimate Spinach. The LSD in the 60s must have been incredible.  I'm a total sucker for any tube-drenched fuzzed out 60s psych and garage rock. There's a weird and sometimes annoying charm with the hollowed-out mids in the production of these records. You have to adjust your modern hearing to it, but once you settle in, it's like a blanket. The springy reverb put on almost every instrument gives it this ethereal and haunting quality. I wonder with this, and all the monster songs in the 60s, if that was just a particularly haunted moment in the popular culture.  I already know these guys from the classic "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)", which is worthy of all the wild praise for a career-defining track. They have a more pop-inspired and less weirdo take on the 13th Floor Elevators, sans electric jug. I prefer these guys when the tempo is up and they are a little more angsty. "Are You Lovin Me More" has some fun Beach Boys vibes, but with a lot more aggro dysfunctional horniness. Here for it. "Sold to The Highest Bidder" stands out from all the other pieces, and probably any other music of the time, with the wild Greek rebetiko-inspired arpeggios and chants of "Hey!". (I wish they had really leaned in with an "OPA!"). Being the 60s of course they had to have a harpsichord thrown in on a song. (I think it was in the recording contracts of the time). "The Toonerville Trolley" is a total outlier with all its bizarre Gay-90s jauntiness. Not mad at it, but also WTF guys. I have to say that most of these tracks are all really solid, but they are also way too short.  A couple of standout stinkers include the weak-ass ballad "Onie", which really feels out of place here, and "About a Quarter To Nine". Apparently the record label leaned super hard on these boys with the creation of the album, and the band subsequently had misgivings about some of the tracks they had to lay down for it. I would like to think these two might be the ones they weren't so into. But again, what's up with "The Toonerville Trolley"? That track could have really used a penny whistle at the end to really drive the cheese home. There's a bit of an uneven quality to the inclusion of these tracks, contrasted with the more rocking stuff, and that makes the listening experience suffer a little for a time when LPs were intended to be experienced first-song-to-last. Finally, the album art raises a lot of questions. They appear to be photographed in studio portrait style arranged in front of a black and white Cubist rendering of the same portrait, framed on the wall with a similar type layout featuring the hit songs. I have to wonder if the framed photo was the original album art that got rejected by the suits at the record company and this was the band's compromise to still get the wilder art in there somewhere. The studio portrait, drab-ass color palette, and type layout all feel like basic 60s album layout designs for any of their contemporaries like The Animals, etc. and this was probably intentional to try to couch them into a style and sell more records. I would really like to have seen that weird ass line drawing blown up to 12x12, but then again, it doesn't totally fit all that's going on here.  Deserving of 3 overall, but getting 4 because the stronger tracks are just that strong and worth cherry-picking.

Never heard of these guys, quite like their sound

Dope record! Love the psych vibe and the rhythms. Instrumentation is so groovy and kept my attention throughout. This is a really fun one.

own

It's fun. Surprisingly weird for this kind of 60's rock. Sometimes too weird

First time listening, I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half kind of spiralled off. 3.5

Other than a few odd ball songs on this album, it was the right vibe today. I’d never heard of them, but I’d give them more listens in the future. Listened to this one at the lake, and all seemed right in the world.

Not too bad.

The bridge from 50’s to psychedelica. I forgot all about them. Very good.

Um álbum dos anos 1960 que dá pra sentir uma sujeira no som que é muito interessante. Gostei bastante. Celest Pandamon.

The band might not have liked most of the song writing coming from outside the members, but this album really works for me. Besides the hit opener, the songs continued to be interesting (except for one obvious dud) and tempo changing.

I enjoyed most of it. Lots of different styles they are having fun with but adding their own little touches to it. It reminds me of if Ween was in the late 60s Rating: 3.7

Good

Cool mais dérivatif

I liked this, surprised I hadn’t heard of them. Good coherent early psychedelia. I had too much to dream last night is a great song name. Fave Tracks: I Had too much to Dream Last Night, Onie 3.7/5

That was really fun. Pretty groovy but with enough edge to it. I enjoyed this

Tatsächlich endlich wieder mal ein Album zum Entdecken!

J’ai plutôt bien aimé, mais je n’en garderai pas un grand souvenir!

Really good album.

Really quite an unexpected listening experience in a good way, quite fun and some really great tunes, the main thing holding it back is that it can sound quite dated at times, but overall really good

I tend to find these lesser known 60's psych rock band to be a little boring, but this one held my attention and was pretty good overall. The middle does drag a little when they breakout the baroque pop, but other than that it was a very decent album. Low 4.

I described it as "Temu Beatles on LSD" to a friend Actually pretty good tbh

Fun!!!

Trippy, easy listening, fun

Really liked a few of these.

I had always lumped these guys with the long list of one-hit wonders. This appears to be an unfair characterization. This is the first time I've ever listened to any of their albums, a bit of psychedelic, a bit of garage.....it was fun. I enjoyed the album and will actually check out another album or two of theirs.

This album was a pleasant surprise considering the reviews for it. There's a lot of great tracks on this album! They take risks with different sounds (which was surprising for an album from 1967) and it pays off. This does however mean this album does however lack cohesion. There isn't a continuous storyline or continuous type of sound that strings the album together. One second you're listening to a softly sun lullaby type song and then the next you're in a symphony with a harpsichord front and centre. Regardless of that, the majority of the tracks are great and even if you don't like a couple of them, they're very short.

I mean i enjoy basically anything 60s garage rock. Like much of these albums some kinda meh stuff and some bangers. Organ's always good in these kinda albums

Cool

Great stuff

Some songs five some songs two... round out at 4* as I will listen again! :) The two were random filler "singles" that flat-out didn't fit the amazing weirdness (always a 5!)

4 out of 5. Overall an enjoyable album. And people are wack, Toonerville Trolley is a banger.

Like any other boy band of the 60's. Like the zombies and beachboys combined