The Seeds (album)

The Seeds
Studio album by
the Seeds
ReleasedApril 1966[1]
GenreGarage rock, psychedelic rock, proto-punk, acid rock[2]
Length34:44
LabelGNP Crescendo
ProducerSky Saxon
The Seeds chronology
The Seeds
(1966) 		A Web of Sound
(1966)
Singles from The Seeds
  1. "Can't Seem to Make You Mine"
    Released: June 1965
  2. "Pushin' Too Hard"
    Released: November 1965
  3. "Try to Understand"
    Released: November 1966

The Seeds is the debut album by American garage rock band the Seeds. It was released in April 1966 through GNP Crescendo Records and produced by Sky Saxon. After the release of two singles in 1965, "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and "Pushin' Too Hard", 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 Malcolm Russel noting the band's influence on CBGB musicians a decade later.[2]

Style

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 of rockabilly acts such as Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran.[3]

Release

The Seeds released two singles ahead of the album: "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.[4] The first single to follow up the album's release was "Try to Understand", which failed to chart in the US.[1] "Pushin' Too Hard" was re-issued in October 1966 and peaked at No. 36 in the US in February 1967.[1][5]

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' second album, A Web of Sound.[6]

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.[7]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Uncut[9]

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 and a half 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."[8] 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] Many of the tracks are featured in The Seeds biopic documentary "Pushin' Too Hard" which had a sold out premiere in London in 2019.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Sky Saxon, except where noted

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Can't Seem to Make You Mine" 3:05
2."No Escape"Jimmy Lawrence, Jan Savage, Saxon2:16
3."Lose Your Mind" 2:11
4."Evil Hoodoo"Daryl Hooper, Saxon5:19
5."Girl I Want You" 2:26
6."Pushin' Too Hard" 2:38
Side two
No.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
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 (Take 1)"3:15
19."Girl I Want You"2:22
20."Evil Hoodoo (full length version)"15:59
21."It's a Hard Life"2:37
22."Nobody Spoil My Fun"3:50

Personnel

Musical personnel
Production personnel
  • Mike Durrough – engineering, remixing, mixing
  • David Hassinger – engineering
  • Lanky Linstrot – engineering
  • Stan Ross – remixing
  • Doc Siegel – remixing
  • Rafael O. Valentin – engineering
  • Alec Palao – executive producer
  • Neil Norman – executive producer

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Strong 1998, p. 731
  2. ^ a b Buckley 2003, pp. 915–916.
  3. ^ Hicks 2000, p. 9.
  4. ^ "Charts & Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  5. ^ "Charts & Awards". Allmusic. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  6. ^ Stewart Mason. "The Seeds/A Web of Sound". Allmusic. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  7. ^ The Seeds (2012). "The Seeds - Deluxe Reissue" GNP Crescendo Records. Retrieved 2013-08-21
  8. ^ a b Mark Deming, "Review: The Seeds", Allmusic
  9. ^ a b Uncut. August 2001. p. 110. {{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

References