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Rating: A brief and elusive history is that of the USA, a fleeting shooting star that traversed the crowded skies of late '60s psychedelia, overshadowed in brightness by much more combative peers, yet left a persistent trail, incredibly followed decades later by a myriad of artists. The only legacy left by them is represented by this self-titled LP dated 1968, after which the band quickly disbanded due to irreconcilable internal disputes.
The unique characteristic of the USA, a musical project headed by Joseph Byrd, a student of John Cage in early '60s New York, is the total unfamiliarity of each member with rock music. Dorothy Moskowitz (singer and partner of Byrd) was also in the world of avant-garde music, the drummer specialized in African percussion, the bassist and violinist were virtuosos of "modern-music." With such premises, it seems a miracle that these folks managed to compose and assemble a work that is simultaneously so visionary and accessible, reworking the structural bases of rock not from within (as Beefheart may have done) but rather from an external, transcendent point of view, also delivering lyrics that are nothing short of venomous toward American society of the time. This choice (like the sarcastic choice of their name) didn't help their relationship with the record label, nor in terms of marketability.
Structured as a concept album, with tracks flowing one into the other, the album strikes and confounds right from the opening of "American Metaphysical Circus": the Sgt Pepper-style intro, complete with a town band, seems to herald calm bucolic atmospheres. Dorothy's distorted voice and Byrd's gurgling ring modulator whistle change the emotional coordinates of the album, and when we learn that "in the next room they are torturing a canary"
, we understand why the price to pay to continue listening "is our mind"
.
If the beginning is closer to the musical avant-garde frequented by the group, other episodes fit more into the rock spectrum: the almost garage-style "Hard Coming Love", which alternates melodic singing with bursts of unidentified analog instruments, the sublime "The Garden Of Earthly Delights", introduced by the organ and the usual ring modulator (the album's absolute protagonist and bearer of altered states of consciousness), driven by a twisted bass line and Moskowitz's "Slickian" voice, the circus-like and fiercely sarcastic blues of "I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar", the syncopated rhythm of "Coming Down" and the overt tribute to Eleanor Rigby in "Stranded In Time".
The other side of the coin consists of minimalist, gentle, and dreamlike tracks among which stands out a "Where Is Yesterday", opened by a churchlike Agnus Dei, and "Love Song For The Dead Che", a declaration of (political) intent that speaks for itself. The vaudevillian verve of the opening is revisited in the final "The American Way Of Love", six minutes plus where all the album's facets are blended: reverberations ignite brass marches, doo-wop transforms into futuristic cut-ups of the various tracks on the album, concluding with Byrd ironically repeating "How much fun it's been!"
.
A final note that reiterates the critical nature of the work, a piece that stands alone in the diverse psychedelic landscape of the time, and that should be preserved as a precious relic for future generations.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The American Metaphysical Circus (05:00)
At precisely eight-o-five
Doctor Frederick von Meier
Will attempt his famous dive
Through a solid sheet of luminescent fire.
In the center of the ring
They are torturing a bear
And although he cannot sing
They can make him whistle Londondderry Air
And the price is right,
The cost of one admission is your mind
We shall shortly institute
A synopticon of fear
While it's painful, it will suit
Many customers whose appetities are queer
Or for those who wish to pay
There are children you can bleed
In a most peculiar way
We can give you all the instruments you'll need
And the price is right,
The cost of one admission is your mind
If you're harder yet to serve
We have most delightful dreams;
Our recorders will preserve
The intensity and passion of your screams.
For we only aim to please;
It's our customers who gain
As their appetities increase
They must come to us for pleasure and for pain.
And the price is right,
The cost of one admission is your mind.
04 The Garden of Earthly Delights (02:39)
Poisonous gardens, lethal and sweet,
Venomous blossoms
Choleric fruit, deadly to eat.
Violet nightshades, innocent bloom,
Omnivourous orchids
Cautiously wait, hungrily loom
You will find them in her eyes,
In her eyes, in her eyes.
Petrified willows, twisted and brown
Carrion swallows
Wait in the wet darkening room
Withering shadows, quietly grow
Potently breeding
Into a spectacular glow.
You will find them in her eyes,
In her eyes, in her eyes.
Lemonous petals, dissident play,
Tasting of ergot,
Dancing by night, dying by day.
Blackening mushrooms drink in the rain,
Sinister nightblooms
Wilt with the dawn's welcoming pain.
You will find them in her eyes,
In her eyes, in her eyes.
05 I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife for You, Sugar (03:54)
Now listen, Baby,
And try to understand
That tying you is fine
And whipping you is grand.
Now I just can't tell you how much fun it's been.
You make me feel twenty-five again.
But I can't leave my wooden wife for you, sugar
I got a split level house with a wonderful view, sugar,
A couple next door who do the things we do, sugar,
And every Saturday we sit around the pool.
If I should meet you on the street someday,
I hope you'll understand me if I look away,
It isn't that I'm ashamed about you and me
But I've got to consider my morality.
And I won't leave my wooden wife for you, sugar,
I got a split level house with a wonderful view,
sugar,
Three sweet kids and Yorkshire terrier, too,
sugar.
And I just couldn't stand it when you come late from school.
06 Where Is Yesterday (03:07)
(Agnus dei
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Miserere eis.
Agunus dei
Qui tollis peccata mundi
Donna eis requiem.)
Do you remember what you said and did
a thousand years ago?
Where is yesterday?
Do you remember what you said and did
a thousand weeks ago?
Where is yesterday?
Yesterday in crannies or in nooks you will not find;
Yesterday in chronicles or books you will not find;
All you see of yesterday is shadows in your mind;
Shadows on the pavement but no bodies do you find.
Do you believe that snows of winters long ago return again?
Where is yesterday?
A voice you knew a thousand years ago you can't remember when?
Where is yesterday?
Here is only waiting for a day that went before
Here is only waiting for an answer at the door;
Here is only living without knowing why for sure.
Here is something gone you cannot find it anymore.
09 Stranded in Time (01:49)
Early in the morning
When the sun is still asleep,
Father drinks his cup of coffee
Kisses Mother on the cheek,
Off to work he goes
What he does nobody knows
But he's sure to bring home money every week.
Time when he and Mother were young,
Now those days are departed
Now he's left brokenhearted,
Stranded in time.
They dote upon the children
Like some characters in plays
As if nearness to their youngers
Would recall their golden days.
And Father sold the looking glass
That once stood in the hall
And now Mother tends to tell the time
By pictures on the wall.
Times when she would laugh in his arms
Are now vanished forever,
Now they stand close together
Stranded in time.
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