The Blues Magoos
Psychedelic Lollipop

The Blues Magoos are an acid-blues band from New York, and this "Psychedelic Lollipop" is their debut album, released in 1966.

First and foremost, the New York quintet has the merit of being the first to use the term psychedelic (to be fair, this merit must be shared with the Texans, 13th Floors Elevators, who also released in 1966). But let's clarify right away that, despite the value of the work, this psychedelic vein is more diluted compared to that proposed by other bands of the same period or a few years later. We can almost define it as family-friendly psychedelia. As mentioned, this work can be safely defined as an excellent blues and beat album, tainted with a slight acid vein mainly due to the use of keyboards and instrumental expansions, especially of the lead guitar. A great example of this can be heard in the third track "Tobacco Road" (a cover of Loudermilk), where a substantially blues base is made original and personal thanks to the excellent work of Ralph Scala on the Farfisa and the long instrumental part, bordering on noise, that concludes the track. But the purely acid vein stops here, the rest of the album ranges between aggressive and well-crafted garage rock-blues, like the opening track "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" or also "Gotta Get Away", certainly one of the best songs on the album, then turning to highly emotional ballads like the moving "Sometimes I Think About You" in which Peppy Castro's voice (alias Emil Theilhelm) manages to touch even the hardest heart.

In conclusion, "Psychedelic Lollipop" results in a pleasant and original album, especially considering the year of its release, where a psychedelic germ is undoubtedly felt but remains dormant, blocked, as if they did not want to go too far and limited themselves to just scratching the surface, more acidity in appearance than in content, thus keeping the Blues Magoos in a more manageable and "drinkable" realm.