As a kid growing up in an industrial town in the northeast of England, turning 18 in 1979, surrounded by punk, new wave, ska and mod revival music, IABD were the antithesis of everything contemporary but they appealed to the freaky deaky hippy in me as I hungrily ate up everything late 60s and west coast.
Even the sunny cover pf their 1969 album which looks like a washing powder advertisement, spoke to me of a different world and a different way of life.
Of course, it is home to White Bird their most famous song which incidentally was never quite a hit bubbling under at #118 on the hot 100. It seemed to evoke a sound and time distant to where I was. David La Flammes’ 'Hendrix of the vio;in’ reputation really provided a unique core to mold the music around.
But it’s not just the lilting hot summer sound of White Bird that I love. There’s plenty of searing psychedelia on Wasted Union Blues and Time Was which you virtually get a contact high from. Bombay Calling was, as everyone knows, ripped off by Deep Purple for Child In Time and in turn they did the same to Wring That Neck on the track Don and Dewey on their second album, Marrying Maiden.
I think rock music was much more broadly defined when this was recorded in 1969. It’s a different sound from, a different time and as such is fabulously transportative.
