Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies - The American Metaphysical Circus (1969)

Year: 1969 (CD 2007)
Label: Acadia Records (UK), ACAM 8144
Style: Folk Rock, Psychedelia, Experimental
Country: Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. (December 19, 1937)
Time: 39:20
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 198 Mb

Byrd then received the support of John McClure, head of Columbia's Masterworks classical music division, to record a second album. He recorded The American Metaphysical Circus, credited to Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies, later in 1968. The album again made use of synthesizers and vocoder, along with an extended group of West Coast studio musicians including Tom Scott, guitarist Ted Greene, and uncredited bassist Harvey Newmark. According to Byrd, the whole album was written and recorded within a few weeks, apart from one song, "You Can't Ever Come Down", originally written for the United States of America. He said: "It was a real chaotic time... frantic.... The songs had to be churned out, and ultimately there was not enough material.... Columbia decided that no rock musician could be called Joseph, and told me they were going to call it Joe Byrd and.... The musicians had been close during the traumatic sessions, and Ted Greene, pointing out that we were really not city hippies, called us The Field Hippies, so I used that name. By then I was exhausted fighting for stuff."
The extensive use of effects, delays, echoes, backwards vocals and other recording tricks and techniques are reminiscent of some of the experiments and work carried out by George Martin as well as Pink Floyd. The album is most noted for "The Sub-Sylvian Litanies", a three-part suite which has been described as "an entire acid trip in 11 minutes". Other album highlights include the equally psychedelic "The Elephant at the Door", and the politically charged "Invisible Man", written for and aimed at President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two of the more unusual tracks on the record are "Mister Fourth of July"—a ragtime tune complete with scratchy 78 RPM-style effects—and "Leisure World", featuring narration from long-time ABC voice-over and "Ghoulardi" originator Ernie Anderson in an ode to California's first retirement mega-community. Released in 1969, the record achieved a cult following in the US, and remained in the Columbia Masterworks catalog for some twenty years. Byrd estimated in 2002, in conjunction with a filing in the Napster music copyright case, that likely over 100,000 copies of The American Metaphysical Circus had been sold, yet he had never received a penny of royalties from Columbia/CBS/Sony.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Byrd)

01. Kalyani (03:51)
02. You Can't Ever Come Down (03:01)
03. Moonsong: Pelog (03:46)
04. Patriot's Lullabye (02:49)
05. Nightmare Train (03:19)
06. Invisible Man (03:32)
07. Mister 4th Of July (01:47)
08. Gospel Music (04:29)
09. The Sing-Along Song (04:04)
10. The Elephant At The Door (05:13)
11. Leisure World (02:35)
12. The Sing-Along Song (reprise) (00:47)

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