The Electric Prunes
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Album Summary
The Electric Prunes' self-titled debut album was laid down in 1966 and came into the world in September of 1967 on Reprise Records — and what a world it was dropping into, baby. Produced by the masterful David Axelrod, this Los Angeles outfit brought something that stopped people cold right in the middle of whatever they were doing. Axelrod wrapped the band's raw psychedelic energy in lush string arrangements and orchestral color, building a baroque pop sound that felt like it was reaching for something bigger than rock and roll had dared to reach for before. The studio techniques at work here were ahead of their time, and the result was a debut that announced The Electric Prunes not as newcomers, but as artists with a fully formed vision.
Reception
- The album reached #53 on the Billboard 200, a respectable showing for a debut record with such an unconventional sonic palette.
- Critical reception at the time was mixed — some ears weren't ready for the ambition on display, though the orchestral arrangements drew genuine praise from those paying close attention.
- Over the years, the album built a devoted cult following among psychedelic rock enthusiasts and baroque pop aficionados who recognized what had been there all along.
Significance
- The album stands as one of the defining early statements of baroque psychedelic pop to emerge from the Los Angeles scene, fusing orchestral grandeur with the raw electricity of mid-sixties rock.
- David Axelrod's production work here demonstrated a bold early vision for incorporating full string arrangements into rock music, placing this record in conversation with the most adventurous studio work of the era.
- The Electric Prunes staked their claim during psychedelic rock's most fertile and formative year, and this debut helped establish the genre's capacity for orchestral sophistication and experimental ambition.
Tracklist
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A1 I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) 147
2:55
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A2 Bangles 138
2:27
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A3 Onie 111
2:43
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A4 Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less) —
2:21
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A5 Train For Tomorrow 99
2:27
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A6 Sold To The Highest Bidder 125
2:16
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B1 Get Me To The World On Time 103
2:30
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B2 About A Quarter To Nine 61
2:07
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B3 The King Is In The Counting House 151
2:00
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B4 Luvin' —
2:03
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B5 Try Me On For Size 135
3:00
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B6 Tunerville Trolley —
2:34
Artist Details
The Electric Prunes were a righteous little garage rock outfit that came together in Los Angeles back in 1965, cooking up a wild brew of fuzz-drenched psychedelia and raw teenage energy that put them right at the forefront of the whole acid rock movement bubbling up on the West Coast. Their 1967 hits "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)" and "Get Me to the World on Time" crackled out of transistor radios and jukeboxes like electric lightning, landing them on the charts and cementing their place as pioneers of the psychedelic sound before most folks even knew what psychedelia was. Though the industry shuffled the band around and eventually replaced the original members entirely — a real heartbreaker of a story — their early recordings remain timeless artifacts of an era when rock and roll was reaching for something strange, beautiful, and altogether mind-expanding.
