Of Cabbages & Kings (1967)

Chad’s Memories

Well, here we go . . . all aboard the psychedelic merry-go-round.

Jeremy and I were both fed up with being told what to do and what to record so we struck out on our own. Fortunately for us, Gary Usher was a sympathetic producer and happily came along for the ride. (Although at $285.00 per hour, it was going to be an expensive ride!)

When I finally listened to this record, light years later, I have to admit to the strong desire to edit out some of the extravagances and indulgences of side two! But apart from that, I think that the album came closer to a cohesiveness which had eluded us for so long. Jeremy's songwriting was an important part of all this, and the album certainly displays a promising synergy between Jeremy's songs and my arranging. In retrospect, I had a lot to learn; there's some rather over-the-top bits here and there!

A classic example of over-the-top would have to be my sitar solo, stuck in the middle of "Rest in Peace" for no apparent reason! I was a student at Ravi Shankar's school of Indian music, as was Eric Clapton also. Eric was quoted later as saying that if he practiced non-stop for the rest of his life, he'd never be able to master the sitar.  He was right of course. None of us could. We all gave it up eventually.

Sitar playing aside, I have one particularly good memory associated with "Rest in Peace". We were playing the Melodyland Theater in Anaheim, California and Buffalo Springfield were opening for us. We did R. I. P. for the sound check and I noticed a lanky figure in a fringed buckskin jacket standing at the back of the hall. After the song was done, he ambled up to me and said, "Good song, man". It was Neil Young and he made my day.