Into Cherry Blossom Clinic, that is. Glib songs of mental institutions were an interesting sub-genre in the mid sixties. Perhaps the strangest was this novelty hit. The B-side of it was the same song backwards. Yes, I owned a copy, as did many of my fellow devotees of MAD and CRACKED. I was in 4th grade, OK?
A darker take on such facilities came from Porter Wagoner. But even it sounded funny to anyone under thirty at the time, and to pretty much everybody now.
No insitutions in these, but I have to add these two faves. I’m wondering if our resident Pacific Northwesterner knew anyone lucky enough to have seen the Sonics in their glorious prime.
Viva Count Five! And I’d never heard that Porter tune.
The Sonics were under-underground even in the Northwest. The hipsters who introduced me to what qualified as cool cult music in my provincial burgh – Sex Pistols, Damned, Devo, etc – never mentioned ’em back in the day.
I think the recognition and popularity spiked much later, around the time of the grunge explosion. Everyone wants an origin story.
Don’t we hate it when our favorite bands become popular?
Porter was institutionalized at some point, so he knew whereof he sung.
I first heard of the Sonics when the Cramps covered “Strychnine” back in the late 70’s. Over the next couple of decades I became familiar with “The Witch” and “Psycho” from the various Nuggets compilations. At some point I picked up a re-release of their first album, which is a full-throttle proto-punk masterpiece. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Kurt Cobain cited them as an influence, which really put them on the map.
For whatever reason, it never bugged me when an obscure band I liked hit the big time. I felt they deserved the payday. If their work began to suck as a result, well, we still had their good records. Rod would be an exception, as he really didn’t need to shake his ass in our faces in the process.