Back To The Garden

One of the very last releases from Sky Saxon before his death in June 2009 was the Back To The Garden CD, first appearing in 2008 and representing Sky’s rather atypical and generally non-psychedelic pop rock with multi-instrumentalist Michael Oak. The recordings (except for three bonus tracks) apparently date from the 1990s, and are presented in clear, professional audio quality.

Of the thirteen tracks on Back To The Garden, two of the three “bonus tracks” (which were always on the album, calling their status as “bonuses” into question) had been released in the 1980s while the other bonus track would feature on a 7″ single in 2009. The track "We The People" had been released on the obscure Golden Vaults CD-r back in 2001 but was generally unavailable by 2008.

That leaves nine songs specific to the Back To The Garden CD. Several of Sky’s regular contributors are featured on these tracks, including original Seed Daryl Hooper on three. Patrick McCarthy and Sam Andrew from Fast Planet are elsewhere, and Pete Sears, who was with Jefferson Starship and Starship during the 1970s and 1980s, guests on "Summer Of Love", an event deemed important enough that the song is called “Summer Of Love (w/ Pete Sears)” in the CD booklet. (Sky also, elsewhere, recorded "Swamp Music", a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover with Jefferson Starship drummer Joey Covington.)

The Back To The Garden CD was re-released in 2010 with different lettering on the front and different art on the back but with all the same songs. Both feature Jim Phillips’ gorgeous “seeds” artwork (he also did the cover for Down The Nile by Fast Planet).

While Back To The Garden sounds like it’s more Mike Oak than Sky – it was generally tough for Sky to sound totally at-ease singing words he didn’t write, which is what this one sounds like – it’s not as much of a left turn as the Flashback album from 1991. It’s pleasant and at times slightly psychedelic guitar rock. And it’s nice that Daryl and Sky got to work together again before Sky went over to join Ya Ho Wha.

Sky’s wonderfully rambling liner notes alternately give thanks to various people (you know, people like Marion, Dana, Marianna, God-Dog Snoopy, Teth the water-bearer, Stacey) and go off on mystical hippie tangents about reaching heaven, being surrounded by angels, love, and energy. My favorite part might be the out-of-left-field “Special thanks to Quicksilver Messenger Service for always being” – although perhaps Sky’s finest moment in these notes is in fact:

After you hear this record, turn around and thank each other for making all of this possible.

Back To The Garden was mastered by Karl Anderson (as “Sir Karl Frederick Anderson II”); both Anderson and Sky’s producer alter ego “Sir Marcus Tybalt” are thanked humbly as “great record executives of great music”.

Used and new copies of this CD are, as of this writing, quite easy to find and may be priced very reasonably.

The songs

1. "Many Years Ago"
   Slow, dense, and atmosopheric opener with rock instrumentation and Daryl Hooper on keyboards. Fairly traditional sound for garage rock icon Sky Saxon. Nice haunting repeated refrain throughout of “it happened many years ago…” Written by Michael Oak and Sky.
2. "Miner"
   Another slow-ish and atmospheric song from Michael and Sky, about a miner who is “mining, mining, mining, night and day” – reminiscent of the farmer from The Seeds’ famous 1966 song. Nice slide guitar from Michael throughout, while a restrained Sky sings about how we are “mining for the touch of gold”. Goes on a little too long; by the time of the long fade-out the listener may be a little bored of "Miner".
3. "Mystery Man"
   The second song on Back To The Garden featuring Daryl Hooper, who gives it a cheerfully glowing aspect at odds with the cold professionalism of the rest of the performance. Sky’s relatively well-behaved vocals are given a distant, echoey, strangled effect. There’s an angelic chorus floating through the song towards the end but no such credits are given in the notes; presumably this is a keyboard effect from Daryl.
4. "Tell Me The Time"
   Gentle, earnest acoustic guitar song. Mike Oak strums and picks away as Sky croons and warbles, in his latter-day Elvis voice, a gospel-ish set of lyrics about praying for peace. Totally lacking any hint of psychedelia.
5. "Summer Of Love"
   An atmospheric, floating meditation on a summer of love, featuring Pete Sears of Jefferson Starship on bass and keyboards. Sky’s lead vocal is mirrored by Mike Oak in the background; Angelo “Crisco” Miceli plays drums. This song dips into some murky and pleasant psych and has a really nice instrumental hook placed at strategic points throughout.
6. "Wishing Well"
   A bass-heavy mix gives this fast-paced rock song a leaden feel at odds with its peppy pace, as do Sky’s placid vocals. Lots of quick-moving chords and a wheedling keyboard courtesy of Mike Oak. The drums are credited to “Joe”, apparently engineer Joe Logsdon.
7. "Just A Dance"
   A dark song with Spanish guitar touches and booming drums from Anthony Prickett; "Just A Dance" in its pace and vocal structure is reminiscent of The Seeds’ 1970 track "Wish Me Up" if it were in a minor key and had mid-1980s R.E.M. drums added to it. One of Sky’s more dynamic performances on Back To The Garden even if Oak seems uncertain of some of the guitar parts in the middle section.

8. "I Believe"
   Sprightly pop-rock with a prominent backing vocal chorus consisting of overdubbed Mike Oaks and Patrick McCarthys. The song doesn’t really go anywhere but Sky seems to enjoy it, at least.
9. "Power Tripper"
   Fat, booming rock, featuring a heavy guitar crunch and Daryl Hooper back on keyboards (piano, in fact, not his usual 1960s day-glo style). Sky double-tracks his vocals, at times doing a kind of call-and-response with himself. Despite the dense and dry mix, this song has noticeably more energy than many other Back To The Garden songs. "Power Tripper", in name and in guitar lick, is clearly an homage to The Beatles’ “Day Tripper”.
10. "We The People"
    The final “new” song on Back To The Garden. This recording was in fact first released in 2001 on the Golden Vaults CD-r and may predate the preceding nine songs by quite a bit. "We The People" includes Sky crooning about how we’re all people, who should “get together”, over the gospel-ish elegy of the music which is led by Joe’s keyboards and a larger-than-usual backing chorus that includes Sky’s one-time paramour Marianna DaPello.
11. "Halt"
    This track apparently dates from 2008 and would be released in 2009 on a 7″ single (where it gained an exclamation mark – “Halt!”). It sounds different than Sky’s other work with Mike Oak and we’re not convinced Oak appears on it, though he could have been on keyboards. "Halt" was written by Sky and his Dragonslayers collaborator Tom “Atomic” Azevedo. The music is a glorious, repetitive guitar snarl and Sky clearly had more to do with phrases like “blood for oil” and “dogs they don’t want no war” than the lyrics on other Back To The Garden tracks.
12. "Paradise"
    This wistful and beautiful song was recorded in 1986 and was originally released on a 7″ vinyl EP that year featuring Sky and Mars Bonfire on organ with the band SS-20. (The occasional reference you see to this song as being from “1980” is most likely a mistake, perhaps from someone having written “1986” sloppily somewhere.) This was sourced from the vinyl; the sound quality suffers quite a bit for it but it isn’t the first time Sky had taken this approach. Credited in the CD liner notes to “Sky Sunlight Saxon The Seeds featuring Mars Bonfire (organ)”, though on the Voxx EP it was “Sky Saxon with SS-20”.
13. "Wild Roses"
    A track originally on the 1989 LP Just Imagine by Sky Sunlight Saxon Dragonslayers SSS which was also released as a single that year. Sky always seemed quite proud of this ethereal, haunting minor-key ode to an “enchantress” on which he croons in his most delicate and melodramatic style. Credited here to “Sky Sunlight Saxon Dragonslayers featuring Mars Bonfire (organ)”.

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