“Pictures And Designs”
by The Seeds
1966 song
Peppy and queasy at the same time, "Pictures And Designs" is an excellent showcase for The Seeds’ instrumental strengths. One of the many classic tracks from the band’s second album, A Web Of Sound (1966), "Pictures And Designs" finds Daryl Hooper’s wheezing organ alternating its wild trills with an equally economic fuzz guitar figure from Jan Savage.
A key part of the sound on "Pictures And Designs" is drummer Rick Andridge, who goes back and forth between a tasty chunk-chunk-chunk garage beat and more intricate patterns on the choruses. The drum sound in particular is superb – the snare is snappy, trebly, demanding of attention but not muscling the others out of the way. Sky Saxon, unsurprisingly, is an insane person on this song – “gone, gone, GONE GONE GONE WAAUGGHHHH!!” There are even two psychedelic freak-out sections on a single chord, possibly for the first time in rock history.
“Pictures And Designs was recorded on July 12, 1966. Twenty-two takes were attempted, with four complete. Take 19 was chosen for the album, sporting a new lead vocal from Sky recorded on July 29. In 2013, the Big Beat expanded version of A Web Of Sound included Take 14 as a bonus track.
Other versions of “Pictures And Designs”
Sky Saxon’s wayward 1986 live album Private Party, with a band he called Purple Electricity, features a heavy rock version of "Pictures And Designs" with mostly slurred and improvised vocals. On this LP the song is titled "You Blow My Mind".
In 1990 Sky and his band Dragonslayers re-recorded the song in the studio, giving it the unwieldy title "Pictures & Designs/I Need Your Love Tonite/Ignite Your Fire", for their CD Breakin' Through The Doors.
