Fallin’ Off The Edge LP

The 1977 rarities LP Fallin' Off The Edge was a welcome addition to The Seeds’ catalog at the time. For the first time, several Seeds classics and alternate takes were heard. Non-LP tracks from 1960’s singles were also included.

Fallin' Off The Edge was only released on vinyl and cassette. It never enjoyed its own CD release, though the tracks on it have all been re-released several times.

The front cover of the LP features the four band members crouching in a big concrete drainage pipe. Their mod clothing contrasts interestingly with the grungy feel of the pipe, the dilapidated wooden slats behind them, and the grey dirt underneath their hip leather boots. The band’s name (using the logo from The Seeds) and album title are superimposed in orange and red, respectively; the overall look is well balanced and eye-catching.

The back cover reproduces an oft-used black and white photo of the band looking especially sneery. The song titles and various credits are typed out in white over the bottom half. With cheerful confidence, the band’s regular five catalog LP covers are reproduced (in black and white) along the bottom under the banner “You will also enjoy”. (The album A Full Spoon Of Seedy Blues, originally credited to The Sky Saxon Blues Band, is here listed as being by Seeds Blues Band. Crescendo always did have an erratic if hopeful approach to promotion.)

The inner sleeve is plain white paper, and the labels on the album are GNP Crescendo’s 1970s-era orange version with black text. Note that Sky Saxon does not get singled out as being “featured”, unlike Crescendo singles. In fact, information on the vinyl LP labels of Fallin' Off The Edge is scant; you don’t get much more than the song titles (not even writer credits).

Fallin’ off the edge of the details

For all their controversies as a steward of The Seeds’ catalog, GNP Crescendo usually had pretty good quality control for their releases. So it’s sort of strange that the lead-off song, "The Wind Blows Your Hair", has its full title on this LP but the original “Satan” version of the song (called, misleadingly, a “reprise” here) omits the “The” from the title. “Wind Blows Your Hair [Reprise]” is what’s listed on the back cover as well as the label itself. (Similarly, the song that inspired the LP’s title, "Fallin' Off The Edge Of My Mind", gets parentheses added to part of its title here, though on the original 1969 single there was no such punctuation.)

Buying copies of the Fallin’ Off The Edge vinyl LP

Copies of the Fallin' Off The Edge vinyl LP for sale aren’t hard to find, even though they may be superfluous to you if you have the songs elsewhere. Still, the album works as its own collection of songs and it’s well worth picking up if you have a turntable that loves The Seeds and ears that love vinyl.

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