Heavenly Earth – Fruitarians Vegitarians

The 1977 album Heavenly Earth – Fruitarians Vegitarians [sic] captures part of a live performance given by Sky Saxon with a band he refers to on stage as Sunlight Rainbow Stars New Seeds. The show was recorded September 9, 1977 at the Orpheum Theater in Hollywood, one of a series of shows Sky, Rainbow and their band played there. The album is also referred to as Heavenly Earth — Live At The Orpheum Theater; the title used on this page is based on the low-rent cover design.

Privately pressed on “Sunbow Records” (surely this is the only LP ever with that imprint), Heavenly Earth, with its black and white jacket and mail-order availability, is very much a DIY affair. Apparently, one thousand copies were pressed; they are still seen for sale occasionally and are surprisingly affordable. Although Sky mentions that the band is playing songs from their studio album, it is unclear what album he is referring to as nothing was released around this time featuring these songs.

Setting a precedent Sky would return to reliably until his 2009 death, the songs on Heavenly Earth mix Seeds classics with new originals. The musicians — Sky Sunlight Saxon on vocals and tambourine, Rainbow Neal on electric guitar, Brian Eye-zen (a.k.a. Brian Izen) on electric piano, and a drummer credited only as “Ed” — eventually find a good balance as the record progresses, and coalesce for some really great moments.

Eye-zen’s organ tends to dominate Side 1 of Heavenly Earth because it’s too high in the mix. The effect is that no matter how punchy and punky Rainbow’s (strictly rhythm) guitar gets, the music has a slow, dark, spooky feel overall. Imagine Ray Charles’ electric piano from “I Believe To My Soul” laid incongruently over the top of The Rolling Stones’ “Respectable” to get an idea of the sound here.

On Side 2, the organ is mixed lower, and is strongly reminiscent of Daryl Hooper’s keyboards on Seeds records from the 1960s: it helps push the rhythm along rather than act as a lead instrument. Though Ed’s drums are simple (and occasionally inaudible) throughout the album, all three musicians have an excellent sense of timing and they often achieve a great, funky groove, over which Sky does his usual cosmic thing.

It must have been surprising for the audiences who remembered The Seeds to see Sky’s new band in 1977; one member of the crowd keeps yelling at Sky throughout the performance to play old Seeds songs (which he does) and, most infamously, to cut his beard off, prompting a retort from Sky who was so pleased that he decided to include it on the album as a separate track — "God Rap", in which he advises against anyone cutting their hair since being hirsute is a natural gift from God. Groovy.

Seeds covers

Of the three Seeds songs on Heavenly Earth, two are heavily rewritten. "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" follows the original closely enough, despite the downer electric piano, but "Pushin' Too Hard" has been reworked as "Pushin' Too Fast"; at times Sky seems to be free-forming new lyrics, then suddenly reverting to what he can remember of the originals when his inspiration fails him. "Nobody Spoil My Fun" is a rather loose version of the 1966 song, with audible mistakes by the band and completely new lyrics by Sky (the title phrase isn’t sung once).

This is the first evidence of Sky’s subsequent habit of recording and renaming Seeds classics. Later albums sometimes consisted entirely of reworked and renamed classics.

New original songs

The original songs on Heavenly Earth are generally very good. The first, "Spirit Of America", is not too interesting, but acts as a kind of intro for the show, announcing that Sky and his friends have come to free everyone. The song is made of a simple one-chord riff and that spidery electric piano. Drums only crop up toward the end, as does Sky’s tambourine. This is the performance that prompts the would-be barber in the audience to complain that this music isn’t going to cut it as far as he’s concerned.

"Paradise Power" is a great, Seeds-like punk song. Rainbow Neal spits out a thrashy two-chord guitar figure and Sky preaches enthusiastically — “can you feel it?!” The last two songs on the album are "Wake Up" and "Star Jewels". Sky’s intro to "Wake Up" mentions that it originated in the World Peace Band, and that it was bootlegged in Europe and is selling for $6 each. I haven’t seen any of these discs so I don’t quite know what record or band he is referring to. At any rate, it is a fairly adventurous song, with a tricker-than-usual vocal melody that Sky nails and a peaceful, reassuringly comfy groove. With its blissful, pastoral feel and frequent references to dogs, it comes across as a conventional rock version of the music from the outré Lovers Cosmic Voyage album.

"Star Jewels" is the trippiest track on Heavenly Earth, and is a genuine moment of magic. A laid-back two-chord guitar riff with a repeating electric piano part drive it along. Sky’s lyrics center on precious stones — diamonds, topaz, amethyst, etc — and his hallucinatory calls for the “boys and girls” to accompany him to Venus on his “spacecraft”. "Star Jewels" grinds to a halt in a false ending, but Sky isn’t done — he keeps up his bleary Venusian rant while the band sneak gingerly back into the picture, with some gorgeous organ work elevating the song up through the ionosphere.

Heavenly Earth is not a Source Family project, and was not included on the 1998 Ya Ho Wha 13 box set God And Hair. The only place to find it are original vinyl copies. Between most songs on the album there is a clear edit; hopefully the full performance still exists on tape somewhere and will someday be reissued as an expanded album. What few songs we have of the show find Sunlight Rainbow Stars New Seeds (if that is indeed what we are to call them) getting into some great grooves and really going for broke. It’d be a shame to never hear the rest of this inspired, historic performance.

Track listing

1. "Sunlight's Introduction"
2. "Spirit Of America"
3. "God Rap" – [Sky Saxon defending his beard to an indignant audience member]
4. "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" – [1965 Seeds song]
5. "Paradise Power"
6. "Pushin' Too Fast" – [1966 Seeds song "Pushin' Too Hard" with some new lyrics]
7. "Nobody Spoil My Fun" – [1966 Seeds song with completely new lyrics]
8. "Wake Up"
9. "Star Jewels"

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