Raw & Alive cassette
by The Seeds
1980s cassette tape
Label: GNP Crescendo [GNPS-2043]
The Seeds’ final album, Raw & Alive, was released as a compact cassette tape sometime in the 1980s by GNP Crescendo. It must be some of the best and weirdest music to find an audience on cassette at that time. Three cheers for Crescendo for releasing this in this format.
The title of this album was always slippery; besides the band name there are three other phrases on the colorful front cover and it has been known by various mix-n-match permutations of these since its release. This cassette sidesteps the issue – or, complicates it – by referring to the band with the phrase THE SEEDS IN CONCERT, and the album itself merely as Raw & Alive. (There is no reference to Merlin’s Music Box anywhere in the package.)
Like the original LP, this cassette uses catalog number GNPS-2043. My copy has the numerical part of that stamped in purple on the top of the cassette. A minor psychedelic bonus for anyone lucky enough to own this landmark LP on cassette.
The songs are in the same order and broken up into sides the same as the original LP. The songs are listed on the cassette’s J-card insert under the unadapted square album front cover, and not on the back. (The folded-over back just has a standard blurb about Dolby B noise reduction, a warning against pirating, and the address of GNP Crescendo in Hollywood.) Interestingly, on the cassette itself the “GNP” is dropped from the company’s name.
