“900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)”
by The Seeds
1968 song
The endless, long slow burn of "900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)" has made it one of The Seeds’ most notorious songs. It has been released in numerous forms, both with and without fake crowd noises added to it.
Originally it was a track on the 1968 album Raw & Alive, an edit of about five minutes long that still managed to be a monotonously weird fever dream. For decades this was the only version known to fans. But its recording history is complex and its release history is likewise elaborate.
Recordings of “900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)”
The song has its roots in mid-1967 when The Seeds recorded an extremely rare LP for Dick Clark’s Your Navy Presents radio show. They did a version of the theme song “The Navy Swings”, slow and moody and on one single chord, that would eventually morph into "900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)" by year’s end. “The Navy Swings” was a bonus track on the 2013 expanded Future.
On January 10, 1968 The Seeds recorded an unknown number of takes of the song; none has been released and this was the only song done on this date.
Five days later the band recorded two complete takes of "900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)". Overdubs were added to take 2 the same day. The entire unedited result, plus studio chatter, was issued in 1993 on the Travel With Your Mind CD.
On February 20 another attempt was made at recording the song, this time in the studio in front of a group of invited fans for the fake live album. This version (along with most of the night’s recordings) was rejected but eventually made it onto the 2014 expanded Raw & Alive.
In mid-April 1968 Sky Saxon rerecorded his lead vocal for take 2 of the January 15 version. This was edited down to five minutes and was the one destined for Raw & Alive and thus the consciousness of fans.
Other edits and releases
The story doesn’t stop there, though. "900 Million People Daily (All Making Love)" was also chosen as the B-side of the "Satisfy You" single in 1968. This was the Raw & Alive version, of course, but edited down even further to about four minutes. This 7″ came in a plastic sleeve and is highly collectible now.
Finally, an even more-obscure promo single (GNP 408) was pressed with the four-minute edit on one side (the “long version”) and a still-shorter 2:49 “short version” on the other side; both have crowd noises added. Copies of this record are very rare but it’s the only place to hear the special blink-and-you’ll-miss-it edit.
