“Can’t Seem To Make You Mine”

by The Seeds
1965 song

"Can't Seem To Make You Mine" was The Seeds’ first-ever release, in August 1965; its B-side was "Daisy Mae". The song has a stony, slow tempo, and remains one of the group’s essential moments. Both sides of the single were recorded by The Seeds during their first-ever studio session, on April 21, 1965, about 4 months after they formed.

Notable for being ahead of its time and broadly hinting at the psychedelia that would overtake the music scene (and The Seeds in particular) in the near future, "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" includes everything that The Seeds would forever be known for: Daryl Hooper’s day-glo keyboards (he even takes an echoey solo), Rick Andridge’s unshowily steady drum beats, Jan Savage’s primitive lead guitar stabs, and — of course — Sky Saxon’s howling, whining, pleading vocals. “I can’t seem to make you mine AAUUUWWWW!!!” he orgasms on the track’s very first line; he would infuse just about every line he would ever sing in the ensuing decades with a similarly passionate warble.

With a druggy feel much more pronounced than pretty much anything else on the scene in 1965, The Seeds’ debut satisfies in every way even today. It led off the band’s amazing debut album in 1966, and would wind up being on virtually every Seeds compilation ever released, as well as being re-recorded by Sky Saxon’s various bands over the decades.

"Can't Seem To Make You Mine" contains The Seeds’ first lyrical instance of “night and day”, a phrase Sky would use repeatedly throughout his career.

Appears on

Original 1965 recording

The Seeds – [1966 debut album]
Evil Hoodoo – [1988 Seeds compilation]
Flower Punk – [1996 Seeds box set]

Other studio versions

Raw & Alive — The Seeds In Concert At Merlin’s Music Box – [new studio recording with fake crowd noise]
The King Of Garage Rock – [2008 Sky Sunlight Saxon studio recording]
Breakin' Through The Doors – [as "To Make You Mine/King Charming Life With You"; 1990 studio recording by Sunlight Sky Saxon and the Dragonslayers]

Live versions

Heavenly Earth Fruitarians Vegitarians – [by Sunlight Rainbow Stars New Seeds, 1977]
Bad Part Of Town (CD only) – [by Fire Wall, mid-1980s]
Rockin' The Croc/West Coast – [by Fast Planet, 1995]

Others

"As Much As I Love You" from Takes & Glories by Sky Sunlight Saxon and the Original Seeds – [1987 studio recording with new lyrics and vocal melody]

See more

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