“Fallin'”
by The Seeds
1967 song
The Seeds had done long ‘n’ repetitive before but "Fallin'" has always deserved its special place in the band’s canon. "Up In Her Room" was longer, "Six Dreams" and "Travel With Your Mind" had weirder sounds, but none was as detached from reality as "Fallin'". It is the final song on 1967’s Future album, almost eight minutes of unmoored music spiraling in from another dimension.
A lot of the fearsome psychedelic charm of "Fallin'" in fact comes from the harp, a gentle but unrelenting tornado of sound. That, along with Sky Saxon’s more-monotonous-than-ever lyrics, do indeed give the impression of (as Sky sings) drifting, falling, falling back DOWN. That’s about all he sings, and all he needs to sing.
"Fallin'" just drifts around and around, the pretty harp pleasant enough that the listener doesn’t feel the need to be rescued – this place is nice enough. Why not swirl around the vortex forever with The Seeds? It may be a kind of suspended animation but at least it’s an ecstatic fate.
"Fallin'" was recorded on May 2, 1967 with Tjay Cantrelli from Love playing clarinet and harmonica. Two takes were recorded with take 2 being on the album. The harp was added either the next day or on May 8.
Other versions of “Fallin'”
The Seeds re-recorded "Fallin'" on February 20, 1968, in a studio performance they planned on passing off as a live album. The session wasn’t used, and when the fake-live Raw & Alive album (with crowd screams added) was tried again in April 1968, "Fallin'" was no longer on the set list. The February 20 version was finally released on Big Beat’s 2014 2-CD expanded version of Raw & Alive.
“Fallin'” (1968 version)
Some online sources list the final track on Future as "Fallin'" (1968 version). As explained, the band did record it on February 1968 but those sources are evidently mistaken: they are referring to the regular 1967 version.
