“March Of The Flower Children”
by The Seeds
1967 song
"March Of The Flower Children" is the first track proper (besides the album’s "Introduction") on The Seeds’ psychedelic album Future from 1967. With a strange, super-dramatic structure, a prominent tuba and harpsichord arrangement, a jittery and nervous time signature, and Sky’s overdubbed, randomly-placed bullwhip cracks, “March” sounds like nothing else. It’s high art for the psychedelic music set.
Where "Introduction" had described the “flower children” from afar, as a narrator might relate facts about a topic, "March Of The Flower Children" seems to be a report from among the new day-glo hippies and their weird new carnival. Colors, dragons, castles, clowns, and a call to arms that underscores a generation gap ten thousand miles wide all make up the goofy, riotous stew that is this sub-two minute song. Every cliche about early psychedelic rock poetry, for good or bad, starts here.
"March Of The Flower Children" was released as the B-side of the "A Thousand Shadows" single in 1967, in a mono mix featuring backing vocals not on the stereo version. This mono version was also released on the Singles As & Bs 1965-1970 CD in 2014, if you don’t have an original copy of the pink-sleeved 45.
Appears on
Future
Evil Hoodoo
Travel With Your Mind
