“Mystery Man”
by The Seeds
2008 song
Sky Saxon demonstrates a willingness to sing a conventional sunshine-pop psych tune on "Mystery Man", one of the tracks from the 2008 CD Back To The Garden to feature original Seeds keyboardist Daryl Hooper. "Mystery Man" was written by Sky and his friend Mike Oak, who plays the shimmering 1960s arpeggiated guitar figures as well as bass. Drums are provided by Anthony Prickett.
Not only is Sky singing in an unusually fragile and high-pitched voice – displaying a delicate vulnerability he rarely copped to – but the super thin effect added to his vocal track make him sound like he’s singing from inside a matchbox. It’s a nice touch, letting the music’s just-slower-than-comfortable pace emerge to the fore. Daryl adds some angelic choir sounds, giving "Mystery Man" its epic “pillow of winds” feel.
On the 2010 reissue of Back To The Garden, Alan Robinson’s liner notes have this to say about "Mystery Man":
On "Mystery Man", the guitar sound is uncannily like that on their [The Seeds’] first recordings – that Fender Twin reverb-laden tone. However, the backing track, embellished with acoustic guitar and an ethereal, almost otherworldly female backing vocal moves into another plane altogether, showing that, even in his twilight years, Sky wasn’t afraid to expand the limitations of his muse. Sky’s keyboard player Daryl Hooper is also featured, in a partial revisiting of his halcyon 60’s era.
"Mystery Man" is psychedelic in its feel, not so much in its instrumentation. And as the liner notes suggest, it’s always nice to hear Sky trying something different.
