“Painted Doll”
by The Seeds
1967 song
Sky Saxon seems to return to his pre-Seeds “teen idol” persona on "Painted Doll", a gentle ballad on the varied and adventurous album Future from 1967. Unlike the idiosyncratic psychedelia and bizarre art-rock of the rest of that LP, "Painted Doll" is quiet and searching, slow and delicate.
"Painted Doll" is in fact one of the Future tracks mentioned by Sky in his brief spoken "Introduction" to the album, where he contrasts this song with the endless nightmare of the LP’s final track:
Just like "Painted Doll" is to "Fallin'"
The Future is yours today
"Painted Doll" was the only song The Seeds recorded at their April 9, 1967 session. With a string quartet playing alongside the hirsute young(-ish) garage rockers, two complete takes were accomplished over a total of eight attempts; Take 8 was chosen for the LP. A harp and some female backing vocals were overdubbed onto this take on May 12 but were rejected.
