“She’s Wrong”
by The Seeds
1965 song
The Seeds recorded only one take of a song called "She's Wrong", on December 7, 1965. Although a fine and typically snotty Seeds song, it wasn’t chosen either for the debut The Seeds album nor as a B-side to a single. It was first released, to the delight of lucky fans, on the 1977 compilation Fallin' Off The Edge by GNP Crescendo.
“She’s Wrong” and “Let Her Sting”
The story doesn’t stop there, though. In 2001, on a handmade CD-r album Sky Saxon sold online called Golden Vaults Volume 1: Timeless, the same recording of "She's Wrong" appeared. Its title was changed to "Let Her Sting", it runs slower than the real recording, and it’s in noticeably lower sound quality, but it’s there. It is highly doubtful that Sky had the legal authority to do this. Maybe that explains the name change. The CD was so obscure that it may have escaped Crescendo’s notice, assuming that’s still who had the rights to the song.
But then in 2004, recording as Sky Saxon and The Seeds, Sky and a new band re-recorded "She's Wrong", but again calling it "Let Her Sting". The writing credits on the Red Planet album, where the song appeared, are “Sky Saxon & The Seeds”. In this context, “The Seeds” would seem to refer to Sky’s concurrent ersatz Seeds. Again, this seems like it would be patently illegal unless Sky somehow had gained the rights to this song, an eventuality that seems unlikely. And this was a much more prominent release that couldn’t have escaped Crescendo’s notice. Maybe all proper royalties were paid, who knows.
(Further muddying the story: at least one CD version of Red Planet misspells the title as “Let Here Sing” because why would anything related to Sky Saxon be sensible or easy?)
Whatever the case, "She's Wrong" is great Seeds. The 1960s original and the 2004 remake are both excellent raw garage rock. Seek out either, or both; you won’t be disappointed.
