“Travel With Your Mind”
by The Seeds
1967 song
"Travel With Your Mind" is something of a mission statement from The Seeds, and was first released on their 1967 masterpiece Future. It inspired the name of a 1993 Seeds outtakes compilation, on which it also appears in a different mix.
Sky Saxon, double-tracked, sings some deeply psychedelic lyrics against a raga-like backdrop full of curious, high-pitched curlicues and electronically-enhanced guitar that impersonates a sitar. The percussion is an off-time-on-purpose set of bongos.
The lyrics are so sparklingly psychedelic that simply reading them can spin your brain around and make you have to sit down: “Like a crystal glass filled with life, the bottom is never dry, and your mind a magic sailing ship can take you on any trip. Just Travel With Your Mind.” Fantastic!
"Travel With Your Mind" benefits (or suffers, if you prefer) from some harsh stereo separation, with several of its aural ingredients panned hard left or right. In headphones this can be seen as a benefit as it sprinkles the complex rhythms and sounds liberally around your brain so as not to overwhelm you all at once.
1993 version
On the CD and downloadable Travel With Your Mind compilation of rarities, "Travel With Your Mind" appears in a new mix that blends the instruments evenly and sands down some of the jagged edges of the original Future mix. The effect is actually noisier, as everything joins in a single chaotic party. There are also some nice echo effects on Sky’s voice.
