“Volcano”
by Sky Sunlight Saxon Universal Stars Peace Band
1984 song
"Volcano" is the blistering and echoey hard funk rock track that begins Sky Saxon’s mysterious 1984 album Masters Of Psychedelia and also the 2008 LP Dragonslayer. The band cooks, riffing and soloing on great clouds of pot smoke, and through it all – occasionally, anyway – Sky yells and sings his way through unfocused lines inspired by Hawaii and fire. “Mt. Kilauea is coughing again / Like a bad cold this time,” warns Sky. He always did love his apocalyptic natural imagery.
Those lines aren’t just our hero rambling off the top of his head, though; the vocals of "Volcano" are in fact built from the world’s most slapdash attempt at double-tracking. The two Skys often sing in unison but are just as often a few bars ahead of or behind one another. As it perhaps should be.
The Dragonslayer LP.
Like much of Side 1 of Masters Of Psychedelia, "Volcano" is dominated by the band because Sky’s vocals are mixed so low. If the claustrophobia and murkiness of the 1984 version aren’t for you, "Volcano" was re-released on an equally mysterious vinyl LP in 2008 called Dragonslayer. The version quiets the band down and allows Sky to be heard much better. There are other minor differences – for example, there are a couple extra seconds of the drum intro.
"Volcano" sets an appropriate tone for Side 1 of Masters Of Psychedelia – this is Sky Saxon as confused 1980s stoner-metal god.
