''Pebbles, Volume 3'', subtitled The Acid Gallery, is a compilation album featuring American

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

psychedelic rock musical artists from the 1960s. It is the third installment of the ''Pebbles'' series and was released on BFD Records in 1979 (''see'' 1979 in music). The album is marked for containing among the most unusual recordings of psychedelic music.

Background

Compiling the most bizarre examples of

psychedelia Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...

, ''The Acid Gallery'' opens with Higher Elevation's "The Diamond Mine", showcasing the nonsensical ramblings performed by lead vocalist

Dave Diamond Sidney Ivan Davison Jr. (August 7, 1936 – May 5, 2014), known professionally as Dave Diamond, was an American radio DJ whose programs in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped popularise many psychedelic and acid rock bands. He was also an ac ...

. The Jefferson Handkerchief's novelty song, "I'm Allergic to Flowers", mocks the

flower children Flower child originated as a synonym for hippie, especially among the idealistic young people who gathered in San Francisco and the surrounding area during the Summer of Love in 1967. It was the custom of "flower children" to wear and distribute ...

by lyrically telling the story of an individual who cannot become a hippie as a consequence of

allergies Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic dermat ...

. The narrative concept continues with "Flight Reaction" by Calico Wall, which describes the acid-drenched glimpse into the mind of a passenger concerned with crashing before takeoff in an

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurat ...

. A Frank Zappa-inspired instrumental on "Loose Lip Sync Ship" highlights a track supposedly recorded by

the Chocolate Watchband The Chocolate Watchband is an American garage rock band that formed in 1965 in Los Altos, California. The band went through several lineup changes during its existence. Combining psychedelic and garage rock components, their sound was marked by Da ...

under the moniker the Hogs. Side one concludes with the Driving Stupid's comedic number "The Reality of Fried (Air) Borsk", a tune music historian

Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born January 19, 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' ...

describes "Some listeners would subscribe to the 'it's-so-stupid-it's-brilliant' school; many would find the single unbearably amateurish and dumb. But of such things reputations are made, if only cult ones". Opening the second side is the Third Bardo's "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time", a cult favorite that was later highlighted on '' Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968'' in 1998 along with the subsequent track, " Voices Green and Purple", recorded by the Bees. Among the majority of the remaining songs, there is a pattern of remakes of compositions by more successful musical acts. Godfrey's "Let's Take a Trip" is based on Kim Fowley's " The Trip", the Monocles' "Spider and the Fly" is a revisioning of 1950s surf rock, and Race Marbles' "Like a Dribbling Fram" -- which reached the top ten on the Canadian charts in January 1966 -- is a spoof of

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

's "

Like a Rolling Stone "Like a Rolling Stone" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on July 20, 1965, by Columbia Records. Its confrontational lyrics originated in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned exhausted fro ...

". The original LP listed "Horror Asparagus Stories" by the Driving Stupid between tracks seven and eight of the second side; yet, the song is not included on the album itself. Additionally, "Prana" is designated as a "

bonus track An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

" on the track listing. When

AIP Records AIP Records is a record label that was started by Greg Shaw's Bomp! Records in 1983 to continue the Pebbles series. AIP stands for "Archive International Productions". The first 10 volumes in the Pebbles series had been released by BFD Records ...

reissued ''The Acid Gallery'' in 1992 on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Oc ...

, the missing Driving Stupid song was included along with an altered track listing and five bonus songs. Through "Spider and the Fly" and "Let's Take a Trip" are sequenced as the twelfth and thirteenth tracks respectively, the order is actually reversed on the album. All the material on ''The Acid Gallery'' also appears on ''

Pebbles Box ''The Pebbles Box'' is a 5-LP box set of mid-1960s garage rock and psychedelic rock recordings, primarily by American bands. Several years later, a similar 5-CD box set was released that was called the '' Trash Box''. The Pebbles Box purports ...

'' and '' Trash Box''.

Track listing

Side one

# Dave Diamond & the Higher Elevation: "Diamond Mine" #

Teddy and His Patches Teddy and His Patches were an American garage rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1964. The group, for the greater duration of its existence, was rather straightforward in their musical style; however, their best-known recording, "Suzy Cr ...

: "Suzy Creamcheese" # Crystal Chandelier: "Suicidal Flowers" # William Penn V: "Swami" # Jefferson Handkerchief: "I'm Allergic to Flowers" # onus TrackUnfolding: Prana (excerpt) # The Calico Wall: "Flight Reaction" # The Hogs: "Loose Lip Sync Ship" # The Driving Stupid: "The Reality of (Air) Fried Borsk"

Side two

# The Third Bardo: "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time" # The Bees: " Voices Green and Purple" # The Monocles: "Spider and the Fly" # Godfrey: " Let's Take a Trip" ( Kim Fowley)" # T.C. Atlantic: "Faces" # Mike Condello: "Soggy Cereal" # The Lea Riders Group: "Dom Kallar Oss Mods" # The Driving Stupid: "Horror Asparagus Stories" # Race Marbles: "Like a Dribbling Fram" On this LP, "Flight Reaction," "Loose Lip Sync Ship" and "The Reality of (Air) Fried Borsk" have a delay echo added to them; also, "Loose Lip Sync Ship" has a stuck needle in the groove about halfway through. These problems were corrected on the CD version.

1992 CD reissue

# Dave Diamond & the Higher Elevation: "The Diamond Mine" # Teddy and His Patches: "Suzy Creamcheese" # Crystal Chandelier: "Suicidal Flowers" # William Penn V: "Swami" # Jefferson Handkerchief: "I'm Allergic to Flowers" # The Calico Wall: "Flight Reaction" # The Hogs: "Loose Lip Sync Ship" # The Driving Stupid: "The Reality of (Air) Fried Borsk" # The Driving Stupid: "Horror Asparagus Stories" # The Third Bardo: "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time" # The Bees: "Voices Green and Purple" # The Monocles: "Spider and the Fly" #Godfrey: "Let's Take a Trip" ( Kim Fowley)" # T. C. Atlantic: "Faces" # The Lea Riders Group: "Dom Kallar Oss Mods" # Race Marbles: "Like a Dribbling Fram" # The Painted Faces: "Anxious Color" # Adjeef the Poet: "Ieek, I'm a Freak" # Adjeef the Poet: "Squafrech Lemon Comes Back" # Beautiful Daze: "City Jungle, Part 1" # Catfish Knight: "Deathwise" # Oshun: "Rattle of Life"

Release history

LP

BFD Records (#BFD-5020) — 1979

– several reissues

CD

(#AIP-CD-5020) — 1992

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pebbles, Volume 03 Pebbles (series) albums 1979 compilation albums