Red Crayola

For the very discerning listener, here are the two original (1967-68) albums by the legendary Red Crayola, a Texas band marketed as "psychedelic", but listened to today, one can see that it's actually more avant garde type of stuff, and one can possibly hear the influence that this had on modern day noise rock, industrial rock, god knows what......

Red Crayola were basically drummer Rick Bartheme, guitarist/vocalist Mayo Thompson, and bassist Steve Cunningham, although countless friends of the band (including Roky Erickson) appear on the firs talbum ("The Parable of Arable Land"), particularly on the "Free Form Freakout" tracks that appear between the songs......and the songs are quite bizarre enough, this is NOT something I can adequately describe here, this is NOT one you are going to listen to over and over again, one of those "more interesting than listenable" albums.

And interesting it is....."Hurricane Fighter Plane" is likely the best known song here, but the album, once again, is more known for the ultimate head scratchers, the "Free Form Freakouts".....I won't spoil the surprise, but I'll venture you haven't heard anything like them.

The follow up, "God Bless the Red Crayola and All Who Sail With It" is equally as experimental, with a bunch of short jackhammer hunks of sound, again, INCREDIBLY hard to describe, so I won't try.

Do I recommend these? Not especially, for your listening pleasure...however, if interested in an artifact of a bygone era, and something which was (like it or not) influential on a segment of modern music, this is for you.

THE PARABLE OF ARABLE LAND-01 Free Form Freakout/02 Hurricane Fighter Plane (When the Ride Is Over You Can Go To Sleep)/03 Free Form Freakout/04 Transparent Radiation (Red Signs Outside, Which I Contain)/05 Free Form Freakout/06 War Sucks (Remember What Happened to Hansel and Gretel/07 Free Form Freakout/08 Pink Stainless Tale (Seven Guests Are Quiet Now, And Now Not half So Much)/09 Free Form Freakout/10 Parable of Arable Land (And the End Shall Be Signaled By the Breaking of a Twig)/11 Free Form Freakout/12 Former Reflections Enduring Doubt (I pass in a Rain That is Always Too Soon

GOD BLESS THE RED CRAYOLA AND ALL WHO SAIL WITH IT-01 Say Hello to Jamie Jones/02 Music/03 The Shirt/04 Listen to This/05 Save the House/06 Victory Garden/07 Coconut Hotel/08 Sheriff Jack/09 Free Piece/10 Ravi Shankar: Parachutist/11 Piece for Piano and Electric Bass/12 Dairymaid's Lament/13 Big/14 Leejol/15 Sherlock Holmes/16 Dirth of Tilth/17 Tina's Gone to Have a Baby/18 The Jewels of Madonna/19 Green of My Pants/20 Night Song