Uneasy Ride
Here's my song of the moment. "Easy Ride" is by a 1970s California band called Relatively Clean Rivers, headed by a fellow named Phil Pearlman, known to 1960s psychedelic obsessives for a project called Beat of the Earth.
While this song, the first on the band's only LP, has been compared to the Grateful Dead for its loping tempo, the constrained and close-ended feel make it a bit too dark for the Dead (who, frankly, I don't really dig).
The occasionally Dylanesque delivery doesn't really fit the lyrics; the guitars are crystalline and the harmonies have enough blue notes to feel a bit unsettling. Like most songs on these self-pressed records, it seems more than slightly out of time, existing in its own world. It certainly doesn't sound as if it were released in 1975.
Great album cover, too, huh? I love this song. Hope you dig it too.
More on Relatively Clean Rivers.
posted by Stuart Shea at 2:57 PM
3 Comments:
Good: The guitars start by sounding like Steve Miller, then go off into Allman Brothers territory. The R Crumbian album cover. The cryptic, awkward band name.
Bad: You're right, it's very Dead sounding. One of the things that bothers me about them is their harmony; it's so one note, and not usually a pleasant note. It's..dead.
Is this really a live recording?
8:07 AM, June 20, 2009
Not a live recording. The album features "nature" sounds in order to give that Cali vibe.
3:47 PM, June 22, 2009
This is interesting, at least during the vocal sections. The instrumental sections go on waaaay too long for me.
Oddly enough, the tune of this song, and some of the chord changes remind me of "Circle Sky" as interpreted by a Jam Band. The bridge section melody (and chords) in particular remind me of that song.
11:17 AM, July 20, 2009
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