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RIDE THE BRAIN TRAIN TO THE REALM OF CLEAR LIGHT
THE CLEAR LIGHT STORY
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Los Angeles 1966, and Bob Seal (guitar/vocals), Wanda Watkins (vocals), Robbie Robison (guitar) and drummers Michael Ney and Dallas Taylor have formed a band called The Garnersfield Sanatarium. They attract the attention of ex-boxer and local hipster Bud Mathis, who becomes their manager. Through Mathis they hook up with bassist Douglas Lubahn and things start to come together, Wanda Watkins leaves the group and they change their name to The Brain Train, securing gigs in Sunset Strip clubs such as the Sea Witch. Bud Mathis finances a session in the Elektro Vox recording studios in late ‘66, which produces two tracks: ‘Black Roses’ and ‘Me’.
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‘Black Roses’, written by Wolfgang Dios, is a strong, jangly folk rock piece that is distinguished by the double drumming of Taylor and Ney, and the unusual, fragmented guitar playing of Bob Seal. ‘Me’, is a Mathis/Lubahn composition, an atmospheric garage punker with a raga feel and spooky chant-like backing vocals reminiscent of the Yardbirds. Impressed with the results , Mathis pitches the demo to Billy James at Elektra and Jack Holzman subsequently signs the Brain Train to the label.
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Unfortunately for Bud Mathis, he is ousted, and Elektra in-house producer Paul Rothchild takes over managing the group, and suggests a name change either from a potent brand of LSD via a Buddhist mental state from the Tibetan Book Of The Dead, or, as Doug Lubahn recalls:
"Paul and a lead singer of another group he was working with were sitting on a hillside one night completely Zonked out on acid. As he tells it, not a single word had been spoken for probably an hour, when all of a sudden this singer turned to Paul and said 6 words. "Race you to the clear light!' And then they fell into silence again. Paul came to us with the thought that it would be a good name for us and we agreed. Hence the name change.
Later on, some one came out with a new acid and named it after us...not the other way around.
And Paul's 'acid buddy' that fateful night was Jim Morrison."
Their first release, in September 1967, is a single, a new recording of ‘Black Roses’. The flip side is ‘She’s Ready To Be Free’, a stomping acid fried guitar and harmony vocal feast and an outstanding number that had been used in the film ‘The President’s Analyst’.
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Screen capture from the President's Analyst courtesy of Bonnie Hall.
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Clear Light appear in the film, playing the part of an acid rock group who become mixed up with James Coburn in his role as shrink to the President of the United States (a thinly disguised LBJ). After becoming privy to the inner-most thoughts of the most powerful man on earth he is overcome with paranoia and does a bunk, closely followed by the thinly disguised CIA, the KGB and, most insidious of all, the Telephone company!
Trying to evade his pursuers he ducks into a ‘hippy’ van outside New York’s Café Wha! only to find himself in the company of a bunch of freaks (Clear Light) who take him under their wing. Out in the countryside the band perform a blistering live instrumental version of ‘She’s Ready To Be Free’ . While Coburn and 'Snow White' (the obligatory 'hippy chick') get it on in the long grass oblivious to the various secret agents who are attempting to kill them, Barry ‘Eve Of Destruction’ McGuire performs a song entitled 'Inner Manipulations', on an acoustic guitar. A little later in the film James Coburn appears playing oriental gong on stage with the band in a nightclub, once again the group performs "She's Ready To Be Free" only this time Barry McGuire provides the lead vocal. This scene of the movie ends up in bacchanalian excess after everyone is spiked with acid and things turn blue – literally.
Paul Rothchild supplements the group with actor turned singer Cliff De Young, who gives a theatrical flavour to some of the more dramatic numbers . De Young later earns the sobriquet “Hamlet on Acid“ for his live performances. With this line up the group start to play a succession of live dates, working up material for the planned album.Taken into Sunset Sound Recorders by Rothchild in August, the sessions for the album were dominated by his dictatorial approach. The atmosphere was often fraught as the group tried to gel together whilst dealing with what appears to be Rothchild’s first attempt at creating a ’manufactured’ band (He later achieved this with the "supergroup" Rhinoceros). It was at this point that Robbie Robison left the group, allegedly due to his folk rock approach being deemed incompatible with the heavier electric sound the group was now leaning towards under Rothchild’s direction. Incidentally, Robbie Robison was the husband of Sandi Robison, vocalist with another Los Angeles psych band, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy. He had previously released an album in 1964 under the name Robbie the Werewolf, recorded live at the Waleback. His replacement was keyboardist Ralph Schuckett, and Robison's rhythm guitar was removed from the previously recorded tracks and Schuckett's keyboard parts overdubbed in their place, except for the reworking of Black Roses. Bud Mathis, meanwhile, had sold the earlier recording of ‘Black Roses’/’Me’ to George Brown, who released it as a single on his Titan label in October 1967 to capitalise on the new Clear Light album.
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The album was released at the end of 1967, alongside Love’s ‘Forever Changes’, The Doors’ ‘Strange Days’ and Tim Buckley’s ‘Goodbye and Hello’, eventually reaching No 126 in the Billboard Album Chart. The cover features photographs by William S Harvey, depicting the group (looking very hip and freaky) in a sylvan setting. It includes Robison in the line up but not Schuckett, as the shots were taken before the departure of the former and the arrival of the latter. Robison is also credited on the sleeve in the capacity of ‘Guru’, alongside the band's road manager Lee Housekeeper as 'Seer' . The rear sleeve also carries the following advice: “To fully appreciate the spectacular sound of double drumming in Clear Light, play this record at high volume”. An indication of what to expect from the album in the sleeve.
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CLEAR LIGHT L-R Doug Lubahn, Bob Seal, Dallas Taylor, Robbie Robison, Michael Ney, Cliif De Young
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Screen capture from the President's Analyst courtesy of Bonnie Hall.
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