The Seeds
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Seeds is a rock band best known for the hit single "Pushin' Too Hard", released in 1966. Based in Los Angeles, California, its raw and abrasive energy and simple, repetitive lyrics came to exemplify the garage rock style of the 1960s, best-known for "(You're) Pushin' Too Hard" (1965). Other notable recordings include "Mr Farmer" (1967), "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" and "Two Fingers Pointing on You," which was included in Psych-Out, directed by Richard Rush in 1968. In recent times, there has been a resurgence in popularity due to the use of the song "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" in the Lynx (Body Spray) advert in Spring 2009.
Legacy
"Pushin' Too Hard" was named one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
"Can't Seem To Make You Mine" has been covered by five different groups, among which Alex Chilton in 1978 as a split 45 with his song "Bangkok."
History
Lead singer and bass guitarist Sky Saxon was heavily influenced by Mick Jagger, and the group promoted the fact that blues great Muddy Waters once called them "America's own Rolling Stones". Keyboardist Daryl Hooper was a major factor in the band's sound; the band was one of the first to utilize keyboard bass; guitarists Jan Savage and Jeremy Levine with drummer Rick Andridge completed the original quintet, but Levine left shortly after the first recording sessions for personal reasons.
The Seeds' first single, "Can't Seem To Make You Mine", was a regional hit in southern California in 1965. The song was also played regularly on AM rock stations in northern California (and probably elsewhere), where it was well received by listeners. The band had their only national Top 40 hit, "Pushin' Too Hard", in 1966 (#44 in Canada). Three subsequent singles, "Mr. Farmer" (also 1966), a re-release of "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" (1967) (#33 in Canada), and "A Thousand Shadows" (1968) achieved more modest success, although all were most popular in southern California. Though musically primitive, one album was devoted to the blues (with liner notes by Muddy Waters), and another (Future, 1967) was full-blown psychedelic rock, with ornate flower-themed graphics to match.
By mid-1968, with their commercial popularity flagging, the group's personnel began to change; the band was renamed "Sky Saxon and the Seeds" in 1969, by which point Bob Norsoph, guitar, and Don Boomer, drums, had replaced Savage and Andridge. Saxon continued to use the name "The Seeds", using various backup musicians, at least through 1972; the last major-label records of new material by The Seeds—two non-charting singles on MGM records—were released in 1970.
After the dissolution of the Seeds, Sky Saxon joined the Yahowha religious sect, inspired by their divine leader Father Yod. He released several albums as the Yahowha 13 in the mid 1970s. Members of the sect went their separate ways after Father Yod died in a hang gliding accident in 1974, although Saxon continues to collaborate with various members of the Yahowa to this day.
In the 1980s, Saxon collaborated with several bands—including Redd Kross and The Chesterfield Kings—before reforming the original Seeds in 1989 to headline "The Summer of Love Tour", along with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Arthur Lee and Love, The Music Machine and The Strawberry Alarm Clock. The Seeds remained dormant again until 2003, when Saxon reformed them with original guitarist Jan Savage and newcomer Rick Collins on bass. This new version of the Seeds has gone through several incarnations, with Savage departing midway through their 2003 European tour due to his health. Saxon remained the only original member of The Seeds, which continued to tour Europe and the United States. Sky Saxon died on June 25, 2009.
