About 32 years ago I purchased (or traded for) a sealed copy of this album. I listened to it, thought it interesting, and filed away. And here I am listening to it for only the second time. How strange. For whatever reason, I didn't even include it in the CDRWL project, yet no legitimate reissues exist. While I have a lot of albums that I haven't heard in 20 years, there aren't too many going on 30+ years. And yep, it's interesting alright.
St. John Green is a seriously flawed album and as I was going through side 1, I began to contemplate selling it. Which is something I rarely do with obscurities such as this. But eventually I was able to grasp its contents. It does improve, and there's some interesting Doors elements that crop up and there. It's very psychedelic, more of an overall attitude than sound I'd submit. In this way, it belongs to the American freaky underground of Friendsound or Blessed End. 'Spirit of Now' is often listed as the album's best track, and it reminds me of classic Strawberry Alarm Clock, so I'm not disagreeing. File this one under "unique" while trying to accept its contents without too much critical evaluation. It's a sincere attempt at capturing the ethos of the moment. Whether it does or not is how the album should be judged.
Ownership: LP: 1968 Flick Disc. Single sleeve. Acquired as noted above (1992). My copy has now been played all of twice, and it certainly looks better than the Discogs stock photos as shown here. Be prepared for the right channel to go almost completely out on A1. I thought my headsets may have blown, but I did read that's how it goes. I put my stereo on mono for the remainder of the song.
As of this writing, the album remains without a legit reissue of any kind.
1992; 2/7/24 (new entry)
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