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compiled by Max Sebela
July 15, 2009
Sky Saxon
photo by Mark Berry
I sometimes wonder what a composite of all my favorite musical moments would sound like: bent strings, blue notes, horns squonking at the chorus, vocals cracking at the bridge. I love that instant of shuddering tension, when a song teeters on the edge. I’m talking about that one note that you wait for, that one phrase that curls the toes and makes you screw your face up real tight. Would it be possible to sustain that tension for a whole song? Would you want to? Half the allure is that it’s fleeting, no? I’ve thought about this a lot lately while listening to The Seeds, because on “Can’t Seem To Make You Mine,” Sky Saxon somehow manages to walk that ledge. There is something in his voice that grabs hold of that blue note, man-on-the-brink tension and just keeps holding.
Sky “Sunlight” Saxon was born Richard Marsh on August 20 sometime in the last century – no one can seem to agree on the year – and he died on June 25, 2009. Though we’ll remember him for his work with L.A. garage rockers and psychedelic monsters The Seeds, in his lifetime Saxon fronted more than ten bands. In the early sixties, he made soda jerk doo-wop as the frontman for Richie March and the Hood, and with Sky Saxon and The Soul Rockers he sang pop that was so beach-party and square that he could’ve been the next Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon. But instead he formed The Seeds, who released their self-titled debut in 1966. Lester Bangs – ever the rain cloud on parade day – said that Saxon sang “moronic” lyrics in a “trashy” imitation of Mick Jagger. The Seeds only ever had one Top 40 hit with “Pushin’ Too Hard,” and the original lineup disbanded within a few short years. But if Saxon never snagged the general public with his nasal wail, he sure tapped into something in those Southern California kids, something bristling beneath that blanket of desert smog. They were on the brink too, ready to plunge into the Day-Glo swamp of psychedelia.
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