Psychedelic Skeletons in the Closet–Herman’s Hermits
Psychedelic Skeletons in the Closet–Herman’s Hermits
Everybody who made a record before 1967 has a bad psychedelic moment. Herman’s Hermits left behind a pretty good psychedelic skeleton and a not as good/extremely derivative psychedelic skeleton in the closet to pick over. So listen very carefully, come closer now and you will see what I mean. It isn’t a dream-it really is Herman’s Hermits as seen through kaleidoscope eyes!!
Backhistory:
Record producer Mickie Most picked young Herman (Peter Noone) to groom to stardom because the sixteen year old resembled a young John F. Kennedy. Just think, if the future VH1 host had resembled a young Lee Harvey Oswald, a slew of great Britpop might never have washed up on these shores.
With the kids abandoning Camp Herman in rapid numbers and “Hermania” turning into a kind of hush all over the world, something psychedelic had to be done at once!
As any “All About Eve” fan knows you can’t stay young forever. After racking up over a dozen Top 10 hits and two number ones including “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” a maudlin skiffle ballad that’s the rock equivalent of “Please sir, can I ‘ave some more puddin,” Herman’s Hermits popularity began to wane in 1967. Most people attribute the Hermits’ decline in popularity to the advent of The Monkees, a group which had a Herman of its own in Davy Jones, a Limey who was two years older than Peter Noone but actually starred as the Artful Dodger in Oliver (see previous “Please sir, can I ‘ave some more pudding” reference). With the kids abandoning Camp Herman in rapid numbers and “Hermania” turning into a kind of hush all over the world, something psychedelic had to be done at once!
Suspect Records:
“Museum” and “Moonshine Man” by Herman’s Hermits
from the album Blaze
Release Date In Relation to Sgt. Pepper LP:
Three months later on 45, five months later on LP.
Suspicious Psychedelic Instrumentation:
“Moonshine Man” has a gnarly acid-rock guitar that may or may not be Jimmy Page, who played on many of Herman’s earlier records. The arrangement for “Museum” was by another future Zeppelinist, John Paul Jones and both men played on the original Donovan version. If the Hermits had been allowed to play on their own records, surely Lek Leckenby would’ve done the courageous thing and played a sitar!
Psychedelia Enabler:
Hermits producer Mickie Most tapped his other client Donovan to provide the lads with one of his usual non-sequiter songs (from the “Mellow Yellow” album of the previous year) and arranger J.P. Jones refashioned Donovan’s hurried “Museum” so it now sounded like the Hermits’ last huge hit “There’s a Kind of Hush” played at half speed. The song details a lethargic Herman waking up after only having slept an hour drinking wine for breakfast and schlepping to meet some girl dressed in drag under the whale at the Natural History Museum. But is Herman is really tired? Or is he like Lennon who complained “I’m Only Sleeping” the year before to mask his newfound habit of ingesting acid like it was coming out of a Pez dispenser? Of course not! But if you’re a role model to teens like Herman and you’re giving a choice between acting drowsy and looking trippy, you take the former.
Worst Bad Trip Moment
“Yawning in the sun,” he sings in “Museum,” “it’s like a child I run.” The kaleidoscopic photo that adorned the single’s picture sleeve and the cover art of the group’s last album Blaze actually shows Peter Noone yawning in the sun, as if Herman is trying to look as wasted as Brian Jones on the cover of Between the Buttons but doesn’t want to put in those long hours of drug ingesting to get the necessary bags under his eyes.
What’s It Sound Like?
On the flip side of the group’s last US Top 20 hit “Don’t Go Out Into the Rain (You’re Going to Melt)” was “Moonshine Man.” one of the rare instances where Hermits penned one of their own tunes. It took both Herman’s guitarists and their bassist to come up with this “Taxman” rewrite, yet in this instance being trippy means losing yourself in a bottle of booze.
Worst Lyrical Moment
From “Museum”:
“Don’t do it if you don’t want to
I wouldn’t do a thing like that …”
Talk like that would’ve stopped the sexual revolution dead in its tracks!
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