Psychedelic Skeletons In the Closet–Kenny Rogers
Psychedelic Skeletons In the Closet–Kenny Rogers
Everybody who made a record before 1967 has a bad psychedelic moment. This week, I give you star of stage, screen and rotisseriesā Kenny Rogers! Most people think of Kenny as the play-it-safe sentinel of slowpoke, Driving-Miss-Daisy styled country music. Few remember the risks the Gambler took early on in his career with (insert shudder) psychedelic music!
Suspect Record:
āJust Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)ā by The First Edition.
Release Date In Relation to Sgt. Pepper LP:
Six months later, the better to incorporate a spooky āStrawberry Fieldsā false ending.
Suspicious Psychedelic Instrumentation:
Backwards acoustic guitars, fuzzy molten lava lamp leads and heavily phased vocals
Psychedelia Enabler:
It was co-produced and arranged by Mike Post, whoād later be renown for his reality altering TV themes like āThe Rockford Filesā and āMagnum PIā! And it was written by Mickey Newbury whoād later counter the counter-culture and pen āAn American Trilogy.ā
It hardly seems possible but Kenny once bent peopleās minds as the bearded beacon behind The First Edition.
Backhistory:
Kenny Rogersāacid rock avatar? It hardly seems possible but Kenny once bent peopleās minds as the bearded beacon behind The First Edition. The groupās very first hit was a most credible hallucinogenic hit which soared all the way to number 5 in the US in the spring of ā68, besting the highest chart positions of such worthy wasted adversaries as Blue Cheerās āSummertime Bluesā (#14), Bubble Puppyās āHot Smoke and Sassafrassā (also #14) and even the Balloon Farmās flowery āA Question of Temperatureā (#37).Ā
Until āJust Dropped Inā started turning up in movie soundtracks like The Big Lebowski and radio playlists. this groovy gem seemed pretty well buried in pop culture, out of time and woefully out of print. Once Rogers achieved solo success with the tearjerkinā āLucille,āĀ Liberty Records released a Kenny Rogers āTen Years of Goldā collection that rewrote history by including re-recordings of all his First Edition hits, most notably a slightly discofied, less mind-blowing āJust Dropped In.ā No doubt Kennyās newly-won old biddy following wouldāve gone spiraling into cardiac arrest had the hair-raising original version been included! Coward of the Countyāno fooling!
Psychedelic Crutch Word:
Four mentions of āmindā as either tore up, broke, blown or located in the vicinity of a brown paper bag. Thereās also three references to āeight milesā, a tip of the hat to those high-flying, drugged-out Byrds.
Worst Bad Trip Moment:
The whole song is about a bad trip so take your pick. Probably the part about blowing out either his mind or tire eight miles out of Memphis without a spare. Itās hard to hear the song with out imagining a groggy, Nehru jacketed Kenny wandering through a house cursed with flashing colored lights and April Fools signs, looking for all the world like he could use a coupla Anacin! Let that be a lesson for us all āpharmaceuticals and Memphis donāt mix!
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) Genius Lyrics
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1 thought on “Psychedelic Skeletons In the Closet–Kenny Rogers”
Right on! Thank you.