Vinyl Relics: Relatively Clean Rivers
Vinyl Relics: Relatively Clean Rivers
In this latest Vinyl Relics installment, Farmer John spotlights the rare 1976 self-titled album by Relatively Clean Rivers led by The Beat Of The Earth’s Phil Pearlman
Relatively Clean Rivers - Vinyl Relics
Phil Pearlman. Never heard of him, right? And for the record, we’re not talking about Philip Pearlman, the actor who had a recurring role on Cheers, and also happened to be lovable character Carla Tortelli’s father in real life. No – this Phil Pearlman never made the set of any sitcoms, or ever appeared in front of the cameras. In fact, this Phil Pearlman lived a very reclusive life. I say “lived” but perhaps “lives” – I have no idea if this cat is still with us or not.
There is so very little known about Phil Pearlman. As far as I know, he has never given a formal interview about his work. He’s never been signed to a label, instead releasing material independently in very, very limited quantities, with each release making zero impact commercially. Each one of these releases only discovered years later and strangely, discovered in chronological order.
Relatively Clean Rivers
It started with a single that we think was released in 1964, credited to Phil and the Flakes. The track was titled “Chrome Reversed Rails” and had a distinctive surf-rock vibe. The next project Phil recorded, not discovered until the 80’s, was with a band called The Beat of the Earth. At the time it was the late 60’s and Phil had begun studying art at USC. For one of his school projects, he decided to cut an album. He assembled a band and recorded a full length LP that some have dismissed; while others state epitomizes everything that is fantastic about psychedelic music. WE call it an album, Phil did not. He referred to it as “an artistic statement.” In fact, the back cover reads “This record is an artistic statement. If you are looking for psychedelic music, do not buy this record unless you are looking for psychedelic music.”
The Beat of the Earth LP features two side-long tracks simply titled “The Beat of the Earth Side One” and, you guessed it, “The Beat of the Earth Side Two.” It is all free-flowing music and lyrics, completely improvised on the spot. Karen Darby was a member of the band; in 2004 she was interviewed and when asked to describe the band’s music she answered: “unstructured, stream of consciousness, riffs and rhythms, celebration of each individual musician by allowing spontaneous expression based on group-orchestrated effort, without orchestrated music. If you asked Phil then what the planned “song” or piece we were to perform was, he would say, “I don’t know man, let’s just let it happen. It’s getting high on life just digging on each other’s sound.”
Relatively Clean Rivers
Phil Pearlman’s next album was titled The Electronic Hole. It too was recorded in similar fashion and self released, with only 200 copies pressed. There is some confusion as to whether this should be credited as the second Beat of the Earth album, or whether the band name was also The Electronic Hole. It was recorded with different musicians, and continues where the first album left off, though this time out the songs appear to have some slight direction to them. Like the first, each side of the album features one side-long song, but, to my ears anyways, there’s a hint of planning behind them. This album was not discovered until the 90’s when Phil sent the tapes to a friend.
And then we get to Relatively Clean Rivers. This album couldn’t be more different than the others. Gone are the improvisations and side-long jams, replaced instead with traditional length songs, clear arrangements and in some cases – wait for it – even choruses! This album was pressed in 1976, but some fans have wondered if it was perhaps recorded years earlier, and that Phil just never got around to pressing it right away. There is definitely some validity to that theory, as one listens and is immediately transported to the late 60’s sounds of West Coast folk-rock meets psychedelia with a touch of Eastern mysticism thrown in.
Phil’s hushed vocals often remind me of Jefferson Airplane’s Jorma Kaukonen, and in fact, some of the many acoustic moments wouldn’t sound too far out of place on his excellent Quah album. Pearlman is capably backed by two other musicians and together they create a really fantastic, atmospheric sound. It’s got a similar cosmic vibe to David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name. Apparently Wilco are big fans of this one and often use the album as pre-stage music at their gigs. One listen and you can clearly see how the lines connect.
Relatively Clean Rivers
I can’t single out any highlights here, because that would take too long. This album is mesmerizing from start to finish. If you have any affinity towards California-style folk/psych rock, I urge you to check this one out, I guarantee you will be impressed. Sadly however, if you want to hear a copy, you’ll have to track down a bootleg pressing – of which there are many. This is NOT a practice I encourage, but in this case it’s the only way to hear Phil’s music. To date, Mr. Pearlman has never allowed any reissues of his music.
With decades passing before the world would discover any of his work, one wonders if there are more in Phil’s vaults somewhere. Apparently a few years back some collectors tracked him down on his goat farm in California, where he settled with a wife and raised children without running water or electricity. According to them, Pearlman was very open about discussing the album, but reluctant to answer any questions when pressed about possible other recordings. Maybe in time someone will discover more… one can only hope.
In critical terms, every review I’ve read praises this album for its quality of songwriting and musicianship. When I first heard it, I was blown away. It’s another one of those “how could this go unnoticed?” types of albums. Normally, I include an artist commentary from exclusive interviews on my show, weaving it throughout each “epysode” to help tell their story. In this case, tracking Phil down – assuming he is even alive – was not realistic, nor would I think he would agree to an interview now after turning down several other offers. So while there’s no artist “behind the scenes” stories that I usually like to include, in a way it’s actually rather fitting.
If you want to hear the story, or at least, what we know of the story of this strange, mysterious and absolutely wonderful album, tune in, turn on and drop by Vinyl Relics wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a new epysode every week released on Thursdays where we mine treasures like this.
I hope you dig Relatively Clean Rivers as much as I do.
– Farmer John
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