The Head Shop

The Head Shop

The Head Shop

    The Head Shop

    Studio Album by Psychedelic Rock Band

    Released: 1969
    Recorded: 1969
    Genre: Psychedelic rock
    Length: 31:32 (LP)
    Label: Epic
    Producer: Milan
    Maxim (Associate Producer)

    The Head Shop is an American psychedelic rock band from New York that released one eponymous album on Epic in 1969. The album cover features a swirling group of multi-colored (and numbered) boxes that surround a black-and-white image of a shrunken head. The back cover is mostly black with minimal copy but also includes a shot of the band lit from beneath.

    CONTENTS
    Formation of the Band
    Original Album Release
    Album Cover
    Guest Musician
    Cover Songs
    Recent Reviews
    Connection with Milan
    Maxim
    Band Members
    Reissues
    Release History[6], [9]
    Track Listing
    Original LP
    Bonus Tracks, 2004 Reissue
    Compilation Albums[8]
    References

    Formation of the Band

    As related in the liner notes for the World in Sound reissue of their album, the Head Shop began as a Brooklyn street-corner band and, as the Household Sponge, released a single in 1967 called “Scars” b/w “Second Best” on Murbo (catalogue #M-1017). “Second Best” was in the Spotlight list of songs that were predicted to reach the Hot 100 by Billboard in August 1967.[1] The band also performed live under the name the Aladdins.

    Original Album Release

    According to the original promotional material for the album called The Head Shop, the Head Shop performs “9 musical chapters that will lead you into new musical and audiophile dimensions of psychedelic art of music”. A commercial ad in New York’s Screw magazine was blazoned with: “Do You Want Head? Blow Your Mind with the Head Shop Album!”

    Album Cover

    The album cover for The Head Shop features a swirling group of multi-colored (and numbered) boxes that surround a black-and-white image of a shrunken head. The back cover is mostly black with minimal copy but also includes a shot of the band lit from beneath.

    A 1991 bootleg edition of a live album by Jane’s Addiction called The Head Shop borrowed the design of the album by the Head Shop for its front cover, except that the background color is black instead of white, and the central image is significantly larger.

    Guest Musician

    Larry Coryell, a respected jazz guitarist is a “guest musician” who provides a second guitar solo on “I Feel Love Comin’ On“. Coryell‘s debut album on Vanguard, Lady Coryell was also released in 1969.

    Cover Songs

    Side 1 ends and Side 2 begins with two extremely familiar Beatles songs, “Yesterday” – reminiscent of the Deep Purple cover of “Help!” – plus a propulsive rendering of “Revolution“. “Yesterday“, along with an original song called “Where Have All the People Gone“, are combined into “Opera in the Year 4000” that may function as a commentary on the state of the music world at the end of that decade: Even if all the people are gone in two thousand years, the then omnipresent Beatles standard would still survive.

    The Head Shop also includes a melancholy version of another hit song of the period, “Sunny” by Bobby Hebb. Like “Yesterday“, hundreds of other cover versions of “Sunny” are extant, but not like this: Eugene Chadbourne refers to this as the “so-called ‘bad acid’ version” of this song.[2]

    Recent Reviews

    One recent reviewer describes the music as “a demented fusion of ’69 era heavy psych and ’66 era garage punk“.[3] A 2006 promotion of the CD reissue on eBay by “Groovers Paradise” describes the album this way: “This underground New York psychedelic project has a unique sound – soulful vocals, fluid Hammond organ, fuzzy bass, distorted lead guitars, lots of weird percussion instruments, augmented by unexpected stereo effects.”[4]

    An anonymous Dutch fan calls this “a very special album” and makes a detailed track-by-track analysis of the record, citing influences on the album ranging from Arthur Brown to James Brown, and, regarding the “Revolution” cover: “The original idea was to mix Beatles with contemporary music (Schönberg and Mahler) into a new trip of music, making new music in a true ‘progressive’ edge.”.[5]

    The accolades are not unanimous, however. The exhaustive Acid Archives describes the album as “full of sound effects, fuzz guitar, and creative arrangements, but without the songs to elevate it to keeper status. A couple of Beatles covers are particularly ill-advised. The heavier songs are probably the highlights. Good but not great.”[6]

    Connection with Milan

    Although the band is obscure by any standard, the Head Shop is probably the best known and one of the last of the many projects masterminded by Milan, an enigmatic music industry professional who produced and performed on a variety of recordings released in the 1960’s. Virtually all of the Milan projects, including the Head Shop are highly sought collectors’ items, and original sealed copies of the Epic album surface occasionally. The album was produced by Milan, and the associate producer is Maxim; they are also listed as the songwriters on the original songs, which include “Listen with a Third Ear“, “Heaven Here We Come“, and “Prophecy“.

    Maxim

    The associate producer of The Head Shop and also one of the songwriters is given as Maxim, evidently a pseudonym for Max Ellen; he plays violin on “Prophecy“. According to his online obituary, Max Ellen, who died in New York City in 2014, was a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to New York in late 1941. Ellen was a “gifted and successful classically trained violinist, who played with all the great jazz and pop stars for decades: everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Mel Torme to James Brown“. He also played on numerous movie soundtracks and advertising jingles.

    Band Members

    • Danny Prosseda, Guitar, Fuzz Bass (on “Heaven Here We Come”)
    • Drew Sbordone, Bass
    • Joe Siano, Vocals
    • Jesse Luca, Drums, Percussion
    • Milan, Screams
    • Geoff Wright, Hammond/Farfisa Organ, Fuzz Bass (on “Revolution” and “I Feel Love Comin’ On”)
    • Maxim, Violin Solo (on “Prophecy”)
    • Larry Coryell, Guest Musician, Second Guitar Solo (on “I Feel Love Comin’ On”)

    Reissues

    The Head Shop album has been reissued several times in recent years. According to Discogs, Epic reissued The Head Shop as an LP in 1998 and again in 2015 in a 180-gram edition.[9] The album has also been reissued on CD by two different European labels, Synton in 1996 (variously described in Discogs as a French and an Austrian label) and a German label, World in Sound in 2004.

    Like the Epic reissues, the 1996 Synton release has no bonus tracks. However, Eugene Chadbourne stated in his article on the Head Shop for Allmusic that Synton reissued The Head Shop as a CD in 1998 that includes four bonus tracks by Household Sponge and Licorice Schtik,[2] although a full track listing could not be located.

    The World in Sound reissue includes 7 bonus tracks, along with a copy of both sides of the page in the 1969 issue of Screw Magazine where the ad for The Head Shop appeared. The bonus tracks on the WIS CD run the gamut from folk to flower power to psychedelic pop[7] and include songs by the Household Sponge (the predecessor band to the Head Shop, which also performed under the name the Aladdins),[2] Licorice Schtik (a band being promoted by Milan in the same time period), and other earlier projects including the Downtown Collection. The artists on the last two bonus tracks are not given in the CD booklet. According to Discogs, “Groovy Feelings” was written and recorded by Milan, under the artist name Breeze; and he also provided the vocals.[9] “In Central Park” was written by Max Ellen.

    Release History [6] [9]

    • Original LP: Epic Records with yellow label (#BN 26476) – rel. 1969
    • Original LP: Epic Records with yellow label (#BN 26476) – rel. 1969, Canada
    • Original LP: Epic Records with yellow label (#BN 7-26476) – rel. 1969, The Netherlands
    • Bootleg LP: Same but with dark label – rel. 1990’s
    • Reissued LP (no bonus tracks): Epic Records with yellow label (#BN 26476) – rel. 1998
    • Reissued CD (no bonus tracks): Synton Records (#DR9856) – rel. 1996
    • Reissued CD (with 4 bonus tracks): Synton Records (#DR9856) – rel. 1998
    • Reissued CD (with 7 bonus tracks): World in Sound Records (#WIS-1024) – rel. 2004
    • Reissued LP (no bonus tracks): World in Sound Records (#WIS-014) – rel. 2013
    • Reissued LP (no bonus tracks): Epic Records with yellow label (#88875101221) – rel. 2015, 180-gram edition

    Track Listing

    LP

    Side 1:

    1. Head Shop (Milan/Maxim/R. Craig), 2:56
    2. Heaven Here We Come (Milan), 2:40
    3. Sunny (Bobby Hebb), 3:11
    4. Listen with a Third Ear (Milan/Maxim), 2:30
    5. Opera in the Year 4000 (Milan), 4:25
      • Where Have All the People Gone (Milan)
      • Yesterday (Lennon–McCartney)

    Side 2:

    1. Revolution (John Lennon/Paul McCartney), 2:28
    2. I Feel Love Comin’ On (Milan), 6:20
    3. Prophecy (Maxim/Milan), 2:17
    4. Infinity (Milan), 4:45

    CD Bonus Tracks, 2004 Reissue

    • “Scars” (by the Household Sponge), 2:34
    • “Second Best” (by the Household Sponge), 2:14
    • “Flowers, Flowers” (by Licorice Schtik), 2:00
    • “Kissing Game” (by Licorice Schtik), 2:03
    • “Sunshine” (Milan) (by the Downtown Collection), 1:12
    • “Groovy Feelings” (by Breeze) (Milan), 1:50
    • “In Central Park” (artist unknown) (M. Ellen), 1:53

    Compilation Albums[8]

    “Head Shop” –

    “Heaven Here We Come” –

    • Psychedelic Dream (LP)

    “Prophecy” –

    • Psychedelic Vision (CD)

    “Infinity” –

    References

    1. Google Books entry, August 15, 1967 issue of Billboard Magazine (https://books.google.com/bo
      oks?id=9ykEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=%22Household+Sponge%22+Murbo&so
      urce=bl&ots=BWuombDKrN&sig=I_sRQtoOf5xhRDE5KYxlp_ib6Ls&hl=en&ei=KgXSS4CrI4X
      U9ASd7NS5Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CBYQ6AEwCDgK#v=on
      epage&q=%22Household%20Sponge%22%20Murbo&f=false      )      . Retrieved 23 April 2010.
    2. Chadbourne, Eugene. barnesandnoble.com, Biography of the Head Shop (http://music.barnesa
      ndnoble.com/search/artistbio.asp?CTR=391366      )      . Retrieved 6 Nov 2006 (where it was posted
      on Allmusic, though the entry is now missing).
    3. Kurt Sampsel Reviews (http://www.fufkin.com/columns/sampsel/sampsel_12_01.htm),
      Fufkin.com, December 2001. Retrieved 3 Nov 2006.
    4. Listing on eBay (http://www.ebay.com). Retrieved 29 Oct 2006.
    5. Review page for the Head Shop (http://progressive.homestead.com/Prog-4.html#anchor_153),
      progressive.homestead.com, a Dutch progressive/psychedelic website. Retrieved 19 Dec 2006.
    6. Acid Archives listing (http://www.lysergia.com/AcidArchives/lamaArchiveH.htm), lysergia.com.
      Retrieved 22 Dec 2006.
    7. Wolfart, János. Review on a German site, www.rocktimes.de (http://www.rocktimes.de/gesamt/
      h/head_shop/same.html      )      . Retrieved 29 Oct 2006.
    8. Searchin’ for Shakes” on-line database (http://comps.ugly-things.com/compsproject/bandname.
      php?&lifilter=1&sbandid=&sbandname=the%20Head%20Shop&sboolwhole=True&ssource=fil
      ter&ipage=0&lispeed=      )      , Ugly Things fanzine. Retrieved 24 Mar 2007.
    9. Entry on the Head Shop in Discogs. Retrieved 5 Apr 2023.
    10. Online obituary for Max Ellen, originally published in The New York Times. Retrieved 5 Apr 2023.

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