Psychotic Reaction (album)

Last updated
Psychotic Reaction
Count five album.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 1966
Genre
Length24:50
Label Double Shot
Producer Hal Winn, Joseph Hooven
Count Five chronology
Psychotic Reaction
(1966)
Dynamite Incidents
(1983)
Singles from Psychotic Reaction
  1. "Psychotic Reaction"
    Released: July 1966
  2. "Peace of Mind"
    Released: November 1966

Psychotic Reaction is the only studio album by the American garage rock band Count Five, released in October 1966, through Double Shot Records DSS5001.

Contents

It features the hit single “Psychotic Reaction”, number five on the Billboard charts in October 1966, [2] and The Who covers, “My Generation” and "Out in the Street".

Background

Previously to recording sessions, Count Five was rejected by several record labels before they got signed to the Los Angeles-based Double Shot Records in 1965. Double Shot was an independent label (active 1965-1972) owned by Harold "Hal" Winn and Joseph "Joe" Hooven, who were also songwriters and record producers.

The song "Psychotic Reaction" was released as a single, peaking at number 5 in the U.S. charts in late 1966, after its release in July 1966. To capitalize on the success of the single, Winn and Hooven at Double Shot immediately pressured the band to record a full-length album.

The songs' lyrics were written mostly by John "Sean" Byrne, and the music and vocals were recorded in a very short time, so deliberately included two covers of The Who band as filler songs, to complete a brief album of eleven tracks. Band members complained in later interviews that due to the hurried nature of the recording sessions, they never had the chance to shape the songs the way they wanted them to sound. [3] The style of the album is fairly basic but effective, set to the rhythms and ways of garage rock.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]
New Musical Express 5/10 [5]

With a low budget production and insufficient marketing, Psychotic Reaction peaked at number 122 on the Billboard 200 . Other singles, released between 1966 and 1969, sold poorly and did not chart (some not included in the original LP).

The band enjoyed limited success for a short time, dropping out of view altogether when their only hit had fallen from public memory. Accordingly, Count Five had to break up in 1969, so its members could pursue college educations.

Track listing

All songs written by John Byrne, except where noted.

Side one

  1. "Double-Decker Bus" – 2:00
  2. "Pretty Big Mouth" (Byrne/Kenn Ellner/Roy Chaney/Craig Atkinson/Mouse Michalski) – 2:07
  3. "The World" – 2:12
  4. "My Generation" (Pete Townshend) – 2:27
  5. "She's Fine" – 2:12
  6. "Psychotic Reaction" (Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michalski) – 3:03

Side two

  1. "Peace of Mind" (Byrne/Chaney/Michalski) – 2:19
  2. "They're Gonna Get You" – 2:26
  3. "The Morning After" – 1:57
  4. "Can't Get Your Lovin'" - 1:47
  5. "Out in the Street" (Townshend) – 2:28

Personnel

Musicians

Technical

Charts

Albums

Chart (1966)Peak
position
US Top LPs (Billboard) [6] 122

Singles

YearSingle US Hot 100
1966"Psychotic Reaction" [7] 5
"Peace of Mind" [8] 125

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strawberry Fields Forever</span> 1967 single by the Beatles

"Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on 13 February 1967 as a double A-side single with "Penny Lane". It represented a departure from the group's previous singles and a novel listening experience for the contemporary pop audience. While the song initially divided and confused music critics and the group's fans, it proved highly influential on the emerging psychedelic genre. Its accompanying promotional film is similarly recognised as a pioneering work in the medium of music video.

<i>A Quick One</i> 1966 studio album by the Who

A Quick One is the second studio album by the English rock band the Who, released on 9 December 1966. A version of the album with an altered track listing was released under the name Happy Jack on Decca Records in April 1967 in the United States, where the song "Happy Jack" was a top 40 hit.

<i>My Generation</i> (album) 1965 album by The Who

My Generation is the debut studio album by English rock band the Who, released on 3 December 1965 by Brunswick Records in the United Kingdom, and Festival Records in Australia. In the United States, it was released on 25 April 1966 by Decca Records as The Who Sings My Generation, with a different cover and a slightly altered track listing. Besides the members of the Who, being Roger Daltrey (vocals), Pete Townshend (guitar), John Entwistle (bass) and Keith Moon (drums), the album features contributions by session musician Nicky Hopkins (piano).

<i>Magic Bus: The Who on Tour</i> 1968 compilation album by the Who

Magic Bus: The Who on Tour is a compilation album by English rock band the Who. It was released as the band's fourth album in the United States by Decca in September 1968 to capitalize on the success of their single of the same name. It is a compilation album of previously released material, and was not issued in the UK, although the album was also released at approximately the same time in Canada. It peaked at #39 on the Billboard 200.

<i>Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968</i> 1972 compilation album by various artists

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles that were released during the mid-to-late 1960s. It was created by Lenny Kaye, who was a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies record shop in New York. He would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. Kaye produced Nuggets under the supervision of Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman. Kaye conceived the project as a series of roughly eight LP installments focusing on different US regions, but Elektra convinced him that one double album would be more commercially viable. It was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term "punk rock". It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976. In the 1980s, Rhino Records issued Nuggets in a series of fifteen installments, and in 1998 as a 4-cd box set.

Acid rock is a loosely defined type of rock music that evolved out of the mid-1960s garage punk movement and helped launch the psychedelic subculture. While the term has sometimes been used interchangeably with "psychedelic rock", acid rock also specifically refers to a more musically intense, rawer, or heavier subgenre or sibling of psychedelic rock. Named after lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the style is generally defined by heavy, distorted guitars and often contains lyrics with drug references and long improvised jams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Gang</span> American rock band

James Gang was an American rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966. The band went through a variety of line-up changes until they recorded their first album as a power trio consisting of Joe Walsh, Tom Kriss (bass) and Jim Fox (drums). Dale Peters replaced Kriss on bass for the band's second and third albums. Two of the band's songs, "Funk #49" and "Walk Away", continue to be popular on classic rock and AOR stations.

<i>Double Vision</i> (Foreigner album) 1978 studio album by Foreigner

Double Vision is the second studio album by the British-American rock band Foreigner, released on 20 June 1978 by Atlantic Records. Recorded between March - May 1978, it was Foreigner's only album co-produced by Keith Olsen and the last recording with bass guitarist Ed Gagliardi who would be later replaced by Rick Wills.

<i>Playback</i> (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album) 1995 box set by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Playback is a box set compilation by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in 1995. It contains popular album tracks, B-sides, previously unreleased outtakes, and early songs by Petty's previous band Mudcrutch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Count Five</span> American garage rock band

Count Five was an American garage rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1964, best known for their hit single "Psychotic Reaction".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Psychotic Reaction</span> 1966 single by Count Five

"Psychotic Reaction" is the debut single by the American garage rock band Count Five, released in June 1966 on their debut studio album of the same name.

Mouse and the Traps was the name of an American garage rock band from Tyler, Texas, United States, that released numerous singles between 1965 and 1969, two of which, "A Public Execution" and "Sometimes You Just Can't Win", became large regional hits. The leader of the band, nicknamed "Mouse", was Ronny Weiss. Two of their best known songs, "A Public Execution" and a cover of "Psychotic Reaction", are not actually credited to this band but, respectively, to simply Mouse and Positively 13 O'Clock instead. Their tangled history also included one single that was released anonymously under the name Chris St. John. The band are not to be confused with the girl group Mousie and The Traps who recorded for Toddlin' Town records around the same time.

<i>Whos Last</i> 1984 album

Who's Last is the second live album by British rock band The Who, recorded in 1982 during what was then billed as the band's "farewell tour". Thus, this album, released in 1984, was to be the band's last album.

<i>Public Execution</i> 1982 compilation album by Mouse and the Traps

Public Execution is a Mouse and the Traps retrospective album that has been released in both LP and CD formats. The LP has an unusually large number of tracks (19), while the CD includes 4 bonus tracks and catalogues almost all of the released music by Mouse and the Traps and their associated bands: Mouse, Positively 13 O'Clock and Chris St. John.

The Leathercoated Minds was a short-lived psychedelic studio-based band with Snuff Garrett and J. J. Cale, which lasted from 1966 to 1967.

The Fire Escape was an American psychedelic rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1967. Existing mainly as a studio group composed of unknown session musicians, the band was masterminded by record producer Kim Fowley and Michael Lloyd. The project produced one album called Psychotic Reaction, which contained mainly cover versions of popular songs from the era. It is reported that Sky Saxon of the garage rock band, the Seeds and Mars Bonfire of Steppenwolf, played on some of the tracks.

<i>Uptight Tonight: The Ultimate 1960s Garage Punk Primer</i> 2005 compilation album

Uptight Tonight: The Ultimate 1960s Garage Punk Primer is a garage rock compilation put out in 2005 by Big Beat Records. The set consists of twenty-six tracks that, with a few exceptions, focus on the harder and more aggressive side of the genre. Steve Legget, commenting in AllMusic, writes that Uptight Tonight "...rips out the attitude and trash riffs pretty darn well, making it perhaps the ultimate single-disc set of this raggedly endearing rock style." The packaging includes well-researched liner notes written by Alec Palao, which provide helpful biographical information about the artists and their songs, as well as extensive photographs of the bands."

<i>Who</i> (album) 2019 studio album by The Who

Who is the twelfth studio album by the English rock band The Who, released on 6 December 2019. The band's first new studio album in thirteen years, and the second overall comprising the duo of vocalist Roger Daltrey and instrumentalist Pete Townshend, it comprises ballads, rock music, electronic experimentation and "classic Who-ish" songs, according to Townshend.

Kent Sprague aka Butch Dubarri is a singer, drummer and composer. During the 1960s, his band Kent & the Candidates backed Brenton Wood, playing on two of the singer's hits. He was also a member of Boones Farm in the early 1970s and later one half of the duo Dalton & Dubarri who had a hit with "I (You) Can Dance All By My (Your) Self" and "'Til the Day I Started Lovin' You".

Double Shot was an independent record label in the United States that was founded in 1966. Artists that recorded for the label include Count Five, Floyd and Jerry, Bobby Freeman, Kent & The Candidates, Señor Soul, Shirley & Shep, The Vanguards, Brenton Wood, and The Youngfolk.

References

  1. Fleming, Colin (June 3, 2016). "10 Wild LPs From Garage Rock's Greatest Year". Rolling Stone . Retrieved November 4, 2016.
  2. Cost, Jud (1994). Count Five: liner notes to Psychotic Reaction CD. New Jersey, Performance Records.
  3. Kesteloo, Hans. "BEYOND THE BEAT GENERATION - THE COUNT FIVE Interview". Home.unet.nl. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  4. Stewart Mason. "Psychotic Reaction". AllMusic . Retrieved 11 March 2012.
  5. Quantick, David (7 November 1987). "Count Five: Psychotic Reaction / Pretty Things: SF Sorrow". New Musical Express . p. 32.
  6. "Count Five Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  7. "Count Five Chart History: Billboard Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  8. "The Count Five Top Songs". Musicvf. Retrieved November 22, 2021.