Ultimate Spinach

Ultimate Spinach was a psychedelic/hard rock/blues band originally from Boston. In their '60's heyday they specialized in lengthy songs such as "Ballad of the Hip Death Goddess", from Ultimate Spinach (1968) and "Genesis of Beauty", from Behold And See (1968). Since 1970 the band have largely abandoned the psychedelic sounds and have (since at least 1975) dropped all of the '60's songs from their setlists (with the exception of 'Ballad Of The Hip Death Goddess' and a few from the third album).

Description

The Ultimate Spinach, composed of keyboardist/guitarist Ian Bruce-Douglas and singer Barbara Hudson was a band of Boston's alternative scene in the second half of the 1960s. The phenomenon of the "Bosstown Sound", (whose other top acts included The Beacon Street Union, also on MGM), was more a publicity stunt than a legitimate artistic movement, and the Bruce-Douglas version of the band tends to be remembered for its name.On Ultimate Spinach (MGM, 1968) the standout cuts are "Ballad of the Hip Death Goddess", with an instrumental interval for theremin (an early electronic instrument), feedback and reverberation, and the psychoanalytic folk-blues "Ego Trip" , the 4-part suite "Sacrifice of the Moon" as well as "Your Head Is Reeling" and the Frank Zappa-esque "Plastic Raincoats".

More complex compositions, such as the suite in four movements "Genesis of Beauty" and "Fragmentary...
Read More