Research 1-6-12 "In Research" LP flick city orig funk prog psych '69 HEAR

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Research 1-6-12 "in research" lp
RESEARCH 1-6-12 "In Research"

Original 1968 LP on the US FLICK CITY label, STEREO FC 5001

Cover:  VG+, top seam 1/2 split, some scuffs on back

Vinyl plays NM. looks killer!!

 

Recorded “in one day..quickly.”  “Sold maybe 3 records.”  Lead guitar provided by one Rabbi Morrie Yess, who now claims on his website that “we have some serious stuff coming down from Heaven.”  Does this sound like the makings of a monster psych rock album?  You bet it does!  It’s the late 60’s, man!

 

That’s a short history of California’s RESEARCH 1-6-12, whose only album, 1968’s In Research, is a very in-demand psychedelic collectible.  I’d say it’s an acid-drenched classic, but Rabbi Yess adamantly states that “to this day, I have never smoked a joint.  Most people don’t believe that…but it’s true.”  Yeah, Rabbi, it’s a little hard to believe when your song titles include “The Grass is Greener,” “Lip Smackin’ Good” and “Lookin’ in the Toaster.”  I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t a few demos in the can with titles like “Midnight Munchies,” “What’s the Meaning of Life?” and “Oh My God, Quick, Flush That S**t Down the Toilet, Someone’s Banging on the Door (Part 1).”

 

Despite the Rabbi’s humble short-selling, In Research actually lives up to the hype, or at least the steady demand from collectors around the world scrambling to find a copy.  The fact that it’s never been reissued probably helps, but that’s also true of the two other major acid obscurities on the tiny Flick Disc label – the American Revolution, and Kim Fowley’s wackjob freakout St. John Green.  And like those other albums, the tiny Flick City label doesn’t practice much quality control over Research 1-6-12, so the band’s all over the place on this record, careening from old-timey Country Joe and the Fish/Hapshash and the Coloured Coat good-time rock (“Pale Rose Grey”) to swampy fuzzed-out Dr. John meets Captain Beefheart hoodoo blues (“Lip Smackin’ Good”) and everything in between.  Couple that with the fact that, like the good Rabbi said, this album was recorded in ONE DAY, and it’s a surprise anything coherent came out of it.  And without the use of drugs too.  The Rabbi’s pretty clear about that.

 

So if it ain’t weed, then what exactly is responsible for the album’s highlight, the dark mystical head swirler “Omar,” easily the most psychedelic thing here and a formidable equal to the trippier second album Electric Prunes stuff, like “Antique Doll” or “The Great Banana Hoax.”  So go ahead, Tipper Gore, try and explain the inspiration behind lines like these:

 

“Omar the wood gatherer on the dock,

He deals in wood all around the clock.

You can choose from his abundant stock,

If you walk in and say, “Hi!”

 

Of course, it’s such a breathy, stoned “hi” that you almost have to add the “-gh” – I mean, that’s what they’re getting at here, right?  Abundant stock?  Dealing in wood (pipes)?  And isn’t “Omar” street slang for marijuana?  Don’t ask me.  I don’t touch the stuff.

 

The album’s other mind-melter is a song called “The Feeling,” an absolute stone-cold psych rock CLASSIC, with jagged slashing guitar licks and processed distorto mushroom vocals, another headphone trip through the paisley ether.  Kinda hard to believe the boys knocked this baby out in one day back in 1968, but maybe more than any other album of that year, it truly captures the heady vibe and incredible creative explosion that music was experiencing in those magical days.  Try putting Avril Lavigne or Amy Winehouse in a studio for 8 hours and see what you get out of it.  A temper tantrum and thirty empty bottles of gin.  And no album to show for it.

 

No doubt about it, In Research is a psychedelic gem.  A glorious snapshot of one creative day back in 1968 when anything was possible.  Even if the good Rabbi Yess downplays its significance today.  “I recall one gig in Lancaster, CA,” he remembers, “where we did one set and the manager told us to go home. He preferred the juke box.  We sold maybe 3 records. My mother bought one. My sister bought the second. I bought the third.”  Well, this must be mom’s copy right here.  Bid accordingly.

 

Proof that the Rabbi was capable of greater things comes later in his recollection, when he says that he was offered two jobs in other bands, both of which he turned down – the Association, and a new group which were going to be huge, a little band called the Jefferson Airplane.  Which is kinda ironic, really, since he was only one letter away from being a “White Rabbit.”

 

 

HEAR IT!
 


CHECK OUT MY OTHER ITEMS. PSYCH, HARD ROCK, PROG.