Song Of The Day 5/22/2014: Mark Fry - "Song for Wild"

Whenever I hear the phrase "underground, undiscovered psychedelic legend" (I mean, I hear it every day, especially from my children -- should've never let them near my Donovan playlist) I bristle a little, but it's my own fault. For a long time my understanding of "psychedelic" music was uninformed and a little shopworn as a cliché. I'd smell jasmine incense that wasn't even there and look for an electric sitar to detune. But especially after hearing the Nuggets box for the first time so many years ago I realized I didn't have a clue what psychedelic music was. When done properly, when it's not candied and mentally diffused, it's not bad at all. Mining from the past being something I've gotten fairly good at in the digital age, I'm finding people like Mark Fry more often.

This is a song I wanted to feature on the deposed Literacy Week, but I couldn't because Fry is singing about his brother, Wilde. I was hoping it might be about Oscar. And the title is spelled the way the word "Wild" is spelled, not the way his brother's name was spelled. However, I loved this song so much I scheduled it for today. It's from Fry's 1972 Dreaming With Alice, a cult favorite for a lot of psychedelic fans. It was recorded in Italy, and initially was only released in that country. Dreaming With Alice has had periods of resurgence every so often in the last forty years. I'm just now discovering it. (Another thing I just discovered: there's an electric piano on "Stairway to Heaven." My convenient presuppositions are being recalled and whacked across the countenance with a studded choker.)