1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 114. The United States of America – The United States of America (1968)

 

Whenever this list hands me a group I’ve never heard of, I always go into it wondering why they are included – is it the first instance of a particular genre, perhaps? Or did a young future superstar sing backing vocals? Sometimes they seem to be put in as an exemplar of a particular musical sound of the time.

This one is very much an encapsulation of the late Sixties San Francisco sound, and since the opening track, The American Metaphysical Circus, is a blend of calliope and marching music played over the top of each other, coming off the back of Zappa’s The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny, another noise collision, I was worried it was going to be entirely terrible prog nonsense throughout, but then it turns into the track Hard Coming Love, with vocalist Dorothy Moskowitz sounding like a more melodic Grace Slick.

It turns out that the reason this album was included was because of its heavy use of electronic instrumentation. Sometimes this is obvious, other times less so. It has some other Jefferson Airplane-like tracks, some floaty hippy stuff like Where Is Yesterday and Cloud Song, even a bit of a trad-jazz pastiche in I Won’t Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar.

Co-Founder Moskowitz has a great voice, and when it’s not being weird, the album has some pretty good tracks. Other co-founder Joseph Byrd wears his left-wing politics on his sleeve, with a Love Song For A Dead Che, but other than the general hippy sentiments it’s not especially polemic.

The band broke up not long after making this, their only album. It’s got early prog elements, kind of art-house experimental in style. Not to be confused with The Presidents of the United States of America, or America, who are both later.

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