Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies – LP Review
Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies – The American Metaphysical Circus – Album review
The American Metaphysical Circus by Joe Byrd & The Field Hippies is a Psychedelic/Experimental album, which has been re-mastered and re-released by Cherry Red Records subsidiary Esoteric Recordings. The album was originally released in 1969 and is something of a minor cult classic, owing in part to the fact that Joe Byrd was a member of the equally experimental and influential United States of America, whose one and only long player proceeded the aforementioned album by a year.
The initial intrigue in The American Metaphysical Circus it could be argued is that it bears something of a passing resemblance to the cult classic by the United States of America. Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies were equally as experimental as The United States of America, and for many Byrd’s work with the Field Hippies might seem a logical progression to his previous work with TUSOA.
The American Metaphysical Circus album title was also used as the song title on the opening track of TUSOA, and the album is also conspicuous by the absence of any meandering guitar solos, which were prevalent in the late 1960s. Of the 12 songs on the album only a couple of tracks have electric guitars on them, instead the classically trained Joe Boyd opted for the pioneering use of the synthesizer and a myriad of other instruments including the harpsichord, electric violin, piano, organ and the obligatory bass and drums.
However, it would be too simplistic to compare Joe Boyd’s work with TUSOA and subsequently with the Field Hippies as similarly experimental and avant-garde. Once the listener becomes immersed in the American Metaphysical Circus they will discover a very intellectual and much more ambitious project in the form of a somewhat oblique narrative.
The American Metaphysical Circus is a conceptual piece, which is not immediately obvious on first or even a second listen. The album does not initially seem linear or thematic and there are 12 songs split unevenly into 4 suites with long and bizarre titles. The idea of collating songs into a suite may seem an unusual concept in itself, except that Jefferson Airplane pulled of a similar trick in 1967 with their After Bathing at Baxter’s album, in which they also split the songs of the album into 5 suites.
The interesting thing about The American Metaphysical Circus, however, is that it eschews the perceived notion of what constitutes Acid Rock in the late 1960s, and this as Joe Boyd suggests in the liner notes was a need to defy Rock n Roll convention and instead the album is a broad canvas and encompasses a myriad of musical styles, including Vaudeville, Rag Time, Jazz, electronic noises, and some conventional Rock n Roll.
Again this was not necessarily an avant-garde or novel idea as most of these musical influences could be heard in a slew of late 1960s Psychedelic records, which does make Joe Boyd sound like he is contradicting himself somewhat. However, what sets this album apart is that Joe Boyd was a classically trained musician, and the partial result of this was that he sought to avoid the traditional 4-piece band set up and opted instead for a loose musical collective, which included members from Jazz Rock group Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Repeated listens of The American Metaphysical Circus reveals some disturbingly dark subject matter. The liner notes help to unlock the enigma to some extent, and thankfully the lyrics to all the songs are also included, so the listener can bear closer scrutiny over the subject matter. What makes the album even more challenging as a conceptual piece is that Joe Byrd is tackling three separate issues, which makes the album less cohesive and somewhat fragmented as a result.
What does help the listener is the fact that the album is divided into suites, and three of these suites deal with LSD, politics and the ageing process.
The album opens with three tracks under the sub heading The Sub Sylvian Litanies, which apparently is about a bad acid trip. It begins with an atmospheric swirl of ambient noise courtesy of the synthesizer, and a few minutes in a disturbing mantra sung by Victoria Bond ‘waiting to die’ is repeatedly sung, which then blends seamlessly into ‘You Can’t Ever Come Down’. This song has disturbing lyrics like ‘thousands of eyes but there’s no place to hide’, which is basically about a bad acid trip and set to rock music, which is reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane.
The next suite of songs under the sub heading of American Bedmusic 1: Four Dreams for a Departing President needs no explanation at all considering the release date of this album and the political climate in America in 1969. The clues are all in the title, however, listening to the four tracks in this particular suite reveal a complex list of grievances and ironic digs at the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson including his domestic programs, which included ‘A Great Society’ for all Americans. However, this was amid growing political and public unrest at the escalating Vietnam War, which eventually led to the demise of Johnson and a fractious Democratic Party. Boyd tackled these subjects with plenty of gusto and irony and in a myriad of musical styles, including a scratchy and lo fi ragtime song titled ‘Mister 4th of July’.
The final twist in this dark saga is the plight of old folks who once they have outlived their usefulness are removed from society’s view and sent off to old people’s homes to await their death. The 4 songs under the sub heading The Southwestern Geriatrics arts and Crafts Festival is a thoroughly disturbing tale about Leisure World, which was a retirement development in California where the needs of those over 65 were taken care of in a supposedly idyllic landscape, which included a series of diarized events and activities to entertain the elderly. The full horrific tale is about a community that is supposedly living in a utopian society but really what the songs and spoken word dialogue is telling the listener is that it is dystopia disguised as utopia.
The American Metaphysical Circus is a very dark and complex piece. However, it takes repeated listens for the full narratives to reveal themselves. The reason for this is because the stories are couched in irony and the complex music and genre hopping on the album can distract from the narrative, which is at times oblique. However, this album serves as a worthy companion piece to The United States of America, and for those familiar with Joe Byrd’s first foray into Psych tinged experimentalism should definitely add The American Metaphysical Circus to their collection.
