The Seeds

The Seeds earned their lasting renown chiefly through the rock & roll staple “Pushin’ Too Hard,” merging garage rock’s gritty, Rolling Stones-inflected drive with a taste for loose, unpolished psychedelia. Although the band never recaptured the chart impact of their opening pair of singles, “Pushin’ Too Hard” and “Can't Seem to Make You Mine,” they kept issuing recordings through the balance of the 1960s and gradually moved into post-Sgt. Pepper’s psychedelia and art rock. None of these later experiments yielded another charting single, and the group dissolved near the close of the decade.

Sky Saxon, born Richard Marsh and serving as lead vocalist, joined guitarist Jan Savage, keyboardist Daryl Hooper, and drummer Rick Andridge to form the Seeds in Los Angeles during 1965. By the close of 1966 the quartet had landed a contract with GNP Crescendo and issued “Pushin’ Too Hard” as its debut single; the track reached the Top 40 in early 1967. Two follow-ups in a comparable vein, “Mr. Farmer” and “Can't Seem to Make You Mine,” appeared immediately afterward, the latter coming closest to repeating the breakthrough by narrowly missing the Top 40. While the 45s remained rooted in garage punk, the LPs The Seeds and Web of Sound, both released in 1966, explored improvisational blues-rock and psychedelic textures. Future, issued in 1967, represented the group’s attempt at a Sgt. Pepper’s-inspired psychedelic concept album; the record entered the Top 100 and contained the minor hit “A Thousand Shadows.” Two further releases, Raw & Alive: The Seeds in Concert at Merlin's Music Box in 1968 and A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues in 1969 (credited to the Sky Saxon Blues Band), attracted little attention. The Seeds disbanded shortly thereafter, though a 1977 compilation titled Fallin’ off the Edge gathered previously unreleased tracks and alternate takes.

Throughout the early 1970s Saxon fronted several ensembles before withdrawing from public view and relocating to Hawaii. Savage later joined the Los Angeles Police Department; he died on August 8, 2020.