Sky Saxon

SKY SAXON
 
 
Sky Saxon  (August 20, 1937 – June 25, 2009) was an American rock and roll musician, best known as the leader and singer of the 1960s Los Angeles psychedelic garage rock band The Seeds.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
The Under Appreciated Rock Band of the Month for December 2017 is SS-20, a psychedelic rock band dating from the mid-1980’s.  The band recorded two albums, one EP with Sky Saxon, the frontman for the Seeds, and numerous other stray tracks.  I don’t have a lot of information on the band other than what the various Bomp! Records sources have.
 
My introduction to SS-20 was on From L.A. with Love (1992) – probably the best compilation album of previous releases on Bomp! Records – which came out on Patrick Boissels label Marilyn Records.  The song is actually by SS-20 and Sky Saxon and is a remake of the landmark Steppenwolf song “Born to be Wild”.  This number certainly falls into the category of songs whose original version seemingly could hardly be improved upon.  The most obvious change in the SS-20 version of “Born to be Wild” are the vocals (including many new lyrics) that are shared by Sky Saxon and Madeline Ridley, but the arrangement of the song has also been innovatively changed.  If I had to choose, believe it or not, I would probably say that this is now my favorite rendition of Born to be Wild.  However, most of the songs that SS-20 covers are not so prominent as this one. 
 
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Sky Saxon is the former frontman for the Seeds, best known for their hit song “Pushin’ Too Hard”; while not among the biggest garage rock hit songs, peaking only at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100, it is likely one of the best known.  Pushin’ Too Hard was included on the Nuggets compilation album and the Nuggets Box Set, and it is featured in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s exhibit showcasing “The 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”.
 
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At about the same time that Dream Life by SS-20 was released, Sky Saxon also had an album out on Voxx Records called Private Party / Live at the Cavern Club (1986).  The band name is given as Purple Electricity, consisting of Sky “Sunlight” Saxon (vocals), Jeff McDonald (bass), Steve McDonald (guitar) – both of Redd Kross – and Brian Corrigan (drums) of the Primates.
 
SS-20 and Sky Saxon also collaborated on a 7” EP on Voxx Records called SS-20 with Sky Saxon (1986).  Their cover of Born to be Wild mentioned above comes from this EP.  Also on hand is Mars Bonfire, the songwriter for Born to be WildSky Saxon and Mars Bonfire co-wrote the opening song on the EP, “Paradise” that was evidently created during the recording sessions.
 
The two songs on the B side of SS-20 with Sky Saxon are outtakes from the Dream Life LP (Sky Saxon is not involved in these recordings) and are two more cover songs by SS-20 of the Music Machine’s “Trouble” and No Matter What by Love (who had called the song “No Matter What You Do”).  In their entry on this disc, the website www.skysaxonseeds.com/ notes:  “This EP is a very rare post-Seeds instance of Sky [Saxon] not including ‘Sunlight’ in his name.” 
 
(December 2017)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021