RALPH WALDO EMERSON
REDIRECT: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Long before Andy Colquhoun joined up, the Deviants were one of the leading "underground rock" bands; their 1967 album Ptooff! is a classic in that little known genre. The band sprang up in the British psychedelic melange that spawned Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, Hawkwind and several other like-minded bands; the epicenter for the scene was the UFO Club (pronounced "oo-foe" in an interview of Mick Farren at the club that is on one of their CD's). The Deviants' music is a dense stew of proto-punk, psychedelia and blues rock, with percussion and voice loops and screaming and a host of other effects. The album cover on Ptooff! is also a treat, with a water-color science-fiction scene and a remarkable collection of quotes, including a corruption of a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that appears on the back cover: "When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake!!"
(August 2011)
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I can still remember the incredible joy I felt when I first found this remarkable album by the Deviants called Ptooff! that I knew only by reputation. The cover is a comic-book style science-fiction scene with two quotes in "balloons"; one of them – "When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake!!" – was adapted from a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. What a wonderful subject this album cover would have made for a painting by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein!
(March 2014/1)
