West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - A Child's Guide (1968 LA) | Psych Rock | Full Vinyl Rip

A Child's Guide to Good & Evil was released in May 1968 on Reprise Records (RS 6298). This is the original stereo pressing, pressed at the Columbia Records plant in Santa Maria - identifiable by the etched "Ƨ" in the runout. It's their third Reprise album, fourth overall if you count the rare 1966 self-released Fifo pressing that almost nobody has. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band was an LA group built around Bob Markley, a wealthy attorney who bankrolled the project and had a complicated role in the band's story. The core music was driven by guitarist Ron Morgan, who also played sitar, and Shaun Harris on lead vocals and bass. By this record, original guitarist Danny Harris had left. Drums on the album are by Hal Blaine - the Wrecking Crew session man whose credits include hundreds of major LA recordings from that era. The album was co-produced by Markley and Jimmy Bowen. Cover art is by John Van Hamersveld, who had already done the Endless Summer poster and the Capitol Records Beatles work, and would go on to design the cover for Blue Cheer's Vincebus Eruptum and Exile on Main St. He was one of the defining visual voices of the LA psychedelic scene. The album moves across a lot of ground - pop hooks, sitar-heavy raga passages, spoken word, anti-war collage, and pure silence on the closing track. "Eighteen Is Over the Hill" opens the record cleanly and is probably the most accessible thing they did. "Watch Yourself" is the longest track and leans hardest into the live-band feel. "A Child of a Few Hours Is Burning to Death" is blunt anti-Vietnam writing delivered over a guitar figure that sits completely at odds with its content, which is the point. "Anniversary of World War III" is 90 seconds of silence. Reprise had no idea what to do with any of it, never released a single, and didn't renew the contract. Markley's personal reputation has shadowed the band's legacy ever since, and reasonably so. The music itself is uneven but has real moments. 🎧 This is a full vinyl rip from my personal copy - the 1968 Reprise stereo pressing, RS 6298, Santa Maria plant. 🔥 Standout tracks include "Eighteen Is Over the Hill," "Watch Yourself," "A Child of a Few Hours Is Burning to Death," and "As the World Rises and Falls." 🎸 Sounds like: The United States of America The Millennium Clear Light H.P. Lovecraft The 13th Floor Elevators 🎧 Vinyl Finds Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj0yF7-9YQ9oSXuMGglp1N8SlbZUEtCJ7 🎧 Full Vinyl Rips Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj0yF7-9YQ9pEOi1yCUyAZikNmWVdz8Hn 📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vinyl_piper/ I sell my doubles and extras here: https://vinylpipershop.com/ 💿 Tracklist Eighteen Is Over the Hill In the Country Ritual #1 Our Drummer Always Plays in the Nude As the World Rises and Falls Until the Poorest of People Have Money to Spend Watch Yourself A Child's Guide to Good and Evil Ritual #2 A Child of a Few Hours Is Burning to Death As Kind as Summer Anniversary of World War III #WestCoastPopArtExperimentalBand #PsychedelicRock #VinylRip #LACounterculture #60sPsych #VinylCommunity #VinylPiper