If you want to know who to thank-or blame-for the punk rock explosion of the mid-seventies, start off with Count 5. While Count Five’s “Psychotic Reaction” has been derided as a ripoff of the Yardbirds, Rolling Stones and other teams, it has been lauded as a classic illustration of psychedelic rock and a forerunner of punk and garage rock. What is plain is the refreshing, exciting audio of the San Jose, California band’s 1966 debut strike.
Depend Five (go away off the “the”) have been five teens, some even now in large university, who shaped in 1964. The band was turned down by 7 report businesses prior to newly-fashioned label Double Shot signed them. Guide singer John “Sean” Byrne played rhythm guitar and wrote “Psychotic Reaction,” however the relaxation of the band shared the writing credit history: direct guitarist John “Mouse” Michalski, harmonica participant Kenn Ellner, Roy Chaney on bass and Craig “Butch” Atkinson on drums. “Psychotic Reaction” was executed with out lyrics for 6 months until Ellner’s father Sol, the band’s manager, advised that Byrne place words and phrases to the music.
The song’s title was hatched in the course of a lecture on psychosis and neurosis at San Jose Town School when a pal of Byrne’s whispered, “Do you know what would be a excellent identify for a music? Psychotic Response!”
“I would had this track operating via my head,” recalled Byrne. “The lyrics, the melody, every thing–but that was the lacking punch line!”
The growling fuzz-tone by guitarist Michalski has been criticized as a steal of the iconic seem of the Rolling Stones’ “Pleasure,” but a lot more memorable is the guitar break that follows. When Byrne sings (or screams), “And it feels like this!” midway through the keep track of, Michalski normally takes the cue to exhibit on guitar what a psychotic episode would audio like.
What follows is a cacophony of guitar effects that stretched the capabilities of the amplifiers of the day although defining psychedelic rock. Fans of the Yardbirds may recognize similarities to the rave-up from the British group’s 1965 “I am A Man,” but Byrne extended managed the Yardbirds had been not an impact.
“Psychotic Response” arrived at #5 on the Billboard charts in 1966. The band toured with the Beach front Boys, the Byrds and the Dave Clark 5, but was never able to repeat its chart success Depend Five was honored by the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame as a One Strike Question. The band’s occupation was quick-circuited when some of its customers turned down a million pounds value of bookings in buy to return to university to additional their education and learning and, recalled Michalski, stay out of the draft. 1V-LSD Canada