As the 1960s waned and the 1970s began, the era of the singer-songwriter was in full bloom. Artists like Bob Dylan, Donovan, Paul Simon, and Joni Mitchell had started to influence countless other creative musicians, some of whom also began incorporating the spacey influences of psychedelia.
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Some of these singer-songwriters, while releasing wonderfully listenable albums, never got enough commercial attention to lift their careers to the next level. A number of these artists faded into obscurity, perhaps being rediscovered years later by a small, devoted following.
Here’s a look at three excellent, way-under-the-radar albums by barely known psych-folk singer-songwriters worth revisiting or enjoying for the first time:
F.J. McMahon: ‘Spirit Of The Golden Juice’ (1969)
F.J. McMahon is a singer-songwriter from Santa Barbara, California. After finishing military service in the U.S. Air Force, he recorded his one and only album, Spirit Of The Golden Juice, in 1969.
The album featured a collection of sparse, stripped-down tunes influenced by folk-rock and country.
Lyrically, McMahon wrote about the issues concerning many young people at the time, including the Vietnam War, the draft, alienation, and how so many people’s lives are focused on making money.
One standout track is “Early Blue.” In a 2014 interview, McMahon described the song as being about “not wanting to face the world but knowing you should, and when you finally do face it things usually turn out ok … [b]ut the next day, it’s still hard.”
Spirit Of The Golden Juice was released on a small Los Angeles-based label, Accent Records. Only about 2,000 copies were pressed, and the album received a smattering of local attention.
McMahon played bars, clubs, hotels and other small venues for a few years, but he became disillusioned and quit music. He eventually had a long career as a computer field engineer before retiring.
Spirit Of The Golden Juice was reissued multiple times over the years, including, most recently, in 2017 on the Anthology Recordings label.
In 2023, “Early Blue” was used in an episode of the acclaimed FX series Reservation Dogs.
Jim Sullivan: ‘U.F.O.’ (1969)
Jim Sullivan was a singer-songwriter who grew up in San Diego and played in a local rock band called The Survivors during the mid-1960s. He launched a solo career after relocating to L.A. with his wife, Barbara, in 1968.
Actor Al Dobbs heard Sullivan performing at a club in Malibu, California, and decided to raise the money for him to record his debut album. Dobbs also founded the Monnie Records label to release the album, titled U.F.O.
Sullivan recorded U.F.O. with some members of the famed session-musician collective The Wrecking Crew, including keyboardist Don Randi, drummer Earl Palmer, and bassist Jimmy Bond.
The album is a collection of tunes featuring folk, country, orchestral-pop, and psychedelic influences.
The title track is a breezy, melodic orchestral tune in which Sullivan contemplates if Jesus Christ’s second coming will be via an extraterrestrial vehicle.
Unfortunately, the U.F.O. album received little commercial attention, and neither did a self-titled follow-up Sullivan released in 1972.
When people talk about artists who’ve disappeared off the face of the earth, they generally are speaking figuratively. In Sullivan’s case, though, it literally happened.
By 1975, Sullivan had separated from his wife and had been struggling with alcohol issues. He decided to move to Nashville and left L.A. on March 4, 1975. The next day, Sullivan was pulled over by police for suspected drunk driving. He passed a sobriety test, then checked into a motel in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
Sullivan then left town in his car after buying a bottle of vodka. His car eventually was found abandoned at a ranch near Puerto de Luna, New Mexico. In it were Jim’s money, papers, guitar, clothes, and a box of unsold records. He was never seen again.
U.F.O. was reissued by the Light in the Attic label in 2010.
Songfacts: U.F.O. | Jim Sullivan
There are many theories as to where Sullivan went (it gets more complex the deeper that you look into it), but the most entertaining (with all respect to Sullivan) is that he was abducted by a UFO. This was inevitable when you combined a mysterious disappearance with a song titled “U.F.O.” that had mystical, strange lyrics. The song has an eerie sort of sound to it, as well. It’s haunting. One of its lines goes: Only man I know that got up from the dead This has caused some people to say that Sullivan foresaw his own death out there in the desert or that he’d predicted his own abduction. Other whacky versions of the theory arise as well. Maybe he’d been abducted in that area in the past and had gone back there to be picked up again. The thing is, when you subtract Sullivan’s disappearance from the story, the meaning of “U.F.O.” is actually pretty clear, though no less weird than the notion of preordained alien abduction. Lotta chicks will pull in the book I read Only man I know that got up from the dead Lot of people living by the words that he said Sullivan was most likely talking about Jesus, the man “who got up from the dead,” as an extraterrestrial. In 1969, young people were coming out traditional Christian backgrounds for the most part and often wrestled with the spiritual mythology of the era. Jesus-as-alien isn’t as unlikely an idea as it sounds. For decades the concept has been passed around. Every now and then the notion will take on new life and become a fad again for a few years before fading away in favor of the next weirdness. 1969 was a year ripe for such far-out ideas, and Sullivan was a far-out guy. He was a mystic and a psychonaught. The “book I read” was likely the Bible, though perhaps it was a book about Jesus being an extraterrestrial.
Sachiko Kanenobu – ‘Misora’ (1972)
Sachiko Kanenobu is a Japanese singer-songwriter who released her debut album, Misora (translation: Beautiful Sky), in 1972. The 11-track collection is filled with melodic, finger-picked guitar and highlighted by Kanenobu’s high, sweet vocals. Her influences include Joni Mitchell, Donovan, and acclaimed British folk-rock group Pentangle.
Kanenobu is considered the first woman to play and sing Western folk music in Japan. Before Misora was released, Sachiko moved to California to begin a new life with her husband, music journalist and writer Paul Williams, creator of Crawdaddy! magazine.
After divorcing Williams in 1982, she launched the edgy rock group Culture Shock. She later released solo albums titled It’s Up To You and Fork In The Road in 1995 and 1998, respectively.
Misora was reissued by the Light in the Attic label in 2019.
(Courtesy of Light in the Attic Records)
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