With its slick guitar howls, fated lyrics and rattling percussion, Death Sound Blues is a song all about the foreboding demise of love. Anguished vocals flood in after a lengthy sleek intro, opening with the line, “I hear that death sound, baby, Oh, like an echo in my brain,” and as the song goes on and all hope of reconciliation fades, weary vocals exclaim how “I feel the black nails a-poundin’ now, Yes, into the coffin of our love”...and like any good love song, it doesn’t always have to end well!
Country Joe and the Fish featured Death Sound Blues on their debut 1967 album, Electric Music for the Mind and Body, which was released on the Vanguard label. It was quite a prominent record in that it was the first psychedelic album to come out of San Francisco after it was recorded during the first week of February 1967 at Sierra Sound Laboratories, Berkeley, California… It’s worth checking out if you haven’t already and for any fans of Grace Slick out there (me being one of those!!), you may be interested to know that Grace is a tribute song that Country Joe and The Fish did just the great lady herself!
The LP Blog is off for a few days now so see you in a few days…Enjoy….
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