Legendary LA wild music man Kim Fowley was involved in sooo many projects, including records by B Bumble and The Stingers, the Hollywood Argyles, The Seeds, the Runaways, and his own slap dash solo career. He was always a bit ahead of his time, like here when he recorded what is regarded as the first psychedelic novelty record two years before the Summer of Love. It came out in Great Britain in 1965 and in the U. S. in 1966, received limited airplay, and survives today as one of the great curiosity’s of LSD. Kim Fowley and “The Trip.”
Summer time's here, kiddies
And it's time to take a trip, to take a trip
This world's so bad, you feel so sad
You gotta take a trip into a world so glad
A world of frogs
And green fountains
And flying dogs
And silver cats
And emerald rats
And purple clouds
And faceless crowds
And walls of glass that never pass
And pictures hanging upside-down
I won't ask, where you are
It's another world, you and your girl, and all your friends, ah
Will all be there, oh yeah, let's take a trip
Let's take a trip
T-N-T, S.O.S, H-O-B, T-O-P
It's the top, it's the top
Hey, here we go now, let's climb some mountains, everybody
Get on your walking shoes
We'll start to climb some mountains, here we go
Let's take a trip, let's take a trip
It's time to dream, just close your eyes
It's groovy now, yeah, I'm floatin' because I'm swimmin' in beauty
It's all around, let's take a trip
Fly from the ground, woah-woah yeah, let's take a trip
It's really hip, no one will know what goes on
Just you and me
And the dreams we see
Oh c'mon baby, oh c'mon baby
You're doing it right, just put your head back
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Dennis Hardesty / Kim Fowley / Paul Geddess
The Trip lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
AI Liner Notes
Kim Fowley was an American record producer, songwriter, and musician who was behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s ¹. He was involved as co-producer/co-publisher with a string of successful records produced in Los Angeles. With Gary S. Paxton he recorded the novelty song "Alley Oop", which reached #1 on the charts in 1960 and was credited to the non-existent group the Hollywood Argyles. In 1961 he co-produced the instrumental "Like, Long Hair", arranged by Paxton, which became a #38 hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders. He arranged "Nut Rocker" for B. Bumble and the Stingers, which became a #1 hit in the UK in 1962 and talent scouted "Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow", a #48 hit for the Rivingtons ¹.
He also composed material recorded by The Byrds, Cat Stevens, Them, and Kiss, and produced the likes of Gene Vincent, Warren Zevon, Soft Machine, and Helen Reddy ². In 1975, he returned to his Svengali role by assembling the notorious Runaways, a teenage hard rock girl group featuring a young Joan Jett, Lita Ford, and Cherie Currie ².
"The Trip" is a song written and recorded by Kim Fowley. It first appeared on the A-side of Fowley's debut single as a solo artist, which was released in early 1965 on Corby Records ¹. In the composition, Fowley encourages those depressed with the world to escape it by taking LSD, pronouncing "Summertime's here, kiddies, and it's time to take a trip! To take trips!". The contents become more bizarre as he describes hallucinogenic visions of animals, and drug-induced seduction ¹.
Remarkably, despite "The Trip"'s unusual arrangement, it became a regional hit in Los Angeles, and was covered by noted deejay Godfrey in 1966, and by The Fire Escape in 1967 ¹. An advertisement in a November 1965 edition of the Los Angeles Free Press promoting the remaining copies of "The Trip" suggest the single was one of the earliest works to obviously speak about the psychedelic experience.
Source: Conversation with Bing, 6/27/2023
The Trip (Kim Fowley song) - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trip_%28Kim_Fowley_song%29.
The Trip by Kim Fowley - Track Info | AllMusic. https://www.allmusic.com/song/the-trip-mt0026994375.
Kim Fowley – The Trip (1965, Vinyl) - Discogs. https://www.discogs.com/release/1661236-Kim-Fowley-The-Trip.
Source: Conversation with Bing, 6/27/2023
(1) Kim Fowley - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Fowley.
(2) Kim Fowley Biography, Songs, & Albums | AllMusic. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kim-fowley-mn0000099345/biography.
(3) Kim Fowley, Producer And Rock Svengali, Dies : The Record : NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/01/16/377682746/kim-fowley-producer-and-rock-svengali-dies.
(4) Kim Fowley Net Worth - Employment Security Commission. https://www.ncesc.com/kim-fowley-net-worth/.
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