Blues Magoos - Psychedelic Lollipop (1966) [Mono Mix]

Blues Magoos - Psychedelic Lollipop (1966)

Original USA genuine mono pressing
Mercury – MG-21096  (Discogs)
~ThePoodleBites rip in 96 kHz / 24 bit FLAC + full high-res scans!~

The Blues Magoos' first album, Psychedelic Lollipop, is probably both their best and most well-known LP. It was issued in both stereo and mono formats, but surprisingly, most vinyl copies which were labelled mono actually play in stereo. Finding a true mono original -- which, due to its relative rarity, many had assumed for years didn't even exist -- can be quite a challenge, as most people seem to be unaware (or don't care) of this mysterious major-label gaffe/experiment. Finding a true mono copy is a worthy task, however, as the mono mix sounds a bit different and also includes the unique single mixes aimed at AM radio. 

Psychedelic Lollipop was first issued in mid-October 1966 and was preceded by a 45 of "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" backed with "Gotta Get Away" a couple weeks earlier. This single slowly rose in the ratings throughout the winter and into 1967, when the Magoos were riding their wave of fame and playing to teen crowds numbered in the thousands. Musically the album leans a little more towards the "psychsploitation" side of the spectrum than the genuine "acid" side, but that's not to say that it's without trippy elements and excellent garage pounders: "She's Coming Home" is as good as anything on The Remains' LP, and "Sometimes I Think About" just oozes cool (as Brent Marley says), though a guitar dripping with Echoplex still can't turn James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy" into psych-rock. The album is nonetheless notable as being one of the first commercially available records using the word "psychedelic" to describe its music, followed shortly by The Deep's Psychedelic Moods and the 13th Floor Elevators' Psychedelic Sounds that November. The release was timely and the Blues Magoos debut sold well, and it was kept in-print into the 1980s.

Advertisement in Billboard, 26 Nov 1966

Review in Cash Box, 12 Nov 1966

Review in Record World, 19 Nov 1966

Genuine original mono copies of this LP are notoriously difficult to find and to identify, as there are a plethora of stereo misprinted copies which have mono labels and came in mono covers and are all but identical to the true mono discs, apart from a couple of minor differences. The clearest identifier is "21096" stamped into the runouts of true mono copies, whereas stereo discs have "2/61096". The genuine monos seem to have all been pressed by the three Columbia pressing plants, which would lead one to believe that there are at least a couple thousand in existence. They are vastly outnumbered (maybe 100-to-1), however, by the stereo misprint copies, which seem to have all been pressed at Mercury's own facility. This includes the white-label mono promos, which also play in wide stereo!

It's not clear why this was done. Collectors have suggested that it was a record company test to see if anyone could tell, or if anyone would complain; it was expensive to produce two different mixes of the same album, and even by 1966 record companies were eager to cut those costs. CSG processing didn't exist yet, and while most of the public saw stereo as preferable over mono, stereo records were more expensive to buy. Whatever the reason, Mercury replicated their stereo misprinting behavior on several other albums around this time, but by the time the Blues Magoos' second record came out in 1967, Mercury had reverted to using mono plates for all their mono discs. They then continued making mono records until 1968, when mono was completely phased out like on the other major labels.

It's not clear how many of the songs on this album are truly dedicated mixes. The mono versions of "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" and "Gotta Get Away" are certainly dedicated, and match the mono single mixes. "Sometimes I Think About" also matches the 45 version and is around 30 seconds shorter than its stereo counterpart, owing to a truncated solo section. A number of tracks, however, have some phase cancellations in the treble which smell like fold-downs. Even so, they sound noticeably different from the stereo LP, which is brighter and seems to lack the instrument balance found here. The differences are subtle: like the slightly different harmony balance in "Love Seems Doomed," or the reduced reverb in "Queen Of My Nights."

It's also uncertain how many of these mixes have survived. The mono mix of "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" has appeared on CD from tape, first on an '80s Mercury comp (reprocessed into fake stereo) and then again on the recent Sundazed compilation. (It also appeared in mono on the Nuggets box-set, but this was a fold-down from the stereo mix.) The Sundazed set also includes the same mono mixes of "Gotta Get Away," "Tobacco Road," and "Sometimes I Think About" which are found here, but the latter two tracks seem to have been sourced from rips of a noisy styrene 45 and patched with stereo fold-downs from tape, in somewhat typical Sundazed fashion (Safe As Milk, Ultimate Spinach, ...). All other tracks can only be found in mono on the 1966 vinyl LPs, which makes preserving them here essential. 

In order to produce this master, I selected the best-sounding out of 5 genuine original "true" mono copies of this LP that I tracked down, including at least one copy from all three Columbia facilities. The mono mix is somewhat dull, with a lo-fi EQ that was aimed at AM radio. There's not a lot of meaningful frequency information above 12 kHz or so. I decided to keep the sound of this album exactly as-is, only carefully cleaning up vinyl clicks and some inner-groove distortion, so that this rare mono version can be heard as it was meant to be heard those nearly 60 years ago. It is not perfect, but it is the most neutral and best-sounding version of these mixes available to date.

The Magoos' Mike Esposito playing his Tele-with-Strat-neck
hybrid guitar in NYC, ca. 1966 (photo: Don Paulsen)

The Blues Magoos:
– Ralph Scala: vocals, organ
– Ronnie Gilbert: bass guitar
– Peppy Castro: rhythm guitar
– Mike Esposito: lead guitar
– Geoff Daking: drums

Vinyl condition: VG+ (it cleaned up nicely!)
Dynamic range: DR 11

Matrix numbers: (Pitman pressing)
– Side 1 (everything stamped except for the |):
   ᴑ MG 21096A  M1      P                Λ|||||
– Side 2 (everything stamped):
   0 MG 21096B  M1      P

Track listing:
1) (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet -- 2:19
2) Love Seems Doomed -- 3:04
3) Tobacco Road -- 4:37
4) Queen Of My Nights -- 3:06
5) I'll Go Crazy -- 2:04
6) Gotta Get Away -- 2:33
7) Sometimes I Think About -- 3:41
8) One By One -- 2:55
9) Worried Life Blues -- 3:52
10) She's Coming Home -- 2:43

Equipment Lineage:
– Audio-Technica VMN40ML stylus on AT150MLx dual moving-magnet cartridge
– Audio-Technica AT-LP1240-USB direct drive professional turntable (internal stock preamp/ADC removed)
– Pro-Ject Phono Box S2 Ultra preamp with dedicated Zero Zone linear power supply
– Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 MkII (96kHz / 24bit)
– Adobe Audition CC 2022 (recording)
– iZotope RX 10 audio editor (manual declicking, EQ subtraction, additional adjustments)
– Audacity 3.4.x (fades between tracks, split tracks)
– Foobar2000 v1.6.16 (tagging, dynamic range analysis)

Full album playlist is available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhEBA51qbhIph-GsOnTGMiGMoCDK0HVEp

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The Blues Magoos live in NYC, ca. 1966 (photo: Don Paulsen)