The Avant-Garde - Yellow Beads mp3 download

Kea

Floating out there just below the asteroid belt in a near earth orbit, The Avant Garde touched down momentarily back in 1968, where this twosome, in much the same manner as the songs “McAuthur Park” by Richard Harris, and of course Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco” attempted to capitalize and co-opt on the hippie counter culture movement with two of the most insincere songs of all time, “Naturally Stoned” and “Yellow Beads.” In “Yellow Beads” they nearly talk through the song, as if imparting some special and essential secret knowledge that only they were privileged to, suggesting in a creepy manner as to what was necessary if one was considering heading out onto the hippy highway headed west into the sun … through truth be told, the counter culture daze of San Francisco nights was already splintering and crashing to the ground in a haze of hard drugs and unpleasantness.Without hesitation, it should be understood that this was commercialism at it’s finest and most blatant, offering nothing of value, because these two were never part of the times from which they pretended to be. Oddly enough Fowler and Woolery did manage to make the big time, with Fowler doing session guitar work for both Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, and Woolery becoming the eternal television gameshow host.Happily this duo, and these songs, have been lost to space and time, surfacing only in odd collections that one nearly happens upon, making me to this very day feel damaged, taken advantage of, ripped off if you will, that tracks such as these would ever be considered as anything less than disingenuous. But, time has an odd specter to it, wherein a spinning galaxy brings all things back full circle … causing me wonder how many lightyears it will be before the worlds “Oh Wow” slip through the parted lips some cute blonde in bellbottom hip-hugger pants as she hears these songs for the first time, thinking she’s discovered a touchstone, a piece of the holy grail, or the X on a treasure map that never existed.Review by Jenell Kesler