Tag Archives: It’s All Too Much

All Too Much

All-time favorite psychedelic song:
a swirling synaptic overload set to music.

I always wondered about the strange syllables before the transcendent feedback at the start of this song. I now know that John L. was saying “to your mother” but before learning that, I always heard it as some sort of primordial mantra of creation—
like saying “Let there be light”, as if he were speaking a very powerful syllabic combination in a state of meditation:

TU – YO – MOH !   ♫♪♫♪

and then the worlds and the cosmos are brought forth into being.
Those first bursts of melody from the organ undo my soul completely.

That’s what beautiful psychedelia does to me.
This song is so full of celestial synesthesia; it has often reduced me to tears. Part of it is because I had the album as a child and I loved the music in an innocent way for years before I ever knew or cared about altered states of consciousness. The Beatles generally affect me in that way. I was very sad when George passed away…
If you like this song as much as I do you may enjoy the image I found by Mati Klarwein to accompany it (although no mere image will ever do justice to the empyrean vibrations of this universal anthem).                    Lyrics are HERE
MatiLarBlond

Another Klarwein painting that brings this song to mind:
SUSAN BERNS by M. Klarwein

…and check this blog too !

Pair of Pentychs

Quick post about two artists I like:

Two years ago, at a Job Lots-type discount store, I found a trove of art postcards on sale. They were produced by  Pomegranate  in CA. I bought two unfolding pentych postcards by artists I did not recognize. That’s how I discovered Mati Klarwein and Cliff McReynolds.

One pentych postcard was the  Saint John Pentych by Mati Klarwein. I read a lot into this painting;   the  desolate mediterranean view from within a cave and the fair damsel with Greek written all over her chest bring to mind  Saint John on Patmos and the “woman clothed with the sun” of Revelation.   Did the artist intend this?

The other postcard was Cliff McReynold’s La Jolla Pentych.

McReynolds output  is  far less, but I find it equally illuminating. I just learned that he did an album cover for Flora Purim. I can’t find all five frames of his pentych online, but here is a link to Now (available as a poster) and below you can see the central painting (Life):

Looks like poster is available here:    www.artposters247.com

Klarwein is better-known since he established himself as an album-cover illustrator in the 60’s and 70’s.  You have probably seen his work on Santana and Miles Davis albums among others.

ABRAXAS annunciation-1961

In this part of the Saint John Pentych below I found the perfect match to the epiphany at the end of  It’s All Too Much .

I won’t go on about these two – just look at the links and the artist’s sites.