Lost In the Shuffle Off the Mortal Coil

In the whole hubbub surrounding the quick 1-2-3 deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson, the passing of California musician Sky Saxon in Austin yesterday has gone mostly unnoticed.

Born Richard Marsh, Sky Saxon was frontman of the Seeds, a 1960s garage rock combo best known for their track “Pushin’ Too Hard,” which was included on the first Nuggets compilation by Lenny Kaye. Lester Bangs was a noted fan of theirs, once noting in a piece on the Clash that “punk rock was something which had first raised its grimy snout around 1966 in groups like the seeds.”

Saxon was preparing for a summer tour, as part of the California ’66 Revue, along with Love and the Electric Prunes. Granted, the “Love” portion would have been a little sad, considering Arthur Lee died several years ago, but it would’ve been a cool Cavestomp kind of thing to check out.

It sucks that’s not going to happen, because “Pushin’ Too Hard” was one of those songs that set the pattern for what punk would become, and I think the cover of it by El Klan, from the Rodney on the ROQ Volume 1 compilation proves that fairly well. There was a very short hop from the garage of ’66 to the punk of ’77, if you catch my drift.

MP3: El Klan, “Pushin’ Too Hard” (The Seeds cover)