Deep Purple Singles A's & B's (1993){warner Wpcr 2115}

The Seeds were one of the most influential bands in the '60s American garage rock scene; they delivered hypnotic, stripped-down tunes dominated by Daryl Hooper's circular keyboard lines and the fuzzy, feral guitar breaks of Jan Savage, while lead singer Sky Saxon wailed a thinly veiled paen to drugs and sex, including "Mr. Farmer," "Rolling Machine," and "Up in Her Room." The Seeds scored their biggest hit with "Pushin' Too Hard" in 1967, but the band had already attracted a sizable following in their hometown of Los Angeles, and they would release a string of memorable singles through the end of the decade. Singles As & Bs 1965-1970 collects both sides of the 11 singles the Seeds released during their heyday, including variant B-sides for two releases, and as a bonus the set includes a rare, unedited take of "Pushin' Too Hard"…

The Seeds were one of the most influential bands in the '60s American garage rock scene; they delivered hypnotic, stripped-down tunes dominated by Daryl Hooper's circular keyboard lines and the fuzzy, feral guitar breaks of Jan Savage, while lead singer Sky Saxon wailed a thinly veiled paen to drugs and sex, including "Mr. Farmer," "Rolling Machine," and "Up in Her Room." The Seeds scored their biggest hit with "Pushin' Too Hard" in 1967, but the band had already attracted a sizable following in their hometown of Los Angeles, and they would release a string of memorable singles through the end of the decade. Singles As & Bs 1965-1970 collects both sides of the 11 singles the Seeds released during their heyday, including variant B-sides for two releases, and as a bonus the set includes a rare, unedited take of "Pushin' Too Hard"…

This double-CD set isn't a substitute for the four-CD box from Big Beat, but it does provide a slightly leaner and less-expensive way of running through the band's history. It's difficult to believe that a group whose recording history lasted just a little more than three full years could account for the 22 single A- and B-sides on disc one of this set, but that was the pace of the business in those days, and it wasn't unheard of for a band to get four or five singles out in a year…

One has a tendency to think of acts like the Pretty Things in terms of their albums, primarily because most of their singles simply never charted, even in England (and many were never even heard of in the United States), and the albums have been easier to find over the decades since. Actually, it was singles that best defined what most bands were about at the point that the Pretty Things first got together, and they never stopped neglecting that category of release – hence, this three-CD set containing the product of 33 singles (66 sides) over a period of 35 years, from 1964 through 1999.