THE MUSIC MACHINE — The Very Best of the Music Machine - Turn On (review)

THE MUSIC MACHINE — The Very Best of the Music Machine - Turn On album cover

Boxset / Compilation · 1999 · Proto-Metal

3.5/5 · 2015-10-10
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This year, I came across one of the most exciting and innovative bands of the sixties that I have ever set ears to. The Music Machine of Los Angeles are labeled as garage rock, garage punk, and psychedelic, but the band was more than just these mundane labels. The band was one of those rare birds that worked hard to establish itself as a band that played something completely different.

The Music Machine was originally known in 1965 as The Ragamuffins and at the time was comprised of songwriter Sean Bonniwell on vocals and guitar, electrical wiz Keith Olsen on bass, and jazz drummer Ron Edgar. It was folk and jazz backgrounds that came together, but it was Bonniwell’s desire to create a band that played music like no one else that led to the development of The Ragamuffin’s sound, steering it from folk rock into something darker and more aggressive. Early in 1966, they brought on board lead guitarist Mark Landon and keyboardist Doug Rhodes. The band’s name was changed to The Music Machine.

Sean Bonniwell knew that show business required something extra to go with the sound of a band. An image was important, and so Bonniwell conceived of the idea that all members would wear black from head to foot, dye their hair and eyebrows black, and each member would wear one black glove. The gloved hand would symbolize the unity of the band members and the ungloved hand would represent their individuality. Early in the band’s career, when they walked on stage dressed all in black, the audience would go silent.

The Music Machine created a sound that was unlike any of their contemporaries. They built their own fuzz tone pedal and tuned their instruments to E flat, a semitone lower than usual in order to give their music a darker feel. Most songs were short, running about two minutes, but featured their trademark fuzz buzz, minor key Farfisa organ, some tricky and slick jazz-influenced drumming, and Bonniwell’s incredible vocal style, which could deliver gruff barks and grunts, operatic and plaintive wails, acerbic shouts, and soulful howls.

In the autumn of 1966, they released their first single, “Talk Talk”, a song expressing high school boy angst and alienation. The song quickly became a hit and reached the Billboard Top 200 in slot 15. The song ran 1:56 and changed rhythm four times, with quick stops and starts (Chinese Jazz as Bonniwell called it), and had some of the tightest drumming of the time. The band’s management sent them back and forth across the U.S., and after a 31-day tour, they went straight to the studio to cut an album. “(Turn On) The Music Machine” was released in December of 1966 and included “Talk Talk”, their second single “The People in Me”, the B-sides to both singles, three more original tunes and five covers. Bonniwell was mortified about insistence of cover songs; he had wanted an entire album of original Music Machine material.

The album opens with the hit single “Talk Talk”, which kicks and slams with pauses for some quick step drumming or snorting fuzz tone guitar. Bonniwell delivers with a grated vocal style. The song was most popular with high school boys.

“Trouble” is next with more buzzing guitar. The Farfisa organ does make the song sound a bit like classic Iron Butterfly as does the timbre of Bonniwell’s vocals (very similar to Doug Ingle). The guitar riff sounds like it could have inspired The Hives to write the riff for “B is for Brutus”. The lyrics are about how people create trouble for themselves by expecting it to come to them.

Things lighten up surprisingly for the band’s rendition of Neil Diamond’s “Cherry Cherry”. Fuzz tone is out and flutes are in. The song is well done and a bit catchy if you like that sixties sound. But it’s a surprising turn from The Music Machine’s sound.

“Taxman” is a Beatles’ cover and is quite similar to the original although with a harder edge, especially the guitars.

“Some Other Drum” is an original song but also very easy and light. Lyrically and musically it’s good enough. But again, it lacks the darker aggressive side.

“Masculine Intuition” was the B-side to “The People in Me”, which was released after the album, in February 1967. The song is about living with a depressive woman and the man having to take over the domestic duties. “The check’s on the table and the pen’s in your hand / And if that makes you happy then nothing else can / My mind’s on the laundry while you sleep away / If I had the gumption I’d leave you today”. The song sounds more upbeat but the lyrics are more adult, more mature, than “Talk Talk”.

This was one of the defining factors of Sean Bonniwell’s writing: the lyrics were often adult and at times prescient. This song predates the women’s liberation movement. Other later songs would rant about environmental destruction, food waste, the “me” generation, and a Matrix-like society. All those songs would be written between ’66 and ’68. One critic suggested that part of The Music Machine’s failure to achieve further success was because their lyrics were too mature for the time. While other garage bands wrote, “Oh, my girl is so pretty / I love her and she loves me / We’ll take a walk along the river / Oh, how happy we’ll be”, Bonniwell wrote, “Here’s the change you’ve often said so many times / Was never yours, oh, how you cried / Now’s the time to break your leash / And show the world your apron strings have come untied”.

“The People in Me” is pretty good as a psychedelic piece and has an interesting riff that sounds like it includes some Eastern scale. Following that is a cover of “See See Rider” which is probably close to The Animals’ version but with a really sinister guitar chord rumbling alongside the quick organ notes before the verses and at the intro.

“Wrong” is a remarkable piece of aggressive and angry psychedelic rock. Packed with tension, the song erupts at the guitar solo where Landon lets fly with a barrage of fuzz tone notes. This is serious agro rock for ’66.

“96 Tears” is a fair enough cover of a song by ? and the Mysterians but the middle section includes some really low fuzz tone guitar that seems to emphasis the lower tuning. It contrasts wonderfully with the otherwise upbeat though minor atmosphere.

“Come On In” is more laid back but with a haunting edge. It’s a more adult view of relationships and sensuality.

The album wraps up with a Music Machine treatment of “Hey Joe”. Recorded before the Jimi Hendrix release, it was chosen because it was such a popular song among garage bands in 1966, originally made a commercial hit by The Leaves and then quickly followed by The Standells, Love, The Shadows of Knight, and The Surfaris to name a few. The Music Machine version is slow and trippy, unlike the other bands’ versions, and features wavering fuzz tone guitar for a real psychedelic feel.

This compilation on the Collectables label includes the entire debut album and four demos of songs that were recorded as singles and B-sides prior to the second album. So this is hardly a true “Best of” album as much better material ended up on the sophomore release and as singles for a planned third album. Of these four demos, “The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly” is an earth-trembling piece of heavy psychedelic rock with a dark edge. The instrumental segment includes a guitar solo, a sinister guitar passage with drums, and a second guitar solo. The final master would be almost two minutes shorter and sound much better. But here’s a taster anyway. One disappointing note is that the songs are all in stereo and especially “Talk Talk” suffers from this as the vocals and one guitar are in the left channel and the rest of the music is in the right channel, somewhat diluting the impact at first. Also there is no extra information about the band or the album’s history in the inlay card.

Unfortunately things went sour here. The band treasurer seems to have ensured that someone other than the band got the money and an oversight regarding a songwriting credit led to everyone abandoning ship, leaving Bonniwell with a handful of recorded songs, a recording contract to fulfill, and tour dates booked. A new line-up was put together in late ’67 and The Bonniwell Music Machine was born. But that’s another story.

Recommened: check out YouTube videos for “Talk Talk”, “Masculine Intuition”, and “The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly”.