Headstone Circus

I posted this video earlier in the morning, then realized it seemed familiar because I had seen the title image on this very blog a few months ago. That, coupled with the post below, in turn reminded me of this album...



Headstone Circus got heavy play around my household last winter. Somehow, now that I listen to it in the springtime with a violent storm rustling my neighbor's many tall, leafy plants outside the window, it has a strange tone. Kind of like the feeling of tuning a radio to a classic rock station on a remote beach, then wondering if the signals are crossing..?



Their sound could be compared to Neil Young & Crazy Horse, or even a psychedelic branch-off of Crosby, Stills, and Nash in "I Hear The Thunder" with lyrics such as,

"Someone tell me where the buffalo roam,
All I see is carcasses and bones,
How can you save them when there's nothing left to save,
In the land of the free, and the home of the brave"

...or a later-era Fleetwood Mac in "Reach Out," as the singer belts out "Reach out to a stranger, bring her into your life... (Come on on now,) Open your eyes and you can't go wrong," horns screaming in the background.

The description on the back of the record sums up in one way where these people were coming from:

"Around 1966... on Halloween night we went to an old cemetery, dropped some acid, and spent a very strange night amongst the tombstones. The tombstones appeared to be melting and taking on animal shapes. Some of us saw spirits, and I'm not sure what I saw, but it was disturbing. Afterwards we referred to that night as the 'Headstone Circus.'"



Headstone Circus - Reach Out
Headstone Circus - I Hear The Thunder
Headstone Circus - I Love The Wind

(The tracks above are taken from the self-titled album, originally recorded 1968-1970 and reissued in 2004 by ever-amazing Shadoks Music)