TCCDM Pulls One Out: "The Forest Of My Mind" - Paul Parrish (1968)
.jpg)
"The Forest Of My Mind" - Paul Parrish (1968)
This is all flowers, patches, peace, love, and maybe something to pass around while everyone is in...the forest. Looking a bit like Freddie Mercury trying to decide what to bag up at the Nifty Nut House, Paul Parrish brings us a cool, groovy spin for the mind-palette. Included in The Acid Archives, the album "The Forest Of My Mind" is filled with well-written songs, with good melodies and nice arrangements, each lightly dusted in various shades of psychedelic folk-pop bliss. A cash-in of the lysergic variety, perhaps, but the album sounds much better than that. Nothing on this square is a mind-blow. Nothing here is deepy-deep by any means. However, "The Forest Of My Mind" is presented in such good faith that the spin makes it nigh on impossible to stay in a bad mood.
Bonus still, it's a square that somehow gets better with each new listen. Songs have flutes and strings and other instruments dropping by, plus the occasional knob-twist and button-push behind the glass, and there it is. And it doesn't hurt that Paul Parrish's vocals have a nice, pleasant mix of Donovan and Al Stewart timbre going on, too. The album has an overall gentleness, with nothing remotely twee. Paul Parrish wrote all the songs but for two covers. A Beatles song, "You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” and a Four Tops number, "I Can't Help Myself.” The covers are decent and neither here nor there, but the latter is the better surprise.
.jpg)
"The Forest Of My Mind" - Paul Parrish (back)
Favorites include:
"Walking In The Forest Of My Mind"
"Dialogue Of The Wind And Love"
"The White Birds Return To Warm Seas"
This is an original copy pressed on the Music Factory label, a division of MGM. The production is excellent, full, and clean. Paul Parrish hails from Detroit and has written songs for other artists, including Helen Reddy, Kenny Rogers, and The Dillards. (You might remember them as The Darlings from "The Andy Griffith Show.") Paul Parrish's "The Forest Of My Mind" is a lost light psych album that's a pleasure to rediscover. Plus it's always cool to pick up something mentioned in the Acid Archives.
.jpg)
Music Factory label
Cat #
MFS 12,001
SIDE A DEADWAX
MFS 12001 Side 1 MCS 1572
SIDE B DEADWAX
MFS 12001 Side 2 MGS 1573
"Walking In The Forest Of My Mind" - Paul Parrish / "The Forest Of My Mind" (1968)
TRACKS:
A1 "English Sparrows" 2:40
A2 "Suzanne" 2:45
A3 "Walking In The Forest Of My Mind" 2:37
A4 "The Painter (Who Lives In The Cellar)" 2:17
A5 "Dialogue Of The Wind And Love" 2:16
A6 "You’ve Got To Hide (Your Love Away)" 2:50
B1 "Tiny Alice" 3:05
B2 "Morning Train" 2:35
B3 "Something Of A Love Song" 2:12
B4 "The White Birds Return To Warm Seas" 3:08
B5 "Flowers In The Park" 3:40
B6 "I Can’t Help Myself" 2:25
PERSONNEL:
Paul Parrish - vocals
Bob Babbitt - bass
Uriel Jones - drums
Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey - flute and string arrangements
Comments