THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

This is a review of the original March 6, 1968 Columbia Records release only.

Formed on the West Coast by East Coasters Joe Byrd and former girl-friend Dorothy Moskowitz, the collective created some highly visionary and innovative sound and music with their one album before lack of record label support forced the band to disintegrate. Leader and principle songwriter Byrd even had the creative wherewithall to commission the custom construction of several electronic instruments including a ring modulator from Tom Oberheim (Yes: that Oberheim) as well as electronic oscillators in a monophonic synthesizer and by NASA aerospace engineer Richard Durrett. In fact, all of the band's instrumentalists performed highly creative and innovative sound adjustments to their instruments' sounds including octave dividers (to David Marron's violins), ring modulator to Dorothy Moskowitz's voice microphones, and contact microphones and hanging appendages (like Slinkys) to Craig Woodson's cymbals and drums.

1. "The American Metaphysical Circus" (4:56) a bAroque and then circus instrumental palette with the likes of recorders, calliope, parade drums, and more turns serious in the second minute with Dorothy Moskowitz' deranged-child-like vocals over "distant" rock instrumental support. Odd, heavily-distorted circus-like keyboard (or violin) joins in the third minute and haunts the rest of the song beneath Dorothy's steady if eerie vocal--a vocal that becomes increasingly eerie as it is channelled through some kind of distortion modulator before the circus band seems to disintegrate into cacophonous (drunken) disarray. Wow! (10/10) 2. "Hard Coming Love" (4:41) a hard-driving heavy 60s beach song (constructed almost like The Doors' "Light My Fire") whose instruments are all quite heavily-distorted--more than The Doors or Blue Cheer or The Yardbirds. Dorothy enters in the second half of the second minute as distorted violin continues to screech over bass and drums and squealing organ also persists as a disrupter. What a singer this woman is! The attitude she wishes to convey comes across so powerfully! Another psychedelic song that is years and miles ahead of nearly all of its contemporaries! (9.5/10)

3. "Cloud Song" (3:18) Dorothy singing angelically as if on a cloud while watching all of the oddities floating by among the dreamy, floaty psychedelic music. More absolutely creative genius! Beyond anything Jefferson Airplane ever dreamed up or executed. (9.125/10)

4. "The Garden Of Earthly Delights" (2:39) again, the sound effects and engineering here are so far ahead of their time--like 1980s techno sounds and samples--but then the psychedelic post-Beat music supports Dorothy's Grace Slick-like powerful vocal performance. Very much a song extolling the virtues of the psychedelic experience of 1960s drug experimentation. (9/10)

5. "I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar" (3:51) an early dirty-funky Americana song with lead vocals performed by keyboard player Joseph Byrd. So many weird (circus-like) instruments and sounds used prominently throughout this song--even for solos and main components of the dominant weaves. Extraordinary creativity! At 2:40 the band once again steps into the roll of city park bandstand parade band for an extended period of WWII-like theme music. Not my favorite kind of song, but it is gutsy and masterful. (8.875/10)

6. "Where Is Yesterday" (3:08) opening with a Gregorian chant approach--even using Latin for the chorus' lyrics. Again, the talent, courage, creativity, and genius exuded from this music is nothing short of astounding! Droning violin in the background screeches behind the sophisticated group-choral music taken up in the second verse of the song and carried through to the finish as the music continues to feel/sound choral/liturgical before rock bass and drums join in at 2:30. Amazing! (9.25/10)

7. "Coming Down" (2:37) organ and harpsichord weave opens this before stun- and unaffected bass (alternating) and Dorothy Moskowitz join in. All kinds of weird instrumental sounds parade wildly around within and behind Dorothy's attempted light-hearted vocal giving the song a decidedly schozophrenic (and hallucinagenic) feel. (8.75/10)

8. "Love Song For The Dead Ché" (3:25) contrary to the tongue-in-cheek and even-satirical tone of many of the other songs on this album, this one feels almost reverential--until Dorothy's vocal, then I'm no longer certain. The pleasant nostalgia her lyric and delivery seem to convey make me wonder if she really did sleep with Che Guevara! (9.125/10)

9. "Stranded In Time" (1:49) string quartet beneath Gordon Marron's second lead vocal in the band's obvious attempt to parady (and borrow from) The Beatles (and, later, The Doors). Despite being tongue-in-cheek, the music is impressively sophisticated. (4.5/5)

10. "The American Way Of Love" (6:38) another very theatric song (sung by violinist Gordon Marron) that could've come from a Pippen or Hair soundtrack that is so different from anything one might hear from this year--so far ahead of its time! So creative--even more avant than Zappa and The Mothers--especially the first movement of the suite, "Metaphor for an Olderman"! The second movement sounds like a parody on The Beach Boys that turns full Beastie Boys a full 15 years before there was such a thing as The Beastie Boys! BAck to small-town outdoor cabana town band music for the wild, psychedelic finish. A tongue-in-cheek Beatles-like "How much fun it's been!" layered within mutliple themes from multiple generations of stereotypic (and idealistic) Americana. Pure genius! (9.33333/10)

Total time 37:02

Overall, this album is an extraordinary landmark in technological and theatric musique concrète music in a way that feels like Frank Zappa incorporating all that was best in 1968 technological innovation with much greater and further imaginative synthesis and integration of the day's musical trends.

A/five stars; a certifiable masterpiece of progressive rock music that stands out (and above) from almost all of the music of the 1960s--even Zappa and George Martin and The Beatles! One of the best/most creative records of the 1960s!