The Seeds + 8

As part of its 1991 Seeds series, King Records in Japan issued the band’s 1966 debut album The Seeds and added eight bonus tracks. The CD was called The Seeds + 8. Don’t get too excited about the bonus tracks though – most of them are just taken directly from Raw & Alive, which wasn’t part of the series. Still, The Seeds + 8 is a very cool collectible CD now.

As far as “bonus tracks” available in 1991, The Seeds + 8 does all right. That means that two B-sides from the era, "Daisy Mae" and "The Other Place", are here. The other six bonus tracks (seven, if you count the “Introduction By ‘Humble’ Harv” which is indexed with "No Escape") are from the fake 1968 Raw & Alive album. There were two other CDs in this series, A Web Of Sound + 3 and Future + 8. Between them, all of Raw & Alive plus several non-LP singles and outtakes were included. (And nothing at all from poor A Full Spoon Of Seedy Blues.)

The Packaging of The Seeds + 8

The Seeds + 8 came in a jewel case with an obi strip, as do virtually all Japanese music releases. The obi is exclusively in Japanese, with hype blurbs about the album, a mention of Sky Saxon as producer, and a list of upcoming King Records releases (including the other two Seeds Plus CDs as well as the Fire Escape Psychotic Reaction CD).

The disc itself is pink, as were all three in the series. Here, the song title are in English. ("Fallin' In Love" is misspelled “Falun’ In Love”, and apostrophes come and go, but overall it’s clearly done with care.) The obi and the CD classify The Seeds + 8 as part of something called “GNP Classics”, which must be why a Delaney and Bonnie CD is mentioned as well.

The Japanese (and a Bit of English) Booklet

The booklet of The Seeds + 8 is several pages long and features only black text on white paper, all in Japanese. All, except, for someone’s attempts to transcribe the lyrics of all twenty of the tracks on the CD. Most are full of errors, often humorously so.

There is also a thoughtful and complete discussion of Sky Saxon and The Seeds’ history, mostly from a music buyer’s perspective. The essay ranges from the 1962 "Baby Baby Baby" / "Half Angel" 45 right up through the privately-pressed 1972 "Shuckin' And Jiving" / "You Took Me By Surprise" single.

The Seeds + 8 Track Listing

The Seeds (1966)

1. "Can't Seem To Make You Mine"
2. "No Escape"
3. "Lose Your Mind"
4. "Evil Hoodoo"
5. "Girl I Want You"
6. "Pushin' Too Hard"
7. "Try To Understand"
8. "Nobody Spoil My Fun"
9. "It's A Hard Life"
10. "You Can't Be Trusted"
11. "Excuse, Excuse"
12. "Fallin' In Love"

Bonus tracks

13. "Daisy Mae"
    1965 B-side
14. "The Other Place"
    1966 B-side
15. “Introduction By ‘Humble’ Harv” / "No Escape"
16. "Night Time Girl"
17. "Can't Seem To Make You Mine"
18. "Mumble And Bumble"
19. "Forest Outside Your Door"
20. "Pushin' Too Hard"
    Tracks 15-20 from Raw & Alive (1968), with overdubbed crowd noises. Of these, "Pushin' Too Hard" does not include Sky’s intro dedicating the song to “society”. Note that Harvey Miller’s introduction leads directly into "No Escape", although on the original it led into "Mr. Farmer".

Buying The Seeds + 8 CD

This CD doesn’t come up for sale too often on English-language websites; even Japanese sources might go a long time between offers. Buying The Seeds + 8, or (even better) all three of the King Records Seeds CDs, will probably take some patience. The good news is that the CDs shouldn’t cost too much when they do finally show up in sales listings. After all, they aren’t the primary sources nowadays for this music and there is nothing unique about them (unless you really dig hearing "No Escape" after “Humble” Harv’s intro).

The sound quality on The Seeds + 8 is excellent, though. The music, in its stereo mix, is fairly dry and crystal clear. The haphazard splitting up of Raw & Alive is a bit aggravating, but this is still a collectible CD you can actually play and enjoy.

See more