Cherry Red's Grapefruit Records has kept a busy schedule throughout 2023 with a number of artist anthologies and various-artists compilations.  We'll be looking at a few of those sets, beginning with today's spotlight on The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band released three albums in 1967 and 1968 on the Reprise Records label, blending straightforward late-'60s L.A. rock with dark, often surreal lyrics and psychedelic soundscapes.  All of these psychedelic platters have been collected on A Door Inside Your Mind: The Complete Reprise Recordings 1966-1968 in both stereo and mono, along with a bonus disc of previously unreleased alternate versions and mixes; single edits; and a radio spot.

The band coalesced when wealthy Los Angeles bachelor and sometime-race car driver Bob Markley was introduced by Kim Fowley to young musician Michael Lloyd - whose many credits include production for Shaun Cassidy, Barry Manilow, and Belinda Carlisle - and brothers Shaun and Danny Harris.  Despite little obvious talent, Markley wanted to join a band, and offered to bankroll such an operation with his new, clearly talented friends.  With the addition of drummer John Ware (later of Michael Nesmith's First National Band), the band launched.

Their first LP, on the small Fifo label, featured Michael and Shaun on a set of folk-rock and garage-rock.  Before they were signed to Reprise, guitarist Ron Morgan had joined the group.  Part One was on an establishment label with an establishment producer (Jimmy Bowen, who had helmed Frank Sinatra albums for Reprise) but was a decidedly non-establishment album.  Alongside more-or-less conventional songs by Baker Knight, P.F. Sloan, and Van Dyke Parks tunes, the group covered Frank Zappa and provided somewhat sinister originals that handily out-weirded Zappa.  Still, Lloyd and the Harris brothers' beautiful harmonies shone through, as did the musicianship of all members except Markley, who supplied bizarre spoken word.

Tired of Markley's machinations, Michael Lloyd left TWCPAEB prior to the recording of 1967's Vol. 2. (With the band splintering, Markley also formed an alternate, touring version of the band with future Three Dog Night member Jimmy Greenspoon among its members; the whole madcap story is beautifully told in Alec Palao's liner notes.)  The album took a big step further into the realm of the outré, with the liner notes promising, "Every song in this album has been written, arranged, sung and played by the group. No one censored us. We got to say everything we wanted to say, in the way we wanted to say it."  With protest songs surrounded by macabre ditties and Markley's increasingly disturbing odes to young women, Vol. 2 also included arguably the group's most famous song.  Markley and Morgan's "Smell of Incense" (covered the next year in a moderate hit version by Texas band Southwest F.O.B.) was a haunting and delicate psych-folk nugget that stands among the best of the era.

TWCPAEB was down to a trio (Markley, Morgan, Shaun Harris) by the time they entered the studio for Vol. 3: A Child's Guide to Good and Evil, a loose concept album about the corruption of innocence.  Markley's often strange and unsettling lyrics were contrasted by Shaun's strong vocals and Morgan's varied guitar.  With dollops of effective Vietnam-era protest (including a closing track consisting solely of silence) and offbeat, dreamlike twists on fairy tales, Vol. 3 is the band's most memorable record if certainly not one for everybody; Palao quotes one critic upon its release who called it "sick."

Though Reprise dropped the band, Jimmy Bowen brought them over to his new Amos label where they reunited with Michael Lloyd on 1969's Where's My Daddy?  The original foursome of Lloyd, Markley, and the Harrises brought TWCPAEB to a close in 1970 on Lloyd's friend Mike Curb's Forward label; that album was entitled Markley - A Group as Bob's ego reportedly swelled once again.  Freed from Markley's grasp (and his cringeworthy predilection for songs about young girls), Lloyd continued to collaborate with the Harris brothers under a variety of names.  He also produced Shaun's solo album for Capitol in 1973.

Disc Four of Grapefruit's box is a real treasure trove for collectors, with 18 rarities and previously unreleased tracks mixed in 2006 by Andy Zax and Brian Kehew for an abortive Rhino Handmade release.  Liner notes author Alec Palao has remastered all audio to the highest standard.  Each disc within the clamshell case is housed in a mini-sleeve replica of the original album, and the custom CD labels utilize Reprise-style designs.  A 40-page booklet with artwork by Andy Morten is an essential component of the package, and Palao's notes put the band's complicated legacy into perspective.

Bob Markley's sickening interest in underage girls would eventually lead to numerous brushes with the law, and a period in which he fled the United States.  He died, institutionalized, in 2003.  Ron Morgan passed away in 1989 and Danny Harris in 2012.  Michael Lloyd and Shaun Harris remain friends today.  This box set is the ultimate tribute to a band that managed to leave behind some worthy and fascinating music despite the darkness surrounding them.

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, A Door Inside Your Mind: The Complete Reprise Recordings 1966-1968 (Cherry Red/Grapefruit QRSEGBOX132, 2023) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)  As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

CD 1: Part One

Stereo (Reprise LP RS 6247, 1967)

1. Shifting Sands
2. I Won't Hurt You
3. 1906
4. Help, I'm a Rock
5. Will You Walk with Me
6. Transparent Day
7. Leiyla
8. Here's Where You Belong
9. If You Want This Love
10. 'Scuse Me, Miss Rose
11. High Coin

Mono (Reprise LP R 6267, 1967)

12. Shifting Sands
13. I Won't Hurt You
14. 1906
15. Help, I'm a Rock
16. Will You Walk with Me
17. Transparent Day
18. Leiyla
19. Here's Where You Belong
20. If You Want This Love
21. 'Scuse Me, Miss Rose
22. High Coin

CD 2: Vol. 2

Stereo (Reprise LP RS 6270, 1967)

1. In the Arena
2. Suppose They Give a War and No One Comes
3. Buddha
4. Smell of Incense
5. Overture: WCPAEB Part II
6. Queen Nymphet
7. Unfree Child
8. Carte Blanche
9. Delicate Fawn
10. Tracy Had a Hard Day Sunday

Mono (Reprise LP R 6270, 1967)

11. In the Arena
12. Suppose They Give a War and No One Comes
13. Buddha
14. Smell of Incense
15. Overture: WCPAEB Part II
16. Queen Nymphet
17. Unfree Child
18. Carte Blanche
19. Delicate Fawn
20. Tracy Had a Hard Day Sunday

CD 3: A Child's Guide to Good and Evil

Stereo (Reprise LP RS 6298, 1968)

1. Eighteen Is Over the Hill
2. In the Country
3. Ritual # 1
4. Our Drummer Always Plays in the Nude
5. As the World Rises and Falls
6. Until the Poorest People Have Money to Spend
7. Watch Yourself
8. A Child's Guide to Good and Evil
9. Ritual # 2
10. A Child of a Few Hours Is Burning to Death
11. As Kind as Summer
12. Anniversary of World War III

Mono (Reprise LP R 6298, 1968)

13. Eighteen Is Over the Hill
14. In the Country
15. Ritual # 1
16. Our Drummer Always Plays in the Nude
17. As the World Rises and Falls
18. Until the Poorest People Have Money to Spend
19. Watch Yourself
20. A Child's Guide to Good and Evil
21. Ritual # 2
22. A Child of a Few Hours Is Burning to Death
23. As Kind as Summer
24. Anniversary of World War III

CD 4: Underneath Butterfly Skies: Outtakes, Alternative Versions, and Singles

1. I Feel Sorry for You (Take 4)
2. I Feel Sorry for You (Take 6 - Master)
3. A Child of a Few Hours Is Burning to Death (Alternative Mix)
4. A Child's Guide to Good and Evil (Alternative Mix)
5. Ritual # 1 (Alternative Mix)
6. Ritual # 2 (Alternative Mix)
7. Watch Yourself (Acoustic Version)
8. Watch Yourself (Alternative Mix)
9. Eighteen Is Over the Hill (Alternative Mix)
10. Until the Poorest People Have Money to Spend (Alternative Mix)
11. In the Country (Alternative Mix)
12. As Kind as Summer (Alternative Mix)
13. As the World Rises and Falls (Alternative Mix)
14. Our Drummer Always Plays in the Nude (Alternative Mix)
15. Help, I'm a Rock (Single Edit) (Reprise 0582, 1967)
16. Smell of Incense (Single Edit) (Reprise 0776, 1968)
17. Unfree Child (Single Edit) (Reprise 0776, 1968)
18. A Child's Guide to Good and Evil (Gary Owens Radio Spot)

All tracks on CD 4 previously unreleased except where indicated.