The Parable of Arable Land

The Parable of Arable Land is the first studio album by the Red Crayola (later known as Red Krayola). The album was considered psychedelic music when it was introduced, but later assessments describe it as a forerunner to avant/noise rock. With this album as introduction, Ritchie Unterberger assessed the band as a precursor to industrial rock. The album features free improvised pieces involving industrial power tools and a revving motorcycle dubbed "Free Form Freak-Out" played by a group of over 50 people known as "the Familiar Ugly" as well as notable instrumental cameos by label mate and 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson.

The Familiar Ugly
The Familiar Ugly was a group of 50 people who joined the Red Crayola on stage with music that was made on anything from industrial power tools to a revving motorcycle. They perform on the "Free Form Freak-Out" tracks that are present between each song on the album. Rick Barthelme later reflected. "At heart we were as elitist as could be, but these folks came to our shows and some we knew and most we did not know, but whenever we played, there they were, ready to mount the stage and screech until the last plug was pulled, and there we were, ready to invite them – the Familiar Ugly, we dubbed ’em."

After playing as a five-piece consisting of all three original members plus Bonnie Emerson and Danny Schacht, the group split back to the original trio and instead called every added member a part of the Familiar Ugly. "Free Form Freak-Out" was a term coined by record producer Lelan Rogers who proposed the idea of having the album intermingle songs with the Familiar Ugly, fading one into the other as well as having Rick Barthelme take up a tribal drumbeat instead of a standard rock beat for "War Sucks".

Mayo Thompson details the formation of the Familiar Ugly and the origin of "Free Form Freak-Out" in an interview conducted on December 26, 2011 "Conversation with Mayo Thompson: Part One"

"It was an organization that accompanied, or enveloped, or just happened while we played. It was part of the phenomenon then. They were undirected. Open-numbered; any number above one. If you had the Red Crayola plus one person on stage, that person was the Familiar Ugly. If there were five, or fifty, up to an indefinitely large number. People liked it, liked the 'noise' we made." Free form means this ain't never gonna happen again. We're about to have an experience that will not be [had] ever again. I'm not making any claims about form. It's an oxymoron at best. The guy [Rogers] was looking for an advertising slogan. That was his form; that was his description of what we did. I just clung onto it because I'm a nominalist; So I'm just going with what we're calling it historically."

Recording
The Familiar Ugly were recorded on April Fool's Day 1967 in a three-hour evening session on one master tape, it was done on eight tracks with eight microphones, one per channel. The other tracks were recorded during April–May. Mayo Thompson said, "We went back and pieced it together so that it would have a flow to it and all the while we were naïve. We went in the studio, if we'd had our druthers, we would have multitracked the free form stuff, because we could have done more of our own thing. As it was, it was just frozen. It was a documentary relation, documenting the recording." "Our first album was recorded mono. [The simulated stereo mix] is Walt Andrus' studio wizardry. We made the mono version and then like two days later I was around the studio, and they said, 'Come here, what about this for a stereo album?' And I sat there and listened to it and I said, 'sounds okay to me, crazy, but sounds okay.' For the stereo mix the songs were processed through a stereo effects chamber with added psychedelic effects (such as loops, reversed tapes, speed fluctuations and sound effects).

"And then over the next couple of days we went in and did the backing tracks — we played them live," with few overdubs. Vocal tracks on some songs, such as "War Sucks," were also recorded live. "When we had the backing tracks, Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators was invited in to play the organ part on 'Hurricane Fighter Plane' and played the mouth organ part on 'Transparent Radiation'."- Mayo Thompson talks about the recording of The Parable of Arable Land.

Music
The band took influences from a variety of different artists, some of them were Frank Zappa, the Fugs and Albert Ayler. As well as avant-garde music composers John Cage and Harry Partch.

Mayo Thompson talked about the Red Krayola's relation with punk rock: "I would say, the mindset of those people in the '70s was something like our mindset in the mid-'60s. They hated everything too that had happened before--'we're not necessarily going to clean the slate, but we're going to burn everything down and then we're going to start over again.  Or in the process, we're going to burn down everything as a starting over again.' And this relation was understood. So some people would say, this is proto-punk - that was where we got lumped, a little bit.  But the same things that were talked about the music then are the same things that people talk about it now - 'jazzy, broken, dada, blah blah.'"

Rick Barthelme had this to say about their music: "From our vantage out on the edge, Zappa and Velvet Underground, and other more conventionally strange bands, were ordinary musicians trying to do something different and still function within the rock & roll framework. We said fuck the framework, listen to this, motherfucker. And then busted your eardrum. And we did it over and over from 1966 to 1968. The first LP, The Parable of Arable Land is a wonder if you are wasted, and a poor example otherwise, as the nice guy who recorded it did it on two tracks instead of thirty-two, thus flattening the thing out somewhat." When asked about the proto-punk label he responded with "I don't really know if that's true, but wouldn't it be lovely to think so?".

Production
The album cover was drawn by George Banks, the informal manager of the 13th Floor Elevators - he was also the illustrator behind the album cover for Easter Everywhere and other International Artists releases.

Although all of the songs are credited as being written by the whole band, the truth was said on the second issue of Mother: Houston's Rock Magazine (1968) - "Hurricane Fighter Plane" was written by Thompson, the music to "Transparent Radiation" was written by Barthelme whilst the lyrics were written by Thompson, Barthelme and Thompson wrote the lyrics to "War Sucks" whilst the music was written by the whole band, Barthelme also wrote the music to "Pink Stainless Tail" whilst the lyrics were written by Thompson, "Parable of Arable Land" was written by the whole band while "Former Reflections Enduring Doubt" was entirely written by Cunningham.

Tracks recorded before their debut album in an early 1967 demo session were released on the International Artists archive compilation Epitaph For A Legend in 1980, and subsequently re-released on the 2011 reissue of The Parable of Arable Land. In a retrospective review of the compilation album Richie Unterberger wrote: "The five Red Krayola demos are prime acid folk". Unterberger also assessed "Hurricane Fighter Plane" as being "one of the closest American approximations of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. Thompson's lyrics, while seemingly fitting in with the often surreal tone of typical 1960s psychedelic lyrics, actually demonstrate a more literary and artistic approach than what was common in rock music of the time.

Thompson also remarked in an interview with Reuters that during the recording session for "Hurricane Fighter Plane" he ran out of words so he decided to sing about the buckets of sand hanging on the studio wall.

Mayo Thompson discussed the demo tracks in an interview with Richie Unterberger in 1996: "That was, was a demo session. They wanted to know, 'What material do you have?'  'Cause they'd heard us play live and wanted to know what else we had.  So they sent us in this small 16-track demo studio.  We got there and we thought we were going to be able to do some interesting recording, and found out that they just wanted a version of the tunes.  So, one gave them a version of the tunes and that was it.  So those tunes on there are stuff that they had lying around in the can from the demo days.  I don't know why.  They never were meant as releasable material, in the usual sense. Those are archival tapes, I would say.  The performances are what they are.

In a 1978 promotional booklet for the Radar Records reissues of International Artists material, Lelan Rogers mentions that the reason the Red Krayola never released a single was due in part to the controversy surrounding the sentimental lyrics in “War Sucks” - because of this, the album received little to no airplay as most radio stations refused to play the record. Additionally, Rogers claimed the album was already being supported by the 13th Floor Elevators who had been selling well, so there was no need to release a single. In the 2007 book "Eye Mind: Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators" author Paul Drummond mentions that the Red Crayola had recorded a session in February 1967 for "Dairymaid's Lament" and "Free Piece" to be released as a single, they were both songs that would later appear on their sophomore album, the session was produced by Bob Steffek who had a hit on Shazam Records with "Wild Woody"; however, the single was never released.

Reception
According to Lelan Rogers, The Parable of Arable Land originally sold 50,000 copies when it was first released and sold out its original pressing. At the time, the album was made on 600 dollars. Mayo Thompson remarked that they accomplished this with no advertising or promotion: "We sold 8-10,000 records in New York, and we sold some records in L.A., some in Frisco. Major urban centers, obviously. International Artists did  not advertise. There were no band photographs. There was no promotion. This was making a virtue of your shortcomings. This was the beginnings of alternative rock".

The Berkeley Barb Ed Denson briefly reviewed The Parable of Arable Land in an article about the 1967 Berkeley Folk Festival which included a short set by the Red Krayola. The band's performance met with a negative reception: "Their first LP was released by that strange Houston company International Artists, and it is selling far more than it should be because it looks like a rock LP and the liner notes, which are deceptive, make it sound sort of like the mothers or something else which is recognizable". Denson described the Familiar Ugly tracks as "just background noise", and wrote "I like two of the cuts very much: 'War Sucks' and 'The Parable of Arable Land', and no doubt so will you about the third time thru. It took me that long."

The Chicago Seed reviewed the record on July 7, 1968, and described it as being "probably the freakiest album ever recorded", with "Hurricane Fighter Plane" having "the freakiest lyrics ever" and the group making the ultimate statement on violence in "War Sucks". The article ends with a request to listen to the music while under the influence: "highly recommended for listening to when stoned, especially for the amazing channel separation."

The Beatles were stated to have had the record come to their attention, whilst British DJ John Peel reportedly could not wait to turn it off, he would later play excerpts from the album on his radio show a few years later amidst the album's reissue on Radar Records.

David Berman of Silver Jews cited the record as a favorite, as well as Todd Tamanend Clark.

Jimi Hendrix owned a copy of The Parable of Arable Land - Kathy Etchingham believes that Hendrix picked up the album on an impulse because the cover artwork was similar in style to his own drawings.

Record Mirror wrote about the album in 1978, assessing "Transparent Radiation" as "almost a normal song" and comparing Mayo Thompson's voice to sounding "terribly like Talking Heads, David Byrne" and the song as a whole as a "total effect not unlike some Roxy Music opus, whilst "War Sucks" was spoken briefly about as an "odd raga weaving in and out".

Irish radio broadcaster Joe S. Harrington featured the LP on his "top 100 albums of all time" list.

In a retrospective review, Pitchfork critic Alex Linhardt praised The Parable of Arable Land as "one of the most visionary album[s]" of 1967, also noting that "listeners weren't sure whether the racket was the result of sharp intellectualism, sheer incompetence, or buzzed-out substance abuse." Trouser Press wrote that the album "boasts a more engaged intelligence than most of the era's aural acid baths". Mark Deming of AllMusic remarked that "The Parable of Arable Land exists on a plane all its own; if art-damaged noise rock began anywhere, it was on this album." Additionally, AllMusic remarked that the album made Trout Mask Replica "sound downright normal". Dallas Observer noted that the record "foreshadowed new wave, post-punk and art rock" whilst another retrospective review branded the "stripped down simplicity and caustic lyrics" as a rarely acknowledged precursor to punk.

The album has also been assessed as a precursor to post-rock.

In 2011, The Parable of Arable Land was selected by Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT for inclusion in NME list of "The 100 Greatest Albums You've Never Heard". He added, "I was pretty blown away by the fact that people were making sounds before Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and all the other ‘classic’ psychedelic albums, and that the sounds were being made by guys in Texas doing shitloads of LSD and making these completely wild records. I think it’s good that more people listen to them, because they go unheralded a lot of the time".

Spin magazine described "Transparent Radiation" as "the great-grandfather of the Spacemen 3/Spiritualized interstellar exploration division" and mentioned how "Hurricane Fighter Plane" had been covered many times.

The Parable of Arable Land was placed number 57 on Spin magazine's list of "Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s" and number 169 on Uncut magazine's "the 500 Greatest Albums of the 1960s" list.

Track listing
The songs on side A and side B are the same for both mono and stereo versions; however, on the original LP, each song following the "Free Form Freak-Out" tracks is marked with a lengthy subtitle taken from the songs lyrics (except for the title track which is an instrumental sound collage and instead has its own special text). In 2011, Peter Kember (otherwise known as "Sonic Boom") would remaster the album at New Atlantis studios from the original master tapes as part of a deluxe reissue.

In the 2011 Sonic Boom remaster, there are only 12 tracks displayed, as the "Free Form Freak-Out" following War Sucks is added as part of the song.

In popular culture
Pink Stainless Tail were a rock band which formed in Melbourne, Australia, who named themselves after the song.

Osees are an American rock band that borrowed the bass riff of "Hurricane Fighter Plane" for "Block of Ice," the opening song on their album The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In.

John Dwyer remarked: "Block of Ice was obviously inspired by Red Krayola. We were doing a show with them, and have always loved them. Also Malcolm Mooney from Can. Really a blatant rip off, but bent towards what we are capable of. When we opened with it at the show, they ended up doing 'Hurricane Fighter Plane' for like 15 minutes. Pretty rad."

Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream featured "Hurricane Fighter Plane" in his memoir, Thompson also produced the band's debut album Sonic Flower Groove.

Spacemen 3 recorded a version of "Transparent Radiation", and Spectrum, fronted by ex–Spacemen 3 member Peter Kember (aka Sonic Boom), released an EP in 2009 with a cover of "War Sucks" as the title track whilst Really Red recorded their version of "War Sucks" in 1984. Madlib sampled "Former Reflections Enduring Doubt" in 2014 for the track "Centauri" on Rock Konducta, Pt. 2. Barkmarket covered "Pink Stainless Tail" in 1989.

Notable artists such as The Cramps and Alien Sex Fiend would cover "Hurricane Fighter Plane". Steve Albini mentions in an unfinished Red Krayola documentary, that he recalls many bands covering the track. In 1994, he'd produce the band's self-titled release. Additionally, the song would be re-recorded in 1978 with drummer Jesse Chamberlain to promote Radar Record's LP re-issue.

Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group who would create the seminal compilation album of '60s garage rock entitled Nuggets referenced the Parable of Arable Land's liner notes when discussing the album: "I’m a person who resists definitions. I believe that, as Mayo Thompson of the Red Krayola once said on one of those International Artists records, 'Definitions define limit'. I’ve always looked for those moments in time where definitions are blurry and that to me is what’s really nice about Nuggets is that the bands hadn’t figured it out yet, so you had a lot of wild cards."

Personnel

 * The Red Crayola


 * Frederick Barthelme – drums
 * Steve Cunningham – bass guitar
 * Mayo Thompson – guitar, vocals


 * The Familiar Ugly (known members)
 * Haydn Larson - spoons
 * Roger Hamilton AKA William West
 * Butch Caraban
 * Pat Pritchett
 * Pat Conley
 * Danny Schwartz
 * Barbara (Potter) Metyko
 * Alicia Garza
 * Linda Linda
 * Donald Pick
 * Elaine Banks
 * Sara Quigles
 * David Potter's Wife
 * Joe Pritchett
 * Dennis Glomm
 * Ian Glennie
 * Larry Frost
 * Skip Gerson
 * Helena or Helene (Skip Gerson's Girlfriend)
 * Mike Metyko AKA F.R.B Rapho
 * Jamie Jones
 * George Farrar AKA Red
 * Bill Smith
 * Carolyn Heinman
 * Johndavid Bartlett
 * Frank Simmons
 * Steve Webb
 * Mary Sue
 * Dotty
 * Candy


 * Additional personnel
 * Roky Erickson – organ ("Hurricane Fighter Plane"), harmonica ("Transparent Radiation")


 * Technical
 * Lelan Rogers – production
 * Walt Andrus – engineering
 * Frank Davis – engineering
 * George Banks (Flash Graphics) – cover art

Release history
This release includes extensive liner notes, including interviews and photographs