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The Seeds of Time were a Canadian garage rock and psychedelic band from Vancouver, British Columbia, who were active...

History
Museum of Canadian Music:

The Seeds of time were founded by high school students in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1965 and were influenced by the music of the British Invasion.

...None of us were proper musicians except that our organist had suffered through some piano lessons in his youth. But, those blokes in England could do it so why couldn’t we? I was fifteen years old – I thought I was going to be a dentist – I had no idea I was going to spend the next fifty years playing drums in a rock band.

The pre-hippie days of the mid-sixties were really the golden age of pop radio. There was the British Invasion, Motown and all those beach boy bands out there in California. Hit singles poured from the speakers like Margaritas on Spring Break but generally they only lasted a week or two because there were hundreds of great songs pushing their way up the charts every day. We didn’t need to study music; all we needed to do was listen. It all seemed so easy, so innocent. Then the Summer of Love hit us and my teenage life became one long psychedelic acid trip.

Our band’s endless stream of silly names came to a conclusion when original singer, Bob Kripps walked into rehearsal with a science-fiction book of short stories by John Wyndham titled, the Seeds of Time. Guitarist Frank Brnjac, bassist Steve Walley, organist John Hall and I all agreed that this was to be our name.

At first we learned songs note-for-note off the record. It was just like paint-by-numbers; we didn’t actually know or comprehend the musicality, it was just copying the sounds. A monkey could have done it (probably better). But when vocalist, Geoff Edington replaced Kripps and guitarist, Lindsay Mitchell took over for Brnjac we became musicians. We began experimenting with music. We did our own thing. If Geoff had heard a song he liked he kind of strummed the chords and guessed at the melody & lyrics and we all played it any way we felt like it. We never copied a song off the record again; we just made it up. Somehow our repertoire of Elvis, Procol Harem, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, the Doors, Donovan and other diverse artists melded together into some kind of a cohesive style all our own.

It was 1967 and the SEEDS OF TIME hit the road. It almost killed us ... the drugs, the booze, the sexy girls and five guys in a van hurling along treacherous mountain highways in the dead of winter. It was glorious!

We had a band house. It was one of those hippie communes you may have read about ... a so-called utopian society where everyone was equal and you were allowed – no, encouraged - to do what you want. There were no rules in our lives and no game-clock. I never owned a wrist watch; didn’t need one. Even when we gave up the house and scattered like rats we still abided by our mantra, “Fun! Not boring!”. Inevitably, that led to heroin, cocaine and alcohol addiction ... not really a lot of fun. But, the never ending wild sex was pretty cool!

Somehow, we managed to write and perform some very good rock & roll. Recording was a bit of a problem though as it required organizing and scheduling (not strong suits for the SEEDS OF TIME). Still, our first single, MY HOME TOWN, was released in 1969 and was a modest hit across the country. Later, CRYIN’ THE BLUES, did even better (the B-side, BABY DOLL BETTER BEAT YOUR ASS BACK HOME enjoyed patchy success with radio stations willing to broadcast “ass” all over Canada). But, that was it.

By 1975 drug & alcohol abuse took its toll. The band didn’t break up; fittingly, it just OD-ed.

I re-configured the band with keyboardist, John Hall and two new guys, guitarist/vocalist, Jerry Doucette and bassist/vocalist, Rick Enns and we called ourselves the ROCKET NORTON BAND. After a couple of years and a few personnel changes that band also dissolved without achieving its potential even though Doucette went on to some success as a solo artist.

Like some cheezy fairytale, there was a happy ending for Hall and me as we rejoined Lindsay Mitchell and became PRISM; a group that produced 16 charted singles and sold over 2 million records in 6 short years. (PRISM came crashing to an end too but that’s another story).

The SEEDS OF TIME Story (Abridged) By: Rocket Norton

For the whole story plus some kind of an explanation as to what happened in the sixties and seventies and, of course, the meaning of life (just kidding about that part ... you’ll have to consult Monty Python’s Flying Circus or figure it out for yourself; whichever turns out best for you) please take a look at: ROCKET NORTON: LOST IN SPACE It can be found on Amazon Kindle or at http://www.rocketnorton.com

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AllMusic:

Cut from the same unwashed, slightly sinister cloth as the Shadows of Knight and other Mom-terrors of the late '60s, Vancouver, BC's "Legendary" Seeds of Time were the Canadian Northwest's punks par excellence. The group included Jeff Edington (vocals); Lindsay Mitchell (lead guitar); Steve Whalley (bass), and Rocket Norton (drums); with sporadic members Allen Harlow (rhythm guitar) and John Hall (keyboards). Edington and Mitchell had graduated from William Tell & the Marksmen in 1965, Vancouver's best-kept folk-rock secret. Their new group gave them the opportunity to sow some wild oats. As popular for their kick-ass tunes as for their outrageous antics, the Seeds cut two singles in 1970-1971 for the Coast label, "My Hometown" and "Cryin' the Blues." During this era, they had police problems, were dumped by their musician's union (conduct unbecoming), wore out their welcome at countless high schools, and got themselves permanently banned from Calgary, Alberta. Musically, "My Hometown" is brash and bold boogie with authority. "Cryin' the Blues" is a rough mix -- part Ray Charles, part Raspberries. Somehow, it works. Trapped by their own excesses, the Seeds softened and adopted new monikers like the "Rocket Norton Band" and "Prism." Unfortunately, the muse had departed, and the Seeds of Time were soon scattered by the wind. Both the above A-sides were featured on the various-artists reissue, the History of Vancouver Rock, Vol. 3 (Vancouver Record Collectors' Association VRCA 001, 1983).

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PW Bands:

Members Jerry Doucette ~ Guitar Geoff Eddington ~ Guitar, Vocals Rick Enns ~ Bass George Greenwell ~ Guitar, Vocals John Hall ~ Keyboards Allen Hawirko (aka: Horowitz & Al Harlow) ~ Bass, Guitar Tom Lavin ~ Guitar, Vocals Alex Michie ~ Saxophone, Vocals Lindsay Mitchell ~ Guitar Steve Walley ~ Bass Gary "Rocket Norton" Wanstall ~ Drums

Norm Williams ~ Manager Jim Wilson ~ Manager

Recorded My Home Town Cryin' The Blues Muskrat Rumble Baby Doll

My name is Norm Williams. I co-managed the Seeds of Time, along with my very good friend, Jim Wilson, from 1967 through 1971. The first time I saw them play, they opened for Country Joe & the Fish, at the Afterthought on 4th Ave. We took the band on the road in the summer of '67 and again in '68...around B.C. and Alberta. Rocket Norton's real name is Garry Wanstall. His nickname was "Rock," which eventually became "Rocket." Norton motorcycles makes a "Rocket" model, so that's where "Norton" came from.

Allan Hawirko. "Horowitz" was a nickname, coined by Geoff Edington.

Norm Williams, February 2006

The Seeds of Time eventually teamed up with Bruce Fairbairn and Jim Vallance and renamed themselves Prism. They had several hit albums and hit singles including a re-recording of the Seeds of Time Classic "Nickels and Dimes" Larry Niven, February 2004

Ear of Newt:

Lindsay Mitchell recalls the Summer of Love with the cocky Seeds of Time

April 21, 2014	· by the newt	· in from the 'hood. ·

SEEDSOFTIME3

photo by Roger Stomperud

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, APRIL 16, 1992

“This ain’t the Garden of Eden

There ain’t no angels above

And things ain’t what they used to be

And this ain’t the summer of love.”

—Blue Oyster Cult

There never will be another summer of love, at least not the kind Vancouver witnessed 25 years ago. Hair, hippies, and hangin’ out—not to mention hassles with the Establishment—were the order of the day back then. “Great Bus Stop Bust” screamed the headline in the first edition of the Georgia Straight, May 5, 1967; a cartoon in the third issue pictured peaceful hippies holding placards reading “We Love Everyone” and “No Complaints”, and a cop yelling at them, “You guys trying to start trouble?”

In order to escape the bad vibes brought on by police persecution and the “Longhairs Out!” policy of mayor Tom Campbell, music-loving Vancouverites indulged in events like the Be-In. At the time, Lindsay Mitchell—who would later gain fame as the guitarist for Prism—was a teenage member of the Seeds of Time, and he still remembers playing the very first Be-In with the likes of Country Joe and the Fish and the United Empire Loyalists.

“Matter of fact, I was just down at the Stanley Park pitch-and-putt with one of my sons,” he says, “and at the 10th or 11th hole I looked right over into Ceperley Park and just sort of flashed back.”

Mitchell and his reunited Seeds of Time buddies—singer Geoff Edington, bassist Al Harlow, keyboardist John Hall, and drummer Rocket Norton—will be reliving that past again on Easter Sunday (April 19) at the 25th Anniversary Easter Be-In. The free gig at Stanley Park’s Lumberman’s Arch—a benefit for the Vancouver Food Bank—will also feature Jim Byrnes, Shari Ulrich, Chris Houston’s Evil Twang, Bruno Gerussi’s Medallion, Pete and the Sneaks, Gail Bowen and Straight Up, Crazy Fingers, Spring, Sunshine, Hydro Electric Streetcar, Brain Damage, and Lenny George.

The Seeds of Time have only performed on rare occasions since dissolving in the mid-’70s, but this current reunion has produced a CD, Immortal. The 19-tune collection includes three tracks recorded last year and live performances from the PNE Gardens in ’69, Breakers in ’73, and the Penticton Peach Bowl in ’74.

“We went all over on this search for Seeds of Time material,” says Mitchell. “We phoned anybody that might have been connected with us—fans, old soundmen—and we just pulled in all these tapes. Sometimes the performance was great but the sound quality was terrible, or the sound quality was great and the performance was terrible, so we took everything into the studio and tried to take out the snap, crackle, and pop.”

The band also managed to plumb the CBC vaults to come up with their performance on the ’60s TV show Let’s Go, which became the basis for a new video that premièred on MuchMusic a couple of weeks back. The sight of the Seeds rockin’ out in ’67 helped restore Mitchell’s recollections of the band’s heyday, which involved opening for the likes of Ten Years After and Rod Stewart and the Faces.

“We did a lot of big shows in those days,” he says. “The music industry wasn’t as huge and monolithic as it is now, so it was still possible for a local band to back up a touring band at the Coliseum or the Agrodome or the Gardens, and more often than not it was us.”

Although they shared the stage with some of the world’s most popular acts—and were one of Vancouver’s top musical attractions—the Seeds of Time never rose to national prominence, and Mitchell has a few ideas why.

“In the mid- to late-’60s there really wasn’t any Canadian recording industry. I mean it was a totally different time. There was no network of agents and gigs where a band with a charted record in Vancouver and Toronto could make it across the country; bands used to play high schools and things like that.

“And also we were quite cocky,” he adds. “We had an offer from one label to record an album, but they wanted to assign a producer to us. We didn’t want any music industry big-wigs telling us what to do, so that basically insured our lack of success. We were long on attitude, put it that way.”

A write-up on the very first Ceperley Park Be-In in the August 21, 1967 edition of the Vancouver Sun tells of “hundreds of gaily-dressed hippies and would-be hippies” who attended the event, which was “sponsored by the hippy newspaper Georgia Straight”. Mitchell recalls well what this paper had to go through to keep afloat while the Establishment tried to suppress its outspoken idealism.

“I can’t remember the number of benefits that we—and several other bands—did to keep the Georgia Straight in business, cause McLeod [Straight founder/publisher Dan McLeod] kept getting in trouble—for what I can’t imagine, really, just words.

“But I figure he owes us big time,” chuckles Mitchell. “The Straight would be in the toilet right now if it wasn’t for us.”

Discography

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