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THE PEANUT BUTTER CONSPIRACY
 This
group formed in late 1966, evolving out of the folk rock band The Ashes.
The band was originally named the Peanut Butter Controversy, but this
moniker was soon changed to the Peanut Butter Conspiracy (PBC). As a
side note, The Ashes' drummer was none other than Spencer Dryden of
future Jefferson Airplane fame.
Original members of the PBC included Alan Brackett (bass, vocals), John
Merrill (guitar, harmonica, vocals), Barbara "Sandi" Robinson
(vocals, tambourine), Jim Voigt (drums) and Lance Fent (guitar). Their
sound can be best described as a very pleasant mixture of folk rock,
smattered with psychedelic overtones and male and female harmonies,
similar to the Mamas & The Papas, but edgier and more progressive.
Most of their material was written by Brackett and Merrill and produced
by Gary Usher.
In November, 1966 they secured a contact with Columbia Records after
releasing one excellent 45 ('Time Is After You' b/w 'Floating Dream') on
the local Vault label. Their first single on Columbia ('It's A Happening
Thing' b/w 'Twice As Life') was a minor hit, reaching #93 on the U.S.
pop charts and received frequent radio airplay. In the spring of 1967,
they issued their debut LP titled 'The Peanut Conspiracy Is Spreading',
which is nothing less than outstanding and includes several incredible
tracks. During the sessions, Usher recruited other musicians such as
Glen Campbell and James Burton to help bolster the sound, which prompted
the group to later disavow the album for that reason. After the record's
release, Fent left the band and was replaced by Mike Kollandar (guitar).
In late 1967, they released their second LP, 'The Great Conspiracy',
which is equally as good, if not better than their first and includes
several more outstanding tunes. The writing and musicianship on this
album is more complex and mature and was handled solely by the band,
which showed that they were really coming into their own. The track 'Too
Many Do' received considerable airplay on FM radio at a time when
extended, three minute plus recordings were popular. At this time,
Kollandar was replaced by Bill Wolff (guitar), but both appeared on the
LP and can be heard playing together on the tracks 'Too Many Do' and
'Lonely Leaf'.
Throughout the late 60s, the PBC played many high profile live shows,
including gigs at San Francisco's Fillmore, L.A.'s Whisky A Go Go and
the famous Sky River Rock Festival in Sultan, WA. Brackett, Merrill and
Robison also collaborated with producer/arranger Stu Phillips, adding
their trademark vocals to many of Phillips' movie scores, including
'Angels From Hell', 'Run Angel Run', and 'Beyond The Valley Of The
Dolls'.
After 'The Great Conspiracy' received only modest commercial success,
the PBC recorded a new Brackett penned single ('I'm A Fool'), which rose
towards the top of the charts in several western cities, including
Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas and Oahu, but amazingly, Columbia refused
to push it elsewhere, denying it the national attention it deserved. On
top of that, Robison was almost killed when the group's tour van she was
driving flipped onto its top and spun down the freeway. These two
occurrences prompted the band to reflect and make the decision that they
wanted out of their contract with Columbia. According to Brackett,
"It just wasn't worth dying over especially when they (Columbia)
were not willing to do what was necessary to push us over the top. I'm
just happy that I had the 'calling' to have my landlord put a pipe
across the inside of our van right behind where the seats were at head
height. I thought that it would stop the equipment from coming forward
if the van had to stop suddenly. I never dreamed that the van would flip
and, when all the equipment shifted to the top, the van just started
spinning round and round. I'll never forget it. I was driving a car
ahead of the van and when I looked in my rearview mirror, I saw it
spinning and the equipment spewing all over the freeway. Luckily there
wasn't a lot of traffic and I backed up so fast I almost lost control of
my car. Barbara had a broken wrist and a large cut on her head with
blood running all down her face. There was debris all over the road and
traffic began backing up for miles. When the rest of the band that was
following miles back finally caught up and saw what was happening and
why there was such a large traffic jam, it scared them tremendously
until they realized that nobody was killed". The lineup on this
tour consisted of Ralph Shuckett (keyboards), Michael Ney (drums) and
the remaining core of the group: Brackett, Robinson, and Merrill.
When the band returned home to Hollywood, they went into the studio to
record publishing demos of some songs that Brackett had written while on
tour. Dave Burgess, VP of Four Star Publishing, knowing that the group
had just quit Columbia said, "That sounds great! Bring in the
8-track!". According to Brackett, "All of a sudden we were
making an album and figured, why not?, we were free to do whatever we
wanted again. On one session, we used Pete McQueen on drums. Dave wanted
us to do a couple of songs written by Dick Monda (Daddy Dewdrop) and
then a sweetening session of horns and strings were added to some of the
tracks. I had taken a picture of my grandmother wearing earphones which
I had plugged into my Teac A1200 and had pushed the 'add' buttons and,
with a microphone, she was hearing tape delay bouncing back and forth
inside her head. I thought it would make a great cover but my mom said
she would sue me if I used the picture so we hired the 'little old lady
from Pasadena' to model the same scenario. Something was missing and I
suddenly realized what it was. I asked her if her teeth were real and
she realized what I was getting at and replied 'I'll take my teeth out
for you honey if you give me 50 bucks!'. I gave her the Grant and out
they came, and that's what you see on the cover of the LP."
This album, 'For Children Of All Ages', is much different than their
previous two, replacing their signature psychedelic folk rock vibe with
a more gospel rock sound. Unfortunately, the record didn't sell well and
with the flower power era coming to a close, the group decided to call
it quits in early 1970. Brackett went on to have success as a session
musician, producer and singer in a slew of movies and television shows.
His new book should be finished soon, covering his time with the PBC and
many other bizarre experiences. Robison extensively toured the hotel
circuits and prematurely passed away on April 22, 1988. Merrill revived
the Ashes, releasing an album in 1970 and remains a musician/singer,
gigging around the Los Angeles area.
Since the PBC's breakup, there have been numerous releases of their
recordings. Ace/Big Beat issued an awesome CD titled 'Spreading From The
Ashes', which contains various hard to find and unreleased recordings,
along with a great history of the group written by Alec Palao. Sundazed
issued the Columbia recordings remastered along with an unreleased song
titled 'Out Of Phase'. 'Children Of All Ages' is being re-released by
Revola in 2008 and hopefully a new CD featuring Barbara Robison with
many unheard recordings will also be forthcoming soon. A new movie
titled 'Hell Ride', produced by Quentin Tarintino, which is due to be
released in 2008, will use one of their songs twice in the soundtrack.
After that, there are many more recordings penned by Brackett and
Merrill that could eventually surface, proving once again that the
Peanut Butter Conspiracy keeps on spreading!
DISCOGRAPHY
ALBUMS
The
Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading Original LP/EP Label: Columbia CS
9454 Released: March 1967 / The Great Conspiracy Original LP/EP Label:
Columbia CS 9590 Released: December 1967 /
SINGLES
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