H.P. Lovecraft: The Psychedelic Rock Band
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American psychedelic rock band, formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1967 and named after the horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. The band became aware of H.P. Lovecraft because band member Ethan Kenning (who performed in the band under the name George Edwards) asked his manager who had a dog named Yuggoth, where the name came from. He told him about Lovercraft, which lead Edwards to start reading Lovecraft's books. The band had to get permission to call themselves "H.P. Lovecraft", but as fate would have it, one of their managers went to college with August Derluth, who was the executor of the Lovecraft estate. And the thus the band H.P. Lovecraft was born.
The band signed to Philips Records in 1967 and recorded their first album H. P. Lovecraft (1967), with much of the material being from Edwards days as a touring folk singer. However the album included what is likely the band's most well known song, "The White Ship". The song was an original composition, inspired by the Lovecraft short-story of the same name, first published in The United Amateur (Vol. 19) #2, November 1919. The song was released as a single, but failed to chart. It did go on to gain a cult FM Radio following. |
The band toured extensively the West Coast, eventually relocated from Chicago to San Francisco, California, where they became a frequent attraction at various San Francisco Bay Area venues, including The Fillmore and the Winterland Ballroom. However during their touring period they supported some bands that would go done in rock history, such as the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. They also supported the British kings of rock the The Who and the gods of prog rock Pink Floyd.
In 1968, they went back in the studio to record their second album, the imaginatively titled H.P. Lovecraft II. This was the "difficult second album", as due to touring they hadn't amassed a enough new material. It was recorded at the infamous The Beach Boys owned, I.D. Sound Studios in Los Angeles. Edwards claimed that the studio had a strange vibe to it, mainly due to the internal frictions among The Beach Boys. To add to that, as Edwards recalls, " One night while we were recording there, I noticed a fellow sitting quietly in the corner. I thought he had come with one of the other band members, but when I asked who he was, nobody knew. I later found out it was Charles Manson, who was a friend of Dennis Wilson." Legend has it that the album was the first major label release to have been recorded by musicians who were all under the influence of LSD. It was engineer Chris Huston that brought the unprepared (possibly tripping) band together, and drew-out of the tired and utterly fried band members an album they could release. Among the tracks on the second album was "At The Mountains Of Madness", which was based on the 1931 (not published until 1936) Lovecraft novella of the same name. Again the album wasn't a success, and failed to chart.
By 1969 the band was over. Original members Edwards and Tegza, attempted to reform as simply Lovecraft, and recorded one album Valley of the Moon in 1970. The album was much more mainstream, then the previous two, and had lost the psychedelic and in some small way Lovecraft inspired influences of the previous albums. The band finally broke-up in 1971.
In 1968, they went back in the studio to record their second album, the imaginatively titled H.P. Lovecraft II. This was the "difficult second album", as due to touring they hadn't amassed a enough new material. It was recorded at the infamous The Beach Boys owned, I.D. Sound Studios in Los Angeles. Edwards claimed that the studio had a strange vibe to it, mainly due to the internal frictions among The Beach Boys. To add to that, as Edwards recalls, " One night while we were recording there, I noticed a fellow sitting quietly in the corner. I thought he had come with one of the other band members, but when I asked who he was, nobody knew. I later found out it was Charles Manson, who was a friend of Dennis Wilson." Legend has it that the album was the first major label release to have been recorded by musicians who were all under the influence of LSD. It was engineer Chris Huston that brought the unprepared (possibly tripping) band together, and drew-out of the tired and utterly fried band members an album they could release. Among the tracks on the second album was "At The Mountains Of Madness", which was based on the 1931 (not published until 1936) Lovecraft novella of the same name. Again the album wasn't a success, and failed to chart.
By 1969 the band was over. Original members Edwards and Tegza, attempted to reform as simply Lovecraft, and recorded one album Valley of the Moon in 1970. The album was much more mainstream, then the previous two, and had lost the psychedelic and in some small way Lovecraft inspired influences of the previous albums. The band finally broke-up in 1971.
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Dreams In The Witch House: The Complete Phillips Recordings (2005)
In the subsequent years, interest in the band H.P. Lovecraft has grown. In 2005 a compilation CD was released of both H.P. Lovecraft (1967) and H.P. Lovecraft II (1968), with additional bonus tracks. Featuring both the full epic 6 minutes 35 seconds version of the song White Ship, as well as the radio edit as a bonus track. Due to the renewed interest in the band in the 1980s, other compilations have been released. These were At The Mountains Of Madness (1988), both H.P. Lovecraft and H.P. Lovecraft II (1997) and again in 2000. However the best release is the 2005 compilation, which is the complete recordings of the semi-Lovecraftian inspired band. |
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Track Listing
1. Wayfaring Stranger (2:39) 2. Let's Get Together (4:38) 3. I've Been Wrong Before (2:47) 4. Drifter (4:14) 5. That's the Bag I'm In (1:46) 6. White Ship (6:35) 7. Country Boy & Bleeker Street (2:38) 8. Time Machine (2:08) 9. That's How Much I Love You Baby (More or Less) (3:57) 10. Gloria Patria (0:30) 11. Spin, Spin, Spin (3:23) 12. It's About Time (5:19) 13. Blue Jack of Diamonds (3:08) 14. Electrollentando (6:36) 15. At the Mountains of Madness (4:59) 16. Mobius Trip (2:44) 17. High Flying Bird (3:24) 18. Nothing's Boy (0:42) 19. Keeper of the Keys (3:08) Bonus tracks: 20. Anyway That You Want Me (2:40) 21. It's All Over for You (2:37) 22. White Ship (Single Edit) (2:55) 23. Keeper of the Keys (Single Mix) (2:56) |
Weird Retro Fact: George Edwards was a session musician and vocalist for Dunwich Records, before forming H.P. Lovecraft. In fact H.P. Lovecraft's first release was a solo single by Edwards, that featured future band member Dave Michaels. It was the idea of Dunwich founders Bill Traut and George Badonsky, to release the single under the H.P. Lovecraft name. As fans themselves of Lovecraft, they had named the record company after the Lovecraft short-story from 1928, the Dunwich Horror. The record label only ever released albums by two artists, Shadows of Knight and Amanda Ambrose. The publishing arm of the label was called Yuggoth Music, after a fictional planet in Lovecraft's stories.
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