Country Joe & The Fish - Section 43 : a psychedelic must

Though it's not often discussed by rock historians, "Section 43" is one of the high points of early psychedelic music, one of the great '60s San Francisco psychedelic rock tracks, and one of the finest 1960s rock instrumentals in general. This multi-sectioned suite was innovative on several fronts when it first appeared on a 1966 EP: its epic length (nearly seven minutes), its integration of exotic influences from Asian music, its ferocious distorted electric guitar, and its assembly of unusual (for rock) instrumentation in the arrangement. The track begins with a captivating unaccompanied, ominous bass line, perhaps unconsciously influenced by the sort of unaccompanied bass line heard on the Byrds' pioneering psychedelic single "Eight Miles High," released earlier in 1966. The melody than expands into a middle eastern-Indian-Asiatic motif, minor-keyed but hypnotic, played by rhythm guitar, sinister organ, searing wobbling electric guitar, and maracas. The atmosphere created is that of a dark room with incense burning, simultaneously threatening and exhilarating in its whiff of forbidden fruit. It's also a reasonably accurate simulation of the sensations of an LSD trip, which becomes particularly prevalent when a sustained organ note dissolves into a lovely drumless cascade of guitars and drones, as if a portal to an alternate state of blissful consciousness has just been opened. Then it's back to the motif of the main verse, the organ taking the lead briefly before an eerie harmonica takes over, tribal drums rumbling softly in the background. The tempo speeds up and back down again before the cut veers into an unexpected, almost circus-like atonal passage. A screeching organ brings the musicians back into the main body of the song, a stuttering acid-rock guitar adding to the frenzy. When that's over with, it's back into the drumless blissed-out psychedelic section, the harmonica adding particularly seductive, trance-like tones before the performance softly glides to its finish. "Section 43" first appeared on an EP on the small Rag Baby label in 1966, and was re-recorded for Country Joe & the Fish's first full-length album for Vanguard, 1967's Electric Music for the Mind and Body. Although that re-recorded version is good, it's a little inferior to the first version on the EP, which is more spontaneous and otherworldly. Unfortunately it's the second version that most Country Joe & the Fish listeners are familiar with, but actually the original recording is no longer hard to find if you're curious, appearing on several CD reissues. (AllMusic)