John Scalzi posted a twisted little piece today, entitled “Songs You Like That You’re Pretty Sure No One Else Does”. He chose a track from David Bowie’s Tin Machine side project, which sets a pretty high bar. He also linked to the track on Imeem, which posed a bit of a problem; none of my obvious candidates were available on Imeem. (We’re talking about things like Jon Astley’s “[Let’s Take Off Our Clothes And] Put This Love To The Test”, and Tracy Ullman’s version of “I Don’t Want Our Loving To Die”.) But then I found it: a priceless example of the so-called “Boss-town Sound”. It’s “Mind Flowers” by Ultimate Spinach, from their second LP “Behold & See”. The names, the lyrics, all sound like a satire on the worst excesses of pretentious hippie narcissism – and yet I still like it. Goes down perfectly with a recreational hallucinogen… or at least it did 40 years ago! It takes its place alongside other psychedelic masterpieces from groups like Arzachel, Man, H.P.Lovecraft, and Country Joe & The Fish.