My Top 1000 Songs #607: 10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I'm an absolute sucker for late 60s UK psych-pop. But not many songs hit that perfect sweet spot, catchy and melodic with just enough of the studio gimmickry of the day to give it a trippy psychedelic vibe. But this one-off from Aquarian Age nails it--a little dark & haunting, odd vocal quirks, light orchestration, flanged guitars, and so on. Fans of Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, Satanic Majesties, SF Sorrow, et al take note!

The song has its roots in the break-up of Tomorrow, a band best remembered for its own perfect psych-pop nugget "My White Bicycle" (and for guitarist Steve Howe, who went on to join Yes). The rhythm section of drummer Twink (John Adler, who then went on to join the Pretty Things and later the Pink Fairies) and bassist John (Junior) Wood wrote "10,000 Words In A Cardboard Box" and released it in 1968 under the band name Aquarian Age. The song was produced by Mark Wirtz, another favorite of mine, who produced a lot of late 60s music and released some fascinating sunshine pop of his own. (Twink also included a different version of the song on his excellent 1970 solo album Think Pink.)

Anyway, just a bit of history for an unduly obscure Nuggets-worthy gem.

The slower, less poppy Twink version:

2011 cover version by a band called The Seventh Ring Of Saturn (unfortunately cut-off):

2014 cover version by a band called The Lysergics: