My Top 2000 Songs #1187: Brain

I've previously chatted up the Great Lost Album from British Invasion band The Action, a collection of demos recorded in 1967-1968 which, had they ever been completed and polished up, would have easily stood up as one of the finest late 60s albums right alongside comparable contemporaneous work from The Who and the Small Faces. Sadly, the recordings weren't picked up by a record company, and the band ultimately broke up, most of the members regrouping with a new singer as the more psych/prog-oriented Mighty Baby.

Even in the rough demo form which eventually saw release (alternatively as Brain: The Lost Recordings 1967/68 or, later, as Rolled Gold), the songs are outstanding examples of slightly-psychedelic power pop. I've called out "Strange Roads" as a highlight of the collection, but "Brain" is every bit as great. It's a little heavy on the phased guitar effect, but dated flourishes aside still holds up as a bold anthem of empowered youth, a song I could see taking a slot alongside, say, Thunderclap Newman's "Something In The Air" as a British flower-power call to arms.

Longer (and slightly rougher) alternative version:

SoCal band Sidewalk Society re-created the entire album in 2017, giving some wonderful insight into how this might have sounded had The Action been given a chance to finish it.