2000 Great Songs #1285: Pentecost Hotel

For those wondering if I'd get around to adding some more Nirvana songs to the list, here you go!

No, wait, other Nirvana. This is the late 60s UK psych band, part of slew of British psych-pop artists of the era whose attempts at obligatory drug music were largely unconvincing (see also, e.g., Chad & Jeremy, Herman's Hermits). Their brand of baroque pop was way too twee and childlike, kinda like hearing Syd Barrett but stripping out the more obvious acid-drenched vibes. Still, their 1967 debut, The Story Of Simon Simopath, is an interesting relic of the era, arguably the first true "concept" album, beating out the Small Faces, Pretty Things, and The Who (whose Tommy gets a lot of credit for introducing storytelling to rock despite its predecessors). The album cover is the most psychedelic thing about the album, but get past the overdose of whimsy and some of the songs are quite nice.

"Pentecost Hotel" is the one I usually think of, a lush track with shades of early Bee Gees and Moody Blues (not the first time in recent days we've drawn from that well), highlighted a lovely, melodic chorus. (Another stand-out, "We Can Help You," leans more heavily on the whimsy but is a fun document of that moment in time as well.) We're not exactly in Piper At The Gates territory here, but they deserve more than just a footnote as the band that sued a certain other band for re-using their name.

On TV:

1972 remake:

Cover by Dutch singer Liesbeth List:

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