Electric Prunes: Mass in F Minor (1967)

For those who grew up in the 1960s, or even those that didn’t but lived where there was a decent rock station that played plenty of music from that era (that is, not an oldies station), you probably have heard “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night”. That band was from a Los Angeles-based psychedelic band Electric Prunes. They managed to release three albums in 1967, Mass in F Minor being their third album (they would release two more album in 1968 and 1969 as well). They went and tried something completely different: they recorded a rock Mass. That means there are six songs, with titles like “Kyrie Eleison”, “Credo”, “Sanctus”, etc. All songs stick strictly to the Latin text, and the results is a pretty interesting, combination of Gregorian chanting with the psychedelic rock you come to expect from that era.

Yeah, the album is a bit half-formed, and the compositions could be a bit stronger, but it’s still pretty good. You can say Mass in F Minor was to 1960s psychedelia what Enigma’s MCMXC a.D. was to modern dance music of the 1990s. Of course, Enigma sampled real Gregorian chants, while the Electric Prunes simply approximated Gregorian chanting by the band members. By the time Mass in F Minor was recorded, the band broke up halfway in the recording of the album, so the first half was done by the original lineup, and for some odd reason, the other half was recorded by an entirely new band consisting of Canadian musicians.

David Axelrod wrote all the music to this album. And it’s also odd that this new band would continue to record under the Electric Prunes for their last two efforts: The Release of an Oathe: The Kol Nidre (1968) and Just Good Old Rock and Roll (1969).

One of the songs on Mass in F Minor might be familiar to all those who watched Easy Rider: “Kyrie Eleison”, as that was one of the songs, along with “Born to be Wild” and “The Pusher” (Steppenwolf) and “Don’t Bogart That Joint” (Fraternity of Man) that was featured on that movie. While Mass in F Minor falls short of a classic in my book, it’s still a pretty fascinating album to include in your collection.