The Peanut Butter Conspiracy: Discography

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy was an American, Los Angeles-based, Flower Power pop/rock group

from the 1960s. The band is known for lead singer Barbara Robison and for briefly having Spencer Dryden of Jefferson Airplane as a band member.
                                               

The band formed in Los Angeles in August 1966 from the folk rock group "The Ashes", which

THE ASHES

included John Merrill (guitar/vocals), Barbara "Sandi" Robison (vocals), Alan Brackett (bass/vocals), Spencer Dryden (drums), and Jim Cherniss (guitar/vocals). The group had earlier been known as The Young Swingers, who released two obscure singles. The Ashes released a first single on the Vault label in February 1966, "Is There Anything I Can Do?", written by Jackie DeShannon.
                                                 

Adding drummer Jim Voigt as Dryden's replacement, the Ashes recorded a self-titled LP for the Vault

label before disbanding, with Merrill, Brackett, and Voight recruiting singer Sandi Robison and harpist/guitarist Lance Fent to form the Peanut Butter Conspiracy; after debuting on Vault with the single "Time Is After You," the band signed to major-label Columbia, where 1967's "It's a Happening Thing" heralded the spring release of their debut LP, the Gary Usher-produced The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading.
                                   

Ex-Sound Machine guitarist Bill Wolff replaced Fent for the follow-up, The Great Conspiracy, which

like its predecessor failed to make much of a commercial impact; only Robison, Merrill, and Brackett remained for 1969's For Children of All Ages, which featured new keyboardist Ralph Shuckett and drummer Michael Stevens. Dryden left The Ashes (May 1966) to replace Skip Spence in Jefferson Airplane, Robison left (June 1966) to give birth, and the group temporarily disbanded.
                                     

Alan Brackett hooked up with a new guitarist, Lance Baker Fent, and a new drummer, Jim Voigt, naming the new trio "The Crossing Guards". Merrill and Robison rejoined and the five-piece band became The Peanut Butter Conspiracy.

The group signed with Columbia Records in late 1966, releasing a single "It's A Happening Thing" produced by Gary Usher. It reached number 93 on the national pop chart. The band's first album, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading, followed. It was also produced by Usher, who brought in studio musicians including Glen Campbell and James Burton to bolster the group's sound. The album charted at number 196 on the Billboard 200.
                                           

Their second single produced by Samuel Tarney ("She's My Girl") failed to chart. Their late 1967 single

"Turn On a Friend (to the Good Life)" also failed to chart. However, they toured nationally with a new guitarist, Bill Wolff, and recorded a second album for Columbia, The Great Conspiracy. The group recorded songs for movies, including Angels from Hell, Run Angel Run, Jud, Cherry Harry and Raquel, Hell Ride, 2000 Years Later, and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
                            

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy disbanded soon after, with Brackett pursuing studio work, Fent later collaborating with Randy Meisner, and Wolff joining Fusion.
                                     

ALBUMS

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading (Columbia Records, March 1967)
The Great Conspiracy (Columbia Records, December 1967)
For Children of All Ages (Challenge Records, 1969)

IS SPREADING 1967 - THE GREAT CONSPIRACY 1968

   

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy – The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading / The Great Conspiracy
Label: Collectables – COL CD 6096
Format:    CD, Compilation
Country: US
Released: 1999
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Classic Rock

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading

                                        

  
01. It's A Happening Thing  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:24
02. Then Came Love  (Written-By – John Merrill)  3:41
03. Twice Is Life  (Written-By – John Merrill)  2:47
04. Second Hand Man  (Written-By – Daniel Walter Dalton)  3:23
05. You Can't Be Found  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:45
06. Why Did I Get So High  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:07
07. Dark On You Now  (Written-By – John Merrill)  2:19
08. The Market Place  (Written-By – Lance Fent)  4:02
09. You Should Know  (Written-By – John Merrill)  2:10
10. The Most Up Till Now  (Written-By – Alan Brackett) 2:33
11. You Took Too Much  (Written-By – John Merrill)  2:06
       

The Great Conspiracy

                                               

                            
12. Turn On A Friend (To The Good Life)  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:20
13. Lonely Leaf  (Written-By – John Merrill)  3:52
14. Pleasure  (Written-By – John Merrill)  3:24
15. Too Many Do  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  6:30
16. Living, Loving Life  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  3:18
17. Invasion Of The Poppy People  (Written-By – John Merrill)  0:38
18. Captain Sandwich  (Written-By – John Merrill)  2:09
19. Living Dream  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  4:18
20. Ecstacy  (Written-By – John Merrill)  6:17
21. Time Is After You  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  3:02
22. Wondermen  (Written-By – John Merrill)  4:09

Bonus Tracks

23. I'm A Fool  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:35
24. It's So Hard  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:31
25. Peter Pan (Unreleased)  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  3:18

MP3 @ 320 Size: 182 MB
Flac  Size: 455 MB

FOR CHILDREN OF ALL AGES 1969

                                  

Alan Brackett is the guy singing lead on most of these cuts. He was the PBC's bassist and 1/2 of their in-house songwriting duo. The group was once signed to Columbia where they cut two great records with producer Gary Usher, which were subsequently compiled on the previously mentioned 2-fer. I won't go into details about those albums because you can read my review under the appropriate heading.

The PBC had previously excelled at psychedelic rock music, but times were changing. To compete in '69, you needed soul, baby, you needed to FEEL IT. Alan Brackett knew this, and he reassembled the PBC into a psudeo-R&B configuration, replacing lead guitarist Bill Wolf with former Clear Light keyboardist Ralph Shuckett (whose organ lines you previously heard drench the Monkees' "Porpoise Song" in shimmering glory) and bringing in Clear Light's drummer Michael Stevens as well.
                         

While Clear Light was a psychedelic band first and foremost, you can obviously tell the two new PBCers new how to "cook", as they used to say back then. The precise, sneaky fills from Shuckett's B-3, Brackett's melodic bass runs and rocksteady drumming anchors every track on this record. These

guys FEEL IT, baby. Throughout the album Alan Brackett howls with a mock-psuedo-soul inflection, coming across like a poor man's David Clayton Thomas. Like I said, listen to the sound clips. This is not a voice everybody can appreciate... No, that would be Barbara Robinson (or as we once referred to her high-ness, "Sandi Peanut Butter"). Barbra was the obvious star and focal point of the group. Her vocals are up front in the mix here, but regrettably she only gets to sing lead on a few of these tracks.
                                        

When she does get a lead, however, she certainly makes the most of it. "Return Home" may be perhaps the best female lead vocal in the rock genre I've ever heard in my life. The band plays tastefully and restrianed on that one, letting Barbara just belt. This is potent music, not for the faint of heart. "It's

Alright" is similarly gorgeous, a real sonic beauty and not the phony MIDI excrement you always hear nowadays.
This is the sound of a band that worked hard to put out good music. The fact that they possessed perhaps the best female rock vocalist of the 1960's will only add to the allure of this record over time (review by Jason Penick).

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy – For Children Of All Ages
Label: Rev-Ola – CR REV253
Format:    CD, Album, Reissue
Country: UK
Released: 2008
Genre: Rock, Blues
Style: Folk Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Rhythm & Blues

TRACKS

                                                         

01. Gonna Get You Home  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  5:04
02. Back In L.A.  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  3:18
03. Have A Little Faith  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:46
04. Good Feelin'  (Written-By – Brackett, Merrill)  2:53
05. Loudness Of Your Silence  (Written-By – Dick Monda, Jill Jones)  2:53
06. It's Alright  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  3:33
07. Out In The Cold Again  (Written-By – Dick Monda, Keith Colley)  2:38
08. Now  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  3:17
09. Simple Things  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  3:01
10. Return Home  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  3:45
11. Think  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  3:07
12. Show You The Way  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:38
13. Try Again  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:52
14. Try  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:31
15. You're Not Getting Into It  (Written By – Unknown Artist)  2:08
16. What Did I Do Wrong?  (Written-By – Alan Brackett)  2:21
 
MEMBERS

Vocals – Barbara Robison
Vocals, Bass, Producer – Alan Brackett
Vocals, Guitar – John Merrill
Organ, Piano – Ralph Schuckett
Drums – Michael Stevens (7), Pete McQueen

NOTES

The rear cover states "For this special edition, we've uncovered no less that six previously unreleased tracks which we think are so good we've decide to reconfigure the album in their honour." In fact all the CD bonus tracks all appeared previously on For Children Of All Ages which both predates it and contains one more bonus omitted from here.

The bonus tracks are 4,9,10,12,13,14,15

MP3 @ 320 Size: 111 MB
Flac  Size: 310 MB