The Parable of Arable Land

The Parable of Arable Land
File:Parable of Arable Land The Red Crayola.png
Studio album by The Red Crayola (with The Familiar Ugly)
Released	June 1967
Recorded	1 April 1967 – 11 May 1967 at Andrus Studio, Texas, US
Genre	Experimental rock, psychedelic rock, proto-punk
Length	41:32
Label	International Artists
Producer	Lelan Rogers
The Red Krayola chronology
The Parable of Arable Land (1967) God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It (1968)

The Parable of Arable Land is the first studio album by Red Krayola (also known as Red Crayola) which features improvised pieces dubbed "Free Form Freak-Out" as well as notable instrumental cameos by label mate and 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson. The album's title was coined by bassist Steve Cunningham.

The Familiar Ugly

The Familiar Ugly was the group of people of any number above 1 that would join in on stage to perform with the band - they provided the "Free Form Freak-Outs" that appear between each song, Frederick Barthelme later reflected. "At heart we were as elitist as could be, but these folks came to our shows and some we knew and most we did not know, but whenever we played, there they were, ready to mount the stage and screech until the last plug was pulled, and there we were, ready to invite them – the Familiar Ugly, we dubbed ’em." After playing as a five piece consisting of all three original members plus Bonnie Emerson and Danny Schacht, the group split back to the original trio and instead called every added member a part of the Familiar Ugly.

Free Form Freak-Out was a term coined by record producer Lelan Rogers he proposed the idea of having the album intermingle songs with the Familiar Ugly, fading one into the other. Mayo Thompson said of this: "Free form means this ain't never gonna happen again. We're about to have an experience that will not be [had] ever again. I'm not making any claims about form. It's an oxymoron at best. The guy [Rogers] was looking for an advertising slogan. That was his form; that was his description of what we did. I just clung onto it because I'm a nominalist; So I'm just going with what we're calling it historically." On the inner groove track list it's spelt as "Free Form Freakout" whilst on the record's back cover it's "Free Form Freak-Out".

Mayo Thompson details the formation of The Familiar Ugly: "It was an organization that accompanied, or enveloped, or just happened while we played. It was part of the phenomenon then. They were undirected. Open-numbered; any number above one. If you had the Red Crayola plus one person on stage, that person was the Familiar Ugly. If there were five, or fifty, up to an indefinitely large number. People liked it, liked the “noise” we made. When we met Cunningham, we also met Bonnie Emerson and Danny Schacht, and we played as a five-piece. It was alright, it could have gone on, but we were becoming a regular band: doing covers, the things driving the formal expressions were idiomatic, and genre-ridden. That was getting problematic. We were trying to write material, and felt that the only way forward was to generate fresh material, which had some sort of novelty to it so that we would be satisfied and remain interested in the problem, in the hopes that there would be some popular assonance there and see what would happen. And eventually this conversation led to somebody else joining the band, and then somebody else joining the band, and we looked at each other and thought, Hm. So when you start a conversation, people who can participate will."

The Familiar Ugly played their music on industrial power tools, telephones, sheet metal, talking dolls, furniture, bells, bottles, horns, sticks, flutes, whistles, kazoos, pots, pans, matchsticks, alarm clocks, a jug, rocks, piccolo, hammers, mouth bow, balloons, a buzz saw and even a revving motorcycle.

Recording

The Familiar Ugly were recorded on April Fool's Day 1967 in a 3 hour evening session on one master tape, it was done on eight tracks - with eight microphones that all led down to one channel as said by Mayo Thompson: "We went back and pieced it together so that it would have a flow to it and all the while we were naïve. We went in the studio, if we'd had our druthers, we would have multitracked the free form stuff, because we could have done more of our own thing. As it was, it was just frozen. It was a documentary relation, documenting the recording."

They were instructed by the band to play whatever they pleased. The band then recorded the rest of the album's material on the following days: 5 April 1967 (its unknown what was recorded at this session, on the 2014 Parable of Arable Land reissue states that it might have been: Former Reflections Enduring Doubt and or The Parable of Arable Land (title track); on the 10th of April they recorded Pink Stainless Tail, Hurricane Fighter Plane, War Sucks and lost recordings called "F.R.E.D" and "Water Vessel". Other unreleased songs from the era were "Vile Vile Grass" and "Mother", tracks which were later recorded properly on the original band's reunion album Fingerpainting one of the known lost unrecorded tracks from this period is "Concrete Block". Another session was booked on 11 May, but it is also unknown what was recorded then.

Mayo Thompson describes the recording of the album: "Our first album was recorded mono. [The simulated stereo mix] is Walt Andrus's studio wizardry. We made the mono version and then like two days later I was around the studio, and they said, 'Come here, what about this for a stereo album?' And I sat there and listened to it and I said, 'sounds okay to me, crazy, but sounds okay.' For the stereo mix the songs were processed through a stereo effects chamber with added psychedelic effects (such as loops, reversed tapes, speed fluctuations and sound effects) for the stereo mix.

"And then over the next couple of days we went in and did the backing tracks — we played them live," with few overdubs. Vocal tracks on some songs, such as "War Sucks," were also recorded live. "When we had the backing tracks, Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators was invited in to play the organ part on 'Hurricane Fighter Plane' and played the mouth organ part on 'Transparent Radiation'."- Mayo talks about the recording of The Parable of Arable Land.

Music

The band was influenced by Frank Zappa, The Fugs, Albert Ayler and The Godz and while marketed as a "psychedelic" album, it also had a lot to do with modern 20th-century composers such as Harry Partch, John Cage and the avant-garde in general.

Mayo notes that he's influenced by everything going on around him and everything he sees, hears, smells or touches. This idea is also explored by Barthelme on The Parable of Arable Land's back cover notes. "Music has to do with the publication of choices relevant to production. This LP evinces a series of choices taken by the group during the past eight months, already new choices have been made, this is a record."

Mr. Thompson spoke shortly of their influences: "Albert Ayler was an influential figure. If you wanted to do something that had some intensity to it, you had to rise to the level of Bells. Or you had to rise to the level of Ascension, where it starts out with like 9 of the heaviest tenor players in the whole wide world". "When we heard Hendrix on the other hand, that put [an end] to any question of pursuing virtuosity as something we had to have in place in order to be able to exchange ideas with people".

The most non-traditional and avant-garde of the six songs is the title track. An instrumental, it features nothing but a sparse and exotic-sounding percussion loop with minimal improvisation on top of it, building in intensity and then settling down over the course of about three minutes. This is not part of the "Free Form Freak-Out" tracks, as it seems to be somewhat orchestrated through conducted improvisation. This track in particular foreshadows the blatantly minimalistic and non-commercial nature of their rejected second album, Coconut Hotel.

"War Sucks" contains lyrics that reference the 1893 American song America the Beautiful: "America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!"

"Lyndon! a good general he does weep, when he sends his troops out into battle" is believed to be a reference to 36th president of the United States of America at the time, Lyndon B. Johnson who was once commander-in-chief.

"General Fox" was Lelan Roger's (Red Crayola producer) nickname.

Production

The album cover was drawn by George Banks, the informal manager of the 13th Floor Elevators - he was also the illustrator behind the album cover for Easter Everywhere and other International Artist releases.

Although all of the songs are credited as being written by the whole band, the truth is - "Hurricane Fighter Plane" was written by Thompson, the music to "Transparent Radiation" was written by Barthelme whilst the lyrics were written by Thompson, Barthelme and Thompson wrote the lyrics to "War Sucks" whilst the music was written by the whole band, Barthelme also wrote the music to "Pink Stainless Tail" whilst the lyrics were written by Thompson, the title track was written by the whole band while "Former Reflections Enduring Doubt" was written by Cunningham.

Each of the songs bears a lengthy subtitle on the track listing of vinyl and CD releases (listed in quotations instead of the typical parentheses) lifted directly from its own lyrics (except for the title track, which is an instrumental).

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Pitchfork	9.3/10
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10
Uncut

In a retrospective review, Pitchfork critic Alex Linhardt praised The Parable of Arable Land as "one of the most visionary album[s]" of 1967. Trouser Press wrote that the album "boasts a more engaged intelligence than most of the era's aural acid baths". Mark Deming of AllMusic remarked that "The Parable of Arable Land exists on a plane all its own; if art-damaged noise rock began anywhere, it was on this album."

In 2011, The Parable of Arable Land was selected by Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT for inclusion in NME's list of "The 100 Greatest Albums You've Never Heard".

Jimi Hendrix owned a copy of The Parable of Arable Land - Kathy Etchingham believes that Hendrix picked up the album on an impulse due to the artwork reminding him of his own personal drawings and paintings.

Covers/Remixes/Re-Recordings

Numerous bands have covered Hurricane Fighter Plane throughout the years including Sort Sol and Alien Sex Fiend.

The Cramps covered Hurricane Fighter Plane Live at The Venue in London on the 19th of April 1980 (this might be the very first Red Krayola cover).

Really Red covered War Sucks for their 1984 Rest in Pain LP and followed it with a soundscape piece entitled "Just the Facts Ma'am", which is an obvious tribute to the free-form freakouts on "Parable of Arable Land".

Spacemen 3 covered Transparent Radiation in 1987 which later became a live staple for the band.

Barkmarket covered Pink Stainless Tail in 1989 for their "Easy Listening" album.

Madlib remixed Former Reflections Enduring Doubt in 2014 for his album "Rock Konducta, Pt. 2" on the track "Centauri".

Mayo Thompson revisited some of the songs on this album with Sven-Åke Johansson's Quintet on an album called "Shotgun Wedding".

Track listing

The songs on side a and side b are the same for both mono and stereo versions; however, some releases mark the Free Form Freak-Outs as part of the songs and because of this they only list all 6 songs.

In the 2011 Sonic Boom remaster Vile Vile Grass might have been tagged as a War Sucks demo by accident, as it bares no resemblance to the aforementioned song.

All tracks are written by Frederick Barthelme, Steve Cunningham and Mayo Thompson

Side A

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Free Form Freak-Out"	1:30
2.	"Hurricane Fighter Plane" (subtitled "When the Ride Is Over You Can Go to Sleep")	3:33
3.	"Free Form Freak-Out"	2:24
4.	"Transparent Radiation" (subtitled "Red Signs Out-Side, Which I Contain")	2:32
5.	"Free Form Freak-Out"	4:21
6.	"War Sucks" (subtitled "You Remember What Happened to Hansel and Gretel")	3:38
7.	"Free Form Freak-Out"	3:09

Side B

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Free Form Freak-Out"	1:52
2.	"Pink Stainless Tail" (subtitled "Seven Guest Are Quite Now, And Now Not Half So Much")	3:16
3.	"Free Form Freak-Out"	3:05
4.	"Parable of Arable Land" (subtitled "And the End Shall Be Signaled By the Breaking of a Twig")	3:06
5.	"Free Form Freak-Out"	4:09
6.	"Former Reflections Enduring Doubt" (subtitled "I Pass in a Rain That Is Always Too Soon")	4:57
Total length:		41:32

2011 Sonic Boom Remaster Bonus Tracks

No.	Title	Length
13.	"Nickle Niceness (Demo Of 'Green of My Pants')"	2:57
14.	"Vile, Vile Grass (Demo Of 'War Sucks')"	2:13
15.	"Transparent Radiation (Demo)"	2:45
16.	"Pink Stainless Tail (Alternate Version)"	3:25
17.	"Hurricane Fighter Plane (Alternate Stereo Mix)"	3:48
18.	"Former Reflections, Enduring Doubt (Altermate Stereo Edit & Mix)"	2:06
Total length:		58:11

Personnel

The Red Crayola

• Frederick Barthelme – drums
• Steve Cunningham – bass guitar
• Mayo Thompson – guitar, vocals

The Familiar Ugly (known members)

• Haydn Larson - spoons
• Roger Hamilton AKA William West
• Butch Caraban
• Pat Pritchett
• Pat Conley
• Danny Schwartz
• Barbara Metyko
• Alicia Garza
• Linda Linda
• Donald Pick
• Elaine Banks
• Sara Quigles
• David Potter's Wife
• Joe Pritchett
• Dennis Glomm
• Ian Glennie
• Larry Frost
• Skip Gerson
• Mike Metyko (F.R.B Rapho)
• Jamie Jones
• George Farrar (Red)
• Bill Smith

Additional personnel

• Roky Erickson – organ ("Hurricane Fighter Plane"), harmonica ("Transparent Radiation")
• Bonnie Emerson – guitar
• Danny Schacht – harmonica

Technical

• Lelan Rogers – production
• Walt Andrus – engineering
• George Banks (Flash Graphics) – cover art

External links

• The Parable of Arable Land at Discogs (list of releases)