Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years from 1965-1968 and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.
Track 84: Mirror Of Your Mind by We The People
Release Date: 1966
From: Orlando, Florida
Rating: 8/10
MIRROR OF YOUR MIND – We The People [2:39]
(Thomas Talton)
Personnel/TOMMY TALTON: vocals, guitar * WAYNE PROCTOR: lead guitar, vocals * RANDY BOYTE: organ * DAVID DUFF: bass, vocals * LEE FURGUSON: drums
Produced by TONY MOON
Recorded in Nashville, TN
Challenge single #59333 (6/66)
We The People were a garage rock supergroup from Orlando, Florida, formed from members of The Coachmen, the Nation Rocking Shadows, and The Offbeets. The band boasted two songwriters, Tommy Talton and Wayne Proctor. Proctor wrote the majority of the band’s material, but both songs featured on Nuggets came from Talton’s pen.
‘Mirror Of Your Mind’ is intense for a 1966 track – in particular, the drums sound like a punk record, while the vocal is somewhere between a wail and a scream. There’s a cool little drum break that’s too long to be a fill and too brief to be a solo. And there’s an instrumental break with a harmonica. It’s stronger than their other Nuggets track, ‘You Burn Me Up And Down‘.
We The People never released a studio album, but did release enough singles to justify several compilations; notably 1983’s Declaration of Independence. Like The Band and The The, We The People’s Declaration of Independence is not an easy item to find on Google!
Proctor wrote most of We The People’s material, but it was Tommy Talton who went onto a professional music career. He was part of the country-rock band Cowboy who played with the Allman Brothers and Bonnie Bramlett. Cowboy released a reunion album in 2018, titled 10’ll Getcha Twenty.
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This is loud and in your face and doesn’t back down. It sounds like they peaked the meters on the drums….it sorta is controlled chaos. Nice little guitar lick also… I like it.
I’ve listened to some of Cowboy’s tracks. Please Be With Me is the last thing Duane Allman ever played on I believe.
I hadn’t heard of Cowboy, but that’s a prestigious honour. Allman has a lot of great guest spots from his very short career – I like him on Laura Nyro’s ‘Beads of Sweat’.
Thats interesting. I never heard that before I don’t think. I like how it’s mixed down to the level of the other music and not soaring over everything….very tasteful….and the bass player is fantastic.
I actually have a guest post coming in the weekend where we have differing opinions on the Beads of Sweat album….
Cool…I’ll be looking forward to that. I wasn’t expecting that song at all when I first listened.
Like. Vocals sound a bit like Iggy.
That’s a good comparison. The Like button is driving me a bit crazy – every time something updates it just goes AWOL.
Cool tune and pretty raw sound! Yet another garage band I had never heard of. Garage rock truly is a goldmine. Thanks for continuing to highlight these oftentimes hidden gems!
I hadn’t heard of most of these bands either – although these guys are the first to reappear in the series. I’m working backwards through the set, and they had a song on disc 4 as well – this one is much stronger I think.
Just repeat myself. It fits perfectly in Nuggets. Little Stones in the sound.
I agree with the Stones comparison, although the drumming is different – he plays it full and straight.
It was some of the vocals that triggered the similarity to me.
For sure.
CB nailed it with the early Stones sound. It’s why I love it!
Yup, it’s nice and intense.