Julie Driscoll's "Season of the Witch" (1968)

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Friday Freak-Out: Julie Driscoll with Brian Auger & The Trinity doing a swinging cover of Donovan's "Season of the Witch," 1968. Available on the greatest hits compilation "Kind of Love in (1967-1971)."

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Anonymous

Oh I need more Julie Driscoll in my life. A friend introduced me to her work twenty five years ago and I really must play more.

Her and Maggie Bell. *sigh*
Anonymous

Produced by Giorgio Gomelsky..
burritoflats

Julie and Brian are featured players in The Monkees “33â…“ Revolutions Per Monkee” musical TV special of 1969 – they basically portray brainwashing zvengalis who lead The Monkees into commercial Hell. Julie sings a funky version of “I’m a Believer” with Micky Dolenz and though the special is very fractured and poorly directed, it’s worth buying for the musical mayhem

33â…“ Revolutions Per Monkee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33â…“_Revolutions_Per_Monkee
DStein

Groovy!
zandar

The sixties baby, yeah!

Thank you! I needed cheering up, and this definitely did it.
Anonymous

Thank you so much for this.
PaulR

Seems too lengthy for a tv show performance.

Back in those days, people were born with longer attention spans.

And other parts of their bodies, if I can believe reports about the ubiquitous presence of endrocrine disruptors in the environment nowadays.

33â…“ Revolutions Per Monkee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYOleTcuQuo
See what you can do without CGI? (This requires real creativity, IMHO.)
- lewis stoole
  
  this was pretty good. i have never heard of it before.
  i liked the visual of seeing the multi-layered pianos of superstars topped with the cherry (well the non-superstar playing some really cool shit), but this section of the special, i believe the kids call it the finale, really laid it all out as it sounds like a poor man’s small faces coupled with enough windowpane to turn it into a z-man barzell 4am blazer, complete with a monkees styled lsd cult preacher sporting a funkified comb-over, then it turns into a beautiful kind of crazy bat shit that i like to watch over and over again. god bless the monkees, they really play their instruments well.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqPs8BAVI5I&NR=1
  - lewis stoole
    
    one thing i learned from the movie “dig” is that every great band needs a good tambourine man, and who could ask for more in davey jones.
  - PaulR
    
    Yeah, I used the watch The Monkeys on TV as a kid.
    
    Despite being a manufactured band, they were pretty good, IMHO. I can’t imagine some of the current boy bands releasing…
    ..an anti-war song.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sn1YFg23w8
    ..social commentary.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUzs5dlLrm0
    
    Even Van Morrison lip-synched simple love songs on TV.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=119J9ON2HBA
    Man, some of the folks in the audience weren’t aware (maybe they were drugged) of the genius that was on stage…
    
    It wasn’t always TB Sheets.
    - lewis stoole
      
      i hope i didn’t sound like i was ripping into the monkees. i love the monkees. and i really love their experimental stuff–head–and specifically “the porpoise song” which was featured recently on dangerous minds with carole king’s demo, but i have never heard of this special as it must have been a one time showing that happened right when i was being born. for that i curse the day i was born and wish i was born a year earlier. this is some experimental stuff and i bet it did not fly to well with the public and the neilson crew like the magical mystery tour did when the tv special bombed in the uk. elvis’ tv comeback special was replayed. i remember seeing that. i don’t remember this special.
      
      but the running problem, and the one that irked the band, was that they didn’t play their stuff (when they played on a talk show, mickey dolenz did a dramatic wipe of his nose while the drums were playing, and all while they could play instruments), which is why i really liked the last bit in this special. peter tork playing some weird ass bach on the keyboard, with the camera angles to highlight that he is playing, then the guys come in, dolenz having learned how to play drums (i heard he could play guitar while jones could play drums), and they are obviously playing, then some dude in the crowd holding a protest sign that reads “they are actually playing”. i thought that was pretty cool.
      
      of note, out of the monkees crew came don kirschner’s rock concert (kirschner’s crew wrote the early monkees songs), mtv (nesmith’s baby), and the epic song “cruisin” (another nesmith creation). i love the monkees.
sirkowski

What was this for? Seems too lengthy for a tv show performance.
- Anonymous
  
  It’s for watching just as the shrooms kick in, as a prelude to the Darkside of Oz.
Marshall

I have loved this video for so long, and I just can’t stop wondering when we stopped making amazing, hand built sets like this, and why?
Anonymous

Copycat. I loved this video so much that I went back in time and posted it on Facebook last Friday, March 11. It’s ok, though. I’ll let you take the credit. :)
Anonymous

note to self: maybe i should go to burning man this year – am missing that fuzzy.
subhan

I love the part starting about 3:00 in when she is apparently channeling some sort of bird mating dance
Anonymous

The 1960s were not a good time to be a photosensitive epileptic.
Sapa

Haha I remember my mom’s face when I walked in with all my long hair cut off after school, she thought I’d been attacked. Did it to copy Julie but I think the hairdresser sold it
taghag

super! possibly the best thing is the hardware special effects. and the keyboardist…
Comrade7

That is by far, the most 60s thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Everyhing about it screams 60s! Fantastic.
DEStrath

I have been lovingly collecting versions of this song over the decades. Other notable versions from around the same time are by Terry Reid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za17qwfWgMY
Vanilla Fudge – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwxMVV_EdTM
and perhaps my fave by Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, Steve Stills from their Super Session Album – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWkMMXgQohc