The Mystic Tide formed in Long Island, New York, in 1965, and was led by guitarist and songwriter Joe Docko, Paul Picell on bass, Jim Thomas on rhythm guitar, and John William on drums. They formed in early 1965 as The Chosen Few, and changed their name to The Mystic Tide in late 1965, inspired by 'Mystic Eyes', the most extreme single by Van Morrison’s Them. Contrary to what might be expected, The Mystic Tide’s own song cheekily titled 'Mystic Eyes' was a moody, vaguely Zombies-esque folk-punker rather than the rave-up the band name and title would suggest. Their first two singles have none of the wired aggression running through what came next, as something seemed to happen to them between singles two and three, with 'Frustration' featuring elements of bands like The Magicians and The Blues Magoos bleeding into their sound. However, none of this directly explains where The Mystic Tide were coming from, as their sonic attack is like nothing else heard at the time. Their four self-released singles between 1966 and 1967 captured a foreboding kind of early psychedelia denoted by raw, fuzzy guitars, angsty sentiments, and a vaguely Middle Eastern-flavor. They remained largely overlooked on even a local level and disbanded in 1967, but as the years went on, their ahead-of-their-time sound became the fascination of garage rock historians and enthusiasts, and their incredibly rare singles began fetching collector's prices, and appearing on collections of obscure psychedelic bands of the 60's. In 1991, the band's eleven songs were released on a self-titled anthology, and since them a couple of demos have also surfaced, and last year yet another compilation of the singles appeared, but what I wanted to hear was just their 1967 recordings, including the demos, with an edited version of the two parts of the 'Psychedelic Journey' single sides, and the 1966 'Mystic Eyes' single added in. This would feature the band at their very best, and show their ahead of its time sound on their most innovative sides. So here is an album that could have come out a good 25 years before these tracks were eventually made available to the general public.
Track listing
01 Mystery Ship
02 You Know It's True
03 Frustration
04 Psychedelic Journey
05 I Search For New Love
06 Solid Ground
07 You Won't Look Back
08 Mystic Eyes
09 Silver Rails / Going Home
10 Running Through The Night
