One of the rarest (and most desirable) folk-psych LPs, this record is part of the original private pressing of only 500; there are less than 20 known copies today in the psych scene, so I hear. These come up for auction very infrequently, the last one was over a year and half ago, and almost never in this condition!
Bob Edmund's only known release is unique in several ways, not least as one of the few privately pressed LPs with a mid-60s folk/psych/garage/rock sound. Coming out of New York City in 1970, I See No Colors ignored the prevailing loner folk style to draw on an earlier aesthetic, when tambourine men were all the rage and McGuinn and McGuire pointed the way. Edmund was much too angry to subject his music to any type of LA slickness however, which is why his protest songs come equipped with spikes and rough edges that fit them surprisingly well. Sounding not unlike Barry McGuire on bad speed, Edmund's church organ-led combo (called Byrth) can best be described as psychedelic folk-garage, while his lyrics denounce the war, America, and pretty much everything in sight, and undoubtedly had not been acceptable to a major label. An interesting comparison could be made between the barely contained street-punk rage of this LP, and the happy hippie fairytale moods of Gandalf The Grey, who arose on the same New York City scene around the same time. Edmunds won't reduce himself to a Village soapbox nuisance however, and ends his album with some unexpected hymns to space travel and humanity in general. Released on his own Rabo label, the sleeve was subject to censorship as Edmund's idea of a desecrated Stars 'N Stripes was rejected by the printer. A hurt note on the sleeve explains this background, which in turn explains the album title and the Jasper Johns' style artwork.
Bob's lyrics speak the post-hippie flavor of the times and are sung in his unique scratchy voice. There is an obvious influence of Bob Dylan electric period.
listen here
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