Ode To Quetzalcoatl

60Sミシガンのフォーク・ロック/ガレージ・ロック・シーンでTHE SHILLELAGHSやPETER & THE PROPHETSとして活動したギタリストDAVID BIXBY。アコースティック・ギター片手にLSDをキメたら途端に表出したスピリチュアルなジャーニーを求めて残された本作は、90年代後半に再発見された内省的自主盤アシッド・フォークの極北盤として知られています。ご多分に漏れずオリジナル盤の入手は困難を極める一枚。

枯れたアコギと彼のダウナーな歌声に少々のフルートとハーモニカという簡素なアンサンブルを主体とし、エコーの効いたローファイ環境の中、ドラッグによる決して楽しそうとは言えない彼のインナー・スペースへの旅路を淡々と綴っております。近似値を挙げるとすればSIMON FIN辺りに近いでしょうか。その名もズバリな"DRUG SONG"から幕開けする全12曲。この1年半後にはHARBINGER名義でこちらもダウナー・アシッド・フォークの傑作『SECOND COMING』を残すことになるのは好事家にすでにご周知の通り。

In the early '70s, there was a subgenre -- still being excavated and discovered by collectors -- of privately pressed, or quite limited-edition, singer/songwriter folk albums that sounded like burnt-out leftovers from the hippie era. A percentage of these, in turn, were recorded and released by musicians with fervent if rather inarticulate religious beliefs. Dave Bixby's Ode to Quetzalcoatl is one of these, and though its purpose seems to have been to celebrate his deliverance from evil after embracing Christianity, it nonetheless sounds quite despondent and isolated in its mood. With acoustic guitar usually serving as his only instrumental accompaniment (and a bit of flute and harmonica heard at times), Bixby sings in a moan-lilting, slightly echoing voice whose sad and lonesome feel gives the impression that his demons have by no means been wholly exercised by salvation. No doubt this wasn't at all the intention, but it certainly isn't an effective testament to positive change, not if such change is associated with increased contentment and happiness. There's much to criticize here on musical grounds: the mood is oppressively isolating, the singing is irritatingly plain and low-energy, and there's much dreary sameness to the oft minor-key songs and the guitar work. At the time, if only relatively speaking, it's not bad for its slight genre; you can hear genuine spookiness in Bixby's music, somewhat like an amateur Skip Spence, with a touch of Neil Young at his most despairing. You probably wouldn't want to spend much time alone with Bixby, but as an evocation of a confused era in which some of the more disoriented constituents of the counterculture didn't know where to turn, the LP has its limited worth. ~ Richie Unterberger