DAZED AND CONFUSED: THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE SAGA OF JAKE HOLMES
By Will Shade (September 2001)

How many musicians can claim to have been in a comedy team with Joan Rivers, written a concept album for Frank Sinatra, had one of their songs stolen by Led Zeppelin and hung out with Nelson Mandela? Only one: Jake Holmes. Holmes is most famous for two '70's anthems. However, few people know he wrote either of them. One is the aforementioned song that Jimmy Page & Co. nicked, "Dazed And Confused." Holmes has never received a songwriting credit or royalties from the band (for more on that story check out The Thieving Magpies on this website). The other tune is a commmercial that played repeatedly on television, a harangue to join the U.S. Army. C'mon, you remember it . . . "Be all you can be!"

Now, that's a twisted resume! However, Holmes deserves belated recognition for two brilliant albums released on the Tower label in 1967 and 1968. These two records have achieved legendary status and regularly fetch over $100 in collectors' circles. Unfortunately, neither of the albums have ever been released on CD. With the current interest in all things freaky-'60's, they would finally find the audience that was denied them upon initial release.

Holmes' first album for Tower, The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes, is breathtaking in its stark approach. First, Holmes' group employed absolutely no drummer. The trio used almost the same set up that Elvis, Scotty and Bill used in Memphis over a decade earlier - Jake Holmes on acoustic guitar, Teddy Irwin on electric guitar and Rick Randle on bass. Yet, Holmes' sound is so far away from rock n roll, that it is impossible to pigeon-hole. What do you call it? Garage? Well, if you had a crowbar and a some plastique explosive you might pry it into that straitjacket. Folk influences merge with jazz scatting and fuzzed-out acid rock excursions in an bizarre hybrid that has yet to be named. This album is so far in the garage, it's under the garage. But if you're expecting something vaguely like The Seeds, forget it. The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes truly defies description. It is as spartan as a slab of concrete.

Holmes' original version of "Dazed And Confused" vies for attention on this record, which is crammed chock full of miniature masterpieces. "Did You Know" could well be something David Crosby wrote for the Byrds. Just imagine it with 12 string Rickenbackers. And "The Girl Belongs To Me" boasts some of the funniest and strangest lyrics of gender-bending machismo etched in vinyl. The claustrophobic "Lonely" kick-starts a revolutionary album that's so afraid of the sunshine it's crawled under a rock for the last three and a half decades.

His next album for Tower (A Letter To Katherine December) is a little easier to find a comparison for. But not by much. Love's Forever Changes springs to mind. Randle had gone A.W.O.L. by this time because of mental problems. His bizarre bass playing was absent from the album, but Charlie Fox's immaculate string and horn arrangements covered any holes in the mix. Once again, acid-folk gems glitter in the dust, jostling next to Dada rhythms and fractured anti-social Chuck Berry lyrics on warped offerings like "High School Hero." The album investigates the death of a marriage, with the luminous repose of "Chase Your Eyes" in sharp contrast to the melancholia of "Moving Day. " The highpoint of Jake Holmes career appears on this album. "Leaves Never Break" is a pocket symphony to dementia praecox with disembodied vocals and fuzz guitars sprayed all over sumptuous strings.

Unfortunately, after the sepia-toned psychedelia of A Letter To Katherine December, Jake Holmes seemed unsure and unaware of where his true abilities lay. Holmes' eclecticism worked brilliantly on his first two albums. However, that strength now turned into his Achilles heel. His next albums were in keeping with the '70's, singer-songwriter influences merging with country-rock sensibilities and not to this reviewer's taste. Commercially, these albums met with no more success than his earlier hallucinatory efforts. Label changes ensued. Soon, no company would pick him up. With no record contract, Holmes plunged into the world of commercials. Strangely, this is where he finally found success.

So, fasten your seatbelts and prepare for a fascinating ride into the life of a musician who missed out on mythic status, but who might have the last laugh yet