The United States of America – I Won’t Leave My Wooden Wife For You, Sugar
The concept of this band’s only album is titillating even now looking back on 1968: make rock music without guitars. It would be more than possible for it to go wrong, & perhaps even inevitable that it would not be warmly accepted into the rock canon, but The USA managed it with flying psychedelic colors. Find here the roots of electronic experimentation, the methods of tape manipulation & mic loops that Miles Davis would perfect on On the Corner just a few years later, & the nod to old-time American music seemingly draining from the excess tape left on the track. This album is a moment that should be an integral piece of American rock history but has gone lost in between the cracks, & lives only on hip know-it-all lists & elite conversations. I say bring the Wooden Wife to the surface! Blast it from the serene suburban rooftops!
