The Serpent Power

50 Essential Albums of 1967 (50 music items)

"Think of the Serpent Power as the Bay Area's version of the Velvet Underground. Led by poet David Meltzer, with Meltzer on untutored post-folk guitar, Meltzer and his wife, Tina, singing his songs, poet Clark Coolidge clattering behind on drums and the soon-vanished John Payne fixing a hole on organ, their music was minimalist folk rock with noise – the climactic, electric banjo augmented "Endless Tunnel" goes on for 13 minutes. Some songs began as poems, others didn't, but all feature notable"