Led by lisping singer and poet/lyricist Tom Rapp, Pearls Before Swine formed in 1965 and wrote and recorded a number of songs which they sent to the avant-garde ESP label in New York.
They were quickly signed up and recorded their debut album One Nation Underground (1967).
Their second album, Balaklava (1968), was as vehement a condemnation of Vietnam as any posturing protest song. The front cover (a detail of The Triumph of Death by Pieter Brueghel the Elder) showed a grotesque allegorical depiction of the horrors of war, while the back cover, showed a photograph of a young girl at an anti-war protest.
Rapp cloaked his lyrics in religious and historical references, irony and surrealism, which was all offset by music which was at once melancholic, eerie and exotic.
Tom Rapp
Guitar, vocals Jim Bohannon
Organ, piano, clavinet, marimba Wayne Harley
Banjo, vocals Lane Lederer
Bass, guitar, swinehorn
Related Posts
Judy Collins Judy Collins was born in 1939 in Denver, Colorado, daughter of Chuck Collins, a blind, well-known radio personality in Denver…
M.P.D. Limited M.P.D. Limited had one of the most meteoric rises in the history of Australian rock and pop. Formed from the…
Richie Havens Richie Havens' roots were in gospel and doo-wop, before graduating onto the coffeehouse circuit of the early 60s alongside singers…
Kaleidoscope (UK) Kaleidoscope were formed in Acton in 1963 as The Sidekicks but changed their name to The Key in 1965 when…
Joan Baez After playing to coffee houses around Boston in the late 1950s, Joan Baez got her big break when she appeared…
Fugs, The Poet Edward Sanders fled the US Midwest for New York in 1958 and transformed a Lower East-side kosher butcher shop…
Red Crayola, The/Red Krayola The Red Crayola began as a psychedelic experimental rock band formed by art students at the University of St. Thomas…
Tokens, The This Brooklyn doo-wop group was originally known as The Linc-Tones when they formed in 1955 at Lincoln High School. Original members Hank…
