ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK "You Are What You Eat" (1968)

1967. Dec.
Movie produced by Peter Yarrow and Barry Feinstein
Record produced by Peter Yarrow, John Simon and Phil Ramone

Mike Bloomfield : Guitar
Barry Goldberg : Organ
Harvey Brooks : Bass
Buddy Miles : Drums
Nick Gravenites : Percussion
Peter Strazza : Trumpet
Herbie Rich : Baritone Sax
Marcus Doubleday : Trumpet
+
John Simon : Piano

01. “Painting For Freak out” (1.43)
02. “Freak Out” (6.44)
03. “Movie Music-Improvisation” (3.55)

(01-02)LP "You Are What You Eat" (1969-Columbia)
(03)CD "Old Glory" (1995-Columbia/Sony Music)

The tracks by Electric Flag were recorded during the sessions for the first album (The Trip).

In 1967, John Simon engaged the Hawks to work on the soundtrack for Peter Yarrow's (of Peter, Paul and Mary) weird "Rockumentary" movie You Are What You Eat. Earlier in the year, Bob Dylan had met the freakish falsetto singer Tiny Tim and invited him to Woodstock. Tiny Tim was let loose by John Simon to do pop classics like the Ronettes’ "Be My Baby" and Sonny and Cher's "I Got You, Babe" for the movie soundtrack. All he needed was a band, which was how the Hawks found themselves playing behind another front man - the strangest yet - before breaking out on their own as The Band.

Track (02) “Freak Out” is really weird. The stereo effect is used to go from one channel to the other and back, in a way that almost hurts your ears. There are a lot of noises, from the beach, ambulances, moogs and so on. On record it’s not memorable, but in the movie it might have been OK? Track (01) is not weird at all, except for the spoken outtro and guessing from the title it must be one of the first attempts to record (02)? It has a band behind John Simon’s piano. No Bloomfield audible though. Track (03) is taken from the movie sound track and is not on the LP.