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Strawberry Alarm Clock — Incense and Peppermints
Album: Nuggets
Avg rating:
6.9

Your rating:
Total ratings: 818









Released: 1967
Length: 2:44
Plays (last 30 days): 1
Good sense, innocence, cripplin' mankind
Dead kings, many things I can't define
Occasions, persuasions clutter your mind
Incense and peppermints, the color of time

Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win but nothin' to lose

Incense and peppermints, meaningless nouns
Turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around

Look at yourself, look at yourself, yeah, yeah
Look at yourself, look at yourself, yeah, yeah, yeah!

To divide this cockeyed world in two
Throw your pride to one side, it's the least you can do
Beatniks and politics, nothing is new
A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view

Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win but nothin' to lose

Good sense, innocence, cripplin' mankind
Dead kings, many things I can't define
Occasions, persuasions clutter your mind
Incense and peppermints, the color of time

Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win but nothin' to lose

Incense and peppermints
Incense and peppermints

Sha la la
Sha la la
Sha la la
Sha la la
Sha la la
Comments (102)add comment
It's so bad it's. . . . good? Not really.
 misterbearbaby wrote:

I blame this song, in large part, for my original ingestion of LSD resulting in brain damage and the unpredictable, chemically-forged personality I have endured for the following 45+ years. When it originally came out,  my snobby pseudointellectual clique on the East coast laughed heartily, saying in effect: "These Strawberry chumps don't know anything about the acid scene - ahhh ...Hahahah!" Well, upon reflection we see that is a huge piece of petitio principii  ("Begging the Question"), in'nit? This tidbit of illogic left me with the notion that there might be an actual "acid scene,"  which I set off to find 1968-ish. No problem- a certain Captain Photon mysteriously appeared at my door with the medicines, delivering experiments that made the CIA Operation MK-Ultra look like child's-play! I don't want to sue the Strawberry Alarm Clock, I want to thank them.





On the Strawberry Alarm Clock album cover there on the far left in sunglasses is Ed King who went on to Lynyrd Skynyrd fame and fortune (below left).
Died of lung cancer in 2018.




I was 9 when this was on the radio. Never get tired of it. Wish it was late 60's long - 8 minutes. Good album also.
Great time to be a kid.
 westslope wrote:
Part of soundtrack of my youth, same for Summer Wine that follows this one.

Sometimes, this radio station makes me think that the primary targeted audience are musicophiles who grew up in the late 1960s, early 1970s.  Right now we would be what.... somewhere between the ages of 60 and 70 or nearby.  

Or could it simply be the fact that the era was simply so incredibly productive and rich in quality contemporary/popular music output?   

Anyhow, it is a good business plan.  Us old folk have more money than younger demographics.  Plus adolescents and young adults in that golden '65-'75 period arguably enjoyed better, broader, more sophisticated tastes in music than subsequent demographics.  

It is all environmental.  On top of the demographic surge, that period was rich in technological, economic and cultural change.  There was optimism in the air.

Art and musical output exploded in all kinds of new, original directions.     The highly publicized and very controversial US war in Vietnam likely contributed to the creative output.   

For most of us, music is a good way to respond to those big existential questions that get asked especially during times of political and cultural upheaval.  
 
The playlist is getting too slanted to 'old music'. I am in said demographic and I liked RP for introducing new music to me that was not the latest pop crap. Considering ending my subscription for this reason.
why the cowbell?
I hate this as much as my own alarm clock! 😨🔫💣
The lead vocalist for this song, Greg Munford, was only 16 years old at the time and was not even a regular member of this group. According to the keyboard player, Mark Weitz,  after all the regular bandmembers had a go at the lead vocals, nothing sounded right, except for Munford, who just happened to be in the studio at the time.

An essential song. Recorded in 8-track mono, by the way.
It takes me back to a scathing analysis of this song made by some  straight commentator at the time, words to the effect that "If you have nothing good to say, shut up. If you have nothing to sing about, don't form a band."
In 1967 and as an E4 in the USCG with not much money, I bought this vinyl album at the Paramus, NJ Sam Goode for my then girlfriend's teenage sister who was nuts over the group. Dan Ingram and Cousin Brucie were giving way to the likes of WNEW-FM that played more long cuts that were popular at that time. But this sure brings back memories of Debbie and Nancy from Hawthorne, NJ. And now I’m an old fart.
Perhaps the quintessential Summer of Love song.
Part of soundtrack of my youth, same for Summer Wine that follows this one.

Sometimes, this radio station makes me think that the primary targeted audience are musicophiles who grew up in the late 1960s, early 1970s.  Right now we would be what.... somewhere between the ages of 60 and 70 or nearby.  

Or could it simply be the fact that the era was simply so incredibly productive and rich in quality contemporary/popular music output?   

Anyhow, it is a good business plan.  Us old folk have more money than younger demographics.  Plus adolescents and young adults in that golden '65-'75 period arguably enjoyed better, broader, more sophisticated tastes in music than subsequent demographics.  

It is all environmental.  On top of the demographic surge, that period was rich in technological, economic and cultural change.  There was optimism in the air.

Art and musical output exploded in all kinds of new, original directions.     The highly publicized and very controversial US war in Vietnam likely contributed to the creative output.   

For most of us, music is a good way to respond to those big existential questions that get asked especially during times of political and cultural upheaval.  
 trevc wrote:
I always thought this was about Catholicism.

 
Well? It's not?
 Piranga wrote:
Hard to overstate how awesome this song was at the time.
 
True that. And checking these lyrics, it was under-rated. 
Hard to overstate how awesome this song was at the time.
Sadly I have to report that Ed King passed away last week, August 23, 2018, at age 68.

I mentioned earlier that he had become a regular on the NC music scene and I ran across him many times. After he left Strawberry Alarm Clock he happened to see an Allman Bros show and was entranced with Duane Allman's playing and the whole vibe of Southern Rock, which led to him transplanting to eastern NC, which was a hotbed of musical talent without the distractions of the scene in Atlanta or Florida. He played in a house band called Smokehouse at a club in Greenville called the Buccaneer. There he befriended the members of a band called Clouds and traveled with them to Atlanta looking for extra work - where Howard Martin of Clouds introduced him to Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd. 

Frankly, despite being a bona fide redneck, I never cared for Skynyrd but there's no mistaking that what he brought to the band was his distinctive playing and skills as an arranger.  But eventually he grew tired of their hard-drinking and partying ways and came back to North Carolina. At time I was writing for a regional music magazine and saw him play in various bands and studios. He was a warm and cheerful fellow, always willing to sit and talk music.

If you were a club rat like I was at the time, you saw a number of good musicians and you learned to pick out those who seemed to instinctively know their instruments - JK Loftin, John Wheless, etc - but Ed was someone that everyone looked up to. I didn't know at the time but he had been a professional musician for years already. And I was still amazed to learn last year that someone with his background had somehow ended up in rural eastern NC. 

Thanks for allowing me to offer a eulogy. RIP, Ed.
this was one favorite of my friend Dave's,  now when I hear it, I think of him and the good times we had
 nagsheadlocal wrote:
And BAM! I'm back in seventh grade, grooving to this on my transistor in the back of the bus with the rest of the "bad" kids.

 
I was always the good kid... that listened to the bad music.
 Skydog wrote:
13 years old in 1967 and I liked this song a lot

 
I was there with you.
I still have the 45 I bought with my lunch money.
My first non-Beatles 45. Mind thoroughly blown.
 Skydog wrote:
13 years old in 1967 and I liked this song a lot

 
Me too! I love that cheezy organ sound.
 folkrocker wrote:
A little trivia: Incense and Peppermints was co-written by Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King, who later joined Lynyrd Skynyrd. He came up with the "Sha La La" part. I always loved his fuzz guitar part on the song.

 
For the last couple decades, King has been a regular on the music scene in North and South Carolina. I've spoken with him several times - nice guy. He's had some health problems recently but I understand he's working on a book about music "back in the day." I know I'll get a copy.
And BAM! I'm back in seventh grade, grooving to this on my transistor in the back of the bus with the rest of the "bad" kids.
Groovy!
 coloradojohn wrote:
Oh, wow...
Dad was sporting a handlebar mustache, I remember the tin of wax he had for it on the bookshelf...and there he was, outside, putting psychedelic Smiley Flower and Barefoot Hippie Footprint stickers on the Saab...there was lately a black light always on in the Rec Room downstairs, and he even gave in and let baby bro and I pick one out, too, that time we all went to The Temple Slug...and these strange twisted skinny cigarettes had started appearing and disappearing from the top drawer of the dresser in the Master Bedroom...Mom was wearing suede go-go boots — with fringe, of course...  Incense and Peppermints was often on the radio installed in my headboard, on the AM station that dared to go there...and when Mom and Dad went out with the New Neighbors up the street — "he was an East Coast hippie playwright," as Dad put it, and "she was a born again Pentecostal" as my mother put it — Susie the teenage baby-sitter from next door came over and there was that smell; something acrid and burning, turpentiney, and there she was coughing again, hmm...when she locked herself in the bathroom...yes, those were Different Times...yet, here in Paradise, we still get to live them, and with full understanding and choice and privilege to Be a part of it all...Glad to have the precious Flashbacks, AND enjoy again in the enhanced sacred trance of the Present Herbal Landscape, too — thanks RP!

 
another consistently awesome remembrance from a fabulous commenter   : )  wicked tune from racy times
Makes you want to drop a 1/4 tab (that's all I ever need to visit the psychotropics).


 



                                             Ed King, far left, plays guitar on this.
                                             Later with Lynyrd Skynyrd

.
                            






Best Band Name!

And a good tune too.
13 years old in 1967 and I liked this song a lot
A little trivia: Incense and Peppermints was co-written by Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King, who later joined Lynyrd Skynyrd. He came up with the "Sha La La" part. I always loved his fuzz guitar part on the song.
I had an alarm clock made of strawberries it got messy when I hit the snooze
 misterbearbaby wrote:

I blame this song, in large part, for my original ingestion of LSD resulting in brain damage and the unpredictable, chemically-forged personality I have endured for the following 45+ years. When it originally came out,  my snobby pseudointellectual clique on the East coast laughed heartily, saying in effect: "These Strawberry chumps don't know anything about the acid scene - ahhh ...Hahahah!" Well, upon reflection we see that is a huge piece of petitio principii  ("Begging the Question"), in'nit? This tidbit of illogic left me with the notion that there might be an actual "acid scene,"  which I set off to find 1968-ish. No problem- a certain Captain Photon mysteriously appeared at my door with the medicines, delivering experiments that made the CIA Operation MK-Ultra look like child's-play! I don't want to sue the Strawberry Alarm Clock, I want to thank them.



 

You got a visit from Captain Photon too?! 
 
I just played the CD on Friday in the car.
People thought I was crazy when I played the Air HiHat. 
Diving for the volume control to turn it up as loud as possible without scaring the neighbors!  Bravo, Bill
I always thought this was about Catholicism.
 Baby_M wrote:
It's like, psychedelic, man!  Groovy.  Far out.

 
From the days when it was spelled "psychodelic," before retailers fixed it so parents wouldn't think tie-died tee-shirts would make the sons and daughters psychotic.

I blame this song, in large part, for my original ingestion of LSD resulting in brain damage and the unpredictable, chemically-forged personality I have endured for the following 45+ years. When it originally came out,  my snobby pseudointellectual clique on the East coast laughed heartily, saying in effect: "These Strawberry chumps don't know anything about the acid scene - ahhh ...Hahahah!" Well, upon reflection we see that is a huge piece of petitio principii  ("Begging the Question"), in'nit? This tidbit of illogic left me with the notion that there might be an actual "acid scene,"  which I set off to find 1968-ish. No problem- a certain Captain Photon mysteriously appeared at my door with the medicines, delivering experiments that made the CIA Operation MK-Ultra look like child's-play! I don't want to sue the Strawberry Alarm Clock, I want to thank them.


 pxd wrote:
If you can remember this from when it was new, you were probably just made to feel quite old . . . but I still like the tune as much as ever. pxd

 
Ah yes, but being old is worth having experienced all that amazing music when it was new.
Not repackaged and sold to the masses as product half a century later.
If you can remember this from when it was new, you were probably just made to feel quite old . . . but I still like the tune as much as ever. pxd
This reminds me the Simpson 
 coloradojohn wrote:
Hail Holy Sounds of The Times! The Association, The Turtles, The Doors, ? & The Mysterians and this! — such a mad TRIPPY sound!

 
The Association did have some groovy tunes.
I always loved "Everything That Touches You".
Just Amazing
It's like, psychedelic, man!  Groovy.  Far out.
Hail Holy Sounds of The Times! The Association, The Turtles, The Doors, ? & The Mysterians and this! — such a mad TRIPPY sound!
 Stave wrote:
I guess you had to be there.  This hasn't aged well.

 
Hmmm maybe you are talking about yourself?   This song still perfectly evokes a fantastic era and still sounds good!
 Aud wrote:


Ohh god! I could never even slightly imagine that going on in the house I grew up in!!

 
Ditto. I don't think I've ever seen my parents even a little drunk. 

Love the trippy lyrics and then the buttoned-down "Sha la La..." chorus at the end.
Far out man!
 Emwolb wrote:

Damn....just when I finally forgot about Cousin Brucie!!!! WAY too funny! 
 
brucie
I guess this was the copycat derivative stuff of it's day, everything about it screams un-original, from the name, the cover, the fonts used, the dress code...

But you know what, it's still great, infinitely better than the pap that's churned out these days. 
 kingart wrote:
BLAST. FROM THE. PAST. 
Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram. 

 

 
Damn....just when I finally forgot about Cousin Brucie!!!! WAY too funny! 
I recall that the rest of the album was pretty, um, less than stellar. I give this a 9 if only for the double hi-hat out of the bridge. It would get a 10 except for the icky "sha-la-la" coda.
{#Cool} Oh-oh.... I'm 13 again trying very hard to be cool in a very un-cool town.  Sure wish I still had my Nehru coats.
I guess you had to be there.  This hasn't aged well.
BLAST. FROM THE. PAST. 
Cousin Brucie and Dan Ingram. 

 
needs more cowbell...still...awesome
where is austin powers??
Oh, hell yes...  Strawberry Alarm Clock, Count Five, The Turtles, The Mamas and The Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, The Monkees, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, The Yardbirds, Iron Butterfly -- THE SOUNDS OF A BYGONE ERA! but through the eternal electro-magnetic magic of quantum entanglement, and through the grace of The Universe and gods of Radio Paradise, still with us today!
Guitarist was Ed King, went on to play with Skynard for many years. Co-wrote Sweet Home amongst many more of their gems.
Amazing Top 40 Psychedelic - if only they did a 18 minute version.

I'm NOT joking around. That would be fantastic.
Now we're cooking with gas!
check out this bands other stuff. yes it's 40 years later
meaningless nouns
Period piece with zero comments! Oops! 
 
Oh cuuuuttte, Bill!!  Saw them in Houston followed by the Buffalo Springfield in '68.  Stills and Young in LA Country Rock Grungy were mocking the Sgt. Pepper costumes.  You should have sequed to "Pictures of Matchstick Men".
 DanO-1 wrote:
Groooooovy
 

Indeed...  what a classic... we be dancing...

 
cow bells!! I gotta have more cow bells!!
 steeler wrote:
Pscyhedelia for beginners!

In a good way.   Brings back memories.  Trying and hoping to be part of a culture that was a few years out of reach. Although I did read the Straweberry Statement back then, when it first came out.   
 hi steeler
what's a precipice of a caldron ?
Guilty pleasure...
Cheesy, cheesy goodness!
 johnjconn wrote:
Sounds like the Archies
 
It sounds exactly like them - Don Kirshner should call his copyright attorneys.  {#Propeller}
Pscyhedelia for beginners!

In a good way.   Brings back memories.  Trying and hoping to be part of a culture that was a few years out of reach. Although I did read the Straweberry Statement back then, when it first came out.   
Love it — blast from the past. We were listening to it and dancing around a campfire by the beach.

 coloradojohn wrote:
Oh, wow...
Dad was sporting a handlebar mustache, I remember the tin of wax he had for it on the bookshelf...and there he was, outside, putting psychedelic Smiley Flower and Barefoot Hippie Footprint stickers on the Saab...there was lately a black light always on in the Rec Room downstairs, and he even gave in and let baby bro and I pick one out, too, that time we all went to The Temple Slug...and these strange twisted skinny cigarettes had started appearing and disappearing from the top drawer of the dresser in the Master Bedroom...Mom was wearing suede go-go boots — with fringe, of course...  Incense and Peppermints was often on the radio installed in my headboard, on the AM station that dared to go there...and when Mom and Dad went out with the New Neighbors up the street — "he was an East Coast hippie playwright," as Dad put it, and "she was a born again Pentecostal" as my mother put it — Susie the teenage baby-sitter from next door came over and there was that smell; something acrid and burning, turpentiney, and there she was coughing again, hmm...when she locked herself in the bathroom...yes, those were Different Times...yet, here in Paradise, we still get to live them, and with full understanding and choice and privilege to Be a part of it all...Glad to have the precious Flashbacks, AND enjoy again in the enhanced sacred trance of the Present Herbal Landscape, too — thanks RP!
 

Ohh god! I could never even slightly imagine that going on in the house I grew up in!!
Sweet.  Long enough, but not long enough.
Oh, wow...
Dad was sporting a handlebar mustache, I remember the tin of wax he had for it on the bookshelf...and there he was, outside, putting psychedelic Smiley Flower and Barefoot Hippie Footprint stickers on the Saab...there was lately a black light always on in the Rec Room downstairs, and he even gave in and let baby bro and I pick one out, too, that time we all went to The Temple Slug...and these strange twisted skinny cigarettes had started appearing and disappearing from the top drawer of the dresser in the Master Bedroom...Mom was wearing suede go-go boots — with fringe, of course...  Incense and Peppermints was often on the radio installed in my headboard, on the AM station that dared to go there...and when Mom and Dad went out with the New Neighbors up the street — "he was an East Coast hippie playwright," as Dad put it, and "she was a born again Pentecostal" as my mother put it — Susie the teenage baby-sitter from next door came over and there was that smell; something acrid and burning, turpentiney, and there she was coughing again, hmm...when she locked herself in the bathroom...yes, those were Different Times...yet, here in Paradise, we still get to live them, and with full understanding and choice and privilege to Be a part of it all...Glad to have the precious Flashbacks, AND enjoy again in the enhanced sacred trance of the Present Herbal Landscape, too — thanks RP!
One of the best Psychedelic bands...Always happy to hear their nusic on the Radio :)
Love this!  {#Dancingbanana_2}
Far out man!{#Cowboy}
Groooooovy
....more cowbell....
Wow, what a blast from the past.  I saw these guys in '67, along w/Steppenwolf.
Steppenwolf was much better, IMHO.

rspauldi
        Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on
        forever in a finite world is either a madman or an
        economist.
                  - Kenneth Boulding, Economics professor
WOW MAN the drugs are kickin' in... {#Motor}
Strawberry Beach Alarm Boys!
Hmmm - apparently this is played only every couple of years!

A favorite of mine from the era of listing to a Sears Silvertone transistor hidden in my jacket pocket with a mono earbud tucked underneath my newly-long hair. 
Follow this up with Hot smoke and sassafras from the Bubble Puppy. I think they were released in the same month.

Ever since this came out (I still have the 45), I wondered what the lyrics were.
Now thanks to the internet I now know...

Good sense, innocence, cripplin' and kind.
Dead kings, many things I can't define.
Oh Cajun spice, sweats and blushers your mind.
Incense and peppermints, the color of thyme.

Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothing to lose.

Incense and peppermints, meaningless nouns.
Turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around.
Look at yourself, look at yourself,
Yeah, yeah.
Look at yourself, look at yourself,
Yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah.

Tune-a by the cockeyed world in two.
Throw your pride to one side, It's the least you can do.
Beatniks and politics, nothing is new.
A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view.

Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothing to lose.

Good sense, innocence, crippled and kind.
Dead kings and many things I can't define.
Oh Cajun spice, sweats and blushers your mind.
Incense and peppermints, the color of thyme.

Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothing to lose.

Incense, peppermints, incense, peppermints.

Sha-la-la, sha-la-la....

Oh Cajun spice, sweats and blushers your mind.

Indeed.



8)
UTTER CRAAAAAP!!!!!!
rulebritannia wrote:
Totally cool, Spliff. Great nugget of history.
Thanks RB - Man do I feel old.
newwavegurly wrote:
Damn, I love this tune. Way before my time, but always liked hearing it when it would pop up on the radio.
Not before mine, unfortunately. We cranked up the radio onto the loudspeakers at the pool whenever this came on, and all the moms would plod over and complain about the "hippie music" we were playing. I know those opening notes by heart! Thanks for the Austin Powers too, folks.
Spliff wrote:
My band Fate in high school opened for Strawbeery Alarm Clock in Ventura. One of our biggest gigs.
Totally cool, Spliff. Great nugget of history.
Classic trippy hippy song !!!
My band Fate in high school opened for Strawbeery Alarm Clock in Ventura. One of our biggest gigs.
jayladdin wrote:
Groooovy, baby!
AWESOME!
Groooovy, baby!
unfortunately, the only thing this song reminds me of is Austin Powers. (pimp)
rulebritannia wrote:
How did you beat me to the first comment?
Damn, I love this tune. Way before my time, but always liked hearing it when it would pop up on the radio.
Dude!
Skeletor wrote:
Wow! Knew it had to show up sooner or later!
How did you beat me to the first comment? And, you traced the very keystrokes off of my finger tips. Mind blowing. My sister said she met a member of the band about ten, twelve years later. He said the song was a lark - they couldn't believe it took off. I'm glad it did. Thanks, Bill!
Wow! Knew it had to show up sooner or later!