Step Outside Your Mind

by Jokers Wild

Overview

"All I See Is You," cut in 1967 by the Minneapolis band Jokers Wild, is the sort of tune garage-psych obsessives live for, with a lively melody, some great rhythm guitar work, straight-out-of-the-garage Farfisa organ, and delightfully naïve trippy accents, most notably the use of a slide whistle to mimic the (alleged) sound of a psychedelic journey. Jokers Wild released three singles between 1967 and 1969, but they left a lot of unreleased recordings behind, and Step Outside Your Mind is a 21-track anthology that features their rare single sides along with a wealth of unheard material. In many respects, the music on Step Outside Your Mind reflects the path of a lot of bands from this era: The earliest tracks are clearly products of the late garage rock era, as teenagers with fuzzboxes began dipping their toes into psychedelia, as on "All I See Is You" and "Tomorrow." Before long, they start to come correct with psychedelia, and the songs get more languid, the lyrics get more poetic (for lack of a better word), and tracks like "The Grass Is Greener" and "Sunshine" document the group's descent into flower power. Near the end of their run, psychedelia fades out and hard rock takes center stage, as "American Dream" and "Dissatisfied" embrace bigger, fuzzier guitars and a pronounced blues influence. There are a few detours in Jokers Wild's journey -- "Copper Penny" is an upbeat pop tune that may have been an effort to please AM radio programmers, and a rough but enthusiastic cover of the Easybeats' classic "Good Time" is fun despite some truly regrettable percussion. Most fans of garage and psychedelic rock prefer for their compilations to err on the side of completism, and Step Outside Your Mind is more than thorough, including nearly all the known studio recordings from the group, but there are just enough clunkers here (in particular the aimless blues jams "Dissatisfied" and "Park Music," both of which are over six minutes and feel a lot longer) that judiciously trimming a few tracks might have made this a more entertaining listen. That said, Sundazed Records is to be commended for giving this obscure combo a definitive document, with a fine liner essay on the band's sometimes convoluted history and plenty of rare photos of the musicians in action. Step Outside Your Mind may be more Jokers Wild than a lot of listeners want, but there's no arguing that everything you need from the band is here. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	04/05/2024
Label:	Sundazed Music Inc.
UPC:	0090771635327

Tracks

1. All I See Is You
2. Tomorrow
3. Echo
4. Stranger
5. Witch
6. The Grass Is Greener
7. That Man's Not You (Step Outside Your Mind)
8. Because I'm Free
9. Good Time
10. Hard Road
11. I See You
12. Peace Man
13. Sunshine
14. American Dream
15. Dissatisfied
16. River
17. I'm on My Way
18. Have You Ever Loved Somebody
19. I Just Can't Explain It
20. Copper Penny
21. Park Music

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jokers Wild   Primary Artist,Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Jay Millar   Producer
Brian Thompson   Production Manager
Zoe Willard   Producer
Pete Huber   Composer
Jon Hunt   Design
George Young   Composer
Tony Hicks   Composer
Graham Nash   Composer
Harry Vanda   Composer
Thomas R. Smith   Composer
Denny Johnson   Composer,Photo Courtesy
Alan Clarke   Composer
Lonnie Knight   Composer
Bill Jordan   Composer
Mike Barich   Photography
Joe Lizzi   Mastering
Ed Fitzgerald   Composer
Greg Springer   Composer