“Psychedelic Promos & Radio Spots” is an eight-volume time machine filled with hundreds of far-out radio commercials rescued from a bygone era. These aren’t your average ad jingles.
They’re trippy dispatches for long-gone record shops, freak clubs, movie theaters, concerts, and products that time has long since erased.
Better yet, you’ll hear some of the biggest names in rock history dropping one-off jingles for the strangest sponsors. Bands like Iron Butterfly (yes, hawking Ban roll-on deodorant) or the Rolling Stones (singing the praises of Rice Krispies!) turn everyday advertising into a surreal pop art trip.
There are plenty of other gems tucked inside this set: A delightfully snarky Hot Rats LP promo for Zappa, a Yellow Submarine spot for The Beatles, and even a 1967 Detroit concert plug pairing the unlikely bill of Jimi Hendrix and The Monkees.
The Hot Rats ad in particular is priceless, teasing the record with the line, “We’re not going to tell you who did it, because most people think his music is too ugly and too weird.” Only Zappa could sell an album by mocking it.
Vol. 5 of these promos and ads keeps the weirdness rolling: promotional oddities, fuzzed-out voiceovers, and flashes of the counterculture trying to sell you everything from blue jeans to hot dogs and, of course, new records.
It’s camp, it’s kitsch, and it’s pure gold for anyone who digs the stranger corners of psychedelic history.
So string up your love beads and spin the dial back to the swingin’ ’60s. This one’s for the heads who know even the ads were outta sight.
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