Misunderstood: Before The Dream Faded

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Record Review Reprint

Misunderstood
Before The Dream Faded

OP Magazine, M-1982, page 39:

Vintage psychedelia. Anyone who likes the Pebbles anthologies will be sure to dig these way-out sounds from a Riverside, CA, band that broke up in 1966. What I always like about this sort of stuff is the wild lead guitar (they don't play it like they used to) and this group has it all; the screaming string-bending of Quicksilver, 8 Miles High raga-rock, a retread of Shapes of Things, lots of unusual slide work. A couple of the earlier cuts are not too much above the run-of-the-mill white blues of the time, but in all its gradual progress form garage-rock to full-blown trippiness and hippydippiness, this shows consistently high energy. All I can say is, far out.

OP Magazine, Q-1983, page 62:

If you're searching for the great lost psychedelic group of the 1960s, or the American version of the Yardbirds, this record miraculously fits the bill. A band of California expatriates who achieved brief recognition in the London underground before they were forced to disband due to immigration and draft problems, this was an awesomely powerful lineup which intriguingly mixed raga-rock, blues-rock, and plain old rave-ups around the amplified distortion wizardry of lead guitarist (on steel!) Glenn Ross Campbell (later in UK's Juicy Lucy). Recorded in late 1966, the six songs on side one show the group at the peak of their power, with striking instrumental innovations and interplay which anticipate Jimi Hendrix and the Pink Floyd months before either had recorded. Campbell is one of the best unheralded rock guitarists; his playing suggests the missing link between the Yardbirds and Hendrix, with amazing amplified Middle Eastern whines, wails, and explosions. Despite some recklessly revelatory lyrics, the group's nerve-wrackingly daring time changes, Indian-like modes and unconventional song structures along with their otherworldly interpretations (Who Do You Love, I Unseen), create a killer thrust which is on par with the best efforts of the era. Side two consists of demos made before the group moved to London (some without Campbell). Although not as noteworthy as side one, it's still well worth hearing, including takes from their early garage band days (a weird cross between the Yardbirds and Beau Brummels), tentative early forays into blues-rock, and a revolutionary raga-rock treatment of the Yardbirds' I'm Not Talking. Although the Misunderstood released only a couple singles in their lifetime (1965-1966), this album (most of it previously unreleased) is still mindblowing after over 15 years, and really unlike anything you've ever heard before. Excellent liner notes and photos, too.

Q Magazine, 70-1992, page 108:

Instead of the comforting curlicues of country, The Misunderstood's Glen Ross Campbell transformed the pedal steel guitar into a bucking, snarling monster of distortion, feedback and whine. Their debut single, I Can Take You To The Sun, is one of the few hippy-era recordings whose power remains undimmed by time, but whose aching fragility ill-equipped it for chart action or the heavier battle about to transform rock. The follow-up, Children Of The Sun, featured Campbell in tougher mood, and fared somewhat better, though not well enough to prevent the group dissolving. This album collects together the six tracks they recorded for Fontana, including the above, plus a further six culled from demos and acetates recorded earlier in California - some by future DJ John Peel - which portray the group as closest to The Yardbirds in theiry embellishment of blues covers with tricksy guitar effects.