(The Rainy Daze - just another misunderstood mind-melting band of the '60's)
When their first charting single "Acapulco Gold" came out in early 1967, things were looking up. But radio had different ideas. When it came to light that Acapulco Gold was really a thinly disguised ode to the joys of a certain grade of marijuana, airplay suddenly stopped and The Rainy Daze were relegated to more-or-less underground status, with their debut single topping out around 70 on the Billboard Hot 100.
And here we have the follow up, originally titled "Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum" (as the first batch of pressings attest), it was quickly retitled "Blood of Oblivion" and didn't seem to fare much better.
Which was a shame since The Rainy Daze were actually a good band and not some product of a record company's idea of a hit machine.
1967 was a year when a lot of bands were just misunderstood by the mainstream music industry. And try as they might, were impossible to pigeon hole as pop acts. Rainy Daze were one, Sopwith Camel were another and so were Moby Grape and Pink Floyd (yes, America did NOT know what to do about them when they first came out!). The times were rapidly changing from a singles dominated marketplace to one where full length albums were starting to gain prominence.
But "Blood of Oblivion" sank into obscurity. Not put on their first, and only album. And never (to my knowledge) reissued in any form, all there is as testimony is this 45 - which sadly may be all there is, since the masters for this single (certainly the multi-tracks)were reportedly destroyed in the recent Universal City vault fire, where many many UNI Records masters, along with countless others went up in smoke.
For now, pretend it's November 1967 and you're hearing this for the first time.
