The Nice - The cry of Eugene

[NeosimianSapiens]

Okay, I must be insane, but I have been looking through various (legal) mixes of this song all 'round the internet. Why? Because the version on Spotify does NOT have the vocalist's voice breaking ever-so-slightly at 4:13. In all other respects it is nearly identical.

I must be insane. Really. But that slight catch in the voice really "sells" this song to me and made it one of my all-time favorites from The Nice. But this is 2011 and such things get "fixed", don't they? Geez.

[LaurentziuRo2010]

WONDERFUL !

[sulfacide]

The best thing Nice ever did.... no doubt. Beautiful, powerful and what a melody.

[bogeybast]

"Autumn To Spring" (Charisma) shares 6 songs in common, including this one, with "Emerlist Davjack" (Columbia). "Autumn To Spring" contains 3 additional songs, including 'America'; "Emerlist" only a couple: 'Rondo' & 'War & Peace.' I haven't thought about this or listened to this music in decades. It's so pleasant to be reaquainted with these gems, thanks to you.

[Generatorhead]

@bogeybast

If you have Autumn To Spring and Emerlist Davjack, keep them both; the songs common to both are radically remixed. On Autumn To Spring. O'List is mixed low and Emerson's keyboards are loud as Charisma tried to cash in on ELP's success by presenting the music as progressive instead of psych .If you haven't picked it up yet, get the 3-CD box set "Here Come The Nice", which collects all of The Nice's recordings for Immediate plus tons of unreleased rarities. Amazon has it for $10-$15.

[Generatorhead]

@bogeybast

The box I mentioned has the first 3 albums, plus singles, unreleased live and studio tracks, a radio promo by John Peel, plus the whole of the Autumn To Spring collection with the different mixes. Really affordable, excellent remastering (minimal use of compression and no-noise), and comes with a nice booklet as well.

[HemmHon]

Hey could you please post The Nice's "I'm One of Those People"? Thanks.

[heraldojesus21]

.....in the days before CD's and ebay I looked for this album for about five years before I finally found a copy ! ...I don't think there were too many sold in Australia

a great lp, you can't really compare it to the later albums without O'List.. that was a different sound ...a different band almost....still good just different

[capografik]

The lightshow stuff is fantastic (and the music of course)...

[Hyperakusis1973]

Great band and "The cry of Eugene" is one of my favourites!

[Progjose]

A lot of Genesis in this one...

[Sterndi1]

Great song but it would really have deserved a better end. ;-) Could anyone send me the lyrics please? I don't understand all words. :-)

[NeosimianSapiens]

@Sterndi1 The lyrics can be found on some guy's site on DeviantArt. I forget the URL but I can warn you to STAY AWAY from most of the mainstream lyrics sites. "Rancid atmosphere with despair" they say. Good lord, how can somebody get it so wrong?

[jtatlarge]

@NeosimianSapiens Yes, vivdlight`s is substantially better, but still several obvious errors. Its much clearer what the real lyrics are on the newer recordings by Pentwater.

The correct line plurality is `Splits all times mind asunder` .

`Mind` only becomes plural in the final line of the song.

Floyd, Nice, ELP, etc near always used correct english, even in obscurity.

I think its also on Elegy.

[NeosimianSapiens]

@jtatlarge Thanks for the info about Pentwater.

[thatmuse76]

It's good to see the Nice finally getting attention. I first noticed them when I was in high school in the 90's and into early prog rock. They were more than likely the first Art Rock band which spawned countless imitators throughout the early 1970's. While Emerson, Lake and Palmer had better musicianship, I always preferred the Nice as creatively and artistically they blew ELP out of the water (Emerson rehashed so many Nice ideas in ELP and was never to fond of Greg Lake outside of Crimson).

[dejahthoris]

@thatmuse76 Have you heard of Can?

[caravaneriam]

Saw them in 1968/69

Fantastic night.

Even their roadies and girl friends were ecstatic at the concert

Brilliant band.

[paramind]

Ok, been a Nice fan for over 30 years. I remember when I was studying alchemy I came across this reference to "Eugene."

From Wiki: "It is possible that Thomas Vaughan was the author of tracts published under the pseudonym "Eugenius Philalethes", although other alchemists and natural philosophers could also have been the author. However it seems that Vaughan is the most likely contender."

So, this Eugene seemed very appropriate, since the song has very mystical lyrics.

[DeathTimer]

The Nice, on of the best underrated bands. I see that many people says this song is a huge tribute to many songs but I don't care, I love this song.

[Odadelyus]

Next to early Floyd with Syd Barrett, this is one of the best psychedelic/progressive bands I've heard so far. If anybody happens to know of more bad ass bands like The Nice, please feel free to tell me.

[dejahthoris]

@Odadelyus Have you heard of Can? also gentle giant

[Edivd]

If, highly unlikely, again, known to both The Nice and Pink Floyd, this myth would still not stand as the source of either title: how come both bands would name Eugene, one in 1967 and the other one in 1968, a person whose real name was actually Clifford Garcia? The lyrics to "The Cry of Eugene" do not make any allusion to such an accident whatsoever, anyway.

My final comment here for now, My three comments should be read from the bottommost to the topmost. The 500 character limit forced me.

[netram2000]

Dude, you've really out-posted me here...the question that bothers me is: where did I get that info about the myth...it was actually stored in the sub-conscious areals and popped out as I wrote it. There's only one possibility to regain my credibility: maybe I got it mixed up and The Floyd did their Eugene-song in reference to The Nice's one. I apologize for any inconveniences!

[Edivd]

I believe it highly unlikely that, Pink Floyd had and played this song early enough before "The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack" was released so The Nice too would know of it and want to make a tribute of it. Therefore, the only connection between the two songs, must be the name coincidence in their titles and the apparent complementarity of the titles. There is also a Jerry Garcia myth regarding a title like "Careful with That Axe Eugene". continued and finished in the third and last comment

[Edivd]

If this song is a tribute indeed, then it is a very insteresting one:

1. It carries no resemblance at all to "Careful with That Axe Eugene" whatsoever, so very original.

2. "The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack was released, actually, already in 1967, not in 1968 as that "Info" says, whereas "Careful with That Axe Eugene" was only released December 17th, 1968, as the B-side of the single "Point Me at the Sky". One cannot do a tribute to a song even before that song is released at all continued

[theartwarrior]

If you don't mind sharing some info, how did you do some of this? Is this done in a dark room without backlight, and are you using a flashlight to push the water/oil around? I am going to start doing some liquid light stuff, but I really want to have a black background like you have done here. Also, how is the camera set up? Thanks a lot! great stuff!

[netram2000]

Sorry but I didn't do any of these, I took it as a background for those songs.

The lightshows were actually done by two dudes acting as "Universoulightforms", you may visit there website to get further information about how it's all done.

[RockerPunk4444]

Acid trippin', much? lol love this vid, totally awesome colors and effects, the music is the best!

[BetaErpel]

listen to wolfmothers "joker and the thief", the beginning riff of that song sound very similar to the riff in 2:45 in this song! Has anybody noticed?!

[Aqualung71]

I did notice that, its sounds almost uncanny! Well now we all know where Wolfmother got that riff from!

[MargusKiistheCritic]

The guitar work of O`List is 20 years ahead of its time.

[netram2000]

Could you give us any arguements to undermine your point?

20 years? Not even the guitar work of "You really got me" by The Kinks was 20 years ahead...but almost. ;)

[pyrotect]

My favorite original song by the Nice athough I wonder If Emerson lifted the ending piano piece,Jackson's voice is well suited to this number and for the time it was made it is a very mature piece of music. Thanks for posting I haven't heard this for a long time.

[MargusKiistheCritic]

Best original song Nice ever made, a bit into Beatles "Day in The Life".

[netram2000]

Agreed! :)

The fist impression I had, was that it has something in common with the sound of the first Soft Machine-LP. It's probaply the vocals.

[borgduck]

Fab video, great accompaniment!

[netram2000]

Thanks! :)