The Wiz: Simeon Coxe (and the Silver Apples) - psych rock and Electro Pioneer
Pioneers of psychedelic electronics: Simeon Coxe (1938-2020) and "Silver Apples" 🍏.
If you have never heard "Silver Apples", put on headphones or turn up the stereo, sit down, close your eyes and press play ▶️. Imagine the people responsible, then rub your eyes. These are not modern hipsters experimenting with a computer, synthesizer and drum machine. This pioneering recording dates from 1968!
After Coxe died around three weeks ago, I knew I wanted to write about "Oscillations", which he described as his first song. Its title refers to recurring electrical fluctuations generated by circuits 📻.
While singing in a conventional East Village rock band in 1960s New York, he decided to introduce an old audio oscillator, converting electrical signals into sound. The experiment alienated the other musicians, except drummer Danny Taylor, who embraced it.
The duo became "Silver Apples" 🍏. More oscillators followed, and Coxe built a system of pedals and gadgets to expand and control the sound, naming it the Simeon. When a computer 💻 could fill a room, imagine the size of his homemade electronic instrument, pictured here.
Even Jimi Hendrix was intrigued. They jammed together, including experiments with the American national anthem 🇺🇸.
Coxe discusses the Hendrix sessions here. Their anthem experiment begins around 5:20:
Their self-titled debut reached the Billboard album chart. For album two, they photographed themselves in an aircraft cockpit 🛩️. Pan Am agreed to lend a plane in exchange for its logo appearing.
What the airline did not know was that the back cover showed the duo amid aircraft wreckage 💥. After release, while they were recording album three, "The Garden", the airline sued. The dispute led to copies of the second album being withdrawn, contributed to their label's collapse and helped end the band.
Coxe spent more than two decades away from music, working in local American television. Then, in the mid-1990s, a German bootleg label 🇩🇪 reissued both albums without permission. The resulting interest brought the Apples out of mothballs.
He first revived the name with other musicians, performing and making two further albums. Eventually he found 🔍 Danny Taylor, whose attic contained the unfinished third-album tapes. After 28 years, they reunited and finally brought "The Garden" into the world. A sample:
After Taylor died in 2005, Coxe continued performing around the world, using samples of Taylor's original drums 🥁 rather than recruiting other musicians.
Coxe performing "Oscillations" a few years ago, with samples of Taylor:
Geoff Barrow of "Portishead" said he too could scarcely believe how early the music was made. He recognized the duo's influence and their place among electronic music's pioneers.
Rare YouTube footage, although the quality is imperfect: Coxe joins "Portishead" in 2011 for the mesmerizing "We Carry On", strongly influenced by the Apples.
A better-quality performance, without Coxe:
What a story, what vision, creativity and innovation! More than 50 years later, even after both musicians have gone, their electrical oscillations continue to move through generations of music, sometimes without listeners even knowing ⚡.
An excellent ten-minute video about the band 📺:
In the image 🖼️:
Top row, from the right: the debut artwork, Coxe and his homemade electronic instrument, alongside Taylor's drums.
Bottom row, from the left: the Pan Am cockpit on album two, its aircraft-wreckage back cover, and the third album, released 28 years after recording began.
Center: Coxe in later life, oscillations forming a halo 😇 around him, still hovering over and resonating through music today!
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