Let us now examine the second album (released in January of 1968, on Epic BN 26333, and produced by Eisen & Goldberg – their managers “who didn’t really know what we were doing”), the track listing and credits of which are reprinted for your delectation.

As you can see, Pete Madlin (sic) plays dubro (sic), and the whole thing was recorded under derress (sic) – but those mis-spellings were of little regard compared with THE MIS-SPELLING OF THE TITLE OF THE ALBUM!

Fenrus, now deciding to call himself Maxwell Budda, explains: “The album was supposed to be called ‘BACON FROM MARS’ because of a line in the opening song which talked about ‘pigmeat from outer space”. We’d done this great silly song, which I wrote, called ‘The Universe’s Mysteries’…… and Epic decided to leave it off the album because it had turned out far too long. We’d over-reacted to the shortness of the first, and provided over fifty minutes for the second….. and they chopped ‘Universe’. Then they showed us the finished artwork for the sleeve – and we freaked….. we went up the wall and down the other side! ‘A Beacon from Mars’ had no relevance at all; the guy must have mis-heard some phoned instructions, and that’s what he came up with. So, to prevent a major catastrophe, Epic persuaded us to retitle ‘Stranger in your city’, and called it ‘Beacon from Mars’ – even though it has absolutely no connection with the song”.

The incident was one of the many straws which got piled on the camel’s back, adding to the “derress”.

Nevertheless, the album is a fabulous piece of work (this time over three quarters of an hour long), vastly more proficient in terms of arrangement, playing, singing, and production.

“The track which ended up with the title ‘Beacon from Mars’ could only have been played by a bunch of guys who’d been together for a long time and were sensitive to what was going on, really involved in the idea of the band” says Lindley. “It was an idea of Chris’ to take a lick similar to that of Howling Wolf’s ‘Smokestack Lightning’, and work it over and over until it grew and bloomed. Solomon wrote the lyrics, and we all worked on the arrangement”.

Darrow: “The track was cut absolutely live – no overdubs. I really like it…… Fenrus’ harp playing is exquisite, and David plays some of the most remarkable spacy guitar…… I’ve never known anybody use feedback as effectively as the passage he plays”.

I must agree. The track has its date stamped across every bar, but it whirls along – with Fenrus blowing his lungs out….. and that bit before the closing build up always reminds me of Country Joe and the Fish.

‘I found out’ has a great guitar-picked solo, Sol’s voice slides out like tarmac over the solid richness of ‘Life will pass you by’, they revive the Scat Band’s ‘Baldheaded end of a broom’, and play ‘Louisiana Man’ a deal less frantically than the usual Cajun interpreters. Twin guitars and twin fiddles weave through most of the songs, giving Kaleidoscope the distinctive, unique sound.

“We used to practice our butts off’, says Fenrus. “David was already well known as a phenomenal musician, and everyone else was working hard to keep up with him, and to maintain a personal image. As a unit, we got pretty tight at times”.

“We used to switch instruments for certain passages – I mean, 4 of us could play fiddle, but Sol and Chris used to leave it to David and me most of the time…… we all felt our call”.

And here I must confess that I’m not ready to be swayed by Jimmy Page’s eulogies about the Eastern track ‘Taxim’. I’d never gone overboard for sitars, ouds and the like (as Kim Fowley said: “Gene Vincent never needed a sitar”), but this is superb – and Lindley, on harp guitar, is simply magnificent.

And what exactly is a harp tguitar – is it that thing on the back of the sleeve?

“Yes, it is” says Lindley. They don’t any more, but Gibson used to manufacture them; they had the idea of becoming America’s answer to Stradivarius……. They tried to develop instruments which would fit into an orchestra, but could be plucked – so they made banjos, mandolins, mandolin cellos, mandolin basses…… all sorts of weird things. The harp guitar had bass strings which were used for drones – but nobody I knew really knew how to play one. I figured out my own way, by tuning the bass strings chordally. It was a vestige of a long gone era – they must have gone out of production in the twenties, but you sometimes saw one…… they’re still around, but very hard to find”.

A lovely sound, and sparkling in the context of a rock band.

My favourite track is their version of Willie Cobb’s ‘You don’t love me’, which Stills admits was the source for the version he did with Al Kooper on the ‘Supersession’ album. Not only that, but the J. Geils Band’s Magic Dick was “so knocked out by that harp blowing” that it transformed his style completely. Great guitar interplay, great track, quintessential Kaleidoscope!

And what about “the true unprintable story” behind the album? I asked David Lindley. “Oh, we were all very concerned because we weren’t given enough money or time to produce the album we wanted to make – and we wanted to make it evident that relationships with the record company weren’t as wonderful as they might have been. I guess it was basically that we were being pushed to become more commercial, whereas we wanted to go our own way’.

Fenrus: “Over half the album was recorded live in the studio…. We switched instruments in the studio, same as we did on stage, and we noted the fact on the sleeve. “That was designed to blow minds – when listeners realized that 5 guys could do all that at the same time, without overdubs. The last track was our suite, and we wanted to record it as well as possible”.

Pete Madlem, the refugee from the Dry City Scat Band who makes a cameo appearance on ‘I found out’, is now living in Santa Barbara. “He’s writing classical music for acoustic and electric guitar” says Darrow. “He’s trying to get a record deal at the moment. Did you know that he is now a decorated war hero? He was a pacifist, but got inducted into the army and was made a radio operator…… he apparently radioed some observations which resulted in a minor victory over the Viet Cong – and he got 3 or 4 medals for it. After that, he requested non-combatant action as a cook – and, fort some reason, he prophesized that a truck he had to get on to go somewhere was going to be blown up…… no one believed him, so he put on his helmet and held on tight. And sure enough, it was blown up – and he was the only survivor….. he found himself walking sideways, with the first finger of his left hand dangling”.

“Luckily, a helicopter pilot saw what happened and whisked him off to hospital, where he had his finger sewn back together. He’s gone through a whole load of adventures, and he’s now an excellent writer and player. We keep in touch”.

Prying out background details was none too easy – sitting as we were in a circle around the table. No-one felt inclined to go into their past too deeply – so I had to ask Darrow about them later…… and now is a good point to trot out what I haven’t managed to work in already.

“Fenrus is the son of a writer and music instructor at the College of the Nazarene, which is a religious college in Pasadena. Fenrus was a child prodigy – started playing when he was 4, and can play violin, keyboards, and wind instruments. He was brilliant at school, but chose to amass the biggest comic collection of anyone I know. He’s off in his own space…… I appreciate him a great deal.”

“He and his father didn’t get on too well, which is why he wanted to keep his real identity out of the public eye…… so his father wouldn’t know he was playing rock and roll. So he made up all those names. Mind you, I don’t believe that was the reason at all – he just used to love going under different identities….. he’s a comic book character himself really. In fact, he actually writes comic books…… he does ‘Mickey Rat’ – do you know that one?”

“He really has it figured out what to do, and he does it. He also has a really big record collection…. Lots of 78s; he’s really into jazz and rock and all sorts of weird music”.

And what of John Vidican, the missing member?

“Vidican was a lot younger than us. At one point, when we were getting into all sorts of weird time signatures, we were going to get rid of him. We got as far as bringing Jim Keltner along to rehearse. Keltner could handle it with ease, though we found it adventurous…. And in fact our efforts with him came to nothing – because he was too good really. So John came back, and we pressed on. Actually, John was good; he was usually able to cut it. He was like us; we tended to strive until we felt something confidently….. it was almost a religious experience for me, and for all of us, being in Kaleidoscope. We all learnt so much from each other, because everybody had his own different strong point, which was a source of energy to the others”.

“John was really a hippie – an electronics freak. Kaleidoscope was his first band, other than marching bands and garage experiments”.

Next: “It was not luxury living, I can assure you”.