Can’t Ebenezer See My Mind?

CAN’T EBENEZER SEE MY MIND?

Local nightclub owner Jim McCullough was about to start a new label called Cam Records (with the name apparently taken from spelling his nickname backwards). Under his direction, the Klubs cut several tracks in the summer of 1968. One of these is my favorite song on the retrospective album, “Can’t Ebenezer See My Mind?”; there are two studio versions of the song (the second from 1969) plus a live version from 2000. The full chorus line in the song is: “Can’t Ebenezer see my mind / Instead of looking through me all the time? / Why can’t Ebenezer see my mind?”. With lyrics like that, you don’t even have to hear the song to know that you are dealing with a true psychedelic band.

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The Klubs’ popularity had begun to decline by 1969, and the band eventually trimmed down to a power trio: John Reid (vocals, guitar), Paddy Breen (vocals, bass) and Peter Sinclair-Tidy (drums). They recorded two songs that year, a stripped-down version of “Can’t Ebenezer See My Mind?” plus “the Stripper”; neither was released, however. Both are also included on the Midnight Love Cycle CD and are quite good, though they suffer from production issues. Briefly called the Klubbs, they later performed as Warhog; Norris Easterbrook now calls the latter group “a heavy metal dirge band”.

(July 2013)

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YouTube has several songs by the Klubs. This is the dreamy psychedelic “A” side of their only 45, “I Found the Sun”, and the band would be worth remembering for this song alone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlS5vvs-KLE . Another winner, “Can’t Ebenezer See My Mind?” has wyld lyrics in keeping with the title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX5UxktFfQ8 . This is the title song “Midnight Love Cycle” from their reissue album whose lyrics recall Tomorrow’s “My White Bicycle”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NCBTHxWVWU .

(July 2015)