Pearls Before Swine (band)
| Pearls Before Swine | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Melbourne, Florida, United States |
| Genres | Psychedelic folk, folk rock, psychedelic rock |
| Years active | 1965–1974 |
| Labels | ESP-Disk, Reprise, Blue Thumb |
| Associated acts | Area Code 615 |
| Past members |
Tom Rapp with: Wayne Harley (1965-69) Lane Lederer (1965-68) Roger Crissinger (1965-67) Jim Bohannon (1968) Jim Fairs (1969) Elisabeth Rapp (1969-72) Mike Krawitz (1971) Gordon Hayes (1971) John Tooker (1971) (d.2008) Morrie Brown (1971) Robby Merkin(1971) David Wolfert (1971) Art Ellis (1971-74) Bill Rollins (1971-74) Harry Orlove (1971-74) |
Pearls Before Swine was an American psychedelic folk band formed by Tom Rapp in 1965 in Eau Gallie, now part of Melbourne, Florida. They released six albums between 1967 and 1971, before Rapp launched a solo career.
With high school friends Wayne Harley (banjo, mandolin), Lane Lederer (bass, guitar) and Roger Crissinger (piano, organ), Rapp wrote and recorded some songs which, inspired by the Fugs, they sent to the avant-garde ESP-Disk label in New York. The group took its name from a Bible passage: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine ...." (Mat. 7:6, KJV), meaning: do not give things of value to those who will not understand or appreciate them. They were quickly signed up, and recorded One Nation Underground (1967), featuring songs of mysticism, protest, melancholia, and some controversy in the case of "Miss Morse", which spelled out an obscenity in code. The album eventually sold some 200,000 copies, although management and contractual problems meant that the band received little reward for its success.
On working with the label ESP-Disk, Rapp has said that "We never got any money from ESP. Never, not even like a hundred dollars or something. My real sense is that he (Bernard Stollman) was abducted by aliens, and when he was probed it erased his memory of where all the money was".
The strongly anti-war themed Balaklava (1968) followed, inspired by the Charge of the Light Brigade. Rapp has said "The first two albums are probably considered the druggiest, and I had never done any drugs at that point. I smoked Winston cigarettes at that time, so these are all Winston-induced hallucinations." The album covers featured paintings by Bosch and Brueghel, while the records themselves included interpretations of the writings of Tolkien and Herodotus as well as archive recordings from the 1890s, with innovatively arranged songs using an eclectic variety of instruments.
...
Wikipedia