Wild ‘N’ Tender (ycd-011)

Like Kenneth Higney’s Attic Demonstration, Dane Sturgeon’s Wild ‘N’ Tender was recorded as a songwriting demo rather than a commercial release. Like Higney’s record, it’s one of a kind, and legendary since the earliest days of private press record collecting. “Wild” tracks like ‘The Ghost of Bardsley Road’ and ‘Queen Bee’ drip with the garish, obsessive sexuality of a Russ Meyer movie. “Tender” songs like ‘Who’s Gonna Hold The Wind’ reveal true tenderness. The album calls itself “folk-rock in a stone groove,” but it’s really early rock and roll channeled in the psychedelic era (1967) by a guy too busy getting loaded to notice how fast everything’s changing. Timeless.

Three 2011 living room recordings provide further proof of Sturgeon’s sly mastery of metaphorical songwriting.

“No other album has this particular sound… for the most part this is great.”
Aaron Milenski, Acid Archives

“Like Del Shannon singing with Joe Meek’s Blue Men on the dark side of the moon.”
Jello Biafra, Incredibly Strange Music 2