Monocled Alchemist

The Mystic Tide under the spotlight

The Mystic Tide: “Frustration”: In late 1964 or early 1965 a group of four high school musicians from the Long Island, N.Y. suburb of Woodbury formed a band. The group consisted of Joe Docko (lead guitar, lead vocals), Jim Thomas (rhythm guitar, background vocals), Paul Picell (bass guitar, background vocals), and John Willam (drums).

The band started out playing their own songs as well as songs by The Searchers, The Zombies and especially Them. The band needed a name, and since Joe Docko really liked the Them song “Mystic Eyes” and another member wanted the word “tide” as part of the name, they agreed to name the band The Mystic Tide.

While most Long Island bands were playing soul music, The Mystic Tide refused to go along with the trend. They played their own compositions, as well as cover songs they liked, done Mystic Tide-style.

By early 1966, with one self-released 45 out, they were playing drawn-out, improvised versions of “Tobacco Road” and “I Just Want To Make Love To You.” When they played “Frustration” it was always different, lasting ten minutes or more with Joe Docko playing incredible leads on an old Fender Jazzmaster through a Fender Super Reverb amp.

The Mystic Tide: “Frustration”

Although the band found it difficult to get work, they did manage to get a few gigs in Manhattan clubs, some colleges and at The Action House in Long Island.

Influenced by the Paul Butterfield “East West”LP, they got more and more into improvising their own material—which didn’t help them secure many gigs in 1966.

The soul sound was all the rage in Long Island, epitomized by groups like The Rascals, The Vagrants and The Pigeons (soon to become The Vanilla Fudge).

Besides having a hard time securing gigs, none of the radio stations would play their records, and not many people would buy the records at the gigs either. However, The Mystic Tide struggled through these hard times and continued to write their own songs while releasing 45’s on their own Esquire and Solid Sound labels.

After a fourth single was released in early 1967 (the autobiographical “Running Through The Night”), the rhythm guitar player quit and the band was now a three piece—guitar, bass and drums. But this didn’t stop them from unleashing their final 45: “Mystery Ship,” an ominous tale of death and the futility of life, and the more positive flip, “You Won’t Look Back”.

The Mystic Tide: “Frustration”

The Mystic Tide didn’t try to sound psychedelic, they just played that way. By not following trends and sticking to their own originals and improvised covers, they developed a sound that was way ahead of its time.

There were other songs written but never recorded: “Far Away”, “Standing There”, “You’ll Remember”, “Keep Calling” and “In Your Mind” are among the tunes that live on in the memory of a lucky few fans that were swept up by the now mysterious psychedelic legends, The Mystic Tide.

I present you their recorded material interspersed with vintage sixties radio promo adverts. This is Episode #70 of “The Monocled Alchemist” podcast.

Featured songs in order of appearance:

• ‘Big TNT Show’ radio promo spot
• Why
• Mystic Eyes
• In-Sound, Harry Harrisons radio promo spot
• Psychedelic Journey #1
• I Wouldn’t Care
• The Wild Angels’ movie promo #1
• Frustration
• You Won’t Look Back
• Therablem zit cream radio advert
• Psychedelic Journey #2
• Three’s A Crowd LP promo spot #1
• Running Through The Night
• Stay Away
• The Turtles ‘Turtle Soup’ LP radio promo
• Mystery Ship
• I Search For A New Love

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