“The Trip Down” / “When Once It Was Good” (Monument 45-1031) October 1967
1st National Band | When Once It Was Good | (Monument) | Not a great deal in known about the 1st National Band, although both sides of their one-off single have found their way onto psychedelic compilations over the years, but information about the group in any liner notes is hazy at best.
They are not linked in any way with the Mike Nesmith outfit of the same name.
Teenbeat Mayhem! suggests that they were located in Nashville, however, a short message from James Ford (songwriter credit for both songs) on a YouTube upload four years ago, confirmed that they were a college band based in Oklahoma City.
They had signed a record deal with Monument and travelled to Nashville to record the songs at their studios. The producer, Brent Maher, was an in-house producer / engineer for the label and worked on many of their releases, including the Hangmen‘s great 45s and their album. He has since won several Grammy Awards
1st National Band | When Once It Was Good | (Monument)
“When Once It Was Good” is a languid, dreamy piece of psychedelia with insidious lead guitar, backwards tape FX’s, double-tracked vocals and harmonies in all of the right places.
The other side “The Trip Down”, is a commercial pop song and reminds me of a lot of those late sixties singles the Five Americans were releasing.
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