GUTEN TAG!!!! thought i'd do my first review on an album that hasn't gotten much visibility over time.
The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes (1967)
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a short bio:
Jake Holmes (b: 1939) is an American singer-songwriter who also wrote jingles for commercials. His career began in the 60's, and his first album was released in 1967. He also spent some time in Greenwich Village during the folk boom, like many folksingers of the time. To many, he may be most known for a song from said album called Dazed and Confused, which was subsequently brought to The Yardbirds by Jimmy Page, and later changed around by Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately, on both counts, he wasn't even credited as the writer of the song at first. One might say this is one of the first instances of the infamous Page Greed...
I don't like how when his name is mentioned in conversation, it's usually in relation to Page's song theft. I genuinely think this album is such a gem, completely overlooked by sixties folk fans and sixties music lovers overall. I would say this album is a mix of folk/singer songwriter & psychedelic rock. Feel free to yell at me for that. This album didn't get the hype it deserved, though I sincerely hope it does someday.
YOU MIGHT LIKE THIS ALBUM IF YOU ALSO ENJOY THESE ARTISTS: Donovan, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs; THESE ALBUMS: Sunshine Superman, Between the Buttons, Led Zeppelin III, Little Games; THESE GENRES: Folk-rock, psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk
YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE ALBUM HERE: Spotify , YouTube
Now, without further ado, as they say. . .
TRACK 1: LONELY - 2:34
This album opens STRONG. The song starts with an quick acoustic guitar with a stinging electric one joining in alongside it. When the lyrics start, I'm thrown into pure enjoyment. Holmes' vocals go incredibly well with the guitar, and the lyrics speak of an imaginary personification of his loneliness. I love the way this feeling is portrayed. The instrumental in the middle is quite easy to get lost in with the droning bass and fearful sounding guitar, and I never realise that it's passed until the lyrics pick up again. Near the end, the vocals and instruments pick up to an anxious climax which left me completely reeling when I first heard it, like a tornado that whips you out of shape then places you right back where you started. The song feels a lot quicker than it actually is thanks to the pacing. It boasts only 60k streams on Spotify!!
TRACK 2: DID YOU KNOW - 2:48
The second track is already a LOT different than the first. It's all acoustic, and Holmes sings a lot softer this time around. The bass is a lovely addition to the sweet sounding fingerpicking. The lyrics tell the perspective of someone who harbours an unrequited and secret love, full of yearning and almost... regret. It reads like a too-late confession. Near the end of the song, it's revealed our narrator is in a situation where the object of his affections has found someone else and fallen in love with them, so he confesses in defeat. Contrary to Lonely, this song feels longer than it is. It's quite beautiful, and I find myself looping it over and over sometimes. It's also the fourth most listened song on Jake Holmes' Spotify with 75k streams.
TRACK 3: SHE BELONGS TO ME - 2:10
This track sounds almost comedic. From the unserious delivery of the lines to the funny voice he uses at times, I think it's a satire of some sort. The song matter is kind of the opposite of Danger by Frankie Valli, if that makes any sense. It's told from the perspective of a man who's in a relationship with a very attractive woman, but this woman only has eyes for him. The narrator boasts about this, with lyrics such as "But it's me she found." Holmes' voice in the chorus is reminiscent of Donovan's in What's Bin Did and What's Bin Did. To me, this showcases Holmes' great skill at storytelling through his singing, like he's putting on a character for some of his songs. The little "You've gotta admire her taste" at the end got a giggle out of me during my first listen. ^_^
TRACK 4: TOO LONG - 2:42
Another slow-ish song to balance out the tone of the previous. The acoustic guitar goes beautifully with the electric one, which sounds hazy and psychedelic. This song really starts to make you realise why the album is described as "psychedelic folk." I'm unsure whether the repeating "too long" is referring to the time since the narrator has seen the person he's speaking to, or if he's expressing regret over the time he's spent with this person... The "I never knew you" seems to suggest the latter. To me, the lyrics sound like the narrator is reminiscing on an old relationship or friendship, but specifically an immature one with 'firsts.'
TRACK 5: GENUINE IMITATION LIFE - 3:58
This song is sung almost in a whisper, by everything from the quiet guitar to the hushed voice. The lyrics are probably as close to a topical song as this album will get, expressing discontentment with the way people interact with each other and live their lives, calling it an "imitation life." I quite like this song for that reason, because it's easy to tell what he's referring to with every lyric. "People worship crosses, fingers crossed behind their backs" really stood out to me. Around halfway through, the song picks up for a bit and Holmes' vocals are once again on display. At the end, his vocals really remind me of Phil Ochs'. This song was also recorded by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons after they heard Holmes playing in Greenwich Village!
TRACK 6: DAZED AND CONFUSED - 3:50
Now for the track that caught Jimmy Page's, and everyone else's attention. It starts off with the iconic descending bassline and acoustic guitar before the biting distortion comes through. The lyrics detail a manipulative and/or abusive relationship. I quite enjoy these original lyrics, and I don't like how Robert Plant later changed them for Led Zeppelin's borderline stolen cover. It feels like they took a lot of the meaning away feom the song, filling it with "babys" and "womans" and whatever else you'd normally find in Plant's onstage adlibs. After the first few lines, the instrumental goes on for a while before Holmes comes back with a striking re-rendition of the first lyric.
It turns out, the lawsuit that Holmes filed against Led Zeppelin was only recently settled in August of 2025! I genuinely thought the whole lawsuit situation happened decades ago, but Holmes only filed it 15 years ago.
TRACK 7: PENNY'S - 2:34
Penny's!!!! This song is absolutely adorable to me. The subject matter is a bit harder to discern for me, but I don't mind. I adore the doo-doo-doo style of guitar he's taken here, and I love even more the actual doo-doo-doos he sings halfway through!! So far, I love how different each song in this album sounds from each other. It's not repetitive at all to me, which dampens the likelihood of me skipping any of these songs. I don't have much to say about this track other than it's very sweet and comforting and I love it a lot.
TRACK 8: HARD TO KEEP MY MIND ON YOU - 1:59
This song sounds quite upbeat, but the lyrics kind of betray that. The narrator sings of... straight up cheating. It seems like he really wants out of the relationship he's in, but won't leave it either out of laziness or convenience, similar to many, many men in that time period and many men today. It's a pretty listen, however. It's a short little pick-me-up... if you've never been cheated on.
TRACK 9: WISH I WAS ANYWHERE ELSE - 2:46
I don't know why I like this song so much. From the guitar to the vocals, as I harp on about for every song, the lyrics and delivery specifically stand out to me here. Holmes sings of an awkward situation, perhaps a date or a hangout with a friend? Whichever the answer is, I'm sure many people can relate to it. He certainly does a great job of sounding awkward, especially when he sings "you'd be amazed how crab grass... can ruin a lawn." There's another halfway through tone change here, but I'm not complaining if it's a Jake Holmes song.
TRACK 10: SIGNS OF AGE - 4:00
I love this track, it's also the longest song on the album. It opens with a spoken word by Holmes, lamenting over the process of aging, and accepting it. God, I love how he changes the tone in certain parts of this song, then quickly changes it back, specifically during the latter half of the chorus. The guitar also deserves a mention here, it's beautiful and reminds me of a Lovin' Spoonful song.
TRACK 11: YOU CAN'T GET LOVE - 2:31
This song is curious to me. It happens to be my least favourite song on the album. It's also one of the two songs here that features backing vocals. Also, the bell? Confounded me. It's also got an orchestra in the back. It sounds a bit like an early-sixties pop song, which may be why I don't like it as much as the other songs... (I enjoy music from the early sixties, but I
TRACK 12: THINK I'M BEING HAD - 2:18
The final song on the album! The bell returns, as do the backing vocals and the orchestra! Which I assume is because of them being recorded during a different studio session to all the other songs. The subject matter of the lyrics is quite similar to Dazed and Confused, so I don't have much to add on that front. However, I love the fuzzy guitar incorporated into the track. Sadly, this wasn't a very strong track for me either.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I can wholeheartedly say that I LOOOOVE this album. So underrated that it's criminal! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE listen to this album, I hope this review (and my incessant urging, if you know me personally) has inspired you to check it out if you haven't before! It's SO much more than just Dazed and Confused. Jake Holmes is such a special, intelligent and talented songwriter and I can't wait to experience more of his albums in the future. Again, if you like Donovan & Bob Dylan's earlier work, as well as Phil Ochs, I assure you that you will fall in love with a song from this album!!!
I don't have much more to add, sadly. I find it hard to put my emotions into words, though it's a lot easier when the subject is something I'm interested in. I hope at least one person found something worthwhile from this review though!! Writing it certainly helped me pass time that I would've otherwise spent doing nothing productive. AWAIT MORE REVIEWS!! Actually, and this goes for ANYONE, if you know an album that I should listen to PLEASE reccommend it to me! I'll even review it. If nobody recommends me any albums I'll be so so sad.
AUF WEIDERSEHEN!!!! ^_^
(edit: added the album release date. probably shoildve done fhat earlier oops. also added 'little games' to the 'similar albums' bit)
