In 1967 the flowering psychedelic subculture, drug addled and ripe for social revolution, was ravenous for fresh & far-out sounds which could provide the music to the unprecedented confluence of expanding consciousness and cultural upheaval. However, nobody was ready for the sonic voodoo that Jefferson Steelflex would soon conjure.
Jefferson was a brilliantly adroit guitarist, a singer of superior natural endowment, as well as an epileptic who suffered grand mal seizures that delivered fantastical visions. His music should be heard as a heroic effort to recreate his rich chaotic inner universe, something he says he's yet to accomplish.
Despite his failure to musically reproduce the deranged phantasms within, He has nonetheless given us a singular & enduring vision. That is, music composed of equal parts Texas blues, psychedelic rock & the traditional ritual music of the Bantu; all strained through his distorted filter like moonshine through burlap.
His first LP The Life & Times of Diogenes Brewer (1968) became the clarion call for the emerging genre dubbed Possession Blues. Each tune thrived in different & dangerous habitats: lonesome worlds of deep threatening grooves surrounded by jagged walls of electrified sounds behind which lurked all manner of predatory guitar lines.
In the winter of '68, Steelflex, along with a band of like-minded musical degenerates, formed Neptune. By the summer of '69 they had a solid cult following and were on the verge of hitting the national stage. Their first LP The Dark Sea of Change (1969) created a huge groundswell of critical acclaim.
Unfortunately, Jefferson's poor mental health, bad luck, and prodigious appetites for all things stimulating and illegal, would constantly plague the band. While on tour in 1969 He was arrested for possession of human adrenalin in Chicago, which landed him in Cook County Jail for 14 months…
By the fall of 1970, Steelflex, physically deteriorated and spiritually compromised, moved from his troubled life in San Francisco to what He hoped would be a new beginning in Los Angeles. He immediately found himself squeezed from all sides by demands he could not satisfy. The record company wanted more product, His body that would no longer cooperate with his decadent habits, and irreparable personal conflicts within a band that had lost it's equilibrium added to the pressure that was pushing Jefferson to the breaking point. Their critically acclaimed 2nd album Tunes of Moral Turpitude (1971), reflected the horror of Jefferson's life at the time.
As the Neptune's interpersonal relationships slowly began to erode, so too did its record sales and popularity. Before Jefferson could catch his breath or His band could regain momentum, He had a complete psychotic break and was admitted to Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County where he stayed for the next 23 months.
In his absence, his Neptune Society kept busy by continuing to gig up and down the West Coast. So it was that in the spring of 1974 they were rejoined by their visionary guitarist. Jefferson now somewhat clean and sober, with a new book of tunes and new-found energy. A positive Lester Bangs review of the band's live EP Tour Book of The Dead (1974) in Cream helped launch a new era for Neptune complete with additional players, a new look and a new name.
Jefferson Steelflex and his Neptune Society was borne along by a string of superb LPs that comprise the band's classic era and act as a soundtrack for the alienated youth of the 70's. With the rebirth came a string of mind-bending classic rock LPs starting with A Sop for Cerberes (1976) a record that firmly established the groups ability to hang with heavyweights of progressive rock while keeping true to their roots.
In '81 Jefferson took the first of his two sabbaticals to India...
to be continued, Part 2