What the hell does "electric prunes" mean

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Dammit this is confounding me. It is so inexplicable. I bet it has something to do with drugs.

― Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZT!! BZZZZZT!! (Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZ), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:14 (twenty years ago)

what does "strawberry alarm clock" mean?

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:20 (twenty years ago)

oh my god what does "chocolate watch band" mean?!

― purple patch (electricsound), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:24 (twenty years ago)

Could the "Count Five" really count to five???

― Shady Loch Lenin (haitch), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:28 (twenty years ago)

What fruit were The Seeds from, or was it a plant?!

― Shady Loch Lenin (haitch), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:33 (twenty years ago)

Interview with James Lowe:

We were the "Sanctions" at first and "Jim and the Lords" next. Got the name Electric Prunes by locking ourselves in our practice room till we came up with something to put on our first release on Reprise "Ain't It Hard". The record company balked at first at the name but gave in when we wouldn't change our minds. Mark told a joke that ended with an Electric Prune punchline and I seized it as a great name for us as I recall.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:34 (twenty years ago)

Which doesn't tell us what the joke was of course...

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:43 (twenty years ago)

Awwww.

I thought it would be something cool, like "elderly people in a near-vegetative state at the twilight of life, who suddenly are invigorated with youthful energy by the sound of electric guitars" or something like that.

thanks for the sarcasm, ass wipes. LOL

― Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZT!! BZZZZZT!! (Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZ), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:59 (twenty years ago)

Music Mole is cooler than the rest of you.

― Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZT!! BZZZZZT!! (Queen Electric Butt Prober BZZ), Friday, 3 September 2004 05:59 (twenty years ago)

Anyone with a name like yours, Queenie, is welcome to compliment me all day long.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Friday, 3 September 2004 06:25 (twenty years ago)

Electric Prunes and Moby Grape are both punchlines to silly jokes. I remember hearing the Moby Grape joke when I was at school and had no idea yet who Skip Spence was. It went something like:

Q: What's giant, purple and swims in the sea?
A: Moby Grape

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:14 (twenty years ago)

They're playing at the Camden Underworld later this month. I'm really tempted to go, even though I hate revival/reunion acts. I mean, it's the ELECTRIC PRUNES!!! Play it, Prunes!

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:16 (twenty years ago)

i dont know anything about them but they have a terrible name.

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 3 September 2004 08:59 (twenty years ago)

You've never heard "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night"?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Friday, 3 September 2004 09:03 (twenty years ago)

me? oh no. are they 60s or something. conversely, thats a pretty cool name for a song.

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:14 (twenty years ago)

"Get Me to the World On Time" is possibly even better

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:15 (twenty years ago)

What was the one on that excellent All Back To Mine compilation, the first one? That was one of their best.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:16 (twenty years ago)

You know how they were two versions of the Electric Prunes? The psychedelic garage band version and the David Axelrod version? Well years ago, the former was the hip one and the latter was considered an embarassment. I remember buying "Mass In F Minor", playing it once or twice and thinking, "What a load of old shite". Ha ha, those were the days!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:20 (twenty years ago)

In the heady rush of the mid-60's, prunes were just in the air. The Mothers' Duke of Prunes had already appeared by the time the Electric Prunes were named.

Isn't it an ad for the first fuzz-tone where the voice over intones the classic, "Play it, Prunes!"?

― briania (briania), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:20 (twenty years ago)

I love Underground. That's such a great album.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:22 (twenty years ago)

It's an add for the Vox wah wah pedal.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:23 (twenty years ago)

"Duke of Prunes" was after the Electric Prunes, no?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:23 (twenty years ago)

Or, Ad, rather. D'oh, all this maths talk is addling my brain.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 3 September 2004 11:24 (twenty years ago)

Like the Virgin Prunes.....only Electric.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 September 2004 12:33 (twenty years ago)

I stand doubly corrected. Yes, it was the Vox wah-wah ad that contains "Play it Prunes!" And "Duke of Prunes" is on Absolutely Free (1967), but was probably in the Mothers' repertoire well before -- is it perhaps in part a piss-take on the Electric variety? Again, Prunes were just IN THE VIBES of that magical time.

The appearance of the Virgin Prunes in the mid-80s indicates a 20-year Prune Cycle. Are we now on the cusp of the third great flowering of rock prunery?

― briania (briania), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:24 (twenty years ago)

"Like the Virgin Prunes.....only Electric"

That's only half the story!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:33 (twenty years ago)

Eating prunes keps you regular - as anyone who was brought up in a houshold that adhered with borderline-psychotic tenacity to the old-fashioned belief that regularity of bowel movements is next to godliness will be pleased to confirm.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:38 (twenty years ago)

Electricity on the other hand - as members of the same household will also tell you - is the product of Beelzebub.

Hence "Electric Prunes" represents the eternal conflict between goodness, purity and regularity of toilet habits (the prunes) and evil (electricity).

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:41 (twenty years ago)

Either that or it was the name for an early and unsuccessful prototype of the product that would eventually be perfected as the "Love Egg".

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 September 2004 13:43 (twenty years ago)

Hence "Electric Prunes" represents the eternal conflict between goodness, purity and regularity of toilet habits (the prunes) and evil (electricity).

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:21 (twenty years ago)

What if "prunes" is a THIRD PERSON VERB? put that in your pipe and smoke it!

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:27 (twenty years ago)

Saw them play a few songs at L!ttle St3ven's fest. Psych-trippy stuff. Not bad. The most entertaining thing about them were their bizarre clothing. Like neon shamans or sumfin'.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 3 September 2004 14:37 (twenty years ago)

"What if "prunes" is a THIRD PERSON VERB?"

Then the object of the statement is missing; Electric, prunes.... what?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:17 (twenty years ago)

the bushes scream while my daddy prunes

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:17 (twenty years ago)

"the bushes scream while my daddy prunes"

Daddy = father therefore "Daddy Prunes" must clearly be The Lord God, who keeps all of our unworthy mortals' bowel-movements regular, by the purgative power of His mighty prunes.

It's all perfectly obvious really.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:23 (twenty years ago)

erm yes

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:25 (twenty years ago)

electric prunes the hedgerows of your mind, man....

― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:25 (twenty years ago)

Exactly.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:27 (twenty years ago)

Electric prunes the hedgerows of your bowels if taken in sufficient quantities.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:27 (twenty years ago)

i prune the bowels electric

― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Friday, 3 September 2004 15:28 (twenty years ago)

Are Prunes Electric?

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 3 September 2004 19:56 (twenty years ago)

Hahahaha .. brilliant

― Reed Moore (diamond), Friday, 3 September 2004 19:59 (twenty years ago)

i dunno, did the revival of those EP/axelrod records really last long? they seemed like things that some of the tastemakers/hipper record stores were pushing pretty hard but didn't necessarily take hold of many people's imaginations. i could be wrong.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 3 September 2004 23:31 (twenty years ago)

p.s. are they still in print?

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 3 September 2004 23:32 (twenty years ago)

p.s. are they still in print?

All three original albums were re-released by Collectables a couple years ago. There's a b-side collection called Lost Dream that's decent, but the Live In Stockholm '68 album is an absolute monster.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Saturday, 4 September 2004 04:57 (twenty years ago)

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