? and the Mysterians -- "96 Tears"
This song is one of the all-time great garage classics, touching on early psychedelia before things got out of hand. A few important questions to be asked:
Q: Why 96 tears?
A: Because 95 was not enough and 97 was one too many.
Q: Has the Farfisa organ ever been put to better use than this?
A: No. The Mysterians have some other great tracks, but nothing else quite compares. The Monks did some great work with the Farfisa, though. Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs had a fine hit with it in "Wooly Bully." The Ventures made good use of it. In the late 70s/early 80s, there was kind of a Farfisa revival in a lot of New Wave bands. You can even hear Farfisa on a few Tom Waits tracks. But the answer is no --the Farfisa has never played such a prominent role in any other song that is quite this cool.
Q: What's the big deal about this Farfisa, anyway?
A: In case you're not familiar with the Farfisa, it sounds like a Hammond organ that's fallen out of the back of a pickup truck and then been dragged off into a cave somewhere where primitive beings toy with it until they get true primal sounds that are appropriate for genuine cavestomp music. In other words, it sounds like rock and roll in all its raw and unembellished glory.
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