Nuggets-era garage rockers helped usher psychedelia into the mainstream with 1967 hit “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)”
James Lowe, lead singer and principal member of the Sixties psychedelic band the Electric Prunes, has died at the age of 82.
Lowe’s family announced on social media Thursday that he died “peacefully of natural causes” on May 22, surrounded “by music” and his family. “It is with heavy and electric hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved dad, James Lowe – lead singer and founder of The Electric Prunes,” his children wrote. “Dad leaves behind a legacy of sound, love, and boundless creativity.”
As the founding member of the garage rock band the Electric Prunes, the California-born Lowe helped push American psychedelic music into the mainstream with the band’s 1966 hit “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night),” which reached the upper tier of the Hot 100. The song would also feature as the opening track on the cult psychedelic garage compilation Nuggets in 1972.
The group’s 1967 self-titled LP, release on Reprise Records, also featured their last Top 40 single “Get Me to the World on Time.” The original Electric Prunes would release two more albums in the late Sixties — 1967’s Underground and 1968’s overly ambitious Mass in F Minor, a collaboration with songwriter and producer David Axelrod — before Lowe and the core members disbanded.
Lowe then shifted his musical talents to the production booth, working as a recording engineer, first with Todd Rundgren’s Nazz and then on the debut album of brother duo Halfnelson, which would soon change its name to Sparks; Lowe also served as producer on the now-Sparks’ 1972 album A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing.
Trending Stories
While the Electric Prunes — whose manager assumed control of the band name after the original members left — continued to operate in the post-Sixties decades with a revolving door lineup (which included Kenny Loggins at one point), renewed interest in the group thanks to the Nuggets compilation inspired Lowe to reclaim the moniker and reunited with former bandmates Mark Tulin (bassist), Ken Williams (guitarist), and drummer Michael Weakley.
The reunited lineup reconvened in the studio for 2001’s Artifact, after which Lowe maintained control of the Electric Prunes through further lineup changes and three more studio albums. Lowe continued to perform live with the group until his death.
