The Seeds of punk

Word has it Sky Saxon wrote "Pushin' Too Hard" in 15 minutes.  Our question today: What took him so long?

We have always loved "Pushin' Too Hard," which used all of two chords and featured Saxon's vocals, the electric piano of Daryl Hooper and a raw guitar solo by Jan Savage.  It peaked on the Billboard chart at No. 36 about this time in 1967, representing the California band's only brush with national fame.

Call it garage rock, psychedelic rock or protopunk, the song provided a nice counterbalance to some of the bizarre music that was receiving mainstream radio play at the time. After an endless dose of songs like "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron," "Winchester Cathedral," and "Sugar Town," we were more than ready for upstarts like the Seeds and the Blues Magoos, who had a Top 5 single with "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet."

What's not to like?