ROGER SALLOOM “THE CITY IN AN OWL’S EYE” HOLY GRAIL RARITY YIKES!

ROGER SALLOOM “THE CITY IN AN OWL’S EYE” (U.S.PRIVATE) 1967 VG+/VG++   cvr has been taped on top right, disc is very shiny to look at, solid VG++

This record is in very good condition. It is very clean with a nice sheen. It has a few very light scratches. The labels are clean and sharp. The cover shows some edge wear, but no split seams or creases
Prepare yourself for a real treat. Roger Salloom has been heralded as 2nd only to Dylan in songwriting. Why he remains so underground is a mystery, but likely it is because he really didn’t record much. In the 60s he made 2 lps as part of the pop-psych group Salloom-Sinclair & The Mother Bear on Cadet Concept, and then nothing until a more pop-rock self-released album in 1982. OK, so before all that he was still in a college town in Indiana, performing at this coffee house called The Owl. This document is from that period. And, it is simply brilliant.

Most of the lp is Salloom. My favorite track is the first part of the clip. It is a total hippie Buddhism, era-appropriate, Indian raga-inspired droney homage to everything being nothing. Just like “first there is a mountain, then there is no mountain,” but Salloom stops short of the enlightenment phase of “then there is.” It’s totally out there. I also threw on some other bits I particularly like, so you could get a deeper feel for the record.

Then, super-strangely enough, a large portion of side 2 is a total psychedelic word salad tangential voice-sound collage from a group called the Vest Pocket Players. I included a taste of this in the mp3 also. There are no last names on the cover for them, but a fair bit of digging revealed that a 19-year-old Kevin Kline (yes, the actor from A Fish Called Wanda) is part of the group. Everyone else is a mystery. I spoke to Salloom, who couldn’t seem to remember what I had just said, let alone who else was involved with the recording or that group. Ahhh, acid. Oh well. Interviews with Kevin (which you can read online) have confirmed his participation, but he is unfortunately not currently returning my calls and so I haven’t been successful in finding out anything further.

Anyhow, this is one of those rare folk-psych records that you actually go back to a bunch. I rate it wayyyy up there. Furthermore, the lp is legendary, as in, few really even knew it for-real existed. There is no evidence online of it having ever sold anywhere. I have spoken to high-end dealers and collectors around the world. Nobody has this record. I happened to find 2 copies of the lp together in a box I got from an old hippie in the midwest. 1 of those copies will remain on my shelf of treasured rarities. The other could be on your shelf.

I won’t go on record and say that this will definitely be your only chance to own this, but that certainly seems likely.