Man ● 2 Ozs of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle

2 Ozs of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle really cuts to the chase, doesn’t it? What better way to describe a two-sided slab of recorded vinyl? Take that title and connect the musical dots—a Welsh band called Man, a lead guitar player by the name of Deke and a song mistakenly referred to as “Spunk Box”—and you’ve got yourself a rather unusual artifact of late ‘60s psychedelic acid rock. First released in 1969, 2 Ozs of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle represents the second and final album Man recorded for the Dawn label (they would sign with United Artists a year later and record consistently for the next decade). “It Is As It Must Be” (originally called “Shit on the World”) and “Brother Arnold's Red and White Striped Tent” are the album’s best tracks, two guitar-fueled rockers centered around a couple of heavy riffs. The studio version of the aforementioned “Spunk Box” is far tamer than the live version that became a concert staple, but it’s interesting to hear the song at its conception. Three other songs—two instrumentals and a slightly offbeat country rock number—round out the proceedings. Man survived well into the 1970s, its 2 Ozs of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle ultimately becoming one of the lost oddities of the band’s vast catalog.

Notes: It’s my understanding that “spunk” is a UK slang term for semen. Needless to say, the label wasn’t thrilled when the band delivered a song called “Spunk Rock.” Dawn Records decided to change the name without the group’s approval. One problem: They changed the wrong word. “Rock” became “Box” and “Spunk Box” became a concert favorite.