Beacon Street Union ● The Clown Died in Marvin Gardens

If clowns are scary, then dead clowns are terrifying. You can therefore understand my trepidation when delving into the contents of a record called The Clown Died in Marvin Gardens, the second and final long player from Boston’s Beacon Street Union. First released in 1968 on MGM Records, The Clown Died in Marvin Gardens is befitting of the psychedelic era from which it emerged, an album full of unusual sound effects, nonsensical spoken word bits and trippy hard rock guitar fills. “King of the Jungle” and “May I Light Your Cigarette” are two of the stranger tracks, the latter a mysterious, incoherent monologue, while the eerie title track does in fact expand on the Marvin Gardens Monopoly reference (“Beggars underbidding for Park Place/the Community Chest is profane/by the tracks of the B&O Railroad…”). The quintet delivers a couple of genuine nuggets in “Now,” a punchy hard rock number, and a slightly jazz-oriented pop song called “A Not Very August Afternoon” before closing the album with an electrifying if lengthy take on “Baby Please Don’t Go.” The band took one last shot at commercial success with a cover version of “Blue Suede Shoes” before calling it quits… almost. A name change to Eagle resulted in one final lp, Come Under Nancy’s Tent (1971), a title reportedly chosen only for its less than savory acronym.

Notes: Here’s an audio-only YouTube clip of Beacon Street Union’s “Blue Suede Shoes:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPmp-ej5WHU.