The Magic Plants

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The Magic Plants were a New York City group connected to Harry Lookofsky, owner of World United Studios. The only band members whose names I can find are Peter Schekeryk and Tom Finn. Finn stated in a later interview that he was just 16 at the time, not a good bassist yet, and only sang backup vocals on the record. Very likely then, at least some of the musicians on the record were studio pros. Contrary to prior publications, this record was never released with a World United label, but went straight to Verve in December '65, making no impression on the public at the time. While recording I'm A Nothing, Finn met Lookofsky's son, Michael Brown, also just 16, who was working as an assistant at the studio. They started composing songs with Finn's friends drummer George Cameron and singer Steve Martin. Together they became the Left Banke, managed and produced by Harry Lookofsky. John Abbott, who arranged this 45, also arranged and played bass and guitar on several early Left Banke recordings done within a couple months of the Magic Plants record. This leads me to believe there's a good chance that he played bass on I'm a Nothing, maybe with Hugh McCracken (another local studio pro) on guitar. The b-side here, I Know She's Waiting There, hints at something of the future Left Banke sound, and also has a beautiful fuzz guitar solo. Harry Lookofsky, by the way, also recorded interesting jazz discs and provided backing for doo-wop groups under the name Hash Brown and His Orchestra.

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