Damon

Singer/songwriter Damon (just Damon, no last name) put out an extremely obscure, folk-tinged psychedelic album in 1969, Song of a Gypsy, of which only 100 copies were pressed. Such is its rarity that mint copies have gone for as much as $1000 or more. There’s a droning, slightly raga-modalish flavor to the melodies and guitar lines, with a gypsy touch in the percussion and questing, spiritual lyrics. The gypsy element of Song of a Gypsy is not just an extrapolation from the title, but a deliberate action on Damon’s part, who came to think of himself as a gypsy while wandering around California in the late ’60s. After one 45, “Song of the Gypsy”/“Oh What a Good Boy Am I,” the LP was recorded by Damon and other musicians in Los Angeles, its existence barely even suspected by most psychedelic collectors for years. In the late ’90s, it had something of a renaissance, with the title track appearing on one of the Love, Peace & Poetry compilations of rare psychedelia, and the LP getting reissued in both CD and vinyl editions. Around this time, Damon returned to recording with a similar but less strange album, Gypsy Eyes. Song of a Gypsy was reissued by Now-Again in 2013, just in time for a Damon track to feature on HBO’s vampire hit True Blood. ~ Richie Unterberger