The Daisy Chain were four girls who – appropriately enough — recorded their only album during the daisy-chain threading heyday of the summer of love. Though their name and image couldn’t get any more San Francisco, they actually hailed from Orange County, and Straight or Lame displays awkward hankerings to sing grown-up, soul songs; two members later went on to form a hard rockin’ soul band called Birtha. There couldn’t be a greater contrast between the wanton, womanly soul of Birtha, and the awkward charming psychedelic experimentation of the early girl-band, The Daisy Chain. It’s difficult to say which direction would have suited the band better, but the best songs on Straight or Lame are tinged with a delicate, but oddly murky psychedelia, like a dejected teenage girl trailing home after dusk with no explanation for her parents as to where she’s been. On “Zzotto” and “Run Spot Run” the girls sing mostly in harmony, but on the other songs, the primary vocalists try out warbling solos that pass for R&B or soul. On “Run Spot Run,” however, minor chord changes take place against a background of twee, fluttering flutes. This song doesn’t even really have a chorus in the traditional sense, just a point where it breaks into a run like the lyrics (“Run, Spot, Run!”). “Zzotto” takes a similar approach, with farfisa organs weaving through harmonies led by a meandering vocal, stalling in a jarring farfisa ending. It’s an odd, vulnerable place to leave a listener – as if alone in the woods looking around for a vanished companion who has upped the stakes in a game of hide and seek.
Perhaps the Daisy Chain were influenced by standing on a fault line (pun not intended) between the crisp surf rock and folk that made their state famous in the 60s, and the more full-throated blues that was about to dominate during the 70s. It seems that a lot of bands at the end of the 60s felt the pressure to be gutsier and more soul driven, exchanging their own unique – but less strident – pop melodies for blues archetypes. It was a treacherous road for bands who dealt in white pop to bridge the gap and set aside ‘straight’ for the bluesy kinks of the 70s without sounding lame. The Daisy Chain are interesting for having the courage to try out both a fully developed psychedelic approach and a much more tentative soul/blues style on one album.
