Bees

by Richie Unterberger
The Bees Voices Green and Purple is one of the weirdest one-shot obscurities of the 1960s garage scene, coming out on the Liverpool label in Covina, CA in October 1966. The verses were standard two-chord sub-Rolling Stones rants. The psychedelic touch was added not just by the florid and deranged lyrics, but by the choruses, where the tune disappeared, the drums sped up, and the scrawling guitars made ascending shards of noise. The single, encased in a crudely designed picture sleeve that is one of the most coveted collectibles of the garage era, did nothing commercially. However, it became a garage favorite after its inclusion on Pebbles Vol. 3, and got onto the Nuggets box set many years later. The Voices Green and Purple Bees are unrelated to the Bees who made a couple of folk-rock singles in 1965 for Mira and Mirwood.