Illustration from Simplicissimus magazine, November 1943
I tend to think of people in the '70s as having been naive, drug-addled, and/or hopelessly deluded, and I base this opinion (justifiably, I think) on the Klaatu media frenzy of 1976. I love the first Klaatu album, 3:47 EST (retitled Klaatu in US markets), but I have no idea how you could believe that one or more Beatles was involved in its creation. The album's opening track, the fairly well-known single "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft", has some Beatlesy bits in it, but you don't have to go any further than the album's second song to thoroughly debunk the conspiracy theories.
That track, "California Jam", is such a shameless Beach Boys pastiche that it is obvious that Klaatu is a group of guys who loved '60s pop-rock, not a secret reunion of John, Paul, and Ringo (even the staunchest conspiracy-theorizer couldn't believe that George would participate in this project). The song is about drinking Coke and California sun, and it even has one of those Brian-Wilson vocal breakdowns I love - I'm not a fan of the phrasing on "cold cola!" in the opening stanza, and the fake audience noise at the end doesn't really work for me, but otherwise it's a solid summery pop song. And it's particularly impressive that it (and the rest of this ambitious album) was assembled by a trio of unknown Canadian musicians. It's just too bad that the album only got any attention by way of a Carpenters cover (which is excellent, BTW!) and one of the weirdest pop-music rumors ever. And if you get to track three of 3:47 EST, the funky "Anus of Uranus", and you still think you're listening to an album that one of the Beatles was involved with, you're definitely naive, drug-addled, and/or hopelessly deluded.
"California Jam" by Klaatu
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