There are few records from anyway, anyhow, anywhere that pack the sonic punch of The Mickey Finn’s Garden Of My Mind. With its assertive, coiling bass line, piledriving drums, atmospheric organ flourishes and violent, wrenching guitar work, topped by a lead vocal that is equal parts soulful and psychotic, the song is unstoppable. It builds to a series of stop-start climaxes, each more explosive than the last, before tumbling into a swirling tunnel of reverb, urging the listener to follow me, follow me, follow… And who wouldn’t? Formed in London’s East End in early 1964, The Mickey Finn – originally Mickey Finn & The Bluemen – already had a string of first class singles under their belts by the time they recorded Garden Of My Mind in the summer of 1967. At the time, bass player Bernard Jory had only recently joined a line-up that also included singer Alan Marks, guitarist Mickey Waller, organ player John “Fluff” Cooke and drummer Richard Brand. “Bernie Jory was actually a lead guitarist and his bass playing consequently had an edge that really kicked the sound forward,” remembers Marks. The session, at CBS Studios, was overseen by American producer Richard Gottehrer, a recording artist in his own right as a member of The Strangeloves. “In the studio we were getting our sound together,” recalls Jory, “and I played this bass line I had been working on. Immediately there was a response from the guys and the song came together so quickly. Alan headed off to write the lyrics to the melody, and I went to the bar, where Tom Jones was sipping a drink.” A few hours later the completed track was in the can. It was released in December 1967 on CBS’s Direction subsidiary, backed with another band original, the rowdy Small Faces-meet-the-Equals-style stomper Time To Start Loving You. Sadly, it would be the group’s swansong. After some happy times in the Bahamas, they dispersed for other projects in 1969. Mike Stax / Ugly Things Magazine