TEA PARTY SNACK PLATTER CD LINER NOTES

     Travis Pike’s Tea Party was a popular, Boston-based, concert-oriented musical group (1967-1969), founded by Travis to showcase his original material. Only two of those songs, “If I Didn’t Love You Girl” and “The Likes of You” were recorded and released (1968, Alma Records, 45 rpm, single), but “If I Didn’t Love You Girl” subsequently found its way onto several European Psychedelic compilation albums. When their short-lived WBZ TV show Here and Now was cancelled in 1968, the band migrated to Southern California where, so far from their families and support groups, they began to play top 40 tunes in dance halls and bars. As Travis tells it, working in clubs wasn’t so bad, but not being able to develop and showcase his original material was. He left quit the group in April, 1969.
     Travis Edward Pike’s Tea Party Snack Platter is another triumph in Travis and Adam Pike’s on-going efforts to reclaim the best of the songs and music from Travis’s mid-sixties to early-seventies back catalog before the time capsule (Travis), deteriorates beyond salvage. In the eleven songs featured on this album, all culled from the Travis Pike’s Tea Party original repertoire enjoyed by their many concert fans, the brothers captured the essence of those early performances and the spirit of those musically exciting and socially turbulent times.

     01. "If I Didn't Love You Girl" is the first cut on the CD, a fresh recording of the side one of the 1967 recording released on the Alma label in 1978. Arguably more psychedelic in concept than rock style, its background vocals contradict the lead vocal lyrics, reflecting the ego-preserving schizophrenia of first love. It appeared in Juke boxes in various parts of the country, but received little radio play. Nevertheless, that original recording appeared in three compilation albums, and the song was covered by The Syrups in their 2003 Beck Records Geoff Emerick produced album, The Syrups, and the Alma original was named in Shindig! magazine's February 2020 100th issue in a section titled THE HOT 100--the Soundtrack Of Our Evolution. Adam was one of the Syrups, so when he and Travis recorded the song for this album, both had recorded it twice! And now, a reissue of the original Travis Pike's Tea Party recording has been released in the UK on a 28th Anniversary Single by Mousetrap Music.
     02. “Okay.” One of the first rock songs in the band’s repertoire offers excuses, rather than an apologies—going so far as to imply that the girl's unusually high standards are all that make the vocalist's misbehavior seem inappropriate. It’s a bad excuse and he won’t get away with it . . . unless the girl is already crazy about him.
     03. “Worried Sick.” this song was born as a result of a drum head replacement. When Travis Pike's Tea Party suffered from burnt out tubes (amplifiers had tubes in those days), broken strings, or electrical failures, Travis would usually entertain the crowd with his stories in rhyme while the equipment was repaired, but on one particular night, George Brox, back up vocalist and rhythm guitarist started strumming and singing “Goodnight Irene.” Taken unawares, there was little Travis and Karl could do, but join in! They camped it up and the performance went over so well that Travis composed “Worried Sick.” Never performed after the group’s California migration, it will be new to all but their most loyal New England fans.
     04. “Can’t You See.” It's a pretty and refreshing brokenhearted love song that doesn’t threaten or wish ill upon either party in the failed relationship.
     05. ”One-Ten Blues” is less remorseful than mournful, dealing with a personal loss so tragic and profound that recovery is unlikely, perhaps even impossible.
     06. “Stay By Me.” Travis’s rocking, powerful plea for a stable relationship based on love and history.
     07. On the other hand, “What’s the Matter with Your Mind” is an equally rocking, disillusioned lover’s primal scream -- as likely a projection of his disturbed mindset as of hers.
     08. “In Your Eyes.” This Latin-sounding song beautifully addresses the hurt, anger and potential relief inherent in the breakup of an ill-fated romance.
     09. “I’ll Do Anything I Can.” This song is full of promises made out of desperate, adolescent infatuation, but one wonders if “anything” will be enough to win this particular girl—or any other, for that matter. Experience suggests a vague “anything” hasn’t much of a chance against a steady job.
     10. “You Got What I Need.” This was always a crowd favorite, a rocking celebration of primal, post-adolescent hormonal activity run amuck.
     11. “Oh Mama (2014).” This is a new recording of one of Travis' mosr requested hard rock tunes. It’s unclear exactly what Mama did, but it resulted in a catastrophe that, while it may be personal, could as easily have global consequences.