DC Share Revival: Psychedelic Jukebox: [1968] Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup

The 1968 single by Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup, featuring the tracks Jabberwock and Which Dreamed It, represents one of the most enigmatic and singular artifacts of the late 1960s British psychedelic underground. At first glance, the project appears as a fleeting curiosity in the vast expanse of psychedelia’s sprawling catalog, yet beneath this surface lies a multi-layered confluence of literary ambition, countercultural subversion, and experimentation that demands a meticulous examination. The mastermind behind this brief yet potent venture was Dr. Sam Hutt, a figure who embodied the contradictions of his time—a qualified physician who embraced the countercultural ethos as the so-called "rock & roll doctor," offering medical assistance to some of the era’s most celebrated musicians while simultaneously indulging in his own creative forays into music.

The genesis of Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup cannot be disentangled from Hutt’s wider role within the 1960s London scene, particularly his involvement with the Notting Hill Free Clinic and his connections to musicians who sought his care. His dual identity, both as a medical professional steeped in traditional Western practice and as a participant in the psychedelic milieu, illuminates the intricate social fabric of the time—where boundaries between professional and artistic, clinical and mystical, were often deliberately blurred.

The track Jabberwock is an incarnation of Lewis Carroll’s celebrated poem from Through the Looking-Glass, a poem long admired for its playful use of language and its dreamlike, sometimes sinister, imagery. Rather than offering a straightforward musical setting, the recording embraces a theatrical and kaleidoscopic approach. Under the production guidance of Tony Visconti, whose early career in psychedelic production was formative before his later renown with David Bowie, the piece envelops the listener in a dense fog of reverb, echoing vocals, and tape effects that oscillate between whimsy and menace. This treatment enhances the otherworldly quality of Carroll’s text, transforming the nonsensical verse into an auditory journey that both challenges and mesmerizes the listener. Visconti’s role here, often overshadowed by his later achievements, is crucial: his deft manipulation of studio technology turned the single into a artifact of sound that oscillates between the theatrical and the surreal.

Complementing the frenetic energy of Jabberwock, the B-side Which Dreamed It adopts a markedly different character, leaning into the era’s burgeoning fascination with Eastern musical traditions and acid folk sensibilities. The track unfolds with a languid, meditative quality, featuring sitar drones and delicate flute lines that evoke the raga tradition while firmly grounding the music in the psychedelic folk realm. The soft male vocals enhance the track’s introspective mood, inviting the listener into a contemplative space that contrasts starkly with the A-side’s aggressive theatricality.

The single’s release was met with little commercial attention, a fate common among many psychedelic experiments of the time. However, its rarity, coupled with the mystique surrounding Hutt’s elusive persona and the unusual concept, has since elevated the record to cult status among collectors and connoisseurs of the psychedelic underground. The record’s scarcity—few copies were pressed and even fewer sold—has made it a coveted artifact, its value heightened by the enigma that surrounds its creation. It appears on numerous psychedelic compilations and retrospectives, confirming its standing as an essential.

The involvement of Dr. Sam Hutt also adds a layer of subcultural depth to the single. Known among musicians and insiders as a figure who straddled the worlds of medicine and music, Hutt’s story enriches the narrative around the record. His presence in the London counterculture as a healer and participant situates the single within a network of relationships that included notable acts like Pink Floyd and other underground musicians who sought refuge and support amidst the chaos of the late 1960s music scene. Hutt’s own reflection on his dual roles—both as a physician and artist—highlights the permeability of identity during this period and the desire to synthesize multiple facets of existence into a coherent whole, even if that coherence was fragile or fleeting.

Dr. Sam Hutt himself reflected on his unusual position at the crossroads of medicine and music with a mixture of bemusement and conviction. In interviews conducted years later, he described his role not just as a physician but as a "custodian of the scene," someone who navigated the precarious intersection between health and creativity during a time of intense cultural upheaval. He once remarked, “I wasn’t just patching up bodies; I was trying to keep alive a spirit that was rapidly being squeezed by the pressures of the mainstream. The music wasn’t separate from the medicine—it was part of the healing process, a different kind of prescription.” This perspective reveals how deeply Hutt saw the psychedelic milieu as a holistic experience, where the boundaries between physical, mental, and artistic well-being were deliberately blurred. His dual identity was not a contradiction but a reflection of the era’s fragmented yet interconnected realities, where artists, healers, and visionaries often wore many hats, each informing and enriching the others. His insight captures the fragile coherence mentioned earlier—an uneasy but sincere attempt to hold together disparate worlds through empathy, care, and creative expression.

From a musical perspective, the single stands as an early example of what could be termed as "Freakbeat" mixed with Acid Folk, genres that were in the process of defining themselves through experiments with form, texture, and cultural signifiers. The A-side’s use of studio technology to create a layered and immersive atmosphere prefigures many later developments in progressive and experimental rock, while the B-side’s integration of non-Western instruments speaks to a broader trend that was also popularized by artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Byrds.

You might also like this song from the Psychedelic Jukebox: [1967] John Martyn - Rolling Home.

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Psychedelic Jukebox: [1968] Boeing Duveen & The Beautiful Soup - Jabberwocky

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