Mystery Trend

The Mystery Trend’s name has proved appropriate in defining their fate. They were a band that lots of rock music scholars have heard of — mentioned in lots of essays about San Francisco in the mid-’60s — but never heard. The Mystery Trend never recorded much professionally, and a lot of what they did was in the realm of works-in-progress, rather than finished pieces of music. The group’s other big problem was that their sound wasn’t too much in sync with the music most people associate with mid-’60s San Francisco. They started out doing R&B based music, then gravitated toward the Beatles, the Kinks, the Zombies, and Lovin’ Spoonful, but they never really sounded like any other band. Their 21-song compilation, “So Glad I Found You”, finally presents their legacy properly, including all of their 1966-67 Trident studio recordings, as well as some demos and even a solo demo apiece by Ron Nagle and guitarist Bob Cuff. More often they’re intriguing oddball art-pop-rock with a dash of psychedelia. – Bruce Eder, Richie Unterberger

Ron’s apprenticeship as a pop maverick amongst the self-absorbed hordes of 60s San Francisco in his legendary combo The Mystery Trend can be full appreciated on the Trend anthology So Glad I Found You, which gathers together all the studio sessions for Frank Werber’s Trident imprint, as well as some fascinating home recordings, 1965-1967
More Mystery Trend, as well as the rare early version of Ron’s 61 Clay which he used to publicise an art opening in 1968, can be found on Sing Me A Rainbow: A Trident Anthology

Tracks [play a sample]:
1. Carl Street
2. So Glad I Found You
3. Words You Whisper
4. Johnny Was a Good Boy
5. One Day For Two
6. Carrots on a String
7. Ten Empty Cups
8. Mercy Killing
9. Mambo For Marion
10. Substitute
11. There it Happened Again
12. Shame Shame Shame (Miss Roxie)
13. House on a Hill
14. From the Collection of Dorothy Tate
15. Carrots on a String
16. What if I
17. Wake up Cryin’
18. Lose Some Dreams
19. Empty Shoes
20. Let Me See with My Eyes
21. Carl Street