10 thoughts on “Harpers Bizarre :: Witchi Tai To

  1. This is a great song. I heard Jim Pepper’s original version of this song on a Hopi radio station sitting in a parked car in the middle of the Navajo Indian Reservation. Blew my mind.

    Here is a link to Jim Pepper’s version. It features a wild, dazzling saxophone solo in the coda. Great stuff and a great tribute to American Indian Roots.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2YeEUlyhQw

  2. Like this. Love the original version by Jim Pepper’s group, “Everything is Everything.” Peyote chants never sounded better than it did on that 45 RPM one-hit wonder.

  3. Love this song, too! And the Harpers pictures brought back memories. My mom and sister used to collect those old things too. Great post!

  4. Pepper di the tune several times in his career, I also liked the Brewer & Shipley version, but as stated earlier the Everything Is Everything version on Vanguard/Apostolic was the finest and such a satisfying song to hear on Top 40 radio back then. I learned the song (a peyote chant) and have sung it a capella in many sweat lodges during my stint with the mytho-poetic men’s movement of the 90s.

  5. BTW, Jim Pepper’s ‘Pow Wow’ lp on Atlantic /Embryo (Herbie Mann’s jazz imprint that probably didn’t sell many copies of anything past his own ‘Push Push’ LP) circa 1972 that has his more ‘earthy’ version was quite the collector’s item (probably still is on vinyl) during the rise of used record stores during the late 70s

  6. I always like Harpers Bizarre even when I din’t know any better. I found their second LP chock full of Randy Newman songs (‘Snow’ , ‘Debutant’s Ball’), the swing classic ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’ (which was their second hit after ‘Feeling Groovy’), Virginia City and so on… They were pretty lightwieght, bur deceptively so. They always had superb production helped by luminaries like Van Dyke Parks and Beau Brummel Ron Elliot (who was also helping the Everly Bros at the same time riding on the Brummel’s critical wave of ‘Triangle’ & ‘Bradley’s Barn’) and the ubiquitos Lenny Waronker. OI suspect that was where HB Memeber Ted Templeman got his producer’s chops looking over the shoulder of these greats. He made his biggest point by being Van Halen’s producer of choice for quite some time which led to other cool projects. Look it up.

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