Seeds’ Sky Saxon 1946-2009 R.I.P

Garage legend passes away in Austin from undisclosed infection.

By Fred Mills

Early this morning Sky Sunlight Saxon (real name: Richard Marsh) of garage legends the Seeds died in an Austin hospital. Depending on what source you consult, he was either born in 1937, 1945 or 1946 but most sources give the latter year. He'd been hospitalized in South Austin, Texas, on Monday due to an undiagnosed condition and remained in critical condition in the ICU in St. David's South Austin Hospital. Doctors suspected an infection of the internal organs; further tests were to be done upon stabilization and temporary dialysis of the kidneys was planned. The official cause of death has not been yet released, according to a report at Austin360.com.

 
Saxon fell ill last Thursday in his new home of Austin. Despite feeling under the weather, on Saturday he performed a short set of Seeds classics at the local nightclub Antone's. He'd relocated to Austin not long ago and had been playing out backed by members of local band Shapes Have Fangs.

His wife Sabrina Saxon posted the news on her Facebook page today, writing "Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father. I'm so sorry I couldn't keep him here with us. More later. I'm sorry."

This, of course, will throw the future of a previously announced Seeds/Love/Electric Prunes tour into uncertainty. No announcements have been made regarding that yet.

 
Saxon was a true rock ‘n' roll pioneer, founding the Seeds in 1965 and having a string of hits that would go on to be adjudged true garage classics, "Pushin' Too Hard" and "Can't Seem To Make You Mine" in particular. It's arguable that the band's fuzzed-out, churning style, powered by Saxon's snot-punk, sneer ‘n' wail, fully epitomized the so-called Nuggets aesthetic, and echoes of the Seeds' sound can be heard in virtually every garage band operating today. Tune in to Little Steven's Underground Garage radio show some weekend night for proof.

He later became a member of the Source Family commune in the early ‘70s and played and recorded with the Source house band, YaHoWha 13. Then in the ‘80s he resurfaced under his own name (variously, as Sky Saxon & Firewall, the Starry Seeds Band and simply Sky Saxon) to record a string of spotty but occasionally inspired albums.

During this period yours truly had an interesting encounter with Saxon on the phone one evening. We'd arranged to do an interview about his latest record, but about 5 minutes into the conversation he halted for a second then asked me, "Listen, do you want to talk to Jesus? Because he's right here." Another voice came on the line, and it turned out to be Saxon's personal guru at the time - I don't think I ever got his name - and he proceeded to talk about spirituality and transcendence and, if memory serves, LSD. This went on for about 15 minutes until things reached a point when I could politely interject, "Could I talk to Sky some more now?" Saxon, it turned out, had left to go to the store for cigarettes... And I never did get to finish that interview.

I was steamed at Saxon for a long time after that, partly for wasting my time and partly because I'd been looking forward to talking at length to a bonafide legend.

But I never stopped loving his music, and the Seeds were one of the great proto-punk combos, without question. In recent years he revived the Seeds brand and performed with different lineups. He also did some recording last year with Billy Corgan and was in the video of the Smashing Pumpkins' song

Seeds doing "Pushin' Too Hard" on TV in 1966: