“Dear Joy”

“Dear Joy” is a song from Strawberry Alarm Clock’s 1969 LP Good Morning Starshine. It’s firmly in the classic SAC mold: wistful and adroit, with a decided denseness to the arrangement that is tempered by some pleasant, psychedelic asides, all in a cheerful little tune tinged with subtle melancholy.

As a gentle song from singer Jim Pitman, “Dear Joy” joins “Write Your Name In Gold” as an impressive counterpoint to the writer’s other compositions like his album-opening “Me And The Township” and “Off Ramp Road Tramp” (a stomper written with the rest of the band).

Much has been made in ensuing years about Pitman’s inapposite musical style, but “Dear Joy” could have been on almost any of the Clock’s earlier releases. One must, of course, give considerable credit for this to the band’s actual long-term members, who had developed a musical synergy they could lend to pretty much any material.

A simple chord sequence opens this song and continues throughout most of it. “Dear Joy” bears some similarities to “Barefoot In Baltimore” from the previous album The World In A Sea Shell. With its groovy little shaka-shaka beat, though, the track resembles Arthur Lee’s “I Still Wonder” more than anything else. Maybe with a little “The Girl From Ipanema” thrown into the melody just for fun.

“Dear Joy” appears on…

Good Morning Starshine (1969)
Changes (1971)

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