Too little-known in their time to qualify as forgotten, the Misunderstood were, in all but riches and renown, the American Yardbirds: a panzer-garage quintet from Riverside, California, combining electric-blues lust with rave-up dementia and tight, flammable songwriting. After an early-’66 line-up change, the band boasted, in the country-raga invention and greased lightning of steel guitar prodigy Glenn Ross Campbell, its own Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page rolled into one.

The Misunderstood also had heavy patronage: Future BBC DJ John Peel caught the group at a shopping mall gig in San Bernardino, California (where he was a local Top 40 jock), and was instrumental in the group’s June ’66 move to London, where the Misunderstood made their few official singles and slowly fell apart.

These feral demos show why Peel went wild: singer Rick Brown’s deep, scarred bark, like Howlin’ Wolf swallowed whole by Eric Burdon; the searing psychedelic prophecy of Campbell’s pedal steel in the London audition takes of “My Mind” and “Children of the Sun.”

Two weeks after that September ’66 session, Jimi Hendrix arrived in the UK and became all the rage, the immigrant acid king. But the Misunderstood got there first. Hear the proof.---Rolling Stone, Sept. 2004

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John Peel interview with Index Magazine - 2003

STEVE LAFRENIERE: You championed Pink Floyd very early on. The same with Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin. Tell me about someone you loved that didn't make it big?

JOHN PEEL: The Misunderstood. If I had to list the ten greatest performances I've seen in my life, one would be The Misunderstood at Pandora's Box, Hollywood, 1966. It was the only time I've seen an audience reduced to impotent silence. They had a steel guitar player. Very difficult to play, but it can be used to devastating effect in a rock context.

STEVE LAFRENIERE: I always thought they were British?

JOHN PEEL: Well, they weren't getting anywhere in California, so I said to them, "Why don't you go to London?" They did and stayed with my mother. She never really forgave me for it. Later the lead singer was drafted and they ended in disarray. But my god, they were a great band.

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"The Misunderstood were a band of immense talent. They were technically American, although Tony Hill, the rhythm guitarist on their best 45s, was British and the bulk of their material was recorded in England. At the end of 1966 their debut single, "I Can Take You to the Sun," was unveiled that December -- the same month as Hendrix's "Hey Joe," and a good two before "Strawberry Fields Forever." Without apologies, the Misunderstood single stands alongside both these classics as one of the most powerful and best psychedelic singles ever released."

---Record Collector Magazine, July 1999

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*****OK first things first - GET THIS ALBUM... no matter how much you have to pay for this compilation of the Misunderstood, you MUST MUST MUST get it...I would recommend it just for the first half of the CD/LP...a fantastic session taped in 1967/8 when the band came to England for a short spell with John Peel...and promptly blew the lid off Psychedelia as we know it... (Amazon review by James Bin)

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*****"A psychedelic punk jewel... buy it now." (Amazon.com Review 1)

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*****"perhaps the finest psychedelic band of their time. Pick this one up while you still can, I guarantee you'll be glad you did." (Amazon.com Review 2)

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*****"(The Misunderstood's) Campbell was to steel guitar what Jeff Beck was to the Telecaster."(Amazon.com Review 3)

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*****"So stick with a classic, stick with the best, pick up the Misunderstood and make the world shudder at your feet."(Amazon.com Review 4)

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*****Of the thousands of U.S. garage bands who struggled in the '60s without achieving international success, the Misunderstood were not only among the very best, but among the very few to progress beyond basic garage sounds to music that has been (belatedly) recognized as nearly as accomplished and innovative as that of the British Invasion bands who touched off the garage explosion---Greatest Albums

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*****Must Have Classic. "This is some of the best work done by a classic, and practically unknown, psychedelic band. Glen Ross Campbell creates fantastic acid-drenched sounds on his steel guitar, and the rest of the band is brilliant as well. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in obscure rock bands of the sixties, and even to fans of later prog-rock. This disc is extremely hard to find, so BUY IT NOW!"---Reviewer: whiterat (Amazon.com)

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****The anthems CHILDREN OF THE SUN (a yardbirds like song, it really resembles their I'M A MAN) and I CAN TAKE YOU TO THE SUN are two of the very greatest psychedelic songs of the 60's, and the other psychedelic cuts are fine too. the whole band is impressive, but especially guitar player glenn campbell---Amazon Reviewer: Stephen F. Mulcahy

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*****A Psychedelic Jewel! Great guitar work by Glenn Ross Campbell. If you like 60's psychedelia as I do, this one is a must. You won't be disappointed.---Reviewer: Robert Fitzhugh

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*****The Misunderstood may just be the greatest lost band of the 1960s. They had the gifts, the creativity, the chemistry, the ambition, the drive - all the ingredients to make it, plus that extra indefinable 'magic' in their sound, which in its purest moments seemed tuned to a wonderful and strangely magnetic frequency. Torn apart by the Vietnam War draft the band was denied the breakthrough they deserved.---Mike Stax, Editor: UT Magazine

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*****"Before the Dream Faded" by the Misunderstood is one of the great lost '60s albums. Side one includes all six of the tracks they recorded in England in 1966, with magnificent guitar work and nervy, ambitious (if a bit overtly cosmic) songwriting that combines some of the best aspects of the Jeff Beck-era Yardbirds and Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd. Remember that Pink Floyd and Hendrix had yet to record when these sides were waxed; they aren't derivations, but genuinely innovative and groundbreaking performances. ---Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

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*****This is not just overlooked psychedelia, but a tantalizing glimpse into directions that were never fully explored in rock music as a whole before the Misunderstood's tragically premature demise.  Believe it.---Richie Unterberger

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"When it comes to the Misunderstood, I have no shame and offer no apologies. "Children of the Sun" is the GREATEST psychedelic track of all time and it's CRIMINAL that the band was taken down in it's prime." ---CD review by Jade Hubertz. 1998

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PERLICH PICKS: Really Misunderstood: The recent release of the raw and raunchy early recordings of psych legends the Misunderstood on the Lost Acetates 1965-1966 (UT Records) proves the claim that before the group left their Riverside, California, home base for England to record their trippy classic Children Of The Sun, they were actually a kick-ass garage punk combo not averse to dabbling in feedback and fuzz distortion. Who knew? Well, John Ravencroft , a DJ at San Bernadino's KMEN, did, but unfortunately that was years before he changed his name to John Peel and became Britain's most influential voice in alternative music.---BY TIM PERLICH