Released: 1966
Not all heroes wear capes, but some do. In this case those who deserved the keys to the city were a quintet of teenage students from San Jose who called themselves the Count Five, young men who styled themselves as Aquarian mods and played R&B with a twisted garage edge.
Psychotic Reaction had been around for months as a jam without a title or lyrics, before rather than drawing inspiration from some drive-in sexploitation film, the band’s adopted Dubliner John ‘Sean’ Byrne came up with the inspiration for those during a college lecture.
As tame as the origin story was – and as close to The Yardbirds as it got – Psychotic Reaction was a go-go dancing wig out of a tune, featuring a sliding harmonica, madness inducing breakdown and gutsy, driving twin guitar riff. Lester Bangs loved it so much he wrote an essay about it’s legacy, despite it not actually having one, but every hero deserves their own legend.
The Voice Of Unreason 
I grew up in Santa Clara, the next city over from San Jose, and remember this song from my youth.
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I must admit I came to this via The Cramps (It’s on their ‘Smell of Female’ live album from ’83) but this is great too.
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