The history of the Count Five begins in 1964 in San Jose, CA with two friends, Roy Chaney (born 1948) and John "Mouse" Michalski (born 1949). They formed a surf band known as the Citations. An additional member was Skip Cordell who played drums. In 1965 Roy and Mouse held auditions to change the band's focus. They settled on a long time friend, Kenn Ellner (born 1948), and a piano player, Phil Evans. All of the members went to Pioneer High School (PHS) in San Jose, CA, except for John Michalski, who attended Blackford High School but later also attended Pioneer for a short time. Their new genre was "English Invasion" incorporating rhythm and blues. Their new name was The Squires. Shortly after this, both Skip and Phil exited the band about the same time as John "Sean" Byrne (1947-2008) moved in across the street from Kenn Ellner. John was a prolific song writer, guitarist and vocalist. One day at PHS, Kenn heard John playing his guitar, singing Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter, and invited him to rehearsal that same night. A few months later at Kenn's kitchen table, these two came up with a new name and costumes: "Count V", Dracula capes and Tom Jones (the film) frilly shirts. At this point the band had gone through several drummers. Kenn Ellner asked Craig "Butch" Atkinson (1947-1998), who also attended PHS, to come to a rehearsal. They began with an original; Butch performed as if he had been playing it for years - a perfect fit. The band then shifted genres to mostly garage style rock and roll with influences from The Yardbirds, The Beatles, The Who, and The Rolling Stones, but not the Standells! The final line up was Kenn Ellner, vocals and harmonica, John "Sean" Byrne, vocals and rhythm guitar, Roy Chaney, bass guitar, John "Mouse" Michalski, lead guitar, and Craig "Butch" Atkinson, drummer. Rejected by several record labels before being signed to Los Angeles-based Double Shot Records, the band disbanded in 1968 and reunited as later described. Psychotic Reaction started off in early 1966 as an instrumental jam between Ellner, Chaney and Michalski in Craig Atkinson's living room. Kenn was breaking in a new C harmonica so the jam was in G. Then Atkinson and Byrne joined in. The name stemmed from Byrne's psychology class at San Jose City College weeks earlier, when his lecturer was discussing psychotic reactions. Friend and classmate Ron Lamb remarked to Sean that the phrase would be a good name for a band. Sean relayed the idea to the others. During this jam, Ellner and Byrne nodded to each other: "Yes, this is Psychotic Reaction!". For quite a while the song was only performed live as an instrumental - fans loved it. Nevertheless, after much prodding from the band's manager, Sol Ellner, at a rehearsal at Ellner's house, Sol told Byrne, "Go across the street - don't return without lyrics to this!". (Byrne lived across the street from Ellner with Byrne's uncle Leo). The song went through months of modifications by the band modifying beats, rhythm and the like. As the band auditioned for various labels and producers all had constructive criticism about the song and its structure. Taking into account some of the criticisms and discarding others the band members worked many hours and many months modifying and rearranging the composition with assistance from multiple sources, e.g. a DJ from KLIV Radio Brian Lord, various producers of audition sessions, management, agents, friends and fans. In the studio at Nashville West on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, Double Shot Record's producer even modified the lyrical content by suggesting and adding the famous tag line "And it feels like this". Psychotic Reaction was truly a collaborative composition. It was not written by any one individual - any such report is entirely false.
The song was modeled after the Yardbirds's song I'm a Man, with a repetitious rhythm that eventually changes to a faster beat, an electric guitar playing a hypnotic melody going up the scales, and a similar style of percussion to that of the Yardbirds hit.
Psychotic Reaction was popular in the Vietnam War era, and appears in the game Battlefield Vietnam. Probably the best known of the many obscure covers that were made in the 1960s is the one by Positively 13 O'Clock that was included on the original Pebbles compilation album. The song was covered by The Cramps on their 1983 live mini-album, Smell of Female, and by Nash the Slash on his album American Bandages. Television included this in their early sets, emphasizing the "rave-up" section. It was also recorded in more heavily psychedelic manner by the 1960s studio-only band, The Leathercoated Minds, in 1966 on their album A Trip Down the Sunset Strip.
The song is in the movies Less Than Zero, Autofocus and was played in the HBO television series Entourage, episode "Gary's Desk". It is one of the many songs quoted and parodied on the album The Third Reich 'n Roll by the avaunt-garde group The Residents. The Night Beats from Seattle, Washington claimed to have "psychically inherited" the song and have made it their own, playing it most nights of their 2011 U.S. and European dates.[3] It was also played live by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on the Playback box set and seen in the currently out of print concert video,Take the Highway.
The band and the song were made "legendary" by Lester Bangs, in his 1972 book he published Psychotic Reaction and Carburetor Dung. The book fantasized the history of the band and created fictional albums and a history that never existed. Bangs credited the band for having released several albums -- Carburetor Dung, Cartesian Jetstream, Ancient Lace and Wrought-Iron Railings, and Snowflakes Falling On the International Dateline -- that displayed an increasing sense of artistry and refinement. However, none of these albums actually existed, except in Bangs' own imagination. Nevertheless, it kept the name of the band and the song prominent.
Upon the initial establishment of the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, Psychotic Reaction was featured in a long running exhibit in the Hall entitled "The Five Hundred Most Influential Songs of Rock n' Roll History". The name of the exhibit has changed to "The Most Influential Songs of Rock n' Roll History" as additional songs have been added.
The band regrouped first for their high school twenty year reunion in 1986 - all original members intact. In 1987 they appeared at "One Step Beyond" in Santa Clara CA, with a new drummer for most of the set (Rocky Astrella), though Butch did perform on Psychotic Reaction. This was the last time all of the original members performed together - it was later released as Psychotic Reaction Live.
Since Atkinson's death, the rest of the group have performed together intermittently. John "Sean" Byrne occasionally appeared at some venues, notably at the induction into San Jose Rock's Hall of Fame, and a reunion set at the Edge in Palo Alto, CA. Mainstay original members Roy Chaney on bass, Kenn Ellner, vocals and harmonica, and John "Mouse" Michalski, lead guitar, have been joined by new members Phil Indovine (rhythm guitar) and Rocky Astrella on drums.
Still performing as of this writing in April 2012, the latest lineup consists of Chaney, Ellner, Michalski, Indovine and Astrella. Information regarding the Count V can be found on www.countfive.com.
This article was written by Kenn Ellner of the Count Five.
John "Sean" Byrne died on December 15, 2008 at 61, from cirrhosis of the liver.[4] Craig "Butch" Atkinson died in Oct 13, 1998
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