VENETIC

Great Psychedelic Albums:

“I’m Gonna Take You Home”

by Yahowha 13

It’s an arresting cover. In fact, it’s a cover that would probably get you arrested if you dared to wave it around in public in various countries. In a tarot-card format, we see a photo of some venerable-looking naked bearded old dude with his hands over the pubes of some young naked raven-haired chick on the side of a very capacious-looking double bed. Hmmm…

As the best psychedelic albums have a habit of being, this record has a gatefold cover. Upon opening it, we see the aforementioned venerable-looking naked bearded old dude seated on the aforementioned capacious double bed, supporting the head of the aforementioned young naked raven-haired chick while he plies her with drink from a silver goblet. Underneath are the words “I’m gonna take you home” in Gothic script. Somehow, they seem a bit redundant, since clearly she’s already been taken home, their clothes are already off, and she’s drinking who-knows-what from out of that silver goblet.

Flip to the back of the gatefold: Another tarot-card format photo, featuring the venerable-looking bearded old dude again, this time wearing a fedora and very natty looking white suit and holding a cane while he sits astride the radiator of a white Rolls Royce. As there is no young naked raven-haired chick in this photo, you get around to noticing the four faces in the corners of the photo; hippy-looking young guys, all of whom bear the surname “Aquarian”: Octavius Aquarian, Djin Aquarian, Sunflower Aquarian, and Pythias Aquarian. Their captions tell us that they play drums, guitar, bass, and guitar respectively. Then you start noticing the quotations on the cover (front and back), ranging from the Bible, Gita, the Song of Solomon, and Yahowha, all of which are to do with birth, creation, the universe and everything and sound very deep and mystic until you get to the quote from Yahowha on the inside back cover: “Divine communion time is here little kitties”.

I have seen some seriously weird psychedelic album covers in my time, but honestly, you would have a hard time topping I’m Gonna Take You Home by Yahowha 13. Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica looks positively pedestrian beside it. It’s really out there. The word “mystic” doesn’t even begin to describe it. Your overwhelming response to it is “what the hell is going on here?” Who is that Biblical-looking old guy with the hot raven-haired chick AND the white Rolls Royce, not to mention the band of very hip musicians accompanying him? And all the time you’re looking at the photo of the guy on the Rolls and musicians’ cult-like names, along with the reference to “little kitties” and you’re thinking: “they’re having us on, aren’t they?”

Oh no, little kitties, this is no joke. The story is a very strange one, but it is very real.

The bearded gentleman, who was known as “Father Yod” at the time I’m Gonna Take You Home was released in 1974, was born James Edward Baker in Cincinnati, on 4 July 1922. He was the great grandson of Jim Baker, a 6-foot 7-inch tall American Mountain Man who was a hunter, scout, guide and Indian fighter in the days of the American Wild West. James Baker, who was 6-foot 4-inches tall himself, had a no less colourful background. He was a convert to health foods in his teens after a touring nutritionist offered him a natural diet-based cure for a serious case of haemorrhoids he had, and went on to develop an interest in sports and body-building, which resulted in him opening his own gym in Chicago just prior to World War II. He joined the US Marines after Pearl Harbour, and fought at Guadalcanal. He was in the brig there for punching a commanding officer when his ship was attacked by Japanese planes. He was released as the ship was sinking, ran on deck, and proceeded to man an anti-aircraft gun which he used to shoot down 13 Japanese aircraft, just before his ship sank. He was awarded the Silver Star, and would have received the Medal of Honor had he not been on charges at the time of his feat.

After the war, he went to Hollywood to audition as Tarzan but failed the screen test. He settled in Los Angeles and opened a successful health food restaurant there, which provided the financial foundation for what was to come, at a time when he was becoming increasingly immersed in the beatnik culture, and later in religious mysticism. By the time that the hippie culture developed in the late 1960s, he was building the basis for what was to become either a religion (as its supporters would have it) or a cult (as its detractors would have it). Either way, James Baker became Father Yod, and acted as the focus of a religious community called the Source Family, installed in a mansion in the hills, which eventually included various musicians who decided to record and self-release their own music in various line-ups, one of which was Yahowha 13 (aka “Ya Ho Wa 13”).

The album itself features Father Yod singing in a tribal chant sort of way while his undoubtedly proficient backing band weave a web of sound behind him that ranges from a shambolic tribal type of aural backdrop through to some seriously heavy riffing on guitars, with a lot of trippy meandering in-between. The contents more than live up to the promise of the cover, and this particular album has been the holy grail for various collectors of psychedelic music for decades. Given that it was a private pressing, and was not sold widely even within Los Angeles, for many years I’m Gonna Take You Home was a very rare find indeed. Several years ago, it and various other albums released by Yahowha 13 were finally rereleased, and are now readily available on CD and vinyl, including a “collected works” box set on CD. Various recordings that were not released in the early 70s are also being brought out of the archives, so it is probably easier to discover these works now than it has ever been before.

So what happened to the Source Family? Father Yod, having experienced visions of the cataclysmic end of Western civilization, decided to relocate the Source Family to Hawaii in the mid-1970s. He died there in a hang-gliding accident in 1975, and, at the Source Family’s request, was buried with full military honours by representatives of the US Marines, who were doubtless somewhat bemused by the accompanying chanting and ceremonies from Father Yod’s Aquarian followers. After his death, in the absence of a central father figure to hold them all together, the community fell apart. Those interested in finding out more about the strange story of Father Yod should get their hands on the book The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13 and the Source Family by Isis Aquarian.

Great Psychedelic Albums

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