Song:Follow Me
Album:Warren Zevon: The First Sessions
Follow Me was a minor chart hit in 1965. Like a lot of early examples of psychedelia, it has been kept alive by Rhino's Nuggets comps. But this one is a bit different because it was the first recording featuring legendary singer songwriter Warren Zevon. Of course he would become famous in the 70s with songs like Werevolves Of London. The female half of lyme and cybelle was Violet Santangelo. The two met in 1964 while attending Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. They started writing together. Zevon called himself stephen lyme and Santangelo called herself cybelle after the 1962 French film Sundays and Cybele. And the use of lower case was influenced by e.e. cummings. Very pretentious. They performed for friends and one of those friends was child actor Michael Burns from the TV series Wagon Train. His mom worked at White Whale Records, best known as the home of The Turtles. Veteran producer Bones Howe produced their first single Follow Me. He said this was his first psychedelic single and he would go on to have a lot of success with The Association. It reached #65 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. Their second single was a cover of Bob Dylan's If You Gotta Go, Go Now. Santangelo says that the song was selling well until a powerful radio industry figure named Bill Galvin claimed the song was sexually suggestive. That killed it and Zevon left the duo. He was replaced by guitaist Wayne Erwin. They released one single and split up. You can get Follow Me on various artists comps but Warren Zevon fans will be interested in the First Sessions CD released by Varese in 2003. All six lyme and cybelle songs are on this CD. For Warren Zevon, lyme and cybelle was much different from the recordings that would make him famous. But he had to start somewhere. Viola Santangelo left the music business and became a successful Broadway actress as Laura Kenyon. Here's a video for Follow Me by lyme and cybelle.
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