(Credits: Far Out / Album Cover)
Mon 22 December 2025 0:00, UK
With its golden sunshine, colourful hills, and free-and-easy attitude, San Francisco became the epicentre of the liquid light show that was the hippie age, playing host to such a litany of acid-riddled artists and musical revolutionaries that some became forgotten when the perpetual trip of the 1960s turned into the colossal come-down of the 1970s.
Typically, when turning back the pages on the counterculture history of San Francisco, it is the likes of Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane that court the majority of attention. While each of those artists certainly left their mark on the hippie age, transforming the entire sound of American rock into a far-out landscape of swirling carpets and psychedelic mastery, they barely scratch the surface of the musical genius bubbling away under the surface of the San Francisco scene.
One of the great injustices of that scene, for instance, is that Cold Blood never garnered the same mainstream attention as some of their peers in the East Bay Area scene. Founded at the peak of hippiedom by Larry Field back in 1968, the group cut their teeth performing at the legendary Fillmore West, a venue that captured the spirit of counterculture better than any other.
Musically, though, Cold Blood immediately set themselves apart from the deluge of San-Fran-psych outfits performing at Fillmore during those years. Sure, they had enough LSD-infused sounds to bend the minds of even the most hardened of trippers, but their longstanding appreciation for soul and R&B elevated their sound far beyond the confines of hippie audiences.
To date, Cold Blood have produced over a dozen records, but nowhere is the core appeal of their sound more apparent or compelling as on their self-titled debut from back in 1969.
Although every track on the album is a cover or reinterpretation of a soul or R&B standard, the debut is among the most ambitiously original and utterly captivating records released during the psychedelic age, and frontwoman Lydia Pense’s incredible vocals could have rivalled any of her San Francisco comrades, Janis Joplin included.
Cold Blood photographed for their 1969 album “Cold Blood”. (Credits: Far Out / Album Cover)
Blending the prevailing peace and love sounds of late 1960s psychedelic rock with the timeless tones of soul and R&B that the band were surrounding themselves with, the album sounds unlike anything else that was being released at the time, and Cold Blood’s mastery of those two very disparate genres is genuinely impressive. Much is made (And rightfully so) of Sly Stone’s concoction of psychedelic rock and funk, but Cold Blood are worthy of some credit for that, too.
A particular stand-out from that album is the group’s interpretation of Barbara Lynn’s ‘I’m A Good Woman’, a tale of female liberation that feels all the more impactful when rendered in Cold Blood’s unique blend of soulful psychedelia.
Truthfully, it is as though the original song was tailored specifically to Pense’s voice, and even today that track is still capable of making hairs stand on end when that vocal intro announces itself over a PA system.
Despite performing pretty well in the US albums charts upon its release, reaching number 23 in 1969, Cold Blood is rarely held in the same regard as, for instance, Cheap Thrills or Volunteers, which were released around the same time and appealed to the same counterculture audience. Perhaps their psych-soul sound was simply a victim of being too ahead of its time.
In the modern age, Cold Blood are still performing as Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, though their shows tend to be centred around their California home base. Nevertheless, their extensive discography is one which is certainly worth revisiting, whether you’re looking for a soulful masterpiece to fill a dancefloor or a freak-out record to have your own psychedelic experiments with.
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