The Other Sidewalk

Ed Black joined The Mile Ends just as they were starting to disintegrate in the fall of 1966. Personality conflicts and disagreements about the direction the band was taking left Black and McFadden as the only members. The band recorded a few songs at a last session, bringing in Mike Condello (of “Soggy Cereal” fame) to help out. Songs from the session were released on two different 45s, both with the same song as the flip.

Mike McFadden has said that he was being influenced by Buffalo Springfield, The Lovin’ Spoonful, and the new bands coming out of California. Ed Black was influenced by country music, Waylon Jennings in particular. Some of the songs are sunshiny pop, some are psychedelic and one of the happiest sounding songs would not get played on the radio today.

Superfine Dandelion’s one LP was released in 1967 by Mainstream Records. The first single from the record did well regionally but Mainstream was busy with Big Brother & the Holding Company. There was very little promo for the Superfine record and it did not go much farther.

The band did not last too long. Soon after the record came out, bassist Rick Anderson quit and formed a band called The Beans that relocated to San Francisco and eventually became The Tubes.

McFadden and Black were without a band again. The two were soon back in the studio with a new project called Chief Root Wizard and The Silvery Moon.