The Seeds' Unreleased 1966 Cover of '19th Nervous Breakdown' and the Missing Master Tape

The Seeds — best known for the garage anthem “Pushin’ Too Hard” — cut a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown” in 1966 during the same sessions that produced their second album. What made their version notable was singer Sky Saxon’s manic delivery and a wall of fuzz guitar that turned the Stones’ bluesy swagger into full-tilt psychedelic garage rock. It was never officially released, likely because the band’s label, GNP Crescendo, couldn’t clear the publishing rights.

The master tape is widely believed to have been lost for decades, but a single acetate surfaced in the 1990s and was later sold to a private collector. No official reissue has ever happened, though a low-fidelity bootleg circulates among fans. If the original two-track master still exists, it’s probably sitting in a forgotten vault or someone’s basement — not in the band