“666” (1970) – Dave Bixby * Written by Dave Bixby * LP: Ode to Quetzalcoatl
Before breaking away in the early seventies, Dave Bixby belonged to an insular religious cult in Grand Rapids, Michigan, known as “The Group,” an offshoot of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. His Ode to Quetzalcoatl album featured a combination of lonely acoustic guitar, heavy reverb, and affable vocals, making for a hypnotic (if not disquieting) listen that developed a cult of its own over time. The track “666” on side 2 is one of the record’s crescendos on the way to the flute-enhanced finality of “Peace.” In 2014, Far Off Sounds unveiled a short documentary called God’s Singing Man that found the lost troubadour to be every bit as charismatic as the album’s fans might have hoped.