Purple Underground

Originally referred to as the Spades, this band began being a sextet in Winter Haven, FL, in Polk County (most widely known then because the home from the aquatic theme park Cypress Gardens, using its underwater mermaid show). Within a year or two, they’d morphed right down to a primary quartet comprising Tom Nay on electric guitar, Jim Carlton on bass, and two brothers, Jon and Halsey LaFrandre, on keyboards and drums, respectively. They lasted this way simply long more than enough to slice the psychedelic one “Count Back again” in the past due wintertime of 1967, and after Carlton’s departure that springtime were reduced to some trio, with Jon LaFrandre heading the Ray Manzarek path of providing key pad bass. By 1969, John Keramidas acquired changed Nay on electric guitar, and in 1971 they split up, hardly ever having received beyond local, starting act status within the Tampa region. “Count number Down” was afterwards immortalized through its addition on Gear Fab’s Psychedelic State governments: Florida within the ’60s, Vol. 2 Compact disc.