The Paper Dream

The Purple Haze formed in late 1967 from elements of Cobwebs And Strange and The Continentals. They soon rose to limited fame as the house band at the local teen hangout, The Rideau Ferry Inn. The next logical step was to put out a single. For this they chose The Small Faces' "My Mind's Eye," featuring backing vocals by Don Norman. Shortly after the session, bassist Jim Knapp left the group and was replaced by Claire Porter from The Wax Museum. The flip-side was a Frizzell original, recorded on a two-track machine in a band member's basement. Around this time, John Pozer informed them that the name Purple Haze was already taken by some Edmontonians (there was also a Montreal aggregation going by that handle) so they changed theirs to The Paper Dream. A big thrill was watching their single being manufactured at the RCA Victor pressing plant right in their hometown of Smiths Falls, Ontario, in early January 1969. Although they stayed close to home, never touring outside Ontario, and the single didn't make much noise locally, they did get airplay in places as far removed as Benson, North Carolina, where a D.J. selected it as his "Pick of the week" and called to let them know. Their live set consisted mainly of fairly heavy material including songs by Cream, The Amboy Dukes, The Doors and, not surprisingly, Jimi Hendrix. They disbanded in 1970, when members drifted in different directions musically, but reformed in 1988, for a show at the Rideau Ferry Inn.