Songwriter, Bakersfield, California · co-writer of “The Goo Goo Muck”
Ed James is credited alongside Ronnie Cook on every issue of the song, and MusicBrainz lists him specifically as its lyricist, describing him as a songwriter from Bakersfield, California. He did not stay a footnote: Louder’s history of the record has him joining The Tikis, the San Francisco psych-pop band with Ted Templeman on drums that renamed itself Harpers Bizarre and took “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” to No. 13 in the US and No. 34 in the UK in 1967. The two accounts of his exit differ — Louder says he left after the first album and came back for Harpers Bizarre 4, English Wikipedia lists “Eddie James (guitar)” departing after the second and not returning. He died before the Wednesday boom, and Billboard reports that the song’s publisher now mails a share of the royalties to his family and to Ronnie Cook’s.