Kevin Bronson on February 27th, 2011

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Mark Tulin, the bass player for 1960s psych-rock innovators the Electric Prunes and a recent collaborator with the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, has died at age 62. According to various news reports, Tulin on Saturday was participating in the Avalon Underwater Clean-Up when he collapsed.

The Prunes, best known for their 1966 hit “I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night,” had re-formed in recent years and were working on new music with Corgan producing. Tulin filled in as Smashing Pumpkins’ bassist for two shows in 2009, and played with the Corgan project Spirits in the Sky on a tour that year, as well as a tribute to the Seeds’ Sky Saxon.

“Words cannot express how much I enjoyed creating music with him, and it was a great honor to have him play on some of these recent SP tracks; ”˜Astral Planes’, ”˜Widow Wake My Mind,’ many others, tons of unreleased stuff,” Corgan wrote in a tribute posted on drummer Kerry Brown’s website. “He played a long lost style that was incredibly responsive to the vocals, and to the song. A lost art.”

Read Corgan’s tribute here.

Image posted today to Twitter by SP photographer Kristin Burns (Tulin’s shirt reads: “Genius: It’s Not for Everyone”)