Monthly Archives: May 2022

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 468) Compton & Batteau — “Homesick Kid” After Appaloosa (see #463) broke up, John Parker Compton picked up and drove to California. He and Robin Batteau then recorded In California, a magical album “drenched in lazy West Coast sunshine [which fell] into theContinue reading “Compton & Batteau — “Homesick Kid”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 31, 2022″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 467) Black Merda — “The Original Man” “The first black rock group” (see #134). This stuff is intense. It’s the truth! Steve Huey: Black Merda were a funky rock combo with a significant debt to Jimi Hendrix, mixing fuzz-toned, psychedelic blues-rock with folky acousticContinue reading “Black Merda — “The Original Man”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 30, 2022″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 466) Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” As I’ve said, some of my favorite Bee Gees songs were written and sung by Maurice and were never (or only barely) released (see #353-54). What are the odds? “Give Me a GlassContinue reading “Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 29, 2022″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 465) The Starfires — “I Never Loved Her” This “brutally awesome” (On the Flip-Side, http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2015/04/southern-california-spotlight-starfires.html) ‘65 A-side by the L.A. garage band the Starfires is so groovy that “[o]riginal copies sell for over $1,000 . . . . It’s believed only 25 copiesContinue reading “The Starfires — “I Never Loved Her”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 28, 2022″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 464) David Bowie — “I Dig Everything” I dig this song! Richie Unterberger: “Before landing his first commercial success with 1969’s ‘Space Oddity,’ David Bowie released a number of flop records in a variety of styles. He first emerged in the mid-1960s asContinue reading “David Bowie — “I Dig Everything”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 27, 2022″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 463) Appaloosa — “Pascal’s Paradox” “Pascal’s Paradox”* is an absolutely gorgeous “folk-baroque” song off of Appaloosa’s sole album. The album is “chockfull of irresistible melodies and folk-baroque orchestration” with “romantic sensibilities” and “soul-searching lyrics”. (https://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/display/articledisplay.cgi?aid=5979) Or, as RDTEN1 puts it: While [singer, songwriterContinue reading “Appaloosa — “Pascal’s Paradox”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 26, 2022″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 462) The Moguls — “Ski Bum” ’66 B-side by the Moguls from Eugene, Oregon is a garage rock classic dishing out some great career advice — be a ski bum! Popsike.com says: [T]his outfit was originally known as The Centurians but changed theirContinue reading “The Moguls — “Ski Bum”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 25, 2022″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 461) The Hollies — “To You My Love” Here is a wonderful Hollies original, a minor chord love song from their second album, an album that failed to chart in the UK and wasn’t even released in the U.S. in any form. Alan’sContinue reading “The Hollies — “To You My Love”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 24, 2022″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960S THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 460) The Factory — “Try a Little Sunshine” The fifth song I ever featured on this blog was the Factory’s “Path Through the Forest”, one of the most titantic slabs of ’60’s British psych to be found. Today I feature the A-side ofContinue reading “Factory — “Try a Little Sunshine”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 23, 2022″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD Here I present a stunning folk rock song from Tim Hardin’s debut album, including a fish-out-of-water live performance at Woodstock (I can see people emerging from the mud, saying “This is a good time to pee and score some more acid!”), along withContinue reading ““Hang on to a Dream” Special Edition: Tim Hardin/Gandalf/Francoise Hardy: Tim Hardin — “How Can We Hang on to a Dream”, Gandalf — “Hang on to a Dream”, Francoise Hardy — “Hang on to a Dream”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 22, 2022″

456) Chantal Kelly — “Notre Prof’ D’anglais” Fab ‘66 yé-yé single by Chantal Kelly. As to Chantal: One of the lesser-known yé-yé girls is French singer Chantal Kelly, who had a short-lived music career, but made her mark during the movement nonetheless. She debuted in 1965 with “Caribou,” a song with a world music vibe.Continue reading “Chantal Kelly — “Notre Prof’ D’anglais”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 21, 2022”

455) Joe Tex — “Anything You Wanna Know” I featured my favorite Joe Tex song a long while ago (see #42). Here’s my second favorite, also off Tex’s ’69 album Buying a Book (see #42). RDTEN1 is spot on calling “Anything You Wanna Know” “[s]ide one’s funkiest performance . . . a surprisingly funny andContinue reading “Joe Tex — “Anything You Wanna Know”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 20, 2022″

454) The Fenmen — “I’ve Got Everything You Need Babe” Fantastic ‘65 beat single! Why wasn’t it a hit, not the least because it has a killer guitar solo that sounds just like Jimmy Page? Anorak Thing says: Backed by some strong brass The Fenmen give it their all on this Kooper/Levine composition with theirContinue reading “The Fenmen — “I’ve Got Everything You Need Babe”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 19, 2022”

453) Kissing Spell — “Cerraron Sus Ojos” Spellbinding and mournful track from the Chilean band’s classic ‘70 psych LP Los Pajaros was also the B-side of the album’s only single (see #360). The album “is one of the best and most sought after South American psych albums . . . . [It has w]ell-crafted songsContinue reading “Kissing Spell — “Cerraron Sus Ojos”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 18, 2022”

452) Bruno — “Wander Boy”/“Wonder Boy” I talk about Bruno! Well, I talk about Bruno Kretchmar and his delightful and winsome UK ‘66 A-side (one of his two singles). Teabiscuit calls “Wander Boy” (“Wonder Boy” in some printings) “midtempo [pop psych], a nice dreamy folky pop dancer with a hypnotic edge, the fuzzy sounding brassContinue reading “Bruno — “Wander Boy”/“Wonder Boy”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 17, 2022”

451) Ann-Margret & Lee Hazlewood — “Sam” This song is a bonus track on the CD reissue of the Lee Hazlewood/Ann-Margret ’69 album The Cowboy & the Lady. I can’t believe it was an outtake, because it would have been so totally out of place on that album. Rather than being countryish, the song essentiallyContinue reading “Ann-Margret & Lee Hazlewood — “Sam”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 16, 2022″

450) The Kinks — “Shangri-La” I may be skirting the outer limits of “obscure” here, but “Shangri-La” is one of my favorite Kinks songs (see #100, 381, 417), from the ’69 concept album Arthur (Or the Decline of the British Empire), and as my daughter says, “I [meaning she] make the rules.” David Levesley tellsContinue reading “The Kinks — “Shangri-La”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 15, 2022”

449) Kim Fowley — “Animal Man” “Animal Man” is the opening track of Fowley’s outrageous ’68 album Outrageous. As to Fowley (see #89) and the album, Rob Fitzpatrick tells truth to puker: LA-born legend Kim Fowley was already 30 when this album came out in 1969 and had lived about eight lifetimes’ worth of debaucheryContinue reading “Kim Fowley — “Animal Man”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 14, 2022″

448) Earth Island — “Mother Earth Is a Beautiful Lover” This “Sunshine Psychedelic gem” (https://psychedelic-rocknroll.blogspot.com/2009/02/earth-island-we-must-survive.html) from Earth Island’s sole album We Must Survive (’70) is, per Dr. Schluss, an “entertaining hippie nightmare . . . which spins through both waltz time and a chilled version of a garage rock rave-up.” (http://psychedelicobscurities.blogspot.com/2008/07/earth-island-1970-we-must-survive.html) I guess the takeContinue reading “Earth Island — “Mother Earth Is a Beautiful Lover”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 13, 2022”

447) The Fairytale — “Guess I Was Dreaming” In ascending order of adulation: 1) 23 Daves says that the song “is a gentle, slightly fey track with a foreboding piano riff and throbbing bassline occasionally popping its head up into the mix”. (http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2009/07/fairytale-guess-i-was-dreaming-bw-run.html) 2) Vernon Joynson calls it “quite an interesting debut of flowery psychedelia”.Continue reading “The Fairytale — Guess I Was Dreaming”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 12, 2022”