THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
577) The Odyssey — “Little Girl, Little Boy”
Frogs and snails and puppy-dogs’ tails and sugar and spice and all that’s nice? NOT! Cashbox calls “Little Girl” a “scorching ’68 garage punker” (https://www.45cat.com/record/ww263), Bruce Eder says it is “[m]emorably defiant” and a “hot little piece of put-down punk gold” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/odyssey-mn0000401896/biography), and Derek See sees it as:
[O]ne of THE great nods to the English freakbeat sound on this pulverizing record. Not only did this band take a cue from the feedback driven sound of The Who, The Yardbirds, and The Creation, but they also incorporated it into the melodic content of the song in a way that is flat out mesmerizing as it howls and drones away, completely in tune, and fully controlled (NOT easy to do). On top of that, the drums are manic, and the vocals bring those kinda harmonies that are SUCH an LA thing. The song also captures the feeling of one of those passionate, toxic on/off relationship that takes us to heaven and hell better than any other. Absolutely perfection.
http://dereksdaily45.blogspot.com/2018/
As to the Odyssey, Eder adds that:
[They] were a somewhat mysterious Los Angeles-based garage band, signed to the White Whale label, who cut [“Little Girl”] in 1968 before disappearing. It’s been rumored that the Odyssey were members of the Turtles working under a pseudonym, but there are others who believe them to be members of two other groups, the L.A.-based Just Too Much and the Looking Glasses, who came from L.A.’s suburbs.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/odyssey-mn0000401896/biography
See says that:
While this was the only record released as The Odyssey, several (perhaps all?) members were part of The Looking Glass (aka The Looking Glasses, aka The Clouds) that released the disturbing bad trip psych 45 ‘Visions’ the previous year. They went on to release a very subdued cover of the Beatles ‘Two Of Us’ in 1970 as Shake. Guitarist Louis Maxfield had a European hit (as Daddy Maxfield) in 1973 with ‘Rave N Rock’, and also did a fair amount of session guitar work thru the 70s-80s.
http://dereksdaily45.blogspot.com/2018/
And Cashbox writes that:
Emerging from prior confabs the Looking Glasses and Just Too Much, the Odyssey . . . prove there was a lot more bit to White Whale’s bark than one would ever imagine. . . . Later this group would yet again reinvent thmselves under the guise of Shake.
https://www.45cat.com/record/ww263
Given the band’s name and the fact that its single came out in ’68, I was wondering whether it was named after 2001: A Space Odyssey! Alas, the movie came out in April and the single came out in February!
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