THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
786) Joyce’s Angels — “Flowers for My Friends”
Where have all the flowers gone? This “Great Hippie Dippie Track about some Cheerful Guy giving Flowers away” (Vintage Vinyl Via Valves, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-tMQ1Z9I-8), “a nice Psych Pop Hippy dancer track about a happy chappy giving flowers away, aaah simple times”( tea biscuit, https://www.45cat.com/record/mm526), solves the mystery!
Clearbluesky writes that “Flowers” “received quite a bit of airplay on Radio Caroline South during August & September ’67 but being on Major Minor* that shouldn’t come as any surprise. Very much of it’s time but still a good record”. (https://www.45cat.com/record/mm526)
Joyce’s Angels “remain somewhat of an enigma to most British psychedelic fans”. (liner notes to the Piccadilly Sunshine: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era: Volumes 1-10 CD comp), but laineycrusoe is able to give us some history:
Joyce’s Angels was an English duo consisting of brothers Chris and Nick White, who got signed . . . after Bill Farley heard some of their demos. This was the only single they released, though they did record a followup single ‘Here Is the Night’, but it was never released as far as I’m aware. Chris White . . . would go on to release the album ‘Mouth Music’ in 1976 and have a top 30 hit the same year with ‘Spanish Wine’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcAJW-VEPbs
Nick White himself recalls that:
My brother, Chris was a great musician and prolific songwriter. He sent several demos to London studios and our voices were picked up by . . . Bill Farley. Chris didn’t write this song, or the flipside, but we thought it was a start in the recording world. Unfortunately, we were conned out of any royalties as we didn’t have a contract. (I was 16 and Chris was 18 at the time.). Chris arranged our vocals, which was his forte, but another guy (I wont mention his name here) added a top vocal in the verses – a bit off-key! – so probably had the money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcAJW-VEPbs
* Discogs explains that:
Major Minor was founded by pirate radio station Radio Caroline’s founder Ronan O’Rahilly in 1966 and its then manager and record producer, Philip Solomon. The label was distributed by Decca Records, with an eclectic roster of artists . . . . Major Minor had its first UK #1 single with “Mony Mony” by Tommy James and the Shondells in 1968. Astute licensing deals of obscure or controversial recordings which ‘captured the moment’ also helped the Major Minor label to gain strong sales, such as the single “Je T’Aime . . . Moi Non Plus” which reached the UK #1 spot in 1969.
https://www.discogs.com/label/46039-Major-Minor
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