THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
810) Soul Inc. — “60 Miles High”
On this ’67 B-side, the Louisville sluggers go “a full 52 miles higher than The Byrds”! — (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fJPzmqrjg0) with this “jangly mid-tempo dose of hip psych” (Tony Sanchez (with the help of Mike Stax), liner notes to the CD comp Tony the Tyger Presents . . . Fuzz, Flaykes, & Shakes: Vol. 1: 60 Miles High). They “didn’t have a sitar, but . . . [did] ha[ve] a banjo, and with a touch of reverb and the combination of a somewhat Indian-sounding scale with a repeated ‘drone’ note . . . gave [the song] a decidedly Eastern color.” (Rick Mattingly, http://groovymusicinc.com/groovymusicinc/soulinc/history.htm)
Rick Mattingly tells us of the band:
Drummer Marvin Maxwell was working on the assembly line at the Conn Organ factory . . . in March, 1965 when he was summoned to the foreman’s office to take a phone call. It was guitarist Wayne Young, telling Maxwell that their band, Soul, Inc., had just been hired to join Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars tour. They were expected to start work that very night. . . . [where they] opened the show with a couple of R&B numbers and then served as the backup band for Lou Christi, Round Robin, the Tradewinds, Reparata & the Delrons and Louise Harrison (sister of Beatle George Harrison) in front of thousands of screaming rock ‘n’ roll fans. It was Soul, Inc.’s first gig. The individual members, however, had a wealth of experience from playing in other Louisville bands. . . . Soul, Inc. [was] one of Louisville’s most influential bands of the 1960s . . . . [It] did a second Dick Clark tour in November of 1965 . . . . [which] included the Byrds, We Five, Paul Revere & The Raiders, and Bo Diddley. . . . Paul Revere & The Raiders vocalist Mark Lindsey declared that his two favorite bands were the Beatles and Soul, Inc. [The band] became so popular in Louisville that [packages] of Southern Star hotdogs contained a coupon inside that could be redeemed for a Soul, Inc. single: “Poppin’ Good.” . . . . Soul, Inc. lost its horn section. . . . [and] with musical trends changing . . . elected to replace [it] with another guitarist and invited Frank Bugbee to join . . . . Soul, Inc.’s English influence had a lot more to do with the Rolling Stones than the Beatles. “The Beatles sounded too white to us,” Young says. “We had always tried to sound black, which is where the Stones were coming from, too.” Maxwell adds that Soul, Inc. identified strongly with the Rolling Stones’ “bad boy” image. . . . Soul, Inc.’s aggressive attitude was evident on their . . . single, “Stronger Than Dirt,” a song inspired by a TV commercial for Ajax [with “60 Miles High” the B-side]. The song did quite well on the Louisville charts, reaching number one in the summer of 1967. Soul, Inc. had developed good relationships with several Louisville DJs who often emceed their local shows. . . .
http://groovymusicinc.com/groovymusicinc/soulinc/history.htm
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