The Tokens — “The Bathroom Wall”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 14, 2023

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

923) The Tokens — “The Bathroom Wall”

This is 1968’s greatest rock and roll tribute to public bathrooms, where “[p]eople from the finest homes come to write their finest poems” (though the Stones would have put up a fight had they been allowed to release their original cover for Beggars Banquet). And it comes courtesy of the Tokens (see #66). Yes, those Tokens!

Desertcart writes that:

Though The Tokens are best remembered for their international smash hit “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” . . . they did much more… [P]roducers, writers, publishers and label owners, they had a long string of hits in all those roles… “Intercourse” is a full on Softpop song cycle, inexplicably turned down by their then-label Warner Brothers, and released in an edition of 200 copies on their own BT Puppy label for contractual reasons… [F]ar from their Doo-Wop roots, The Tokens delivered an album pitched somewhere between Pet Sounds and Sergeant Pepper, with all the production and arrangement tricks that implies… [N]o wonder Warner’s were dumbfounded!… and no wonder collectors have been going nuts and paying silly sums for this album ever since!… The Tokens show not only every cult Softpop group, but many superstars just how it’s done… with the wicked tongue-in-cheek touch which they were justly famous for.

https://luxembourg.desertcart.com/products/61340382-intercourse

Cub Koda adds:

[W]hat we have here is the great lost Tokens album, recorded in 1968 and promptly turned down by Warner Bros. To fill a contractual obligation, a few hundred copies were pressed up — in a slightly altered form — and the album pretty much remained an interesting catalog sighting before its CD-era reissue. What we also have here is a White doo wop group delivering an album that falls somewhere between Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s. No wonder Warner didn’t know what to make of it; previous attempts by other doo woppers at updating their sound produced some of the most laughable examples that the genre has to offer. But everything on here works in a very organic manner: all of the songs follow a neat continuum and could easily be termed as a humanistic song cycle, each one surrounded by late-’60s Beatlesque production values . . . . Trippy, loopy, and totally of its time, classic doo wop this is not; great, however, it is.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/intercourse-mw0000176757

Grahame Bent:

The one-time doo woppers, songwriters and producers for everyone from The Happenings to Tony Orlando produced a magnum opus freely concocted under the influence of The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Recorded in 1968 and rejected prior to its release by The Tokens’ parent label, Warner Bros, it was given an ultra-limited release of merely 200 copies on BT Puppy, before sinking without trace. Whenever the occasional original vinyl surfaced, it commanded crazy money as a serious collector’s item. [T]his mysterious album lands somewhere between the twin landmarks of Sgt Pepper and Pet Sounds, with echoes of The Turtles, Lovin’ Spoonful and even early solo Todd Rundgren. With ambitious scope and production it’s an all-round pop opera.

https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/intercourse

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