I Shall Be Released: The Knight Riders — “Where Did I Fail”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — October 14, 2023

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

981) The Knight Riders — “Where Did I Fail”

A moody garage classic, unfortunately never released in the 60’s, from a bunch of San Carlos hell raisers!

Alec Palao tells us that:

Hailing from San Carlos on the San Francisco peninsula, the group had formed in the surf era and quickly gained a reputation for raising hell. They’d employ their fans to intimidate other kids at Battle of the Bands, openly smoke dope when most of their musical peers hadn’t even gotten their first taste of alcohol, and “borrow” other groups’s amplifiers and stage clothes . . . . The[y were] notable not only for their strong originals, but also for their personnel . . . [including] drummer and leader Mike “Mad Dog” Lentos, a legendary characther prone to lighting cherry bombs underneath unsuspecting victims or happily pilfering equipment from [those] foolish enough to lend it out. While they were very popular on the peninsula at teen spots . . . the[y] rarely ventured from their home turf. . . . [They] audition[ed] for Autumn in June 1965. Despte an attempt at a single (“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”) . . . no release eventuated, and by 1966 the group was no more. Lentos was to die in bizarre dreug-related circumstances a few years later.

liner notes to Nuggets from the CD comp Golden State: Dance with Me: The Autumn Teen Sound

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