Chad and Jeremy — “Sunstroke”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 27, 2023

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

1,060) Chad and Jeremy — “Sunstroke”

Two “Limeys” give us either a gorgeously mellow L.A. “trip song” or enter the Inferno, “perfectly captur[ing] the image of a stoned Englishman wilting in the west coast heat”. I go with the former, but I’ll let you decide.

Chad Stuart called “Sunstroke” “a trip song”. ”Keith Noble . . . had come out to stay with me. And there we were, two Limeys in Encino, California, sitting by the pool, staring at the orange grove, smoking a little pot and thinking,’Holy sh*t! Has our life changed!'” (liner notes to the CD reissue of The Ark) Its “distorted vocals and sitar perfectly capture the image of a stoned Englishman wilting in the west coast heat”. (Alexis Petridis, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/chad-jeremy-the-ark-their-last-and-most-interesting-album-psychedelic.636409/page-2)

As to The Ark, opinions differ. Jud Cost calls the LP “a trippy, post-Sgt. Pepper romp that can still rearrange the cerebral cortex of the innocent. The album brims with finely crafted melodies written mostly by Jeremy Clyde, while Chad Stuart’s robust arrangements throb with the very pulse of the day.” (liner notes to the CD reissue of The Ark). On the other hand, William Ruhlmann says:

[I]t was [a] psychedelic mishmash of styles — Indian one minute, musichall the next — of a kind so many popular performers had been indulging in at the time in hopes of making the next Sgt. Pepper. The difference was that most of Chad & Jeremy’s peers had gotten it out of their systems the year before. But C&J were upper-class types who took naturally to the pretensions of the form — they thought they were making Art. Their listeners thought differently . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-ark-mw0000345112

Ouch!

Jason Ankeny tells us of Chad and Jeremy:

Of the many British Invasion acts that stormed the charts in the wake of the Beatles, Chad & Jeremy possessed a subtlety and sophistication unmatched among their contemporaries, essentially creating the template for the kind of lush, sensitive folk-pop embraced by followers from Nick Drake to Belle & Sebastian. [Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde] met while attending [drama school]. The two became fast friends and . . . formed a folk duo as well as a rock & roll group, the Jerks. . . . When the Jerks dissolved . . . . the duo . . . [eventually reunited and] quickly earned a fan following . . . . They released their debut single, “Yesterday’s Gone[]” [which] entered the U.K. Top 40. . . . their only British hit of any real substance. . . . [T]he Daily Express published a photo of a young Clyde (a graduate of the prestigious private school Eton and a descendent of the famed Duke of Wellington) in royal garb at the 1952 coronation of Queen Elizabeth. . . . [T]he publicity proved a near-fatal blow, effectively branding Chad & Jeremy upper-crust nancy boys merely pretending at careers in music. However, as the album tanked at home, Chad & Jeremy’s U.S. label . . . scored a Top 20 American hit with “Yesterday’s Gone,” followed in August 1964 by “A Summer Song[]” . . . that cracked the Billboard Top Five. . . . [They] relocated to California . . . . [and] appear[ed] on . . . The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Patty Duke Show. . . . The Danny Kaye Show, Shindig, and Hullabaloo. . . . [and] guested on two episodes of the blockbuster Batman. [They] spent close to a year in the studio with producer Gary Usher to create 1967’s  Of Cabbages and Kings, a dense, ambitious record . . . . [that] served to alienate much of the duo’s core fan base . . . and sales proved dismal. . . . Tensions between Chad & Jeremy continued, prompted in large part by the latter’s burgeoning acting career, and after completing The Ark, a project so expensive it led Columbia to terminate Usher’s contract — the duo split . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/chad-jeremy-mn0000799644#biography

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