THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,072) The Pride and Joy (The Del-Vetts) — “If You’re Ready”
This ’67 B-side is the band’s “crowning moment” (Office Naps, http://officenaps.com/?p=32), “Incendiary guitar rock. Chicago fire. Smokin” psych.” (thomassmith8721, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLlFktZ0JAY), “the Fuzzed Guitar work is downright awesome”. (joegongora2200, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLlFktZ0JAY) The song has “the same bite, the same Yardbirds-inspired soaring guitar solos” as their earlier Chicagoland hit ‘Last Time Around’ (see #250), but “[i]t’s just denser and heavier, doing everything but invent what thunderstruck Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath fans would several years later know as riffage.” (Office Naps, http://officenaps.com/?p=32) It is “almost as fine [as ‘Last Time’], and has a similar fusion of tough guitar snarl and good pop hooks”, “fine garage rock raunch”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-del-vetts-mw0000493277, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pride-and-joy-mn0000895246)
On the Flip-Side says:
The song “starts with [Jimmy] Lauer’s familiar sounding fuzz guitar and then it rolls into his plea to a no good woman to let him be free. Lauer’s lead guitar skills get a nice little moment before the song rolls into a double time, harmonica driven close. The Yardbirds would be proud.”
http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2013/06/dunwich-records-pride-and-joy-if-youre.html
“Though not as successful as “Last Time Around,” [it] (or rather its A-side, “Girl,” a polished pop number reminiscent of the Hollies) did perform well on the regional charts.” (Office Naps, http://officenaps.com/?p=32)
I don’t honor the Pride and Joy* because they hail from my hometown of Highland Park, Illinois, a Chicago suburb on the shores of Lake Michigan (unfortunately in the news recently for a terrible tragedy) and went to my high school**. OK, it doesn’t hurt. And had they been from Winnetka, it would be a cold day in hell. . . But enough about my methodology.
Jason Ankeny tells us about the Pride and Joy, and their earlier incarnation as the Del-Vetts:
Chicago garage band the Del-Vetts formed on the city’s north shore in 1963. Originally comprising singer/guitarist Jim Lauer, guitarist Lester Goldboss (soon replaced by Jeff Weinstein), bassist Bob Good, and drummer Paul Wade, the group started out playing Chuck Berry and surf rock covers, building a loyal following in the Chicago suburbs. In 1965, the Del-Vetts teamed with producer Bill Traut to record a cover of the Righteous Brothers hit “Little Latin Lupe Lu” for the tiny Seeburg imprint — the single merited little notice, but Traut nevertheless signed the band to his Dunwich label. After a series of lineup changes, the Del-Vetts now consisted of Lauer, Good on guitar, Jack Burchall on bass, and Roger Deatherage — this iteration of the group entered the studio in early 1966 to record “Last Time Around,” an original penned by so-called “fifth Del-Vett” Dennis Dahlquist. . . . ”Last Time Around” topped local radio play lists throughout the summer and cracked the national Top 30, but the follow-up, “I Call My Baby STP,” was a flop. At that point the Del-Vetts rechristened themselves the Pride and Joy, adopting a softer, more melodic sound for the 1967 single “Girl” — the record was another local radio blockbuster, but with a corporate shakeup at Dunwich jeopardizing the group’s long-range success, they moved to the Dot Records subsidiary Acta and even signed to star in a feature film . . . . Hitmakers Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil wrote the follow-up, “We Got a Long Way to Go” — industry buzz on the single was strong, but it failed on radio . . . .
Office Naps adds that:
[“If You’re Ready”‘s] release . . . coincided with the group’s extended visit to Los Angeles, where they’d record their final 45 . . . “We Got a Long Way to Go.” There they’d film for the movie Somebody Help Me as well, a low-budget Dick Clark Production that featured them playing live. It would mostly be for naught. “We Got a Long Way to Go” was released on the Los Angeles-based Acta label, sounding fairly unremarkable and doing the same on the pop charts. The movie itself was never released. This would be the end of the Del-Vetts/Pride and Joy story.
http://officenaps.com/?p=32
* “The band is going by the god-awful name The Pride and Joy. But in reality this is The Del-Vetts (just as bad a name). They must have realized just how un-mod the name Del-Vetts was in ’66 and tried, poorly, to rechristen themselves with the more ‘now’ sounding name of Pride and Joy.” (On the Flip-Side, http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2013/06/dunwich-records-pride-and-joy-if-youre.html) Hey, didn’t Robert Plant get his start in the Band of Joy?
** They “were all very popular at school, they had all the girls and they had all the fun.” (Bill Traut, as told to Jeff Jarema, liner notes to the CD comp If You’re Ready!: The Best of Dunwich Records . . . Volume 2) Just like me!
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