Gene Vincent Goes to the Birds Special Edition: “Bird Doggin'”, “Love Is a Bird”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — February 28, 2024

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

1,128) Gene Vincent — “Bird Doggin'”

This ’66 A-side is a “fierce garage rocker” (Bob Stanley, https://croydonmunicipal.blogspot.com/2012/04) that “captures the essence of rock ‘n’ roll”. (Ella Mack, https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-bird-doggin-by-gene-vincent/). It’s Vincent’s “best single in years” (Bob Stanley, https://croydonmunicipal.blogspot.com/2012/04), “stunning . . . [an] undisputed [late career] highlight [with] the menacing bass/guitar intro, the wailing harmonica . . . the scintillating guitar solo (Al Casey’s job) and Gene’s perfect phrasing [being] pure dynamite” (Paul Vidal, http://www.bigvjamboree.com/GENE-VINCENT-CHALLENGE-SESSIONS.html), “prov[ing] that Vincent’s versatile voice could handle the British Invasion style with ease”. (Scott Grønmark, http://scottgronmark.blogspot.com/2015/03/gene-vincent-in-60s-booze-pills-guns.html)

Paul Vidal explains:

Challenge Records were affiliated with 4-Star Music Co., a then thriving publishing company, so most of the songs selected for Gene to record came from the pen of in-house writers or artists. Keith Colley contributed . . . ‘Bird Doggin’ (with wild guitar backing from Al Casey & Glen Campbell) . . . . Gene Vincent had always been able to handle any kind of material, that’s a fact beyond dispute. At Challenge, he proved that he really could move on with the times without losing his identity. . . . Regrettably, only three singles were released in the USA and they bombed miserably, resulting in the non renewal of Vincent’s contract with Challenge. By the way, has anybody seen regular copies of Gene’s Challenge singles ? Did they really ever hit the shops? These are questions which, fortunately, do not concern the good old Continent. Gene was and remains a hero over here. All twelve cuts were issued on a British LP . . . while ten of them graced a French LP . . . in June 1967. The two missing tracks . . . would be put out in 1968 as a single . . . .

http://www.bigvjamboree.com/GENE-VINCENT-CHALLENGE-SESSIONS.html

Bob Stanley adds:

[Vincent’s] late sixties recordings were a mixed bag, often underwhelming, but an album cut in ’66 – only released in the UK on the London label, and simply called Gene Vincent – is a real gem. It was recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, where he now lived in a duplex with South African singer Jackie Frisco . . . . The Wrecking Crew are all present – Hal Blaine on drums, Al Casey and Glen Campbell on guitar, and Larry Knechtel providing the wailing harmonica that kicks off Bird Doggin . . . . [which] failed to make any [commerical] headway.

https://croydonmunicipal.blogspot.com/2012/04

Scott Grønmark:

[Gene Vincent is] one of my greatest American rock ‘n’ roll heroes – one who was held in high regard and great affection by British music fans: the Beatles based their early leather-clad look on the image created for Vincent by the English TV producer Jack Good when he appeared on Boy Meets Girl on a visit here in 1959. Whereas American producers – and Vincent himself – had always done their best to cover up the fact that one of his legs had been wrecked in a motorbike crash, Good created a set designed to highlight the singer’s infirmity, and spent the recording in the control room shouting “Limp, you bugger – limp!” Of course, the change of image worked – European teenagers loved the soft-spoken Virginian’s dangerous, tortured, moody cripple persona. Perhaps that’s because it was so close to the truth: pills, booze, pain, bad luck, an obsession with guns, and a self-destructive streak a mile wide. Compelling stuff. The truly important thing about Gene Vincent, though, was that he had a superb voice and made great records. . . . After his career had pretty much died in the States (the US was generally a lousy place to be an ageing rock ‘n’ roll star in the late ‘50s/early ‘60s), Europe clasped Gene Vincent to its collective bosom. He was never a huge earner or a chart regular, but there was plenty of live work, and – if he hadn’t been such an unholy physical and psychological mess . . . he could probably have had a solid career in the ten years leading up to his death in 1971 from a ruptured stomach ulcer while visiting his father in California. Despite all of his problems (his leg was further damaged in the 1961 crash which killed Eddie Cochran, and he had endless troubles with the Inland Revenue, his wife, and promoters), his voice held up well, and while the later recordings don’t in any way match the brilliance of his early Capitol classics, there were occasional gems.

http://scottgronmark.blogspot.com/2015/03/gene-vincent-in-60s-booze-pills-guns.html

Here is a cool unreleased version by the UK’s Lee Tracey & the Tributes. To read more about the band, see https://garagehangover.com/lee-tracy-and-the-tributes/:

And here is a great French version by Noël Deschamps:

1,129) Gene Vincent — “Love Is a Bird”

This lovely album track (unreleased in the U.S.) was written by Jimmy Seals — yes, later of Seals & Crofts. Paul Vidal writes:

Apart from playing on the sessions, Jimmy Seals wrote the oh-so-lovely ‘Love Is A Bird’, a song which stayed in the can States-wise and probably became a demo for The Knickerbockers who cut it two months later. . . .  ‘Love Is A Bird’ has been one my faves for many moons now ; I think it’s far superior to the Knickerbockers’ version . . . . Gene’s mono cut has a chorus, the stereo alternate doesn’t ; please, listen to the sound of the guitars, almost like chapel bells (quite impressive on the stereo take).

http://www.bigvjamboree.com/GENE-VINCENT-CHALLENGE-SESSIONS.html

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Here is the Knickerbockers’ ’66 A-side, no lies:

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