THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,211) Treez — “You Lied To Me Before”
Here’s a “MONSTROUS cave-basher” (liner notes to the CD comp Teenage Shutdown: “She’s a Pest!”: 18 Revved-Up Teen Swingers!“) by a Chicago cave band. “The cool old cat who recorded the group remembers them as a pretty wyld & popular teen combo”. (liner notes to “She’s a Pest!”).
It turns out that a “White Bird” was nesting in the Treez, or at least the drummer ended up with It’s a Beautiful Day. Ken Voss tells us that:
[Val] Fuentes would end up migrating to California where he would be the original drummer for It’s a Beautiful Day, who had a 1969 hit “White Bird,” becom[ing] part of the San Francisco music culture and enjoy[ing] a stint with New Riders of the Purple Sage. . . . Growing up in Chicago, attending Lakeview High School, he played in, what he terms, “a garage grunge-type band,” The Treez playing high school socials and local YMCA. Band members included Wayne DeSalvo on guitar and Fuentes on drums with Billy Olesky and Joe Markko. In 1965, they won a battle of the bands, the prize being a recording deal with Dutch Wenzlaff’s Harlequin Records. That prize – the single “You Lied to Me Before” b/w “As Long as You Want”. Fuentes graduated high school in 1966 and hung around Chicago for a year, taking off for California in early 1967. “I was drawn to California by all the great music out there at the time. I had some Chicago buddies living there so I already had a place to stay for a while.” Connecting with other musicians, he and bass player Mithcell Holman would meet David and Linda LaFlamme who was starting up the band It’s a Beautiful Day. . . . Fuentes would remain in San Francisco where for the next decade he would work with various local bands including Fat Chance . . . Linda Imperial and the Pure Pleasure Band and Shadowfax. In 1982, [he] connected up with New Riders of the Purple Sage.
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