THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,242) John Pantry — “Pitsea Pub”
This demo by John Pantry (see #494), a singer and songwriter for the ages, is a wonderful love song, a “marvellous popsike creation[]”. (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp The Upside Down World of John Pantry) Jason tells us that “Pantry took advantage of free studio time and recorded a slew of demos. . . . [and that] the power of popsike gems like . . . ‘Pitsea Pub’ . . . cannot be denied.” (https://therisingstorm.net/year/1968/page/5/) Steve Elliott proclaims that the demo “seem[s] . . . suited on an album by Emitt Rhode’s old band, the Merry-Go-Round” [see #50, 156]. (https://somethingelsereviews.com/2013/08/02/forgotten-series-the-factory-peter-and-the-wolves-others-upside-down-world-of-john-pantry-1999/)
That is high praise, but oh God, does John Pantry (see #494) deserve it. Literally, since Pantry began a quite successful career in Christian music and broadcasting after the ’60’s came to a close.
And “Pitsea Pub” features the best use of the phrase “you know what I mean” since “I Saw Her Standing There”!
Jason gives us a sense of Pantry’s B.C. history:
John Pantry is one of those artists that deserves to be heard by more people, especially those who value melodic British pop. . . . [He was] a talented studio engineer for IBC Studios (working with Eddie Tre-Vett), producing for the likes of Donovan, The Small Faces, The Bee Gees, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream. He was also a member of Peter & The Wolves, an accomplished mid 60s pop group from Leigh-on-Sea/Southend and had a major hand with many other IBC studio projects of the time: the Factory, Sounds Around, Wolfe, The Bunch and Norman Conquest. . . . Besides being a savvy studio technician, Pantry was a gifted songwriter and vocalist and an accomplished musician (. . . keyboards). . . . [O]ne of Pantry’s first groups, Sounds Around. . . . played straight pop with slight soul and psych influences – they released two singles in 1966-1967. Peter & The Wolves came shortly after Sounds Around’s demise (they were essentially the same group). This is the group with which Pantry is most associated, along with The Factory. . . . [Peter & The Wolves’] most productive period was probably the years of 1967-1969, where they released a string of pop gems [see #983]. . . . It was around this time that John Pantry was asked to write two tracks for The Factory, a legendary psychedelic group who had previously released the classic “Path Through The Forest” 45 [see #5]. Pantry wrote and sang lead on the two Factory standouts, “Try A Little Sunshine” [see #460] and the more folk-like “Red Chalk Hill [see #761]” . . . .
We are lucky enough to be able to hear John Pantry’s original demo for “Pitsea Pub” because, as David Wells informs us, “songwriter demos . . . are taken from a thirteen-track acetate album that mysteriously turned up at a Lancashire car boot fair in late 2008”. (liner notes to the The Upside Down World of John Pantry) Book me a trip to Lancashire, I’m goin’ to the car boot fair.*
* Wikipedia lets us Yanks know that “Car boot sales or boot fairs are a form of market in which private individuals come together to sell household and garden goods. They are popular in the United Kingdom, where they are often referred to simply as ‘car boots’.” Oh, fleamarkets — I think “car boots” have a whole other connotation in the U.S.!
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