THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,253) The Mindbenders — “Uncle Joe the Ice Cream Man”
Man, it’s hot out there. Thankfully, here comes “Uncle Joe the Ice Cream Man”, the Mindbenders’ (see #496) final A-side. This “lost anthem of what John Lennon would have termed ‘granny music’ [was a] curiously mind-expanding tune about the local ice-cream man . . . peak toytown”. (HorseMouth, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/the-mindbenders/uncle-joe-the-ice-cream-man-the-man-who-loved-trees.p/ It is “one of the best songs [Graham Gouldman (see #226)] wrote, and it should have been a huge hit for the Mindbenders”. (ZebedyZak, https://www.45cat.com/record/tf961
Anorak Thing says that:
This Graham Gouldman track was the band’s last U.K. single before disintegrating (Gouldman had recently joined the band . . . ). A Mindbenders CD I have states that the band were cutting this track at Olympic studios when Mick Jagger (who was working on Beggars Banquet at the studio) strolled in and said “Why are you singing this shit?” Regardless of Sir Mick’s assessment this number is a decent candy floss type pop-psych song with some great pop hooks, strings and groovy harmonies.
http://anorakthing.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-mindbenders-10-top-tunes-you-should.html?m=1
Dave Thompson tell us about the Mindbenders:
Remaining together following the departure of frontman Wayne Fontana, the Mindbenders got off to one of the most promising starts any band could enjoy, when their debut single “A Groovy Kind of Love” soared to number two in the U.K. and topped the chart in America. And had the group only succeeded in locating a decent follow-up, they might well have developed into one of the finest British bands of the late ’60s. Instead, a series of disastrous choices of 45s condemned them to the ranks of rank also-rans, and it is only later that the sheer quality of their other work — material hitherto lost on two Mindbenders LPs — had been re-evaluated sufficiently to let listeners state that here was one of the greatest of all Britain’s post-beat bands. A Groovy Kind of Love album totally failed to capitalize on the success of its title track, floundering to a lowly number 92 . . . . The Mindbenders made their final American tour in July 1966 . . . . Fighting hard to keep abreast of the changing currents, the Mindbenders next embarked on their most audacious yet strangely prescient move yet, a full-blown concept album. No matter that, several months before Sgt. Pepper . . . nobody had even heard of concept albums, the Mindbenders’ With Woman in Mind remains a gem in that genre. . . . Unreleased in America, it did little anywhere else and disappeared as quickly as the accompanying single . . . . The group was invited to contribute two songs to the soundtrack of Sidney Potier’s movie To Sir, With Love . . . . Unfortunately, not even major celluloid exposure could break the group’s run of bad luck. . . . By the end of the year, the band was reduced to recording covers of current American hits, which could be rush released in Britain in the hope of beating out the original. . . . The Mindbenders made one final stab at reversing their fortunes, re-recording “Schoolgirl” and pulling out every psychedelic rock trick in the book [see #496]. A BBC ban . . . kept the single a good arm’s length from either the radio or the charts . . . . [I]n March 1968, [bassist] Bob Lang quit . . . . [and] was replaced by Graham Gouldman, in which form the band cut one final single “Uncle Joe, the Ice Cream Man.” The Mindbenders then broke up, calling it a day . . . . [Eric] Stewart and Gouldman, however, would continue working together, first as partners in the newly launched Strawberry Studios, then as one half of 10cc.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-mindbenders-mn0000403151/biography
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