Five by Five — “15 Going on 20”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 27, 2024

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

1,316) Five by Five — “15 Going on 20”

From Magnolia, Arkansas, comes a sneering ’69 A-side about a 15 year old Lolita that surely would have been banned had it received wider exposure. Was Bill Clinton in this band? “15” is a “[b]rutal heavy psych pummeler” (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHaxeBxYwjk) in which “venomous fuzz guitar licks . . . engineer the fury being unleashed” (liner notes to the CD comp Electric Sound Show: An Assortment of Antiquities for the Psychedelic Connoisseur), a “great fuzz fuelled track with a wicked riff that Tony Iommi must have heard before copying it on Paranoid by Black Sabbath”. (DJtheFooligan,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PllpvzTPo_8) OK, maybe the DJ is being a little paranoid.

Electric Sound Show: An Assortment of Antiquities for the Psychedelic Connoisseur writes that Five by Five “started out as a successful club act performing solid covers of R&B and soul” and had a “customized soul-fuzz crossover sound”, and even “managed to produce a #52 hit record with their own fiery version of the Hendrix classic, ‘Fire’ in 1968”. Discogs adds that “Five By Five was from Magnolia, Arkansas. The band consisted of Ronnie Plants (vocals), Bill Merritt (lead guitar), Tim Milam (organ), Larry Andrew (bass) and Doug Green (drums). They released one full length album entitled Next Exit and 8 singles, with some killer non-lp sides.” (https://www.discogs.com/artist/142221-Five-By-Five)

Oh, and johnhelgason7838 adds that:

Back in the late 60s – early 70s, I was a teenager playing in my first rock band. The these guys were like gods to us. I was living in north Louisiana and they were from nearby Arkansas. They were on the radio constantly. Most of them were still teenagers, but they were already excellent musicians. It’s a shame they never achieved the degree of success they deserved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDpZURCvwZw

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