THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,341) The 49th Parallel — “Twilight Woman”
Calgary’s 49th Parallel (see #367, 481, 697) give us “[a] Canadian gem. . . . two and a half minutes of blissful late-sixties psych pop” (SimonTheSignGuy, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/49th-parallel/twilight-woman-close-the-barn-door.p/), “[a] perfect 2 1/2 minutes of garage pop bliss”. (CharlyW34, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=72VimDmrqgU&pp=ygUqVGhlIDQ5dGggUGFyYWxsZWwg4oCUIOKAnFR3aWxpZ2h0IFdvbWFu4oCd)
Michael Panontin writes, “Calgary’s torch bearers in the great sixties rock sweepstakes were 49th Parallel, whose 1969 [Canadian] chart success, ‘Twilight Woman’, garnered them a few deserved rays of limelight”. (http://www.canuckistanmusic.com/index.php?maid=69)
As to the 49th Parallel, the Museum of Canadian Music tells us:
[They] were originally known in the mid-60’s as a popular bar band by the name of The Shades Of Blond. With a stifling and musically limiting Calgary club scene they were never able to get farther than having one single — 1966’s “All Your Love”. . . . Throughout 1968 and parts of 1969 they toured throughout North America with an ever fluctuating roster. . . . [T]hey did hit and run recording sessions which bore several singles for Venture Records including “Twilight Woman” that managed seven weeks on the CHUM charts with a peak position of #16 in April 1969, and its follow-up, “Now That I’m A Man”, in September 1969 which managed a modest 3 week ride on the CHUM charts and a peak position of #22. . . . A full-length album was hastily assembled from singles and studio outtakes because the line-up was continually fluctuating and new recordings were impossible to conduct. . . . Eventually the band changed its name to Painter and released one album before mutating into the hard rock act Hammersmith who would finally succumb in the late ’70’s after two albums on Mercury Records.
http://citizenfreak.com/titles/264434-49th-parallel-st (crediting the Canada Pop Encyclopedia)
The band had paid its dues: “By ’67 they’d changed their name to 49th Parallel, and had all but outgrown the local circuit. They played the prairies relentlessly for the next year or so, making over a dozen stops in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan at The Temple Gardens alone.” (https://canadianbands.com/artists/49th-parallel/)
Canbands adds:
[Their album] was barely on the shelves for a month when [singer Dennis] Abbott left, who was replaced by new frontman Dorn Beattie. . . . They continued to tour sporadically over the next six months while writing material for a follow-up album. But after the single “I Need You” went without a whimper on two separate occasions, the band packed it in by the spring of 1970.
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Cool. Never heard of them!
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