THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,348) Moon’s Train — “Gotta Go Catch Me a Woman”
Bill Wyman gets his (Georgie) Fame on, co-writing and and producing this hip R&B modster!
“[Moon’s Train] firmly straddled the mod loves of jazz/r&b with the later psychedelic headsounds. Most of the tracks are jazz/mod/r&b but a few . . . adopted a psychedelic slant and ditched the r&b/jazz to embrace sounds of The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band [see #197, 488]”. (Wilthomer, https://anorakthing.blogspot.com/2011/06/moons-train.html?m=1) “Catch Me a Woman” is definitely one of the R&B/mod numbers.
Richie Unterberger is not impressed:
[M]ost of Moon’s Train’s tracks are rather pedestrian, jazzy blue-eyed soul with a hint of ska, somewhat in the mold of a few similar British acts of the era such as Georgie Fame and Simon Dupree & the Big Sound [see #51, 96]. . . . [While] obviously heavily influenced by Georgie Fame [see #103, 169, 634, 695, 721, 1,044, i]t’s not within miles of Fame in quality, however, and for that matter distinctly inferior even to . . . Simon Dupree & the Big Sound. Sad to say, on the evidence of these tracks, Wyman didn’t have a whole lot to offer in the songwriting department . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/moons-train-mn0001864338#biography, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-life-i-lead-mw0001486461
Well, I’ve always been a pedestrian, jazzy blue-eyed soul!
Unterberger gives us some history:
Most known as one of several acts that Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman produced and wrote songs for in the 1960s, Moon’s Train issued just one single while active, the 1967 release “Deed I Do”/”It’s in My Mind.” The group did, however, record quite a bit of material in 1965-1967 . . . . The band is also noted for including a teenage Peter Frampton in their ranks at one point, though he was only in the lineup briefly, and did not play on many of their recordings. . . . Some of their roots were in the Beckenham band the Preachers, who included keyboardist, singer, and songwriter Peter Gosling, as well as the young Frampton and drummer Tony Chapman. The Bill Wyman connection came about as Chapman had played in Wyman’s . . . group the Clifton’s, and had very briefly played alongside Wyman at a few early Rolling Stones gigs before being edged out by Charlie Watts. While they were still called the Preachers, the group — now managed and produced by Wyman — put out a 1965 single. Soon after its release, they changed their name to the Train, and around early 1966, they changed their name again to Moon’s Train, sparked by the nickname of Peter “Moon” Gosling. Though it’s believed that Frampton was still in the band when their single was recorded in April 1966 (though it wouldn’t come out for almost a year), he left shortly afterward to join the Herd. Moon’s Train continued to record in hopes of getting an album together, most of the material being co-written by Gosling and Wyman. However, none . . . was released . . . . Moon’s Train drifted apart by the end of the 1960s, however, and while Gosling has recalled being approached by Mick Fleetwood to join Fleetwood Mac when that band was being formed in 1967, he didn’t do so. . . .
A few items do show a mild psychedelic influence, and a couple, “Loving, Sacred Loving” and “Shades of Orange,” even move toward “In Another Land” territory — the caveat being that these versions are merely instrumental tracks that sound like works-in-progress, and were done far more impressively in fully arranged psychedelic vocal versions by another band Wyman produced in the late ’60s, the End [see #131].
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/moons-train-mn0001864338#biography, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-life-i-lead-mw0001486461
Why didn’t the LP come out at the time? Vernon Joynson says that it “was forgotten when Stones manager Allen Klein stopped Wyman’s moonlighting” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited), while Buffalo Billycan says that “after Gosling and Wyman had drifted apart it remained in the can.” (Buffalo Billycan, http://faintlyblowing.blogspot.com/2011/08/moons-train-1967.html?m=1)
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