THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,379) The Humane Society — “Knock, Knock”
This sleazy, sinister garage über-classic by Simi Valley, California’s Humane Society (see #958) is “a savage, disarmingly visceral slab of proto-punk genius” (Jason Ankeny, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-humane-society-mn0000766521/biography), a creation of “BONE CHILLING BRILLIANCE” (shelleyganz9095, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcoyH_iOMJo). Mike Stax gives it the ultimate tribute in Nuggets:
This disturbed piece of ’60’s punk savagery . . . . features one of the most intense performances ever recorded. Cloaked in reverb, the song creeps along slowly and darkly at first — a pulsing bass and drum rhythm, with a four-note, fuzz-toned riff foretelling danger ahead, while singer Danny Wheetman torturously unpeels his soul, revealing . . . a stalker? Or just a lonely, brokenhearted man? The song rises and falls, building up to a climactic, double-time break with Wheetman pouring out a torrent of words, begging for an end to his pain while implying terrible violence. It’s chilling impossibly brilliant stuff.
liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968
“Knock, Knock” has been called “[b]asically the birth of punk, hardcore, grunge, speed metal, death metal, emo, screamo, The list could go on”. (seangessner1730, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUb8mZ4FDVE)
Jason Ankeny tells us the Humane story:
Simi Valley, CA, psych-punks the Humane Society formed in 1965 as the Innocents . . . . [T]he band was discovered . . . while performing on a flatbed truck parked outside a local record store. The Humane Society’s debut single, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips With Me” — recorded just prior to Tiny Tim’s smash novelty rendition — appeared on Liberty Records in the spring of 1967 and was a hit in Los Angeles, but it was the flip side, “Knock, Knock,” for which the group is justly celebrated . . . . After Liberty rejected a proposed follow-up, the Humane Society landed at New World for their second single, 1968’s “Lorna” [which] received scant attention, and the band dissolved soon after.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-humane-society-mn0000766521/biography
Oh, and “[t]he rhythm guitarist was a graphic arts teacher at my high school. Woody Minnick, Antelope Valley High School in the 80s”. (kurdtacolbain731, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTpqWkFw7bg) That is pretty cool!!! Minnick should have been cast in Fast Times at Ridgemont High!
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