Monthly Archives: November 2024

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,416) Michel Polnareff — “Ballade Pour Toi”/“Ballad for You” From French icon Michel Polnareff’s (see #120, 157, 722) first LP comes “a folk ballad par excellence”. (DoubleZ, https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/doublez/album/28354-love-me-please-love-me/) Lauren Fay Levy writes: Nudge your Serge Gainsbourg record over a smidge to make roomContinue reading “Michel Polnareff — “Ballade Pour Toi”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 30, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,415) The Easybeats — “A Very Special Man” This ’66 EP track by Australia’s Easybeats (see #201, 1,310, 1,359) is a “minor-key, Kinks-esqe” (paulisdead, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-easybeats-album-by-album-thread.314263/page-6) masterpiece. Eric Kamau writes: [V]ocalist Stevie Wright and guitarist George Young teamed up in penning the lyrics . .Continue reading “The Easybeats — “A Very Special Man”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 29, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,414) The Alan Bown! — “Technicolour Dream” For those who don’t have time for a 14 hour technicolor dream, this ‘67 B-side by the Alan Bown! (see #1,213) gives you “superior psych pop” (Jon Harrington, liner notes to the CD comp Halcyon Days:Continue reading “The Alan Bown! — “Technicolour Dream”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 28, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,413) Roy Junior — “Victim of Circumstances” “One of the great snarling garage/punk songs of the 60s” (Last.fm, https://www.last.fm/music/Roy+Junior/+wiki), a “hard-nosed punk flavored gem” (Dale Duncan, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBgW6cW_HEg), an “[e]xcellent uptempo . . . garage howler . . . You with fantastic vocals, way-coolContinue reading “Roy Junior — “Victim of Circumstances”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 27, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,412) The Road Runners — “Goodbye” Garage rock perfection out of Fresno, California, this is no shriveled California raisin, but a ’66 A-side that is “Absolutely Fierce garage rock” (ThomasSmith-hq7in, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv2xZKxFuDs), “a traditional pounding approach strengthened even further by exquisite harmonies, prominent FarfisaContinue reading “The Road Runners — “Goodbye”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 26, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,411) The Blues Project — “Fly Away” This lovely Al Kooper (see #642, 705, 765, 804)-penned “radio friendly [folk-rock song, which] . . . could easily be mistaken as a tune from The Beatles’s middle years (Rubber Soul-Revolver). . . . [is] spectacular [and]Continue reading “The Blues Project — “Fly Away”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 25, 2024″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,410) Affinity — “I Am the Walrus” Eric Burdon was the eggman, but Linda Hoyle was the walrus! From a UK jazz rock group (see #1,055, 1,364) that released one legendary album, here is a — unreleased at the time — more prog than jazzContinue reading “I Shall Be Released: Affinity — “I Am the Walrus”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 24, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,409) The Peppermint Trolley Co. — “I Remember Long Ago” Take a ride on the peppermint trolley with this glorious ’68 B-side by America’s greatest 60’s TV band. This beautiful and bittersweet confection “sounds like S.F. Sorrow-era Pretty Things stripped of their menace” (MikeContinue reading “The Peppermint Trolley Co. — “I Remember Long Ago”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 23, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,408) Pearls Before Swine — “The Jeweler” A true psych pop/folk pearl, one of the band’s “finest songs . . . . simply lovely, as is the quiet, orchestral arrangement”. (Stewart Mason, https://www.allmusic.com/song/the-jeweler-mt0002573568) It is an “exquisite tale . . . [that] exemplifies [Tom]Continue reading “Pearls Before Swine — “The Jeweler”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 22, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,407) Gladys Knight and the Pips — “You Don’t Love Me No More” Here is a stirring song of betrayal from Gladys Knight and the Pips’ ‘67 LP Everybody Needs Love, written by Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, and Roger Penzabene. Andy Kellman tellsContinue reading “Gladys Knight and the Pips — “You Don’t Love Me No More”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 21, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,406) The Music Machine — “Absolutely Positively” This ’67 Music Machine (see #171, 1,179) B-side, which also appeared on the ’68 Bonniwell Music Machine LP, is a garage anthem if there ever was one. If the Machine ever played an arena, I couldContinue reading “The Music Machine — “Absolutely Positively”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 20, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,405) The Mockingbirds — “You Stole My Love” Who killed the Mockingbirds, “one of the most mystifying failures of the mid-Sixties UK beat scene”? (liner notes to the CD comp The Immediate Singles Collection) The UK record buying public, that’s who! Future 10cc’er GrahamContinue reading “The Mockingbirds — “You Stole My Love”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 19, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,404) Childe Harold — “Brink of Death” “[P]robably the most dreamy Psychedelic song I’ve ever heard” (KingcoldCell, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnZ9fVNNuIA), an “[a]mazing psychedelic mind-melter”, displaying “[o]therworldly electronic psych brilliance”. (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRth6KPDjkc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrumO2bQRCU), a “trippy orchestrated flower pop delight” with “strange mysterious sounds” from “a slightlyContinue reading “Childe Harold — “Brink of Death”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 18, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,403) The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” Written by the Rolling Stones’ (see #382, 398, 537, 579, 1,098) bassist Bill Wyman (see #1,348) and recorded during the sessions for Beggar’s Banquet and Let It Bleed, this “good-time boogie with a portion of acousticContinue reading “I Shall Be Released: The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 17, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,402) The Deviants — “You’ve Got to Hold On” From deep in the London underground comes the Deviants’ (see #564) “forgotten gem brought to the surface!” (EdwinJack64, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Oe_LIZ3gQ), a “ramshackle . . . a harp-wailing, speed-freak update of the mid-Sixties garage R&B sound”Continue reading “The Deviants — “You’ve Got to Hold On”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 16, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,401) The Standells — “Medication” The lead-off track from the NOT FROM BOSTON Standells’s first LP in ‘66 is garage gold, a “great” song (Larry Tamblyn (the Standells), liner notes to the CD reissue of Dirty Water) that is “definitely the[ir] masterpiece!!!” (Oldschoolhero2006,Continue reading “The Standells — “Medication”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 15, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,400) John Martyn — “Sandy Grey” The Glasgow raised Scottish/Belgian folk legend’s ‘67 debut LP London Conversation includes a quite “beautiful” (Graeme Thomson, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/15/nick-drake-john-martyn-complex-friendship-small-hours-extract) song by his friend the singer-songwriter Robin Frederick — about her getting stood up by Nick Drake! It is “aboutContinue reading “John Martyn — “Sandy Grey”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 14, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,399) Jeremy Dormouse — “Just to Hear the Bells” Why hasn’t this gorgeous folk song from Canada been covered a million times? “Don Tapscott’s sublime” song is “a highpoint” of an “[o]bscure folk LP with a transition sound from 1960s coffee house intoContinue reading “Jeremy Dormouse — “Just to Hear the Bells”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 13, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,398) Fourmyula — “Nature” WARNING — If you are a New Zealander, read no further regarding this “now-iconic” (New Zealand Music Hall of Fame, https://www.musichall.co.nz/portfolio/the-fourmyula/) song which “can’t be topped for sheer atmosphere, and harmonious amalgamation of lyric and melody” (Graham Reid, https://timberjackdonoghue.com/157435146/157435161), asContinue reading “Fourmyula — “Nature”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 12, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,397) Wilson Pickett — “This Old Town” Look within one of Wilson Pickett’s most underrated and poorly selling LP’s — ‘70’s Right On (only reaching #197)— and you will find one of the era’s great unappreciated songs of racial reconciliation. Pickett wrote itContinue reading “Wilson Pickett — “This Old Town”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — November 11, 2024”