THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,454) The Four Seasons — “Wall Street Village Day”
The Four Seasons’ “foray into sgt pepperland is a real beaut” (checklissteric, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOqO5d9j1PA), “a personal favorite of [Frankie] Valli’s, [who] call[ed] it ‘an incredible song'”, “a buoyant slice-of-life, highlighting the cultural differences between New York’s Greenwich Village and Wall Street neighborhoods and how the close-cropped hair and gray suited latter may be a little jealous of the guitar-wielding, paisley-wearing former”. (Brian Erickson, https://www.youdontknowjersey.com/2016/12/the-great-nj-albums-genuine-imitation-life-gazette-the-four-seasons/)”Village Day” is from the “wildly ambitious opus” that is “the most bizarre album in the Four Seasons’ catalog” and “a stunning example of the artistry of the Four Seasons at their most ambitious”. (Donald A. Guarisco, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-genuine-imitation-life-gazette-mw0000652435)
Richard Metzger writes that:
Most people would probably be surprised to find that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons recorded a musically ambitious concept album in 1969 that was inspired by Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s. . . . [N]o one expected an album of bold social commentary, complex vocal arrangements, long songs and quirky Van Dyke Parks-esque musical arrangements, but this is exactly what they got when the group released The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. . . . [It] was released in a fold-out cover with an extra inner page, containing an eight page ‘‘newspaper’’ insert. [Four Seasons’ keyboardist and songwriter] Bob Gaudio co-wrote the album’s songs with Jake Holmes (who actually composed “Dazed and Confused” not Jimmy Page, and the “Be A Pepper” jingle for the Dr. Pepper soft drink with Randy Newman). In the mid-70s, Gaudio was told by none other than John Lennon that [it] was one of this favorite albums . . . . Gaudio later said of the album: “One of the disappointments of our career for me on a creative level was The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette album. It was just something that I had to do at that time. It got wonderful reviews, but obviously it was not an acceptable piece from us. Everybody was expecting Top 40.” . . . Still, it wasn’t a total flop, selling over 150,000 albums, but by Four Seasons standards it was a disaster, making it to just #85 in the charts. . . . It certainly deserves to stand alongside of something like The Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle as a somewhat lesser-known example of this brand of lush, elaborately orchestrated vocal psych pop. Brian Wilson wasn’t the only one capable of making music in this style. . . . After this record, the creative partnership of Bob Gaudio and Jake Holmes went on to another brilliant—and similarly ill-fated—project, Frank Sinatra’s haunting 1970 Watertown.
In fact, Brian Erickson relates that:
[A]nother New Jersey-born artist – one of the most popular of all-time – whose own career was on the wane heard the album and took a shine to it. So much so that he hired the writing team of Gaudio and Holmes to spin their conceptual magic into a new LP. It would be called Watertown and the artist was Hoboken’s own Francis. Albert. Sinatra.
Holy Sh*t!
Donald A. Guarisco adds:
With the help of young songwriter Jake Holmes, the straightest of pop groups went psychedelic to create a concept album that casts a satirical eye on American life. The end result is often excessive both lyrically and sonically, but it’s also relentlessly inventive, skillfully constructed, and never dull. Genuine Imitation Life Gazette never feels like a cheap cash-in because the group chases its cosmic muse without any worry of pandering to commercial concerns. . . . [including] multi-minute epics that abandon tight pop song structure in favor of symphonic structures spiked with all manner of psychedelic sonic trickery and elliptical, satirical lyrics . . . . The best of these epics is “Genuine Imitation Life,” a critique of artificial pleasures in modern life set to a psychedelicized lounge backing that remains surprisingly sharp by modern standards. These moments are interspersed with shorter songs that combine sharp lyrics with lysergic but catchy melodies . . . . Despite all these musical flights of fancy, Genuine Imitation Life Gazette retains a stylistic consistency throughout thanks to the group’s stellar vocals. Valli delivers some of his finest leads . . . and the rest of the group provides lush, flawless harmonies that match the varying moods of each song.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-genuine-imitation-life-gazette-mw0000652435
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
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A great song on a deeply underrated album.
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