THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,461) The Riot Squad — “I Take It that We’re Through”
“Great stomping Mod freakbeat” (Galactic-Ramble, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXOs9YA50Wk), with a “proto-Psychedelic” feel and a “proto-Raga groove”. (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp Joe Meek Freakbeat: You’re Holding Me Down) Biffbampow writes:
Absolutely stunning. One of Joe Meek’s greatest later productions, an intense moody stomping piece of freakbeat with a heavy raga influence. Explodes out of the speakers, never letting up for one moment. Meek has been accused of failing to keep up with the times towards the end of his life but this – and many other discs – prove that accusation is complete nonsense. Definitely The Riot Squad’s finest moment.
As to the Squad, David Wells tells us:
Assembled by Kinks co-manager and inveterate hustler Larry Page, The Riot Squad fell apart when Page decided he had bigger fish to fillet. But saxopohonist Bob Evans, who’d previously played on Honeycombs sessions for Joe Meek, kept the name going with the aid of a Waltham Forest-based band called the Chevrons, and he approached Meek to take on the revised Riot Squad.
liner notes to the CD comp Real Life Permanent Dreams: a Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970
As to Riot Squad 2.0, Bruce Eder writes:
[The Chevrons] already had a soulful American sound similar to Riot Squad . . . . Joe Meek . . . did the new Riot Squad a huge service on their debut single, “Cry Cry Cry” b/w “How It Is Done.” The A-side was a little poppish . . . [and] should have been a contender for airplay . . . the B-side was a cool shouter that showed off everyone’s instrumental prowess and was catchy in its own right, as well as a little harder. The A-side actually made the lower reaches of the U.K. sales charts, but it was the B-side that proved an enduring classic . . . . They went to the well with Meek again on “I Take It That We’re Through” b/w “Working Man,” which once more got great reviews, but once again failed to chart. In the meantime, between their own gigs and recording sessions, Meek kept them busy backing various vocal artists of his . . . . [I]t was becoming clear, however, that whatever his abilities as a producer, Meek lacked the clout or the resources to promote the group’s records properly, in the way that one of the majors would have been able to get behind a record. They tried one more single, “It’s Never Too Late to Forgive” b/w “Try to Realize,” in the summer of 1966. It also failed to chart, and by this time the members were seeing . . . [that] their efforts . . . were simply not gaining any traction with the public. . . . [But they] found themselves named the most popular group in Venezuela. They’d never played there, or even been there, or to that hemisphere, but a chance encounter by a popular disc jockey with “Cry Cry Cry” had resulted in a massive amount of airplay, and sales, and requests — there’s no way to tell what this bizarre moment of popular success might have led to, if anything, for in early 1967, the roof fell in once and for all with Meek’s death. Their producer, a brilliant but unstable personality, died in a bizarre murder/suicide incident that also took the life of his landlady. When the smoke cleared from the tragedy, the band was without a producer or a recording contract, as everything they’d done had been legally organized through Meek. Ironically, the band had as many bookings as ever, because the one area where they’d enjoyed immense, virtually uninterrupted success — in contrast to their recordings — was as a live act. They had a substantial and devoted following and could easily have gone on earning a decent living in that capacity; they even received an offer to play behind Wilson Pickett on a British tour, which was in perfect keeping with their sound. Good as some of the records they made with Meek had been, they weren’t really representative of what the Riot Squad was about. They did mostly covers of American R&B, to an audience that was wholly focused on that sound . . . . The group split up in 1967, with Evans [and two other band members] . . . remaining as the Riot Squad . . . . [and] limp[ing] along into 1967[. A]t one point . . . David Bowie joined their lineup. He was with the group intermittently across a little more than half a year, and they even cut a few demos with him . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/riot-squad-mn0001344667#biography
For those wanting to keep the Riot going, see the super-exhaustive: https://brunoceriotti.weebly.com/the-riot-squad.html.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
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