THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,594) Sweet Feeling/Rupert’s People — “All So Long Ago”
Sweet Feeling, later to become Rupert’s People (see #370), gives us “an absolute gem . . . a faultless piece of pop perfection” that is “very reminiscent of the Paul McCartney showcases on Revolver and in particular the anecdotal observations of ‘Penny Lane’ . . . as much of a north London equivalent to that song as is ‘Waterloo Sunset’ or ‘Autumn Almanac'”. (Nigel Lees, liner notes to the CD comp The Magic World of Rupert’s People)
Richie Unterberger calls it “a passable 1967 Kinks-style tune, very reminiscent of the snapshot-of-British life-styled tunes Ray Davies was writing at the time.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ruperts-people-mn0000203419#biography) Passable? I’d call it Kinks-worthy!
“All So Long Ago” “drew on [guitarist and songwriter] Rod[ Lynton’s] own childhood experiences but, despite its obvious commerciality and favorable music press, the single bombed, thus depriving the public of not only a wondrous A side but also the marvelous ‘Charles Brown’, one of the most flamboyant exercises in reversed tape trickery in the history of pop psychedelia.” (Nigel Lees again)
Richie Unterberger tells us of the not so-sweet saga of Sweet Feeling and Rupert’s People:
For a band that released just three singles and had no significant commercial success, the story of Rupert’s People is enormously complicated. The band went through three separate lineups, and none of the musicians who were in the iteration that was by far the longest-lasting and most visible played on their most celebrated single. . . . [Their] releases contained some good period late-’60s British psychedelic pop, particularly the one record that psychedelic collectors tend to be familiar with, “Reflections of Charles Brown.” The whole messy saga starts with the even more obscure band Sweet Feeling, who released just one single in 1967, “All So Long Ago”/”Charles Brown.” The A-side . . . . was outshone by its B-side, “Charles Brown,” which was British psychedelia at its most disquieting, telling the story of an average British family man with a most eerie melody and some of the strangest backwards effects to be heard on any circa-1967 rock record. Sweet Feeling’s manager, Howard Conder . . . asked . . . Rod Lynton to rework “Charles Brown” with a different melody and lyrics. The result, now titled “Reflections of Charles Brown,” was quite different than its prototype, with a melody based on Bach’s “Air on a G String” and a far more gentle, uplifting ambience. Conder then recruited a band, Les Fleur de Lys, who had released some respectable mod rock records of their own without a hit [see #32, 122], to record the song in an arrangement reminiscent of early Procol Harum. Les Fleur de Lys also recorded a B-side [with Sharon Tandy (see #371, 441, 442, 741, 1,485)], “Hold On[]” [see #371], but decided not to work with Conder after the tracks were done. The single was released anyway, and has become regarded by collectors as one of the better little-known British psychedelic 45s. Conder’s original idea was to have Sweet Feeling change their name to Rupert’s People so that there was a band to promote the single. Sweet Feeling declined, so a Rupert’s People lineup was formed around singer Chris Andrews . . . who had sung on the “Reflections of Charles Brown” 45. . . . [T]his group . . . lasted only briefly and didn’t record anything that was released. Conder then went back to Sweet Feeling and again proposed that the band change their name to Rupert’s People. This time, they accepted, and the renamed group put out a couple more singles in 1967-1968. . . . [that] contain some fair British pop-mod-psych. . . . Rupert’s People continued playing live until the end of the 1960s, by which time they were handled by future Police manager and record mogul Miles Copeland. At the beginning of the 1970s, they changed their name to Stonefeather, with future Police drummer Stewart Copeland . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ruperts-people-mn0000203419#biography
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