THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,709) The Blues Project — “No Time Like the Right Time”
It only reached #96?! As Richie Unterberger says, this “quite ingenious and catchy song” was the Blues Project’s (see #1,411) “greatest achievement and one of the best ‘great hit singles that never were'” of the 1960’s. (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-blues-project-mn0000041899#biography) Mike Stax says it’s “a pulsating soul-pop number with psychedelic overtones in [Al] Kooper’s exotic keyboard passages and some interesting tempo shifts. . . . one of the group’s most exciting contributions to the era”. (liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968)
Unterberger goes deep:
[It] was the most avowedly commercial track by the Blues Project, and perhaps their most pop-oriented one, consciously tailored for the pop singles market. And it did become their only charting single . . . though it deserved to go much higher. The Blues Project had primarily been known as a blues-rock band with touches of folk-rock, but [it] was both poppier and more eclectic, almost like a combination of several different songs. The opening instrumental section led off with a drum pattern much like that of the rhythm of grinding train wheels, punctuated by eerie, dramatic guitar chords, segueing into the vocal section with a downward sweep of the organ by Al Kooper [see #642, 705, 765, 804, 1,447]. Kooper, the song’s author, also took the lead vocals on the verses, making the best of his average vocal talents with an infectious swagger, helped by dramatic minor-keyed background vocal harmonies. The rhythm then flattened out into more of a blue-eyed soul thump for the latter part of the verses, somewhat in the style of the Rascals. A leap of several keys upward led into the gospel-influenced chorus, the bashing rhythms a nod to Motown, the melody portentously lowering into more ominous progressions as Kooper promises to show his lover how to do things. The instrumental break offers a spot of psychedelia, as Kooper solos on his Kooperphone keyboard to produce snake-charming, Middle Eastern-like tones for a few bars before the return to the verse. After the last chorus, it’s back to a reprise of the trains-in-motion opening segment, with a sudden flourish of ascending chords leading into a fadeout on another pass through the chorus.
https://www.allmusic.com/song/no-time-like-the-right-time-mt0002578579
Unterberger tells us about the BP:
One of the first album-oriented “underground” groups in the United States, the Blues Project offered an electric brew of rock, blues, folk, pop, and even some jazz, classical, and psychedelia during their brief heyday in the mid-’60s. . . . Erratic songwriting talent and a lack of a truly outstanding vocalist prevented them from rising to the front line of ’60s bands, but they recorded plenty of interesting material over the course of their first three albums, before the departure of their most creative members took its toll. The Blues Project was formed in Greenwich Village in the mid-’60s by guitarist Danny Kalb . . . Steve Katz . . . , flutist/bassist Andy Kulberg, drummer Roy Blumenfeld, and singer Tommy Flanders. Al Kooper, in his early twenties but already a seasoned vet of rock sessions, joined after sitting in on the band’s Columbia Records audition . . . . The eclectic résumés of the musicians, who came from folk, jazz, blues, and rock backgrounds, were reflected in their choice of material. Blues by Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry tunes ran alongside covers of contemporary folk-rock songs by Eric Andersen [see #1,235] and Patrick Sky, as well as the group’s own originals. These were usually penned by Kooper, who had . . . co-writ[ten] Gary Lewis’ huge smash “This Diamond Ring,” and established a reputation as a major folk-rock shaker with his contributions to Dylan’ mid-’60s records. . . . [T]he group truly hit their stride on Projections (late 1966), which was, disappointingly, their only full-length studio recording. While they went through straight blues numbers with respectable energy, they really shone on folk- and jazz-influenced tracks like “Fly Away,” Katz’s lilting “Steve’s Song,” Kooper’s jazz instrumental “Flute Thing” (an underground radio standard that’s probably their most famous track), and Kooper’s fierce adaptation of . . . “I Can’t Keep from Crying.” . . . The band’s very eclecticism didn’t augur well for their long-term stability, and in 1967 Kooper left in a dispute over musical direction (he has recalled that Kalb opposed his wishes to add a horn section). Then Kalb mysteriously disappeared for months after a bad acid trip, which effectively ended the original incarnation of the band. . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-blues-project-mn0000041899#biography
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