THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,731) Shag — “Stop & Listen”
From Milwaukee, the greatest garage anti-drug song (written after a bad trip). A “totally awesome freak out” (eoj2495, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow_e3i6zgSM), “[f]uzzadelic!” (resistor27, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSDdKfgTRwI)
Mike Tiefenbacher writes:
One of my favorite . . . Milwaukee-area records, this song was the portent of…absolutely nothing. No follow-up, nothing. The group went out to California and broke up. Meantime, it made it to #12 on WRIT’s chart and #17 on WOKY’s over the fall of ’67. What a wasted opportunity!”
“Everybody’s goin’, everybody’s trippin’ Everybody tells you what ya been missin’”!
“The recorded version of ‘Stop and Listen’ is rather timid compared to live versions The Shag used to do at O’Brad’s. Take it from a guy who was there in the late sixties.” (gordonbrossell1796, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33V9wEe-J0) Wow, I would have loved to have been there!
Caleb Westphal tells us of the Shag:
When I think of garage rock songs from the 1960s that have a conspicuous anti-drug theme . . . there was a song . . . . [r]eleased as a single by Capitol Records in September 1967 . . . . “Stop and Listen” . . . features vocalist Ray McCall―who also wrote the song and contributed its fuzz-tone guitar . . . . The Shag, originally called The Shags, were formed in Milwaukee in 1963 by Layton School of Art students Paul “Green” Greenwald (drums, vocals, flute), John Sahli (guitar, vocals harmonica), Mike Lamers (various instruments), and Don Luther (bass). According to Greenwald . . . Sahli was the only musician when the band formed, “But upon hearing the Stones, then the Beatles, we had to be a band. . . . I’m pretty sure we were the first band to not wear uniforms in Milwaukee, and being in art school, we already had the long hair and scruffy look[]” . . . . He also said they wrote their own songs because they couldn’t play any others. They put out “Cause I Love You,” backed with the Bo-Diddley-beat driven “Dance Woman” on Milwaukee’s Raynard label in 1965. Later that year, Ray McCall joined the band, replacing Sahli. . . . McCall sang, played guitar, and wrote songs for the ensemble. By this time, the group had become the house band at O’Brad’s, a basement-bar venue . . . . Although the owner of O’Brad’s had at first turned away the group because of their appearance, they eventually were given the keys to the place, could decorate it as they pleased, and played gigs there five nights a week . . . . According to Greenwald, Sunday’s performance included a “special psychedelic third set,” where the band would surround the stage with wet sheets, shoot food dye, and use pulsing lights and impromptu sounds. Both RCA Records and Chess Records came to see them there and wanted them to record, but the band did not accede to their overtures, as they wanted to do a live recording—something the record companies were not keen on. Greenwald mentioned that some time after McCall joined the group, everyone in the band was going to try a “psychedelic experience. . . . Ray had a bad time and wrote ‘Stop and Listen’ about not taking those kinds of drugs.” After the band drove out to New York City to open for The Blues Project [see #1,411, 1,709], they were signed to Capitol Records. . . . Capitol released “Stop and Listen” . . . . It was at this time that The Shags became the “The Shag,” so they wouldn’t be confused with some other groups with the same name. A review . . . in the September 17, 1967, edition of the Milwaukee Journal said “Judging by live performances, though, this deck is a lame rendition. It doesn’t have the animation of the stage.” . . . [I]t makes me wonder just how entrancing and spellbinding the band was live. . . . “Stop and Listen” failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 . . . . Ray McCall soon left the band and was replaced by Gordon Elliot. The group visited, and later made the move to California. In 1969, they recorded at San Francisco’s Pacific High Recording Studios . . . . [but these recordings] did not see the light of day until Gear Fab Records put it out in 2005. . . . Within a few years, The Shag would split.
https://milwaukeerecord.com/music/mke-music-rewind-the-shag-stop-and-listen/
PSYCHOGARAGE adds:
The band developed a local following based on their reputation for a rocking sound with outlandish costumes and special effects. Ray left the band . . . and was replaced by Gordon Elliott when they relocated to California. After dissolving in 1971, Gordon went on to form a group called Elixir, with fellow Chicagoans George Edwards and Michael Tegza, previously of the band H. P. Lovecraft [see #829, 1,073].
“The Shag tune ‘Stop and Listen’ . . . is featured here along with a video of the Shag filmed about the same time during a live performance at O’Brads Lower Lounge, Milwaukee, WI” (TheSahliMan, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33V9wEe-J0):
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