THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,763) Apple — “Buffalo Billy Can”
This B-side from the Welsh band from Cardiff (see #883) is “a strange psychedelic pop song” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited), “a marvelous slice of lysergic psychedelic pop” (David Wells, Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era), an “all-time psych classic[]”. (liner notes to the CD comp Chocolate Soup for Diabetics: Vols 1-5)) “It has a cult of sorts among collectors, with its . . . inventive guitar and piano figures, although the song isn’t as good as “The Otherside.” (see #883) (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/apple-mn0000482669, https://www.allmusic.com/album/an-apple-a-day-mw0000460214).
Apple later released An Apple a Day — an LP — including “Buffalo Billycan” — of which Vernon Joynson tells us:
[T]he best of Apple’s material is up there with the cream of British psychedelia. . . . [The LP is] a fine amalgam of psychedelia and heavy R&B, it’s well established as one of the most sought-after of all UK psych albums . . . . at its best it’s nothing short of superb.
The Tapestry of Delights Revisited
Richie Unterberger is a bit more blasé, calling Apple a “rather typical British psychedelic-pop group of the late ’60s, although perhaps not as fruity or indulgent as some.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/apple-mn0000482669) Not as fruity? The band’s name is Apple!
Rocking in the Norselands tells us of Apple and the LP:
A three-song demo tape . . . managed to get the attention of Larry Page. . . . a record producer/manager from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. Much of his success centred on his efforts with The Kinks and The Troggs, and his ownership of the record labels Page One Records (1966-1969) and Penny Farthing Records (1969 onwards). Page offered Apple a contract, and signed them to his Page One Records label in 1968. That’s when they discovered that Page planned to release a single by simply using their demos as they were. The band was keen to record them properly, but Page did not feel that was necessary, which was a red flag. It felt like rather than being enthusiastic with the recordings themselves, Page was looking to save money by simply using what was already available. “Page certainly was a tight old bugger,”said Jeff Harrad . . . . “That’s why there are so few photos of us. He didn’t want to pay for things like that, and even then, the few that were taken were in black and white. He wouldn’t pay for colour.” The label initially released a single: Let’s Take A Trip Down The Rhine/Buffalo Billycan (Oct 1969). In a sign of things to come, it received little to no promotion. Who knows what it could have done if it had been recorded and promoted properly. . . . The album would include all four tracks from the singles . . . but that meant that the original demo recordings were still being used. Other tracks had been quickly recorded in demo-track fashion and had become actual takes used on the album. For this reason, the band themselves were extremely unhappy with the album. . . . The album was accompanied by a colour leaflet/brochure from the Apple And Pear Development Council (a newly established organisation to promote English and Welsh apples and pears). . . . It was speculated that the album only saw release because the costs were effectively underwritten by the sponsorship from the Development Council. . . . Heavily discouraged by the label’s treatment of them and the poor sales, the band ceased to exist shortly after the album’s release.
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