THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,976) Turquoise — “Saynia”
A bittersweet, heartbreaking, and unforgettable song of unrequited love from one of the UK’s great unrequited double A-sides of the 60’s. Turquoise’s [see #37, 1,480, 1,616, 1,795] B-side to “Woodstock” (see #37) is “every bit as good — a melancholic psych-based ballad about a lost love” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited), “a beautiful and wistful complement to the A side”. (neo6666, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/turquoise_f2/woodstock___saynia/) “Anyone who’s ever moved away or ran into an ex somewhere should immediately become a bit misty-eyed at this one, I know I do. . . . This group was really something special.” (neo6666 again) Indeed.
Jeff Peters, who wrote the song along with his bandmate Ewan Stephens, recalls that “I remember clearly writing this song about a girl I had secretly been in love withwhlst I was at school. God forbid she ever knew it was about her so I made a name up.” (liner notes to the CD comp Turquoise: The Further Adventures of Flossie Fillett: The Collected Recordings 1966-1969).
“I know one woman who liked ‘Saynia’ enough to name her daughter after it.” (ZebedyZak, https://www.45cat.com/record/f12842) Maybe she was the subject of the song?
Stephen Thomas Erlewine tells us about Turquoise:
A quick listen to Turquoise with no knowledge of their background will surely bring two names immediately to mind: the Kinks [see #100, 381, 417, 450, 508, 529, 606, 623, 753, 865, 978, 1,043, 1,108, 1,330, 1,451, 1,591, 1,697, 1,784, 1,907] and the Who [see #548, 833, 976, 1,912]. So, it should be no surprise that Turquoise were not only influenced by their British peers but were close associates, friends of Ray and Dave Davies . . . . Turquoise released two singles for Decca in 1968 before disbanding . . . [which] earned them a cult of some size . . . . More than any other band from the late ’60s, Turquoise modeled themselves after mid-period Kinks, circa Something Else and Village Green Preservation Society. . . . [S]inger/songwriter Jeff Peters . . . wrote almost all of the band’s recorded work, usually in collaboration with Ewan Stephens . . . . Like the Kinks, Turquoise were distinctly, defiantly British in subject matter and approach . . . often sounding fey and campy yet managing to stay away from being overtly twee, and even if their melodies could sigh and swirl in psychedelic colors, they never were that trippy: they were grounded by acoustic guitars that jangled like Ray Davies’ on Something Else and they had ragged harmonies and a pop sense reminiscent of the brothers Davies.
Steve Leggett adds:
Turquoise was a British pop-psych group who only officially released two singles in their short existence as a band, but the four songs on those two releases became beloved by collectors . . . . The group, who initially called themselves the Brood, was formed in North London’s Muswell Hill area in 1966 by Jeff Peters, Ewan Stephens, and Vic Jansen (a fourth member, Barry Hart, was added later), who were all friends and neighbors of the Kinks’ Ray and Dave Davies. Dave Davies produced a batch of demos for the Brood in 1966, and a second batch was produced by the Who’s Keith Moon and John Entwistle a year later in 1967. Eventually the Brood was signed to Decca Records, and after a name change to Turquoise, released two wonderful double-sided singles, “’53 Summer Street”/”Tales of Flossie Fillett” and “Woodstock”/“Saynia”, but neither release really took off, and the band called it quits in 1969. Peters and Hart went on to form Slowbone, releasing an album, Tales of a Crooked Man, in 1974.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/turquoise-mn0001822755#biography
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