THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,992) Circus — “Mother Motha’s Great Sundance”
“From the ashes of Q’65 [see #108, 557, 913, 1,164, 1,227, 1,356] rose Circus”. (https://www.discogs.com/es/release/5113706-Circus-Medusa-Mother-Mothas-Great-Sundance-) This, the B-side from Circus’ unreleased ’68 single, is quite the freak show — a combination of disembodied vocals and rhythmic banging with an Eastern feel — sort of a mashup of Occupy Wall Street music making and the Star Trek opening theme, seemingly all put together by George Harrison [see #423, 545, 872, 942, 1,437] (like Wonderwall!)
Discogs opens the Circus:
. . . . Circus had everything to become the first Dutch super band, along the lines of a.o. Cream and Blind Faith. In January 1968 guitarist and composer Frank Nuyens and drummer/lyricist Jay Baar rose from the ashes of Q65. Marco Klein (James Mean) joined as keyboardist, Frank Verhoef became the bassist/singer. With them, Nuyens and Baar made the first recordings. Later they went into the studio with producer Hans van Hemert, for the complex basis of “Mother Motha’s Sundance”, meant as B-side for the single “Medusa”. Eventually their recording career never went beyond a test pressing of the single…. The single was shelved, but a sleeve for the original 45 was apparently printed and recently found in archive.
https://www.discogs.com/es/release/5113706-Circus-Medusa-Mother-Mothas-Great-Sundance-
Bruce Eder gives us some Q’65 history:
The Dutch quintet could have held their own with [the Pretty Things or the Yardbirds] or the Animals without breaking a sweat . . . . Q 65 have remained one of Europe’s best-kept star-caliber musical secrets for more than 30 years. . . . [They] first got together in 1965, in the Hague . . . “the Liverpool of the Netherlands,” with a music scene that had been thriving since the end of the ’50s. . . . The group’s professed influences were American soul acts . . . yet somehow, when they performed, what they played came out closer in form and spirit to the likes of the Pretty Things . . . and the Yardbirds than it did to any of those soul acts, at least at first. . . . With two successful singles under their belt, the group’s debut album, Revolution, followed in 1966. [It] was a powerful blues-rock album . . . . The album sold 3,500 copies, a respectable number in the Netherlands, and established the group sufficiently to rate a spot playing with the Small Faces, the Spencer Davis Group, the Kinks, and the Pretty Things when they toured Holland. During 1967, they didn’t release any LPs, but did get a solid extended-play single out called Q Blues, which did well at home. Their music during this period reached what was arguably its peak . . . . The group continued trying to make it as a blues-rock band for most of 1967. Their sound began to change late in the year, just as music was turning psychedelic, and around the time just before Wim Bieler was drafted into the army. His exit heralded the end of the Q 65’s classic period. [The band, with some new members, formed] a new, more psychedelic-oriented outfit, which eventually evolved into a group called Circus, which lasted, in varying lineups, for the year of 1968. . . . In 1969, a second Q 65 album was released, entitled Revival and made up of singles and latter-day tracks. The music was still powerful and very intense — perhaps too much so — if not as accessible. Had the lineup stayed intact, the group might even have found an audience. . . . [T]he Q 65 split up at just about this point.
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