Author Archives: georgefishman2

Protestors carried placards saying “Peace on the Strip.” They weren’t referring to conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, they were protesting a 10 p.m. curfew on teens and the closure of the Pandora’s Box coffee house on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. The ’65-’66 Sunset Strip “Curfew” or “Hippie” Riots wereContinue reading “The Sunset Strip “Curfew/Hippie” Riots Special Edition: Terry Randall — “S.O.S.”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 6, 2022″

309) The Glass Family — “Sometimes You Wonder (Henry’s Tune)” Wonderful hypnotizing soft psych L.A. style ’67-68 (I love L.A.!). People got to be free to do as they please! Bob Koch talks of Electric Band, the album from which today’s song is drawn: Electric Band is way above average post-garage band era L.A. rock,Continue reading “The Glass Family — “Sometimes You Wonder (Henry’s Tune)”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 5, 2022″

308) Parliament — “Little Ole Country Boy” As I have said, Osmium, the album from which this song is drawn, is where it all began for Parliament (see #249). Mark Montgomery French writes that: According to George Clinton, the five-man ex-doo-wop group Parliament performed polite music you could play for your mother, while their five-manContinue reading “Parliament — “Little Ole Country Boy”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 4, 2022″

307) The Buzz — “You’re Holding Me Down” “You’re Holding Me Down” is the Platonic ideal of freakbeat. The only A-side by the (Edinburgh) Buzz, released in ’66 (of course) and produced by Joe Meek (of course), is “the stuff of legends” and an “insane slice of Joe Meek produced freakbeat mayhem” (Wilthomer), an “eternallyContinue reading “The Buzz — “You’re Holding Me Down”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 3, 2022”

306) Great Speckled Bird — “Love What You’re Doing Child” Canadian country-rock from the eponymous ’70 album by the folk-rock duo Ian & Sylvia and their new band. Randall Adams calls it “one of the best country rock albums of all time.” He goes on: [The album] immediately sank without a trace . . .Continue reading “Great Speckled Bird — “Love What You’re Doing Child”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 2, 2022”

305) Boudewijn de Groot — “Een Meisje Van 16/(A Young Girl of 16)” On the first day of this new year, I’d like to remind everyone that here at Off the Charts/Brace for the Obscure, it is always Groundhog Day, always the Sixties. So, on to our first song of the year, an oft-covered moralityContinue reading “Boudewijn De Groot — “Een Meisje Van 16/(A Young Girl of 16)”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 1, 2022”

304) The Crystal Rain — “Hey Ma Ma” In the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of the term “monster riff” is accompanied by three musical illustrations — from T. Rex’s “Get It On,” Oasis’s “the Hindu Times” and the Crystal Rain’s “Hey Ma Ma.” No, really. “Ma Ma” was the first A-side by “a short-livedContinue reading “The Crystal Rain — “Hey Ma Ma”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 31, 2021”

303) The Syn — “14-Hour Technicolour Dream” Ah, yes, the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream at the Alexandra Palace on April 29, 1967. In my mind, it and not Woodstock was the defining moment of and catalyst for the counterculture of the 1960’s. “Wow, I guess I’m not the only freak in this whole country.”* WhileContinue reading “The Syn — “14-Hour Technicolour Dream”: Bracing for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 30, 2021”

302) Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas — “I’m in Love” OK, the Fourmost did release “I’m in Love,” which reached #17 in the UK in December of 1963. Bruce Eder writes in All Music Guide that: The Fourmost’s fortunes took a sharp turn upward in 1963 when they were given the nod by BrianContinue reading “Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas — “I’m in Love”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 29, 2021”

301) Tony Joe White — “Willie and Laura Mae Jones” Such a powerful song from TJW’s first album in ‘69, appropriately titled Black and White. “Willie and Laura Mae Jones” has been recorded dozens of times by a wide range of artists, from Mel Torme and Waylon Jennings, to Bettye Swan and Shelby Lynne. Interestingly,Continue reading “Tony Joe White — “Willie and Laura Mae Jones”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 28, 2021″

300) Herman’s Hermits — “Upstairs, Downstairs” Yes, you heard right, Herman’s Hermits. As Vernon Joynson says, the Hermits “were one of the more lightweight [British] pop acts of the sixties but they were one of our most successful exports to the States and released several good three-minute pop singles.” (The Tapestry of Delights). By ’67,Continue reading “Herman’s Hermits — “Upstairs, Downstairs”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 27, 2021″

Bruce Eder rightly says in All Music Guide that “Tim Hollier was one of the most unfairly neglected of folk-based artists to come out of late-’60s England . . . .” Eder goes on to say that: [Hollier’s] brand of trippy, quietly elegant psychedelic folk-rock deserving an infinitely wider hearing than it got . .Continue reading “Tim Hollier— “Seagull’s Song”, “Maybe You Will Stay”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 26, 2021″

297) The Master’s Apprentices — “Wars or Hands of Time” Richie Unterberger in All Music Guide calls this ‘66 B-side an “undiscovered classic,” Greg Shaw calls it “one of the greatest powerpop records of all time,” and Nuggets II says that: [It is] one of the era’s most affecting [Vietnam] antiwar songs. . . .Continue reading “Masters Apprentices — “Wars or Hands of Time”: Brace for the Obscure (60s Rock)! — December 25, 2021”

296) Clarence Carter — “Back Door Santa” This is no “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” Carter’s Santa is nobody’s fool — he gives kids a few pennies so that he and the mommies can be alone. Clarence Carter ended a triumphant 1968 by releasing this A-side, which “must certainly be the ax heavyweight championContinue reading “Clarence Carter’s Christmas Eve Special Edition — “Back Door Santa”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 24, 2021”

295) The Spirit — “No Time to Rhyme” Sugar, this (the only) A-side by the Flushing, Queens, NYC band was written by Ron Dante — yes that Ron Dante (producer and Archies’s singer).

294) Web — “Love You” In ’70, Web released I Spider, its third and final album. New singer Dave Lawson (who, earlier in life, took piano lessons with Stan Tracey, the “godfather of British jazz” (Dave Lawson liner notes to the CD reissue of I Spider)) wrote all the material, “transform[ing] Web into a jazz-rockContinue reading “Web — “Love You”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 22, 2021″

Here are three wistful, often somber, but always stirring songs reflecting the onset of winter. 291) The Bee Gees — “Lonely Winter” If the song’s subject got a Saturday night fever, it was probably because it was so cold outside. While the Bee Gees recorded this song in ’66, it was actually written by CarlContinue reading “Winter Solstice Special Edition: The Bee Gees/Agincourt/Perry Leopold: TThe Bee Gees — “Lonely Winter”, Agincourt — “Though I May Be Dreaming”, Perry Leopold — “Cold in Philadelphia”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 21, 2021″

286) Les Irresistibles — “Lands of Shadow” Here is another melancholy gem from the sons of American diplomats (clear-spot.nl/item/483249/les_irresistibles_the_story_of_baxter_williams.html) living it up in Paris (see #194). “Shadows” was a ‘68 A-side (outside of the U.S.). The band formed in 1966 as The Sentrys, when the members were teenage classmates at the American School of Paris.Continue reading “Les Irresistibles — “Lands of Shadow”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 20, 2021”

289) The British North-American Act — “Only a Dream” OK, I featured Paul Revere and the Raiders’s “Midnite Ride” (see #109). So, it is only fair that I play the colonially-outfitted British North-American Act — named after the British statute which created Canada in 1867.* Just to note that the lovely “Only a Dream” isContinue reading “The British North-American Act — “Only a Dream”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 19, 2021″

288) Skip Bifferty — “On Love” OK, after the precious “Pentecost Hotel”, let’s switch to some heavier British psych. “On Love”, Skip Bifferty’s* jaundiced dissertation on the subject, was their first A-side and the band’s crowning achievement, with Vernon Joynson calling out its “very catchy, insistent riff” and the liner notes to the Skip BiffertyContinue reading “Skip Bifferty — “On Love”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — December 18, 2021″