THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
776) Emergency Exit — “Maybe Too Late”
Cool ’66/’67 garage B-side from Seattle. Glendoras//DJ Mean Mojo Mathias says:
[The song is an] absolutely fabulous garage jangle rocker on Dunhill!! I got knocked by the great guitar playing when I first heard this, great vocals too! Just excellent!! They were from Seattle, WA, and made this double sided killer in late 1966 on Ru-Ro, and national release on Dunhill in early 1967.
Jopabe64 adds that “[t]his record hit the survey at Seattle’s KJR in December of ’66 and reached #20. Their next one, “It’s Too Late Baby,” (guess they were obsessed with promptness) hit the survey in April ’67 and reached #15.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpF0Eb6BsRI)
Unfortunately, as Psychedelicized says, “[t]here is very little known about The Emergency Exit. The band was active from 1965 until 1967 and featured Paul Goldsmith, later a part of Calliope.” (https://psychedelicized.com/playlist/e/the-emergency-exit/)
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[T]he thundering mod sound of the Martins power trio Powder; whose own LP, recorded while the group was based in Los Angeles and employed as Sonny & Cher’s road band, remained frustratingly unissued, and indeed acted as a precursor to the creation of the masterpiece [Visualize]. [A]fter the Powder debacle, the Martins returned to northern California to lick their wounds and demo some more introspective material. . . . [Their] innate . . . pop sensibility lingered in new compositions like “She’s Got Love” [see #211]. It was to be the latter tune that caught the ear of promo man John Antoon, who signed the Martins to his . . . publishing imprint, assumed managerial duties and got the duo signed to Imperial Records under the nom de disque Thomas & Richard Frost. As a single, the simple, catchy “She’s Got Love” was to achieve a modicum of success as a turntable hit, reaching only the lower half of the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1969, but with strong regional airplay across the country, upon the back of which the Frosts were able to tour. Back in LA, Rich and Tom made the scene with their pals Rodney Bingenheimer and Frank Zinn, enjoying a brief but eye-opening spell as bona fide pop stars. Plans were big for the Frosts, with a full, lavishly orchestrated, album release, but it was all to fall apart as the follow-up singles stiffed and parent label Liberty/UA decided to wind down Imperial.
The proceedings are imbued with the Zeitgeist of Los Angeles in its last throes of pop innocence, and the Martins heart-on-their-sleeve Anglophilic sensitivity is less derivative then remarkably refreshing, with superbly recorded arrangements that any late 1960s pop fan will cherish.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
’67 B-side by the great Bill Fay (who has had quite a second act!) “is fantastic . . . . like some long lost Bob Dylan “Blonde On Blonde” out-take, Fay sounds just like Zimmy and his lyrics are far out to the max” (Dave Furgess, https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/327/) and a “deliciously skewed snapshot[] of a mildly disturbed psyche (sorry Bill) . . . a fascinating study of suburban alienation” (liner notes to the CD comp MOJO Presents: Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionary from the UK Underground 1965-1969) that “hinted at the darker themes he’d later explore. ” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited). Whether folk rock or psych, Fay is definitely not fey!
Fay recalls that:
My producer Peter Eden brought with him The Fingers, a band from Southend. There was no rehearsing as such, the songs were recorded at Decca studios spontaneously there and then in the morning, after which I overdubbed organ and Mellotron, and Peter mixed them in the afternoon. I was great to play with the band and was all over too soon.
(liner notes to the CD reissue of Bill Fay)
As to Fay, Grayson Haver Currin notes that:
[He] stumbled into music in the ’60s. As a college student in Wales, he began to forsake his electronics curriculum for writing songs featuring piano and harmonium. His demos found their way to Terry Noon, briefly Van Morrison’s drummer and a budding music impresario, who helped Fay secure a contract with an imprint of Decca Records and assemble a sharp studio band.
Richie Unterberger gives his post-“Screams” and pre-rediscovery history:
British singer/songwriter/pianist Bill Fay cut two albums for Deram during the early ’70s that became bona fide cult classics. His self-titled debut appeared in 1970 and was linked by comparison to recordings by Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, but Fay’s songs were more cosmic in scope lyrically and featured pop-orchestral arrangements. 1971’s Time of the Last Persecution . . . won the lion’s share of media attention because of its rather dire and apocalyptic subject matter. There was even speculation by music journalists about the decaying state of Fay’s mental health that proved to be nonsense. Fay’s records fell into obscurity, and he virtually vanished from music for more than two decades.
Fay issued . . . his lushly orchestrated self-titled debut [album] in 1970. While critical notice was favorable, there was precious little airplay, and the label’s marketing department had virtually no idea how to place his work. Though Bill Fay sold poorly, the label chose to record a follow-up in hopes of building interest. . . . Given its gaunt, haunted-looking cover photo of the artist, as well as the deeply pessimistic spiritual subject matter about the world coming to an end, journalists speculated Fay was a hopeless drug addict and/or mentally ill. Some even claimed he was homeless and raving on the streets. None of it was true. . . . Due to poor sales of both albums, Fay was released from his contract and Deram eventually deleted both recordings. They subsequently became cult classics and were reissued in 1998; they were finally greeted with nearly universal acclaim.
Decca . . . wasn’t too sure what was going on musically — what musical styles might become successful, and therefore rewarding to them, or not. Someone once said that Decca’s policy was to throw many pieces of musical mud at a wall in the hope that some of it would stick. I was one of those pieces that fell off the wall, along with others, but I had a chance before, my contract expired, to make a ingle and two albums that featured a lot of musical contributions from others and a lot of diversity in content. I’m thankful to Decca for that and for the freedom . . . to do it.
(liner notes to the CD reissue of Bill Fay)
You might get a kick out of this homage to Charlton Heston, set to “Screams”:
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
773) O.V. Wright — “A Nickel and a Nail”
Now that I let myself feature songs from ’71 once in a while, I am so excited to play “A Nickel and a Nail”. This ’71 A-side by O.V. Wright (see #71, 274) reached #103 (#19 R&B). Bill Bentley calls it “possibly O.V. Wright’s crowning performance, a song so possessed by love and loss that it still stands as a singular definition of soul music.” (liner notes to the CD comp The Soul of O.V. Wright) I heartily agree. Mark Deming says “the [song’s] blues-shot lament[] . . . [is] as powerful as Southern soul got in the early ’70s.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-nickel-and-a-nail-and-ace-of-spades-mw0000840748) Yup. Jeff Hannusch calls it the “head turner” on Wright’s ’72 album A Nickel and a Nail and Ace of Spades, and says “I’ll say this with a straight face: Memphis soul never got better than this. Not by Johnnie Taylor, not by Al Green, not even by Otis Redding.” (https://www.offbeat.com/music/o-v-wright-a-nickel-and-a-nail-and-ace-of-spades-real-gone-music/) Gutsy statement, but man, O.V. Wright was the real deal. As Al Green producer Willie Mitchell (see #181, 551) proclaimed, “When you gave O.V. Wright a song, the song belonged to him. Nobody would do it that way again. In fact, I think O.V. Wright was the greatest blues artist I’ve ever produced.” (liner notes to the CD comp O.V. Wright: Giant of Southern Soul 1965-1975)
Mark Deming says as to the album that:
The golden era of Southern soul was essentially over by 1971, but thankfully no one told O.V. Wright about this; this album . . . showed that his gifts as a vocalist were near the peak of their strength, and this is Memphis-style R&B in the grand tradition. Willie Mitchell[‘s] . . . Hi Records Rhythm Section and the Memphis Horns providing the backing, and their performances lend the music a smooth, glorious burn like fine brandy, and are not unlike the work they did with Al Green, but reveal a darker and bluesier tone. Great as the band is, Wright headlines this show, and when he sings he dominates these sessions with grace and authority; the longing and hurt in his voice are a wonder to behold, and the burnished gospel influences in his voice meld the secular and the sacred with a powerful common belief . . . .
[H]as a singer ever sounded so desolate, so lost, so obsessed with sadness as [O.V. Wright] always did? . . . [H]is songs were often largely tailored to his unique style of “eloquent desolation” . . . . [Wright] always sounded like a man on the edge in songs like “A Nickel & A Nail” . . . & he could wring pathos from every line he sung. And don’t take “eloquent” as meaning he sounded sophisticated. OV was as “country” sounding as any southern soul singer ever got. The eloquence comes from how he phrased the songs, how he found the potential of inherent sadness in any song. OV always sang like he was staring into a vast, cold void. . . . If you haven’t experienced OV Wright’s music, I suggest that you do so. Just make sure you’ve got some good whiskey handy.
A truly incendiary deep soul performer. O. V. Wright’s melismatic vocals and Willie Mitchell’s vaunted Hi Rhythm Section combined to make classic Memphis soul during the early ’70s. Overton Vertis Wright learned his trade on the gospel circuit with the Sunset Travelers before going secular in 1964 with the passionate ballad “That’s How Strong My Love Is” . . . . Otis Redding liked the song so much that he covered it, killing any chance of Wright’s version hitting. . . . [I]t took Memphis producer . . . Mitchell to wring the best consistently from Wright. Utilizing [his] surging house rhythm section, Wright’s early-’70s Backbeat singles “Ace of Spades,” “A Nickel and a Nail,” and “I Can’t Take It” rank among the very best Southern soul of their era. No disco bandwagon for O. V. Wright — he kept right on pouring out his emotions through the ’70s . . . . [He] died at only 41 years of age in 1980.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
772) The JuJus — “You Treat Me Bad”
Steve Leggett calls “You Treat Me Bad” a “ragged and raw garage cult classic” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/you-treat-me-bad-1965-1967-mw0002022479). Who knew that “West Michigan was a minor hotspot of garage records, thanks to the Fenton label of Grand Rapids[?]. . . . And the Ju Ju’s . . . were the label’s class act. This driving minor-chord attack . . . captures the Ju Ju’s at their best” (liner notes to Pebbles, Vol 1: Original ’60s Punk & Psych Classics) To Jason, the song “stands out as one of [Fenton’s garage classics]. The vocals are snotty and the tempo is driving; [it] would eventually hit number 2 on local radio.” (http://therisingstorm.net/the-jujus-you-treat-me-bad-1965-1967/)
Jason continues:
Of all the regional garage bands that were never given the opportunity to record an album, the JuJus were amongst the very best. They formed in 1964 and played a mixture of frat rock, British Invasion influenced teenbeat and classic garage rock sounds all around the local clubs of Grand Rapids[, Michigan]. . . . The early tracks have saxophones, sappy lyrics and muddy sound but are good for what they are – great frat rock and teenbeat. In 1965 the group would cut vocalist/guitarist Ray Hummel’s “You Treat Me Bad/Hey Little Girl” for Fenton. . . . a local label . . . . [that] would cut many, many garage classics . . . . The JuJus second 45 . . . , “I’m Really Sorry/Do You Understand Me” [is] superb. . . . Both recordings sound very crude and primitive but hold a special place in many garage fans’ hearts – this was some of the best rock n roll being pumped out of Michigan at the time. The JuJus lineup would change quite a bit from 1964 to 1967. Eventually the group would break up after losing core band members Ray Hummel, drummer Bill Gorski and saxophone player Max Colley. But before throwing in the towel they would cut a few more songs in 1967 for a possible single release. . . . The JuJus were a great group whose music still burns brightly in the memories of Michigan locals.
Arguably the most renowned band to emerge from the West Michigan garage rock scene of the 1960s, the JuJus formed in Grand Rapids in 1963. Originally comprising . . . students at Grand Rapids’ Godwin High School–in 1964 the group recruited singer/guitarist Ray Hummel III, a year later . . . . [I]n 1966 the JuJus–so named in honor of Colley’s younger brother’s inability to correctly pronounce his nickname, “Junior”–signed to the local Fenton label to record their debut single, “You Treated Me Bad.” . . . But in mid-1966 Hammel left the JuJus to get married . . . .
Gary Johnson digs up some nuggets, and a tale of the age-old conflict between life in a band and the desires of a future spouse:
[The] JuJus’ first real professional job [was] playing at the Ionia State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. . . .
Deejay Larry Adderly from station WLAV became fond of “You Treat Me Bad” and promoted the record heavily on his show. The song debuted on the WLAV’s ‘Favorite 40’ in August of 1965 and climbed the chart steadily that fall before finally peaking at # 2, one spot below the Beatles’ # 1 hit, “Yesterday”. The popularity of “You Treat Me Bad” resulted in what could only be called “JuJu-mania” in Southwest Michigan. . . . When the JuJus opened for Chubby Checker at a show in the East Grand Rapids High School gym in late 1965, the kids in the audience were throwing jujube candy and screaming as if the band was the second coming of the Beatles. . . .
When Drummond Records out of Detroit . . . offered the JuJus a recording contract, it seemed that the band was primed to make its move. The company was interested in releasing “You Treat Me Bad” nationally, but wanted a commitment from the band that would involve at least one year of touring to promote the record, a follow-up single, and possibly an album. . . . [But] Ray[ Hummel’s] fiancé [gave] him an ultimatum . . . . If he chose to tour with the band for a year, she declared that she would not wait for him. Ray capitulated, and quit the band to get married. Without their lead singer and songwriter, the Drummond offer was pulled . . . . [The marriage] lasted less than a year.
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
771) Fate — “Sergeant Death”
“Hey boy, do you know who I am? Hey boy, wanna see Vietnam? . . . My friends call me Sergeant Death.” The greatest Doors’ song from Apocalypse Now that wasn’t by the Doors and wasn’t in Apocalypse Now is also one of the greatest anti-Vietnam War songs of the 60’s. Except that it wasn’t widely released until the 90’s!
Patrick Lundborg says of the album (Sgt. Death) and the song that “this piece of zeitgeist plays like a completely finalized album that could, and probably should, have come out back then. . . . T]he sarcastic anti-Vietnam title track is what makes it stand out.” (The Acid Archives, 2nd Ed.). Anastasia Walker describes the song as having “a mildly Doorsy doom vibe befitting its anti-war theme.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nVyMy3yvx0)
Menegon calls the album a “vintage previously unreleased Psychedelic wonder from 1967-1968. . . . [i]nfluenced by Doors and other West coast psychedelic bands . . . . Eerie keyboards led psychedelia with great slashing guitar leads and biting vocals to Yardbirds like rave ups.” (https://venenosdorock.blogspot.com/2010/05/fate-sgt-death-1968-us-rock-psych.html?m=1) Thomas Smith enthuses:
Magnificent, extraordinary band. The closest vocals to The Doors . . . that I’ve ever heard. . . . This is one the greatest lost treasures of American psych. . . . Fate meant for me to hear this absolutely brilliant LP.
Jay Sneider’s first band The Electrons came together in Saco, Maine in 1963. They soon changed their name to The Id and would release two 45s that have become highly prized by collector’s, the second as Euphoria’s Id to differentiate them from several other Ids around at that time. Around 1967 Sneider (now Snyder) and drummer Skip Smith formed Fate. The album was recorded in 1968 . . . . Demos were sent out and the popular DJ Roscoe . . . started playing it. It would be picked up by a couple more NYC stations, yet the only record label to show any interest was Musicor. Still the band’s production company (Elephant 5) chose to pass on the offer, nothing further happened and a disillusioned band went their separate ways.
Such a shame; this is an accomplished opus and so evocative of its time. The mood is reflective, often sombre, but also confrontational (as in the overtly anti-Vietnam title track). Stylistically it varies from baroque-rock with psychy flashes to hard melodic rock, and a strong hint of The Doors on the more introspective cuts. The latter comparison used to irritate Jay Snyder but the setting, key and timbre of Frank Youngblood’s vocals makes this unavoidable.
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
770) Andwella — “The World of Angelique”
A gorgeous, ethereal and diaphanous ballad off of People’s People, the third and final album fromBelfast’s David Lewis and his band Andwella (see #714). Did I mention gossamer?
Andwella’s — then Andwella’s Dream — first album is their most “famous” (among collectors). The “stunning debut LP ‘Love & Poetry’ . . . captures the moment when psychedelia was at the point of splintering into progressive and acid folk.” (https://www.irishrock.org/irodb/bands/andwella.html) Well, Philip Chevron — yes, of the Pogues — says that the People’s People is “even better . . . . By th[is] time . . . [David Lewis] was at the top of his game, with a new maturity to his voice which gave added conviction to the material.” (liner notes to cd reissue of Love and Poetry). I agree!
Of the album, the Numero Group says:
People’s People finds David Lewis and his band of freewheelers stripping their sound down to the essentials. Emerging from the psychedelic haze, the trio find themselves at a crossroads of American southern rock and a pastoral English countryside and deliver an album with booming harmonies and transcendental hooks that could go head-to-head with The Band or The Allman Brothers. The final chapter in the Andwella story has all the makings of a classic LP, and if not for the Reflection label’s own chaotic dissolution around the time of the release, it probably would have been.
[Andwella was] primarily a vehicle for the varied talents of pianist, guitarist, songwriter and singer David Lewis. . . . Something of a child prodigy, Belfast-born Lewis had been writing songs since he was eight yers old . . . by the age of 12 he was performing as a singer on various Northern Ireland TV shows. However, the Andwella’s Dream story really starts when he formed a Cream-style blues group, the Method . . . . [which] built up a bit of a following, and by March 1968 their leader was named alongside the likes of Rory Gallagher . . . in a Top 20 popularity poll of Ireland’s favorite rock and pop musicians. Flushed with such attention, the Method decided to move to London and try their luck . . . . Changing their name to Andwella’s Dream, they began to make the transition from covers to original material . . . .
Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era
Philip Chevron adds that:
Irish radio in the 60s . . . took money — in the legitimate enough form of sponsored programming — to play cover version records by Irish showbands, a handful of them sublime, the rest truly awful. The showbands were a genuine phenomenon. In a rural culture which was still hooking itself up the the electrical grid in that era and in which not even television had yet made a major impact, the better showbands could draw three to five thousand people every day of the week, in enormous dancehalls . . . . In this climate, it took guts for a musician not to be in a showband. Van Morrison and Rory Gallagher were the two most celebrated defectors but there were dozens more . . . . Britain and America aspired to an underground a counter-culture, but Irish blues and rock was so involuntarily underground it was positively subterranean. . . . The more significant bands made this transition well. One such was Dave Lewis’s group The Method who . . . came out of the hub of the Maritime Hotel in Belfast . . . .
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
769) “Free Creek” Super Session (Earl Dowd, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Moogy Klingman) — “Getting Back to Molly”
When I first heard this Bayou funk slow burner, I could swear that Dr. John (see #177) was growling out the vocals. Well, the good doctor was on the record, but he was actually playing guitar — trading solos with Eric Clapton! WTF?
Turns out this is from the supposedly mythical “Free Creek” super session in ‘69. The song was written by Moogy Klingman, with Earl Dowd doing the Dr. John impression, Clapton and Dr. John on guitars, and Klingman contributing harmonica (+ the Free Creeks Singers). (https://brain-salad.com/Digest/back-issues/2003/elp-digest-13-05.txt)
Moogy recalls that:
It was late but I told everyone I had one more song. I pulled out my harmonica and playing a one chord blues riff I had been working on with some words I had that went, “Getting Back to Molly”. Dr. John picked up a guitar and we had our third song. Two guitars battling with my wailing blues harp. Everyone had a great time. By the time we left the studio, it was light outside and we all had smiles on all our faces.
Tracks like “Getting Back To Molly” exemplify the free spirit mood . . . . With a jamming bluesy groove of Eric Clapton on guitar with Dr John joining in as a second guitarist, the baritone vocal deliveries of Earl Down and the backing Free Creeks Singers offer the perfect glimpse into the sounds of an undisclosed bayou in Louisiana as if Parliament, Three Dog Night and Taj Mahal had secretly gotten together to record.
Joe Viglione notes that “When Family producer Earl Dowd got recording time at The Record Plant and Todd Rundgren walked away from a proposed project, Klingman got to produce and direct sessions that came to be known as Music from Free Creek.”(https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mark-moogy-klingman-mn0000590090/biography) Easy Livin tells us more:
“Music from Free Creek” is . . . very strange and bizarre . . . . Quite how or why it came about is something of a mystery. It was recorded in New York in the new Record Plant recording studios in 1969. About 50 musicians were involved in this “behind closed doors” affair, many of whom were either famous at the time, or have gone on to find fame. Reportedly, none have ever been paid for their contribution. Two performers, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, were not named on the original release for contractual reasons, but this still leaves the likes of Keith Emerson, Delaney Bramlett, Todd Rundgren, Chris Wood, and Linda Ronstadt. The album is essentially a “Super session” primarily consisting of jams based on sometimes well known songs. About half a dozen different artists lead a session of three or four songs. These range from the jazz orientated Emerson session, to the country folk of Linda Ronstadt. Apart from the occasional overdub, the music is pretty much as it was recorded, warts and all. At times, the unstructured nature of the sessions becomes apparent, a young Moogy Klingman doing his best to keep in order the major artists he had been thrown in a the deep end with. . . . It was never officially released in the US . . . . Even in the UK, it took three years to sort out the legal situation to the extent that the album could be released, finally appearing in 1973.
[A] simply amazing collection of marquee talent recorded at the Record Plant in June through August of 1969. . . . While record labels were looking for something of this enormity — keep the alleged “jam” between Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan that never happened in mind . . . the public had little clue that something on that scale actually did exist. . . . Broken up into six divisions — the Eric Clapton session, the Jeff Beck session, the Keith Emerson session, the Harvey Mandel session, Moogy Klingman’s odds & sods, and the Linda Ronatadt session . . . . Music from Free Creek is a super session album where the musicians are playing for the fun of it, and that comes across. The material doesn’t get bogged down in “names”; it just flows.
Mark “Moogy” Klingman, produced Bette Midler’s third album . . . co-wrote with Buzzy Linhart [see #346, 647] the song that could be considered her theme, “(You Got to Have) Friends”; co-founded Utopia with Todd Rundgren; and was a legendary figure in the music industry, having written, produced, performed, and organized for over four decades. . . . At 16, he was a member of Jimmy James & the Blue Flames, the original Jimi Hendrix group . . . . A year later, Klingman caught a break when one of the hottest producers in the industry, Bob Crew, produced his first signed band, Glitterhouse (formerly the Justice League) . . . . Glitterhouse also recorded the soundtrack to the hip Roger Vadim science-fiction film starring Jane Fonda, Barbarella . . . . Klingman was in a jug band with Andy Kaufman . . . performing in a civil rights concert that got Klingman expelled from high school. He met Todd Rundgren . . . circa 1969 and played on many Rundgren-produced discs by artists such as Ian & Sylvia, co-producing some like the James Cotton Blues Band and Klingman’s own two albums for Capitol/EMI. . . . Klingman appeared on about ten to 12 Rundgren albums . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
768) The Orange Seaweed — “Stay a While”
I’ve played the B-side (“Pictures in the Sky” (see #180)). Here is the pleasing pop-psych A-side of the only single from this “[p]sychedelic band from Hastings, England . . . formed out of cult Freakbeat act The Kingpins”. (https://www.45cat.com/biography/the-orange-seaweed), complete with classical flourishes
The Kingpins? As the British Music Archive tells us:
The Kingpins originated . . . in South London. . . . [and] made their recording debut . . . [in] 1965. . . . record[ing] a version of The Yardbirds’ For Your Love and a group original . . . Diamond Girl. . . . [At a]nother recording session . . . in April, 1966[,] Living In The Past, Hurting My Pride, You’re My Girl, Maybe Sometime were recorded, but again rejected by record companies. The band returned to the same studios in June, 1966 to record Baby I Need and Wasting My Time. Although these later two songs were also rejected by record labels, the band were enjoying support slots with acts such as The Kinks, The Who, Manfred Mann, Small Faces, David Bowie, Cat Stevens and The Troggs. . . . [Another] session producing Travelling Man, Mysterious, Do You Love Me, Raining In MySunshine recorded in February, 1967. . . . These latest recordings also failed to attract record company interest. As there was nothing happening for The Kingpins, [guitarist and singer] Ray Neale took up an offer to join The Mojos . . . . but the band split shortly after . . . . The Kingpins . . . quickly regrouped with Neale returning . . . .
At this point, the band ventured into psychedelic territory and gained themselves a recording contract at last with Pye records in 1968. Pye issued their first single as the Orange Seaweed which the band had chosen as their new name to make themselves more topical and appealing . . . . [R]ecruited songwriter Peter Morris . . . penned both sides of their single, Stay Awhile b/w Pictures In The Sky. . . . Two further recordings were made with this line-up as Orange Seaweed, these being: Skinny Minnie and Sunshine In The Morning. These were swiftly recorded as a possible follow-up single, but as there was not enough interest in the single, it failed to appear. . . .
In the early 1980s, Ray Neale went on to join The Savages backing Screaming Lord Sutch . . . .
As David Wells puts it, Orange Seaweed was “[n]amed as a result of the band’s near-mystical experience on the beach at Hastings . . . . Pausing only to invest in some tasteful orange trousers, [they] . . . clambered aboard the psychedelic bus . . . but to no commercial avail.” (liner notes to Psychedelic Pstones, Vol. 1: Hot Smoke & Sassafras CD comp).
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
767) Genesis — “Am I Very Wrong”
A quite beautiful song from Genesis’ ’69 schoolboy debut. TGM: Orb says it is “one of the highlights of the album: the excellent pensive acoustics-trombone-and-vocals of the verses, with great piano parts between them, unfortunately, it then goes on to have a silly, moderately mindless chorus that ruins everything. Could’ve been a pretty good song, but wasn’t.” (http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=6) Hey, I like the chorus! As Ivan Melgar describes the album: “Not bad for a bunch of kids that were at school, some poppy ballads, a couple of great tunes like . . . Am I Very Wrong? . . . [L]et’s be honest, Genesis was a school band searching for a hit and nothing more, but they made a better album than many pop professionals.” (http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=6)
Dave Swanson notes that:
The album went on to sell a whopping 650 copies upon its initial release, something [producer] Jonathan King takes partial blame for. “I had this brilliant idea to call it From Genesis to Revelation, and not have an artist’s name on it,” King said in Genesis: A History. “This was a terrible mistake! It got bumped into all the religious bins of the record shops and nobody ever heard it.”
Rarely has the debut album of a major group received this much of a slagging from both fans and critics alike. And on the surface, the flaws of the album are huge and very numerous, seemingly leaving criticism fully justified. In case you’re unaware, here’s the general rundown: first, the band was in its formative stages . . . . Hence, the playing on this album is a bit unimpressive . . . . Next, the band had not yet found its own distinct style, choosing to emulate the Beatles, Bee Gees and Zombies. And worst of all, producer Jonathan King, in an attempt to make the band seem ‘sophisticated’, forced the band to write around the concept of the creation of the world through the death of Adam . . . . Oh, and when they were done, he threw a lot of orchestration over the songs, except that King seemingly had no idea how to properly use string and brass arrangements in rock (unlike, say, George Martin). So . . . WHY am I giving this album a 4-star rating??!!! Because beneath all of the superficial weaknesses lie two of Genesis’ strengths, in just as full of force now as they would be later – incredible songwriting and incredible vocals from Peter. . . . [A]lmost a dozen of the songs on here (and yes, I’m counting the singles . . . ) are, at least in one aspect in each of them, absolute pop perfection. “Am I Very Wrong?,” for instance, may have a slightly awkward and Disney-sounding chorus, but how about that vocal melody in the verses?!
As to one of those negative views, Proghead writes;
At this point, the members of GENESIS . . . were finishing up their education at the notoriously exclusive and snooty public school . . . called Charterhouse. “From Genesis to Revelation” sounds very little like the early GENESIS sound that’s to be found on their following albums. [T]he music has more in common with the MOODY BLUES and early BEE GEES, but in my book, it’s more like those two band’s worst aspects . . . . The music is plastered with real bad dentist office Muzak-style strings, out of tune piano, barely noticeable guitars, and bad lyrics.
To go deeper into the history, Thomas Schrage (translated by Martin Klinkhardt) writes:
All of them knew each other from Charterhouse public school. The songwriter team Rutherford and Anthony Phillips asked Tony Banks to play the piano for them; Banks only agreed if he could bring his songwriting partner Peter Gabriel to record a song. Soon they were convinced that Gabriel’s voice sounded better than Phillips’ so he ended up singing on all the songs. . . . These boys (most of them were around 17 at the time) managed to land a record contract . . . in August 1967. That only meant that a single would be released. [Jonathan] King was an alumnus of Charterhouse and had had quite a successful hit with Everyone’s Gone To The Moon. A shallow pop song though that may have been, he nevertheless seemed to be a person of success and influence . . . . They recorded two singles with King that came out in February and May 1968. Both did just well enough that King decided to record a full album with the band during the summer holidays. . . . King christened the band Genesis. He found it a fitting name for a new creation that would make the beginning of his career as a serious producer. He attempted to drive them in a same direction as the singles that had been gentle and acoustic. For one thing, he felt that there was a niche for them, and for another, such music did not require a large number of instruments the band could not afford. . . . [H]e . . . had the idea to tell a story in the album, the story from Genesis to Revelation. . . . It turned out that there was an American band called Genesis, too. On short notice the band name was dropped from the cover . . . . [S]tring arrangements were added to the recorded songs. It was a fait accompli for the band who only found out when the album was released. They had accepted the strings for the single, but this time Anthony Phillips found them terrible, disfiguring, overly sweet and not at all corresponding to the simple and straight approach of the band.
And a postscript. Ultimate Classic Rock tells us that:
[ T]he album did make one famous fan: Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, whose 2017 song “If Love Is the Law” was inspired by “The Conquerer.” “I became obsessed with early Genesis,” he told ‘Rolling Stone’ of his writing process. “And I was like, ‘Fuckin’ hell, why has no one ever fuckin’ mentioned this?”
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
766) Omega — “H., Az Elektromos Fűrész”/”H. , The Electric Saw”
Mind-blowing instrumental from Hungary’s greatest rock band’s (see #195, 644) third album — Éjszakai Országút (On the Highway at Night). The album (and song) are “full of energetic heavy prog rock with acid spices – guitar riffs, stomping rhythm section and nice Hammond organ backing.” (http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=116173)
ÉLŐ OMEGA tells us that:
The [album’s] title itself is a symbol. A wanderer walking or driving by car on the highway at night often sees a world different from the daytime reality, his imagination expands and the possibility of imagination multiplies. Gábor Presser, the author of most Omega numbers, said at the press conference held at the release of the album: “Most of the good ideas and melody sketches come to mind when after the concert, we are tired on the way home by bus and we stare at the night with closed eyes.”
The most successful Hungarian rock band in history, Omega was formed in 1962 in Budapest by a group of friends. The lineup changed several times during Omega’s early years and there was no consistent music style to speak of. As with many other rock groups of the early ’60s, the band’s repertory largely consisted of songs by popular British bands of the period. Only in 1967, when they were joined by Gábor Presser (keyboards, vocals), did they began recording their own songs and issuing a few singles. Presser’s mixture of rock with elements of jazz and folk proved to be a winning formula. In 1968, John Martin, the manager of the Spencer Davis Group, invited them for a tour in Great Britain, where they recorded the album Omega: Red Star from Hungary for the Decca label. Later that year, they issued their first Hungarian LP . . . . The band sealed their success with two subsequent LPs, 10,000 Lépés . . . and Éjszakai Országút (On the Highway at Night) (1970).
If Omega had been singing in English and didn’t have to contend with political restrictions which were in effect back in the sixties in communist ruled Eastern Europe they would have definitely made a mark on the western charts way before 1973 when they began recording in English on [a] West German label . . . . Although they had briefly played various gigs in England including the Marqee Club and released a partial album in 1968 on the Decca label it wasn’t until 1969/70 that they really started making their mark with the albums 10,000 Lepes (10,000 Steps) and Edszakai orzogut (On the Road at Night) which both went gold in their native land. The material on On the Road at Night is a very interesting combination of some very trippy psychedelia as well as some romantic ballads which seem to draw from their Hungarian folk roots and not unlike songs that were being produced by contemporary western bands in the late sixties.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
765) Blood, Sweat & Tears — “The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud”
OK, BST’s first album — Child Is Father to the Man — is really by Al Kooper’s (see #642, 705) Blood, Sweat & Tears, literally and figuratively. It is most celebrated for Kooper’s insertion of horns into rock and roll. As Jessica Lipsky says, “[T]he real genius is in Child’suse of horns” (https://www.waxpoetics.com/rediscovery/blood-sweat-tears-child-is-father-to-the-man/), and as trombonist Dick Halligan says, “Just the fact that the horns were used as an actual part of the music . . . was not common that year. Horns were used in R&B bands already, but not really pop groups[]”. (https://www.waxpoetics.com/rediscovery/blood-sweat-tears-child-is-father-to-the-man/) Of course, I am featuring a wonderful ballad that doesn’t feature horns!
Utilizing Blood, Sweat & Tears’ musical diversity to its utmost degree, Al Kooper wrote this experimental piece to take advantage of their exploratory nature. A simple and profound string section takes the minor-key melody through the song without other accompaniment, not unlike the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.” The lyrics are a bit weighty and dated, but overall the experiment works like a charm, and the song is less affected then when it was first released back in 1967.
As to the album as a whole, Sundazed Records says:
Child Is Father to the Man stands with such late-’60s art-pop landmarks as the Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle and Love’s Forever Changes in capturing the period’s seemingly limitless creative possibilities. [It] is a brilliant reflection of the desire of Kooper . . . to use an expanded instrumental lineup to explore a broader range of sounds, styles and compositional approaches. Towards that end, he launched Blood, Sweat & Tears, recruiting a stellar assortment of players from the worlds of rock and jazz . . . . The resulting album (produced by fabled studio genius John Simon) was a seamlessly eclectic psychedelic-rock-jazz-classical fusion . . . . Kooper’s expansive musical vision may have been a bit too far ahead of its time. Although it was a favorite of early FM album-rock DJs, Child Is Father to the Man barely scraped the Billboard Top 50 and failed to produce a hit single. However, in the years since, the album has been widely recognized for its expressiveness and originality, and embraced by successive generations of listeners. For instance, it received a prominent placement [#265] in Rolling Stone’s 2003 ranking of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Kooper’s finest work, an album on which he moves the folk-blues-rock amalgamation of the Blues Project into even wider pastures, taking in classical and jazz elements (including strings and horns), all without losing the pop essence that makes the hybrid work. This is one of the great albums of the eclectic post-Sgt. Pepper era of the late ’60s, a time when you could borrow styles from Greenwich Village contemporary folk to San Francisco acid rock and mix them into what seemed to have the potential to become a new American musical form. . . . This is the sound of a group of virtuosos enjoying itself in the newly open possibilities of pop music. Maybe it couldn’t have lasted; anyway, it didn’t.
[The album] is a uniquely late ’60s aural milieu that still sounds fresh today[, a] sensitive and seamlessly eclectic record[that] managed to be both familiar and far-out. . . . meld[ing] the soul, folk, and classical influences that pop audiences would’ve been attuned to, adding in blues phrasing and jazzy arrangements . . . . The not-so-secret ingredient to the album’s success (though Child never had any charting singles or broke the Top 40) was multi-instrumentalist Al Kooper . . . . [who] was eager to bring a horn section into the rock world . . . .
To help fund his vision of a horn-laced rock album, which Kooper had originally hoped to record in London, he organized a star-studded benefit at Café Au Go Go featuring Judy Collins, Simon and Garfunkel, and Richie Havens. The show sold out, but the owner of the club allegedly added so many expenses to Kooper’s tab that he didn’t earn enough money at all. Refocusing a little closer to home and using the nucleus of the one-off band that had played the benefit, the eight-piece Blood, Sweat & Tears was born.
No American rock group ever started with as much daring or musical promise as Blood, Sweat & Tears, or realized their potential more fully — and then blew it all as quickly. From their origins as a jazz-rock experiment that wowed critics and listeners, they went on — in a somewhat more pop vein — to sell almost six million records in three years, but ended up being dropped by their record label four years after that. Blood, Sweat & Tears started as an idea conceived by Al Kooper in July of 1967. An ex-member of Blues Project, Kooper had been toying with the notion, growing out of his admiration for jazz bandleader Maynard Ferguson, of forming an electric rock band that would include horns and use jazz as the basis for their work. . . . That first version of Blood, Sweat & Tears played music that roamed freely through realms of jazz, R&B, soul, and even psychedelia in ways that had scarcely been heard before in one band. The songs were bold and challenging . . . . Their debut . . . seemed to portend a great future. The only thing it didn’t have was a hit single to get AM radio play and help drive sales. . . . Kooper left in March of 1968 . . . . That might’ve been the end of the story . . . . [but] the lineup was reshuffled and expanded, and for a lead singer they found a Canadian national named David Clayton-Thomas.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
764) Honeybus — “She Sold Blackpool Rock”
Honeybus is one of my favorite 60’s bands (see #6, 52, 207, 434, 562, 605), with the honey being especially bittersweet with what should have been, what could have been. The beautiful ballad “She Sold Blackpool Rock” was their last-ditch attempt at a hit. Roger Dopson tells us that “in desperation [they] came up with [the song] released in May ’69 . . . a straightforward attempt to recreate [their one hit ‘I Can’t Let Maggie’ Go’] — but . . . it just didn’t move.” (liner notes to the Honeybus at Their Best CD comp)
As to the Honeybus, Jittery White Guy puts it perfectly:
Honeybus had the pop touchstones of the Beatles and the Hollies, while balancing the more sunshiny, twee aspects of the early Bee Gees with some mild touches of post-Sgt. Pepper psychedelia. . . . Their songs were unusually tuneful, some lovely little hooks paired with sweet harmonies, and it’s almost shocking to hear these songs today and realize the band had pretty much zero commercial success (at least here in the US).
And Bruce Eder beautifully ponders what made the band so special and what could have been:
Considering that most have never heard of them, it’s amazing to ponder that they came very close, in the eyes of the critics, to being Decca Records’ answer to the Rubber Soul-era Beatles. The harmonies were there, along with some catchy, hook-laden songs . . . . The pop sensibilities of Honeybus’ main resident composers, Peter Dello and Ray Cane were astonishingly close in quality and content to those of Paul McCartney and the softer sides of John Lennon of that same era. What’s more, the critics loved their records. Yet, somehow, Honeybus never got it right; they never had the right single out at the proper time, and only once in their history did they connect with the public for a major hit, in early 1968. . . .
Dello and Cane . . . were the prime movers behind Honeybus. In 1966, they formed the Yum Yum Band . . . . A collapsed lung put Dello out of action in early 1966, and it was during his recuperation that he began rethinking what the band and his music were about. He developed the notion of a new band that would become a canvas for him to work on as a songwriter — they would avoid the clubs, working almost exclusively in the studio, recreating the sounds that he was hearing in his head. . . . It was a novel strategy, paralleling the approach to music-making by the Beatles in their post-concert period, and all the more daring for the fact that they were a new group . . . . The group was one of the best studio bands of the period, reveling in the perfection that could be achieved . . . .
They were duly signed to England’s Decca Records and assigned to the company’s newly organized Deram label . . . . The critics were quick to praise the band . . . [but their first two singles were commercially] unsuccessful. Then . . . their third release, “I Can’t Let Maggie Go,” [see #6] . . . . . . peaked at number eight. . . . [It] should have made the group, but instead it shattered them. Peter Dello resigned during the single’s chart run. He had been willing to play live on radio appearances and the occasional television or special concert showcase . . . but he couldn’t accept the physical or emotional stresses of performing live on a regular basis, or the idea of touring America . . . . Dello left . . . . [and] Jim Kelly came in on guitar and vocals, while Ray Cane . . . took over most of the songwriting, and Honeybus proceeded to play regular concerts. The group never recovered the momentum they’d lost over “Maggie,” however, despite a string of fine singles . . , [including] . . . “She Sold Blackpool Rock” . . . . These records never charted . . . . [T]he group had pretty well decided to call it quits once they finished the[ir] LP . . . . The Honeybus Story . . . was released in late 1969, but without an active group to promote it, the record sank without a trace. . . . [I]t was a beautiful album, with the kind of ornate production and rich melodies that had become increasingly rare with the passing of the psychedelic era . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
763) Los Vidrios Quebrados — “Ficciones”/”Fictions”
You wanna be a paperback writer? Well, the Beatles-inspired Los Vidrios Quebrados (The Broken Glass) “wanna make fictions”! The Chilean garage classic “Ficciones”/”Fictions” is “included in compilations of the all-time best tracks of South American rock history.” (liner notes to the CD reissue of Fictions)
Los Vidrios Quebrados is “unanimously considered as the great lost band of Chilean rock and, along with Los Mac’s [see #123, 203] were the prime movers of psychedelic rock in the country.” (liner notes to Fictions). And that ain’t no fiction!
The notes elaborate:
In a list of the pioneers of Chilean psychedelic rock music, it is impossible to omit the [band]. They are among the most important band in this musical style to emerge from Latin America during the 1960s. [It had] just one single, “Friend” . . . and one album, “Fictions” (1967) . . . . A love of the Beatles, the Kinks, Yardbirds, and the Byrds united three of its members, who studied law at the Catholic University. . . . [Juan Mateo O’Brien, guitarist and lyricist, notes that] “Oddly, we sang in English and had a Spanish name, whereas the other groups had English names and sang in Spanish. Everything with us was the other way around from the norm in the Chilean musical atmosphere.[“] . . . The band obtained a recording contract at their first public appearance as Los Vidrios Quebrados, in a festival of the Catholic University, in 1965. . . . [O’Brien says that] “At our first concert, we played three songs and we had a record contract!”
liner notes to Fictions
O’Brien also notes that “we were young university students, we were very arrogant, arrogant and smug. We made music that we felt was ahead of the times, with a very high vision of ourselves.” (https://soloartistaschilenos.cl/?p=17569)
Founding member Héctor Sepúlveda recalls that:
Los Vidrios Quebrados began in 1965 at the Catholic Law School. . . . We started with instruments made by ourselves and we played in schools. . . . When we were studying law we started out calling ourselves The Lawyers, then we called ourselves Los Cuervos, until finally we became Los Vidrios Quebrados. We started doing covers of The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds . . . . To get a song out, I had to go to a wurlitzer [jukebox] that was in a business near my house, to catch the melodies and tones and then I would come home to get it out. We cut the guitars, we glued them and we assembled the frets by eye and saw. . . .
I went to England in 1969. The idea was to go together with Los Vidrios Quebrados, but it couldn’t be done . . . . In England I played on the street and the best I achieved was opening for the Family group at The Marquee . . . where even Hendrix played.
We sang in English to differentiate ourselves from the commercial music of the time, the New Wave [Nueva Ola]. . . . The lyrics spoke of the things that happened to us on a daily basis, of the lack of freedom, of those tied up for having long hair, in short, we wanted to be spokespersons for people who were experiencing the same thing, in a very formal world. Although we started doing covers, all the songs on our album were original. Parenthetically, we recorded the Fictions album in just 9 hours.
Ana Maria Hurtado says that “Sepúlveda returned to Chile in 1971 and joined former Blops [see #541] drummer Pedro Greene to form the jazz-rock group Nuevas Direcciones in 1975 . . . . He is currently the only one from Los Vidrios Quebrados who continues with music, giving guitar classes at his house, parallel to his profession as an astrologer.” (https://www.musicapopular.cl/grupo/los-vidrios-quebrados/)
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
762) The Supremes — “Come Together”
The Supremes — without the recently departed Diana Ross — do the Beatles’ “Come Together”, as does Diana as a solo artist in the same year. What were they thinking?! Well, both versions work remarkably well — but I declare the Supremes the winner. Michael Hann calls their cover “amazing, certainly for a Motown record, etiolated* and blank. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear they were heroically stoned.” (https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/come-together.html) Heroically stoned — that is sooooo appropriate, Timothy Leary being the catalyst for the song. . . . http://www.beatlesebooks.com/come-together
Buckley Mayfield says that:
Doing one of the Beatles’ funkiest and oddest songs, “Come Together,” may seem counterintuitive, but the Motown brain trust and the Supremes made it something special. They made a sitar the lead instrument, surprisingly relegating the bass to the background. It’s pretty funny as well to hear [Jean] Terrell sing “walrus gumboot” and to ham it up on the “hold him in his armchair, you can feel his disease” line. What goofy fun this is.
And Joe Viglione makes the point that “This is the genius of the Supremes on their own. With Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye making inroads and developing their skills as producers and songwriters, Frank Wilson broke the girls out of the Holland-Dozier-Holland formula, bringing different flavors and styles to this class act.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/new-ways-but-love-stays-mw0000674884)
Andy Kellman notes of that the Ross-less Supremes that:
Without Ross, they rebounded instantly with the Top Ten hit “Up the Ladder to the Roof” and the Top 40 entry “Everybody’s Got the Right to Love.” Those two . . . singles anchored Right On, the first of seven Supremes studio LPs featuring the lineup of Mary Wilson, Cindy Birdsong, and [Jean] Terrell. . . . Well into 1972, the Supremes unloaded an additional haul of Top 40 entries highlighted by “Stoned Love,” the group’s last single to peak in the Top Ten.
* etiolated: Don’t feel bad. I didn’t know what this word meant either. Etiolate as a verb means “to bleach and alter the natural development of (a green plant) by excluding sunlight . . . to make pale . . . to deprive of natural vigor . . . make feeble”. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etiolate)
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
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The B-side “Red Chalk Hill” (also sung by Pantry) . . . ha[s] going for it . . . a lyrically quaint kind of faintly menacing surrealism, combined with echoing, wailing backing vocals. The words bring to mind a Royston Vasey* styled town where one can never escape, whilst the music seems to be pulling the tune in the direction of “Fool on the Hill” styled optimism. It’s worth a lot, lot more than its throwaway B-side status.
OK, this was more a John Pantry record than a Factory one. David Wells tells us that “Pantry [was brought in] as writer and lead vocalist, and thus effectively reduced The Factory to the status of backing band on their own record.” (Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era)
Wells elaborates:
The Factory were fatally handicapped by a lack of internal songwriting ability, and two Pantry songs were chosen as the band’s second single in the summer of 1969. Unfortunately they were unable to cope with the vocal demands of either . . . and John was required to supply lead and backing vocals on both songs. The results were, of course, masterful.
(liner notes to The Upside Down World of John Pantry CD comp)
Who was John Pantry? Wells says quite rightly that had “Pantry been American, he would surely now enjoy the same kind of belated cult reputation as the likes of Emitt Rhodes . . . . Sadly, though, John’s body of work prior to his decision in the early Seventies to turn his back on secular recordings in favor of spreading he Christian word is familiar to far fewer people than should be the case.” (The Upside Down World of John Pantry)
Jason delves deep into the Pantry:
[Pantry] had been a talented studio engineer for IBC Studios (working with Eddie Tre-Vett), producing for the likes of Donovan, The Small Faces, The Bee Gees, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream. He was also a member of Peter & The Wolves, an accomplished mid 60s pop group from Leigh-on-Sea/Southend and had a major hand with many other IBC studio projects of the time: the Factory, Sounds Around, Wolfe, The Bunch and Norman Conquest. . . . Besides being a savvy studio technician, Pantry was a gifted songwriter and vocalist and an accomplished musician . . . . [O]ne of Pantry’s first groups, Sounds Around. . . . played straight pop with slight soul and psych influences . . . . Peter & The Wolves came shortly after Sounds Around’s demise (they were essentially the same group). This is the group with which Pantry is most associated, along with The Factory. Peter & The Wolves[‘] most productive period was probably the years of 1967-1969, where they released a string of pop gems: a good, upbeat blue-eyed soul number titled “Still”, the superb Emitt Rhodes like “Woman On My Mind” and several tuneful psych pop creations, “Lantern Light,” “Birthday,” and “Little Girl Lost And Found” being the best in this style. It was around this time that John Pantry was asked to write two tracks for The Factory . . . .
* “The League of Gentlemen is a surreal British comedy horror sitcom that premiered . . . in 1999. The programme is set in Royston Vasey, a fictional town in northern England.” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Gentlemen)
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
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Patrick Lundborg says that the SR’s sole LP is “[o]ne of the classic heavy psych albums . . . . What makes the album really cool is that they have not one but two wild guitarists, and [they] spew fuzz and feedback brilliantly”. (The Acid Archives) Lee Dorrian agrees, writing that “West Coast freaks the Savage Resurrection were formed out of local garage bands, and this album is one of the better-known major-label acid rock releases of the era. What makes the record so cool is the double dose of aggressive fuzz lead guitar”.(https://www.loudersound.com/features/deep-cuts-the-savage-resurrection-the-forgotten-west-coast-freaks-from-1968
As to the young savages, Alec Palao tells us that:
[They] set[] off smoke bombs during their fiery, power-packed sets. These Who-Hendrix-besotted youngsters from Richmond ruled the roost at the East Bay’s very own mini-Avalon, Maple Hall, in San Pablo, during 1967. They were all graduates of the small but partisan garage rock scene in West Contra Costa County and coalesced . . . as almost a kind of Richmond supergroup. . . . a strong, punkified psychedelic . . . album . . . . [T]he unexpected pressure of promoting their [LP] fractured the group . . . .
liner notes to Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970
Richie Unterberger adds that:
One of the most obscure San Francisco Bay-area psychedelic groups to release an album on a major label, the Savage Resurrection managed to release one LP in 1968 before breaking up in a blitz of personnel and business problems. The Savage Resurrection were also one of the youngest psychedelic bands working the Bay Area circuit; one of their dual lead guitarists . . . was only 16 when they recorded their album. Formed in the East Bay . . . by members of several teen rock groups in 1967, they played psychedelic hard rock that drew heavily not just from San Francisco acts but also from Jimi Hendrix and the blues, as well as occasional lighter touches of more folk-rock-oriented riffs. [They] sounded rawer and punkier than most psychedelic bands, which could be an advantage or a hindrance. Some numbers on the resulting erratic LP were humdrum heavy blues-rockers; others had more unexpected chord shifts and song structures to anchor their molten-intensity lead guitar riffing . . . . There were flashes of promise, especially considering their extreme youth, but these were not fulfilled, as [the lead singer . . . and bassist . . . left shortly after the album came out.
On their only album, the[y] mined a psychedelic sound that was . . . more garagey in feel than that of the average Bay Area psychedelic band.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
759) Octopus — “I Say”
A fleeting McCartneyesque gem that I would wager Paul would be proud to call his own. Garwood Pickjon calls it “Macca-by-way-of-Emitt-Rhodes sounding”. (https://popdiggers.com/octopus-restless-night/)
Loser boy ponders the band and the album:
Fantastic UK psychedelic pop progressive act who really took the “Sgt. Pepper”‘s aura to another dimension. “Restless Night” . . . is a wonderful album full of 70’s era – BEATLE’esque themes and musical feelings. [The band] blend[s] superb fuzz guitar and organ work all wrapped up with some great lead vocals. Someone once described this album as being “So dangerously post-Sgt. Pepper’s that it approaches solo McCartneyism”. . . . IMHO this is an essential album . . . a masterpiece…
[T]he album bridges the gap between ’60s psychedelia and a harder-edged ’70s sound, drawing on the obvious touchstones of the time including Lennon/McCartney, Argent/Blunsone and the brothers Davies and Gibb. But Octopus had the songwriting and playing chops to make this album much more than an also-ran; with hooks galore, swirling organ, and fuzz-tone guitars, Restless Nights is a prime piece of early-’70s UK psychedelia that’s rare as hen’s teeth in its original form.
And Bruce Eder says “Restless Night . . . is on the smooth, commercial pop side, with the psychedelic elements mostly in the fuzztone guitar and organ flourishes, mixed with the music’s general melodic nature.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/octopus-mn0001886653)
Bruce then brings us back to the Octopus’ garden:
Octopus’ origins lay in Hatfield, 30 miles from London, and a mid-’60s quartet called the Cortinas . . . . made up of Paul Griggs (guitar), Nigel Griggs (bass), Brian Glassock (drums), and Rick Williams (guitar). By 1967, the Cortinas had moved from Brit beat into pop-psychedelia and cut one single (“Phoebe’s Flower Shop”) for Polydor without success. The following year, the quartet renamed and redirected itself and Octopus was born. The band earned a support spot to Yes which was, itself, an up-and-coming group at the time. They also appeared on stage with acts like Status Quo and Humble Pie, and were discovered by Troggs bassist Tony Murray, who helped get them a record deal with independent producer Larry Page, who was the Troggs’ manager. Octopus . . . released a single, “Laugh at the Poor Man” . . . in 1969. Midway through the recording of their debut album, Restless Night, Glassock and Williams quit the band, and it was a re-formed Octopus, with John Cook on keyboards and Malcolm Green on the drums, that finished the record . . . . The resulting LP was popular in Hatfield but never found an audience anywhere else. . . . [The band] disbanded in 1972. . . . Malcolm Green and Nigel Griggs later became members of Split Enz.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
758) The Guess Who — “Believe Me”
Guess who released a slab of garage perfection before going on to fame for making fun of American women? The Guess Who, for sure! This ’66 A-side and album cut (from It’s Time) reached #10 on the RPM (“Records, Promotion, Music” Canadian) singles chart for March 21, 1966. (https://musiccanada.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/the-guess-who/, phantom gtowner, https://www.45cat.com/record/1797x) Richie Unterberger describes it as “very much in the style of Paul Revere & the Raiders’ fiercest sides . . . the clear standout [on the album]”. (https://www.allmusic.com/album/its-time-mw0000100326) Mike Stax says it “sails along on a tough, choppy guitar and keyboard riff, breaking off for both an exciting double-tracked guitar solo and a crazed Hohner electric piano break. . . , was the group’s first self-penned [by Randy Bachman] A-side and its success signaled the beginning of a new era for the Guess Who.” (liner notes to the Garage Beat ’66 Vol. 2: Chicks Are for Kids! comp) Ray McGinnis pegs it as having “some of the infectious, rambunctious sound of The McCoys ‘Hang On Sloopy’, ‘Just Like Me’ by Paul Revere and The Raiders, ‘Ain’t Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore’ by the Young Rascals and ‘Dirty Water’ by The Standells. . . . [It was] arranged & sung by Chad Allan. . . . [and] was the first single to feature . . . Burton Cummings”. (https://vancouversignaturesounds.com/hits/believe-me-guess-who/)
As to the Guess Who, they don’t need much of an intro, but Steve Huey writes that:
While the Guess Who did have several hits in America, they were superstars in their home country of Canada during the 1960s and early ’70s. The band grew out of vocalist/guitarist Chad Allan . . . and guitarist Randy Bachman ‘s Winnipeg-based group Chad Allan and the Expressions . . . . The Expressions recorded a cover of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates’ “Shakin’ All Over” in 1965, which became a surprise hit in Canada and reached the U.S. Top 40. When the Expressions recorded an entire album of the same name, its record company, Quality, listed their name as “Guess Who?” on the jacket, hoping to fool record buyers into thinking that the British Invasion-influenced music was actually by a more famous group in disguise. [New] keyboardist/vocalist Burton Cummings . . . became lead vocalist when Allan departed in 1966. T he Guess Who embarked on an unsuccessful tour of England and returned home to record commercials and appear on the television program Let’s Go, hosted by Chad Allan . However, further American success eluded the Guess Who until the 1969 Top Ten hit “These Eyes” . . . . In 1970, the Guess Who released the cuttingly sarcastic riff-rocker “American Woman,” which, given its anti-American putdowns, ironically became their only U.S. chart-topper.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
757) Billy Nicholls — “Feeling Easy”
It has been too long since I’ve featured a cut from one of, if not the, greatest “lost” albums of the ’60’s — Billy Nicholls’ Would You Believe (see #2, 64, 144, 428). The second song I ever featured came from Billy’s treasure trove. As David Wells says, “lost classic is a much abused term amongst pop historians, but it’s difficult to know how else to describe Would You Believe.” (Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era) Euphorik6 is spot on in observing that the “album is a distillation of a time – whatever made swinging London swing is captured in these tracks” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp), as is Rising Storm in observing that “the album is still the epitome of sixties Britsike, a bunch of fine acid-pop songs rendered with glorious harmonies and superb lysergic arrangements that wouldn’t have disgraced George Martin.” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp). As Graham Reid notes, “[t]he album . . . reminds again of how much British psychedelic music was driven by different traditions (brass bands, pastoral classical music, music hall singalongs, strings . . .) than electric guitars which were so prominent in America at the time.” (https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/weneedtotalkabout/8107/we-need-to-talk-about-billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-care-for-pet-sounds-inna-english-accent-g). And as MusicStack says. “this soundtrack to a Swinging London that never was contains songs so great ([including] “Feeling Easy[]”. . . . ) you’ll swear you’ve heard them before.” (https://www.musicstack.com/album/billy+nicholls/would+you+believe)
Rising Storm explains that:
When [Andrew Loog] Oldham fell out with the Stones in 1967 he redirected all his resources into making the youthful Nicholls a star of the psychedelic pop scene. The results were the single “Would You Believe”, which hit the racks in January 1968, and the like-titled album that followed in short order. The single has been described as “the most over-produced record of the sixties”, and with reason; a modest psych-pop love song, it’s swathed in overblown orchestration including baroque strings, harpsichord, banjo (!), tuba (!!), and demented answer-back vocals from Steve Marriott. A trifle late for the high tide of UK psych, it failed to trouble the charts. Unfazed, Oldham and Nicholls pressed on with the album, Nicholls providing a steady stream of similarly well-crafted ditties and a bevy of top-rated London sessionmen providing the backings . . . . The album was ready for pressing just as the revelation of Oldham’s reckless financial overstretch brought about Immediate’s overnight demise, and only about a hundred copies ever made it to wax . . . .
In words that I could have written myself, John Katsmc5 notes that “[i]t’s an absolute tragedy that this never got released, as it would DEFINITELY be hailed now as a solid gold true 60’s classic right up there with Pet Sounds, Blonde On Blonde . . . .”
It all come back to Pet Sounds. Oldham himself explains:
Pet Sounds changed my life for the better. It enhanced the drugs I was taking and made life eloquent and bearable during those times I set down in London and realised I was barely on speaking terms with those who lived in my home and understood them even less when they spoke – that’s when Brian Wilson spoke for me. My internal weather had been made better for the costs of two sides of vinyl.
2Stoned
David Wells explains that:
[Oldham] was desperate to create a British corollary to the American harmony pop sound of the Beach Boys and the Mamas & Papas, and his nurturing of many Immediate acts only makes sense when considered from this perspective. But many of the label’s early signings . . . were merely pale imitations of the American model, copycat acts rather than originators who were further hamstrung by a lack of songwriting talent. And then along comes Billy Nicholls — a superb singer, gifted songwriter and as green as the Mendip hills. Oldham . . . quickly latched onto the manipulative possibilities. [H]e could turn his back on cutting unconvincing facsimiles of Brian Wilson tunes in order to mastermind his own three-minute pocket symphonies. Fired up by this grand conceit, Oldham commandeered the Nicholls sessions, recreating the American harmony pop sound in a resolutely English setting courtesy of a string of virtuosos production techniques, multi-layered harmonies and plenty of Wilsonesque baroque instrumentation. . . . [The album] can be see both as a magnificent achievement and an outrageous folly — how . . . Oldham thought he could recoup the budget that he’d bestown on the album is anyone’s guess.
liner notes to the CD “re”-issue of Would You Believe
Nicholls himself observed that “Andrew had a great belief in the songs I was writing . . . and fortunately we had Andrew’s money to spend fortunes on the orchestration.” (liner notes to the CD reissue)
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
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Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations 