Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊

Robert Charlebois — “Engagement”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 19, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,103) Robert Charlebois — “Engagement”

Robert Charlebois (see #44, 1,185) “wrote Quebec’s first psychedelic song, he was the first chansonnier to use an electric guitar, he brought humor into rock — [he] is the musician who pushed the Québécois popular song into the contemporary world.” (Sophie Beaulé, An Anthology of French and Francophone Singers from A to Z: “Singin’ in French”) And this “seven-minute stone jam[] established Charlebois as a screamer, a mad performer” (François Couture, https://www.allmusic.com/album/robert-charlebois-louise-forestier-mw0000335102) and “to folks accustomed to Charlebois the folk singer, acid-jazz tinged material like . . . ‘Engagement’ must have come as a complete shock.” (Bad Cat Records, http://badcatrecords.com/CHARLEBOIS.htm) Bad Cat Records adds:

[It] was the album’s longest and most surprising track. After opening up with a brief Charlebois-in-chanteur segment, the song exploded into a surprisingly funky jam session with Charlebois channeling his best James Brown moves over an increasingly frantic and frenetic performance. Who would have thought a French-Canadian could pull of a James Brown impersonation.

http://badcatrecords.com/CHARLEBOIS.htm

François Couture writes that:

Charlebois . . . started his career in folk clubs in the early ’60s, while he also explored acting. His first LP won a prize for Best Folk Album in 1965. The young Charlebois was clean-cut, well-spoken, poetic . . . . [and his songs] appealed to the upper-class students and the intellectual elite. . . .

Never before and never after in the history of Québec rock music has an artist undergone such a profound transformation in such little time. Robert Charlebois’ previous album was a collection of acoustic folk songs in the French tradition of singer/songwriters Georges Brassens and Félix Leclerc: intelligent but clean and well-spoken. In 1967, Charlebois went to California. He came back a rock & roll dynamo, a stage beast.

Screaming, swearing, wearing outrageous costumes, and presenting his own brand of experimental psychedelic rock, he staged L’Osstidcho, a scandalous anti-show. . . .

Ditching his three LPs of guitar strumming, he started anew and recorded Robert Charlebois/Louise Forestier with a rock band and the Quatuor du Jazz Libre du Québec, Quebec’s first free jazz quartet. He worked with poets Claude Péloquin and Marcel Sabourin to write psychedelic lyrics closer to the spoken dialect of Québecers, while including plenty of trippy plays on words . . . . “Lindberg” can be considered the first Québec psychedelic rock song. Released as a single, it had a tremendous impact on the flower power generation, if only because it included swearing — something never heard before on the prude province’s airwaves. “California,” “La Marche du Président[]” [see #44,] “Lindberg,” “CPR Blues” also feature singer Louise Forestier [see #149, 1,438] and are all mind-expanding rock songs, each one revolutionary at the time. . . . Everywhere on this [LP] his sense of melody persists, but the arrangements, the freedom, the license were unheard of. A Québec artist, used to the severeness of Québec culture, had seen San Francisco and simply couldn’t do things the right way anymore. This album had a similar impact on young Québecers as the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — and, honestly, it’s almost as good. Anyone, French speaker or not, interested in psychedelic rock will enjoy this wild album.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robert-charlebois-mn0000047962#biography, https://www.allmusic.com/album/robert-charlebois-louise-forestier-mw0000335102

Bad Cat Records adds:

Three months in California gave him a front seat to the love generation and the counter-culture movement and Charlebois apparently came back to Quebec a changed man. His initial projects were a pair of musical reviews . . . which brought him into contact with singer/actress Louise Forestier. With Forestier having recorded a solo album of folk material . . . the pair apparently clicked artistically continuing their creative relationship with the release of 1968’s Robert Charlebois avec Louise Forestier. Completely abandoning his earlier acoustic-folk moves, Charlebois reinvented himself as a psych-tinged, cabaret-rocker. Charlebois also sang the French lyrics in Joual which was apparently a local French-Canadian dialect (and went a long way to explaining why it was difficult to understand some of the French lyrics). Working with Quebec poets Claude Péloquin and Marcel Sabourin, he came up with some truly bizarre lyrics and adding to the sense of weirdness, about half the album included support from Quebec’s only free form jazz ensemble – Quatuor du Jazz Libre du Québec. Musically Charlebois didn’t have the best voice I’ve ever come across. To my ears he actually sounded a bit like David Byrne having spent too much time with Jacques Brel, but most of the songs were either propulsive enough or strange enough (“CPR Blues”) where it didn’t matter. Unique, but by today’s standards most of the album sounds relatively placid, but upon its release in 1968, to folks accustomed to Charlebois the folk singer, acid-jazz tinged material like “California”, “Lindberg”, and “Engagement” must have come as a complete shock.

http://badcatrecords.com/CHARLEBOIS.htm

Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame:

1967 was the beginning of a new era. Charlebois, who already had two “chansonnier” albums behind him, released his third album Demain l’hiver, which featured more electric sounds. The cover photo . . . presented Charlebois pouting and dressed only with a soldier’s helmet filled with flowers. . . . With Mouffe and his friend Jean-Guy Moreau, Robert Charlebois presented a new satire review called “Terre des Bums” during Expo 67 (a pun on “Terre des Hommes”, ie “Man and His World”). That same year, Charlebois spent three months in California. The trip ended up being very influential, Charlebois recalling that “instead of taking music or music arrangement classes at university, I took this trip. It was like my very own Berkeley.” His music and his lyrics started reflecting this new influence, one that involved anti-establishment, counter-culture, the use of joual (Quebec slang), rock and roll and drugs. At the time, Quebec was going through its Quiet Revolution, fighting against the powers of the Catholic Church and the economic oppression many French Canadians had suffered until then. His anthem “Lindberg”, sung with Louise Forestier, was directly influenced by his trip to California. It shocked the province with its poetic use of joual and Catholic-based swear words. In September 1968, Robert Charlebois pushed the boundaries even further and triumphed with his “Osstid’show,” a refreshing, charming review, with its creativity, its audacity, its humour and its hope for change. The show starred not only Charlebois, but also eccentric singer Louise Forestier, as well as Mouffe, le Quatuor de Jazz libre du Québec and satirist Yvon Deschamps. Mouffe recalls that “it was a time when everything became a revolution, everything was changing; it felt like a constant boiling point”.

https://www.cshf.ca/songwriter/robert-charlebois/

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

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 — now over 1,500 songs. 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.

When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

A New Generation — “Smokey Blue’s Away”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 18, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,102) A New Generation — “Smokey Blue’s Away”

Before the Sutherland brothers (Gavin and Ian) (see #1,792, 1,997) took Rod Stewart “Sailing”, they gave us a wonderfully melancholic pop symphony. Well, A New Generation did borrow the theme from the second movement of Antonin Dvořák’s “New World” symphony, and it reached #38 (https://www.musicvf.com/songs.php?page=artist&artist=Iain+Sutherland&tab=songaswriterchartstab#gsc.tab=0) — in the Old World (UK)! Which is good, except Dvořák reached #1.

By the way, Smoky Blues is a dog that ran away.

Tonywoodley74372 writes “This so always fills me with a deep sense of melancholy and i have no idea why” and benmac10892 suggests an answer: “Because it sounds melancholic”. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MslHSYD-Gdw&list=RDMslHSYD-Gdw&start_radio=1&pp=ygUgTmV3IGdlbmVyYXRpb24gc21va3kgYmx1ZSdzIGF3YXmgBwE%3D&ra=m)

Vernon Joynson tells us all things Sutherland:

This was actually The Sutherland Brothers. They scored a minor hit with “Smokey Blues Away” and the flip side “She’s A Soldier Boy”. . . . The brothers signed to Island in 1972 and recorded two albums of melodic folk-based pop. . . . They . . . wrote and recorded as their second single “Sailing”, which . . . became a million-selling record for Rod Stewart. Their second album was made with the help of session musicians and their search for a permanent backing group resulted in them amalgamating with Quiver in 1973 to form The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver. . . . Their first album . . . was well received and they had a US hit with their first 45 “You Got Me Anyway”. . . . When Rod Stewart achieved his massive hit with “Sailing” the band was signed by CBS and soon registered a Top 5 hit with the wimpy pop ditty “Arms of Mary”. They also enjoyed two hit albums . . . .

The Tapestry of Delights Revisited

Here is the Younger Generation:

Here is Stevie van Kerken:

Here is Muffin (’72):

Here is Antonin Dvořák:

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Dusty Springfield — “Doodlin”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 17, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,101) Dusty Springfield — “Doodlin”

What a performance by Dusty Springfield! — “jazzy and almost rap – years before rap” (CharlyF1954, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/dusty-springfield/evrythings-coming-up-dusty/reviews/2/), a “souful deep cut . . . from 1965’s lavish Ev’rything’s Coming Up Dusty . . . . [w]ritten in the 50s by hard bop pianist Horace Silver [with lyrics later added by] scat man Jon Hendricks, [and] covered by Dusty with a tough, assured delivery and punchy orchestration”. (Lucy O’Brien, https://thequietus.com/culture/books/dusty-springfield-deep-cuts-lucy-o-brien/) Ifandorbut exults “Thank goodness for “Doodlin'”. . . . the best song on the record. . . . very cool and Dusty handles [it] masterfully.”(https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/dusty-springfield/evrythings-coming-up-dusty/reviews/1/). Despite my policy of no ifs ands or buts, I’ll note that ifandorbut ponders the imponderable: “Whether or not [it] is about drawing on a table in a restaurant or ‘diddling’ oneself under a table in a restaurant, it doesn’t matter”.

George Starostin writes of Dusty’s interpretation:

[T]his lyrical version of “Doodlin” is not so much a cover of the classic Horace Silver original as it is of the then-recent pop re-arrangement by Baby Washington [see #1,962] (which, in itself, inherited the reinterpretation by Jon Hendricks), but once again Dusty improves on her predecessors, showing that she can handle a rythmically complex, almost «rappy» vocal challenge as fine as anything else. There are, of course, more complex and demanding vocal jazz renditions, e.g. by Sarah Vaughan, but if we’re talking about smoothing and streamlining the rhythms to make the whole thing more poppy and danceable, Dusty does a great job highlighting the song’s sunny, nonchalant, oh-so-Sixties attitude of “enjoying procrastinating”.

https://onlysolitaire.substack.com/p/review-dusty-springfield-evrythings

Jazz Rock Soul notes that it “trace[s Dusty’s] admiration for Baby Washington, whom she frequently cited as a formative vocal influence.” (https://jazzrocksoul.com/artists/dusty-springfield/)

Here is Horace Silver:

Here is Lambert, Hendrix, and Ross:

Here is Baby Washington:

Here is Sarah Vaughan:

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

The Kinks — “I’m on an Island”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 16, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,100) The Kinks — “I’m on an Island”

From the 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] ‘65 LP The Kinks Kontroversy, Ray Davies tries out “punk calypso” (Peter Doggett, liner notes to the CD reissue of The Kink Kontroversy), a “calypso pastiche . . . where [he] sings of isolation with a forlorn yet merry bite”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-kink-kontroversy-mw0000650366) He would later note that “[t]here’s quite an ironical humour coming up there for the first time.” (liner notes to the CD reissue of The Kink Kontroversy)

Bob Stanley writes:

The playful . . . calypso feel and odd, almost cod, vocal looks . . . into the Kinks’ future, presaging “Apeman”. It’s much the more endearing, though, and definitely about Ray’s state of mind in late ’65; it’s his “I Am a Rock”, though it also serves as a reminder that he grew up on top a hill in an island nation. No wonder he can come across as isolationist.

liner notes to the CD reissue of The Kink Kontroversy: Deluxe Edition

Holly A Hughes ponders the song’s meaning:

“I’m On An Island” has always been a sentimental favorite of mine. With its acoustic arrangement and calypso beat, it makes me picture a tropical hideway, although I’ve heard that Ray wrote it about Iceland. On the surface it echoes John Donne’s “No Man Is An Island,” but the ghost of a failed love affair haunts every line. . . . Yes, loneliness is hard, and heartbreak isolates him from the rest of humanity – but something in that sashaying beat, in his floaty singing, tells me that this island is an irresistible escape.

https://thesonginmyheadtoday.blogspot.com/2007/06/im-on-island-apeman-drift-away-kinks.html

Richie Unterberger writes of the song and the LP:

The Kinks came into their own as album artists — and Ray Davies fully matured as a songwriter — with The Kink Kontroversy, which bridged their raw early British Invasion sound with more sophisticated lyrics and thoughtful production. There are still powerful ravers like the hit “Til the End of the Day” . . . and the abrasive, Dave Davies-sung cover of “Milk Cow Blues,” but tracks like . . . “I’m on an Island[]” . . . were far more indicative of their future direction. Other great songs on this underrated album include the uneasy nostalgia of “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?,” the plaintive, almost fatalistic ballads “Ring the Bells” [see #508] and “The World Keeps Going Round,” and the Dave Davies-sung declaration of independence “I Am Free.”

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-kink-kontroversy-mw0000650366

Here is Roger Denison:

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Betty Everett — “Take Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 15, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,099) Betty Everett — “Take Me”

This ’68 B-side/’69 album track by Chicago powerhouse Betty Everett (see #1,900) is irresistible “freakbeat funk filled to the brim with goodies”. (DJLarsupreme, https://djlarsupreme.com/2015/11/23/betty-everett-take-me-uni-55100-b-1968/) It takes it place as one of “[t]he funkiest cuts” on her LP They’ll Come a Time, “incredibly busy” and a “brilliant example[] of that strange breed, the hybrid incorporating both gutbucket grooves and indulgently produced gloss.” (Soulmakossa, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/betty-everett/therell-come-a-time/)

Soulmakossa enthuses over the LP:

This blows anything Dionne Warwick did right out of the water… It’s sophisticated soul alright, but there are so many funky, heavy in the pocket grooves here that it’s a pleasant surprise for those who like their soul raw. Sure, tunes as “Maybe”, the title-track and “1900 Yesterday” [see #1,900] are definitely in the Warwick-vein, but the supper club atmos evaporates on great, bouncing beaters as “You’re Falling In Love”, “Better Tomorrow Than Today” and “I Need a Change”. Nice, mid-tempo ballads that still ride a rumbling groove, such as “I Can’t Say No to You”, and unabashed southern soul styled wailers like “Hold On” further remove this LP from AOR/MOR territory. The funkiest cuts – the powerfully driven “Sugar”, the one-chord masterpiece “Is There a Chance For Me” and the incredibly busy “Take Me” – are brilliant examples of that strange breed, the hybrid incorporating both gutbucket grooves and indulgently produced gloss. Killer album, especially for those who deem Warwick’s contemporary output as too soft.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/betty-everett/therell-come-a-time/

Ron Wynn tells us of Betty Everett:

Betty Everett sang gospel growing up in Greenwood, MS, before relocating to Chicago and moving into secular music. She began recording for Cobra in 1958, then joined Vee-Jay in the early ’60s and started to land hit records. Her original version of “You’re No Good,” though sung with fire and verve, didn’t make much impact until it was turned into a number one pop hit by Linda Ronstadt in 1975. Her next single, “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss),” was her first major release, peaking at number six pop in 1964. Her next success was the duet “Let It Be Me” with Jerry Butler [see #347], a soul version of the Everly Brothers tune that reached number five R&B that same year. Everett’s finest song as a solo act was 1969’s “There’ll Come a Time,” which reached number two on the R&B charts and also cracked the pop Top 30 at number 26. Everett was now on Uni, where she remained until 1970. She continued recording for Fantasy until 1974 and made one other record for United Artists in 1978.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/betty-everett-mn0000058361#biography

Concord Records tells us more:

A Sagittarian, she began singing in her mother’s church when she was six years old; she also played the piano. . . . Betty’s career has had its ups and down. She originally started singing the blues because, back in Greenwood, a blues singer came through town frequently, and she fell in love. As Betty puts it: “He didn’t come to Greenwood enough for me! Then I thought, ‘Well, maybe if I get out there and do what he’s doing, maybe I’ll see more of him.’” That’s exactly what she did! Her family moved to Chicago when she was 17, and she soon went on the road with Muddy Waters. She says she didn’t last long at that because she was too shy and too young. At one point, Ike Turner [see #212, 329, 837, 1,866, 1,991] wanted to hire Betty (this in pre-Tina days), but, very inexperienced in the worldly-wise life of most r&b musicians, she called a relative and asked to be taken home. “Come pick me up, these people over here’s crazy!” It was in a Chicago club called The Hideaway that Betty Everett was first noticed by record company people.

https://concord.com/artist/betty-everett/

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Colin Hare — “Find Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 14, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,098) Colin Hare — “Find Me”

Honeybus’ [see #6, 52, 207, 434, 562, 605, 764, 1,100, 1,439, 1,582, 1,715, 1,833, 1,985, 2,096] Colin Hare recorded this delicate and “haunting folk ballad . . . [that] still send[s] shivers down the spine”. (Lizardson, https://time-has-told-me.blogspot.com/2006/06/colin-hare-march-hare-uk-pop-folk-1971.html), “kinda like a soulful Macca ballad”. (Garwood Pickjon, https://popdiggers.com/colin-hare-march-hare/)

Lizardson calls Hare’s solo ’71 LP — March Hare — “a UK troubadour classic which still sounds fresh and innovative today. With help from Honeybus drummer Pete Kircher and Rockpile guitar whizz Billy Bremner, Colin laid down a dozen tracks which run the whole gamut of early 70’s pop, rock, folk and country influences.” (https://time-has-told-me.blogspot.com/2006/06/colin-hare-march-hare-uk-pop-folk-1971.html) Garwood Pickjon adds:

Though much more Americanized through it’s audible influences, being recorded/released almost simultaneously with it, this is a conceptual companion release of fellow Honybus rider, Pete Dello’s ’71 album Into Your Ears [see #920, 2,097] . . . . Right from the very beginning, Colin makes it clear that, unlike in the case of his former band mate, this isn’t a Honeybus album in all but name. The opener “Get Up The Road”, as well as “Cowboy Joe Saga” (obviously), both provide some pure country good times, which is something that he’s returning to quite a few times throughout the album, in a bit more sophisticated way though, as heard in “Bloodshot Eyes”, clearly depicting Dylan, while cruising all over the Nashville Skyline. “To My Maker” takes it few years backwards, to Bob’s mid’60s period, recalling some of his most melodic moments, with an extra harmony or two thrown in, while “Underground Girl” goes even further, to the early folky beatnik daze. “For Where Have You Been” is the rawkiest Colin ever got, combining the usual folky harmonies with the “American Woman” riffing, “Find Me” is kinda like a soulful Macca ballad, “Alice” is a piece of quirky Kinky pop, and “New Day” is an “Incredibly” Brit folk-inspired tune. The closest he gets to the recognisable Honeybus sound, is on the first of the pre-album single sides, “Grannie Grannie” (backed with another piece of Dylanized protest folk “Fighting For Peace”), and on his post-album only-Warners ’72 single coupling “Didn’t I Tell You”/”Seek Not In The Wide World” . . . .

https://popdiggers.com/colin-hare-march-hare/

Here are two wonderful interviews with Colin Hare: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/1970s-story-the-hidden-gem-of-british-pop-by-honeybus/id1724200830?i=1000750433199 (Farmer John, Vinyl Relics), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8CV0NUxvuo (Pale Blooms and Beyond).

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Pete Dello — “Uptight Basil”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 13, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,096) Pete Dello — “Uptight Basil”

Delightful whimsy from a Honeybus-man’s [Pete Dello (see #920)] holiday, “kinda like sane-[Syd] Barrett [see #13, 87, 315, 922, 1,949, 2,086] complete with a proper arrangement, with a dash of Dylan too, making it a perfect crossover between the Brit’n’Yank influences’”. (Garwood Pickjon, https://popdiggers.com/pete-dello-and-friends-into-your-ears/)

Of course, there is always James Christopher Monger, who loves Pete Dello’s LP Into Your Ears but hates the “wince-inducing” song! (https://www.allmusic.com/album/into-your-ears-mw0000712671)

Brian Andrew Marek ponders that:

[I]f one reads between the lines, [the lyrics] seem[] to explain why Pete quit Honeybus (and, for that matter, why there’d never be a sequel to Into Your Ears). Dello, for all his “crazy” lyrics and whimsicality, was far too sane to play ball in an industry that puts artists on a treadmill and squeezes them dry of their creativity like so many oranges. He’d clearly rather be winding that clock, making that bed or sweeping that floor than “lighting up our misty winter’s night” as a falling star, burning up in the stratosphere. And who could blame him?

https://time-has-told-me.blogspot.com/2008/07/by-brian-andrew-marek-18.html

Marek may be on to something. Consider lyrics such as “It’s a big mystery Why you ain’t a star shining bright Lighting up our misty winter night” (https://genius.com/Pete-dello-uptight-basil-lyrics)

“Basil” comes from Pete Dello and Friends’ ’71 LP Into Your Ears (with contributions from his ex-band mates), a “charming . . . . laid-back, acoustic effort” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited), a “perfect set of baroque-pop songs that are whimsical, heartfelt, and intelligent – his warm, earnest vocals fit the music perfectly.” (marruzic, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/pete-dello-and-friends/into-your-ears-3/reviews/1/)

Brian Andrew Marek writes of the album:

“a supreme piece of melodic sensitivity, not just a worthy successor of the way initiated with Honeybus and Dello’s unique conception of pop, but the perfect culmination of a very personal way of understanding songs as conveyors of the most intimate emotions, full of charm, caprice and beauty” – an uncredited quote found on the Internet, perfectly describing this perfect album I can’t give this album measured praise and won’t attempt to. This is, simply put, an exquisite collection of songs – as melodic as McCartney, uncluttered in its arrangements, and featuring lyrics that alternate between direct simplicity and an almost Syd Barrett-like ability to convey a deep emotional resonance that bypasses conscious thought entirely. Like much great art, it’s bittersweet and melancholy yet somehow leaves you feeling full of hope and joy in the end.

https://time-has-told-me.blogspot.com/2008/07/by-brian-andrew-marek-18.html

Vernon Joynson writes that Dello “was the creative force behind Honeybus [see #6, 52, 207, 434, 562, 605, 764], which he unexpectedly left just as they were taking off. . . . [H]e [later] made this charming and very rare solo album.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)

James Christopher Monger elaborates:

After tasting success in 1968 with the single “I Can’t Let Maggie Go,” [see #6] . . . Pete Dello left the band . . . to pursue a more settled lifestyle. His distaste for the rigors of touring left him with a surplus of un-recorded material that would eventually steer him back into the studio to record his first and only solo record. Into Your Ears features 14 songs, each under three-and-a-half minutes long, that prosper through a winning combination of goofy psychedelia and Beatlesque beauty. The sweet melodies and gentle harmonies of “It’s What You’ve Got” and “Taking The Heart Out Of Love” are timeless, devoid of irony, and begging for placement in a Wes Anderson film. “Do I Still Figure In Your Life[]” . . . conveys the same irresistible form of melancholy that permeates a great Randy Newman [see #174] or Harry Nilsson [see #1,168, 1,298, 1,854, 1,941] recording, and more than makes up for the wince-inducing “Uptight Basil” and “Harry The Earwig (the latter inspired the horrific Roger Dean cover art). . . . The songs, while never complex, benefit from strategically placed string arrangements that rarely disappoint, and crisp production as exemplified on the set closer “Arise Sir Henry.” . . . [The LP is an] (almost) masterpiece.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/into-your-ears-mw0000712671

Dello explains his departure from Honeybus:

When “Maggie” took off, it all went badly for me, because I didn’t want to go out on the road again. The other lads in Honeybus were only earning money through touring. They had to go out and play. But I didn’t like the idea of travelling around Europe by chartered aircraft. I got completely fed up with it. I couldn’t say “no” to the gigs because it was a living for the other guys. In the end, however, I just stopped because I didn’t want to be ill again. I needed to rethink my life. I didn’t want to be on the road and risk never getting better. That’s why I left Honeybus.

But I kept writing and I had a few songs which would have been on the next Honeybus single. I was at home quite a lot of the time, so I was able to indulge myself in what they call on the Continent “whimsy”. A lot of the songs were whimsical and came out of the situation I found myself in.

I wanted to release the songs and didn’t want them hanging around. Into Your Ears didn’t do very well at the time, but I was quite relieved in a way. I was doing session work and arranging so I lived quite well. I never wanted to be “a star”.

liner notes to the CD reissue of Into Your Ears

Here is Leah:

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Honeybus — “Under the Silent Tree”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 12, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,096) Honeybus — “Under the Silent Tree”

Pour some Honeybus on me (one of my fav bands (see #6, 52, 207, 434, 562, 605, 764, 1,100, 1,439, 1,582, 1,715, 1,833, 1,985))! Here is a “mesmerizing, ‘Magical Mystery Tour’-style” (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp Psychedelic Pstones, Volume 4: Under the Silent Tree) number, “the closest they’d veer into psychedelia[ with] a rousing, crunchy guitar riff that calls to mind what bands like The Action [see #393, 429, 966, 1,773, 1,913, 2,020] were also doing.” (Jittery White Guy, https://www.jitterywhiteguymusic.com/2021/02/honeybus-story-1970.html?m=1) 45rpy writes that:

[“Silent Tree” is] definitely the most far out [song on Honeybus’ Story LP], with some echoing sounds and even a proper “rock” guitar solo. . . . [I]t is guitarist Jim Kelly singing the hell out of this one—apparently with a sense of humor too, with a decidedly unfunky read of [Ray] Cane’s refrain “uptight and outta sight!”

https://45rpy.wordpress.com/2018/09/30/honeybus-story-1970/

With Honeybus, the honey being especially bittersweet with what should have been, what could have been. LN writes:

When I once lent a friend a copy of my beloved Story he quipped that it sounded almost like a Beatles [see #28-29, 113, 132, 374, 422-23, 520-22, 545, 669, 779-81, 840, 872, 942, 1,087, 1,256, 1,437, 1,473, 1,910] album from the 1960s that had somehow escaped release. I had for some time lacked just the right phrase to describe the album, and here it was; my friend had completely summed up my feelings about one of rock music’s true lost treasures in one neat soundbite.

http://lyndslounge.blogspot.com/2008/01/1000-great-albums-honeybus-story-1970.html (no longer an active page)

Jittery White Guy also puts it perfectly:

Honeybus had the pop touchstones of the Beatles and the Hollies [see #461], while balancing the more sunshiny, twee aspects of the early Bee Gees [see #291, 353-54, 439, 466, 484, 497, 570, 594, 717, 861, 962, 1,065, 1,101, 1,125, 1,190, 1,321, 1,336, 1,343, 1,465, 1,584, 1,640, 1,685, 1,843, 2,089] 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).

https://www.jitterywhiteguymusic.com/2021/02/honeybus-story-1970.html?m=1

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 [see #28, 132, 374, 521, 669, 779-81, 840] and the softer sides of John Lennon [see #29, 113, 520, 522, 781, 1,473] 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 . . . . [that] 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 . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/honeybus-mn0000259186/biography

Here is Australia’s Flake (’71):

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band — “Love”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 11, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

(song first featured as #113) John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band — “Love”

As I do each year on September 11th, I will play John Lennon [see #29, 113, 520, 522, 781, 1,473] and the Plastic Ono Band‘s “Love” from 1970, one of the most beautiful, delicate and consoling songs ever written. I present it along with five wonderful cover versions, by Barbra Streisand, the Lettermen (yes, the Lettermen), Shirley Bassey, Jimmy Nail, and Beck.

The Beatles Bible says:

“Love”, the tenderest moment on John Lennon’s debut solo album, was a simple love song inspired by his feelings for Yoko Ono. “‘Love’ I wrote in a spirit of love. In all that shit, I wrote it in a spirit of love. It’s for Yoko, it has all that connotation for me. It’s a beautiful melody and I’m not even known for writing melody.” Lennon had recorded a guitar demo of ‘Love’ in Bel Air, Los Angeles, where he stayed in the summer of 1970 while undergoing Primal Therapy with Dr Arthur Janov. The recording is the only one of the time that lacked the anger or bitterness that coloured much of [the album]. Back in England, ‘Love’ was recorded at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. Lennon again played a simple acoustic guitar part, over which he sang his plaintive lyrics. . . . After recording a satisfactory take, Lennon asked Phil Spector to add a piano part. . . . “Love” was not released as a single in John Lennon’s lifetime, although he considered issuing it as one. It received considerable radio airplay from stations who baulked at the prospect of playing “Mother’” Lennon’s eventual choice of single in the US.

https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/john-lennon/songs/love/

Sam Kemp adds:

Clocking in at around three-and-a-half minutes, it is actually quite astonishing that Lennon manages to convey so much of the emotion he felt for Yoko Ono in the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. . . . “Love” is one of the most minimalist songs Lennon ever released, featuring just two musicians, Lennon himself on guitar and vocals, and Phil Spect[or] on the piano. . . . [It] is a remarkably stark track, as if he wanted to avoid anything that might detract from his adoration. The stripped-back, elemental sound that Lennon pursued on “Love” feels almost like an extension of the primal therapy that he and Yoko Ono took part in following the break up of The Beatles [see #422, 1,087, 1,256, 1,910] in 1970. It’s as if all that screaming into the wind allowed Lennon a period of calm in which he was able to sit down and write something honest, sensitive, and undeniably vulnerable. . . . [I]t’s possible that, at least in some ways, it was intended as a gift to Ono. “With Yoko, I really knew love for the first time,” he once said: “I’d never met anyone who was my equal in every imaginable way. My better, actually. The dream came true.”

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-john-lennon-created-love-yoko-ono/

Barbra Streisand (from her ’71 album Barbra Joan Streisand):

The Lettermen (from their ’71 album Love Book, and a B-side):

Shirley Bassey (from her ’72 album I, Capricorn):

Jimmy Nail (from his ’95 album Big River, and an A-side):

Beck (from a ’14 Starbucks compilation):

I have added a Facebook page for Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock! If you like what you read and hear and feel so inclined, please visit and “like” my Facebook page by clicking here.

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 1,100 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Federal Duck — “Peace in My Mind”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 10, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,095) Federal Duck — “Peace in My Mind”

Here is a “magic track[]” of “mellow psychedelia” (liner notes to the CD comp Fading Yellow, Volume 7: US 1968-1972 LP Trax of Timeless Pop-Sike & Other Delights), a “gentle” and “enchanting lysergic-laced moody gem” (recorddigger, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/federal-duck/federal-duck.p) “full of late-night sounds” and a “dark vibe”. (Aaron Milenski, The Acid Archives, 2nd Ed.) Dave Barry was in the band. No, not English singer Dave Berry (see #554, 778, 887, 955), I’m talking American humorist Dave Barry. He left before the Duck recorded its lone LP, though he penned the album cut “Hello” — which Adele later took to the top of the charts.

As to the LP, CooperBolan writes that:

This obscure . . . album . . . is a true mixed bag. Some of these songs are just brilliant forgotten psychedelic rock masterpieces but there are also a couple of lame fillers included. The overall feeling is still very positive because the best parts on this LP are indeed very impressive.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/federal-duck/federal-duck.p

Wikipedia reports that by the time the band recorded its album, Barry was no longer a member. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Barry) Barry recalls:

Federal Duck was the band I belonged to when I was a student at Haverford College . . . .We were originally called the Stomp Jackson Quintet, and then the Guides (don’t ask), but we came up with our new and final name one night when we were lying on the bank of the Haverford campus duck pond, and some ducks started waddling toward us in what looked like a purposeful manner, and as we watched them with increasing alarm — an oncoming duck squadron in the moonlight — the thought struck us that these ducks might be working for the government.* And if you are wondering why that particular thought would have struck us, you did not experience the ’60s. We were one of many college bands formed in that era by young men with a sincere artistic desire to attract women of the opposite sex. We pretty much failed at that, but we did get hired a lot, because of a distinctive quality we had, which I would describe as “a low price.” For as little as $100, or sometimes even less, you could have the Federal Duck perform at your dance, dorm mixer, fraternity party . . . . We would play anywhere, and we would play all night long, or until the police arrived . . . .

https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2011/06/federal-duck-federal-duck-1968-us-soft.html

* Patrick says that “[t]he group’s name was derived from the Federal Duck Stamp Program which was enacted in 1934 by conservationist Jay ‘Ding’ Darling and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.” (https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2011/10/various-artists-fading-yellow-vol7-us.html)

Here is “Hello”:

Oh, and a sample from the song became the heart of Danger Mouse’s and Black Thought’s “Belize”:

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

The Feminine Complex — “Are You Lonesome Like Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 9, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,094) The Feminine Complex — “Are You Lonesome Like Me”

From Nashville, yes Nashville, here’s a “.groovy [song with] haunting melodies” (sketchlord, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg_ZpZ4cTZY), “gorgeous . . . dreamy . . . . [w]ith sumptuous instrumentation . . . and silky smooth backing vocals . . . truly one of the most underrated tracks of the ‘60s.” (Aimee Ferrier, https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-feminine-complex-1960s-overlooked-all-girl-garage-band/)

Mita Tate writes that:

Feminine Complex truly shined like no other when they slowed things down. The music takes on a fuzzed-out, ethereal quality on several tracks, adding to the spookiness of it all. . . . The simple vocal harmony intertwined with the subtle horns on “Are You Lonesome Like Me?” is truly haunting.

https://thehofstrachronicle.com/6136/uncategorized/cd-review-livin-love-feminine-complexbr/

Celeste adds:

The band’s lead singer, Mindy Dalton (also the primary lyricist), provides us with the most quixotically delicious lyrics [on “Lonesome”]. The soft percussion creates a fuzzy atmosphere that pushes us into sentimental unconsciousness. I’m usually turned off by horn parts… However, I couldn’t imagine [the song] without the lazy horn parts that perfectly frame [its] warmth. The backing vocals and light organ are the icing on the cake for me. The Feminine Complex are a unique group that provide us with some of the most endearing songs of their era. There isn’t a song on their album Livin’ Love that isn’t amazingly bewitching.

https://wheartm.com/2007/02/22/the-feminine-complex-are-you-lonesome-like-me/

Livin’ Love is a”legendary femme psych album that . . . mixes horn-led pop with some more interesting experimental songs.” (Aaron Milenski, The Acid Archives, 2nd Ed.)

Jonathan Marx says of the Feminine Complex that “They had moves, matching outfits — and looks . . . . And their songs were sublime — lost ’60s pop classics that tapped into the thoughts, desires and fantasies of the American teenage girl.” (liner notes to the CD reissue of Livin’ Love)

Jason Ankeny tells us of the Complex:

A ’60s garage band from Nashville, Tennessee, the Feminine Complex comprised singer/guitarist Mindy Dalton, bassist Jean Williams, vocalist/tambourine player Judi Griffith, organist Pame Stephens, and drummer Lana Napier. The group was formed by Williams and Napier in 1966 while both were sophomores at Nashville’s Maplewood High School. . . . [T]hey made their debut at a school talent show — after recruiting teammates Dalton and Griffith — dressed in matching pantsuits and performing covers of contemporary hits. After adding Stephens, the quintet . . . began making regular appearances at Skateland, then Nashville’s hottest summer teen hangout. In a local scene otherwise dominated by male combos . . . the Feminine Complex quickly earned a cult following, and soon they were touring throughout Tennessee. They caught the attention of A&R vet Dee Kiloatrick, who’d just formed the Athena Records label. The Feminine Complex was the label’s first signing, and in 1969, the band’s debut LP Livin Love was released. However, by the time the album appeared the group had already disintegrated — Stephens, who’d graduated high school, ultimately chose college over rock & roll, and. both Williams and Napier quit soon after. Dalton and Griffith briefly forged on as a duo, but by late 1969, the Feminine Complex was no more.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-feminine-complex-mn0000066265

Here’s the demo. Jim Ridley and Michael McCall write that “[t]he album was recorded mainly with session musicians, but the polished demos, which were recorded with the band members playing all the instruments, sound amazingly contemporary.” (https://www.nashvillescene.com/arts_culture/relivin-love/article_2fbb29c2-71ba-54d3-b828-3ffffb180bbc.html)

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

The Endless — “Tomorrow’s Song”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 8, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,093) The Endless — “Tomorrow’s Song”

A moody garage gem from Springfield, Ohio, about a girl who is ending things.

“Why don’t you wait and stay I’ll be on my feet someday”

Chris Bishop tells us that “The group started as the Mods in Springfield, Ohio, with brothers Jack McAtee on lead guitar and Pat McAtee on bass, Mike Lyons on rhythm, Jan Weinbreight on vocals and Bill Dale on drums. Jan left to form the Children of Stone and Mike O’Brien replaced Bill Dale. Chuck Moorman came in on keyboards.” (https://garagehangover.com/endless-prevailing-darkness-cardinal/)

Jack McAtee recalls that:

[We] ma[d]e an acetate, a small album with 5 originals that we could distribute to radio stations to see if they liked our music. . . . [A] disc jockey at WIZE in Springfield, Ron Brown, took our album, played the songs on Friday and Saturday nights and asked the listeners to call in and vote for the ones they like the most. The listeners decided on “Tomorrow’s Song” and the band picked “Prevailing Darkness” for the flip side. We went back to the studio and re-recorded the two songs again. We had to shorten them because the radio stations in those days would only play songs that were two and a half minutes long. Then we released the two songs on a 45 single. Frank [Keefer, owner of Cardinal Records] had 1000 records made up and distributed them to various radio stations and record stores. It was awesome, we could turn the radio on and hear our music being played. . . . We had reports that our songs were also played on WING in Dayton and WLS in Chicago. We became very busy. We appeared on a TV show in Dayton, Ohio called “Disco Two”. . . . Mike O’Brien’s, step-father’s friend, Joe Parisi, owned a lot of the jukeboxes in Clark county, and surrounding counties, and he added our record in all of them too.

https://garagehangover.com/The-Endless-Story.pdf

Oh, and Jack McAtee says that the Endless came to an end when “[a] couple of the guys went off to college, and Uncle Sam came to visit some of us.” (https://garagehangover.com/The-Endless-Story.pdf)

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

The Holy Mackerel — “Scorpio Red”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 7, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,092) The Holy Mackerel — “Scorpio Red”

Yesterday I featured Roger Nichols and his friends (see #631, 828, 1,054, 1,332, 2,091). Today it’s Nichols’ writing partner Paul Willliams (see #1,300), who said of Nichols that “In a lot of ways, I’m being led by the music I’m choosing to write lyrics for. Roger Nichols became my music school.” (Bill Kopp, https://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2017/06/08/hed-only-just-begun-paul-williams-and-the-holy-mackerel-part-2/)

When Paul Williams was only just beginning, he and the Holy Mackerel (see #24) gave us “Scorpio Red”, which is “[s]uperior pop-sike” (liner notes to the CD comp Fading Yellow, Vol. 2: 21 Course Smorgasbord of US Pop-Sike & Other Delights 1965-69) that “epitomises everything that’s good about psychedelic sunshine pop”. (Derek Anderson, https://dereksmusicblog.com/2017/05/02/come-to-the-sunshine-soft-pop-nuggets-from-the-wea-vaults/) It is “an astrology themed, cautionary tale about a ‘red headed lady’ that ‘will not be tamed.’ It contains all of the trappings of late 60s psych/pop rock – Eastern influenced chords, ringing guitars, reverb and group harmony.” (Tom Muscarella, https://rockremnants.com/2014/02/01/song-of-the-week-scorpio-red-wildflowers-the-holy-mackerel/)

Andrew Sandoval and Paul Williams explain:

[“Scorpio Red”] was written during the ‘goodbye’ phase of a short-lived love affair with a redheaded heart-stopper from Montana, recalls Paul Williams. “When Richard Perry suggested I record an album for Reprise, it was one of the first songs chosen. Sadly, The Holy Mackerel was gone almost as quickly as the redhead, but it was a labor of love and full of first-time passion.”

liner notes to the CD comp A Whole Lot of Rainbows: Soft Pop Nuggets from the WEA Vaults

As to the Holy Mackerel’s sole album, Richie Unterberger writes:

The Holy Mackerel’s sole album garnered little notice upon its initial release in 1968, and is mostly known today for including Paul Williams, who wrote most of the material (sometimes with Roger Nichols), taking the majority of the lead vocals. . . . [B]oth the material and production are more influenced by folk-rock and mild psychedelia than the ’70s singer/songwriter fare for which [Williams is] most famous for. It’s a largely likable album, if mild-mannered, erratic, and lacking the heavyweight hooks of Williams’ hits. The best tunes are those that play up the most haunting melodies and the Mamas and the Papas [see #1,734]-ish folk-rock harmonies, such as . . . “Scorpio Red[]” . . . .The most psychedelic song, “Wildflowers” [see #24]– complete with raga-rock riffs, spaced-out lyrics, and distorted fishbowl vocals — is an unequivocal highlight, though somewhat atypical . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-holy-mackerel-mw0000381914

David Jeffries tells us of the Mackerel:

After singer/songwriter Paul Williams landed one of his songs on the flip side of Tiny Tim’s hit single “Tip-Toe Through the Tulips,” he was approached by record producer Richard Perry with an offer to cut his own album. It was a giant leap for Williams, who had just lost his job at the White Whale label a year earlier, an event that had left him distraught and sour on the music industry. Apprehensive about going it alone, he formed a band with ex-Jefferson Airplane bassist Bob Harvey, guitarist George Hiller, flutist Cynthia Fitzpatrick, ex-Turtle drummer Don Murray, and Williams’ brother Ralph on guitar. Dubbed the Holy Mackerel, the band recorded its psychedelic pop debut throughout the spring of 1968. Before the record’s completion, Harvey left and was replaced by future Elvis Presley [see #80, 879] bassist Jerry Scheff, and then drummer Don Murray was replaced by Michael Cannon. The record appeared in November of 1968 and despite being a Billboard magazine “Special Merit Pick,” it went nowhere and the Holy Mackerel called it quits soon after. Williams began his successful solo career a year later.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-holy-mackerel-mn0000868879

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends — “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 6, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,091) Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends — “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”

To me, Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends (see #631, 828, 1,054, 1,300, 1,332) came up with the finest version of this classic composition by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Sorry, Dionne. Matthew Greenwald writes:

Originally recorded by Burt Bacharach himself on one of his early solo albums, “Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart” is a modern-day MOR classic. This version by Roger Nichols is in some ways even more elegant than Bacharach’s original, with a magnificent, double-tracked vocal from Melinda MacLeod. The song’s simple, sweet melody is guided by a vague bossa nova tempo, no doubt inspired by some of Anton Carlos Jobim’s early-’60s work. Decidedly literate but passionate lyrics round out the overall effort, which has easily dated as well as any of the celebrated Bacharach/David classics.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/dont-go-breaking-my-heart-mt0034232511

RNSCF’s sole album would have been one of the great lost albums of the 60’s, except that people could have bought it, they just didn’t! Yeah, you know who you are. Huricanslash enthuses:

Legitimately one of the finest, most unsung pieces of late 60s Sunshine/Baroque/Easy Listening Pop, Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends is… Honestly, this album is like laying down in a field of poppies on a pleasant summer day, smelling the nature around you as the warm, radiant yellow of the sun slowly envelops you whole, you hear a creek softly pitter-patter in the distance, birds are flying and just for this one moment, everything is okay without second thoughts. Rogers knack for Pop arrangements, lush and detailed instrumentation, angular rhythms and sugary sweet vocal harmonies is second to none on here, every track washing over you just as lovely as the previous one. It’s funny, because only half of the album is original material by Roger and Murray MacLeod, but they take all these covers by The Beatles, Burt Bacharach and Carol King and more and adjust them to the vibe and atmosphere and sound of the album so well it still forms one beautifully cohesive project overall. There aren’t even any direct highlights outside of the stunning opener, but it doesn’t need them when it’s this cohesively amazing. This album is just a very specific atmosphere that has been so expertly executed by everyone involved that it’s difficult to find any flaws with it (except maybe that “With a Little Help From My Friends” is basically un-cover-able). If you are looking for probably the best Sunshine Pop album of the 60s, it has to be this one. Almost absolutely flawless and beautiful beyond belief.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/roger-nichols-and-the-small-circle-of-friends/roger-nichols-and-the-small-circle-of-friends-1.p/

Matthew Greenwald tells us:

[Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends is a] true sleeper in the context of California pop. . . . The album is a lot of things at once. Soft pop, a smattering of rock, and a heavy dose of easy listening. The group itself has a great vocal blend. Nichols is joined by Murray MacLeod and his sister, Melinda. The three voices combined create a wonderful, soft sheen, equally effective on the ballads . . . and uptempo numbers . . . . The credits on the album are a virtual who’s who of California pop at the time. . . . [including] Lenny Waronker, Van Dyke Parks, Bruce Botnick, and Randy Newman [see #174]. Superbly produced by Tommy LaPuma, the album unfortunately didn’t do very well at the time of its release, which is an incredible injustice. The music, though, holds up extremely well today, and is an authentic slice of California pop. Delicious.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/roger-nichols-the-small-circle-of-friends-mw0000758583

Patrick Lundborg adds:

Mr Nichols and friends present a groovy smorgasbord of late 60’s pop music . . . . The album is full of candy-coated treats such as soft rock, psych pop and commercial pop. . . . Their sound is soft rock-based with a strong emphasis on imaginative male & female vocal arrangements that may include spicy touches of ethnic beats, lush strings and perky horn mixes. . . . There are many other bands from this period with a similar pop sound, but Nichols and friends had more talent and a healthy budget allowing to record with a top-notched production crew at a state of the art studio.

The Acid Archives, 2nd Ed.

And Steve Stanley adds:

[T]he album overall had the hallmark late-sixties soft pop sound that was selling busloads of records for acts like the 5th Dimension and the Association [see #1,264]at the time. . . . [But] when it came to the record-buying public, the . . . LP fell on deaf ears. [Producer] Tommy LiPuma adds his perspective: “I think at the time, radio stations didn’t know what the dell to do with it, it didn’t necessarily fit into a format, and there wasn’t anything that broke out as a hit.”

liner notes to the CD reissue of Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends

Ed Hogan tells us of Nichols:

[Roger Nichols’s] household brimmed with music when he was growing up. His dad was . . . a professional photographer who played sax in local jazz bands. His mother was a music major and a classical pianist. When Nichols started grade school, he picked up the violin, continuing his violin and classical studies throughout grammar and high school. His attention turned to basketball and Nichols forsook violin for the hoops but played guitar on the side. Recruited to U.C.L.A. on a basketball scholarship . . . . [he was] confronted to make a choice between music or basketball by his coach . . . . Nichols chose music. . . . After he left college . . . . [o]n weekends, he worked in clubs with his group . . . . Around 1965, the group was signed to a recording contract by Liberty Records. . . . With the label for eight months without having a record released, Nichols called A&M Records expressing interest in playing some demos for label co-owner Herb Alpert. . . . [N]ichols wrote an instrumental for Alpert that he promptly recorded a week after hearing it.

Though Roger Nichols and a Small Circle of Friends wasn’t a big seller, Albert urged A&M publishing company head . . . to sign Nichols as a songwriter to their company. [The label] introduced [him] to lyricist Paul Williams [see #24, 1,300]. . . . The duo wrote together for four years, resulting in lots of album cuts, B-sides, even A-sides, but no hits. An advertising executive approached a friend of Nichols asking for help with an under-budget commercial project for Crocker Bank. . . . Hoping to capture the youth market . . . Nichols and Williams were given the slogan, “You’ve got a long way to and go and we’d like to help you get there.” They had just ten days to create a song, essentially a jingle. Waiting until the last day . . . Nichols . . . wrote the basic verse melody in a half hour. . . . Richard Carpenter . . . heard the jingle on a TV commercial . . . . [T]he Carpenters recorded the song [as] “We’ve Only Just Begun” . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/roger-nichols-mn0001353156/biography

Here is Burt Bacharach:

Here is Dionne Warwick:

Here is Astrud Gilberto:

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

King Coleman — “The Boo Boo Song”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 5, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,090) King Coleman — “The Boo Boo Song”

“[L]arger than life, cult hero” (Sounds of the Universe, https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/sjr/product/king-coleman-down-in-the-basement-crazy-feelin) King Coleman (see #1,575) released this “wicked scat laced novelty record” (Soul on Top, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4rzZIzhuTM) the same month the Beatles released “Penny Lane”/”Strawberry Fields Forever”. There will never be another 1967.

Larry Grogan writes that:

[B]ooming out of the speakers is something that sounds like a bug-eyed madman on a caffeine bender. “Boo bo boo bo boo boo boo bo bo bo bo Bay bay buh baybay bay buh buh bay bay Bo bo bo bo bo bo bo (etc etc…)” . . . . The wild babbling emanating from the grooves builds to a crescendo, a mess of corrupted nursery rhymes, nonsense syllables and wild wailing. . . . Carlton “King” Coleman laid down some of the butt-shakingest, eye-rollingest, high-stepping soul and funk 45s to ever roll down the pike. Every last one of them . . . is a guaranteed party starter. ‘The Boo Boo Song Pts 1&2’ is possibly the finest of them all, because it manages to rope in (barely) his explosive vocalizing, pairing it with some booming drums, blaring horns and organ, all of which make it a storming slice of soul evangelism – guaran-freaking-teed to peel off the wallflowers and send those already dancing into a sweaty trance.

https://funky16corners.blogspot.com/2006/04/king-coleman-boo-boo-song-pt1.html

Dave Laing tells us of King Coleman:

In America, the late 1950s and early 60s was an era of dance crazes . . . . Among them was the Mashed Potatoes, whose praises were first sung on a hit record by “King” Coleman . . . . This was the prelude to Coleman’s career as a compere, singer, disc jockey and preacher. . . . After winning a local talent show at the age of 15, he joined the Charles Taylor Bronze Mannequin Revue, which toured the south as part of a carnival show. By the time he was drafted in 1952, Coleman had also sung with the jazz vibraphone player Lionel Hampton’s band. Leaving the army, he returned to Florida and acquired the nickname “King Coleman” as a DJ. He had a reputation for extemporising rhyming couplets . . . . When James Brown’s band visited Miami in 1959, the local music mogul Henry Stone decided to make a recording of their crowd-pleasing song “(Do the) Mashed Potatoes”. For contractual reasons, Brown was unable to sing lead vocals on the track, so Coleman took over. The track was credited to Nat Kendrick and the Swans and became a Top 10 r’n’b hit in 1960 . . . . Now known as “The Mashed Potato Man”, Coleman recorded a number of less successful singles in the 60s, including songs celebrating the Shimmy, Hully Gully and Booga Lou dances. Coleman, who was in demand as a compere of national package tours by black artists, was radicalised by the civil rights movement. A heated argument with Bobby Schiffman, the white owner of the Apollo theatre in Harlem, New York, led to Coleman being barred from the leading black music venue for a year. After surviving a serious car crash in 1967, Coleman decided to devote himself to religion. He was ordained and recorded an album of gospel songs. He spent the late 1970s and early 80s in California, preaching, doing charity work, running a security business and acting. He appeared in the television sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-79) and in several films including Claudine (1974) and Up the Academy (1980). . . . His eldest son, Tony, a drummer with BB King’s band, paid tribute to his father, saying: “He was one of the originals. He was one of the roots, and I’m one of his fruits.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/sep/14/king-coleman-obituary

Tom Bowker adds that:

[Coleman’s] most enduring musical legacy is as the grandfather of Miami rap. Coleman’s DJ rhymes, show-stealing emcee gigs, and dance-party singles (“The Boo Boo Song”) influenced the young Clarence Reid, whose career took off in the early Seventies via his “Blowfly” persona, a caped and masked funky superhero who specialized in sex raps and filthy parody tunes (“What a Difference a Lay Makes”). While Blowfly’s first recorded raps appeared on 1974’s Weird World of Blowfly, his 1980 single, “Rapp Dirty,” is acknowledged by music historians to be one of the first rap records; some maintain that Reid invented the genre. But the King Coleman-Blowfly lineage is unarguably responsible for Miami’s indigenous rap subgenre, Miami bass.

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/all-hail-the-king-of-rhythm-and-rhyme-6347038/

By the way, you owe it to yourself to read Bowker’s whole story — largely an interview with Coleman. It is simply riveting. Coleman was a force of nature!

Here is part 1 and part 2:

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

The Bee Gees — “Please Read Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 4, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,089) The Bee Gees — “Please Read Me“

From the Bee Gees’ (see #291, 353-54, 439, 466, 484, 497, 570, 594, 717, 861, 962, 1,065, 1,101, 1,125, 1,190, 1,321, 1,336, 1,343, 1,465, 1,584, 1,640, 1,685, 1,843) Bee Gees 1st, here is a “haunting and poetic track . . . blend[ing] baroque pop with psychedelic undertones — a cry for understanding, connection, and being truly seen”. (Timeless Classic Music, https://www.facebook.com/61567283793838/posts/lets-listen-to-please-read-me-by-the-bee-gees-from-their-1967-album-bee-gees-1st/122179606250576126/). Stewart Mason writes:

Although the early hype around the Bee Gees centered around their supposedly uncanny musical resemblance to the Beatles [see #28-29, 113, 132, 374, 422-23, 520-22, 545, 669, 779-81, 840, 872, 942, 1,087, 1,256, 1,437, 1,473, 1,910], most of their early songs don’t really stand up to the comparison; the brothers Gibb were doing something altogether unique in their blending of toytown psychedelia, middle of the road orchestral pop and depressive subject matter. 1967’s “Please Read Me” is one of the group’s few songs where the Beatles’ influence is notably strong. The druggy, almost sluggish tempo, as if the band are supposed to be playing faster but can’t quite make the effort, owes a clear debt to John Lennon’s contributions to Revolver, as much as the jangly Rickenbacker guitar riff owes to George Harrison. (The wordless harmonies on the bridge, however, are an unashamed Pet Sounds rip-off.) “Please Read Me” isn’t a first-tier Bee Gees song, but it deserves much wider recognition than it’s tended to receive.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/please-read-me-mt0040654624

“Please Read Me” was written by Barry and Robin, with “Robin, then Barry twice leading on verses with Maurice leading the choruses”. (JulianGlass, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzwP3tqHnMU) There is a spirited debate over whether it saw the Bee Gees’ first use of falsetto, and whether Barry or Maurice was doing the honors. (See, for example, some of the comments here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQVLgq7iPcc.) The song touched many different kinds of artists — jazz/soul legend Nina Simone and Seattle punks the Fastbacks both recorded covers.

Here is a fascinating review of Bee Gees’ 1st by George Starostin (not that I necessarily agree with it all):

There is nothing in Bee Gees’ 1st that suggests an «individual artistic vision» of any kind. (In fact, there wouldn’t ever be — they would sort of try forging out that vision on Odessa, due to the popular demand of 1969 when it was thoroughly unhip not to be a «Visionary Artist», but it didn’t really stick). But on the positive side, there is nothing on the album that would arrogantly scream «we’re only in it for the money», either. The real situation, I believe, is more simple and even somewhat touching. So they heard “Penny Lane” and loved it so much, they decided to make “Turn Of The Century”. They threw on “Dr. Robert” and dug the rhythm, so they decided to make “In My Own Time”. Somebody brought them a copy of Pet Sounds, they were so overwhelmed that they incorporated those vocal harmonies into “Please Read Me” (but where are the Coke bottles?). Then they found a Mellotron in the studio, and, giggling like little kids, used it to record the «Gothic Cathedral» bits of “Every Christian…”. In short, what we are dealing here is the pleasure of discovery, and the double pleasure of assimilating the discovery. If only they weren’t talented — but they were, and it all works. . . . [F]ourteen short vignettes, each of them representing a different style, and each single one making its point in either a catchy, or a moving, or a simply curious manner, sometimes all three at the same time. Nothing here has much intellectual «depth» to it, as can be seen from the lyrics, most of which are sheer nonsense . . . . But on the level of raw emotion, it all works, from first to last note. [It] certainly does not sound like a «happy» album. If it may be pigeonholed at all . . . , it would most likely qualify as «art pop», and «art pop» in 1967 was not supposed to be about happiness — loneliness, romantic tragedy, isolation/ism/, «me against the faceless crowds», «me misunderstood and underappreciated», etc., unless you wanted to add social critique, but that latter usually came with distorted electric guitars rather than woodwinds and harpsichords. The seeds of those moods the brothers had already implanted in themselves when they took up with the folk stuff years earlier, but now the seeds have turned into saplings, and if there is something unifyingly conceptual about the record, it is «melancholic nostalgia». . . . Overall, it is tempting to call Bee Gees 1st «just another well-meaning offspring of Sgt. Pepper» — the trick is that most of this stuff was recorded at the same time as Sgt. Pepper material, even if the final album came out approximately one month later. And it does seem evident that the main Beatles’ influences here stem either from Revolver (“In My Own Time” truly sounds like a Revolver outtake . . .) or, at best, from the “Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane” single. So there is no denying the batch of influences, or the lack of individualistic input, but there is no denying the sheer melodic genius — or simply the amazement at the fact that «It All Works» in the first place. By all means, these songs . . . should not be touching soul chords, but somehow, they are — I’d call this «borderline genius craftsmanship», and that, really, is the way that the Bee Gees would be operating from now on for most of their career. And in the generally healthy musical climate of the late Sixties, that «borderline genius craftsmanship» frequently gives the illusion of actually crossing that border — hence, a «thinly overwhelmed» thumbs up.

https://only-solitaire.blogspot.com/2013/02/bee-gees-1st.html

THE GENTLEBEAR writes of Nina Simone’s version:

Nina Simone first sang the Bee Gees on ‘Nuff Said, a live album recorded at the Westbury Music Fair (in upstate New York) on April 7, 1968. This was three days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, and Simone, who was especially intolerant of social injustice, was surely livid over his untimely death. . . . “Please Read Me” is . . . a truly pained call for understanding. The Bee Gees original sounds like a cry for help from someone in a bit of a slump . . . but Simone’s reading is a cry for her life- Please read me, you bastards! This is another great example of Nina Simone taking a pop song with ambiguous lyrics and imbuing it with significance and weight.

https://gentlebear.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/please-read-me/

Here is Nina Simone:

Here are the Fastbacks (’93):

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

The Merry-Go-Round — “On Your Way Out”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 3, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,088) The Merry-Go-Round — “On Your Way Out”

From L.A. wunderkind Emitt Rhodes’ band the Merry-Go-Round (see #50, 156, 1,837), here is a “sensitive” track that “offers sage advice to a friend on a downer trip”. (Lejink, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-merry-go-round/the-merry-go-round/) It is an “extremely serious sounding track” with lyrics that “are extremely ominous”, and “vocal[s] ha[ving] more of a John Lennon influence than Paul McCartney, which makes all of The Beatles comparisons even more justified”. (Matt Kessler, https://moofmag.com/2017/09/18/the-merry-go-round-youre-a-very-lovely-woman-live-1967/)

Hey, it can’t be that serious, they “sang” it on American Bandstand! Well . . . “How could you be so young and have cried so many tears How can your life be done in so many few years?”

As to the band and their sole LP (largely a compilation of singles), Farmer John writes:

[They] had a unique sound – they weren’t quite folk-rock; they weren’t quite pop or baroque and they weren’t quite garage rock. They somehow managed to pull off sounding West Coast AND British Invasion simultaneously. Unique indeed.

https://psychedelicscene.com/2025/04/06/vinyl-relics-emitt-rhodes-by-emitt-rhodes/

Matt Kessler adds:

From time to time, an artist or band will come along that will absolutely exceed all musical expectations. They will go beyond the stratosphere of excellence, and invade your eardrums with sounds of astonishment. This is what we have here . . . . Emitt Rhodes has a true talent of creating masterful pop tunes. . . . [I]f you are interested in hearing instantly memorable songs that have a strong Beatles [see #28-29, 113, 132, 374, 422-23, 520-22, 545, 669, 779-81, 840, 872, 942, 1,087, 1,256, 1,437, 1,473, 1,910] influence, this is an album to take a serious listen to. . . . [If it is] a new experience [it] will bring everlasting joy…

https://moofmag.com/2017/09/18/the-merry-go-round-youre-a-very-lovely-woman-live-1967/)

As does Tim Sendra:

The Merry-Go-Round’s self-titled 1967 album is a breathtaking blend of chiming folk-rock guitars, British Invasion harmony vocals, baroque pop arrangements, and pure pop songcraft . . . . The Beatles are a huge influence, and there is plenty of McCartney in Emitt Rhodes’ sweet vocals and their vocal harmonies. You can hear the Byrds [see #1,430, 1,605, 1,965, 2,080] a bit, some Left Banke . . . some L.A. garage on rockers . . . . [T]he overall quality of the songs and the group’s loose and earthy playing, help lift the album above the pack and should lead to it being mentioned in the same breath as Love’s first album or Buffalo Springfield’s [see #1,555, 2,025] first when talking about classic American debut albums of the ’60s.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-merry-go-round-mw0000862964

Sendra give us some history:

The Merry-Go-Round formed in Los Angeles during the summer of 1966 when Palace Guard drummer Emitt Rhodes left that band and began rehearsing . . . with his high school buddy Gary Kato. . . . [T]he duo hooked up with a couple of L.A. movers in bassist Bill Rinehart [who] had played in the Leaves [see #656] and drummer Joel Larson with the Grass Roots, and both had been in the short-lived Gene Clark Group [see #655] in 1966 and later played on Clark’s classic 1967 album, Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers. Rhodes, Kato, Rinehart, and Larson recorded demos that attracted label attention and led to a deal with A&M. “Live” [see #156] was released as a single in early 1967 and quickly became a huge hit in L.A., eventually reaching number 63 on the Billboard singles chart. The B-side, “Time Will Show the Wiser,” became somewhat well-known, too, as Fairport Convention [see #1,199] cut a version on their 1968 debut album. Their next single, the highly arranged and orchestrated “You’re a Very Lovely Woman,” [see #1,837] didn’t fare as well on the charts, hitting only number 90 in late 1967. A&M perhaps sensed that the window of opportunity was closing for the group and hastily released The Merry-Go-Round in November of 1967. The album, excellent though it is, consists of singles, their flipsides, and assorted demos. The record stalled out at number 190 and Rinehart left the band soon after. He was replaced by Rick Dey, who had been with San Francisco band the Vejtables [see #1,005] and also the Wilde Knights . . . . The Merry-Go-Round released two singles in 1968, “Listen, Listen”/”Missing You” [see #50] and “Highway”/”‘Til the Day After,” but neither hit and they soon found that fewer fans were drawn to their shows, and offers to play were drying up. After plans to release a second album dissipated, Rhodes disbanded the Merry-Go-Round in 1969 and began working on solo material. His first album, The American Dream, contained solo tracks cut with session musicians as well as a few studio-sweetened Merry-Go-Round demos. Rhodes went on to release a handful of critically acclaimed solo albums, most notably 1970’s amazing Emitt Rhodes. Gary Kato later formed Bullet and became a member of the group Derek, which had a hit with the bubblegum classic “Cinnamon.” Rick Dey went on to do session work (including a stint working for the Monkees [see #1,718]) and recorded an album in the early ’70s with his brother Tony and Barry Melton (of Country Joe & the Fish fame).

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-merry-go-round-mn0000474208#biography

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

The Outcasts — “Loving You Sometimes”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 2, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,087) The Outcasts — “Loving You Sometimes”

From Ashland, Kentucky comes a “[b]eautiful garage torch song” (shanecopher5781, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR9fON2mSaA), “a moody, haunting masterpiece that sounds like a raw blend of The Zombies [see #1,138] and early psychedelic soul” (the_crocodile_club_mcr, https://www.instagram.com/p/DVbN49JDdU0/), a “perfect goddamn song, one of the most dynamite vocal performances of all time”. (orchards, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/the-outcasts/loving-you-sometimes-sha-la-la/),
“There’s something purely magical about it.” (mrjamescurry, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR9fON2mSaA) Indeed.

Al Collinsworth, who co-wrote and sang the song, recalls:

In the spring of 1968, I wrote . . . “Loving You Sometimes” and recorded it with a young group from Ashland, KY called The Outcasts. The group included Dick Hall, Nick Wickware, Ronnie Gibson, Ralph Morman and I. A local record company, Plato Records from Huntington, WV heard us at a local bar and signed us to a record deal. Queen City Recording Studio located in Cincinnati, Ohio, was our first experience with a multitrack studio in a big city. On the morning of the session, we piled into Nick’s van and drove from Ashland to Cincinnati, with most of us sitting on the floor with our gear.

https://kudosrecords.co.uk/the-outcasts-loving-you-sometimes-sha-la-la-symphonical-records/

“Loving You Sometimes” has reached a whole new audience through its use by DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist (at 51:43):

By the way, a copy of the 45 just sold for $1,141.66. (https://gripsweat.com/item/377438344630/outcasts-loving-you-sometimes-rare-northern-soul-45-garage-funk-sweet-soul-psych)

Ralph Morman later handled vocals for the Joe Perry Project.

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Pink Floyd — “Bike”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — September 1, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,086) Pink Floyd — “Bike”

The closing track on Pink Floyd’s [see #13, 38, 87, 315, 360, 922, 1,949] Piper at the Gates of Dawn is Syd Barrett [see #87, 315, 922] through and through. “Barrett’s music is so eccentric, captivating, pleasant, and unsettling all at the same time.” (hamburger-o7q, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POlaR26dD1Y) Johnreynolds3d writes:

The child-like wonder, awe, and fascination that Syd expresses here give me goosebumps that actually hurt. That a obviously brilliant adult still had access to that level of emotion should have led his friends to seek help when it could have made a difference. So profoundly beautiful and sad in equal measure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POlaR26dD1Y

Yes, “the unutterably manic closing track . . . hinted at a deeper psychosis that had thus far lain beneath the surface” (David Wells, Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times an Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era), yes “nobody will ever record anything creepier and more unhinged”. (nathanten, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/pink-floyd/the-piper-at-the-gates-of-dawn/reviews/19/) Brutally Honest Rock Album Reviews goes so far as to write:

There are clues to Barrett’s looming mental disintegration all over the album in the sort of bizarre phrases that pop out of nowhere, the inconsistent cadences that have him singing along at a leisurely pace then suddenly rushing his vocals like he’s running down a hill, and the odd and bizarre ideas that pop out of nowhere into the songs sometimes. If I didn’t already know how the story ends, because I know a little bit about what the onset of schizophrenia does to a person’s thought processes, I would already think there was a strong possibility that we were dealing with someone who was already a ways down that road. “Bike” is another example of this. . . . [M]any of the lyrics reflect the kind of disordered thinking I’m talking about. . . . It isn’t just that the song is weird and all over the place – I find it unsettling. The kind of disordered thinking on display here shouldn’t be seen as entertainment.

https://brutallyhonestrockalbumreviews.wordpress.com/2025/12/07/album-review-pink-floyd-the-piper-at-the-gates-of-dawn/

But as Stewart Mason writes:

The closing track on Piper at the Gates of Dawn, “Bike” is widely seen by Pink Floyd fans as early evidence of Syd Barrett’s impending mental breakdown. While it’s true that this is quite possibly the weirdest song on the album, the elements that people point to as indicative of Barrett’s fragile state of mind don’t always stand up to scrutiny. It’s true that the verses don’t follow a consistent rhyme scheme or rhythm, but their structure is consistent with a tradition of music hall-derived comic patter songs; it’s not at all a stretch to think that the young Roger Barrett might have been a fan of Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan’s novelty songs in the ’50s and early ’60s. Similarly, the song’s oddball subject matter (a bike, a homeless mouse, a cloak, gingerbread men, clockwork music boxes, etc.) and goofy flourishes of arrangement (the increasingly florid timpani rolls at the beginning of every verse) are completely in keeping with the subset of childlike U.K. psychedelia that Pink Floyd helped pioneer, which has latterly been dubbed “toytown psych” in some quarters. Finally, although the song’s 90-second sound-effects coda does cross the line from seriously trippy into actually kinda creepy (pretty much exactly at the point where those weird honking sounds that sound like the laughs of clinically insane mallard ducks in an echo chamber enter the mix of music boxes and percussion), it’s not the out-of-nowhere lunacy that many consider it; the coda is set up with the lyrics of the last verse. There’s no question that Syd Barrett was on his way to a complete breakdown, but “Bike” is greater evidence of the childlike whimsy that was part of his musical persona all along.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/bike-mt0002180968

Syd, shine on.

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Tomorrow — “My White Bicycle”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 31, 2026

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

2,085) Tomorrow — “My White Bicycle”

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya, Tomorrow (see #72), especially when you’re loaning out “one of the most treasured British singles of the era” (Matthew Greenwald, https://www.allmusic.com/song/my-white-bicycle-mt0005142144), “a fashionable riot of backward tapes, phased drums, extraneous sound effects, guitar heroics . . . and [Keith] West’s [see #1,926] resolutely English enunciation”. (David Wells, Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era) Mike Stax writes that:

Perhaps more than any other song, Tomorrow’s “My White Bicycle” captures the unique zeitgeist of the British psychedelic era. Swarming with backward effects and snaky guitar work, the song skillfully blends its experimental edges around an appealing pop melody and mischieveously rebellious lyrics. The song’s title refers to the painted white bikes the Dutch Provos left around Amsterdam for communal use.

liner notes the CD comp Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969

Do you think they’re loaning out white e-scooters today?

Matthew Greenwald adds:

[It was o]ne of the great turntable hits in the U.K. in 1967. . . . Featuring future Yes guitarist Steve Howe, the song is loaded with backwards tape and phasing effects, making it one of the most experimental records of its time. The melody underneath this blinding array of effects is a surprisingly tight pop tune, and is driven by a locomotive (or bicycle) tempo that is part of the hook. The mildly rebellious lyrics comment on the fact that the police can’t find a charge for riding the vehicle, but will make one up in order to keep the youth movement down.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/my-white-bicycle-mt0005142144

David Wells talks to Keith West:

“Mark Wirtz did pull out all the stop on My White Bicycle”, admits West. “He added the backward hi-hats, and the shouts and whispers. We ha a real policman on it, who we dragged in off the street. That was a crazy thing to do as we were all out of it. He could have busted us. He blew his whistle while somebody was body-paining the engineer. Our drummer, Twink, took his hat off and ran around the studio with it.” Immediately adopted upon its May 1967 release as an underground anthem, the song had been inspired by the Dutch Provos’ environmental statement of painting bicycles white and leaving them lying around for casual use. Keith West: “We went to Holland for a gig, and on the way back I wrote ‘My White Bicycle’ in the van. We’d seen all these bikes lying around Amsterdam. I quite liked the idea of that: you could just get on one, ride somewhere and leave it for someone else to use. I thought that was pretty cool[“]. . . . In commercial terms [it] suffered a cosmic flat tyre, and it would take the hard rock bluster of Nazareth to turn the song into a hit nearly a decade later. Still, perhaps more than any other recording of the era, the original neatly delineated the differences between American psychedelia and the British corollary. While the likes of Jefferson Airplane would have transformed such a political statement into a strident, tear-down-the-walls anthem of alienation and repression, the Brits turned in into a willfully daft song about children on bikes ringing bells, knocking over dustbings and annoying people . . .

Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records

Mike Stax reflects on Tomorrow:

Tomorrow had evolved out of London mod band The In Crowd . . . . Their roots in the R&B scene went even deeper . . . with members previously serving time in Four Plus One, The Fairies, and the Syndicats . . . . In 1966 The In Crowd underwent a musical transformation, setting aside soul and R&B for a more colorful psychedelic approach. As Tomorrow, they were soon a popular staple on the London underground circuit at clubs like the UFO. In the studio, producer Mark Wirtz harnessed the group’s energy and Keith West’s songwriting talent to create some thrilling psychedelic pop recordings. After debuting strongly with “My White Bicycle,” Tomorrow’s star seemed to be ascending; it was soon eclipsed, however, when a Keith West solo release, “Exerpt From A Teenage Opera,” became a smash hit, peaking at #2 in August 1967. The blatantly commercial pop sound of “Teenage Opera” was at odds with the group’s more psychedelic slant, and with West’s energies increasingly diverted toward his solo career, Tomorrow lost valuable momentum. A second Tomorrow single flopped, and their album’s release was delayed until February 1968 — too late to make the impact it deserved. The group drifted apart soon afterward. Keith West continued his solo career, and Steve Howe went on first to Bodast and then Yes. Junior Wood and Twink Alder made a one-off single as The Aquarian Age [see #62] after which Twink joined The Pretty Things [see #82, 94, 153, 251, 572, 731, 892, 1,001, 1,327, 1,908] and later formed the Pink Fairies.

liner notes the CD comp Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969

Richie Unterberger adds:

In the early days of British psychedelia, three bands were consistently cited as first-generation figureheads of the London-based underground sound: Pink Floyd [see #13, 38, 87, 315, 360, 922, 1,949], the Soft Machine, and Tomorrow. Pink Floyd became superstars and the Soft Machine influential cult legends, but Tomorrow is mostly remembered (if at all) for featuring Steve Howe as their lead guitarist in his pre-Yes days. Actually, Tomorrow was nearly the equal of the two more celebrated outfits. . . . [T]hey shared a propensity for flower-power whimsy. Though they were less recklessly innovative and imaginative, their songwriting was accomplished, with adroit harmonies, psychedelic guitar work, and adventurous structures and tempo changes. They never succumbed to mindless indulgence or jamming; indeed, their tracks were rather short and tightly woven in comparison with most psychedelic bands. A couple singles (especially “My White Bicycle”) were underground favorites, but the group only managed to record one album before breaking up in 1968.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tomorrow-mn0000621185

Here is Nazareth (’75):

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (unreleased) (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (unreleased) (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (unreleased) (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (unreleased) (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (unreleased) (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me” (unreleased), Paul McCartney — “Goodbye” (unreleased), John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (unreleased) (July 18, 2022)
The Ides of March — “You Wouldn’t Listen” (January 6, 2024)
Herman’s Hermits — “Dream on”/”I Gotta Dream On” (October 19, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “My Obsession” (September 12, 2022)
Paul McCartney — “Love in the Open Air”, John Lennon — “Child of Nature” (unreleased), The Idle Race — “Days of Broken Arrow” (August 7, 2021)
Barry Ryan Remembrance Special Edition: “Eloise”, “Why Do You Cry My Love”, The Hunt” (November 28, 2021)
Focal Point — “Miss Sinclair” (unreleased), Factory — “Path Through the Forest”, The Honeybus — “I Can’t Let Maggie Go” (July 28, 2021)
I Get My Kicks on Route 666 Special Edition: Charles Manson — “Cease to Exist”, The Beach Boys — “Never Learn”, David Bixby — “666” (December 12, 2022)
The Remo Four/George Harrison — “In the First Place” (unreleased) (December 22, 2024)
Paul & Barry Ryan — “Pictures of Today” (December 16, 2022)
Maurice’s Gibb-lets Special Edition: Maurice Gibb — “The Loner” (unreleased), Maurice Gibb — “Tough and Understand Love” (unreleased), Tin Tin — “She Said Ride” (February 13, 2022)
Genesis — “I Am Very Wrong” (March 19, 2023)
The Bee Gees — “I.O.I.O.” (September 27, 2022)
The Spiders — “Day Tripper (April 1, 2022)
Maurice Gibb — “Railroad” (June 14, 2023)
Public Nuisance — “Strawberry Man” (unreleased) (July 31, 2024)
The Kinks — “Shangri-La” (May 15, 2022)
The Beatles — “If You’ve Got Trouble” (unreleased) (June 30, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “If I Only Had My Mind on Something Else” (January 1, 2024)
The Humblebums — “Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway” (June 2, 2023)
Where’s that Confounded Bridge? Special Edition: Keith Relf — “Shapes of My Mind”, Françoise Hardy — “Empty Sunday” (July 13, 2022)
The Rolling Stones — “Downtown Suzie” (unreleased) (November 17, 2024)
Kinks Kopykats (Bet You Didn’t Know This Was Written by Ray Davies) Special Edition #1 — “This Strange Effect” (unreleased) (October 11, 2022)
Barry Gibb — “This Time” (April 6, 2022)
The Bee Gees — “You’ll Never See My Face Again” (September 24, 2023)
The Majority — “All Our Christmases” (December 25, 2024)
The Rolling Stones — “Get Yourself Together”/”I Can See It” (unreleased) (March 29, 2022)
The Aerovons — “World of You”, Jotta Herre — “Penina”, Lee Mallory — “That’s the Way It’s Gonna Be” (August 3, 2021)
Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel” (October 21, 2024)
The Bee Gees — “I Don’t Know Why I Bother with Myself” (June 14, 2022)
The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues” (unreleased) (March 13, 2022)

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise

Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: