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

The Oracle — “Don’t Say No”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 27, 2025

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

1,634) The Oracle — Don’t Say No”

This “[w]onderful slice of pop-sike” was “[p]roduced by Curt Boettcher [see #397, 506, 586, 662, 707, 810, 1,002] and Keith Olsen” — “one of the best Curt Boettcher recordings . . . ever!” (liner notes to the CD comp Fading Yellow Volume 2: 21 Course Smorgasbord of US Pop-Sike & Other Delights 1965-69) “This is so good. Not surprising as it’s the dudes from The Music Machine [see #171, 1,179, 1,406] and The Millennium [see #397, 506, 586, 662, 810, 1,002] with a song from Ruth Ann [Friedman (see #542)] who wrote Windy!” (ed_Selke, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy1qFSys4q4

“Can’t you see how dark my life is without you?”

Willywhitten4918 informs us that:

I sang lead on this cut. I was with the Oracle for their entire existence. . . .We were “discovered” by Keith Olsen, who was playing bass for The Music Machine. We opened for them in a high school gym in Lafayette, Louisiana. We opened our set with “Paperback Writer” by the Beatles… The whole Music Machine filed out of the dressing room watching with wide eyes and slack jaws… Keith approached us about doing a recording right after the show. It seems like a whole other lifetime ago now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klFyIrsuxtQ)

Oh, and willywhitten4918 adds that “Curt was a great guy. His partner at the time Kieth Olson was a real A-hole.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YejZ0NrlbUA) Ha, ha, ha!!!

Alec Palao writes of the Oracle:

Fostered by . . . Curt Boettcher and Keith Olsen, The Oracle were actually discovered by Olsen’s previous band, The Music Machine . . . while on tour. This Lake Charles, Louisiana, six-piece was playing a gig under the name The Great Society in Texas when they caught Olsen’s ear. Encouraged to bring their harmony sound out West, the band drove to California and stayed with Curt Boettcher (who hoped to sign them as The Oracle to Hanna-Barbera). A bad acid trip ended their recording dreams, but not before the band had put a vocal onto an aborted Clinger Sisters master called “Don’t Say No.” The results were later issued on Verve Folkways, by which time the band had returned to their home town to cool out and come down from their time in the sun.

liner note to the CD comp Where the Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968

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The Burlington Express — “Memories”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 26, 2025

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

1,633) The Burlington Express — “Memories”

B-side of the only single by the Burlington Express is garage gold, from an “excellent double-sider”. (Chris Bishop, https://garagehangover.com/burlingtonexpress/#:~:text=The%20Burlington%20Express%20from%20Topeka,Eric%20Larson%20and%20Mike%20West.) The Express was “one of Topeka[, Kansas]’s top bands in the mid to late sixties” (Kansas Music Hall of Fame, https://www.ksmhof.org/2012-inductees/#burlingtonexpress). Maybe if they had called themselves the Marrakesh Express . . .

The single was produced by Michael Chapman of the Blue Things. “They are said to have recorded several acetates”. (liner notes to the CD comp Fuzz, Flakes and Shakes: Volume 3: Stay Out of My World) The Express was inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame in 2012. The KMHOF tells us that:

Members of the band were Greg Gucker, Blair Honeyman, Eric Larson and Mike West. They left behind some excellent recordings, but they sounded even better live. Lead guitarist Greg Gucker, now known as Greg Hartline, wrote most of their material, but they also covered other songs of the day.

https://www.ksmhof.org/2012-inductees/#burlingtonexpress

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I Shall Be Released: John Carter — “Mr. Light”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 25, 2025

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

1,632) John Carter — “Mr. Light”

Ivy Leaguer and UK songwriter extraordinaire John Carter (see #1,201, 1,304) visits Toytown and sings this exquisite demo written by Mickey Keen “featur[ing] a chuckling squirrel”. (Daz Lawrence, https://weirdbones.co.uk/climb-aboard-my-roundabout-the-british-toytown-sounds-1967-1974/)

Tim Sendra takes us on a tour of Toytown:

When Beatles released “Penny Lane” in early 1967, it struck a tinkling, twinkling chord with a generation of budding English eccentrics, oddballs, and bandwagon jumpers. Suddenly everyone and their Uncle Arthur embraced music hall-inspired, psychedelically inclined vignettes about little old ladies, tottling trains, precocious kiddies, and other topics previously deemed not very “rock & roll.” . . . [T]his mostly overlooked, sometimes derided variant of psychedelia is just as wonderfully weird and tuneful — and brilliant — as any other strain. Yes, it can be childish, it can be silly, and some of the songs here stretch the boundaries of believability, but that’s all part of the charm.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/climb-aboard-my-roundabout%21-the-british-toytown-sound-1967-1974-mw0003785495#review

Sendra tells us about Carter:

One of the leading tunesmiths of the ’60s and ’70s English pop scene, John Carter was responsible for writing big hits and timeless classics like “Can’t You Feel My Heartbeat” by Herman’s Hermits, “My World Fell Down” by Sagittarius, and the Music Explosion’s “Little Bit o’ Soul[]” . . . . the Ivy League’s “Funny How Love Can Be,” the Flowerpot Men’s “Let’s Go to San Francisco,” and “Beach Baby” for First Class. Typified by harmony vocals, simple melodies and, during the psychedelic era, very soft Baroque arrangements, the songs and productions Carter was a part of helped define the sound of English pop during his heyday. . . . Carter began writing songs at the age of 15 with classmate Ken Lewis. Inspired by the first wave of rockers . . . they worked up a batch of songs and in 1959, left their hometown [of Birmingham] for London . . . . find[ing] a publisher right away . . . . In 1960, they moved over to Southern Music and . . . began singing . . . under the name Carter-Lewis. . . . [and then] Carter-Lewis & the Southerners . . . . Between 1961 and 1964 they issued seven singles . . . . [t]heir sound was firmly rooted in the tradition of the Everly Brothers . . . . Though . . . a popular live act, the two songwriters quickly figured out that it made more sense financially to stay behind the scenes instead. Carter in particular exhibited no interest in becoming a pop star . . . . They soon shifted to cranking out demos . . . . [With] Perry Ford, [they] started . . . the Ivy League in late 1964 . . . . [W]hen the Rockin’ Berries turned down the song “Funny How Love Can Be,” the group released it themselves and had a Top Ten hit. Their sound was pitched somewhere between Del Shannon and the Beach Boys . . . . Carter left the band to head back to the . . . studio . . . with new [writing] partner Geoff Stephens. Along with songs penned for the Ivy League . . . the pair had hits with Manfred Mann, Mary Hopkin, the New Vaudeville Band, and Herman’s Hermits. Carter even ended up singing lead vocals on “Winchester Cathedral[.]” . . . [H]e was also working in the studio with a pair of songwriters, Robin Keen and Mickey Shaw, who he had signed to his newly formed music publishing company. Every week the pair would meet with Carter and play him the songs they had written. He’d pick his favorites and they would assemble a crack team of musicians to record them. Though they continued to work in this fashion for almost two years, they only issued one single, 1966’s “White Collar Worker,” [as] the Ministry of Sound. . . . Lewis left the Ivy League in 1967 and paired up with Carter again. . . . “Little Bit of Soul” [became a hit] . . . . [as did t]heir soft psychedelic confection “Let’s Go to San Francisco” . . . . Once again, Carter and Lewis decided not to go on the road and hired a band to go out and perform as the Flowerpot Men . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-carter-mn0000222625#biography

Mickey Keen, an “underrated guitarist [whose] skills can be heard in a bunch of good albums”. (Miguel Terol, https://www.oocities.org/sunsetstrip/diner/2674/keene_mickey_a.htm) Keen also co-wrote “White Collar Worker” with Carter and Robin Shaw. Christian42 writes:

[H]aving a newly established publishing company meant that John was now actively seeking new songwriters to join him and his company. At the same time, he also needed a backing band to support him in recording demos of his songs. The first person he asked was Micky Keen, his former guitarist while in the Ivy League, and Keen was all too willing to join Carter. As he was also a burgeoning songwriter in partnership with Robin Shaw, he suggested that the latter be brought in as well. Carter gladly agreed, and suddenly he had both a guitarist and a bassist, as well as a new songwriting pair to join him. That the two were also solid vocalists was simply icing on the cake.

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/tossing-and-turning-the-discography-of-john-carter-and-ken-lewis.1204914/#post-34784882

Keen was also the lead guitarist in ex-Strawbs John Ford’s and Richard Hudson’s Hudson-Ford in ’74.

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Harmony Grass — “I’ve Seen to Dream”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 24, 2025

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

1,631) Harmony Grass — “I’ve Seen to Dream”

Here is an “excellent example of blissed-out UK soft pop”. (anthonykimball7463, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEgRa0F74vo) I bliss out whenever I hear it.

Richie Unterberger opines that “at their best, which was usually on [Tony] Rivers’ original tunes, they offer some decent melodic pop/rock with intricate harmonies and melodies, as on [“Dream”] (which shows a 1966-era Beach Boys fixation)”. (https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-tony-rivers-collection-vol-2-mw0000953358)

Vernon Joynson calls Harmony Grass’ LP “something of a harmony pop classic, echoing the work of US musicians such as Love and Curt Boettcher, with strong melodies and breathtaking vocal arrangements.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)

As to Harmony Grass, Bruce Eder writes:

A late-’60s band that anticipated Prelude’s highly commercial harmony vocals, Harmony Grass evolved out of Tony Rivers & the Castaways. They were signed to RCA a year after being formed in Essex, and scored a Top 30 British hit with “Move in a Little Closer Baby.” They were unable to repeat this success, despite which they still got one LP released . . . on RCA (U.K.). They were good enough to rate supporting act status at the Marquee Club in London, but by 1970, the group had broken up.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/harmony-grass-mn0000665709#biography

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Shere Khan/The Truth — “Little Louise”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 23, 2025

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

1,630) Shere Khan/The Truth — “Little Louise”

As John Lennon once said, all I want is the Truth! (see #877, 1,552) Here, the Truth in disguise, or maybe Francis Aiello post-Truth, give us “[f]antastic . . . funky prog psych” (happening45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt-b3HlDUGQ), with “wild fuzz guitar”. (sixtiesbeat, https://www.45cat.com/record/tpr1007) “Louise” is “accomplished, mid to uptempo garage psych rock with a powerful sound performed by excellent horns which really work for once on a garage psych track, fuzz guitar, including a brief break, bass and thumping drums, topped off with an excellent, powerful vocal”. (bayard, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/shere-khan/little-louise-no-reason/)

Or, if you ask William, “[i]t’s fairly mundane, though the interesting backing of heavy kitschy sounding brass mixed with fuzz guitar is fairly intriguing and the arrangement is catchy [but] the song itself does nothing for me.” (https://anorakthing.blogspot.com/2021/05/great-unsung-uk-pop-psychfreakouts.html?m=1)

As to the Truth, All Music notes:

Hairdresser Steven Gold met future singing partner Francis Aiello while cutting the latter’s hair. Taking their name from a favourite Ray Charles’ song, “Tell The Truth”, the duo scored a UK Top 30 hit in 1966 with their debut single, an opportunistic cover of “Girl” from the Beatles’ Rubber Soul . . . . Although the Truth drew plaudits for “I Go To Sleep”, written by Ray Davies of the Kinks, it emphasized the Truth’s inability to acquire exclusive material. Subsequent singles included “Walk Away Renee” and “Sueno”, originally recorded, respectively, by the Left Banke and Rascals, but when such releases failed to chart the duo abandoned their brief pop career.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-truth-mn0000184718

Mark Deming adds that:

Aiello and [Gold, later] Jameson . . . . were faces on the mid-’60s U.K. mod scene, frequenting the right clothing stores and hitting the right nightspots. . . . [But t]he record industry didn’t put much stock in the Truth’s mod persona, and ended up treating them like any other pop group trying to make their way onto the charts. While [Aiello and Gold] wanted to model the Truth after Sam & Dave or the Righteous Brothers, the closest they got to a hit was a polished cover of the Beatles’ “Girl,” and though they could handle pop as well as blue-eyed soul (in some cases better), their belated reputation as mod heroes is the product of a few stray tracks rather than the entirety of their catalog. The Truth released just seven singles during their five-year lifespan . . . . “Baby You’ve Got It,” “She’s a Roller,” and “Baby Don’t You Know” suggest the Truth were not at their best trying to sound like soul shouters . . . . Meanwhile, Aiello and [Gold] sounded very much at home harmonizing on slicker pop productions, and their covers of “I Go to Sleep,” “Walk Away Renee,” and “I Can’t Make It Alone” are more than satisfying.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/whos-wrong-mod-bedlam-1965-1969-mw0002809900

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Zakary Thaks — “Bad Girl”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 22, 2025

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

1,629) Zakary Thaks — “Bad Girl“

I have featured garage rock classics by Corpus Christi, Texas’ Liberty Bell (see #505, 1,090, 1,390). Today, I travel back in time to LB singer Chris Gerniottis’ earlier band, Corpus Christi’s Zakary Thaks (see #1,391), which he joined when he was 15! Here is the Thaks’ first A-side, a “[s]avage” (santiagosanchezblanco9430, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLWfQRNOCvc), “frenzied garage raver” (Beverly Paterson, liner notes to the CD comp Zachary Thaks: Form the Habit), “[p]roto hardcore punk” (effjeff8393, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLWfQRNOCvc), “[p]erhaps the most electrifying two minutes committed to record [in ’66, i]ncredible”. (maynardmoreland, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLWfQRNOCvc) “[W]hat the F*CK this is fantastic”! (AnotherRandomPoser, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLWfQRNOCvc) Indeed.

ZK wins the All Music Guide triple crown, with Richie Unterberger, Mark Deming, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine all ecstatic about the band — and deservedly so!

Unterberger writes:

[T]he songwriting and musicianship [is] at a far higher level than most ’60s garage bands could boast, with just as much insouciant youthful energy. . . .

One of the best garage bands of the ’60s, and one of the best teenage rock groups of all time, Zakary Thaks released a half-dozen regionally distributed singles in 1966 and 1967; some were hits in their hometown of Corpus Christi, TX, but none were heard elsewhere . . . . Heavily indebted (as were so many bands) to R&B-influenced British heavyweights . . . the group added a thick dollop of Texas raunch to their fuzzy, distorted guitars and hell-bent energy. Most importantly, they were first-rate songwriters . . . Their 1967 singles found the group moving into psychedelic territory; some songs betrayed a Moby Grape influence, and some good melodic numbers were diluted by poppy arrangements . . . . Lead singer Chris Gerniottis [was] only 15 when Zakary Thaks began making records . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/form-the-habit-mw0000657979, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/zakary-thaks-mn0000594426#biography

Deming writes:

Texas produced more than its share of great garage rock bands during the mid-’60s, and one of the very best . . . were the Zakary Thaks, a Corpus Christi combo whose instrumental skill, songwriting acumen, and frantic energy belied their age — the five members of the group were all between the ages of 15 and 17 when they cut their blazing debut single, “Bad Girl,” which earned them a short-lived deal with Mercury Records . . . . [T]heir collected body of work is consistently strong and surprisingly eclectic, with the hot-wired garage attack of “Bad Girl” evolving into a sound that encompassed folk-rock, psychedelia, and pop without going stale along the way. . . . [A]s good as regionally released ’60s garage rock gets, with fine songs, strong and imaginative playing, and a passion that extended beyond simple teenage bravado . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/passage-to-india-mw0002066051

Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes:

[O]ne of the best unheralded American rock & roll outfits of the ’60s[, they] weren’t pioneers as much as fierce synthesizers who channeled every upheaval of the British Invasion into wily, inventive rock & roll. . . . [They had] a similar sense of sonic adventure and jangly melodicism [as the Yardbirds and the Kinks]. . . . develop[ing] quickly during their nearly four years together . . . . adept . . . in navigating the shifting fashions of the late ’60s . . . .This group of rampaging teenage Texans made passionate rock & roll that still sounds invigorating decades later . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/its-the-end-the-definitive-collection-mw0002801694

*Who is Zakary Thaks?! Gerniottis explains that “[s]omeone saw it somewhere in a magazine and it sounded different. And it also sounded English, which was perfect since we were all heavily into the whole British Invasion thing.” (liner notes to the CD comp Zachary Thaks: Form the Habit)

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The Plastic Cloud — “Epistle to Paradise”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 21, 2025

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

1,628) The Plastic Cloud — “Epistle to Paradise”

This Canadian pop psych/folk rock gem is a glimpse of the Plastic Cloud’s (see #172) “dreamy, softer folk-rock side … a nice trippy production and attractive ringing guitars” (Jason, https://therisingstorm.net/the-plastic-cloud-the-plastic-cloud/), with “Byrds-like harmonies . . . sound[ing] like a more ornate and trippier follow-up to ‘Renaissance Fair’ coupled with ‘Here Without You’”. (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-plastic-cloud-mw0000309274)

Allied Records’ press release informed the buying public (what there was of it) that:

[“Epistle”] a very deceptive song. It makes you feel very secure if you don’t understand it, and a little wary if you do. The cloud is telling you that you can live any way you want to, but don’t try to “trade their minds” for your particular way of life. You[r] epistle to happiness may just not be theirs.

Allied Record Co. News Note, liner notes to the CD reissue of The Plastic Cloud

Patrick Lunsford says of their sole LP — The Plastic Cloud — that:

The Canadian late 1960s freak scene produced several terrific LPs and here’s one of the ultimates, with an appeal to both garage fuzz-heads and psych album collectors. The mix of dreamy [West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (see #197, 488, 1,267)]-style vocals with ripping fuzz and sub-Dylanesque lyrics works better than one might imagine possible, and the LP gains appeal from its youthful basement edge. This is one of the big, mandatory pieces of the field . . . .

The Acid Archives, 2nd Ed.

Bruce Eder writes that:

The Plastic Cloud’s self-titled album is a strangely compelling and overall delightful mix of West Coast ’60s sounds, without any two songs sounding exactly alike, or even displaying the same attributes. Not that any fan of that era will mind any of it . . . . [Its] all enjoyable and full of pleasant surprises. . . . They were signed to Allied Records in Ontario and got one self-titled LP out which, sadly enough, never found an audience, despite beautiful production and some bold, ambitious use of psychedelic effects. Their vocals were pretty and they played better than that, and the results, with a sympathetic producer in charge, were mighty impressive — their one album is worth hearing a lot more than once, and you get the feeling that if these guys had been working out of, say, L.A. or the Bay Area and been signed to a label with some real marketing power, they’d be a lot more than a footnote today with exactly the music they did leave behind.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-plastic-cloud-mw0000309274, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-plastic-cloud-mn0000894455#biography

Michael Panontin adds:

Brewer penned all eight songs on The Plastic Cloud, which like most of the records released by Jack Boswell on Allied was extremely limited, with allegedly just 500 copies pressed up. The album sort of feels like two discs in one, bookending the summer of love with alternating mid-sixties folk-rock gems and extended tracks of blistering late-sixties guitar work. The somewhat wooden harmonies on ‘Epistle to Paradise’ . . . [is a] fine example[] of the former, recalling the pre-psychedelic work of the early (pre-Grace Slick) Airplane or the starry-eyed folk of the Youngbloods. . . . According to RPM, the group had “taken a plunge into the unwelcome world of Canadian originality for which they deserve an ‘A’ for effort”. . . . [The LP] drifted into the bargain bins without much notice.

https://www.canuckistanmusic.com/index.php?maid=143

Jason adds:

[Their] sole album has languished in obscurity. Psych fans and collectors remain divided, however: collectors consider Plastic Cloud one of Canada’s best psych albums (or indeed the best from anywhere) while some jaded day-trippers merely find it just ok/nothing special. . . . At first listen I was not impressed with the Plastic Cloud’s only offering. After reading all the hype about mind-jarring fuzz guitars and John Lennon-like vocals I found the disc rather mediocre and unimpressive. After several more spins I began to appreciate the band’s intensity and lysergic charm: this disc truly does deliver the goods if you’re into hardcore, late-night psych sounds. . . . While not a major classic, Plastic Cloud is surely one of the better Canadian psych albums and is consistently good throughout. . . . these guitar tones coil, uncoil, and burrow deep into your head like all great psych guitar solos should.

https://therisingstorm.net/the-plastic-cloud-the-plastic-cloud/

As to the Cloud, Michael Panontin tells us:

[T]he Plastic Cloud (from Bay Ridges in present-day Pickering) recorded [a] superb and highly sought-after psychedelic LP[] for the Allied label . . . . There hasn’t been a lot of ink spilled on the Plastic Cloud, and so the group remains one of the true remaining mysteries out there in the Canuck cyberlands. The group were a four-piece led by their 22-year-old guitarist and lead vocalist Don Brewer, with guitarist Mike Cadieux, bassist Brian Madill and drummer Randy Umphrey rounding things out. They formed in 1967, and by the tail end of 1968 . . . the guys had issued their only LP . . . .

https://www.canuckistanmusic.com/index.php?maid=143

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Philamore Lincoln — “The North Wind Blew South”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 20, 2025

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

1,627) Philamore Lincoln — “The North Wind Blew South”

Two score and fifteen years ago, Epic brought forth, upon this continent, new “absolutely superb . . . lush, orchestrated psychedelic folk that washes over you when you hear it” (Gabriel_II), “dreamy but majestic” (James Allen, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-north-wind-blew-south-mw0000842098), conceived in Nottingham (but not even released in the UK!), and dedicated to the proposition that the north wind blows south.

As to this ‘70 LP by Nottingham’s Philamore Lincoln, James wAllen writes:

Given its release date, [the LP] sounds like it could have been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years, as the wispy, Donovan-like psych pop that takes up much of the album feels more like 1968 than 1970. . . . [O]verall, Lincoln’s gentle vocals and breezy delivery perfectly suit his songwriting (he penned every tune here himself) and producer James Wilder finds just the right arrangement for each track, making this a bit of a lost classic of the U.K. soft-psych world.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-north-wind-blew-south-mw0000842098

Beachbeatle1 enthuses:

Beautiful obscure baroque-psych-pop gem of soft folky material & a few rockers emerging in the twilight of the peace and love generation. . . . [A] terrific album whose gifted song writing & arranging breathy vocals simple drum and bass foundations & haunting string arrangements accentuate this eclectic LP. Look out for Jimmy Page playing lead guitar on several tracks . . . . A rare ornate beauty.

https://www.discogs.com/release/3283259-Philamore-Lincoln-The-North-Wind-Blew-South?srsltid=AfmBOopm8ss4NdSilaX9g6zvD-4XagO9qFVbpERqqxEVEcEbOSLn_1P1

RDTEN1 adds:

[The LP contains a] consistently interesting mix of genres including folk . . . country . . . and plenty of pop-psych moves. . . . [Lincoln] . . . had a knack from penning radio-friendly hooks that combined a variety of then-popular genres. Virtually every one of these ten tunes had commercial potential. . . . The album was also interesting from a marketing standpoint in that it was released in the US and Canada, but not the UK. Epic released the two Lincoln singles in advance of the album and their failure to sell may have convinced the label there was no market for the album in the UK.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/philamore-lincoln/the-north-wind-blew-south-1/

And Gabriel_II:

[The] album specifically contains a decent number of famous names in terms of session musicians, most notably Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin contributing a guitar solo on “You’re The One”, not too long before he became famous. After the two Paladin releases, Lincoln . . . became disillusioned with the music industry and never really went back to it. . . . The record does try out a few different sonic palettes though, and I think this experimentation is fine for the most part. Generally it sticks into one of three categories: psychedelic folk, solid baroque pop song-writing, and two tracks that are much more like blues rock jams. Those two tracks . . . are not terrible tracks, but they don’t suit Phil’s style in my mind. . . . Considering Phil did all the flute playing and string arrangements too, it just comes off as an incredibly fascinating record with some of the best moments in psychedelic folk as a genre.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/philamore-lincoln/the-north-wind-blew-south-1/

As to Mr. Lincoln, David Wells tells us that:

Philamore Lincoln was born Robert Cromwell Anson . . . In Sherwood, Nottingham. He started playing drums in his mid-teens before joining the RAF, where he played in a band . . . . It was at this juncture that Anson began to call himself Phil Kinorra in honour of his three favourite jazz drummers – Phil Seamen,Tony Kinsey and Bobby Orr. After leaving the RAF, Kinorra worked in summer shows and variety acts before coming down to London at the beginning of 1960 as part of an R&B band . . . . By early 1967, Julien Covey and the Machine had settled down to a line-up [with] Kinorra on vocals . . . . Linking up with Island label producer Jimmy Miller, Covey and the Machine cut a great single, ‘A Little Bit Hurt’ . . . . Released in May 1967, [it] attracted a lot of support from the pirate radio stations and was popular in the club discotheques, but didn’t quite make the transition to national chart success. . . . According to press reports at the time, Julien Covey and the Machine were offered a five-year deal by Island, but the group split in the autumn of 1967, at which juncture John Moorshead joined the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation. After a brief reunion with Graham Bond, Anson/Kinorra/Covey then underwent yet another musical metamorphosis and change of name, reinventing himself as Donovan style psychedelic folk troubadour Philamore Lincoln. Using this name, he released a September 1968 single for the NEMS label, ‘Running By The River’ b/w ‘Rainy Day’. [The A-side] was a beguiling slice of folkadelia . . . . When NEMS collapsed in 1969, a number of its acts transferred to CBS, who had distributed the label. The excellent ‘Rainy Day’ was resurrected . . . but there were plenty of new songs that attained the same heights. . . . The North Wind Blew South failed to garner much attention, and Lincoln’s next act was to produce the self-titled, May 1971 debut album for the progressive rock band Paladin, who included two of his former Julien Covey and the Machine colleagues . . . . After that, though, the Philamore Lincoln trail goes cold.

https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/05/philamore-lincoln-north-wind-blew-south.html

Here are Headless Heroes with a cool cover:

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Mark Eric — “Don’t Cry Over Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 19, 2025

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

1,626) Mark Eric — “Don’t Cry Over Me”

Brian Wilson’s greatest lost album is actually . . . Mark Eric Malmborg’s A Midsummer’s Day Dream (see #326, 948)! It is “one of the lost slices of pop perfection from late 60’s Southern California” (Bill Wikstrom, http://talkaboutpoppopmusic.blogspot.com/2009/10/mark-eric-midsummers-day-dream.html), a “beautiful album” that “catch[es] the tail end of LA’s pop innocence perfectly, just as it was gone forever”. (https://www.lpcdreissues.com/item/a-midsummer-s-day) I don’t know whether Brian ever heard today’s song from the LP, but if he did, I am sure he would have felt proud. In any event, it serves as a touching tribute.

Bad Cat goes on about the album:

[The LP is] probably the best Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys album they never released. . . . Interestingly, Eric and his collaborator/arranger former Animals guitarist Vic Briggs apparently wrote these twelve tracks as demos intending to place them with other acts. . . . but the results were so impressive that Revue decided to release it as a Marc Eric effort. Musically the album was already several years out of step with popular tastes so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see the parent LP and singles vanish directly into cutout bins.

http://badcatrecords.com/ERICmark.htm

As does Larry:

Mark Eric’s music has been described – accurately – as some of the best Beach Boys material not actually created by Mr Wilson and his henchmen. . . . [H]e seems to have internalized the post-Pet Sounds vibe, mixing it with a healthy dose of Sunshine Pop. . . . I’m always amazed that someone was able/willing to pull something like this off in 1969. There were certainly legions of Brian Wilson fanboys appropriating his sound (ironically or not) in the 80s and 90s, but for someone to dig this deep into that sound, and pull it off so well while the Beach Boys prime was still in the ether (as it were) was remarkable. . . . [R]ecord store basements of the world are packed floor to ceiling with 45s by acts that were dead set on imitating the Beach Boys, Beatles, Byrds, Rolling Stones and others, most of whom made a hash of it. To hear an entire album so well done, in regard to songcraft, arranging and performing, yet so obviously derivative is a remarkable and rare thing.

https://ironleg.wordpress.com/2013/09/01/the-california-sunshine-of-mark-eric/

About Mark Eric, Bryan Thomas tells us:

L.A. native Mark Eric was leading the Southern California dream life in his teens — surfing by day and writing songs about girls by night — before his musical talents drew him to Hollywood. He was 16 when he met Russ Regan, then at Warner Bros., but his first break came while waiting in the lobby of label honcho Lou Sadler’s office. There he met Bob Raucher, an engineer at local KHJ radio station . . . . Raucher took a liking to the suntanned surfer/songwriter, and, under his “personal management,” Eric was soon recording at Gold Star studios in Hollywood. One of his songs was later recorded by the Four Freshmen . . . . Subsequent sessions by Eric, backed with studio musicians, led to another meeting with Regan, now heading up UNI . . , who signed the promising soft pop singer to the label. Eric only recorded one album . . . which was released in 1969 on UNI’s R&B subsidiary, Revue Records. . . . One of [Erik’s] songs, “Fly Me a Place for the Summer,” was later recorded by the Mike Curb Congregation [see #57] for an airline commercial. . . .

Eric’s charming, somewhat imperfect falsetto (in a somewhat obvious homage to Brian Wilson) hints at a subterranean layer of loneliness throughout. His self-penned, broken-hearted Beach Boys-style ballads . . . are, in fact, the perfect vehicle for his faltering upper-register voice.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mark-eric-mn0000273359, https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-midsummers-day-dream-mw0000663846

Here is Mark Eric’s Brian Wilson moment:

A childhood friend afforded Mark the opportunity to meet the Beach Boys first hand by taking him to a taping of the Andy Williams Show. . . .

[Mark:] “One of the neatest things was Brian was busy writing a song, and the only thing I heard was, ‘We met when she was younger,” and he and Al were going over the parts, and he said, ‘Al, sing it like this.’ He was really playing furiously with his bass writing the song in his head. This was during the rehearsal and he was writing on the spot in front of everyone! And then other fragments of the song would start to appear. A couple months later, ‘Little Girl I Once Knew’ was being played on the radio.”

Steve Stanley, liner notes to the CD reissue of A Midsummer’s Day Dream

Oh, and Black Cat informs us that “Eric subsequently turned his time and attention to modeling, commercials and acting, briefly appearing in a number of early-1970s television shows including The Partridge Family and Hawaii 5-0.” (http://badcatrecords.com/ERICmark.htm)

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Mel & Tim — “Do Right Baby”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 18, 2025

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

1,625) Mel & Tim — “Do Right Baby”

The B-side to their #10 hit (#3 R&B) “Backfield in Motion” does right by me. “I’m digging this MORE than the huge hit . . . from the same album.” (litlgrey, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMFj2tVMqng) It “is just as great, with a jaunty little groove, and the kind of vocal pyrotechnics that always made Mel & Tim so great.” ( Dusty Groove, https://www.dustygroove.com/item/41339/Mel-Tim:Backfield-In-Motion-Do-Right-Baby)

Steve Huey tells us of Mel & Tim:

Chicago soul duo Mel & Tim were cousins — Mel Hardin and Tim McPherson — who actually hailed from Holly Springs, MS, and made their way to Chicago via St. Louis. They were discovered by Gene Chandler and signed to his Bamboo label in 1969, when they scored a Top Ten pop and R&B single with the good-humored classic “Backfield in Motion.” The follow-up, “Good Guys Only Win in the Movies,” supplied the title for their first album and hit the R&B Top 20 later that year. Mel & Tim subsequently moved to Stax, where they landed a second Top Five R&B smash with the ballad “Starting All Over Again” . . . . Mel & Tim performed at the late-1972 charity concert Wattstax and were featured in the documentary film of the same name, singing “I May Not Be What You Want.” Their self-titled final album appeared in 1973, after which the cousins faded away from the music scene.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mel-tim-mn0000869392#biography

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The Majority — “Wait by the Fire”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 17, 2025

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

1,624) The Majority — “Wait by the Fire”

This B-side, co-written by Chip “Wild Thing” Taylor (and Al Gorgoni), is an “[a]mazing find of PURE MAGIC”. (liner notes to the CD comp Fading Yellow: Volume 4: Timeless UK 60’s Popsike & Other Delights) It was “[a]rranged to maximize The Majority’s (see #1,440) vocal abilities and with the group’s line-up augmented with subtle orchestration and vibes, the band turned [it] into a haunting, minor key pop classic that compares favorably with similar efforts by the Zombies.” (Stefan Granados, liner notes to the CD comp The Majority: The Decca Years 1965-68)

Incidentally, the Majority itself considered the A-side “so horrible that they kept it off their compilation CD. Stefan Granados writes that:

[The Majority] kicked off 1967 with their first major mis-step, a horrific cover of the old pop standard “I Hear a Rhapsody[]” . . . . Decca had presumably hoped that pairing the group with hit making producer Ivor Raymonde might reward The Majority . . . . [It] had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

liner notes to the CD comp The Majority: The Decca Years 1965-68

As to the Majority, Richie Unterberger tells us:

The Majority issued eight U.K. singles on Decca between 1965 and 1968 without reaching the British charts, though they were a reasonably accomplished band, especially in the vocal harmony department. . . . [It] sounded more American than the typical British Invasion band, with harmonies and, usually, material more in line with U.S. pop/rock acts like the Beach Boys and sunshine pop groups than most of their U.K. peers. While it’s fairly enjoyable stuff, it’s easy to hear why they became a sort of “in-between” group, with too much going for them to get dropped from their label, but not enough going for them to score hit records. One reason is that they didn’t establish much of an identity, their arrangements veering from mild British Invasion sounds to quasi-Walker Brothers productions and late-’60s British orchestrated pop with the slightest of psychedelic touches. Another is that none of their material, most of it supplied by outside writers, was particularly great, though it was usually pleasant (if not much more). They did do songs by some outstanding composers, including Chip Taylor, who co-wrote “Wait by the Fire,” and the Bee Gees, whose “All Our Christmases” [see #1,440] was never issued by the Bee Gees themselves. . . .

Of the many British Invasion-era bands that never had a hit . . . the Majority had more staying power than most . . . . They never quite found a consistent stylistic direction or great material, however, before changing their name to Majority One in the late ’60s. Formed in Hull, England, as the Mustangs in the early ’60s, they changed their name to the Majority around the time they moved to London in 1965. . . . [T]hey tried their hand at a variety of material over the next few years, most of it coming from outside songwriters. As a minor coup of sorts, for their second single, 1965’s “A Little Bit of Sunlight,” they managed to gain access to a Ray Davies composition that never found a place on a 1960s Kinks record . . . . In search of chart material, the Majority also tried compositions written or co-written by such luminaries as John Carter [see #1,201, 1,304], Twice as Much, and Chip Taylor. But they never hit a commercial or artistic gold mine, the production varying from the lush to straightforward mod-ish rock. . . . After some major lineup shuffles and work backing singer Barry Ryan in concert and in the studio, the Majority relocated to France, where they renamed themselves Majority One in 1969 and continued their recording career with a similar but more sophisticated musical approach.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-decca-years-1965-68-mw0000824899, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-majority-mn0000058153#biography

By the way, Taylor and Gorgoni had originally recorded “Wait by the Fire” on their I Can’t Grow Peaches on a Cherry Tree LP (as Just Us). Richie Unterberger writes of the LP that:

[It] isn’t folk-rock; it’s polite pop-folk, and more easy listening pop than folk. . . . The songs — most of them original . . . are mildly pleasant but unmemorably milquetoast, occasionally pushed even more toward easy listening territory with string arrangements. . . . [A] few of the more haunting numbers have a melodramatic cast that might have made them more suitable for theatrical musicals than pop records.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-cant-grow-peaches-on-a-cherry-tree-mw0001368653

Here is Just Us:

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Nobody’s Children — “Girl, I Need You”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 16, 2025

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

1,623) Nobody’s Children — “Girl, I Need You”

I can find out nothin’ about Nobody’s Children, but this is sure one fine Chicago garage A-side — from the band’s only single. “Insanely rare private Chicago garage fuzz from 1967 on the tiny Kiderian label.” (Popsike.com, https://www.popsike.com/VG-Nobodys-Children-Girl-I-Need-You-67-HARD-CHARGING-GARAGE-FUZZ-45/283108585250.html)

Here is the instrumental version on the flip side:

begins at 16:58

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Flowers Never Bend Special Edition: Paul Simon/Toast — “Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 15, 2025

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

1,621) Paul Simon — “Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall”

Paul Simon gives us such a gorgeous and contemplative song with “an absolutely stellar melody” (NeonMadman, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/american-tunes-paul-simon-song-by-song.1164065/page-154), “a beautiful and simple melody, and the harmonies are gorgeous”. (olneyce, https://www.heartachewithhardwork.com/2013/03/top-10-paul-simon-songs.html) “[T]here’s something so fragile and lovely about it, I fall under its sway pretty easily”. (Mooserfan, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/american-tunes-paul-simon-song-by-song.1164065/page-156) This is “Simon at his most reflectively philosophical, dealing with age and its changes . . . with a dissonant note (literally) at the end that anticipated the style of the duo’s next album.” (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/album/parsley-sage-rosemary-and-thyme-mw0000191849) “[I]t probably best sums up those nights spent alone in my room as an angsty teenager.” (45 Ruminations Per Megabyte, https://45ruminationspermegabyte.com/2018/08/02/ten-albums-simon-and-garfunkel-parsley-sage-rosemary-and-thyme-1966/)

Matthew Greenwald writes that:

[“Flowers”] is a simple yet very likeable slice of pop confection. As with many of Simon’s songs, this is a simple yet insightful self-analysis, filled with pathos and humor. Musically, it showcases Simon’s pop instincts in a very powerful and charming way. There are many other songs of his from this period that are indeed better, but the sense of craftsmanship easily puts it on the level of Simon’s other, more ambitious creations.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/flowers-never-bend-with-the-rainfall-mt0028618671

The first version of the song is on Simon’s UK-only solo album, The Paul Simon Songbook, the second with Art Garfunkel on Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. I prefer the solo version, as do some others, such as:

Chris Bord, who writes that it is a “quiet stunner . . . superior to the later over-produced version” (https://mossislandsounds.com/2015/03/19/the-paul-simon-songbook-1965/)

And JamesRR: “[T]he difference between two versions is monumental. I love the sparse version on PSSB – I really get into the lyrics more, I feel it more. The S&G version almost mucks it up with harmonies and faster rhythm, a totally different song to me. The original is what folk is all about.” (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/american-tunes-paul-simon-song-by-song.1164065/page-157)

And Eskimo Chain: “The S&G version 3/5 it just grates, having been so enamoured of the Songbook version hearing it upbeat with slick production and harmonising just sounds so wrong to me, it’s one man with his guitar trying to (very earnestly) work stuff out so with all the trimmings in the later version it’s just not for me.” (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/american-tunes-paul-simon-song-by-song.1164065/page-157)

Jim Beviglia loves the S&G version: “Much of Simon’s earliest songwriting is rife with the heavy thoughts that trouble young deep thinkers. In this song . . . the melodic lightness and the breezy, mid-tempo rhythm counteract all of the pondering quite nicely. Another hallmark of the song is the way that Paul and Artie trade off on the vocals so deftly, interchangeably coming to the fore and regressing, before rising together in glorious harmony.” (https://www.culturesonar.com/paul-simon-songs/)

As does Meet Me in Montauk: “[It] has always been a favorite of mine for the way their voices blend on the verses before Garfunkel lifts the chorus gently into the clouds. But this solo version is sweetly perfect as well.” (https://meetinmontauk.com/2011/09/25/song-of-the-day-1571-flowers-never-bend-with-the-rainfall-paul-simon/)

And Rfreeman: “A pretty perfect tune in the S&G version. Much less compelling solo acoustic. Heavily Dylan influenced verses but Paul using his own sincere lyrical voice within the idiom Dylan invented . . . . And a beautifully melodic chorus and lovely harmonies.” (https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/american-tunes-paul-simon-song-by-song.1164065/page-154)

As to PSSB, Bruce Eder writes:

[O]ne of the most mysterious [LPs] in Paul Simon’s output and almost belongs more with Simon & Garfunkel’s discography, given its 1965 recording date. Following the failure of Simon & Garfunkel’s first, all-acoustic folk revival-style album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, Simon headed off to England to see about pursuing music over there. While he was in London, he found himself in demand as a visiting American “folksinger” (though Simon’s credentials in this area were rather limited), began building up a following in the coffeehouses, and was eventually pegged for a performing spot on the BBC. Suddenly, there were requests for Paul Simon recordings, of which there were none — as a result of his being signed to Columbia Records in America, however, he was brought into the London studios of British CBS and recorded this album with only his acoustic guitar for backup. The resulting album is spare, almost minimalist, as Simon runs through raw and unaffected versions of songs that he was known for in London, including “The Sounds of Silence,” “The Sun Is Burning,” “I Am a Rock,” “A Simple Desultory Philippic” . . . and “Kathy’s Song.” . . . [T]he production by Reginald Warburton and Stanley West . . . isn’t terribly sympathetic; the sound isn’t very natural, being very close and booming, but the album is a fascinating artifact of Simon’s work during the interregnum in Simon & Garfunkel’s career. And there is one fascinating number here, “The Side of a Hill,” which eventually resurfaced as the countermelody song in the Simon & Garfunkel version of “Scarborough Fair” (a song curious by its absence here, considering that Simon was doing it in his coffeehouse appearances) two years later.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-paul-simon-songbook-mw0000050335

Here are Simon and Garfunkel:

1,622) Toast — “Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall”

The UK’s Toast give us a lovely heavily orchestrated version. The Piccadilly Sunshine comp says:

The Toast comprised of Henry Marsh (the son of racing driver Ken Marsh), Simon Byrne and John Perry who came together in Dorset circa 1967 having trodden the weary boards with hapless local gigs as Utopia Somerset. The band renamed themselves as Toast heading out in London in 1968 under the supervision of producer and songwriter John Edward, a Radio London disk jockey and one-time member of David Jones’ (AKA Bowie) Manish Boys. . . . The agency also recorded a number of demos for the band in 1969 which would eventually seal their contract with producer Tony Cox. Meanwhile the band had already managed an appearance on Colour Me Pop for the BBC . . . . With the entrails of psychedelia having been exposed during their time with the Instant Sound agency, 1970 warranted a new direction and the band met up with new manager Tony Cox who arranged for the band to record a version of “Flowers Never Bend”. The single disappeared quickly amidst the piles of progressive circumstance in 1970 and yet again the band packed came to a brief halt.

liner notes to Piccadilly Sunshine: Volumes 11-20: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era

Toast:

Here is Australia’s Shirley Abicair:

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Blonde on Blonde — “All Day, All Night”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 14, 2025

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

1,620) Blonde on Blonde — “All Day, All Night”

This Welsh band’s (see #227, 267, 1,089) debut A-side is a “densely atmospheric slice of neo-Eastern psychedelic hokum” (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp Psychedelic Pstones: Volume 1: Hot Smoke and Sassafras) — and he means that in the best way! — “with a melody line that was embellished by an hallucinatory gauze of shimmering sitar runs from Gareth Johnson” (David Wells, liner notes to the CD reissue of Contrasts), “a wilting, claustrophobic performance, deriving much of its charm from Les Hick’s tabla-playing and some shimmering, heat-haze sitar runs from Gareth Johnson”. (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) OK, its shimmering!

However, “All Day, All Night”‘s “songwriter and former club folkie [Simon] Lawrence had been ousted by the time that Blonde on Blonde embarked upon sessions for their debut album Contrasts.” (David Wells, liner notes to Hot Smoke and Sassafras)

As to BoB (named after BoB Dylan’s double LP), Bruce Eder writes:

Blonde on Blonde . . . were spawned in 1967 out of a Welsh blues-rock band called the Cellar Set. Garett Johnson played the guitar, sitar, and lute, while Richard Hopkins handled the bass, piano, harpsichord, cornet, celeste, and whistle, and Les Hicks played the drums. The addition of Ralph Denyer made them into a quartet with vocals; and Simon Lawrence . . . was with them briefly, as well, on 12-string guitar. The group took part in the Middle Earth Club’s Magical Mystery Tour, which brought them an initial splash of press exposure. They were also fortunate enough to open for the Jefferson Airplane on the[ir] British tour. All of this activity led to an approach by Pye Records producer Barry Murray, who got them signed to the label, and through whom they released their debut single “All Day, All Night” b/w “Country Life.” Though decidedly guitar-based in their sound, the band’s music also used psychedelic pop arrangements that gave it an almost orchestral majesty which, when coupled with Johnson’s sitar and lute embellishments and Hopkins’ harpsichord and other unusual keyboards — with Hicks getting into the act on the tabla — gave them an appealingly exotic sound. Their live performances were frequently divided . . . into acoustic and electric sets, in order to show off their full range. The group issued their first album, Contrasts, in 1969 . . . — that record showed more of the early but burgeoning influence of progressive rock, while retaining their early psychedelic coloration. That same year, the band played to the largest single audience of its entire history when they appeared at the first Isle of Wight Festival. They also issued their second single “Castles in the Sky” . . . and LP Rebirth which featured a new lineup — Denyer had exited the band to form Aquila, ceding his spot in Blonde on Blonde to singer-guitarist David Thomas. . . . [T]heir third LP, Reflections on a Life . . . . failed to sell any better than their prior releases . . . and the group broke up in 1972 . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/blonde-on-blonde-mn0000052978#biography

Eetu Pellonpää adds:

[Blonde on Blonde] was exploring the areas pioneered by 1967 psychedelic acts like PINK FLOYD, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE and CREAM, but in a much larger scale of influences . . . having a more wider musical palette than the bands . . . . Their music is a dance between contrasts of free impressionism paired with predefined melodic more carefully constructed elements, varying from streetwise side to high levels of spirituality, from folk tones, classical guitar runs and mantra like instrumental runs, bursting with oriental musical influences, introducing cosmic drones running hypnotically on varying time scales, and all this paired with hard rock tones of heavy psychedelic guitar . . . . Their lyrics are quite basic trippy poems, but also thoughtful, emotional and interesting at their best . . . . There is melancholy in their music, but there is also hope and happiness among it.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=3298

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Argosy — “Imagine”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 13, 2025

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

1,619) Argosy — “Imagine”

Blind Faith may have been the Supergroup of ’69, but Argosy was the BeforeTheyWereSuperandBeforeTheyWereSupertramp-Supergroup of ’69. Blind Faith had Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Rick Grech and Steve Winwood. Well, Argosy had Roger Hodgson, Elton John (then Reginald Dwight) (see #175, 1,598), Caleb Quaye (see #175, 807, 1,169), and Nigel Olsson! Blind Faith was over in a flash, only recording one LP. Well, Argosy was over in a nanoflash, only recording one single!

But what a 45 it was, a “melancholy string drenched popsike 45 which goes for a bit of money partly due to the connections with Supertramp and Elton John but probably mainly because it’s very good indeed!” (45TopCat, https://www.45cat.com/record/djs214) Both glorious sides were written by Hodgson. I’ve played the A-side (see #1,393), here is the B-side. “Imagine” is “more hit material” than the A-side, and “could pass for a great Supertramp song”. (cheezhead6007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ECu0Yq3hBs) SwedxSimon says:

[“Imagine” is] the standout here. . . . an orchestral flower power piece, a flawless pop composition which echoes “The Logical Song” [Hodgson would] write ten years later both melodically and lyrically, only . . . here we find him still refusing to leave the magic of childhood and urging others to find back to it, rather than being sentimental about the loss of it.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/argosy/mr-boyd-imagine-1/

“I’ll take you away to a place where the sun shines on whistling waves of sand And we’ll dance and we’ll sing for a year and a day to a Sgt. Pepper band”

One wag calls it “[t]he best song called Imagine ever written”! (robyourtime, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ECu0Yq3hBs) Well, maybe . . . .

Here are some excerpts from a Russell Trunk interview with Roger Hodgson:

(Trunk) And being that you had a session band backing you that included pianist Reg Dwight (Elton John), what are your memories of that glorious time?

(Hodgson) When I left school, I really didn’t know how to proceed or how to break into the music industry at all. The only lead I had was the band Traffic, Steve Winwood’s band. They lived a few miles away from me, so I used to go and knock on their door whenever I had enough courage to do that. One of the demo tapes that I made of my songs got into a music publisher’s hands in London. He liked what he heard. He signed me up and put me in a studio in London which was my first time in a recording studio with session musicians, one of whom was a man called Reg Dwight who later became known as Elton John. He had an incredible band with him; some of them were members of the band that he toured with later, Caleb Quaye and Nigel Olsson on drums. They did an awesome job of playing my songs and then I sang on top this music. . . . “Mr. Boyd[]” . . . came very close to becoming a hit in England. It was played a lot on the radio but never actually charted. If it has been successful, my destiny would have been different.

https://annecarlini.com/ex_interviews.php?id=1275

Wow, only one degree of separation between Argosy and Blind Faith!

Paul Pearson waxes philosophical about the Hodgson/Dwight hookup:

This collaboration wasn’t improbable when it happened in 1969. It might have been more improbable a few years later, after the respective participants had established superstar careers of their own, but back in 1969, before either of them had made too much headway in the music scene, it wasn’t improbable at all. Which is not to say it was probable. Come to think of it probability and improbability, relatively aspeaking, probably don’t have that much to do with this collaboration. If you ask me I would say there’s more an element of randomness to this collaboration. There were no reasons or conditions either favoring or disfavoring this collaboration from happening in the time and place when it did, which was 1969 in England. But perhaps the absence of reasons or conditions tilting the scales in either direction, by merit of its absence, would therefore confer that the collaboration was in fact improbable. This argument, of course, omits the view of many monotheistic faiths that worldly fate is predetermined by forces outside our control or accessibility, a view this blog considers specious. . . .

http://paul-pearson.blogspot.com/2016/06/song-20160618-argosy.html?m=1

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Lori Balmer — “Four Faces West”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 12, 2025

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

1,618) Lori Balmer — “Four Faces West”

An 8 (or maybe 12) year old Australian girl sings a song written for her by Barry Gibb. The song is incredible, and so is she. “Normally I am not a fan of kids singing pop songs, but there is something haunting and oddly contemporary”. (marcoschoir, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/lori-balmer/treacle-brown-four-faces-west/) “[B]y and large I can’t stand kids on pop records. . . . But every rule has its exceptions, and [this] is just brilliant. Ethereal, wistful and just a bit creepy but also mesmerising.” (mikec2137, https://www.45cat.com/record/56293) “Such powerful, succinct storytelling: The mom (not the dad!) abandons her family… Every night they stand on a wind-swept cliff waiting for her to come back. Very cinematic.” (vince_caprizzi, https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/with-the-sun-in-my-eyes-brothers-gibb-bee-gees-andy-gibb-song-by-song-thread.1188605/page-228)

Andrew Davies and Jordie Kilby tell us about Lori:

In 1966, aged just seven and using only her first name, she cut her first record, “Banjo Boy”. She danced, played tenor uke, worked the Sydney club circuit, appeared on television and was the face of the Infanteen clothing range. . . . The small and close-knit entertainment industry in Sydney gave her a solid schooling and Ms Balmer benefitted from working with many of the best performers of her day, including appearing on Johnny O’Keefe’s TV show Sing Sing Sing. “I sang ‘My Boy Lollipop’. You had to pre-record it in those days[.] When I went in to record the vocals they couldn’t get the mic down low enough. So they had to stack a whole lot of telephone books . . . . “ The Gibb family were close to the Balmers and Lori collaborated with the Bee Gees on a couple of early singles. The first, “Who’s Been Writing on the Wall” and the B-side “In Your World”, was recorded just before they left for the UK and stardom. “The Gibbs had their going away party at our place and then off they went . . . in 1967. Andy [Gibb] kept writing to me telling me first of all that they were to be signed to Brian Epstein, but of course he passed away that same year and Robert [Stigwood] continued and took on the personal management as well as the business management. And through a series of events they said ‘come over’.” Balmer boarded a ship herself not long after and was soon recording a second single, “Treacle Brown”, and its B-Side, “Four Faces West”,* in London. “Barry [Gibb] had written [‘Four Faces West’] for me at the time. We were working in the studio, just working out doing the vocals. Most of these things were done in a couple of takes. Then Robin [Gibb] came in and said, ‘I’ve just written a song, just try it out.’ So he played it through a couple of times, which was ‘Treacle Brown’, and I learned it on the spot and two takes later that was down.” In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s Balmer toured the UK and Europe singing with a broad range of acts . . . . In 1974 her family moved back to Australia and Balmer began recording for Festival Records. She released a handful of singles under her full name . . . . Balmer [found] herself in demand as a studio and backing singer. . . . [S]he sang on stage and recorded with names like . . . Jeff St John [see #470, 1,231], INXS, Midnight Oil, [and] The Church . . . . During the 1980s, Balmer split her time between Australia the US, UK and Japan, where she worked under another name as a model, vocalist and dancer. In Australia she was too often remembered as a child star and international work allowed her to start afresh. . . . Balmer became involved in the new romantic, post punk and rock scenes and supported an incredibly diverse range of performers like The Rolling Stones, Johnny Rotten, U2, Lionel Richie, Joe Cocker, Ian Dury, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Van Halen and Tina Turner.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/archived/rarecollections/lori-balmer-a-lifetime-in-music/6008242

* Terriannross says that Lori was her sister, and was 12 at the time. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6_amz92gdI)

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The Alan Price Set — “She’s Got Another Pair of Shoes”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 11, 2025

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

1,617) The Alan Price Set — “She’s Got Another Pair of Shoes”

While the majority of the songs on the Alan Price Set’s second LP were written by the then unknown Randy Newman (see #174), the album contained priceless Price originals, including “The House that Jack Built” (see #183) (a #4 UK hit) and today’s song, a Georgie Fame (see #103, 169, 634, 695, 721, 1,044)-style R&B delight. No wonder the two would later get together.

Richie Unterberger tells us about Alan Price and the LP — A Price on His Head:

Alan Price’s second album consolidated the change of direction he’d started in early 1967, when his cover of Randy Newman’s “Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear” became a big British hit. Moving away from the jazzy Animals styled R&B-rock that he’d presented on his first album and singles, Price moved into a more original, if less powerful, brand of Newman-influenced vaudevillian pop. The Randy Newman influence isn’t a matter of conjecture; about half of the songs were covers of songs by Newman(who had yet to release his first album at the time . . .), often of tunes that remain obscure even to serious Newman fans. The effect is something like hearing an even jauntier, more lighthearted Georgie Fame, as even Price’s own compositions bore a strong Newman influence in their emphasis on poppy craft and wit. . . .

As the organist in the first Animals lineup, Alan Price was perhaps the most important instrumental contributor to their early run of hits. He left the group in 1965 after only a year or so of international success . . . to work on a solo career. Leading the Alan Price Set, he had a Top Ten British hit in 1966 with a reworking of “I Put a Spell on You,” complete with Animal-ish organ breaks and bluesy vocals. His subsequent run of British hits between 1966 and 1968 — “Hi-Lili-Hi-Lo,” “Simon Smith and His Dancing Bear,” “The House That Jack Built,” and “Don’t Stop the Carnival” — were in a much lighter vein, drawing from British music hall influences. “Simon Smith and His Dancing Bear,” from 1967, was one of the first Randy Newman songs to gain international exposure, though Price’s version — like all his British hits — went virtually unnoticed in the U.S. A versatile entertainer, Price collaborated with Georgie Fame, hosted TV shows, and scored plays in the years following the breakup of the Alan Price Set in 1968. He composed the score to Lindsay Anderson’s O Lucky Man!, where his spare and droll songs served almost as a Greek chorus to the surreal, whimsical film . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/a-price-on-his-head-mw0000057904, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/alan-price-mn0000931804#biography

Tony Scherman gives us a rare glimpse of Price:

Price quit [the Animals] ostensibly because of a fear of flying, but the rift between Price and the others was more complex than that. Apart from his interest in jazz and English music-hall fare (he shared his love of the latter with the Kinks’ Ray Davies), Price was, in one writer’s words, “a complex, moody character, prone to prolonged bouts of bleak introversion, who’d always been estranged from his colleagues.” A wide reader, Price had interests he couldn’t share with the others. During downtime, “he could often be found in the tour van reading Kafka, while the rest of the boys were out chatting up the birds.” Or, as Price put it in a 1992 interview, “I’d had terrible difficulties with the Animals. As soon as we’d cracked it, all they wanted was girls, sex, drugs and rock‘n’roll. I couldn’t get them to rehearse and I kept bugging them, which they didn’t like at all.” Although the band, including Price, periodically regrouped for brief nostalgic stints, Price was far happier on his own or in collaborations with his fellow jazz lover Georgie Fame.

https://tonyscherman.substack.com/p/alan-price-geordies-progress

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Turquoise — “Sister Saxophone”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 10, 2025

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

1,616) Turquoise — “Sister Saxophone”

Turquoise’s (see #37, 1,480) unique music hall-inspired romp reminds Steve Elliott of a “Monkees/Beatles pop-baroque mash-up.” (https://somethingelsereviews.com/2012/10/20/forgotten-series-an-apple-a-day-more-pop-psych-sounds-from-the-apple-era-2006/) I could see the Monkees having fun with this one!

Stephen Thomas Erlewine tells us about Turquoise:

A quick listen to Turquoise with no knowledge of their background will surely bring two names immediately to mind: the Kinks and the Who. So, it should be no surprise that Turquoise were not only influenced by their British peers but were close associates, friends of Ray and Dave Davies, produced by Dave for their first demos — when the band was still known as “the Brood” — and produced by Keith Moon and John Entwistle for their second round of pre-professional recordings. Turquoise released two singles for Decca in 1968 before disbanding and those two singles, like much British pop-psych, earned them a cult of some size . . . . More than any other band from the late ’60s, Turquoise modeled themselves after mid-period Kinks, circa Something Else and Village Green Preservation Society to the extent that singer/songwriter Jeff Peters (who wrote almost all of the band’s recorded work, usually in collaboration with Ewan Stephens) even penned his own tune called “Village Green.” Like the Kinks, Turquoise were distinctly, defiantly British in subject matter and approach . . . often sounding fey and campy yet managing to stay away from being overtly twee, and even if their melodies could sigh and swirl in psychedelic colors, they never were that trippy: they were grounded by acoustic guitars that jangled like Ray Davies’ on Something Else and they had ragged harmonies and a pop sense reminiscent of the brothers Davies.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-further-adventures-of-flossie-fillett-the-complete-recordings-mw0000572891

Steve Leggett adds:

Turquoise was a British pop-psych group who only officially released two singles in their short existence as a band, but the four songs on those two releases became beloved by collectors of the genre . . . . The group, who initially called themselves the Brood, was formed in North London’s Muswell Hill area in 1966 by Jeff Peters, Ewan Stephens, and Vic Jansen (a fourth member, Barry Hart, was added later), who were all friends and neighbors of the Kinks’ Ray and Dave Davies. Dave Davies produced a batch of demos for the Brood in 1966, and a second batch was produced by the Who’s Keith Moon and John Entwistle a year later in 1967. Eventually the Brood was signed to Decca Records, and after a name change to Turquoise, released two wonderful double-sided singles, “’53 Summer Street”/”Tales of Flossie Fillett” and “Woodstock”/”Saynia, [see #37]” but neither release really took off, and the band called it quits in 1969. Peters and Hart went on to form Slowbone, releasing an album, Tales of a Crooked Man, in 1974.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/turquoise-mn0001822755#biography

What about that Moon/Entwistle thing? Jeff “Gus” Peters told Stefan Granados that:

[“]John Mason [car dealer to the stars] wanted to get into the music business so he said he’d manage us.” Mason’s first coup as manager of the Brood [the band’s first name] was to cajole John Entwistle and Keith Moon . . . into producing a demo of the group. Peters’ recollection is that “Polydor had apparently given each member of The Who studio time to go our and find bands to record. From what I understand, Keith Moon came down to Joyhn Mason’s showroom and John did him a deal like ‘do something for my band and I’ll get you a good price on the Bentley,’ which is basically what happened!”

Stefan Granados, liner notes to the CD comp Turquoise: The Further Adventures of Flossie Fillett: The Collected Recordings 1966-1969

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The WordD — “You’re Gonna Make Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 9, 2025

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

1,615) The WordD — “You’re Gonna Make Me”

This garage rock gem from Dallas is so good, they’re gonna make me listen to it over and over and over. Word. I’m not sure whether it was the band’s only A-side or only B-side. But when two of the band members joined the Penthouse 5, it was rerecorded and definitely issued as an A-side and called the Penthouse 5’s “masterpiece”, “captur[ing] all the best elements of the era, from folk-rock to Yardbirds’-inspired fuzz freak out”. (liner notes to the CD comp Garage Beat ’66: Vol. 7: That’s How It Will Be) The WordD’s original version is even better — rawer and shorter! Bruce Eder opines that “[a]lthough the Penthouse 5 is the best of them, each of the [predecessor] bands [including the WordD] was amazingly accomplished in both singing and playing Beatlesque songs with an edge (think of the Monkees as a real garage band), and their songwriting . . . was formidable when it wasn’t too pretentious.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-wordd-is-love%21-mw0000031150)

Billlooney6992 (the same Bill Looney who was the WordD’s bassist?) tells us that:

When this record was aired on [American Bandstand] ’68 [actually, ’66], The WordD had already broken up. And two members, John Williams (vocals) and Richard “Lurch” Keathley (guitar) had joined the Penthouse 5, comprised also of Steve Wood . . . Bill Looney (bass) and Mike Echart (drums). A psychedelic version of this song was (re)recorded by the Penthouse 5 circa ’69 [actually, ’67]. BTW: This [American Bandstand] “Rate a record” received an 87 rating mark… a record that stood for years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UomIt5m0Cqo

As to the Penthouse 5, Bruce Eder writes:

The Penthouse 5 were one of dozens of unsung bands floating around Texas in the mid-’60s. Based on the recorded evidence, however, they were also one of the great ones . . . translat[ing] the Beatles (and, to some extent, the Byrds) influence into garage rock terms about as well as any of them. The mix of Beatles-like harmonies, crunchy guitars, and pumping, grinding Farfisa organ is compelling and always surprising in its details and nuances. Justin Brown (lead guitar), Rob Graham (vocals), Mark Porter (drums), Steve Wood (guitar, vocals, keyboards), and Bill Looney (bass) came out of Oak Cliff, [Texas]. They were part of an orbit of Beatles- and folk-rock-influenced musicians in the area that included . . . Jon Williams, who had been . . . with the WordD. By 1967, internal conflicts had driven Brown, Graham, and Porter out of the Penthouse 5’s lineup, and they were succeeded by Jon Williams (vocals, keyboards, harmonica), Richard “Lurch” Keathley (lead guitar, vocals) — who had both come from the Dallas-based the WordD — and Mike Echart (drums). The new band, renamed the Penthouse, made another half-dozen records with producer Edward Greines; the Beatles influence was still discernable on songs like “You’re Gonna Make Me,” but the reconstituted Penthouse was more self-consciously heavy and serious, and cut singles for the Solar and Hawk labels. By the end of 1967, however, the band had split up . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-penthouse-5-mn0000483978#biography

60’s Garage Bands asked Bill Looney how familiar he was with the WordD before Jon Williams and Richard Keathley joined the Penthouse 5. Looney said: “We had heard some of their acetates and were impressed with the creativity and musicianship, and we were having internal problems with a few members, so when producer Tom (Darryl) Brown introduced them to us, we knew we had our next group incarnation.” (https://web.archive.org/web/20151119124155/http://www.60sgaragebands.com/interviews/penthouse5.html)

Here are the Penthouse 5:

Here is American Bandstand:

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The Boss Five — “You Cheat Too Much”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — June 8, 2025

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

1,614) The Boss Five — “You Cheat Too Much”

‘65 garage gold is the B-side of the band’s only single. I believe the message is that she cheats too much.

I could find out absolutely nothing, say it again, about the band until I came across this YouTube comment by foozie8865:

My name is Marvin Anchin, and this was my band, called “the Saints” but they thought the name was too religious and changed it to the “boss five”, even though we really did not like that name. We recorded under Boss Five with impact records and Dickie Goodman who produced both sides. The band consisted of Marvin Anchin, rhythm, guitar and lead; Mike Roth, vocals and lead guitar; Rickey Dolorio, keyboards, and vocals, Rickey Berkowitz, drums. We were a great band . . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDfdl1zEUCM

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