The Australian label Roundtable’s release notes state:
[âElectronic Danceâ is] a âwhirling mix of Indian raga, heavy jazz drums, buzzing electronics and tape collage melding into blue-eyed soul folk from the Woodstock scene. The perfect psychedelic supplement to John Barryâs hallucinogenic orchestral score.”
Billy Mitchel sang at the end of the sixties . . . [in] the blues and psychedelic scene. He performed in the Gaslight Cafe, Night Owl Cafe and Cafe Au Go Go. . . . [H]e gave the opening act for Hendrix, played guitar on Carly Simonâs âSummer Songâ and also on Richie Havens . . . âPortfolioâ. He took over a speech part in Milo Formanâs Hair.
Nicolas Roegâs 1971 classic, Walkabout, about two young British siblings who get lost in the desert and befriend a wandering Indigenous man, is a work of striking atmospheric contrasts. . . . [g]lorious and awe-inspiring one moment, dangerous and harrowing the next. . . . It is regarded as one of the earliest works of the Australian New Wave and is considered seminal â particularly for its bold, dreamlike exploration of the Australian wilderness and the deep spiritual bonds between the land and its original occupants. . . . In the Outback, a] father of a well-to-do family sits in a car with his teenage daughter and young son . . . . The dapperly dressed dad starts shooting at his children . . . then lights the car on fire and kills himself. . . . Walkabout finds an emotional centre when the kids meet an Aboriginal Australian . . . who helps them find water and joins them as they drift between sun-parched settings. . . . The unforgettable vividness with which Roeg captures the Australian outback arises from the perspective of a foreigner trying to understand it. . . . Roeg revels in the hallucinatory, creating a wilderness that exists as much in the mind as it does the land.
In addition to John Barryâs spellbinding original score, several pieces of popular music can be heard throughout the film transmitting from a portable radio, an obvious symbol of western civilization as the protagonists wander disorientated in the ancient tribal Australian wilderness.
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There is something about âSurf’s Upâ that transports me like no other song that I have ever heard. I have no idea what the lyrics mean, I just know genius when I hear it. . . . I truly have an emotional response when I listen to the melody and the surreal harmonies on the end. This is the equal to the great classical composers. . . . one of the few songs that brings me to tears at times just from the sheer beauty of it.
The lonely boy in his room finally gets the baroque and puzzling lyrics his most complex music deserves. For all the Phil Spector worship and industry cash lavished on firemanâs hatsâand once you get past the cutesy introââSurfâs Upâ shows all Brian needed was a piano to knock you on your can.
â[O]ne of Brian Wilsonâs greatest compositions ever, in spite of some truly deplorable lyrics by one Van Dykes Park, who never heard a Brian Wilson song he didnât want to try and ruin with nonsense lyrics. But the instrumentation and the melody are so powerful they overcome the nonsense about âcolumnated ruins dominoingâ and the like. One of Brianâs most beautiful songs. . . . [W]hile Carl Wilsonâs lead vocal from the [Beach Boys’ (see #667)] Surfâs Up version is great, itâs nothing compared to Brian Wilsonâs original lead vocal on the demo from 1966.
Leonard Bernstein, with more than a touch of hyperbole, famously called it the best piece of music he had ever heard. . . . There is a version of Brian Wilson singing Surfâs Up as early as 1966 and one recorded back in 1967 for the Smile album but the song then remained dormant for four years. That stripped-back version may be better . . . but what canât be denied is the majesty of the composition. In a review in Rolling Stone Arthur Schmidt . . . recognises the greatness of what was to have been the pièce de resistance of Smile, the song co-written with Van Dyke Parks . . . . The production . . . with its French horns and clarinets and Brian Wilsonâs soaring vocals, Schmidt believes, would have given it a run to anything on Sgt Pepper which it could have competed with had Smile seen the light of day. The words may be opaque . . . . But the music is sublime . . . .
âSurfâs Upâ started life in 1966. Intended for Smile, the [Beach Boys’] follow-up to critical darling Pet Sounds, it, along with the rest of Smile, got put away in 1967 after Brian Wilson, the main creative force behind the album, had a mental breakdown and grew unwilling to continue working with the material. After that, it sat in limbo until 1971, when bandleader Carl Wilson fished it back out and helped Brian finish it. It then became the title track of their 17th studio album. The lyrics were penned by Van Dyke Parks, a man known for his puzzling and purposefully vague lyrics. For that reason, this song apparently became a point of contention between Brian and his bandmates. Brian did not tour with the rest of the Beach Boys, instead staying home to write and produce their music, only involving the other members when they returned to record their vocal (and occasionally instrumental) contributions. Perhaps understandably, the other members of the band wanted to know the meaning of the words they were singing, and grew frustrated that their music was drifting away from the simple, straightforward lyrics of their early career. Ironically, though, the meaning of these lyrics actually have a lot to do with these very concerns. âSurfâs Upâ is a song about the beauty of simplicity and innocence. To me, the density of its lyrics serves to demonstrate its message â complicated language sounds lovely, but can never communicate meaning as effectively as the simple lyrics of a childrenâs song. . . . Itâs a song that grapples with themes very common in Beach Boys songs â the death of innocence, a longing for simplicityâŚ. and yes, surfing. Well⌠sort of.
The impetus for the completion of the song came from the Beach Boys new manager Jack Rieley, who was determined to make the band relevant again. Brian, understandably, was not interesting in revisiting his personal hell, so it was left to Carl Wilson, the bandâs newly appointed (by Rieley) Musical Director to move forward. Brian did finally emerge to help out with the songâs third movement.
Wilson and Parks wrote the song in 1966 as they sat in the sandbox, apparently on drugs. Later, Wilson revealed he came up with melody lines, and Parks inserted lyrics on the spot. . . . Wilson recorded different sections of the song over more than a dozen sessions beginning in October 1966. He abandoned the project after the final session on April 10, 1967. He picked it back up four years later when the band and manager Jack Rieley encouraged Wilson to revisit the song. âSurfâs Upâ existed in three separate sections, and they spliced the tapes together. Certain sections of lyrics seemed to be missing, and Wilson and Parks had parted ways. Wilson wasnât sure how to complete the song. Band members questioned the lyrical content. Wilson wrote, âPeople say theyâre too complicated, or they donât mean anything, but thatâs the thing about poetry. Itâs ideas, and it makes you have ideas when you listen to it. For those kinds of lyrics, I never asked Van Dyke what they meant. I sang their meaning the way it seemed to me.â . . . Parks suggested the songâs title . . . even though the lyrics donât exactly address the subject. The album had the working title of Landlocked but was retitled Surfâs Up. Parks . . . told Rolling Stone magazine in October 1971, âIf they call that album Surfâs Up, we can pre-sell a hundred and fifty thousand copies. And Brian can keep his house on Bellagio. . . . Carl Wilson was trying to help get the song together, but Brian was not happy with it, wanting nothing to do with the sessions. Dennis Wilson continually yelled at his brother Brian, urging him to finish the song. Brianâs vocals were replaced by Carlâs and after several days, Brian got involved again. Mike Love was confused by the lyrics and told Uncut magazine in March 2008, âI asked Van Dyke what a particular set of lyrics meant, and he said, âI havenât a clue, Mike.â[â] . . . . [It] failed to chart when it was released as a single. . . .
Here is the sublime Feel Flows mashup. Brutally Honest Rock Album Reviews writes:
The Feel Flows box set gives us a version where Brian Wilsonâs 1966 vocal has been laid over top the background instruments and backing vocals from the Surfâs Up backing, and itâs breathtaking. Thatâs the way the song was meant to be heard. . . . He just sings it with more passion than Carl did, and that falsetto swoop when he sings âdominoâ takes my breath away every time. . . . [I]t underscores how much better even that masterpiece couldâve been.
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At the centre of [her first LP] First Take is Flackâs arrangement of the hymn âI Told Jesusâ. Itâs a song about the cost of following oneâs conscience. The singer asks Jesus to change her name, and Jesus warns her, âThe world will turn away from you, child, if I change your name.â The singer replies that this will be alright, and as the world does exactly what Jesus has predicted â father, mother, brother each turning away â Flack digs into the bass octaves on her piano like a climber finding foothold. Horns and strings rise around her, clouds that skim the summit that sheâs seeking. For the final time she vows, âItâd be alright, if Heâd change my name.â And as she summits her mountaintop, her last âmyâ rippling like a flag in the wind, I am reminded, all of a sudden, of an old and chilling record made in 1926 by a singer named Homer Quincy Smith. The song Smith sang, accompanied only by an organ, is called âI Want Jesus to Talk With Meâ, and, at the end of it, Smith does something very similar to what Flack does with her âmyâ, making his last âmeâ high and cold and lonely, into a multi-syllabic flourish of self-assertion that is also an abnegation, because the cost of making a moral choice might include the sacrifice of a self youâd always known, even if â especially if â no reward follows. Maybe thereâs no way off the mountaintop, or Jesus isnât there.
Throughout most of the eventful year of 1968, . . Roberta Flack was ensconced in a residency at Mr. Henryâs in Washington, D.C., an unfancy but inimitably hip jazz club . . . . Following the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., riots broke out in several cities, including the District. Flack continued performing her sets, lines forming around the block. . . . No artist working in the moment was doing a finer job of chronicling those tenuous, terrifying, revolutionary times. . . . [She] was admitted to Howard Universityâs top-flight music program at the age of 15, possessing prodigious jazz and classical chops and a voice splitting the difference between Sarah Vaughanâs elegant alto and Etta Jamesâ [see #316, 498, 1,585] deep-blue expressiveness. . . . She spent some wilderness years teaching high school, but word of mouth spread, and soon enough they came to her. When visiting jazz legend Les McCann was dragged along by friends to see Flack perform one night, he immediately provided his most forceful recommendation to Atlantic, and soon after she was signed. Flackâs debut, First Take [including todayâs song] was recorded over a period of 10 hours at Atlantic Studios in New York, in February 1969. Her extraordinary backing band, consisting of stalwarts Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar, Ron Carter on bass, Ray Lucas on drums, and other heavy hitters gelled with seamless immediacy, as Flack lead them through a repertoire of . . . material she had spent countless hours perfecting at Mr. Henryâs.
Classy, urbane, reserved, smooth, and sophisticated â all of these terms have been used to describe the music of Roberta Flack, particularly her string of romantic, light jazz ballad hits in the 1970s . . . . Her first two albums[, including] 1969âs First Take . . . were well received but produced no hit singles; however, that all changed when a version of Ewan MacCollâs âThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,â from her first LP, [see #61] was included in the soundtrack of the 1971 film Play Misty for Me. The single zoomed to number one in 1972 and remained there for six weeks, becoming that yearâs biggest hit. Flack followed it with the first of several duets with Howard classmate Donny Hathaway [see #573], âWhere Is the Love.â âKilling Me Softly with His Songâ became Flackâs second number one hit (five weeks) in 1973, and after topping the charts again in 1974 with âFeel Like Makinâ Love,â Flack took a break from performing to concentrate on recording and charitable causes. . . . A major blow was struck in 1979 when her duet partner, one of the most creative voices in soul music, committed suicide. Devastated, Flack eventually found another creative partner in Peabo Bryson, with whom she toured in 1980.
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Genius sets out the lyrics as “You know, I’ve been bad, but I would be good instead Ah, if my man did half of the things that he said I wouldn’t have to go to the Bo Bo’s party” (https://genius.com/Melanie-bobos-party-lyrics) I thought they went “but I would be good in bed”.
It is back in the 1960âs when [Melanie] appeared on British TV. Iâd never heard of her before. There Melanie was, 6pm, singing “Boboâs Party”. There was my mother, horrified at the lyrics; and me, sat quiet, thinking the girl is wonderful.
A singer with a powerful voice suited to many styles, Tina Charles traded in a career as a busy session singer and struggling solo artist to become one of the first mainstream disco stars . . . . [But d]espite her talent and flexibility as a singer, her career was unable to weather the demise of disco . . . . Her first single, the Northern soul-leaning “Nothing in the World[]â . . . featured Elton John [see # 175, 1,598] on piano. Further singles like 1969’s “In the Middle of the Day” and “Good to Be Alive,” along with 1970’s “Bo-Bo’s Party,” didn’t do much on the chart. They did get her noticed by the BBC and she began appearing on The Two Ronnies show, then scored slots on tours by Tom Jones [see #330, 380, 1,691], Mud and Engelbert Humperdinck. . . . [S]he got a job recording vocals on the Top of the Tops series of albums where anonymous artists cover contemporary hits. She . . . put in more studio time as a session vocalist, memorably backing Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel on their 1975 hit single “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me).” She had previously sung in an unrecorded band called Northern Lights with Martin Jay; the pair reteamed in 1975 under the name Airbus and issued a single, “Bye Love,” that caught on once DJs flipped it over to find the disco-fied “I’m on Fire.” It was reissued as a single, the band rebranded as 5000 Volts, and the song headed toward the top of the charts around the globe, reaching the Top Five in the U.K. and the Top 30 in the U.S. Charles quickly left the group for a solo career and teamed with producer Biddu, who was red hot following the chart success of Carl Douglas’ massive hit “Kung Fu Fighting.” He cast her as a powerful disco diva and she filled the role perfectly, starting with the 1975 single “You Set My Heart on Fire.” While that song was moderately successful, her monumental disco anthem “I Love to Love (But My Baby Just Loves to Dance)” reached number one on the U.K. singles charts in February 1976 and scored in the upper reaches in many countries. . . . An album . . . was released in March of 1976. Charles began playing live shows . . . A second album . . . which was made up of the same mix of uptempo disco tracks and ballads, followed before the end of 1976. It spawned two hit singles, the title track and “Dr. Love.” The following year she issued [another] album and three of its singles placed on the U.K. charts: “Rendezvous” and a medley of “Love Bug,” and the oldie “Sweets for My Sweet” . . . ; most notable, however, was the following year’s cover of Jimmy James’ hit “I’ll Go Where Your Music Takes Me.” The decline of disco’s popularity took a toll on Charles’ career and after one more album in 1980 . . . she began a slow fade from the music scene to raise a family.
My career first really took off in France with âBoboâs Partyâ â that title just sounded so right with a French accent[. ] I was at the Olympic Theater in Paris, co-billed with Gilbert BĂŠcaud, who was like the Sinatra of France. He introduced me on stage there and I really took off.
“Bobo” is an abbreviated form of the words bourgeois and bohemian, suggesting a fusion of two distinct social classes, the counter-cultural, hedonistic and artistic bohemian, and the white collar, capitalist bourgeois. The term would be popularized by author Robert Brooks who used it to describe the 1990s successors of the yuppies, who were often of the corporate upper class, claimed highly tolerant views of others, purchased expensive and exotic items, and believed American society to be meritocratic. But “Bobo”, short for “bourgeoise bohème”, was a common appellation in France long before that. All the more reason for Bobo’s Party to become a number #1 hit on the French international charts months before Melanie came to the attention of the wider world with Woodstock.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,822) Blues Section — âEnd of a Poemâ
This âseminal and ground-breaking [Finnish] bandâ (Aleksi, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOdXm6rhtRM) with a British singer gives us a wistful and simply gorgeous breakup song in English. âLet me be Set me freeâ
Wigwam tells us (Translation checked by Mark Jones):
Blues Section were . . . together . . . only a year and a half, but during that period they managed to revolutionize the Finnish rock music scene. . . . [They] were founded in spring 1967. Inspired by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, guitarist Hasse Walli of the Jormas and bassist MĂĽns Groundstroem of the Roosters had become greatly interested in Furious R&B, agreeing that it was time for Finland to step further from the accustomed beat pop course. In May their faith was strengthened by Jimi Hendrix who created an ineffaceable influence on his Helsinki concert audience. . . . Atte Blom and Otto Donner had been launching a new progressive record company, Love Records, and were searching for a proper rock band to be taken under its wing. . . . Love Records found the rock players they were longing for, while the young blues enthusiasts got a Publisher for their music. Blues Section found a vocalist in Briton Jim Pembroke in whose backing group, the Pems, Groundstroem had earlier played. Because of its innovation, some jazz players also became interested in this pop musicians’ project. Edward Vesala joined the band as drummer, bringing along alto saxophonist Eero Koivistoinen. The latter stayed in the band, but Vesala was replaced by Raimo Rautarinne from the Roosters. Rautarinne was, himself, replaced by Ronnie Ăsterberg . . . . Already on their earliest gigs . . . . [t]he crowd marveled open-mouthed at smoke-bombs, howling amplifiers, and other show tricks. . . . [T]he band play[ed] a Bluesbreakers, Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix and Cream repertoire with a strong intensity. . . . [and] soon became Finland’s number one band . . . . [Its] live performances began to draw away from basic blues, becoming more and more improvised and jazzy . . . . As a rule, before Blues Section Finnish pop bands had recorded only material selected or approved by the record company, commercial potential being the guiding principle. Blues Section were the first Finnish band able to make records to their own liking without this hit pressure . . . . Blues Section recordings . . . included predominantly more pop-ish stuff than their live repertoire. . . . [T]he recording studio opened the possibility of utilizing the Wonders of modern technology, so some of the tracks were quite experimental in the spirit of the Beatles and other psychedelics of the time. Almost all of the recorded songs were penned by the band members or close partners. In particular, Pembroke showed his Talent as a Writer of excellent melodies: he created great pop songs – not blues pieces. . . . In spring 1968 Groundstroem left the band in order to concentrate on his studies. He was replaced by jazz bassist Pekka Sarmanto . Then Jim Pembroke got tired of the band, and another Briton, Frank Robson from Mosaic, was hired as singer. The new personnel continued together for a few months, making a couple of recordings, but Walli and the band’s jazz musicians were getting involved in too many other activities. In the summer Koivistoinen left the band, and Blues Section finally split up in autumn 1968, with Sarmanto going to serve his time as a conscript. Walli went on to play in the Otto Donner Treatment, Ăsterberg and Koivistoinen in the Boys, and Sarmanto later in the jazz circles. Robson left for England, returning in 1969 to join the President of the Republic, founded by Groundstroem. Pembroke worked at Love’s office until early 1969, then joined Wigwam who had been founded by Ăsterberg. Blues Section Musicians thus gave birth to the two most important Finnish rock bands of the early seventies[, Wigwam and President of the Republic . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,821) Vashti Bunyan — âWinter Is Blueâ
Winter is here, and winter is blue. Vashti’s (see #204, 1770) “haunting 1966 rendering . . . continues to inhabit the season existentially. Culled from an unreleased acetate . . . the track cuts right through sunny and 75 L.A. in January. Call it achingly beautiful aural sleet and snow.” (Aquarium Drunkard, https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2013/01/21/vashti-bunyan-winter-is-blue-1966-acetate/) Or, to put it another way, “Holy f*ck I just stumbled upon ineffable beauty”! (BoHorn, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fpw7Z0Nc) Oh, and Beck did a pretty nice live version.
“If my heart freezes, I won’t feel the breaking”
Vashti relates the song’s story:
I was going crazy with boredom after “Train Song” [see #204] and all it took was a phone call from Tony Calder and I was back in the studio making demos of new songs. . . . Andrew [Loog Oldham] chose “Winter is Blue” and sent it to Art Greenslade to arrange. Art changed a bit of the tune, which a year before would have had me stamping around in a rage, but I was beginning to lose the huge confidence I had started out with and just let them do it. I was somewhat terrified of Andrew, and just once found the courage to say I thought the guitars at the beginning needed to be played a bit softer, and he mimicked my little voice and I don’t think I uttered another word. . . . The first session I thought went well, and I have a demo of it which I like a lot. Andrew wasn’t happy with it however and we had another try. You should never go back over things! The second one was not so good, and this is the one which ended up on the soundtrack [of Tonite Let’s All Make Love in London*] sadly. It was to be a single, but one day I was called to the office and Tony Calder told me they were not going to release it because Cliff Richard wanted the song. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Vashti Bunyan is an English singer/songwriter whose 1970 debut album Just Another Diamond Day was an overlooked gem in its time that later grew to be a defining classic of acid folk. Sluggish record saless discouraged Bunyan enough to give up music entirely shortly after its release, but as the years went on, more new fans grew enamored with the albumâs hushed but surreal beauty. . . . Bunyan . . . first took up the guitar while a student at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing. She was ultimately expelled at age 18 for spending too much time writing songs and not enough time painting. A bit of a free spirit even then, she took a trip to New York and, while there, fell under the spell of Bob Dylanâs music . . . . Once back in London, Bunyan was committed to a career in music, and through theatrical agent Monte Mackay she soon met Rolling Stones manager/ producer Andrew Loog Oldham. . . . [H]e signed her to Decca Records and for her debut single brought her the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards-penned âSome Things Just Stick in Your Mind.â The record earned little attention, and Bunyan moved to Columbia for the follow-up, âTrain Song,â [see #204] released in May of 1966. She moved into the orbit of Oldhamâs Immediate Records after its founding that year and recorded a brace of sides, mostly of her own music, none of which was issued commercially. She also cut one side with the Twice as Much (Immediateâs answer to Simin & Garfunkel) entitled âThe Coldest Night of the Year.â The latter, with its Phil Spector-like production and beautiful harmonizing, showed off her singing at its most pop-oriented and commercial. Sometime after that, she left London in a horse-drawn wagon on a two-year journey into communal living in the Hebrides, with the ultimate goal of meeting folk icon Donovan [see #908, 1,036, 1,064] on the Isle of Skye. She later chanced to cross paths with American producer Joe Boyd, who had made his name in London recording acts such as Pink Floyd [see # 13, 38, 260] and Fairport Convention [see #1,199]. Throughout her travels Bunyan had continued writing songs, and in 1969 she teamed with Boyd to record her debut LP, the lovely Just Another Diamond Day, which included some assistance from such British folk notables as Simon Nicol and Dave Swarbrick from Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Bandâs Robin Williamson. After completing the album she left for Ireland, dropping out of music to raise a family.
Tonite Letâs All Make Love in London, a fast-paced collage of the â60s scene in that city with a title taken from a Ginsberg poem. It is by no means a typical documentary; it strings together images and the occasional comment from celebrities like Michael Caine and Julie Christie to create a dizzying kaleidoscope that is open to interpretation. Mr. Whitehead could well be extolling the liberation of the period, but he could also be criticizing it as vacuous.
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[It] is outstanding, mid to uptempo, garage rock with a great beat, performed by sustained Hammond organ, a repetitive, insistent guitar phrase, bass and drums, fuzzy guitar runs appearing at times, and featuring a powerful organ led break, Lemmie Ogles delivering a fine, enthusiastic vocal, the record climaxing in a brief psychedelic [organ] crescendo . . . replicating a backwards played record.
[It] has long been hailed as an amazing example of garage rock . . . . The explosion sound effects . . . were made by [organist Reagan] Perry shaking his organâs spring reverb unit. [Bassist] Terry [Ogles] started playing a pattern that sounded like a backwards record so they added it to the end of the recording. There were no outside sound effects added, just the band. [Label owner Earl] Fox didnât make a request for a psychedelic record, Johnson remembers that it just evolved that way.
The group began as The Breakaways at Forest Heights Junior High in Little Rock circa 1964. After several lineup changes, [it] evolved into the Dutch Masters, a name inspired by groups like Paul Revere and the Raiders [see #109]. Like that group, the Dutch Mastersâ front man Earl Denton wanted them to dress up like the guys on the famous cigar box as a gimmick to get attention. Earl Fox was the owner of E&M Recording Studio . . . and took the band under his wing, letting them rehearse in the studio. He had a booking agency in the front office and kept the band busy playing all over the state. Fox wanted the group to make a record on his MY label, so they found a song on a compilation tape of Nashville songwriters called “Burnin Up the Wires.” . . . Fox released the single in February of 1967 and it was a hit at Henderson College in Arkadelphia. Denton got married and had a kid shortly before heading to Vietnam in the Marines. The rest of the group left shortly after the record was released. This left John Walthall, lead guitar, and [rhythm guitarist Blake] Schaefer to completely reform the band. . . . For the new group, Walthall and Schaefer wanted to follow through on the costume idea and [organist Reagan] Perryâs mother made the outfits. . . . To supplement the group, Fox added two black singers named Preston and Cheryl. When Fox booked the band, the client might ask for a R&B group, and he would augment the band with Preston . . . and Cheryl . . . making the Dutch Masters an early integrated group in Little Rock. . . . A session was booked at E&M to record two of Schaeferâs songs for a second 45 [including “Expectation”, the A-side]. Schaefer had a collection of original material that he hoped to record in the studio to farm out to other groups. . . . Fox released the Dutch Mastersâ second 45 in September of 1967 and they played a big show at Henderson College to promote it. The band evolved once again into the Cyrkus when Johnson, Schaefer, and Boston left the band. They were replaced by Donnie Brooks and Chris Nolan and adopted a hard rock sound. This band evolved into Blackfoot . . . .
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Who were Sunset love? Lion Productions tells us that:
Sunset Love was a quasi-mystical flower-power band from New Mexico who blended influences of The Mamas and Papas, Spanky And Our Gang and The Beatles to create a unique pop-psych sound. Sunset Love were recruited in 1968 to record at Westex Studios in Odessa, Texas. Westex was the brainchild of Tommy Allsup (original member of Buddy Hollyâs Crickets) and Gorman Maxwell . . . . Allsup asked producer Buzz Cason (also a former member of The Crickets) to come from Nashville to work with Sunset Love. The resulting recording sessions yielded a total of sixteen songs, of which twelve were originals. Sunset Love singer and songwriter, Victor Kay Lindsey, says: âwe thought we were going to be superstars; we had big plans, we were sure an album was going to be put out.â Unfortunately, soon after the sessions, Allsup dissolved his partnership with Maxwell, sold out his half on the studio, and moved to Nashville. Sunset Love hung around waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever did. As Lindsey recalled, âWe should have taken our tapes to Los Angeles like Zager and Evans and found a producer, but we didnât and we broke up in the summer of 1969â.
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Elmer Gantryâs Velvet Opera emerged from R&B/soul act The Five Proud Walkers after experiencing a conversion to psych following a support slot beneath Pink Floyd. Well⌠who wouldnât? Their upbeat blend of the new scene with the primal beats of their earlier work got them noticed. The urgent, brilliant “Flames”, which they cut as their first single, became a cult hit, and a fledgling Led Zeppelin [see #110, 589] incorporated the song into their act. Unfortunately, that was as close as EGVO got to the big time, but their debut remains a rather superb slice of British psych-pop. . . . [Their] eclecticism and talent [was] on show, but itâs the groupâs more general mastery of melody and rhythm that marks this album out. Rather like The Zombies [see #1,138] and, more obviously, The Beatles [see #422, 1,087, 1,256], EGVO found a tune wherever they looked, and the results stand up with much of the period because of that.
Why didnât they make it big? Jo-Ann Greene says that:
This popular UK act, which adeptly mixed soul and psychedelic/progressive styles, evolved from Jaymes Fenda And The Vulcans, one of several bands to secure a recording contract following their appearance on the televised contest, Ready Steady Win. Former Vulcans songwriter John Ford . . . joined members of R&B band Five Proud Walkers, which included Dave Terry (vocals/guitar), Colin Forster (guitar) and Richard Hudson ( . . . drums). The new unit was named Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera, in honour of lead singer Terry’s stage garb modelled after the preacher in the 1960 movie Elmer Gantry. Their excellent 1967 debut album included the pulsating “Flames’, which, despite regular appearances on BBC Radio 1″s Top Gear, failed to become a hit. . . . Although labeled a psychedelic band in their day, the Opera never sat comfortably in that strawberry field, partially because of the diversity of their sound, but also due to the simple fact they were just too far ahead of their time even for the psyched-out crowd. In fact, Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera continued to sound thoroughly modern for decades, while their myriad musical meanderings took them down wayward byways that later became stylistic highways — at least in their native U.K. . . . Growing disagreements over musical direction led to the departure of Gantry and Forster. The remaining members truncated their name to Velvet Opera, added Paul Brett (guitar) [see #625] and John Joyce ( . . . vocals) to the line-up, and recorded Ride A Hustler’s Dream. The album lacked the purpose of its predecessor, save for the excellent “Anna Dance Square”. The quartet fell apart when Hudson and Ford joined the Strawbs, with whom they remained until 1973. Having written several of the band’s most commercial offerings, the duo then left to pursue their own career as Hudson-Ford. By 1974, Gantry was fronting a band which, until checked by litigation, accepted illicit bookings as “Fleetwood Mac” while the genuine article were off the road. A year later, Gantry emerged once more as singer on Stretch’s solitary UK chart entry, “Why Did You Do It?”, before going on work with the Alan Parsons Project and Cozy Powell. Former member Colin Forster briefly worked with a new line-up of Velvet Opera in the early 70s.
[T]hey were one of the most advanced bands from their era, blended with great respect R&B, Jazz Psychedelia a la early Pink Floyd [see #13,38, 260] and a touch of The Nice style, hard to say if they were inspired in Keith Emerson’s sound because they are coetaneous, but you can find many similarities. . . . Despite being a very good and incredibly advanced album for their era, never reached the popularity deserved, because it was too hard and eclectic for the average listener, but still remains as one of the most powerful and elaborate albums from the pre King Crimson Progressive Rock era.
The band began to get quite a following and played clubs and university gigs all over the country and at London venues like the Marquee and 100 club and Electric garden. . . . The band had been recorded independently for a while by Southern Music Publishing . . . and it wasn’t long before they had secured a record deal with CBS’s “Direction” label. The problem was that Southern Music had originally signed them as a bluesy/jazzy band and they were not very keen on trying to get new, more riotous stage act on disc. The group were persuaded to do more “regular” material. The first recording was the song, written by Elmer, that the band were best known for, âFlamesâ. The record was on jukeboxes all over the country and was covered live by bands as diverse as “The Joe Loss Orchestra” and “Led Zeppelin”, in fact Jimmy Page recently told Elmer that Flames was the only non-Zep number that they included in their early stage-act . . . . However, for the average radio listener the song was too far ahead of its time and despite live popularity and numerous radio plays the song only managed to achieve number 30 in the charts. Direction did however, take faith in the band to record second and third singles and more importantly a self-titled album. The group’s second single, “Mary Jane” was taken off the BBC playlist after they realised that the song was the slang term for Marijuana. . . . After three singles and the album, major success had still not been achieved. . . . Colin Forster was . . . replaced by Paul Brett but this still didn’t acheive the desired result. Disagreements erupted within the band, which lead to a split from Elmer and so the Velvet Opera was formed.
[I]t was the period when Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria, ruled as king of Great Britain and Ireland, from January 1901 to May 1910. Most historians, however, talk of the Edwardian era as extending to the years until World War I broke out in 1914. That is because once the nation had entered the war, the whole tenor of British life fundamentally changed and a new country, both domestically and internationally, emerged. . . . Coming as it does after Victoriaâs long and epochal reign and before the destruction and horror of the world war, it was a liminal time for Britain, commonly imagined to this day as a âgilded ageâ all about tea on the lawns and lazy, sunlit afternoons.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,817)Duncan Browne — âAlfred Bellâ
I’ve played the A-side (see #155), here’s the B-side from Duncan Browne (see also #357), one those beautiful souls who was lost to us all too early (in â93). âBellâ is â[p]erfect UK Baroque psych folk” (robison5396, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEkuebIz23Q), and as David Wells writes:
[Itâs] the tale of an ageing schoolteacher that opened with some raucous, playground-style chanting from the unfortunate Mr. Bell’s unruly young charges. “I recall quite vividly the recording of children’s voices on this track”, [lyricist David] Bretton recounted . . . . “Andrew Oldham allowed us to drive around to the school in his famous Rolls Royce — which Duncan and I enjoyed immensely!”
liner notes to CD reissue of Give Me Take You
Bruce Eder says of the album Give Me Take You:
[It] was one of the jewels of the Immediate Records catalog, a quietly dazzling work that embraced elements of folk, rock, pop, and classical, all wrapped around some surprisingly well-crafted poetry and Browneâs stunning voice. Over the decades, it has been compared to the best work of Paul McCartney and the Moody Blues, and also to such albums as Astral Weeks by Van Morrison . . . .
An achingly beautiful compendium of ornate chamber pop wispiness, layered vocal arrangements, Spirt of the Age lyrical pretensions and Brown’s plangent, folk-derived melodies, Give Me Take You is now widely acknowledged as something of a cult classic, [with a] quiet intelligence and elegiac, gently urbane baroque pop classicism . . . . Certainly, there was a musty, sepia-tinted Englishness to the set, which incorporated Arthurian legends and literary allusions alongside autumnal vignettes of the grey, closed-on-Wednesday-afternoons melancholia that underpinned English suburbia”.
liner notes to CD reissue of Give Me Take You
As to Browne, the Aquarian Drunkard writes that:
[Browne was] sensitivity, sophistication, artful baroque and progressive leanings. . . . [with] the ability to chart his own arrangements, buoyed by a flair for melodies so sweet and sad that they almost hurt to hear. At a time when most of his fellow countrymen desperately tried to sound American, Browne dared to embrace his British-ness . . . . Andrew Loog Oldham . . . first snapped up a young Duncan . . . . When I asked Andrew to share his first impressions . . . he replied: âother worldly, attractive, mannered, confident.â Oldham encouraged him to record a solo album, and Duncan recruited a friend [David Bretton] to add fanciful lyrics to his then-wordless new songs. . . . Andrew professed, âDuncan was therapy in a time of madness. And I got to be in the studio for my therapy. How good is that?â
Yes, how good was that? In 2 Stoned, the second volume of his must-read memoirs, Oldham writes that Give Me, Take You “is well remembered but did not sell well at the time. . . . Duncan . . . remains one of the artists I was proudest to stand in a room with and watch evolve.â
Why didnât the album sell? Bruce Eder says:
Despite its many virtues, the album died a commercial death, largely as a result of its being released just at the point when Immediateâs financial underpinnings were beginning to collapse. . . . Browne probably could have gotten some concert work from the release, but for a certain degree of confusion as to who he was, owing both to Immediateâs slipshod publicity operation and the design of the album jacket â the triple superimposed image of Browne, coupled with the multiple overdubs on many of the songs, led some promoters to think that Duncan Browne was a trio of some sort.
âMy partner Tony Calder was going through a period where he loathed anything I championed. Duncan and Billy Nicholls [see #2, 64, 144, 428, 757, 964, 1,085, 1,205, 1,396, 1,678, 1,797] fell victim to that and got no pragmatic promotion. Tony wanted big â I wanted good.â . . . [Browneâs widow] Lin confirmed that âthey were still in touch right up until Duncanâs deathâ . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,816)Blue-erebus — âWillowgreenâ
From ’67’s killer garage of “Thoughts of a Madman” (see #1,268) to ’68’s gentle and whimsical pop psych of “Willowgreen” — what a difference a year made in 1960s’ Mount Airy, North Carolina!
Larry Deatherage tells us that “Willowgreen” is “[a] somewhat psychedelic song Bruce and I wrote with a great musical intro created by our drummer Mike Badgett.” (Larrydeatherage-de4vo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFEQzrkGCS0)
Talking of Mount Airy:
[The] rural town [of Mount Airy] is perhaps best known for being the home to one Mr. Andy Griffith. The town even claims that Mount Airy was the inspiration for Griffithâs fictional town, Mayberry. That may be, but Aunt Bee and Floyd The Barber never rocked like th[is] primal band . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,815) Renato E Seus Blue Caps — âPara me abandonarâ/âTo Abandon Meâ
A wonderful track by Renato E Seus Blue Caps (see #1,011), a Brazilian âYoung Guardâ group specializing in Portuguese versions of Beatles songs. This is no Beatles song, though it does sound like an undiscovered British beat gem translated into Portuguese.
Slipcue.com tells us that:
Renato e Seus Blue Caps were one of the best, and longest-lived, of the Jovem Guarda* teen-oriented Brazilian rock bands which flourished in the early 1960s. Swiping their band name from Gene Vincentâs original â50s outfit, Renato Barros and his âBlue Capsâ covered everything from surfbeat instrumental to Beatles-y pop, with plenty of cover tunes throughout, but also a notable amount of good original material. Renato and Co. were several notches above the average Brazilian teenybopper band â they were certainly not as wimpy as most, and could hit a blue-eyed soul groove roughly equivalent to that of the Spencer Davis Band.
One of the most important groups of the Jovem Guarda, Renato e Seus Blue Caps was formed to play in parties of the Piedade borough in Rio de Janeiro. In that period, the market for youth music was just being incepted and they were in the right place at the right time. Soon they were performing at the RĂĄdio Mayrink Veiga. With their increased popularity, the group was invited by Carlos Imperial, who presented the program Os Brotos Comandam at TV Rio. Their first single, âVera LĂşciaâ . . . was recorded in 1962 and became their first hit. The first LP came in 1965 . . . and featured another hit, âMenina Lindaâ ([a] version . . . of âI Should Have Known Betterâ by Lennon/McCartney). They also performed several times in the Jovem Guarda TV show . . . . Their other hits were âAtĂŠ o Fimâ ([a] version . . . of âYou Wonât See Meâ by Lennon/McCartney) and âEscândaloâ ([a] version . . . of âShame and Scandal in the Familyâ by Donaldson/Brown). After the end of the Jovem Guarda, they continued to perform in club dances around Brazil.
The âembryoâ . . . are the three brothers of the family Barros, Renato, Paulo Cezar and Edson (Ed Wilson). In the late â50s, influenced by the musical tastes of the family, and the Rockân Roll Elvis, Little Richard and Bill Haley, the boys began to imagine that they could participate in radio programs, mimicking the song hits, something that was quite common at that time. . . . [They first] adopted the name âRock Bacaninhas of Mercy,â an allusion to the neighborhood in which they were created, in Rio de Janeiro. . . . After participation in a program Chacrinha on TV Tupi, [they were] hired by the Copacabana, where they released two 78s and two LPs in 1962 (Twist) and 1963 . . . . [In] 62, Ed Wilson left for a solo career, and Erasmo Carlos, then secretary of Carlos Imperial, assumes the [role of] crooner . . . . [They were] known in Rio de Janeiro, due to frequent appearances on TV and radio . . . . In early 1965 . . . [they release a] Portuguese version [of] âI Should [Have K]nown [B]etterâ[ by] the Beatles, which was called âBeautiful Girlâ. Presented in the program Carlos Imperial, Rio on TV, the music . . . . enters the charts . . . . The year 1965 was a milestone for the bandâs career. The success â unexpected â is steadily increasing . . . . [T]he LP âThis is Renato and His Blue Capsâ achieves excellent selling and give greater impetus to the popularity of the group. The band specializes in versions of Beatles songs and other international artists, but also develops his own style of interpretation and composition. Many versions [by] Renato were more successful here in Brazil than the original English. Also arise tours abroad, and the band reaches the height of its popularity at the end of 66, with the release of the LP âA rocking with Renato and His Blue Caps,â the [bandâs] most successful and best-selling career . . . . Between 1965 and 1969, [they] released six LPs, all achieving high performance on the radio and selling.
The band was still performing when Renato died in 2020.
* Wikipedia says that this âwas primarily a Brazilian musical television show first aired . . . in 1965, although the term soon expanded to designate the entire movement and style surrounding it. The members of the program were singers who had been influenced by the American rock nâ roll of the late 1950s and British Invasion bands of the 1960s, although the music often became softer, more naĂŻve versions with light, romantic lyrics aimed at teenagers.â (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovem_Guarda)
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term Like Thisfamiliar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating 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 entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,814)Juan and Junior — âAnduriĂąaâ
Warning — If you are from Spain, read no further, because songs don’t get more famous than this beguiling and mysterious ballad with a melody for the ages. Baladas Inolvidables De Siempre/Unforgettable Ballads of All Time writes (courtesy of Google Translate):
“AnduriĂąa” was a popular summer song recorded by the Spanish duo Juan y Junior in 1968. Composed by Juan Pardo, the song is set in Galicia and tells the story of a young woman affectionately nicknamed AnduriĂąa who has disappeared, although one of the oldest residents of the village is confident of her eventual return. The back cover of the record features an original drawing by Pablo Picasso, the only one he ever created for an album cover.
As to Picasso, RubĂŠn Ventureira writes (courtesy of Google Translate):
On the back cover was an original drawing by Picasso, dated January 23, 1968. A shrewd executive at the record company didn’t want it on the front cover, as the musicians had hoped, because he considered it uncommercial. It was the only time the artist from MĂĄlaga illustrated a record. The Galician journalist and writer Antonio D. Olano acted as the go-between for the painter and the singers. In 1968, he took a demo of the song to the artist in France, shortly before its release. Picasso loved the song so much that it inspired a drawing. âIf you don’t like these doodles, tear them up. I’ll do something more serious for you,â the Andalusian artist said.
As to Juan and Junior, JM Moratinos tells the tale (courtesy of Google Translate):
They were perhaps the most important duo in the history of Spanish pop . . . . Despite their ephemeral artistic career of less than three years, they were considered by many to be the best, as they lived through the period of greatest boom and splendor in Spanish music. Furthermore, never has such a short discography been so fruitful and triumphant: with only 12 (official) recorded songs on 6 singles, all of them hugely successful. . . . Juan Ignacio Pardo SuĂĄrez was born . . . in Palma de Mallorca, although both his family and his upbringing were Galician: his father was an admiral in the Navy . . . . Juan was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps . . . . [going] to Madrid in 1960 to enter the Naval Academy. Music fever soon gripped him in the capital. At first, he combined his studies with performing as a singer and guitarist in several bands: first Los VĂĄndalos, and in 1962 Los Teleko . . . . He was about to enter the Naval Academy, but was diagnosed with color blindness, which ultimately prevented his enrollment. . . . In 1963, he recorded his first solo record with Philips (Fontana), an EP . . . . open[ing] with . . . âWhole Lot of Shakin’ Going On,â and includes his first composition, the melancholic ballad âNila.â Just a few months later, he was called upon to be the lead singer of Los Pekenikes, replacing Junior, who would become his duo partner almost four years later. During his brief year with Los Pekenikes, he recorded 12 songs before being recruited in late 1964 to co-found Los Brincos, along with Fernando Arbex, Manolo GonzĂĄlez, and Antonio Morales (Junior). Antonio Morales Barretto was born in Manila . . . . [t]he son of a Spanish father and a Filipino mother . . . . In 1953 the Morales family emigrated to Spain . . . . [W]ith the first guitar he received as a gift, he began performing at school parties . . . . His refined air and Asian features quickly attracted attention, and these, along with his perfect command of English . . . as well as Spanish, and his melodious voice singing popular songs, began to open many doors for him. In 1962, he joined Los Pekenikes as lead vocalist . . . . He combined this role with playing guitar and singing backing vocals on recordings by Los Jumps . . . . With Los Pekenikes, he recorded 12 songs (three EPs) before leaving the group in early 1964 (interestingly, Juan Pardo would be his vocal replacement in the Madrid-based band). That same year, 1964, Philips launched him as a solo singer, recording an EP of Spanish versions of British beat songs by the Beatles, the Searchers, and . . . Cliff Richard[] . . . with whose voice his voice began to be compared. But the potential commercial success of this record was overshadowed when, at the end of that year, Luis Sartorius recruited him to co-found Los Brincos, where he would play alongside Juan Pardo. . . . After two years of spectacular success . . . a schism emerged within the group . . . . [A]poarently, disagreements arose over their live sound. Criticism intensified after their performance at the Benidorm festival that summer, leading Juan Pardo and Junior to decide to take back the reins of the group behind the back of its leader, Fernando Arbex. The maneuver failed, as Arbex had registered the Brincos trademark, prompting them to consider disbanding the group; this too proved impossible . . . . As a result, the two dissidents had no choice but to leave the group. . . . [T]he duo Juan and Junior was born. Under the same record label as Los Brincos (Novola) and with the same producer . . . Juan and Junior embarked on an adventure that was as successful as, or even more successful than, their previous work. . . . [They] prepared their debut. For backing tracks and recordings, they enlisted the band Cocktail . . . . Juan and Junior maintain a classic pop style, with their signature bright voices so recognizable from the original Brincos sound, and . . . instrumental arrangements that are considerably denser and more intricate than in their previous incarnation. . . . In March 1967, Juan and Junior released their first single, “La caza” . . . . an immediate success, reaching number one on the charts within weeks . . . . The music press of the time took notice, fueling the rivalry between the duo and their former group. . . . Frequent live and television performances followed. In July 1967, the second single was released: âBajo el solâ/âNos falta feâ . . . . [B]oth songs climbed to the top of the charts again . . . . After the summer, Juan and Junior and their band went to London to record their new songs, this time under the direction of producer Mike Smith. . . . In November 1967, as a result of these recording sessions, they released their third single: âA dos niĂąasâ . . . . another chart hit . . . . In March 1968, Juan and Junior released their most acclaimed song, âAnduriĂąa,â as their fourth single . . . . For the first time, they told a story in their lyrics, about a girl who runs away from a Galician villageâa text that resonates with Juan’s upbringing in his adopted homeland. âAnduriĂąaâ adds a gentle folk touch that, far from diverting the duo from their established style, lends a unique charm that will further connect with a wider audience . . . . By mid-1968, Juan and Junior were at the height of their popularity. They performed extensively both in Spain and abroad. . . . In the lead-up to the summer of 1968, Juan and Junior released their fifth single: âTiempo de amorâ . . . . [which] climbed to the top of the charts . . . . [T]hey composed the songs for the film Solos los dos (Just the Two of Us) . . . . The year 1969 began with the release . . . [of their] sixth single: “Gone with the Wind” . . . . their last, because . . . the bombshell dropped: the duo split up. . . . [S]peculation about the separation of Juan and Junior proliferated . . . . Juan Pardo embarked on a long and successful career as a performer and as a producer or promoter of many artists . . . composing for many of them, as well as for commercials and television series, which has made him the highest-earning Spanish songwriter . . . . Junior embarked on an uneven solo career with some noteworthy but little-known albums . . . . In 1979, he returned to his native Philippines, where he recorded several albums and filmed movies in Tagalog . . . .
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Her range throughout the sixties was certainly incredible, seeing her attempting stomping Motown styles, Carnaby Street pop, popsike, and delicate folksy material. Born in East London . . . she became a determined and eager performer, hustling deals along Denmark Street. She was one of the very few female singer-songwriters on the circuit at one point in the sixties, and between 1965-72 managed to issue a whopping seventeen singles as a result of her tenacity, none of which charted. In 1969 she even penned the track “Gentlemen Please” for the Eurovision Song Contest, but the evening’s vote was not on her side, and Lulu [see #960] ended up performing the rather more simplistic “Boom Bang A Bang” instead. Her songwriting activity also saw two singles placed with fellow female solo artist Cinnamon. The first, “You Won’t See Me Leaving”, was issued by Beacon Records in 1968, and the second and final effort “So Long Sam” fell into record shops in July the following year. Neither sold well, and both are fairly difficult to track down these days.
There seemed no obvious reasons why some [British female singers in the 60âs] were successful and others werenât and every so often you come across a track and wonder why on earth it was never a hit. . . . Barbara Ruskin falls into this group of little-known 60âs women singers . . . reminiscent of Jackie DeShannon [see #1,202]. As a woman singer-songwriter she was also a relative rarity in the pop market at that time â artists such as Jackie DeShannon herself or Barbara Acklin [see #1,419] notwithstanding. The difficulties artists like her faced seemed obvious with her first release, when her own stronger composition, “I Canât Believe in Miracles’, was relegated to the âbâ side in favour of a rather pointless cover of the Billy Fury hit, “Halfway to Paradise”. . . .Â
[Her] father died when she was still young and her mother â who worked for music publisher Lawrence Wright in Denmark Street â encouraged her young daughter to pursue her love of music, buying her first guitar. Barbara taught herself to play it, began composing her own songs and, before long, was spending her spare time performing at weddings and youth clubs. In 1964, she was offered a contract with Piccadilly Records and released her first single, a version of Billy Furyâs “Halfway To Paradise”, in February 1965.âBarbaraâs second single was one of her own compositions, “You Canât Blame A Girl For Trying” (1965) â which she had written with Sandie Shaw [see #324, 1,259] in mind â while her third single â “Well, How Does It Feel?” (1965) â was recorded in the style of Sonny and Cher [see #283]. In 1966, Barbara released the stomping single “Song Without End” but once again, the single failed to chart. “Light of Love” (1966) was her final single for Piccadilly before Barbara moved to Parlophone. “Sun Showers” (February 1967) became her first 45 for the new label, followed by “Euston Station” just two months later. . . . She followed it up with one of her finest singles, “Come Into My Arms Again” (1967), a song she wrote on the bus on the way to the studio. Barbara was then offered a role co-hosting the radio programme, Cool Britannia, on the BBCâs World Service. “Pawnbroker, Pawnbroker”  [see #1,078] was released in October 1968 . . . .âBarbara continued releasing singles throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s . . . .
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 1,200 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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As the original liner notes say, “the Astral Body goes on to further Astral Exploration followed by the realization that life on earth in the physical body is only Dreams, Shadows, and Illusions and that ‘Life goes happily on: Once they’re all gone.'” (liner notes to the CD reissue of The Astral Scene)
Bad-cat tells us that:
Bernice Ross and Lor Crane had enjoyed some mid-1960s successes as songwriters . . . and as producers. Crane produced several of Chad and Jeremy’s [see #1,060] hit singles and albums. 1968 saw the pair dipping their creative toes into psych via the studio project The Astral Projection. . . . Ross and Crane wrote all of the material but it was performed by an all star cast of sessions players including guitarists Al Gorgoni and Hugh McCrackin.
[This] oddity falling somewhere between Curt Boettcher [see #397, 506, 586, 662, 707, 810, 1,002, 1,723]-styled sunshine pop, Association [see #1,264] type Top 40, and Animated egg exploito. . . . [was] a full-fledged concept piece. According to the extensive liner notes, the plot line had something to do with the concept of escaping the physical body to experience spiritual embodiment. In spite of the goofy title and lyrics . . . and the fact that the arrangements were full of rather spacey instrumentation, virtually all of the songs were quite commercial.
The Acid Archives, The Second Edition
Beverly Paterson writes:
[T]he Astral Projection existed for just this one album. . . . The Astral Scene . . . profiles the beauty, joy and warmth attained when discarding our physical being. No chemical substances are promoted, as the lyrics impress such journeys can be attained from within and life itself is a natural high. Heavily orchestrated and glistening with birdsong harmonies and melodies, The Astral Scene rests firmly on the soft-rock wing occupied by the Cowsills, the Association, the Blades of Grass. The production values are clean and sparkly, the structures are adventurous enough to prompt repeated spins, and the performances are disciplined and proportioned. . . . Rhythms drift, float and soar, and the textures of the tunes are flush with color and motion. Pumping big brass sounds, string arrangements and flower pop motifs into a single blender, The Astral Scene rolls in as an early indication of new age music. Brain food for the ears, the disc is certainly a curious period piece.
A conceptual undertaking meant to reveal the wondrous cycle of the telepathic phenomenon of astral projection. The album somehow manages to communicate the complex precepts of astral experience in lay terms and remain deliciously frothy pop at the softest, most easy-listening end of the spectrum. It works the same sonic conceit as the Fifth Dimension (only in lily-white, soul-lite mode) or the stable of bands . . . produced or helmed by Curt Boettcher, only without the countercultural credibility and legitimately trippy factor. Thatâs because the album, as with dozens of similar efforts from the era, is really a quasi-exploitive cash-in project. . . . In a sense, it entirely missed the thrust of the decadeâs more original and exploratory music that it meant to exploit. But in another cosmically ironic sense, it captures the heady era far more vibrantly than those more important artists, partly because the music of the Astral Projection is nowhere near as timeless as the music of those artists. And partly because the explosive creativity of the era filtered in weird and wonderful ways even down to the eternally unhip music business types responsible for this album, giving them carte blanche to experiment with the money formula, but not too much, thereby resulting in this odd hybrid of commercially minded but ultimately uncommercial music.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,811)July — âYou Missed It Allâ
You probably did miss this decades ahead of its time (I could swear that’s Beck singing!) nugget from July’s (see #937, 1,117) eponymous LP — âone of the most sought-after British psychedelic sixties albumsâ (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited), â[v]ery good psychedelia, for the most part, but a bit dated in places and heavily influenced by much of the music coming from the direction of San Francisco at that timeâ. (Steven McDonald, https://www.allmusic.com/album/july-mw0000370474) July’s “sound was a mix of trippy, lugubrious psychedelic meanderings, eerie, trippy vignettes . . . and strange, bright electric-acoustic textured tracks . . . with some dazzling guitar workouts . . . all spiced with some elements of world music, courtesy of [guitarist] Tony Duhig”. (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/july-mn0000976711/biography)
As to the recording of the album and the track, Sam Stone tells us:
As [singer] Tom Newman remembers in the liner notes, “We used two four-track machines and bounced tracks from one to another, the same way that Sgt. Pepper was made. I was already making tape loops by then fifty-foot long going right ’round the room, so I got very interested in multi-track facilities. [Producer] Tommy [Scott] and the engineer [Mike Ross] were also into making their own Sgt. Pepper with freaky recordings techniques.” [Bassist] Alan James recalled one such incident during the recording of “You Missed It All”: “Mike Ross was…trying to show us how to get white noise by hanging a microphone out of the window. It was fairly early in the morning on a Sunday, and so the back streets were fairly quiet. Suddenly, though, someone got out of his car and slammed the door very loudly. Mike told us we’d have to take it out, but we just said, “No, leave it in.” It’s this sense of adventure – not to mention the quality of the songwriting – that makes it an enduring album that’s worthy of all the accolades it’s received in the decades since.
âWe were spotted by a DJ named Pat Campbell, who pointed us out to the head of Major Minor, Phil Solomon. We secured an album deal, and the whole session was done in one weekend. .. . I sang like a complete prick â a quivery, frightened little jerk. Itâs totally obvious to me why our LP didnât impress anyone. Compared to what we were capable of, itâs f*cking terrible.
Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rockâs Most Mind-Blowing Era
As Jerry Seinfeld might say, Newman!!!
As to July, Bruce Eder tells us:
July started out in the early â60s as an Ealing-based skiffle act working under the name of the Playboys, and then metamorphosed into an R&B outfit known as the Thoughts and then the Tomcats . . . . [who] found some success in Spain when they went to play a series of gigs in Madrid in 1966. They returned to England in 1968, the groupâs lineup consisting of Tony Duhig on guitar, John Field on flute and keyboards, Tom Newman on vocals, Alan James playing bass, and Chris Jackson on drums, and changed their name to July. The band lasted barely a year, leaving behind one of the most sought-after LPs of the British psychedelic boom . . . . Their first single, âMy Clownâ b/w âDandelion Seeds,â has come to be considered a classic piece of psychedelia . . . . The band separated in 1969, with Duhig moving on to Jade Warrior, [and] Newman becoming a well-respected engineer, with Mike Oldfieldâs Tubular Bells to his credit . . . .
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 1,200 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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Of the Baroques, Patrick Lundborg says that “At their best they project an unusual, intellectual vibe with ominous undertones, thanks to the baroque (yep) moody vocals, odd minor key chord progressions, and some piercing fuzz breaks. Adding good use of keyboard and you have a Midwestern sibling to the Music Machine” [see #171, 1,179, 1,406]. (The Acid Archives, 2nd ed.)
Richie Unterberger writes that:
[The group] was dominated by the morose compositions and low, odd vocal range of . . . Jay Berkenhagen . . . . With a slight garage feel, their unusual, occasionally oddball material was built around electric (sometimes âbaroqueâ) keyboards and fuzz guitar riffs, which occasional detours into uplifting folk-rock and freak-out jamming.
Matt Kessler calls their sole LP — The Baroques — “acid drenched magnificence”, adding:
The album itself is extremely unique. Yes, bands all over were attempting to capture originality on a record, yet The Baroques pulled it off better than most. Their psychedelic/ garage/pop hybrid was done by others, but the essence of darkness that is represented in this album makes their sound its own entity. . . . Some of these songs would undoubtedly fit perfectly inside movie scenes where a character may meet his or hers unfortunate demiseâŚExtremely atmospheric, and filled with a moody fuzz guitar tone that segues into the bashing chorus where drummer Dean Nimmer lets loose with all of his might, finishing with an otherworldly psychedelic freakout.
If Leonard Cohen barged into an Electric Prunes [see #893] recording after obliterating his mind in an all-night glue-sniffing binge it might have sounded something like this. With song titles as preposterous as “A Musical Tribute to the Oscar Meyer Weiner Wagon”, who knows what the famed RnB label Chess Records was thinking when they decided to sign . . . The Baroques in 1967. They did manage to stir up a little controversy with their anti-drug (so they claimed) song, “Mary Jane”, but besides that it looks like Chess was stuck with a very strange, unmarketable record. And donât expect an onslaught of spacey sound effects and weird noises a la the early Pink Floyd [see #13, 38, 260], this is a less overt type of psychosis that slowly but surely embeds itself under your skin. The Baroques had a fuzz-guitar/keyboard-damaged sound that retained much of the garage intensity of â66 while plunging into the experimentation that marked the latter part of the decade. Sure, there are traces of the Byrds [see #1,430, 1,605] and the Zombies [see #1,138] but by the time the Baroques have had their way with a pop song, itâs like the deformed bastard child of those bands hobbling around on one leg. . . . [W]hat really sets them apart from other similarly-minded bands is the excessively glum atmosphere which pervades most of the album. . . . [T]here is something absolutely hypnotizing lurking in the uncommonly dark textures of these songs.
[The album] is somewhat of an anomaly when compared to many of the eraâs more famous psychedelic touchstones; thereâs nothing specifically mystical in the lyrics, or any coded drug references, or epic extended jams. . . . [It] is also notable for being released by Chicago R&B titan Chess Records. At the time Chess was looking for a way to break back into the rock market, a place theyâd been largely absent from since The Beatles changed the rules of the game a few years before. It would end up being one of only a couple post-Fab Four rock albums on Chess . . . . [I]t sold fairly well regionally at the time . . . . Itâs one of the more unique sounding garage-era albums, featuring an unconventional mix of mopiness and wackiness, hard-edged guitar and subtle harpsichord, droniness and catchiness.
Going into some Baroque history, Sonic Hits reports that:
[In] June 1967, both the album . . . and single âMary Janeâ were released and banned in the same week. The ban was imposed by some local DJs whose stations directors thought âMary Janeâ was a pro-drug song about marijuana. [It was actually] an anti-drug song but no one got it. Instead The Baroques became infamous as âacid-headsâ due to the âfar-outâ sounds on the record. At this point, [songwriter, singer and lead guitarist] Jay [Berkenhagen] had never tried drugs in his life. That soon changed and the band found itself pulling stunts at their live shows involving catapults, baby doll parts, and lip-synching onstage.
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Klemen Breznikar interviewed bassist Rick Roll for It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine:
[RR] Originally at the age of 16 a few of my friends and I formed a band I called Rick Roll and the Auroras. We recorded a couple of tunes, and played at the local WMCA before the band broke up. At that point I joined up with my brother Bruce Roll and our friend Danny Sills to form a new band. We originally called ourselves the Cyclones up until my brother and I came back from the Vietnam war service we then changed our name to the Glass Sun. We played several local venues over the years which included The Walled Lake Casino, and the Westland Army Navy Union Hall. In later years we played our own local jam session, at the VFW Halls and on our own properties.
. . . .
[KB] You released your singles on Sound Patterns Record. What can you tell us about âSilence Of The Morning” . . . ?
[RR] âSilence Of The Morningâ[] first started as a fuzz guitar lick, but became a monster of song concerned personal loss. Itâs put together to be a thought about any kind of a situation. . . .
[KB] âSilence Of The Morningâ is one of the fuzziest songs. Whatâs the story behind it?
[RR] Simply, my brother Bruceâs special guitar sound, with the extended notes, you can feel the guitar strokes and licks as he transfers his feelings upon the frets.
[KB] Did the single garner any radio airplay?
[RR] Not back in the the 70âs or 80âs. Now later with the Internet and Garage band shows on the radio it is being played all over the world!
[KB] What influenced the bandâs sound?
[RR] Once we reunited after the Vietnam war, I guess we had all these feelings pent up in us, and we had all learned so much more playing with other musicians during that time we were apart. We came back loud and strong, ready to play again, after listening to the great[]s like Iron Butterfly [see #1,040, 1,543], Led Zeppelin [see #110, 589] and Cream.
. . . .
[KB] Can you tell us when were those singles recorded?
[RR] . . . . âSilence Of The Morningâ . . . [was] written in 1968 while I was stationed in Vietnam and Japan. [It was] recorded in 1971. The second single was recorded in 1972.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating 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 entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 1,200 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,808) New Dawn — âDo What You Want Toâ
Heavy psych from the Pacific Northwest. In ’70, the New Dawn (see #986, 1,295, 1,602) gave us “one of the rarest and most exciting psychedelic rock albums filled with fuzz guitar, minor-chord organ dirges, tender vocals and monumental bass.” (Klemen Breznikar, https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2023/11/the-new-dawn-interview-theres-a-new-dawn.html) Then in ’71 they recorded demos of “new heavier sounding songs”. (Isaac Slusarenko, liner notes to the CD reissue of Thereâs a New Dawn) This is one of those demos — and man, is it heavy, verging on metal. “You treated me bad” — but this song treated me so good.
Ron Moore writes about the Dawnâs sole album:
Dreamy downer LP with rhythm-centered (monotonous?) drums, organ, and chiming guitar. Moody heartfelt vocals and buzz fuzz breaks fill out the claustrophobic soundscape. Full of despairing lyrics about dissatisfaction with life and feelings of hopelessness without God. . . . Too deep and dark for some, but could be the pinnacle for soul-searching lounge band sorrow.
The Acid Archives (2nd ed.)
Isaac Slusarenko writes about the Dawn:
In 1966, Dan Bazzy . . . ran into bass player Bob Justin and guitarists Larry Davis and Joe Smith, local garage band musicians . . . . Bazzy joined their band and after a brief stint of playng as The Sound Citizens, The New Dawn was formed. By 1967, The New Dawn was essentially a nightclub band, touring throughout the northwest . . . down through California and Nevada, and as far north as Alaska. The band recorded and released their private press album . . . in July of 1970. The songs were composed in the studio and were recorded late at night after gigs. Initially five hundred albums were pressed . . . . [D]istribution was limited since the album was sold mostly at their live shows. Their one chance at the big time came in 1971 when the ABC-Dunhill Records label expressed a serious interest in the demo of three of their new heavier sounding songs. . . . By the end of 1971, the New Dawn faded into the sunset after years of living motel to motel under the disillusionment of their missed opportunity.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Thereâs a New Dawn
The bandâs website adds:
In 1966, Joe Smith and Larry Davis got together and started playing at part[ies]. By the first part of 1967, Bob Justen and Dan Bazzy had joined the group and The New Dawn was born. For the next two years, the band played at part[ies], dances and local bars. In 1969, the group quit their day jobs and signed with a booking agent. They added a fifth member, Bob Green, to front the group and share the lead vocal load with the drummer and lead singer, Dan Bazzy, and went on the road. They played in clubs in Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Alaska. In 1970, Bob Green was replaced by Bill Gartner, and the group recorded and released . . . Thereâs a New Dawn. By the end of 1971, all the members in the group were married, and a few of the wi[v]es started having babies. Along with the babies came the desire to settle down and start roots. So, the group came off of the road, got ânormalâ jobs, and settled in to playing in local clubs on weekends. Over the years, most of the original members retired from the group and were replaced by other local musicians.
In 1971, we went back and recorded three more original songs on a demo tape and sent the tape to different record labels. . . . ABC Dunhill called our agent and wanted us to come down to LA and audition for them with the possibility of getting signed by them. We didnât know it at the time, but our agent told the AR from Dunhill that we were booked into clubs for the next six months and he should come and listen to us play in one of the clubs. These AR men have hundreds of groups trying to beat their door down to try and get an audition. They really donât need to travel to listen to groups. So, opportunity knocked, the door opened, and we didnât step through. If we had known this at the time, we definitely would have stepped through.
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! (ârelating 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 entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 1,200 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.
THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,807)Blonde on Blonde — âSpinning Wheelâ
Welsh band (see #227, 267, 1,089, 1,620) puts on a sitar spectacular with a âgreat sitar solo”. (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) Psychedelic Paul calls it âsonic Nirvana for the soul!â, adding that:
This guitar and sitar song sounds as Indian as curry and poppadoms, but it’s still Quintessentially English (or Welsh) at heart, featuring a simply stunning sitar solo that radiates 1960’s flower-power like a bright ray of sunshine.
As to BoB (named after BoB Dylanâs 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.âThe addition of Ralph Denyer made them into a quartet with vocals; and Simon Lawrence . . . was with them briefly, as well, on 12-string guitar.âThe group took part in the Middle Earth Clubâs Magical Mystery Tour, which brought them an initial splash of press exposure.âThey were also fortunate enough to open for the Jefferson Airplane on the[ir] British tour.âAll 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 âAll Day, All Nightâ [see #1,620] b/w âCountry Life [see #1,089].ââThough decidedly guitar-based in their sound, the bandâs music also used psychedelic pop arrangements that gave it an almost orchestral majesty which, when coupled with Johnsonâs sitar and lute embellishments and Hopkinsâ harpsichord and other unusual keyboards â with Hicks getting into the act on the tabla â gave them an appealingly exotic sound.âTheir live performances were frequently divided . . . into acoustic and electric sets, in order to show off their full range.âThe group issued their first album, Contrasts, in 1969 . . . â 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.âThey also issued their second single âCastles in the Skyâ . . . and LP Rebirth which featured a new lineup â Denyer had exited the band to form Aquila [see #1,783], ceding his spot in Blonde on Blonde to singer-guitarist David Thomas. . . .â[T]heir third LP, Reflections on a Life . . . . failed to sell any better than their prior releases . . . and the group broke up in 1972 . . . .
[Blonde on Blonde] was exploring the areas pioneered by 1967 psychedelic acts like PINK FLOYD [see #13, 38, 260], 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.
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! (ârelating 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 entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 1,200 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.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelationsđ 