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

I Shall Be Released: MC Squared — “Tantalizing Colours”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 10, 2026

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

2,063) MC Squared* — “Tantalizing Colours”

Get caught in the gossamer web of this “haunting” (Joe Marchese, https://theseconddisc.com/2012/07/26/mc-squared-a-lost-sixties-treasure-unearthed-by-now-sounds/) LA pop-psych production — “an acid trip in sound” (https://theseconddisc.com/2012/07/26/mc-squared-a-lost-sixties-treasure-unearthed-by-now-sounds/) according to band member Michael Clough — from an unreleased “spellbinding lost classic” LP. (Joe Marchese again)

Dusty Groove says of the LP-not-to-be:

Glittering sunshine pop . . . . [A] killer harmony act from late 60s Reprise Records — produced to perfection by Lenny Waronoker, and given the same mix of tight studio and hip undercurrents that you’d find in the hippest of the late 60s Warner generation — that slightly sinister edge that can always make LA pop of the time go a lot deeper than you might expect! . . . a sound that you’d stack proudly next to work by artists like Roger Nichols [see #631, 828, 1,054, 1,332] or Paul Williams [see #24, 1,300] at the time.

https://www.dustygroove.com/item/609830/MC-Squared:Tantalizing-Colours-The-Reprise-Recordings

Horatius Rex adds:

MC Squared — featuring folk renegades from the Back Porch Majority, as well as legendary studio musicians Jim Keltner and Randy Sterling — recorded four exciting singles for Reprise Records during 1967 and 1968. Sounding like a unique hybrid of the Mamas and the Papas [see #1,734] and Jefferson Airplane, the Los Angeles-based quintet failed to generate commercial success, and as a result their long-lost 1968 album has since been confined to the vaults.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MQcI5MODrko&list=RDMQcI5MODrko&start_radio=1&pp=ygUnTUMgU3F1YXJlZCDigJQg4oCcVGFudGFsaXppbmcgQ29sb3Jz4oCdoAcB&ra=m

Of course, there are haters. Streetmouse writes:

MC Squared is the type of band we used to refer to as ‘plastic people’ during the 60’s, cashing in on the counter culture, heavy on looks and the attitude of the New Christie Minstrels, while drummer Keltner played with the likes of another plastic band, Gary Lewis & the Playboys . . . [The band had] a piercing sound that was certainly not in the same league as Grace Slick or Janis Joplin, often relaying an acid trip vibe, yet only in sound, not from an actual experience. MC Squared was designed as music for older folks who wanted to feel hip, and while their sound may certainly be sunshine pop (sort of) it was not the psych-pop they hinted at. There’s absolutely no reason to own this collection unless you wish to hear the music of older musicians pretending to be ‘with it’.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/mc-squared/tantalizing-colours-the-reprise-recordings/

Hey, that’s me to a T — I’m older, I want to feel hip, and I wish to hear the music of older musicians pretending to be ‘with it’. I guess you can call me an MC Square!

Joe Marchese:

MC Squared had its roots in the New Christy Minstrels’ sister group . . . The Back Porch Majority. As with the Christies, Randy Sparks kept tight reins over the Majority, and those reins became stifling for two of its members, Michael Crowley and Michael Clough. The friends had developed a songwriting partnership, but there was no place for their original compositions with the Majority. Taking another member, the winsome Linda Carey, with them, the two Michaels impressed Reprise Records A&R man Lenny Waronker enough to receive a contract . . . . Before long, the group had expanded to five members. First came Randy Sterling, who had already proven his considerable ability as an arranger on We Five’s “You Were on My Mind” . . . and would soon assume the producer’s role for the band. Jim Keltner rounded out the group. Then, Keltner was a talented drummer who had played for Gary Lewis and the Playboys; in time, he would become a legendary session man. Ultimately, MC Squared featured Crowley on lead guitar and vocals, Clough on guitar and vocals, Sterling on bass, Keltner on drums and percussion . . . and Carey, on vocals. . . .

https://theseconddisc.com/2012/07/26/mc-squared-a-lost-sixties-treasure-unearthed-by-now-sounds/

* The band’s names is a play on Michael Crowley’s and Michael Clough’s names (and, of course, that Einstein thing).

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

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

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Neil Diamond — “The Long Way Home”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 9, 2026

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

2,062) Neil Diamond — “The Long Way Home”

Early in his career, Neil Diamond released this classic ’67 B-side (OK, later to become a ’73 A-side that reached #91), produced by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich (see #1,513). Let’s just say he went from the Brill Building to thrill building. Forget “Sweet Caroline”, “Long Way Home” should be a fixture at every major league baseball game.

Joe Marchese sets the stage:

Neil Diamond was an up-and-coming songwriter in the waning days of the Brill Building. After a few unsuccessful stabs at recording in the early part of the decade, Diamond was taken under the wing of Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Bert Berns. In January 1966, the hits started coming: first “Sunday and Me” for Jay and the Americans, then “I’m A Believer” and “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You,” both for the Monkees [see #1,718]. Riding this wave of success, Diamond resumed his own singing career.

https://theseconddisc.com/2010/04/19/reissue-theory-neil-diamond-with-a-bang/

Melody Era tells us of the song:

[In] 1967[, ]Diamond was still on the edge of becoming a very different kind of public figure. Later, his voice would be associated with dramatic reach, big gestures, and the ability to turn personal longing into collective release. On “The Long Way Home”, the scale is tighter. The emotional force comes less from grandeur than from compression. You can hear the songwriter’s discipline in the way the track belongs to an album environment where every cut had to stand on its own without the benefit of elaborate mythology. It is a record from a time when Diamond was not yet leaning on reputation. He was still earning attention song by song. That early-era quality gives the track a particular charm. It is easy, in hindsight, to let the famous later songs define the artist backward, as if Neil Diamond was always destined to become the figure of “Sweet Caroline”, “Cracklin’ Rosie”, “Song Sung Blue”, and the concert-stage command of the 1970s. But “The Long Way Home” reminds us that careers are not born fully formed. They begin in experiments, album cuts, tight studio schedules, and choices that may seem modest at the time. A singer learns where his voice sits. A writer learns which phrases sound ordinary on paper but alive when sung. A performer learns how to put pressure behind a simple line without turning it into theater. That is why returning to [the LP] Just for You can feel so rewarding. . . . [I]t is a snapshot of a young artist in motion. The production language belongs unmistakably to the mid-1960s pop marketplace, but Diamond’s identity keeps pushing through it. Even when the arrangements are concise, there is a grain in the voice that suggests impatience. He does not sound like a singer waiting politely for permission. . . . Heard now, “The Long Way Home” . . . . catches a working songwriter in 1967 turning a familiar emotional idea into something brisk, direct, and quietly telling. The track gives listeners a glimpse of the distance between craft and destiny, between the young man making records for Bang and the performer who would later make audiences feel that his songs belonged to their own lives.

https://melody.funnyluffy.com/before-the-big-choruses-neil-diamonds-the-long-way-home-reveals-his-restless-1967-just-for-you-era

Bruce Eder tells us of the LP:

Neil Diamond was on the cusp of discovering a new genre with his second album, which perfectly straddled early- and mid-’60s Brill Building teen pop and the as-yet-unidentified (and unnamed) singer/songwriter genre. The production is as smooth and crisp (and solidly commercial) as anything ever to come from the renowned hit factory . . . . But unlike his debut LP, this time out every song (including two carried over from his debut) is a Diamond original, and his voice and delivery are a lot more sophisticated — on “The Long Way Home,” “Red, Red Wine,” etc., he sounds like he’s living the lyrics . . . and as they are Diamond’s lyrics, the effect is natural rather than any performing artifice. Some of the slickness obviously flattens out what might have been some more personal edges to the songs . . . . [S]omewhat eclipsing . . . everything else here . . . is a song and a performance that show Diamond rising to a new level as a musician and composer: “Shilo.” His most personal song of this era, it represented the opening of a new chapter in his career, but one that Bang Records’ chief Bert Berns was unwilling to turn the page to open, as he believed the company was better served by keeping Diamond identified with catchy pop/rock aimed at teenagers 16 and under, not deeply personal, confessional lyrics that might not appeal to them. Berns’ refusal to release the song as a single led to a rift between Diamond and the label which, following Berns’ death from a heart attack at the end of 1967, ended the singer’s relationship with the company.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/just-for-you-mw0001879401

Here is the (’67) B-side:

Here is the (’73) A-side:

Here are Quentin E. Klopjaeger & The Gonks (see #646):

Top Forty Most Viewed Posts

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

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

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

The Blues Magoos — “Gotta Get Away”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 8, 2026

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

2,061) The Blues Magoos — “Gotta Get Away”

The B-side to their #5 hit “(We Ain’t Got) Nothing Yet” is as “[c]ool as it gets. Punk, garage, psych all beautifully rolled up together. Best B-side ever?” (hdew77, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewco-kNBPaw) Joseph Taylor enthuses:

[I]f DJs had turned the record over it might have been the hit. [The] Lowery organ sounds menacing, [the] lead guitar solo slashes deeply . . . . [I]t’s a cry from the heart of every kid who would soon join the counterculture.

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/feature-articles/on-music/250-the-blues-magoos-on-sundazed)

The counterculture? It was co-written by Alan Gordon, who co-wrote “Happy Together” and other hits for the Turtles!

Steve Leggett tells us of the Blues Magoos:

A Bronx [New York City] based quintet, the Blues Magoos were formed in 1964 and were originally known as the Trenchcoats before changing their name to the Bloos Magoos and then subsequently adopting the more conventional spelling as they became fixtures on the Greenwich Village club scene. The band released singles for the Ganim and Verve Forecast imprints before signing with Mercury Records in 1966, and after an intense makeover and a marketing blitz, they emerged as a sort of East Coast answer to the then-emerging San Francisco flower power psychedelic scene with a big single, “(We Ain’t Got) Nothing Yet,” that same year, and attracted further attention with the album Psychedelic Lollipop, which also charted. Really more a blues-rock band with a garage band’s approach and intentions than they were a Summer of Love band, the Blues Magoos nonetheless continued with psychedelic trappings for the album Electric Comic Book, which appeared in 1967, and the similarly constructed Basic Blues Magoos a year later in 1968. At this point the group restructured its membership and approach, signed with ABC Records, and returned to its blues roots for 1969’s Never Goin’ Back to Georgia and 1970’s Gulf Coast Bound, which added some Latin touches to the blues and featured mostly session players.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/blues-magoos-mn0000756380

Here is Sounds Unlimited (’66 — unreleased):

Top Ten Most Viewed Posts

Paul McCartney — “Heather” (March 5, 2022)
Buffalo Springfield — “Flying on the Ground Is Wrong” (July 3, 2026)
Harumi — “What a Day for Me” (June 3, 2022)
Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” (April 1, 2024)
Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine” (May 29, 2022)
George Harrison — “I Don’t Want to Do It” (June 25, 2023)
The Action — “In My Dream” (March 24, 2022)
The Millennium — “The Island” (March 28, 2022)
The Kinks a.k.a. The Toll-Puddle Martyrs — “Nellie Bligh” (April 1, 2026)
Do You Want to Know a Secret? — Beloved Songs Actually Written by Lennon and/or McCartney #1: John Lennon — “Bad to Me”, Paul McCartney — “Goodbye”, John Lennon — “I’m the Greatest” (July 18, 2022)

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

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

Mark Erickson & The Point Dume Boys — “Hey, in the Water”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 7, 2026

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

2,060) Mark Erickson & The Point Dume Boys — “Hey, in the Water”

Brian Wilson’s greatest lost album is actually . . . Mark Eric Malmborg’s A Midsummer’s Day Dream (see #326, 948, 1,626)! 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)

This infectious, jazzy ode to a Malibu girl in the water post-dates Day Dream. Bad Cat Records 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). But he also, as Brad Kyle writes, “in 1971 . . ponied up the dough to fashion his own indy label . . . . [and] recorded ‘Hey, In the Water’”. (https://bradkyle.substack.com/p/audio-autopsy-1969-mark-eric-and) But, “[t]his vanity-pressed 45 … probably didn’t make it to the public’s ear.” (liner notes to the CD comp Soft Sounds for Gentle People 4) If so, it was the public’s loss.

Bad Cat Records 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

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

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Etta James — “Nobody Loves Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 6, 2026

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

2,059) Etta James — “Nobody Loves Me”

Forget King James, here is Queen James, the original Queen of Soul (see #316, 498, 1,585), and the Queen of Pain, who, as Derek Anderson writes, “had one of the most recognizable, charismatic and soulful voices you’ll ever have privilege of hearing.” (https://dereksmusicblog.com/2015/02/22/etta-james-at-last-2/)

“Co-producer Monk Higgins has a big hand in the songwriting, co-writing the majority of the tunes [on Etta’s ‘67 LP Call My Name] including a couple of the bluesier highlights[ including] ‘Nobody Loves Me’”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/call-my-name-mw0000864621)

The song is self-explanatory. “When I’m in despair Nobody cares If I’m pulling out my hair”

Joseph Washek gives a sense of Etta’s life:

Etta James was in the heartbreak business. Other singers sold sweet dreams of love, romance, and sex, but Etta James sold pain and she had an endless supply. . . . She never knew who her father was. When she was born, her mother who was fourteen, abandoned her, leaving her with a childless older couple. The woman, called “Mama Lu” by Etta, became her surrogate mother . . . . But . . . . [p]eriodically, her birth mother, Dorothy, who loved the night life, would appear and take the child away. . . . They would live in squalor . . . and then, bored and frustrated with parenthood, Dorothy would return Etta . . . . The pattern continued until Etta was twelve when Mama Lu died. Dorothy . . . took her to San Francisco. . . . [and] . . . left Etta with [Dorothy’s brother] and walked away. . . . Etta was shuttled between her aunt and uncle and her mother . . . . [She] began running with gangs and at fourteen was put in juvenile detention for thirty days. . . . Etta . . . had been gifted with extraordinary musical ability . . . . She was a radio Gospel star at the age of seven. She . . . was discovered by Johnny Otis and at sixteen recorded her song “Roll With Me Henry”, which became one of the biggest R&B hits of 1955. She became a star, went on the road with the Johnny Otis Show, and had more hits. . . . [But] she got ripped off by everyone; the record company didn’t pay royalties, Otis put his wife’s name on “Roll With Me Henry” and a white woman, Georgia Gibbs, covered it as “Dance With Me Henry[” and it reached] #1 Pop and sold over a million copies. Etta was singing for $10 a night when she watched Gibbs sing “Dance With Me Henry” on The Ed Sullivan Show. By 1960, the hits had stopped coming . . . . Leonard Chess . . . was looking for black artists who could “crossover” and sell to the pop audience. He gave Etta a chance and soon she was again one of the biggest stars in Black Music and selling records to white people too. . . . [But s]he began shooting heroin[, t]he records started to sell less well . . . [, s]he started doing crimes for drug money[,] was in and out of jail[ and] in a . . . physically abusive relationship . . . . Leonard Chess [however,] never lost faith in her. . . .

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/records-you-didnt-know-you-needed-4-tell-mama-etta-james-cadet-lps-802

Sooze Blues and Jazz adds:

West Coast rhythm and blues titan Johnny Otis discovered James in 1954. “We were up in San Francisco,” Otis recalled in Rolling Stone, “for a date at the Fillmore. That was when it was black. … I was asleep in my hotel room when … my manager phoned. He was in a restaurant and a little girl was bugging him: she wanted to sing for me. I told him to have her come around to the Fillmore that night. But she grabbed the phone from him and shouted that she wanted to sing for me NOW. I told her that I was in bed—and she said she was coming over anyway. Well, she showed up with two other little girls. And when I heard her, I jumped out of bed and began getting dressed. We went looking for her mother since she was a minor. I brought her to L.A., where she lived in my home like a daughter.” . . . Otis took the Creolettes to Los Angeles—with the forged permission of the underage Jamesetta’s mother—and put them into his revue. He renamed the group The Peaches, and reversed Jamesetta’s name, creating what has remained her stage name ever since: Etta James.

http://soozebluesjazz.weebly.com/etta-james.html

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Ralph McTell — “Terminus”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 5, 2026

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

2,058) Ralph McTell — “Terminus”

This ’70 B-side and ’69 track off Ralph McTell’s (see #907, 1,030) second LP Spiral Staircase is “a wonderful and much underrated classic”. (No Badger Required, https://nobadgerrequired.wordpress.com/2022/12/17/nearly-perfect-album-44-spiral-staircase-ralph-mctell/), “What a gift, to capture so much, so beautifully, in so few words.” (colinwhite5355, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goT6HNjbLGk) Indeed.

As to the beautiful arrangement McTell recalls:

[Producer] Gus [Dudgeon] felt that some numbers would benefit from properly orchestrated string parts and we engaged Mike Vickers [see #1,994] of the Manfred Mann band [see #78-79, 146, 698, 1,344] to write them. At the time I was suspicious of the idea of mixing violins with my own music, but such a “radical concept” had recently earned some credibility through tracks like “How Can You Hang On To A Dream?” [see # 457-59] and “Eleanor Rigby” [see #227, 1,050, 2,034]. When I heard the result I was knocked out at the way the tone of a string section could enrich my songs.

https://www.ralphmctell.co.uk/features/spiral-staircase/

Oh, and McTell also notes that “My contemporaries were still falling in and out of love and writing those kind of songs. I was married and had a child so I tended to cast about for alternative themes to address.” (McTell again)

Mark Deming tells us of McTell:

Best remembered for writing the classic and much-covered song “Streets of London,” Ralph McTell is one of the most enduring figures on the British folk scene. A talented guitarist and songwriter who also possesses a strong and expressive voice, McTell has enjoyed a long and successful career in the U.K . . . [but] he’s only attracted a cult following in the United States . . . . Early efforts such as Spiral Staircase [from which today’s song is drawn] . . . were the foundation of [his] reputation with his often witty and just as frequently poignant songwriting and warm, rich vocals. . . . [I]n the ’80s he scored unexpected success composing music for children’s television . . . .

McTell was born Ralph May in Farnborough, Kent, England . . . . Ralph’s father Frank McTell . . . abandoned the family in 1947, and Winifred McTell raised her sons . . . on her own in the South London town of Croydon. Frank showed an interest in music at an early age, and when he was seven, his uncle gave him a harmonica and he learned to play. When the skiffle boom hit the U.K., Ralph bought a used ukulele and . . . quickly taught himself to play and formed a band. . . . [When he] had grown tired of school he signed up for the Junior Leaders Battalion of The Queen’s Surrey Regiment. Military life proved even worse than education, and after six months he was discharged and he enrolled in college, studying art. . . . McTell immersed himself in beat literature and American folk, jazz, and blues music. . . . [H]e took his cues from Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Robert Johnson, and Blind Willie McTell, taking his new stage name from the latter. . . . [H]e took off to travel along the south coast of England and the rest of Europe, where he made his way around hitchhiking and busking. . . . [He] tried out a conventional career as a teacher but continued playing folk clubs around London. He began a long tenure at Les Cousins in the Soho section of the city and there he began to make a name for himself. A music publisher was impressed by McTell’s early songs and secured a recording deal for him. His first album, 8 Frames a Second, was released . . . in 1968; Capitol Records issued it in North America, to little response. . . . McTell began attracting a large audience as a live act, mixing vintage blues and original material in his sets. In 1969, McTell issued his second album, Spiral Staircase (which featured his first recording of “Streets of London”), with the third, My Side of Your Window, following several months later. . . . [I]n December [1969 he] was headlining his first major London concert. . . . [and i]n May 1970[ he] sold out the Royal Festival Hall and was booked to play the Isle of Wight Festival . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ralph-mctell-mn0000863774/biography

Here is “Terminus” Live:

Here is the version from Revisited:

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The Lemon Fog — “Girl from the Wrong Side of Town”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 4, 2026

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

2,057) The Lemon Fog — “Girl from the Wrong Side of Town”

Emerging from the Lemon Fog (see #26, 896) is one of the great garage dirges — a tale of redemption followed by betrayal.

“Remember how I picked you up when you were so far down”

Bruce Eder dissipates the Fog:

The [Houston-based] Pla-Boys . . . were playing their first gig . . . [and] were seen . . . by Ted Eubanks, an avant-garde composer on Houston’s mod scene . . . . [Their act] consisted mostly of [garage] covers . . . . Eubanks liked the way they played more than what they played, and immediately approached them after the show. The band liked his suggestions, and he began putting original numbers into the group’s sets. . . . In a matter of weeks in 1965, they went from being the Pla-Boys to the Lemon Fog, who quickly became recognized as one of the more formidable bands in Houston. . . . They won a local battle of the bands, and . . . were approached by Orbit Records with the offer of a recording contract. Only three singles were ever issued on the group by Orbit, although they recorded many hours’ worth of demos . . . [Eubanks] handled most of the songwriting . . . . The group was a major draw . . . in the Houston area, and made many television appearances promoting their singles. Their sound, initially typical garage band-dance material, had advanced by leaps and bounds. Some of their songs resembled the folk-rock of the Byrds or the Beau Brummels, while their playing was closer in spirit to the complexity of Moby Grape, with lots of unexpected twists in the guitar and organ parts, and interesting harmonies. Personality conflicts eventually doomed the band . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-lemon-fog-mn0000091696

Marios adds:

The first Lemon Fog recording session was . . . in Houston, during the summer of 1967. Five songs were completed, [including] “Girl From The Wrong Side Of Town” . . . . The songs were sophisticated psychedelic numbers . . . . The oldest member of The Lemon Fog was seventeen year Chris Lyons, a senior in high school, the rest of The Fog were juniors. . . . The second Lemon Fog single, “Summer” b/w “Girl From The Wrong Side Of Town” was released right before school let out, in May, 1968. . . . The band members graduated high school in June 1968 and went onto divergent paths.

https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-lemon-fog-psychedelic-sound-of.html?m=1

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Shocking Blue — “Send Me a Postcard”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 3, 2026

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

2,056) Shocking Blue — “Send Me a Postcard”

Warning, if you are from Norway or the Netherlands, read no further (for this song reached #4 and #10, respectively). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Send_Me_a_Postcard) “Postcard” was Shocking Blue’s (see #1,214, 1,292) first A-side with Mariska Veres, “[a] garage rock scorcher, fierce and biting, with some of my very favourite use of electric organ in ’60s rock” (lai, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/shocking-blue/send-me-a-postcard-harley-davidson/), “a great harder edged Psych rock/pop track” (PROGROCKASAURUS, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/shocking-blue/send-me-a-postcard-harley-davidson/), “[h]ard, psychedelic but still glorious pop! BRAVO!” (ashetonpop, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upO7h5FsIYI) Musicka calls “Postcard” “their best song . . . one of the great garage/psychedelic rock songs of the era. The guitar licks, the psychedelic organ, and Mariska’s Grace Slick-like wail all] come together to create sixties perfection.” (https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/shocking-blue/send-me-a-postcard-harley-davidson/)

And give it up for Talleyrandful3305:

We had a party at high school in The Hague in 1968, just one year before “Venus” was released. And some genius managed to have Shocking Blue play for us the entire evening. They played this song as well of course. That was fabulous 🙂 A class mate of mine even danced with Mariska during a break because I promised him a beer if he would dare to ask her. I could imagine this guy Paul Overman has been grateful to me for the rest of his life 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-eWMYe-ss8

Erik Donald France ponders Shocking Blue:

Robbie van Leeuwen … , the band’s guitarist and primary creative artiste, had an excellent sense of what makes a catchy, well-performed pop song of the slightly rough variety. Hearing the songs performed with the powerful vocals of Mariska Veres makes them still a tasty aural treat. . . . Active and catchy guitar licks, big bouncy drums, organ, with zany additions of sitar, bongos, harmonica, echo and occasional extra flourishes like mandolin and Spanish guitar. Plus some country twang, some girl group dewop, ballads, and so on. Mariska Veres’ singing is potent, more akin to Grace Slick than Janis Joplin in that she is singing a song, not putting her whole life on the line while singing it; it is also exotic. . . . Van Leeuwan wrote his lyrics in English, making them quirky and refeshing, even when delving into pop cliche. Combined, there are endearing oddities . . . .

https://eriklerouge.blogspot.com/2006/10/shocking-blue-send-me-postcard-darling.html

As to SB, Rob Horning explains:

The Shocking Blue achieved a blip of international fame with their single “Venus”, an irresistible and nonsensical confection that stuck them with the one-hit wonder label in America, where none of the band’ s subsequent singles caught on. . . . Formed by guitarist/songwriter Robbie Van Leeuwen after quitting the Motions . . . the Shocking Blue seem like they set out to be the Dutch Jefferson Airplane, with acid-rock guitar, a full-throated Grace Slick wannabe in Veres, eclectic instrumentation, and semi-hallucinatory lyrics about free love, voodoo, California, and the like. But unlike the Airplane, the Shocking Blue never succumb to pretentiousness through either diffuse experimentation or ponderous songwriting. Instead the band churns out pseudo-psychedelic bubblegum . . . all [with] precision and eagerness to please . . . .

https://www.popmatters.com/shockingblue-athome-2496060322.html

Brian Green adds:

Jefferson Airplane is be the band that Shocking Blue mostly invites comparisons to, and it was the Airplane that veteran Dutch rocker Robbie van Leeuwen had in mind when he decided he wanted a female vocalist for his group. . . . Veres was actually not Shocking Blue’s original singer. When guitarist van Leeuwen dropped out of local hitmakers the Motions to form his own band in ‘67, he did so with another Dutch scenester, Fred de Wilde, at the mic. The all-boy Blue recorded one album and some singles (a few of these minor hits in Holland . . . ) But . . . just when van Leeuwen was thinking that he wanted a chick to sing his songs, de Wilde was called off to do military service. Robbie wasted no time in finding Veres, who looked like a model and sang like a soul sister.

https://www.scrammagazine.com/shockingblue

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The Who — “Postcard”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 2, 2026

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

2,055) The Who — “Postcard”

The Who (see #119, 548, 833, 976, 1,912) gives us another hilarious John Entwistle song — recorded for release in ’70 but not released (except maybe in Japan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcard_(The_Who_song)) until Odds & Sods came out in ’74 (and then in slightly altered form). “Postcard” is “a fun travelogue of the Who’s roadwork, penned with the droll wit we’ve come to expect from John Entwistle.” (Mike Segretto (author of The Who FAQ), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcard_(The_Who_song))

The Odds & Sods liner notes tell us:

Produced by The Who at Eel Pie Studios (a/k/a Pete’s garage in Twickenham) late May 1970 with additional horns produced and played by John Entwistle [and a rerecorded bass part (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcard_(The_Who_song))] and recorded at Ramport Studios, London 1974 . . . . This EP was listed in Gary Herman’s 1970 book The Who as being their next release. The track listing he gave was “Water”; “Don’t Know Myself”/”Naked Eye” [see #1,912]; “Postcard”. During the Summer 1970 North America tour Pete said, perhaps jokingly, that this EP’s title would be called 6 ft. Wide Garage, 7 ft. Wide Car, a reference to it being recorded in Pete’s garage. After the tour, Pete told Disc and Music Echo that the tracks would be “Water”, “I Don’t Even Know Myself”, “Postcard” and “Now I’m a Farmer”. “Postcard” was the single pulled from Odds & Sods in the U.S. (the first U.S. Who single with an Entwistle A-side) . . . . It hit the Cash Box charts November 23, 1974 where it peaked at #64 (it did not make the Billboard charts).

https://web.archive.org/web/20070701183016/http://www.thewho.net/linernotes/Odds%26Sods.htm

Pete Townshend wrote in The New Musical Express that:

“Postcard” is a John Entwistle song about touring on the road. He describes in luscious detail the joys and delights of such romantic venues as Australia (pause to fight off temporary attack of nausea), America (pause to count money), and of course that country of the mysterious and doubting Customs official, Germany. (Pause, whether they like it or not, for “God Save The Queen”). Listen out for the field sound effects actually recorded in the countries we toured. “Postcard” was originally recorded in my house for a maxi-single, as they came to be known here. Maxi-singles were EPs that only cost as much as a single. Unfortunately, ours never got released! We realised at the last minute that we wouldn`t make a profit doing stupid things like that. I engineered this one with one hand on the controls and the other on the guitar. That’s why I only play one chord throughout the whole song. If John’s bass sound is a little distant, it could be because his speaker cabinet was in the house next door.

https://geirmykl.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/article-about-the-who-from-new-musical-express-september-21-1974/

Here is the ’74 version:

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The Rattles — “Mr . . . Keep Your Hands Off My Sister”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — August 1, 2026

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

2,054) The Rattles — “Mr . . . Keep Your Hands Off My Sister”

Well before “Bohemian Rhapsody” and two months after Barry Ryan’s “Eloise” [see #264] came one of the GOAT operatic, bombastic, kitchen sink epic rock songs . . . out of Hamburg, Germany. “One of the[ Rattles’] very best . . . with a kitchen sink production on a par with what was going on in the UK!” (Wurzelsepp, https://www.45cat.com/record/269392tf) The message is simple and direct and oft-repeated: Mr., keep your hands off my sister! The music, straight-ahead rock (nicking Keith’s “Satisfaction” riff) to discotheque beats to classical (from choral to Mozart-era) is exhilarating. I would so like to hear Wayne and Garth belt this one out!

Of course, there are haters: “Annoying wannabe-epic track with satisfaction-ripoff riff”. (SwedxSimon, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/the-rattles/mr-keep-your-hands-off-my-sister/) Drop the “annoying” and the “wannabe” and he nailed it!

Richie Unterberger tells us of the Rattles:

One of the most successful, and certainly one of the most prolific, German rock groups of the ’60s, the Rattles enjoyed reasonable success in their native land without making much of an impression elsewhere (though some of their material was released in other countries). Starting out in the same Star Club-based Hamburg scene as the Liverpool groups of the early ’60s, their early repertoire was built upon a similar base of ’50s rock and soul/R&B. They released about 30 singles during the ’60s . . . as well as almost ten albums, eventually making the transition to original material, and marching on well into the 1970s.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-rattles-mn0000895756

Wikipedia adds (courtesy of Google Translate):

The Rattles were founded in Hamburg in December 1960 by Achim Reichel and Herbert Hildebrandt. [In] 1963, the band won a competition at Hamburg’s Star-Club and subsequently became the first German band to perform there. In the autumn of that year, they recorded their first single. Afterwards, the group embarked on a six-week tour of England with Bo Diddley, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, and the then relatively unknown Rolling Stones [see #382, 298, 537, 579, 1,098, 1,403, 1,911]. Following the release of the film Hurra, die Rattles kommen (Hooray, the Rattles are Coming) in early 1966, they shared the stage with the Beatles in June of that year, opening for the Bravo Beatles Blitz Tour in Munich, Essen, and Hamburg – to great acclaim. Rattles records were released, achieving regional success in England, and for a time they were celebrated in Liverpool as the “German Beatles”. In total, the group had a dozen hits . . . . The band achieved nationwide media fame in Germany through their appearances on the ARD music show Beat-Club. . . . In 1970, the Rattles had an international hit with “The Witch”. The song had initially appeared as the B-side of the 1969 single “Geraldine”. In June 1970, “The Witch” reached number 79 in the US as the A-side, and in October it climbed to number eight in the UK. . . . Due to its success, the Rattles recorded a new version of “The Witch” with Edna Bejarano on vocals, which reached number four in the West German charts in October 1970. The song was composed by Herbert Hildebrandt. . . . By this time, Achim Reichel had long since left the group. After his time in the German Federal Armed Forces, he founded the group Wonderland in 1967 . . . . The “new” 1970s Rattles . . . only had some connection to the original lineup insofar as Herbert Hildebrandt continued as the group’s composer and producer. Further singles . . . were only minor hits in West Germany. In 1977, after several lineup changes, the Rattles disbanded.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rattles

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Georgie Fame — “Parchman Farm”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 31, 2026

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

2,053) Georgie Fame — “Parchman Farm”

I like to think I was named in honor of Georgie Fame (see #103, 169, 634, 695, 721, 1,044, 1,741) Hey, my mother used to call me Georgie, and we share the same initials (along with gluten-free items!). If only I were so cool! As Oregano Rathbone has said, “[i]t’s imperative not to trust anyone who doesn’t love Georgie Fame, though we can’t begin to imagine what kind of monster such a person would have to be.” (https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/whole-worlds-shaking-complete-recordings-1963-66) Dave Stephens puts it well: “All traces of his upbringing . . . had been totally expunged and replaced by one part Mose Allison – an American white jazz singer & pianist who was fond of interpreting blues in a very individual manner – and a second part blending a whole host of black jazz, blues and R&B singers . . . .” https://www.toppermost.co.uk/fame-georgie/

From the first LP — Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo — “Georgie and the band pull [Mose Allison’s “Parchman Farm”] off brilliantly.” (Dave Stephens, https://www.toppermost.co.uk/fame-georgie/) — “Absolutely Happening. You’ all know It.” (karlbillinger9945, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sChJh1in4j4&list=RDsChJh1in4j4&start_radio=1&pp=ygUkR2VvcmdpZSBGYW1lIOKAlCDigJxQYXJjaG1hbiBGYXJt4oCdoAcB&ra=m)

Matthew Greenwald writes of the song:

One of Mose Allison’s most enduring songs, [it] has definite swing element to it, and the locomotive tempo is positively infectious. There are some unique features that set the song aside, one being the modulation in the second verse, which gives the song an even greater momentum. In addition, there is a down-tempo coda that is about as soulful as jazz could possibly get at the time. Lyrically, it’s about one of Allison’s favorite themes, that being persecution.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/parchman-farm-mt0002776394

Georgie Fame on Mose Allison: “I didn’t get to know of Mose Allison until 1962 when I worked down the Flamingo Club in London playing from midnight until 6am. . . . An American GI . . . introduced me to the music of Mose Allison, and it was Mose who became my biggest influence both musically and as a human being.” (https://www.vintagerockmag.com/2023/02/soundtrack-of-my-life-georgie-fame/)

Here’s an excerpt from John Pidgeon’s wonderful reminiscence about Georgie Fame, the Blue Flames, and the Flamingo:

At most clubs where R&B groups play . . . the audience is art-studenty, the scruffy side of smart, with Stones-length hair or longer. The Flamingo, a firetrap of a basement . . . attracts an altogether different crowd. Because the All-Nighter operates from midnight to six, they come from a netherworld where people don’t keep regular hours: US servicemen . . . on 48-hour passes . . . young West Indians from Notting Hill and Brixton, insomniac musicians, drunks, junkies, hookers, and drynamil-fuelled faces. . . . Much of the band’s material has come from the GIs who frequent the All-Nighter. Keen to replicate the music they would be dancing and drinking to back home . . . and gratefully aware that Fame and his fellow musicians are not only capable of meaningful interpretation, but enthusiastically open to influence, they lend him their own records. If Fame likes what he hears, the song will be in the band’s set the following weekend . . . . And . . . it’s a GI who has introduced him to maverick jazzer Mose Allison, reshaping his singing style overnight. The album that hooked him is I Love The Life I Live, its title track now a staple in the Blue Flames’ set, along with Allison’s “Parchman Farm” and “Work Song”. Even when I search out Allison’s originals, I don’t like Fame’s approximation any less. . . . The Rolling Stones may have been lost from the Ricky Tick to the wider world of pop, but I don’t care any more, because Georgie and the Blue Flames make the most exciting music in town. . . . From midnight to six we dance and fidget and talk nonsense, start to feel not so great, swallow more pills and feel great again, and suddenly we’re outside in the cold, cold light. Those six hours can flash by so fast, I once ask on my way out why the bands haven’t done two sets tonight. “What’re you on, son? Here, you sure you’re old enough to be in this joint?” I wasn’t.

https://web.archive.org/web/20110715195820/http://www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/2009/07/the-flamingo-club/

As to Georgie, Max Bell says:

Georgie Fame . . . is one of British R&B music’s founding fathers. . . . [with immense] cultural influence. . . . The black music he championed with his band The Blue Flames brought new sounds to Swinging London and bossed venues like the Flamingo Club and the Marquee where he turned the English mod movement on to a whole bag of soul and authentic US urban and country sounds and also the ska and early reggae he heard in the Jamaican cafes and clubs in the Ladbroke Grove area of London. . . .

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/artist/georgie-fame/

Steve Huey adds that:

Georgie Fame’s swinging, surprisingly credible blend of jazz and American R&B earned him a substantial following in his native U.K., where he scored three number one singles during the ’60s. . . . Early in his career, he . . . peppered his repertoire with Jamaican ska and bluebeat tunes, helping to popularize that genre in England; during his later years, he was one of the few jazz singers of any stripe to take an interest in the vanishing art of vocalese, and earned much general respect from jazz critics on both sides of the Atlantic.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/georgie-fame-mn0000543055/biography

As to Fame’s early history, Bell tells us that:

[He] depart[ed] to London aged 16 to seek his fortune. He touted his talents up and down the legendary Tin Pan Alley area of Denmark Street just off Soho where he was spotted by impresarios Lionel Bart and Larry Parnes who christened him Georgie Fame – somewhat against his will. Working with touring rock and rollers like Joe Brown, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran young Fame became battle-hardened and was snapped up by Billy Fury in 1961 to lead his backing band The Blue Flames for whom he arranged and sang. The Blue Flames and Fury parted company and so Georgie took over . . . .

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/artist/georgie-fame/

Steve Huey again:

The[ Flames’] budding reputation landed them a residency at the West End jazz club the Flamingo, and thanks to the American servicemen who frequented the club and lent Fame their records, [Fame] discovered the Hammond B-3 organ, becoming one of the very few British musicians to adopt the instrument in late 1962. From there, the Blue Flames became one of the most popular live bands in London. In 1963, they signed with EMI Columbia, and in early 1964 released their acclaimed debut LP, Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo. It wasn’t a hot seller at first, and likewise their first three singles all flopped, but word of the group was spreading. Finally, in early 1965, Fame hit the charts with “Yeh Yeh,” . . . . [which] went all the way to number one on the British charts . . . . His 1965 LP Fame at Last reached the British Top 20, and after several more minor hits, he had another British number one with “Getaway” [see #1,044] in 1966. After one more LP with the original Blue Flames, 1966’s Sweet Thing, Fame broke up the band and recorded solo . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/georgie-fame-mn0000543055/biography

Here is Mose Allison:

Here is Bukka White:

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The Nazz — “Forget All About It”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 30, 2026

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

2,052) The Nazz — “Forget All About It”

The Nazz were power pop’s ground zero and “Forget All About It”, fuhgeddaboudit, it was like an H-bomb going off. “[It] makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up” (Aidenbro-s2k, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQDbhp0Qwkc), “a kind of protoprogressive powerpop, with unusual phrasing, high energy arrangement and carefully crafted massed vocal choruses” (Bill Kopp, https://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2019/07/10/dont-forget-all-about-it-nazz-nazz-at-50/), “an absolutely breathtaking rock-fest complete with great harmony vocals and a scorching guitar solo by Todd [Rundgren]”. (Pop Matters, https://www.popmatters.com/nazz-nazz-2496011188.html) It “gets the [Nazz’s second album — Nazz Nazz] going in a highly exhilarating manner . . . zip[ping] and zoom[ing] with storming harmonies and melodies as sharp as glass”. (Beverly Paterson, https://somethingelsereviews.com/2018/03/15/nazz-nazz-nazz-1969/),

Stephen Thomas Erlewine tells us of the Nazz:

Todd Rundgren and his Woody’s Truck Stop colleague Carson Van Osten formed the Nazz in 1967. . . . [T]he Nazz were arguably the first Anglophiles in rock history. There had been many groups that drew inspiration from the Beatles [see #28-29, 113, 132, 374, 422-23, 520-22, 545, 669, 779-81, 840, 872, 942, 1,087, 1,256, 1,437, 1,473, 1,910] and the Stones [see #382, 298, 537, 579, 1,098, 1,403, 1,911], but none had been so self-consciously reverent as the Nazz. One of their first singles, “Open My Eyes,” [see #145] twisted the riff from the Who’s [see #119, 548, 833, 976, 1,912] “I Can’t Explain[.]” . . . Playing lead guitar and bass, respectively, Rundgren and Van Osten were joined by drummer Thom Mooney . . . and lead vocalist/keyboardist Stewkey (born Robert Antoni). The Nazz had their first gig in July 1967, landing an opening slot at a Doors concert. By September, the group received some financial support from the local record store Bartoff & Warfield, who also put them in touch with John Kurland, a record promoter who was looking for a guitar pop band. Kurland took a shine to the Nazz and signed on as their manager. . . . [C]onvinced that the Nazz could be marketed as a sharp, stylish boy band for the teenybopper audience, [he] helped the quartet members to refashion themselves in that mode. With a wardrobe of clothes and an album’s worth of material ready, Kurland and [co-manager Michael] Friedman had the Nazz sign with SGC Records . . . in the summer of 1968. Their debut album, Nazz, appeared in October, supported by the single “Hello It’s Me.” Although the song would later become a major hit for Rundgren as a solo artist, the dirgey original version barely scraped the national charts, largely due to mismanagement. The managers wanted the Nazz to play only large halls, which was virtually impossible for an unknown, unproven band with a newly released debut album. . . . [T]he Nazz headed to England to cut their second album, but they became embroiled in work visa problems. Undaunted, they returned to America and began work on an ambitious self-produced double album named Fungo Bat. By the time it was released in April 1969, it was trimmed to a single album and titled Nazz Nazz. . . . [T]he music remained dizzyingly diverse, as the record ran the gamut from psychedelic rockers to pop ballads. One problem emerged, however. In the process of editing, much of Rundgren’s newer, Laura Nyro-influenced material — which he had sung himself — was left on the shelves. Neither the management nor his bandmates gave Rundgren much encouragement to sing, nor was his new introspective direction warmly received by his colleagues. . . . [He] left the group not long after their summer 1969 tour . . . Stewkey took control of the Nazz, erased Rungren’s vocals from the album sitting in the vaults, and replaced them with his own. The result was released as Nazz III in 1970, but it stiffed.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-nazz-mn0000377892

Here is the acetate:

Don’t worry, it’s the first song!

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The Onyx — “You’ve Gotta Be with Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 29, 2026

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

2,051) The Onyx — “You’ve Gotta Be with Me”

The first A-side by Cornwall’s Onyx is “immensely catchy” (http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history3.html), “combin[ing] British beat group energy with Beach Boys harmony on a decidedly countercultural call for a perception adjustment”. (Rob Jones, https://thedeletebin.com/2025/10/06/20-great-sixties-psychedelic-pop-gems-you-should-hear-right-now/)

I don’t know about the counterculture part. I thought the song was about a guy trying to impress a girl by telling her about all the hot clubs he could get her into! A website devoted to the band says that “[t]hey were very much a provincial band at this stage, still learning the ropes but thrilled at the exciting opportunities ahead of them, the innocence and excitement of which is perfectly captured in [the] lyrics.” (http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history3.html) To be fair to Rob Jones, though, the lyrics do include “Your mind starts to reel And you feel what you see And you touch what you hear”!

The website tells us the song’s history:

Through [manager] Bob[ Potter’s] contacts the band hooked up with songwriter Guy Fletcher and lyricist Doug Flett who were fresh from working with Wishful Thinking. After catching the band play live the pair were impressed by the[ir] sound . . . , in particular their harmonies and ability to play tight arrangements. Guy’s strength was harmony, so they hit it off well. Guy & Doug decided to work with The Onyx Set on what would become their first single. . . . The Flett/Fletcher penned and produced “You’ve Gotta Be With Me/It’s All Put On” . . . was released in February 1968, with the band now dropping the “Set” off their name. . . . The single proved extremely popular amongst the bands’ local fans selling 250 copies in the first three days around their local stamping ground of Bodmin and Wadebridge. . . . They also had their own fan club . . . . [T]he single received some airplay on the BBC and the band hit the road. Plans to conquer Europe were halted when a planned trip to Holland in the Easter of 1968 was temporarily blocked by the Dutch Labour Exchange, due to [visa] problems . . . . [T]he tour eventually went ahead, with the band afterwards returning to their home turf and playing for their loyal Cornish following. . . . While the . . . 45 was flying off the racks in Cornwall and despite a busy promotional schedule and an airing by Alan Freeman on the Top Of The Pops radio show, the single . . . . failed to dent the charts. . . . While the single didn’t set the chats alight it did give them plenty of publicity, lining them up with a busy gigging schedule. It also brought them to the attention of the BBC and they recorded the first of what would become many sessions for the BBC in late 1968.

http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history3.html

PJ gives some more history of the band:

The Onyx were a psychedelic rock band formed in Wadebridge, Cornwall, England in 1965. . . . After winning a battle of the band contest in Cornwall, they went through a number of line-up changes . . . with the new band being christened The Onyx Set, named after an Onyx ring owned by [bassist Mike] Black-Borow. After more changes in the line-up they shortened their name to The Onyx . . . . The band evolved from doing cover versions of popular contemporary beat bands . . . to psychedelia, and in 1967 they . . . record[ed] demos of some of the songs that they had been working on . . . . Another track recorded during these sessions was the quirky progressive pop number ‘Climb That Tree’, which would be covered the following year by She Trinity [see #1,208] on the b-side of their “Hair” single, with the girls using the Onyx backing track for their recording. . . .

https://albumsiwishexisted2.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-onyx-kaleidoscope-of-colours-1967.html

For an exhaustive and entertaining history of the Onyx, see: http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history.html, http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history2.html, http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history3.html, http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history4.html, http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history5.html, http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history6.html.

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Jimmy Campbell — “Another Vincent Van Gogh”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 28, 2026

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

2,050) Jimmy Campbell — “Another Vincent Van Gogh”

This blog o’ mine gives me great joy, as when I played as my 22nd song “Michel Angelo”, by Jimmy Campbell’s (see #22, 648, 736-38, 996, 1,096, 1,389, 1,493) 23rd Turnoff. I called the song “[o]ne of the most gorgeous songs I have ever heard.” It is certainly the greatest ever pop psych ballad I have ever heard. But the blog also can give me great sadness, as when today, I focus again on Jimmy and how his talents were left to wither by cruel fate and an indifferent public. As dpnewbold comments, “This guy is so under-rated it hurts.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI-KHv7u4qE) Yes, it does.

Here, from Campbell’s first solo album, ’69’s Son of Anastasia, is “yet another tribute to a tortured master painter” (Mark Johnston, liner notes to the CD comp The 23rd Turnoff: The Dream of Michaelangelo: The Legendary ’66/’67 Recordings), “arch but quite catchy”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/son-of-anastasia-mw0000811484)

Bill Harry recalls that “I liked ‘Michaelangelo’ so much I suggested that Jimmy write songs about other artists and perhaps use it as an album concept – he then wrote ‘Another Vincent Van Gogh.’” (https://triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/a-z/jimmycampbell2.shtml) It was originally to be the 23rd Turnoff’s next A-side, but, as Mark Johnston tells us:

The lack of public reception to “Michael Angelo” sealed the fate of the 23rd Turnoff forever and ensured there was not to be a follow up. . . . Jimmy . . . walked into Apple Publishing in 1967 to see if he could interest Terry Doran in purchasing the song. Jimmy recalls the day: ” . . . . I had my acoustic guitar and I played them a couple of tunes and they chose to buy ‘Another Vincent Van Gogh.'”

liner notes to The 23rd Turnoff: The Dream of Michaelangelo

Son of Anastasia “contained songs of aching beauty and melancholia”. (Jazzinfo.net, https://blog.naver.com/hubtone/221610862004) Yeah, that’s “Another Vincent Van Gogh”.

Richie Unterberger tells us of the LP:

[It] was a marked change in direction for Campbell, in his style if not his songwriting. For Son of Anastasia is largely a folky, acoustic album, occasionally venturing into orchestrated folk-pop, even if Campbell is more a pop/rock songwriter than a folk one . . . . It’s an attractively introspective record laced with some bittersweet irony, but the combination of bare-bones and lightly orchestrated arrangements doesn’t always ideally suit the material. . . . occasionally riffs are taken by what sound like either kazoos or someone (Campbell?) trying to imitate a trumpet with mouth noises, which not only adds an unappetizingly vaudevillian flavor, but leaves the impression that there wasn’t enough budget allotted for proper instrumentation.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/son-of-anastasia-mw0000811484#review

As to Jimmy, Matty Loughlin-Day aptly states that:

[Jimmy Campbell was a] songwriter who, for this writer’s money, could go toe-to-toe with any of the more celebrated prodigies from the region, yet who’s name is frequently met with blank faces or a shrug of the shoulders. A writer who, in a sane universe, would be esteemed alongside . . . yes, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Jimmy Campbell is arguably the archetypal lost son of Liverpool. A talent that was never quite reciprocated by the buying public and the victim of some cruel twists of fate, his is a name that is for one reason or another, never quite mentioned when discussing the plethora of musical talent that the city has produced. . . . [H]is songs entice immediately and gradually work their way into the sub-conscious.

https://www.getintothis.co.uk/2019/06/lost-liverpool-25-jimmy-campbell-the-greatest-songwriter-youve-never-heard-of/

Mark Johnston seconds the thought: “Campbell should rightfully be considered closer to a Merseyside Bob Dylan [see #126, 823, 1,133, 1,162, 1,495, 1,599, 1,711, 1,895, 1,963] than the sullen working class Nick Drake he is often painted as. He could have been the Poet Laureate of England!” (liner notes to the CD reissue of Rocking Horse’s Yes It Is)

Richie Unterberger poignantly sums things up:

[Jimmy was] perhaps the most unheralded talent to come out of the Liverpool ’60s rock scene, as he was a songwriter capable of both spinning out engaging Merseybeat and — unlike almost every other artist from the city, with the notable exception of the Beatles [see #28-29, 113, 132, 374, 422-23, 520-22, 545, 669, 779-81, 840, 872, 942, 1,087, 1,256, 1,437, 1,473, 1,910] — making the transition to quality, dreamy psychedelia. . . . It seems as if Campbell needed just a bit more encouragement, and his groups just a little more studio time, to develop into a notable British psychedelic group that could combine solid pop melodies, sophisticated lyrics and arrangements, and touches of English whimsy. Unfortunately they didn’t get that chance . . . .

Campbell’s slightly moody yet catchy melodies, as well as his drolly understated lyrics, mark him as perhaps the best ’60s Liverpool rock songwriter never to have a chart record . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-dream-of-michelangelo-mw0000351105, https://www.allmusic.com/album/son-of-anastasia-mw0000811484

To give a sense of Jimmy Campbell’s early and later history, Matty Loughlin-Day writes that:

Campbell’s first band, The Panthers, were formed in 1962 and were at the heart of all things Merseybeat. Legend has it that at one gig, John Lennon stood in front of the band, keen to suss out local competition; one must assume he was impressed, as before long, the band were able to add ‘supported The Beatles’ to their CV. Convinced by Cavern-legend Bob Wooler to change their name to The Kirkbys (in homage to their home suburb) and looked after by Brian Epstein’s secretary Beryl Adams, Campbell et al toured across Western Europe and recorded a handful of songs, including the Rolling Stones-esque stomper “It’s a Crime” [see #648]. . . . [I]nitial singles found success in, of all places, Finland. . . . [but a]t home, the singles fared less impressively, and a second name change soon followed. The Kirbys became the 23rd Turnoff, again based in local geography, named after the M6 junction required for Kirkby. . . .

With a short European tour in 1972 backing Chuck Berry [see #361, 886, 1,340] . . . and fortunes truly fading, Campbell decided he’d had enough. . . . [A]pparently rejuvenated and able to muster the strength to record a fourth solo album during the 80’s, Campbell, on completing it, went to the pub to celebrate, only to return home to find his house ransacked and the only master tapes of the album gone, along with a range of equipment. The guy, it seemed, could just not catch a break. . . .

By all accounts, a life of hard-living took its toll and he sadly passed away in 2007 after battling emphysema.

https://www.getintothis.co.uk/2019/06/lost-liverpool-25-jimmy-campbell-the-greatest-songwriter-youve-never-heard-of/

Here is the 23rd Turnoff’s demo:

Here is a pop psych version by the Turnoff!

Here is a live version:

Here is a cool version by indy rockers Ex-Norwegian (’17):

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The Legends — “I’ll Come Again”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 27, 2026

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

2,049) The Legends — “I’ll Come Again”

“Michigan garage rock gold” (thomassmith8721, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbaVKxkjwMg), an “[i]nsanely good tune” (Baronvonrhubarbpostoffice, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWe9Z5BbYH8), “ingenious garage pop” (liner notes to the CD comp Back from the Grave: Volume One: Raw ‘n’ Crude Mid-60s Garage Punk!), “[a] wild and cocky teenage garage gem with great organ, guitar, vocals and rhythm section”. (berndjenter4005, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN99DUa82ww)

“SO GREAT/BITCHIN’ 60’s PUNK…Simply Stunned, W/ Every Listen!!” (shelleyganz9095, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LLALkYs2jc) Shelley, so am I!

Sixties Garage Punk tells us:

The sea of reverberated “Ooh, ooh, oooh, oooohs!” paired with the relentless pulsation of a Farfisa organ . . . is textbook ’60s Garage Rock 101. Perhaps that’s why the 1967 Fenton single . . . with the soft ballad [A-side] “I’m Just a Guy,” is considered one of the label’s classic releases.

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

As to the Legends — Ray Vasquez (keyboards/vocals), Scott Hamberg (guitar), Andy Fierro (bass), John Bertalan (drummer) — Back from the Grave tells us:

The Legends were a group of Holland, Michigan teens that formed in ’64 and began playing all over western Michigan high school dances after getting their big break by winning the Holland Battle of the Bands in ’65. They recorded this in early ’65, but the record label, Fenton, didn’t release it til 1967, long after the group had split up.

liner notes to Back from the Grave: Volume One

However, Sixties Garage Punk says the song was recorded in ’66 — “right as the outfit was disbanding.”

As an extra-special treat, check out the band’s home movies accompanied by both sides of the single, posted by guitarist Scott Hamberg. They perfectly encapture the simple joy of being in a 60’s garage rock band:

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Stevie Wonder — “Everytime I See You I Go Wild”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 26, 2026

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

2,048) Stevie Wonder — “Everytime I See You I Go Wild”

Stevie gave us a wondrous ’67 B-side expressing unbridled joy, which he composed with Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy. “Unbelievable no matter how old this song it will still make the heavens shake”. (jessejohnson6799, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZsMrmLaoI0) Indeed.

KiloCreations asked, “So he never goes wild?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gcjmKVwbPA) Kilo, you are a bad, bad, boy (or girl)!

J.J. Barnes recorded the song first, but it went unreleased at the time.

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Ray Ellis and His Orchestra — “I Feel Fine”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 25, 2026

beginning at 2:31

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

2,047) Ray Ellis and His Orchestra — “I Feel Fine”

I’m gonna lounge today with Ray Ellis and his Orchestra’s ultra-fine rendition of the Beatles’ [see #28-29, 113, 132, 374, 422-23, 520-22, 545, 669, 779-81, 840, 872, 942, 1,087, 1,256, 1,437, 1,473, 1,910] “I Feel Fine”, “[p]erfect for a mid-1960s living-room discotheque party.” (Lee’s Fake Hits, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I8v0ACk8lT8&list=RDI8v0ACk8lT8&start_radio=1&pp=ygUYUmF5IGVsbGlzIEknbGwgZmVlbCBmaW5loAcB&ra=m) I feel like Don Draper!

Not only was Ellis a master of jazz, pop, and standards, but he arranged rock, soul and R&B classic such as Bobby Darin’s “Splish Splash” and “Dream Lover”, Ben E. King’s “Spanish Harlem,” Brook Benton’s “There Goes My Baby”, and the Drifters’ “Under the Boardwalk.” And then there were the cartoons, from The Archies to Fat Albert!

Jason Ankeny tells Ellis’s story:

Ellis began studying saxophone at age 12, mastering all of the reed instruments within three years. While stationed at Fort Knox during World War II, he handled arranging duties with the U.S. Army Band . . . . After the war Ellis returned to Philadelphia to work in radio, later fronting a live jazz showcase on local television station WCAU. He also played tenor sax behind bandleaders Gene Krupa and Paul Whiteman before relocating to New York City in 1954. Columbia Records producer Mitch Miller hired Ellis as a staff arranger the following year, where he assisted on a series of pop smashes . . . . Most notably, Ellis and his orchestra supported jazz icon [Billy] Holiday on her controversial 1958 LP Lady in Satin. . . . Ellis was appointed A&R director at MGM Records in 1959 . . . . He also headlined his own easy listening LPs . . . . Ellis changed musical direction during a stint at Atlantic Records under renowned R&B producer Jerry Wexler, briefly returning to Columbia long enough to arrange [Barbra] Streisand’s 1964 effort The Third Album. After relocating to Los Angeles during the mid-’60s, Ellis shifted his focus to television: . . . he composed for Filmation productions spanning from The Archie Show to Fantastic Voyage to The Hardy Boys, scoring dozens of cartoons across his 14-year tenure with the studio. He still accepted the occasional studio gig, however, and in 1970 produced Emmylou Harris’ debut, Gliding Bird.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ray-ellis-mn0000869807

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Tee and Cara — “I Don’t Think I Know Her”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 24, 2026

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

2,046) Tee and Cara — “I Don’t Think I Know Her”

I sometimes say that a song is impossibly gorgeous. Well, here is another impossibility, “a melancholic standout” (recorddigger, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/tee_and_cara/as_they_are/) by “a boy/girl duo whose light flickered brilliantly for this album before fading altogether. . . [whose sole LP] is truly worthy of the oft-misused ‘buried treasure’ tag, defying exact characterisation other than resting in an early folkish singersongwriter vein.” (Kingsley Abbott, https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/10/tee-and-cara-as-they-are-1968-us-lovely.html?m=1)

Robert Cochran writes:

A perfect fading Polaroid of the way they were. It makes you want to relive lost days in old sunshine. These teenagers may not have charted, but they wrote songs that are as beguiling as telegrams. They sound so innocently sophisticated. . . . Cara [Beckenstein] is . . sixteen . . . . Tee Saroff . . . . eighteen . . . . They both . . . play guitar, having met at John Adams High School in New York. . . . [Their] sound is effortlessly cool. Mellow and breezy, they build a subtle bridge between California folksongs and New York’s Tin Pan Alley pop. . . . If there were a genre captioned “urban pastoral,” Tee and Cara would be major exponents . . . . [I]n the summer of 1968 a boy and a girl in New York got something right. . . . [with this] intriguing work of tender charm.

https://www.culturecatch.com/index.php/music/tee_and_cara

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Circus Maximus — “Lost Sea Shanty”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 23, 2026

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

2,045) Circus Maximus — “Lost Sea Shanty”

Yesterday, we had a sailor lost at sea, today a lost sea shanty. From Jerry Jeff Walker’s (see #485) early band Circus Maximus (see #348) — “[a] precursor to the cosmic cowboy movement, [a] folk rock/outfit [with] more than a touch of psychedelia and plenty of country” (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/circus-maximus-mn0000130844) — this lost classic is “[p]owered by jangle rock guitars, activist lyrics . . . and lysergic energy, [with] a distinctive Byrds [see #1,430, 1,605, 1,965] feel.” (Scott Blackerby, http://badcatrecords.com/CIRCUSmaximus.htm)

It’s “a great song, so ignore the other reviews. Yes, it is somewhat derivitive and dated, but in a great way.” (britto, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/circus-maximus/circus-maximus/reviews/2/) Other reviews? Maybe like this one: “a dated, jangly love-peace-and-harmony crap feast indicative of the year this was made; i don’t hate it, but it’s skip worthy”. (channon, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/circus-maximus/circus-maximus/reviews/1/)

As to the LP, Casey Chambers writes:

The Circus Maximus self-titled debut album is psych-tinged garagey folk-rock. It has occasional freakouts and the tracks sound bright and loose with jangling guitars reminiscent a little of mid-period Byrds or Beau Brummels [see #713]. The music is catchy and original.

https://www.thecollegecrowddigsme.com/2020/12/tccdm-pulls-one-outcircus-maximus.html

RDTEN1:

[The band] came together in 1967. . . . Calling Austin, Texas home they were originally known as The Lost Sea Dreamers. Relocating to New York City where they became part of the Greenwich Village scene, they were spotted and signed by Vanguard Records. The label immediately demanded a name change, feeling the Lost Sea Dreams (aka LSD) nameplate was too risky from a marketing standpoint. . . . Rechristened Circus Maximus the band was subsequently ushered into the recording studio. . . . [Co-producer] Samuel Charters was riding high on successes with Country Joe and the Fish and some of the album’s more West Coast psych influences bore at least a mild resemblance to [their] early work.

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/circus-maximus/circus-maximus/reviews/1/

Ochsfan says:

Had this group received a little more exposure during its brief existence, they would undoubtedly be spoken of in the same reverential tones as Buffalo Springfield [see #1,555, 2,025]. Indeed, the competition in songwriting between Jerry Jeff Walker and Bob Bruno mirrors the duel between Neil Young and Steve Stills. Circus Maximus added enough psychedelic touches to be in step with the times, but not so many that they completely obscured the country-folk base of their sound. If The Byrds had kept David Crosby instead of making Sweetheart of the Rodeo, you’d have something pretty close to what’s found here. Jangly guitars mingle with close harmonies and frenzied keyboards, but none of it sounds forced. . . . Bruno is clearly the heavier, more psychedelicized of the two. . . .

http://pointblankplay.blogspot.com/2011/05/circus-maximus-circus-maximus-1967-us.html?m=1

Geoffrey Himes recounts Jerry Jeff Walker’s early years:

[Jerry Jeff Walker] was born Ronald Clyde Crosby . . . in Oneonta, N.Y. He joined the National Guard and went AWOL under the name of Jerry Ferris, thanks to the borrowed ID of a fellow guardsman [Who is he, Don Draper?!]. . . . [I]n Greenwich Village, Ferris renamed himself Jerry Walker after Harlem jazz pianist Kirby Walker. He wasn’t making much headway as one of a thousand guitar-strumming, singer-songwriter folkies that had popped up like mushrooms in the wake of Bob Dylan. So he joined a psychedelic-rock band called Circus Maximus for two albums, before drifting back to the folk scene in the Village.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/jerry-jeff-walker/jerry-jeff-walker-obiturary/

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Fickle Pickle — “Sam & Sadie”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — July 22, 2026

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

2,044) Fickle Pickle — “Sam & Sadie”

The best I can make out, this ’70 Fickle Pickle (see #568) B-side is about a sailor’s illegitimate son learning that his dad has been lost at sea. Nevertheless, it’s glorious and anthemic late UK pop psych, written by Danny Beckerman (of Fortes Mentum (see #904, 1,003, 1,284) fame) and Geoff Gill (of Smoke (see #1,499, 1,648) fame).

Who were these guys? Kevin Rathert tells us that:

A North-West London studio based quartet consisting of members best known as producers, engineers and session players, Fickle Pickle was actually a bit of an English psych pop supergroup consisting of Cliff Wade (lead guitar, rhythm guitar and bass guitar) and Geoff Gill (drums) from The Smoke best known for their late 60’s acid classic “My Friend Jack” [see #1,648] along with Wil Malone (piano, organ and electric piano) from Orange Bicycle [see #1,647] and Steve Howden (lead guitar, rhythm guitar and bass guitar) from Red Dirt [see #1,378]. Vocals for the band were supplied by all four members. The three bands had in common that they recorded at Morgan Studios in London, so it was rather inevitable that the four combined their talents . . . .

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2018/11/fickle-pickle-complete-pickle-2018.html?amp=1

How did they get into this pickle? —

Boasting four writers, singers and multi-instrumentalists who, between them, also handled production, engineering and arrangement duties, Fickle Pickle had the wit, cynicism, hooks, harmonies and technical dexterity to bridge the barren years between the demise of The Beatles and the eventual arrival in late 1972 of their kindred spirits 10cc. [The band members] worked as sound engineers and producers at North London’s Morgan Studios. Danny Beckerman (Pussy/Fortes Mentum) helped out as a musician and songwriter in the bands early days. In August 1970, Fickle Pickle published a cover version of Paul McCartney’s song “Maybe I’m Amazed” as a single in the UK, the USA and the Netherlands, where it climbed to No. 36 in the Top 40 in the spring of 1971. In the autumn of 1971, “California Calling”, written by Gill and Beckerman reached number 26. Due to this success in the Netherlands [they got to] release[] an album, Sinful Skinful.

https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/617117260256018432/fickle-pickle-sinful-skinful-1971-a-complete

Sinful Skinful is fantastic. Shindig Magazine says its “best tracks are blissful, sublime almost majestically effortless pop classics . . . employ[ing] strong harmonies and melodies and leav[ing] you speechless at their craft.” (http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/06/fickle-pickle-sinful-skinful-1971-uk.html). Kevin Rathert says that Fickle Pickle “exhibits its ability to combine gorgeous melodies and beautiful vocal harmonies with skillful musicianship” and that the LP is “[a] very solid piece of melodic power pop”. (https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2018/11/fickle-pickle-complete-pickle-2018.html?amp=1) “[A] magnificent album, crammed with songs of wit, cynicism & wisdom, laden with memorable hooks and mellifluous harmonies”, “an absolute KILLER of UK Beatles-inspired pop psych”. (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/617117260256018432/fickle-pickle-sinful-skinful-1971-a-complete)

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