I was born to a Greek orthodox family during World War II . . . in Paris, France. . . . I began singing at a very early age with my brother. I was only three years old and loved to perform for my family and friends. At seven years old I sang on the radio in a children’s show. I continued to sing for pleasure throughout my adolescence. . . . When I was seventeen, with the encouragement of my parents, I went to a beauty salon school in Paris. My parents were very conservative, very loving and protective. I wanted to be a beautician on the ship, Le France, which sailed from Le Havre to New York. This desire frightened my parents. They talked to my brother and [famed French singer] Edith [Piaf] and shared their concerns about me. After my brother married Edith Piaf, much to my delight and surprise, my brother and Edith invited me to live with them in their spacious apartment across from the Bois de Boulogne. That event, without realizing it, brought a rapid and dramatic change in my life. Suddenly because of them, I was living a life of a celebrity without being one. It was at that point that Edith wanted to hear my voice and asked me if I wanted to sing. Edith asked me to sing in the opening act of several of her concerts and would have me introduce her to the crowd. She gave me the name Christie Laume. I began to live the life of a professional singer: rehearsing, touring, and recording. I had a very good relationship with her and I became her friend and spent a lot of time alone with her. It was only a year after Theo married Edith that she died. I continued to sing and record under the guidance and encouragement of my brother. At that time, the Ye Ye style songs became popular and I recorded several singles and also made several television appearances. In 1969, during a summer trip to Greece, I met and later married my husband who was serving in the United States Air Force. It was then that I left the life I had in France and began a new one. I moved to the United States with my husband and we had two children within two years. They brought us great joy. We traveled a lot within the United States as well as in Europe due to my husband’s military career. After nine years of marriage, my husband and I divorced. I devoted my life to raising my children.
In 1966, [Christie] was offered a recording contract with the Barclay label. . . . [H]er debut EP . . . . failed to attract much attention and she switched labels, to Odeon, in 1967. Her first release for the new label was issued shortly afterwards. The title track of the EP was the exuberant “La musique et la danse”, which Christie had co-written. She also helped pen “Agathe ou Christie”, whose lyrics were packed with rather clever jeux de mots [puns]. “L’adorable femme des neiges”, also featured on the EP, has also gone on to find favour with fans of French femme pop. “Pas de nouvelles” was chosen as the lead track of her follow-up EP, though . . . “Rouge-rouge” is considered the standout track of the four on the release.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
Bobby Jameson’s (see #219, 1,255, 1,303) story is tragic and enthralling, one of bad luck, bad people, bad decisions, and mental illness — see the end of this blog for some history. But the story for today is Jameson flying to London to record the vocals along with the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham and Mick Jagger for a single, the A-side written by Oldham and Keith Richards and the B-side written by Jagger and Richards, guitar solos courtesy of Jimmy Page. Oh, and Jameson trying to convince Jagger that the Stones were as big in America as the Beatles!
Jameson recalled that:
I had already received a letter from Andrew Loog Oldham in England . . . . an offer . . . of sorts that basically stated, “If you ever get to London I’d be interested in working with you.” My previous disregard to his invitation now looked like my chance to leave America and get as far away from Tony [Alamo, his manager] as I could. . . .
Once the people in London were satisfied the letter I had received was indeed legitimate, they agreed to finance me coming to London. They arranged pretty much everything and I assume, because I have never known, that they were in for some sort of piece of the action, believing it was a sure fire arrangement with a substantial benefit for them in the long run. . . . It wasn’t important to me at the time, how I got there, it was that I got out of California and as far from Tony as I could. . . .
That’s why I went to England. Most people thought . . . that it was a big opportunity for me to go there and record with Mick Jagger. But what they don’t know is that by me going to England at that time, I killed my career in America. My record “I’m So Lonely” was left to die when I vanished, and I do mean vanished. . . .
After some time, we all ended up in the studio with Andrew. Up until then I’d heard nothing about what he wanted to work on with me . . . . Andrew said he was going to play me a track that he’d already recorded called “All I Want Is My Baby.” . . . I listened intently to what came out of the speakers. It sounded a bit like a Phil Spector track, but not as well organized. In the middle of the song was a fuzz tone guitar solo, that, at that time, was pretty much off the wall. . . . [T]he song didn’t sound anything remotely close to what I did personally. As the tape came to an end Andrew and Mick looked at me in anticipation of my reaction. “Well what do you think Bobby, is that f*cking great or what?” asked Andrew. I was stuck. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing, but I didn’t want to be forced to lie about my opinion either. “Yeah, well that’s pretty cool, Andrew, and I really like the guitar part, who’s that playing?” I asked. “A member of a group called The Poets, said Andrew, “named Jimmy Page.” At the time the name meant nothing to me because I’d never heard it before. “It’s a great track,” I said, “but I don’t know if it’s my kind of song, I mean, like something I’d do.” There was an uncomfortable moment of silence. “Well let me play it again,” said Andrew, “and show you how the vocal’s supposed to go so you can get a better idea of what I want.” . . . “Ok,” I said reluctantly. . . . [T]he track boomed out through the studio. [Andrew] picked up a paper with the lyrics and started singing them for me, and then Mick began filling in with back-up vocals. . . . I tried hard to concentrate on what Andrew wanted, as I eyed the lyric sheet, trying to sing what he was singing. I felt like sh*t inside . . . . I waved at Andrew to stop the tape so I could talk to him and the studio went quiet. “What’s wrong Bobby?’ he asked. “Look,” I said, “I don’t think this is my kinda song. Can I play you a couple of things I wrote so you can get an idea of how I sing?” He looked at me and said “No! I’m not interested in hearing your songs Bobby. I need you to concentrate on this song and get the vocal right, because I know you can do it.” . . . I said, “Ok, play it again.” The tape rolled over and over and over. My vocal got better, but I never thought it was much good. . . . I was jet lagged and miserable. I was ready to walk out, but stayed. At some point, Andrew suggested recording my vocal with the track so I could get a better idea of what it sounded like by hearing it. I agreed, and we pushed on. After awhile both Mick and Andrew teamed up on background vocals, as I sang the lead. After hours of working, Andrew said that was enough. “What a relief!” I thought, because I was spent . . . . Andrew seemed pleased . . . but I was not. The possible exception to that was when we worked on another song for awhile just to change things up. The song was was called “Each And Every Day” . . . . It was far easier to learn and to sing . . . . Not long after that one and only recording session, I was informed that the rough track I’d been led to believe was just for rehearsal was being released on Decca Records as a single . . . .
The record came out . . . preceded by a lot of promotion. I’ll give Andrew Oldham and Decca UK their due, they pumped the record hard, but that made it worse for me personally because I had no faith in it. . . . All of a sudden I was doing interview after interview and I didn’t even like the record. I was torn between the hype and the fear that it would bomb, which it did. I kept trying to get to see Andrew, but it was no use, he was not talking to me. I started making up things about myself to deflect the interest in me, but it just seemed to make things worse. I took to wearing one “black glove” as a goof, and it got famous. I did a story with a London newspaper on “the Glove,” which it became known as, and people took it seriously. . . . I was getting the star treatment alright, but underneath the outward appearances I was just plain worried about having to go on British television to lip sync the record. In my gut I knew it was gonna be bad, but when it actually happened it was worse. I tried everything I could think of to get people to reconsider what they were doing. I told them all “Let’s do the other side, “Each And Every Day,” it’s a better record.””No!” they said, “We’re not going to do that Bobby, it’s gonna be fine.” It was not fine. . . .
It became apparent that Oldham had done a one shot deal with his Bobby Jameson project, and if “All I Want Is My Baby” wasn’t a big hit, which it wasn’t, he was not planning to do a follow up. . . .
Andrew Loog Oldham recalled that “Jameson had arrived in the UK as part of the P.J. Proby flock. He wore one black glove and was Walker Brother pretty head to foot — he could have been a Walker Brother. All of that and being American was enough of a calling card in those days to get you recorded.” (2Stoned)
This conversation between Bobby and Mick is a hoot:
I stared at [Mick] for a moment, trying to make sure it was him and just blurted out “Hi Mick!” . . . Strangely enough he was really low key and kind of bashful it seemed. It surprised me . . . . After asking about our flight over, Mick moved directly to the subject of America. . . . He asked about The Beatles and said, “They’re really huge over there aren’t they?” “Yeah,” I said, “but you guys are just about as big.” Then the strangest thing happened. Mick said, “No way man, no way.” “No, really Mick,” I said, “The Stones are just about as big there as The Beatles.” He just stared at me, as if he were trying to figure out whether I was bullshitting him or not. “You’re having me on mate,” he said smiling, “you’re just having me on.” . . . “No, I’m not,” I insisted, “I’m telling you the truth.” He then seemed to know I was telling him what I really believed. “Look,” I said, “When I was in Cleveland, that’s a big city in the US . . . they were running a contest on the biggest radio station there, to see who was more popular, The Rolling Stones or The Beatles, and it was pretty much of a tie,” I told him, “You guys are really big in America. Like it’s The Beatles and you.” He just stared at me. He seemed to be waiting for the punch line that never came. He could not believe what I was telling him, but then again he couldn’t not believe it. I’ll never forget how surprised I was to find out that day that he really didn’t know how incredibly huge The Rolling Stones were in America. The look on his face when I first told him will stay with me forever.
OK, Bobby hated the song. Andrew Loog Oldham wrote that “Keith and I composed a low-life sleeze ‘n’ dumpster sort of homage to George “Shadow” Morton’s Shangri-Las recordings crossed with Bob Crewe’s “Rag Doll” . . . . Keith handled the . . . arrangement[] and Jimmy Page played lead guitar.” (2Stoned)
I think it’s great, as does Bayard, who calls it “splendid” and adds that it “is a mainly midtempo beat ballad with a powerful production, thunderous drums, a brief searing fuzz guitar solo by Richards [actually, Page], Mick Jagger harmonising with Jameson on the choruses as Bobby’s despairing, wailing lead vocal longs for his woman.” (https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/bobby-jameson/all-i-want-is-my-baby-each-and-every-day-of-the-year.p/)
1,381) Bobby Jameson — “Each and Every Day”
Jameson liked this one, the B-side, better. Andrew Loog Oldham wrote that it was “one of the dimmer of the Glimmer Twins’ songwriting output thus far, a Costa Del Sol, sun ‘n’ sugar wrenched ballad”. (2Stoned)
Here is Mick’s demo with Jimmy Page and other sessionmen:
As to Bobby Jameson, Jason Ankeny tells us:
West Coast folk-rocker Bobby Jameson is best known — or, perhaps, not known at all — for Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest [see #219] the sought-after cult LP he recorded under the alias Chris Lucey. . . . Jameson cut his debut single, “I Wanna Love You,” for the Talamo label in early 1964. The record was a regional hit, and even earned him an appearance on American Bandstand. . . . [T]he follow-ups . . . went nowhere . . . . After a 1965 one-off for the Brit imprint, “I Wanna Know,” Jameson returned to Los Angeles, where he befriended producer Marshall Lieb. . . . [who] was in the midst of helming the debut Surrey Records release by folkie Chris Ducey, but with the album covers already printed and the disc ready to ship, contractual snafus forced the project into limbo. Lieb coerced Jameson into writing and recording a new batch of tunes based on Ducey’s existing song titles, and after some creative tinkering with the cover art, [the album] — now credited to Chris Lucey and, for reasons unknown, featuring a photo of Rolling Stone Brian Jones — finally hit retail. Promoted via what was then the most expensive and lavish Billboard advertising supplement ever printed, the album — a deeply idiosyncratic psych-folk opus . . . proved a commercial flop . . . . Jameson did not resurface until mid-1966, releasing “Gotta Find My Roogalator” — arranged by Frank Zappa . . . . He then signed to Verve, where the Our Productions team of Curt Boettcher, Jim Bell, and Steve Clark helmed his 1967 LP Color Him In. That same year, Jameson also appeared in the infamous American International Pictures documentary Mondo Hollywood . . . . A 1969 album for GRT, Working!, proved Jameson’s swan song. During the ’70s, his frustrations with the music industry manifested themselves in substance abuse and two suicide attempts. . . . After he left the music business in 1985, he lived so quietly with his mother in San Luis Obispo County, California that many thought he was dead. He didn’t resurface until 2003, when he learned that Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest had been reissued unbeknownst to him . . . .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
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This disturbed piece of ’60’s punk savagery . . . . features one of the most intense performances ever recorded. Cloaked in reverb, the song creeps along slowly and darkly at first — a pulsing bass and drum rhythm, with a four-note, fuzz-toned riff foretelling danger ahead, while singer Danny Wheetman torturously unpeels his soul, revealing . . . a stalker? Or just a lonely, brokenhearted man? The song rises and falls, building up to a climactic, double-time break with Wheetman pouring out a torrent of words, begging for an end to his pain while implying terrible violence. It’s chilling impossibly brilliant stuff.
liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968
“Knock, Knock” has been called “[b]asically the birth of punk, hardcore, grunge, speed metal, death metal, emo, screamo, The list could go on”. (seangessner1730, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUb8mZ4FDVE)
Jason Ankeny tells us the Humane story:
Simi Valley, CA, psych-punks the Humane Society formed in 1965 as the Innocents . . . . [T]he band was discovered . . . while performing on a flatbed truck parked outside a local record store. The Humane Society’s debut single, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips With Me” — recorded just prior to Tiny Tim’s smash novelty rendition — appeared on Liberty Records in the spring of 1967 and was a hit in Los Angeles, but it was the flip side, “Knock, Knock,” for which the group is justly celebrated . . . . After Liberty rejected a proposed follow-up, the Humane Society landed at New World for their second single, 1968’s “Lorna” [which] received scant attention, and the band dissolved soon after.
Oh, and “[t]he rhythm guitarist was a graphic arts teacher at my high school. Woody Minnick, Antelope Valley High School in the 80s”. (kurdtacolbain731, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTpqWkFw7bg) That is pretty cool!!! Minnick should have been cast in Fast Times at Ridgemont High!
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,378) Red Dirt — “Memories”
A timeless song and so ahead of its time, this jewel really gets under your skin. “Memories I have inside me driving me insane” Jim Carroll Band anybody?
Ian Shirley writes that from “a lost classic” LP, the song was “probably considered as [a] song[] fit for release as [a] single[] as [it has] a compelling commercial edge and benefit[s] from more extensive arrangements which the band augmented by what sounds like a mellotron and an organ that gives their powerful music more texture and depth”. (Record Collector, http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/06/red-dirt-red-dirt-1970-uk-fantastic.html?m=1)
Shirley gives us some background:
[Red Dirt was a] blues band formed in East Yorkshire around 1968 comprised of Dave Richardson (vocals), Steve Howden (guitar), Kenny Giles (bass) and Steve Jackson (drums) who built up an impressive live reputation in clubs and venues in the North of England. They were subsequently signed to Morgan Bluetown, When released in 1970, on the Fontana label, their self-titled debut album sunk without trace and legend – or rumour – has it sold something like 100 copies. . . . [T]he band came together after drummer Steve Jackson approached Howden in a pub . . . . Howden was keen and Jackson’s friends Kenny Giles and Dave Richardson were drafted in on bass guitar and lead vocals. Richardson had worked with future Hull legend Mick Ronson as well as Michael Chapman. The band attracted the interest of Morgan Bluetown who signed them[, and it was] put into the studio with producer Geoff Gill. “We recorded the album in Morgan studios London,” recalls Howden . . . . “They booked us in from midnight onwards, to six in the morning and the album didn’t take that long, around twelve hours I think. . . . It was all very rushed and was only ever released in England”.
They recorded a second Red Dirt album and morphed into Snake Eye for the concept album The Journey, both vaulted until the 2010s. . . . They initially called their band Wellington Boot before settling on Red Dirt. After 18 months on the local pub and club circuit, they booked a two-night graveyard session at Morgan Studios in North London. . . . Richardson wrote seven of the 12 tracks, including “Memories[.]”. . . Red Dirt was engineered by Mike Bobak [see #839, 1,053], then of the studio group Motherlight. Also in 1970, Howden partook in Fickle Pickle [see #586], a Gill-produced music-hall project fronted by Cliff Wade and arranged by (ex-Orange Bicycle) keyboardist Wil Malone [see #839, 1,053], also of Motherlight.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,377)Paradise Hammer — “She Is Love”
Right off the bat, Noel Gallagher did not plagiarize this ’70 B-side. Maybe he should have, though the crescendo/climax part is a bit too Queenishly silly. Co-written by lead singer and former Unit Four Plus Twoer Tommy Moeller.
Vernon Joynson says that Paradise was “[e]ssentially a vocal harmony-pop band” and that it “had a concept album, which told of a traveling circus troupe, in the can which never saw the light of day.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited).
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,376)SST — “Soft Soul Transition”
Bossa nova meets laid-back California pop and leaves a smile on your face as wide as San Francisco Bay. From a privately pressed LP of “[b]reezy sunshine-pop, soft-rock, psych-pop from California . . . . [with] awesome vocal harmonies, superb musicianship, bossa and blue-eyed-soul-jazz touches with folk-rock moves” (Forced Exposure Records, https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/soft-soul-transition-sst-lp/OSR.059LP.html), “a masterpiece and is in no way inferior to classics like Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends [see #631, 828, 1,054, 1,332], The Free Designs “Kites are Fun” or The Millenium’s Begin [see #397, 506, 586, 662, 810, 1,002]” (Tapete Records, https://shop.tapeterecords.com/soft-soul-transition-sst-lp-out-sider-1776), “a wonderful pop album. Period. If you like awesome melodies, great vocal harmonies and rhythms that go straight to the hip this is your album. Enjoy.” (Frank, https://poprunners.blogspot.com/2018/10/sunshinepsychedelic-popbossa-blue-eyed.html)
Here’s the history:
In 1969, Chet Demilo was appearing in Donkin’s Inn, Marina Del Rey, where he met Arnie Marcus and Ray Hames, who together were to become part of an incredible slice of history. Donkin’s became the hottest and most famous destination in Southern California for the next seven years, and Chet was the magnet that started the new singles scene in Los Angeles with Marina Del Rey as ground zero. Arnie sat in on bongos with Chet from time-to-time, and Ray, who was managing an apartment complex that housed 200 flight attendants, just happened to have a unit available!! Chet moved in, and he and Ray started working on songs together. Chet suggested forming a vocal group with Arnie and SST was born. For three months they practiced the intricate vocal harmonies and in early 1970 cut the album, Soft Soul Transition. A thousand records were pressed and an album release party was held at Donkin’s where SST gave their one and only performance that night. There was interest in the project at Burt Bacharach’s Blue Seas Music, but it was not to be and SST faded away.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Soft Soul Transition
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,375) Doug Ashdown — “He’s All These Things to Me”
Delirium-inducing acid folk by Australia’s Doug Ashdown. I think the song is about God. It was written by Dave Gard, and according to Discogs it Gard’s only credit, writing or otherwise. (https://www.discogs.com/artist/2852589-Dave-Gard) Could Gard have been the Kingston Trio’s Doug Guard? Anyone know?
Anyway, about Doug Ashdown, he himself says:
After playing lead guitar in a Shadows/Beatles cover band, I descended into the subterranean world of the folk clubs where I became a Dylan impersonator supreme. My first real break came when I recorded my debut album for CBS. I think it garnered me a tin record for 25 sales! My album Source released in 1968 featured one of my first compositions Something aStrange. I got busy writing my own songs and began to write with Jim Stewart. Jim and I co-wrote an album called the Age Of Mouse. Featuring the band Fraternity, it was the first double album of original material released in Australia. I then travelled to Nashville where I lived and worked for three years. While there I met many great writers and singers, ate and drank lots of “country breakfasts” and co-wrote many songs. One of these, “Just Thank Me”, became a number one country hit for the late David Rogers. Another unforgettable experience while in Nashville was co-producing a single for, and touring with, the great Broadway star Carol Channing. During my stay in America I also performed at Gerdes Folk City in New York, at the Exit Inn in Nashville and on the Mike Douglas TV show in Philadelphia. Upon returning to Australia I fronted the country rock band, The Sleeping Dogs.
The definitive Milesago: Australasian Music & Popular Culture 1964-1975 tells us:
Adelaide-born Doug Ashdown . . . . had travelled to England [by age 17], where he played in a rock band, returning to Adelaide the following year and working as lead guitarist in The Bowmen with Bobby Bright . . . . Doug’s first major break came when he signed with CBS. . . . [O]ver the next three years he recorded three albums for them . . . This Is Doug Ashdown in 1965. . . . The Real Thing (1966) . . . . [and] Source (1968) [including “All These Things”] . . . . [B]y decade’s end, he was an accomplished performer, songwriter and recording artist, and a leading light on the Australian folk scene. After his CBS contract expired Doug . . . [i]n 1969 . . . joined forces with expatriate Irish singer, songwriter and producer Jimmy Stewart who had recently formed the Sweet Peach label. . . . Doug’s fourth album, his first for Sweet Peach, was The Age Of Mouse which earned him a place in the history books as the first double album of original material ever released in Australia . . . . The songs were co-written with Jimmy Stewart . . . . Sweet Peach lifted three Singles . . . [t]he first two . . . local chart successes, and the album gained considerable critical acclaim. As a result, it was picked up by MCA for overseas release in fifty countries. . . . [and] had generated enough interest in the USA to prompt Doug and Jimmy to move there. . . . Doug was unable to crack the US market, so Jimmy and Doug returned to Australia where they set up a new label . . . . Stewart produced Doug’s next album entitled Leave Love Enough Alone (1974). . . . [T]he album’s evocative title track, co-written by Doug and Jimmy Stewart during a bitter winter in Nashville. . . . was released in September 1974 and received some airplay, but . . . [didn’t] ma[k]e the charts . . . . [It] proved to be a classic ‘sleeper’ and the breakthrough finally came more than a year later when it was retitled and reissued as “Winter In America”. . . . bec[oming] a major hit through late 1976 and early 1977, reaching #14 in Melbourne and #30 in Sydney. . . . [and] remains one of the most popular and enduring Australian songs of the ’70s . . . .
[Ashdown] formed his own skiffle band, The Sapphires, in 1958. When his father transplanted the family back to England for nine months in 1960-1, the youthful Ashdown played electric guitar with an ensemble called Rommel and the Desert Rats. On return to Adelaide, he spent time (1961-4) as one of The Beaumen along with Bobby Bright . . . . “I discovered Dylan and that was it”. . . . Ashdown debuted as a folksinger at Adelaide’s Purple Cow, late in 1964, and he had his first big break when Tina Lawton asked him to substitute for her at a Town Hall concert. [He] . . . brought the house down. . . . . [H]e quickly became a fixture on the coffee lounge circuit. . . . Saturday nights frequently found him performing five gigs . . . . It was as the Folk Hut’s chief drawcard that Ashdown came to the attention of CBS’s Sven Libaek, then in Adelaide scouting for new talent. He was offered a recording contract . . . . Almost from the beginning, Ashdown objected to being categorised, insisting that he never thought of himself as a folksinger, and that he found the whole folk thing too restrictive. . . . Unsurprisingly, this lack of commitment to the folk scene earned Ashdown the disdain of the folk establishment – as did the commercial success and orientation of his recordings, or his willingness to record Lennon-McCartney’s ”Hide Your Love Away” . . . . On one occasion, a number of audience members walked out of a folk concert in Sydney when he attempted to perform an electrified version of Dylan’s ”I Shall Be Released”. Ashdown, in turn, once confessed to interviewer Greg Quill that his third album, the ground-breaking 1968 LP Source reflected his dissatisfaction with both the folk and mainstream music scenes. Intensely critical of the pop scene’s preoccupation with drugs, doom and destruction, he teamed up with Jimmy Stewart in 1968, creating a solid body of self-composed material about “real things” – small portraits and studies of individual lonelinesses and the patterns of particular loves, recounted (he maintained) without either judgment or world-shattering conclusions. The material was preserved on . . . The Age of Mouse . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,374)Petticoat and Vine — “Riding a Carousel”
’70 UK A-side is a delightful, “wonderful sunshine pop gem!” (David Arrigotti, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_14r2XOOU) Spice Girls style . . . or at least Mel C’s mother’s style!
The band’s website tells us:
At the end of 1969 following the break up of their band, the Pattern People, Norman [Smeddles] and Val [Smeddles] went into a small studio in Liverpool and recorded eight songs which Norman had written. [They] travelled to London . . . and pitched the songs . . . . [W]ith the aim of creating an English version of the Mamas and the Papas, they recruited Colin [“Syd” Maddocks] and Joan [O’Neil — whose daughter is Mel C of the Spice Girls (WesternKing, https://www.45cat.com/record/6006051)]. The band played live all over Merseyside . . . . In the subsequent weeks offers came in from a number of companies. The band signed contracts with Feldmans . . . to write and record. In the autumn of 1970 the band’s first single, “Riding a Carousel” was released . . . . The record racked up a huge amount of radio plays although sales didn’t quite lift the record into the top 20. . . . The band also landed their first TV show, the prestigious Harry Secombe Show on the BBC and were immediately booked for the ITV’s The Jimmy Tarbuck Show and The Jimmy Tarbuck Christmas Show . . . . The BBC booked the band for countless radio shows . . . and ITV booked the band numerous times for their weekly pop chart show Lift Off. Another highly prestigious TV show followed when they were booked for The Benny Hill Show, where they performed solo and also taking part in sketches with Benny Hill. Following one of their live appearances . . . they were approached by John Gorman and Mike McCartney [see #68] to appear with The Scaffold, who were riding high in the charts with “Lily the Pink” and “Thank You Very Much” . It was the beginning of a long relationship with the Scaffold which took Petticoat and Vine all over the country as part of the Scaffold’s hilarious revue show and included . . . a Command Performance at The Liverpool Empire in front of HM The Queen. Roger McGough [see #68], of The Scaffold, introduced the band to the playwright John McGrath with a view to the band providing the music for a play commissioned by the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. The result was Soft Or A Girl the most successful musical that the Everyman has staged, with Petticoat and Vine writing and performing all the music onstage each night . . . . The success led to another John McGrath musical the following year The Fish in the Sea . . . . More work with The Scaffold followed . . . . By 1974, following numerous personnel changes, Val and Norman formed a new and very different band called Champagne which went on to be very successful in it’s own right.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,373)Marisol — “Corazón Contento”/“Happy Heart”
I’ve already featured what I called “surely the greatest of all pre-MTV videos” — all by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity (see #1,031-33). Well, here is a challenger worthy of the title. At the very least, Spain’s iconic actress and singer Marisol gives us the “Addicted to Love” of the 60’s — an utterly enthralling, mesmerizing, and alluring scene from the movie El taxi de los conflictos/The problem cab with her singing the effervescent “Corazón Contento”/“Happy Heart”. The song “features a driving, stomping arrangement where strings sweep and swirl and Marisol delivers a vocal that is a mixture of power and emotion” and is “a potent and heady brew”. (Derek, https://dereksmusicblog.com/2018/02/10/beat-girls-espanol-1960s-she-pop-from-spain/) It was written by Argentinian “singer, producer, businessman, politician, and actor” (https://www.discogs.com/artist/202563-Palito-Ortega?superFilter=Releases&subFilter=Singles+%26+EPs&page=3) Palito Ortega, and he and Marisol released it separately as A-sides in ’68. They also joined together for a delicious TV mash-up of their two versions.
What was El taxi about? Ma-cortes writes:
Throughout the day Taxi driver Tadeo . . . meets heterogeneous roles get into his taxi. In the morning a couple of ¨Paletos¨ or Rednecks . . . gets in the cab and he drives them all aroung Madrid. Shortly after, a suspicious and allegedly wealthy man . . . getting in car, but Tadeo’s eventually robbed and naked. Things go wrong when when he arrives in the Police Station to denounce and is interrogated by the cops. Later on , a person leaves a baby in the taxi and Tadeo must find out where the little one belongs. Finally, Tadeo has an appointment with a strange woman . . . who apparently needs to tell him something very fundamental. [It is a f]unny and amusing comedy . . . . [t]he hilarious happenings are continuous, ridiculous and sometimes extremely silly, but in some moments here and there, they are also bold and risible. This film is made to entertain . . . . Bemusing story with enjoyable but also absurd moments and attractive acting by likable comedians, a real Spanish star-studded. . . . Special mention for the famous songs sungs by popular performers, such as: ¨Será el amor¨ . . . [p]erformed by Carmen Sevilla; ¨Corazón contento¨ . . . [p]erformed by Marisol; ¨Que me coma el tigre¨ . . . [p]erformed by Lola Flores and Antonio González ‘El Pescaílla’ and ¨Pleitos tengas¨ . . . [p]erformed by Peret.
Marisol also known as Pepa Flores, was born Maria Josefa Flores . . . in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain. From early on, she demonstrated a great love of singing and traditional flamenco dance. In 1959, she was discovered by the film producer, Manuel J. Goyanes, who saw one of her appearances on television. She became an international sensation, from Spain to Japan. The film director, Luis Lucia Mingarro, propelled her to national stardom in the film trilogy Un rayo de luz (Ray of Light), Ha llegado un ángel (An Angel Has Arrived) and Tómbola (Lottery). The films featured Marisol singing one of her best-known songs: “La vida es una tómbola” (Life is a Lottery), among others like “Corre, corre, caballito” (Run, run, little pony), “Bambina”, “Ola, ola, ola”, “Estando contigo” (Being With You), “Chiquitina” (Little girl) or “Nueva melodía” (A New Melody). In 1963 she also starred the funny Marisol Rumbo a Río (Marisol Is Bound For Rio), where she played both twins like Hailey Mills in “The Parent Trap” and sang “Bossanova junto a ti” (Bossanova close to you), “Muchachita” (Little Woman), “¡Oh, Tony!” and “Guajiras”. Besides she co-starred with Robert Conrad in 1964’s movie called La Nueva Cenicienta (The New Cinderella). In that movie movie she sang another of her best-known songs: “Me conformo” (I Don’t Need Much). Mel Ferrer directed her in Cabriola (Everyday Is A Holiday) in 1965 where she sang one of her most beautiful songs: “Cabriola”. During that movie Audrey Hepburn herself went shopping with Marisol to Paris. . . . In 1967 she starred as adult film star in the comedy Las cuatro bodas de Marisol (The Four Weddings of Marisol) . . . . She also played Solo los dos (Just We Both), where she featured “La nieve” — Marisol’s most popular song in South America . . . . In 1969 she appeared in the choral comedy El taxi de los conflictos (The problem cab), where she sang the popular “Corazón contento”, composed by the famous Argentinian singer Palito Ortega. She was a familiar children’s icon during the 1960s, and entertained many high-ranking dignitaries, including Francisco Franco. As an adult, she was awarded the Best Actress prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for her role in Los Días del Pasado (Days Gone By). A few years before she also played La corrupción de Chris Miller (The corruption of Chris Miller), directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, the uncle of awarded Spanish actor Javier Bardem; La chica del Molino Rojo (The Girl from the Red Cabaret) . . ; and El poder del deseo (The Power of Desire) . . . . As an adult she replaced her stage name with her given name, Pepa Flores. . . . She has three daughters from her relationship with the late dancer Antonio Gades . . . . Pepa Flores is retired and lives with her husband in Málaga, where she works for charitable causes. She was a sympathizer but never a member of the Spanish Communist Party. . . . The Spanish press calls her “un mito”, a living myth.
Argentinian Palito Ortega’s career began in the late ’50s, nicknamed Palito [“stick”] due to his thinness. . . . After RCA signed him, his songs frequently climbed local charts, which allowed him to start an acting career. While singing his smash “Yo Tengo Fé” and playing a main role in the musical Un Muchacho Como Yo, Palito Ortega consolidated his popularity throughout Latin America. . . . In 1991, [he] joined the Argentinian politic fraction Partido Justicialista, formed a group called Frente de la Esperanza, and was elected Tucumán’s Governor . . . . [and i]n . . . 1995 . . . [he] was elected senator. His Justicialist Party nominated him for the Vice-Presidency in 1999, but his party lost the general elections that year and he retired from civil service.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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
1,372) Carla Thomas — “He’s Beating Your Time”
Carla’s (see #432) ‘69 A-side is a soulful warning to wayward men from her ‘69 album Memphis Queen: “If you want to keep me, you better learn how to treat me”, “You’re making a big mistake, thinking nobody can take your place”. Be afraid, be very afraid!
The Concord label talks about Memphis Queen:
The [album] represent[ed an] effort[] to expand [her] appeal . . . into the pop arena. Stax Records executive Al Bell felt that the sexy singer, then in her mid-twenties, could become another Diana Ross and recruited Detroit producer Don Davis [who co-wrote “Beating Your Time”] to come up with a cross between the Motown and Memphis sounds. Thomas’s honey-toned pipes and lilting turns of phrase proved ideally suited to the project, titled Memphis Queen . . . .
Reviewing Carla Thomas’ penultimate album ‘Memphis Queen’ is something of a fix… Detroit guitarist/producer Don Davis had pretty much taken over come 1969 and added a – in my opinion usually tasty – chunk of Detroit/Chicago-styled gloss to the Southern Soul coming from Stax in Memphis. Carla Thomas, for one, didn’t like the new working method. It’s unclear whether she disliked the aformentioned gloss, what IS known is that she resented having to overdub her vocals to ready-made musical backing tracks, usually recorded in Detroit or Muscle Shoals. She was used to singing and improvising with Booker T. & the M.G.’s, live, in the studio. According to Rob Bowman’s essential tome on Stax, Carla in fact dubbed Don Davis’ new approach as something decidedly ‘NOT Stax’. This record here, however, isn’t terrible at all. It does miss the ‘open mic’, raw energy of her previous records, but in return, it offers twelve richly orchestrated, beautifully executed soul gems that retain the essence of Southern Soul.
In the glorious decade and a half of sound that was Stax in the ’60s and early ’70s, Carla Thomas was the Queen of Memphis Soul. [S]he recorded a duet with her father Rufus Thomas, giving the fledgling Satellite label its first taste of success with the regional hit “Cause I Love You.” [S]he cut her first solo single, the teen ballad “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)[,” which] gave Satellite its first national hit, breaking the Top Ten mark on both the R&B and pop charts. Shortly thereafter Satellite became Stax, and Carla proceeded to claw her way onto the national charts another 22 times with such immortal slices of soul as her answer song to Sam Cooke, “I’ll Bring It on Home to You,” as well as “Let Me Be Good to You,” “B-A-B-Y,” “Tramp” (with Otis Redding), and “I Like What You’re Doing to Me.” Carla released six solo albums and, with Redding, one duet album on Stax between 1961 and 1971.
Oh, and when asked by NPR’s Peter Sagal what defined soul music, Carla responded “Well, soul is this expressive thing. You know, it comes from the spirit. And you can’t sing soul music unless you have a spiritual feeling for the music, you know.” Sagal came back with: “Right, so it’s sort of like gospel music, but instead of Jesus, you’re singing about sex. That’s just my theory.” To which Carla pondered “Or hey, the lack of it or whatever.” (https://www.npr.org/2013/12/20/255731431/queen-of-memphis-soul-carla-thomas-plays-not-my-job)
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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Easy Livin is more equivocal about the One’s only A-side:
As for “Lady Greengrass”, which Froese plays on but had no part in writing, the song has little in common with the work of Tangerine Dream during any stage of their career. This is a pretty straightforward psychedelic pop song with dreamy lyrics and echoed vocals. The best comparison is probably with the lighter Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd material such as “See Emily Play”. Perhaps coincidentally (perhaps not) the lyrics include the line “Puff the trees turn tangerine, Puff the sky is suddenly green, Her eyes breath in a state of mind, She’s beginning to fly”.
Formed in 1965 by Edgar Froese in West Berlin where he was attending the local Art College. The Ones suffered near neglect at the hands of the pop parade only to be saved by a Star-Club single in 1967. . . . After playing at a real “Salvador Dali’s garden party” (having been invited by the artist himself), The Ones became embroiled in more experimental directions and diversions abroad and eventually transformed into the more notorious Tangerine Dream after returning to Berlin in 1969.
liner notes to the CD comp Electric Sound Show: An Assortment of Antiquities for the Psychedelic Connoisseur
Gary Graff tells more about the encounter with Dali:
Froese’s experimental streak was encouraged by Salvador Dalí after The Ones performed at the artist’s villa in northeast Spain. “Dalí was quite a big influence in my life because of his philosophy of being as original and authentic as possible had touched me very intensively at that time,” Froese said during a 2005 interview with The Quietus. “I invested a lot of time, too, in training myself to follow such a philosophical path. When I met Dalí the first time, I was 22, a youngster who knew immediately that nearly everything is possible in art as long as you have a strong belief in what you’re doing.”
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,370)The Rokes — “When the Wind Arises”
This ’68 B-side, by a British group that made it big in Italy, is a dramatic, brooding and “splendid example of early psychedelic pop” (Mark Deming, https://www.allmusic.com/album/lets-live-for-today-the-rokes-in-english-1966-1968-mw0000800756), and the group’s “most impressive recording”. (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp Real Life Permanent Dreams: a Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970) It is actually based on an Italian song, “Il Vento” (“The Wind”, of course), that had shortly before been released as a much more subdued and reflective A-side by the Italian group Dik Dik, and later in a more rocking version by its co-songwriter Lucio Battisti.
Bruce Eder:
[The Rokes] They never sold many records in England, or any in America, but they were a major act in Italy and also managed to make an extraordinary, albeit indirect, impact on the 1960s with a song that they originally premiered in Italian. London-born Shel Shapiro . . . had broken into music as a guitarist and singer with Rob Storm & the Whispers (later the Rob Storme Group) and subsequently backed Gene Vincent during a tour of England. He played in Hamburg as a member of the Shel Carson Combo and then became a member of the band backing Colin Hicks, the brother of Tommy Steele, on an extended tour of Italy in 1963. This group, who later recorded with Hicks, took the name of the Cabin Boys . . . . The[y] came to the attention of a manager in Italy who got them to sever their ties to Hicks and rename themselves the Rokes. They started out playing on stage behind a female singer named Rita Pavone but were signed to Italian RCA on their own. Their debut release under their new name was a single of “Shake, Rattle and Roll” that failed to sell. Another recording effort, this time in Italian, failed, but their future releases would all be in Italian, with English-language versions issued overseas. The group cut a version of Clint Ballard’s “I’m Alive” under the title “Grazie a Te” and Jackie DeShannon’s “When You Walk in the Room” as “C’e Una Strana Espressione Nei Tuoi Occhi” in 1965 that reached numbers 12 and 11 in Italy, respectively. These two hits were followed by their debut album and they had further Top 20 successes in 1966 with “Che Colp Abbiamo Noi” and “E La Pioggia Che Va.” That same year, the Rokes also won second place in a poll of the most popular beat groups in Italy. Their big success and their major impact on the world of rock & roll beyond Italy, however, came when Shapiro co-authored a song called “Piangi Con Me,” a hit for the group in Italy and later released in England by the group as “Let’s Live for Today.” The Rokes’ version was relatively subdued and reflective. It was first covered by a band called the Living Daylights, but it was when the song was picked up by the Grassroots in America and recorded in a more defiant and dramatic fashion than the Rokes’ original . . . that it made a permanent impact on music and American popular culture. That record not only sold more than two million copies, but became one of the most enduring hit singles of its period . . . . The Rokes never benefited from the song’s success in America. Despite releasing several singles in English in England and evolving new sounds with the times, including moving into psychedelia with “When the Wind Arises,” they never charted there. They remained an Italian phenomenon, scoring a number two hit in 1967. They remained in vogue in Italy . . . and continued to chart records there into 1969. By then, the public taste for pop/rock in Italy was changing and the group broke up during the summer of 1970.
American and British pop tunes have been translated into Italian and successfully re-recorded by Milan-based band, Dik Dik. Their many hits included Italian versions of the Mamas And The Papas’ “California Dreaming”, Tim Hardin’s “If I Were A Carpenter” and the Turtles’ “Happy Together”. Taking their name from an African gazelle, known for its jumping ability, Dik Dik was briefly known, in the early-1960s, as Dreamers and Squali. . . . Dik Dik scored an Italian hit with their debut Beatle-esque single, “1-2-3”, in 1966. Although they maintained a low profile in the late-70s and ‘80s, Dik Dik re-surfaced with a hit single, “Isole In Viaggio”, in 1997.
“Il Vento” was written by Lucio Battisti and Mogol (Giulio Rapetti). Of Battisti, Greg Prato tells us:
Italian singer/songwriter Lucio Battisti . . . was considered among the most legendary and influential musicians and songwriters in Italian rock and pop. . . . Interested in pursuing a career in music, Battisti relocated to Milan (Italy’s musical headquarters), where he sought the aid of a French talent scout, Christine Leroux. Leroux took Battisti under her wing, and he penned three sizeable hits in 1966 for other artists (“Per Una Lira” for Ribelli, “Dolce di Giorno” for Dik Dik, and “Uno in Più” for Riki Maiocchi). Battisti continued to write tunes for others in the late ’60s, as well as issuing his inaugural solo singles. During this time, the U.S. rock group the Grass Roots scored a hit stateside with one of Battisti’s compositions, “Balla Linda.” 1969 saw another one of Battisti’s compositions, “Il Paradiso (If Paradise Is Half as Nice),” become a hit in the U.K. when covered by the group Amen Corner, hitting the number one spot on the singles chart. Bolstered by his songwriting success, Battisti issued his 1969 self-titled debut album, which spawned the Italian hits “Acqua Azzurra, Acqua Chiara” and “Mi Ritorni in Mente.” Battisti continued to release solo albums on a regular basis throughout the ’70s.
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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
1,369) George & Beathovens — “Víc než nic”/”More than Nothing”
From the ’70 LP Kolotoč Svět/Carousel World, a grand Czech pop rock pocket symphony that would have made Brian Wilson proud — by a band persecuted by the secret police for expressing sympathy for a student who set himself on fire in protest of the Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
As to George and the Beathovens, Petr Gratias writes (courtesy of Google Translate):
George And Beatovens was a Prague big beat group of the sixties, whose name is associated with the singer and composer Petr Novák. . . . a great big beat lyricist who achieved considerable popularity. In 1967, his composition “Klaunova zpovědí” scored a hit on the Bratislava Lyra and before his first album he successfully established himself with a number of singles. The group George And Beatovens (mainly Petr Novák . . . ) was involved in the Dubček era, and after the tragic [1969 self-immolation] of Jan Palach [a Czech university student protesting the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact’s invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring], Novák publicly declared that he respected this victim . . . . By secret order of the StB*, the planned concerts of the previously popular group were canceled, which culminated in its involuntary breakup at the beginning of 1972… They mainly presented melodic polyphonic big beat, in which ballads and more striking compositions alternated… Petr Novák’s return to the general consciousness of the seventies was quite complicated and he was an example of a man who paid to some extent for his human decency, honesty, but also naivety. The last album In the Name of Love was released in 1971 . . . . On the silent and insidious order of the communist power, Petr Novák and the band were denied the possibility of applying and performing concerts, and the group had to break up without performing regularly. . . . Novák found himself at the beginning of social uncertainty in the socialist state. For a while he lived on royalties and then the situation became critical. For a while he accepted Jiří Suchý’s offer to the Semafor theater, but left after one season. He tried to start a group together with the Dostál sisters, which was a very clueless attempt almost of the cafe type. . . . [H]e traveled alone with a guitar in some kind of mini-recitals around clubs and was part of a disco program. A lot of people had already written him off at the time and his future was very uncertain.Before Christmas 1974, he crashed on the road . . . and almost lost his leg. After a longer convalescence, he started working again and in the summer of 1974 he managed to put together a rock group, with which he slowly began to perform concerts in smaller halls.
Aleš Opekar (courtesy of Google Translate) tells of their history:
[A}t the end of 1964 . . . . the new group from Vinohrad was together: Petr Novák, vocals and backing guitar, Michal Burian, lead guitar, Karel Sluka, bass guitar and vocals, Ivo Plicka lyrics, accordion and Jiří Jirásek, drums. The Beatles name proved awkward. . . . [As] they also admired bands such as Gerry & the Peacemakers or Freddie & the Dreamers. . . . it occurred to them that they could also be “something & something'”. They chose the group’s first name benjaminka, translated it into English, and as the second part used a funny anagram of the name of the famous Beethoven in the spirit of ‘Beetles – Beatles’. . . . In addition to covers of the Beatles, Gerry & the Peacemakers or Hollies sung in English, the original Novák and Plick songs were also heard this time. During 1965, Jiří and Miroslava Černých’s radio program . . . which served as a foreign and domestic hit parade, was already running, determined by listeners’ responses. The boys from Vinohrad brought their amateur recorded demos to Mr. Černá and the result was surprising. The song “I’ll walk on tiptoe” saw a total of fifteen starts . . . . The band was suddenly famous . . . .The[n] departures for the [army] came. In autumn 1965, Michal Burian enlisted . . . [then] Karel Sluka . . . . That was actually the end of the first stage of George & Beatovens . . . . Petr Novák . . . spent two seasons at the Maringotka theater with Zuzana Kočová as an actor-student. He did not return to finish his studies, because in the meantime he joined the newly established group Flamengo, so some of his and Plick’s potential hits were professionally recorded only with the new group. . . . . The reconstituted [George & Beathovens] premiered in August 1967. . . . The group now consisted of: Petr Novák – vocals, Jiří Jirásek – drums, Miroslav Helcl on organ, Jirka Čížek on bass and Jaroslav Bednář on guitar. Jarda Bednář was replaced in January 1968 by the band’s former guitarist Donald Zdeněk Juračka . The repertoire of George & Beatovens consisted of compositions by Novák and Plicka. Petr was able to give Plick’s lyrics the right melody. And by doing so, he increased the communication of dreamy and enamored, naive and poetic, naively adolescent texts for the teenage generation of boys and girls. The group successfully gave concerts around the country and in December they already played the 1st Czechoslovak Beat festival. However, it did not make it onto the Supraphon record. At concerts and finally on Panton’s records, it was a series of one hit after another . . . . [T]the group was performing concerts all over the country and everything was going like clockwork. . . . But the “allied armies” of the surrounding socialist states, led by the army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, stepped in . . . . and after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the situation on the rock scene began to change radically. At the end of the summer, not only Zdeněk Juračka left the group. Before him, Mirek Helcl left for the Rebels. And so Juračka followed Korn into the changed The Rebels, following Kadlec, Helcle and Kohout. . . . But the manager of Beatovens had a deal . . . in Finland, so he immediately accepted Vladimír Mišík , who was then absent, in Juraček’s place. The group toured Finland together with the Finnish singer Anki. They recorded a single for the Swedish company Sonet records . . . . But Mišík didn’t like that kind of music, so he left George & Beatovens again. That was in the fall of 1968. then the guitarist Miroslav Dudáček came in his place. That was a completely different personality than Mišík. Jan Farmer Obermayer also joined the group at that time. The overall sound of the group thus acquired a different sound. Obermayer was a skilled arranger, and Dudáček over time also began to assert his musical views. The situation began to get out of Petr Novák’s hands in the band, and Petr stopped singing songs with lyrics that appealed to his audience. . . . In 1970 George & Beatovens released their first LP. . . . Carousel World. . . . Every song is excellent. . . . The themes of the lyrics are no longer simple love songs. The titles themselves suggest that these are complicated and thoughtful poems. But the listeners were dissatisfied, because they did not expect this from Novák. They wanted to hear simpler love songs. . . . In the same year, George & Beatovens recorded another LP . . . . It was titled In the Name of Love. . . . Even though the album was received very positively by the critics, even though the listeners and fans of the band immediately bought the record, it was not played on the radio at the time, and when it was, it was extremely rare. . . . And there is a new breakup of the band. Obermayer wrote not exactly the right songs for Novák. He was preparing for a solo career. . . . And Dudáček also had great ambitions to promote himself as a solo artist. And so George & Beatovens broke up again and for good.
State Security (Czech: Státní bezpečnost, Slovak: Štátna bezpečnosť) or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it dealt with any activity that was considered opposition to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the state.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,368) St. Davids Road — “Strange Loves Of Gwyneth”
A delightful ’70 UK pop psych B-side — I guess about a prostitute. As Dr. Doom says, “A fun bit of Welshsploitation Pop-Sike. How on earth this ended up with a US only release [well, Canada and Australia too] is anyone’s guess. And in 1970 it sounds about 3 years out of date?!” (https://www.45cat.com/record/mn451230)
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
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Joe Viglione explains that “[s]even titles recorded at RCA Studios in Chicago during the spring of 1970 . . . were abandoned when Randy Bachman and the Guess Who with Burton Cummings went their separate ways.” https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-way-they-were-mw0000462495
Why? The Museum of Canadian Music tells us that:
Bachman had converted to Mormonism when he married his first wife Lorayne Stevenson in 1966, and as the spoils of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle increased with The Guess Who’s higher profile, Bachman’s beliefs and lifestyle clashed with those of his band mates. He was also suffering from serious gall bladder attacks and was replaced on tour by guitarist Bobby Sabellico while he returned to see his doctor in Winnipeg. After playing a final show at the Fillmore East in New York on 16 May 1970, Bachman left the group. He later re-teamed with Chad Allan to form Brave Belt, which evolved into Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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‘68 B-side and track from the Initials B.B. (that’s Brigette Bardot) LP, this classic Serge Gainsbourg/Brigitte Bardot duet is a sly, sultry and sexy paean to the Ford Mustang . . . well, that and other things.
Of the album, Ben Cardew writes:
So few people would have expected a French man who turned 40 in 1968 to make one of the most elegant albums of the decade. Recorded largely in London, Initials B.B. marries Serge Gainsbourg’s peerless sense of dramatic melody with some of the finest orchestral pop production the 1960s could offer, incorporating elements of jazz, yé-yé, chanson, and the baroque pop of the Left Bank with just a soupçon of Rubber Soul–era Beatles. . . . [It is a] taut, 31-minute masterpiece.
[F]or those sick puppies interested in exploring [Gainsbourg’s] entire catalog, this collaboration with then-lover Brigitte Bardot is a good place to start. Many of his most infamous songs (“Bonnie and Clyde,” “Comic Strip,”) are here, and the lesser-known numbers achieve the same giddy decadence. Yes, the subject matter is transgressive, the performances often silly, but long after the initial shock wears off, Gainsbourg’s work continues to surprise and delight. The sensuous melodies and sumptuous arrangements aspire to the visual; they are little technocolor movies in sound. Moreover, Gainsbourg was perhaps the only songwriter of an earlier tradition to wholeheartedly embrace the wild and adventurous spirit of ’60s rock. . . . Initials B.B. continues to sound as stylish and mod as it must have the day it was released. At 31 minutes, it is sure to leave both hedonists and former teenyboppers wanting more.
Serge Gainsbourg was the dirty old man of popular music; a French singer/songwriter and provocateur notorious for his voracious appetite for alcohol, cigarettes, and women, his scandalous, taboo-shattering output made him a legend in Europe but only a cult figure in America, where his lone hit “Je T’Aime…Moi Non Plus” [reached] number 69. Born Lucien Ginzberg in Paris on April 2, 1928, his parents were Russian Jews who fled to France following the events of the 1917 Bolshevik uprising. After studying art and teaching, he turned to painting before working as a bar pianist on the local cabaret circuit. . . . [S]elf-conscious about his rather homely appearance, Gainsbourg initially wanted only to carve out a niche as a composer and producer, not as a performer. [H]e made his recording debut in 1958 . . . [but] his jazz-inflected solo work performed poorly on the charts, although compositions for vocalists ranging from Petula Clark to Juliette Greco to Dionne Warwick proved much more successful. In the late ’60s, he befriended the actress Brigitte Bardot, and later became her lover; with Bardot as his muse, Gainsbourg’s lushly arranged music suddenly became erotic and delirious, and together, they performed a series of duets — including “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Harley Davidson,” and “Comic Strip” — celebrating pop culture icons. Gainsbourg’s affair with Bardot was brief, but its effects were irrevocable: after he became involved with constant companion Jane Birkin, they recorded the 1969 duet “Je T’Aime…Moi Non Plus,” a song he originally penned for Bardot complete with steamy lyrics and explicit heavy breathing. Although banned in many corners of the globe, it reached the top of the charts throughout Europe, and grew in stature to become an underground classic . . . . Gainsbourg returned in 1971 with Histoire de Melody Nelson, a dark, complex song cycle which signalled his increasing alienation from modern culture: drugs, disease, suicide and misanthropy became thematic fixtures of his work, which grew more esoteric, inflammatory, and outrageous with each passing release. Although Gainsbourg never again reached the commercial success of his late-’60s peak, he remained an imposing and controversial figure throughout Europe, where he was both vilified and celebrated for his shocking behavior . . . .
DoubleZ adds as to Gainsbourg and Initials B.B. that:
Gainsbourg . . . has an absolutely hallucinating discography[ and] he is endowed with a phenomenal charisma and charm . . . . The cabbage-headed man also had darker sides, he was a “Don Juan” but also a perfect a**hole when he wanted to be, he was also a phenomenon, polemic, alcohol, drugs, sex and rock n’ roll. . . . Between genius and weirdness, Gainsbourg was a cursed poet. He was deeply affected by the “ugly man” syndrome, which drove him to make himself heard through provocation and shock value. . . . The Second World War would complicate things for his family and himself. They were forbidden to do many things, had to wear the yellow star, lost their French nationality and eventually had to desert Paris to escape the Gestapo raids. After the war, his family returned to Paris and Gainsbourg went to art school. . . . While he did not manage to break into painting, which had become his dream, Gainsbourg fell in love with music. He began to perform as a musician in cabarets and bars, then wrote his first songs to become a songwriter. At the end of the 50s . . . . [e]veryone began to sense Gainsbourg’s talent and pushed him to the forefront. In 1958, he released his first single “Le Poinçonneur des Lilas” on Philips. . . . In 1960 [he] achieved his first real and consistent commercial success with “L’Eau A La Bouche”. However, nothing went as planned, the Yé Yé era arrived and he was unable to make a place for himself, his physique and personality did not fit in with the young and fresh image of this wave. He almost fell into anonymity, despite the fact that he was still releasing songs/albums of very good quality, but fortunately his talent as a songwriter was to bring him back into the limelight in the middle of the 60s when he wrote for Françoise Hardy, France Gall and Juliette Gréco. He even won the Eurovision prize with “Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son”. . . . In late 1967, Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot . . . began a relationship, although the latter was married. Although the relationship did not last long, it gave rise to a fantastic artistic collaboration, including ‘Bonnie and Clyde’. In 1968, Gainsbourg released the album Initials B.B as a tribute to this passionate relationship with Brigitte Bardot . . . . It . . . [had] been worked on since 1965 . . . . Gainsbourg renewed his formula, abandoning the Jazz and Cabaret spirit of his early days for something more Pop Rock. . . . His relationship with Brigitte Bardot was to be an amazing source of inspiration, which considerably accelerated the creation of Initials B.B. in the last months. The album was recorded in London, accompanied by producers/arrangers Giogio Gomelsky, Arthur Greenslade, David Withaker and Michel Colombier, as well as some twenty different musicians. . . . Brigitte Bardot is present on many of the backing vocals, but the actress was not very good with his voice, so these collaborations are more iconic than anything else. . . . This album marks the beginning of Gainsbourg’s legend, and he would go on to reach his artistic peak for the next 10 years.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,365)Elli — “Never Mind”
This ‘67 A-side is “a wonderful commercial effort marrying jazz time changes with Summer of Love harmonies. Why it was not properly promoted is criminal.” (Jon “Mojo” Mills, https://www.allmusic.com/album/elli-mw0001005297) One of the many crimes against Swinging London.
Jon “Mojo” Mills tells Elli’s story:
Elli Meyer was born in Calcutta, India, in 1946, and moved to England . . . . As early as 1962, he was involving himself in the burgeoning music scene and began to sing in the local London group the Eagles, who went on to record for Pye. He then formed the Nutrons, but walked out to join the Madhatters (who had recently changed their name from the Trendsetters). They held a residency at the 007 Club . . . but split in 1965 when their lead guitarist immigrated to Australia. The ever-active Elli then joined the Infernos, but after one year with them fell seriously ill with diabetes, and had to leave . . . . Around this time he met up with two friends (Mike Finesilver and Peter Kerr) who were involved in a charitable organization for young people called the Entertainers. They decided to write a few songs for Elli and brought in Vincent Crane . . . to play piano and Drachen Theaker . . . to play drums on a demo version of “Never Mind.” Music publisher Malcom Forrester heard the tapes and was very impressed by Elli’s sweet voice; he put him into the studio to record his debut single for release on EMI. . . . [R]eleased in February 1967 [it] bombed due to its misfortune of colliding with the Beatles’ latest single [“Penny Lane”/“Strawberry Fields Forever”]. A follow-up was intended but for some unknown reason Elli’s A&R man was fired, and the record was never released. . . .
Ending with two [demos] from 1970 that should have hit the charts, it is made apparent that the multicultural, inventive unit that was centered around Indian singer Elli was managed badly and left to fall apart instead of being promoted as something special. In an era when India was incredibly fashionable, it would have been wonderful to see Elli become a star, but it was not to be.
EMI w[as] keen to issue a follow-up single . . . but sadly, no follow-up single ever appeared and EMI soon lost interest in the singer. Elli Meyer continued to record, but was battling even harder with diabetes, a lifelong illness that had daunted Elli throughout most of his adult life and singing career. More recordings were made, but there were no further publishing contracts or record deals in the pipeline. Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker continued to record with Elli at their own studios in Fulham, London. . . . Drachen Theaker and Vincent Crane both joined The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown [see #783, 797, 997]. Crane later formed Atomic Rooster with John DuCann . . . . Mike Finesilver started to produce bands such as Love Sculpture (on their Forms and Feelings LP) [see #627] as well as recording a variety of new bands from the early seventies through to the early 1990s . . . . Finesilver and Ker also wrote many songs for Love Sculpture and also co-wrote the song “Fire”by Arthur Brown. They also enjoyed their own record release as Excelsior Spring for Immediate records . . . in 1968.
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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
1,364) Affinity — “You Met Your Match”
From a UK jazz rock group (see #1,055) that released one legendary album, here is a Stevie Wonder song transformed into a mod barn burner — unreleased at the time — with very much of a Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll & the Trinity feel.
As to Affinity, Jon “Mojo” Mills writes:
English jazz-rock group Affinity released only one album and one single during their brief existence, and though their work is obscure, it remains an important document of the type of crossover between psychedelic rock and progressive styles they and many other bands of their ilk were exploring in the early ’70s. The band remains a favorite for fans of deeply buried psychedelic artifacts . . . . Affinity formed gradually throughout the late ’60s, growing out of a jazz trio comprised of University of Sussex science students Lynton Naiff on keyboards, Nick Nicholas on upright bass and Grant Serpell on drums. Nicholas was replaced by Mo Foster early on. The band reached their highest form with the addition of guitarist Mike Jupp and vocalist Linda Hoyle, whose blues-tinged vocals added character to the band’s blend of jazz virtuosity and psychedelic exploration. Affinity signed on with Vertigo for the release of their self-titled 1970 album. The album included adventurous reinterpretations of songs by Bob Dylan and the Everly Brothers . . . . The record was well-received by critics and the band played often, but they broke up shortly after the albums’ release and went on to different musical pursuits. . . .
The self-titled album . . . displays a lot of potential, which if not wholly successful has an individuality separating them from their more jazzy and progressive peers. If Linda Hoyle’s talent for fusing the vocal traits of Bessie Smith, Grace Slick, and Sandy Denny together semi-successfully is the defining point, then Lynton Naiff’s pounding Hammond workouts fall somewhere between the exceptional and the overdone. [The album has] a very soulful feel reminiscent of the latter work of Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll & the Trinity [see #1,031-33, 1,312].
“It was that magic word ‘jazz rock.’ Bands like Colosseum and Blood, Sweat & Tears were happening. It was all about being able to play to rock audiences with jazz leanings. We also had a fascination with the Hammond organ and Brian Auger was our hero. . . . In a way they provided the template for our band. We ended up buying his Hammond organ.”
Their debut gig was at the Revolution Club in Bruton Place, London on October 5, 1968. . . .
[“]I read in Melody Maker about Ronnie Scott’s Club re-opening and wanting to manage younger bands. So I travelled up to London and took my tape to Ronnie’s partner Pete King. He listened and invited us to play in their Upstairs room. That was how Ronnie Scott and Pete King became our managers.”
[M]ost reviewers loved it. Distinguished critic Derek Jewell of the Sunday Times . . . [wrote] . . . . ”Affinity’s organist, Lynton Naiff, is already a virtuoso, soul-style, and the whole group is probaby the best new thing heard in the jazz-pop area this year.”
Explains Mo: “Affinity really ended because Lynton and Linda were an item and they fell out badly and you can’t have a band like that.”
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,363) “Loving, Sacred Loving”
I’ve played the A-side (see #131), here’s the glorious ‘68 B-side, “an immaculately crafted slice of English psychedelic whimsy that boasted an opening harpsichord salvo from Nicky Hopkins”, oh and with “blissed-out lyric[s]”. (David Wells, Record Collector 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era).
David Wells tells us of the End times:
[M[embers of the End had already served a long and varied pre-beat boom apprenticeship before Bill Wyman offered them personal management. After an unsuccessful single for Philips, the End were despatched to Spain, where their blue-eyed soul routine brought them a Top 5 single. When the band returned to England in the summer of ’67, Wyman and his songwriting partner, Peter Gosling [see #1,348] gave them a couple of songs for their UK re-launch. . . . [both] included on the band’s long-delayed album Introspection, but . . . gain[ing] their greatest level of exposure on Seventies bootegs as alleged summit-meeting collaboration between the Beatles and the Stones . . . .
liner notes to the CD comp Real Life Permanent Dreams: A Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970
Wells goes deeper:
Between March and October 1968, work was completed on the End’s first album, Introspection. . . . However, by that stage all Stones extra-curricular activities were at the not-so-tender mercies of the dreaded Allan Klein. Frustrated by Klein’s lack of interest in allowing Introspection to be released, Bill Wyman repeatedly called his New York office in an attempt to smooth the water, but to no avail. “If it wasn’t Mick or Keith, they didn’t want to know”, Wyman now admits. “By sitting on it, they didn’t give us a change to do anything else with it. They never said, ‘We hate it, we’re never going to release it’. It was always, ‘We’re working on it, give us a couple of weeks.’ It was always a couple of weeks. . .” In December 1969, just as the Stones’ (and Therefore Wyman’s) contract with Decca expired, Introspection finally appeared . . . . But the music scene in general had moved on . . . . The End’s brand of sweet-toothed psychedelic pop was not so much a spent force as a distant memory, and Introspection must have sounded like a blast from a bygone age . . . .
Record Collector 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era.
John “Mojo” MIlls adds:
Although never achieving the success they deserved, the End are best remembered for their Bill Wyman-produced psychedelic-pop that was a masterful mixture of swirling, dream-like numbers, and flowery, but never twee, pop. Their Introspection album is now viewed as one of the finest examples of British psychedelia. Dave Brown and Colin Giffin formed the End in 1965 following the demise of beat group the Innocents. Nicky Graham and John Horton were drafted in from Dickie Pride’s backing group, the Original Topics, and the line-up was completed with former Tuxedos drummer Roger Groom. . . . [F]riend Bill Wyman arranged a tour with the Rolling Stones. They also appeared with Spencer Davis on ITV television’s Thank Your Lucky Stars . . . . At this time their music was very much in the club-soul/blue-eyed soul style that was sweeping England by storm. Following the tour, Roger Groom quit to be replaced by Hugh Atwooll, a former school friend of Nicky Graham. John Horton also quit, but the split was amicable as he continued to help out on their second single, “Shades of Orange.” Cut by Bill Wyman, with the addition of Charlie Watts on tabla, the song was recorded during the sessions for the Rolling Stones’ psychedelic foray, Their Satanic Majesties Request. . . . Following the single’s release, Gordon Smith also left and was replaced by former Mode guitarist Terry Taylor. The band then decamped to Spain, where several singles were released domestically, including “Why,” a Top Five hit in April 1967. By Christmas 1968, both Colin Giffin and Hugh Attwooll had left after recording the Introspection album . . . . With the arrival of another Mode refugee, Jim Henderson, the End metamorphosed into the more progressive-sounding Tucky Buzzard.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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.
[B]y the end of 1967, professional finished recordings of “Shapes And Sounds” and “Dawn Breaks Through” . . . were ready for release. Work got underway for a 45 issue, two sets of different colour labels were designed and proofs printed but for reasons unclear the record never progressed beyond acetate . . . . “Dawn Breaks Through” eventually was relegated to the B’ side of the first Barrier 45 “Georgie Brown” and was basically the same version as that intended for the Purple Barrier single . . . .
60s UK blues/psych rock group Barrier comprised Alan Brooks (drums), Alan Francis (bass), Eric Francis (vocals/organ) and Del Dwyer (guitar). Formed in Fulham, south London, England, their debut single, “Georgie Brown”/”Dawn Breaks Through”, was released for the independent blues label Eyemark Records in 1968. The b-side was also recorded by the Purple Barrier (the group’s “psychedelic” alter ego) for the same label. It led to a contract with Philips Records, and two further 1968 singles. Both “Tide Is Turning” and “Spot The Lights” were good examples of garage pop, but neither made much impression outside south London. . . . Alan Brooks went on to join Punching Judy.
Formed circa 1966 in Fulham, London. Signed to Eyemark records and Philips records. All three record releases appeared in 1968. “Tomorrow Of Yesterday” was the band’s debut demo recording which was performed as The Purple Barrier . . . . The song was recorded again with a full production and harpsichord (played by Eric Francis) and re-titled as “Shapes and Sounds”. The term “Purple” was dropped from the name so as to avoid any confusion with the band, Deep Purple. Eyemark records issued their debut single in 1967. The group were then signed by Philips records and handled by the Howard/Blaikley songwriting team . . . . The Barrier were popular in Europe in the late 1960s and more renowned than in their UK homeland. After returning home from a European tour, the band were surprised to hear that they had a new single available by Philips. They were unaware of the songs themselves and couldn’t remember ever recording them. The band’s management had arranged for session musicians to perform and record another Howard/Blaikley song which unbeknown to The Barrier, would be their second single! . . .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify — now over 900 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 Revelations😊 