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

Little Milton — “Can’t Hold Back the Tears”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 24, 2025

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

1,470) Little Milton — “Can’t Hold Back the Tears”

Legendary bluesman “turns his talent to Soul” (Stuart Ross, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzwJPrAzouA) with this B-side to his #1 R&B hit “We’re Gonna Make It”, giving us a “[c]racking mid tempo dancer” (Ross again), an “uptempo, blues-soul hybrid[] . . . benefiting from [his] fine, sinewy guitar lines”. (humorem, https://ontherecord.co/2021/12/31/little-milton-were-gonna-make-it-white-hot-stamper/amp/) Listen and try to hold back your tears.

Little Milton was little in no way other than that his dad was Big Milton. Steve Huey gives us some early history:

[D]ie-hard blues fans know Little Milton as a superb all-around electric bluesman — a soulful singer, an evocative guitarist, an accomplished songwriter, and a skillful bandleader. . . . [with a ] signature style [that] combines soul, blues, and R&B, a mixture that helped make him one of the biggest-selling bluesmen of the ’60s . . . . As time progressed, his music grew more and more orchestrated, with strings and horns galore. He maintained a steadily active recording career all the way from his 1953 debut on Sam Phillip’s legendary Sun label . . . including notable stints at Chess (where he found his greatest commercial success), Stax, and Malaco. James Milton Campbell was born . . . in the small Delta town of Inverness, MS, and grew up in Greenville. . . . His father Big Milton, a farmer, was a local blues musician, and Milton also grew up listening to the Grand Ole Opry radio program. At age 12, he began playing the guitar and saved up money from odd jobs to buy his own instrument from a mail-order catalog. By 15, he was performing for pay in local clubs and bars . . . . He made a substantial impression on other area musicians . . . and caught the attention of R&B great Ike Turner, who was doubling as a talent scout for . . . Phillips at Sun. . . . [and] introduced the still-teenaged Little Milton to Phillips, who signed him to a contract in 1953. With Turner’s band backing him, Milton’s Sun sides tried a little bit of everything . . . [but none] of them were hits, and [his] association with Sun was over by the end of 1954. He set about forming his own band . . . [and] pick[ed] up and mov[ed] to St. Louis in 1958. . . . [where he] befriended DJ Bob Lyons, who helped him record a demo in a bid to land a deal on Mercury. The label passed, and the two set up their own label, christened Bobbin. Little Milton’s Bobbin singles finally started to attract some more widespread attention, particularly “I’m a Lonely Man,” which sold 60,000 copies despite being the very first release on a small label. As head of A&R, Milton brought artists like Albert King and Fontella Bass into the Bobbin fold, and . . . the label soon struck a distribution arrangement with the legendary Chess Records. Milton himself switched over to the Chess subsidiary Checker in 1961, and it was there that he would settle on his trademark soul-inflected, B.B. King-influenced style. . . . Milton had his big breakthrough with 1965’s “We’re Gonna Make It,” which hit number one on the R&B charts thanks to its resonance with the civil rights movement. . . . [followed by] a successful string of R&B chart singles that occasionally reached the Top Ten . . . . Milton eventually left Checker in 1971 and signed with the Memphis-based soul label Stax . . . . [where he] began expanding his studio sound, adding bigger horn and string sections and spotlighting his soulful vocals more than traditional blues. Further hits followed . . . but generally not with the same magnitude of old.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/little-milton-mn0000300534#biography

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Mario Molino – “Shake Psyco”/Shake Psycho”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 23, 2025

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

1,469) Mario Molino – “Shake Psyco”/”Shake Psycho”

The good, the bad, and the groovy! From an “[a]bsolute killer [Italian movie] score based on groovy beat and psychedelic cuts”, here is a number with “obsessive drumming & freaked out sound.” (https://www.popsike.com/Mario-Molino-Gli-Angeli-Del-2000-RARE-PSYCH-BEAT-OST-CAM-LIBRARY-LP-/280926957249.html) It is “[m]ad retro futuristic library music… top stuff” (gotofritz, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/mario-molino/gli-angeli-del-2_000/) that “combines soulful horns and drum breaks with cinematic melodies and an omnipresent Hammond”. (estudiodelsonidoesnob/soundstudiosnob (courtesy of Google Translate), https://estudiodelsonidoesnob-wordpress-com.translate.goog/category/mario-molino/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc)

I haven’t watched the ‘69 flick Gli Angeli del 2000//The Angels of 2000, but estudiodelsonidoesnob/soundstudiosnob describes it as (courtesy of Google Translate):

[A]nother . . . of the countless examples in which the music that illustrates the images for which it was conceived is infinitely superior to what is illustrated. . . . [The] story [is] of Marco, a drug dealer and addict obsessed with the memory of Valeria, his girlfriend, who died in front of him in a tragic accident. Marco maintains a kind of idyll with Angela , a student who lives in an apartment building near his flat and with whom he intends to replace the painful memory of Valeria. Disgusted with his life and his circumstances, he reluctantly participates in a gang war that seems to open his eyes and redeem him. Once he has achieved the feat, waiting for Angela and partly overcoming his traumas, while crossing the street to meet her, he is now the one who is run over, dying in front of her and thus preventing her from starting over.

https://estudiodelsonidoesnob-wordpress-com.translate.goog/category/mario-molino/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

As to the soundtrack and the film:

[A] fantastic soundtrack by one of the most underrated Italian musicians. Gli Angeli del 2000 is a 1969 flick directed by Honil Ranieri that has all the drug, sex and counter culture ingredients of the era but which had very small distribution when first released – it was probably better distributed its photonovel version rather than the film itself! . . . The music is amazing. Top class Italian sounds for psych beat club dancers, cocktail easy goers and experimental groovers featuring the fabulous vocal talents of Edda dell’Orso—famous for her work in Alessandro Alessandroni’s Cantori Moderni or in many Morricone soundtracks . . . and also featuring violinist, pianist, singer Nora Orlandi—herself also a composer of many soundtracks from the sixties and the seventies, here providing the backing vocals with her own famous I 2+2 di Nora Orlandi group.

https://www.soundohm.com/product/gli-angeli-del-2000

Finn Cohen talks about the resurgence of interest in Italian library music:

“[L]ibrary” music — obscure vinyl records containing songs written directly for radio, television or ad placement, in this case the lush, string-laden, funk- and jazz-informed arrangements of classically trained Italian composers. “There was no interest in this stuff when I started,” [says Lorenzo] Fabrizi[, who has] run the reissue label Sonor Music Editions since 2013. “They had pressed 200, 300, 500, 1,000 copies, but they were not destined for shops or distributors. They were only given to internal circles of music supervisors, journalists and people who worked in television.” Sonor is one of several labels in the last few decades that have resurrected Italian classics from the European library genre . . . . From the 1960s well into the 1980s, there was a lot of money to be made in themes: TV and radio producers needed music to accompany opening credits, action or love scenes, game show sequences or advertising. Well-trained composers had access to large ensembles and budgets, and the Italians in particular swung for the fences. . . . “They had a lot more latitude because they weren’t making this music for a particular audience,” [says producer and composer Adrian Younge]. “So if they needed something dramatic, they could just do the craziest [expletive] and wouldn’t have to deal with somebody saying, ‘It’s not pop enough.’” Because it had no commercial life, the output of many talented composers lay hidden for years. But in the late 1990s, labels like Easy Tempo started reissuing soundtracks and compilations of the Italian works. . . . “Unapologetically Black music came into the forefront for cinema in the late ’50s through the early ’70s; European composers, Italian composers took this sound and synthesized it with their classical teachings,” Younge said. “And that created a palette of music that inspired hip-hop producers generations later that were trying to find the coolest samples. It became a treasure trove for many of us.” For the character-based narratives of hip-hop, a genre built on finding loops from records few had heard, these compositions were practically begging to be mined. . . . Once the word got out about the Italians, a collectors’ arms race was on.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/arts/music/italian-library-music-sven-wunder.html

You can watch Gli Angeli del 2000 (in Italian) on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLR-HRKIqfI.

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My Indole Ring — “Love People Everywhere”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 22, 2025

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

1,468) My Indole Ring — “Love People Everywhere”

My Indole Ring* was “[a] local legend in Vancouver, Canada, back in 1967-1969” (François Couture, https://www.allmusic.com/album/my-indole-ring-mw0000662280), “one of the leading names” in Vancouver’s “remarkable head scene in the late ’60s, complete with poster artists, underground zines, psychedelic clubs, and not least a bunch of genuine freak rock bands” (Patrick Lundborg, The Acid Archives, 2nd Ed.), “one of the leading acts of the late ’60s acid-rock scene in Vancouver . . . . Heavy, man!” (John Lucas, https://www.straight.com/blogra/558151/vault-vancouver-classic-my-indole-ring#)

The band “did not even release a single . . .. [but] definitely had something going. . . . The influences of West Coast (Jefferson Airplane) and Vancouver groups (Papa Bear’s Medicine Show) are detectable.” (François Couture, https://www.allmusic.com/album/my-indole-ring-mw0000662280) Well, their music finally saw release in 2001, and today I feature my favorite song.

Normal-Recs writes:

In 1966 a rock band whimsically named The Jabberwock was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia. With John King – lead guitar, harmonica and vocals, John Cluff – Hammond organ, David Jordan-Knox – bass guitar, Lindy Jordan-Knox – vocals, and Chris Dahl – drums. This group evolved into the unique acid/blues/rock phenomenon My Indole Ring, with John K., John C., David and Chris. Frequently appearing at such hip venues as The Afterthought, The Village Bistro, and The Retinal Circus, the group soon became associated with Vancouver’s counter culture and was the Vancouver acid-rock band. During one memorable appearance on the CBC Television show Let’s Go, the phone lines lit up with viewers concerned with the show’s radical music presentation. The home base for My Indole Ring became The Retinal Circus on Davie Street in downtown Vancouver [where they were the house band] . . . .

https://therockasteria.blogspot.com/2017/04/my-indole-ring-my-indole-ring-1968-69.html

* Indole? Wikipedia explains that:

Indole is an organic compound with the formula C₆H₄CCNH₃. Indole is classified as an aromatic heterocyclic. It has a bicyclic structure, consisting of a six-membered benzene ring fused to a five-membered pyrrole ring. Indoles are derivatives of indole where one or more of the hydrogen atoms have been replaced by substituent groups. Indoles are widely distributed in nature, most notably as amino acid tryptophan and neurotransmitter serotonin.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indole

Boring! Wikipedia further explains that:

Indole . . . . occurs naturally in human feces and has an intense fecal odor. At very low concentrations, however, it has a flowery smell, and is a constituent of many perfumes. . . . It has been identified in cannabis It is the main volatile compound in stinky tofu.

Less boring!

“Ergot alkaloids are indole compounds that are biosynthetically derived from L-tryptophan and represent the largest group of fungal nitrogen metabolites found in nature. The common part of ergot alkaloids is lysergic acid.” (Michał K. Jastrzębski^,Agnieszka A. Kaczor, and Tomasz M. Wróbel, https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/21/7322)

Now it all makes sense!

Here is an interview after their music is finally officially released:

Here they are, appearing on an episode of the CBC program Where It’s At hosted by Lulu [see #960]:

Live at Retinal Circus:

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Jack Bedient & the Chessmen – “Glimmer Sunshine”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 21, 2025

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

1,467) Jack Bedient & the Chessmen – “Glimmer Sunshine”

Reno and Vegas lounge/showband “recorded some killer garage rock singles along the way” (Holly Thorpe, https://thecometmagazine.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/b-sides-issue2/), especially this A-side, “outstanding, fast-paced garage rock with . . . fine guitar . . . featuring throughout including a very strong fuzz break, and a powerful, passionate vocal” (bayard, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/jack-bedient-and-the-chessman/glimmer-sunshine-where-did-she-go/) “with a fat rocking Pacific Northwest sound”. (Patrick Lundborg, The Acid Archives (2nd Ed.)) “Not surprisingly, it’s “not like anything else the band ever recorded and is now their most sought-after release”. (Chris Bishop, https://garagehangover.com/jack-bedient-and-the-chessmen/) Imagine if Sinatra had done the same!

Jack Bedient and the Chessmen were “a long-running Northwest frat-lounge-pop band of the tuxedo dancehall variety” (Patrick Lundborg, The Acid Archives (2nd Ed.)), “a headliner in Reno and Las Vegas showrooms”. (http://pnwbands.com/chessmen.html) Holly Thorpe or Dustin Hays (not clear who is the author) tell us the band’s story:

Jack attended Gonzaga University in Spokane, performing in the university’s Men’s Quartet and Men’s Glee Club. The following year, Jack was forced to drop out and move back to Wenatchee[, Washington] after his girlfriend found out she was pregnant. Back in town, Bedient and a fellow Wenatchee High School Class of ‘55 alumni began writing songs together. Alvin Griggs hadn’t been friends with Jack in high school, but the pair bonded over music when they reconnected. Griggs wasn’t much of a musician at the time and didn’t know much about song writing, but he had a knack for writing lyrics. By the end of 1960, Jack had recorded two songs of their creation. Demo versions of “Mystic One” and “Questions” were recorded in a small studio in Seattle . . . . By May 20, 1961 . . . Los Angeles based ERA Records released a statement in Cash Box Magazine that they had just signed Jack, a “new singer from the Northwest, with first sides skedded for early release.” . . . By July of that year “Mystic One” and “Questions” were released as a single on ERA. The recording had been redone and now featured string arrangements, a lead guitar, and female backup singers. The label boasted in Billboard Magazine that they had signed Jack for a five-year contract and an LP release would soon follow his debut single. At the time of the record’s release, lyricist Griggs had been drafted into the Army and was stationed in Colorado. . . . By December 1961 Bedient had formed Jack Bedient and the Chessmen, with a few members from [the] recently disbanded rock group The Furys. “Mystic One” got minimal play across the country and his 5-year contract with ERA was never fulfilled. . . .

Arguably the highest point in the group’s career was signing with Columbia Records in 1967. . . . [T]he group released four singles on the label before breaking their contract and parting ways the following year. After putting out two more singles and a full-length album, the group disbanded in 1970. Bedient briefly re-appeared in the Reno scene in the mid-’70s with his new group The Royale Brothers.

https://thecometmagazine.wordpress.com/2017/11/05/b-sides-issue2/

Chessman Walter Hanna recalls:

I was the 1st and I think only organist for Jack Bedient and the Chessmen, added just before their first venture into the world of Nevada casino lounge and then headliner room bookings. . . . I was “discovered” by the Chessmen playing in a pizza parlor in Redwood City, California on their night off – they had a gig down the road at a classy night club. I played organ and an early Wurlitzer electric piano with friends from 1st year of college. We were the house band for a couple of pitchers of free beer and pizzas plus $15 per man a night playing surf music and whatever else was on the Top-40 radio, Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, Ray Charles etc. This was around “spring break” 64-65 when I dropped out of Belmont Community College and split from friends and pizza gig to grab a lucrative job offer and regular gigs with Jack and the Chessmen, $300 a week to start – big money in those days and the end of my former every-day life. In Reno, some months after the first gig at the Golden Hotel, now Harrah’s, we started getting airplay on recently recorded 45’s and over about a year had 4 # 1 Top-40 hits. The line at the casino hotel was so long to get in for our shows, the tail of the line was near the start, going around the whole city block. It really was a mind-blower for hicks like us. In between some Nevada bookings we went to Sacramento to play a couple of weeks at one of the popular local nightclubs, following Question Mark and the Mysterians, with one of our 45’s at # 16 on the local radio. I stayed with the band until sometime in ’68. Bookings were getting worse. In Nevada the [band] had plagiarized several very popular lounge acts’ comedy bits and came up with some of their own which were pretty funny. This worked like a charm in Nevada, but everywhere else, dance music was wanted; later bookings into some dinner music type clubs didn’t work out, but it was getting hard for the bands manager . . . to keep full-time gig’s coming.

https://pnwbands.com/chessmen.html

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Gee Bros — “Let Me Find the Sun”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 20, 2025

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

1,466) Gee Bros — “Let Me Find the Sun”

I’ve just featured Barry Gibb, so let me turn to the Gee Bros — no, not the Bee Gees, the Dutch Gee Bros, with “[o]ne of the trippiest 45’s to come from the Nederbeat scene”.(PsychedelicGuy, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/gee_bros/let_me_find_the_sun___she/) “Get past the schlocky [English] lyrics and you have a great hypnotic psychdelic groove of a track.” (ronkarlin6398, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDGBebpKL9U) The Bros were dubbed the Dutch Hollies. “[N]o wonder they called you the DUTCH hollies. the best harmonies EVER, make no mistake about it.” (johnzoefiescholte-albers3997, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AECgFNULnXM)

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Barry Gibb — “What’s It All About”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 19, 2025

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

1,465) Barry Gibb — “What’s It All About”

Barry’s yearning anti-war song from his solo album that was never to be — “very true bluesy and laidback folk rock”. (Jostein Hansen, https://www.roxboroghreport.com/2020/11/why-barry-gibb-recording-a-superstar-country-duets-album-makes-perfect-sense.html) Man, Barry even starts out the song sounding like Dylan!

Matt Collar writes that “[t]he Bee Gees’ tempestuous personal relationships led to their 1969 breakup, and when the band members stopped working together, Barry turned to thoughts of a solo career [see #439, 570]. He began recording an album, which was supposed to be called The Kid’s No Good, but he only got as far as releasing one single, ‘I’ll Kiss Your Memory’ (1970), before returning to work with his brothers.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/barry-gibb-mn0000659118/biography) Joseph Brennan believes that the brothers’ shelving of their solo albums was an aspect of their reconciliation. (http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/70.html)

Tim Roxborough says that: “Barry [went] full Americana for his album The Kid’s No Good, a strong set of songs that got shelved when he reconciled with Robin and Maurice in the back half of 1970. ” (https://www.roxboroghreport.com/2020/11/why-barry-gibb-recording-a-superstar-country-duets-album-makes-perfect-sense.html) And Ludovic Hunter-Tilney writes that “[i]n 1970 [Barry] made a country-flavoured solo album, The Kid’s No Good, which was junked when he returned to the Bee Gees’ fold. ‘I love country music and I probably allowed a little more than I should have to influence me,’ he said of the unreleased project.” (https://www.ft.com/content/4b986f80-7c58-4d0f-b806-8634ef831c14)

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Roger Bunn – “Fantasy and Fiction”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 18, 2025

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

1,464) Roger Bunn – “Fantasy and Fiction”

Here is a fleeting glimpse into Piece of Mind, an “[e]pic in scope” and “[f]ascinating LP of eccentric whimsy and symphonic psychedelia” (Bradx, https://www.discogs.com/master/235435-Roger-Bunn-Piece-Of-Mind?srsltid=AfmBOoo3mDfkXmzDyg2auqpDuiYa2qSaPvq9NF6x10G0tX5HzN-yRMhy), “an enjoyably bizarre mixture of funky pop, freedom poetry and orchestrated ballads” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)”, a “delightfully weird-ass stream-of-consciousness creation . . . mixing soul horns, acid rock, freakbeat spaciness, jazz, and folk-pop” that “has been “long regarded as one of the great lost albums of the psychedelic era”. (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/album/piece-of-mind-mw0001446817, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/roger-bunn-mn0001614978)

Wah Wah Records tells us that:

K.J. Gustin [called the LP] a work of “exotic psychedelic free-jazz-meets-rock, East-meets-West, progressive and smoky moment in late Twentieth Century music history”. Add to that a spice of jazzy brassed R&B and a touch of minor-key popsike sensitivity and you get an accurate description of the sounds contained in Roger Bunn’s astonishing 1969 LP . . . .

https://wahwahrecords.bandcamp.com/album/piece-of-mind

Have we left out a genre? No power ballads?

Joe McFarland adds:

[I]n 1969 Roger Bunn put together “stream-of-consciousness” words with jazz rhythms and acid-psych, punctuated by the occasional James Brown horns, to make a unique album. How many albums, even in the sixties, captured the real sense of unknown territory evident in Ken Kesey’s “Merry Pranksters” bus rides? All through Piece of Mind we hear songs that have the same mythic sense of exploration that was about more than fashion and drug use.

http://www.krautrock-musikzirkus.de/de,Bunn-Roger_835,N.html

Someone who calls him or herself Jimi Hendrix writes:

All the songs on the album, including the music and lyrics, were by Roger and John Mackie, with a very original sound and ahead of anything that was happening in the UK and the US at the time. Piece Of Mind . . . [has] its own personal aura, and very difficult to pigeonhole into any particular style since it fuses countless sounds and styles, such as blues, country, ballads, with a common denominator of jazz that splashes the sound for the most part. The result of this mix is an acid folk that takes different forms, with the different interventions of jazzier parts, parts with classical arrangements, piano parts, but always with the ironic, somewhat bizarre and always acidic seal that Bunn applies to it.

https://delicias–psicodelicas-blogspot-com.translate.goog/2014/05/roger-bunn-piece-of-mind-1969.html?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

Some are more equivocal. Breakwind says that “[Bunn] himself is singing all kinds of nonsense, reminding us all this album belonged in the 60s. [He] clearly loves himself and his style of folk music, he’s not a bad singer, and the music can be beautiful, it’s just sorta… “far out man”. (https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/roger-bunn/piece-of-mind/) Others are downright catty: “Dopey 60s fantasy pop/rock that while not earth shattering scratches a very specific itch”. (Oliverkjohnson7, https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/693618-roger-bunn-piece-of-mind.php) Cat-scratch fever?

As to Bunn, Hendrix adds:

[Bunn] was born in the middle of the war, with his father dead as a war hero and his mother shortly after abandoning him at a young age. . . . During the sixties he dabbled in drugs and music and began to train as a guitarist and bassist, also playing jazz with some jazz orchestras . . . . At 24 he took his own path with music, which took him to Afghanistan, then Turkey and Iran. He would also pass through Hamburg and a couple more years of comings and goings found him in London meeting the Beatles, where at Paul McCartney’s request he would record some demos for Apple which would be sent to ”Philips Records” in Holland. The work caught the attention of producer Frans Peters, who called him and put him together with composer Ruud Bos, as well as having the Dutch National Orchestra at his disposal for the arrangements and other jazz musicians. That’s how [Piece of Mind] was born . . . .

https://delicias–psicodelicas-blogspot-com.translate.goog/2014/05/roger-bunn-piece-of-mind-1969.html?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

Bruce Eder tells us that:

By the end of the 1950s, he was . . . gravitating to the work of the American beat poets and jazz musicians. Bunn had started playing guitar in his teens, and by the end of the decade had taken the lead guitar spot in a group called the Bishops. In the early ’60s, however, he made the switch to playing jazz bass, and was working for Cockney rockabilly icon Joe Brown. . . . Bunn’s real love lay with jazz, and not the trad style . . . he was a serious Charlie Parker devotee. But he found most of his opportunities playing rock and soul . . . . During the mid-’60s, he worked with a wide array of players, including Graham Bond, Zoot Money, and Joe Harriott . . . . By his own account, he also used a massive amount of recreational, often hallucinogenic drugs across the years leading up to the late ’60s . . . . He played . . . in Marianne Faithfull’s backing band . . . . [and a]fter a stint playing with the expatriate South African Blue Notes . . . ended up working . . . in . . . Giant Sun Trolley, which played on the same bills as Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and Procol Harum at the UFO Club. . . . [and] . . . [was a] part of “The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream[.]” . . . Bunn spent a significant chunk of 1967 and early 1968 traveling around the Middle East . . . . Back in England, he founded Djinn, a quartet that became a footnote in music history . . . by allowing a youthful David Bowie into its ranks very briefly, part of a professional liaison that didn’t last . . . . Bunn’s solo career seemed to take off after he walked into the Apple offices on Baker Street and — apparently based on the fact that Paul McCartney remembered him from . . . Hamburg — was able to talk his way into getting the use of one of their studio facilities to cut a series of demo sides. Those eventually became the basis for . . . Piece of Mind. . . . [But] Philips licensed the new recording to Major-Minor, a tiny outfit that went bankrupt soon after. It took some doing to get the album issued a couple of years later, and in the interim Bunn . . . join[ed] the progressive rock band Piblokto . . . . [A]fter leaving them and forming his own outfit, Endjinn . . . . [Bunn was] the original guitarist for Roxy Music . . . . [but] was long gone by the time they were signed to a recording contract . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/roger-bunn-mn0001614978

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A. M. Gately — “Battle in the City”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 17, 2025

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

1,463) A. M. Gately — “Battle in the City”

A back to nature call to arms with a to die for melody by a cherished friend of Al Kooper who left us too soon. “I’ve loved [“Battle”’s] sunlit melancholy tone, built around acoustic guitar, cello/strings and horns”; “one if the best songs of its kind I think I’ve ever heard”. (Wayne Burrows, https://serendipityproject.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/july-9-2011-battle-in-the-city-by-a-m-gateley-columbia-promo-45-c-1969/)

“I ain’t got time for breaking my mind and doing battle in the city”

Gately “shares the same melodic stage and songwriting prowess as Harry Nilsson [see #1,168, 1,298] and Curt Boettcher [see # 397, 506, 586, 662, 810, 1,002] . . . yet he’s basically never been mentioned anywhere as far as I’ve ever read”. (allerlei2013riffmaster, https://allerlei2013riffmaster.wordpress.com/2018/05/31/michael-gatley-gatelys-cafe-1972/) Wayne Burrows informs us that:

[A]bout the mysterious A.M. Gately and his recording career[, i]t turns out that he wrote and recorded mostly under the name Michael Gately, releasing several singles (perhaps the least obscure with Robert John, a rather lovely Beach Boys inflected bit of sunshine pop called “If You Don’t Want My Love”) and two US albums, Gately’s Cafe (1971) and Still Round (1972) . . . . Both LPs feature contributions from Gately’s regular collaborator Al Kooper [see #642, 705, 765, 804, 1,447] (for whom he seems to have returned the favour, appearing as a writer, arranger and backing vocalist on Kooper’s own records), but despite his links to better-known musicians, a berth on a major label, and the fact that it’s clear he was a highly distinctive singer-songwriter, with plenty of commercial promise, it seems none of Gately’s various releases left the kinds of mark they deserved to, and Gately himself eventually died of a heart condition in 1982 at the age of 39. All of which . . . seems a terrible waste, and offers further proof, if any were needed, that success and talent more rarely coincide than is generally assumed.

https://serendipityproject.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/july-9-2011-battle-in-the-city-by-a-m-gateley-columbia-promo-45-c-1969/

Barney’s offers this gem of a note:

I knew Michael very well. We were in LA in the 80’s together and he was a wonderful person. . . . He loved music, had great stories of the old days in the City, grew up in New Jersey . . . had a brother, loved his parents and was a good man overall. We dated for 2 years or so and I do miss him. He also had a very great sense of humor. Brilliant and also studied theology in school. . . . In LA, Michael worked for years as the night manager of the Record Plant recording Studio. He was always part of the music scene although never made it big. His best friends Robert John (his middle son’s middle name is [G]ately) and Al [K]ooper were around in LA during this time. He was always writing….he sang beautifully…one of my favorites was “Christmas carol blue” about his close friend from jersey. I’m not sure if it was ever recorded but I know it well. As you saw on the albums, Michael was very overweight. When I was with him, he was down to 185 lbs. we had so many great times at the record plant..saw many great artist in their recording sessions…he was so well-liked by everyone. I have some great photos of our times together. It’s kind of a sad story why we broke up but I treasured our time and memories together. I was told he wrote a song about me after I left LA…what I would give to hear that song…

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/michael-gately-robert-johns-songwriting-partner.232303/

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Grapefruit — “Dear Delilah”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 16, 2025

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

1,462) Grapefruit — “Dear Delilah”

Here is the greatest 60’s song about a gal named Delilah that wasn’t sung by Tom Jones. Rather, it is a glorious A-side, the first by the Beatles-backed band Grapefruit. Grapefruit was led by George Alexander (birth name Alexander Young), the older brother of the Easybeats’ George Young and AC/DC’s Malcolm and Angus Young. Unlike his siblings, he stayed in Scotland rather than emigrating to Australia.

My, my, my Delilah Why, why, why, Delilah, didn’t you launch Grapefruit into superstardom?!?! “Dear Delilah” is a pop psych “nugget” (liner notes to the CD comp Mojo Presents Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionery from the UK Underground 1965-1969), “an imaginative effort with a rich organ backing” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited), with a “lilting melody, uplifting harmonies, and creative use of orchestration and electronic phasing”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/grapefruit-mn0000988692#biography) “Grapefruit was at their best on the . . . songs in which they reached into slightly darker and more melancholy territory, particularly when they made creative use of strings, organ, baroque keyboards, and Mellotron, as on . . . ‘Dear Delilah'”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/around-grapefruit-mw0000740575)

“Delilah” did reach #21 in the UK in February 1968, but, alas, this was to be Grapefruit’s biggest squirt. Richie Unterberger sticks a serrated spoon into Grapefruit:

Grapefruit were one of the better Beatlesque late-’60s British pop-rock bands. In 1968 they seemed on the way to stardom, with a couple of small hit British singles and, more importantly, some help from the Beatles themselves. Led by George Alexander . . . the group were at the outset cheerful harmony pop/rockers . . . skilled at blending melodic pop with sophisticated arrangements that employed baroque/psychedelic touches of strings, orchestration, and several varieties of keyboards. A disappointing second album, however, helped sink them out of sight, and the Beatles couldn’t be of help as they were preoccupied with their own imminent dissolution. George Alexander . . . [who] wrote most of the[ir] songs . . . was signed to Apple Music Publishing in 1967 by Terry Doran, who had been affiliated with Brian Epstein and the Beatles’ organization for some time. Doran also managed the band . . . . John Lennon named the[m] (after Yoko Ono’s book [Grapefruit]) and went to press receptions introducing the band to the media. Members of the Beatles pitched in ideas for Grapefruit arrangements and recording sessions, and Paul McCartney even directed a promotional video for their single, “Elevator.” . . . [After “Delilah”, a] cover of the Four Seasons’ “C’mon Marianne” just missed the Top Thirty . . . [but] nothing else made the charts. . . . [T]heir second album, 1969’s Deep Water, was [comprised of] routine late ’60s rock . . . . John Lennon did suggest in early 1969 that the band should record the then-unreleased . . . “Two of Us” (which they didn’t). Following some personnel changes, the group broke up around the end of the 1960s . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/grapefruit-mn0000988692/biography

Oh, and Richard Porter tells us that:

Not long after the formation of the group, Grapefruit were taken to meet Paul McCartney. Paul was supervising the editing of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour film . . . . [The band’s rhythm guitarist] Pete [Swettenham] remembers that they were led past lines girls who were sitting on the stairs waiting for Paul to emerge. On 24^th November 1967, Grapefruit did their first recording session at IBC Studios . . . . Pete remembers: “We’d been recording for about half an hour when, on the stairs leading up to the control room, suddenly in walked John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who had been our heroes for years![“] . . . [Pete’s brother Geoff, the drummer, says] “We’d been drinking scotch and coke and Paul asked for a drink. He took one sip and asked if there was any scotch in it. He then proceeded to fill the glass up with scotch and said ‘Now that’s what I call a scotch and coke’. They remained in the studio for some hours”. According to Geoff, even though they didn’t actively participate in the recording of ‘Dear Delilah’, John and Paul produced a track on Grapefruit’s first album, called ‘Lullaby’.

https://beatlesinlondon.com/a-meeting-with-half-of-grapefruit/

You can read about the lovely “Lullaby” at #894.

Recorded live on Brian Matthews’ BBC radio show in 1967:

“Live” on French TV:

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The Riot Squad — “I Take It that We’re Through”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 15, 2025

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

1,461) The Riot Squad — “I Take It that We’re Through”

“Great stomping Mod freakbeat” (Galactic-Ramble, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXOs9YA50Wk), with a “proto-Psychedelic” feel and a “proto-Raga groove”. (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp Joe Meek Freakbeat: You’re Holding Me Down) Biffbampow writes:

Absolutely stunning. One of Joe Meek’s greatest later productions, an intense moody stomping piece of freakbeat with a heavy raga influence. Explodes out of the speakers, never letting up for one moment. Meek has been accused of failing to keep up with the times towards the end of his life but this – and many other discs – prove that accusation is complete nonsense. Definitely The Riot Squad’s finest moment.

https://www.45cat.com/record/7n17092

As to the Squad, David Wells tells us:

Assembled by Kinks co-manager and inveterate hustler Larry Page, The Riot Squad fell apart when Page decided he had bigger fish to fillet. But saxopohonist Bob Evans, who’d previously played on Honeycombs sessions for Joe Meek, kept the name going with the aid of a Waltham Forest-based band called the Chevrons, and he approached Meek to take on the revised Riot Squad.

liner notes to the CD comp Real Life Permanent Dreams: a Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970

As to Riot Squad 2.0, Bruce Eder writes:

[The Chevrons] already had a soulful American sound similar to Riot Squad . . . . Joe Meek . . . did the new Riot Squad a huge service on their debut single, “Cry Cry Cry” b/w “How It Is Done.” The A-side was a little poppish . . . [and] should have been a contender for airplay . . . the B-side was a cool shouter that showed off everyone’s instrumental prowess and was catchy in its own right, as well as a little harder. The A-side actually made the lower reaches of the U.K. sales charts, but it was the B-side that proved an enduring classic . . . . They went to the well with Meek again on “I Take It That We’re Through” b/w “Working Man,” which once more got great reviews, but once again failed to chart. In the meantime, between their own gigs and recording sessions, Meek kept them busy backing various vocal artists of his . . . . [I]t was becoming clear, however, that whatever his abilities as a producer, Meek lacked the clout or the resources to promote the group’s records properly, in the way that one of the majors would have been able to get behind a record. They tried one more single, “It’s Never Too Late to Forgive” b/w “Try to Realize,” in the summer of 1966. It also failed to chart, and by this time the members were seeing . . . [that] their efforts . . . were simply not gaining any traction with the public. . . . [But they] found themselves named the most popular group in Venezuela. They’d never played there, or even been there, or to that hemisphere, but a chance encounter by a popular disc jockey with “Cry Cry Cry” had resulted in a massive amount of airplay, and sales, and requests — there’s no way to tell what this bizarre moment of popular success might have led to, if anything, for in early 1967, the roof fell in once and for all with Meek’s death. Their producer, a brilliant but unstable personality, died in a bizarre murder/suicide incident that also took the life of his landlady. When the smoke cleared from the tragedy, the band was without a producer or a recording contract, as everything they’d done had been legally organized through Meek. Ironically, the band had as many bookings as ever, because the one area where they’d enjoyed immense, virtually uninterrupted success — in contrast to their recordings — was as a live act. They had a substantial and devoted following and could easily have gone on earning a decent living in that capacity; they even received an offer to play behind Wilson Pickett on a British tour, which was in perfect keeping with their sound. Good as some of the records they made with Meek had been, they weren’t really representative of what the Riot Squad was about. They did mostly covers of American R&B, to an audience that was wholly focused on that sound . . . . The group split up in 1967, with Evans [and two other band members] . . . remaining as the Riot Squad . . . . [and] limp[ing] along into 1967[. A]t one point . . . David Bowie joined their lineup. He was with the group intermittently across a little more than half a year, and they even cut a few demos with him . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/riot-squad-mn0001344667#biography

For those wanting to keep the Riot going, see the super-exhaustive: https://brunoceriotti.weebly.com/the-riot-squad.html.

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Tony Ritchie — “Could You Really Live Without Her”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 14, 2025

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

1,460) Tony Ritchie — “Could You Really Live Without Her”

This “superb” (MushroomMachineClub, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raXGDOtr8_k) ’68 B-side is a horn infused “fuzzy blue-eyed soul stomper” (The Sound of Vinyl, https://thesoundofvinyl.us/products/la-discoteque-psychedelique-various) sung by British songwriter Tony Ritchie, written by him and Miki Dallon and Derek Spence and produced by Dallon. Various combinations of the three wrote most of Don Fardon’s LP Lament Of The Cherokee Indian Reservation (though not the title song).

As to Miki Dallon, Miki Dallon Productions/Publishing tells us that:

Miki Dallon is a well known songwriter and record producer from the 60’s and 70’s who also had his own performing career from the late 50’s to the mid 60’s. As a songwriter and producer he scored with The Sorrows[‘] “Take a Heart” and Neil Christian[‘s] “That’s Nice”, the songs were also major hits by a variety of artists in most European territories. Miki undertook further independent production work for many Major labels throughout the 70’s and 80’s, having previously run the Strike and Young Blood labels as outlets for his productions through the ’60’s and ’70 ‘s.

https://mikidallon.com/biography

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Ben E. King — “If You’ve Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody”/“Come Together”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 13, 2025

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

1,459) Ben E. King — “If You’ve Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody”/“Come Together”

Ben E. King’s (see #85, 254, 597) spectacular out of left field ’70 LP Rough Edges is “a curious work with a laid-back feel notable for its extended play mashups combining popular songs on single tracks”. (Altrockchick, https://altrockchick.com/2021/02/01/ben-e-king-the-very-best-of-classic-music-review/) I’ve already featured King’s mashup of “In the Midnight Hour/Lay Lady Lay” (see #254). Today, it’s the James Ray hit “If You’ve Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody” and the Beatles’ (and my lawyers tell me to mention Chuck Berry’s) iconic “Come Together”. What King does is so cool, reinventing these songs as industrial soul/rock. You say you want an Industrial Soul/Rock Revolution!

Don Heckman flipped over the album in the New York Times on August 2, 1970:

An interesting trend seems to be developing in which black artists finally are turning the tables on an old music industry practice — the making of “covers.” In the past, “covers” usually consisted of note‐for‐note simulations by white performers of recordings that originally were made by black singers and musicians. Lately, however, performers like Ike & Tina Turner, Isaac Hayes, and now Ben E. King, have been producing their own versions of tunes originally written and recorded by such white stars as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Typically, black performers haven’t been content to simply imitate: at times their versions are even superior to the originals. Ben E. King, late of the Drifters and best known for his early sixties hit “Spanish Harlem,” adds another wrinkle to the process in his first release for the new Maxwell label. Three familiar pieces, Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay,” Lennon & McCartney’s “Come Together” and Bobby Russell’s “Little Green Apples” are considerably enlivened by their mixture with Wilson Pickett’s “In The Midnight Hour” (with “Lay Lady Lay”), Rudy Clark’s “If You’ve Gotta Make A Fool of Somebody” (with “Come Together”) and Paul Vance’ “She Lets Her Hair Down” (with “Apples”). Surprisingly, the blend heightens the effectiveness of all the tunes. . . . The consistency with which King finds vigorously original interpretations of such familiar material is, for a performer rarely identified with such songs, remarkable. If this is the current style in “covers,” we can be happy that something new and creative has come out of the cynical past.

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/02/archives/from-dory-previn-to-ben-e-king-from-dory-previn-to-ben-e-king.html

Andrew Hamilton adds:

This Ben E. King LP on Larry Maxwell’s Maxwell label interrupted a string of Atco releases. Limited sales made it a one-off and King began another string of albums for the Atco family on Atlantic Records. The Bob Crewe production finds [King] singing with fervor on songs the likes of which he never sniffed at while recording for Atco. . . . [T]here’s no attempt to re-create his popular solo or Drifters recordings; that coupled with a weak promotional effort made Rough Edges an early entry in the cutout bins.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/rough-edges-mw0000854886

Here’s James Ray ’61 (#22/#10 R&B):

Here’s Maxine Brown ’65 (#63):

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Cat Stevens — “Bring Another Bottle Baby”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 12, 2025

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

1,458) Cat Stevens — “Bring Another Bottle Baby”

Swinging London “bossa nova . . . my favourite track”, says Mike Hurst, producer of Cat Stevens’ first album Matthew & Son (original sleeve notes, https://majicat.com/recordings/MatthewLP.htm), a “smooth Latin shuffle” (Andy Neill, liner notes to the CD reissue of Matthew & Son), that actually “should have been included in the Austin Powers soundtrack.” (teddysutphin3502, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SavTIfoINW0) Oh man, I would love to hear Mike Myers sing “Bring another bottle baby cuz I really want to make this little bell ring”!

Dave Connolly writes that “[w]ith modish pop arrangements from Alan Tew and producer Mike Hurst, Matthew and Son is a product of the times, yes, but more importantly it’s the product of a fertile imagination that combines clever melodies with sympathetic storytelling. . . . [T]he musical arrangements . . . are steeped in the pop sound of the 1960s.” (https://progrography.com/cat-stevens/review-cat-stevens-matthew-and-son-1967/amp/ Mike Hurst says that “Full marks here to Alan Tew. I do many of the arrangements with Alan but this one in particular is his baby.” (original sleeve notes to Matthew & Son, https://majicat.com/recordings/MatthewLP.htm)

Bruce Eder writes about the LP:

Cat Stevens’ Matthew & Son was among the handful of releases that introduced Decca Records’ “offbeat”-oriented (but ultimately largely psychedelic/progressive) Deram label in England. Actually, Stevens’ “I Love My Dog” launched the label in fine style by climbing to number 27 on the U.K. charts, and its follow-up, “Matthew & Son,” hit number two, resulting in the release of the original album of the same name. The latter was not only a fine account of Stevens’ early folk-influenced pop/rock sound, but was also a beautiful, candid audio “snapshot” of one side of Swinging London’s musical ambience in late 1966 and early 1967. It melds tinkling harpsichords (“Matthew & Son”) and moderately ambitious orchestrations (mostly horns and strings) on some songs (“I Love My Dog”) with folky acoustic guitar on others (“Portabello Road”), a lot of it carrying highly expressive, weirdly personal lyrics. . . . It’s very distant from the sound that Stevens was ultimately known for, and in many ways, it’s more dated than what he did for Island/A&M, but it’s much more self-consciously accessible, arranged in different styles, ranging from vaudeville-style band accompaniment . . . to trippy Donovan-esque ballads . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/matthew-son-mw0000198640

John Kutner tells us of Cat Stevens’ early years:

Cat [now, of course, Yusuf Islam] was born Steven Georgiou to a Greek Cypriot father and a Swedish mother and has an older sister and a younger brother who all lived in a flat above the Moulin Rouge restaurant [London, not Paris!] which his parents ran. His parents divorced in the mid-fifties yet they remained under the same roof and ran that same restaurant. Cat explained what got him going, “I think I was 15 when the big impact of life like The Beatles happened and, of course, it was then every young guy’s dream just to get a guitar and join a band. I lived in London and was lucky enough to be on the edge of Tin Pan Alley which was about 100 yards away from where I lived and there was all these guitar shops and it became my very first ambition to get a guitar. My father finally agreed and succumbed to give me eight pounds to buy my first Italian guitar. I had a lot of ideas and I found it easier to write my own material rather than sing other people’s and also I might get it wrong. Also, I had a lot of ideas I think because of the background and the musical textures I was surrounded by being in an area where there was a lot of Spanish and South African music as well rock, R&B and bluebeat, everything was here. When Dylan came along he made it all possible because of the poetry. Not everything had to be about love songs.” . . . [After h]is debut hit, “I Love My Dog” . . . . “Matthew and Son”, which also became the title of his debut album released in April 1967, reached number two in the UK singles chart, only held off by The Monkees’ I’m A Believer. . . . Cat loved living in London, he said, “It was all very exciting, every day there was something new, a different challenge. I felt I thoroughly deserved it. I lapped it up.”

https://www.jonkutner.com/matthew-and-son-cat-stevens/

Mike Hurst, formerly of the Springfields, is the unsung hero in this story. He and Andy Neil explain:

[Hurst] I was on the point of emigrating to America where I’d been offered a job in Los Angeles with Vanguard Records. I’d even bought the air ticket for myself and my family but one Saturday in June, there was a ring at my front door and Steve [Cat Stevens] was standing there. He told me he’d been to every record company in London and no one would touch him, so I decided to hustle some money and make a single before I left for America.

[Neil] After securing finance from Chris Brough . . . Hurst hustled Decca A&R chief Dick Rowe into giving him free studio time on the auspices that Hurst was recording a Mike D’abo composition . . . . Instead, Hurst used the three hours . . . to record “I Love My Dog” . . . . When learning of Hurst’s deception, Rowe was not amused.

[Hurst] He was furious but at least he listened to it and at the end he called up Sir Edward Lewis, the head of Decca Records. I thought I was in for big trouble from the great man himself but then it dawned on me that they actually liked it. We did a deal there and then for three singles over the next twelve months.

[Neil] Hurst cancelled his emigration plans to become Cat’s manager/producer . . . .

liner notes to the CD reissue of Matthew & Son

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Jigsaw — “Tumblin’”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 11, 2025

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

1,457) Jigsaw — “Tumblin’”

Years before they blew it all sky high, Jigsaw dropped this bomb on the English public, well, I mean “the bomb”, a “psych monster”, “[o]ff the rails” (thomassmilth8721, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyld5on1Ll4), “a phased up stomping, psychedelic beast with a Brian Auger style hammond and eastern guitar licks”. (Peter Gough, https://biteitdeep.blogspot.com/2012/07/jigsaw-1968-1975.html)

Pete Clemons puts together the pieces of Jigsaw:

Jigsaw, formed in 1966, were a group from whose band members came from both Coventry and Rugby. Essentially they were born out of the ashes of another Rugby group The Mighty Avengers but also included members of The Antarctic’s, The Beat Preachers and others. They were active continuously for almost the next twenty years. Formed by guitar player Tony Campbell the band started life as a six piece and, later on in the bands life – and through the formidable song writing team of organist Clive Scott and drummer Des Dyer – Jigsaw scored a succession of worldwide hits. Their discography runs to many singles and albums. . . . Soon after forming, Jigsaw without doubt became one of the hardest gigging bands in the region. . . . During this period it would be fair to say that Jigsaw were more in keeping with the other ‘underground’ bands of the day. They released their first single during 1968 and their music was blues based and incredibly ambitious. This was reflected in their debut concept album Letherslade Farm, released on the Philips label in 1970. This incredibly rare album . . . bears no resemblance at all to the music that they would later become renowned for. Essentially it is a satirical view of the music industry, at that time, and is one continuous story which tells the tale of a broken down pop singer. . . . Sadly none of the bands early releases charted.

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/flashback-remembering-coventry-band-jigsaw-11178790

Pete Chambers adds some lost pieces to the puzzle:

They were a veritable local ‘super group’ comprising of Clive Scott . . . on vocals and keyboards (from the Atlantics and the Transatlantics), Barry Bernard on bass (from The Vampires and Pinkertons Colours [see #340]). Kevin Mahon on tenor sax, Tony Campbell guitar, Dave Beech on drums ( all from The Mighty Avengers . . . Tony Britnel (from The Fortunes) Des Dyer (from Rugby’s Surf Siders) joined in 1967 following Dave ‘Biffo Beech’s departure. I asked Tony Campbell to tell me how Jigsaw had come about. “The Mighty Avengers had become disenchanted . . . with the business. The last straw was when our van had been wrecked outside Biffo’s house. . . . [W]e all decided to go back to a daytime job. I was a big fan of Cliff Bennet, and decided to start a six-piece band, just to have some fun, with no serious intent. I wanted people that I knew would get along well even though none of us were particularly good musicians. I knew that being couped up in dressing rooms and in vans was always bound to bring out the worst (and best) in people. I was living with Kevin . . . and his family at the time, and he had decided to learn saxophone to pair up with Tony Britnel whom I had known for a long time. . . . Biffo got a bit upset when I said that I was going to start a new band, and hadn’t included him. This was my fault, since I thought that he wasn’t interested. We then actually had three members of the Avengers in the original Jigsaw. Clive Scott had approached the Avengers with his song writing abilities, but we realised he was a good keyboard man and sang as well. I only needed a bass player to get operational. I spent three weeks trying to find Barrie Bernard. I had known him well for a number of years and we had talked about working together one day (usually when playing cards all night at his digs in Cromwell Road). I eventually found him . . . . His first words to me that night were “Tone, I need a job”. My reply was “You’ve got one”. . . . It would take some 2 years before they released their debut single “One Way Street”. Their vocal harmonies and imaginative lyrics saw them release classic song after classic song, none unfortunately heading chartwards. . . . Just to compound things in 1974 the band’s writing machine Scott & Dyer were to have a massive hit on their hands, but ironically it wasn’t for Jigsaw. The song was “Who Do You Think You Are”, an infectious slice of commercial pop that gave the band Candlewick Green a number 21 hit . . . in the UK and Europe . . . . On top of that Claude Francoise charted with the song in France and in America Bo Donaldson got it number 12. Their own chart success was to continue to elude them. However when the guys joined Splash Records (their sixth label), the final piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Their big break came when an Australian film company was looking for a theme tune for the movie Man From Hong Kong. David Essex and The Four Tops were approached, but turned it down due to their work commitments. Jigsaw took it on despite the fact that they had just completed an album, and only had three days to come up with something brand new. The song was handed over with little enthusiasm on the part of the writers Des Dyer and Clive Scott. Imagine their surprise when they suddenly found they had an Australian number one on their hands! The song of course was the quite brilliant “Sky High”, a tune that no one could escape from in 1975. It seemed to crop up everywhere (it also cropped up at number 9 in the UK singles charts and at an amazing number 3 in the good old US of A). . . . They began a lengthy world tour . . . . In 1976 “Sky High” also became a Japanese number one, it would stay in the Nippon charts for an incredible two years thanks to a major Sumo wrestler using it as his entrance music. Their Japanese tour was reminiscent of Beatlemania, with the guys being mobbed every night. . . . The UK follow up single was “If I Have To Go Away”, good but not in the same league as “Sky High”, it did however make a dent in the UK charts at 36. While it’s US counterpart “Love Fire” made 30 in the Billboard charts. By 1978 it was all over bar the shouting.

https://web.archive.org/web/20210629232526/http://www.covmm.co.uk/2016/2020/07/07/jigsaw/

Timothy Monger notes that they were a “dynamic rock act with a penchant for wild stage antics (fire-eating, exploding amps, burning drum kits”. (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jigsaw-mn0001032454#biography) As to the antics, Pete Clemons writes that:

Comedy and presentation [were] the group’s strong points. Their act had to be seen to be believed, always relying on the unexpected. Fire eating, flame throwing, smoke bombs, interspersed with genuinely funny and skillful comic songs and characterisations. Fred Crun, the folk singer who wrote all of Bob Dylan’s songs, and that well known cleric, the Rev. Ian Parsley, were each liable to put in an appearance, and it’s not unusual for the audience to witness a concert performance consisting of lead guitar, bass and rhythm balloons. Des Dyer said that all the comedy routines and effects go down a storm, especially with the university and cabaret audiences, but added that they have to be careful when they’re throwing flames around.

https://coventrygigs.blogspot.com/2021/05/jigsaw-1969.html

Oh, and “[p]rior to forming the band in 1966 Scott and Dyer had been successful songwriters (for Engelbert Humperdinck among others)”. (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)

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The Act — “Cobbled Streets”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 10, 2025

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

1,456) The Act — “Cobbled Streets”

Watch out, today there is an Invasion of the Easybeat Snatchers! This “[b]loody brilliant” song (notmarkatall, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No_nOJwZ2wQ), a “triumph . . . a psych-infused pop nugget” (liner notes to the CD comps Piccadilly Sunshine: Volumes 1-10: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era), just must have been an Easybeat classic. But it wasn’t, just the first of three A-sides by a band out of Essex.

Robin Wills writes:

Here is a surprising case of a band trying to emulate the genius of 66/67 Easybeats [see #201, 1,310, 1,359, 1,415]. OK Friday on My Mind was a huge hit, but here Essex band The Act delved deeper reprising elements from “Happy is The Man” [see #1,359], “Made My Bed”, “Remember Sam” or other lesser known Easybeats gems. It’s a very enjoyable affair and a fun near-facsimile which assembles the parts that make up the essence, although not quite the genius of Vanda, Young and co.

https://purepop1uk.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-act-cobbled-streets.html

The Act was “[a]n Essex-based beat group who were signed to Columbia for whom they recorded three 45s. None of them made much impression and they split in 1968 after being dropped by the label.” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)

Piccadilly Sunshine explains further that:

“Cobbled Streets” [was] written by Brian Trusler who later turned up in Force West, a Bristol band that would eventually become better known as the Oscar Bicycle . . . and then Glam rockers, Shakane. . . .

The group w[as] heading out under the supervision of singer/song-writer and EMI label-mate, Kenny Lynch (Small Faces, The Game) who would now co-write their remaining [two A]-sides leaving them to compose their own gestures as b-sides. Even with two relative flops behind them, Lynch persuaded those at head office to invest further in his protegees and managed to secure a third release. . . . but it quickly disappeared . . . .

liner notes to the CD comps Piccadilly Sunshine: Volumes 1-10: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era and Piccadilly Sunshine: Volumes 11-20: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era

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Frank Sinatra — “The Train”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 9, 2025

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

1,455) Frank Sinatra — “The Train”

Frank Sinatra gave us a haunting song, but with “a ‘Mrs. Robinson’ jaunt” to it (Sam Sodomsky, https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/frank-sinatra-watertown/), written by the guys responsible for the Four Seasons’ psychedelic LP The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette (see yesterday’s song!), band member and songwriter Bob Gaudio and Jake Holmes, who wrote “Dazed and Confused” (yes, that “Dazed and Confused”!). “The Train” comes from Watertown, “a stunning, incredible piece of work” (The CoolVault, https://www.discogs.com/master/157249-Frank-Sinatra-Watertown?srsltid=AfmBOooK6kBTYhJrIoUMXNbdIA8eQlkHlA3XnOOtAJWaEJkC-quzma9R), “one of Sinatra’s least commercially successful LPs in the USA, [that] proved to be one of [his] greatest artistic triumphs” (Charles Waring, https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/frank-sinatras-greatest-unknown-album/), “garnering a cult who will tell you that this, the Sinatra record least like a Sinatra record, ranks among his masterpieces”. (Damien Love, https://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/frank-sinatra-watertown-138909/) Yes, 1970 was a strange year.

The CoolVault tells us that:

[Watertown is] a concept album . . . . Don’t listen to folks who say it’s dour, it’s about a housewife leaving, not just her husband, but her young children also. So, it’s sad, how can it not be, a family breaking up is always sad. It’s full of realism, joy, hope, and most of all humble, not spiteful humanity. . . . Watertown is an incredible piece of work . . . heartbreaking, and [has songs] as good as anything on Frank’s critically acclaimed cry in your beer . . . masterpiece concept records like All Alone, She Shot Me Down, Close To You, and In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning etc. The rest of the record is just so reflective and contemplat[ive], with painful regret as the main emotion, but it’s offset with Dad’s absolute love of seeing his children grow up. If you can listen to this, and not reach for the tissues, you are made of sterner stuff, than me, my friend.

https://www.discogs.com/master/157249-Frank-Sinatra-Watertown?srsltid=AfmBOooK6kBTYhJrIoUMXNbdIA8eQlkHlA3XnOOtAJWaEJkC-quzma9R

The official website says:

The legacy of Frank Sinatra . . . includes a studio album no one anticipated: Watertown. Recorded in 1969 and released in 1970, the concept of Watertown unfolds as a personal tragedy about a working man with children whose wife suddenly leaves him. Sinatra’s performance elicits sadness, defeat and forlornness. Ultimately, as Sinatra so wonderfully expresses, it’s also a story about one man’s resilience. . . . Now appreciated as a masterpiece of drama and heartbreak. . . . Upon Watertown’s release, fans and critics alike simply weren’t prepared for such a radical stylistic departure from Sinatra. But . . . . in the decades since the album has had a re-evaluation and, in 2007, The Guardian declared Watertown “one of [Sinatra’s] greatest masterpieces” and in 2015, The Observer noted that “it made some sense that Sinatra would attempt a story-driven concept album, considering he had helped pioneer the thematic concept LP in the 1950s. But on Watertown, Sinatra did something truly risky: he told an entire album-length story from the point of view of [a] character that is most definitely not Frank Sinatra.” Gaudio’s essay explains that Sinatra, with a level of empathy only he could achieve, was “reaching down into a man’s soul and feeling his pain and still finding hope.”

https://www.sinatra.com/frank-sinatra-concept-album-watertown-newly-mixed-and-remastered-from-original-session-tapes-set-for-release-on-june-3/

Damien Love goes deep:

Watertown, a suite of 10 tracks all exploring [a] sense of overwhelming, mundane, private grief, which Frank Sinatra . . . almost never recovered from. The worst-selling album of his career, its disastrous commercial failure played a part in his (short-lived) decision to retire the following year. When he went back to work, Watertown was barely mentioned again. . . . It began when Sinatra became friends with Four Seasons singer Frankie Valli in the late ’60s. Sinatra was in a restless, uncertain place, casting around for material he could connect with. 1969 produced one of his biggest hits, “My Way”, yet it was a song he quickly grew to loathe, and otherwise sales were sliding. Sinatra was searching for something. Valli, a devoted fan, persuaded him that writer-producer Gaudio could write it. At that point, Gaudio had moved far from “Big Girls Don’t Cry”. Inspired by hearing Jake Holmes . . . Gaudio collaborated with him in 1969 on The Four Seasons’ own post-Sgt Pepper psych-pop concept opus, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. When the chance of writing for Sinatra presented itself, they set out to craft something similarly ambitious, but in his image. . . . Gaudio and Holmes built him a concept album in the contemporary sense – a song cycle forming a specific narrative – which drew on Sinatra’s legacy while tailoring it to the era. The record’s narrator is a lonely man in the vulnerable tradition of Sinatra’s 1950s classics, but far removed from their sophisticated urban milieu. He’s a smalltown working guy, and his story is as simple as he is: his wife left. She had ambitions that outgrew him and their backwater town. She had an affair. Now she’s gone, moved to the big city, chasing some modern something he can’t comprehend. Meanwhile, he’s
left there, frozen in grief, trying to raise their children. . . . . [Sinatra brings] depth and complexity of emotion . . . to his masterfully understated vocals, the ageing voice cracking beautifully along the edges. For the first time, rather than record live with the orchestra, Sinatra chose to overdub afterwards, but it was no case of phoning it in. He attended the band’s recording sessions, and sang scratch vocals in the room, but decided to hold back final takes until he had lived with these new songs longer alone, got to know them. Gaudio and arranger Charles Callelo frame him in a lush pop palette that leaves Watertown both lyrically and sonically distant from the popular notion of “a Frank Sinatra record”. It met with bafflement from Sinatra’s traditional audience . . . . Inhabiting the songs, he produces one of his great acting jobs. Live with the record a while, and you feel the tidal forces of pain . . . trembling everywhere just beneath the very simple surface. . . . Sinatra holds it all back with the most delicate restraint. Still, in Watertown, he’s drowning.

https://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/frank-sinatra-watertown-138909/

Charles Waring tells us of Gaudio’s recollections:

Gaudio remembered being asked by Sinatra to “come up with something unusual, something different; a concept album” and after giving it some thought, he reconvened with Holmes to begin work on what became Watertown. Sinatra certainly got something different. “Jake and I tried to picture some place he hadn’t been musically or lyrically. That, for us, was the story of someone whose wife left him, and he was bringing up the kids in a small town,” he explained in the liner notes to the 2022 edition of the album. . . . Gaudio and Holmes wrote eleven songs and then submitted a demo of one of them to Irving “Sarge” Weiss, Sinatra’s music director, who took it to his boss. A week later, Weiss had a message for the two songwriters from Sinatra: “He wants to do all of them.” “I think he fell in love with the concept, the love story,” Gaudio has said, explaining Sinatra’s enthusiasm for the project, which they began recording in July 1969. . . . Gaudio explained that “overdubbing gave him the luxury of not worrying about how in charge he would be with unfamiliar songs and knowing the songs inside-out as he did with standards.” Sinatra’s vulnerable tone is perfect for expressing his character’s sense of quiet despondency as the world he knew and trusted falls apart. . . . Though Watertown focused on the failure of a marriage, its overriding message wasn’t about defeat; rather, it highlighted the value of stoicism and surviving the obstacles to happiness that life throws at people.

https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/frank-sinatras-greatest-unknown-album/

Here’s the 2022 remix from the CD reissue of Watertown:

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The Four Seasons — “Wall Street Village Day”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 8, 2025

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

1,454) The Four Seasons — “Wall Street Village Day”

The Four Seasons’ “foray into sgt pepperland is a real beaut” (checklissteric, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOqO5d9j1PA), “a personal favorite of [Frankie] Valli’s, [who] call[ed] it ‘an incredible song'”, “a buoyant slice-of-life, highlighting the cultural differences between New York’s Greenwich Village and Wall Street neighborhoods and how the close-cropped hair and gray suited latter may be a little jealous of the guitar-wielding, paisley-wearing former”. (Brian Erickson, https://www.youdontknowjersey.com/2016/12/the-great-nj-albums-genuine-imitation-life-gazette-the-four-seasons/)”Village Day” is from the “wildly ambitious opus” that is “the most bizarre album in the Four Seasons’ catalog” and “a stunning example of the artistry of the Four Seasons at their most ambitious”. (Donald A. Guarisco, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-genuine-imitation-life-gazette-mw0000652435)

Richard Metzger writes that:

Most people would probably be surprised to find that Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons recorded a musically ambitious concept album in 1969 that was inspired by Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s. . . . [N]o one expected an album of bold social commentary, complex vocal arrangements, long songs and quirky Van Dyke Parks-esque musical arrangements, but this is exactly what they got when the group released The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. . . . [It] was released in a fold-out cover with an extra inner page, containing an eight page ‘‘newspaper’’ insert. [Four Seasons’ keyboardist and songwriter] Bob Gaudio co-wrote the album’s songs with Jake Holmes (who actually composed “Dazed and Confused” not Jimmy Page, and the “Be A Pepper” jingle for the Dr. Pepper soft drink with Randy Newman). In the mid-70s, Gaudio was told by none other than John Lennon that [it] was one of this favorite albums . . . . Gaudio later said of the album: “One of the disappointments of our career for me on a creative level was The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette album. It was just something that I had to do at that time. It got wonderful reviews, but obviously it was not an acceptable piece from us. Everybody was expecting Top 40.” . . . Still, it wasn’t a total flop, selling over 150,000 albums, but by Four Seasons standards it was a disaster, making it to just #85 in the charts. . . . It certainly deserves to stand alongside of something like The Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle as a somewhat lesser-known example of this brand of lush, elaborately orchestrated vocal psych pop. Brian Wilson wasn’t the only one capable of making music in this style. . . . After this record, the creative partnership of Bob Gaudio and Jake Holmes went on to another brilliant—and similarly ill-fated—project, Frank Sinatra’s haunting 1970 Watertown.

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_genuine_imitation_life_gazette_the_4_seasons_unheralded_mini-masterpiec

In fact, Brian Erickson relates that:

[A]nother New Jersey-born artist – one of the most popular of all-time – whose own career was on the wane heard the album and took a shine to it. So much so that he hired the writing team of Gaudio and Holmes to spin their conceptual magic into a new LP. It would be called Watertown and the artist was Hoboken’s own Francis. Albert. Sinatra.

https://www.youdontknowjersey.com/2016/12/the-great-nj-albums-genuine-imitation-life-gazette-the-four-seasons/

Holy Sh*t!

Donald A. Guarisco adds:

With the help of young songwriter Jake Holmes, the straightest of pop groups went psychedelic to create a concept album that casts a satirical eye on American life. The end result is often excessive both lyrically and sonically, but it’s also relentlessly inventive, skillfully constructed, and never dull. Genuine Imitation Life Gazette never feels like a cheap cash-in because the group chases its cosmic muse without any worry of pandering to commercial concerns. . . . [including] multi-minute epics that abandon tight pop song structure in favor of symphonic structures spiked with all manner of psychedelic sonic trickery and elliptical, satirical lyrics . . . . The best of these epics is “Genuine Imitation Life,” a critique of artificial pleasures in modern life set to a psychedelicized lounge backing that remains surprisingly sharp by modern standards. These moments are interspersed with shorter songs that combine sharp lyrics with lysergic but catchy melodies . . . . Despite all these musical flights of fancy, Genuine Imitation Life Gazette retains a stylistic consistency throughout thanks to the group’s stellar vocals. Valli delivers some of his finest leads . . . and the rest of the group provides lush, flawless harmonies that match the varying moods of each song.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-genuine-imitation-life-gazette-mw0000652435

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Del Shannon — “Gemini”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 7, 2025

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

1,453) Del Shannon — “Gemini”

Del Shannon runs away to psychedelia, gracing us with this “real treat . . . [a b]rilliant song” (Baggingarea, https://baggingarea.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/del-shannon-gemini/) that
“sounds like that imaginary chart hit in a parallel universe” (Brushbox, https://itstartswithabirthstone.blogspot.com/2016/02/album-reviews-55-del-shannon-further.html, “[a] fantastic 45 from a fantastically gifted singer-songwriter who found a way to reinvent himself on this, his first odyssey into psychedelia.” (The Rhythm Circuit, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8mk0e2HVls) “It’s the best thing Del ever did. So many moods, textures, possible avenues of sound. Proud owner of an original mono and I’ll guard it with my life! Wonderful!” (losgrindos, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuWIjwsnBhg) Oh, and “[s]omeone must have spiked his water supply.” (The Rhythm Circuit, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8mk0e2HVls) Indeed!

Brian Young tells us of the LP — The Further Adventures of Charles Westover (Shannon’s birth name):

In light of what was happening in popular culture, Shannon was encouraged and pushed into doing a psychedelic album. He was encouraged to write the songs this time, and The Further Adventures of Charles Westover began taking shape. . . . December 5, 1967 Shannon returned to Liberty Studio to finish off 7 more tracks necessary for completing the . . . album. . . . Shannon brought “I Think I Love You” and “Gemini” to the table . . . . “Gemini”/ “Magical Musical Box” w[as one of] the only two singles from the album. Neither charted, but both became instant cult favorites.

https://delshannon.com/

Donald A. Guarisco adds:

This lesser-known cult favorite is not only one of the most musically ambitious outings of Del Shannon’s career, but also one of his most all-around consistent albums. [It] finds Shannon embracing psychedelia in a personalized way: Instead of imitating the whimsy of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, or the creepy freak-outs of Their Satanic Majesties Request, he uses the cinematic quality of psychedelic pop to provide a vivid backdrop for his songwriting. . . . Shannon’s work on this album also differs from usual psychedelic fare because it mixes some earthier textures into its sonic brew . . . . The overall effect is stunning, managing to fit the tag of psychedelic pop but still retaining the haunting, emotional kind of songwriting that distinguished Del Shannon’s music.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-further-adventures-of-charles-westover-mw0000468155

Into the Mild give some needed context:

[A case study in] Baby Boomer icons jettisoning their squeaky clean images in order to get more traction with the burgeoning counter culture . . . [is] Del Shannon and his mid-to-late sixties recording sessions. In 1966 Del had gotten out of a dicey record contract and was free to continue chasing the dragon of his 1961 smash single “Runaway.” He eventually signed with album oriented label Liberty Records. From 1966 to 1967 Liberty paired him up with various production teams to help him climb his way back the single charts. Leon Russell and Tommy Garrett had first crack at him, before he was paired with in-house producer Dallas Smith. These intermittent sessions were the usual mix of covers and originals, and ultimately made up the two 1966 albums This Is My Bag and Total Commitment. Neither album made a significant dent in the charts. By the Fall of 1966, a dejected Shannon was able to arrange a recording session with Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, the hit-making team behind The Monkees. They recorded three songs: “She,” “Stand Up,” and “The House Where Nobody Lives.” “She,” got moderate airplay before being squelched by The Monkees’ version that was released soon after. . . . 1967 saw Shannon recording an unreleased full length album with famed Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham called Home and Away. When that album was shelved, Shannon turned his attention to the trends of the time and by the Fall was putting the finishing touches on his “Psychedelic” leaning album The Further Adventures of Charles Westover. . . . comprised entirely of original songs written or co-written by Shannon. Though relatively overlooked at the time, [it] became a minor cult classic . . . .

https://intothemild.com/2015/07/09/del-shannon-house/

Richie Unterberger tells us of Del Shannon:

One of the best and most original rockers of the early ’60s . . . . Although classified at times as a teen idol, he favored brooding themes of abandonment, loss, and rejection. In some respects he looked forward to the British Invasion with his frequent use of minor chords and his ability to write most of his own material. In fact, after hitting number one with “Runaway” in 1961, Shannon continued to chart for a year or two into the British Invasion . . . . Born Charles Westover, Shannon happened upon a gripping series of minor chords while playing with his band in Battle Creek, Michigan. . . . form[ing] the basis for his . . . debut single, “Runaway,” one of the greatest hits of the early ’60s, with its unforgettable riffs, Shannon’s amazing vocal range (which often glided off into a powerful falsetto), and the creepy, futuristic organ solo in the middle. It made number one, and the similar follow-up, “Hats Off to Larry,” made the Top Five. Shannon had intermittent minor hits over the next couple of years (“Little Town Flirt” was the biggest), but was even more successful in England. . . . Del got into the Top Ten with a late 1964 single, “Keep Searchin’,” that was one of his best and hardest-rocking outings. But after the similar “Stranger in Town” (number 30, 1965), he wouldn’t enter the Top 40 again for nearly a couple of decades. A switch to a bigger label (Liberty) didn’t bring the expected commercial results, although he was continuing to release quality singles. A brief association with producer Andrew Loog Oldham . . . found him continuing to evolve, developing a more Baroque, orchestrated pop/rock sound . . . . Much to Shannon’s frustration, Liberty decided not to release the album that resulted from the collaboration . . . . By the late ’60s, Shannon was devoting much of his energy to producing other artists, most notably Smith and Brian Hyland.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/del-shannon-mn0000194018#biography

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The Staple Singers — “I See It”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 6, 2025

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

1,452) The Staple Singers — “I See It”

“I see it . . . America can be . . . a land where man is equal and free” This inspiring ‘69 A-side by the Staple Singers (see #680) is “intense” and “non-chalantly struttin'”, “cleverly incorporat[ing] bits and pieces of the ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ melody” with “Mavis [Staples] really letting it all out”. (Soulmakossa, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-staple-singers/soul-folk-in-action/) From Soul Folk in Action, the group’s Stax debut, [which] wasn’t a commercial success, but . . . is a Southern Soul must-own nonetheless.” (Soulmakossa, again) At Stax, the Staple Singers “set out to share with a far larger audience the very lesson they’d been preaching for almost a decade: A better world is waiting, but it takes something more powerful than just you or me to get there.” (David Cantwell, https://www.nodepression.com/mavis-staples-soul-folk-in-action/)

Bob Gottlieb writes about Soul Folk:

This is one you are probably going to have to search out, but this gem is worth all the effort. First, take the stunning voices of the Staple Singers, with the closely blending harmonies that can only come from the years of a family singing together. Put in the crack vibrato guitar of Pops (he was a blues player early on), add in a top-notch rhythm section that play as close as it gets, and throw in the Memphis Horns. Then add some material that was just about custom-tailored for them, mixed and mastered by Steve Cropper, and you have the makings of a fantastic disc. . . . The only disappointment might come from the brevity of the disc; you just want it to continue. The power and majesty that these voices carry comes as close to heaven as can be felt here on earth. They are truly performers who give their all.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/soul-folk-in-action-mw0000677736

Thomas Fine tells us of the album and the Staple Singers:

The Staple Singers came to Stax Records at a pivotal time in history . . . and wasted no time to create an outstanding album that is as timeless as its message remains timely. Soul Folk in Action, recorded over four days in September 1968, was not a major chart success. But it established a forward momentum for the Staples family on Stax . . . . The Staple Singers of 1968 were Roebuck “Pops” Staples and his children Mavis, Cleotha and Pervis. Pops played guitar and sang high tenor. Mavis, with a deep and soulful, self-assured voice that sounded beyond her young age, sang most lead vocals. Her sister Cleotha and brother Pervis sang background harmonies. The family band had been a working unit since the mid-1950s, scoring a gospel hit on Vee-Jay Records with “Uncloudy Day” in 1956. They had evolved into a folk-gospel style on Epic Records . . . . Pops Staples . . . . was a working blues musician by age 16, but he embraced and led a more spiritual and church-centric life than many of his peers. He married at age 18 and became a father the next year . . . . The family musical group began with Pops playing guitar and teaching his children to sing. Their first performances were at church services, with Mavis’ distinctive deep voice and Pops expert bluesy guitar playing distinguishing them from other gospel groups. . . . The success of [the gospel hit] “Uncloudy Day” [in ‘56] gave the group enough regional momentum to land at Epic Records. By the mid-60s, the Staples family was close to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement, and had recorded numerous “message” songs during their time at Epic . . . . Since their Vee-Jay days, the group had been on the radar of Al Bell . . . . [who i]n 1968 . . . had risen to the role of executive VP at Stax Records . . . . Stax was at a crossroads. Its biggest star, Otis Redding, died in a plane crash the prior December. Its distributor, Atlantic Records, cut ties and, in a disputed series of events, ended up owning the master tapes and rights to all Stax recordings that Atlantic had distributed. The little label in Soulsville was without its brightest star and most of its prior corporate assets. Then, on April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated . . . . Stax was connected to King through Bell’s friendship with the civil rights crusader, and various artists’ participation in the movement. . . . Bell signed the Staple Singers in July, 1968, weeks after Epic dropped their contract due to disappointing sales. The group was assigned to guitarist/producer Steve Cropper, himself famous as a member of Booker T. & the MG’s and songwriter and session player on numerous Stax hits. In sessions held September 5, 6, 10 and 12, the 11 songs of “Soul Folk in Action” were waxed. Cropper and Pops Staples played guitar, MGs Donald “Duck” Dunn and Al Jackson Jr. manned the bass and drums, Marvell Thomas handled keyboards and the Memphis Horns (Wayne Jackson, Andrew Love and Joe Arnold) added some spice. . . . “Long Walk to D.C.” . . . was immediately released. . . . [but] failed to chart. A follow-up . . . “The Ghetto” . . . was released in December, also failing to gain traction. [M]iddling commercial success [greeted] Soul Folk in Action . . . . The Staple Singers would have to wait for their shining moment on the label, but they were a key part of the mosaic that allowed the label to survive and then thrive. By the time the Staple Singers left Stax in 1974 after a heated exchange between Pops and Al Bell, they were bona fide soul music stars.

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/staple-singers-soul-folk-in-action.pdf

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The Kinks — “Big Black Smoke”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — January 5, 2025

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

1,451) The Kinks — “Big Black Smoke”

Kinks Kronikles

The B-side to the Kinks’ (see #100, 381, 417, 450, 508, 529, 606, 623, 753, 865, 978, 1,043, 1,108, 1,302, 1,330) #5 UK hit “Dead End Street” is “[a] two-minute study in character, Dickens updated to British Beat”/“my favorite Kinks song”(Marianne Spellman, https://www.popthomology.com/2010/04/kinks-kharacters-big-black-smoke.html), with a “Dickensian vibe . . . killer melody [and] master craftsman lyrics”. (Alanrowland6971, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyFAqXBAFSw)

Marianne Spellman gives a spellbinding account of the song:

I’ve thought about this girl all my life. Some characters live in your head like that. For me, the runaway dollybird . . . still wanders the mod, pop-mad streets of mid-‘60s London, sometimes dozing, exhausted and pilled-out, in the back booth of a dark café, all stick-thin limbs, long shiny blonde hair, kohl-rimmed eyes with false eyelashes askew. Her cheap plastic boots are pulling apart at the soles, her coat dirty from the bus and the Tube and clubs and curbs. She might look 20 or 12, depending on the light, her skin still perfect and pale. She clutches her purse to her stomach unconsciously like some kind of shield, as her doe-eyes hazily blink over and across the crowds of the city, and no one looks back to her. She smokes her cigarettes nervously, in a mannered way, trying to look like she’s been a sophisticated city girl all her life, but chatters too much, gives too much away in the provincial accent that is always revealed. When I was a little girl, I worried with her Ma and Pa, and hoped that they would find her and bring her home safely. When I was a teenager, I understand why she left her little town and wanted to follow her on the train and never look back. When I was an adult, I was able to see both the compassion and contempt for her in Ray Davies lyrics. She was kind of girl he would see flocking to London at that time hoping to get in on the Youthquake, and more often ending up briefly admired then thrown away like pretty tissue paper in a box, lining a present you didn’t really want in the first place. She would end up on a train back home, humbled, or get a job sweeping up at a pub or she might get pregnant or with great luck get work in a shop and share a flat with other girls like her. What was sure, in Ray Davies’ keen observation, is that she would not come out of it the same as she was, and her parents would have to take off their blinders to what she was to begin with. The sound of the song, low-fi, booming descending bass line cleverly bringing the listener down down down with our dollybird, the church bells clanging for redemption of her country girl soul…so so smart. It chugs along like a jittery dirty train, with the plaintive pseudo-Slavic-folky vocals over the top, almost sarcastic harmonies far beneath. As the song ends, you hear Dave Davies’ scratchy high voice calling out over and over “Oyez,” the traditional call to order in a court of law.* It adds a deliciously dark and ominous ending to the song, and we wonder…what happened to her. I’m still wondering, and I can still see her in my mind, still walking the rainy dark streets, alone, foolish, and beautiful.

https://www.popthomology.com/2010/04/kinks-kharacters-big-black-smoke.html

Mike’s perspective is:

“Big Black Smoke” sets the scene as some small village naif breaks away from her provincial world only to find degradation in the industrial scum of some unnamed British metropolis. She fritters away her money on drugs and some scamming boy named Joe, the songs fades with clanging church bells and Dave Davies wailing “aw-kay”, and the poor girl’s fate swirls indeterminant into oblivion. Yeesh. . . . the song[ is] phenomenally good fun. Especially if you think girls are dumb.

https://rockoclock.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/big-black-smoke-polly/

* Carspiv says that:

It’s what “town criers” used to shout when they were attempting to make an announcement while walking through the streets WELL before any form of mass electronic communication. Along with the cascading church bells, it was probably an attempt to capture what it sounded like in the streets of London, the “Big Black Smoke” of the song title.

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

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