[“Reality” is] a classic psychedelic-punker in every sense of the word. Al Hunt gets this unique sound from his guitar with the aid of an echoplex (kinda like little space ships shooting through your head). . . . Chris Gerniottis belts out some great cosmic lyrics, the kind that you don’t know what they’re about, but they sound incredibly deep anyway. The song ends with the echoplex soaring right into space, a truly inspired performance.
With a few breaks, the Liberty Bell might have been Americaâs Yardbirds â as it worked out, however, the group suffered the undeserved fate of being a footnote in the history of Corpus Christi rock bands. . . .â[O]riginally named the Zulus[, they] played a mix of blues-rock drifting toward psychedelia, driven by some fairly ambitious guitar work by lead axeman Al Hunt.âIn 1967, they hooked up with Carl Becker, the co-owner of J-Beck Records, which, at the time, was recording the hottest local band, the Zachary Thaks.âBecker signed them to his new Cee-Bee Records, and suggested a name change to the Liberty Bell. . . .âThe groupâs . . . first single [was] a cover of the Yardbirdsâ âNazz Are Blueâ backed with a cover of Willie Dixonâs âBig Boss Man,â included Ronnie Tanner on lead vocals, Al Hunt on lead guitar, Richard Painter on rhythm guitar, and Wayne Harrison on bass.âThis record did well enough locally to justify further recording, and these sessions yielded the best songs of the groupâs entire history, âSomething for Me,â âFor What You Lack,â âI Can See [see #1,090],â and âThatâs How It Will Be.ââFast-tempo, fuzz-drenched pieces with catchy hooks, these numbers made the group sound like an American version of the Yardbirds with more of an angry punk edge, courtesy of . . . Tanner.âBut the real star of the group was . . . Hunt, who wrote most of the material in those days and played like Jeff Beck on a good day. . . .âTanner exited the group in early 1968 and was replaced by Chris Gemiottis, formerly of the Zakary Thaks . . . .
After graduating from Ingleside High School across the bay from Corpus Christi, Texas in 1966, I was a member of the rock band âThe Acousticsâ and we got the opportunity to play . . . . in the âBigâ city where such local bands as âThe Pozo Seco Singersâ [see #34], âThe Bad Seedsâ, and a new group, âThe Zachary Thaksâ were playing and getting radio air play on the top radio station KEYS. . . . [A]fterward . . . Carl Becker introduced himself to me and asked if I would be willing to come and audition for a band he was going to sign to his âCEE BEEâ record label.âThey were called âThe Zuluâsâ.âI was asked to meet the band . . . and the audition went well.âI was asked to join the group as lead singer and soon the bandâs name was changed to âTHE LIBERTY BELLâ.âThings moved quite quickly after that.âRecording sessions in McAllen, TX, band photos, songs to write and covers to learn, and lots of appearances.âIt seems like just yesterday when the rhythm guitarist Richard Painter and I were driving around town and heard our first release, âThe Nazz Are Blueâ, come on the radio. . . .âWe were all so happy and worked so hard and dreamed of what would be next. . . .â[W]e began to branch out to other Texas cities and enjoyed a year of incredible fun and soon other stations were picking up the record. . . .â[I]n early 1968, we were being pitched to a major record label in Houston named Back Beat Records.â[But] I was of draft age [and got drafted].âChris Gerniotis, of the Zachary Thaks, was named as my replacement. . . . I remember returning home on leave from Basic training and seeing the band with Chris and I was incredibly proud having been a part of such a great band and great friends. . . .âCorpus Christi, Texas was a very cool place to be in 1967 and 1968!
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,389)Rockinâ Horse — âJulian the Hooliganâ
I dedicate this endearingly rowdy ’71 album track (from Rockin’ Horse’s Yes It Is) and A-side to all the parents out there with mischievous sons named Julian. It is a “slightlydelic, hard rocking John [Lennonish]” number”. (Garwood Pickjon, https://popdiggers.com/rockin-horse-yes-it-is/) Oh that reminds me, let me exclude Yoko Ono!
Billy Kinsley, the song’s writer and Rockin’ Horse (see #738) co-founder (along with Jimmy Campbell) recalls:
My wife Sandra and I were on holiday in Portugal in June, 1971 and we met another couple there who had a toddler the same age as our little girl, Sarah. They kept calling out to their little boy, “Julian youâre a hooligan.” I thought, hey, thatâs a great line. I wrote the lyrics right there and then.
Rockinâ Horse was formed by Kinsley and the great Jimmy Campbell (see #22, 648, 736, 737, 996, 1,096). Bruce Eder says that â[t]he goal of Rockinâ Horse was to revive the classic Liverpool sound â in that regard, Yes It Is is a phenomenal albumâ (https://www.allmusic.com/album/yes-it-is-mw0000549559) Yes it is!
I’ve written often about Jimmy Campbell. Matty Loughlin-Day aptly states that:
[He is a] songwriter who, for this writerâs money, could go toe-to-toe with any of the more celebrated prodigies from the region, yet whoâs name is frequently met with blank faces or a shrug of the shoulders. A writer who, in a sane universe, would be esteemed alongside . . . yes, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Jimmy Campbell is arguably the archetypal lost son of Liverpool. A talent that was never quite reciprocated by the buying public and the victim of some cruel twists of fate, his is a name that is for one reason or another, never quite mentioned when discussing the plethora of musical talent that the city has produced.
But, as “Julian” was written by Billy Kinsley, let me focus on him today. Bruce Eder writes:
Billy Kinsley was the co-founder and bassist/singer with the Merseybeats (see #725). Born in Liverpool . . . he was attracted to rock & roll before he was in his teens, and got an almost premature start in the field when he and his longtime friend singer/guitarist Tony Crane formed the Mavericks. later rechristened the Pacifics, then the Mersey Beats, and finally the Merseybeats. At age 16, he was already living every young English rock & roller’s dream, playing backup to Little Richard as a member of the group, at a show in New Brighton, and between his and Craneâs singing and playing, the band was fluent in a range of styles, from serious R&B shouters to lyrical, harmony-based numbers. At the end of 1963, with one single already charted in England and a second one — “I Think of You” — about to break . . . into the U.K. Top Five. . . Kinsley decided to leave the group, owing to his impending marriage and his desire to stay closer to Liverpool. In the waning days of the year, while playing in Germany, Crane, Kinsley, and their manager approached Johnny Gustafson, bassist and singer, late of Liverpool’s Big Three trio, at a Frankfurt club called the Arcadia and offered him Kinsley’s spot. He was able to accept as soon as he returned from Frankfurt . . . . Crane and Gustafson formed a songwriting team, while Kinsley retreated to Liverpool. He didn’t abandon music, however — he kept his hand in performing locally with a group called the Kinsleys . . . . [B]y December of 1964, Billy Kinsley had returned to the fold, replacing Guatafson who was fired — if Pete Frameâs account is to be believed — for inquiring about the division of earnings within the group. . . . Kinsley’s return helped sustain the Merseybeats across an ensuing 18 months of declining fortunes, at the end of which he and Crane reshaped their sound and image entirely. Abandoning their instruments, they became the Merseyâs and, with Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp (who already managed the Who) managing their business and creative affairs, they enjoyed an immense hit with “Sorrow[.]” They failed to score with their rendition of Pete Townshend’s “So Sad About Us,” however, and several hoped-for creative hookups with the Beatles and their Apple label failed to materialize, and by late 1968 . . . had called it quits. At this point, Kinsley became a session musician, and played with Paul McCartney as well as playing on recording sessions for . . . Jimmy Campbellâs first two albums. Together, Kinsley and Campbell organized Rockinâ Horse . . . . [T]he two later played as part of the backing band for Chuck Berryon his 1972 tour of England. After cutting a pair of singles, “Annabella” and “You Make My Day,” for Epic Records, Kinsley revived Rockinâ Horse in 1975 . . . . They were signed to British Warner Bros. but before the ink was dry, they’d changed their name to Liverpool Express. They released an unsuccessful debut single, but they saw success in 1976 with “You Are My Love,” which just missed the British Top Ten but got them onto Top of the Pops four times during its nine-week chart run. Their next two singles, “Hold Tight” and “Every Man Must Have a Dream,” charted more modestly . . . . Two LPs, Tracks and Dreamin’, were also released in 1976 and 1977, respectively, and the group scored three consecutive South American hits in 1977. Liverpool Express continued right into the 1980s, their credits including a string of chart singles around the world . . . .
After the breakup of  Rockin’ Horse in 1972, Billy Kinsley spent a couple of years making his money recording soundalikes for the Top Of The Pops budget compilation albums . . . . He attempted a solo career, releasing two singles on the Epic record label, “Annabella” . . . in 1973 and “You Make My Day” . . . in 1974. Both were outstanding but failed to chart. . . . In 1974, Kinsley started playing five-a-side soccer as a means of keeping fit. It was on the pitch that he met Roger Craig, keyboard player in a local band called Paper Chase along with Tony Coats (guitar) and Derek Cashin (drums). Craig was a fan of the “Annabella” single and asked Kinsley if he would like to join Paper Chase, to which he agreed. Kinsley rechristened his new band Rockin’ Horse, knowing that they would get more gigs with a familiar name. He also hoped that original Rockin’ Horse, Jimmy Campbell would join him, but Campbell returned to his engineering job. Rockin’ Horse Mark II was getting plenty of bookings on the club scene but their crowd pleasing set list comprised of cover versions. After six months of gigging, Kinsley . . . [and Craig] started to write songs together. The band was renamed Liverpool Express by their manager, Hal Carter. . . . Carter . . . landed the band a recording contract with Warner Brothers. . . . “You Are My Love” a McCartney-esque ballad . . . . . . cracked the UK pop charts peaking at number 11 and would go on to be a hit in many countries around the world. An album called Tracks . . . was released in June 1976 . . . . The overall sound of the album is 10cc meets Wings, harmony pop with a very typical 1976 ‘over production’ which might put some people off, but the strength and quality of the songs helps you overcome the cheese factor. Also included on the album is a remake of the old Rockin’ Horse classic, now titled “(I Remember) Julian The Hooligan” where Kinsley sings “Julian, plugging your smokes again, telling dirty jokes again, trouble for his folks again!“.
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,388)Titanic — âLove Is Loveâ
From Norway with “Love Is Love”! This “uptempo gem” from Titanic’s debut LP has an irresistible propulsive groove and “has also blessed a few b-boy events in its time”. (SoulStrut, https://www.soulstrut.com/Archive/titanic-titanic) The album’s “heavy and psychedelic mood goes on with another winner . . . . a very powerful and dynamic song. . . . [a]bsolutely brilliant [and] really kicks ass my prog friends.” (ZowieZiggy, https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=23772)
Eduardo Rivadavia tells us that:
[T]he late â60s . . . gave rise to the era of hard rock and heavy metal. . . . [O]nce the . . . holy trinity of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath burst onto the scene, the hard rock virus really spread like a plague across the globe — even into distant, chilly, staid Norway, from whence came the aptly named Titanic, f]ounded in Oslo in 1969 . . . . [I]n a trend soon to be followed by a number of German heavy rock combos . . . Titanic hired a British-born singer and lyricist — one Roy Robinson â in an effort to raise their international prospects. The ploy worked well enough for Titanic to be offered a deal by the French office of Columbia Records, which duly released the band’s eponymous debut later that same year [including “Love Is Love”], and later booked them to perform at the Cannes Film Festival’s gala screening of the Woodstock motion picture. The members of Titanic then decided to switch their base of operations to the south of France, and perhaps it was the change of environment that helped broaden the band’s musical horizons, leading to the incremental classical, jazz, and Latin music influences found on the band’s 1971 sophomore album, Sea Wolf. In fact, its biggest single, “Sultana,” openly referenced Santana and would go on to chart at number five in the U.K. . . . Titanic had failed to repeat their prior chart success . . . . [but] would nevertheless soldier on amidst occasional lineup changes and diminishing success throughout the rest of the decade, releasing a couple more albums . . . on independent labels, but ultimately falling into forgetfulness. Except for dedicated heavy rock fans, of course, who still rate the band’s first efforts among the finest examples of proto-metal and heavy prog to emerge off the mainstream beaten path.
Norway stunned the rock world when it produced one of the hottest new bands of the early Seventies. . . . The five-piece was originally formed in 1969, and included Kjell Asperud (percussion, vocals), Jan Loseth (guitar, vocals), John Lorck (drums) and Kenny Aas (organ and bass guitar). They rehearsed hard, wrote some good tunes, and so âTITANIC’ eventually became one of the first Norwegian bands to enjoy hit records in both England and Germany. They also recruited English lead singer, Roy Robinson, who helped give their music an international appeal. Roy wrote most of the lyrics which he sang in English, on a succession of fine albums and singles. . . . âTITANIC’ were thrilled when âSultana’, played in the style of Santana, was a hit in England. It shot to Number 5 in the UK singles chart in September 1971. It was also a hit back home in Norway, where their album, Sea Wolf, got to Number 7 in the national charts. âTITANIC’ now embarked on a busy schedule of gigs. Their big breakthrough came when they played at the Cannes Film Festival in France. They were invited to play before the gala screening of the 1969 “Woodstockâ movie. The group also played at the Aix-en-Provence festival. Such was the wildly enthusiastic response at both these gigs that the band decided to settle down in the South of France. At the same time, âTITANIC’s reputation spread to Germany, where they enjoyed a hit with “Santa Fe” which got to Number 36 in the charts. . . . It was a tribute to the band’s musical credibility that they were signed to Columbia, then one of America’s most prestigious record companies. Even though the group did not score any more hit singles, they continued working steadily throughout the Seventies.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,387)The Nerve — âPiece By Pieceâ
The Nerve’s (see #418) euphoric mod anthem is “a suitably abrupt slice of mod-like grunge”. (liner notes to the CD comp Piccadilly Sunshine: Volumes 1-10: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era) You can have all of my heart provided that you don’t tear it apart piece by piece!
The Nottingham band was championed by Reg Presley. Acolytes of the Troggs? Trogg-lod-ytes! Discogs tells us:
F[irst] Mark Faine And The Fontains, the[n] . . . The Children . . . . In 1967 they signed to Page One Records. Label owner Larry Page insisted on a name change and liked The Lovinâ. Under this name they made their record debut with âKeep on Believin’â. One other record followed before they changed their name again, this time to The Nerve. Three records were released as The Nerve with âPiece By Pieceâ their best known. The songs were produced by Reg Presley from The Troggs, after seeing them in action in a hotel where the Troggs stayed. He became their manager in 1968. Finally they issued their last single âYou Wrecked My Lifeâ as Duffy Taylor Blues, before returning home as virtual unknowns.
[They] being groomed for stardom by none other than legendary independent pop impressariio, Larry Page before being championed and produced by Andoverâs Trogladyte, Reg Presley. Presley was so impressed by the bandâs energy, look and original songwriting, he himself directed their infamous promo shot for the Fleet Street press!! . . . [The Nerve was] an everyday provincial rock band . . . thrust into the dazzling limelight of Londonâs pop circus at the height of the British pop phenomena in the 1960s!!
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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[âTrick or Treatâ] was created by the incredible Stax writing team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter . . . and showcases Otis’ perfectly imperfect ad-libbed grunts and stammers, and his lonesome-longing howlin’ growls. Backed . . . by one of the most astoundingly tight, driving, soaring, sexy-sounding bands ever to wage war on boredom. A band that breathed pure soul into every one of the grace-fueled notes and beaten snares that now plunge into your welcoming senses.
A “fabulous” (Notts Music Archive, https://nottsmusicarchive.com/anthony-dares-progress/) song, “and with its spooky Hammer House of Horror like sound effects and the cutting FUZZ guitar riff in the chorus Devil is a classic piece of private U.K. Psych”. (liner notes to the CD comp Incredible Sound Show Stories Vol. 1) “Devil, you got your mark on me!”
Notts Music Archive tells us about ADP:
Originated from Nottingham circa 1962 as the Fourth Dimension. They auditioned for a competition called âAre You Good Enough To Make Recordsâ as Anthony Dares Progress. The competition was governed by Steve Arlon, an American entrepreneur who would arrange a record contract for the winning artist. Unfortunately, although ADP made a strong impression, Arlon disappeared and the âdealâ failed to appear. The band then visited Nottingham Sound Studios . . . and recorded two self-penned songs (written by D. Gaunt) that they had performed at the audition. Both songs were recorded for a prospective record release and a number of acetates were produced, but no deal ever appeared. . . . Dave Gaunt (vocs), Barry Hart (lead gtr), Barry Husband (bass gtr), Richard Barratt (drums).
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,384)The Redwoods — âTell Meâ
âTell me do you want my love?â This â66 A-side, a heartfelt and tender plea for a lover not to leave, is a haunting garage ballad that displays emotions not normally associated with âsnottyâ and âjuvenileâ garage rock.
It is a âRare Private Pressing . . . on Phalanx from Portage, Michigan which features some wild drums, blazing guitar work, and great vocals!” (Popsike.com, https://www.popsike.com/Michigan-GARAGE-Rock-45-THE-REDWOODS-on-PHALANX-Listen/230601139808.html) Oh wait, I think Popsike is referring to the B-side, a cover of âLittle Latin Lupe Luâ! Why cannot I find out more about this band?
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,383) Jon Gunn — âI Just Made Up My Mindâ
’67 UK A-side has a “thundering beat” and “startling arrangement comprising beefy brass, dancing strings and fugal [not fungal!] influences”. (Derek Johnson, New Music Express, https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/New-Musical-Express/1967/NME-1967-07-01.pdf) It’s almost anthemic, has a hint of Billy Nicholls [see #2, 64, 144, 428, 757, 964, 1,085, 1,205] and must have been a great dance floor number. William says:
[âMade Up My Mindâ is] a perfect slice of archetype ’67 Deram pop/soul from it’s phlanged piano intro to sharp horns, sweeping soulful strings and it’s uptempo danceability . . . and Jon Gunn’s strong vocals that fall somewhere between Frankie Valli and Chris Farlowe [see #473, 1,083, 1,279]. [It] gained some brief popularity on the Northern soul scene no doubt thanks to its uptempo beat and strings.
Jon Gunn (RN John Hodgkinson) had quite a long career using various names. He started out as Johnny Hocky with the Beat Boys, then as Johnny Goode he toured with Larry Parnes (1960 – 61). As Tony Allen he recorded for Philips (61 – 66). Under the same name, he was vocalist for Jimmy Nicol’s Shubdubs (64) and second vocalist with Ronnie Jones’ Blue Jays (65) before becoming Jon Gunn in 67. Finally he reverted to his real name as JW Hodgkinson with IF, Darryl Way’s Wolf and Rogue.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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I was born to a Greek orthodox family during World War II . . . in Paris, France. . . . I began singing at a very early age with my brother. I was only three years old and loved to perform for my family and friends. At seven years old I sang on the radio in a childrenâs show. I continued to sing for pleasure throughout my adolescence. . . . When I was seventeen, with the encouragement of my parents, I went to a beauty salon school in Paris. My parents were very conservative, very loving and protective. I wanted to be a beautician on the ship, Le France, which sailed from Le Havre to New York. This desire frightened my parents. They talked to my brother and [famed French singer] Edith [Piaf] and shared their concerns about me. After my brother married Edith Piaf, much to my delight and surprise, my brother and Edith invited me to live with them in their spacious apartment across from the Bois de Boulogne. That event, without realizing it, brought a rapid and dramatic change in my life. Suddenly because of them, I was living a life of a celebrity without being one. It was at that point that Edith wanted to hear my voice and asked me if I wanted to sing. Edith asked me to sing in the opening act of several of her concerts and would have me introduce her to the crowd. She gave me the name Christie Laume. I began to live the life of a professional singer: rehearsing, touring, and recording. I had a very good relationship with her and I became her friend and spent a lot of time alone with her. It was only a year after Theo married Edith that she died. I continued to sing and record under the guidance and encouragement of my brother. At that time, the Ye Ye style songs became popular and I recorded several singles and also made several television appearances. In 1969, during a summer trip to Greece, I met and later married my husband who was serving in the United States Air Force. It was then that I left the life I had in France and began a new one. I moved to the United States with my husband and we had two children within two years. They brought us great joy. We traveled a lot within the United States as well as in Europe due to my husbandâs military career. After nine years of marriage, my husband and I divorced. I devoted my life to raising my children.
In 1966, [Christie] was offered a recording contract with the Barclay label. . . . [H]er debut EP . . . . failed to attract much attention and she switched labels, to Odeon, in 1967. Her first release for the new label was issued shortly afterwards. The title track of the EP was the exuberant “La musique et la danse”, which Christie had co-written. She also helped pen “Agathe ou Christie”, whose lyrics were packed with rather clever jeux de mots [puns]. “Lâadorable femme des neiges”, also featured on the EP, has also gone on to find favour with fans of French femme pop. “Pas de nouvelles” was chosen as the lead track of her follow-up EP, though . . . “Rouge-rouge” is considered the standout track of the four on the release.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
Bobby Jamesonâs (see #219, 1,255, 1,303) story is tragic and enthralling, one of bad luck, bad people, bad decisions, and mental illness — see the end of this blog for some history. But the story for today is Jameson flying to London to record the vocals along with the Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham and Mick Jagger for a single, the A-side written by Oldham and Keith Richards and the B-side written by Jagger and Richards, guitar solos courtesy of Jimmy Page. Oh, and Jameson trying to convince Jagger that the Stones were as big in America as the Beatles!
Jameson recalled that:
I had already received a letter from Andrew Loog Oldham in England . . . . an offer . . . of sorts that basically stated, “If you ever get to London I’d be interested in working with you.” My previous disregard to his invitation now looked like my chance to leave America and get as far away from Tony [Alamo, his manager] as I could. . . .
Once the people in London were satisfied the letter I had received was indeed legitimate, they agreed to finance me coming to London. They arranged pretty much everything and I assume, because I have never known, that they were in for some sort of piece of the action, believing it was a sure fire arrangement with a substantial benefit for them in the long run. . . . It wasn’t important to me at the time, how I got there, it was that I got out of California and as far from Tony as I could. . . .
That’s why I went to England. Most people thought . . . that it was a big opportunity for me to go there and record with Mick Jagger. But what they don’t know is that by me going to England at that time, I killed my career in America. My record “I’m So Lonely” was left to die when I vanished, and I do mean vanished. . . .
After some time, we all ended up in the studio with Andrew. Up until then I’d heard nothing about what he wanted to work on with me . . . . Andrew said he was going to play me a track that he’d already recorded called “All I Want Is My Baby.” . . . I listened intently to what came out of the speakers. It sounded a bit like a Phil Spector track, but not as well organized. In the middle of the song was a fuzz tone guitar solo, that, at that time, was pretty much off the wall. . . . [T]he song didn’t sound anything remotely close to what I did personally. As the tape came to an end Andrew and Mick looked at me in anticipation of my reaction. âWell what do you think Bobby, is that f*cking great or what?” asked Andrew. I was stuck. I didn’t want to say the wrong thing, but I didn’t want to be forced to lie about my opinion either. “Yeah, well that’s pretty cool, Andrew, and I really like the guitar part, who’s that playing?” I asked. “A member of a group called The Poets, said Andrew, “named Jimmy Page.” At the time the name meant nothing to me because I’d never heard it before. “It’s a great track,” I said, “but I don’t know if it’s my kind of song, I mean, like something I’d do.” There was an uncomfortable moment of silence. “Well let me play it again,” said Andrew, “and show you how the vocal’s supposed to go so you can get a better idea of what I want.” . . . “Ok,” I said reluctantly. . . . [T]he track boomed out through the studio. [Andrew] picked up a paper with the lyrics and started singing them for me, and then Mick began filling in with back-up vocals. . . . I tried hard to concentrate on what Andrew wanted, as I eyed the lyric sheet, trying to sing what he was singing. I felt like sh*t inside . . . . I waved at Andrew to stop the tape so I could talk to him and the studio went quiet. “What’s wrong Bobby?’ he asked. “Look,” I said, “I don’t think this is my kinda song. Can I play you a couple of things I wrote so you can get an idea of how I sing?” He looked at me and said “No! I’m not interested in hearing your songs Bobby. I need you to concentrate on this song and get the vocal right, because I know you can do it.” . . . I said, “Ok, play it again.” The tape rolled over and over and over. My vocal got better, but I never thought it was much good. . . . I was jet lagged and miserable. I was ready to walk out, but stayed. At some point, Andrew suggested recording my vocal with the track so I could get a better idea of what it sounded like by hearing it. I agreed, and we pushed on. After awhile both Mick and Andrew teamed up on background vocals, as I sang the lead. After hours of working, Andrew said that was enough. âWhat a relief!” I thought, because I was spent . . . . Andrew seemed pleased . . . but I was not. The possible exception to that was when we worked on another song for awhile just to change things up. The song was was called “Each And Every Day” . . . . It was far easier to learn and to sing . . . . Not long after that one and only recording session, I was informed that the rough track I’d been led to believe was just for rehearsal was being released on Decca Records as a single . . . .
The record came out . . . preceded by a lot of promotion. I’ll give Andrew Oldham and Decca UK their due, they pumped the record hard, but that made it worse for me personally because I had no faith in it. . . . All of a sudden I was doing interview after interview and I didn’t even like the record. I was torn between the hype and the fear that it would bomb, which it did. I kept trying to get to see Andrew, but it was no use, he was not talking to me. I started making up things about myself to deflect the interest in me, but it just seemed to make things worse. I took to wearing one “black glove” as a goof, and it got famous. I did a story with a London newspaper on “the Glove,” which it became known as, and people took it seriously. . . . I was getting the star treatment alright, but underneath the outward appearances I was just plain worried about having to go on British television to lip sync the record. In my gut I knew it was gonna be bad, but when it actually happened it was worse. I tried everything I could think of to get people to reconsider what they were doing. I told them all “Let’s do the other side, “Each And Every Day,” it’s a better record.””No!” they said, “We’re not going to do that Bobby, it’s gonna be fine.” It was not fine. . . .
It became apparent that Oldham had done a one shot deal with his Bobby Jameson project, and if “All I Want Is My Baby” wasn’t a big hit, which it wasn’t, he was not planning to do a follow up. . . .
Andrew Loog Oldham recalled that “Jameson had arrived in the UK as part of the P.J. Proby flock. He wore one black glove and was Walker Brother pretty head to foot — he could have been a Walker Brother. All of that and being American was enough of a calling card in those days to get you recorded.” (2Stoned)
This conversation between Bobby and Mick is a hoot:
I stared at [Mick] for a moment, trying to make sure it was him and just blurted out “Hi Mick!” . . . Strangely enough he was really low key and kind of bashful it seemed. It surprised me . . . . After asking about our flight over, Mick moved directly to the subject of America. . . . He asked about The Beatles and said, “They’re really huge over there aren’t they?” “Yeah,” I said, “but you guys are just about as big.” Then the strangest thing happened. Mick said, “No way man, no way.” “No, really Mick,” I said, “The Stones are just about as big there as The Beatles.” He just stared at me, as if he were trying to figure out whether I was bullshitting him or not. “You’re having me on mate,” he said smiling, “you’re just having me on.” . . . âNo, I’m not,” I insisted, “I’m telling you the truth.” He then seemed to know I was telling him what I really believed. “Look,” I said, “When I was in Cleveland, that’s a big city in the US . . . they were running a contest on the biggest radio station there, to see who was more popular, The Rolling Stones or The Beatles, and it was pretty much of a tie,” I told him, “You guys are really big in America. Like it’s The Beatles and you.” He just stared at me. He seemed to be waiting for the punch line that never came. He could not believe what I was telling him, but then again he couldn’t not believe it. I’ll never forget how surprised I was to find out that day that he really didn’t know how incredibly huge The Rolling Stones were in America. The look on his face when I first told him will stay with me forever.
1,380) Bobby Jameson â âAll I Want Is My Babyâ
OK, Bobby hated the song. Andrew Loog Oldham wrote that “Keith and I composed a low-life sleeze ‘n’ dumpster sort of homage to George “Shadow” Morton’s Shangri-Las recordings crossed with Bob Crewe’s “Rag Doll” . . . . Keith handled the . . . arrangement[] and Jimmy Page played lead guitar.” (2Stoned)
I think it’s great, as does Bayard, who calls it âsplendidâ and adds that it “is a mainly midtempo beat ballad with a powerful production, thunderous drums, a brief searing fuzz guitar solo by Richards [actually, Page], Mick Jagger harmonising with Jameson on the choruses as Bobby’s despairing, wailing lead vocal longs for his woman.” (https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/bobby-jameson/all-i-want-is-my-baby-each-and-every-day-of-the-year.p/)
1,381) Bobby Jameson — âEach and Every Dayâ
Jameson liked this one, the B-side, better. Andrew Loog Oldham wrote that it was âone of the dimmer of the Glimmer Twins’ songwriting output thus far, a Costa Del Sol, sun ‘n’ sugar wrenched balladâ. (2Stoned)
Here is Mick’s demo with Jimmy Page and other sessionmen:
As to Bobby Jameson, Jason Ankeny tells us:
West Coast folk-rocker Bobby Jameson is best known â or, perhaps, not known at all â for Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest [see #219] the sought-after cult LP he recorded under the alias Chris Lucey. . . . Jameson cut his debut single, âI Wanna Love You,â for the Talamo label in early 1964. The record was a regional hit, and even earned him an appearance on American Bandstand. . . . [T]he follow-ups . . . went nowhere . . . . After a 1965 one-off for the Brit imprint, âI Wanna Know,â Jameson returned to Los Angeles, where he befriended producer Marshall Lieb. . . . [who] was in the midst of helming the debut Surrey Records release by folkie Chris Ducey, but with the album covers already printed and the disc ready to ship, contractual snafus forced the project into limbo. Lieb coerced Jameson into writing and recording a new batch of tunes based on Duceyâs existing song titles, and after some creative tinkering with the cover art, [the album] â now credited to Chris Lucey and, for reasons unknown, featuring a photo of Rolling Stone Brian Jones â finally hit retail. Promoted via what was then the most expensive and lavish Billboard advertising supplement ever printed, the album â a deeply idiosyncratic psych-folk opus . . . proved a commercial flop . . . . Jameson did not resurface until mid-1966, releasing âGotta Find My Roogalatorâ â arranged by Frank Zappa . . . . He then signed to Verve, where the Our Productions team of Curt Boettcher, Jim Bell, and Steve Clark helmed his 1967 LP Color Him In. That same year, Jameson also appeared in the infamous American International Pictures documentary Mondo Hollywood . . . . A 1969 album for GRT, Working!, proved Jamesonâs swan song. During the â70s, his frustrations with the music industry manifested themselves in substance abuse and two suicide attempts. . . . After he left the music business in 1985, he lived so quietly with his mother in San Luis Obispo County, California that many thought he was dead. He didnât resurface until 2003, when he learned that Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest had been reissued unbeknownst to him . . . .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
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This disturbed piece of ’60’s punk savagery . . . . features one of the most intense performances ever recorded. Cloaked in reverb, the song creeps along slowly and darkly at first — a pulsing bass and drum rhythm, with a four-note, fuzz-toned riff foretelling danger ahead, while singer Danny Wheetman torturously unpeels his soul, revealing . . . a stalker? Or just a lonely, brokenhearted man? The song rises and falls, building up to a climactic, double-time break with Wheetman pouring out a torrent of words, begging for an end to his pain while implying terrible violence. It’s chilling impossibly brilliant stuff.
liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968
“Knock, Knock” has been called “[b]asically the birth of punk, hardcore, grunge, speed metal, death metal, emo, screamo, The list could go on”. (seangessner1730, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUb8mZ4FDVE)
Jason Ankeny tells us the Humane story:
Simi Valley, CA, psych-punks the Humane Society formed in 1965 as the Innocents . . . . [T]he band was discovered . . . while performing on a flatbed truck parked outside a local record store. The Humane Society’s debut single, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips With Me” — recorded just prior to Tiny Tim’s smash novelty rendition — appeared on Liberty Records in the spring of 1967 and was a hit in Los Angeles, but it was the flip side, âKnock, Knock,â for which the group is justly celebrated . . . . After Liberty rejected a proposed follow-up, the Humane Society landed at New World for their second single, 1968âs âLornaâ [which] received scant attention, and the band dissolved soon after.
Oh, and “[t]he rhythm guitarist was a graphic arts teacher at my high school. Woody Minnick, Antelope Valley High School in the 80s”. (kurdtacolbain731, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTpqWkFw7bg) That is pretty cool!!! Minnick should have been cast in Fast Times at Ridgemont High!
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,378) Red Dirt — âMemoriesâ
A timeless song and so ahead of its time, this jewel really gets under your skin. âMemories I have inside me driving me insaneâ Jim Carroll Band anybody?
Ian Shirley writes that from âa lost classicâ LP, the song was “probably considered as [a] song[] fit for release as [a] single[] as [it has] a compelling commercial edge and benefit[s] from more extensive arrangements which the band augmented by what sounds like a mellotron and an organ that gives their powerful music more texture and depthâ. (Record Collector, http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2013/06/red-dirt-red-dirt-1970-uk-fantastic.html?m=1)
Shirley gives us some background:
[Red Dirt was a] blues band formed in East Yorkshire around 1968 comprised of Dave Richardson (vocals), Steve Howden (guitar), Kenny Giles (bass) and Steve Jackson (drums) who built up an impressive live reputation in clubs and venues in the North of England. They were subsequently signed to Morgan Bluetown, When released in 1970, on the Fontana label, their self-titled debut album sunk without trace and legend – or rumour – has it sold something like 100 copies. . . . [T]he band came together after drummer Steve Jackson approached Howden in a pub . . . . Howden was keen and Jackson’s friends Kenny Giles and Dave Richardson were drafted in on bass guitar and lead vocals. Richardson had worked with future Hull legend Mick Ronson as well as Michael Chapman. The band attracted the interest of Morgan Bluetown who signed them[, and it was] put into the studio with producer Geoff Gill. “We recorded the album in Morgan studios London,” recalls Howden . . . . âThey booked us in from midnight onwards, to six in the morning and the album didn’t take that long, around twelve hours I think. . . . It was all very rushed and was only ever released in England”.
They recorded a second Red Dirt album and morphed into Snake Eye for the concept album The Journey, both vaulted until the 2010s. . . . They initially called their band Wellington Boot before settling on Red Dirt. After 18 months on the local pub and club circuit, they booked a two-night graveyard session at Morgan Studios in North London. . . . Richardson wrote seven of the 12 tracks, including âMemories[.]â. . . Red Dirt was engineered by Mike Bobak [see #839, 1,053], then of the studio group Motherlight. Also in 1970, Howden partook in Fickle Pickle [see #586], a Gill-produced music-hall project fronted by Cliff Wade and arranged by (ex-Orange Bicycle) keyboardist Wil Malone [see #839, 1,053], also of Motherlight.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,377)Paradise Hammer — âShe Is Loveâ
Right off the bat, Noel Gallagher did not plagiarize this ’70 B-side. Maybe he should have, though the crescendo/climax part is a bit too Queenishly silly. Co-written by lead singer and former Unit Four Plus Twoer Tommy Moeller.
Vernon Joynson says that Paradise was “[e]ssentially a vocal harmony-pop band” and that it “had a concept album, which told of a traveling circus troupe, in the can which never saw the light of day.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited).
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,376)SST — âSoft Soul Transitionâ
Bossa nova meets laid-back California pop and leaves a smile on your face as wide as San Francisco Bay. From a privately pressed LP of “[b]reezy sunshine-pop, soft-rock, psych-pop from California . . . . [with] awesome vocal harmonies, superb musicianship, bossa and blue-eyed-soul-jazz touches with folk-rock moves” (Forced Exposure Records, https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/soft-soul-transition-sst-lp/OSR.059LP.html), “a masterpiece and is in no way inferior to classics like Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends [see #631, 828, 1,054, 1,332], The Free Designs “Kites are Fun” or The Millenium’s Begin [see #397, 506, 586, 662, 810, 1,002]” (Tapete Records, https://shop.tapeterecords.com/soft-soul-transition-sst-lp-out-sider-1776), “a wonderful pop album. Period. If you like awesome melodies, great vocal harmonies and rhythms that go straight to the hip this is your album. Enjoy.” (Frank, https://poprunners.blogspot.com/2018/10/sunshinepsychedelic-popbossa-blue-eyed.html)
Here’s the history:
In 1969, Chet Demilo was appearing in Donkin’s Inn, Marina Del Rey, where he met Arnie Marcus and Ray Hames, who together were to become part of an incredible slice of history. Donkin’s became the hottest and most famous destination in Southern California for the next seven years, and Chet was the magnet that started the new singles scene in Los Angeles with Marina Del Rey as ground zero. Arnie sat in on bongos with Chet from time-to-time, and Ray, who was managing an apartment complex that housed 200 flight attendants, just happened to have a unit available!! Chet moved in, and he and Ray started working on songs together. Chet suggested forming a vocal group with Arnie and SST was born. For three months they practiced the intricate vocal harmonies and in early 1970 cut the album, Soft Soul Transition. A thousand records were pressed and an album release party was held at Donkin’s where SST gave their one and only performance that night. There was interest in the project at Burt Bacharach’s Blue Seas Music, but it was not to be and SST faded away.Â
liner notes to the CD reissue of Soft Soul Transition
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,375) Doug Ashdown — âHeâs All These Things to Meâ
Delirium-inducing acid folk by Australiaâs Doug Ashdown. I think the song is about God. It was written by Dave Gard, and according to Discogs it Gardâs only credit, writing or otherwise. (https://www.discogs.com/artist/2852589-Dave-Gard) Could Gard have been the Kingston Trioâs Doug Guard? Anyone know?
Anyway, about Doug Ashdown, he himself says:
After playing lead guitar in a Shadows/Beatles cover band, I descended into the subterranean world of the folk clubs where I became a Dylan impersonator supreme. My first real break came when I recorded my debut album for CBS. I think it garnered me a tin record for 25 sales! My album Source released in 1968 featured one of my first compositions Something aStrange. I got busy writing my own songs and began to write with Jim Stewart. Jim and I co-wrote an album called the Age Of Mouse. Featuring the band Fraternity, it was the first double album of original material released in Australia. I then travelled to Nashville where I lived and worked for three years. While there I met many great writers and singers, ate and drank lots of “country breakfasts” and co-wrote many songs. One of these, “Just Thank Me”, became a number one country hit for the late David Rogers. Another unforgettable experience while in Nashville was co-producing a single for, and touring with, the great Broadway star Carol Channing. During my stay in America I also performed at Gerdes Folk City in New York, at the Exit Inn in Nashville and on the Mike Douglas TV show in Philadelphia. Upon returning to Australia I fronted the country rock band, The Sleeping Dogs.
The definitive Milesago: Australasian Music & Popular Culture 1964-1975 tells us:
Adelaide-born Doug Ashdown . . . . had travelled to England [by age 17], where he played in a rock band, returning to Adelaide the following year and working as lead guitarist in The Bowmen with Bobby Bright . . . . Dougâs first major break came when he signed with CBS. . . . [O]ver the next three years he recorded three albums for them . . . This Is Doug Ashdown in 1965. . . . The Real Thing (1966) . . . . [and] Source (1968) [including âAll These Thingsâ] . . . . [B]y decadeâs end, he was an accomplished performer, songwriter and recording artist, and a leading light on the Australian folk scene. After his CBS contract expired Doug . . . [i]n 1969 . . . joined forces with expatriate Irish singer, songwriter and producer Jimmy Stewart who had recently formed the Sweet Peach label. . . . Dougâs fourth album, his first for Sweet Peach, was The Age Of Mouse which earned him a place in the history books as the first double album of original material ever released in Australia . . . . The songs were co-written with Jimmy Stewart . . . . Sweet Peach lifted three Singles . . . [t]he first two . . . local chart successes, and the album gained considerable critical acclaim. As a result, it was picked up by MCA for overseas release in fifty countries. . . . [and] had generated enough interest in the USA to prompt Doug and Jimmy to move there. . . . Doug was unable to crack the US market, so Jimmy and Doug returned to Australia where they set up a new label . . . . Stewart produced Dougâs next album entitled Leave Love Enough Alone (1974). . . . [T]he albumâs evocative title track, co-written by Doug and Jimmy Stewart during a bitter winter in Nashville. . . . was released in September 1974 and received some airplay, but . . . [didnât] ma[k]e the charts . . . . [It] proved to be a classic âsleeperâ and the breakthrough finally came more than a year later when it was retitled and reissued as âWinter In Americaâ. . . . bec[oming] a major hit through late 1976 and early 1977, reaching #14 in Melbourne and #30 in Sydney. . . . [and] remains one of the most popular and enduring Australian songs of the â70s . . . .
[Ashdown] formed his own skiffle band, The Sapphires, in 1958. When his father transplanted the family back to England for nine months in 1960-1, the youthful Ashdown played electric guitar with an ensemble called Rommel and the Desert Rats. On return to Adelaide, he spent time (1961-4) as one of The Beaumen along with Bobby Bright . . . . âI discovered Dylan and that was itâ. . . . Ashdown debuted as a folksinger at Adelaideâs Purple Cow, late in 1964, and he had his first big break when Tina Lawton asked him to substitute for her at a Town Hall concert. [He] . . . brought the house down. . . . . [H]e quickly became a fixture on the coffee lounge circuit. . . . Saturday nights frequently found him performing five gigs . . . . It was as the Folk Hutâs chief drawcard that Ashdown came to the attention of CBSâs Sven Libaek, then in Adelaide scouting for new talent. He was offered a recording contract . . . . Almost from the beginning, Ashdown objected to being categorised, insisting that he never thought of himself as a folksinger, and that he found the whole folk thing too restrictive. . . . Unsurprisingly, this lack of commitment to the folk scene earned Ashdown the disdain of the folk establishment â as did the commercial success and orientation of his recordings, or his willingness to record Lennon-McCartneyâs âHide Your Love Awayâ . . . . On one occasion, a number of audience members walked out of a folk concert in Sydney when he attempted to perform an electrified version of Dylanâs âI Shall Be Releasedâ. Ashdown, in turn, once confessed to interviewer Greg Quill that his third album, the ground-breaking 1968 LP Source reflected his dissatisfaction with both the folk and mainstream music scenes. Intensely critical of the pop sceneâs preoccupation with drugs, doom and destruction, he teamed up with Jimmy Stewart in 1968, creating a solid body of self-composed material about âreal thingsâ â small portraits and studies of individual lonelinesses and the patterns of particular loves, recounted (he maintained) without either judgment or world-shattering conclusions. The material was preserved on . . . The Age of Mouse . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,374)Petticoat and Vine — âRiding a Carouselâ
’70 UK A-side is a delightful, âwonderful sunshine pop gem!â (David Arrigotti, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY_14r2XOOU) Spice Girls style . . . or at least Mel Câs motherâs style!
The band’s website tells us:
At the end of 1969 following the break up of their band, the Pattern People, Norman [Smeddles] and Val [Smeddles] went into a small studio in Liverpool and recorded eight songs which Norman had written. [They] travelled to London . . . and pitched the songs . . . . [W]ith the aim of creating an English version of the Mamas and the Papas, they recruited Colin [“Syd” Maddocks] and Joan [O’Neil — whose daughter is Mel C of the Spice Girls (WesternKing, https://www.45cat.com/record/6006051)]. The band played live all over Merseyside . . . . In the subsequent weeks offers came in from a number of companies. The band signed contracts with Feldmans . . . to write and record. In the autumn of 1970 the bandâs first single, âRiding a Carouselâ was released . . . . The record racked up a huge amount of radio plays although sales didnât quite lift the record into the top 20. . . . The band also landed their first TV show, the prestigious Harry Secombe Show on the BBC and were immediately booked for the ITV’s The Jimmy Tarbuck Show and The Jimmy Tarbuck Christmas Show . . . . The BBC booked the band for countless radio shows . . . and ITV booked the band numerous times for their weekly pop chart show Lift Off. Another highly prestigious TV show followed when they were booked for The Benny Hill Show, where they performed solo and also taking part in sketches with Benny Hill. Following one of their live appearances . . . they were approached by John Gorman and Mike McCartney [see #68] to appear with The Scaffold, who were riding high in the charts with “Lily the Pink” and “Thank You Very Much” . It was the beginning of a long relationship with the Scaffold which took Petticoat and Vine all over the country as part of the Scaffoldâs hilarious revue show and included . . . a Command Performance at The Liverpool Empire in front of HM The Queen. Roger McGough [see #68], of The Scaffold, introduced the band to the playwright John McGrath with a view to the band providing the music for a play commissioned by the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. The result was Soft Or A Girl the most successful musical that the Everyman has staged, with Petticoat and Vine writing and performing all the music onstage each night . . . . The success led to another John McGrath musical the following year The Fish in the Sea . . . . More work with The Scaffold followed . . . . By 1974, following numerous personnel changes, Val and Norman formed a new and very different band called Champagne which went on to be very successful in itâs own right.
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Iâve already featured what I called “surely the greatest of all pre-MTV videos” — all by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity (see #1,031-33). Well, here is a challenger worthy of the title. At the very least, Spainâs iconic actress and singer Marisol gives us the âAddicted to Loveâ of the 60âs â an utterly enthralling, mesmerizing, and alluring scene from the movie El taxi de los conflictos/The problem cab with her singing the effervescent âCorazĂłn Contentoâ/âHappy Heartâ. The song “features a driving, stomping arrangement where strings sweep and swirl and Marisol delivers a vocal that is a mixture of power and emotion” and is “a potent and heady brew”. (Derek, https://dereksmusicblog.com/2018/02/10/beat-girls-espanol-1960s-she-pop-from-spain/) It was written by Argentinian “singer, producer, businessman, politician, and actor” (https://www.discogs.com/artist/202563-Palito-Ortega?superFilter=Releases&subFilter=Singles+%26+EPs&page=3) Palito Ortega, and he and Marisol released it separately as A-sides in ’68. They also joined together for a delicious TV mash-up of their two versions.
What was El taxi about? Ma-cortes writes:
Throughout the day Taxi driver Tadeo . . . meets heterogeneous roles get into his taxi. In the morning a couple of ¨Paletos¨ or Rednecks . . . gets in the cab and he drives them all aroung Madrid. Shortly after, a suspicious and allegedly wealthy man . . . getting in car, but Tadeo’s eventually robbed and naked. Things go wrong when when he arrives in the Police Station to denounce and is interrogated by the cops. Later on , a person leaves a baby in the taxi and Tadeo must find out where the little one belongs. Finally, Tadeo has an appointment with a strange woman . . . who apparently needs to tell him something very fundamental. [It is a f]unny and amusing comedy . . . . [t]he hilarious happenings are continuous, ridiculous and sometimes extremely silly, but in some moments here and there, they are also bold and risible. This film is made to entertain . . . . Bemusing story with enjoyable but also absurd moments and attractive acting by likable comedians, a real Spanish star-studded. . . . Special mention for the famous songs sungs by popular performers, such as: ¨SerĂĄ el amor¨ . . . [p]erformed by Carmen Sevilla; ¨CorazĂłn contento¨ . . . [p]erformed by Marisol; ¨Que me coma el tigre¨ . . . [p]erformed by Lola Flores and Antonio GonzĂĄlez ‘El PescaĂlla’ and ¨Pleitos tengas¨ . . . [p]erformed by Peret.
Marisol also known as Pepa Flores, was born Maria Josefa Flores . . . in MĂĄlaga, Andalusia, Spain. From early on, she demonstrated a great love of singing and traditional flamenco dance. In 1959, she was discovered by the film producer, Manuel J. Goyanes, who saw one of her appearances on television. She became an international sensation, from Spain to Japan. The film director, Luis Lucia Mingarro, propelled her to national stardom in the film trilogy Un rayo de luz (Ray of Light), Ha llegado un ĂĄngel (An Angel Has Arrived) and TĂłmbola (Lottery). The films featured Marisol singing one of her best-known songs: “La vida es una tĂłmbola” (Life is a Lottery), among others like “Corre, corre, caballito” (Run, run, little pony), “Bambina”, “Ola, ola, ola”, “Estando contigo” (Being With You), “Chiquitina” (Little girl) or “Nueva melodĂa” (A New Melody). In 1963 she also starred the funny Marisol Rumbo a RĂo (Marisol Is Bound For Rio), where she played both twins like Hailey Mills in “The Parent Trap” and sang “Bossanova junto a ti” (Bossanova close to you), “Muchachita” (Little Woman), “ÂĄOh, Tony!” and “Guajiras”. Besides she co-starred with Robert Conrad in 1964’s movie called La Nueva Cenicienta (The New Cinderella). In that movie movie she sang another of her best-known songs: “Me conformo” (I Don’t Need Much). Mel Ferrer directed her in Cabriola (Everyday Is A Holiday) in 1965 where she sang one of her most beautiful songs: “Cabriola”. During that movie Audrey Hepburn herself went shopping with Marisol to Paris. . . . In 1967 she starred as adult film star in the comedy Las cuatro bodas de Marisol (The Four Weddings of Marisol) . . . . She also played Solo los dos (Just We Both), where she featured “La nieve” â Marisol’s most popular song in South America . . . . In 1969 she appeared in the choral comedy El taxi de los conflictos (The problem cab), where she sang the popular “CorazĂłn contento”, composed by the famous Argentinian singer Palito Ortega. She was a familiar children’s icon during the 1960s, and entertained many high-ranking dignitaries, including Francisco Franco. As an adult, she was awarded the Best Actress prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for her role in Los DĂas del Pasado (Days Gone By). A few years before she also played La corrupciĂłn de Chris Miller (The corruption of Chris Miller), directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, the uncle of awarded Spanish actor Javier Bardem; La chica del Molino Rojo (The Girl from the Red Cabaret) . . ; and El poder del deseo (The Power of Desire) . . . . As an adult she replaced her stage name with her given name, Pepa Flores. . . . She has three daughters from her relationship with the late dancer Antonio Gades . . . . Pepa Flores is retired and lives with her husband in MĂĄlaga, where she works for charitable causes. She was a sympathizer but never a member of the Spanish Communist Party. . . . The Spanish press calls her “un mito”, a living myth.
Argentinian Palito Ortega’s career began in the late ’50s, nicknamed Palito [“stick”] due to his thinness. . . . After RCA signed him, his songs frequently climbed local charts, which allowed him to start an acting career. While singing his smash “Yo Tengo FĂŠ” and playing a main role in the musical Un Muchacho Como Yo, Palito Ortega consolidated his popularity throughout Latin America. . . . In 1991, [he] joined the Argentinian politic fraction Partido Justicialista, formed a group called Frente de la Esperanza, and was elected TucumĂĄn’s Governor . . . . [and i]n . . . 1995 . . . [he] was elected senator. His Justicialist Party nominated him for the Vice-Presidency in 1999, but his party lost the general elections that year and he retired from civil service.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,372) Carla Thomas — âHeâs Beating Your Timeâ
Carlaâs (see #432) â69 A-side is a soulful warning to wayward men from her â69 album Memphis Queen: âIf you want to keep me, you better learn how to treat meâ, âYouâre making a big mistake, thinking nobody can take your placeâ. Be afraid, be very afraid!
The Concord label talks about Memphis Queen:
The [album] represent[ed an] effort[] to expand [her] appeal . . . into the pop arena. Stax Records executive Al Bell felt that the sexy singer, then in her mid-twenties, could become another Diana Ross and recruited Detroit producer Don Davis [who co-wrote âBeating Your Timeâ] to come up with a cross between the Motown and Memphis sounds. Thomasâs honey-toned pipes and lilting turns of phrase proved ideally suited to the project, titled Memphis Queen . . . .
Reviewing Carla Thomas’ penultimate album ‘Memphis Queen’ is something of a fix… Detroit guitarist/producer Don Davis had pretty much taken over come 1969 and added a – in my opinion usually tasty – chunk of Detroit/Chicago-styled gloss to the Southern Soul coming from Stax in Memphis. Carla Thomas, for one, didn’t like the new working method. It’s unclear whether she disliked the aformentioned gloss, what IS known is that she resented having to overdub her vocals to ready-made musical backing tracks, usually recorded in Detroit or Muscle Shoals. She was used to singing and improvising with Booker T. & the M.G.’s, live, in the studio. According to Rob Bowman’s essential tome on Stax, Carla in fact dubbed Don Davis’ new approach as something decidedly ‘NOT Stax’. This record here, however, isn’t terrible at all. It does miss the ‘open mic’, raw energy of her previous records, but in return, it offers twelve richly orchestrated, beautifully executed soul gems that retain the essence of Southern Soul.
In the glorious decade and a half of sound that was Stax in the â60s and early â70s, Carla Thomas was the Queen of Memphis Soul. [S]he recorded a duet with her father Rufus Thomas, giving the fledgling Satellite label its first taste of success with the regional hit âCause I Love You.â [S]he cut her first solo single, the teen ballad âGee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)[,â which] gave Satellite its first national hit, breaking the Top Ten mark on both the R&B and pop charts. Shortly thereafter Satellite became Stax, and Carla proceeded to claw her way onto the national charts another 22 times with such immortal slices of soul as her answer song to Sam Cooke, âIâll Bring It on Home to You,â as well as âLet Me Be Good to You,â âB-A-B-Y,â âTrampâ (with Otis Redding), and âI Like What Youâre Doing to Me.â Carla released six solo albums and, with Redding, one duet album on Stax between 1961 and 1971.
Oh, and when asked by NPRâs Peter Sagal what defined soul music, Carla responded âWell, soul is this expressive thing. You know, it comes from the spirit. And you canât sing soul music unless you have a spiritual feeling for the music, you know.â Sagal came back with: âRight, so itâs sort of like gospel music, but instead of Jesus, youâre singing about sex. Thatâs just my theory.â To which Carla pondered âOr hey, the lack of it or whatever.â (https://www.npr.org/2013/12/20/255731431/queen-of-memphis-soul-carla-thomas-plays-not-my-job)
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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Easy Livin is more equivocal about the One’s only A-side:
As for “Lady Greengrass”, which Froese plays on but had no part in writing, the song has little in common with the work of Tangerine Dream during any stage of their career. This is a pretty straightforward psychedelic pop song with dreamy lyrics and echoed vocals. The best comparison is probably with the lighter Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd material such as “See Emily Play”. Perhaps coincidentally (perhaps not) the lyrics include the line “Puff the trees turn tangerine, Puff the sky is suddenly green, Her eyes breath in a state of mind, She’s beginning to fly”.
Formed in 1965 by Edgar Froese in West Berlin where he was attending the local Art College. The Ones suffered near neglect at the hands of the pop parade only to be saved by a Star-Club single in 1967. . . . After playing at a real “Salvador Dali’s garden party” (having been invited by the artist himself), The Ones became embroiled in more experimental directions and diversions abroad and eventually transformed into the more notorious Tangerine Dream after returning to Berlin in 1969.
liner notes to the CD comp Electric Sound Show: An Assortment of Antiquities for the Psychedelic Connoisseur
Gary Graff tells more about the encounter with Dali:
Froeseâs experimental streak was encouraged by Salvador DalĂ after The Ones performed at the artistâs villa in northeast Spain. âDalĂ was quite a big influence in my life because of his philosophy of being as original and authentic as possible had touched me very intensively at that time,â Froese said during a 2005 interview with The Quietus. âI invested a lot of time, too, in training myself to follow such a philosophical path. When I met DalĂ the first time, I was 22, a youngster who knew immediately that nearly everything is possible in art as long as you have a strong belief in what youâre doing.”
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,370)The Rokes — âWhen the Wind Arisesâ
This ’68 B-side, by a British group that made it big in Italy, is a dramatic, brooding and “splendid example of early psychedelic pop” (Mark Deming, https://www.allmusic.com/album/lets-live-for-today-the-rokes-in-english-1966-1968-mw0000800756), and the group’s “most impressive recording”. (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp Real Life Permanent Dreams: a Cornucopia of British Psychedelia 1965-1970) It is actually based on an Italian song, “Il Vento” (“The Wind”, of course), that had shortly before been released as a much more subdued and reflective A-side by the Italian group Dik Dik, and later in a more rocking version by its co-songwriter Lucio Battisti.
Bruce Eder:
[The Rokes] They never sold many records in England, or any in America, but they were a major act in Italy and also managed to make an extraordinary, albeit indirect, impact on the 1960s with a song that they originally premiered in Italian. London-born Shel Shapiro . . . had broken into music as a guitarist and singer with Rob Storm & the Whispers (later the Rob Storme Group) and subsequently backed Gene Vincent during a tour of England. He played in Hamburg as a member of the Shel Carson Combo and then became a member of the band backing Colin Hicks, the brother of Tommy Steele, on an extended tour of Italy in 1963. This group, who later recorded with Hicks, took the name of the Cabin Boys . . . . The[y] came to the attention of a manager in Italy who got them to sever their ties to Hicks and rename themselves the Rokes. They started out playing on stage behind a female singer named Rita Pavone but were signed to Italian RCA on their own. Their debut release under their new name was a single of “Shake, Rattle and Roll” that failed to sell. Another recording effort, this time in Italian, failed, but their future releases would all be in Italian, with English-language versions issued overseas. The group cut a version of Clint Ballard’s “I’m Alive” under the title “Grazie a Te” and Jackie DeShannon’s “When You Walk in the Room” as “C’e Una Strana Espressione Nei Tuoi Occhi” in 1965 that reached numbers 12 and 11 in Italy, respectively. These two hits were followed by their debut album and they had further Top 20 successes in 1966 with “Che Colp Abbiamo Noi” and “E La Pioggia Che Va.” That same year, the Rokes also won second place in a poll of the most popular beat groups in Italy. Their big success and their major impact on the world of rock & roll beyond Italy, however, came when Shapiro co-authored a song called “Piangi Con Me,” a hit for the group in Italy and later released in England by the group as “Let’s Live for Today.” The Rokes’ version was relatively subdued and reflective. It was first covered by a band called the Living Daylights, but it was when the song was picked up by the Grassroots in America and recorded in a more defiant and dramatic fashion than the Rokes’ original . . . that it made a permanent impact on music and American popular culture. That record not only sold more than two million copies, but became one of the most enduring hit singles of its period . . . . The Rokes never benefited from the song’s success in America. Despite releasing several singles in English in England and evolving new sounds with the times, including moving into psychedelia with “When the Wind Arises,” they never charted there. They remained an Italian phenomenon, scoring a number two hit in 1967. They remained in vogue in Italy . . . and continued to chart records there into 1969. By then, the public taste for pop/rock in Italy was changing and the group broke up during the summer of 1970.
American and British pop tunes have been translated into Italian and successfully re-recorded by Milan-based band, Dik Dik. Their many hits included Italian versions of the Mamas And The Papas’ “California Dreaming”, Tim Hardin’s “If I Were A Carpenter” and the Turtles’ “Happy Together”. Taking their name from an African gazelle, known for its jumping ability, Dik Dik was briefly known, in the early-1960s, as Dreamers and Squali. . . . Dik Dik scored an Italian hit with their debut Beatle-esque single, “1-2-3”, in 1966. Although they maintained a low profile in the late-70s and â80s, Dik Dik re-surfaced with a hit single, “Isole In Viaggio”, in 1997.
“Il Vento” was written by Lucio Battisti and Mogol (Giulio Rapetti). Of Battisti, Greg Prato tells us:
Italian singer/songwriter Lucio Battisti . . . was considered among the most legendary and influential musicians and songwriters in Italian rock and pop. . . . Interested in pursuing a career in music, Battisti relocated to Milan (Italy’s musical headquarters), where he sought the aid of a French talent scout, Christine Leroux. Leroux took Battisti under her wing, and he penned three sizeable hits in 1966 for other artists (“Per Una Lira” for Ribelli, “Dolce di Giorno” for Dik Dik, and “Uno in PiĂš” for Riki Maiocchi). Battisti continued to write tunes for others in the late ’60s, as well as issuing his inaugural solo singles. During this time, the U.S. rock group the Grass Roots scored a hit stateside with one of Battisti’s compositions, “Balla Linda.” 1969 saw another one of Battisti’s compositions, “Il Paradiso (If Paradise Is Half as Nice),” become a hit in the U.K. when covered by the group Amen Corner, hitting the number one spot on the singles chart. Bolstered by his songwriting success, Battisti issued his 1969 self-titled debut album, which spawned the Italian hits “Acqua Azzurra, Acqua Chiara” and “Mi Ritorni in Mente.” Battisti continued to release solo albums on a regular basis throughout the ’70s.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,369) George & Beathovens — âVĂc neĹž nicâ/”More than Nothing”
From the ’70 LP KolotoÄ SvÄt/Carousel World, a grand Czech pop rock pocket symphony that would have made Brian Wilson proud — by a band persecuted by the secret police for expressing sympathy for a student who set himself on fire in protest of the Soviet/Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.
As to George and the Beathovens, Petr Gratias writes (courtesy of Google Translate):
George And Beatovens was a Prague big beat group of the sixties, whose name is associated with the singer and composer Petr NovĂĄk. . . . a great big beat lyricist who achieved considerable popularity. In 1967, his composition âKlaunova zpovÄdĂâ scored a hit on the Bratislava Lyra and before his first album he successfully established himself with a number of singles. The group George And Beatovens (mainly Petr NovĂĄk . . . ) was involved in the DubÄek era, and after the tragic [1969 self-immolation] of Jan Palach [a Czech university student protesting the Soviet-led Warsaw Pactâs invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring], NovĂĄk publicly declared that he respected this victim . . . . By secret order of the StB*, the planned concerts of the previously popular group were canceled, which culminated in its involuntary breakup at the beginning of 1972… They mainly presented melodic polyphonic big beat, in which ballads and more striking compositions alternated… Petr NovĂĄk’s return to the general consciousness of the seventies was quite complicated and he was an example of a man who paid to some extent for his human decency, honesty, but also naivety. The last album In the Name of Love was released in 1971 . . . . On the silent and insidious order of the communist power, Petr NovĂĄk and the band were denied the possibility of applying and performing concerts, and the group had to break up without performing regularly. . . . NovĂĄk found himself at the beginning of social uncertainty in the socialist state. For a while he lived on royalties and then the situation became critical. For a while he accepted JiĹĂ SuchĂ˝’s offer to the Semafor theater, but left after one season. He tried to start a group together with the DostĂĄl sisters, which was a very clueless attempt almost of the cafe type. . . . [H]e traveled alone with a guitar in some kind of mini-recitals around clubs and was part of a disco program. A lot of people had already written him off at the time and his future was very uncertain.Before Christmas 1974, he crashed on the road . . . and almost lost his leg. After a longer convalescence, he started working again and in the summer of 1974 he managed to put together a rock group, with which he slowly began to perform concerts in smaller halls.
AleĹĄ Opekar (courtesy of Google Translate) tells of their history:
[A}t the end of 1964 . . . . the new group from Vinohrad was together: Petr NovĂĄk, vocals and backing guitar, Michal Burian, lead guitar, Karel Sluka, bass guitar and vocals, Ivo Plicka lyrics, accordion and JiĹĂ JirĂĄsek, drums. The Beatles name proved awkward. . . . [As] they also admired bands such as Gerry & the Peacemakers or Freddie & the Dreamers. . . . it occurred to them that they could also be “something & something'”. They chose the group’s first name benjaminka, translated it into English, and as the second part used a funny anagram of the name of the famous Beethoven in the spirit of ‘Beetles – Beatles’. . . . In addition to covers of the Beatles, Gerry & the Peacemakers or Hollies sung in English, the original NovĂĄk and Plick songs were also heard this time. During 1965, JiĹĂ and Miroslava ÄernĂ˝ch’s radio program . . . which served as a foreign and domestic hit parade, was already running, determined by listeners’ responses. The boys from Vinohrad brought their amateur recorded demos to Mr. ÄernĂĄ and the result was surprising. The song “I’ll walk on tiptoe” saw a total of fifteen starts . . . . The band was suddenly famous . . . .The[n] departures for the [army] came. In autumn 1965, Michal Burian enlisted . . . [then] Karel Sluka . . . . That was actually the end of the first stage of George & Beatovens . . . . Petr NovĂĄk . . . spent two seasons at the Maringotka theater with Zuzana KoÄovĂĄ as an actor-student. He did not return to finish his studies, because in the meantime he joined the newly established group Flamengo, so some of his and Plick’s potential hits were professionally recorded only with the new group. . . . . The reconstituted [George & Beathovens] premiered in August 1967. . . . The group now consisted of: Petr NovĂĄk â vocals, JiĹĂ JirĂĄsek â drums, Miroslav Helcl on organ, Jirka ÄĂĹžek on bass and  Jaroslav BednĂĄĹ on guitar. Jarda BednĂĄĹ was replaced in January 1968 by the band’s former guitarist Donald ZdenÄk JuraÄka . The repertoire of George & Beatovens consisted of compositions by NovĂĄk and Plicka. Petr was able to give Plick’s lyrics the right melody. And by doing so, he increased the communication of dreamy and enamored, naive and poetic, naively adolescent texts for the teenage generation of boys and girls. The group successfully gave concerts around the country and in December they already played the 1st Czechoslovak Beat festival. However, it did not make it onto the Supraphon record. At concerts and finally on Panton’s records, it was a series of one hit after another . . . . [T]the group was performing concerts all over the country and everything was going like clockwork. . . . But the “allied armies” of the surrounding socialist states, led by the army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, stepped in . . . . and after the occupation of Czechoslovakia, the situation on the rock scene began to change radically. At the end of the summer, not only ZdenÄk JuraÄka left the group. Before him, Mirek Helcl left for the Rebels. And so JuraÄka followed Korn into the changed The Rebels, following Kadlec, Helcle and Kohout. . . . But the manager of Beatovens had a deal . . . in Finland, so he immediately accepted VladimĂr MiĹĄĂk , who was then absent, in JuraÄek’s place. The group toured Finland together with the Finnish singer Anki. They recorded a single for the Swedish company Sonet records . . . . But MiĹĄĂk didn’t like that kind of music, so he left George & Beatovens again. That was in the fall of 1968. then the guitarist Miroslav DudĂĄÄek came in his place. That was a completely different personality than MiĹĄĂk. Jan Farmer Obermayer also joined the group at that time. The overall sound of the group thus acquired a different sound. Obermayer was a skilled arranger, and DudĂĄÄek over time also began to assert his musical views. The situation began to get out of Petr NovĂĄk’s hands in the band, and Petr stopped singing songs with lyrics that appealed to his audience. . . . In 1970 George & Beatovens released their first LP. . . . Carousel World. . . . Every song is excellent. . . . The themes of the lyrics are no longer simple love songs. The titles themselves suggest that these are complicated and thoughtful poems. But the listeners were dissatisfied, because they did not expect this from NovĂĄk. They wanted to hear simpler love songs. . . . In the same year, George & Beatovens recorded another LP . . . . It was titled In the Name of Love. . . . Even though the album was received very positively by the critics, even though the listeners and fans of the band immediately bought the record, it was not played on the radio at the time, and when it was, it was extremely rare. . . . And there is a new breakup of the band. Obermayer wrote not exactly the right songs for NovĂĄk. He was preparing for a solo career. . . . And DudĂĄÄek also had great ambitions to promote himself as a solo artist. And so George & Beatovens broke up again and for good.
State Security (Czech: StĂĄtnĂ bezpeÄnost, Slovak: Ĺ tĂĄtna bezpeÄnosĹĽ) or StB / Ĺ tB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it dealt with any activity that was considered opposition to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the state.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 900 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelationsđ 