I love Oasis to death, but Noel has been known to “borrow.” See, e.g.,

I don’t buy some of the examples in this video “expose,” but you have to be an idiot to hear “How Sweet to Be an Idiot” and not say “wait a second . . . .” The late great Neil Innes wasn’t an idiot, and successfully sued for royalties and co-songwriting credit on “Whatever.”

Now, let’s look at two songs from today’s edition of “now for the songs.” First, Thomas and Richard Frost’s “If I Can’t Be Your Lover” and, second, Dick Domane’s “Bad Dream.”

209) Thomas and Richard Frost — “If I Can’t Be Your Lover”

Bryan Thomas says that by 1970:

Thomas and Richard Frost had already recorded a handful of classic pop singles for Imperial and Liberty, including “She’s Got Love,” which charted at number 83 on Billboard’s Top 100 singles chart. Each subsequent single was a step further toward what was sure to be their artistic tour de force [but] plans to release [the Visualize] album were inexplicably aborted in the 11th hour by Imperial’s decision-makers, even though the master recordings were already in the can . . . . Imperial was in disarray, and the Frosts were, unfortunately, victimized by what was going on behind the scenes.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/visualise-mw0000340917

Thomas goes on to say that Visualize “turns out to be not just a lost classic from the late ’60s, but a sublime and stunning ‘soft pop’ wonder. ” Yup. The album wasn’t rediscovered and released until 2002.

Richard Frost said that they had to put “If You Won’t Be My Lover,” written by their producer Ted Glasser and singer Vic Dana, on the album as a favor (liner notes to Visualize). Well, it may have been a bigger favor to Noel Gallagher. Knowing Noel, any similarity to “All Around the World” — especially the “la la la la la la” outro — is intentional – except Visualize wasn’t released until ‘02, five years after the release of Be Here Now. Case closed. Or is it?

Here is “All Around the World”:

210) Dick Domane — “Bad Dream”

I don’t know much about Dick, but he seems to have come from Rhode Island and been in a band called the Blue Jays. “Bad Dream” is from his eponymous ’70 album. It is a stunning song, and sort of sounds like every Oasis song ever recorded. Which Oasis song(s) does it most remind you of? I can find no evidence that Noel had ever listened to this album, but, well, you be the judge.

211) Thomas and Richard Frost — “She’s Got Love”

This super-classic song does not sound like Oasis, but it actually got released in the decade it was recorded – and reached #83 in November of ‘69.

Richard Frost said that the song was actually the demo, “sweetened” with strings and horns. He went on to say that it “was written about a model we saw in a girlie magazine” who they then happened to see hitchhiking in LA and offered a ride (Visualize liner notes).

206) Annie Philippe — “Pas de Taxi”

Bouncy ‘67 single by the protege of Paul “Love Is Blue” Mauriat.

In the song, a young lady is considering getting into a car driven by a not-handsome man because it is cold outside. Suddenly, a taxi arrives and saves her. The “morale: when you’re not very handsome, you have to have a car.” In any event, Uber should scoop up this song for a commercial.

207) The Honeybus — “Black Mourning Band”

Another lovely song by the Honeybus, from the band’s sort of post-breakup ’70 album, which was “not so much released, as escaped: Decca gave it no promotion . . . and hardly surprisingly, it didn’t do any business” (liner notes to the comp Honeybus at Their Best).

208) The Dave Clark 5 — “When”

The DC5’s ballads were criminally underrated, including this ‘65 album track, which proclaimed “all you need is love” two years before the Beatles!

203) Los Mac’s — “F.M. Y Cia”

From Chile’s Sgt. Pepper’s. The Rising Storm says that:

[The song] ha[s] what may be strident left-wing political lyrics [but] the vocals are pretty unintelligible, so it’s hard to say whether this is in fact a scathing indictment of United States media control in Chile or just another teenybopper love song.

http://therisingstorm.net/los-macs-kaleidoscope-men/

204) Vashti Bunyan — “Train Song”

Vashti is now of course famous for being obscure, for “I’d Like to Walk Around in Your Mind” and for the Just Another Diamond Day album. But this ‘66 A-side is equally stunning. And the lyrics were really written by a man Vashti met on a train. Alisdair Clayre was “terribly uncool” as she remembers and would leave her poems inside milk bottles (liner notes to Dream Babes Vol. 5).

205) The Scandal — “Girl, You’re Goin’ Out a My Mind”

‘67 A-side. When compilers as fastidious as the Fading Yellow crew can only say “no info available,” you know this is obscure garage rock!

200) Justine — “She Brings the Morning with Her”

Melody Maker called this ’70 A-side “balm to the ears.” Yup.

Johnkatsmc5 says:

An odd British psych folk band comprised at their peak of three female vocalists and a couple male guitar players . . . American West Coast acid pop combined with rather staid English contemporary folk, and blended with plenty of obvious psych influences. The result was an engaging blend of sounds . . . . The star of the band was American vocalist Laurie Styvers . . . . Justine were short-lived and quickly forgotten, but the band did manage to put out one really charming and intoxicating record, especially if you’re one of those kind of people who love the late sixties/early seventies West Coast pop sound (which of course had more than a little psych sprinkled in it). 

https://johnkatsmc5.blogspot.com/2017/02/justine-justine-1970-usuk-psych-acid.html?m=1

201) The Easybeats — “Sorry”

If you had Friday on your mind, sorry. This raucous ‘66 single by the non-Aussies from Australia came first, and as the Nuggets II comp said, to “brilliant, spine-tingling effect.”

202) Tom Parrott — “Hole in the Ground”

Tom Parrott was a frequent contributor to Broadside Magazine in the 1960s (a key publication of the folk revival, founded in the year I was born and published on a mimeograph machine). “Hole in the Ground” is from his ‘68 album. In my opinion, it was the best Vietnam War song of the era, neither self-righteous nor bombastic, simply heartbreaking, whatever side you were on or would have been on.

197) West Coast Experimental Pop Art Band — “Help, I’m a Rock”

Mark Deming says that:

“[WCEPAB was o]ne of the more offbeat acts to emerge during the psychedelic era . . . eclectic and ambitious enough to live up to their slightly clumsy moniker, capable of jumping from graceful folk-rock to wailing guitar freakouts to atonal, multilayered, avant-garde compositions at a moment’s notice . . . .”

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-west-coast-pop-art-experimental-band-mn0000482572/biography

“Help” was a ‘67 single, a zany cover of a Frank Zappa song, that “flung them into freakier pastures”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/part-one-mw0000010251)

Here is Zappa’s original:

198) Focal Point — “Lonely Woman”

Another lovely song by Focal Point — the band did no other kind.

199) Please — “Seeing Stars”

Please starred Peter Dunton (ex-Neon Pearl, the Flies and Gun and later in T2). The Aquarian Drunkard says that:

“Almost everything about the life and career of Peter Dunton is a little bit hazy. Part of that is due to his ‘chronic lack of success’ . . . . [He] dabbl[ed] in mildly notable late-’60s psych groups . . . . By far his best work from this time came with the group Please, who languished, failing to release any recordings until Acme started doing so in the late ’90s. . . . Seeing Stars[, the compilation album, was] a surprise stunner of organ-driven, hyper-melodic psych-pop. . . . [It] in particular makes it clear just how much of a shame it is that Dunton wasn’t able to reach more listeners in his time . . . .”

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2019/04/04/please-seeing-stars/

194) Les Irresistibles — “My Year Is a Day”

‘68 single by the American band, formed while living in Paris the prior year. The song is an English cover version of Dalida’s dramatic “Dans la Ville Endormie” and was their biggest success. It was released in the U.S. under the band name Arch of Triumph.

Here is Dalida’s version:

195) Omega — “Gyöngyhajú Lány”

Yuri German calls Omega “the most successful Hungarian rock band in history.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/omega-mn0001073347/biography) Oh, I thought that honor belonged to György Ligeti. In any event, Gyöngyhajú lány” (“The Girl With Pearls in Her Hair”) became their first international hit in ‘69 and was especially popular in Eastern Europe. It was later adapted by the Scorpions and sampled by Kanye West (the latter leading to a legal settlement).

In the ‘90’s, the Scorpions transformed it into “White Dove”:

196) Ola and the Janglers — “That’s Why I Cry”

This was a ‘67 B-side in the UK by the Stockholm band. Guitarist Claes af Geijerstam was later in Nova, which won the Swedish part of the Eurovision song contest in 1973, beating out ABBA!

191) Johnnie Taylor — “Watermelon Man”

The Philosopher of Soul pours some soul into Herbie Hancock’s composition on this track from his ’67 album. Alex Henderson says that “[a]dding lyrics [to] Herbie Hancock’s ‘Watermelon Man,’ Taylor removes the song’s jazz elements and turns it into pure Southern R&B.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/wanted-one-soul-singer-mw0000674917)

192) The Paupers — “Think I Care”

’67 single by the Canadian band, once hyped by Albert Grossman as the next Beatles, was at least a decade ahead of its time. It would have been a big hit for the ’77-79 Talking Heads.

Single version:

Album version:

193) The Eyes — “When the Night Falls” 

’65 single, the first by the West London band. Richie Unterberger says that the Eyes’s “clutch of singles . . . stand up to the Who’s work from the same era in their blend of extremely innovative guitar feedback/ distortion and anthemic mod songwriting.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-eyes-mn0000060128/biography)

188) Them — “I Can Only Give You Everything”

Them, actually Him – Van Morrison ‘66. The Nuggets II comp says that the single possesses a “magnificent, soul-stirring vocal, spawning a thousand garage-band imitators.”

189) The Brigands — “Would I Still Be (Her Big Man)”

Richie Unterberger in All Music Guide calls this April ‘65 B-side:

[An] outstanding and unusual 1966 garage band single. In addition to a good fuzz riff, the usual staple of many a 45 in the genre, there were also fairly involved lyrics espousing a working-class perspective . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-brigands-mn0000521735

Contrary to rumor, Bruce Springsteen was never in this band!

190) The Elastik Band — “In a Family Tree”

The SanFran area band’s ‘68 B-side is quite a change from their (in)famous A-side “Spazz.” Here, the band shows off its sensitive side.

185) Gabor Szabo and the California Dreamers — “A Day in the Life”

Yes, that “A Day in the Life”! Douglas Payne says that:

[The album by the Hungarian guitarist] celebrates much of what was important to [him] — the new world of rock music, the lure of California and the hope and inspiration of the “Summer of Love.” But, at best, it’s an ill-conceived jazz-rock concoction. . . . terrible vocalists, corny arrangements and occasional hints of Szabo’s unique playing.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-wind-the-sky-and-diamonds-mw0000909559

Well, I love it!

186) The Caravelles — “New York”

B-side of “Hey Mama You’ve Been on My Mind” (#139). The London girls’ ‘67 song is a paean to NYC. Not to be in an Empire State of mind, but Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, you got some ‘splainin’ to do!

Alicia Keys: “Now you’re in New York these streets will make you feel brand new big lights will inspire you.”

The Caravelles: “Not since he went to New York, the noisy streets are, the music is . . . . your head is lighter there, the lights are brighter here in New York.”

187) The Sons of Adam — “Take My Hand”

First (‘65) of 3 singles by the Sunset Strip legends – including future Blue Cheerer Randy Holden.

182) Smokey Robinson and the Miracles — “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”

Off his ‘70 album of “wedding” songs. As Andrew Hamilton says:

A stunning concept album . . . that should have fared better. . . . Every selection is a wedding song, and Smokey caresses the lyrics like they were newborns. The heavenly harmonies of the Miracles . . . touch the soul. When they sing Brenda Holloway’s “You Made Me So Very Happy,” you don’t just hear the words; for five minutes and four seconds you experience what lovers feel.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/what-love-hasjoined-together-mw0000654817

183) The Alan Price Set — “The House that Jack Built”

This music hall-inspired song by the Animals’s original organist reached #4 in the UK in August of ‘67.

184) Shadows of Knight — “Bad Little Woman”

Off the second album in ‘66 by the Chicago garage rockers. It reached #91 in September. Bruce Eder calls it a “raunchy anthem[] to teenage lust.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/back-door-men-mw0000041183) Yup.

180) The Orange Seaweed — “Pictures in the Sky”

B-side of the English group’s only single in April of ‘68. Dazzling pop-psych.

181) Willie Mitchell — “That Driving Beat”

Grooving ‘66 song by trumpeter/bandleader (and later force behind Al Green) Mitchell.

177) Dr. John — “Mama Roux”

Off of Dr. John’s debut album Gris-Gris (’68) — which Gabe Soria calls “the spookiest album ever recorded” (https://www.trunkworthy.com/dr-johns-gris-gris-spooks-us-the-hell-out/) — “Mama Roux” is a song that Alison Fensterstock described in Rolling Stone as a “co-composition with local New Orleans R&B star Jessie Hill” that is “spooky [and] snaky” and that “[w]ith incantatory background vocals that seem composed to invoke a spirit . . . ‘Mama Roux’ is deeply, funkily New Orleans . . . .” (https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/dr-john-essential-songs-845549/)

What does all this mean? I have no idea, but this online discussion is enlightening: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/move-he-fast-for-the-medicine-man-vernacular-english.2695324/

178) The Koobas — “Barricades”

The Liverpool band opened for the Beatles but couldn’t chart and split just as its sole LP came out (‘69), including this stunning raver featuring “thundering bass, ghostly voices, wild guitar and venomous sound effects” (Rubble comp).

179) The Jelly Bean Bandits — “Say Mann”

When asked by Psychedelic Baby Magazine in 2018 as to whether “there [was] a certain concept behind the album,” keyboardist Michael Raab of the upstate NY band said “[t]he concept was to write enough tunes to fill an LP, and write in a hurry. When Mainstream signed us we told them that we had 12 tunes ready to go. The truth was we had 3 . . . .” (psychedelicbabymag.com/2018/04/the-jelly-bean-bandits-interview-wi.html). Refreshingly honest and cheeky! The band wrote the rest of the album’s tracks in a week and recorded them all within 12 hours.

175) The Bread and Beer Band — “Mellow Yellow”

Groovy cover of Donovan by Elton John’s first band.

“The album was planned for June of 1969, but cancelled, and the band put out on their own label in a handmade sleeve. . . . Reginald Dwight was enlisted by aspiring producer Tony King to join what the latter envisioned as a studio band along the lines of the great Motown sections of the past. . . . According to King . . . . only one disc, an acetate presented to Elton on his last birthday, is in existence. ‘When I played it for Elton on his birthday,’ said King, ‘I thought It would be God-awful. We were surprised to find that it was half-decent. But everybody who played on it still likes it.’”

http://allmusic-wingsofdream.blogspot.com/2008/02/bread-and-beer-band-bread-and-beer-band.html

176) The Voice — “Train to Disaster”

The UK band’s only single (‘67) – “three minutes of guitar driven mayhem” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited). The song seems strangely timely.

172) The Plastic Cloud — “Art’s a Happy Man”

Sole album (‘68) by the Canadian folk-rockers. Expose yourself to Art.

173) Matthews Southern Comfort — “Something in the Way She Moves”

No, not George Harrison’s song, but Iain Matthews’s (former lead singer of Fairport Convention). The song, off MSC’s ‘69 Second Spring album, has the wisest and most self-aware rock lyrics about love and mental well-being I have ever heard.

174) Randy Newman — “Mama Told Me Not to Come”

Yeah, Randy wrote it. Three Dog Night took the song to #1 the same year (‘70).

169) Georgie Fame — “Seventh Son”

Georgie’s version of Willie Dixon’s oft-covered classic reached #25 in the UK in December of ‘69. The video is such a guilty pleasure!

Here is Dixon’s version:

170) Paul Jones — “Tarzan etc.”

From the ex-Manfred Mann lead singer’s ’67 solo album.

171) The Music Machine — “Come on In”

The B-side to “Talk, Talk,” the justly legendary garage rocker that hit #15 in the U.S. in November ‘66. Sean Bonniwell told Richie Unterberger that “Come on In” was recorded in one take and was originally to have been the single’s A-side. I think the mesmerizing song is just as good as “Talk, Talk.” Bonniwell done to a fare-thee-well.

166) Gloria Jones — “Heartbeat”

The original “Tainted Love” singer and Marc Bolan girlfriend belts out this Ed Cobb (producer of the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband) song.

Here she is on Where the Action Is from October ’66:

Here’s the single:

167) Gordon Lightfoot — “The Way I Feel”

From Lightfoot’s first album (an electric version on his 2nd album reached #36 in his native Canada). A man abandoned.

168) Bill Jerpe — “Help Me Home”

Hypnotic folk-rock recorded by the Hudson Valley, NY, singer (and former “next Bob Dylan”) in a hotel room and self-released in ‘70.

As Charlie Farmer says:

“The legends surrounding a cult classic often outstrip the music’s realities. Perhaps an album remains a ‘Best Record You’ve Never Heard’ mainstay simply because it’s rare, a collector’s way of flexing muscle. A less cynical take understands that the truth can’t compete with decades of word-of-mouth hyperbole or the expectations we’ve created as we cultivate our want lists. . . . Fortunately, there are holy grails like Bill Jerpe’s long-obscure self-titled release . . . that justify the mythology.

http://therockasteria.blogspot.com/2021/12/bill-jerpe-bill-jerpe-1970-us-beautiful.html

163) Golden Earring — “Daddy Buy Me a Girl”

‘66 single, appropriate for a band named Golden Earring. A real Dutch treat!

164) Jackie Lomax — “Sour Milk Sea”

George Harrison wrote “Sour Milk Sea” as an advert for transcendental meditation (which the Beatles picked up in Rishikesh). Such a great song, and it didn’t make it onto the White Album . . . likely because of Lennon and McCartney’s White (Album) Privilege!

The song was a first in so many ways. . . . It was Jackie Lomax’s debut Apple single . . . It was one of Apple’s first shot of four singles, including “Hey Jude” and “Those Were the Days.” . . . It was the first song George Harrison gave away. . . . It was the first song not by a Beatle that three Beatles (Harrison, McCartney, and Starr) played on.

And yet, the song didn’t chart in the UK and only reached #117 in the U.S. in September ’68. Could be because it was overshadowed by “Jude” and “Days,” and because the song was a bit hectoring. Hmmm . . . Almost seems like it belongs in Dr. Seuss’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”

George Harrison’s demo:

The Beatles’s take on the song:

165) The Creation –”How Does It Feel to Feel”

The Nuggets II comp calls the ’68 single, supposedly written in five minutes, an “amazing sensory assault [with] monstrous, shuddering guitar chords[, a] heavy bass crunch, and some mind-bending vocal harmonies.”

160) The Chocolate Watchband — “Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love In)”

‘67 single by the garage rock legends – they put it together in one day for the teen-ploitation classic The Love-Ins. IMDb describes the movie: “A college professor resigns in protest to the dismissal of student underground newspaper workers and later joins their ‘hippie movement’ and becomes their ‘Messiah.’” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061922/)

As the trailer, featuring the song, asks: “Have you ever wondered what’s it like to take a trip on an LSD sugar cube?”

https://youtu.be/8F-NowixBfA

161) Boudewijn de Groot — “Cinderella”

From the Dutch superstar’s ‘68 album Picknick, a sort-of retelling of the Cinderella tale.

162) The Standells — “Riot on the Sunset Strip”

‘67 single was the theme song of another classic teen-ploitation film – Riot on Sunset Strip. IMDb describes: “LA police captain attempts to appease Sunset Strip businessmen objecting to hippy youths hanging out, by setting a curfew. The cop also thinks the kids have a right to be there, until his estranged daughter joins the counter-culture crowd.” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062203/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2)

The trailer proclaims: “Come on, get with it. Let’s go to a freak-out. . . . The most shocking film of our generation.”

157) Michel Polnareff — “Le Bal des Laze”

Dark masterpiece by Michel with lyrics were by Pierre Delanoë — a commoner has an affair with an aristocrat and is to be hanged for murdering her fiancé.

158) The Brogues — “I Ain’t No Miracle Worker”

The Nuggets comp calls this November ‘65 B-side from the San Joaquin Valley band a “near perfect 60s punk record.” The band’s singer and drummer would later form Quicksilver Messenger Service.

159) Robbi Curtice — “When Diana Paints the Picture”

‘68 B-side by Rob Ashmore. As he explains in a YouTube note:

“Despite much initial hype and optimism, the original production was flawed and so not accepted for release by the UK record companies. So the single was released in USA only, with ‘Soul of a Man’, originally intended as the B side, promoted to the A side. It sold well on the West coast of USA.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CQKdSsseKY

154) Kaleidoscope — “The Sky Children”

From the British psychsters’s ‘67 album, “a fairytale dream” full of “whimsical lyrics” (per Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited). It’s a close call, you be the judge:

155) Duncan Browne — “On the Bombsite”

’68 single (with lyrics by David Bretton) from an album that the CD reissue calls “an achingly beautiful compendium of ornate chamber pop wispiness . . . lyrical pretensions and Browne’s plangent, folk-derived melodies.” Yup.

Andrew Loog Oldham said that Browne was “one of the artists I was proudest to stand in a room with and watch evolve.” Oh, and to try to squeeze for £2,000 in “recording expenses” when in desperate need of cash. Yes, yet another victim of Immediate Records’s financial implosion.

156) The Merry-Go-Round — “Live”

The MGR’s March ‘67 single reached #63 and was a really big hit in LA. Led by Emitt Rhodes, with his “precocious songcraft and McCartney-esque vocals” (Mark Deming in All Music Guide), the MGR were “teen pop/rock prodigies who combined British invasion pop melodies with Baroque pop studio polish” (Richie Unterberger in AMG).