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

Sandy Coast — “I See Your Face Again”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 25, 2024

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

1,219) Sandy Coast — “I See Your Face Again”

This soaring ballad, a ‘68 A-side from Voorburg’s own Sandy Coast Skiffle Group, no make that Sandy Coast Five, no make that Sandy Coast Rockers, jeez, just call them the Sandy Coast (see #236), was the band’s first big hit in the Netherlands, reaching #12.

LastFM tells us that:

Sandy Coast was a beat/rock/pop band from Voorburg, The Netherlands, fronted by Hans Vermeulen. . . . [who] formed The Sandy Coast Skiffle Group in Voorburg in 1961, aged 14. With the name abbreviated to Sandy Coast the group got a recording contract . . . in 1965. Their début single, 1965’s “Subject Of My Thoughts”, failed to chart but is now regarded as an early ‘Nederbeat’ gem. Début album, And Their Name Is . . . Sandy Coast (1967), featured a melodic brand of sixties beat, 1968’s From the Workshop was a bluesy, psychedelic album, whereas Shipwreck (1969) was an ambitious concept album about a shipwreck in 1739. The biggest Sandy Coast chart hits of the 1960s were “I See Your Face Again” (1968) and “Capital Punishment” (1969), both of which hit #12 in the Dutch Top 40. Sandy Coast’s greatest chart success came in the 1970s, when the group had developed a more radio-friendly sound, akin to the the “west coast sound” of California. 1971’s ‘True Love That’s A Wonder’ became their biggest Dutch hit (#3) and the self-titled Sandy Coast album a big seller.

https://www.last.fm/music/Sandy+Coast/+wiki

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The Outsiders — “Do You Feel Alright”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 24, 2024

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

1,218) The Outsiders — “Do You Feel Alright”

The Outsiders (see #615, 664) were “Holland’s greatest beat/punk group . . . . [w]ith their unheard-of long hair and wild stage presence . . . in a class by itself [with] a weird combination of folk, R&B and punk.” (Jeff Jarema and Jim Wynand, https://hightimes.com/culture/dutch-punk-in-the-1960s/) They gave us this “inspired rocker with an amazing pounding sound” (Patrick “Gullbuy”, http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-outsiders-strange-things-are.html?m=1), “a superb 45 . . . based on a friend of [singer Wally] Tax who terrorized his rich father for money!” (Richard Mason, https://www.furious.com/perfect/outsiders.html) Compare that to Dutch superstars the Golden Earrings, who simply asked daddy to buy them a girl! (see #163)

Mason adds that: “[T]he lyrics are superb, including a bizarre reference to Roger Moore, and the music is its equal, the feature here being [Ronald] Splinter’s exemplary lead guitar”. He even threatens that “The Outsiders were one of the all-time greats of rock music and anyone who says different had better be outside in the car park in 10 minutes. I’ll be waiting.”!!! I think he’s going to need Perry Mason.

Mark Deming tells us:

The Amsterdam-based combo were one of the most popular homegrown bands in the Netherlands from 1965 to 1967, and have since become a favorite among historians of the beat music era; Richie Unterberger wrote that the Outsiders “could issue a serious claim for consideration as the finest rock band of the ’60s to hail from a non-English-speaking nation[.]”. The Outsiders were formed in 1964 by Wally Tax (vocals and rhythm guitar), Ronald Splinter (lead guitar), Appie Rammers (bass), and Lendert “Buzz” Busch (drums); the band embraced an eclectic style that made room for R&B, folk-rock, pop, and beat influences, as well as psychedelic accents as the decade wore on. . . . the Outsiders disbanded in 1969.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-outsiders-mn0001620705/biography

Mason again:

This was an extraordinary, incomparable group who’ve remained unduly neglected for too long. . . . Their following was as committed and wild as their music and stage act, with the result that the band and their fans were banned from several Dutch venues. . . . [T]hey had supported (and, according to Tax, blew off stage) The Rolling Stones . . . .

https://www.furious.com/perfect/outsiders.html

Live:

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Group 1850 — “Mother No Head”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 23, 2024

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

1,217) Group 1850 — “Mother No Head”

“Frere Jacques” freakout from the delightfully unhinged Group 1850 (see #516), whose “thoroughly weird[]-sounding contenders for infamy upon the [Netherlands’] singles charts . . . includ[e] the disquieting, almost Zappa/Mothers-esque (ahem) ‘Mother No Head’ . . . . [full of] hugely experimental, forward-thinking, heavy song ideas”. (Lenny Helsing, https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2019/09/group-1850-purple-sky-the-complete-works-and-more-2019.html) Ashratom ponders “why the psychedelic era had so much infatuation with the French nursery rhyme Frere Jacques”, noting that “[a]pparently the name [Mother No-Head] is a bastardization of the Dutch ‘Vader Jacob’ with some free association to English”. (rateyourmusic.com/release/single/group-1850/mother-no-head-ever-ever-green/)

Popsike raves:

Constantly changing, constantly evolving, Group 1850 were musical extremists on a do-or-die mission to explode all expectations. Sparks flew, ideas flared, feedback swirled through misty nights, the dead walked, skeletons danced, flies buzzed, mountains fell, words rained fire from angry purple skies. Group 1850 raised all kinds of Hell. My god, were they good. Although the group made two deservedly revered albums, Agemos Trip to Mother Earth (1968) and Paradise Now (1969), some of their best work can be found on their singles, where their borderline insane hyper-creativity was focused into highly-concentrated, radically potent three-minute songs like . . . “Mother No-Head”.

https://www.popsike.com/GROUP-1850-MOTHER-NOHEAD-THEIR-45S-2-LPspsychdelic-RockPseudonymfoc/282415685698.html

As does Lenny Helsing:

Between 1966 and 1976 Group 1850 blazed an unforgettable path across the Dutch music scene. With mercurial singer/keyboardist Peter Sjardin at the helm, they made some of the most dark, daring, strange, subversive, mind-altering, barrier-smashing progressive music of the era.

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2019/06/group-1850-interview.html

Richie Unterberger adds:

Group Eighteen Fifty is an interesting, if sometimes exasperating, late-’60s Dutch band who ranks among the most accomplished and original Continental rock acts of the era, though they made little impression in English-speaking territories. Starting as a more or less conventional beat band in the mid-’60s, they had taken a turn for the more psychedelic and bizarre by 1967. Determined to drive into the heart of the psychedelic beast, their songs (performed in English) are quite eclectic for the era, shifting from doom-laden tempos with growling vocals to sunny, utopian passages with breezy harmonies. The group could be roughly labeled as a mixture of the early Mothers of Invention . . . and Pink Floyd without much of a sense of humor; their songs are intriguing and not without powerful hooks, and the lyrics ambitious (if often inscrutable) . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/group-1850-mn0000536530/biography

Drummer Beer Klaasse reminisces that:

One event was very influential in particular on Peter Sjardin. It was in 1967 in Paradiso, Amsterdam. That night, Pink Floyd performed in Paradiso and we were asked to be their support act and now 52 years later I recall every second of that evening! Because we were support act, we could stand on stage, so when Pink Floyd was playing, I stood two meters behind them and saw and heard everything that happened that evening. It’s one very special evening in my life . . . .

When I joined the band they were totally clean, not even a beer, but than we met a group of Dutch poets who were a few years older and performed with jazz and poetry, but they wanted to do, Beat and Poetry with us and one of them gave us our first blow and haha, now 55 years later I still like it. But LSD and other psychoactive substances none of us use. . . .

Shortly after the opening night of Paradiso in Amsterdam on the 30th of March 1968 [same concert mentioned above?], we were supporting act of Pink Floyd. The dressing rooms in those days were behind the stage down the stairs in the cellar of the building. And while Pink Floyd were performing, we came upstairs and stood on stage two meters behind them watching them. Can you imagine what an experience that was for us?! On that night we were inspired by Pink Floyd and we slowly started to change our music, we started to improvise more since that night and our songs became longer. . . . On the 24th of September 1967 we had another spectacular gig in Amsterdam in “The Concertgebouw”. On that night we were supporting act of Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention . . . . One year later we supported at “The Concertgebouw” in Amsterdam another special musician. We were the support act for Janis Joplin!!!

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2019/06/group-1850-interview.html

By the way, Klaasse explains how the band got its name:

Before I joined the band, they already existed and called themselves “The Klits”. On the first of January 1966 they asked Hugo Gordijn to become their manager and he decided that they need another name, because “The Klits” went to far according to Hugo. The singer, Peter Sjardin, had an old watch from his grandfather with the year 1850 engraved on it and they decided to call themselves Groep (is dutch for group) 1850. . . .

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Boudewijn de Groot — “Voor De Overlevenden”/ “For the Survivors”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 22, 2024

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

1,216) Boudewijn de Groot — “Voor De Overlevenden”/“For the Survivors”

The Dutch Master Boudewijn de Groot (and I’m not talking about cigars) is a “[t]roubadour with a Dylan-esque impact, who shoots to fame in [the Netherlands in] the ’60s and ’70s” (https://en.muziekencyclopedie.nl/action/entry/Boudewijn+de+Groot) (see #107, 161, 305, 989). As to this beautiful track and the album of the same name from which I take it, de Groot recalls (courtesy of Google Translate):

Unattainable love, the eternal theme and subject of many highlights, especially in literature, has always been a source of inspiration for Lennaert [Nijgh, his frequent lyricist]. He met her in the Waagtaveerne . . . . Her name was Joke and she had long blond hair and dreamy eyes. But she was unreachable and a few years later she would move permanently to England. . . . [H]e dedicated a complete song cycle to her and called it ‘For the Survivors’. Not all songs are about her, but they all come from the same feeling. The cycle, and thus the album, is dedicated to her. . . . [T]he feeling from which he wrote the text was, as he once put it, ‘a feeling from six floors out the window’. Mainly despair, despair and longing. And both of those concepts set the tone of the entire record, from ‘For the Survivors’ to ‘Do You Know That Country’. It also somewhat foreshadows what would erupt in full force a year later: the mysticism and ‘shangri-la’ of the flower power era. . . . Our method was simple. Lennaert wrote a text, I pinned it to the wall, stood in front of it with my Spanish guitar and whistled a melody, I put it on a tape . . . then I waited for the next text, after which the ritual was repeated; When everything was on the tape, I took it to Tony Vos, who said it was beautiful; then we went to Bert Paige, where we played the tape. Then I explained to Bert how the arrangement should be, uttering shouts such as “here twelve trombones and there six cellos and then a male choir” and I occasionally whistled something when I knew what an instrument should play. . Finally, I gave him the texts, after which Tony and I left, probably leaving Bert in despair. Our arranger would disappear into his office, sit behind the piano or writing desk and come up with one beautiful arrangement after another. He was responsible for at least three quarters of the atmosphere, feeling and expressiveness of our repertoire.

https://www.boudewijndegroot.nl/component/discografie/?id=2

As to de Groot through the 60s (courtesy of Google Translate):

Boudewijn de Groot was born on May 20, 1944 in the Japanese internment camp Kramat in Batavia (now Jakarta) ithe former Dutch East Indies. A few months later . . . the family was transferred without the father to the Tjideng women’s camp . . . where his mother died . . . . In May 1946, Boudewijn left for the Netherlands with his father, sister and brother, where he lived with an aunt in Haarlem. . . . Lennaert Nijgh, a school friend of Boudewijn’s stepbrother . . . also lived in the same street. . . . In 1961 . . . both of them were interested in film. After graduating, Boudewijn began studying at the Dutch Film Academy in Amsterdam . . . . In 1963 Lennaert wrote and directed a short 8 mm feature film . . . . Boudewijn played the role of troubadour, for which he wrote two songs himself. The video was shown at home and the then newsreader Ed Lautenslager was present at one of those performances. He was particularly impressed by the two songs, especially the singing and the music, and he advised the pair to do something together in that direction: Lennaert the lyrics, Boudewijn music and singing. Lautenslager was able to arrange a recording through a relationship with the record company Phonogram. Four songs were recorded there . . . . [and] were released on two singles, both of which flopped, but did result in an invitation to the television program “Nieuwe Organisatie” . . . . Boudewijn won first prize from the professional jury. . . . The record company tried to achieve success by combining the two singles and releasing them on an EP . . . . When there turned out to be no market for that either, producer Tony Vos presented Boudewijn with a choice: quit or record a commercial song. For the latter, Tony had ‘Une enfant’ by Aznavour in mind. After much hesitation and with great reluctance, Boudewijn agreed to this, after which Lennaert provided a Dutch translation. The single was released and became a success. After working for a year and a half as a warehouse clerk . . . to support his family . . . Boudewijn was finally able to make a living from his career as a singer. After the success of ‘A girl of sixteen’ [see #305], an LP was . . . put together . . . including ‘Good night, Mr. President’. . . an indictment of the war in Vietnam . . . [and] . . . President Lyndon B. Johnson[. It] was released as a single in ’66 and was the first self-penned hit by the duo De Groot/Nijgh. . . . In 1966 the first LP was released with exclusively the De Groot/Nijgh duo’s own material. . . . “For the Survivors”, received a gold and a platinum record and also an Edison. ‘Het Land van Maas en Waal’ was released as the second single. . . . [and] became the first Dutch-language record to reach number 1 in the Top 40. It was 1967 and the hippie era was beginning. The LP ‘Picnic’, inspired by the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, . . was a success, achieved gold and platinum and a second Edison. . . . Boudewijn thought he could continue experimenting. Together with a friend from the film academy he wrote the quasi-mystical epic ‘Witches’ Sabbath’, the main component of the LP “Nacht en ontij” (1968). . . . After some wanderings in Belgium and the Netherlands, Boudewijn decided in November 1969 to retire to a farm . . . with a number of musicians to start a beat band and sing English songs. This formula turned out to be unsuccessful. . . . Boudewijn . . . renew[ed] artistic ties with Lennaert. . . . Between 1971 and 1975 he produced records . . . . In ’73 he himself made a new LP . . . which includes the song ‘Jimmy’, named after his son born in ’72. This LP went platinum and Boudewijn received an Edison for this.

https://www.boudewijndegroot.nl/biografie

Live, many years later:

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Golden Earrings — “I Am a Fool”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 21, 2024

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

1,215) Golden Earrings — “I Am a Fool”

Here is a lovely, “effectively moody” (Mark Deming, https://www.allmusic.com/album/just-earrings-mw0000454482) ballad off the Earrings’ (see #63, 163, 319) first LP, 65’s Just Ear-Rings. The Golden Earrings are my favorite British beat group . . . from Holland! But not only could they sound just as if they had washed up on a bank of the Mersey, a feat in and of itself, they also wrote great songs. Unlike some groups, they didn’t have the luxury of having Lennon and McCartney donate to the cause. The Earrings have earned a lot of good will in my book — everything that happened in the 70’s is forgiven!

Mark Deming writes that:

Golden Earring were hailed as one of the hottest new bands in America when the song “Radar Love” . . . was released in 1973. Funny thing was, Golden Earring were hardly a new band; while they weren’t well known outside the Netherlands, in their native Holland they were major stars who had been scoring hits for eight years. Just Earrings was their first LP, recorded in 1965 when they were still billed as the Golden Earrings, and it’s fine British Invasion-style beat music that suggests the group was still formulating a sound of its own, but had absorbed the influences of [the usual suspects] and had fashioned the bits and pieces into a sound that was powerfully tuneful and engaging. The Golden Earrings wrote nearly all their own material at a time when even the U.K. bands they modeled themselves on performed a fair percentage of covers . . . . George Kooymans and Peter De Ronde were a great guitar team, bassist Rinus Gerritsen and drummer Jaap Eggermont push the music forward with energy and imagination, and Frans Krassenburg’s vocals show both attitude and aptitude, especially since he’s singing in English (though the lyrics don’t always survive close scrutiny). If Just Earrings had been recorded by a British band, chances are good the group could have scored that first hit in America a lot sooner — the album is certainly on a par with the work of most of the U.K. bands that were storming the U.S charts at the time, and if it took longer for America to warm to rock & roll from Holland, this is fun stuff that swings in any time zone.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/just-earrings-mw0000454482

Kieron Tyler talks of the album and the band’s formation:

They were always melodic, always focused, always immediate, their music combined the tough chunkiness of The Who and The Kinks with the minor-key, brooding melodies of The Zombies. . . . Where bands like the rough-hewn Outsiders defined the edgy sound of Amsterdam, the more polished Golden Earrings defined the sound of The Hague. . . . Just Earrings . . . stands as one of Europe’s best beat-era albums. and that includes the UK. Beyond displaying a top-drawer songwriting talent, the album included only one cover version. Who else was that confident in 1965? . . . The roots of The Golden Earrings lie in The Tornados, a band formed by 13-year-old George Kooymans and 15-year-old Marinus Gerritsen in 1962. . . . An instrumental outfit, their repertoire included Shadows and Ventures numbers. . . . The Hague . . . was stuffed with rock ‘n’ roll bands and competition was tough. . . . [The] boom was fuelled by bands made up from Indonesian immigrants. Indo-Rock had been born. . . . The Tornados – due to their youth – started out playing school parties. . . . [then] they’d begun playing clubs. After the British Tornados’ Telstar became a Dutch hit in late 1962 . . . . the band chose The Golden Earrings, from the standard that Peggy Lee had a hit with in 1948. . . . [B]y the end of 1963, it became clear that the shifting musical climate meant the band would have to incorporate vocals. Frans Krassenburg became their singer in early 1964. . . . The Dutch bands were well aware of the desire for beat music that was on their doorstep. Pirate radio station Veronica was broadcasting from a ship moored off the Dutch coast . . . . The[ir] break came in July 1965 . . . . Freddy Haayen saw the band at their regular venue Club 192 . . . . Haayen said he worked for Polydor Records and that he wanted to record them. Actually, he was an architecture student who also worked as a trainee at Polydor’s warehouse. The Golden Earrings didn’t know this and duly turned up at Hilversum’s Phonogram Studio on the afternoon of 8 August to record four tracks . . . . Haayen had made good on his bluff and scored a deal with Polydor. Released in September, Please Go immediately started climbing the Dutch charts, reaching number 10 . . . . As momentum built, The Golden Earrings were billed with visiting British bands . . . . In September they played with The Who; November saw them teamed up with The Kinks. . . . [T]he band completed their first album, Just Earrings. Released November 1965, the album showcased the band’s supreme confidence.

http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2011/11/the-golden-earrings-just-ear-rings-1965.html?m=1

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Shocking Blue — “Long and Lonesome Road”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 20, 2024

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

1,214) Shocking Blue — “Long and Lonesome Road”

This Dutch treat is “just as catchy, just as cool, just as memorable as ‘Venus[]’” (Brian Green, https://www.scrammagazine.com/shockingblue/) — the ‘69/‘70 hard psych A-side reached #75 in the U.S. Rob Horning tells us that “[Robbie] Van Leeuwen has a uncanny knack for concise fills and quirky musical phrases that stick with you like a jingle, most noticeably in . . . ‘Long and Lonesome Road’, which elegantly pieces together its seemingly incongruous parts in a beautiful Chinese box of a song, which keeps opening itself up to new surprises.” (https://www.popmatters.com/shockingblue-athome-2496060322.html)

As to SB, Horning explains:

The Shocking Blue achieved a blip of international fame with their single “Venus”, an irresistible and nonsensical confection that stuck them with the one-hit wonder label in America, where none of the band’ s subsequent singles caught on. . . . Formed by guitarist/songwriter Robbie Van Leeuwen after quitting the Motions . . . the Shocking Blue seem like they set out to be the Dutch Jefferson Airplane, with acid-rock guitar, a full-throated Grace Slick wannabe in Veres, eclectic instrumentation, and semi-hallucinatory lyrics about free love, voodoo, California, and the like. But unlike the Airplane, the Shocking Blue never succumb to pretentiousness through either diffuse experimentation or ponderous songwriting. Instead the band churns out pseudo-psychedelic bubblegum . . . all [with] precision and eagerness to please . . . . On At Home [their first album, which includes today’s song], the hooks are copious and clean, fashioned out everything from sinewy sitar licks to vibratoless moaning to recontextualized rockabilly riffs to well deployed silence. . . . But as crisp and addictive as the music is, Mariska [Veres] is the real attraction. Not only does she have a superlative shiver-inducing banshee wail, but she seems altogether unencumbered with a knowledge of the language she’s singing in, and when you combine that with Van Leeuwen’s own uneasy grasp of English, you have a recipe for utterly inimitable genius. Mariska delivers her lines full throttle without any regard for the words she’s saying . . . . The lack of any attempt to nuance her delivery creates some fascinating cognitive dissonance between the words and how they’re expressed, and this itself becomes a new kind of nuance to pay attention to as you listen.

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

Brian Green dumps on Jefferson Airplane:

Jefferson Airplane is be the band that Shocking Blue mostly invites comparisons to, and it was the Airplane that veteran Dutch rocker Robbie van Leeuwen had in mind when he decided he wanted a female vocalist for his group. But while van Leeuwen may have started out emulating the Jefferson Airplane, his band quickly and permanently outclassed their predecessors. Where the Airplane’s lyrics were usually cliché-addled and verging on ridiculous, van Leeuwen offered fresh and innocent boy/girl tales and existential laments; while JA’s music often had that messy, jazzy, “let me do a solo” element weighing it down, Shocking Blue stuck to stripped-down, energy-packed Beat Club grooves; and Mariska Veres was simply a better singer than Grace Slick, more genuinely soulful, more naturally melodious. Veres was actually not Shocking Blue’s original singer. When guitarist van Leeuwen dropped out of local hitmakers the Motions to form his own band in ‘67, he did so with another Dutch scenester, Fred de Wilde, at the mic. The all-boy Blue recorded one album and some singles (a few of these minor hits in Holland . . . ) But . . . just when van Leeuwen was thinking that he wanted a chick to sing his songs, de Wilde was called off to do military service. Robbie wasted no time in finding Veres, who looked like a model and sang like a soul sister.

https://www.scrammagazine.com/shockingblue/

Steve Leggett adds:

Although Shocking Blue’s albums . . . featured progressive rock elements and inventive arrangements thanks to Van Leeuwen’s writing and production skills, the band was essentially marketed as a pop singles unit, and while they scored several subsequent hits in their homeland, none of the group’s releases approached the massive saturation success of “Venus.” Veres left Shocking Blue in 1974 to pursue a solo career . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/shocking-blue-mn0000029604#biography

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The Alan Bown! — “You’re Not in My Class”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 19, 2024

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

1,213) The Alan Bown! — “You’re Not in My Class”

A super popular live UK soul and R&B band tries its hand at pop psych/baroque pop. The Bown shoots, the Bown scores! One of the “highlights” of an LP that contained “an embarrassment of riches”, the song is “wistful . . . whose harpsichord and brass arrangement reflected the increasing sophistication of post-Revolver British studio pop.” (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp Come Join My Orchestra: The British Baroque Pop Sound 1967-73)

As to the album — Outward Bown — Dave Thompson writes:

[A]n album of light-psych whimsy . . . . great pop . . . . delightful as only second-division British psych can be, a collection of semi-detached suburban Ray Davies observations full of vaguely Edwardian lifestyle concerns, peopled by pretty girls who wash the dishes, toys that talk, and love that flies from the rooftops with the clouds. Signs of the band’s (and band members’) brilliance are all over the place. . . . And it’s all so impossibly sweet, so implausibly twee, and so utterly a child of its times . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/outward-bown-mw0000039618

As to the band, Bruce Eder tells us:

[Trumpeter Alan Bown] completed a stint in the Royal Air Force at the outset of the 1960s [and then] found a music scene that was booming throughout England with an important extension to Germany, and which encompassed not only rock & roll but also blues, R&B, and jazz. The latter two areas were where Bown’s interest lay, and he was soon a member of a group called the Embers that was booked into the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany . . . . He returned to England after the extended engagement and joined the John Barry Seven . . . . [Bown] was actually more involved with the group than Barry, whose burgeoning careers as a record producer and film music composer were taking off in a big way . . . . When Barry disbanded the group in 1964, Bown picked up the pieces and formed an outfit of his own . . . the Alan Bown Set . . . . The sextet was an immediate success as a live act, and it became an audience and critical favorite in London. Oddly enough, Bown and company never even thought about a recording contract, intending the band as a vehicle for steady work for themselves, doing what they enjoyed. [A] couple of years into their history . . . an A&R man for Pye Records . . . got them under contract, which resulted in a string of 45s . . . . The Pye contract ended in late 1967, and the group was then signed to the British division of MGM Records . . . . By this time, they’d modified their image and sound — the interest in R&B and soul was fading somewhat in the London clubs, even as psychedelic music was starting to become all the rage. And so, for its MGM/Music Factory releases, a somewhat longer-haired and more flamboyant version [of the band] . . . . was simply known as the Alan Bown! . . . They cut a song called “We Can Help You,” which had originated with the British band Nirvana [see #287, 391, 475] — and the Alan Bown version started to make a splash in England in terms of exposure. But on the week of the record’s actual release, disaster struck on both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously. A strike at the plant where the record was pressed and due to ship from prevented its release, at precisely the moment when it had to be in stores. And MGM Records chose to abandon the Music Factory label — though the Alan Bown! would remain with the company on the MGM label proper, this also meant that the company abandoned all promotional and distribution efforts involving the Music Factory releases. “We Can Help You[]” . . . was left to die and rot on the vine, and the accompanying LP, called Outward Bown, was ignored. A pair of singles that followed . . . both failed to chart. . . . A contract with Deram Records . . . followed . . . . [D]espite a lot of touring and television exposure, and the reconstituting of its sound and image in a much more progressive rock vein, the group’s moment had clearly passed by the start of the new decade.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/alan-bown-mn0000626566

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I Shall Be Released: The Ministry of Sound — “In the Sky”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 18, 2024

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

1,212) The Ministry of Sound — “In the Sky”

The greatest pop psych ode to aliens, UFO’s and flying saucers wasn’t released for decades. Talk about the X-Files! As to the song, written by Micky Keen and Robin Shaw, Russ Alquist [see #1,201] recalls:

Micky was into mysticism and we used to sit in a park near Denmark Street and talk to pigeons and other animals. Anyway, we lived in Hampstead Heath and Micky swore that he saw flying saucers there. I never saw them and even though I was okay with talking to pigeons, I’m not sure about the flying saucers.

liner notes to the CD comp The Ministry of Sound: Men from the Ministry/Midsummer Nights Dreaming

The Ministry of Sound? Richie Unterberger explains:

The Ministry of Sound issued just one 1966 single . . . . [but] their history was quite complicated considering their small discography, as they were a studio outfit whose personnel included noted songwriter John Carter [see #1,201], although Carter was not the dominant member. The core of the Ministry of Sound was the duo of singer/songwriters Robin Shaw and Micky Keen, who had first performed together back in the late ’50s in Mick Everly & the Prophets. By the mid-’60s they were part of the house band of Southern Music Studios, and signed to Carter’s publishing company as songwriters. They also recorded often at Southern Music Studios as Ministry of Sound, with Carter pitching in with songwriting, guitar, and some lead vocals. Songwriter Russ Alquist also sang lead on some tracks, as well as making some contributions as a writer . . . . At least several dozen songs were recorded by the aggregation between 1966 and 1968, but the only two that found release were issued on the 1966 Decca single “White Collar Worker”/”Back Seat Driver.” In common with much of the material with which the prolific John Carter was associated in the mid- to late ’60s (with groups such as the Flower Pot Men and the Ivy League), it gave a British spin to the harmony sunshine pop of groups like the Beach Boys, the Turtles, the Association, and the Tokens. . . . Some of it also drew from psychedelia in the sophisticated production, use of . . . the Mellotron, songs that explored British characters and situations, and lightly trippy lyrics. . . . [S]ome of the songs they recorded were covered by British pop group Amen Corner and Australian singer Normie Row . . . . They came to an end when Robin Shaw joined the touring version of the Flower Pot Men . . . .

Fans of John Carter [me, me, me!] . . . will be familiar with the kind of idiosyncratic spin on late-’60s harmony pop . . . combining elements of sunshine pop, the Beach Boys, the Beatles at their poppiest, pop-psychedelia, and maybe a bit of the early Bee Gees . . . . [with later songs being] more sophisticated and psychedelically inclined . . . with . . . very British lyrical blend of everyday life and fairytale imagery.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-ministry-of-sound-mn0002326453#biography, https://www.allmusic.com/album/midsummer-nights-dreaming-men-from-the-ministry-mw0000727479

Mark Frumento adds:

With Carter as the focal point, this group of talented musicians convened weekly, though as Robin points out, they rarely knew which songs were going to be recorded. “We’d get to the studio and John could ask what we had for the week. We’d play him some songs, rehearse them and record them all at once.” When quizzed about the high quality of the recordings against this fairly causal approach, Robin is quick to add, “We were very used to playing together and we somehow knew what the other was going to play. We worked very fast, though admittedly wer later added parts to get a final master recording. . . . [Engineer] John Mackswith [recalls] “It was how we envisioned Motown, just a bunch of people in a small room making great pop songs. Maybe we weren’t up to Motown’s standards but we were like a mini version.”

liner notes to the CD comp The Ministry of Sound: Men from the Ministry/Midsummer Nights Dreaming

While Richie Unterberger writes that “[i]t’s an attractive sound, and so well produced it’s hard to believe these weren’t actual releases”, he also says that the Ministry’s songs weren’t “as good as their most obvious influences, but it was very smoothly recorded and sung, with pleasant if not indelible tunesmithery. . . . just not as memorable, hooky, or penetrating as the best work in this general field.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/midsummer-nights-dreaming-men-from-the-ministry-mw0000727479)

OK, I’m sending Unterberger to the Ministry of Pain! The MoS’s pop psych work is easily within the top 2% of the “general field” of 60’s pop psych. That qualifies for membership in the lysergic Mensa society of sound!

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Treez — “You Lied To Me Before”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 17, 2024

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

1,211) Treez — “You Lied To Me Before”

Here’s a “MONSTROUS cave-basher” (liner notes to the CD comp Teenage Shutdown: “She’s a Pest!”: 18 Revved-Up Teen Swingers!“) by a Chicago cave band. “The cool old cat who recorded the group remembers them as a pretty wyld & popular teen combo”. (liner notes to “She’s a Pest!”).

It turns out that a “White Bird” was nesting in the Treez, or at least the drummer ended up with It’s a Beautiful Day. Ken Voss tells us that:

[Val] Fuentes would end up migrating to California where he would be the original drummer for It’s a Beautiful Day, who had a 1969 hit “White Bird,” becom[ing] part of the San Francisco music culture and enjoy[ing] a stint with New Riders of the Purple Sage. . . . Growing up in Chicago, attending Lakeview High School, he played in, what he terms, “a garage grunge-type band,” The Treez playing high school socials and local YMCA. Band members included Wayne DeSalvo on guitar and Fuentes on drums with Billy Olesky and Joe Markko. In 1965, they won a battle of the bands, the prize being a recording deal with Dutch Wenzlaff’s Harlequin Records. That prize – the single “You Lied to Me Before” b/w “As Long as You Want”. Fuentes graduated high school in 1966 and hung around Chicago for a year, taking off for California in early 1967. “I was drawn to California by all the great music out there at the time. I had some Chicago buddies living there so I already had a place to stay for a while.” Connecting with other musicians, he and bass player Mithcell Holman would meet David and Linda LaFlamme who was starting up the band It’s a Beautiful Day. . . . Fuentes would remain in San Francisco where for the next decade he would work with various local bands including Fat Chance . . . Linda Imperial and the Pure Pleasure Band and Shadowfax. In 1982, [he] connected up with New Riders of the Purple Sage.

https://illinoismusicarchives.com/2023/11/21/val-fuentes/

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The Legend — “The Sky that Is Blue”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 16, 2024

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

1,210) The Legend — “The Sky that Is Blue”

A beautiful song for a beautiful day, this “pop psych delight[]” (TYMETRIPS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfmzlOd-XII) from Colorado is “a tasty blend of tight, Bealtesque harmonies and surprisingly commercial melod[y] . . . . a breezy, mid-tempo pop song that showcased some nice vox organ and wonderful group harmony vocals that would made The Beach Boys proud.” (RDTEN1, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-legend/the-legend/)

Of the band and the album, guitarist Randy Russ recollects:

The Legend was playing all over Colorado, breaking all kinds of attendance records and beer sales at clubs we played at. We had heard that a record company was looking for a group to sign up. We played a couple of more gigs, saved our money and headed out for LA. When we got there, we found out that the record company was auditioning groups and trying to steal different members to make up their own group. They wanted our drummer, Barry [Davis], who turned them down. [Singer] Gerry [Jimmerfield] had been out in LA a couple years previous and knew of these two guys that were managers, said he would give them a call, but he warned us about them. They came over and heard us and said they could do something with us. But they wanted us to sign a contract, which we did. One of the managers, Tony Sepe, had a brother who owned a Chicago based company. He talked him into backing a record company. Thus the birth of Megaphone records. . . . We went into the studio and recorded a few songs. We had run out of money and couldn’t play in LA because we weren’t in the union. Tony and Marty Brooks (the other manager) would drop by our motel and give $10 to $12 a day to live on. We were eating bologna sandwiches three times a day. A lot of times, we would buy thr bread and cigarettes and one of us would steal the bologna. Speaking of the motel, one of those run down slime pitts on Sunset Strip, two of us would sleep in the bed, some would sleep in our converted bread truck, and I would sleep in the 396 Chevelle. We needed money, so we went back to Colorado to play some gigs, make some money and eat. When we came back, Tony and Marty had hired some studio musicians and Gene Page, a producer, and the basic tracks were done on the Legend album. We had no idea that this was going to be done and when we
confronted them, they just laugh us off and said that this is the way it was done. We put on the vocals and different guitar parts. It was put out as the Legend. . . . Tony and Marty had no idea what they were doing. The Legend album had no distribution to speak of. They were skimming as much money as they could out of the record label. They even had custom made alligator brief cases made. Things like that made us angry. We weren’t getting anything. . . . [W]e were restricted by harsh comments and brow beating by Tony and Marty. . . . But let me
tell you, when I was in their doing my overdubs and I knew something was coming off pretty good, I would feel so good. It would be a total rush.

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2013/02/dragonfly-interview-with-randy-russ.html

They then became Dragonfly . . . .

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Brenda and the Tabulations — “That’s in the Past”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 15, 2024

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

1,209) Brenda and the Tabulations — “That’s in the Past”

How was this ‘68 Philly soul stirrer A-side not a hit? Derek says:

A very dense, busy production but DAMN it sure does work (not to mention swing like a mofo!). . . . I love how, starting at about 1:30, the swirl of sound gets so strong Brenda just keeps pushing harder and harder to be heard. Quite a performance from all involved.

http://dereksdaily45.blogspot.com/2010/09/?m=1

It does swing like a mofo!

As to Brenda and the Tabs, Ron Wynn writes:

Among the better Philadelphia soul groups of the ’60s and ’70s, Brenda [Payton] & the Tabulations made some fine heartache ballads, particularly “Dry Your Eyes” and “Right on the Tip of My Tongue.” . . . “Dry Your Eyes” was their biggest hit, reaching number eight on the R&B chart and number 20 pop in 1967. They continued recording for Dionn until 1969, then Top & Bottom from 1970 to 1973, followed by stints with Epic and Chocolate City. “Right on the Tip of My Tongue” returned them to prominence in 1971, peaking at number ten R&B, and the follow-up, “A Part Of You,” was number 14 that same year. The group enjoyed some sporadic success on the disco circuit in the late ’70s with the LP I Keep Coming Back for More. The single “Let’s Go All the Way (Down)” attracted some international and club interest.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/brenda-the-tabulations-mn0000614776

The Jamie Record Co. tells us:

[A]t a Philadelphia playground during the summer of ‘66[,] vocalist Brenda Payton and organist Maurice Coates . . . put[] on a show for the neighborhood kids[.] Gilda Woods fortuitously happened by and heard their youthful performance[.] . . . Maurice Coates[] answer[ed] in the affirmative when Gilda asked whether they wrote any of their own material. They had, to that point, never written a song, but they had started one Brenda and Maurice hammered out their iconic song, “Dry Your Eyes.” Maurice Coates recalled, Gilda Woods “was cruising by in her convertible and stopped, slammed on the brakes[.] She asked us how long we’d been together. I said, ‘We’ve been together for awhile.’ We’d only been together for one week. And she said, ‘Do you have any original tunes?’ I said yes. Which we didn’t. She said, ‘I’ll meet you next Saturday.’ And Brenda turned around and said, ‘Maurice, we don’t have no original songs!’ I said, ‘Yes, we do! Don’t you remember the one we were working on the other day?’” A scant two days later, Brenda and Maurice had created the breathtaking doo-wop-infused ballad “Dry Your Eyes.” “We collaborated. I just did the music, and she did all the lyrics,” says Maurice. “We had to do something in a couple days to convince Gilda that we did have an original tune. So it was just impulse and good dumb luck!” Woods auditioned the group and their brand-new song at Maurice’s home. “She loved it,” says Coates. “We got a contract offer, and we went through it and signed it. The next week, we went in the studio. Devising a catchy moniker for the group was the first order of business. “All these names came up, and I said, ‘Whoa, whoa, guys, listen. Think about money. This is what it’s all about!’” says Maurice. “So I came up with the word ‘tabulation.’ And they said, ‘Well, what does tabulation mean?’ I said, ‘Well, tabulate! You’re counting the money!’”

http://jamguycom.jamroomhosting.com/brenda-and-the-tabs

Nice!

Here they are “live”:

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She Trinity (and the Onyx) — “Climb that Tree”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 14, 2024

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

1,208) She Trinity (& The Onyx) — “Climb that Tree”

Here is a number so unique that it took two bands — one all girl and one all boy — spanning the Atlantic from Canada to the UK to bring it all together. It is “bizarre, bonkers but absolutely fabulous” (Mikey Dread, https://www.45cat.com/record/pt283), “astonishing” (Klepsie, https://www.45cat.com/record/pt283), again “bizarre” and “possibly unique” (big swiftly, https://www.45cat.com/record/pt283), with “slamming, percussive organ parts and [a] complex, stop-start arrangement [that] skirt the margins of what might be called proto-progressive rock.” (Bill Kopp, http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/17/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-5-of-5/) She Trinity’s singer did consider the song to be “a pretentious parlay of rubbish”. (http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/17/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-5-of-5/) But in a good way!

The song was first recorded as a demo by the popular live Cornwallian band and BBC mainstay The Onyx and then issued as a B-side — the flip of a cover of “Hair”! — by the Canadian/UK She Trinity. As the Onyx didn’t write its A-sides, the song is an amazing feat of creativity. I wish the band could have pursued this muse.

The Onyx’s website explains:

Bob Potter not only booked and promoted bands, he also had a small studio at the rear of his house . . . . Having started to build up a excellent reputation as a live band they decided to take advantage of Bob’s space and took their first forays the studio to try out some of the creative ideas they had been developing out on the road. . . . During these sessions the band had free reign to bounce ideas around and come up with some recordable material. The sessions showcased the band[‘]s varied style of music, from straight pop to the psychedelically tinged harmony pop they would become famous for. . . . [One] track recorded during these sessions was the quirky progressive pop number “Climb That Tree”, which would be covered the following year by fellow Bob Potter band, She Trinity on the B-Side of “Hair” . . . . The single release was effectively an Onyx recording with vocals from She Trinity dubbed over the top.

http://www.the-onyx.co.uk/history2.html

Bill Kopp adds:

The a-side [of She Trinity’s final single] was a new (and superior) recording of “Hair.” “We’d gone into Bob Potter’s studio and we did ‘Hair’ again because that had been a hit for us in Germany,” [vocalist Eileen] Woodman recalls. . . . The b-side of “Hair” ranks as the most unusual release from the group. “’Climb That Tree’ is a strange one, that,” says Woodman. “That’s me singing lead. I always thought it was a pretentious parlay of rubbish. Woodman’s harsh assessment notwithstanding, “Climb That Tree” has its admirers, especially among aficionados of heavy psychedelia. . . . [Aside] from Woodman, She Trinity is nowhere to be found on the recording. “It was a band called the Onyx,” Woodman explains. “Another of Bob Potter’s bands, and that track was already laid out.” Though Robin Yorke insists otherwise, Woodman says that she laid down an organ part in addition to her arresting vocal. That final single didn’t sell in great quantities, and the group saw the end coming.

http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/17/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-5-of-5/

As to She Trinity, All Music Guide tells us that:

Shelly Gillespie, Sue Kirby and Robin Yorke formed the original She Trinity in Canada. Upon arriving in London . . . they added Pauline Moran to the line-up. Unlike many ‘girl-groups’ of the era, the She Trinity played musical instruments and, having secured a contract with Columbia Records in 1966, completed a strong cover version of the Bobby Fuller Four’s ‘I Fought The Law’, retitled ‘He Fought The Law’. Other releases, including ‘The Man Who Took The Valise Off The Floor Of Grand Central Station At Noon’, showed considerable promise, but the band’s career was completely undermined upon opting to record ‘Yellow Submarine’ without knowing the Beatles’ would issue their version as a single.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-she-trinity-mn0001926679#biography

Bill Kopp elaborates:

She Trinity [was] a remarkable all-woman band of the middle- and late ‘60s. . . . [who] played their own instruments and worked with a high-profile producer, but . . . never broke through to the big time. . . . She Trinity released a string of singles between 1966 and 1970, and toured widely, especially on the Continent. . . . shar[ing] bills with The Who, record with producer Mickie Most, work in the studio with John Paul Jones and be managed by Peter Grant [yes, that Peter Grant]. . . . She Trinity reach[es] back to two even earlier all-female groups: The Missfits, a Blackpool group, and Lady Greensleeves, a Toronto, Canada band led by Robyn Yorke. . . . [and a] British emigre . . . guitarist Shelley Gillespie . . . . The band found a teenage singer, Sue Kirby, who answered an ad and moved from Long Island, New York . . . . “We fetched up in England at the very end of ‘65,” Gillespie says. “Robyn had connections, somehow, with the agent for Eamonn Andrews, and he decided to take us on. . . . [and] introduced us to a record producer called Mickie Most.” Yorke’s recollection differs. “When we got to England, we didn’t know anybody,” she insists. “So I just sort of checked around.” She says that she found a manager in Peter Grant. He managed other groups as well, including the New Vaudeville Band . . . and often worked with producer Mickie Most. “Eventually we left the guy who was supposed to be managing us, and went to Peter Grant,” Gillespie says. “Mickie took us on [as a producer], but I don’t think he was too keen.” Needing a bassist, the band placed an advert in Melody Maker. A Blackpool teenager called Pauline Moran answered the advert, auditioned and joined the band. Around the same time, Most renamed the group She Trinity . . . . As early as 1963 [Moran] had formed all-girl band The Missfits. . . . Mickie Most and Peter Grant seemed busy with other things, Gillespie says. “They had Donovan and other people who were coming up and doing quite well.” She believes that She Trinity was not that interesting to them. “They thought we might be a gimmick,” she says. “So they never really put their backs into it somehow.” . . . She Trinity eventually added a fifth member, Liverpool keyboardist Marion “Rusty” Hill. . . . Solid musicianship combined with good looks and a unique all-female lineup meant that She Trinity didn’t have a hard time securing live dates. “We were playing all the ballrooms,” Yorke says.

http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/13/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-1-of-5/, http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/14/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-2-of-5/, http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/15/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-3-of-5/

For an exhaustive and entertaining history of She Trinity, see: http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/13/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-1-of-5/, http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/14/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-2-of-5/, http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/15/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-3-of-5/, http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/16/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-4-of-5/, http://blog.musoscribe.com/index.php/2021/09/17/climbing-that-tree-the-story-of-she-trinity-part-5-of-5/

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

Here is the Onyx’s demo:

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Joe Bataan — “Make Me Smile”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 13, 2024

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

1,207) Joe Bataan — “Make Me Smile”

Joe Bataan (see #55, 339) takes a #9 hit by Chicago and turns it into a swinging and joyous Latin romp.

Richard Pierson tells us about Joe:

Born Peter Nitollano, of African-American/Filipino parents, Joe Bataan grew up in Spanish Harlem, where he ran with Puerto Rican gangs and absorbed R&B, Afro-Cuban, and Afro-Rican musical influences. . . . Self-taught on the piano, he organized his first band in 1965 and scored his first recording success in 1967 with “Gypsy Woman” on Fania Records. The tune was a hit with the New York Latin market despite its English lyrics . . . and exemplified the nascent Latin soul sound. In early anticipation of the disco formula, “Gypsy Woman” created dance energy by alternating what was fundamentally a pop-soul tune with a break featuring double-timed handclaps. Bataan would take this tendency even further on his influential Salsoul, which fused funk and Latin influences in slick yet soulful orchestrations. Salsoul remains influential as a rare groove cult item, and pointed to the future at the time of its release. The LP embodied the artist’s highly deliberate and culturally aware musical concept. Bataan theorized the ’70s next big thing as a hybrid: an Afro Cuban rhythm section playing Brazilian influenced patterns over orchestral funk. In many ways, his vision was on the money, though most of the money would go to others and mainstream stardom would elude him. He did, however, get in on the ground floor of the new trend as an early hitmaker. His biggest commercial move was a Salsoul production released under the Epic umbrella, and promoted to the new disco market as Afrofilipino, which included 1975’s “The Bottle,” a much-anthologized classic that drives an R&B horn arrangement with a relentless piano montuno. Always in touch with the street, Joe Bataan picked up on rap very early in the game. His minor rap hit, “Rap-O, Clap-O” was a bit more successful in Europe than in the States, and is remembered as rap’s debut in the European market. Nevertheless, his legacy remains his gritty and realistic Latin soul lyrics, his self-identification as an “Ordinary Guy”, and his highly personal and prophetic merger of Latin and soul influences.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/joe-bataan-mn0000117990#biography

Oliver Wang goes deep on Bataan’s early years:

[A] cohort of mostly Puerto Rican Americans—Nuyoricans—were coming of age, seeking a stake for their generation’s sonic sensibilities. Into that moment strode Joe Bataan, knife in hand. . . . [A]s a kid, he ran deep with the Nuyorican crowd . . . . In his teens, he helped lead a local Puerto Rican street gang called The Dragons, but a few stints in the pen encouraged him to seek a different path. He turned to music. . . . [I]n 1966, a “new breed” of Latin music was bubbling up in New York that would enrapture Bataan and his band: boogaloo [which] began as a dance craze . . . . By 1966, the dance had made its way into New York ballrooms and it was here that Nuyorican house bands began to tinker with it, giving birth to a distinctive Latin boogaloo style. . . . [A] young record executive trying to get his new Latin label off the ground . . . Jerry Masucci of Fania Records.. . . . found [with Bataan] more than just a musician; here was a voice that could sell to black, white, and Latino audiences. . . . [T]he first single Bataan recorded for Fania nodded to an earlier soul classic: The Impressions’ 1961 hit, “Gypsy Woman.” However, Bataan’s “Gypsy Woman” wasn’t a cover version. Beyond an opening line that riffed on Curtis Mayfield’s songwriting, Bataan changed everything else: the lyrics, the arrangement, the instrumentation, etc. Whereas The Impressions’ mellow original had more in common, aurally, with a bachelor pad exotica record, Bataan’s song was ferociously uptempo and unmistakably Afro-Cuban, opening with a lively piano montuno and background singers yelling, “She smokes, hot hot, she smokes!” . . . Other boogaloo breakout hits in 1967 . . . boasted memorable hooks but the singing was middling at best. By comparison . . . Bataan demonstrated that he could be a quadruple threat: singer, songwriter, pianist, and bandleader.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/joe-bataan-gypsy-woman/

Here is Chicago:

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Barclay James Harvest — “Mother Dear”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 12, 2024

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

1,206) Barclay James Harvest — “Mother Dear”

This “incredibly beautiful” (VianaProgHead, https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=3380) song off their ’70 debut is “a Poe-like Gothic mystery (about dream-like figures in black or white) as an acoustic, string-laden gem first penned in ’67”. (Brian Banks, https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2018/05/barclay-james-harvest-barclay-james.html) It “combines moving visionary lyrics (okay, childish lyrics, but then again they have an excuse – the song is written from a child’s point of view) with a charming acoustic folksy rhythm and magnificent background orchestration – portentous, majestic, yet never descending into Hollywoodish sappiness.” (George Starostin, https://starlingdb.org/music/barclay.htm)

As to the LP, Jason writes:

[T]heir outstanding debut was . . . . absolutely dynamite . . . . The whole album is absolutely wonderful, finding some kind of middle ground between the Move, psychedelic era Pretty Things and late 60’s Procol Harum. A genuinely fantastic album that is not to be missed, pitched half way between the psych and prog eras.

Barclay James Harvest “Their First Album”

Dave Thompson adds:

[It] was one of the unsung classics of the late ’60s, a post-psychedelic pop album that posits a peculiar collision between the Bee Gees’ vision of classic grandeur and the heftier sounds leaking out of the rock underground. Add Norman Smith’s epic production . . . . [and] Barclay James Harvest ranks among the finest albums of the entire early prog boom.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/barclay-james-harvest-mw0000463399

As Jason says, BJH was “[o]ften labeled the ‘poor man’s Moody Blues[]'”, but “were one of England’s most unappreciated, hardluck underground bands throughout the 60’s and 70’s.” (http://therisingstorm.net/barclay-james-harvest-their-first-album/)

Bruce Eder tells us more:

Barclay James Harvest was, for many years, one of the most hard luck outfits in progressive rock. A quartet of solid rock musicians — John Lees, guitar, vocals; Les Holroyd, bass, vocals; Stuart “Wooly” Wolstenholme, keyboards, vocals; and Mel Pritchard, drums — with a knack for writing hook-laden songs built on pretty melodies, they harmonized like the Beatles and wrote extended songs with more of a beat than the Moody Blues. They were signed to EMI at the same time as Pink Floyd, and both bands moved over to the company’s progressive rock-oriented Harvest imprint at the same time, yet somehow, they never managed to connect with the public for a major hit in England, much less America. The group was formed in September of 1966 in Oldham, Lancashire. Lees and Wolstenholme were classmates who played together in a band called the Blues Keepers; that group soon merged with a band called the Wickeds, which included Holroyd and Pritchard. They became Barclay James Harvest in June of 1967 and began rehearsing at an 18th century farmhouse in Lancashire.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/barclay-james-harvest-mn0000125465#biography

BJH did become more commercially successful as the 70’s discoed on. But that is for someone else’s blog!

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Billy Nicholls — “Come Again”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 11, 2024

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

1,205) Billy Nicholls — “Come Again”

Another installment of gorgeous UK pop psych from Billy Nicholls, who gifted us with one of, if not the, greatest “lost” albums of the ’60’s — Would You Believe (see #2, 64, 144, 428, 757, 964, 1,085). As David Wells says, “lost classic is a much abused term amongst pop historians, but it’s difficult to know how else to describe Would You Believe.”(Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era)

All I know is that 1) I am a charter member of the Billy Nicholls Preservation Society, 2) Billy Nicholls bears an uncanny resemblance to Tom Hulce’s Mozart (in Amadeus), and 3) I will never forgive Andrew Loog Oldham for letting Would You Believe sink (apparently literally) to the bottom of the sea.

Euphorik6 is spot on in observing that Would You Believe “is a distillation of a time – whatever made swinging London swing is captured in these tracks” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp), as is Rising Storm in observing that “the album is still the epitome of sixties Britsike, a bunch of fine acid-pop songs rendered with glorious harmonies and superb lysergic arrangements that wouldn’t have disgraced George Martin.” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp). As Graham Reid notes, “[t]he album . . . reminds again of how much British psychedelic music was driven by different traditions (brass bands, pastoral classical music, music hall singalongs, strings . . .) than electric guitars which were so prominent in America at the time.” (https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/weneedtotalkabout/8107/we-need-to-talk-about-billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-care-for-pet-sounds-inna-english-accent-g). And as MusicStack says. “this soundtrack to a Swinging London that never was contains songs so great . . . you’ll swear you’ve heard them before.” (https://www.musicstack.com/album/billy+nicholls/would+you+believe)

Rising Storm explains that:

When [Andrew Loog] Oldham fell out with the Stones in 1967 he redirected all his resources into making the youthful Nicholls a star of the psychedelic pop scene. The results were the single “Would You Believe”, which hitthe racks in January 1968, and the like-titled album that followed in short order. The single has been described as “the most over-produced record of the sixties”, and with reason; a modest psych-pop love song, it’s swathed in overblown orchestration including baroque strings, harpsichord, banjo (!), tuba (!!), and demented answer-back vocals from Steve Marriott. A trifle late for the high tide of UK psych, it failed to trouble the charts. Unfazed, Oldham and Nicholls pressed on with the album, Nicholls providing a steady stream of similarly well-crafted ditties and a bevy of top-rated London sessionmen providing the backings . . . . The album was ready for pressing just as the revelation of Oldham’s reckless financial overstretch brought about Immediate’s overnight demise, and only about a hundred copies ever made it to wax . . . .

https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp

In words that I could have written myself, John Katsmc5 notes that “[i]t’s an absolute tragedy that this never got released, as it would DEFINITELY be hailed now as a solid gold true 60’s classic right up there with Pet Sounds, Blonde On Blonde . . . .”

It all come back to Pet Sounds. Oldham himself explains:

Pet Sounds changed my life for the better. It enhanced the drugs I was taking and made life eloquent and bearable during those times I set down in London and realised I was barely on speaking terms with those who lived in my home and understood them even less when they spoke – that’s when Brian Wilson spoke for me. My internal weather had been made better for the costs of two sides of vinyl.

2 Stoned

David Wells explains that:

[Oldham] was desperate to create a British corollary to the American harmony pop sound of the Beach Boys and the Mamas & Papas, and his nurturing of many Immediate acts only makes sense when considered from this perspective. But many of the label’s early signings . . . were merely pale imitations of the American model, copycat acts rather than originators who were further hamstrung by a lack of songwriting talent. And then along comes Billy Nicholls — a superb singer, gifted songwriter and as green as the Mendip hills. Oldham . . . quickly latched onto the manipulative possibilities. [H]e could turn his back on cutting unconvincing facsimiles of Brian Wilson tunes in order to mastermind his own three-minute pocket symphonies. Fired up by this grand conceit, Oldham commandeered the Nicholls sessions, recreating the American harmony pop sound in a resolutely English setting courtesy of a string of virtuosos production techniques, multi-layered harmonies and plenty of Wilsonesque baroque instrumentation. . . . [The album] can be see both as a magnificent achievement and an outrageous folly — how . . . Oldham thought he could recoup the budget that he’d bestown on the album is anyone’s guess.

liner notes to the CD “re”-issue of Would You Believe

Nicholls himself observed that “Andrew had a great belief in the songs I was writing . . . and fortunately we had Andrew’s money to spend fortunes on the orchestration.” (liner notes to the CD reissue)

Oh, if you would like to have the original vinyl, I found a copy online — for $15,000!(https://www.rockaway.com/nicholls-billy/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-immediate-lp-32801)

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M.G. & The Escorts – “A Someday Fool”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 10, 2024

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

1,204) M.G. & The Escorts – “A Someday Fool”

This ‘67 A-side is a garage classic, a “killer track . . . [with] raw, savage power” (johnprestigiacomo2134, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGglguGM1eE), “fiery garage rock, lifted by a blazing fuzz guitar riff and a powerfully simple rhythm” (Michael Panontin, https://www.canuckistanmusic.com/index.php?maid=80), “one of the best punk/fuzz to c[o]me out in Montreal”. (CanadianCultClassics, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clLCNs-PPNg) Chris Bishop calls it “staggering, a template for what garage bands have been trying to do ever since” and says “[t]he unstoppable drum beat and the mesmerizing guitar really give this song its hooks, and they catch you fast.” (https://garagehangover.com/m-g-and-the-escorts-a-someday-fool/)

As to the band, Michael Panontin tells us:

From suburban Pointe-Claire, on Montreal’s west island, M.G. and the Escorts saw some chart action at local radio station CFCF with their 1966 debut seven-incher, the rather lame merseybeat of ‘Please Don’t Ever Change’. The boys, at the time still sporting matching Carnaby Street suits and spiffy Beatle boots, were kept busy on the Ottawa valley circuit, playing high school dances around Ottawa, Kingston and Brockville. By early 1967 though, after losing their Beatlemania fetters, M.G. and the Escorts had really hit their stride with their third release for the Reo label, a brilliant double-sider that reached number nine locally.

https://www.canuckistanmusic.com/index.php?maid=80

“Fool” “entered the RPM Top 100 Singles chart at number 84 on February 18th 1967 and peaked at number 53 on April 1st 1967.” (twerptwo, https://www.45cat.com/record/8975x)

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The Shangri-Las — “Sophisticated Boom Boom”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 9, 2024

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

1,203) The Shangri-Las — “Sophisticated Boom Boom”

Sometimes called the first female rap record, this ’65 and ‘66 B-side is a hoot, “a brilliant single”, “one of the most bizarre things ever committed to vinyl. . . . a paen to lounge music, given a finger-clickin’ hip-wigglin’ backbeat by Shadow Morton, and with one of Mary [Weiss’] drollest, most deadpan vocals” (BradL, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/the_shangri_las/long_live_our_love___sophisticated_boom_boom/), though I think Betty Weiss did the vocals. BradL adds that “And ain’t it a gas to hear the Shangri-Las actually sounding happy?” And GrubStLodger says “Wow, must be one of few shangri-la’s songs I know without a death in. They built up quite a bodycount.” (GrubStLodger, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsBQ5xvj8BU) 🙂 🙂 🙂

Steve Simels ponders:

You know, some times I think that if titles were everything, these gals’ 1966 masterpiece “Sophisticated Boom Boom” would be the greatest record ever made. Even if it isn’t, of course, it’s still pretty transplendent stuff. And incidentally — if anybody knows what instrument the solo is being played on, I’d be grateful if you could let me know. Is it a trumpet? A melodica? A kazoo? Somebody singing through their nose? I haven’t a clue, honest…

https://powerpop.blogspot.com/2010/07/shangri-las-explain-it-all-to-you.html

As to the Las’, Richie Unterberger says:

One-part teenage melodrama, one-part charming naivete, and more than their share of unshakable early pop melodies, the Shangri-Las were one of the greatest and most important girl groups of the ’60s. Along with joyous adolescent energy tailored for high school dances, the trio of Mary Weiss and twin sisters Marge and Mary Ann Ganser also conveyed an eerie darkness that offset their more innocent characteristics. Some of their biggest hits (produced by studio mastermind Shadow Morton) were crushing love songs about dead bikers, doomed love affairs, and familial estrangement. . . . [T]he group’s material[ is] a breathlessly exciting body of work that played an undeniable role in defining the girl group sound. The Shangri-Las formed in 1963 and were originally comprised of two pairs of sisters from Queens, New York (identical twins Marge and Mary Anne Ganser and siblings Mary and Betty Weiss). They had already recorded a couple of obscure singles when they were hired by George “Shadow” Morton to demo a song he had recently written, “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand).” The haunting ballad . . . made the Top Five in late 1964. . . . The quality of Morton’s work with the Shangri-Las on Red Bird . . . was remarkable considering that he had virtually no prior experience in the music business. The group’s material, so over-the-top emotionally that it sometimes bordered on camp, was lightened by the first-class production, which embroidered the tracks with punchy brass, weeping strings, and plenty of imaginative sound effects. . . . The death rock classic [“Leader of the Pack”] became the Shangri-Las’ signature tune, reaching number one. Several smaller hits followed in 1965 and 1966, many of them excellent. . . . Unlike some girl groups, the Shangri-Las were dynamic on-stage performers, choreographing their dance steps to their lyrics and wearing attire that was daring for the time.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-shangri-las-mn0000418955#biography

As to Shadow Morton, who wrote “Boom Boom”, Thomas Erlewine writes:

Shadow Morton is one of the legendary cult figures of rock & roll, a mad genius who existed in, well, the shadows. He was one of the great girl group producers . . . [and] one of the only Brill Building-related musicians to successfully transition from pop to psychedelia and acid rock, helming Janis Ian’s breakthrough 1966 single “Society’s Child (Baby I’ve Been Thinking)”: before producing heavy hits for Vanilla Fudge (“You Keep Me Hanging On”) and Iron Butterfly (“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”). . . . [He] carved out his own histrionic, theatrical sound within the confines of the Brill Building. . . . [T]he New York Dolls do seem like a career-capping masterwork, drawing upon everything else Morton tried in the previous decade and a half, but . . . in between the Shangri-Las and the Dolls, Morton created a wild, wooly, visionary body of work that retains its mystique to this very day.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/sophisticated-boom-boom-the-shadow-morton-story-mw0002545418

Oh, and did I forget to mention the the Goodies? John Clemente writes that:

[A]n American pop girl group of the 1960s[, b]etween 1963 and 1965 they charted with teen melodramas, and remain perhaps best known for their recordings of “The Dum Dum Ditty” and “Sophisticated Boom Boom” before both songs were made even more popular by . . . the Shangri-Las. Sisters Maureen and Diane Reiling, Maryann Gesmundo and Susan Gelber were four [Long Island] friends . . . . [who] started singing . . . in junior high . . . . [T]he group . . . was introduced to producer George “Shadow” Morton. . . . [who] was already having success with the Shangri-Las . . . . Morton recorded . . . demos with [the Goodies (first known as the Bunnies), including] “Leader Of The Pack” [and] “Give Him A Great Big Kiss” . . . . Unfortunately, every time [they] were about to get their shot, the powers that be at Red Bird insisted that the more established Shangri-Las record the actual release. . . .

Girl Groups: Fabulous Females Who Rocked the World, https://www.jacodarecords.com/the-goodies

The Goodies finally got to release “The Dum Dum Ditty”, with “Boom Boom” on the flip side — before the Las. Here are the Goodies:

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Jackie DeShannon — “Windows and Doors”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 8, 2024

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

1,202) Jackie DeShannon — “Windows and Doors”

This ’66 A-side, a Burt Bacharach/Hal David composition, is a “haunting” and “underrated gem[]” (Joe Marchese, https://theseconddisc.com/2011/01/06/come-and-get-them-upcoming-releases-due-from-deshannon-nelson-and-more/), “a wonderful, haunting ballad with a gorgeous melody – a secret favourite of the big Bacharach/David catalogue” (Xanadu, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vJtIfD5HA), with “a melody that can’t be beat and a quaint ‘60s philosophical quotient: “True love is something you can’t buy in stores.” (Jeff Gemmill, https://oldgreycat.blog/2020/04/05/the-essentials-jackie-deshannons-are-you-ready-for-this/)

Serene Dominic adds some snark:

After two despairing singles, Bacharach and David return Jackie DeShannon to the gentle social relevance of “What the World Needs Now.” Instead of not needing another mountain or river, Jackie’s rejecting the need for more ceilings and floors. “If we have each other,” she concludes, “that’s all we need.“

Burt Bacharach: Song By Song

Billboard predicted (Oct. 29, 1966) that “Windows”, “an excellent showcase for the talented vocalist . . . should quickly spiral up the charts.” Alas, it only reached #108.

As to Jackie, Steve Leggett writes that:

Jackie DeShannon is best known as a pop singer who scored a handful of memorable pop hits in the 1960s . . . . [but this] just scratches the surface of [her] accomplishments. She was also a gifted songwriter who wrote hits for the Byrds, the Searchers, Irma Thomas, and Kim Carnes . . . . [By 1965] her sessions were dominated by her own songs, a rare accomplishment for a female artist at the time. In the ’70s, she blossomed into a sophisticated recording artist whose best work . . . stood beside that of Carole King and Joni Mitchell . . . . Born Sharon Lee Meyers in Hazel, Kentucky . . . [she] was singing country songs on a local radio show by the time she was six years old. By 11, she was hosting her own show . . . . [She] recorded regional singles under various names as a teenager . . . . Her versions of a pair of country songs . . . caught the ear of rocker Eddie Cochran, who sought her out and introduced her to his girlfriend, singer, and songwriter Sharon Sheeley. [The two women] began writing songs together, including “I Love Anastasia” (a hit for the Fleetwoods) and “Dum Dum” (a hit for Brenda Lee). Myers signed a recording contract with Liberty Records in 1960. By this point she . . . become known as Jackie DeShannon . . . . Although she . . . release[d] fine singles . . . she only had moderate success on the charts. Her biggest break came when she opened for the Beatles on the group’s first U.S. tour in 1964 . . . . DeShannon moved briefly to England the next year and began writing songs with a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page . . . . [She q]uickly bec[ame] an A-list songwriter . . . . Moving to New York, DeShannon began writing songs with a pre-fame Randy Newman . . . . In 1965, [she] finally conquered the pop charts with her version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love[]” . . . . In 1969 she returned to the pop charts with her own “Put a Little Love in Your Heart,” following it with the only slightly less successful “Love Will Find a Way.” DeShannon left New York and moved to Los Angeles, signing with Atlantic in 1970 — although her work for the label was critically acclaimed . . . [her] fine albums . . . failed to find large audiences. . . . “Bette Davis Eyes,” which DeShannon co-wrote with Donna Weiss, was a huge hit for Kim Carnes in 1981.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jackie-deshannon-mn0000127451#biography

Here is a wonderful cover by the UK’s Truly Smith:

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John Carter & Russ Alquist— “Laughing Man”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 7, 2024

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

1,201) John Carter & Russ Alquist — “Laughing Man”

Too weird to be a hit? Too irresistible not to be? To me, the latter, but in the UK unfortunately, this ‘68 A-side by one of the UK’s great songwriters was the former, “[n]ice pop psych that is worth a listen if the Circus Clown laugh doesn’t freak you out” (teabiscuit, https://www.45cat.com/record/srl1017), a “[v]ery bizarre single [unlikely to] ever st[an]d a chance of charting; imagine tuning the car radio on to this while driving and hearing that spoken section!” (CorporalClegg, https://www.45cat.com/record/srl1017)

Mark Frumento writes:

The clear highlight . . . is the over-the-top spoken word section performed by [Russ] Alquist, sounding strangely close to dialogue from the movie Yellow Submarine. . . . [John] Carter remembers the session fondly. “When Russ did that part we were so surprised. We were cracking up because we had never heard anything like it. “That part was almost all improvised,” Russ Alquist explains. “I’d record a section and we would keep the lines that worked.”
liner notes to the CD comp The Ministry of Sound: Men from the Ministry/Midsummer Nights Dreaming

Tim Sendra:

One of the leading tunesmiths of the ’60s and ’70s English pop scene, John Carter was responsible for writing big hits and timeless classics like “Can’t You Feel My Heartbeat” by Herman’s Hermits, “My World Fell Down” by Sagittarius, and the Music Explosion’s “Little Bit o’ Soul[]” . . . . the Ivy League’s “Funny How Love Can Be,” the Flowerpot Men’s “Let’s Go to San Francisco,” and “Beach Baby” for First Class. Typified by harmony vocals, simple melodies and, during the psychedelic era, very soft Baroque arrangements, the songs and productions Carter was a part of helped define the sound of English pop during his heyday. . . . Carter began writing songs at the age of 15 with classmate Ken Lewis. Inspired by the first wave of rockers . . . they worked up a batch of songs and in 1959, left their hometown [of Birmingham] for London . . . . find[ing] a publisher right away . . . . In 1960, they moved over to Southern Music and . . . began singing . . . under the name Carter-Lewis. . . . [and then] Carter-Lewis & the Southerners . . . . Between 1961 and 1964 they issued seven singles . . . . [t]heir sound was firmly rooted in the tradition of the Everly Brothers . . . . Though . . . a popular live act, the two songwriters quickly figured out that it made more sense financially to stay behind the scenes instead. Carter in particular exhibited no interest in becoming a pop star . . . . They soon shifted to cranking out demos . . . . [With] Perry Ford, [they] started . . . the Ivy League in late 1964 . . . . [W]hen the Rockin’ Berries turned down the song “Funny How Love Can Be,” the group released it themselves and had a Top Ten hit. Their sound was pitched somewhere between Del Shannon and the Beach Boys . . . . Carter left the band to head back to the . . . studio . . . with new [writing] partner Geoff Stephens. Along with songs penned for the Ivy League . . . the pair had hits with Manfred Mann, Mary Hopkin, the New Vaudeville Band, and Herman’s Hermits. Carter even ended up singing lead vocals on “Winchester Cathedral[.]” . . . [H]e was also working in the studio with a pair of songwriters, Robin Keen and Mickey Shaw, who he had signed to his newly formed music publishing company. Every week the pair would meet with Carter and play him the songs they had written. He’d pick his favorites and they would assemble a crack team of musicians to record them. Though they continued to work in this fashion for almost two years, they only issued one single, 1966’s “White Collar Worker,” [as] the Ministry of Sound. . . . Lewis left the Ivy League in 1967 and paired up with Carter again. . . . “Little Bit of Soul” [became a hit] . . . . [as did t]heir soft psychedelic confection “Let’s Go to San Francisco” . . . . Once again, Carter and Lewis decided not to go on the road and hired a band to go out and perform as the Flowerpot Men . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-carter-mn0000222625#biography

As to John and Russ, Bob Stanley explains:

Russell Alquist became John’s third writing partner . . . . They’d known each other for years — John and Ken [Lewis] demo’d his A little Lovin’, a hit for the Fourmost in ’64. [John recalled] “Russ is American, a great laidback hippy. To him, everything is ‘Hey man, don’t worry’, which was great for us because we’re so hyper!” The Carter-Lewis-Alquist partnership got their own office in Old Compton Street in 1968. “Underneath was a porn cinema, you had to turn your collar up coming in so that no one would recognise you.” Every Friday . . . . “Russ would bring a big bag of sweets with him, we used to call it Candy Day. Something would always come out of it.”
liner notes to the CD comp Measure for Measure: The John Carter Anthology 1961-1977

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The New Wave — “Little Dreams”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 6, 2024

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

1,200) The New Wave — “Little Dreams”

This gorgeous ‘67 B-side and track from the duo’s only album is “enchanting . . . such a Rare Gem full of BEAUTY & MAGIC which I have had the rare privilege to discover in this life”. (eleni930038, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hTOx3qfdM44&pp=ygUaVGhlIG5ldyB3YXZlIGxpdHRsZSBkcmVhbXM%3D) The album is “sunshine, baroque pop at its best, with two male voices duetting on delicate arrangements“. (chrismass61, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-new-wave/little-dreams-the-canterbury-recordings-deluxe-stereo_mono-edition-1/)

Mickaël Choisi (courtesy of Google Translate) writes of the album:

“[A] collection of jewels . . . . The songwriting, astonishing for young men barely twenty years old, is constantly enhanced by the arrangements of Gene Page and the inimitable playing of the “West Coast” musicians of the time, most of them from the famous Wrecking Crew . . . . At the turn of a harpsichord note, we even find Van Dyke Parks, whom pop symphony enthusiasts know well for having greatly participated in the construction of the “Smile” cathedral with Wilson. Just like the genius of the Beach Boys, André and Reid also possess this incredible instinct for complex harmonies (but never pretentious) and baroque reveries all enveloped in oboes, vibraphones, strings, brass and light guitars.
http://poprunners.blogspot.com/2022/04/wonderful-bossalight.html?m=1

As to the New Wave, Joe Marchese explains:

[Reid] King found inspiration in the tricky chords of the bossa nova. He mastered them and went on to write his own songs, often in collaboration with one-time child actor Thom Andriola, who performed under the stage name of Tommy André. By 1966, [they] were recording demos, and one year later, they were signed to Canterbury Records. At the cult favorite Sunset Boulevard label, home to the Yellow Balloon, they found themselves collaborating with rock royalty as The New Wave. Van Dyke Parks, Gene Page, Mike Post, Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye all added their magic to the duo’s debut. But the promise of the day soon gave way to disappointment, and the New Wave’s lone LP has been shrouded in mystery for over forty years . . . . The New Wave brought together the sounds of King’s beloved bossa nova with jazz, pop and classical strains, while the harmonies recalled late-period Chad and Jeremy or even Peter and Gordon. . . . The New Wave took its name from the French filmmaking movement [that] included directors Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard . . . . King and André hoped to bring that singular vision to their music. As such, they wrote all but one of the songs . . . . It is no surprise that members of the famed Los Angeles “Wrecking Crew” participated . . . . Gene Page, another Phil Spector session veteran, was in the arranger’s chair and co-produced (uncredited) with Canterbury’s Ken Handler. Van Dyke Parks was enlisted into service on piano while in the midst of work on [Brian Wilson’s] SMiLE . . . . The album performed well in the Los Angeles area, but Canterbury wasn’t behind it. King and Andriola continued to explore the boundaries of popular music, taking their sound in a less commercial direction (inspired by modern classical composition) and recording a second album in the U.K. that never saw release. But the New Wave’s self-titled LP has remained a favorite among sunshine pop collectors for its intelligent lyrics and quirky, moody, individual melodies.
https://theseconddisc.com/2011/05/18/before-blondie-and-talking-heads-now-sounds-presents-the-original-new-wave/?fbclid=IwAR3JY7dzxfqmGiQEmWuDqxJKXEHoG37xfjxtq8Mi5yOgnup47vKqcEOWtCE

Scott Blackerby is ambivalent and snarkily notes that “[m]ost of the songs boast fairly attractive melodies, though the arrangements are occasionally overwhelming and their lyrics suffer from standard college student angst, which probably drove female English majors crazy.” (The Acid Archives, the Second Edition) Richie Unterberger is less than complimentary:

The album is in fact so soft and pop-ish that its relationship to rock music is slight and it sometimes sounds geared as much or more to the adult pop market as the pop/rock one. Their material emphasizes breezy, samba-influenced close-harmony romantic tunes, acoustic guitars, and light percussion embroidered by vibes and some orchestration. The music is pleasant but fluffy . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-new-wave-mn0001891881

I have added a Facebook page for Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock! If you like what you read and hear and feel so inclined, please visit and “like” my Facebook page by clicking here.

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