As to Ora, the group and the album, Steve Pilkington says:
[A] pre-Byzantium band featuring the writing, playing and singing talents of Jamie Rubinstein, who would walk out of the door after the album’s release just as his future Byzantium colleagues were walking in, though he would be back for good before the first Byzantium record proper came out. . . . The Ora album, originally on the small Tangerine label, is certainly formative, and clearly date-stamped ‘late ’60s’ in its often whimsical psych-pop approach, yet hints of greater things crop up throughout, such as . . . The Seagull And The Sailor.
Ora was an English folk-pop band that released a self-titled album on small-press Tangerine Records in 1969. Mastermind Jamie Rubinstein later founded Byzantium, which issued two albums on A&M in 1972/73. Mark Barakan [aka Shane Fontayne] (guitar), Julian Diggle (drums), Jamie Rubinstein (vocals, guitar), Robin Sylvester (bass, keyboards, guitar), Chloe Walters (guitar), Jon Weiss (guitar). Ora coalesced at UCS Hampstead when members of two student bands formed a trio. Guitarist and singer/songwriter Jamie Rubentstein first played in The Faction with drummer Julian Diggle. Months later, they joined the band Sophie with Robin Sylvester, who played bass, guitar, and keyboards. The three formed Ora as a vehicle for Rubentstein’s material. Soon enough, Ora caught the attention of Tangerine Records boss Don White, who invited them to KPM Studios cut two demos, “Deborah” and “Fly.” As sessions commenced for an album, Ora swelled to a four-piece with guitarist Jon Weiss, a friend of Sylvester’s. Rubentstein took a holiday to contemplate the finishing touches, only to return and find (to his chagrin) that the album had already gone to press.
Byzantium emerged from the ashes of the band Ora, formed by students Robin Sylvester, Julian Diggle, and Jamie Rubinstein at University College School in Hampstead. After releasing one album with which Rubinstein was dissatisfied – as it had been assembled from unfinished demos and recordings without his consent – Ora disbanded. But its members felt a gravitational pull towards one another, and after some comings and goings, Byzantium was born with Rubinstein (primary songwriter), fellow USC Hampstead student Nico Ramsden (lead vocals/guitar/percussion/keyboards), Chaz Jankel (lead vocals/guitar/keyboards), and Stephen Corduner (drums/percussion). Robin Sylvester remained part of the band, too, but in the behind-the-scenes capacities of producer, arranger, and conductor. Rod Stewart’s manager Billy Gaff caught wind of the band and got them a deal with the U.K. arm of A&M Records. (In the U.S., their first album appeared on the Warner Bros. label.) Soon, Byzantium was on the road with Faces, Family, and Rory Gallagher, and appearing on a bill with Hawkwind, Man, and Brinsley Schwarz. . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,106) Dantalian’s Chariot — “High Flying Bird”
“Four thousand people with flowers in their hair Walking around, just feeling the air . . . . San Francisco is losing its hate And all the love flows out through the Golden Gate”
San Francisco’s beautiful people, flush the toilets, the police are coming! Well, at least Andy Somers (to become the Police’s Andy Summers), co-wrote (with Zoot Money (see #726)) Dantalion’s Chariot’s (see #727) “ode to the beautiful people of San Francisco”, a “high point[]” of DC’s unreleased catalogue. (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) The song, a “calculated attempt to woo the American market . . . remains intriguing not only for its beatific lyrical imagery but for an unusual jazz-tinged instrumental sound, emphasized by . . . Somers’ dexterous guitar runs.” (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp Dantalian’s Chariot: Chariot Rising) Pete Sargeant writes that:
High Flying Bird is not the US folk-rock gem but rather a set of observations on the hip culture with an excellent and clear vocal from Money, a sandpapered tinge to his voice. [It is m]y favourite cut on this intriguing [DC comp] as they sound totally themselves and Somers indulges his Airplane side with a jazzy guitar break that floats over the song. The rhythm section proves themselves masters of mood on this one.
Like other established acts . . . these experienced Beat-era musicians drastically changed tack to embrace the new counterculture, yet no others did it so publicly, nor with such apparent commitment, nor did they fail so spectacularly in spite of critical acclaim and huge hype. Keyboardist/vocalist George Zoot Money had helmed his Big Roll Band since 1961, playing fiery R’n’B to enthusiastic Soho Mod club dancers whilst selling precious few records. Seeing the psychedelic scene suddenly burgeon around them, Money, guitarist Andy Somers and drummer Colin Allen threw themselves bodily on to the bandwagon, announcing abruptly in July 1967 that the Big Roll Band no longer existed and that henceforth they would be Dantalian’s Chariot “ Dantalian being a Duke of Hell, referred to in The Key of Solomon.* To emphasise the point they kitted themselves out completely in white “ kaftans, guitars, amps, even a white Hammond “ and put together a light show so sophisticated that the Pink Floyd hired it on occasions. From their first self-penned recording sessions EMI released a single, Madman Running Through The Fields. Despite critical approval it stiffed chartwise, and a subsequent attempt to release an album, appropriately titled Transition, on CBS subsidiary Direction also stalled when the label insisted that its psychedelic elements be diluted with more familiar Money fare and the release credited to the Big Roll Band. This too sank without trace, and a miffed Money finally junked the Chariot in April 1968.
As David Wells explains:
Zoot and Andy [Summers] were becoming increasingly immersed in the psychedelic experience, regularly attending . . . various subterranean love-ins and happenings . . . . Increasingly weary of being promoted by EMI as the white James Brown, Zoot announced in late July 1967 that the Big Roll Band were not more. “We had been working very hard for a long time and felt we were getting stale”, Zoot told reporters.
liner notes to Dantalian’s Chariot: Chariot Rising
Zoot recalls “We just wanted to do something new. It was a chance to be more creative, to move on to writing our own material and try out new things.” (Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era)
Richie Unterberger adds:
Such was the impact of psychedelic music in 1967, however, that by the middle of the year, Money had decided to totally revamp his sound. R&B/jazz/soul had become passe; now it was important to write your own material, and reflect the mind-expanding experience. With [Andy] Summers still in tow, [the band] became Dantalian’s Chariot. The music, written primarily by Money and Summers, changed as radically as the name, with airy melodies, spacy lyrics, and guitar/organ-driven arrangements. The band hit the London underground circuit inhabited by such acts as Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, and made their debut recording as Dantalian’s Chariot . . . in the summer of 1967. The single, innovative as it was, didn’t make any commercial waves. Although they were a respected live act, their new direction wasn’t supported by EMI, which dropped the band. A psychedelic-minded LP was worked on, but not released. Some of the material appeared on an early 1968 record, which the Direction label assembled from various tunes cut over the past year. . . . Dantalian’s Chariot came to an end in the spring of 1968, with Summers joining the Soft Machine (and subsequently Eric Burdon’s Animals); Money would also join Eric Burdon’s Animals around the same time.
But what a trip it was. David Wells notes that DC became “the darlings of the London underground set” and “one of the most fondly remembered British Psychedelic groups”. (liner notes to Dantalian’s Chariot: Chariot Rising) Vernon Joynson adds that:
[They] performed frequently at London’s Middle Earth and UFO clubs. . . . Their live appearances were amazing. They took to the stage in white robes and had what was generally regarded as the best light show in town. The only problem was this ensured they made heavy financial losses with every appearance.
The Tapestry of Delights Revisited
* Wikipedia tells us that: The Key of Solomon . . . also known as The Greater Key of Solomon, is a pseudepigraphical [falsely attributed] grimoire [textbook on magic] attributed to King Solomon. It probably dates back to the 14th or 15th century Italian Renaissance. It presents a typical example of Renaissance magic.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_of_Solomon)
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Well, there is some debate about which version is best. Rapidkid28 says that Pete Brown’s “version will always be the best because it’s the original plus pete’s voice suits the song more because of his jazzy tone. Richard Barnes’s sounds too operatic”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBH-vxCxM00). But MrDjango1953 says “Great song–have to say though that Richard Barnes version is way better than this one”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBH-vxCxM00). I say they are both great in their own way. Prog or pop, this song gets under your skin.
As to Barnes, Mark Deming tells us:
Richard Barnes was a vocalist with the U.K. pop group the Quiet Five [see #676] before departing for a solo career in 1969, and over the next four years he cut a handful of supremely glossy pop records before launching a career in the musical theater in the London cast of Jesus Christ Superstar. . . . [I]t seems it was his destiny to be a West End star — while he doesn’t exactly go overboard on [his songs] there’s a strong sense of brio in his vocal style, and Barnes isn’t afraid to play to the last row of the balcony. Gerry Bron produced these sessions, and he clearly didn’t hesitate to pull out all the stops, ordering up elaborate orchestrations and top-shelf studio craft on the . . . the almost-psychedelic “High Flying Electric Bird,” . . . Barnes and were also shrewd judges of material . . . . [and] while Barnes was no rocker he was a gifted and intelligent interpretive singer, and [his singles] represent[] British pop at the peak of its form.
Pete Brown & Piblokto! was a “British progressive rock band formed in 1969 by Pete Brown, (probably best known as the lyricist with Cream) after being thrown out of his previous band Pete Brown & His Battered Ornaments.” (https://www.last.fm/music/Pete+Brown+&+Piblokto!/+wiki)
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The Barbarians are almost exclusively known for their small hit single “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl” and their even smaller hit “Moulty.” Those 1965 singles were preceded by the 1964 45 “Hey Little Bird,” which, although few heard it, was probably their best recording. Starting with an emphatic drum stroke, the opening section was devoted to a growling primitive fuzz guitar riff. Though the song, penned by non-member Tommy Kaye, was obviously an attempt to simulate the British Invasion, American garage influence couldn’t help creeping in via the snarled vocals and overall lumpy execution, the fuzz riffs counterpointed by higher bluesy, somewhat sub-Rolling Stones lines. Yet there were Beatlesque attributes to the tune as well, particularly in the harmonized vocal lines ending the verses, and the overtly British Invasion-like soaring melody of the bridge, though that ended with a particularly ominous, sour blast of fuzz. The result was an odd but appealing collision of influences, British Invasion cheer getting twisted into a rather surly and brooding melody.
With their appearances on the Nuggets compilation and The T.A.M.I. Show, the Barbarians are one of the best-remembered garage bands of the ’60s. Not that it’s easy to forget the sight of a one-handed drummer, complete with hook, driving his band through a garage punk number in the company of the day’s biggest British Invasion, soul, and surf stars. Moulty was hardly self-conscious about his handicap; on the tiny hit single immortalized on Nuggets (titled, logically enough, “Moulty”), he tells the story of the triumph over his loss in no uncertain melodramatic terms. The band also managed a somewhat bigger hit single, the British Invasion-inspired novelty “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl.”
Formed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in 1964, this band was originally composed of band members Victor “Moulty” Moulton (drums), Bruce Benson (rhythm guitar), Ronnie Enos (lead guitar), and Jerry Causi (bass). . . . The group decided to make their stage outfits resembles those of pirates/beach bums, as their drummer “Moulty” Moulton had a hook for a hand. The band worse baggy, long-sleeve blouses, had longer than usual hair, and wore leather sandals. In 1965, guitarist Geoffrey Morris replaced Ronnie Enos on lead guitar and brought the song “Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?” with him. After [“Moulty”] began to take off, the band wanted to tour around in Boulder, Colorado. Moulty refused. Morris, Benson, and Causi went anyway with . . . replacements. After their stint in Boulder, the new members took their act to San Francisco and renamed themselves Black Pearl.
One of the most heralded rock events ever captured on film, the 1964 concert known as The T.A.M.I. Show [Teenage Awards Music International], filmed in . . . Southern California by director Steve Binder, presented a lineup like no other: the Rolling Stones, James Brown, the Beach Boys, Marvin Gaye, the Miracles, the Supremes, Chuck Berry, Lesley Gore and others. The artists rehearsed and filmed over two days and nights on October 29 and 30 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
A superlative dance between cinema and music, “The T.A.M.I. Show” brought together rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues, black and white performers, audio and visual excitement, and the US and UK musical countercultures. Shot only four months after the end of the fifty-four day filibuster that allowed the enactment of the Civil Rights Act on 2 July 1964, Binder’s orchestration of music, dance, and cinema transcended the social reality of its time. And as it became the model for mid-sixties’ rock ‘n’ roll television shows mixing black and white teenagers, especially ABC’s “Shindig!” and NBC’s “Hullabaloo” (also directed by Binder and choreographed by Winters), its utopian social and aesthetic innovations quickly entered both mass culture and the wider political field.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,103) The Exceptions — “The Eagle Flies on Friday”
Primo UK freakbeat, a unique, stunning and “powerful drums and vibes driven track”. (robertplant, https://www.45cat.com/record/202632). The members then tried their luck with British folk, Fairport Convention style. WTF? The title . . . refers to payday in US worplaces (the eagle being pictured on the dollar).” (liner notes to the CD comp Chocolate Soup for Diabetics: Volumes 1-5). Oh, and Robert Plant played tambourine! More tambourine!
As to the Exceptions, Vernon Joynson tells us:
This Birmingham band was formed after [Roger] Hill had left The Uglys in August 1967. [Dave] Pegg joined from Way of Life but he too had been with The Uglys earlier. . . . Hill went on to join Mongrel then Fairport Convention . . . Pegg joined Fairport Convention . . . . [Alan Bugsy] Eastwood also joined Fairport Conventiom and he and Pegg were both later in Fotheringay.
The Tapestry of Delights Revisited
Robertplant adds:
One of Dave Pegg’s friends was future Led Zeppelin star Robert Plant who at the time was contracted to CBS Records. Robert recommended The Hooties to well-known music publisher Eddie Kassner which gained the band a recording contract with CBS. Re-naming themselves ‘The Exceptions’ their first single release was recorded at Regent Sound studios in London. Robert Plant actually played tambourine on the A-side titled ‘The Eagle Flies On Friday’ . . . . This, along with the B-side ‘Girl Trouble’ were both original compositions by Alan Eastwood.
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Surprisingly the album does not suffer much from [Iain] Matthews’ minimal writing contributions . . . . What makes this album so timeless and enjoyable is the way it explores country music without deliberately trying to be country a highly commendable feat that many American bands were not able to achieve. Free from any phony southern twang, Ian’s fragile, emotionally-charged vocals enrich every song with a genuineness that is perfectly complemented by the warm, rural landscape that’s successfully captured by the band. Not only is this one of the first British country-rock records, but it is also an unrecognized benchmark for the entire then-burgeoning genre.
This UK band was formed by former Fairport Convention singer/guitarist Iain Matthews . . . and was named after his 1969 debut for MCA Records. Comprising Matthews, Mark Griffiths (guitar), Carl Barnwell (guitar), Gordon Huntley (pedal steel guitar), Andy Leigh (bass) and Ray Duffy (drums), the newly formed band signed to EMI Records. The unit’s country-tinged sound proved to be an excellent forum for Matthews’ songwriting talents. In the summer of 1970, their second album, Second Spring reached the UK Top 40 and was followed by a winter chart-topper, ‘Woodstock’. Joni Mitchell wrote the single as a tribute to the famous festival that she had been unable to attend. Already issued as a single in a hard rocking vein by Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young, it was a surprise UK number 1 for Matthews Southern Comfort. Unfortunately, success was followed by friction within the band and, two months later, Matthews announced his intention to pursue a solo career. One more album followed after which the band truncated their name to Southern Comfort. After two further albums, they disbanded in the summer of 1972.
[Iain Matthews] joined Fairport Convention . . . but in early 1969, he left by mutual consent. . . . A successful management team of the period was Ken Howard & Alan Blaikely, who had worked with both Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, etc., and The Herd, and saw Ian as their next hit-making client. . . . His debut LP, while released as Matthews’ Southern Comfort’, was actually a solo album by Matthews, and was titled after “Southern Comfort'” a song by Sylvia Tyson (nee Sylvia Fricker) which would appear on his next LP . . . . ”It wasn’t necessarily my intention to have a band called Matthews’ Southern Comfort. The album was going to be solo, and we were going to see what happened” he recalled in the mid-1970s. . . . The production of the LP is credited to Steve Barlby & Ian Matthews, and several of the songs [including “Fly, Pigeon, Fly”] are also written by Barlby, in fact a pseudonym for Howard & Blaikley. Matthews explained: “There wasn’t much of any direction to the album — Howard and Blaikley were new managers to me, and I was kind of feeling my way. They took me on the understanding that I was going to do some of their songs, and we kind of sold ourselves to the record company on that basis, but then I started to change my mind, because I didn’t particularly like their songs”.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Matthews’ Southern Comfort
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It comes from the Australia-only LP Spicks and Specks, which was made possible by the song “Spicks and Specks.” BeeGees.com says:
Spicks and Specks . . . [is] laden with rich harmonies and bittersweet lyrics, backed by delicate, predominantly acoustic instrumentation. Originally presented as ‘Monday’s Rain,’ the album’s title was ultimately changed to capitalize on the success of single “Spicks and Specks.” . . . the[ir] first hit . . . in Australia . . . . Yet by that point, The Bee Gees had already decided to uproot and move their career to the U.K.
“Whilst at sea in January, 1967, they heard that “Spicks and Specks”, a song they had recorded in 1966, had gone to #1 in Australia.” (https://www.last.fm/music/Bee+Gees/+wiki)
And as Joe Marchese elaborates:
The catchy track made it to No. 3 in Sydney, staying in the Top 40 for 19 weeks, and in other areas of Australia reached pole position. . . . . [It] made such an impression that its release led to the group’s signing with Polydor in the U.K.; it became the group’s first single there. The Bee Gees’ new album, naturally, was titled after the hit song. Spicks and Specks used most of the tracks intended for an aborted LP entitled Monday’s Rain. This album was never issued outside Australia . . . . On January 3, 1967, the Bee Gees began their journey back to England. It’s hardly an exaggeration to state that “the rest is history” once they arrived.
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The outstanding track is [the] enigmatic “Ceilings No. 1”, a country-ish jaunt which . . . has all the hallmarks of a huge hit. Equally memorable were “Ceilings No. 2″ (a similar number, but taken at a different tempo)”.
Roger Dopson, liner notes to the CD comp Honeybus at Their Best
45rpy adds:
Each side [of the LP] closes with a different rendering of the same tune—“Ceilings No. 1,” a melancholy but still finger-snapping jaunt, and both versions compound the personal and the political, imploring world leaders to “Stop wasting your god-given lives on useless pursuits that will end with the grave.” But only the introspective “Ceilings No. 2” features the more vulnerable appeal “Oh help me in what I must do / And show me the things that are true / Don’t give me the mask that disguises your face…”
Honeybus is one of my favorite bands (see #6, 52, 207, 434, 562, 605, 764), with the honey being especially bittersweet with what should have been, what could have been. LN writes:
When I once lent a friend a copy of my beloved Story he quipped that it sounded almost like a Beatles album from the 1960s that had somehow escaped release. I had for some time lacked just the right phrase to describe the album, and here it was; my friend had completely summed up my feelings about one of rock music’s true lost treasures in one neat soundbite.
Honeybus had the pop touchstones of the Beatles and the Hollies, while balancing the more sunshiny, twee aspects of the early Bee Gees with some mild touches of post-Sgt. Pepper psychedelia. . . . Their songs were unusually tuneful, some lovely little hooks paired with sweet harmonies, and it’s almost shocking to hear these songs today and realize the band had pretty much zero commercial success (at least here in the US).
Bruce Eder beautifully ponders what made the band so special and what could have been:
Considering that most have never heard of them, it’s amazing to ponder that they came very close, in the eyes of the critics, to being Decca Records’ answer to the Rubber Soul-era Beatles. The harmonies were there, along with some catchy, hook-laden songs . . . . The pop sensibilities of Honeybus’ main resident composers, Peter Dello and Ray Cane were astonishingly close in quality and content to those of Paul McCartney and the softer sides of John Lennon of that same era. What’s more, the critics loved their records. Yet, somehow, Honeybus never got it right; they never had the right single out at the proper time, and only once in their history did they connect with the public for a major hit, in early 1968. . . .
Dello and Cane . . . were the prime movers behind Honeybus. In 1966, they formed the Yum Yum Band . . . . A collapsed lung put Dello out of action in early 1966, and it was during his recuperation that he began rethinking what the band and his music were about. He developed the notion of a new band that would become a canvas for him to work on as a songwriter — they would avoid the clubs, working almost exclusively in the studio, recreating the sounds that he was hearing in his head. . . . It was a novel strategy, paralleling the approach to music-making by the Beatles in their post-concert period, and all the more daring for the fact that they were a new group . . . . The group was one of the best studio bands of the period, reveling in the perfection that could be achieved . . . .
They were duly signed to England’s Decca Records and assigned to the company’s newly organized Deram label . . . . The critics were quick to praise the band . . . [but their first two singles were commercially] unsuccessful. Then . . . their third release, “I Can’t Let Maggie Go,” [see #6] . . . . . . peaked at number eight. . . . [It] should have made the group, but instead it shattered them. Peter Dello resigned during the single’s chart run. He had been willing to play live on radio appearances and the occasional television or special concert showcase . . . but he couldn’t accept the physical or emotional stresses of performing live on a regular basis, or the idea of touring America . . . . Dello left . . . . [and] Jim Kelly came in on guitar and vocals, while Ray Cane . . . took over most of the songwriting, and Honeybus proceeded to play regular concerts. The group never recovered the momentum they’d lost over “Maggie,” however, despite a string of fine singles . . . . [that] never charted . . . . [T]he group had pretty well decided to call it quits once they finished the[ir] LP . . . . The Honeybus Story . . . was released in late 1969, but without an active group to promote it, the record sank without a trace. . . . [I]t was a beautiful album, with the kind of ornate production and rich melodies that had become increasingly rare with the passing of the psychedelic era . . . .
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One great R&B song that has travelled the globe — written by Leiber and Stoller, first released by Alvin Robinson out of New Orleans, then by the Rolling Stones, and then by Chile’s Stones, Los Jockers. Each version gives me such satisfaction!
THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,097) Alvin Robinson — “Down Home Girl”
Alvin Robinson released the Leiber and Stoller-written “Down Home Girl” as a ’64 B-side on their new Red Bird label. It is “an inspired amalgamation of New York pop and Crescent City R&B. . . . one of the finest [singles] to appear on this impressive label” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/alvin-robinson-mn0000011667#biography), and “Alvin’s best record . . . . just about as good as it gets… every time you move like that, I have to go to Sunday Mass.” (Red Kelly, http://redkelly.blogspot.com/2008/05/al-robinson-wake-up-imperial-5762.html?m=1) Dan Phillips says of Robinson’s “brilliant rendition” that:
[“Girl” was] written as a funky and humorous New Orleans grinder and arranged to suit by Joe Jones . . . . Its lack of sales was and is a really puzzling result for such a cool record. Of course, the Rolling Stones famously covered the tune a year later, and effectively buried Shine’s version.
[It is] a rather jovial piece of New Orleans soul, with the brass and lazy, humid feel associated with much of that city’s music. The pretty exaggerated evocations of the down home girl’s down-home Southern-ness — perfume that smells like turnip greens (ugh!), a kiss that tastes like pork and beans (double ugh!), and so forth — gave the song a comic air, and also indicated that it might have been a caricature of Southern Black life to some extent, done by songwriters who were not either Black or Southern.
Robinson was a New Orleans-based session guitarist, and secured a minor hit in 1964 with a recording of a Chris Kenner song, ‘Something You Got’. The single was released on Tiger Records, a short-lived outlet owned by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who then took Robinson to their next venture, Red Bird. His first release there, ‘Down Home Girl’ . . . . but the artist was unable to find another success. Robinson moved to the west coast in 1969 and was one of several expatriate musicians who played on Dr. John’s New Orleans ‘tribute’ album, Gumbo.
Although [it] sounds rather like a rocked-up arrangement of a down-home blues tune, in fact the original version of this song was written by a couple of Brill Building songwriters. It first came out on a single by New Orleans singer Alvin Robinson, shortly before the Rolling Stones covered it on their third album, The Rolling Stones Now!. . . . The Rolling Stones’ cover really brought out the salaciousness in the composition, particularly in Mick Jagger’s drawling vocal — about the most blatantly Southern-styled one he did in the mid-1960s — and the funky, stinging guitar. The guitar was especially effective in the stuttering notes immediately following many of the vocal lines. They also took the song at an irregularly paced shuffle, really dragging out the beat and lyrics so that it sounded like a moodier and meaner look at a girl who both oozes sex and reeks of Southern roots. Few other of the band’s tracks make the Stones’ general infatuation with American Southern culture so obvious, and at once admiring and wary. The fade teases out the slightly ominous feel further, as the guitar lines go up an octave for emphasis and some blues harmonica comes in. . . . [I]t was too soaked with blues (and sexual imagery) to qualify as one of the group’s more commercial early numbers . . . . The song . . . was played in July 1969 at their concert in London’s Hyde Park, Mick Taylor’s first gig with the band.
Possibly the best version of all is by Chile’s Rolling Stones — Los Jockers.
Forced Exposure tells us that:
Los Jockers were one of the pioneer bands of Chilean rock, ahead of their time, and the first to differentiate themselves from the more romantic “new wave” style, by being ahead of the curve in adopting the psychedelic clothes and long hair that were the image of rock in the world at that time. [The band was] formed in 1964, and started playing live in 1965, and were one of the first rock groups to have great success locally. They used flashy clothes, influenced by the British mods at first, and by psychedelia, and had a very aggressive and raw live show. Their music was called “pop contracultural” (counterculture pop). Their version of the Rolling Stones’ classic “Satisfaction” hit the radios before the original Stones version was known locally, and it was such a smash hit that during their show at the “Viña del Mar Festival” they had to play the song five times.
The Biblioteca Nacional de Chile explains (courtesy of Google Translate):
[V]arious groups and soloists gradually emerged that tried to emulate the music from the United States. All of them constituted a movement of great popularity, which was a reference for the 1960s in Chile, and which became known as the New Wave.. . . Towards the end of the 1960s, Chilean rock began to take on rebellious and rebellious characteristics. Many young people began to wear bizarre clothes, grow their hair long, and sing aggressively and with loud sounds on stage. The sweet rock of the New Wave gave way to the rebellious psychedelia, to the countercultural and aggressive pop proposal, represented in groups such as Los Jockers.
For more on Los Jockers, here is Ana María Hurtado (courtesy of Google Translate):
Together with Los Mac’s [see #123, 203] and Los Vidrios Quebrados [see #763, 1,029], Los Jockers make up the group of Chilean beat formations, a movement that is brief in time but also one that identifies the first experience of rock made in Chile beyond the pop figures of the New Wave. Their main mold was always the Rolling Stones, and their work greatly advanced the local rock culture through a visual production never before seen in the country. The quintet began calling themselves Los Tigers, first inspired by what they saw in magazines and records imported from England, full of photos of the Shadows, the Yardbirds and the Rolling Stones. The Jockers were between 17 and 19 years old, composed in English and built their own electric instruments in a very rudimentary way. From their first performance (at the end of 1965, to benefit the Barros Luco Hospital) they surprised people with their long hair and colorful clothes, something unusual for the time. The group’s short career was eventful. Their version of “Satisfaction” . . . sold more than 80,000 copies in its single format in 1966. They went to the Viña Festival in 1967 and had to play it five times. . . . That same year, President Eduardo Frei Montalva invited them to the Palacio de la Moneda to meet them. The group failed to stabilize its career beyond three years.
Finally, lead singer Sergio Del Rio recalls how the group channeled their inner Andrew Loog Oldham and became stars (courtesy of Google Translate):
In 1963, once the World Cup was over, a friend invited me to his house one day to listen to music and he showed me The Beatles, The Stones, The Hubabaloo, who wore wigs, and a group that caught my attention, which was the group The Yardbirds, with a fantastic guitarist called Eric Clapton. At that time, the musicians were influenced by The Shadows, but I liked Clapton. That’s when the bug started to bite me to put together a band and I bought a guitar. I started from school to see the shows of the time on Radio Corporación . . . . [B]efore I was even a salvageable musician, I started teaching a cousin of mine to play the bass and we put together the group . . . . [W]e were the precursors of Chilean rock, in the middle of the golden age of the New Wave. Well, we already differentiated ourselves with the type of music we made, but we were missing the theme of image. There we took The Rolling Stones as a reference, we let our hair grow and we ordered ourselves to make different clothes. . . . At the end of ’65, Los Jocker’s performed for the first time with our new songs and our new sound, instruments and equipment, in a hospital that I believe was Barros Luco, at a typical New Year’s Eve party with the nurses and all of that. When we appeared there was screaming, the nurses went crazy and when we got off the stage we signed autographs like crazy. Already in the dressing room I told the boys: “this is the path we have to follow.” It was incredible what had happened to us for the simple fact of changing the look. Even the same record companies that hadn’t caught us before were now acting suspiciously nice to us. But this change of image also caused us problems. Many people thought that wearing long hair and colored clothes was something for degenerates, for drug addicts, and they spat at us in the street. This did not happen with the other New Wave groups. The Jocker’s caused a stir in the streets and that forced us to always go out accompanied by friends to protect us. We started making news in the newspapers . . . .
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,096)Jimmy Campbell — “Lyanna”
This blog o’ mine gives me great joy, as when I played as my 22nd song “Michel Angelo”, by Jimmy Campbell (see #22, 648, 736-38, 996) and the 23rd Turnoff. I called the song “[o]ne of the most gorgeous songs I have ever heard.” It is certainly the greatest ever pop psych ballad I have ever heard. But the blog also can give me great sadness, as when today, I focus again on Jimmy and how his talents were left to wither by cruel fate and an indifferent public. As dpnewbold comments, “This guy is so under-rated it hurts.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI-KHv7u4qE) Yes, it does.
[M]ost of the songs here are good, particularly . . . “Lyanna[.]”
Campbell’s 1969 LP . . . . was a marked change in direction for Campbell, in his style if not his songwriting. For Son of Anastasia is largely a folky, acoustic album, occasionally venturing into orchestrated folk-pop, even if Campbell is more a pop/rock songwriter than a folk one. Campbell’s slightly moody yet catchy melodies, as well as his drolly understated lyrics, mark him as perhaps the best ’60s Liverpool rock songwriter never to have a chart record . . . . It’s an attractively introspective record laced with some bittersweet irony, but the combination of bare-bones and lightly orchestrated arrangements doesn’t always ideally suit the material. . . . occasionally riffs are taken by what sound like either kazoos or someone (Campbell?) trying to imitate a trumpet with mouth noises, which not only adds an unappetizingly vaudevillian flavor, but leaves the impression that there wasn’t enough budget allotted for proper instrumentation.
As to Jimmy, Matty Loughlin-Day aptly states that:
[Jimmy Campbell is a] songwriter who, for this writer’s money, could go toe-to-toe with any of the more celebrated prodigies from the region, yet who’s name is frequently met with blank faces or a shrug of the shoulders. A writer who, in a sane universe, would be esteemed alongside . . . yes, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Jimmy Campbell is arguably the archetypal lost son of Liverpool. A talent that was never quite reciprocated by the buying public and the victim of some cruel twists of fate, his is a name that is for one reason or another, never quite mentioned when discussing the plethora of musical talent that the city has produced. . . . [H]is songs entice immediately and gradually work their way into the sub-conscious.
Campbell should rightfully be considered closer to a Merseyside Bob Dylan than the sullen working class Nick Drake he is often painted as. He could have been the Poet Laureate of England! How is it that one day of the greatest sonic creations in his fascinating and flawless back catalogue should be gathering dust for the past thirty-three years?
liner notes to the CD reissue of Rocking Horse’s Yes It Is
And Richie Unterberger poignantly sums things up:
[Jimmy was] perhaps the most unheralded talent to come out of the Liverpool ’60s rock scene, as he was a songwriter capable of both spinning out engaging Merseybeat and — unlike almost every other artist from the city, with the notable exception of the Beatles — making the transition to quality, dreamy psychedelia. . . . It seems as if Campbell needed just a bit more encouragement, and his groups just a little more studio time, to develop into a notable British psychedelic group that could combine solid pop melodies, sophisticated lyrics and arrangements, and touches of English whimsy. Unfortunately they didn’t get that chance . . . .
Campbell’s slightly moody yet catchy melodies, as well as his drolly understated lyrics, mark him as perhaps the best ’60s Liverpool rock songwriter never to have a chart record . . . .
To give a touch of Jimmy Campbell’s early and later history, Matty Loughlin-Day writes that:
Campbell’s first band, The Panthers, were formed in 1962 and were at the heart of all things Merseybeat. Legend has it that at one gig, John Lennon stood in front of the band, keen to suss out local competition; one must assume he was impressed, as before long, the band were able to add ‘supported The Beatles’ to their CV. Convinced by Cavern-legend Bob Wooler to change their name to The Kirkbys (in homage to their home suburb) and looked after by Brian Epstein’s secretary Beryl Adams, Campbell et al toured across Western Europe and recorded a handful of songs, including the Rolling Stones-esque stomper It’s a Crime . . . [see #648]. . . . [I]nitial singles found success in, of all places, Finland. . . . [but a]t home, the singles fared less impressively, and a second name change soon followed. The Kirbys became the 23rd Turnoff, again based in local geography, named after the M6 junction required for Kirkby. . . .
With a short European tour in 1972 backing Chuck Berry . . . and fortunes truly fading, Campbell decided he’d had enough. . . . [A]pparently rejuvenated and able to muster the strength to record a fourth solo album during the 80’s, Campbell, on completing it, went to the pub to celebrate, only to return home to find his house ransacked and the only master tapes of the album gone, along with a range of equipment. The guy, it seemed, could just not catch a break. . . .
By all accounts, a life of hard-living took its toll and he sadly passed away in 2007 after battling emphysema.
Oh, and Billy Fury did a wonderful version that only surfaced years after his death. Yr Heartout explains:
[Here are a] trio of recordings as good as anyone has ever done, and yet these were never heard until Billy was long gone. What a world! Both ‘In My Room’ and ‘Lyanna’ are so incredibly sad and moving, and Billy’s performance seems to add layers of strangeness, despair and pain. I don’t know. I could be biased because I heard Billy’s versions first, and for me they fit Billy, with his reclusive tendencies, his innate shyness, his modesty, his gentleness, his persistent ill-health, his latter-day bad luck. . . . Jimmy Campbell [was] an incredibly talented singer and songwriter who nevertheless initially made me think of George Formby at times. Jimmy, for me, was an acquired taste, but so often acquired tastes prove to have more durability than instant passions.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,095) Scorpion — “We Are Through”
Beautiful, delicate, wistful folk rock from Sweden. As to Scorpion’s (see #1,009) album — I Am the Scorpion — SwedishProggBlog tells us that:
One of the most legendary albums to come out of the Swedish progg scene, and also one of the earliest. It’s almost mythical to collectors, being extremely hard to find and fetching ridiculous prices any rare time it’s offered for sale. It was ninth album release on MNW, one of the most important labels of the Swedish 70’s, putting out many stellar albums of the era. Scorpion was in fact MNW head honcho Bo Anders Larsson’s own one-off project. Larsson had previously been in Tintacs who had two singles out in the late 60’s. Tintacs soon became Ron Faust . . . . Both incarnations of the band also featured Lorne de Wolfe who later made a mark in history as a member of Contact, Vargen, and . . . Hansson de Wolfe United. The entire Contact back Larsson on ”I Am the Scorpion”, and being produced by Kim Fowley, it’s like the evil cousin to Contact’s – much more subdued – debut album ”Nobody Wants to Be Sixteen”. . . . “I Am the Scorpion” is a partly wild affair, sometimes reminiscent of the Stooges or any other late 60’s/early 70’s Detroit band of your choice. Side A of the album is hard-boiled psych rock with frantic fuzz guitars. . . . With the first side of the album having the guitars going on the red and the drums pounding on your eardrums, side B [where you can find “We Are Through”] might come as an unpleasant surprise. Much mellower, and in parts downright terrible. It begins with one of the lousiest tracks ever recorded in Sweden, ”Michoican” . . . . Why this jolly-jolly-ho-ho-ho-thumbs-up-yeehah crap was chosen as a single – A side at that! – is a complete mystery. . . . The rest of the second side is much better, but a far cry from the stunning first one. . . . Side A . . . is as heavy and rough as music got in 1970, up there with the best and rawest US garage rock of the era.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,094) Focal Point — “‘Cept Me”
Co-band founder Paul Tennant recalls that this “rough demo” — two guys “in front of a microphone with two guitars” — was “a favorite of John Lennon’s and I can’t say how much that meant to us[, h]e was our hero”. (liner notes to the CD comp Focal Point: First Bite of the Apple: The Complete Recordings 1967-68) The song is a “plaintive” “gem” (David Kidman, https://www.fatea-records.co.uk/magazine/reviews/Pysche1967/) from one of the greatest coulda/shoulda-beens in the annals of British pop psych (see #4, 43, 198, 538, 747, 991).
The band only released one single, but it all started out like a fairy tale when two guys cornered Paul McCartney walking his dog Martha in Hyde Park . . . . AsTennant recalls:
It was . . . the summer of 1967 . . . . We knew which house Paul lived in due to the large amount of girls hanging about outside. . . . Then all of a sudden the gates opened and a mini shoots out and away. Without a second thought we were on his tail, and there in the back of the car was a large sheepdog . . . . I never let it out of my sight . . . [W]e were at Hyde Park, the mini stopped and out stepped Paul, let the dog out and waved to the driver – Jane Asher and he was away walking the dog. . . . [W]e shouted to [Paul] and he turned around. We then told him . . . we were writing songs and didn’t know what to do with them, could he help? . . . [H]e said to us “I could get you a recording contract just like that” and flicked his fingers. “But why should I?” It was then that he proved to be human by planting a finger up his nostril. Dave [Rhodes] laughed and he laughed. Dave then said . . . “Because we are good, our songs are good.” It was just like that, Paul then wrote down . . . a phone number . . . . “Phone this guy and tell him I sent you[]” and he was then gone . . . . [W]hen we got back to Liverpool, Dave and I phoned . . . . Terry [Doran] listened and told us Paul had told him we were going to ring and when could we go down to London. . . . Out came the guitars and we sang four of our best songs . . . . He said he liked our songs and would like to get acetate done of them. . . . “John loves your songs, he is absolutely going mad over them” said Terry. We were . . . gob smacked. He wants me to play them to Brian”. . . . “Brian agrees with John, your songs are fantastic.” . . . Brian . . . suggested that we should form a band [and] call [it] Focal Point.
Stefan Granados notes that “Doran recorded several demos with Tennant and Rhodes . . . who became the first two songwriters signed to Apple after both John Lennon and Brian Epstein responded enthusiastically to the demo recording [including “‘Cept Me”]. (liner notes to Focal Point: First Bite of the Apple: The Complete Recordings 1967-68)
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,093) Brazilian Octopus — “Gamboa”
Come to a fashion show in Rio accompanied by some absolutely fabulous lounge jazz from some of Brazil’s greatest musicians. “The opening melody shifts from a dreamlike intro to a swinging mid-tempo that recalls everything from Jacques Tati’s masterpiece Playtime to the background dances on some ‘60s variety show. In three and a half minutes, the group, following the tight lead of drummer Douglas de Oliveira, passes through rhythmic pop-art bliss.” (Pat Padua, https://spectrumculture.com/2017/04/02/brazilian-octopus-brazilian-octopus/)
Padua gets his tentacles into the Octopus:
Sao Paolo businessman Livio Rangan introduced synthetic fabrics into a Brazilian market that was proud of the natural fabric that poured out of its thriving textile industry. His fashion house Rhodia designed clothes that took traditional Brazilian patterns and threw them into the Swinging Sixties with bold saturated colors and geometric cuts. . . . It’s thanks to Rangan that we have Brazilian Octopus. . . . [T]he group’s sole album . . . is 30 minutes of sheer pleasure . . . . [I]n the early ‘60s [Rangan] had hired well-known musicians like Sérgio Mendes to accompany his early fashion shows. Brazilian Octopus was essentially willed into existence to provide music for runway models. Hired by Rangan, pianist-organist Cido Bianchi assembled the band, recruited from musicians he had already played with . . . . These included future Brazilian musical luminaries like composer Hermeto Pascoal on flute and Alexander “Lanny” Gordin on guitar. . . . Brazilian Octopus transformed traditional dance styles into a mod sound. After successful runway shows, Rangan proposed the group record an album of originals and covers, all of which emit an infectious light swing that has the effortless sound of musicians who had a familiar rapport. Instantly accessible, the music has the smoothness of easy listening and library music and the inventiveness (but not the kitsch factor) of space-age bachelor pad music, with melodic and rhythmic shifts make it more enduring. Tracks float like swinging fugues, multiple flutes mirroring an organ melody before each flies off on its own birdlike path. . . . Rangan knew what he was doing commissioning this band; listening to this music makes it easy to close your eyes and picture the bright colors and floral designs of a Rhodia line. . . . [T]he whole album . . . sounds exactly like what you’d imagine a Brazilian fashion show would circa 1968. The vividly named octet deserved more, and was asked to record a second album, but the musicians declined for the simple fact that they never got paid for the first one.
An incredible little record with a sound that’s unlike anything else we’ve ever heard before — a set that mixes jazzy inflections on vibes, organ, guitar, percussion, and flute — the last of which is played here by a young Hermeto Pascoal! The set was done after Pascoal’s work in Quarteto Novo but before some of his more complicated jazz albums of the 70s — and it’s got a style that mixes his own love of playful rhythms and complicated shadings with a lighter, freer approach to the music . . . . The drums get quite funky at times . . . an[d there is an] influence that’s . . . bossa-driven . . . . At times, there’s a lightly dancing beauty . . . .
[T]he mythological ensemble Brazilian Octopus emerged as a result of a demand . . . for “professional musicians” to create modern, jazz-inclined soundtracks for the already sophisticated and trendy fashion shows of the time. Formed by the great Aparecido Bianchi (piano and organ), Alexander Gordin (guitar), Carlos Alberto de Alcantara Pereira (flute and saxophone), Douglas de Oliveira (drums), João Carlos Pegoraro (vibraphone), Nilson Carlos Ruiz Matta (bass) and Olmir Stocker (guitar and guitar) and the already outstanding Hermeto Pascoal (flute), the glorious Brazilian octopus recorded just one long play . . . [whose] twelve tracks stroll through the Brazilian songbook of those times with elegance, in sophisticated arrangements that flirt with jazz, samba, bossa nova and North American black music. Gamboa, the first of them, is a true anthem . . . .
Picture a band that features musicians from schools so different as the multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, the post-tropicalist guitar hero Lanny Gordin, bossa nova pianist Cido Bianchi (former Milton Banana Trio), acoustic guitarist Olmir ‘Alemão’ Stocker and jazz bassist Nilson da Matta. The surprising meeting happened in 1968 and helped write a little known chapter in the history of instrumental music in Brazil called Brazilian Octopus, whose only release is hunted by record collectors. “This is undoubtedly the strangest Brazilian group ever”, writes Marcelo Dolabela in his dictionary ABZ do Rock . . . . At that time, we didn’t care about the money, we just wanted to play. It was a wonderful experience”, recalls Celso Bianchi, also a maestro and arranger.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,092) Spirit — “Gramophone Man”
Here is a Spirit song not nicked by Zeppelin, but which probably shoulda been! It’s “a tongue-and-cheek stab at radio-inclined music executives [with] a groove in the verses.” (Sinusoid, https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=13042) Boppin’s Blog says:
The start is very early Floyd like. I can almost hear Syd Barrett. Then the song morphs into a little jazz ditty. Then it morphs back again. Very cool indeed.
One of the few group-written songs from Spirit . . . a colorful portrait of what idealistic musicians have to deal with when trying to “relate” to the record company executives. It’s doubtful that the song was written [about] Lou Adler, who was the founder of Ode Records, Spirit’s label and the band’s producer. At this stage (1968), the group apparently had excellent relations with him. But whomever it was about, the strangeness of the corporate atmosphere that was foreign to many rock bands is communicated. A bluesy, rock base carries the melody, but like many of the band’s songs, it shifts radically, in this case to a delicious jazz fusion break that once again shows off the group’s awesome instrumental abilities, especially Randy California’s Wes Montgomery-inspired jazz octaves.
[T]he song has a sudden, surprise change in the middle—a common enough feature of psychedelic songs, but in this case it breaks into something jazzier than usual. Ed Cassidy, the bald, older gent in the band, played drums with some big jazz names in his youth . . . and Spirit was unique in its use of jazz ideas in rock. . . . Gramophone Man . . . who at first has “magic presents” in his head and his hands, but later the presents prove “empty.” I suspect that Spirit is commenting on the empty promises of record companies and the like, the whole big bozo bucks sweepstakes . . . . Gramophone Man bids them sing, and, being cool CA music-dudes, they comply, only to feel ill-used and abused later. Mr. Gramophone Man will no doubt laugh all the way to the bank.
Spirit created a product of its time: an inventive psychedelic rock hovering between Syd Barrett-Floyd, early The Who, but also developed some highly original sounds of their own. Spirit was not just another garage rock band: they had two jazz players John Locke . . . and drummer Ed Cassidy . . . . [who] was the step father of teenage [ax] wonder Randy California . . . .
Rising out of the ashes of a prior band called The Rising Sons centered around The Ash Grove venue in mid-1960s Los Angeles, a new band emerged . . . . includ[ing] percussionist Ed Cassidy, lead vocalist Jay Ferguson, bassist Mark Andes and guitarist Randy [Wolfe to later become Randy] California. The like minded musical misfits started a folk rock band called Red Roosters where they managed to score the odd high school dances and small venues around L.A. but after taking a hiatus and a cross-country trip to New York City Randy California had the chance to briefly play with Jimi Hendrix . . . but ultimately was denied moving with the band to London by his parents due to his tender young age of 15. Slightly dismayed he had to head back to California to reform his prior band and with the addition of keyboardist John Locke, he and the other Red Roosters team opted to change their name to Spirits Rebellious and that’s when the true magic started to gel. Joining in on the “Summer Of Love” hippie scene after a trip to Griffith Park, the members of the band rented an entire house in Topanga Canyon and lived together with significant others, children, pets and pretty much everything else. This is the time where the inspiration for SPIRIT’s eponymously titled debut album came from. After truncating their name to simply SPIRIT, the band started to make waves by having an utterly unique sound that took the disparate styles of 60s folk and psychedelic rock and married them with the more progressive jazz-fusion styles that were emerging.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1967 by musicians who had a mixture of rock, pop, folk, blues, classical, and jazz backgrounds, and who ranged in age from 16 to 44, the group had an eclectic musical style in keeping with the early days of progressive rock . . . . The diverse tastes of the original quintet produced a hybrid style that delighted a core audience of fans but proved too wide-ranging to attract a mass following, and at the same time the musicians’ acknowledged talents brought them other opportunities that led to the breakup of the original lineup after four years and four albums . . . . In early 1965, the Rising Sons, a folk-blues group featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, played the Ash Grove; the band’s drummer was Ed Cassidy . . . who met and married [Randy] California’s recently divorced mother, becoming his stepfather. Cassidy had been drumming professionally since his teens in almost every conceivable style, though lately largely in jazz groups before he joined the Rising Sons. . . . In September 1965 . . . [Randy and Cassidy] formed a band called the Red Roosters [with Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes] that . . . . broke up when Cassidy moved his family to New York . . . in the spring of 1966. There [Randy] had a fateful encounter . . . at a music store in Manhattan; he met the then-unknown Jimi Hendrix . . . who invited him to join his band . . . . Since there was already a musician named Randy in the band . . . Hendrix distinguished the two by their home states, calling . . . Randy Wolfe “Randy California.” California played with Hendrix that summer . . . . [who] asked [him] to go to England with him, but at 15 he was too young. Instead, California moved back to [California where he and] Cassidy formed a band called Spirits Rebellious, after a book by the religious mystic Kahlil Gibran, also featuring pianist John Locke [and the returning Ferguson and Andes]. . . . By June [1967], they were playing gigs and . . . . auditioned for record executive and producer Lou Adler. . . . [who] signed Spirit . . . in August 1967, Adler produced the self-titled debut album . . . . [which] entered the Billboard chart in April and . . . peak[ed] in the Top 40 in September. . . . In October 1968, they issued a single, “I Got a Line on You,” a driving rocker written by California. Peaking at number 25 in the Hot 100 in March 1969, it was the group’s only Top 40 single.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,091) Montage — “The Grand Pianist”
After walking away from the Left Banke, Michael Brown ,”who had been the group’s chief artistic force as principal songwriter, arranger, and keyboardist — worked with Montage [see #252] to continue in [a] splendid Baroque pop/rock vein” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/montage-mn0001206263), “mastermind[ing] an entire LP of material that was both similar to, and nearly on par with the Left Banke’s unsurpassed fusion of pop-rock and classical music. . . . [T]he graceful baroque-tinged melodies could have been no one else’s.” (Richie Unterberger, liner notes to the CD reissue of Montage)
“The Grand Pianist” shows that “Michael Brown is not only a grand pianist but also a genius composer.” (5215kerstin, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcpztS6xyuk) Brown wrote it with his sometimes collaborator (and Woodstock performer) Bert Sommer.
Jack Rabid tells us more:
Montage sounds far more like the real follow-up to the Left Banke’s first LP, Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina, than the actual one, The Left Banke, Too. This is because after the first LP the band’s three singers had sadly parted ways with keyboardist and prime songwriter Michel Brown, who instead became Montage’s mentor/mastermind. (It’s a long story: Brown’s dad was managing the band to the distrust of the other members and Brown, like Brian Wilson, similarly disdained touring in favor of staying home to write and record.) And though Brown was not technically a Montage member, he not only wrote all the music and produced this LP, but he also played all the trademark piano and organ and charted the vocal arrangements. Yet the four New Jersey no-names he found clearly translated his vision of extraordinarily lush, unspeakably beautiful orchestral chart pop. . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,090) The Liberty Bell — “I Can See”
Garage gold out of Corpus Christi, Texas, from the Liberty Bell (see #505), who “specialized in a blues-based brand of proto-punk influenced by British groups such as the Yardbirds”. (tasos epit, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUueHSyzV0Q) The unreleased at the time song, written by guitarist Al Hunt, is “a true Garage stomper” (walterfechter8080, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh8xyaTisqw), a “[f]ast-tempo, fuzz-drenched piece[] with catchy hooks [that] made the group sound like an American version of the Yardbirds with more of an angry punk edge, courtesy of . . . [lead singer Ronnie] Tanner.” (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-liberty-bell-mn0000259877#biography)
As thomassmith8721 says:
There was West Coast psych. There was East Coast psych. This is Gulf Coast psych, the forgotten psychedelic coast. Great garage guitar. The tone is awesome. I get that Texan Yardbirds promo thing. . . . These guys nailed that psychedelic sound. The guitar/organ combo drives this all the way. Great track.
With a few breaks, the Liberty Bell might have been America’s Yardbirds — as it worked out, however, the group suffered the undeserved fate of being a footnote in the history of Corpus Christi rock bands. . . . [O]riginally named the Zulus[, they] played a mix of blues-rock drifting toward psychedelia, driven by some fairly ambitious guitar work by lead axeman Al Hunt. In 1967, they hooked up with Carl Becker, the co-owner of J-Beck Records, which, at the time, was recording the hottest local band, the Zachary Thaks. Becker signed them to his new Cee-Bee Records, and suggested a name change to the Liberty Bell. . . . The group’s lineup at the time of their first single, a cover of the Yardbirds’ “Nazz Are Blue” backed with a cover of Willie Dixon’s “Big Boss Man,” included Ronnie Tanner on lead vocals, Al Hunt on lead guitar, Richard Painter on rhythm guitar, and Wayne Harrison on bass. This record did well enough locally to justify further recording, and these sessions yielded the best songs of the group’s entire history, “Something for Me,” “For What You Lack,” “I Can See,” and “That’s How It Will Be.” Fast-tempo, fuzz-drenched pieces with catchy hooks, these numbers made the group sound like an American version of the Yardbirds with more of an angry punk edge, courtesy of . . . Tanner. But the real star of the group was . . . Hunt, who wrote most of the material in those days and played like Jeff Beck on a good day. . . . Tanner exited the group in early 1968 and was replaced by Chris Gemiottis, formerly of the Zakary Thaks . . . .
After graduating from Ingleside High School across the bay from Corpus Christi, Texas in 1966, I was a member of the rock band ‘The Acoustics’ and we got the opportunity to play . . . . in the ‘Big’ city where such local bands as ‘The Pozo Seco Singers’, ‘The Bad Seeds’, and a new group, ‘The Zachary Thaks’ were playing and getting radio air play on the top radio station KEYS. . . . [A]fterward . . . Carl Becker introduced himself to me and asked if I would be willing to come and audition for a band he was going to sign to his ‘CEE BEE’ record label. They were called ‘The Zulu’s’. I was asked to meet the band . . . and the audition went well. I was asked to join the group as lead singer and soon the band’s name was changed to ‘THE LIBERTY BELL’. Things moved quite quickly after that. Recording sessions in McAllen, TX, band photos, songs to write and covers to learn, and lots of appearances. It seems like just yesterday when the rhythm guitarist Richard Painter and I were driving around town and heard our first release, ‘The Nazz Are Blue’, come on the radio. . . . We were all so happy and worked so hard and dreamed of what would be next. . . . [W]e began to branch out to other Texas cities and enjoyed a year of incredible fun and soon other stations were picking up the record. . . . [I]n early 1968, we were being pitched to a major record label in Houston named Back Beat Records. [But] I was of draft age [and got drafted]. Chris Gerniotis, of the Zachary Thaks, was named as my replacement. . . . I remember returning home on leave from Basic training and seeing the band with Chris and I was incredibly proud having been a part of such a great band and great friends. . . . Corpus Christi, Texas was a very cool place to be in 1967 and 1968!
Here’s a slightly longer version. ”To the best of Hunt’s recollections, Cee-Bee Records believed the intro was too long and consequently dited an spliced a few seconds off the top.” (Mike Dugo, liner notes to the CD comp Garage Beat ’66: Readin’ Your Will!):
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,089) Blonde on Blonde — “Country Life”
This Welsh band’s (see #227, 267) ‘68 B-side is a “wonderful psych-pop song” (https://www.clear-spot.nl/item/506848/blonde_on_blonde_contrasts.html) that “recalls The Moody Blues’ sound”. (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) The song’s “simpler, appropriately rustic charms” as compared to the classic psych A-side “All Day, All Night” “may have made [it] a more likely chart contender.” (David Wells, liner notes to the CD reissue of Contrasts)
Country roads, take me home To the place I belong Newport, South Wales, mountain mama Take me home, country roads!
As to BoB (named after BoB Dylan’s double LP), Bruce Eder says:
Blonde on Blonde . . . were spawned in 1967 out of a Welsh blues-rock band called the Cellar Set. Garett Johnson played the guitar, sitar, and lute, while Richard Hopkins handled the bass, piano, harpsichord, cornet, celeste, and whistle, and Lea Hicks played the drums. The addition of Ralph Denyer made them into a quartet with vocals; and Simon Lawrence . . . was with them briefly, as well, on 12-string guitar. The group took part in the Middle Earth Club’s Magical Mystery Tour, which brought them an initial splash of press exposure. They were also fortunate enough to open for the Jefferson Airplane on the[ir] British tour. All of this activity led to an approach by Pye Records producer Barry Murray, who got them signed to the label, and through whom they released their debut single “All Day, All Night” b/w “Country Life.” Though decidedly guitar-based in their sound, the band’s music also used psychedelic pop arrangements that gave it an almost orchestral majesty which, when coupled with Johnson’s sitar and lute embellishments and Hopkins’ harpsichord and other unusual keyboards — with Hicks getting into the act on the tabla — gave them an appealingly exotic sound. Their live performances were frequently divided . . . into acoustic and electric sets, in order to show off their full range. The group issued their first album, Contrasts, in 1969 . . . — that record showed more of the early but burgeoning influence of progressive rock, while retaining their early psychedelic coloration. That same year, the band played to the largest single audience of its entire history when they appeared at the first Isle of Wight Festival. They also issued their second single “Castles in the Sky” b/w “Circles'” and LP Rebirth which featured a new lineup — Denyer had exited the band to form Aquila, ceding his spot in Blonde on Blonde to singer-guitarist David Thomas. . . . [T]heir third LP, Reflections on a Life . . . . failed to sell any better than their prior releases . . . and the group broke up in 1972 . . . .
[Blonde on Blonde] was exploring the areas pioneered by 1967 psychedelic acts like PINK FLOYD, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE and CREAM, but in a much larger scale of influences . . . having a more wider musical palette than the bands . . . . Their music is a dance between contrasts of free impressionism paired with predefined melodic more carefully constructed elements, varying from streetwise side to high levels of spirituality, from folk tones, classical guitar runs and mantra like instrumental runs, bursting with oriental musical influences, introducing cosmic drones running hypnotically on varying time scales, and all this paired with hard rock tones of heavy psychedelic guitar . . . . Their lyrics are quite basic trippy poems, but also thoughtful, emotional and interesting at their best . . . . There is melancholy in their music, but there is also hope and happiness among it.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,088) Nick Garrie — “Close Your Eyes”
The B-side of Nick Garrie’s (see #3, 19, 41, 65, 104, 137, 245, 362, 493, 871, 965) only single of the 60’s is “[a]bsolutely stunning [UK] pop psych!!” (PsychedelicGuy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPaAiUgFkzc) and “shows the sweetness of some of his melodies”. (https://elefant.com/bands/nick-garrie/biography) Garrie reflects that it “was sweet and in harmony which sounded husky. [Producer] Mickey Baker thought I was just some rich dude’s son but he liked my lyrics.” (liner notes to the CD comp The Lost Songs of Nick Garrie-Hamilton: Selected Recordings 1968-2002)
The single predated The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas, a top contender for the greatest lost album of the 60’s. If Nick’s French record company’s owner hadn’t committed suicide on the eve of Stanislas’s release, who knows what might have been. Stunning songs — I was transfixed the first time I heard them and I have been a huge fan of Nick and his music ever since.
John Clarkson writes:
Nick Garrie’s 1969 album, ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’, is now seen to be a psychedelic folk/pop masterpiece. It has, however, only recently gained this reputation and for over thirty five years was largely unheard. The son of a Russian father and Scottish mother, Garrie’s early years were divided between Paris, where his Egyptian stepfather worked as a diplomat, and Norwich, where he attended a boarding school. He recorded ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’ at the age of twenty in Paris with Eddie Vartan, who was a then fashionable French producer and the brother of the actress Sylvie Vartan. Garrie originally intended the album to have a sparser sound, but when he turned up at the studio on the first day of recording he found that Vartan had employed a 56-piece orchestra to expand on his more tender arrangements. The finished result is a compelling oddity and merges together Garrie’s wistful melodies and often abstract lyrics with Vartan’s colourfully extravagant orchestrations. It is . . . much deserved of the cult status it has since come to gain. Lucien Morrisse, the owner of Disc AZ, Garrie’s record label, committed suicide before ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’ was ever released and for years it languished in obscurity, eventually starting to attract fan interest when tracks from it began to leak onto the internet. . . . only finally s[eeing] official release when it came out on CD on Rev-Ola Records in 2004. . . .
Here are excerpts from a vintage interview (2010) that Clarkson conducted with Nick:
JC: What did you feel troubled about when you were writing ‘Stanislas’?
NG: I wrote most of it when I was between nineteen and twenty. I was at Warwick University at the time, but I had spent so much of my life living in France that I had been called up for the French army as a national. Although I was eventually released from it, for a year I couldn’t go in to France and so I was essentially homeless.
. . . .
JC: The suicide of Lucien Morrisse led to ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’ remaining unheard for over three decades. Even before he died, you, however, imply again in your autobiography that Disc AZ didn’t know quite what to do with you and how to promote you. Do you think that too was a factor in ‘Stanislas’ remaining undiscovered for so long?
NG: Absolutely, because it was never released at all. It was not as if it came out. No one ever heard it. I would go in to see them. We would talk about it. They would say that it would be in the shops next month and it never was. It went on like that for about six months, at the end of which I had had enough. To be honest as well at that stage I didn’t really like it much either. I didn’t like the arrangements, so after his suicide I gave a couple of copies to my stepfather and for me it was finished. I didn’t listen to it again or even really talk about much for years.
JC: How do you think it stands up now? Do you like it better?
NG: I do like it now, but I still don’t hear it through everybody’s ears. I have had a lot of correspondence with people who really love it, people from all over the world who say how much it has moved them, so it seems a bit churlish to say now that I didn’t really like it. They were songs, however, that I didn’t really recognise at the recording stage and again for a long time afterwards. . . .
JC: There is the story about Eddie Varden introducing you to a fifty six piece orchestra which you didn’t know about until you turned up at the studio. What did you expect the songs to sound like? Were they going to be just you and your acoustic guitar or were they going to involve a band?
NG: . . . . I knew that it wouldn’t be my guitar work because I wasn’t a good enough guitarist. I am still not, but I suspected that would be the basis of it. The first song that I started recording was ‘Stanislas’. I had no idea that was what we were playing though. [Eddie] would shove me in the booth and prompt me when and what I had to sing. He was using these mainly classical musicians who were all wearing cardigans and who didn’t think much of me anyway because I was a pop artist. But having said that he was really, really nice and was in many a sort of uncle or father figure to me.
JC: It seems that you had quite an odd relationship with him really because at one level he was very praising and told you that he thought that you would be the next Bob Dylan, but at another level he would do something like that and not tell you what was going on.
NG: I realised years afterwards that it was a terrific investment for them, this orchestra playing for two weeks with this guy who completely unknown completely unknown. I just never expected it and didn’t feel in a position to say very much about it. I think as well that it was just the way it was in those days. . . .
JC: How did ‘The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas’ gain it audience? Do you know?
NG: I had just started teaching when I found out about it. I had done a PGCE course late in life and I typed in Nick Garrie as a joke because I hadn’t used the name since ‘Stanislas’ and I couldn’t believe it when there was all these pages on it. I don’t know for sure, but I believe there was a company called Acid Ray who were in Korea and they must have bootlegged some tapes as they put out a compilation album called ‘Band Caruso’ with ‘Wheel of Fortune’ on it. I think that was the first thing on the web and it did quite well, so that is probably how the name got about. Things went from there.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,087) The Beatles — “Ooh! My Soul”
Ooh, in the blink of an eye, the Beatles do Little Richard proud with one of Paul McCartney’s “all-time greatest rock ‘n’ roll vocal performances”. (The Beatles Bible, https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/ooh-my-soul/)
The Good Book goes on:
The Beatles recorded just one version of Little Richard’s ‘Ooh! My Soul’, for a BBC radio show in 1963. The song was first released as a single [by LR] in June 1958 . . . . It was a minor transatlantic hit, reaching number 31 in the US and number 22 in the UK. The Beatles’ recording was made on 1 August 1963 at the Playhouse Theatre, Manchester. . . . the first song performed for the 11th edition of the Pop Go The Beatles programme. It was first broadcast on 27 August . . . . The song lasts just 1’37” – less time than Richard’s own frenetic version.
I could do Little Richard’s voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing, it’s like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it. You have to actually go outside yourself. It’s a funny little trick and when you find it, it’s very interesting. A lot of people were fans of Little Richard so I used to sing his stuff.
Barry Miles, Many Years from Now
Faabfan tells us about the Beatles and Little Richard:
Paul loved Little Richard so much that . . . he chose to sing ‘Long Tall Sally’ for his first ever stage appearance, at Butlins holiday camp in 1956, and also h[e] serenaded fellow pupils at the Liverpool Institute with that and ‘Tutti Frutti’ on the last day of one school term, climbing onto a desk with his guitar and no little self-confidence.” And while everyone knows the story of Paul impressing John with a word-perfect guitar run-through of Eddie Cochrane’s ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ when they first met at the Woolton Church Fete in July 1957, it’s not so widely discussed that Paul then switched to piano and launched into his well-practiced Little Richard routine. As Mark Lewisohn so memorably puts it in his peerless Fabs biography Tune In, “Paul couldn’t have known it, but by slipping into ‘Long Tall Sally’ he was sliding into John’s main artery…. No matter how much John affected an air of coolness, his insides had to be leaping.” George was also a big fan and, as the Quarrymen slowly evolved into The Beatles, their setlists invariably featured at least one Richard number. And, in the same way as Chuck Berry songs were mostly sung by John, Little Richard ones were always sung by Paul. Macca had mastered not only his growling timbre and frenzied screams but also his high pitched, gospel-inflected whoops. Richard’s material would remain a fixture in their live shows, right until the very end; they closed their last-ever concert, at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, with ‘Long Tall Sally’.
In the book The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Authorised Biography, Lennon reflected on the overriding influence of Presley and Little Richard. “Elvis was bigger than religion in my life,” Lennon expressed. “Then this boy at school said he’d got this record by somebody called Little Richard who was better than Elvis — we used to go to this boy’s house after school and listen to Elvis on 78s: we’d buy five ciggies loose and some chips and go along.” Lennon recalled being blown away when he first listened to Richard’s energetic verse. The 1956 single ‘Long Tall Sally’ was his first experience with the American star. “The new record was Little Richard’s ‘Long Tall Sally’,” he recalled. “When I heard it, it was so great I couldn’t speak.” So enamoured was Lennon with Richard that he questioned his allegiance to Presley. “You know how you are torn,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave Elvis, but this was so much better. We all looked at each other, but I didn’t want to say anything against Elvis, even in my mind. How could they both be happening in my life?”
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,086) Murray Head — “She Was Perfection”
Forget a night in Bangkok — I’ll take one in Swinging London anytime! ”Perfection” is perfection, a head-on “gorgeous collision of baroque strings and fey harmonies” (David Wells, liner notes to the CD comp Let’s Go Down and Blow Our Minds: The British Psychedelic Sounds of 1967) that “emphasized the dexterity of Head’s vocal and compositional gifts”. (liner notes to CD comp The Immediate Singles Collection). Unfortunately, the song proved “slightly too subtle for mass public acclaim” (The Immediate Singles Collection), “fail[ing] to find favour despite Peter Whitehead . . . making what Head has described as ‘a bloody awful black and white film for the single with me running around Brompton Cemetery!'” (David Wells)
As to Head, Jason Ankeny tells us:
Best remembered for his 1984 smash “One Night in Bangkok,” actor/singer Murray Head was born . . . in London and began his performing career at age 12 with appearances in a series of radio plays. He began writing songs a year later, cutting his earliest singles while still a teenager . . . . In 1966 Head made his film debut in [the Paul McCartney-scored] The Family Way [see #28]; the picture also featured his third single “Some Day Soon,” produced by Tim Rice. Still, Head’s career failed to take off and he was eventually dropped from his recording contract . . . . [Then] Rice and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber contacted him to sing the role of Judas on the soundtrack to their musical Jesus Christ Superstar; concurrently, he also appeared in the film Sunday Bloody Sunday. The success of both projects launched Head to mainstream attention, and in 1972 he recorded his debut solo album . . . [and] three years later he resurfaced with . . . [his] enduring cult hit . . . “Say It Ain’t So, Joe.” . . . In 1984 Head was tapped to star in the musical Chess; his soundtrack performance of “One Night in Bangkok” . . . became a major pop hit on both sides of the Atlantic . . . .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊 