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

Jackie Lomax — “Sunset”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 3, 2024

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

1,195) Jackie Lomax — “Sunset”

This smoldering slow burner by the Beatles’ BFF (see #164, 425, 543) is a “strong psychedelic-pop song[]” (abel, https://psychedelicsight.com/9448-obit-jackie-lomax/) that “stands out for an unusual piano jazz interlude.” (Joe Marchese, https://theseconddisc.com/2010/11/18/review-the-apple-records-remasters-part-4-harrisons-soulful-trio/) Lomax he had “a fondness” for the song: “There’s a unusual jazz bit in the middle. My lyrics are about lost love: ‘The shade of our love / That I’m thinking of / Like the sun above / Is now fading.'” (liner notes to the CD reissue of Is This What You Want?)

As Steve Leggett writes:

Jackie Lomax . . . has always had a soulful voice, a bit like his contemporary Steve Winwood . . . (the two actually also look strikingly similar), but his considerable talent never translated . . . into international commercial success.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/lost-soul-lomax-alliance-solo-singles-demos-1966-1967-mw0002002690

This lack of success baffled the Beatles, who try as they may, couldn’t make Jackie Lomax a star, and it baffles me too. Brian Pendreigh writes that:

A lot of people thought Jackie Lomax should have been a big star. He had moody good looks[ and] a great bluesy voice . . . . Bill Harry, author of The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia, said his lack of chart success baffled The Beatles.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-jackie-lomax-singer-1561004

Bruce Eder adds that “George Harrison and Paul McCartney both thought enough of his talent to back him variously as producers and record company executives at a critical juncture in all of their careers.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jackie-lomax-mn0000130486/biography)

Richard Williams gives some history:

Lomax had known the Beatles since their early days at the Cavern club and in Hamburg, when he was the singer and bass guitarist with the Undertakers, a popular Mersey Beat band noted for their energetic stage show, in which the musicians wore the frock coats, and sometimes top hats, appropriate to funeral directors in the wild west. . . . [T]he son of a millworker, the teenaged Lomax and his friend the drummer Warren “Bugs” Pemberton left their first band, Dee and the Dynamites, to join the Undertakers in January 1962. Like the Beatles, their stage act was developed during residencies at the clubs in and around Hamburg’s Reeperbahn . . . . [A] contract with Pye Records had produced four singles . . . but no hits [so] they tried to capitalise on the British invasion of the US charts by moving across the Atlantic. Left stranded and penniless in a motel in Canada, they disbanded and in 1967 Lomax and Pemberton formed their own group, the Lomax Alliance.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/sep/17/jackie-lomax

Andy Davis continues the story:

[Limax recalled] “I went with The Beatles to Shea Stadium in 1966, and it was then that Brian asked me to become a solo singer. I said, ‘Well, I’ve just got a new band together, do you want to hear us?’ So he came to a rehearsal and was impressed, and he brought us back to England. We were called the Lomax Alliance—two American guys, two English. We started an album, but Brian died in the middle of it, so it all ended in confusion.” It was now late 1967. Jackie continues: “The rest of tile band went back to New York, but I stayed in London. I met up with Chris Curtis, the drummer from The Searchers, and we went to NEMS to see if The Beatles would help us out.” John Lennon re-iterated Brian Epstein’s earlier advice [to go solo] and helped push Jackie’s career in another direction too. Jackie recalls: “John took me aside and said, ‘Hey Jackie, Brian told me you write songs?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m just starting out, but yeah’. He said, ‘We want songwriters, so go and see Terry Doran at Apple Publishing’. So I did, and I got signed a as writer. This was before they’d launched the Apple record label. . . . I thought I was writing songs for other artists, but then George Harrison heard them, and he said, ‘I’m going to India, but when I come back do you want to do an album, and I’ll produce it?’.” Says Jackie: “I was screaming in my head ‘YEAH!!’, but being a typical Liverpool lad, I played it down and went, ‘Oh yeah, sounds like a good idea’. . . . Sessions . . . began in June 1968, at EMI’s Abbey Road studios. George booked dates around Beatles sessions for the ‘White Album’. The recordings continued until the end of the year, moving to Trident Studios . . . before George and Jackie jetted off to the USA to complete the album . . . . Jackie’s newly written Apple Publishing songs comprise all but one of the tracks on the album.
http://albumlinernotes.com/Is_This_What_You_Want_.html

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The New Mix — “Sun Down”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 2, 2024

The song starts at 19:15.

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

1,194) The New Mix — “Sun Down”

This wonderful song appeared on the New Mix’s (see #1,184) sole LP, in ’68, and prior to that, when the band had been known as the Eighteenth Edition, was released as an A-side in ’67 (an “interesting psych-tinged single[]” — Bad Cat Records, http://badcatrecords.com/NEWmix.htm). In my mind, the album version is superior, with a great xylophone (?) accompaniment making the song truly stellar. You can listen to the Eighteenth Edition’s version here: https://www.discogs.com/release/12851663-The-Eighteenth-Edition-Sundown.

As to the New Mix and its only LP, Bad Cat Records tells us:

[I]t may not be 1968’s most original release, but as someone who is a big fan of sunshine pop and light-psych, it was an album I was happy to discover and repeatedly play. . . . Bassist Karl Jarvi, singer/lead guitarist Dave Brown, drummer Rob Thorne and keyboardist Henry Steele started their professional careers as the Statesville, North Carolina based The Eighteenth Edition. Like so many of their contemporaries, they were heavily influenced by The Beatles and other mid-’60s British bands. The quartet managed to release a pair of interesting psych-tinged singles for the small local Panther label. . . . Complete with paisley and Nehru jackets (and heavy Southern drawls), the second single even got them a shot lip-synching on the Charleston, South Carolina-based Village Square television show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgIMYxGkhAQ By 1968 they band had morphed into The New Mix, scoring a contract with United Artists. Produced by Tommy Kaye, The New Mix featured a collection of all original material with Brown and Steele sharing the writing credits. . . . Imagine a trippier version of The Association and you’d get a pretty good feel . . . . Brown and Steele had an undeniable knack for melding strong melodies, hooks and psych touches. . . . Originality was in short supply. You can play spot-the-influence throughout the album. Occasionally the band got full of themselves and while Brown was a capable singer . . . when he tried to get overly sensitive, or started singing in his higher registers, things took a turn for the worse. Still, it’s hard to believe United Artists didn’t even float a single.
http://badcatrecords.com/NEWmix.htm

Richie Unterberger had a decidedly negative reaction:

This was an era that saw many a generic pop-psychedelic album on major labels, and even in that class, the New Mix didn’t stand out. . . . [O]verall it’s a faceless clash of California freak-out psychedelia, sunshine pop, and a bit of British influence in some of the arrangements and harmonies.

The New Mix’s sole album is stereotypical 1968 pop-influenced trendy psychedelia. The ten original songs favor San Francisco psych-folk-rock-influenced minor keys, Doors-Strawberry Alarm Clock-influenced organ, and the odd screeching distorted guitar. The arrangements also nod to a pop influence with harmonies that sometimes recall the Hollies’ brief psychedelic phase . . . and some fruity instrumentation that might have made it into sunshine pop records by the likes of the Association. It’s a real melange, in other words, and like a salad made up of various excerpts from the week’s leftovers, it doesn’t go together too well or taste too good or fresh. There’s little memorable about the songs, and some of the lead vocals have a distasteful stiff, strident air. Perhaps as a rough comparison, you might liken the New Mix to groups with awkward mixes of pop and freaky psych, like Fever Tree and the Strawberry Alarm Clock, but the band isn’t even close to their level.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/new-mix-mn0001210424#biography, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-new-mix-mw0000867848

In reaction to this commentary, starcloud4959 stated that “it looks like that reviewer is some type of pompous twat”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X_XhvZcyBU) Now, I don’t agree with Mr. Unterberger here — I think the New Mix’s album tastes real good and real fresh, and I love Fever Tree [see #614] and the Alarm Clock [see #127, 272, 901, 1,111] — but let’s be civil, it’s only rock and roll (and I like it)!

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The Tremeloes — “Till the Sun Goes Down”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 1, 2024

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

1,193) The Tremeloes — “Till the Sun Goes Down”

This May Day, enjoy stunning “soft, acoustic-textured balladry” that “rates right alongside the[ Tremeloes’] best work of the 1960s”. (Bruce Eder (talking about the album as a whole, but I know he meant this song!), https://www.allmusic.com/album/may-morning-mw0000472603) Be warned, though — it comes from the soundtrack to an Italian movie where bad things happen on May Day!

The song has quite a pedigree, or at least its Mellotron does. Geoff Leonard & Pete Walker tell us that:

[Bassist Chip Hawkes] had recently bought [it] from Jeff Lynne . . . . This was the very Mellotron used by the Beatles to record . . . “Strawberry Fields Forever” . . . . [T]he influence of the Fab Four is evident throughout this soundtrack; the Mellotron in particular on “Till the Sun Goes Down”.
liner notes to the CD soundtrack release of May Morning

The song is from the Tremeloes’ soundtrack to Italian director Ugo Liberatore’s May Morning (which had to wait decades to be released after the film failed at the box office). Bruce Eder writes that:

It’s not every day that a three-decade-old, previously unheard soundtrack surfaces — especially one written by one of the most successful pop/rock bands in England. That alone would make May Morning a reasonably important release, but equally to the point, it’s a great record — one of the group’s very best, in fact, and essential listening not just for fans of the Trems, but also for anyone who liked the very late-’60s sounds of the Beatles, Badfinger, et al. . . . The Tremeloes were supposedly just a little past their creative peak by the time they recorded this album — they were riding a number two hit in England at the time, but their fortunes were about to turn, a fact that no one could have guessed when they cut the soundtrack . . . in Rome in the summer of 1970. May Morning is a cheerful, often bracing, always tuneful mix of upbeat pop/rock, bluesy songs, exquisite instrumentals, and soft, acoustic-textured balladry that rates right alongside their best work of the 1960s. . . . In all, this might be the most solid long-player the band ever cut . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/album/may-morning-mw0000472603

Vernon Joynson feels differently, that the soundtrack “was all part of their campaign to disown their pop history and court underground audiences, but on the evidence of this you can see why it didn’t work.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)

As to the flick, Lazarillo says:

It focuses on the the brutal class relations and the storied May Day rituals at the world’s most prestigious university. The protagonist (Alessandro Oranio) is a working-class Italian student attending Oxford on a rowing scholarship and trying to fit in among his aristocratic British peers in an absolutely unforgiving environment of rarefied class privilege. He meets and gets severely teased by the daughter (Jane Birkin) of one of the Oxford “dons” who tutors him. The end, which takes place at the drunken May Day celebration, is absolutely brutal (albeit also pretty unmotivated). It’ll definitely stay with you for a long time afterwords.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065378/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

Christopher Underwood adds:

Alessio Orano is the male lead and Jane Birkin the female and even money on who is the prettiest. Looks aside Orano is excellent as the politically aware Italian student enrolled at Oxford and disillusioned from the start. [H]e cannot see why whilst the rest of Europe is in turmoil, questioning everything, why the mighty college seems intent to carry on with its weird and bullying ways. The film begins leisurely but soon gets under the skin.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065378/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

As to the Tremeloes, All Music Guide says:

When UK chart-toppers Brian Poole And The Tremeloes parted company in 1966, few would have wagered that the backing group would outdo the lead singer. Remarkably, however, the relaunched Tremeloes went on to eclipse not only Poole, but the original hitmaking act. At the time of their reconvening in 1966, the lineup was comprised of Rick West . . . Alan Blakley . . . Dave Munden . . . and Alan Howard . . . . In May of 1966 Howard was replaced by Mike Clark; however, a mere three months later his spot was taken by Len ‘Chip’ Hawkes . . . whose lead vocals and boyish looks gave the group a stronger visual identity. In order to keep up with the times, the group members abandoned their stage suits in favour of Carnaby Street garb and fashionably longer hair. . . . [Their cover of] ‘Here Comes My Baby’ (a Cat Stevens composition) smashed into the Top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic. An astute follow-up with ‘Silence Is Golden’, previously the flip side of the Four Seasons’ ‘Rag Doll’, proved a perfect vehicle for the Tremeloes’ soft harmonic style and gave them their only UK number 1 and their highest US chart entry (number 11). Having established themselves as a hit act, they notched up an impressive run of hits during the late 60s . . . . At the end of the decade, the Tremeloes seemed weary of their role in the pop world and broke away from their usual Tin Pan Alley songsmiths to write their own material. Their first attempt, ‘(Call Me) Number One’, was an impressive achievement, probably superior to the material that they had recorded since 1967. When it reached number 2 in the charts, the group members convinced themselves that a more ambitious approach would bring even greater rewards. Overreacting to their dream start as hit writers, they announced that they were ‘going heavy’ and suicidally alienated their pop audience by dismissing their earlier record-buying fans as ‘morons’. . . . Thereafter, they turned increasingly to cabaret, where their strong live performances were well appreciated. . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-tremeloes-mn0000921359#biography

Here’s a clip from the movie:

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Tangerine Zoo — “Wake Up Sun”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 30, 2024

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

1,192) Tangerine Zoo — “Wake Up Sun”

New England heavy rock rollin’ in from somewhere between Bosstown and Rhode Island. “[T]he instrumental breaks strewn throughout the album are marvel to be behold . . . [like] the extended tribal dance in ‘Wake Up Sun’” (MusicGnomeology, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-tangerine-zoo/outside-looking-in)

Paul Martin rhapsodizes:

[“Wake Up” is an] excellent, truly psychedelic tune, full of joy and vitality, jumping off with some hard fuzz guitar runs followed by a killer chorus which repeats the line “Wake Up Sun” like an euphoric evocation. It has a strange but yet awesome rhythmic structure and stunning instrumental breaks that are overflowing with the brilliant haunting drums, almost Prunes-like blistering atonal guitar solos and totally mind-blowing swirling mad organ.
https://tangerinezoo.homestead.com/REVIEW.html

Patrick Lundborg is more dubious:

[Their second album Outside Looking In is] superior to the debut [album] but still unexceptional to my ears. The sound is typical New England . . . heavy psych rock with organ, fuzz and slow elephantine songs. . . . [A]fter more than a dozen plays I’m having trouble recalling one single hook or line from the album.”
The Acid Archives, The Second Edition

As to the Zoo, Jason Ankeny tells us:

Boston psychedelic band the Tangerine Zoo formed in 1967 in nearby Swansea, MA. . . . [T]he group renamed itself the Flower Pot, abandoning the Ebb Tides’ garage rock sound in favor of a more psychedelic approach. In addition to serving as the house band at the local Venus de Milo restaurant, the band also opened for the likes of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Van Morrison, and Deep Purple. Their growing popularity was buoyed by a large fan base in Boston, and in late 1967 signed with the New York City-based Mainstream label. While recording their debut LP, label execs demanded another name change, fearing backlash from the obvious marijuana reference in the Flower Pot moniker; after setting on the Tangerine Zoo, the group released its self-titled debut in early 1968. . . . In mid-1969, the Tangerine Zoo was invited to play the Woodstock festival, but were forced to decline due to prior commitments. The band dissolved in 1970, with [singer/guitarist Wayne] Gagnon soon resurfacing in Wadsworth Mansion, which scored a Billboard Top Ten hit with 1971’s “Sweet Mary.”
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tangerine-zoo-mn0001359923#biography

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The Astral Projection — “Today I Saw the Sunrise”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 29, 2024

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

1,191) The Astral Projection — “Today I Saw the Sunrise”

“[O]ne of those weirdly compelling pop albums that could have only emanated from the Age of Aquarius. . . . with moments of pure delight that bring the ’60s experience back in full technicolor.” (Stanton Swihart, https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-astral-scene-mw0000069459)”[T]his LP is one to set the lights down low on and turn on the Lava Lamps!!!” (Bomp!, https://www.bompstore.com/astral-projection-the-astral-scene-1968-pop-psych-get-out-the-lava-lamps-cd/) Yeah, baby!

Scott Blackerby tells us:

An oddity fallilng somewhere between Curt Boettcher-styled sunshine pop, Association type Top 40, and Animated egg exploito. . . . [It was] a full-fledged concept piece. . . . something to do with the concept of escaping the physical body to experience spiritual embodiment. In spite of the goofy title and lyrics (“Today, I saw the sunrise”) and the fact that the arrangements were full of rather spacey instrumentation, virtually all of the songs were quite commercial.

The Acid Archives, The Second Edition

Beverly Paterson adds:

Composed of studio musicians, most notably the late great guitarist Hugh McCracken, who played with everybody from the Monkees to Simon to Garfunkel to Van Morrison to Steely Dan to John Lennon, the Astral Projection existed for just this one album. As their name implied, the band championed leaving the body. . . . The Astral Scene . . . profiles the beauty, joy and warmth attained when discarding our physical being. No chemical substances are promoted, as the lyrics impress such journeys can be attained from within and life itself is a natural high. Heavily orchestrated and glistening with birdsong harmonies and melodies, The Astral Scene rests firmly on the soft-rock wing occupied by the Cowsills, the Association and the Blades of Grass. The production values are clean and sparkly, the structures are adventurous enough to prompt repeated spins, and the performances are disciplined and proportioned. . . . Rhythms drift, float and soar, and the textures of the tunes are flush with color and motion. Pumping big brass sounds, string arrangements and flower pop motifs into a single blender, The Astral Scene rolls in as an early indication of new age music. Brain food for the ears, the disc is certainly a curious period piece.

https://somethingelsereviews.com/2013/09/01/forgotten-series-the-astral-projection-the-astral-scene-1968/

Stanton Swihart:

A conceptual undertaking meant to reveal the wondrous cycle of the telepathic phenomenon of astral projection. The album somehow manages to communicate the complex precepts of astral experience in lay terms and remain deliciously frothy pop at the softest, most easy-listening end of the spectrum. It works the same sonic conceit as the Fifth Dimension (only in lily-white, soul-lite mode) or the stable of bands . . . produced or helmed by Curt Boettcher, only without the countercultural credibility and legitimately trippy factor. That’s because the album, as with dozens of similar efforts from the era, is really a quasi-exploitive cash-in project. Essentially a studio creation conceived and written by Bernice Ross and Lor Crane, who did not take part in the actual recording . . . . The playing was done by ace sessionmen . . . and then the music overlaid with delicate strings, and a brass and woodwind section. In a sense, it entirely missed the thrust of the decade’s more original and exploratory music that it meant to exploit. But in another cosmically ironic sense, it captures the heady era far more vibrantly than those more important artists, partly because the music of the Astral Projection is nowhere near as timeless as the music of those artists. And partly because the explosive creativity of the era filtered in weird and wonderful ways even down to the eternally unhip music business types responsible for this album, giving them carte blanche to experiment with the money formula, but not too much, thereby resulting in this odd hybrid of commercially minded but ultimately uncommercial music. . . . The Astral Scene is largely soft-pop ambience.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-astral-scene-mw0000069459

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Robin Gibb — “Down Came the Sun”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 28, 2024

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

1,190) Robin Gibb — “Down Came the Sun”

From Robin’s (see #497) solo album Robin’s Reign, released amidst the fleeting breakup of the Bee Gees (see #291, 353, 354, 439, 466, 484, 497, 570, 594, 717, 861, 962, 1,065, 1,101, 1,125), comes “vintage Robin Gibb[,] a classic beautifully sung tune that recalls the first Bee Gees album” (Dave Furgess, https://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/review/229/), “includ[ing] some typically intriguing Robin lyrics ‘You like to think that you are Admiral Nelson with a gun, a wife and son’.” (David, https://lightspots.wordpress.com/tag/robin-gibb/)

I love the song and the album, but it is not for everyone. Bruce Eder writes that “too many of the songs (and ‘Down Came the Sun’ is a perfect example), although very pretty, don’t quite go anywhere — they lack a second idea, or a middle eight, or something, to take them to the ending without being predictable.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/robins-reign-mw0000840610) That’s a great line about some album. In fact, I may borrow it some day! But it doesn’t describe Robin’s Reign!

In any event, Eder tells us:

Although not many people remember it today, there was a moment when the Bee Gees’ lineup literally exploded into pieces — in the wake of the 1969 double-LP Odessa, the sibling music trio split, first into two parts, with Barry Gibb and Maurice Gibb initially retaining the Bee Gees name, and later into three parts, as even they stopped working together. You can judge the depth of the antipathy felt between Robin Gibb and his brothers from the lyrics in “Most of My Life,” the last song on the album at hand, which are steeped in bitterness. Ironically, amid a ton of solo activity by all three brothers that resulted from these breakups, Robin’s Reign by Robin Gibb was the only full-length solo effort by any of them to see the light of day commercially, and it contained a number two U.K. hit in “Saved By the Bell.” What is here is almost as much a “lost” Bee Gees creation as the two-man lineup’s Cucumber Castle album . . . the main problem is the “almost.” . . . Much of Robin’s Reign . . . needed just a little bit more work on the composition side — perhaps the input of another of the Gibb siblings — to reach that same standard. . . . [T]he album couldn’t get far enough away from the Bee Gees’ own roots to count as more than a footnote — albeit an often beautiful and reasonably entertaining one — to their history.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/robins-reign-mw0000840610

Whitelock gives some context:

By January 1969 it seemed like the Bee Gees . . . and especially Robin, their vibrato singing teen idol — were on top of the world. . . . But clouds were quickly forming. Rumors of drug addiction swirled around 19-year-old Robin, heightened by a nervous collapse and ongoing personal health crises that forced cancellation of an American tour. The actual cause of Robin’s tenuous physical and emotional condition was actually post-traumatic stress brought on in the aftermath of Robin having survived the Hither Green rail crash in November 1967 where 49 people died. While unharmed, Robin was trapped for a time in his car, forced to watch the dead and injured as they were removed . . . . Adding to his personal insecurities, familial tensions in the form of competition with older brother Barry were reaching a head. Odessa producer Robert Stigwood . . . saw Barry as the group leader and favored his songwriting and singing over Robin’s. The final straw occurred when Stigwood released Barry’s “First of May” as the next Bee Gees single, relegating Robin’s “Lamplight” to the B-side. Shortly after this perceived slight, Robin announced his departure from the band.

[During t]he 12-month period of Robin’s absence . . . . Barry and Maurice released Cucumber Castle which, while including the hit single “Don’t Forget to Remember”, stalled on the UK album chart at #57 . . . . Robin[‘s] initial single “Saved By the Bell” reached #2 on the charts, but its parent album Robin’s Reign charted disappointingly and plans for a follow up record were shelved . . . .
https://www.popmatters.com/195182-robin-gibb-saved-by-the-bell-collected-works-1969-70-2495510628.html

When asked why he chose “Saved by the Bell” as the A-side, Robin explained that: “Everything I write I write to the best of my ability. That is every song I have written could be a single – I never write A-sides that would be an insult to my ego. . . . All the tracks for my first LP could be singles.” (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/may/21/robin-gibb-classic-interview)

Here is a demo:

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David Bixby — “Morning Sun”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 27, 2024

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

1,189) David Bixby — “Morning Sun”

From Dave Bixby’s (see #531, 668) “definitive loner acid folk album” comes a song that has resonated with a lot of people, judging from the hundreds of comments on YouTube (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ch5lOo5cL1U&pp=ygUXZGF2aWQgYml4YnkgbW9ybmluZyBzdW4%3D) Here are some heartfelt ones: “[o]ne of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard” (claramae), “holy f*ck i nearly cry every time i listen to this song” (bilbobagpipe23842”), a “hauntingly touching song” (lulululululululuul), and “if I die, I want this to be the song that plays when I’m remembering all the memories I had when I was alive”. (vanillasmelody93883)

Now, part of the reason for the outpouring is that the song forms the foundation for the A$AP Rocky song CallDrops. Who’da thunk it?!

Klemen Breznikar tells us that:

Dave [Bixby] played with folk bands in high school before cutting off his hippie hair to join a religious group. . . . Dave’s … Ode to Quetzalcoatl, was recorded following a long period of time [he] spent in what he calls “the void”. A dark, depressive episode after a prolonged period of taking LSD almost daily. Dave came out of the void and turned to God, a journey and transformation Ode to Quetzalcoatl documents. . . . Dave’s lived a vivid and fascinating life, beginning with his leadership within a Michigan-based Christian cult only known as “The Group”. Always a loner and an adventurer, Dave left the group after being sent to various corners of the country to launch new chapters, built a cabin and lived off the land.
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2011/11/dave-bixby-interview-about-ode-to.html

Ron Hart adds that:

For collectors of the downer/loner folk movement of the late ’60s . . . the solo debut from Michigan garage rocker-turned-born-again Xian Dave Bixby . . . go[es] for upwards of $2,000 on eBay. . . . Recorded after he spent a year playing solo and experimenting with LSD, Bixby laid down this album in a living room with the bare bones of amenities. . . . Bixby relies on the strength of his deeply faithful lyrics rooted in the Book of Revelations and the artist’s own personal drug-fueled Armageddon to carry his songs through the night.
https://www.popmatters.com/110072-dave-bixby-ode-to-quetzalcoatl-guerssen-harbinger-second-coming-guer-2496072674.html

Bixby himself recollects that:

Winter of 1968 I was not doing so well. Too many acid trips . . . . I quietly freaked out. I was in hell with no way to communicate it to anyone. Some months later my lead guitar buddy Brian MacInness introduced me to Don DeGraff I ended up in a prayer circle. . . . That night I did my own praying, fell asleep and a new spirit was born in me. . . . I saw people’s pain and fear, it was just like mine. I knew what to say to give comfort. Songs began to flood in to me, writing them down I sang them everywhere DeGraff had the first Group meeting at his house with about ten to twelve people and the numbers grew every week eventually needing a bigger building; then we out grew that building. I performed songs every Tuesday night at group meetings. These meetings grew to 300 people. I was asked many times to record an album. I selected twelve songs out of thirty I had written. Each song supported the next song in theme. The Quetzalcoatl story of a Christ like man walking the America’s captivated my imagination becoming the title for the LP. . . . In the studio it seemed a little lonely. Ode to Quetzalcoatl is a lonely journey so it all worked well. . . . This album is a concept. Each song is a chapter in a book. The theme throughout is one of stepping out in faith and walking through the darkness into the light. . . . Apocalypse. [Asked in what state of mind he was when he recorded it, Bixby said] I felt new, humbled and grateful. When I prayed I got answers and direction. I was moving forward with out doubt. I was going through a metamorphosis with out words to describe my experience. I captured some of it in song.
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2011/11/dave-bixby-interview-about-ode-to.html

Live:

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Jan & Lorraine — “Snow Roses”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 26, 2024

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

1,188) Jan & Lorraine — “Snow Roses”

“Hauntingly pretty” (PsyVen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_dxXj4agzI) psych folk from a female dynamic duo (see #1,116). “When one considers that these ladies wrote, arranged, sang and played these tracks and then faded into obscurity, it boggles my mind”. (heyday2day, https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/jan-and-lorraine/gypsy-people/) Indeed.

Aaron Milenski talks about their lone album:

This is about as good a 1960s femme psych album as you’ll find. It’s wholly original and unlike a lot of singer-songwriter types of the era, the two women . . . had considerable creative input, and wrote seven of the ten songs. The music is a reasonable cross between British folk-rock and American psychedelia (with a strong Indian influence), and is the most interesting and successful album by a ’60’s folkrock-psych duo, male or female. It also rocks with conviction . . . .
The Acid Archives (Second ed.)

Richie Unterberger adds:

Much mystery surrounds Jan & Lorraine, a female duo who recorded an obscure folk-rock album, Gypsy People, in London in October 1969. Jan Hendin and Lorraine Le Fevre [who wrote “Snow Roses”] both sang (often in harmony) on the record, did the ensemble arrangements, and also wrote (working separately) most of the material. . . . Hendin handled electric and acoustic guitars, piano, and organ, and Le Fevre contributed acoustic guitar as well. In part because the LP didn’t sound much like other British folk-rock efforts of the time, there was conjecture that [they] might have actually been Americans (and, in fact, it has been reported that the duo hailed from Detroit, Michigan when the album was recorded), despite the record being cut in London. And it does have a greater American influence to its mildly psychedelic late-’60s folk-rock than most British efforts in the genre, with stirring, slightly strident singing; some slight pop accents . . . and some occasional exotic Eastern sounds on tamboura and tabla. The record’s slightly moody and introspective, though pleasant (and sometimes a little loosely drifting) in feel . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jan-lorraine-mn0001417555#biography

Jo-Ann Greene:

[A]lthough the set was recorded in London, slotting neatly into the contemporary British folk-prog scene, their accents tell another tale, supporting the veracity of at least one report that they hailed from Detroit, Michigan . . . . [I]t’s the intensity of the multi-instrumentalist pair’s delivery that sets Jan & Lorraine apart, with the women attacking both their vocals and guitars in particular with absolute gusto. There are, however, decidedly British elements leaking into the set as well . . . . Although supported by a clutch of guest musicians, Jan & Lorraine still asserted their independence. In a day when women artists had little control over their music, the pair not only penned the bulk of the set, they arranged it all. And it’s here the duo truly excelled, for the use of instrumentation is inspired, each song carefully crafted to create maximum effect. . . . [T[he pair’s past was shrouded in mystery, and once they packed up and left, their future destination was equally unknown. But Jan & Lorraine left behind a stunning, fiery album, as thrilling and exotic as a Gypsy dance.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/gypsy-people-mw0000774121

Bob sheds some light:

Janice Grahm was my mother in law. She passed away in 1994. Her daughter (my wife) has a credit on the album as Taki (greek for loved one. Jan was a very accomplished musician (masters degree from Harvard) and a very loving person. Lorraine is living in souther California and teaches guitar in the Palmdale area. . . . Jan and Lorraine were from Detroit MI.
http://waxidermy.com/blog/jan-and-lorraine-gypsy-people/

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Hardin & York — “Candlelight”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 25, 2024

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

1,187) Hardin & York — “Candlelight”

This ’69 A-side and track from the keyboard/drum prog duo’s first album is “an organ driven psychedelic number, regal sounding with thundering bass”. (Kevin Rathert, https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2021/09/hardin-york-cant-keep-a-good-man-down-the-hardin-york-anthology-2021.html) Stuart Robinson tells us:

[It is] cracker of a song . . . with Eddie Hardin sounding uncannily like Steve Winwood with that excellent organ swirling, and lets not forget that wwhhheeessshhhh sound of the flanging/phasing effect that is on this, this is certainly psych inspired but going other places, but its a fabulous song . . . .
http://pub4.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=313820429&frmid=6809&msgid=1420957&cmd=show

As to the album, Joe Marchese writes:

[T]he LP showcased Hardin’s Winwood-esque vocals and swirling Hammond organ and York’s forceful drumming. While the duo could create a mighty sound on their own, Hurst thickened their psychedelic R&B sound with background vocalists Sue and Sunny, orchestral embellishments, and musicians including guitarist Vic Flick and bassist Herbie Flowers. Hardin continued to grow as a songwriter, penning most of the album’s original material.
https://theseconddisc.com/2021/07/28/listen-everyone-cherry-red-grapefruit-collect-hardin-and-york-albums/

Richie Unterberger is more equivocal:

Hardin & York’s debut album was quite competent yet derivative early progressive rock, and derivative of Traffic in particular. At least, however, it came by its influences quite honestly, Pete York having drummed behind Steve Winwood in thr Spencer Davis Group and Eddie Hardin having joined the Spencer Davis Group. after Winwood left. . . . Hardin sings and writes uncannily like Winwood circa Traffic’s “Forty Thousand Headmen” period, but while that’s a good standard to shoot for, therein also lies the problem: it’s not quite as good . . . and certainly not as original. . . . [But] this is pretty decent stuff. . . . Hardin’s vocals are impressively rich and gritty, and his piano and organ quite skillful.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/tomorrow-today-mw0000740577

As to H&Y’s history, Unterberger writes:

The unusual power duo of keyboardist/vocalist Eddie Hardin and drummer Pete York made a few albums in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and were aptly described as a cross between Traffic and Procul Harum . . . . with their blend of hard rock, soul, progressive, and jazz influences . . . . Both . . . left the Winwood-less Spencer Davis Group in October 1968, and teamed up shortly afterward to form a two-man group . . . . unusual in rock to this day, and as far as two-person organ-drum combos go, the only other one of note from that period was used by Lee Michaels . . . . Hardin covered the bass parts with the left hand of his organ, and the result was actually a pretty full band sound for just the two members. However, on their three albums, the duo was sometimes augmented by horns, flute, guitar, backup female vocals, and other orchestration. Although Hardin & York weren’t that big in the U.K. or U.S., they had more success on the European Continent, particularly in Germany, where they were big both on record and as a touring act. . . . In 1971 each member started playing with their own bands as well (the Pete York Percussion Band and Hardin/Fenwick/Newman), occasionally playing in those bands on the same bill as live Hardin & York concerts. . . . [G]uitariat Ray Fenwick . . . joined Hardin & York in mid-1972, at which point the act’s name changed to Hardin, York & Fenwick.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hardin-york-mn0000662331#biography

John Wenlock-Smith notes that:

Their stage show was energetic and, with just the two of them, it needed to be to capture the attention of the audience. They did this by using the dynamics of a sole keyboard player along with a jazz rooted drummer who packed a mighty punch, their interplay was dazzling and effusive at times . . . .
https://www.progradar.org/index.php/2021/06/30/review-hardin-york-cant-keep-a-good-man-down-the-hardin-york-anthology-by-john-wenlock-smith/

To see H&Y on Beat Club: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RGptW8JdFk

Live on the BBC:

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P.J. Proby — “Three Week Hero”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 24, 2024

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

1,186) P.J. Proby — “Three Week Hero”

Yesterday we heard from a rock star despairing over his fans wanting him to be God and bemoaning that the more he gave, the more people asked of him. Today we hear from a “three week” sensation who finds to his dismay that “I’m no longer mobbed cause my last two records bombed and I squandered all the money that I had.” Wild man P.J. Proby’s ‘69 B-side “opens with a blues riff . . . and then P.J. in a cod country voice sings, ‘I’m a three week hero, I started with a zero, And I sold a million records on my own.'” (Spencer Leigh, https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/06/pj-proby-three-weeks-hero-1969-uk.html) It’s a hoot. And to top it all off, “Hero” comes from a P.J. Proby LP backed and arranged by John Paul Jones, who was assisted by his friends Jimmy Page, John Bonham and Robert Plant (though only on harmonica) shortly before their first live performance as Led Zeppelin!

Spencer Leigh gives us some background on the LP:

Steve Rowland . . . . formed a group with session singers and musicians including Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood and called them the Family Dogg. They had a Top 10 hit in 1969 with ‘A Way Of Life’. Rowland, an American in England like Proby, became friendly with him and agreed to produce his next album . . . . He asked the Family Dogg to be backing vocalists . . . . [and] recruited Jimmy Page . . . John Paul Jones . . . and their new friends, Robert Plant . . . and John Bonham . . . to accompany him. . . . John Paul Jones wrote most of the arrangements. Although the album is now regarded as P.J.Proby backed by Led Zeppelin, the only track on which they really sound like that is ‘Jim’s Blues’. Three Week Hero is a schizophrenic, even quadrophrenic, album. It has no idea of its market . . . . . [It] was released in October 1969 and sold miserably.
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/06/pj-proby-three-weeks-hero-1969-uk.html

Richard Metzger adds:

[John Paul] Jones asked if he could bring in his own group for the session, thinking it would serve as a rehearsal of sorts before they went into the studio themselves and Rowland agreed. Jones told Chris Welch: “I was committed to doing all the arrangements for the album. As we were talking about rehearsing at the time, I thought it would be a handy source of income. I had to book a band anyway, so I thought I’d book everybody I knew.” It’s not known exactly when the two-day recording commenced, but August 25th, 1968 is probably the correct date, and would mark the very first time that Led Zeppelin, then still-known as The New Yardbirds, would enter a recording studio together.
https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_album_led_zeppelin_recorded_before_led_zeppelin

P.J. himself recalls (in conversation with Corbin at the Finding Zoso: Discovering the Music of Jimmy Page website:

About 1968, a friend of mine from Hollywood, Steve Roland had come over to London and had done pretty well as a producer for . . . Dave, Dee Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. So I went down to Steve and asked him to produce my next album, EMI wanted one out now. . . . [H]e said, “I’ll put a band together for you.” So when I got to the studio that day, there was what they called, “The New Yardbirds”. There was Jimmy Page . . . and John Bonham and another guy Paul Jones and Albert Lee. Anyway, we recorded that album, I think it was in two days. We even undershot, we recorded it with about thirty-five minutes left over, and so Roland yelled down, “Why don’t you all busket? We shouldn’t waste the studio time.” I told the boys, “Y’all start picking and I’ll write as you pick.” So the three last numbers on the album, “It’s So Hard to Be a N*gger/Jim’s Blues/George Wallace is Rollin’ in This Mornin’”, I just made up as the boys played. Afterwards, I said, “Man, y’all did a terrific job. I’ve got some tours coming up, would you back me?” They said, “We’d love to, we’ll be your backing band, but first we’ve got two obligations we’ve got to honour in California[“] . . . . The boys told me they were going over to play in San Francisco and all that, and I said, “Look, from what I’ve heard and the way you boys played tonight, not only are you not going to be my backing band, I’m going to say goodbye right now, because I don’t think I’m ever going to see you again. That’s how successful you’re going to be. You’re exactly what they want, you play all that psychedelic stuff and everything. . . . You’re going to go over there and go down so great I don’t think you’re ever going to come home.”
https://findingzoso.blogspot.com/2012/09/pj-proby-interview-part-two.html

As to P.J., Steve Huey tells us:

Born and mostly raised in Texas, rock & roller P.J. Proby never really hit it big in his homeland, but his trouser-busting stage antics helped make him a genuine pop star in England at the height of the British Invasion. . . . [I]n late 1963, Proby met British producer Jack Good, who happened to be putting together a TV special on the Beatles that was to feature several other up-and-coming artists. Proby’s demo tape impressed . . . Brian Epstein enough for him to make the cut, and Good outfitted Proby as an aristocratic fop, complete with ponytail, frilly shirt, tight velvet pants, and buckled shoes. After the special aired worldwide, Proby’s first British single, “Hold Me” . . . rocketed into the U.K. Top Five in early 1964. Proby’s next two singles, “Together” and West Side Story’s “Somewhere,” took a similar tack, and both reached the British Top Ten as well. In early 1965, Proby was booked as part of a package tour, and on one of the London dates in late January, his pants ripped open from the knee all the way up. Proby claimed it was an accident, but when the same thing happened at the next show (much to the audience’s delight), the censors descended and banned Proby from performing on television or in theaters. . . . Proby . . . scor[ed] another Top Ten hit with another West Side Story cover, “Maria,” in late 1965. . . . The lack of promotional opportunities began to hurt Proby’s chart placements, though, and he was also beset with financial problems. He attempted to crack the American market in 1967 and actually did land a Top 40 hit with “Niki Hoeky[.]” . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/pj-proby-mn0000000674#biography

Spencer Leigh adds:

P.J. Proby had his run of hits and had wrecked his career by ripping his velvet trousers, perhaps deliberately, on stage. . . . [H]e attributes his wild behaviour as a reaction to the discipline he endured in a military school. He moved to Hollywood and hung out with Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson and Eddie Cochran. He cut scores of demos and wrote “Ain’t Gonna Kiss Ya'” . . . on a hit EP by the Searchers, and “Clown Shoes” for Johnny Burnette. He had had problems with the police and the Revenue in the US [going bankrupt] and he was gratified when Jack Good offered him a guest spot in his UK TV spectacular, Around The Beatles, which was screened in May 1964. Eddie Cochran’s fiancee, Sharon Sheeley, gave him a new name for the show – P.J.Proby, but apart from that, “I created P.J. Proby totally alone. The ponytail, the buckle shoes, the big-sleeved shirts were all me[”] . . . . The TV special drew 8 millions viewers and “Hold Me” which Proby had cut in the UK with . . . Jimmy Page on lead [g]uitar, soared to N.3. Page played a distinctive [g]uitar solo on his follow-up hit, “Together” and he can be heard on several other Proby recordings – “Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart”, “Stagger Lee”, “Linda Lu”, “Rockin’ Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu”, “Let The Water Run Down” and “Hanging From Your Loving Tree”. . . . Proby says that the campaign against him was spearheaded by Mary Whitehouse and that showbusiness moguls wanted him deported as he was an American earning good English money. P.J. Proby’s conspiracy theories are second only to those following Kennedy’s assassination.
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/06/pj-proby-three-weeks-hero-1969-uk.html

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Robert Charlebois — “Ordinaire”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 23, 2024

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

1,185) Robert Charlebois — “Ordinaire”/”Ordinary”

WARNING — If you are a Québécois or from France, read no further! Ne lis pas plus loin! This song is a francophone legend!

“‘Ordinaire,’ the heart-breaking cry of a fading show business star . . . ha[s] become [one] of [Robert Charlebois’ (see #44)] most popular songs”. (François Couture, https://www.allmusic.com/album/un-gars-ben-ordinaire-mw0000699064), with a “[m]elody that begins gently, and crescendoes in a plea of desperate words: ‘sublime’ is the only word that fits! UNFORGETTABLE”. (fontclair, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDGNA83mxDo (courtesy of Google Translate) “[A]h the beautiful, desperate song . . . [v]ery painful and magnificent, dizzying and pathetic.” (jmcelse, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDGNA83mxDo (courtesy of Google Translate)) “It is a particularly Québecois take on the-travails-of-a-rock-star song, singing as it does about being just an ordinary guy. In 1970, Robert Charlebois won the Sopot International Song Festival with this song.” (https://www.tedmartin.ca/Canada150/Content/Songs/095-Robert_Charlebois-Ordinaire.htm) The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame says that:

Almost an instant classic and now a staple of Quebec music, ‘Ordinaire’ remains a very accurate depiction of today’s obsession with celebrity and of the negative effect such pressure can have on an artist. Charlebois is still to this day affectionately nicknamed the ‘ordinary guy’ and this song remains, for the Quebec public, one of his greatest.

https://www.cshf.ca/song/ordinaire/

“You want me to be a God If only you knew how old I feel”

The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame adds:

In 1969, Claudine Monfette, a.k.a. Mouffe, wrote this song for Robert Charlebois, her romantic partner at the time. . . . [She] was able to perfectly describe the essence of Charlebois’ spirit and the pressure that was afflicting the artist, this only 2 years after his spectacular flight to stardom in the Francophone artistic community. The song, with music composed by Pierre Nadeau of the Quatuor de Jazz Libre du Québec, won first prize at the Sopot Festival, in Poland in 1970. . . . “Ordinaire” was written at the peak of Charlebois’ popularity, after the Osstid’show, which made him a star and a household name in Quebec. . . . Tired and exhausted, the lyrics to Ordinaire seemed to unmask the false and almost mythical imagery that people and critics in Quebec had quickly made not only of him, but of the Mouffe/Charlebois couple.

https://www.cshf.ca/song/ordinaire

Of Charlebois, Sophie Beaulé writes that he “wrote Quebec’s first psychedelic song, he was the first chansonnier to use an electric guitar, he brought humor into rock — [he] is the musician who pushed the Québécois popular song into the contemporary world.” (An Anthology of French and Francophone Singers from A to Z: “Singin’ in French”) And François Couture tells us:

Robert Charlebois is one of the most enduring figures in Quebec rock history and surely has been the most influential during his career which spans five decades. During this time he started as a folk singer, shocked Quebec by turning to an extreme psychedelic rocker, came back to a singer/songwriter credo, and evolved as time went by into an adult pop/rock star. . . . [A]s a businessman revolutionized the world of Quebec micro-breweries with his company Unibroue (makers of beers La Maudite and La Fin du Monde) in the ’90s. Charlebois . . . started his career in folk clubs in the early ’60s, while he also explored acting. His first LP won a prize for Best Folk Album in 1965. The young Charlebois was clean-cut, well-spoken, poetic . . . . [and his songs] appealed to the upper-class students and the intellectual elite. . . . In early 1968, he took a trip to California. Experiencing the flower power movement first hand made the cultural and religious yoke he grew up in literally explode. Back in Montréal, he recorded the seminal LP Robert Charlebois Louise Forestier. Screaming, swearing, wearing outrageous costumes, and presenting his own brand of experimental psychedelic rock, he staged L’Osstidcho, a scandalous anti-show. “Lindberg” became a hit in Quebec and in France, quickly followed by “Ordinaire.” In the early ’70s, he developed a sound somewhere between his days as an unaccompanied folk singer and his extremes of the late ’60s. . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/robert-charlebois-mn0000047962#biography

Here he is live in ’72:

Live in ’73:

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The New Mix — “Even Brighter”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 22, 2024

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

1,184) The New Mix — “Even Brighter”

This absolutely gorgeous ’68 pop psych/sunshine pop confection (out of North Carolina!) is “a hidden gem” that “still reminds me of glimmering golden orange autumn sunsets”. (MoonChild-zg3gx, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X_XhvZcyBU) Bad Cat Records says that “[i]n spite of the falsetto lead vocals, ‘Ever Brighter’ had a glistening melody that put it in the running for standout performance; at least until the MOR horn arrangement tacked on the end of the tune sank it.” (http://badcatrecords.com/NEWmix.htm) Hey, I love the horns, I think they make the song almost anthemic.

Of the New Mix and its only LP, Bad Cat Records tells us:

[I]t may not be 1968’s most original release, but as someone who is a big fan of sunshine pop and light-psych, it was an album I was happy to discover and repeatedly play. . . . Bassist Karl Jarvi, singer/lead guitarist Dave Brown, drummer Rob Thorne and keyboardist Henry Steele started their professional careers as the Statesville, North Carolina based The Eighteenth Edition. Like so many of their contemporaries, they were heavily influenced by The Beatles and other mid-’60s British bands. The quartet managed to release a pair of interesting psych-tinged singles for the small local Panther label. . . . Complete with paisley and Nehru jackets (and heavy Southern drawls), the second single even got them a shot lip-synching on the Charleston, South Carolina-based Village Square television show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgIMYxGkhAQ By 1968 they band had morphed into The New Mix, scoring a contract with United Artists. Produced by Tommy Kaye, The New Mix featured a collection of all original material with Brown and Steele sharing the writing credits. . . . Imagine a trippier version of The Association and you’d get a pretty good feel for moody tracks such as . . . “Ever Brighter”. . . . Brown and Steele had an undeniable knack for melding strong melodies, hooks and psych touches. . . . Originality was in short supply. You can play spot-the-influence throughout the album. Occasionally the band got full of themselves and while Brown was a capable singer . . . when he tried to get overly sensitive, or started singing in his higher registers, things took a turn for the worse. Still, it’s hard to believe United Artists didn’t even float a single.
http://badcatrecords.com/NEWmix.htm

Richie Unterberger had a decidedly negative reaction:

This was an era that saw many a generic pop-psychedelic album on major labels, and even in that class, the New Mix didn’t stand out. . . . [O]verall it’s a faceless clash of California freak-out psychedelia, sunshine pop, and a bit of British influence in some of the arrangements and harmonies.

The New Mix’s sole album is stereotypical 1968 pop-influenced trendy psychedelia. The ten original songs favor San Francisco psych-folk-rock-influenced minor keys, Doors-Strawberry Alarm Clock-influenced organ, and the odd screeching distorted guitar. The arrangements also nod to a pop influence with harmonies that sometimes recall the Hollies’ brief psychedelic phase . . . and some fruity instrumentation that might have made it into sunshine pop records by the likes of the Association. It’s a real melange, in other words, and like a salad made up of various excerpts from the week’s leftovers, it doesn’t go together too well or taste too good or fresh. There’s little memorable about the songs, and some of the lead vocals have a distasteful stiff, strident air. Perhaps as a rough comparison, you might liken the New Mix to groups with awkward mixes of pop and freaky psych, like Fever Tree and the Strawberry Alarm Clock, but the band isn’t even close to their level.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/new-mix-mn0001210424#biography , https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-new-mix-mw0000867848

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John Hartford — “The Six O’Clock Train and a Girl with Green Eyes”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April , 2024

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

1,182) John Hartford — “The Six O’Clock Train and a Girl with Green Eyes”

Country? Folk? Either way, this ’68 B-side by the legendary John Hartford is gentle on my mind, “bounc[ing] along like the happy ’60s pop song it is”; from The Love Album, which “finds [Hartford] using slightly bigger arrangements, gaining confidence, and more or less coming into his own.” (Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., https://www.allmusic.com/album/love-album-housing-project-mw0000462545)

Hartford’s website tells us:

John Hartford won Grammy awards in three different decades . . . and wrote one of the most popular songs of all time, “Gentle On My Mind”. . . . He added music and narration to Ken Burns’ landmark Civil War series, and was an integral part of the hugely popular “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack and Down From The Mountain concert tour. But that hardly explains John Hartford [–] an American original [who] was a musician, songwriter, steamboat pilot, author, artist, disc jockey, calligrapher, dancer, folklorist, father, and historian. At an early age, John fell in love with two things: music and the Mississippi River. In 1965 he moved to Nashville. The following year he was signed to RCA Records by the legendary Chet Atkins. It was Atkins who convinced John to add a “t” to his last name, becoming John Hartford. In 1967 his second RCA release “Earthwords & Music” featured the single “Gentle on My Mind”, a song Hartford wrote after seeing the movie Dr. Zhivago. That year, the song earned four Grammy awards. Hartford would take home two awards, one as the writer and one for his own recording of the song. The other two went to Glen Campbell who had heard Hartford’s version on the radio and decided to record it. Campbell’s rendition became an instant classic, and the song became one of the most recorded and performed songs of all time . . . . Hartford often said that “Gentle On My Mind” bought his freedom. . . . to explore his various creative curiosities . . . . In 1968 John Hartford left Nashville for Los Angeles, where he played on the Byrds’ classic album, Sweethearts of the Rodeo. He became a regular guest and contributor on CBS’s Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and later on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. He would also earn his riverboat pilot’s license by the end of the decade. John Hartford became mentor and mystic for a generation of pickers, singers, and songwriters. His landmark record, Aereo-plain (1971) . . . bridged a musical gap between traditional bluegrass and a progressive new audience . . . . In 1976, John won another Grammy award for his contemporary folk masterpiece, Mark Twang [which] featured a set of quirky river-centric original songs, presented in stripped down arrangements, typically featuring only Hartford accompanying himself on banjo, fiddle, or guitar while tapping his feet on an amplified sheet of plywood. . . . becom[ing] his trademark sound for many years as a solo act. . . . He died on June 4, 2001, after a long battle with non-hodgkin’s lymphoma.
https://www.johnhartford.com/about-john/

James Manheim adds:

Hartford was a multi-talented old-time musician, a riverboat captain, a satirical songwriter, a one-man showman of exceptional talents, and one of the founders of both progressive country music and old-time string music revivalism. He was a prolific recording artist who issued no fewer than 33 albums during his lifetime that ranged across old-timey fiddle music, bluegrass and newgrass, folk, blues, jazz, and country . . . . While he never again attained the success of “Gentle on My Mind,” he was quite successful . . . . [He] grew up in St. Louis near the Mississippi River he would always love. His took his first job on a riverboat at age ten. As a boy he liked the traditional country music he heard on the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcast from Nashville, and by age 13 he was an accomplished fiddler and five-string banjo player . . . . Soon he added guitar and mandolin to his repertoire. He founded his first bluegrass band in high school . . . . Hartford made a few singles for small local labels in the early ’60s. In 1965 he moved with his [family] to Nashville, taking a DJ job at . . . . It didn’t take him long to meet the other architects of the city’s songwriting renaissance – Kris Kristofferson, Mickey Newbury, and the Glaser Brothers [see #76], who . . . began promoting Hartford and his songs around Music Row. . . . In 1968 Hartford moved to Los Angeles . . . . By the end of the decade, Hartford also earned his riverboat pilot’s license. Financially secure thanks to “Gentle on My Mind,” he decided to spend the rest of his life pursuing an artistic vision rooted in country music traditions. In 1971, Hartford returned to Nashville and founded a bluegrass band . . . . The all-acoustic Aereo-Plain album . . . featured a free bluegrass feel often cited as seminal both by progressive bluegrass musicians and by adherents of the modern jam band movement. In the mid-’70s Hartford worked out a solo act in which he appeared in a trademark bowler hat and black vest.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-hartford-mn0000221603#biography

Here Hartford is live:

Here is Jason Carter:

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Illés — “Történet M.-Ről/”The Story of M.”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 20, 2024

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

1,162) Illés — “Történet M.-Ről/”The Story of M.”

Here is a slice of “magnificent” (attilamarfi9018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WUfRo1ef64 (courtesy of Google Translate)) classic rock from Hungary’s Beatles.

Zikkurat Stage Agency gives us a Hungarian rhapsody (courtesy of Google Translate):

Illés was the Hungarian Beatles, “the” band, the generational band, the new idol that embodied and realized the dreams of a new generation, in which we could imagine all the desires that, in the end, were left out of the lives of many of us. Illés is a separate chapter in Hungarian youth culture, but perhaps not an exaggeration, also in the Hungarian cultural history of the second half of the century. With their performance, not only did a new era in entertainment begin, but with their music and thoughts, they also changed the face, thinking, and perception of life of a generation. The story of Illés is also the story of the sixties. With their explosions and failures, their momentum and exhaustion, their “revolutionary” thoughts and their forced compromises. If a summary cultural history or youth sociology work is prepared about the progressive aspirations of this century, Illésék’s work, the aspirations identifiable with the name of the band, cannot be missing from it. Illés appeared with new songs for new times and wanted to turn the world around with the belief of “bright breezes”.
http://www.zikkurat.hu/illes/bio_1.shtml

Susanna tells us (courtesy of Google Translate):

On this side of the Iron Curtain, during the socialism there were two dominant pop bands in Hungary which competed with each other and also with other bands for popularity. These two bands were Illés-együttes (or simply Illés) and Omega [see #195, 644, 766, 832]. Illés was founded in 1957 by the brothers Lajos and Károly Illés (at that time it was fashionable to choose the surname of the founder as the name of the band . . . ). At the beginning, Illés had Italian and evergreen songs in their repertoire, like those of the Hurricanes for example. They performed the first song composed by themselves only in 1965 because the previously written songs had been banned by the political system. In the same year, the classic line-up of Illés was created when Levente Szörényi joined the band. The members were Lajos Illés, Levente Szörényi, János Bródy, Szabolcs Szörényi and Zoltán Pásztory. The real success came thanks to the song “Rohan az idő” (Time runs) sung by Zsuzsa Koncz and accompanied by Illés. Illés managed to bring something new to the Hungarian musical life: Eastern and Western voices, folk and artistic music were mixed in their songs and their lyrics represented generational problems.
https://fromhungarywithlove.wordpress.com/2020/08/14/omega-and-illes-the-dominant-music-bands-in-hungary-in-the-60s-and-70s/

Zikkurat Stage Agency (courtesy of Google Translate) adds:

In the beginning, Illés, like other beat bands, played Dixieland, popular Italian hits, evergreens, guitar tracks, primarily Shadows and Hurricanes compositions, at high school and university events. . . . [In] 1965 the two Szörényi brothers [joined the band, which] is when the band [turnd] into a generational band. Levente Szörényi Szabolcs Szörényi started his musical career at the Szárón Sándor High School in Vác, where he and his brother Szabolcs performed in a guitar duo, and already there they created a sensation with their playing: “We were the crazy Szörényis.” . . . Szörényi finally joined Illés in January 1965 (he only accepted membership if he could bring his brother too), and the Illés story continued on a common thread for nearly a decade. . . . However, Illés’ . . . breakthrough is based on the six-month work that shakes up the ensemble in 1965 and gives birth to the idea – you have to try to win back the audience’s sympathy with your own songs. First, they completely refresh the repertoire (they mainly play Beatles, Kinks, Animals, Pretty Things songs), get a club . . . and finally . . . they have to win a battle in Bosch. . . . [I]n the summer of this year at the Gitárpárbaj organized in the Kisstadion, where the audience booed the representatives of traditional dance music, distracted them from the stage and cheered the beat bands, of which only Illés dared to sing in Hungarian. . . . In their songs, they simply open a channel for the emotions, energies, and desires that lie deep inside, and thanks to Bródy’s lucky tone, these songs still have a shocking, mobilizing, and camp-calling power for their age group. After the summer explosion, in December 1966, Illés led the field with six songs on the Top 10 list of the Youth Magazine. Young people are burning with the fever of the Illés phenomenon, and the author couple Szörényi-Bródy pour out the “generational anthems” with unflagging energy . . . . On October 10, 1967, the band also visited abroad. . . . [w]ith overwhelming success. Their music . . . is significantly influenced by the Beatles’ LP Sergeant [Pepper’s] . . . . By the end of 1967, they were already far behind the beat leader, and in the end-of-year poll, the readers of Youth Magazine and Magyar Ifjúság voted for them. . . . [F]ilmmakers discovered them. They compose soundtracks. Several of their famous songs are heard for the first time in films [including] The Story of M . . . . The first four places on the IM hit list in July 1968 are occupied by Illés songs. . . . In 1968, the band received 5 of the 11 awards of the Dance and Song Festival, and Illés, who was looking for new musical sources, received the name “Hungarian National Folk Beat Ensemble” . . . . This “title” highlights two important moments in the band’s life. In their musical pursuits, they finally deviated from the well-trodden paths of the beat, but at the same time, the band slowly moved from the reality of everyday life to the world of myths in the love of the fans. In 1968, Illés was not only a role model and parable, but also a myth in the life of his generation. . . . [T]hey were able to express what they heard from the hearts of themselves and their generation [and were] spoken of as “the voice of the generation”. In 1968, Illés found itself right in the middle of the renewal and reform efforts that permeated Hungarian intellectual-cultural-economic-political life. Already in 1966 . . . Illésék’s music was characterized by a strong connection to the folklore of Hungary and neighboring countries. . . . The Illés brought Eastern-Central European and Balkan folk music into the international beat and created Hungarian youth music with a unique character, not only in terms of content and spirit, but also musically. . . . In 1968, the band – even if only for a short time – managed to find an experimental workshop for their political, social and cultural utopia and for the expansion of their concept, taking advantage of the favorable winds and momentary concessions . . . . In September 1968, a youth club was opened in the Capital Community Center. The Illés club – managed, organized and led by János Bródy – we can safely say – was the most important youth experimental workshop of the late sixties. After the 1968 festival, seeing the Illés’ political ambitions embracing folk music, prestigious representatives of the intelligentsia . . . also began to support the band. In particular, specialists in public education saw a great opportunity in the use of beat music to guide children from the most diverse social strata to other arts or political culture. In February and March 1970, under the organization of the Marquele-Martin management office, they played 10 days in London . . . . Illés’ performance was praised by the English magazines, highlighting their particularly national style, their “songs with a political tone”. . . . At home, the band’s first two LPs (Nehéz az út 1969, Illések és pofonok 1969) were released without any significant critical response, so to speak, during the band’s idolatry and incense at home. . . . The second LP [from which today’s song is taken] is a record of “bitter experiences”. The songs are all situational reports about everyday people, Mr. Advertising, silly girls, beliefs . . . hope for change . . . . This record is the imprint of a showdown with certain illusions and hope fueled by new illusions. A situational assessment and statement, which holds the promise of a next, clean, summary LP. However, the Illés could not make this record. The scandal . . . in London closed the doors to them. On April 26, 1970, they started shooting their film with Márta Mészáros . . . but the work was stopped, they were banned from ORI events, they were not allowed to perform in the capital, the Hanglemezgyár did not release their records, Koncz Zsuzsa’s second album, Szerelem, on which compositions of Szörényi-Bródy can be heard, was not played on the radio – the record sold out in 100,000 copies anyway! -, they could not appear in public for a year. . . . The group was not officially condemned, the embargo that hit them seemed to be a tacit, yet unified measure. The mystery was then answered in the June 5, 1970 issue of the Magyar Ifjúság by István Takács’ article titled “Wronged saints or Illés and their slaps”. It turned out that the Illés chatted recklessly and freely in a BBC program and thereby provided material for enemy propaganda. . . . The accepted, award-winning, adored “saints” were pushed off the rock Olympus and turned into black sheep.
http://www.zikkurat.hu/illes/bio_1.shtml

Here is a short documentary:

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I Shall Be Released: Val McKenna — “You’ve Gotta Tell Me”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 19, 2024

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

1,181) Val McKenna — “You’ve Gotta Tell Me”

Sweet pop-soul from the UK’s Val McKenna (see #988), whose songs “many of which she wrote herself, are . . . hard-driving, straight R&B pieces that the mod population allegedly found appealing.” (Paul Pearson, http://paul-pearson.blogspot.com/2015/05/song-20150507-val-mckenna.html) Man, “Tell Me” coulda been a hit. But it wasn’t even released!

You ask, tell us about “Tell Me”. Well, it was written by The Ministry of Sound’s Micky Keen and Robin Shaw. As John Carter explained:

The Ministry of Sound was really a substitute venture for me when I left The Ivy League[.] I got together with [bassist/singer] Robin Shaw and [guitarist] Micky Keen and we started writing together and recording tracks in Southern Music’s studio. . . . Val McKenna was signed to Southern as an artist and Lesley Duncan was a friend and always around the studio, so it seemed natural that when we needed girl vocals on tracks they would be brought in to guest.
liner notes to the CD comp Dreambabes Volume Six: Sassy and Stonefree

Bruce Eder tells us about Val:

A singer whose career was managed by Ivy League members John Carter and Ken Lewis, Val McKenna was one of the better white female pop soul-style singers to come out of early- to mid-’60s England. Apart from a convincing delivery on numbers like “Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl,” she also benefited from the presence of Jimmy Page on lead guitar on her records, which also included “Baby Do It” and “Now That You’ve Made Up Your Mind,” the latter her own composition and very good indeed.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/val-mckenna-mn0000303369

Kieron Tyler tells us that “Val later attracted attention from the Northern Sould brigade with her 1970 Spark A-side “Love Feeling” and then went into session singing, and was featured on Rick Wakeman’s 1984 single “Glory Boys” and Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzaneras’s 1990 solo album Southern Cross.” (liner notes to the CD comp Dreambabes Volume Six: Sassy and Stonefree)

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Neal Ford and the Fanatics — “I Have Thoughts of You”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 18, 2024

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

1,180) Neal Ford and the Fanatics — “I Have Thoughts of You”

This ‘67 A-side is a “sublime” (Lenny Helsing, https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2014/03/neal-ford-fanatics-good-men-2013-review.html) garage rock ballad, “absolutely beautiful . . . [a] masterpiece of pop psych”. (thomassmith8721, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKv0QeGkrxU) It “has a much more thoughtful, ethereal and soulful sound. . . . because of Neal’s wistful, heartfelt vocal and the tender harmonies. . . . [It’s] one of the best tracks the[y] recorded.” (Derek Anderson, https://dereksmusicblog.com/2013/11/20/neal-ford-and-the-fanatics-good-men/)

Of the Fanatics, Alec Palao writes:

In mid-60s America, every major city had at least one rock’n’roll band that ruled the town. Such top-dogs enjoyed a rabidly partisan audience that packed the teen centres, populated the fan clubs and pushed their records to the top of the local charts. In . . . Houston,Texas, that group was Neal Ford and the Fanatics. . . [who] ruled the roost at Houston clubs . . . . [O]nce they signed to Nashville indie Hickory in late 1966, seemed destined for national stardom. . . . [T]he Fanatics were a well-oiled professional machine, capable of putting on a memorable show . . . . Despite the British elements to their music – Kinks chording, Zombies moodiness – theirs was very much an American sound. Lead vocalist Neal Ford had a professed love for vintage rock and R&B, but the group’s real strength vocally was the three-part harmony of Ford, [guitarist Jon] Pereles and bass player Dub Johnson. When allied to the classic organ and fuzz-driven “Vox” sound of the group, it was an unbeatable combination. Texas has a well-deserved reputation for some of the most acerbic 60s rock on record, but the state also produced a fair tranche of acts such as Dallas’ Five Americans who excelled in the commercial pop of the time. The Fanatics straddled the fence. . . . [But] once they became regionally successful with ‘Gonna Be My Girl’ and a much more lightweight formula, the group’s releases stopped representing anything more than the commercial dictates of the record company.
https://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2014/07/neal-ford-and-fanatics-good-men-1965-68.html

Derek Anderson gives some history:

Between 1964 and 1968, Neal Ford and The Fanatics were Kings of the Houston music scene. . . . Their unique and slick fusion of rock, R&B and garage won friends and influenced other groups all over Texas. . . . [It] seemed [they] were riding the crest of a musical wave with their amalgam of American and British music. . . . What [they] really wanted, was to translate this success to a national level. . . . The combination of [NF&F] and Hickory Records looked like a winning combination. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. . . .

[Fellow Payne University student] Kim [Espy] and Neal called themselves The Ramadas and started performing live. After that, they recorded their debut single [—] Teenage Dream . . . . in 1963 . . . . [In] 1964, The Ramadas moved to the New World label, where they released a trio of singles. Later in 1964, [they] formed their own label and as the VIPs [and] released another single. . . Neal was drafted into the US Army. When he left the army, [he] set about forming a new band. . . . Neal Ford and The Fanatics[. A]fter the band left Tantara, where they were one of the label’s biggest acts, their manager decided that . . . nationwide success was where the money was. So, he shopped the band around various labels. . . . [and] the band decided upon the Nashville based Hickory Records. . . . When Joe Ford a DJ at KNUZ radio station played [their B-side] “Gonna Be My Girl”, it became a hit right through the Gulf Coast, selling 20,000 copies and reaching number one in the region. [They] were on the cusp of making a commercial breakthrough. Sadly, it never came. In 1967 . . . [they] released their eponymous debut album. . . . [which] despite the undoubted quality . . . wasn’t a commercial success. . . .

Despite their undoubted talent and ability to combine genres and influences, commercial success and critical acclaim eluded them. There’s maybe a simple explanation for that. That’s that Neal Ford and The Fanatics stood still. Between 1966 and 1967, they were producing cutting-edge music. This continued into 1968. Then when [guitarist] John Stringfellow was drafted. This meant one of the group’s most important members was missing. They continued to release singles and even opened for Jimi Hendrix. What should’ve been a momentous evening wasn’t. They weren’t as well received. Catcalls from the audience [at the Hendrix concert] signalled music had changed. That should’ve resulted in [their] changing direction. They considered heading in the direction of psychedelia, but didn’t. After that their contract with Hickory ran out in 1968. After a one-off single deal with ABC . . . the band split-up in 1970.
https://dereksmusicblog.com/2013/11/20/neal-ford-and-the-fanatics-good-men/

Stephen Thomas Erlewine adds:

[NF&F] showed a deep appreciation for the British Invasion but also found space for swirling, insistent organ and a facility with an R&B groove that wasn’t quite common among other garage bands. Ironically enough, [they] wound up hampered by the very thing that made them distinctive: they were poppier and lighter than their peers . . . and that made labels eager to package them in an even lighter setting, a commercially minded move that never paid off. . . . The group’s third single, “I Will If You Want To,” was, upon its September 1966 release, the group’s most popular to date and they started getting attention outside of Houston, which led to more commercial-oriented sessions that fall. Early in 1967, “Gonna Be My Girl” wound up catching fire in the Houston region and the group seemed poised for a breakthrough but its sequel, “Wait for Me,” didn’t do quite as well. Nevertheless, 1967 saw Neal Ford & the Fanatics playing the gulf region to big audiences and they started to record material for an album . . . . The eponymous album didn’t do well, nor did the singles that followed in 1968, each moving the band closer to the mainstream. Nevertheless, none of these commercially oriented records resulted in an actual hit. . . . [NF&F] harnessed the softer sound of [garage rock]. At times, the Fanatics seem as if they were poised to run away with the ragged variation of the kind of sunshine pop that came beaming out of the West Coast, so comfortable were they with effervescent melodies and lighter textures. But they could still rock . . . . [They] had a facility with melody, an eagerness to get trippy without ever losing sight of home base, and would occasionally thump with a clear knowledge of R&B; their facility with grooves is rarely heard in garage. . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/neal-ford-the-fanatics-mn0000380602#biography, https://www.allmusic.com/album/good-men-mw0002581197

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The Music Machine/Bonniwell Music Machine — “Astrologically Incompatible”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 17, 2024

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

1,179) The Music Machine/Bonniwell Music Machine — “Astrologically Incompatible”

This infectious ‘67 B-side is an absolute Zodiac killer by the original Music Machine lineup (and was also the opening track on the Bonniwell Music Machine LP). It was “inspired by [Sean] Bonniwell’s fascination with astrology” (Alec Palao, liner notes to the CD reissue of The Bonniwell Music Machine) and features a James Bond-y, 60’s lounge horn fanfare.

Of Bonniwell and the Music Machine, Mark Deming tells us:

Sean Bonniwell was the leader of the band the Music Machine, who . . . enjoyed a major hit in 1966 with a sneering anthem of teen-aged alienation, “Talk Talk.” The Music Machine had evolved from the Ragamuffins, an earlier Bonniwell project rooted in folk-rock and British Invasion influences. By the time the band renamed itself the Music Machine, Bonniwell and his band mates . . . had taken on a much darker approach, dominated by sharp fuzztone guitars and peals of Farfisa organ. Bonniwell was the principal songwriter and uncontested leader . . . [W]hile they had minor success with the follow-up single “The People in Me” ([#]66), Bonniwell’s bandmates became weary of his hardline leadership of the group, coupled with tough touring experiences and slow payment of record royalties, and by mid-1967, Bonniwell was the only member . . . still on board. . . . [He] managed to free himself from his contract with Original Sound and signed with Warner Bros. Records as he assembled a new lineup . . . . bec[oming] the Bonniwell Music Machine . . . . Bonniwell began to work on another album. The finished product, 1968’s The Bonniwell Music Machine, featured three songs that began as demos cut with the original band, but for the most part it found Bonniwell pursuing a more eclectic sound . . . with arrangements that included horns and woodwinds and songs that moved from garage rock to folk-rock and even a dash of proto-hard rock. Despite (or perhaps because of) its ambitious approach, [it] was a flop in the marketplace . . . . Warner Bros. dropped Bonniwell, and after briefly launching a third edition of the Music Machine, he dissolved the group and went solo, releasing the album Close as T.S. Bonniwell in August 1969. . . . [which] fared no better commercially . . . and Bonniwell gave up on the music business for the next two decades, never recording another album.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-bonniwell-music-machine-mn0000082410#biography

Of the LP, Richie Unterberger writes:

[T]he album was pasted together from some singles (some of which had appeared on Original Sound in 1967) and other tracks, both by the original incarnation and a second outfit that was pretty much a Sean Bonniwell solo vehicle. Accordingly, the tone of the album is pretty uneven, but much of the material is excellent. In fact, some of the songs rate among their best . . . . Some of the cuts (presumably those recorded after the first lineup broke up) find Bonniwell branching out from psych-punk into a poppier and more eclectic direction, sometimes with very good results, sometimes not.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-bonniwell-music-machine-mw0000847923

Of his songwriting process, Bonniwell once mused that:

As is true with most (not all) songs that endeavor to capture timeless, mystical enchantment, their creation is guided by the rush of one, epiphenomenal writing session…a visit for twenty minutes or so with your muse connected — and oblivious to — the sum total of your past and future.
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2011/07/sean-bonniwell-interview-html.html

Here they are on TV:

TV again:

Here is an alternate take:

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The Harbinger Complex — “I Think I’m Down”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 16, 2024

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

1,178) The Harbinger Complex — “I Think I’m Down”

This “fuzz-Punk masterpiece” (Cory Linstrum, The Rock & Roll of San Francisco’s East Bay, 1950-1980) is “kick-ass proto-punk at its finest” (Stansted Montfichet, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-harbinger-complex-mn0000554526#biography), “propelled by a nasty, fuzz-guitar riff . . . featur[ing] a great, double-tracked Jagger imitation while the crude rhythm section lays down a clumsy, loping groove from way down in the mix”. (Mike Stax, liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968) It has the “snarl appeal of the toughest British groups.” (Alec Palao, liner notes to the CD comp With Love: A Pot of Flowers)

Cory Linstrum tells us that:

[The Harbinger Complex was p]robably the coolest and crudest East Bay garage band . . . . not only sound[ing] raw and great . . . also look[ing] raw and great. Its members were tough and thuggish, wore long, unkempt hair . . . and had the snotty attitudes of their heroes: the Stones, the Yardbirds and the Kinks.
The Rock & Roll of San Francisco’s East Bay, 1950-1980

Zolland gives us some history:

Bob Hoyle III and Ron Rotarius began playing guitar together when they were in the eighth grade. By the time they were sophomores together in high school, they had enough talent and musically-inclined friends to put together a band. They called themselves The Norsemen. Unfortunately, in 1965, Hoyle was called to active duty in the Naval Reserves for the Vietnam Conflict. By the time he had come back in 1966, the early stages of The Harbinger Complex had already begun with Rotarius. Hoyle was quickly accepted as the band’s lead guitarist, while Rotarius performed rhythm guitar duties. Also in the band were Jim Hockstaff on lead vocals, Gary Clark on bass, Jim Redding on drums, and Chuck Tedford on organ. Tedford parted ways with the band before having a chance to record. The band had a huge local following in their hometown of Fremont, California, and they were soon recording singles. . . . When Jim Hockstaff left the band in early 1967, Gary Clark took over the lead vocals. Unfortunately, the band didn’t last much longer and they split up before the end of 1967.
https://abitlikeyouandme.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-harbinger-complex-time-to-kill-1966.html

Stansted Montfiche notes that “Hockstaff’s Dionysian exploits — the siring of several love children — got him banned from Fremont’s Washington High”. (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-harbinger-complex-mn0000554526#biography)

Last FM adds that:

The Complex’s publicity shot for [a] pair of performances shows Hockstaff sitting astride a barnyard mule, microphone in hand, looking like a half-crocked itinerant preacher, surrounded by his four bandmates. The accompanying blurb reads thus: “Five muddy bodies lie upon a desolate street. Sudden inspiration doth lendse them well. A Harbinger beckons them. Ominous groans – the anguished sounds of dying animals. Courageous lads, they set forth on a one-way trip. Neglect not your surging blood, pounding pulse, throbbing limbs! Five naked souls untamed, uninhibited, crawl into your head. Walk inside your mind, filling your body with an unknown substance…You have experienced the Harbinger Complex.”
https://www.last.fm/music/Harbinger+Complex/+wiki

Apparently, “a drug bust in early 1967 would ultimately destroy the [band], not because of jail time, but for the dissention it caused within the group”. (Alec Palao, liner notes to the CD comp With Love: A Pot of Flowers)

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Tax Day Special Edition: The Loose Ends/Junior Parker: The Loose Ends — “Tax Man”, Junior Parker — “Tax Man”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 15, 2024

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

Don’t forget to file . . . away these versions of “Taxman” in the box of all-time fab Beatles’ covers!

1,176) The Loose Ends — “Tax Man”

Here is the Loose End’s “superb freakbeat version” (Nick Warburton, https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/interviews/the-loose-ends/) of “Taxman”, “hard-hitting but respectful” (John Reed, liner notes to the CD comp Decca Originals: The Freakbeat Scene), with, what are those, bongos? Cool, man! The A-side of the LE’s second and final single, it was released the same day as Revolver. Talk about chutzpah! Learn more about the Birmingham area (Bexley Heath, Kent) band at https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/interviews/the-loose-ends/.

1,177) Junior Parker — “Tax Man”

Junior Parker’s “[p]leasantly unexpected . . . [and] soulful version . . . with its slinky groove and reflective stance” (Tym Stevens, https://tymstevens.blogspot.com/2010/08/taxman-beatles-jam-beasties-cypress.html) might even outdo the Beatles’ original. Yup, I said it. Parker “completely reinterprets the song taking into a New Orleans funk realm, a sample of which was used as the main hook line on Cypress Hill’s classic ‘I Wanna Get High’.” (Mr Bongo, https://us.mrbongo.com/products/love-aint-nothin-but-a-business-goin-on-vinyl-lp-cd) Here are three reviews that hit the nail on the head: “How can you make a song about taxes sexy? Here is your answer.” (erickhorton7702, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byjPd28KegM) “[M]aking the Taxman sound like a Pimp…. which is his point I guess”. (darganx, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byjPd28KegM “So cool and funky! Feels like Im in New York in the 70s.” (bga33580, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byjPd28KegM)

Parker’s version should be the theme song for Turbotax — the libertarian rag Reason Magazine digs this “‘supply side’ soul”! (Jesse Walker, https://reason.com/2006/03/15/supply-side-soul/printer/)

Parker “even go[es] so far as to blanche at the meanness of George Harrison’s lyrics [“My advice for those who die . . . is declare the pennies on your eyes”] (‘Oh, this is awful!’).” (FunkMySoul, https://www.funkmysoul.gr/junior-parker-1971-love-aint-nothin-but-a-business-goin-on/)

From ’70’s Outside Man (re-released the following year as Love Ain’t Nothin’ But a Business Goin’ On), which “is brilliant, wonderful soul, funk, blues etc.” (FunkMySoul, https://www.funkmysoul.gr/junior-parker-1971-love-aint-nothin-but-a-business-goin-on/), “drenched in Parker’s trademark buttery vocals and soulful grooves, swaggering between smokey blues, raw funk outings and orchestrated soul ballads (with sublime arrangements by Horace Ott).” (Mr Bongo, https://us.mrbongo.com/products/love-aint-nothin-but-a-business-goin-on-vinyl-lp-cd)

As to Parker, FunkMySoul tells us:

Herman Parker Jr. was born at the heart of the blues in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1932. He died tragically young, from a brain tumour in 1971. In between, he produced some of the most soulful blues of the ’50s and ’60s. Mentored by Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin’ Wolf and talent-spotted by Ike Turner, Parker started out as Little Junior who, with The Blue Flames cut the riotous Feelin’ Good and the eerie Mystery Train for Sun Records. Parker’s downhome late-’50s sides for Duke brought him success but when he moved away from hard blues he lost his audience. As a result, most scholars tend to write off Parker’s later, more soulful sound. This is a shame as his final recordings contain some of the most warm-heated sunshine soul of the period. Cratediggers rate this album . . . because of Sonny Lester’s clear production, and in-the-pocket groove from Jimmy McGriff’s soul-jazz combo and Parker’s three Beatles tracks – Taxman, Tomorrow Never Knows and Lady Madonna . . . .
https://www.funkmysoul.gr/junior-parker-1971-love-aint-nothin-but-a-business-goin-on/

Bill Dahl adds as to Parker:

His velvet-smooth vocal delivery to the contrary, Junior Parker was a product of the fertile postwar Memphis blues circuit whose wonderfully understated harp style was personally mentored by none other than regional icon Sonny Boy Williamson. Herman Parker, Jr. only traveled in the best blues circles from the outset. He learned his initial licks from Williamson and gigged with the mighty Howlin’ Wolf while still in his teens. Like so many young blues artists, Little Junior (as he was known then) got his first recording opportunity from talent scout Ike Turner, who brought him to Modern Records for his debut session as a leader in 1952. . . . Parker and his band, the Blue Flames . . . landed at Sun Records in 1953 and promptly scored a hit with their rollicking “Feelin’ Good” . . . . Later that year, [he] cut a fiery “Love My Baby” and a laid-back “Mystery Train” for Sun, thus contributing a pair of future rockabilly standards to the Sun publishing coffers . . . . Before 1953 was through, the polished Junior Parker had moved on to Don Robey’s Duke imprint in Houston. It took a while for the harpist to regain his hitmaking momentum, but he scored big in 1957 with the smooth “Next Time You See Me[]”. . . . Criss-crossing the country as headliner with the Blues Consolidated package . . . [he] developed a breathtaking brass-powered sound . . . that pushed his honeyed vocals and intermittent harp solos with exceptional power. Parker’s updated remake of . . . “Driving Wheel” was a huge R&B hit in 1961, as was the surging “In the Dark” . . . . Parker was the consummate modern blues artist, with one foot planted in Southern blues and the other in uptown R&B. Once Parker split from Robey’s employ in 1966, though, his hitmaking fortunes declined.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/junior-parker-mn0000486305#biography

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Arlo Guthrie — “Running Down the Road”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 14, 2024

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

1,175) Arlo Guthrie — “Running Down the Road”

This is not your father’s Arlo Guthrie, and it certainly ain’t Arlo Guthrie’s father’s Arlo Guthrie! Coming out of nowhere, the song’s “guitar freak-out by some studio musicians . . . ought to send 20 white blues bands scampering back to the tars of India” (Robert Christgau, https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=10970), its “harsh blasts of distorted psychedelic guitar and tough, walking-blues stance . . . [make it] a standout”. (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/running-down-the-road-mw0000120748)

Robert Christgau calls Guthrie’s third LP — also titled Running Down the Road — “[e]asily his best and most musical album, thanks to production-of-the-year by Lenny Waronker and Van Dyke Parks . . . . [c]ontain[ing] two absolutely superb cuts: “Running Down the Road[]” . . . and “Coming into Los Angeles,” which embodies almost perfectly what it means to be young, hip, and temporarily on top of it in 1970 Amerika.” (Robert Christgau, https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=10970) Richie Unterberger adds:

Although this album’s “Coming in to Los Angeles” crossed Guthrie over and into the rock underground, especially via its performance at Woodstock, most of his third record is actually far more laid-back country-rock. Very much a production of its time, in a slightly negative sense, Running Down the Road features Guthrie employing the cream of L.A.’s top country-rock players as session men . . . . The tone is good-natured and easygoing — too good-natured and easygoing sometimes . . . . Guthrie acknowledges his folk roots with covers of tunes by his father Woody Guthrie . . . Peter Seeger . . . and Mississippi John Hurt. These are surrounded by originals that follow the Dylan “back to basics” mold of the late ’60s, both in musical and lyrical concerns . . . . As such, much of the record is inoffensive but inconsequential, although the drug smuggling ode “Coming into Los Angeles” adds a touch of much-needed urgency. The title track is entirely uncharacteristic of the album . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/album/running-down-the-road-mw0000120748

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