THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,136) The Toreros — âComeâ
As Diggin’ for Gold opines, âThe Dutch goodies keep on coming!!â (liner notes to Digginâ for Gold: Volume 2: A Collection of Demented 60âs R&B/Punk & Mesmerizing 60âs PoP). This â66 A-side from the Netherlands is, per Digginâ, âINCREDIBLE âByrdsâ infl. Pop & one of the best in this style from Europe!!” (liner notes to Diggin’ for Gold: Volume 2)
Some claim the song is a Beatles sound-alike, such as Astroturf78: âBoy, those harmonies in the verses to this original track by The Toreros sure sound familiar. If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, John and Paul surely mustâve blushed if they ever actually heard this one.â (https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/the_toreros/come___daddy_loves_baby/)
Kim Simpson pegs them more with the Hollies:
The Toreros . . . materialized in the early sixties under the spell of the Shadowsâ Iberian motifs and echoing guitars. A 1966 single found them at a longhaired crossroads. Hollies or Stones? Side A proposed the former, while side B argued for the latter.
We I think the Hollies is more like it, but only in a general sense. As Astroturf78 admits: âAside from tickling a Beatle itch, âComeâ is a plenty worthy song in its own right â jangly, melodic, and effortlessly charming.â (https://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/the_toreros/come___daddy_loves_baby/) I would add “yearning” and “soaring”.
Who were the Toreros?* LastDoDo.com says:
From Hilversum. Started in 1961 as Peter and The Dynamites. They soon changed their name to The Flying Arrows. They played instrumental rock ‘n roll. It wasn’t until 1966 that they switched to beat. After the sixth single, they dropped the apostrophe from the name.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,135) The Horde — âPress Buttons Firmlyâ
This late to be discovered “GREAT 60s garage gem” (Mitch Useless, http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-horde-press-buttons-firmly-1966-68.html) comes courtesy of a horde of Duke University students. Truly trance-like courtesy of a continuously repeated guitar and organ figure and the simple admonition “Go away girl, go away, I don’t want you, I don’t need you no more . . . I’m not your toy!”
Streetmouse explains that:
[T]his was not even supposed to be a Horde album, it was supposed to be an Elizabeth Locke album supported by The Horde. Elizabeth was a student at Duke University and it was she who paid for the recording sessions, with any extra session time being given to The Horde for their own use.
The liner notes of the CD reissue of The Horde’s Press Buttons Firmly tell us that:
Undoubtedly the most exciting mid sixties garage album to be recently discovered in the genre, is that by The Horde from North Carolina. . . . It was recorded more or less accidently in early 1967, released in a micro quantity of only 25 copies . . . . It contains a blend of exciting originals and well chosen, inspired covers, played in a raw, crude and frantic style. . . . These five 19-20 year old students from all over the United States did not only blaze a trail for 60s rock in then conservative North Carolina, they also had a general attitude that finds its origins in the young people’s mindset of the mid-sixties that put them outside of the local mainstream and gained them a sort of regional underground popularity. . . . “one of the sharpest local garage punk albums of the Sixties”.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,134) David â âLight of Your Mindâ
One of the Brit psych’s crowning glories, a “beautifully measured piece of very British harmonies, rippling organ, hypnotic guitar and drums” (liner notes to the CD comp Mojo Presents: Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionery from the UK Underground 1965-1969), was actually a cover version by a mysterious Welsh band of a song written by two future members of the American soft rock band Bread. WTF? Anthony Brockway explains:
There’s a certain amount of internet speculation about a little-known band called David who released an outstanding single in 1969 on the Philips label called Light of Your Mind. The A-side was written by James Griffin and Rob Royer who would go on to form rock group Bread. Some people have assumed therefore that they were involved in David. They weren’t. David was actually a four-piece from south Wales consisting of: Ian England (organ/vocals) of Cardiff; Phil Edwards (drums) from Newport; Sid Petherick (lead guitar) from Penarth; and Dave Martin (bass/vocals) from Cardiff. In 1969 they were offered a publishing deal with Chappell and soon recorded [the single]. . . . Their only other single (as far as I’m aware) came out in 1970 on the Fontana record label. The A-side I’m Going Back was co-written by Dave Dee who also produced the recording. For a while David were his backing band after he’d parted company with Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. The B-side, Selppin, is ‘nipples’ backwards.
Jimmy Griffin’s version starts out as if it’s a classical violin/piano sonata. WTF? Talk about freaky! But that’s actually the most endearing thing about his version. Griffin’s voice sort of grates. A Youtube exchange sort of sums up my feelings. “Jimmy Griffin . . . blows this version out of the water. . . .” (annguest1603, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qupIpdrwdw8). Eight years later: “Um . . . no.” (warwickwas, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qupIpdrwdw8) Exactly. My explanation for all this is that Jimmy’s bread must have been dosed with some natural LSD from the ergot fungus! (https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/ethnobotany/Mind_and_Spirit/ergot.shtml)
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify — now over 750 songs. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,133)Bob Dylan and the Band — âSanta-Feâ
Well, rock me mama, “Santa-Fe” ranks up there with “Wagon Wheel” as one of Bob Dylan’s (see #126, 823) great unfinished songs. Unfortunately, in this case no one grabbed the opportunity to finish it or adapt it and make (I presume) millions of dollars. Why the hell didn’t the Band do it? They were there! Anyway, from Big Pink or the Red Room or wherever, from the ’67 Basement Tape sessions, and not officially released until The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3 in 1991, here is dear, dear, dear, dear, dear Santa-Fe.
Thomas Ward writes that:
“Santa-Fe” was originally recorded during the sessions for The Basement Tapes with the Band and, although only a fragment and poorly recorded, is one of the most successful and joyful songs on the entire Bootleg Series collection.â The tune is astonishing in being so primitive yet original and idiosyncratic. Based around three chords, the Band, characteristically, inject the music with bounce and life, especially Rick Danko’s bass part.âDylan sings it as if he is having the time of his life.âRarely has he sung with such expressiveness.âThe opening lines of the song, “Santa-Fe/dear, dear, dear, dear, dear Santa-Fe/My woman needs it ev’ryday/She promised this a-lad she’d stay,” are some of Dylan’s simplest, yet they fit perfectly to the honky tonk style of the song.âOne of the finest songs of all The Basement Tapes (which is saying something), it is also one of the great good-time songs in Dylan’s canon although, as with many of the masterpieces from The Basement Tapes era, Dylan has never performed the song live, nor have there been any notable recordings from other artists.
done with a “breadth of feeling” and “unparalleled expressiveness”, “it appears Dylan simply improvised the song on the spot, and the passion within him allows the song to flow forth naturally” (Anthony Varesi, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa-Fe_(Bob_Dylan_song))
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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Talk about a soulful strut, this ’67 B-side by the Young Holt Trio/’68 album track by Young Holt Unlimited is “Mod Jazz touched with ‘a little a bit of Soul’ from 1967” (NaturalSoulBrother1, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJZyo2FOkrw), a “[g]reat song! Gosh they are nailing it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (timturbine6895, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCsRN3VgWfQ) Drummer Isaac “Redd” Holt totally transformed an easy listening instrumental by Si Zentner into a rollicking soul-jazz party with cool lyrics to boot, of course recorded live.
As to Young Holt, Steve Huey tells us that:
Bassist Eldee Young and drummer Isaac “Red[d]” Holt attended the American Conversatory of Music in Chicago together, and played together in a dance orchestra called the Cleffs, where they met pianist Ramsey Lewis and formed a popular jazz trio in 1956. After a decade as Lewis’ rhythm section, Young and Holt split to form their own act in the wake of the trio’s breakout pop hit “The ‘In’ Crowd.” Hiring pianist Hysear Don Walker and christening themselves the Young-Holt Trio, they scored a quick Top 20 R&B hit with the infectious and silly “Wack Wack.” Most of their material, recorded on several LPs for Brunswick, cut an invigorating soul-jazz groove . . . . In 1968, Walker was replaced by Ken Chaney as Young and Holt tightened up their sound, added some funky rhythms, and renamed the group Young-Holt Unlimited. They scored a left-field smash with the instrumental “Soulful Strut,” which was actually the backing track from Brunswick soul singer Barbara Acklin’s “Am I the Same Girl.” Although the actual Young-Holt group was rumored not to have even played on the track, it went all the way to number three in 1969, driven by a bright, indelible horn riff. Attempts to duplicate its success met with indifference, and although Young-Holt Unlimited remained a popular concert attraction on both the R&B and jazz circuits . . . their recording career was on the wane. They . . . disbanded in 1974.
Eldee Devon Young was born in Chicago . . . . [and] learned guitar from a brother at age ten, but he switched to upright bass at 13 and promptly began gigging professionally. He played an after-hours club on Sunday nights from 2:30 AM till dawn, then came home for breakfast and left for school. Isaac “Redd” Holt was born on May 16, 1932, in Rosedale, Mississippi, and raised in the Windy City. He started on the drums while . . . . in high school[, when] he met Holt and pianist Ramsey Lewis . . . . Young . . . . played with Holt and Lewis in hard-gigging, play-the-favorites jazz band the Cleffs until after his graduation in 1953âin fact it was Holt who broke up the group when he joined the army after college in 1955 . . . . He hopped from band to band for years, touring the south with blues artists such as T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner, but he eventually tired of the road grind and returned to Chicago to play jazz again. . . . [I]n the fateful year of 1956 [Holt, Young, and Lewis] debuted as the . . . Ramsey Lewis Trio. . . . [who] released more than 20 LPs over the next decade, but . . . [didn’t] have their first smash [until] . . . âThe âInâ Crowd,â . . . hit[ting] number five . . . . The pressures of fame may have caused internal friction that pushed [Young and Holt] to leave . . . . In 1966 they formed the Young Holt Trio with pianist Hysear Don Walker, though they would only make one LP under that name: Wack Wack . . . . The title track reached number 40 . . . but when Walker left, that ended the trio. . . . [A]fter adding groovy electric organist Ken Chaney, they christened themselves Young-Holt Unlimited. . . . They hit big with . . . the 1968 release Soulful Strut. . . . selling more than a million copies, and climbed to number three . . . . Young-Holt Unlimited couldnât match that success with their subsequent albums. . . . But in 1973 they dropped an LP thatâs since come to be considered a minor classic. Plays Super Fly . . . .
An all-around percussionist, [Redd Holt] frequently made use of tambourines, triangles and even his hands and fingers if that’s what it took to get the sound he wanted. Eldee Young similarly avoided confining himself; starting as a guitarist, then making the bass his main instrument, he later mastered the cello. Throughout the late ’50s and into the next decade, the Lewis Trio gradually gained a loyal following, rising to the top after incorporating established soul tunes into their act, a move many jazz critics found objectionable. . . . [A]fter leaving . . . . Eldee and Red purposely constructed The Young Holt Trio under the same kind of setup they were comfortable with. Hysear Don Walker, an impressive piano man from nearby Evanston, Illinois, was essentially hired to take the Ramsey Lewis role . . . . They were picked up by Brunswick Records and placed in the hands of Carl Davis, the highly successful Chicago producer . . . . The first single, “Wack Wack,” an infectious instrumental with the title squawk repeated several times, hit radio in late 1966 and reached the R&B top 20 and pop top 40 in January ’67. . . . The only thing is, there hadn’t been a hit since they’d “Wack”-ed. Walker left the trio around this time to do his own solo thing . . . . Barbara Acklin . . . was in the process of recording “Am I the Same Girl[.]” Davis felt the completed backing track, a big brass number by the Brunswick session band, could be a hit strictly as an instrumental. Floyd Morris played piano where Barbara’s vocals would go; Young and Holt were nowhere near the studio. The track was titled “Soulful Strut” . . . .
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,131)Eternityâs Children — âMrs. Bluebirdâ
The Biloxi Beat — âthe epitome of sunshine pop . . . [b]rilliant from top to bottom.” (mikeyaffe3344, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocWDIKN6xvc). Eternityâs Childrenâs (see #706) âfinest moments rank alongside anything in the soft pop canon. . . . ‘Mrs. Bluebird[]’ . . . [is] essential listening for anyone enamored with the West Coast harmony-pop sound.” (Jason Ankeny, https://www.allmusic.com/album/eternitys-children-mw0000221884). And donât forget the bop-bop-bahs! âOhhh the bop-bop-bahs…..absolutely heavenly!!!â (jnjfive, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocWDIKN6xvc). The song soared to #69 but could fly no higher.
As to the Children, Dawn Eden (now a noted Catholic theologian and canon scholar*) tells us that:
They were from Mississippi, yet they excelled in West Coast soft pop. They were co-produced by the legendary Curt Boettcher, yet they made some of their best music without him. They were intelligent and college-educated, yet they signed their lives away to a pair of entrepreneurs whose previous management experience extended only to a chain of health clubs. . . . [They were] the best West Coast soft pop group ever to come out of Biloxi.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Eternityâs Children
As to âMrs. Bluebird, Ms. Eden adds:
[T[he intro was . . . pure Association, through that was probably due more to Boettcher’s influence than his presence. [Singer, keyboardist and songwriter Bruce] Blackman’s inspiration was “Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah,” the tune from Walt Disney’s “Song of the South” that included the line, “Mr. Bluebird’s on my shoulder…”. Only in 1968 would such a subtle song be chosen for a single, its delicate beauty surviving a Jimi Hendix-influenced guitar solo courtesy of the departing Johnny Walker. Artists! . . . . [O]nce a single became a radio hit, the record label was expected to boost promotion. If they didn’t, the single would almost certainly drop off the charts. That would appear to be the reason “Mrs. Bluebird’s” flight was arrested.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Eternityâs Children
As to the Children, Jason Ankeny tells us:
Eternity’s Children were formed in Cleveland, MS, in 1965 by . . . Bruce Blackman and drummer Roy Whittaker, fellow students at Delta College. With the addition of lead guitarist Johnny Walker, rhythm guitarist Jerry Bounds, and bassist Charlie Ross, the group (originally dubbed the Phantoms) began developing the complex, overlapping vocal harmonies that remained the hallmark of their sound throughout their career. . . . [I]n 1966 the[y] relocated to Biloxi . . . . With the addition of local folksinger Linda Lawley, the fledgling band adopted the more contemporary moniker Eternity’s Children, and after Baton Rouge health club magnate Ray Roy caught one of their live appearances, he convinced [his] business partner . . . to form a management company . . . which soon signed the group . . . . [They] quickly recorded a demo that made its way to A&M . . . and in the spring of 1967 recorded their lone effort for the label, the . . . single “Wait and See.” . . . The record went nowhere, and . . . [they] were quickly dropped by A&M. . . . [but Roy] soon landed the[m] a deal with Capitol’s tax-shelter subsidiary, Tower . . . .
Once the group signed to Tower, it was decided to again hire Keith Olsen as their producer. That meant of necessity hiring Curt Boettcher too, since he and Olsen by then came as a package. . . . Curt Boettcher was on top of the world, a hotshot Columbia staff producer involved with . . . Gary Usher’s Studio group Sagittarius and his own . . . âsupergroup,” the Millennium [see #397, 506, 586, 662, 810, 1,002]. . . . Although Boettcher gave special attention to some of the cuts . . . he and Olsen did not fully utilize the group’s talents. It may have been because they were already sinking all their creative juices into the Millennium and Sagittarius, both of which featured Boettcher as an artist. Moreover, Eternity’s Children came with a solid sound of their own making, and it was clear that they were not ripe for being moulded.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Eternityâs Children
Let’s return to Ankeny:
During production of the album, relations between the [band] members . . . and their management became increasingly strained, and prior to the LP’s mid-1968 release, Blackman, Walker, and Bounds all exited. . . . An appearance on American Bandstand spurred “Mrs. Bluebird” up the pop charts . . . . Blackman and Walker finally achieved massive chart success in the mid-’70s as members of Starbuck, which scored the Top Five smash “Moonlight Feels Right.”
* Of course, Dawn Eden is also a long-time scholar of another canon, that is what would be the rock and roll canon in an alternate and more just universe. She is also a songwriter.
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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Challenge Records were affiliated with 4-Star Music Co., a then thriving publishing company, so most of the songs selected for Gene to record came from the pen of in-house writers or artists. Keith Colley contributed . . . ‘Bird Doggin’ (with wild guitar backing from Al Casey & Glen Campbell) . . . . Gene Vincent had always been able to handle any kind of material, that’s a fact beyond dispute. At Challenge, he proved that he really could move on with the times without losing his identity. . . . Regrettably, only three singles were released in the USA and they bombed miserably, resulting in the non renewal of Vincent’s contract with Challenge. By the way, has anybody seen regular copies of Gene’s Challenge singles ? Did they really ever hit the shops? These are questions which, fortunately, do not concern the good old Continent. Gene was and remains a hero over here. All twelve cuts were issued on a British LP . . . while ten of them graced a French LP . . . in June 1967. The two missing tracks . . . would be put out in 1968 as a single . . . .
[Vincent’s] late sixties recordings were a mixed bag, often underwhelming, but an album cut in ’66 – only released in the UK on the London label, and simply called Gene Vincent – is a real gem. It was recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Los Angeles, where he now lived in a duplex with South African singer Jackie Frisco . . . . The Wrecking Crew are all present – Hal Blaine on drums, Al Casey and Glen Campbell on guitar, and Larry Knechtel providing the wailing harmonica that kicks off Bird Doggin . . . . [which] failed to make any [commerical] headway.
[Gene Vincent is] one of my greatest American rock ânâ roll heroes â one who was held in high regard and great affection by British music fans: the Beatles based their early leather-clad look on the image created for Vincent by the English TV producer Jack Good when he appeared on Boy Meets Girl on a visit here in 1959. Whereas American producers â and Vincent himself â had always done their best to cover up the fact that one of his legs had been wrecked in a motorbike crash, Good created a set designed to highlight the singerâs infirmity, and spent the recording in the control room shouting âLimp, you bugger â limp!â Of course, the change of image worked â European teenagers loved the soft-spoken Virginianâs dangerous, tortured, moody cripple persona. Perhaps thatâs because it was so close to the truth: pills, booze, pain, bad luck, an obsession with guns, and a self-destructive streak a mile wide. Compelling stuff. The truly important thing about Gene Vincent, though, was that he had a superb voice and made great records. . . . After his career had pretty much died in the States (the US was generally a lousy place to be an ageing rock ânâ roll star in the late â50s/early â60s), Europe clasped Gene Vincent to its collective bosom. He was never a huge earner or a chart regular, but there was plenty of live work, and â if he hadnât been such an unholy physical and psychological mess . . . he could probably have had a solid career in the ten years leading up to his death in 1971 from a ruptured stomach ulcer while visiting his father in California. Despite all of his problems (his leg was further damaged in the 1961 crash which killed Eddie Cochran, and he had endless troubles with the Inland Revenue, his wife, and promoters), his voice held up well, and while the later recordings donât in any way match the brilliance of his early Capitol classics, there were occasional gems.
And here is a great French version by NoĂŤl Deschamps:
1,129)Gene Vincent — “Love Is a Bird”
This lovely album track (unreleased in the U.S.) was written by Jimmy Seals — yes, later of Seals & Crofts. Paul Vidal writes:
Apart from playing on the sessions, Jimmy Seals wrote the oh-so-lovely ‘Love Is A Bird’, a song which stayed in the can States-wise and probably became a demo for The Knickerbockers who cut it two months later. . . . ‘Love Is A Bird’ has been one my faves for many moons now ; I think it’s far superior to the Knickerbockers’ version . . . . Gene’s mono cut has a chorus, the stereo alternate doesn’t ; please, listen to the sound of the guitars, almost like chapel bells (quite impressive on the stereo take).
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,127) Kusudo & Worth â âThe Gullâ
I give you a song from a gorgeous, ethereal ’68 folk LP self-produced and recorded over a three hour span by two California high schoolers: Ken Kusudo and Jeff Worth. âThis is about as good as stark acoustic folk gets, with evocative songs, beautiful and versatile singing, [and] unexpected acoustic rave-upsâ. (Aaron Milenski, The Acid Archives 2nd ed.) Two hundred copies were pressed.
Richard Krieb, their compatriot and sometimes lyricist, writes:
âThe Gullâ is splendid in every way â beautiful melody, superb dynamics and musicianship/ vocals, with excellent lyrics. Plus, it was a wonderful and memorable collaborative experience for Ken and Jeff. On a trip to the Bay Area, which included an informal gig at UC Berkeley, the three of us got to spend a little time in Mill Valley/Muir Woods. The vibe was so happy and harmonious, it was a joy to memorialize in song.
[Jeff and I] composed [âThe Gullâ] together one morning while visiting Jeffâs brother in Los Angeles. It happened rather quickly, in one sitting, I think. We were inspired by a short film called âA Dream of Wild Horsesâ we had seen the night before.
[The LP] OF SUN AND RAIN stands shoulder to shoulder alongside the known folk classics of the late 60s and early 70s, including Simon & Garfunkel, Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley, and Donovan, amongst others. The music of Kusudo & Worth shares the same aching romanticism and heartfelt personal intensity of these classics and yet mirrors none of them â their sound and voice is unique. Like the best of that era, this 1968 Kusudo & Worth album features extraordinarily strong material and works as a seamless, artistic whole. That this was the work of sixteen and seventeen year old amateur musicians with no professional production, and recorded, edited, mixed, and mastered in just under three hours is utterly staggering. I do not believe I am alone in heralding OF SUN AND RAIN as a lost classic. Â
Ken explains the birth of his partnership with Jeff Worth:
It wasnât until we were both in junior high school that we would strike up a lifelong friendship. . . . Jeff and I were asked by a mutual friend to be part of a quartet â four junior high school kids playing three acoustic guitars and a gut-bucket bass â strumming and plucking what few tunes we all knew. It didnât last more than two or three practice sessions, but at least now Jeff and I knew the other played guitar pretty well â each with an older sibling who also played guitar and listened to the revitalized American folk music of Peter, Paul & Mary, The Kingston Trio, and others. Within the next year (1966) I ran into Jeff at an arts workshop sponsored by the City of Riverside. To this day, he remembers that I played âElizabethâ, a song that I had written when I was 14 or 15. . . . Jeff and I were still not a duo, just casual acquaintances. However, Jeff was so drawn to âElizabethâ that he wanted to make his own contribution to the song. It was at that point, according to Jeff, that we became âKusudo & Worthâ. . . . About this time we were developing a Peter, Paul & Mary thing with a girl, a classmate of mine in 1967. I must have been in the ninth grade, and Jeff, one year older and in high school . . . . The girl didnât last too long because her father didnât want his daughter hanging out with two lowlifes like ourselves. So we became a duo, performing at a few school assemblies and for a few church youth groups. Then Richard Krieb entered the picture. Thatâs when original songs started to happen in fairly rapid succession . . . . Richard had been a high school classmate of my sister Kathy, and he was an older brother of a good friend of mine. Richard . . . was in his third year of university studies on the fast-track to becoming a scientist, mathematician, or engineer. . . . Because his youngest brother and I were so close, I was at the Krieb house often.
I was nearing the end of my junior year at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) majoring in math â with my goals firmly set on becoming an aerospace engineer. However, this all changed one improbable, fateful afternoon ⌠I was sitting in my bedroom at my familyâs home, dutifully doing my homework (as usual) when I heard the beguiling strains of an acoustic guitar coming from my youngest brotherâs bedroom . . . . There was Ken Kusudo, one of my brotherâs good friends, playing . . . . Ken explained that he was getting together with another pal (Jeff Worth) to write and play folk songs. Ken went on to say that they were composing some melodies that did not yet have lyrics. From out of nowhere, I offered to write lyrics for them. I had absolutely no related experience whatsoever â no creative writing nor playing any sort of instrument. I was a straight-arrow math-scientist. But there I was, volunteering to write lyrics for folk songs. . . . [F]rom that moment on, I found myself flowering day by day into a child of the Sixties. My meticulous class notebooks . . . now showed scribblings of poetry â fantasies of love and protestations of latent angst. I began spending more and more time with Ken and Jeff. I would often sit in on their practice sessions . . . and accompany them to their ever more frequent weekend gigs. All the while, I was fashioning pages and pages of proposed lyrics. My hair was getting longer, my clothes were getting scruffier, and I was getting less and less interested in my math and physics studies. I moved out of my familyâs house, petitioned for a one-year leave of absence from the university (to the shock and dismay of my dear disbelieving parents) and earnestly and enthusiastically became the full-time â&â in Kusudo & Worth.  Â
Richard, Jeff, and I began collaborating on songs. Usually Jeff or I would devise a chord progression and melody to Richardâs lyrics. Heâd come to either of us at any time of the day or night. I had always thought he simply came to whomever was available or awake at the time. Later I learned that he shared his more âDylanesqueâ lyrics with me â those with an edge or some tension â while softer, gentler words and themes â more âDonovanesqueâ â were given to Jeff. Â
Jeff, a month after graduating from high school, eloped with Michele, his high school sweetheart, in July 1969. From that point, I planned on becoming a teacher, Richard was off to San Francisco to start a rock band, and Jeff, with Michele, had decided to tend his grandparentâs orange grove in Californiaâs Central Valley.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,126) The Concords â âRobinâ
Baroque pop complete with a horn fanfare! — a ’70 A-side from Ireland’s Concords, who “were from Kildare and enjoyed further releases on the showband scene and related labels . . . in the following decades.” (Piccadilly Sunshine: Volumes 11-20: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios From the British Psychedelic Era) FlynnerIRE writes:
F*cking beautiful, he was my uncle and only found out about his song this week and cannot stop listening, the lyrics of this song can be taken many different ways on what’s going on in your life depending on what you’re going through. Love it.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,125) The Bee Gees — âBirdie Told Meâ
The Bee Gees’ (see #291, 353, 354, 439, 466, 484, 497, 570, 594, 717, 861, 962, 1,065, 1,101) “Birdie Told Meâ is a wonderfully touching âtale of lost love that offers the variety of some leaner and tasteful electric guitar accompaniment.” (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/album/horizontal-mw0000653036#review). Its from Horizontal, â[t]he group’s second album, cut late in 1967 amid their first major British success . . . less focused than their first, but [which] also presents a more majestic sound than its predecessor.” (Bruce Eder, https://www.allmusic.com/album/horizontal-mw0000653036#review)
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[The album has a] unique sound, which blended folk revival with blues rock, as well as an unnerving vocal performance that did not sound dissimilar to the kind of thing Nick Cave would later employ. The albumâs quality is due, in part, to the production of Tony Visconti, a notable colleague of Bowieâs. âTucker, an American, was one of the first artists to be produced by my friend and co-producer Tony Visconti, also an American after they found each other in London,â Bowie explained. Of Zimmerman, Bowie joked, âThe guyâs way too qualified for folk, in my opinion. Degrees in theory and composition, studying under composer Henry Onderdonk, Fulbright scholarship, and he wants to be Dylan.â While it is true that folk music tends to favour lyricism and vocal performance over complicated technical musicianship, there have been a few notable exceptions to that rule, Zimmerman being one of them. As Bowie asserted, âA waste of an incendiary talent? Not in my opinion. I always found this album of stern, angry compositions enthralling, and often wondered what ever happened to him.â
Richie Unterberger had a more dour view: “[I]t’s rather awkward folk-rock that’s reminiscent of some similarly tentative efforts by New York folkies of the mid-’60s to get into a more contemporary, mildly electrified bag. . . . [H]is songs, though wordy and ambitious, aren’t all that articulate, falling into inchoate rage in ‘Children of Fear.'” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/ten-songs-by-tucker-zimmerman-mw0000847365)
Marchese tells us of the album:
Zimmerman came to Britain from America in 1968 with a degree in music theory and composition under his belt as well as a songwriting credit on a Butterfield Blues Band album. Gigging throughout Europe under various names, he attracted the attention of EMI’s Regal Zonophone imprint. . . . [which] paired him with Visconti . . . and the pair recorded a reported 80 demos. A single was initially released, “The Red Wind,” featuring Zimmerman supported by future Beach Boy Ricky Fataar on drums, Visconti on bass and Rick Wakeman, later of Yes, on organ and piano. Though the single didn’t make waves, the label proceeded with an album. Wakeman and Visconti joined another impressive cast of musicians including drummer Aynsley Dunbar and guitarist/sitar player Shawn Phillips for Ten Songs. Â
Tucker Zimmerman was born [in] San Francisco California. . . . [He] studied music for two years at San Francisco City College. Theory and history. . . . He also played trombone in various jazz ensembles and big bands in the city. . . . He received an AA (Associate of Arts) degree from San Francisco City College. From 1961 to 1966 he attended San Francisco State College . . . [and] received at BA (Bachelor of Arts) in Music in 1964 and an MA (Master of Arts) in Theory and Composition in 1966. Private lessons in composition with Henry Onderdonk. . . . In 1966 he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study composition in Rome . . . . During this time he began to perform his solo songs in various folkclubs in Rome. In 1968 he left the academic world and moved to London where he began to seriously pursue his songwriting and singing. He lived in England for two years, first in London and then in Oxford, playing gigs under assumed names, posing as a Canadian, since he was not granted a work permit. He also worked in various recording studios as an arranger and musician. In 1969 he recorded his first album . . . .
Zimmerman: “While living in England I wrote 150 songs, but I couldn’t get a single artist in London to sing one. My album had come out in December of 1968 . . . and was going absolutely nowhere. I learned later that the record company had signed me simply to keep me out of action for three years. They put me in their deep freeze so that I wouldn’t offer any competition to the other (British) singer/songwriters they were promoting. I wasn’t able to record again until 1971 when my contract with them expired.”
This stunning and mournful song muses about “[t]he roadrunner [who] runs across the barren ground” — “Beneath the desert trees are jagged rocks No sound of the water in the stillness does he touch The stone yields no path for the root” Wile E. Coyote might have had more success here.
1,124) Tucker Zimmerman — âBlue Gooseâ
This song has an unstoppable groove (created by mere voice and guitar) but tells the unstoppable blue goose that “Migration will get you nowhere fast You haven’t been before as an invited welcome guest”
* The top 25 (out of Bowie’s collection of 2,500 vinyl LPs) are:
The Last Poets â The Last Poets Shipbuilding â Robert Wyatt The Fabulous Little Richard â Little Richard Music for 18 Musicians â Steve Reich The Velvet Underground & Nico â The Velvet Underground Tupelo Blues â John Lee Hooker Blues, Rags and Hollers â Koerner, Ray and Glover The Apollo Theatre Presents: In Person! The James Brown Show â James Brown Forces of Victory â Linton Kwesi Johnson The Red Flower of Tachai Blossoms Everywhere: Music Played on National Instruments â Various Artists Banana Moon â Daevid Allen Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris â Cast Album The Electrosoniks: Electronic Music â Tom Dissevelt The 5000 Spirits of the Layers of the Onion â The Incredible String Band Ten Songs by Tucker Zimmerman â Tucker Zimmerman Four Last Songs (Strauss) â Gundula Janowitz The Ascension â Glenn Branca The Madcap Laughs â Syd Barrett Black Angels â George Crumb Funky Kingston â Toots & The Maytals Delusion of the Fury â Harry Partch Oh Yeah â Charles Mingus Le Sacre du Printemps â Igor Stravinsky The Fugs â The Fugs The Glory of the Human Voice â Florence Foster Jenkins
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,122)Taos — âSpace Birdâ
A famous Taos, NM commune gives us this genial, easygoing country rock gem from an LP of âmellow, unpretentious, good-natured rural rock. . . . catchy, with sweet vocal harmonies. . . . [b]lending acoustic and electric guitars with loads of tambourines.â (Adamus67, http://rockasteria.blogspot.com/2012/10/taos-taos-1971-us-beautiful-psychedelic.html)
Adamus67 adds that:
As the hippie dream turned ugly at the end of the 60s, plenty of folks decided to get out of the city & get back to basics. A huge commune in Taos, New Mexico called New Buffalo that was home to these fellas, and by 70 they were making laid back, slightly nerdy country rock with Byrds harmonies. The album was from 1968/1969. Lost U.S. rural rock gem, originally released in 1/1/1969 . . . (promo copy).
Hereâs an unusual jewel . . . . The band Taos was actually a quintet pieced together by a group of young men who had moved to the legendary Taos commune in the early 1970s, namely: Jeff Baker on guitar and vocals, Steve Oppenheim on keyboards and vocals, Albie Ciappa on drums, Burt Levine on guitar and banjo, and Kit Bedford on bass, with the occasional intermixing of instruments going on in between cuts. If the bandâs commune connection leads you into expecting some sort of stoned, improvisational musical meanderings, however, youâre in for a surprise: their sole, self-titled record is pop music all the way. Indeed, the band itself is surprisingly together, tempering mildly eccentric diversions into psychedelia and country music with a solid foundation in 1960s rock and roll. If thereâs one band to which Taos owes its biggest debt, Iâd say it would have to be The Beatles. . . . This influence is not to say that Taos lacks an identity of its own, however. On the contrary, they manage to take this influence in surprising directions, whether itâs the lonesome cosmic cowboy pastiche “After So Long” or the phased psychedelic boogie of “Twenty Thousand Miles In the Air Again” [see #821]. . . . [T]he song lyrics arenât really worth shedding too much ink over â thereâs certainly no metaphysical contemplation or social commentary going on here, whatever other Sixties sensibilities the record may boast. . . . [T]he music here is almost too much fun to criticize. Again, this is pop music, and should be enjoyed for what it is.
Burt Levine himself (I think) tells us of relations with the locals:
Hi, this is Burt from Taos. We were there in 1968/1969, while the communes and âEasy Riderâ were going on. The locals would take pot shots at us and burned down the movie theater where we played a free gig for the residents. We were being watched and filmed by the FBI. We were all love and peace living in Natureâs Glory, but the population around us was often savage. When we left to go on tour, the house we were living in was burned down.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,121)Tin Tin — âSwans on the Canalâ
“‘Baroque pop’ is possibly the best description I can think of [to describe Tin Tin’s (see #355) first album], with tracks like Swans On The Canal . . . conjuring up images of lace cuffs and the like.” (planetmellotron.com, http://akashaman.blogspot.com/2007/01/tin-tin-debut-70-atco.html) Well, I guess better than conjuring up images of handcuffs. The song (later a ’71 B-side), and the album, was produced by Maurice Gibb (see #353, 354, 466, 861). The writing credit goes to Tin Tin’s Steve Kipner and Steve Groves, but it sounds soooooo Maurice, one can’t help but think . . . .
Of Tin Tin, Greg Prato says:
The obscure Australian pop/rock band Tin Tin formed in 1968. They issued a pair of albums in the early ’70s — a self-titled debut from 1970 (which spawned the single “Toast and Marmalade for Tea”) and 1971’s sophomore effort, Astral Taxi — both of which were produced by the Bee Gees’ Maurice Gibb, who also played assorted instruments. The quartet broke up in 1973.
The definitive Mileago: Australasian Music & Popular Culture 1964-1975 writes:
Tin Tin are really only remembered for their shimmering 1971 single “Toast and Marmalade For Tea”, a US and Australian hit in mid-1971. Predictably they’ve been pegged as one-hit wonders, which obscures the fact that Tin Tin recorded a body of quality harmony psych-pop songs during its short life, with nine singles and two LPs to their credit. Although it’s technically a UK band . . . all the members (except Peter Beckett) were Australian[,] the band has its roots on the Australian music scene of the 1960s. . . . [and its] history . . . is intricately connected with many other prominent Australasian bands and performers. Named after the popular HergĂŠ cartoon character, Tin Tin was founded in London in 1969 by Steve Kipner and Steve Groves. Both were ambitious young veterans of the fertile Aussie beat scene of the mid-1960s. Kipner — the son of producer and songwriter Nat Kipner — had been the lead singer-guitarist with popular mid-60s Sydney band Steve & The Board. His partner in Tin Tin, Steve Groves, came from another highly-rated band of the same period, The Kinetics, who scored a Melbourne Top 20 hit in 1966 with “Excuses”. Steve & The Board had close connections with The Bee Gees. Nat Kipner had known the Gibb boys since their early days in Brisbane and at the start of 1966 he came to the rescue of the struggling trio when they were about to be dumped from their label (Leedon) by its owner, Festival Records. Nat was able to negotiate a deal that transferred them to the newly-established Spin label (which kept Festival happy because they distributed it).
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,120) Nick Garrie — âLittle Birdâ
Yet another gorgeous song from Nick Garrieâs (see #3, 19, 41, 65, 104, 137, 245, 362, 493, 871, 965, 1,088) The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas, a top contender for the greatest lost album of the 60âs.âIf Nickâs French record companyâs owner hadnât committed suicide on the eve of Stanislasâs release, who knows what might have been.âStunning songs â I was transfixed the first time I heard them and I have been a huge fan of Nick and his music ever since.
John Clarkson writes:
Nick Garrieâs 1969 album, âThe Nightmare of J.B. Stanislasâ, is now seen to be a psychedelic folk/pop masterpiece.âIt has, however, only recently gained this reputation and for over thirty five years was largely unheard.âThe son of a Russian father and Scottish mother, Garrieâs early years were divided between Paris, where his Egyptian stepfather worked as a diplomat, and Norwich, where he attended a boarding school.âHe recorded âThe Nightmare of J.B. Stanislasâ at the age of twenty in Paris with Eddie Vartan, who was a then fashionable French producer and the brother of the actress Sylvie Vartan.âGarrie originally intended the album to have a sparser sound, but when he turned up at the studio on the first day of recording he found that Vartan had employed a 56-piece orchestra to expand on his more tender arrangements.âThe finished result is a compelling oddity and merges together Garrieâs wistful melodies and often abstract lyrics with Vartanâs colourfully extravagant orchestrations.âIt is . . . much deserved of the cult status it has since come to gain. Lucien Morrisse, the owner of Disc AZ, Garrieâs record label, committed suicide before âThe Nightmare of J.B. Stanislasâ was ever released and for years it languished in obscurity, eventually starting to attract fan interest when tracks from it began to leak onto the internet. . . . only finally s[eeing] official release when it came out on CD on Rev-Ola Records in 2004. . . .
Here are excerpts from a vintage interview (2010) that Clarkson conducted with Nick:
JC: What did you feel troubled about when you were writing âStanislasâ?
NG: I wrote most of it when I was between nineteen and twenty.âI was at Warwick University at the time, but I had spent so much of my life living in France that I had been called up for the French army as a national.âAlthough I was eventually released from it, for a year I couldnât go in to France and so I was essentially homeless.
. . . .
JC: The suicide of Lucien Morrisse led to âThe Nightmare of J.B. Stanislasâ remaining unheard for over three decades. Even before he died, you, however, imply again in your autobiography that Disc AZ didnât know quite what to do with you and how to promote you.âDo you think that too was a factor in âStanislasâ remaining undiscovered for so long?
NG: Absolutely, because it was never released at all.âIt was not as if it came out.âNo one ever heard it.âI would go in to see them.âWe would talk about it.âThey would say that it would be in the shops next month and it never was. It went on like that for about six months, at the end of which I had had enough.âTo be honest as well at that stage I didnât really like it much either.âI didnât like the arrangements, so after his suicide I gave a couple of copies to my stepfather and for me it was finished.âI didnât listen to it again or even really talk about much for years.
JC: How do you think it stands up now? Do you like it better?
NG: I do like it now, but I still donât hear it through everybodyâs ears.âI have had a lot of correspondence with people who really love it, people from all over the world who say how much it has moved them, so it seems a bit churlish to say now that I didnât really like it.âThey were songs, however, that I didnât really recognise at the recording stage and again for a long time afterwards. . . .
JC: There is the story about Eddie Varden introducing you to a fifty six piece orchestra which you didnât know about until you turned up at the studio.âWhat did you expect the songs to sound like?âWere they going to be just you and your acoustic guitar or were they going to involve a band?
NG: . . . . I knew that it wouldnât be my guitar work because I wasnât a good enough guitarist.âI am still not, but I suspected that would be the basis of it.âThe first song that I started recording was âStanislasâ.âI had no idea that was what we were playing though.â[Eddie] would shove me in the booth and prompt me when and what I had to sing. He was using these mainly classical musicians who were all wearing cardigans and who didnât think much of me anyway because I was a pop artist.âBut having said that he was really, really nice and was in many a sort of uncle or father figure to me.
JC: It seems that you had quite an odd relationship with him really because at one level he was very praising and told you that he thought that you would be the next Bob Dylan, but at another level he would do something like that and not tell you what was going on.
NG: I realised years afterwards that it was a terrific investment for them, this orchestra playing for two weeks with this guy who completely unknown completely unknown.âI just never expected it and didnât feel in a position to say very much about it.âI think as well that it was just the way it was in those days. . . .
JC: How did âThe Nightmare of J.B. Stanislasâ gain it audience?âDo you know?
NG: I had just started teaching when I found out about it.âI had done a PGCE course late in life and I typed in Nick Garrie as a joke because I hadnât used the name since âStanislasâ and I couldnât believe it when there was all these pages on it.âI donât know for sure, but I believe there was a company called Acid Ray who were in Korea and they must have bootlegged some tapes as they put out a compilation album called âBand Carusoâ with âWheel of Fortuneâ on it.âI think that was the first thing on the web and it did quite well, so that is probably how the name got about.âThings went from there.ââ
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,118) John Williams — “Early Bird of Morning”
From John Williamsâ (see #402, 784, 857, 858, 1,051) legendary Jimmy Page-infused Maureeny Wishfull album comes a gentle tribute to his wife to be. Lenny Helsing writes that the ârare 1968 Maureeny Wishfull album[ is] a shimmering . . . and enchanting slab of strange folk excellence that features significant contributions from Jimmy Page, Big Jim Sullivan [see #817] and John Paul Jones.â (https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2015/04/john-williams.html)
John Andrews hails the LP:
Itâs so loaded. The songwriting has depth but there are also so many catchy & accessible moments with simply an acoustic guitar. John Williams is singing, Big Jim Sullivan is playin guitar, and, none other than freaking JIMMY PAGE, plays guitar/sitar. . . . The songwriting is so damn beautiful, itâs crazy to me that this record kinda slipped through the cracks and is mostly unknown.
Swanson explains the saga of the albumâs release:
Williams recorded two albums worth of material for Immediate, but Oldham pulled the plug â and confiscated the master tapes! Williams then signed a solo contract with EMI/Columbia, releasing a self-titled folk album and two 45s in 1967. The album contained some of the material from the Immediate sessions . . . . Meanwhile, Williams recovered some of the master tapes from âMaureeny Wishfullâ project. He arranged to release 14 of the songs on a privately pressed album (supposedly limited to 300 original copies). . . . [A]ll of the songs were written by Williams. Williams quietly disappeared from the music scene in the late â60s, and went on to work as a probation officer in Britain.
I was 18 and by that time we were playing at American bases and supporting London bands such as Neil Christian & the Crusaders. That is when I first linked up with Jimmy Page who introduced us to the London scene. For two years, as The Authentics, we played regularly at the Crawdaddy and Rikki-Tik clubs, held a residency at the Marquee supporting the Yardbirds on Friday nights and did a short tour backing Sonny Boy Williamson. I had written a lot of songs by then and had recorded some with The Authentics, Julie Driscoll and Paul Samwell Smith and this seemed to interest Jimmy who contracted me to write for his publishing company and later for Immediate Records. This led to recording the âMaureeny Wishfulâ tracks and a number of other recordings with Jimmy, Big Jim Sullivan and John Paul Jones.
After The Authentics disbanded, largely due to John Williams burgeoning interest in folk music, Williams began to write more extensively, ultimately brought in Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan along with other noted session guitarist Vic Flick to work on an album. Williamsâ brother Brian told the story of what happened once the album was completed: âMy brother had written a lot of songs. Andrew Oldham took us on, and my brother wrote and recorded a double album called âThe Maureeny Wishfull Albumâ for Immediate Records. I did the cover art â but unfortunately[,] Andrew Oldham disappeared with the master tapes! John eventually got one of the master tapes back and pressed the record himself. . . . Jimmy Page plays sitar and Vik Flic, Big Jim Sullivan . . . and all the good session artists of the time are on it. The master tape of the other album, which Iâm playing on, was unfortunately never recovered.â Jimmy is credited with playing guitar as well as sitar on the album, with John Williams doing the vocal work. There isnât any credited producer, but one can assume that Page had a large amount of input upon how the sound of the album was crafted.
Finally, Jimsue says: âI lived next door to John in 1967 and helped finance the printing and pressing of the 300 mono albums. . . . [T]he release date which I recall being early 70âs, since I didnât have any money in 1968! . . . John had other work on a separate master tape both of which were stolen but only one got returned.â (https://forums.ledzeppelin.com/topic/19880-maureeny-wishfull-lp-how-to-teii-if-its-og-or-a-re/)
As to Williams, Corbin adds:
John Williams was an artist in the mold of Donovan a sort of traditional folk artist with a twist. . . . He hailed from Bedford, England, a town about 30 miles north of London, and in 1964 was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist in a band with his brother Brian known as The Authentics. . . . Jimmy [Page] met Williams when Williams was a member of The Authentics[, ] an early 60âs British pop outfit who regularly performed gigs at the famed Marquee Club in London.âThe group had been signed to a record deal by Jimmyâs manager Giorgio Gomelsky. Jimmy would go on to sit in with the band on a few recording sessions, even co-authoring one of their songs, a number titled âWithout Youâ. Williams and Page soon struck up a friendship that revolved around their mutual love of folk music, and Jimmy would pass around songs written by Williams to groups he worked sessions for, notably âLittle Nightingaleâ performed by The Mindbenders.
Here is âan engaging lyte pop dream” expo67-cavestones, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eT1lPrw2Uc) from â[a] flower-powered troubadour . . . . [who] presented a hedonistic, rural hippy vibeâ. (liner notes to the CD comp Piccadilly Sunshine: Volumes 11-20: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios From the British Psychedelic Era). Wallace was also in the Swedish band The Caretakers.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,117) July — “A Bird Lived”
Classic British pop psych from July (see #937) gently propositioning an English âbirdâ. It comes from âone of the most sought-after British psychedelic sixties albumsâ (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited), â[v]ery good psychedelia, for the most part, but a bit dated in places and heavily influenced by much of the music coming from the direction of San Francisco at that timeâ. (Steven McDonald, https://www.allmusic.com/album/july-mw0000370474)
Tom Newman, the bandâs singer, hated it! He told David Wells that:
âWe were spotted by a DJ named Pat Campbell, who pointed us out to the head of Major Minor, Phil Solomon. We secured an album deal, and the whole session was done in one weekend. We used two four-track machines and bounced tracks from one to another, the same way Sgt Pepper was made. I was already making up tape loops by then, fifty foot long, going right round the room, so I got very interested in multi-track facilities. . . . I sang like a complete prick â a quivery, frightened little jerk. Itâs totally obvious to me why our LP didnât impress anyone. Compared to what we were capable of, itâs f*cking terrible.
Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rockâs Most Mind-Blowing Era
As to July, Bruce Eder tells us:
July started out in the early â60s as an Ealing-based skiffle act working under the name of the Playboys, and then metamorphosed into an R&B outfit known as the Thoughts and then the Tomcats . . . . [who] found some success in Spain when they went to play a series of gigs in Madrid in 1966. They returned to England in 1968, the groupâs lineup consisting of Tony Duhig on guitar, John Field on flute and keyboards, Tom Newman on vocals, Alan James playing bass, and Chris Jackson on drums, and changed their name to July. The band lasted barely a year, leaving behind one of the most sought-after LPs of the British psychedelic boom . . . . Their sound was a mix of trippy, lugubrious psychedelic meanderings, eerie, trippy vignettes . . . and strange, bright electric-acoustic textured tracks . . . with some dazzling guitar workouts . . . all spiced with some elements of world music, courtesy of Tony Duhig . . . . Their first single, âMy Clownâ b/w âDandelion Seeds,â has come to be considered a classic piece of psychedelia . . . . The band separated in 1969, with Duhig moving on to Jade Warrior, [and] Newman becoming a well-respected engineer, with Mike Oldfieldâs Tubular Bells to his credit . . . .
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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 both sang (often in harmony) on the record, did the ensemble arrangements, and also wrote (working separately) most of the material. . . . Hendin andled 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 . . . .
[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, notably the orchestral strings that wrap around “Bird of Passage” . . . . 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.
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.
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,115)B.B. Blunder* (The Blossom Toes) — âBlack Crowâs Nestâ
The former UK psychmeisters give us a joyous rock singalong with a country feel. Man, the times were a changinâ! Bill Whitten and James Beaudreau write that the song is from Workers’ Playtime, âessentially the third Blossom Toes record”. (http://www.newyorknighttrain.com/zine/features/200609/intro.html) They go on that:
[Playtime is] the gem of the bunch â a lost classic that manages to dip equally into post-White Album hard rock, cosmic prog, tongue in cheek Stonesy-swagger, and anthems worthy of Spiritualized â all with the tossed-off nonchalance that marks some of the best music of the time. And the band does it without taking itself too seriously for even one second. And that’s not to mention the guitar work, some of the best, song-for-song, of the era.
Workers Playtime was, to start with, a studio project (loosely based on a film score which eventually never happened) and gave us the opportunity to âget people in to contribute,â which was a pretty popular thing to do at the beginning of the 70’s. I personally have good memories of making that album because (unlike Ever so Clean) we had total control of what ended up on tape — for better or worse! The album was not received well by the music business at the time. It was like all the drugs had begun to wear off from the previous 4-5 years and the true nature of the beast was re-emerging: nothing left to do but ridicule, dismiss, and put two fingers up to anything new. . . . [It] never deserved to be written off with such disdain and venom. . . . [T]he sound was our naive but genuine attempt at ‘orchestrating’ the three-piece rock setup. (Sort of!) . . . . Who knows why some things go and some things donât. . . . [T]he cover was rated as far too good for the music within. Remarks like “Workersâ Playtime? Donât give up your day jobs!â being among the rare humorous and less offensive slag offs!
Richie Unterberger tells us of B.B. Blunder’s short history:
B.B. Blunder’s story is a most confusing one for such a short-lived and little-known band. The group was essentially an offshoot of the Blossom Toes [see #709], one of the best underground British rock acts of the ’60s, noted for both their droll psychedelic pop and a heavier, dual-lead guitar-oriented sound. When the Blossom Toes broke up at the end of the ’60s, guitarist Brian Godding and bassist Brian Belshaw continued to play together, sometimes in association with singer (and Godding’s sister-in-law) Julie Driscoll [see #1,032-33]. Eventually, Kevin Westlake, who had drummed on the Blossom Toes’ first LP, joined them, and the trio recorded an album, with Driscoll helping out on vocals. Although the group could have just as well been called Blossom Toes as B.B. Blunder, their sound was in fact significantly different than what they’d played on the Toes’ albums. The songwriting was, well, loose, and unfocused. The record’s principal attractions are the multi-layered guitars, which have a certain just-post-Abbey Road charm, with lengthy electric-acoustic passages bordering on jams. After it was issued as Workers Playtime in 1971, Reg King (formerly of mid-’60s cult mod band the Action [see #393, 429, 966]) joined the group for live work. The enterprise was basically a non-starter, though. Westlake soon quit, new members joined (including Reg King’s brother and fellow Action veteran Bam King), and the group fell apart by the end of 1971.
Under the guidance of rock impresario Giorgio Gomelsky (early mentor of the Stones and manager of the Yardbirds and Soft Machine among others) the band created their colorful and mind-warping 1967 debut We Are Ever So Clean and managed one more record before disbanding at the end of the â60s. . . . Blossom Toes formed in London in the mid-â60s, initially starting out as an R&B/beat band called the Ingoes. . . . They changed their name to Blossom Toes in 1966 upon signing to Gomelskyâs Marmalade Records. Their sound shifted dramatically with their name change as well, moving from stompy rock and roll standards to a highly orchestral take [on] . . . psychedeli[a]. . . . Their 1967 debut . . . didnât meet much commercial success . . . . [It] embrace[d] Baroque instrumentation and vivid, cheery psychedelia . . . . [r]eleased just four months after . . . . Sgt. Pepperâs . . . . The bright, curious melodies . . . filled out with an overabundance of brass, strings, and theatrical orchestral elements. . . . Blossom Toesâ song structures are unconventional . . . . Thereâs barely a trace of darkness or anxiety in these wide-ranging songs, putting the album in a rare class of well-adjusted psychedelia, a good trip with no painful comedown.
* “The name came along well into the recording when . . . sound engineer Chris Kimsey, after a particularly fruitless session, scribbled on a tape-box: “B.B. (i.e. Brian & Brian) Blunder (i.e. screw-up)”. After they had dropped him off at A&E, they thought: “B.B. Blunder? That’ll do nicely!” (http://brunoceriotti.weebly.com/blossom-toes–bb-blunder.html)
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
From Detroitâs Donovan comes two avian classic folk rock stunners with psychedelic touches . . . with a little help from the Funk Brothers and a future Motown producer . . . WTF?âMan, it works.âPaul Parrishâs (see #791) album The Forest of My Mind “is a unique meeting of baroque, psychedelic pop, English chamber arrangements . . . and light soulâ (Nathan Ford, http://active-listener.blogspot.com/2014/10/album-review-paul-parrish-forest-of-my.html), âa wonderful trip through mellow, psychedelic folk . . . . [with p]astoral imagery . . . featured throughout . . , adding to the magical and somewhat haunting quality to Parrishâs voice.â (Phil Cho, https://insheepsclothinghifi.com/album/paul-parrish-the-forest-of-my-mind/)
Paul Parrish explains:
I had a nihilistic friend who saw nothing but doom and gloom everywhere.âI was thinking of so many of my contemporaries who were filled with doom and gloom. And I was saying âNo, itâs not that way.âIf you look carefully, the flowers in the park are growing.â
liner notes to the CD reissue of The Forest of My Mind
Alex Koump tells us about Parrish and the album:
On a map of the psychedelic landscape, down a ways from the windmills of your mind and not too far from Strawberry Fields, somewhere between Itchycoo and MacArthur Park, you might find the forest of Paul Parrishâs mind.âThe Michigan native could be best remembered for a couple of singer-songwriter albums on the Reprise and ABC labels in the 1970s, or as one-half of Parrish and Toppano in the 1980sâŚor perhaps as the lead vocalist of The Brady Bunch theme during the sitcomâs first season! But before all that, Parrish signed with MGMâs short-lived Music Factory label for a 1968 one-off: The Forest of My Mind. . . . [T]he troubadour delivered psychedelia ripe for the flower-power generation, with images of nature, seasons, animals and the elements recurring on almost every track . . . , [a] soft throwback to a time when everything was beautiful â and a little mysterious, too . . . . [I]t may be one of the least Detroit-esque albums to come out of the Motor City as it by and large steered clear of R&B.âSo it might come as a surprise to some to find that veterans of Motown house band The Funk Brothers, including drummer Uriel Jones and bassist Bob Babbitt, played the exquisite arrangements here.âThose charts came courtesy of the team of guitarist Dennis Coffey (a Funk Brother himself) and Mike Theodore . . . .âThe luscious production on Forest was handled by Clay McMurray . . . [who] tapped into a Donovan-esque delicacy, dappled with sunshine.
Paul Parrishâs debut is a bright, excellently produced LP filled with remarkable sunshine-dipped folk-pop songs along the lines of Donovan.âReplete with flute, strings, and slight psychedelic effects, the album gets by on the strength of Parrishâs songs, especially tracks like “English Sparrows” . . . . Each track is ripe with rainbow-colored imagery and the requisite amount of forest/meadow scenarios. Youâd want to dismiss it as merely kitsch if Parrishâs vocals werenât so sweet and persuasive â in the end, youâre singing along and holding hands with whoever might be near. . . . a detached yet pleasant, love-struck, and extremely wide-eyed version of psychedelic sunshine pop.
By ’68, every local music scene had its own Donovan wannabe, and in Michigan this task fell upon Paul Parrish . . . . Of course very few, or more precisely none, of these mustached nehru cats had the talent of Donovan, and usually ended up souding like early 45 B-sides by Al Stewart and Cat Stevens.
Back in Southern Michigan, the English Sparrow was always an active bird, even in the dead of winter. . . . And that’s why that image came to my mind. Someone who writes songs doesn’t really know why they write them, until someone asks, “Hey, why did you write that.”
(liner notes to the CD reissue of The Forest of My Mind)
1,114) Paul Parrish — “The White Birds (Return to Warm Seas)”
Paul Parrish recalls “I was thinking about what happens to us when we die. We all think about that, don’t we. That’s what the song is about.” (liner notes to the CD reissue of The Forest of My Mind)
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The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelationsđ 