THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
855) Poet and the One Man Band — “Ride Out on the Morning Train”
(see #710)
Utterly magical folk rock by some future musical luminaries, including guitar legend Albert Lee and two future members of Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay. What is it about trains and folk music and the blues?
The band must have been named after the line from Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound”. The band doesn’t get nearly the respect it deserves, even from its CD reissue label. The liner notes I got with my CD state:
Poet & the One Man Band try a bunch of approaches vaguely related to late-’60s trends in folk-rock, singer/songwriter-oriented, and psychedelic music on their sole and obscure LP. None of them are embarrassing, but none o them are noteworthy or exciting, either. . . . [S]ome of the stronger tracks are those that get into the moodiest territory . . . . [but it] sure would sound better as sung by Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent of the Zombies, though . . . . Guitarist Albert Lee, the group’s most famous member, really doesn’t leave a heavy stamp on things; only “Ride Out on the Morning” has the kind of country-rock playing for which he would become known.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Poet and the One Man Band
What kind of marketing is that?! This is Richie Unterberger talking, though the liner notes are uncredited, since the notes are identical to Unterberger’s discussion of the album on All Music Guide (https://www.allmusic.com/album/poet-the-one-man-band-mw0000843418). Anyway, Unterberger goes on to add that it is “a fairly average psychedelic-era album with some slight resemblance to the late-period Zombies, though there’s some typical, and unmemorable, songs in a more straightforward, harder-rocking late-’60s British style.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/poet-the-one-man-band-mn0001060807)
And for some background, Unterberger notes that “Jerry Donahue and Pat Donaldson would soon move on to Fotheringay, the British folk-rock group fronted by Sandy Denny, and play on their sole album; guitarist Albert Lee, Tony Colton, Ray Smith, and Pete Gavin would form Heads, Hands & Feet.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/poet-the-one-man-band-mn0001060807)
Derek Watts says that:
[The band was] essentially a vehicle for the song-writing talents of Colton and Smith. . . . Albert is featured heavily on “Ride Out on the Morning Train” . . . . At that time Poet was merely a recording enterprise: there was no band as such, about which Albert was professionally realistic. “Poet was really their album. We were just session players.”
Derek Watts, Country Boy: A Biography of Albert Lee
Dmitry M. Epstein talks with Albert Lee:
Two songs stand out on the . . . album [including] “Ride Out On The Morning Train” . . . . Were they your first attempt to play country?
No. I had my own country band at the same time that I did that record, COUNTRY FEVER, in 1968-1969. Pat Donaldson was in the band for a little while, Pete Oakman, and I doubt that you know the other guys. Oh, Gerry Hogan who I work with now played steel guitar with us part of the time, when we had a really big gig.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
854) Benjamin — “Un Train”
Cool fuzz-drenched garage rock, straight outta Paris, by a mysterious tramp named Benjamin. Kevin du 77 tells us (courtesy of Google Translate) that: “Un train is an original composition released on vogue in 1966 with Jacques Dutronc and his band as an accompaniment. Powered by a fuzz guitar, the title hits the mark, very high quality French beat/garage!” (http://www.requiempouruntwister.com/2007/08/benjamin-un-train-1966.html) To anonymous (courtesy of Google translate), “a train is superb . . . . I think the world of show biz was not made for him”. (http://www.requiempouruntwister.com/2007/08/benjamin-un-train-1966.html)
Sébastien Desrosiers tells us something of Benjamin’s recordings (courtesy of Google translate):
“In the recent biography of Antoine (Oh Yeah), the author gives us some details about this mysterious “impostor”. It seems that artistic director Jacques Wolfsohn (also at Vogue) was looking for new singers to emulate Antoine’s style. He will bet in the first place on this Benjamin; when the latter will not succeed in recording a hit, Wolfsohn will opt for a young arranger named … Jacques Dutronc. A similar case could also be cited, that of Édouard (attempt at stylistic pagiat also unsuccessful), pseudonym of the lyricist Jean-Jacques Rivet, close to Dassin.” (http://www.requiempouruntwister.com/2007/08/benjamin-un-train-1966.html)
François gives us some sense of Benjamin (courtesy of Google translate):
“I met Benjamin in 1968 when I was living in Paris to take theater lessons. I was 20 years old. I rubbed shoulders with him for a sympathetic boy, who therefore remained faithful to his nonconformity even in adversity. That year, one weekend we were in Saint-Malo with a group of friends . . . . He confided to me straight out that he was ‘an’ alcoholic.” (http://www.requiempouruntwister.com/2007/08/benjamin-un-train-1966.html)
Anonymous adds (courtesy of Google translate):
“Hello I was 16 in 1966, I loved beatnics although I never was one. I don’t remember Benjamin at that time, but a few years ago I read an article in March where we were talking about fallen artists and Benjamin was in the foreground. He told his life, his participation in the photo of the century, he said that even that day, he was drunk. The report mentioned that he was a tramp and an alcoholic, but that he was an extraordinary person, very cultured with a fabulous memory. Since then, I often think of him, I look for information but I find nothing.” (http://www.requiempouruntwister.com/2007/08/benjamin-un-train-1966.html)
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Expressway To Your Skull – a super tripped-out blend of rock, funk, and soul – easily one of Buddy Miles’ most mindblowing albums – and a classic that never lets up at all! Buddy’s leading the whole group on drums – really kicking things large from behind the kit – while the rest of the group jams in a heavy style that’s got plenty of fuzzed-out guitar and jazzy horn riffs – virtually a blueprint for countless other rock funk groups that copped Buddy’s style in years to come. The drums alone are worth the price of admission – but the whole album’s so right, tight, and outta sight that it’s been a favorite in our crates for years!
[B]oth timeless and an unmistakable product of counterculture consciousness. Each of the album’s seven songs is a fascinating montage of sounds and styles — acid-fuzz guitar collides with zig-zagging funk horns, and shrieking keyboards meet juke joint blues riffs head on. Not everything works . . . but [what does] is brilliant, its twists and turns navigated by Miles’ deeply soulful vocals and monster drumming.
As to the life of Buddy Miles, Steve Huey tells us:
Best known as the drummer in Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys, Buddy Miles also had a lengthy solo career that drew from rock, blues, soul, and funk in varying combinations. . . . [H]e started playing the drums at age nine, and joined his father’s jazz band the Bebops at a mere 12 years old. As a teenager, he went on to play with several jazz and R&B outfits, most prominently backing vocal groups like Ruby & the Romantics, the Ink Spots, and the Delphonics. In 1966, he joined Wilson Pickett’s touring revue, where he was spotted by blues-rock guitarist Mike Bloomfield. . . . [who] was putting together a new group, the Electric Flag . . . slated to be an ambitious fusion of rock, soul, blues, psychedelia, and jazz. Bloomfield invited Miles to join, and the band made its debut at the Monterey Pop Festival; unfortunately, the original lineup splintered in 1968. . . . Miles briefly took over leadership of the band on its second studio album, which failed to reignite the public’s interest. With the Electric Flag’s horn section in tow, Miles split to form his own group, the similarly eclectic Buddy Miles Express. . . . [which] issued its debut album, Expressway to Your Scull, in 1968, with . . . Jim I Hendrix in the producer’s chair. In turn, Miles played on . . . Electric Ladyland . . . . Hendrix also produced the Miles Express’ follow-up, 1969’s Electric Church, and disbanded his backing band the Experience later that year; shortly afterward, Hendrix, Miles, and bassist Billy Cox formed Band of Gypsys, one of the first all-Black rock bands. . . . Miles departed in 1970 . . . but not before his powerhouse work was showcased on the group’s lone album, the live Band of Gypsys. . . . Miles returned to the role of bandleader and recorded his most popular album, Them Changes, in 1971; it stayed on the charts for more than a year . . . . Miles toured with Carlos Santana . . . . cut a few more albums for CBS . . . then moved to Casablanca in 1975 for a pair of LPs. Aside from a one-off album for Atlantic in 1981 . . . Miles kept a low profile over the next decade, partly to battle personal problems. Miles returned in 1986 as the lead voice in a TV ad campaign that featured clay-animated raisins singing “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”; the ads proved so popular that a kid-friendly musical franchise was spun off, and thus Miles became the lead singer of the California Raisins, performing on two albums (mostly R&B covers) and a Christmas special.
Bob Davis reflects on the line that Miles straddled:
Taken on strictly musical terms “Expressway To Your Skull” is a winner. From a “marketing perspective” it was a disaster for Mercury Records when it was first released.
– It was probably seen as “too soulful” for the late 60’s “rock audience”. – It was probably seen as “too rockish” for Black AM radio stations to play at that time
And that my friends is the continuing paradox of our friend Buddy Miles.
– That’s why he hasn’t (and probably never will be) recognized by the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame – That’s why he hasn’t (and probably never will be) recognized by the R&B Foundation
Those entities may never recognize the GREATNESS of Buddy Miles. He was able to hit the nail right on the “sweet spot” where Gospel, Jazz, Blues, Rock, Soul & Funk all meet and for his achievement in doing so Buddy Miles will continue to be penalized and under recognized.
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
851) The Aerovons — “The Train”
The Aerovons’ (see #16) first A-side is “their poppiest number, which echoes both the Hollies and the Bee Gees” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/resurrection-mw0000359226), the band’s “attempt at a commercial single, and we all felt bad about being up front about it”. (Tom Hartman, liner notes to the Resurrection CD) Don’t feel bad, it is glorious, wistful, inventive and Beatlesque pop psych . . . and it was recorded at Abbey Road by some teen Beatlemaniacs from St. Louis!
This is one one of those stories of what could have been, of boundless talent and potential that disappeared like the morning fog. But this story is relatively unique, for this time, the record company wasn’t the villain. EMI desperately wanted the Aerovons to succeed and spent almost as much money recording them as it did to record Sgt. Pepper’s. And this time, there was no lingering bitterness over what was snatched away, but rather gratitude over what the band was allowed to experience. This is what makes this story so special.
First, let’s hear from Richie Unterberger:
It was probably the dream of millions of teenage American boys to meet the Beatles and record at Abbey Road Studios in the late ’60s. The Aerovons . . . did so. Personnel instability intervened, however, and the group only got to issue a couple of rare singles before splitting up. They did record an entire album of promising material heavily influenced by the late-’60s Beatles, which finally saw release on CD in 2003. . . .
The Aerovons were formed in 1966 in St. Louis, and in late 1967, guitarist/pianist Tom Hartman recorded a demo of his composition “A World of You” (see #16) at the instigation of his mother. The demo was heard by a representative of Capitol Records, and though he offered the group a session in Los Angeles, Hartman’s mother told him the band wanted to record in London. In early 1968, the still-young Aerovons — Hartman was 16 — flew to London to play their demo for EMI. . . . [which] was impressed enough to sign them when Hartman and his mother returned to London in August 1968, and the Aerovons even got another offer at the time with Decca. The whole band came back to London in March 1969 to record. Over the next few months the group cut about an album’s worth of material . . . . [T]he album was produced by Hartman himself, who also wrote most of the songs laid down in the studio. . . . [B]efore an album could even be released, fate intervened to end the Aerovons’ brief career. The sessions had themselves been done as a three-piece, although they’d come over to London as a quartet, when guitarist Phil Edholm left before recording began. Shortly after returning to St. Louis in mid-1969, drummer Mike Lombardo left. EMI, concerned about the personnel shifts, canceled the album, and the band split up shortly afterward, though a couple of rare singles were issued on Parlophone in 1969. Hartman did a single for Bell in 1970 before abandoning the record business to go to college, though he later got into writing music for television, radio, and film.
Hartman was 17, and his band, the Hartman, a child prodigy who played piano and guitar, formed the Aerovons with two brothers, bassist Billy and drummer Mike Lombardo. All three shared an obsession with the Fab Four. They had the same equipment as the Beatles, and were persecuted by greaser gangs for liking the Liverpudlians . . . .
It was through sheer naive bravado that the band ended up on the same label as their heroes. Initially they were offered a deal by . . . Capitol USA, but Hartman turned it down, declaring: “I don’t want to be like all those Beach Boys groups.” Despite the rejection, Capitol pointed the Aerovons in the direction of . . . the Beatles’ A&R man at EMI. With just the “thinnest of leads”, the band set off for London in September 1968, armed with their Beatlesesque demo, World of You. “Looking back, it was so easy,” says Hartman. “He . . . just went, ‘You’re from St Louis and you wanna come to record here? That’s great!’ It was like something out of the movies.” EMI courted the band not with huge advances, but with a trip to the Speakeasy – the exclusive nerve centre of celebrity swinging London. Among the guests that night were Diana Ross, Michael Caine… and Paul McCartney. . . . Hartman’s voice quivers at the memory. “It was dark, dinner tables. I walked up to Paul and said, ‘Hi, we’re from the States.’ Our band card said, ‘The Smashing English sound.’ He said, ‘Oh, Smashing English sounds – from America. Can I keep this?’ It was the biggest moment of my life to that point.” The Aerovons returned to London in March the following year to record at the Abbey Road studio – at the same time as the Beatles were recording the album Abbey Road. “They were forever sneaking off to have their pictures taken with Beatles equipment,” remembers Alan Parsons, who engineered both albums. The Beatles would often ask how Resurrection was progressing and were always on hand for advice. . . .
“The buzz around Abbey Road was that these guys are really good,” says Parsons. “I remember thinking, ‘My God, they really have a chance to be the next Beatles.’ Everybody at the label thought that.” But then trouble struck. The band’s additional guitarist, Pete Edholm, began to moan that Hartman was dominating the songwriting – and so EMI sent him back to St Louis. The label was also worried about the album’s budget (£35,000, not far off Sgt Peppers’ £50,000). It didn’t help that the band’s single, Train, wasn’t being taken up by DJs. Worst of all, the Aerovons arrived back at St Louis airport to find that Mike Lombardo’s wife was having an affair. “He fell apart,” says Hartman. “Me and Billy were staring at each other and EMI were calling saying, ‘Look, you’ve already lost one member. Are you guys ready to promote this?'” They weren’t, and the label pulled the plug. . . .
Third, Jason Toon talks with Bob “Ferd” Frank, another band member who had quit:
The band hit the mid-’60s teen-club circuit, regaling venues . . . with its Brit-fixated sound. “As soon as a new Beatles album came out,” Frank says . . . “[w]e’d sit there and just study every song. At that time, we weren’t thinking originals. We wanted to be a damn good copy band.” The Aerovons might have remained as such were it not for Maurine Hartman, Tom’s mother, who stepped in to manage the still-teenaged band’s business and booking. In Frank’s words, Maurine “wanted to be in showbiz, but she got married and had kids. So she was sort of living through Tom.” Her hardball attitude and business savvy opened doors for the fresh-faced teens. . . . Suddenly we were playing a lot of good gigs. “Some of them didn’t make us money but got us talked about on the radio[.”] . . . Under Maurine’s direction, the band played up its Anglophilia even more. . . . [including with] promo photos of the Aerovons in full-on Rubber Soul mode . . . beneath prodigious Swinging London hairdos. Business cards and fliers proclaimed “The Band With That ‘Smashing’ English Sound.” . . .
By 1967, giddy with local success and naïve enthusiasm, the band members set out to record at Abbey Road. That being the case, Maurine Hartman advised them to start writing their own material. . . . Frank says. . . . “All we did was start writing songs and recording.” . . . Tom Hartman says that a Capitol Records rep heard the Aerovons recording . . . in St. Louis and brought the band to London. . . . Still in high school, the impressionable Aerovons did a week on the London rock-star circuit, mouths agape and hearts aflutter. “The second night we’re there (in London), she gets us into this club called the Speakeasy,” Frank recalls. “There’s Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Michael Caine. I’m still in high school, seventeen years old at that point, and we’re standing in the same room with these people! Later that night, I’m in the bathroom taking a leak next to Paul McCartney! “There was this little black guy running around the club in this big bolero hat. And Hartman and me are like, ‘Who’s this f*cker think he is, Jimi Hendrix?'” Sure enough, it was. . . .
A contract was signed with EMI/Parlophone, and the Aerovons were sent home to write more songs before returning to Abbey Road in March of 1969. “Buzz” wasn’t a music-industry term yet, but the Aerovons had it; EMI execs were trembling with anticipation of the band’s limitless future. But Frank wouldn’t be around to see it. . . . [H]e was led astray by “a girl” and his youthful impulses, and he quit the band. . . .
After the sessions, it all started falling apart. Phil Edholm, Frank’s replacement on rhythm guitar, had already quit the band, complaining that his songs weren’t given a chance. Upon returning to St. Louis, drummer Mike Lombardo discovered that his wife had been cheating on him and went into shock, disappearing for long stretches at a time. EMI, balking at the dicey line-up situation, dropped the Aerovons and canned the album. “World of You” was released as a single in September 1969 — a melancholy postscript, not the herald of a new sensation.
“I was talking to my mum one night before she died and I told her that my big regret was not being successful enough to buy her and dad a house,” he says. “But she just said, ‘Tom, don’t you realise that it was a ton of fun for me, too?’ She was as big a Beatles nut as any of us.”
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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
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Wayne Proctor, one of the band’s two primary songwriters, wrote and sang “In the Past” . . . and played the Octophone:
[The song] was a little weird for the DJ’s and promoters to understand at the time, because the Indian Sitar movement was just beginning, thanks to the Beatles. Not sure the American radio stations had quite grasped the importance of how such instruments would affect the psychedelic era which was coming on strong about then. . . . I had a high school friend . . . and another friend and I were visiting him one summer afternoon. I was 18 years old, and my friend who sold me the instrument was probably around 15 or so. He took us into his attic where I saw an eight-stringed instrument in the attic corner . . . . [H]e sold it to me for a small amount. The instrument was similar to a mandolin, but larger, and apparently had been built by my friend’s grandfather. I was told only 50 had been made. At the time I knew nothing about it, but later heard it was called a “Regal Octofone.” . . . [Proctor added a pickup and did a little more magic to the instrument] Not long after that, I wrote two songs especially for the “Octachord” as I called it, one being “In the Past,” and the other, “Half of Wednesday.” When I took the instrument to practice with the band one night, and plugged it in for the other guys and for our manager, I remember them staring at it with jaws dropped.
In ’68, the song was covered by the Chocolate Watchband (see #160). Proctor: “I thought it was really cool that someone else had recorded my song, and naturally I was extremely happy, although their version was somewhat calmer than ours. But, I understand it was their attempt to be a psychedelic band, which was really beginning to take hold about that time.” (https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2014/09/we-people-interview.html)
Steve Leggett bemoans the fact that We the People “never captured any kind of national attention, which is hard to believe given the vitality, quality, and proto-punk punch of the band’s material. . . . usually delivered with a punk intensity and sneering vocals that are all the more striking because they are actually based around fully realized melodies.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/too-much-noise-mw0000796014)
Richie Unterberger gives some history:
One of the most versatile mid-’60s garage groups — indeed, they were for the most part too accomplished and pop-savvy to truly merit the garage band tag — We the People had some big hits in Florida, but never broke out nationally, despite releases on the large RCA and Challenge labels. Veterans of Orlando garage [bands] . . . all found their way into We the People, who made their first single for the local Hotline label, “My Brother the Man,” in early 1966. “My Brother the Man” was a smoking, almost-crazed, hard garage-punk number, a path the band continued to follow on their early Challenge singles “Mirror of Your Mind” and “You Burn Me Up and Down.” . . . Yet at the same time they could throw in gentler and more lyrically and melodically subtle originals . . . . Unusual for a garage band, they boasted two prolific and talented songwriters in Tommy Talton and Wayne Proctor. . . .
Proctor left the band in ’67 as “I had become 1-A on the army’s list, and was sure to be drafted. I knew I had to do something if I didn’t want to go to Vietnam, so I quit the band and enrolled in college.” (https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2014/09/we-people-interview.html)
J.M. Dobies gives a sense of the scene:
Summer 1966. At places like the Orlando Youth Center, Leesburg Armory, or the Coconut Teen Club . . . . [h]undreds upon hundreds of teens are dancing to the beat stomped out by one or more of the top local bands. . . . On Monday morning, the band members will be back in class, subject to being hassled by teachers about the length of their hair, but on the weekends, they are rock & roll stars. They’re totally boss, man.
Band members Terry Cox and David Duff reflected on the changing scene, giving the most concise, incisive and hilarious analyses of the same that I have ever read:
Terry Cox: “I can almost pinpoint the day where everybody who was dancing around, jumping around, raising hell, packing the place, instead sat down on the floor and expected to hear ‘In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida.’”
David Duff: “The mood changed. And it was a change for the worse. I can remember playing in Gainesville at the University of Florida. We go set up in one of the frat basements and play all night, and there’d be nobody in the room. Everybody was upstairs in their rooms, smoking dope and having sex. I liked it better when everybody danced.”
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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Born. . . in Manchester, England, Bryan was four years old when his parents moved to Australia, settling in Sydney. . . . By the time he was ten years old he was singing regularly on radio station 2SM’s Gang Show. Bryan, with his clean-cut good looks, became Australia’s answer to the American teen idols of the late Fifties and early Sixties. He made his singing debut on 27th September 1960 on Channel Seven’s television show Teen Time and in March 1961 he made his debut performance on Channel Nine’s Bandstand. He soon became a Bandstand regular and this led to him signing a recording contract with EMI Records. His first single was released in March on EMI’s subsidiary label Columbia Records but it failed to make the charts. His follow-up, a cover of American teen idol Mark Wynter’s Dream Girl . . . spent eighteen weeks in the chart, peaking nationally at number one . . . . Davies had a Top 10 hit single in October with Five Foot Two and a Top 40 hit in February 1962. In March he scored his own television program on the ABC. At seventeen-years-old Bryan became the youngest compere to host a national television show. The Bryan Davies Show ran for seventy-two episodes . . . . In October 1962, he met Norrie Paramour a top British composer, producer and conductor who was touring Australia with British female singer Helen Shapiro. Paramour was so impressed with Bryan and encouraged him to come and record in the UK. During 1963 he released two more singles but neither made any impact on the charts. In December he appeared in the surfing musical Once Upon A Surfie before sailing to London in February 1964. Although he didn’t go on to achieve international stardom the trip did stimulate him as an entertainer. Bryan returned to Australia in October with a different singing style and a new ‘mod’ appearance. Between 1965 and 1968 he recorded eight singles for the HMV label with his only chart success coming in 1967.
Davies first hit single, a cover version of Mark Wynter’s “Dream Girl”, reached #2 in Sydney, #6 in Brisbane, #4 in Melbourne, #1 in Adelaide and #2 in Hobart in June 1961. This was a phenomenal effort for his first ever release. Davies appeared on 1960s TV pop shows, Sing! Sing! Sing! and Bandstand (from 1961). His second hit was “Five Foot Two Eyes of Blue” (October 1961), which reached #5 in Sydney and went top 20 in most other capital cities. It was originally performed by the California Ramblers in 1925 as “Has Anybody Seen My Gal?”. His other popular singles were, “Twist-N-Twirlin’/Slicin’ Sand Twist” and “Ten Pin Bowling”. He supported Jimmie Rodgers on his tour of Australia in 1961. At age 17 Davies became the youngest person in Australia to host their own TV show, The Bryan Davies Show, from March 1962. . . . From December 1963 to January 1964 Davies appeared in Once upon a Surfie, a youth oriented musical . . . . centred on the antics of Gadget . . . “a snooty surfing girl whom the rest of the cast are intent on bringing down a peg or two.” It was a parody of the then-popular Sandra Dee Gidget films. . . . In 1963 Davies met Norrie Paramour, a British composer, producer and conductor, who was impressed with the singer’s work and was encouraged to return to England in February 1964. In May that year he recorded with Paramour producing. Davies returned to Australia in October and “adopted a more Beatles-influenced style and appearance.” In February 1967 he re-entered the Sydney charts top 20 with “Alberta”, his last hit recording. According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, “by the late 1960s Davies had moved into cabaret and television work.” Davies took up acting and hosting roles for TV shows . . . .
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
848) Le Bain Didonc – “4 Cheveux Dans Le Vent”/”4 Hairs in the Wind”
As Alextwist sagely notes, while John Lennon once quiped that “‘French rock is like English wine'”[, w]ell he was wrong”! (https://www.topito.com/top-chansons-rock-francais-60s) Here is one of Twist’s “10 essential French rock songs.” A wild garage/freakbeat concoction, it is “[o]ne of the best records to come out of France. Wonderful. Turn it up loud and groove!” (David Schiff, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6kJ7RKA6k) Vive la révolution! Shindig Magazine says:
Le Bain Didonc dropped their sole EP featuring this dazzling rave up for the ages. Feedback? Oui. Toggling between pick-ups? Oui. Interstellar vibrations? Clattering drums? Oui, oui. Simultaneously looking back to the Gloria days of ’65 while looking ahead to the full-blown psych of ’67, this is up there with the best of a very good year.
Indeed! Who was Le Bain Didonc? Regaloeb tells us (courtesy of Google Translate):
Previously, they were called Les Piteuls, a group specializing in Beatles covers, as their name derisively suggests . . . . The[y went] from concert to concert all over France and in the first part of the Kinks, the Who and the Rolling Stones in Paris. Unable to use the name Piteuls, considered too mocking and potentially attackable by the powerful Beatles, they released a few cakes under different names. Only one under the rather lame pun name Le Bain Didonc.* This breathtaking 4 Hairs In The Wind was released in 1965 or 1966, here the sources diverge . . . . The rhythm, organ and guitar feedback prefigure psychedelia and as such, this piece is today classified under the catchall label Freak Beat. The group accompanied Charles Trenet (yes!) throughout 1966. He even wrote a song for them, Renaud La Guerre, released under the name of Pierre, Paul Ou Jacques. Les Papyvores, with Le Papyvore, a little piece released in May 1967 and completely psychedelic this time, it’s them too! They then joined Michel Polnareff with whom they made long world tours: South America, Europe and Japan. In 1970, when Polnareff left France for the United States, the friends found themselves in forced unemployment. It was in 1971 that Serge decided to set up a trio, à la Mamas And Papas, with his wife Joëlle and Richard: Thus was born Il Etait Une Fois . . . .
Fou du Rock gives us more (courtesy of Google Translate):
It was at the Olympia in 1963, where the Beatles performed for the first time in France, that Serge Koolen and his band present in the room saw the light. On their return to Colombes, they created Les Peatles, a group under the influence of the little guys from Liverpool. And it didn’t go too badly: in 1964, they won “Le Concours de Rock de Radio Luxembourg” (future RTL) then the prize for the “Best French Rock and Roll Group from the Maisons de Jeunes” in Courbevoie in 1965. . . . During a gala while accompanying Charles Trenet, they were introduced to Richard Bennett who invited them to join the Riviera team. They thus released under the name of Bain Didonc an excellent EP from which is extracted “4 hairs in the wind”. Under the influence of Richard Bennett’s “sick” brain, Les Piteuls then multiplied more or less eccentric and wacky projects. They thus record under various pseudonyms – Les Papyvores and Buddy Badge Montezuma – completely hallucinated discs (“I am LSDic and paranoic, it’s psychedelic” extract from Papyvore); but also an EP under the name Pierre Paul et Jacques with the cult piece and Dada “I am Turkish”. In 1970, Serge Koolen and Richard Dewitte left to found with Joëlle, the group Once upon a time, with the success that we know of them thanks to the hit “J’ai encore rêvé d’elle”… .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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I have fond affections for th[e song], and it brought me to prominence in Scotland. . . . When I was 19, I had a girlfriend whose father didn’t approve of her being courted by a scruffy, itinerant, down-at-heel musician with no future. He wanted someone in the professions for his ideal son-in- law, and the song was born out of that. We did eventually marry and I even become friends with her father. He grew to like the song . . . .
Stewart Mason notes regarding the album from which the song is drawn:
Rafferty . . . turned the duo’s original trad folk aesthetic into a prettier, poppier sound. . . . That dichotomy continues throughout, with Rafferty’s unapologetically pop songs and [Billy] Connolly’s folk- and blues-based tunes alternating. Truthfully, Rafferty’s songs are better, with their lightly psychedelic arrangements suiting his whimsical lyrics. . . . [His] six songs . . . are uniformly excellent . . . .
The New Humblebums . . . began to achieve far greater success with their mix of Rafferty’s plaintive vocals and melodies and Connolly’s upbeat tunes and fine guitar playing. That same year, the duo released their first record together and band’s second album, The New Humblebums. The album was a major-hit in Glasgow and was well-received nationally. . . .
Scottish folk outfit the Humblebums aren’t perhaps as well known as their two main individual members: Gerry Rafferty, who later scored hits with Stealers Wheel and as a solo artist, and Billy Connolly, who left music to become an internationally successful stand-up comedian. Connolly actually founded the group in 1965, along with guitarist Tam Harvey; both had been regulars on the Glasgow folk circuit . . . . The duo quickly became a popular attraction in Glasgow’s folk clubs, particularly as Connolly honed his humorous between-song patter . . . . After a few years of local celebrity, the Humblebums recorded their debut album . . . split between traditional folk songs and Connolly originals. Not long after[,] . . budding singer/songwriter . . . Rafferty approached the duo after one of their gigs for feedback on his original songs. He wound up being invited to join . . . . Rafferty’s songs soon took a prominent place in their repertoire, which led to friction with Tam Harvey; he departed around half a year [later]. Toward the end of 1969, [Rafferty and Connolly] entered the studio together and cut the second Humblebums LP . . . . With Rafferty’s pop instincts, the Humblebums grew more popular on the live circuit than ever, and they recorded another album in a similar vein . . . . However, there was growing dissension . . . Rafferty’s material had a more serious bent than Connolly’s lighthearted, dryly witty offerings, and Connelly’s comedy bits were taking up a large portion of the Humblebums’ stage show, to the point where Rafferty wanted him to cut the comedy altogether. . . . [T]he Humblebums broke up in 1971. Rafferty moved on to Stealers Wheel, best known for their hit “Stuck in the Middle With You,” and later went solo, scoring a huge hit with “Baker Street.” Connolly . . . in a few short years became one of the most popular comedians not only in Scotland, but the whole U.K. . . .
Rafferty was born in Paisley, near Glasgow, an unwanted third son. His father, Joseph, was an Irish-born miner. His mother . . . dragged young Gerry round the streets on Saturday nights so that they would not be at home when his father came back drunk. They would wait outside, in all weathers, until he had fallen asleep, to avoid a beating. “If it wasn’t for you, I’d leave,” Mary told Gerry. Joseph died in 1963, when Gerry was 16. That year, Gerry left St Mirin’s academy and worked in a butcher’s shop and at the tax office. At weekends, he and a schoolfriend, Joe Egan [with whom he later formed Stealers Wheel] played in a local group, the Mavericks. . . . after Gerry’s song Benjamin Day failed as a Mavericks single, Gerry and Egan quit the group and Gerry joined Connolly’s outfit, the Humblebums . . . .
Inspired by his Scottish mother, who teaches him both Irish and Scottish folk songs, and the music of Bob Dylan and the Beatles, [Rafferty] starts writing his own material. . . . In the mid-1960s Rafferty earns money busking on the London Underground. In 1966 he meets fellow musician Joe Egan and they are both members of the pop band the Fifth Column.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
837)Sam and Dave — “I Take What I Want”
This utter classic ’65 A-side was written by, of course, Isaac Hayes and David Porter, and as laid down by Sam & Dave was “[a] perfect balance of pop melody and pure church feeling.” (Andy Schwartz, https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/sam-and-dave) The Memphis Music Hall of Fame tells us that:
At Stax, Sam and Dave quickly developed a repertoire with the label’s songwriting team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter. Both Prater and Moore grew up idolizing subtle singers like Sam Cooke and Nat King Cole, but David Porter had a completely different vision. According to Moore, Porter admonished them to embrace their raw power and to stop “trying to compete with Motown.” Despite some initial reluctance, Porter’s vision was soon fulfilled and the hits started flowing.
Perhaps no act epitomized soul music as the secularization of gospel more than Sam & Dave. . . . Atlantic persuaded their Memphis affiliate Stax Records to produce them, and . . . the writing and production team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter . . . . became the éminence grises behind Sam & Dave . . . . They wrote, they produced . . . a string of hits, including “Soul Man,” “Hold On! I’m Comin’,” and “I Thank You,” songs that survive as the very epitome of Southern soul. Certainly, Sam & Dave’s hits are among the most soulful ever to crack the Hot 100. . . .
Samuel Moore and David Prater were both raised in the South, where they sang in church as children. During the ’50s, they performed in soul and R&B clubs before meeting each other . . . in Miami in 1961. . . . In 1965, they signed with Atlantic Records, but producer Jerry Wexler moved the band to the label’s Stax subsidiary. . . . [They] created a body of sweaty, gritty soul that ranks among the finest and most popular produced in the late ’60s. . . . [T]he duo’s career began to unravel in 1968, when Stax’s distribution deal with Atlantic ended. Since Sam & Dave were signed with Atlantic, not Stax, they no longer had access to . . . Hayes and Porter or the house band of Booker T. & the MG’s . . . . [But] what really caused the duo’s demise was their volatile relationship. . . . [I]t was reported that the duo could hardly stand each other’s presence. The tension caused Sam & Dave to part ways in 1970 . . . .
Live — this is one cool performance! As B.R. Ross says, “Sam’s a wailin’ and Dave’s blastin’–and the tight playing and choreography from the band is superb!” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DGx2FFwpLc). And as R. Alvarez puts it, “ONLY SAM & DAVE could ROCK Lime Green & Yellow & F*CKING OWN IT!!!!” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DGx2FFwpLc):
838)The Artwoods — “I Take What I Want”
The Artwoods (see #58) — yes, founded by Art Wood (Ronnie Wood’s older brother) — were a top touring UK R&B band, but their success never translated to record. They “finally achieved some commercial success with their fourth 45, a pulsating cover of Sam and Dave’s “I Take What I Want” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited), reaching #28 in the UK in 1966. It is “blistering” (http://www.deep-purple.net/tree/artwoods/artwoods.html), “contagiously irresistible” (Andrew Darlington, http://andrewdarlington.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-art-of-artwoods-story-of-cult-mod.html), and I’ll be damned but Wood sings it with a Brooklyn accent! “I’m gonna make you my goyle, my lovin’ goyle”!
Wood recalls that “It was one of our favourites that used to go down a bomb on state. That was the only one that got into the Melody Maker Top Twenty. At last we had one hit and that was a thrill.” (liner notes to the CD comp The Artwoods: Singles A’s & B’s)
Andrew Darlington:
The confusion over the single’s exact chart history . . . is due to the nature of the music press at the time. There were four papers simultaneously publishing lists of best-selling singles. And they seldom agreed. . . . [I]t was [in the Melody Maker chart] – and only here . . . that “I Take What I Want” entered the . . . Top Fifty at no.43 (14th May 1966). The following week it climbs to no.40, to make its third and final appearance, at no.35, on 28th May. . . . “I Take What I Want” was widely-played on various Pirate Radio stations . . . as well as at all the best Mod clubs where its ‘bad man’ self-confidence made it a serious contender. It made the perfect swaggering ego-boost anthem to psych you up to cross the dance floor of the In-club to that girl you’ve been watching, with all the cock-sure strutting arrogance that, beneath the contrived façade, few of us actually possessed. Meanwhile the group’s punishing touring schedule was taking them hither and yon shoving an intimidatingly powerful live set, with a harsh and provocative dynamic equivalent to dropping a smooth grenade into the club, ensuring them a firm club fan-base. . . .
The Artwoods[‘] . . . . following was confined to the clubs they played, despite releasing a half-dozen singles and an LP during their four years together. Art Woods . . . had been involved with the London blues scene almost from the beginning, as an original member of Blues Incorporated . . . . He was the backup rhythm singer in the band’s early lineup . . . [and] he also had a group of his own that he fronted on the side, called the Art Woods Combo. They later became the Artwoods in 1963 and Jon Lord later joined along . . . . [T]hey joined Decca Records’ roster in 1964. The Artwoods’ early records are some of the most fondly remembered British R&B singles . . . . Their sound was as steeped in soul and funk as it was in blues, which set them apart from many of their rivals. . . . [T]hey had a virtuoso lineup . . . . [and] a top stage attraction. Club audiences always knew they were good for a great show and the band loved playing live. Ultimately, in fact, the group’s success in touring and their love of playing live may have hurt them. They had no problem playing hundreds of gigs a year at venues like Klooks Kleek in Hampstead and dozens of lesser clubs for the sheer enjoyment of it, but they earned relatively little money doing it. At the same time, their singles never seemed to connect, despite appearances on programs like Ready, Steady, Go! . .. Their failure as a recording outfit is inexplicable upon hearing the singles — they weren’t strong songwriters, to be sure, but when covering American-style R&B, their records were soulful, funky, and played not only well but inventively; close your eyes and it seems like they were the U.K. answer to Booker T. & the MG’s. And the vocals . . . were attractive and memorable and sounded authentically American. And, in contrast to a lot of other British bands of that period, they did manage to capture something of their live sound on those records, which made them very potent. . . . A series of label switches in 1967 to Parlophone and then Fontana gave them some furtive success on the continent (in Denmark, of all places) and after four years of hard work, the Artwoods called it quits after a brief foray under the name the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. . . .
Oh, and Andrew Darlington reminds us that Deep Purple’s Jon Lord cut his teeth with the Artwoods:
[A]lthough focused on R&B and Soul, [John Lord’s] virtuoso organ-flourishes were already nudging towards the beginnings of more ambitious prog-Rock projects. . . .
Lord was their strongest writer, but he still saw himself primarily as their keyboard-player. . . . After the demise of the Artwoods Jon admits “I had nothing to go to and for eight or nine months I did not work apart from a few sessions to pay the bills.” He was even touring-MD for the Flowerpot Men . . . . [who] hit no.4 on the chart with “Let’s Go To San Francisco Part 1 . . . . Bassist Nick Simper was also with the Flowerpot Men, and through him, around the end of 1967, Jon met Ritchie Blackmore, the core of the first Deep Purple, with former-Searchers drummer Chris Curtis acting as an unlikely catalyst.
Formed in New Zealand at the very start of the beat boom, they were . . . . practically the only major group [Kiwi or Aussie] to emerge from the beat boom of 1964-65 who managed to ride out the massive musical changes of the Sixties and adapt to the new scene in the Seventies, emerging as one of Australia’s most popular hard rock groups during the first half of the Seventies. . . . [T]hey started off as blues/R&B purists . . . . moved into their ‘mod’ period – with covers of Ray Charles, Motown and Northern Soul favourites, replete with tartan trousers, satin shirts and buckle shoes. . . . [and then] plunged headlong into psychedelia (the obligatory concept album, covers of songs from West Coast outfits like Blues Magoos, paisley shirts, sitars, long hair and moustaches). They almost came unstuck after the inevitable — and ultimately futile — attempt to “make it in England”. . . . limped back to Australia, regrouped, and bounced back . . . . Friends Kevin Borich, Brett Neilson and Trevor Wilson . . . . formed [“the Mergers”] in late 1963[, a] Shadows-style instrumental group . . . . The Fab Four’s visit in June 1964, and the emergence of The Rolling Stones, crystallised the need for change of style — and a lead singer. Trevor Wilson suggested a friend . . . and so Phil Key was invited to join as vocalist and rhythm guitarist. . . . By early 1965 . . . they were getting regular bookings on Auckland’s booming dance circuit . . . . In November 1965 they got a major break when they were called up to fill in for popular local band The Dallas Four . . . at Auckland’s No. 1 nightspot, The Platterack. The La De Das went over well and . . . . The Platterrack took [them] on . . . as the resident band . . . . They were soon packing out the club on a regular basis. It was here they linked up with one of the regular patrons, Bruce Howard . . . . As one of the few pop keyboard players on the scene, Howard was a valuable commodity, so he was invited to audition at their next rehearsal and immediately offered a place in the band . . . . He and Trevor Wilson immediately became the creative core of the band, writing all their original material. Their growing reputation soon attracted the attention of Eldred C. Stebbing, who owned his own studio and label, Zodiac, which produced recordings for some of New Zealand’s top pop groups . . . . In January 1966 Stebbing was given an import copy of The Blues Magoos album . . . and he immediately tagged the track “How Is The Air Up There?” as possible ‘goer’ for a local band. However, the organ was a key part of the song’s arrangement, and there were few local bands with an organist in the lineup. . . . [T]hey approached the group . . . . and were impressed enough [with the La De Das’ version] to invite them . . . to cut a recording and led to Stebbing signing them . . . for both management and production, with their recordings distributed through Phillips. The La De Das’ debut single catapulted them to the top of the NZ pop scene, and from that point on they were the top-selling Kiwi group until they moved to Australia in 1967. . . . [with] a string of chart-topping hits . . , all of which are now regarded as classics of 60s R&B . . . . “How Is The Air Up There” . . . was . . . an instant hit [see #216]. . . . The La De Das toured widely around the country through the first half of ’66, before issuing their second single, which was also their first self-penned release: the Wilson-Howard song “Don’t You Stand In My Way” backed with “I Take What I Want” (June 1966). Unfortunately it flopped and didn’t even make the charts . . . .
“The lads realised pretty quickly that “The Mergers” didn’t really reflect the toughness of their music . . . . They decided on something a bit more hardline — The Criminals — but Phil’s mother was less than impressed and after rehearsals one night at the Wilson house she jokingly suggested instead that they call themselves “something nice, like the la-de-das …”. Phil [Key] loved it, and the name stuck.”
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
843) Tom Dae Turned On — “I Shall Walk”
This is what garage rock sounded like in Connecticut in ’70! — “Heavy Psych out of Hartford . . . by a guy who mostly recorded lightweight pop (hence the “Turned On”). Shoestring, https://www.45cat.com/record/hitt7002). I don’t think “I Shall Walk” would go over well at Foxwoods, but it generates “[a]mazing mental visuals in minds eye with this one . . . dancing like The Talking Heads video David Byrne ‘Once in a Lifetime’ but walking across the globe, getting bigger each step until he steps onto the moon and then other planets into the solar system and beyond.” (jamestiberiuskirk3277,(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pg2CUw5YEaA&pp=ygUUVG9tIGRhZSBpIHNoYWxsIHdhbGs%3D) Thanks, Captain Kirk!
Oh, it’s a “‘protest song’ about pollution, wars, todays expansion destroying the environment, and about moving on to a place where trust and love exist)”! (liner notes to the Tom Dae Turned On comp CD (?), https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Dae-Turned/dp/B000GEU4B0)
About Tom Dae, the Tom Dae Turned On liner notes (?) tell us that:
“TOM DAE TURNED ON” was a cool marketing way to raise curiosity and let prospective new fans know . . . . Tom performed in the North East USA and Canada as a ‘ONE MAN BAND’ in Night Clubs in New York, Boston, Cape Cod as well Ski areas of New England. Tom performed in Holiday and Sheraton Inns as well as all variety of Nite Clubs. [T]he High Tensions’ ( ‘GIVE ME LOVE’, which features Arno Groot on sax), ‘TAMPICO RAGE’ & ‘LOST HORIZON’ are Ventures like instrumentals featuring Norman Letendre on Leed Guitar . . . [and there are] 70s Music cuts by ‘LOVE 70’ . . . .
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A hot mod band of the mid-’60s discovered by Animals managers Mike Jeffries and, with one 1965 single produced by Alan Price, Hipster Image managed to become a major band on the London club scene without ever charting a record. Established around Keele University in northern Staffordshire, England, . . . [t]hey issued two soul numbers — “Little Piece of Leather” and “All for You” — onto a flexidisc issued at the university, which got them noticed by Jeffries and into a recording studio in London. . . . [T]he band was never able to sustain itself and ultimately broke up . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
841) Herman’s Hermits —“Hold On!”
Here’s the title song to Peter Noone’s teen flick Hold On!, a neat and peppy little number. “This is the West Coast meeting the U.K. in a very pleasant way, and the combination is impressive”. (Joe Viglione, https://www.allmusic.com/album/hold-on%21-mw0000856840)
Had the producers not changed the name of the movie to Hold On!, the song never would have been written! The song’s writer P.F. Sloan recalls:
I was in the audience watching Donovan on stage at The Trip, an L.A. nightclub on Sunset Boulevard. Mickie Most, [the Hermits’] manager, came over to my table and said, “In two days, I need a song for Herman’s Hermits for the movie ‘A Must To Avoid’. Can you come up with a song tomorrow, and demo it the next day, so I can take it back to England to record it?” So I called my songwriting partner Steve Barri up at midnight – he was in bed, asleep – who said “No, I can’t come, I’m not interested”. So I went downstairs, used Donovan’s guitar, and wrote the melody to “A Must To Avoid”. The next day I called Steve up, but his wife was ill, and he couldn’t come over, so I started writing most of the sketch for the song, and when we got together at the demo session, Steve was able to add some of the lyric. Then they changed the name of the movie to “Hold On”, because they didn’t dare put out a movie with the title, “A Must To Avoid”! So I had to write another song! Peter Noone wanted me to play guitar, and teach the new song to the other members of the band, but I refused, as I didn’t want to change their sound.
More than another Herman’s Hermits album with two hit songs, “Leaning on the Lamp Post” and “A Must to Avoid,” this MGM soundtrack features the original version of “Where Were You When I Needed You,” the first of 14 hits for the Grass Roots, which landed in the Top 30 four months after Peter Noone sang it. Four of the tunes, including the title track “Hold On” and the hit “A Must to Avoid,” were written by the team of Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan . . . .
Herman Munster gets more respect than Herman’s Hermits (see #300, 613, 639). But they will be the new Monkees! They will get the respect they deserve. Don’t take my word for it. Just listen to Altrockchick:
They were one of the most successful bands of the invasion years (the #1 pop act in the U.S. in 1965), in large part because of their uncanny ability to make people smile. Peter Noone was the terminally cute boy that every girl’s mother wanted as a son-in-law, and the band seemed much less rough around the edges than the other invaders, including The Fab Four. . . . Once they faded from the scene, they apparently became something of a joke, a group of lightweights who made it because of exquisite timing and Herman’s irresistible sweetness: the British version of The Monkees, another band whose reputation suffered after they departed from the scene. . . . [But a]t their best, they performed with sincere and unrestrained joy and made people feel good about everyday life. . . . [T]hey did pop songs as well as anyone before or since. I refuse to apologize for liking Herman’s Hermits! . . . [W]hen they were on, enjoying themselves and the music, they had the ability to express the sweet and honest emotions of youth in a way that reminded people how sweet those innocent feelings were. Compare and contrast that to the celebration of suicidal tendencies in 90’s teen rock and I’ll take Herman’s Hermits every time, as uncool as that may be. So, yes, this dominant, leather-clad, sadistic, cigarette-smoking, vodka-guzzling, martial-arts-trained, whip-wielding terror of a woman has absolutely no guilt about expressing her appreciation for Herman’s Hermits . . . .
Time and “hip” critics haven’t exactly been kind to Herman’s Hermits . . . . Which I say bullshit to. The Hermits ran a pretty good race, staying the course until around 1970 . . . but a six-year career was not a bad thing. Especially when you see how quickly most of their contemporaries in the original British Invasion disappeared without a whimper by early-to-mid 1966. Although they may have been perceived as lightweight, they were actually quite an astute and damned fine band.
The U.S. State Department is facing a PR nightmare: As the astronauts on the next Gemini mission were unable to come up with the name for the spacecraft for luck, as is custom, they allowed their children to come up with the name. Their choice: Herman’s Hermits. The fact that Herman’s Hermits is a rock band is the lesser of the problems; the main one is that they are not even American, but British, evoking the Revolutionary War. Colby Grant of the State Department assigns Cape Kennedy Space Center scientist Ed Lindquist, whom he believes is the source of the problem in letting it happen, to follow the band on their current first-ever American tour so they can spin this problem effectively, Ed, a middle-age white man who is frustrated by this assignment in having no idea about the band or their music. Beyond the lads wanting to experience life in the States unencumbered, Ed has the additional problems of going through Dudley Hawks, the band’s manager and the only one allowed to manufacture their publicity; and the throngs of adoring young female fans wherever the band goes. Of those adoring young female fans, the two causing the most problems are: Cecilie Bannister, an aspiring starlet who feigns being old friends with Herman as leverage for upcoming contract negotiations with her studio; and Louisa “Louie” Page, with whom Herman falls in love-at-first-sight.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
840) Paul McCartney — “Every Night”
This “sweet, gentle” tribute to Linda McCartney “rank[s] as [a] full-fledged McCartney classic”, “full of all the easy melodic charm that is McCartney’s trademark”. (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, https://www.allmusic.com/album/mccartney-mw0000194129) “[O]ne of [his] greatest solo accomplishments [see #28, 132, 374, 669] . . . , [i]t is rare to find a song that paints such a perfect view of romantic love while staying unique, personal, and cliché-free.” (Jessy Krupa, https://www.popmatters.com/126886-paul-mccartney-every-night-2496181073.html)
The Beatles Bible says:
The lyrics for the song recounted how McCartney had found solace in the domesticity he enjoyed with his wife Linda. During The Beatles’ break-up McCartney struggled with depression and turned briefly to alcohol, but eventually found fulfillment and motivation in songwriting and family life. Like ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, it revealed how Linda had become a stabilising influence upon him.
A lot changed for Paul McCartney in the year 1969, and he reportedly didn’t handle it well. The band that his entire life revolved around–the biggest band in the world, the Beatles–was falling apart, and the resulting tangled mess of hurt feelings and legal matters left him sorely depressed. Getting him through this difficult time was his wife, Linda, who suggested that he should start working on his own music apart from the group. “Every Night” became the resulting tribute to his inspiring spouse.
Appearing on McCartney’s first solo album (see #132), the song actually came into being during the Beatles’ Get Back sessions in ’69. As the Good Book tells us:
McCartney first performed the song during The Beatles’ Get Back sessions at Apple Studios, on 21 and 24 January 1969. On the first occasion it was a brief solo rendition while the group was working on ‘Dig A Pony’ though the second had some poorly-played slide guitar accompaniment by John Lennon. [It] was recorded properly by McCartney on 22 February 1970 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road.
McCartney had “the first two lines . . . for years. They were added to in 1969 in Greece (Benitses) on holiday.” (press release for the McCartney album, https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/1970/04/mccartney-press-kit-sent-to-uk-press/) He remembers that “when I played the McCartney album to Ringo he said that he preferred my original solo version, when I had first sung it to him.” (Club Sandwich, Winter 1994, https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/song/every-night/)
As to McCartney, Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes:
Paul McCartney . . . record[ed] his first solo album [see #132] at his home studio, performing nearly all of the instruments himself. Appropriately, [it] has an endearingly ragged, homemade quality that makes even its filler — and there is quite a bit of filler — rather ingratiating. . . . At the time the throwaway nature of much of the material was a shock, but it has become charming in retrospect.
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The individuals behind the Motherlight LP never played a live gig as they were essentially a studio vehicle for Mike Bobak, Andy Johns, and Wil Malone. . . . Wil Malone had previously led the prolific UK psych group Orange Bicycle and would go on to release a folky solo disc in 1970 and also play in another psych pop group named Fickle Pickle [see #568]. The Motherlight project saw him write most of the album’s lyrics, sing lead, play keyboards and lead guitar while Bobak and Johns supplied the rhythm section. In my mind, the Motherlight LP is Malone’s finest work ever. The feel of this album is low key but ominous, unlike anything I’ve heard and it’s this quality that makes the LP so special.
By the summer of 1967 [independent producer Monty] Babson was working with on outfit called Orange Bicycle, whose mainmon was Wilson Malone – a multiinstrumentalist who could write, sing, produce and arrange with equal dexterity. . . . [Babson] founded the Morgan Sound Recording Studios. . . . [and] the Morgan label . . . [I]t was the nascent progressive and underground bands who were capable of making the serious money. . . . [and] Babson’s response was to introduce the Morgan Blue Town label . . . to cater for the left-of-centre rock and pop audience. [In addition to Malone, s]taff engineers Mike Bobak and a teenage Andy Johns (younger brother of Stones producer Glyn) were already experienced studio hands. . . . [and] accomplished musicians. . . . With Wil Malone on drums, keyboards, vocals and songwriting duties, Bobak on guitar and Johns . . . contributing bass as well as performing various feats of studio trickery, the ad hoc studio trio agreed to create their own Morgan Blue Town long player. “Monty Babson had a deal with Wil Malone”, recalls Mike Bobak, “and it went from there. The album was definitely a low-key thing, really just us having fun. We used dead studio time late at night to record the music, and part of the agreement was that we lost all rights to the frocks as soon as we created them.[“] . . . Motherlight duly emerged in the summer of 1969, but without a band to promote it, the Morgan sales team were facing an uphill struggle. The album came and went . . . .”
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
838) Agincourt — “Dawn”
This lovely gift of UK folk is a “jaunty and upbeat number with . . . lovely harmonies from the three charming singers.” (Psychedelic Paul, https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7290)
“Dawn” comes from an ultra-rare privately pressed album that Psychedelic Paul calls a “charmingly beautiful English Psych-Folk album to delight the senses and leave one feeling in a cheerful and ebullient mood. . . . conjur[ing] up bucolic images of a pastoral idyll. . . . full to the brim with lovely harmonies and first-class musicianship”. (https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7290) It is “an intricate, dreamy psychedelic album, made all the better by the fragile female vocals on offer from Lee Menelaus” (https://lightintheattic.net/releases/449-fly-away), “proggy folk with a bit of rock leanings, spiced with a bit of psychedelic west coast” (Gruvan Dahlman, https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7290), and a “psychedelic folk oddity [with] a quaint innocence fitting of the era and . . . shades of pop, a touch of West Coast and even jazz in places.” (https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/agincourt-fly-away-lp/TDP.54056LP.html)
Richie Unterberger says of the album:
Though [it] is sometimes described as folk-rock, it’s really more accurately pegged as a combination of folk-rock (of the contemporary rather than traditional British variety), a bit of psychedelia, and a bit of swooning pop. Certainly it’s got more drive and catchy pop melodies than most of the plentiful oodles of obscure barely pressed British folk-rock releases of the early ’70s, though there are similarities in the gentleness of the approach and the wistful, slightly sad melodies. As these kind of U.K. folk-rockish rarities go, it’s certainly one of the better ones . . . among the upper tier of things you should check out if you’re accumulating unknown albums in that realm. Lee Menelaus has a sweet, high voice that’s lighter and more innocent-sounding (to good effect) than many woman singers of the style, and the original tunes have a way of shining with pleasing sunniness while steering clear of the saccharine.
During the mid-1960s, deep in the Sussex countryside of southern England, aspiring musicians Peter Howell and John Ferdinando played in a few school bands before recording together in Howell’s father’s garage. Through Ferdinando’s connections with a theater group, the duo created a musical companion for their production of Alice Through The Looking Glass, which the duo pressed privately; then, Fly Away, credited to Agincourt, was produced in a spare bedroom, an advertisement bringing Lee Menelaus, whose lilting voice provided a stirring female counterpart to theirs. . . . Pressed in minute quantity on another private press, original copies have been known to sell for £1500 or more; the duo continued recording, notably on work credited to Ithaca, before Howell became a full-time member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, where he notably worked on the Doctor Who theme.
The concoction of John Ferdinando and Peter Howell, two childhood friends . . . AGINCOURT was in fact not actually a band but rather simply a name given to the trio of musicians who recorded it . . . . Ferdinando and Howell recorded several albums in Ditchling during the latter sixties and early seventies, during which time they appeared at times as members and guests of various regional acts such as MERLIN’S SPELL and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS. The two (sometimes with Menelaus) also recorded albums under the names ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, ITHACA, FRIENDS and as simply FERDINANDO & HOWELL.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
837) Ike & Tina Turner — “Workin’ Together”
Tina, you’ve been through a lot and achieved even more. RIP.
“Workin’” is the transcendent title track of Ike & Tina’s (see #212, 329) best and most successful LP, but when it had been released as an A-side, it only reached #105 (#41 R&B) in November 1970. The song is “a mid-tempo groover (written by Eki Renrut, Ike’s brilliant inverted alias) powered by a soulful chorus and a guitar line that plays like a mutated version of Dylan’s ‘I Want You’ riff.” (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, https://www.allmusic.com/album/workin-together-mw0000588125) It is “fantastic” and “[i]mprobably enough, given that the violently abusive Ike wrote it, it’s a plea for universal brotherhood and unity, given a rasping urgency by [Tina’s] voice.” (Alexis Petridis, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/2023/05/24/tina-turner-her-20-greatest-songs-and-performances-in-order/)
As to the album, Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes:
Workin’ Together was the first genuine hit album Ike & Tina had in years; actually, it was their biggest ever, working its way into Billboard’s Top 25 and spending 38 weeks on the charts. . . . Workin’ Together feels like a proper album, where many of the buried album tracks are as strong as the singles. . . . [It] relies a bit too much on contemporary covers, which isn’t bad when it’s the perennial “Proud Mary,” since it deftly reinterprets the original, but readings of the Beatles’ “Get Back” and “Let It Be,” while not bad, are a little bit too pedestrian. Fortunately, they’re . . . outweighed by songs that crackle with style and passion. Nowhere is this truer than on the opening title track . . . . Then, there’s the terrific Stax/Volt stomper ” (Long As I Can) Get You When I Want You,” possibly the highlight on the record. . . . [T]he duo never topped this, possibly the best proper album they ever cut.
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Barry Booth’s [see #549] music . . . was as quirky as the words – lovely melody lines that went round the wrong corner and came back again, odd changes of time signature, fruity piano and arrangements, as well as his own sweet, oddly high voice. It must have been a good record, because for 30 years the tunes have been running through my mind, and at odd moments I find still myself singing [them].
“I’m not sure if Pye was on its last legs at this time but, when the record first appeared, I was concerned that the record pushers, who get the record played and placed, were primarily interested in pushing glasses in the pub. Which meant that the resultant album remained a pretty well kept secret.”
Barry Booth is a most unlikely artist to have recorded one of the great lost chamber pop albums of the ’60s. When . . . Diversions!, was released in 1968, he was already thirty years old and had never recorded an album or even a single as an artist. Indeed, he had never intended to record Diversions! either. He was merely hoping to place some of the songs with other artists. That is, until iconic British producer Tony Hatch (The Searchers, Petula Clark, Jackie Trent) fell in love with the material and insisted that Booth record the album. Further evidence of his reticence is the fact he never again recorded as an artist . . . . Booth’s roots were in classical music and he studied composition and piano at the Royal Academy of Music in the late ’50s. Though accomplished, he was not a virtuoso pianist and, following a stint in the National Service playing in military orchestras and dance bands, Booth began to work as the bandleader for Roy Orbison in the mid-’60s. While working with Orbison, he began to collaborate with two young actors and comedians, Michael Palin and Terry Jones, whom he had met while working as the musical director for the British television series Five O’Clock Club. Booth commissioned the future Pythons to write some lyrics which Booth would then set to music. The resulting songs provided the entirety of the material on Diversions! Booth brought some of the songs to Orbison and later to Hatch. While Orbison passed, Hatch was charmed by both the material and by Booth’s restrained and heartfelt vocal style. He talked Booth into recording the songs himself, with Booth arranging and conducting and Hatch producing. . . . The lyrics are whimsical, typically narrative, and often reflect a British Music Hall sensibility. . . .
[At] the Royal Academy of Music in London. . . . [Booth] studied composition, harmony . . . counterpoint . . . and pianoforte . . . while flouting the Academy’s rules by playing professionally in the city’s jazz clubs by night. . . . In the early 1960s he worked on back-to-back national pop tours, as a bandleader and piano player for various acts including . . . Roy Orbison . . . .
[H]e put his classical training at the service of one of the support acts when he offered a simple solution to a vocal harmony line they were having trouble figuring out. He proposed that they use an inverted pedal-point, sustaining a single high note in harmony with the descending melody line. The proposal was accepted and consequently can be heard in the verses of the Beatles’ early hit Please Please Me. (Many years later, Elvis Costello would remember noticing it as a 9 year old boy. As described in Craig Brown’s One Two Three Four, he ‘listened intently to the disc as his father played it over and over again. He was startled by the vocal harmony line; the second singer seemed to be singing the same note repeatedly against the lead singer.’)
Orbison, the original inspiration for that song, was sufficiently impressed by Booth’s abilities to hire him as his musical director and piano player in his backing band . . . taking him on tours of Europe and North America. Booth first entered the US illegally, smuggled by Orbison over the Canadian border in the boot of a car after a work permit had failed to arrive on time. Booth continued to serve Orbison in this position for several years, before going on to enjoy a long career as a highly versatile musical director, arranger, composer and pianist . . . .
Diversions! consisted of musical settings of fourteen lyrics he had commissioned from two young writers he’d worked with in television: Michael Palin and Terry Jones . . . . Pitching the songs to producer Tony Hatch in the hope of landing them with established singers, Booth had inadvertently landed a deal to record them himself. . . . [It] is an example of how ambitious and inventive popular music was becoming at the time . . . . It is uniquely charming, whimsical, often cryptic and sometimes slightly sinister . . . .
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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
The A-side of the Bros’ only single, “Bad Way” is a “one-shot masterpiece” (Greg Shaw, liner notes to the CD comp Pebbles, Vol. 10: Original ’60s Punk & Psych Classics), “a slab of killer 60s garage . . . with a killer organ break and snarling vocals”. (Martin Samson, (https://www.vinylseeker.com/bruthers-bad-way-to-go/) “Vocalising the sound made by playing an electric jug. Brilliant!” (Ken Kavanagh, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H309X6iEpSo) “Quite literally one of the GREATEST garage tunes EVER.” (Jacquie Tellalian, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H309X6iEpSo)
[“Bad Way” is] one of the rawest garage band tracks to gain release on a major label (RCA), its furiously fast, shifting rhythms, berserk circular guitar and organ riffs, and malicious put-down lyrics bringing to mind something like a garage band at a harem.
[T]ense, almost circus-like up-and-down riffs, archetypically snarling mid-’60s garage vocal, doom-clouded organ, and furious tempo changes make it one of the best ’60s garage records to have escaped inclusion on the Nuggets box set.
Alf Delia, age 19 at the time, joined with three of his twelve younger siblings and began crafting . . . one of the most angsty and sincere teen punkers of all time. . . . The Bruthers commenced practice in a chicken coop on their families property. Alf rightfully pointed out that this technically makes them chicken coop rock as opposed to garage rock. It became clear that if they were going to have any success at all, they would have to write some original material. Inspired by a break up with his then girIfriend Susie, emotion poured out of Alf’s guitar and onto paper and “Bad Way to Go” was born. . . . The Bruthers got paid $5,000 in the RCA deal, and like any 19 year old aspiring rock star, Alf spent his entire share ($1500) on a bright red Volkswagen Beetle. In addition to releasing the . . . single, the Bruthers wrote and recorded a song for Jim Henson’s Muppets world debut on the Ed Sullivan show in September of 1966 with a song called “Rock It To Me” . . . .
“We just went bananas with the whole rock and roll thing. We stayed upstairs from the bar…drinking, drugging, finding girls…you know, we were all way too young. Pop ended up coming up from Pearl River to bust up the gig after the brothers went a little too far with barroom hijinx.”
Alf
The Bruthers put on a raucous show that sometimes included sporting matching velvet jackets or running around in the crowd dressed in gorilla suits.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
833) Thorinshield — “Here Today”
A song that is “chockfull of latent Beatlisms, with an occasional Boettcher-like Millennial quirky little detail or two” and an album that is “now rightly regarded as a minor classic of late 60s soft psychedelia.” (Garwood Pickjon, https://popdiggers.com/thorinshield-thorinshield/) Funky16corners says that “Thorinshield . . . managed to bring together prime Sunset Strip folk rock, baroque touches, and early psychedelia to weave a unique sonic tapestry. Though I’ve heard the members of the group dismissing the orchestration of the album for obscuring the sound of the band, the arrangements by Perry Bodkin are for me what really ‘makes’ the album.” (https://ironleg.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/thorinshield-wrong-my-friend/)
The liner notes to the CD reissue of the album inform us that:
The mysteriously-named* Thorinshield released an album and two singles in 1968 which, though they sank without trace, are now prized by fans of so-called ‘sunshine pop’. Their roots lay in Los Angeles, where drummer Terry Hand had played in numerous surf bands, as well as recording two singles with Everpresent Fullness. Bassist Bobby Ray . . . was a seasoned session player who had participated in Donovan’s legendary May 1966 sessions in LA, resulting in songs including the classic Season Of The Witch. They teamed up with guitarist James Ray in 1967, and Smith and Ray began to write commercial songs together that reflected an interest in both folk and psychedelia. . . . [The album] featured intricate harmonies akin to the work being carried out at the same time by Curt Boettcher on albums by Sagittarius and the Millennium . . . . Smith is not known to have continued with a career in music, but Hand joined soft-psych band The Moon, and Ray recorded an excellent folk-psych solo LP entitled Initiation Of A Mystic . . . .
Garwood Pickjon adds that “Bobby Ray’s (one of Thorinshield’s two main songwriters) involvement in Donovan’s 1966 L.A. sessions (on bass), happens to be an experience impressive enough for them, to keep the listener reminded of the fact throughout the whole of their only . . . album . . . . With Mr. Leich’s pioneering “e-lec-trical” sketches continuously popin’ in and out of the soundscape, they’re being blended with other equally kaleidoscopic sounds of the moment”. (https://popdiggers.com/thorinshield-thorinshield/)
Richie Unterberger notes that:
Thorinshield is sometimes labeled a sunshine pop band by collectors, but though they share some traits with Californian sunshine pop artists, they had a more straightforward, less lightweight rock flavor than many acts given that label. . . . [T]he influences of the melodic rock and vocal harmonies of the 1966-1967 Beatles are evident, as are some of the ornate orchestration, production trickery, and trippily optimistic-romantic lyrics that were becoming in vogue throughout much pop music by the late ’60s. To some degree, the influence of the slicker folk-rock-affiliated Southern Californian artists can be heard as well, along with dashes of baroque melody and instrumentation. . . .
[It has] elements of the psychedelic Beatles, the Byrds, California harmony pop groups, and singer/songwriters jostle side by side . . . . It’s pop-folk-rock sung, played, harmonized, and produced with late-’60s Los Angeles craftsmanship . . . .
The LP didn’t make any waves, however, and the group broke up after [a] subsequent non-LP 45.
It was a reasonably pleasant, good-natured record, and certainly well produced . . . but the material isn’t strong enough to hold up with the better artists with whom they share some similarities.
I’m any given era, there are numerous albums by rock musicians who’ve obviously assimilated styles and ideas by many leading figures of the period, but don’t synthesize them in a particularly interesting way. Such was the case with Thorinshield’s only album . . . .
Oakenshield was the title and sobriquet of King Thorin II of Durin’s Folk. Thorin acquired the title long before he became King. [W]hen he was just fifty-three (a young age for a Dwarf) he marched with a mighty Dwarf-army to the valley they called Azanulbizar, Nanduhirion beneath the East-gate of Moria. There they fought the Battle of Nanduhirion, the last and greatest in the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. In that battle, Thorin’s shield was broken, so he cut a bough from an oak-tree with his axe, and used that instead to fend off his enemies’ blows, or to club them. It was that oaken branch that gave Thorin his surname, but it did not completely save him from injury – it is recorded that he was wounded in the battle. In memory of the battle, Thorin bore a plain shield of oak wood with no device, and swore to do so until he was hailed king. . . . Like many Dwarvish names, it appears in the Norse poem Völuspá in the form Eikinskjaldi, but there it is the personal name of a Dwarf, not a surname as in Tolkien’s work.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊 