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

769) “Free Creek” Super Session (Earl Dowd, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Moogy Klingman) — “Getting Back to Molly”

When I first heard this Bayou funk slow burner, I could swear that Dr. John (see #177) was growling out the vocals. Well, the good doctor was on the record, but he was actually playing guitar — trading solos with Eric Clapton! WTF?

Turns out this is from the supposedly mythical “Free Creek” super session in ‘69. The song was written by Moogy Klingman, with Earl Dowd doing the Dr. John impression, Clapton and Dr. John on guitars, and Klingman contributing harmonica (+ the Free Creeks Singers). (https://brain-salad.com/Digest/back-issues/2003/elp-digest-13-05.txt)

Moogy recalls that:

It was late but I told everyone I had one more song. I pulled out my harmonica and playing a one chord blues riff I had been working on with some words I had that went, “Getting Back to Molly”. Dr. John picked up a guitar and we had our third song. Two guitars battling with my wailing blues harp. Everyone had a great time. By the time we left the studio, it was light outside and we all had smiles on all our faces.

https://brain-salad.com/Digest/back-issues/2003/elp-digest-13-05.txt

Silly Puppy writes that:

Tracks like “Getting Back To Molly” exemplify the free spirit mood . . . . With a jamming bluesy groove of Eric Clapton on guitar with Dr John joining in as a second guitarist, the baritone vocal deliveries of Earl Down and the backing Free Creeks Singers offer the perfect glimpse into the sounds of an undisclosed bayou in Louisiana as if Parliament, Three Dog Night and Taj Mahal had secretly gotten together to record.

https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=13304

Joe Viglione notes that “When Family producer Earl Dowd got recording time at The Record Plant and Todd Rundgren walked away from a proposed project, Klingman got to produce and direct sessions that came to be known as Music from Free Creek.”(https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mark-moogy-klingman-mn0000590090/biography) Easy Livin tells us more:

“Music from Free Creek” is . . . very strange and bizarre . . . . Quite how or why it came about is something of a mystery. It was recorded in New York in the new Record Plant recording studios in 1969. About 50 musicians were involved in this “behind closed doors” affair, many of whom were either famous at the time, or have gone on to find fame. Reportedly, none have ever been paid for their contribution. Two performers, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, were not named on the original release for contractual reasons, but this still leaves the likes of Keith Emerson, Delaney Bramlett, Todd Rundgren, Chris Wood, and Linda Ronstadt. The album is essentially a “Super session” primarily consisting of jams based on sometimes well known songs. About half a dozen different artists lead a session of three or four songs. These range from the jazz orientated Emerson session, to the country folk of Linda Ronstadt. Apart from the occasional overdub, the music is pretty much as it was recorded, warts and all. At times, the unstructured nature of the sessions becomes apparent, a young Moogy Klingman doing his best to keep in order the major artists he had been thrown in a the deep end with. . . . It was never officially released in the US . . . . Even in the UK, it took three years to sort out the legal situation to the extent that the album could be released, finally appearing in 1973.

https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=13304

As does Viglione:

[A] simply amazing collection of marquee talent recorded at the Record Plant in June through August of 1969. . . . While record labels were looking for something of this enormity — keep the alleged “jam” between Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan that never happened in mind . . . the public had little clue that something on that scale actually did exist. . . . Broken up into six divisions — the Eric Clapton session, the Jeff Beck session, the Keith Emerson session, the Harvey Mandel session, Moogy Klingman’s odds & sods, and the Linda Ronatadt session . . . . Music from Free Creek is a super session album where the musicians are playing for the fun of it, and that comes across. The material doesn’t get bogged down in “names”; it just flows.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/music-from-free-creek-the-long-lost-super-session-album-mw0000995315

As to Klingman, Joe Viglione says:

Mark “Moogy” Klingman, produced Bette Midler’s third album . . . co-wrote with Buzzy Linhart [see #346, 647] the song that could be considered her theme, “(You Got to Have) Friends”; co-founded Utopia with Todd Rundgren; and was a legendary figure in the music industry, having written, produced, performed, and organized for over four decades. . . . At 16, he was a member of Jimmy James & the Blue Flames, the original Jimi Hendrix group . . . . A year later, Klingman caught a break when one of the hottest producers in the industry, Bob Crew, produced his first signed band, Glitterhouse (formerly the Justice League) . . . . Glitterhouse also recorded the soundtrack to the hip Roger Vadim science-fiction film starring Jane Fonda, Barbarella . . . . Klingman was in a jug band with Andy Kaufman . . . performing in a civil rights concert that got Klingman expelled from high school. He met Todd Rundgren . . . circa 1969 and played on many Rundgren-produced discs by artists such as Ian & Sylvia, co-producing some like the James Cotton Blues Band and Klingman’s own two albums for Capitol/EMI. . . . Klingman appeared on about ten to 12 Rundgren albums . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mark-moogy-klingman-mn0000590090/biography

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

768) The Orange Seaweed — “Stay a While”

I’ve played the B-side (“Pictures in the Sky” (see #180)). Here is the pleasing pop-psych A-side of the only single from this “[p]sychedelic band from Hastings, England . . . formed out of cult Freakbeat act The Kingpins”. (https://www.45cat.com/biography/the-orange-seaweed), complete with classical flourishes

The Kingpins? As the British Music Archive tells us:

The Kingpins originated . . . in South London. . . . [and] made their recording debut . . . [in] 1965. . . . record[ing] a version of The Yardbirds’ For Your Love and a group original . . . Diamond Girl. . . . [At a]nother recording session . . . in April, 1966[,] Living In The Past, Hurting My Pride, You’re My Girl, Maybe Sometime were recorded, but again rejected by record companies. The band returned to the same studios in June, 1966 to record Baby I Need and Wasting My Time. Although these later two songs were also rejected by record labels, the band were enjoying support slots with acts such as The Kinks, The Who, Manfred Mann, Small Faces, David Bowie, Cat Stevens and The Troggs. . . . [Another] session producing Travelling Man, Mysterious, Do You Love Me, Raining In My Sunshine recorded in February, 1967. . . . These latest recordings also failed to attract record company interest. As there was nothing happening for The Kingpins, [guitarist and singer] Ray Neale took up an offer to join The Mojos . . . . but the band split shortly after . . . . The Kingpins . . . quickly regrouped with Neale returning . . . .

At this point, the band ventured into psychedelic territory and gained themselves a recording contract at last with Pye records in 1968. Pye issued their first single as the Orange Seaweed which the band had chosen as their new name to make themselves more topical and appealing . . . . [R]ecruited songwriter Peter Morris . . . penned both sides of their single, Stay Awhile b/w Pictures In The Sky. . . . Two further recordings were made with this line-up as Orange Seaweed, these being: Skinny Minnie and Sunshine In The Morning. These were swiftly recorded as a possible follow-up single, but as there was not enough interest in the single, it failed to appear. . . .

In the early 1980s, Ray Neale went on to join The Savages backing Screaming Lord Sutch . . . .

http://www.britishmusicarchive.com/artists/the-kingpins/

As David Wells puts it, Orange Seaweed was “[n]amed as a result of the band’s near-mystical experience on the beach at Hastings . . . . Pausing only to invest in some tasteful orange trousers, [they] . . . clambered aboard the psychedelic bus . . . but to no commercial avail.” (liner notes to Psychedelic Pstones, Vol. 1: Hot Smoke & Sassafras CD comp).

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

767) Genesis — “Am I Very Wrong”

A quite beautiful song from Genesis’ ’69 schoolboy debut. TGM: Orb says it is “one of the highlights of the album: the excellent pensive acoustics-trombone-and-vocals of the verses, with great piano parts between them, unfortunately, it then goes on to have a silly, moderately mindless chorus that ruins everything. Could’ve been a pretty good song, but wasn’t.” (http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=6) Hey, I like the chorus! As Ivan Melgar describes the album: “Not bad for a bunch of kids that were at school, some poppy ballads, a couple of great tunes like . . . Am I Very Wrong? . . . [L]et’s be honest, Genesis was a school band searching for a hit and nothing more, but they made a better album than many pop professionals.” (http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=6)

Dave Swanson notes that:

The album went on to sell a whopping 650 copies upon its initial release, something [producer] Jonathan King takes partial blame for. “I had this brilliant idea to call it From Genesis to Revelation, and not have an artist’s name on it,” King said in Genesis: A History.  “This was a terrible mistake! It got bumped into all the religious bins of the record shops and nobody ever heard it.”

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/genesis-from-genesis-to-revelation/

Tarkus1980:

Rarely has the debut album of a major group received this much of a slagging from both fans and critics alike. And on the surface, the flaws of the album are huge and very numerous, seemingly leaving criticism fully justified. In case you’re unaware, here’s the general rundown: first, the band was in its formative stages . . . . Hence, the playing on this album is a bit unimpressive . . . . Next, the band had not yet found its own distinct style, choosing to emulate the Beatles, Bee Gees and Zombies. And worst of all, producer Jonathan King, in an attempt to make the band seem ‘sophisticated’, forced the band to write around the concept of the creation of the world through the death of Adam . . . . Oh, and when they were done, he threw a lot of orchestration over the songs, except that King seemingly had no idea how to properly use string and brass arrangements in rock (unlike, say, George Martin). So . . . WHY am I giving this album a 4-star rating??!!! Because beneath all of the superficial weaknesses lie two of Genesis’ strengths, in just as full of force now as they would be later – incredible songwriting and incredible vocals from Peter. . . . [A]lmost a dozen of the songs on here (and yes, I’m counting the singles . . . ) are, at least in one aspect in each of them, absolute pop perfection. “Am I Very Wrong?,” for instance, may have a slightly awkward and Disney-sounding chorus, but how about that vocal melody in the verses?!

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=6

As to one of those negative views, Proghead writes;

At this point, the members of GENESIS . . . were finishing up their education at the notoriously exclusive and snooty public school . . . called Charterhouse. “From Genesis to Revelation” sounds very little like the early GENESIS sound that’s to be found on their following albums. [T]he music has more in common with the MOODY BLUES and early BEE GEES, but in my book, it’s more like those two band’s worst aspects . . . . The music is plastered with real bad dentist office Muzak-style strings, out of tune piano, barely noticeable guitars, and bad lyrics.

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=6

To go deeper into the history, Thomas Schrage (translated by Martin Klinkhardt) writes:

All of them knew each other from Charterhouse public school. The songwriter team Rutherford and Anthony Phillips asked Tony Banks to play the piano for them; Banks only agreed if he could bring his songwriting partner Peter Gabriel to record a song. Soon they were convinced that Gabriel’s voice sounded better than Phillips’ so he ended up singing on all the songs. . . . These boys (most of them were around 17 at the time) managed to land a record contract . . . in August 1967. That only meant that a single would be released. [Jonathan] King was an alumnus of Charterhouse and had had quite a successful hit with Everyone’s Gone To The Moon. A shallow pop song though that may have been, he nevertheless seemed to be a person of success and influence . . . .  They recorded two singles with King that came out in February and May 1968. Both did just well enough that King decided to record a full album with the band during the summer holidays. . . . King christened the band Genesis. He found it a fitting name for a new creation that would make the beginning of his career as a serious producer. He attempted to drive them in a same direction as the singles that had been gentle and acoustic. For one thing, he felt that there was a niche for them, and for another, such music did not require a large number of instruments the band could not afford. . . . [H]e . . . had the idea to tell a story in the album, the story from Genesis to Revelation. . . . It turned out that there was an American band called Genesis, too. On short notice the band name was dropped from the cover . . . . [S]tring arrangements were added to the recorded songs. It was a fait accompli for the band who only found out when the album was released. They had accepted the strings for the single, but this time Anthony Phillips found them terrible, disfiguring, overly sweet and not at all corresponding to the simple and straight approach of the band.

https://www.genesis-news.com/c-From-Genesis-To-Revelation-1969-s481.html

And a postscript. Ultimate Classic Rock tells us that:

[ T]he album did make one famous fan: Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, whose 2017 song “If Love Is the Law” was inspired by “The Conquerer.” “I became obsessed with early Genesis,” he told ‘Rolling Stone’ of his writing process. “And I was like, ‘Fuckin’ hell, why has no one ever fuckin’ mentioned this?”

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/forgotten-first-albums/

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

766) Omega — “H., Az Elektromos Fűrész”/”H. , The Electric Saw”

Mind-blowing instrumental from Hungary’s greatest rock band’s (see #195, 644) third album — Éjszakai Országút (On the Highway at Night). The album (and song) are “full of energetic heavy prog rock with acid spices – guitar riffs, stomping rhythm section and nice Hammond organ backing.” (http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=116173)

ÉLŐ OMEGA tells us that:

The [album’s] title itself is a symbol. A wanderer walking or driving by car on the highway at night often sees a world different from the daytime reality, his imagination expands and the possibility of imagination multiplies. Gábor Presser, the author of most Omega numbers, said at the press conference held at the release of the album: “Most of the good ideas and melody sketches come to mind when after the concert, we are tired on the way home by bus and we stare at the night with closed eyes.”

https://www.facebook.com/azeloomega/posts/3411027452243081/

About Omega, Yuri German tells us:

The most successful Hungarian rock band in history, Omega was formed in 1962 in Budapest by a group of friends. The lineup changed several times during Omega’s early years and there was no consistent music style to speak of. As with many other rock groups of the early ’60s, the band’s repertory largely consisted of songs by popular British bands of the period. Only in 1967, when they were joined by Gábor Presser (keyboards, vocals), did they began recording their own songs and issuing a few singles. Presser’s mixture of rock with elements of jazz and folk proved to be a winning formula. In 1968, John Martin, the manager of the Spencer Davis Group, invited them for a tour in Great Britain, where they recorded the album Omega: Red Star from Hungary for the Decca label. Later that year, they issued their first Hungarian LP . . . . The band sealed their success with two subsequent LPs, 10,000 Lépés . . . and Éjszakai Országút (On the Highway at Night) (1970).

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/omega-mn0001073347

Vibrationbaby proclaims that:

If Omega had been singing in English and didn’t have to contend with political restrictions which were in effect back in the sixties in communist ruled Eastern Europe they would have definitely made a mark on the western charts way before 1973 when they began recording in English on [a] West German label . . . . Although they had briefly played various gigs in England including the Marqee Club and released a partial album in 1968 on the Decca label it wasn’t until 1969/70 that they really started making their mark with the albums 10,000 Lepes (10,000 Steps) and Edszakai orzogut (On the Road at Night) which both went gold in their native land. The material on On the Road at Night is a very interesting combination of some very trippy psychedelia as well as some romantic ballads which seem to draw from their Hungarian folk roots and not unlike songs that were being produced by contemporary western bands in the late sixties.

http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=116173

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

765) Blood, Sweat & Tears — “The Modern Adventures of Plato, Diogenes and Freud”

OK, BST’s first album — Child Is Father to the Man — is really by Al Kooper’s (see #642, 705) Blood, Sweat & Tears, literally and figuratively. It is most celebrated for Kooper’s insertion of horns into rock and roll. As Jessica Lipsky says, “[T]he real genius is in Child’s use of horns” (https://www.waxpoetics.com/rediscovery/blood-sweat-tears-child-is-father-to-the-man/), and as trombonist Dick Halligan says, “Just the fact that the horns were used as an actual part of the music . . . was not common that year. Horns were used in R&B bands already, but not really pop groups[]”. (https://www.waxpoetics.com/rediscovery/blood-sweat-tears-child-is-father-to-the-man/) Of course, I am featuring a wonderful ballad that doesn’t feature horns!

As to “Modern Adventures”, Lipsky says that “the utilization of a string ensemble, aka ‘soul chorus[]’ . . . imbued [it] . . . with a classical sensibility” (https://www.waxpoetics.com/rediscovery/blood-sweat-tears-child-is-father-to-the-man/) The song is sometimes associated with “Eleanor Rigby”. To Gatot, it “reminds me to the work of The Beatles – something like Eleanor Rigby but this one is much more PROGier.” (https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=15687) Matthew Greenwald proclaims that:

Utilizing Blood, Sweat & Tears’ musical diversity to its utmost degree, Al Kooper wrote this experimental piece to take advantage of their exploratory nature. A simple and profound string section takes the minor-key melody through the song without other accompaniment, not unlike the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby.” The lyrics are a bit weighty and dated, but overall the experiment works like a charm, and the song is less affected then when it was first released back in 1967.

https://www.allmusic.com/song/the-modern-adventures-of-plato-diogenes-freud-mt0051113458

As to the album as a whole, Sundazed Records says:

Child Is Father to the Man stands with such late-’60s art-pop landmarks as the Zombies’ Odessey and Oracle and Love’s Forever Changes in capturing the period’s seemingly limitless creative possibilities. [It] is a brilliant reflection of the desire of Kooper . . . to use an expanded instrumental lineup to explore a broader range of sounds, styles and compositional approaches. Towards that end, he launched Blood, Sweat & Tears, recruiting a stellar assortment of players from the worlds of rock and jazz . . . . The resulting album (produced by fabled studio genius John Simon) was a seamlessly eclectic psychedelic-rock-jazz-classical fusion . . . . Kooper’s expansive musical vision may have been a bit too far ahead of its time. Although it was a favorite of early FM album-rock DJs, Child Is Father to the Man barely scraped the Billboard Top 50 and failed to produce a hit single. However, in the years since, the album has been widely recognized for its expressiveness and originality, and embraced by successive generations of listeners. For instance, it received a prominent placement [#265] in Rolling Stone’s 2003 ranking of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

https://sundazed.com/p/945-Blood-Sweat-Tears-Child-Is-Father-to-the-Man-LP.aspx

William Ruhlmann calls the album:

Kooper’s finest work, an album on which he moves the folk-blues-rock amalgamation of the Blues Project into even wider pastures, taking in classical and jazz elements (including strings and horns), all without losing the pop essence that makes the hybrid work. This is one of the great albums of the eclectic post-Sgt. Pepper era of the late ’60s, a time when you could borrow styles from Greenwich Village contemporary folk to San Francisco acid rock and mix them into what seemed to have the potential to become a new American musical form. . . . This is the sound of a group of virtuosos enjoying itself in the newly open possibilities of pop music. Maybe it couldn’t have lasted; anyway, it didn’t.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/child-is-father-to-the-man-mw0000245285

Jessica Lipsky adds:

[The album] is a uniquely late ’60s aural milieu that still sounds fresh today[, a] sensitive and seamlessly eclectic record [that] managed to be both familiar and far-out. . . . meld[ing] the soul, folk, and classical influences that pop audiences would’ve been attuned to, adding in blues phrasing and jazzy arrangements . . . . The not-so-secret ingredient to the album’s success (though Child never had any charting singles or broke the Top 40) was multi-instrumentalist Al Kooper . . . . [who] was eager to bring a horn section into the rock world . . . .

https://www.waxpoetics.com/rediscovery/blood-sweat-tears-child-is-father-to-the-man/

Where did the album come from? Doug Collette says that “[Kooper] sought to add horns to the [Blues Project], but its members demurred, leaving unfulfilled, at least temporarily, Kooper’s desire to act on how deeply moved he was seeing Maynard Ferguson’s big band as a teenager.” (https://glidemagazine.com/288812/55-years-later-revisiting-blood-sweat-tears-rock-meets-jazz-debut-child-is-father-to-the-man/) Lipsky adds that:

To help fund his vision of a horn-laced rock album, which Kooper had originally hoped to record in London, he organized a star-studded benefit at Café Au Go Go featuring Judy Collins, Simon and Garfunkel, and Richie Havens. The show sold out, but the owner of the club allegedly added so many expenses to Kooper’s tab that he didn’t earn enough money at all. Refocusing a little closer to home and using the nucleus of the one-off band that had played the benefit, the eight-piece Blood, Sweat & Tears was born.

https://www.waxpoetics.com/rediscovery/blood-sweat-tears-child-is-father-to-the-man/

As to BST, Bruce Eder tells us that:

No American rock group ever started with as much daring or musical promise as Blood, Sweat & Tears, or realized their potential more fully — and then blew it all as quickly. From their origins as a jazz-rock experiment that wowed critics and listeners, they went on — in a somewhat more pop vein — to sell almost six million records in three years, but ended up being dropped by their record label four years after that. Blood, Sweat & Tears started as an idea conceived by Al Kooper in July of 1967. An ex-member of Blues Project, Kooper had been toying with the notion, growing out of his admiration for jazz bandleader Maynard Ferguson, of forming an electric rock band that would include horns and use jazz as the basis for their work. . . . That first version of Blood, Sweat & Tears played music that roamed freely through realms of jazz, R&B, soul, and even psychedelia in ways that had scarcely been heard before in one band. The songs were bold and challenging . . . . Their debut . . . seemed to portend a great future. The only thing it didn’t have was a hit single to get AM radio play and help drive sales. . . . Kooper left in March of 1968 . . . . That might’ve been the end of the story . . . . [but] the lineup was reshuffled and expanded, and for a lead singer they found a Canadian national named David Clayton-Thomas.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/blood-sweat-tears-mn0000046925/biography

And the rest, shall we say, was a spinning wheel . . . .

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

764) Honeybus — “She Sold Blackpool Rock”

Honeybus is one of my favorite 60’s bands (see #6, 52, 207, 434, 562, 605), with the honey being especially bittersweet with what should have been, what could have been. The beautiful ballad “She Sold Blackpool Rock” was their last-ditch attempt at a hit. Roger Dopson tells us that “in desperation [they] came up with [the song] released in May ’69 . . . a straightforward attempt to recreate [their one hit ‘I Can’t Let Maggie’ Go’] — but . . . it just didn’t move.” (liner notes to the Honeybus at Their Best CD comp)

As to the Honeybus, Jittery White Guy puts it perfectly:

Honeybus had the pop touchstones of the Beatles and the Hollies, while balancing the more sunshiny, twee aspects of the early Bee Gees with some mild touches of post-Sgt. Pepper psychedelia. . . . Their songs were unusually tuneful, some lovely little hooks paired with sweet harmonies, and it’s almost shocking to hear these songs today and realize the band had pretty much zero commercial success (at least here in the US).

https://www.jitterywhiteguymusic.com/2021/02/honeybus-story-1970.html?m=1

And Bruce Eder beautifully ponders what made the band so special and what could have been:

Considering that most have never heard of them, it’s amazing to ponder that they came very close, in the eyes of the critics, to being Decca Records’ answer to the Rubber Soul-era Beatles. The harmonies were there, along with some catchy, hook-laden songs . . . . The pop sensibilities of Honeybus’ main resident composers, Peter Dello and Ray Cane were astonishingly close in quality and content to those of Paul McCartney and the softer sides of John Lennon of that same era. What’s more, the critics loved their records. Yet, somehow, Honeybus never got it right; they never had the right single out at the proper time, and only once in their history did they connect with the public for a major hit, in early 1968. . . .

Dello and Cane . . . were the prime movers behind Honeybus. In 1966, they formed the Yum Yum Band . . . . A collapsed lung put Dello out of action in early 1966, and it was during his recuperation that he began rethinking what the band and his music were about. He developed the notion of a new band that would become a canvas for him to work on as a songwriter — they would avoid the clubs, working almost exclusively in the studio, recreating the sounds that he was hearing in his head. . . . It was a novel strategy, paralleling the approach to music-making by the Beatles in their post-concert period, and all the more daring for the fact that they were a new group . . . . The group was one of the best studio bands of the period, reveling in the perfection that could be achieved . . . .

They were duly signed to England’s Decca Records and assigned to the company’s newly organized Deram label . . . . The critics were quick to praise the band . . . [but their first two singles were commercially] unsuccessful. Then . . . their third release, “I Can’t Let Maggie Go,” [see #6] . . . . . . peaked at number eight. . . . [It] should have made the group, but instead it shattered them. Peter Dello resigned during the single’s chart run. He had been willing to play live on radio appearances and the occasional television or special concert showcase . . . but he couldn’t accept the physical or emotional stresses of performing live on a regular basis, or the idea of touring America . . . .  Dello left . . . . [and] Jim Kelly came in on guitar and vocals, while Ray Cane . . . took over most of the songwriting, and Honeybus proceeded to play regular concerts. The group never recovered the momentum they’d lost over “Maggie,” however, despite a string of fine singles . . , [including] . . . “She Sold Blackpool Rock” . . . . These records never charted . . . . [T]he group had pretty well decided to call it quits once they finished the[ir] LP . . . . The Honeybus Story . . . was released in late 1969, but without an active group to promote it, the record sank without a trace. . . . [I]t was a beautiful album, with the kind of ornate production and rich melodies that had become increasingly rare with the passing of the psychedelic era . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/honeybus-mn0000259186/biography

Here’s a version in Italian:

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

763) Los Vidrios Quebrados — “Ficciones”/”Fictions”

You wanna be a paperback writer? Well, the Beatles-inspired Los Vidrios Quebrados (The Broken Glass) “wanna make fictions”! The Chilean garage classic “Ficciones”/”Fictions” is “included in compilations of the all-time best tracks of South American rock history.” (liner notes to the CD reissue of Fictions)

Los Vidrios Quebrados is “unanimously considered as the great lost band of Chilean rock and, along with Los Mac’s [see #123, 203] were the prime movers of psychedelic rock in the country.” (liner notes to Fictions). And that ain’t no fiction!

The notes elaborate:

In a list of the pioneers of Chilean psychedelic rock music, it is impossible to omit the [band]. They are among the most important band in this musical style to emerge from Latin America during the 1960s.  [It had] just one single, “Friend” . . . and one album, “Fictions” (1967) . . . . A love of the Beatles, the Kinks, Yardbirds, and the Byrds united three of its members, who studied law at the Catholic University. . . . [Juan Mateo O’Brien, guitarist and lyricist, notes that] “Oddly, we sang in English and had a Spanish name, whereas the other groups had English names and sang in Spanish. Everything with us was the other way around from the norm in the Chilean musical atmosphere.[“] . . . The band obtained a recording contract at their first public appearance as Los Vidrios Quebrados, in a festival of the Catholic University, in 1965. . . . [O’Brien says that] “At our first concert, we played three songs and we had a record contract!”

liner notes to Fictions

O’Brien also notes that “we were young university students, we were very arrogant, arrogant and smug. We made music that we felt was ahead of the times, with a very high vision of ourselves.” (https://soloartistaschilenos.cl/?p=17569)

Founding member Héctor Sepúlveda recalls that:

Los Vidrios Quebrados began in 1965 at the Catholic Law School. . . . We started with instruments made by ourselves and we played in schools. . . . When we were studying law we started out calling ourselves The Lawyers, then we called ourselves Los Cuervos, until finally we became Los Vidrios Quebrados. We started doing covers of The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds . . . . To get a song out, I had to go to a wurlitzer [jukebox] that was in a business near my house, to catch the melodies and tones and then I would come home to get it out. We cut the guitars, we glued them and we assembled the frets by eye and saw. . . .

I went to England in 1969. The idea was to go together with Los Vidrios Quebrados, but it couldn’t be done . . . . In England I played on the street and the best I achieved was opening for the Family group at The Marquee . . . where even Hendrix played.

We sang in English to differentiate ourselves from the commercial music of the time, the New Wave [Nueva Ola]. . . . The lyrics spoke of the things that happened to us on a daily basis, of the lack of freedom, of those tied up for having long hair, in short, we wanted to be spokespersons for people who were experiencing the same thing, in a very formal world. Although we started doing covers, all the songs on our album were original. Parenthetically, we recorded the Fictions album in just 9 hours.

https://web.archive.org/web/20101125005958/http://www.elcarrete.cl/enciclopedia/ficha.php?id=23

Ana Maria Hurtado says that “Sepúlveda returned to Chile in 1971 and joined former Blops [see #541] drummer Pedro Greene to form the jazz-rock group Nuevas Direcciones in 1975 . . . . He is currently the only one from Los Vidrios Quebrados who continues with music, giving guitar classes at his house, parallel to his profession as an astrologer.” (https://www.musicapopular.cl/grupo/los-vidrios-quebrados/)

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

762) The Supremes — “Come Together”

The Supremes — without the recently departed Diana Ross — do the Beatles’ “Come Together”, as does Diana as a solo artist in the same year. What were they thinking?! Well, both versions work remarkably well — but I declare the Supremes the winner. Michael Hann calls their cover “amazing, certainly for a Motown record, etiolated* and blank. If you didn’t know better, you’d swear they were heroically stoned.” (https://ig.ft.com/life-of-a-song/come-together.html) Heroically stoned — that is sooooo appropriate, Timothy Leary being the catalyst for the song. . . . http://www.beatlesebooks.com/come-together

Buckley Mayfield says that:

Doing one of the Beatles’ funkiest and oddest songs, “Come Together,” may seem counterintuitive, but the Motown brain trust and the Supremes made it something special. They made a sitar the lead instrument, surprisingly relegating the bass to the background. It’s pretty funny as well to hear [Jean] Terrell sing “walrus gumboot” and to ham it up on the “hold him in his armchair, you can feel his disease” line. What goofy fun this is.

https://jivetimerecords.com/2020/11/the-supremes-new-ways-but-love-stays-motown-1970/

And Joe Viglione makes the point that “This is the genius of the Supremes on their own. With Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye making inroads and developing their skills as producers and songwriters, Frank Wilson broke the girls out of the Holland-Dozier-Holland formula, bringing different flavors and styles to this class act.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/new-ways-but-love-stays-mw0000674884)

Andy Kellman notes of that the Ross-less Supremes that:

Without Ross, they rebounded instantly with the Top Ten hit “Up the Ladder to the Roof” and the Top 40 entry “Everybody’s Got the Right to Love.” Those two . . . singles anchored Right On, the first of seven Supremes studio LPs featuring the lineup of Mary Wilson, Cindy Birdsong, and [Jean] Terrell. . . . Well into 1972, the Supremes unloaded an additional haul of Top 40 entries highlighted by “Stoned Love,” the group’s last single to peak in the Top Ten.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-supremes-mn0000477875

* etiolated: Don’t feel bad. I didn’t know what this word meant either. Etiolate as a verb means “to bleach and alter the natural development of (a green plant) by excluding sunlight . . . to make pale . . . to deprive of natural vigor . . . make feeble”. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etiolate)

Here is Diana’s solo version:

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

761) The Factory — “Red Chalk Hill”

The fifth song I ever featured was the Factory’s “Path Through the Forest”, one of the most titantic slabs of ’60’s British psych to be found. Later on, I featured the A-side of the band’s second and final single (released a year later in ’69) — “Try a Little Sunshine” see #460). Today comes the B-side of “Sunshine” — “Red Chalk Hill”. Now, this wonderful yearning song has both been described as “a gentle McCartney-esque ballad” (23 Daves, http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2010/05/factory-try-little-sunshine.html?m=1) and “sound[ing] like John Lennon by way of either the Bee Gees or Zombies” (Jennifer Lind, https://spinditty.com/genres/10-Best-60s-Underground-Bands), as “a Bee Gees-style ballad”, (https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-a-to-k/artists-f/factory/), and even as a “long-lost Oasis out-take”. (23 Daves, http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2010/05/factory-try-little-sunshine.html?m=1). I think it just sounds like John Pantry, and it doesn’t get any better than that.

23 Daves considers the song:

The B-side “Red Chalk Hill” (also sung by Pantry) . . . ha[s] going for it . . . a lyrically quaint kind of faintly menacing surrealism, combined with echoing, wailing backing vocals. The words bring to mind a Royston Vasey* styled town where one can never escape, whilst the music seems to be pulling the tune in the direction of “Fool on the Hill” styled optimism. It’s worth a lot, lot more than its throwaway B-side status.

http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2010/05/factory-try-little-sunshine.html?m=1

OK, this was more a John Pantry record than a Factory one. David Wells tells us that “Pantry [was brought in] as writer and lead vocalist, and thus effectively reduced The Factory to the status of backing band on their own record.” (Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era)

Wells elaborates:

The Factory were fatally handicapped by a lack of internal songwriting ability, and two Pantry songs were chosen as the band’s second single in the summer of 1969. Unfortunately they were unable to cope with the vocal demands of either . . . and John was required to supply lead and backing vocals on both songs. The results were, of course, masterful.

(liner notes to The Upside Down World of John Pantry CD comp)

Who was John Pantry? Wells says quite rightly that had “Pantry been American, he would surely now enjoy the same kind of belated cult reputation as the likes of Emitt Rhodes . . . . Sadly, though, John’s body of work prior to his decision in the early Seventies to turn his back on secular recordings in favor of spreading he Christian word is familiar to far fewer people than should be the case.” (The Upside Down World of John Pantry)

Jason delves deep into the Pantry:

[Pantry] had been a talented studio engineer for IBC Studios (working with Eddie Tre-Vett), producing for the likes of Donovan, The Small Faces, The Bee Gees, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and Cream. He was also a member of Peter & The Wolves, an accomplished mid 60s pop group from Leigh-on-Sea/Southend and had a major hand with many other IBC studio projects of the time: the Factory, Sounds Around, Wolfe, The Bunch and Norman Conquest. . . . Besides being a savvy studio technician, Pantry was a gifted songwriter and vocalist and an accomplished musician . . . . [O]ne of Pantry’s first groups, Sounds Around. . . . played straight pop with slight soul and psych influences . . . . Peter & The Wolves came shortly after Sounds Around’s demise (they were essentially the same group). This is the group with which Pantry is most associated, along with The Factory. Peter & The Wolves[‘] most productive period was probably the years of 1967-1969, where they released a string of pop gems: a good, upbeat blue-eyed soul number titled “Still”, the superb Emitt Rhodes like “Woman On My Mind” and several tuneful psych pop creations, “Lantern Light,” “Birthday,” and “Little Girl Lost And Found” being the best in this style. It was around this time that John Pantry was asked to write two tracks for The Factory . . . .

http://therisingstorm.net/john-pantry-the-upside-down-world-of-john-pantry/

* “The League of Gentlemen is a surreal British comedy horror sitcom that premiered . . . in 1999. The programme is set in Royston Vasey, a fictional town in northern England.” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Gentlemen)

Here is an acetate:

Here is John:

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

760) The Savage Resurrection — “Thing in E”

This ’68 A-side and album track is “a total stormer” (Lee Dorrian, https://www.loudersound.com/features/deep-cuts-the-savage-resurrection-the-forgotten-west-coast-freaks-from-1968) that sounds so punky it seems a decade ahead of its time. I can almost hear the Talking Heads’ version. Retpaarticles says that it’s “mainly composed of the line, ‘My world’s better than your world,’ giving in a self-important swagger that matches perfectly with the driving rock tone of the song. It also shows off the guitar chops of precocious the band’s 16-year old lead guitarist Randy Hammon.” (https://retpaarticles.weebly.com/savage-resurrection-band.html)

Patrick Lundborg says that the SR’s sole LP is “[o]ne of the classic heavy psych albums . . . . What makes the album really cool is that they have not one but two wild guitarists, and [they] spew fuzz and feedback brilliantly”. (The Acid Archives) Lee Dorrian agrees, writing that “West Coast freaks the Savage Resurrection were formed out of local garage bands, and this album is one of the better-known major-label acid rock releases of the era. What makes the record so cool is the double dose of aggressive fuzz lead guitar”.(https://www.loudersound.com/features/deep-cuts-the-savage-resurrection-the-forgotten-west-coast-freaks-from-1968

As to the young savages, Alec Palao tells us that:

[They] set[] off smoke bombs during their fiery, power-packed sets. These Who-Hendrix-besotted youngsters from Richmond ruled the roost at the East Bay’s very own mini-Avalon, Maple Hall, in San Pablo, during 1967. They were all graduates of the small but partisan garage rock scene in West Contra Costa County and coalesced . . . as almost a kind of Richmond supergroup. . . . a strong, punkified psychedelic . . . album . . . . [T]he unexpected pressure of promoting their [LP] fractured the group . . . .

liner notes to Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970

Richie Unterberger adds that:

One of the most obscure San Francisco Bay-area psychedelic groups to release an album on a major label, the Savage Resurrection managed to release one LP in 1968 before breaking up in a blitz of personnel and business problems. The Savage Resurrection were also one of the youngest psychedelic bands working the Bay Area circuit; one of their dual lead guitarists . . . was only 16 when they recorded their album. Formed in the East Bay . . . by members of several teen rock groups in 1967, they played psychedelic hard rock that drew heavily not just from San Francisco acts but also from Jimi Hendrix and the blues, as well as occasional lighter touches of more folk-rock-oriented riffs. [They] sounded rawer and punkier than most psychedelic bands, which could be an advantage or a hindrance. Some numbers on the resulting erratic LP were humdrum heavy blues-rockers; others had more unexpected chord shifts and song structures to anchor their molten-intensity lead guitar riffing . . . . There were flashes of promise, especially considering their extreme youth, but these were not fulfilled, as [the lead singer . . . and bassist . . . left shortly after the album came out.

On their only album, the[y] mined a psychedelic sound that was . . . more garagey in feel than that of the average Bay Area psychedelic band.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/savage-resurrection-mn0000305405; https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-savage-resurrection-mw0000043853

Here’s a rehearsal take:

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

759) Octopus — “I Say”

A fleeting McCartneyesque gem that I would wager Paul would be proud to call his own. Garwood Pickjon calls it “Macca-by-way-of-Emitt-Rhodes sounding”. (https://popdiggers.com/octopus-restless-night/)

Loser boy ponders the band and the album:

Fantastic UK psychedelic pop progressive act who really took the “Sgt. Pepper”‘s aura to another dimension. “Restless Night” . . . is a wonderful album full of 70’s era – BEATLE’esque themes and musical feelings. [The band] blend[s] superb fuzz guitar and organ work all wrapped up with some great lead vocals. Someone once described this album as being “So dangerously post-Sgt. Pepper’s that it approaches solo McCartneyism”. . . . IMHO this is an essential album . . . a masterpiece…

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=5623

Forced Exposure says that:

[T]he album bridges the gap between ’60s psychedelia and a harder-edged ’70s sound, drawing on the obvious touchstones of the time including Lennon/McCartney, Argent/Blunsone and the brothers Davies and Gibb. But Octopus had the songwriting and playing chops to make this album much more than an also-ran; with hooks galore, swirling organ, and fuzz-tone guitars, Restless Nights is a prime piece of early-’70s UK psychedelia that’s rare as hen’s teeth in its original form.

https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/octopus-restless-night-lp/RAD.7002LP.html

And Bruce Eder says “Restless Night . . . is on the smooth, commercial pop side, with the psychedelic elements mostly in the fuzztone guitar and organ flourishes, mixed with the music’s general melodic nature.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/octopus-mn0001886653)

Bruce then brings us back to the Octopus’ garden:

Octopus’ origins lay in Hatfield, 30 miles from London, and a mid-’60s quartet called the Cortinas . . . . made up of Paul Griggs (guitar), Nigel Griggs (bass), Brian Glassock (drums), and Rick Williams (guitar). By 1967, the Cortinas had moved from Brit beat into pop-psychedelia and cut one single (“Phoebe’s Flower Shop”) for Polydor without success. The following year, the quartet renamed and redirected itself and Octopus was born. The band earned a support spot to Yes which was, itself, an up-and-coming group at the time. They also appeared on stage with acts like Status Quo and Humble Pie, and were discovered by Troggs bassist Tony Murray, who helped get them a record deal with independent producer Larry Page, who was the Troggs’ manager. Octopus . . . released a single, “Laugh at the Poor Man” . . . in 1969. Midway through the recording of their debut album, Restless Night, Glassock and Williams quit the band, and it was a re-formed Octopus, with John Cook on keyboards and Malcolm Green on the drums, that finished the record . . . . The resulting LP was popular in Hatfield but never found an audience anywhere else. . . . [The band] disbanded in 1972. . . . Malcolm Green and Nigel Griggs later became members of Split Enz.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/octopus-mn0001886653

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

758) The Guess Who — “Believe Me”

Guess who released a slab of garage perfection before going on to fame for making fun of American women? The Guess Who, for sure! This ’66 A-side and album cut (from It’s Time) reached #10 on the RPM (“Records, Promotion, Music” Canadian) singles chart for March 21, 1966. (https://musiccanada.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/the-guess-who/, phantom gtowner, https://www.45cat.com/record/1797x) Richie Unterberger describes it as “very much in the style of Paul Revere & the Raiders’ fiercest sides . . . the clear standout [on the album]”. (https://www.allmusic.com/album/its-time-mw0000100326) Mike Stax says it “sails along on a tough, choppy guitar and keyboard riff, breaking off for both an exciting double-tracked guitar solo and a crazed Hohner electric piano break. . . , was the group’s first self-penned [by Randy Bachman] A-side and its success signaled the beginning of a new era for the Guess Who.” (liner notes to the Garage Beat ’66 Vol. 2: Chicks Are for Kids! comp) Ray McGinnis pegs it as having “some of the infectious, rambunctious sound of The McCoys ‘Hang On Sloopy’, ‘Just Like Me’ by Paul Revere and The Raiders, ‘Ain’t Gonna Eat My Heart Out Anymore’ by the Young Rascals and ‘Dirty Water’ by The Standells. . . . [It was] arranged & sung by Chad Allan. . . . [and] was the first single to feature . . . Burton Cummings”. (https://vancouversignaturesounds.com/hits/believe-me-guess-who/)

As to the Guess Who, they don’t need much of an intro, but Steve Huey writes that:

While the Guess Who did have several hits in America, they were superstars in their home country of Canada during the 1960s and early ’70s. The band grew out of vocalist/guitarist Chad Allan . . . and guitarist Randy Bachman ‘s Winnipeg-based group Chad Allan and the Expressions . . . . The Expressions recorded a cover of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates’ “Shakin’ All Over” in 1965, which became a surprise hit in Canada and reached the U.S. Top 40. When the Expressions recorded an entire album of the same name, its record company, Quality, listed their name as “Guess Who?” on the jacket, hoping to fool record buyers into thinking that the British Invasion-influenced music was actually by a more famous group in disguise.  [New] keyboardist/vocalist Burton Cummings . . . became lead vocalist when Allan departed in 1966. T he Guess Who embarked on an unsuccessful tour of England and returned home to record commercials and appear on the television program Let’s Go, hosted by Chad Allan . However, further American success eluded the Guess Who until the 1969 Top Ten hit “These Eyes” . . . . In 1970, the Guess Who released the cuttingly sarcastic riff-rocker “American Woman,” which, given its anti-American putdowns, ironically became their only U.S. chart-topper.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-guess-who-mn0000061480/biography

Here is a version in French:

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

757) Billy Nicholls — “Feeling Easy”

It has been too long since I’ve featured a cut from one of, if not the, greatest
“lost” albums of the ’60’s — Billy Nicholls’ Would You Believe (see #2, 64, 144, 428). The second song I ever featured came from Billy’s treasure trove. As David Wells says, “lost classic is a much abused term amongst pop historians, but it’s difficult to know how else to describe Would You Believe.” (Record Collector: 100 Greatest Psychedelic Records: High Times and Strange Tales from Rock’s Most Mind-Blowing Era) Euphorik6 is spot on in observing that the “album is a distillation of a time – whatever made swinging London swing is captured in these tracks” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp), as is Rising Storm in observing that “the album is still the epitome of sixties Britsike, a bunch of fine acid-pop songs rendered with glorious harmonies and superb lysergic arrangements that wouldn’t have disgraced George Martin.” (https://johnkatsmc5.tumblr.com/post/180490928324/billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-1968-mega-rare/amp). As Graham Reid notes, “[t]he album . . . reminds again of how much British psychedelic music was driven by different traditions (brass bands, pastoral classical music, music hall singalongs, strings . . .) than electric guitars which were so prominent in America at the time.” (https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/weneedtotalkabout/8107/we-need-to-talk-about-billy-nicholls-would-you-believe-care-for-pet-sounds-inna-english-accent-g). And as MusicStack says. “this soundtrack to a Swinging London that never was contains songs so great ([including] “Feeling Easy[]”. . . . ) you’ll swear you’ve heard them before.” (https://www.musicstack.com/album/billy+nicholls/would+you+believe)

Rising Storm explains that:

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

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

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

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

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

2Stoned

David Wells explains that:

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

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

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

Here’s a demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRwlQk_3n3c

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The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

756) The Namelosers — “Susie Q”

This ’65 B-side all the way from Malmö, Sweden is a “[r]aw, mean and dirty” (Dr. Rayman, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwSjTYAhsOg) cover of “Susie Q” that is a “FUZZ MONSTER” (Glendoras//DJ Mean Mojo Mathias, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X14eAK3MxVI) and even better than its acclaimed A-side — “Land of 1,000 Dances”.

Glendoras//DJ Mean Mojo Mathias says:

[The single is a f]antastic 45 from one of the best bands from Sweden. It’s a great two-sider with absolute fabulous fuzz guitar on both sides! This was their last 45. When it failed to chart the band gave up and disbanded.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vw0QuyrLus

Richie Unterberger says that the Namelosers “were among the rowdier Swedish mid-‘60s bands, heavily influenced by the British Invasion sounds of the Rolling Stones, Who, and Beatles”. (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-namelosers-mn0001270532) And Olle Berggren adds (courtesy of Google Translate) that:

[They] were the prettiest, cockiest and loudest. One of the few Swedish bands from this time that is still mentioned with respect to this day. . . . [They] forever put Malmö on the rock map. The tough port and working-class city. . . . Like Hamburg and Liverpool. . . . The clothes were bought at Ohlssons at Stortorget, where Åke Arenhill made sure to bring in the latest from Kings Road, Carnaby Street and Savile Row in London.”

https://www.expressen.se/kvallsposten/namelosers-satte-malmo-pa-rockkartan/

Expressen tells us more (courtesy of Google Translate):

This group was perhaps the most popular of the Malmö bands in the 60s. It consisted of pop stars living like pop stars. The Namelosers started out as Tony Lee & The Fenders and mostly played songs associated with Cliff Richard and Elvis Presley. The group’s breakthrough came in the summer of 1964 in Pildammsparken. The highlight was supposed to be guest soloist Gunnar “Siljabloo” Nilsson, but when Namelosers started the crowd went wild. In the audience was Urban Lasson, who immediately realized the group’s potential and booked studio time for it in Copenhagen. Lasson then went to Stockholm and visited record company after record company. EMI pounced and with the song “New Orleans” Namelosers ended up in the Top Ten. There were several years of touring around Sweden, but there were no new hits in the Top Ten. “Land of a 1,000 dances” everyone believed – but no. It ended up off the list. The disappointment was so great that Namelosers lost their desire . . . and soon the group disbanded.

https://www.expressen.se/kvallsposten/har-ar-stadens-popstoltheter-som-ateruppstar-for-en-kvall/

As does Graham Reid:

Johnny Andersson and Tommy Hansson met in 1962 in Malmo and talked about getting a band together. They became Tony Lee and the Fenders who played covers of Elvis and Cliff Richard songs. When their bassist and drummer quit to get real jobs they found the lanky Christer Nilsson who had long Beatle-style hair and a Hofner bass. Andersson and Hansson adopted the Beatle mop-top look, pulled in drummer Anders Lagerlof and named themselves the Beachers, an amalgamation of the Beatles and the Searchers. They became very popular in Malmo for their live covers of songs popularised by the Beatles such as Twist and Shout and Roll Over Beethoven. They recorded an EP New Orleans and title track got to number 12 on the Swedish charts . . . . [T]hen a rival group from Gothenburg demanded they change their name. Improbably, they too were the Beachers. A local radio station ran a competition for a new name for the band and the winner was . . . the Namelosers. And suddenly it was all on: a tour of Denmark with the Kinks and the Honeycombs; around Sweden with the Dave Clark Five and Cliff and the Shadows; TV appearances; more recording; a holiday in London for Andersson and Nilsson where they caught the Who at the Marquee and came back with new and more rowdy influences . . . . They recorded Land of 1000 Dances which was critically acclaimed so they expected to top the charts but it only got to 11 and they became depressed. The band broke up in August 1966 after a hectic few years, the highpoint being opening for the Stones in ’65 and partying with them afterwards. They jammed with Jagger in a rehearsal hall in Malmo.

https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/weneedtotalkabout/10284/we-need-to-talk-about-the-namelosers-hair-boots-suits-but-no-hits/

If only they moved like Jagger!

Finally (from Google Translate, of course):

Namelosers also appeared in the documentary Rolling Like a Stone from 2005 by Stefan Berg and Magnus Gert. Everything revolves around a roll of film from the year 1965. It was filmed during a party in Ola Ströms (Gonks) parental apartment in Malmö. Gonks, Namelosers, regular girls and guys and then “unknown” The Rolling Stones join the party.

https://www.svenskpophistoria.se/NAME/info.html

Here is the trailer:

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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.

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

755) Freddy Lindquist — “Woman Running Around”

Norway? No way! Yes way! Savage Saint says that “[b]ack in the 60’s, Freddy Lindquist was known as one out of two super lead guitarist[s] in Norway. . . . hailed as the Hendrix of Norway.” (https://savagesaints.blogspot.com/2015/05/freddy-lindquist-menu-1970.html). “Woman” is a rather mellow prog number from his ‘70 album Menu that asks the eternal question “how can a man make a good living when he got a woman running around?”

Thore Engen from the Norwegian prog/hard rock band Lucifer Was calls Menu “the best Norwegian heavy proggy rock album of 1970 and beyond.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZZ3ybHIClo) Dan Bartko says it is “[p]robably the crown jewel of Norway for hard Rock.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZZ3ybHIClo) And L. Salisbury proclaims “So . . . this is what Norwegian musicians who DON’T burn Churches and stab former band members to death sound like!” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZZ3ybHIClo)

Savage Saint gives us some history:

Freddy started out his rock path as a member of Gibbons in the early 60’s. In 1965 he was offered the job as the new lead guitarist in one of the leading band at the time, The Beatnicks. The band was changing their musical style from a Shadows inspired band to a proper beat-band then. Freddy stayed with them for a couple of singles, until he was headhunted to play lead guitar in an even more popular band, The Vanguards, in 1966. Their former lead guitarist, Terje Rypdal, then went to play the organ, until he quit, diving into psychedelia with The Dream. In addiction to some singles, they both played on both LP’s released by The Vanguards. . . . After some more singles, Freddy quit the band in 1969, to join his old mates in The Beatnicks/New Beatnicks. One more single followed before Freddy left again, and the rest of the band transformed into Titanic. Hardrock was then the new formula and Freddy formed the supergroup Jumbo, inspired by the likes of Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. Two singles was released . . . . The band then started recording an album, but in the midst of that the band fell apart, and the remaining members fulfilled the album and released in under the name Finjarn/Jensen. . . . Freddy . . . felt that the time was right for a proper solo album now, and his Menu was recorded and released in 1970. . . . The album did not sell too well, and soon went into oblivion. . . . one of the rarest albums from Scandinavia, but also as one of the very best.

https://savagesaints.blogspot.com/2015/05/freddy-lindquist-menu-1970.html

Toroddfuglesteg asks Thore Engen “which album was the first real heavy metal album by a Norwegian band.”. . . Engen responds:

That depends a lot of the definition of metal of those early years. Metal was not a term then. The relevant terms were mainly ”heavy”, ”underground” and “progressive”. Progressive by this time was not necessarily linked to art-rock like Yes, Genesis, ELP, but to a development from the 60’s pop, rock’n’roll and blues-scene. A wailing blues-album by Johnny Winter, for instance, could easily be labeled progressive. But by (early) metal you mean unison bass and guitar-riffing and screaming lead guitars? To me the first Norwegian progressive and heavy LP (also psychedelic) is Dream’s ”Get Dreamy”, featuring Terje Rypdal, from 1967! After that one Freddy Lindquist’s ”Menu” from 1970 is definitively 50% very heavy and I’ll rank this as the first.

https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=65724

Oh, and Wikipedia (Norway) notes (courtesy of Google Translate) that:

The idea was that the cover of Menü should attract attention. It should be something that record buyers stopped at regardless of whether they knew the artist name or not. Thus Rune Venjar came up with the strange idea of taking his wife down to a photo studio and taking a nude picture of her for the front cover. In 1970, this was probably as politically incorrect as possible, and as destructive to sales as possible. Both the record reviewers and the general public failed the release.

https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddy_Lindquist

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Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).

The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.

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

754) Jimmy Gordon — “Buzzzzzz”

‘63 A-side is an “instro-surf-psycho-trash-garage” classic (Marco Casas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb6cNcFXooU) and “one of the more sought-after records of its genre, having an absolute overload of fuzz guitar and riff-ridden drama.” (23 Daves, http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2015/11/jimmy-gordon-test-pattern-1980.html). In fact, it “rips so much they insisted on adding additional z’s to that “Buzzzzzz”! [B]listering . . . guaranteed to test the structural integrity of the dance floor”. (https://junglerecords.fi/en/product/gee-cees-jimmy-gordon-buzz-saw-buzzzzzz/). It was garage before it’s time, so it was re-released, naturally, in ‘66, where it reached #121.

Classic45s.com says that:

This rare single is one of the earliest 45s to feature use of a “fuzzbox” . . . . The first 45 known to feature fuzz guitar was in 1962 by the Ventures. Here, Jimmy Gordon . . . ably demonstrates its use, and the track also serves as fodder for many other noises of the garage-band era, with its various keyboard/organ parts. In addition, the break finds Jimmy showing off on lead guitar in a style that simply didn’t exist at the time but became ubiquitous by the early 1970’s. . . . [C]owritten by Dave Burgess, who was rhythm guitarist for the Champs for many years. 

https://www.classic45s.com/product_info.php?products_id=25113&cPath=21_24_42

As to Jimmy, Left and to the Back adds that:

There’s some confusion about the identity of Jimmy Gordon. Some have argued that he’s Jim Gordon, a session drummer who later worked with Eric Clapton in Derek and the Dominoes and went to jail for murdering his own mother in 1983 during a schizophrenic episode. It seems much more likely, however, that this single is actually the work of a session bassist with the same name who periodically worked with Dave Burgess of The Champs (and “Tequila” fame) who is also credited here.

http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2015/11/jimmy-gordon-test-pattern-1980.html

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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

753) The Kinks — “Too Much on My Mind”

Take a journey to the center of Ray Davies’ mind (see #100, 381, 417, 450, 508, 529, 606, 623) Alex Hopper calls “Too Much” an “underrated standout” (https://americansongwriter.com/5-deep-cuts-from-the-kinks-that-you-should-be-listening-to/) and the always spot-on Rob Sheffield calls it the “best moment” . . . “[o]ff of Face to Face, one of the great albums of the Sixties. . . . an airy ballad that’s full of harpsichord and acoustic guitar, yet a vocal that’s pure dread.” (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/kinks-album-guide-songs-841095/face-to-face-1966-841101/)

Holly A Hughes perfectly sums up the song, and its effect on her:

Ray Davies had suffered a nervous breakdown (the Kinks had to tour Belgium and France with a stand-in); even after he returned, sporting a tentative new moustache, many concerts were cancelled and endless obsessive hours were spent in the studio. The bassist, Pete Quaife, quit; a new manager, the infamous Allen Klein, was hired. . . . Ray Davies gave us one introspective song to explain what was going on inside that messed-up head of his. . . . practically a textbook definition of introspection. . . . [H]e’s singing about his favorite subject — himself. . . . [M]y favorite line in the song [is]: “It seems there’s more to life than just to live it.” In that one line — he sweeps away carefree youth and trudges into adulthood, still feeling stung that life has tricked him. . . . Sunk in the blackness of melancholy, he sees no way out. But the tempo remains just upbeat enough; the bright harpsicord, the brisk high-hats, and the rising guitar riffs buoy the song — as if the music itself rescues him from the depths of despair. Perhaps that is exactly what happened to Ray Davies in 1966 — being able to write the kind of songs he wanted to did pull him through. And on bleak days, when this song creeps into my mind — as it always does when I’m blue — this lovely little wistful melody saves me as well. Works like a charm.

https://thesonginmyheadtoday.blogspot.com/2009/11/too-much-on-my-mind-kinks-kinks-first.html?m=0

About Face to Face, Maggie Stamets says:

Coming amidst the extraordinary outpouring of great British music in the year 1966, which included the Beatles’ Revolver, the Who’s A Quick One and the Stones’ Aftermath, Ray and the Kinks more than held court with the extraordinary Face To Face, a non-stop blast of garage-pop gems replete with the Davies’ typically acid social commentary. . . . Though less well-remembered than the work of their more celebrated contemporaries, Face To Face finds the Kinks writing and innovating at a pace equivalent to even the Lennon-McCartney juggernaut. And they were just getting started.

https://www.stereogum.com/1705287/the-kinks-albums-from-worst-to-best/photo/attachment/face-to-face/

And Stephen Thomas Erlewine says:

Face to Face [is] one of the finest collections of pop songs released during the ’60s. Conceived as a loose concept album, Face to Face sees Ray Davies’ fascination with English class and social structures flourish, as he creates a number of vivid character portraits. [His] growth as a lyricist coincided with the Kinks’ musical growth. Face to Face is filled with wonderful moments . . . . classics like “Rosy Won’t You Please Come Home,” . . . making the record one of the most distinctive and accomplished albums of its time.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/face-to-face-mw0000190542

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

752) The Intruders — “It Must Be Love”

This “upbeat, happy jam” (Funk My Soul, https://www.funkmysoul.gr/albums-no-review/the-intruders-1967-are-together/) is so good it was a ‘66 B-side and a track on two albums! Would there even be Philly soul without the Intruders?!

Steve Huey:

As the first group to score hits with the songwriting/production team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff the Intruders played a major role in the rise of Philadelphia soul, but are sometimes lost in the shuffle amid better-known acts . . . . [They] were originally formed as a doo wop group in 1960, and sang around Philadelphia for several years. . . . [and] signed with Gamble and Huff’s fledgling Gamble label in 1966. They scored a Top 20 R&B hit that year with “(We’ll Be) United,” and followed it up a year later with “Together,” as well as their first album, The Intruders Are Together [in which today’s song appeared]. 1968, though, was the Intruders’ breakthrough year: “Cowboys to Girls,” a template for what would become Philly soul’s trademark sound, topped the R&B charts and climbed to number six on the pop side, giving the group their biggest hit. Gamble and Huff’s success with the Intruders helped convince Columbia to grant them the money to launch Philadelphia International, which became the most successful soul label of the early ’70s. The Intruders, meanwhile, were undergoing some internal turmoil; when they resurfaced on [a] 1970 . . . lead singer “Little Sonny” Brown had been replaced by nightclub singer Bobby Starr . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-intruders-mn0000082955/biography

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

751) The Stone Poneys — “The Train and the River”

As Paul McCartney might say, “La la la la la the lovely Linda”. Here is a remarkable and remarkably gentle folk song off the Stone Poney’s first album. Nik says that “[Kenny] Edwards and [Linda] Ronstadt take a duet on the blue, drifting ‘The Train and the River’” (http://therisingstorm.net/the-stone-poneys-st/) and David Bowling says that Linda’s performance “makes you want to hear more which in many ways would become the impetus for her solo career and the resultant death of The Stone Poneys.” (https://blogcritics.org/music-review-the-stone-poneys-the/)

As Nik opines:

The Stone Poneys should be much more than a footnote. Forever eclipsed by Linda Ronstadt’s latter-day success, the band has found itself set down in history as little more than an early backing group for the singer – hardly a fair assessment, especially considering the strength of the material recorded by the band, of which Ronstadt was only one contributor. In fact, Poneys Ken Edwards and Bob Kimmel were remarkable singers in their own right . . . . The Poneys’ self-titled debut is perhaps their strongest statement as a band. . . . [T]he album typifies the slow and hazy L.A. sound . . . . [They were] recent Tucson immigrants with several other players on the local folk scene, most notably Tim Buckley, whose songs they would soon go on to record, and the band Hearts & Flowers, who Linda would sing with on their 1968 record Now Is the Time. . . .

http://therisingstorm.net/the-stone-poneys-st/

Bowling gives us some more history:

Ronstadt met and performed with Bob Kimmel while in high school and after a semester of college moved to Los Angeles to form a band with him. Lead guitarist Kenny Edwards quickly joined and after playing the local club circuit, they adopted the name The Stone Poneys. They were quickly signed to the Capitol label and released their . . . debut album in January of 1967. At this point they were basically a folk group and their initial album reflected that style. While Ronstadt would quickly become the focal point of the band, this album is a group affair. Kimmel and Edwards wrote seven of the ten tracks [including “Train”] and the vocals are shared with a great deal of harmonizing. The album was a commercial failure upon its release . . . .

https://blogcritics.org/music-review-the-stone-poneys-the/

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

750) Fenner, Leland & O’Brien — “Where’s My Life Going”

One of the great ’60’s counterculture protest songs — yet, virtually unknown at the time. OK, its dated, but who can resist lyrics like “in this world there are too many fools who only follow conformist rules” and “hypocritical double standards, military high commanders”? It is from the band’s ’70 second album, of which only 250 copies were stamped by a vanity press.

As to the album, Somewhere Someday Somehow, Fantasy0807 says:

[It is a f]ragile US late ’60s loner hippy psych/folk/rock album[] that ha[s] a strangely bewitching quality. . . . Featuring acoustic instruments, great fuzz guitar work, percussion, keyboards and introverted countercultural lyrics. A real period piece . . . . They came from Hamilton/New York [actually, Colgate University] and they made two superb albums of psychedelic and low key downer folk.

http://fantasy0807.blogspot.com/2008/06/fenner-leland-obrien-peace-in-our-time.html?m=1

Patrick Lundborg says it’s:

[It is a]n obscure hippie folkrock and singer-songwriter LP . . . . with a CSN&Y influence typical of the genre . . . with above-average songwriting. . . . Admirably relaxed and unpretentious vocals may recall some of the more famous UK rural hippie-folk rarities.

The Acid Archives

And Johnkatsmc5 says:

250 original LP copies . . . were originally issued on the RPC Vanity label. Stunning LP[] filled with that broken dreamer vibe, where youthful idealism and naivete met the cold facts of Vietnam and the government’s “true intentions”. The resulting sound is somewhat akin to some of Bryan MacLean’s work with LOVE and Crosby’s Wooden Ships, yet this music is all their own. Some excellent fuzz on a couple tracks, and hailed by all who have heard it. Original copies sell for seriously lofty amounts!“

https://johnkatsmc5.blogspot.com/2016/07/fenner-leland-obrien-somewhere-someday.html?m=1

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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.

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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