THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
472) Norman Greenbaum â âMarcyâ
If the Spirit is willing, let me demonstrate once again (see #46) that Norman Greenbaum was anything but a one-hit wonder. As the renowned rock critic Robert Christgau argued that â[n]or was âSpirit in the Skyâ anything like a one-shot, as he proves on the great lost album track âMarcy,â a fond and respectful ode to a chick who takes her chancesâ. (https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=2967&name=Norman+Greenbaum)
Though the cosmic guitar drone that drives Greenbaumâs most famous tune is also conspicuously absent from the rest of Spirit In the Sky, there are all sorts of inventive musical sounds being explored here . . . [such as] the swirling analogue electronics which dart across . . . Marcy. . . . The band here, headed by producer Erik Jacobsen (best known for his work with fellow jugband disciples The Lovinâ Spoonful), is very tight, and really know how to get these songs to boogie. . . . Itâs to Greenbaumâs credit that these songs prove so memorable; indeed, this is one platter that burns all the way through. Just wait and see how many of these songs you find yourself humming after the needleâs lifted.
[Greenbaum] relocat[ed] to the West Coast during the mid-’60s and form[ed] a kind of psychedelic jug band dubbed Dr. Westâs Medicine Show and Junk Band. After issuing the 1966 single “The Eggplant That Ate Chicago,” which fell just shy of reaching the Top 50, the group disbanded, and Greenbaum subsequently formed a series of short-lived acts before finally returning to his solo career in 1968. A year later he issued his debut LP, Spirit in the Sky, releasing several unsuccessful singles before reaching the Top Three with the smash title track, which sold some two million copies. It proved to be Greenbaum’s only hit, however . . . .
Norman Greenbaum was much stranger than his big hit “Spirit in the Sky” would suggest. Then again, that tune — a confident, fuzz-toned paean to God, that sprit in the sky — is hardly the most conventional of ’70s AM anthems, so perhaps it isn’t surprising that the album . . : is all over the map, [such as] with . . . eerie post-psychedelic pop (the genuinely unsettling “Marcy”) . . . . That, of course, means that it’s far more fascinating than many soft rock curiosities of the early ’70s, and the near-schizophrenic cavalcade of material means that the record doesn’t hold together, but that’s part of what makes it worth hearing. And while Greenbaum wasn’t exactly a consistent songwriter, he did hit the mark several times . . . and even the misfires are interesting and well-crafted, at least in terms of its early-’70s peers.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
“What a Day for Me” is taken from the self-titled ’68 album by Harumi, who, as Last.fm says, “came from Japan to New York to record an album, and [then] disappeared” (https://www.last.fm/music/Harumi/+wiki). The album is a treasure trove of unique pop psych. Dr. Schluss says that:
[The album (at least the first LP) is] a set of blue eyed soul and AM pop sounds thrown through a psychedelic pop prism . . . . pretty solid psychedelic pop . . . . Although going for a pop sound that generally harbours powerful vocalists, [Harumi] often sounds more like a stoned cosmonaut. I think this makes this more charming than it would be otherwise.
OK, people either love or hate this album. On the love side, Tom Jurek enthuses that:
This is one of the wildest and most unbelievably ambitious recordings to come from the psychedelic era. Harumi (a mystery man who recorded one more album before vanishing into the ether) could write pop songs and sing them. He also sounds like he did a lot of acid. [He] . . . assembled a tripped-out collection of pop, Eastern folk, and experimental music and production techniques, with sounds, textures, and atmospheres that incorporated everything from strings and horns to Japanese folk instruments to vibraphones and (of course) plenty of guitars and drums and organ. Of the 13 cuts here, 11 are of conventional length and are utterly seductive in their hypnotic power and pop brilliance. . . . Simply put, there is nothing at all like this record in the known universe. . . . The music here, while a huge compendium of sources, is unlike anything you have ever heard when it is put together. Harumiâs self-titled album is simply a classic from the underground . . . .
This albumâs only redeeming quality is its ambition. When Tom Wilson, noted producer of Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, and Simon and Garfunkel, pitched Harumi to Verve in 1967 . . . . [h]is idea was to take the tunes of Harumi, a mysterious Japanese songwriter, and douse them in Gary Usher-like orchestration, David Axelrod-inspired grooves, and phaser-heavy psychedelic flourishes. Wilson and Harumiâs . . . songs ranged from hopelessly frazzled to indulgently saccharine. . . . Chalk [the] failure up to a producer with too many ideas and a pop star with too little personality. The psych-soul grooves and sunshine-pop arrangements that Wilson dreamed up are just dandy, but Harumi couldnât make them his own. In most tracks, he sounds bored and removed, his lyrics overgrown with clichĂŠs, his voice not nearly as acrobatic as the bouncy horns and wiry guitars around him. And as the album progresses, Wilsonâs contributions seem to reek of desperation â you can almost hear him wondering how heâs going to inject some pizazz into each new track. . . . [Harumi would] rather be shooting hoops or drinking a soda. And we can hear this in his unconvincing performances.
Tom Wilson . . . has persuaded Verve Records to sign and fund his newest project for distribution . . . . Unlike the other acts that Wilson helped shape into the defining sounds of an era, this artist will barely make a mark on history. His name is Harumi, he’s from Japan, and he creates a psychedelic pop album that would eventually be heralded as everything from lost classic to hopelessly frazzled to Holy Grail among squares and psych-heads decades later, but not before he manages to completely disappear from the music industry and into the void of complete and total obscurity. There is very little known about the man named Harumi, if that’s even his real name . . . . Recorded between 1967 and 1968, [the album] was a product of its time: a psychedelic gem released at the height and in the heyday of the genre’s popularity and ubiquity. A double LP with a gatefold sleeve, its richly colored artwork . . . stands out even considering the acid-and-sun soaked milieu of the time. Inside, though, . . aside from the usual professional credits . . . there is nothing regarding who played the actual music. . . . “Harumi” isn’t perfect, but in its imperfections it creates a certain charm and allure completely unique to itself. Harumi sounds like Your Friendly Neighborhood Acid-Head . . . and the album itself plays out as such; innocent rock, folk, or soul filtered through the lysergic brain of a Japanese expatriate and the adventurous producer willing to capture it all on tape. . . . “Harumi” does deserve the praise and cult following its gathered over the years, and the title of “lost classic” is well earned. . . .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
âOh yeah, I can remember that one because I wrote it!â St John proclaims with a laugh. âIt was my lyric, it was my melody but it was basically just a thing we all hashed up in the studio because we needed a B-side for âYou Got Me Humminââ. So we just threw it together in the studio. And it worked.â
[Jeff St. Johnâs] first album with The Id, Big Time Operators . . . is . . . unique . . . with no other Australian group of the time sounding so bold and brassy, so downright funky. . . . Born Jeffrey Leo Newton . . . [he] began his professional singing career in 1965 when he was invited to join Sydney band The Syndicate . . . . The Syndicate became The Wild Oats and then The Id. The singer also changed his name to Jeff St John . . . .
[St. John recalls that “]We were named The Id after the Freudian term, because Sigmund Freud claimed that the id was the primary motivating force of human nature and thatâs how these guys saw us. Then they said to me, âweâd like you to change your name to Jeff St Johnâ and that fulfilled every childhood fantasy that I had and thatâs who I became from that point on.â . . . âThat blues and R&B influence was the guys in The Id spoon-feeding this talented, naive kid,â says St John. âWhen the band first got together, they formulated a philosophy that unlike pretty much all the other bands in Australia at the time, they werenât going to jump onto the English beat music wagon. The English bands were copying and drawing their influences from the American source so rather than copy the copyists, we went directly to the source as well. We were putting our own interpretation on the original works. . . . The guys in The Id had access to all this incredible stuff. . . . record collections that spanned the whole Mississippi delta blues period, so we were listening to people like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Jimmy Reed, Leadbelly. We knew that Leadbellyâs real name was Huddie Ledbetter, nobody else knew that shit at the time.
The definitive MILESAGO: Australasian Music & Popular Culture 1964-1975 adds:
[A]lmost constantly supported by crutches because of his worsening [spina bifida], Jeff joined forces with an established Sydney blues-rock outfit called The Syndicate who he met by chance at the Sydney Musicians Club in early 1965. . . . The Syndicate with Jeff on board . . . . [was a] powerhouse band [that] quickly became a leading attraction in Sydney . . . and also made inroads in the Melbourne scene . . . with its powerful, brass-augmented repertoire and Jeff’s rich and soulful vocals. Jeff St John & the Id’s reputation as one of the country’s top R&B bands also earned them a well-received support gig on the 1967 Yardbirds, Roy Orbison and Walker Brothers package tour of Australia. On record, Jeff and The Id are probably best remembered for their scorching, brass-laden smash single, “Big Time Operator” . . . . [a] cover of the Hayes-Porter-Jones number . . . and all seemed set for a successful future for The Id. They recorded a fine album in March 1967, called Big Time Operators . . . and in April issued a final single called “You Got Me Hummin'” b/w “Watch Out”. The album was a good representation of the Id’s Stax/Atlantic styled stage repertoire, but was not the strong seller that was the hit single suggested it might become.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
469) The Boys Blue â âYou Got What I Wantâ
I previously featured the Sorrowsâ take on âTake a Heartâ, a song written by Miki Dallon and first released by The Boys Blue (see #407). Well, what goes around comes around. Today I am featuring the Boys Blueâs B-side to âTake a Heartâ â âYou Got What I Wantâ, which the Sorrows also subsequently released as an A-side and was also written by Dallon. Richie Unterberger calls it a “really good track[ with] a poppy R&B raver kind of sound” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/thats-alright-mw0000600394) and an “excellent, tough R&B/pop fusion[]”. (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-boys-blue-mn0001385051)
Untergerger also notes that “[s]ome have believed that the [Boys Blue] was a pseudonym for, or an earlier version of, the Sorrows, because both songs were also recorded by the Sorrows. Additionally, both songs were written by Miki Dallon . . . . It turns out, though, that the Boys Blue were . . . entirely different . . . .” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-boys-blue-mn0001385051) He contends that although “Take a Heart” and “You Got What I Want” “were done reasonably well by the Boys Blue, the Sorrows’ renditions are superior and definitive.” I have to partially disagree with Richie. I think the Boys Blueâs is the definitive version of âYou Got What I Want.â
Who were the Blue Boys? Marc Campbell writes that:
Having more in common with the MC5 than the British Invasion groups, Coventry, Englandâs raw and explosive The Boys Blue shoulda been contenders. . . . Lead singer Jeff Elroy . . . had a great voice, cool moves and star power. The Boys Blue released one single in 1965: âTake Heartâ/âYou Got What I Want.â The record failed to become a hit and the band faded into obscurity.
As an artist, producer, and songwriter, Miki Dallon was an interesting secondary figure of the British Invasion, albeit one whose work rarely troubled the charts (“Take a Heart,” a fair-sized U.K. hit for the Sorrows, being his most successful tune). As a singer he was only adequate, if exuberant, but as a composer he had a knack for combining some hard-edged R&B riffs with British Invasion pop-soul.
Check out the siteâs new page: Stick It to the (Fish)Man:Feedback â the coolest comments I have received!
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
468) Compton & Batteau â “Homesick Kid”
After Appaloosa (see #463) broke up, John Parker Compton picked up and drove to California. He and Robin Batteau then recorded In California, a magical album âdrenched in lazy West Coast sunshine [which fell] into the abyss of wonderful, overlooked recordings[].â (Fire Records, https://www.firerecords.com/artists/compton-and-batteau/)
As to “Homesick Kid”, Compton relates that âI wrote [it] for a girl that I met in Berkley, CA.â (https://garagehangover.com/john-compton/). Fire Records enthuses that:
[This a]lbum highlight . . . is the perfect example of the addictive, melody-led songwriting which really should have earned them stardom . . . . On th[is and other songs] the album veers magnificently towards the psychedelic, bringing to mind The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.
My one reservation about the song involves Compton’s immortal words: “When she is with me, she draws a tub. Always so soothing just like Vick’s VapoRub.” My first thought: Is he referring to the girl or the tub? My second thought: Did he get paid by Vick’s? My third thought: Compton’s no Dylan. My final thought: Upon reflection, Dylan would have loved that line!
As to In California, What Frank Is Listening To says:
This album has taken the obvious folk rock influences, added a few spoons of baroque pop, a dash of country, a pinch of rock, a touch of classical and a whole lot of singerâsongwriter. This type of stew succeeds or fails on the strength of the song writing and here it is certainly above average, even memorable. . . . Compton & Batteau have written some disarmingly emotionally naked songs.
In California retains some of their earlier baroque qualities but it’s also got some George Harrison atonal guitar, some ethereal violin and Compton’s amazingly mature lyrics . . . . [It] resonates with an early soulfulness, a soft yet alluring vibe that’s sent reeling by that violin . . . . It’s an album out of time, it’s sunny California through tinted glasses. . . . It’s a forgotten piece of baroque folk caught in time . . . . it somehow sounds timeless.
Mojo Magazine 2017, reprinted in the liner notes to the CD reissue of In California.
Compton goes on to tell the albumâs story:
Robinâs wife at the time was attending one of the Pomona Collegeâs outside of Los Angeles so I convinced a friend of mine to drive out to California and visit them. As soon as we arrived, Robin and I drove into Hollywood and met an A&R guy at Columbia . . . and he signed us to do our second Columbia record. . . . the first week I arrived and we immediately started working with our producer . . . . I wrote some of the songs prior to the trip west and rest of the songs in California while living there. . . .
Compton tells how he put together an all-star band:
Lunching in the CBS commissary, we met Jim Messina wearing bright red cowboy boots. “Welcome to the country club!” Jim said. A few phone calls later, we added some of Hollywood’s finest musicians to our band, Jim Messina and Rusty Young (Poco), Randy Meisner (The Eagles), John London (The Monkees band), Pat Shanahan and John Ware (Linda Ronstadtâs band), King Errisson on congas, Robin Lane for harmony and chorus and Bill Elliott, keyboardist supreme.
liner notes to the CD reissue of In California
He goes on:
[H]aving Randy and Pat record live with us on songs like âHomesick Kidâ was a dream come true. We recorded the songs as a live band. . . . Everyday we would see Sly [Stone] arriving in his Winnebego mobile home wearing these knee-high fur boots. It was quite a sight. . . .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
467) Black Merda â“The Original Man”
“The first black rock group” (see #134). This stuff is intense. Itâs the truth!
Steve Huey:
Black Merda were a funky rock combo with a significant debt to Jimi Hendrix, mixing fuzz-toned, psychedelic blues-rock with folky acoustic passages and contemporary late-’60s soul. . . . [T]he group got its start in the late ’60s after [three members] had spent time in a band called the Soul Agents, backing Edwin Starr and Gene Chandler. Despite some interest around their Detroit base . . . [they] signed to Chess, thanks in part to the psychedelic soul eccentric Fugi (aka Ellington Jordan) who they also backed on his Mary, Don’t Take Me on No Bad Trip LP for Chess.
As backing band The Soul Agents they played Motown-esque R&B/soul, going national from their home turf of Motor City. . . . Getting dirtier and funkier as Black Merda, the [band] . . . . essentially consist[ed] of four âfunked-out, psyched-out, bad-ass black guys,” as bassist, guitarist, vocalist, and founder VC L. Veasey jokingly puts it in a rare radio interview in 2005 . . . . [T]he[y created a] hybrid monster of funk, psych, wah-wahâs, voodoo blues, and rock-and-roll . . . .
The story goes that, back in 1967, VC L. Veasey and his friends bought Jimi Hendrixâ Are You Experienced for funâs sake, after seeing a picture of him playing the guitar behind his back, which they thought was ridiculous. âThey bought the record just to have a laugh, and it refused to leave their turntable for a whole month,â tells Sylvain Coulon . . . . Other mentioned prime influences for their switch from their Soul Agents to the âfunked-outâ Black Merda are Electric Mud by Muddy Waters, Sly Stoneâs first few albums, and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band . . . . The often-coined description of âFirst Black Rock Groupâ might raise eyebrows . . . . [b]ut Black Merda was doing something different. Something much more psychedelic and rock-based. âThese other [black] groups were kind of going into funk-rock then they switched to playing funk-dance music, but we were into doing psychedelic music,â VC [said] in 2004. âWeâd play shows around the Detroit area and we used to do the psychedelic dress before Funkadelic were doing it, when they were still the Parliaments and still dressing like The Temptations. We dressed like that off the stage as well. Our dress, those clothes, we used to live like that every day.â . . .
[T]hey [named themselves] Black Murder . . . following the 12th Street Riot in Detroit in 1967. That later changed to Black Merda for a more original spelling. A name in line with their lyrical content on racism, poverty, freedom, hypocrisy, and in VCâs own words: âall of the bad shit that was befalling black people and others on the everyday street level of experience.â
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
466) Maurice Gibb — “Give Me a Glass of Wine”
As I’ve said, some of my favorite Bee Gees songs were written and sung by Maurice and were never (or only barely) released (see #353-54). What are the odds? âGive Me a Glass of Wineâ is one of them â such a classy song of appreciation to a lover. If you close your eyes, youâd swear it was written and sung by John Lennon, but itâs Maurice all the way!
Bruce Eder writes that:
Maurice . . . has been almost exclusively a backing vocalist for his four-decade career . . . . The major exception arose during the 1969 split between . . . Robin Gibb and his two brothers . . . . Maurice . . . did begin work on a solo LP to have been called âThe Loner.â He worked for three months with Billy Lawrie [brother of the British singer Lulu, Mauriceâs wife] playing and singing, and with guitarist Les Harvey of Stone the Crows, drummer Geoff Bridgeford, and John Coleman and Gerry Shurry, the latter three members of the Australian band Tin Tin â whose 1970 debut album Maurice . . . had produced . . . . Like the other solo albums begun by his brothers [during the break-up, the] LP was never released officially . . . .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Here is a legendary record among 60s garage enthusiasts, The Starfires from Los Angeles with their intense and downright vicious tune âI Never Loved Herâ. . . . [I]t [is] one of the true greats of the genre. With itâs pounding bass, snarling vocals, screams, snotty attitude and teen angst âI Never Loved Herâ will live long in your memory.
To Jessica Lipsky, it “starts with the low growl of a pissed-off singer on top of a simple guitar riff and the hit of a high hat, before turning into a smoothly crooned early-psych song.” (https://www.jlipsky.com/groove-merchant-sf) On the Flip-Side says that the singer “swings back and forth between a snarly growl and a soft croon as the bass just grooves along.” The Pebbles garage comp (vol. 8) calls it “brooding” and “haunting.”
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
464) David Bowie â âI Dig Everythingâ
I dig this song! Richie Unterberger: “Before landing his first commercial success with 1969’s ‘Space Oddity,’ David Bowie released a number of flop records in a variety of styles. He first emerged in the mid-1960s as a mod . . . .” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/early-on-1964-1966-mw0000264185) “I Dig Everything”, Bowie’s last Pye A-side (’66), was certainly mod. It and its Pye companions represented, as Dave Thompson says, “the young Bowie at his most endearing, mourning lost love and celebrating youthful promise, with his whole life ahead of him and fame still more than half a decade away.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-dig-everything-the-1966-pye-singles-mw0000245251)
No one nails the essence of the song as well as Pushing Ahead of the Dame:
[Its] opening Hammond organ riff is pure Austin Powers soundtrack, but as the track goes on its charm deepens. A kid fresh arrived in town, mostly likely high, is running around London delighting in everything he seesâthe commonplace becomes the mystical, not just through whatever stimulants heâs using, but via the creative arrogance of youth. This is my world, my city, he sings, and those who donât see the beauties in its slums and on its sidewalks are either blind or old (or cops). . . . [He’s] living in a squalid apartment, having (boho-style) more friends than food, sitting and smoking and laughing at the squares running off to work; heâs besotted at the bounty of city life. Thereâs an edge buried in the songâthe singerâs unemployed and poor, and realityâs going to knock him on his ass sooner or laterâbut within the trackâs confines heâs always going to be young, and each day will drop off fresh promises like a newspaper delivery truck. Itâs very much of a track of its time: the UKâs sun-filled glory of a summer in 1966 . . . . The groovy cod-Latin rhythm (washboard and bongos!) is the most notable sign that Tony Hatch is using session players . . . . Sadly, the single was yet another flop for Bowie, whose time with Pye ended soon afterward.
Bowie himself had mixed feelings, commenting in 2000 that:
[The song] was really awful when I recorded it. I hated it. Itâs not my fault, really. Itâs always everybody elseâs fault, you know that, in life? Did you know that? If something goes wrong, donât worry about it. Itâs never your fault, itâs always everybody elseâs fault. Itâs a very good rule to remember. In this case it was poor Tony Hatchâs fault. T ony Hatch was a very big producer at the time, and heâd just had a big hit called âDowntownâ. And he really believed in me, really believed in my songs, but every one he produced always ended up sounding like âDowntownâ. I said, âCan I have a loud electric guitar?â âNo, no, no, you donât want to do that.â [sings] âDig everything, da-da-da-da-da⌠DowntownâŚâ
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
463) Appaloosa â âPascalâs Paradoxâ
“Pascal’s Paradox”* is an absolutely gorgeous “folk-baroque” song off of Appaloosa’s sole album. The album is “chockfull of irresistible melodies and folk-baroque orchestration” with “romantic sensibilities” and “soul-searching lyrics”. (https://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/display/articledisplay.cgi?aid=5979) Or, as RDTEN1 puts it:
While [singer, songwriter and guitarist John Parker] Compton’s lyrics were occasionally on the clunky and fey side, I’m sure female college aged English majors were sent into fits of delirium by the sensitivity and insight reflected in numbers like . . . âPascals Paradox’ (how many times do you hear a song that references the artist Kandinsky?). . . . Admittedly the set’s arty and delicate feel coupled with those touchy-feely lyrics spelled instant obscurity, but what a way to go down in flames.
[The album] bears the heavy scent of the ’60s coffeehouse scene, with overtones of jazz (there’s some nice saxophone work here) and Renaissance minstrel sounds (a la Steeleye Span) threaded through literate, melancholic singer-songwriter fare.
When I was sixteen I attended a small boarding school in farm country in upstate New York and was fortunate to have a great English teacher who taught poetry brilliantly. I wrote the lyrics to . . . âPascalâs Paradoxâ first as [a] poem[] for a poetry homework assignment and soon turned [it] into [a] song[]. . . . I wrote most of the songs for âAppaloosaâ for my girlfriend at [the] . . . school. The inspiration for âPascalâs Paradoxâ came about in a chemistry class while having the theory of Pascalâs Paradox explained and drawn on the blackboard.
As to Appaloosa and “folk-baroque”, Richie Unterberger relates:
Although the term somehow didn’t stick as part of standard rock criticism vocabulary, for a while in the late 1960s, there was a vogue of sorts for music that was described in the press as “folk-baroque[]” . . . . folk-oriented material with classical-influenced orchestration. . . . One of the most talented such acts was Appaloosa, whose self-titled 1969 LP matched . . . Compton’s thoughtful, melodic compositions to sympathetic arrangements featuring fellow band members Robin Batteau on violin, Eugene Rosov on cello, and David Reiser on electric bass. In both its combination of instruments and the absence of a drummer, it was a most unusual instrumental lineup for a rock band, even at a time when boundaries and restrictions were routinely bent. The core quartet were bolstered by top session players (including members of Blood, Sweat & Tears) and, above all, producer Al Kooper, who also added a lot of his own keyboards and guitar to the album.
As to Appaloosa’s history and how the band hooked up with Al Kooper, Joslyn Layne explains that:
Compton co-founded the acoustic band Appaloosa with violinist Robin Batteau in the late ’60s. Both musicians had been heavily influenced by the folk scene in their hometown, Cambridge, MA. . . . [and] began playing the coffeehouse circuit together. [Compton] showed up at producer Al Kooper’s Columbia Records office in late 1968, hoping to show him his songs. Uninterested, Kooper the kid [then 18] to come back some other time. But a little while later, Kooper came in on Compton and Batteau performing for the office secretaries. Finally won over, [he] recorded their demo,** and within a year the newly signed musicians had released an album, the self-titled debut from their group Appaloosa. . . . Appaloosa soon gave way to a duo project for Compton & Batteau, before the two musicians went their separate ways.
Robin and I had played the songs at coffeehouses for about a year before we recorded âAppaloosa.â . . . We recorded all of the songs as a live band, doing several takes and picking the best one. Bobby Columby (BS&T drummer) recorded with us on [some of the] songs . . . . It was such a thrill to watch Bobby play . . . . I fondly remember how Clive Davis, Columbiaâs president at the time, was such a gentleman to us and was super-friendly and supportive. Unfortunately, we didnât have a manager so we had no one to talk to Columbia. We were just teenagers and so naive and amazed to be in a big city. . . .
Playing the Filmore East was exciting. We opened for the Allman Brothers. I remember Gregg Allman saying to us when we walked past their dressing room, âHey, where are your groupies?â . . . We also opened for the Young Rascals at Harvard Stadium on a beautiful autumn day and we opened for Van Morrison in Boston. Earlier, in 1968, Robin and I opened for Tim Hardin for his weeklong gig at the Jazz Workshop. I was scared to meet . . . Hardin in person, having personally seen him when I was younger throw a glass ashtray at someone in the audience after he asked everyone to be quiet. But [he] was a gentleman and invited us all out to dinner with him after the concerts.
* Joe Evans asks “[h]ave you ever wondered why the pressure exerted by a column of liquid has absolutely nothing to do with its volume or, for that matter, the geometric shape of its container?” (https://www.pumpsandsystems.com/pascals-principle-paradox-lost) Well, not really. But, in any event, Joe goes on:
It certainly seems that volume, and the additional weight it can contribute, should be a factor. But, according to Blaise Pascal, pressure depends upon the density and height of the liquid and is completely independent of its volume and the shape of the container. This “hydrostatic paradox” can be confusing . . . .
** Well, maybe, maybe not. Compton tells Richie Unterberger that “[m]eeting Al Kooper was just a fluke. We were playing for some secretaries at Columbia while waiting for an appointment. Al Kooper walked by and instantly asked us if we would like to make a demo tape that night.”
Check out the siteâs new page: Stick It to the (Fish)Man:Feedback â the coolest comments I have received!
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
462) The Mogulsâ âSki Bumâ
’66 B-side by the Moguls from Eugene, Oregon is a garage rock classic dishing out some great career advice â be a ski bum!
Popsike.com says:
[T]his outfit was originally known as The Centurians but changed their name to The Moguls in December 1964. Their manager was convinced that after âsurfâ music, âskiâ music would be the next big thing. So he hired two go-go dancers in ski-bunny outfits and clad the group in ski pants, turtlenecks and ski boots. This single featuring âRound Randyâ Bryson on keyboards and vocals, is the second of three issued by the group, all of which are rare. It reportedly was produced by a member of Don and the Goodtimes.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
461) The Hollies â âTo You My Loveâ
Here is a wonderful Hollies original, a minor chord love song from their second album, an album that failed to chart in the UK and wasn’t even released in the U.S. in any form. Alan’s Album Archives calls “To You My Love” “a forgotten gem thatâs already showing the path ahead to the [Hollies’] folk-rock to come”. (http://alansalbumarchives.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-hollies-in-hollies-style-1964-album.html)
Richie Unterberger says that:
Released only ten months after their debut album . . . their second album was a huge leap forward in every respect. Their famous airtight harmonies were now in place, and the sloppiness of the instrumental attack gone. Most important, the group developed enormously as songwriters. Eight of the 12 tracks were . . . originals and quite skillful in their mastery of the British Invasion essentials of driving, catchy melodies and shining harmonies. . . . The Hollies weren’t from Liverpool (though Manchester is fairly close), but this nonetheless ranks of one of the very best Merseybeat albums not released by the Beatles themselves. It doesn’t include any British or American hits, but [tracks such as] . . . “To You My Love[]” . . . will appeal to any British Invasion fan. Surprisingly, none of the tracks were ever released in the United States . . . .
[T]he only points on this album where The Hollies use a minor chord for any length of time (a future Hollies trademark . . .) are on the two original âhappyâ songs . . . giving . . . âTo You My Loveâ . . . a comparatively darker, more sinister edge than most rock and roll acts around in 1964. . . . [T]he band go[es] more or less âunpluggedâ . . . and featuring Graham Nashâs first lead vocal . . . . The songâs a good one though, with a classic circling guitar motif from Tony Hicks thatâs deeply memorable and adds just about enough fire to accompany what are unusually straightforward and love-lorn lyrics from Nash. Fans who know the ins and outs of the band well will know what a stormy relationship Nash had with first wife Rose Eccles . . . almost certainly the inspiration for this song . . . . [M]usically this is far from being as straight-forward as the lyrics. . . . [T]hroughout Nash seems to be going out of his way to hit as many âunresolvedâ [notes] . . . as possible: just check out the uncomfortable held note on âsweetâ or the very end of the song, where Nash ends up growling âto yo-o-o-o-o-u my loveâ, which sounds more like a chord progression that would take place in a Hammer Horror film than a love song. . . . I think these little ideas give the song real depth: âTo You My Loveâ could easily have become twee and fluffy, but the listener instinctively knows something is wrong, even if theyâre not quite sure why that is.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
460) The Factory â âTry a Little Sunshineâ
The fifth song I ever featured on this blog was the Factory’s “Path Through the Forest”, one of the most titantic slabs of ’60’s British psych to be found. Today I feature the A-side of the band’s second and final single (released a year later in ’69). Vernon Joynson calls “Try a Little Sunshine” a “classic slice[] of British psychedelia” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) and David Wells calls it an “unashamedly lysergic vignette[]”, and “a powerful, blissed-out ballad that, with the Factory supplying the musical muscle, was transformed into a teasing echo of the Who’s ‘Disquisesâ . . . .â (liner notes to The Upside Down World of John Pantry comp) Nostalgia Central says it is “reminiscent of The Who with its crunching guitar chords and vocal harmonies”. (https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-a-to-k/artists-f/factory/)
OK, this was more a John Pantry record than a Factory one. David Wells tells us that “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.” This didn’t sit well with the Factory. As Nostalgia Central relates:
Try a Little Sunshine . . . like its predecessor . . . was heard by very few. The single brought the multi-talented John Pantry into the studio as writer and lead vocalist, thus effectively reducing The Factory to the status of backing band on their own record. Disillusioned, the young group disbanded shortly afterwards.
Who was John Pantry? David Wells says 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.” Jason delves into Pantry’s history:
[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 Pantryâs first groups, Sounds Around. . . . played straight pop with slight soul and psych influences . . . . Peter & The Wolves came shortly after Sounds Aroundâs 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 âStillâ, the superb Emitt Rhodes like âWoman On My Mindâ and several tuneful psych pop creations, âLantern Light,â âBirthday,â and âLittle Girl Lost And Foundâ being the best in this style. It was around this time that John Pantry was asked to write two tracks for The Factory . . . .
Oh, one more point about “Try a Little Sunshine.” Vernon Joynson tells us that “sunshine” was slang for LSD, leading to the song being banned by the BBC. David Wells, however, notes that: “John’s rather ambiguous response is that it was merely ‘the ramblings of a creative mind. It’s pretty clear that the reference to sunshine was some sort of feel-good drug. However, not everything is full of meaning– much of what came out of that era had no logical explanation . . . .'” Well Wells, I would say that the fact that much of what came out of that era had no logical explanation had a lot to do with a certain “feel-good” drug!
Check out the siteâs new page: Stick It to the (Fish)Man:Feedback â the coolest comments I have received!
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
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
Here I present a stunning folk rock song from Tim Hardin’s debut album, including a fish-out-of-water live performance at Woodstock (I can see people emerging from the mud, saying “This is a good time to pee and score some more acid!”), along with two stunning cover versions, one turning the song into a psychedelic epic and one transforming it into a gentle French chanson.
457) Tim Hardin — “How Can We Hang on to a Dream”
“How Can We Hang on to a Dream” is an A-side off of Tim Hardin’s first album which managed to crack the British charts for one week (at #50). Bruce Eder calls it a “startlingly original and personal song” and goes on to say about the album:
Tim Hardinâs debut album was something of a happy accident, a killer record at least a third of which was comprised of tracks intended as demos, while another half utilized a string orchestra that the artist knew nothing about. Whatever its origins, Tim Hardin 1 is one of the most powerful and compelling records of its era, encompassing deeply personal and compelling poetry, blues, rock, and folk in settings ranging from stripped-down Sun Records-style rock & roll to lightly orchestrated folk-rock. . . . The result is a seminal folk-rock album, every bit as exciting and urgent as it was in 1966 . . . .
Paul Sexton calls the song “gorgeous”, “haunting” and one of “the most beautiful and enduring songs of [Hardin’s] day” and adds:
The understated but penetrating work of the singer-songwriter from Eugene, Oregon figured only three times on the Billboard album chart, and never in its Top 100. . . . He died, of a drug overdose, on December 29, 1980 . . . . By his own admission, Hardin was often uncomfortable in his social surroundings, given to extreme melancholy and unable to interact except through his work. âPeople understand me through my songs,â he told Disc and Music Echo in 1968. âIt is my one way to communicate.â
[Hardin was a] gentle, soulful singer who owed as much to blues and jazz as folk [who] produced an impressive body of work in the late ’60s without ever approaching either mass success or the artistic heights of the best singer/songwriters. . . . By the time of his 1966 debut . . . he was writing confessional folk-rock songs of considerable grace and emotion. . . . It was the lot of Hardinâs work to achieve greater recognition through covers from other singers* . . . . Beleaguered by a heroin habit since early in his career, Hardinâs drug problems became grave in the late ’60s; his commercial prospects grew dimmer, and his albums more erratic . . . .
* “But Hardin’s own versions are graced by one inestimable virtue: his voice–a matchless instrument that sounds world-weary and pained at one moment, hopeful and open-hearted the next.” (Anthony DeCurtis, liner notes to Tim Hardin: Reason to Believe (The Best Of)), https://musicianguide.com/biographies/1608001688/Tim-Hardin.html)
Here is Hardin performing the song at Woodstock:
458) Gandalf â âHang on to a Dreamâ
Psychedelicized says that “[k]icked along by an entrancing keyboard pattern, [Gandalf’s] cover of Tim Hardinâs âHang On To A Dreamâ had a[] . . . thick[] lysergic atmosphere. The sudden shift from martial paced ballad to up-tempo segments was quite cool. Kudos to Frank Hubach for the tasty keyboard solo.” (https://psychedelicized.com/playlist/g/gandalf/) Gandalf singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Sando (see #312) himself reflects that:
âTim Hardin was a great inspiration to me from our Greenwich Village experience, so we did a few of his too . . . . Never Too Far, Hang On To a Dream, You Upset The Grace of Living- Tim Hardin hung out at the Night Owl and was signed to K&R. He was most influential on my early songwriting with his economy of words and soulful folk style. These are three favorites. We attempted to do Hardin like the Byrds did Dylan.â
As to Gandalf’s lone album, Emilie Friedlander suggests that:
[W]hat they left behind is probably one of the most visionary cover albums in the history of pop. . . . âvisionaryâ in the sense of re-investment, as though these songs — songs weâve already heard a hundred times before — had suddenly become re-possessed by the ghosts of their true authors. . . . Gandalf is one of those albums that has an almost synesthetic effect on its listeners, filling every room which it’s played with a kind of heavy, perfumed fog. Peter Sandoâs wind-kissed, reverb-dripping tenor is perhaps most responsible for this effect. . . . Gandalf is one sexy record. Fuzz guitar, Hammond B3, electric sitar, vibraphone, and chunky, equally reverb-saturated bass ground Sandoâs voice in a kind of clipped, baroque accompaniment, voluptuous in its restraint. . . . .
[It] one of those garage line-ups that first saw the light of day in a high school detention hall, when guitarist Peter Sando met bassist Bob Muller in 1958. . . . The Rahgoos[‘]** home was the Night Owl, a cramped storefront-turned-mythic-rock-cafe where the likes of John Sebastian and his Lovinâ Spoonful and The Blues Magoos packed in to watch acoustic sets by James Taylor and The Flying Machine. . . .
The [Rahgoos]. . . became staples on the New York City/Jersey Shore club circuit . . . . appear[ing] at various New York clubs throughout the â60âs; such as âThe Phone Boothâ, Scott Muniâs âRolling Stoneâ, âThe Electric Circusâ, Murray the Kâs âWorldâ, and the legendary “Night Owl Cafe” in Greenwich Village. It was there that they met songwriters Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon who brought the band to the attention of record producers Koppelman & Rubin. K&R signed the band and immediately started work on an album for their newly formed âHot Biscuit Disc Companyâ label which was distributed through Capitol. K&R suggested various name changes which did not sit well with the group. However, they ultimately decided to forfeit their name and local fan recognition to appease K&R. During a gig at the âRolling Stoneâ, drummer Davey Bauer was passing the time reading Tolkienâs âThe Hobbitâ while the rest of the band went through the ritual of brainstorming a band name. Davey chimed in, âHow about âGANDALF AND THE WIZARDSâ. Gandalf stuck. The album project was delayed after the Hot Biscuit label distribution deal with Capitol fell apart. In the interim, the band lost faith and also dissolved. Subsequently, K&R and Capitol parted ways with the agreement that two more LPâs would be released on the Capitol label, and GANDALF was one of them. It was finally released in early 1969, but without a band to support the collection, there was no incentive for Capitol to promote the album.
As Mike Stax’ explains in the liner notes to the CD reissue of Gandalf, “[s]till billed as the Rahgoos, the group continued to play gigs in New Jersey, but as the weeks of waiting dragged into months they were becoming more and more disillusioned. A rift developed and [they] split up before the end of 1968. . . . Capitol did little to push the album . . . and with no band around to promote it the record quickly faded from sight, becoming one of the rarest major label psychedelic releases . . . .” Peter Sando reflects that by that time “[w]e had already become disillusioned by then and were no longer together. Upon release it got a flurry of FM radio airplay, but fizzled fast and disappointed, I wrote it off as a failure at the time.” (https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2012/07/gandalf-interview-with-peter-sando.html?amp=1)
** âAll that was needed was a new, more ‘with it’ name. Bob suggested Ragu, after the tomato sauce. Peter modified the spelling and they became The Rahgoos. . . .” (liner notes to the CD reissue of Gandalf) . . . .
459) Francoise Hardy â âHang on to a Dreamâ
This enchanting cover version by the French icon is included on her “wonderful” ’68 album of songs in English — “[En Anglaise is] a true lost gem in Françoise Hardyâs discography. It features 12 tracks recorded early 1968 between London and Paris, in order to satisfy the singerâs British and US fans demands.” (https://www.8raita.fi/shop/p26237-hardy-francoise-en-anglais-fi.html)
As to Francoise, Thom Jurek explains:
Francoise Hardy is a pop and fashion icon . . . . With her signature breathy alto, she was one of the earliest and most definitive French participants in the yĂŠ-yĂŠ movement . . . . She is one of only a few female vocalists who could or would write and perform her own material. She offered a startling contrast to the boy’s club of French pop in the early ’60s, paving the way for literally thousands of women all over the globe. Known for romantically nostalgic songs and melancholy lyrics, Hardy’s first single, “Tous Les Garçons et les Filles,” sold over two million copies and made her a European star overnight. Outside music, Hardy also established herself as a fashion model, actress, astrologer, and author. . . . In 1963, she took fifth place (for Monaco) in the Eurovision Song Contest . . . . Soon she was on the cover of virtually every top music magazine. . . . Because of her place in pop music, he[r lover and photographer Jean-Marie Perier] was able to persuade top designers including Paco Rabanne, Chanel, and Yves Saint-Laurent to adopt her as a model. French director Roger Vadim offered her a prime role in Château en Suède; the experience only increased her national popularity . . . . She quickly became her country’s most exportable pop star, releasing ten albums between 1962 and 1968. . . .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Fab â66 yĂŠ-yĂŠ single by Chantal Kelly. As to Chantal:
One of the lesser-known yĂŠ-yĂŠ girls is French singer Chantal Kelly, who had a short-lived music career, but made her mark during the movement nonetheless. She debuted in 1965 with “Caribou,” a song with a world music vibe. While many of the pop singers of the ’60s sang covers of UK and US hits, Chantal had an upperhand with her personal songwriter Cris Carol, a known singer-songwriter. But she retired from the music industry after five EPs and a full-length album.
A Google translation of a French wiki page adds that:
Chantal Bassignani, eager to work in the entertainment industry, takes singing lessons from Cris Carol's mother, who then sent the recordings of her vocal exercises to the Philips record company. She began her career in 1965 recording, under the pseudonym Chantal Kelly . . . . The songs are written and composed by Cris Carol . . . . Chantal subsequently went on several tours accompanied by Michel Delpech, Jacques Dutronc and Johnny Hallyday. At the same time, she is approached by the Bella company to appear in several advertisements for their successful dolls. . . . After five records and a full album, Chantal Kelly quits the music world, declaring that she despises all her recordings from the 1960s.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
I featured my favorite Joe Tex song a long while ago (see #42). Here’s my second favorite, also off Tex’s ’69 album Buying a Book (see #42). RDTEN1 is spot on calling “Anything You Wanna Know” “[s]ide oneâs funkiest performance . . . a surprisingly funny and on target number describing the inner workings of a small townâs black community” (https://www.funkmysoul.gr/joe-tex-1969-buying-a-book/). Soulmakossac says it’s full of Tex’s “unique blend of funky stompinâ music and folksy, humorist lyrics”, a “fat struttinâ . . . hilarious ode to the place where you can find out all you need to know: the bus depot!” (same) The one and only Dave Marsh calls the whole album “[f]unny, funky, and as deep as it wants to be.â (https://www.allmusic.com/album/buying-a-book-atlantic–mw0001958358)
Michael Jack Kirby gives a fabulous introduction to Joe Tex (Joseph Arrington, Jr.):
In 1965 . . . [he] had his first big hit, “Hold What You’ve Got.” Perseverance got him to that point as he’d been making records for almost ten years. [Joe Tex] . . . . had advice for everyone, especially when it came to romance and moral behavior. The long road to stardom got under way in 1955 when he made the journey from the Lone Star State to New York City’s Apollo Theater, taking control of the crowds and coming in first place on more than one “Amateur Night.” Syd Nathan, owner of King records, offered him a chance to record . . . . After several releases but no breakthrough hit, King cut him loose and he headed back to Texas, where he served as a minister . . . . Tex joined the Ace [Records] roster in 1958 and waxed several singles . . . but . . . none were hits. . . . He [did] perfect[] some mean dance moves, including an impressive microphone stand gimmick by letting the stand fall to the floor as he grabs it with his foot just in time, proceeding to kick it around while dancing and singing, never missing a beat of the song. Those kinds of stage moves . . . would later get him into a skirmish with a certain “Mr. Dynamite.” Joe had . . . a few singles for the Anna label . . . “Baby You’re Right,” was interpreted with minor changes by James Brown . . . and hit the pop charts, and R&B top ten . . . the first major hit with Joe’s name attached. Any good feelings Joe had towards James was short-lived, though, when the latter made claims that the former had copied his moves onstage. Joe’s reply was to make fun of JB’s cape-wearing “Please, Please, Please” routine at a concert, and when James began dating Joe’s ex-wife . . . the two cut ties permanently.
The break of a lifetime came when Joe met William “Buddy” Killen. . . . Buddy worked for Big Tree Publishing . . . . Tex and Killen clicked when they first met and a deal was struck . . . . Ten singles came out . . . between 1961 and 1964 . . . . with the same frustrating results [as before]. Joe was ready to call it quits and move on . . . [but] Killen convinced him to hang in there a little longer. [The ’64 single] “Hold What You’ve Got[]” . . . went top ten on the pop charts and number one R&B in January 1965. . . . The Tex-Killen team was a well-oiled machine in those hitmaking years of the mid-to-late 1960s and the two became very close friends. Buddy produced and Joe continued doing all the songwriting himself . . . . [H]e caught a hot groove in 1967 with “Show Me,” . . [and] “Skinny Legs and All[]“ . . was a smash hit beyond all expectations; top ten, a million seller and Grammy nominee to boot. . . .
Joe Tex made the first Southern soul record that also hit on the pop charts . . . . His raspy-voiced, jackleg preacher style also laid some of the most important parts of rap’s foundation. He is, arguably, the most underrated of all the ’60s soul performers associated with Atlantic Records . . . . Tex made his mark by preaching over tough hard soul tracks, clowning at some points, swooping into a croon at others. He was perhaps the most rustic and back-country of the soul stars, a role he played to the hilt . . . . His biggest hit was “Skinny Legs and All,” from a 1967 live album, his rapping pure hokum over deeply funky riffs. “Skinny Legs” might have served as a template for all the raucous, ribald hip-hop hits of pop’s future.
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
454) The Fenmen â âIâve Got Everything You Need Babeâ
Fantastic â65 beat single! Why wasnât it a hit, not the least because it has a killer guitar solo that sounds just like Jimmy Page? Anorak Thing says:
Backed by some strong brass The Fenmen give it their all on this Kooper/Levine composition with their trademark strong harmonies. Then out of nowhere comes a Jimmy Page style guitar solo lick (is it Pagey? Certainly sounds like his style) and the groovy horns and the bands booming harmonies that make the hairs on your neck stand on end.
Well, it turns out that it was Jimmy Page! Page realized it a few years ago while watching the BBC weather report:
One of the many tracks cut by Jimmy Page in his pre-Led Zeppelin days as a session man has surfaced on a television trailer for the BBCâs weather forecast. The track, “Iâve Got Everything You Need Babe” by cult British beat combo The Fenmen was released on the Decca label in 1965 following the bandâs split with frontman Bern Elliott, but it did not replicate the success of earlier singles . . . . Page, who estimates he recorded three sessions per day in 1964 and 1965, identified his presence on the track when he saw the trailer on television. âI heard the track the other day while I was watching TV . . . . I thought, âOh. That sound familiar.â Then, all of a sudden thereâs a solo that comes in and I go, âThat is me!â Itâs something that I would have forgotten about had I not heard it again. In fact, if they hadnât left the solo on the trailer, I may not have known Iâd even played on that track.â
As to the Fenmen, Richie Unterberger gives some history:
At the beginning of their recording career, they operated as the backup group in Bern Elliot & the Fenmen . . . . The Fenmen formed in early 1962 in a suburb in Kent, England . . . . With Elliot as frontman, they had a number 14 British hit in late 1963 with the oft-covered “Money,” and a smaller one with their follow-up, a version of Gary “U.S.” Bonds’ “New Orleans.” . . . Elliott and the Fenmen separated in 1964, leaving the Fenmen to develop a different style heavily derivative of American pop/rock vocal harmony outfits. A couple flop . . . singles for Decca in 1964 and 1965 found the Four Seasons flavor especially strong, including a cover of the Season’s smash “Rag Doll.” . . . The Fenmen ended, however, at the beginning of 1967, when rhythm guitarist/singer [Wally] Waller reconnected with childhood friend Phil May, lead singer of the Pretty Things. After the two wrote “The Sun” together, May invited Waller to join . . . with Fenmen drummer/singer John Povey also joining . . . . Waller and Povey would be an important part of the band’s transition from an R&B-oriented group to a far more psychedelic one in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
Here is the BBC Weather promo that set off the lightbulb in Jimmy Pageâs head:
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Spellbinding and mournful track from the Chilean bandâs classic â70 psych LP Los Pajaros was also the B-side of the albumâs only single (see #360).
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
I talk about Bruno! Well, I talk about Bruno Kretchmar and his delightful and winsome UK â66 A-side (one of his two singles). Teabiscuit calls âWander Boyâ (âWonder Boyâ in some printings) âmidtempo [pop psych], a nice dreamy folky pop dancer with a hypnotic edge, the fuzzy sounding brass bits hard to tell what instrument that is, could even be a Kazoo?” (http://www.45cat.com/record/r5450). And Dustin E’s liner notes to The Piccadilly Sunshine: A Compendium of Rare Pop Curios from the British Psychedelic Era (Volumes 11-20) comp series say that Bruno had âa quintessentially English delivery and focus”, his two singles “confirm[ing] his talent for observational and provocative writing.” On the other hand, the usually spot-on Vernon Joynson says “[t]his guy’s two easy listening pop 45s are of no lasting significance.” (Tapestry of Delights Revisited)
The song didnât catch on. It might have if there was more kazoo! In any event, Bruno ended up as president of Chrysalis Records. Talk about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly!
Check out the siteâs new page: Stick It to the (Fish)Man:Feedback â the coolest comments I have received!
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
This song is a bonus track on the CD reissue of the Lee Hazlewood/Ann-Margret ’69 album The Cowboy & the Lady. I can’t believe it was an outtake, because it would have been so totally out of place on that album. Rather than being countryish, the song essentially boils down to Ann-Margret singing sultrily, accompanied by an insistent, and actually quite excellent, repeating hard-rock guitar riff. After listening to Ann-Margretâs over-the-top vocals on the rest of the album, it is truly a shock to the system. In a good way!
Other than “Sam” being a Lee Hazlewood composition, I haven’t been able to find out much more about the song. If anyone has the box set There’s A Dream I’ve Been Saving: Lee Hazlewood Industries 1966 – 1971, please let me know what the liner notes say!
In any event, Light in the Attic Records provides some background on The Cowboy & the Lady:
In 1969 Lee Hazlewoodâs personal record label LHI Records was flush with major label cash and Lee wanted to make Ann-Margret his next big star. . . . The album is Hazlewoodâs truest country album and a perfect example of the genre hopping he was afforded at LHI with unlimited creative freedom and money to burn. Recorded over a weekend in Nashville with the help of Charlie McCoy and some Nashville session musicians. . . .
A whirlwind year of lear jet promo tours, magazine photo shoots, television specials and cutting records for LHI wasnât able to bring the success that Lee and Ann-Margret pushed for. A second LHI album . . . was planned but never recorded. Within a year . . . Lee would be living in Sweden full-time and Ann-Margret would focus on her acting career for the better part of a decade. . . . Though it didnât stick, and it didnât sell, Leeâs adventure with Ann-Margret is an extravagant tangent that has since grown a cult following . . . .
Many listeners are surprised that this combination doesn’t click . . . . After all, brassy Ann Margret does have things in common with the Hazlewood breadwinner Nancy Sinatra . . . . The one missing ingredient is subtlety — this is what good old Nancy Sinatra brought to each and every one of the classic recording collaborations with Hazlewood . . . . Ann Margret is just over the top much too often, an approach that of course works well for her when an audience is also watching her dance or she is part of a farce . . . .
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (ârelating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainmentâ â dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the âgreatest songs of the 1960âs that no one has ever heardâ that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelationsđ 