THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
519) The Endless — “Tomorrow’s Song”
Riveting ‘66 A-side by the Endless, an Ohio garage band formed by two brothers. Sadly, the song talks of not-so-endless love.
Buckeyebeat says:
The Endless were formed by brothers Jack and Patrick McAfee, who were school students. In October of 1966 they recorded 5 excellent original songs . . . . All five were played over the radio and the audience called in to choose the winners (even though some of the band members disagreed with the choices!). They hooked up with Frank Keffer from Cardinal records in Columbus, who released “Prevailing Darkness” and “Tomorrow’s Song”. The 45 sides were re-recorded . . . in December of ’66.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
518) Thor’s Hammer — “My Life”
“My Life” by Iceland’s Thor’s Hammer entered Valhalla upon placement in the underground garage/freakbeat/psych canon by Nuggets II, which calls it a “wild yet melodic rocker, bursting with harmonies and some crackling fuzz guitar work.” (Mike Stax’s liner notes to Nuggets II) Richie Unterberger says it’s a “[b]rash mod stomper[] . . . with snarling vocals, Keith Moon-like drumming, and fuzz guitar” and an “engaging, tough mod rocker[]”. (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/thors-hammer-mn0000584715; https://www.allmusic.com/album/from-keflavik-with-love-mw0000211096)
Then Anorak Thing opines that:
“My Life” . . . [has] more restrained “beat group” style vocals but [an] insane barrage of fuzz and distortion that only comes from places where the climate is harsh or the people are backward like some of the best 60’s sides from rural America or Australia.
Now, I am not sure whether AT is saying that Iceland has a harsh climate or that Icelanders are backward, but I can attest to the insane barrage of fuzz and distortion!
As to Thor’s Hammer — who went by the name of Hljómar in Iceland — Richie Unterberger recites their saga:
Thor’s Hammer was the most notable ’60s Icelandic rock band . . . . In part that’s because they were able to record in London for Parlophone, and even get a solitary 45 released in America in 1967. . . . In the mid- to late ’60s, they made quite a few recordings, the best of them in a ferocious mod, British Invasion style reminiscent of the early Who and sub-Who groups like the Eyes. . . . Thor’s Hammer formed as Hlijomar (in English, the Sounds or the Chords) in Keflavik, Iceland, in 1963. In a small, isolated country that didn’t even have television in 1963, a rock band of any kind was a novelty. They became extremely popular [there] and began recording for the Icelandic market in 1965, also supporting some visiting British acts on their Icelandic tours. They named themselves Thor’s Hammer for English-sung recordings made in London and released on the Parlophone label.
Their initial releases were sung in their native tongue, but the group and their record company quickly realized that to export the group’s popularity, they would need to sing in English and adjust the band’s name accordingly. . . . In late 1965 Thor’s Hammer traveled to England for recording sessions which included ones for tracks that were to be used in an upcoming movie starring the band, called Umbarumbamba. Among the songs recorded was “My Life[.]” . . . The song was released on an EP, issued in conjunction with the movie in the fall of 1966. The film was something of a flop, however, and the record consequently sold poorly. Though the band’s popularity was fading in their home country, they pursued their international ambitions with a 1967 single for Columbia Records. However, the single — cut by U.S. session men, with the band’s vocals added later– sank without a trace. In Iceland, the group’s career . . . eventually recovered and they thrived in a more progressive vein until their final split in 1969.
liner notes to the CD comp Nuggets II (Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969)
Now, Umbarumbamba wasn’t a feature — only 15 minutes long, it is a “stylized account of an Icelandic country dance.” (https://www.icelandicfilms.info/films/nr/783) Supposedly, the film has never been screened since. Well, I want to see it! If anyone who reads this blog has done so, let us all know!
I am not sure what Umbarumbamba means — Google Translate tells me that it’s English equivalent is Umbarumbamba. Maybe one problem here is that Iceland don’t have the best international marketers — naming their country Iceland when it is so beautiful while Greenland gets to call itself Greenland (what a joke)! Maybe if they had named it Ummagumma, it would have been a blockbuster.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
517) The Gordian Knot — “The Broken Down Ole Merry-Go-Round”
What do a star college quarterback, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Norman Fell (“Mr. Roper”), Senator Robert Kennedy and Nancy Sinatra all have in common? — the Gordian Knot and a wondrous pop psych B-side/album track from the Knot’s only album. “Merry-Go-Round” constitutes one third of the great ‘60’s triumvirate of bittersweet meditations on childhood from the perspective of the things that growing children leave behind — along with “Puff the Magic Dragon” and Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree.”
From whence the degrees of separation? Bryan Thomas:
[The] Gordian Knot was a short-lived band from southern California by way of Mississippi. They released only one album, a terrific soft rock/harmony pop effort . . . . The group formed at the University of Mississippi and was led by ex-Mississippi all-American quarterback/guitarist/lead vocalist Jim Weatherly . . . . The group caught their biggest break after they appeared at a party thrown by Nancy Sinatra, who apparently liked them so much that she asked them to accompany her on a USO trip to Vietnam. According to their liner notes, they were “one of the few groups since the Beatles to possess genuine charm . . . not a phony show biz glucose charm, but the real thing.” The bandmembers also appeared as themselves in a 1968 MGM teensploitation flick called Young Runaways, performing an original entitled “Ophelia’s Dream.”
A few years after the release of this album, Weatherly moved to Nashville and became a country singer/songwriter, penning a handful of hits. [His] biggest success as a songsmith came in 1973, however, when he wrote five of the nine songs on Top Ten album Imagination, including the soulful “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” and “Midnight Train to Georgia” (“Midnight Plane to Houston” was the original title), a pop and R&B number one smash in September 1973. . . . Weatherly recorded several albums . . . in the mid-’70s . . . . He has since co-written with younger country acts and provided Vince Gill, Bryan White, and others with hit songs.
[J.D.] Lobue [who wrote “Merry-Go-Round”] and [Leland] Russell had a band with Jim since their days at the University of Mississippi, where Jim Weatherly was a star quarterback. After college they moved to Los Angeles to try to succeed in the music business. On March 5, 1965, Cash Box announced “The grid star kicks off his disk career with a driving rocker”. It would be three years before any further releases, or any press would mention Jim Weatherly or his group, who would eventually be named the Gordian Knot. In February, 1968, Cash Box reported the[y] had signed to Verve for four singles and an album.
Performing for the key-holding crowds of Pierre Salinger’s ultra private club the Factory, they have acquired a rooting section which includes Nancy Sinatra and Tommy Smothers. Recently, they entertained Senator Robert Kennedy who thanked them in his speech for performing . . . . [M]illions of TV viewers familiarized themselves with the group when they tuned in the Fred Astaire special a while back. Viewers caught the quintet scintillate through the old Irving Berlin number, “Top Hat.”
Here is “Orphilia’s Dream” — and, yes, the dad is Norman Fell from Three’s Company!!!
Here is a trailer from The Young Runaways:
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
516) Group 1850 — “Zero”
Mystical Dutch space-psych ’68 A-side from Group 1850 — with accordion. And they never did LSD! Per Lenny Helsing:
Between 1966 and 1976 Group 1850 blazed an unforgettable path across the Dutch music scene. With mercurial singer/keyboardist Peter Sjardin at the helm, they made some of the most dark, daring, strange, subversive, mind-altering, barrier-smashing progressive music of the era.
[T]horoughly weirder-sounding contenders for infamy upon the [Netherlands’] charts . . . includ[e] the . . . monolithic utterance[] which . . . ‘Zero’ . . . would bring forth. These types of hugely experimental, forward-thinking, heavy song ideas would also find their way onto the group’s debut long-play record “Agemo’s Trip To Mother Earth” . . . .
Group Eighteen Fifty is an interesting, if sometimes exasperating, late-’60s Dutch band who ranks among the most accomplished and original Continental rock acts of the era, though they made little impression in English-speaking territories. Starting as a more or less conventional beat band in the mid-’60s, they had taken a turn for the more psychedelic and bizarre by 1967. Determined to drive into the heart of the psychedelic beast, their songs (performed in English) are quite eclectic for the era, shifting from doom-laden tempos with growling vocals to sunny, utopian passages with breezy harmonies. The group could be roughly labeled as a mixture of the early Mothers of Invention . . . and Pink Floyd without much of a sense of humor; their songs are intriguing and not without powerful hooks, and the lyrics ambitious (if often inscrutable) . . . .
One event was very influential in particular on Peter Sjardin. It was in 1967 in Paradiso, Amsterdam. That night, Pink Floyd performed in Paradiso and we were asked to be their support act and now 52 years later I recall every second of that evening! Because we were support act, we could stand on stage, so when Pink Floyd was playing, I stood two meters behind them and saw and heard everything that happened that evening. It’s one very special evening in my life . . . .
When I joined the band they were totally clean, not even a beer, but than we met a group of Dutch poets who were a few years older and performed with jazz and poetry, but they wanted to do, Beat and Poetry with us and one of them gave us our first blow and haha, now 55 years later I still like it. But LSD and other psychoactive substances none of us use. . . .
Shortly after the opening night of Paradiso in Amsterdam on the 30th of March 1968 [same concert mentioned above?], we were supporting act of Pink Floyd. The dressing rooms in those days were behind the stage down the stairs in the cellar of the building. And while Pink Floyd were performing, we came upstairs and stood on stage two meters behind them watching them. Can you imagine what an experience that was for us?! On that night we were inspired by Pink Floyd and we slowly started to change our music, we started to improvise more since that night and our songs became longer. . . . On the 24th of September 1967 we had another spectacular gig in Amsterdam in “The Concertgebouw”. On that night we were supporting act of Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention . . . . One year later we supported at “The Concertgebouw” in Amsterdam another special musician. We were the support act for Janis Joplin!!!
By the way, Klaasse explains how the band got its name:
Before I joined the band, they already existed and called themselves “The Klits”. On the first of January 1966 they asked Hugo Gordijn to become their manager and he decided that they need another name, because “The Klits” went to far according to Hugo. The singer, Peter Sjardin, had an old watch from his grandfather with the year 1850 engraved on it and they decided to call themselves Groep (is dutch for group) 1850. . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
Take one fantastic failed solo A-side with one of the greatest bridges of all time by the Yardbirds’ singer and let a French icon incorporate the bridge into an enchanting confection — I’d say that THIS was the greatest Anglo-French alliance that history has yet seen.
As Richie Unterberger explains:
This peculiar track only counts as a half-cover, perhaps. For the verses of “Empty Sunday” are acceptable, if hardly exceptional, slightly glum pop-rock with a Continental flavor. Yardbirds fans ears will instantly perk up, however, when Hardy sings the bridges, which are taken note-for-note and word-for-word from the bridges of Keith Relf’s flop 1966 single “Shapes in My Mind.” “Empty Sunday” was written by famed British music entrepreneur Simon Napier-Bell and Ready Steady Go assistant producer (and Dusty Springfield manager) Vicki Wickham. . . . In 1966 Napier-Bell became the Yardbirds’ manager. Though his stint was relatively brief, it did take in the even briefer attempt to launch a sideline solo career for their singer, Keith Relf. That was pretty much a bust, and Relf’s second and final 45 while with the Yardbirds, “Shapes in My Mind” (actually released in two different versions, one starting with organ, another with sax and bass) was a flop. . . . [Its] bridges were recycled for the otherwise unrelated “Empty Sunday,” Hardy faithfully using the same rhythm.
Richie Unterberger says that “Shapes of My Mind” is a “pretty cool, unusual moody song with a baroque-pop flavor and unusual tempo changes, moving from tango-like verses to more insistently pounding bridges.” (http://www.richieunterberger.com/wordpress/francoise-hardy-les-versions-originales/) Sam Leighty says that it is an “interesting period piece in which Keith seems to start out singing about freaking out badly on acid. But after singing a few lines, he gets to the point that it’s Condition Red because his woman left him. . . . [T]his is a great song.” (http://www.furious.com/perfect/keithrelf.html)
Richie Unterberger says of the Yardbirds’ co-founder that:
Relf worked more extensively with [Yardbirds drummer Jim] McCarty than any other musician, the pair also recording and writing with each other as part of Together, Renaissance, and other post-Yardbirds projects. Asked in 2020 to account for how the folkier sides of his ex-bandmate emerged, Jim speculates, “I guess they were a relief of the sort of heavy, rocking stuff. They were sort of gentle. And yet, Keith had sort of a gentle side in him as well. He was quite a complex character. He always had a sort of almost secret side to him that was rather mysterious, which you couldn’t quite fasten down. “He was very gentle, but he had a sort of heavy side to him as well. And there’s one that’s very extroverted. He had both those sides in his nature. We used to link up on the gentle side and the spiritual things. He was a very spiritual guy”— a quality that comes across strongly in these recordings, as if he’s drawing from the bottom of his well.
I’ve talked of Françoise before (see #459, 476, 477), but Thom Jurek sums her impact up well:
“[She] is a pop and fashion icon . . . . With her signature breathy alto, she was one of the earliest and most definitive French participants in the yé-yé 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.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
513) Eric Burdon and the Animals — “Year of the Guru”
This crazy, and crazy-cool, album track from ‘68 is totally unexpected and seems decades ahead of its time. One YouTube commenter says it was the first rap song. Man, does Eric dis gurus — laugh out loud funny. It’s like John Lennon was giving him the blow-by-blow from Rishikesh. Sexy Sadie what have you done? You made a fool of everyone!x
Bruce Eder:
Eric Burdon & the Animals were nearing the end of their string, at least in the lineup in which they’d come into the world in late 1966, when they recorded Every One of Us in May of 1968 . . . . The group had seen some success, especially in America, with the singles “When I Was Young,” “San Franciscan Nights” and “Sky Pilot” over the previous 18 months, but had done considerably less well with their albums. Every One of Us lacked a hit single to help drive its sales, but it was still a good psychedelic blues album, filled with excellent musicianship . . . . “Year of the Guru” . . . show[s] the entire band at the peak of their musical prowess, and Burdon — taking on virtually the role of a modern rapper — generating some real power on some surprisingly cynical lyrics concerning the search for spiritual fulfillment and leaders. . . . the group as a whole would pack it in with the waning of 1968.
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Christie’s ’68 B-side (from the first of his two singles) is indeed very ’68, and very English. Garwood Pickjon says that that “Penelope” is full of “Zombies-likes eclecticism”(https://popdiggers.com/various-artists-fading-yellow-vol-8-9/) and Richie Unterberger says that it is full of “nearly baroque moodiness with influence from both classical music and Beach Boys harmonies” (http://www.richieunterberger.com/winter2007albums.html#Various_Artists_Fairytales_Can_Come) Come to think of it, Penelope Breedlove and Penelope Breedlove Pitstop really weren’t all that dissimilar, and “Penelope Breedlove” would have made a fine theme song to The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, which didn’t really have a theme song.
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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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Lead singer Mal Robinson recalls the inspiration for “Crusader’s Smile” in a 2013 interview:
It is simply about traveling in a band, playing guitar to entertain others, often getting requests to bring out the acoustic at the band parties. I met my “wife to be” at about this time, but “she didn’t know that my mind could float away, cause I play my guitar to make people happy”. And we’re still married after 42 years. I feel the highlight of this song is Don[ ]’s percussion work . . . it turns an ordinary song into something you want to listen to over and over. He worked his ass off on this song when we played it live . . . he was inspirational. . . . There were no singles released from the album ( we would have voted for Crusader’s Smile if one had been done).
Bold and powerful vocals, matched by strapping guitar work, sweeping keyboards, concrete drumming, and soaring harmonies cement Morning Dew, rendering it to be a magnetic mix of innovative textures and designs. Hard rocking rhythms, flecked with psychedelic frequencies, rub elbows with gleaming pop gestures in a most attractive way. Songs such as “Crusader’s Smile[]” . . . especially tap into Morning Dew’s varied strengths. . . . Morning Dew had enough novel drive and imagination to make a difference.
From where did the Dew derive? Bruce Eder says: “The Morning Dew were formed from the remains of a collapsed folk-rock band called The Toads. Two early single releases, “No More” and “Be a Friend,” were local successes in 1967, and the group was signed to Morris Levy’s Roulette label in early 1969, for which they cut an entire album of material before disbanding later that year.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-morning-dew-mn0000603480) And Mark Deming:
The Morning Dew began as a good but not especially remarkable garage band from Topeka, Kansas, but as the mid-1960s became the late 1960s, their sound grew increasingly adventurous, and their approach became harder but more complex at the same time.
And, best of all, from Robinson:
We . . . took an acetate of . . . songs to New York to meet with several record labels to see if we could get signed. . . . There was no interest, as the labels didn’t feel there were any songs that could be released as singles. . . . Later, a local producer/agent . . . took the acetate to New York and met with several record companies . . . and he successfully got us a verbal commitment from Roulette Records in January, 1969. . . . Before proceeding with a final contract signing, representatives from Roulette wanted us to record a couple more songs and hear us play live . . . . So, in the Spring of 1969, we . . . recorded another original . . . and a cover . . . . Then in June of 1969, Fred Munao of Roulette Records came to Topeka to hear us play live . . . . It was at that audition, we officially signed our recording contract with Roulette . . . . In August, 1969 we loaded up our Chevy van and drove to New York to record the album . . . . [which] was recorded in 32 hours over a three day period with very little retakes. . . . It was a whirlwind experience, a 30 hour drive to New York and a one week long stay at the Hotel Albert in Greenwich Village (Led Zeppelin were staying there at the same time). Three days at the recording studio mixed in with a photo shoot in Central Park. . . . We met with Morris Levy, President of Roulette to “beg” for a cash advance so the band would have some spending money while in the city. He bitched and moaned, but ended up cutting us a check for $1,000. The only money we ever saw from Roulette. . . . The album was not released until 1970. We later found out that Roulette was mired in legal troubles at the time, owing back taxes, falsifying financial records, etc. . . . Levy was accused of tax evasion and was reputed to be linked to the mob. He later went to prison and died there in the 1980’s. . . . To this day, I never received an official accounting for the album. I was told there were 10,000 copies printed but most of them were “destroyed in a warehouse fire”. I have no idea how many were distributed on a retail basis.
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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
510) David Ruffin — “The Double Cross”
“The Double Cross” is a powerful and heart-rending track from Ruffin’s first solo album, ‘69’s My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me).
Of course, Ruffin’s foundational days were with the Temptation. As John Lowe writes:
One of the greatest lead singers the Motown stable ever had, David Ruffin became one of the artistic cornerstones of the Temptations after his lead vocal on “My Girl” (1965) paved the way for such majestic follow-ups as “Since I Lost My Baby” (1965), “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep” (1966), “All I Need” (1967), and “I Wish It Would Rain” (1968). Unfortunately, ever-mounting internal pressures within the group, coupled with Ruffin’s swelling ego, led to his dismissal . . . in late 1968.
David Ruffin was never a team player. . . . [H]e was a rebel in the close-knit Motown family. He wanted his own limo and more money. He wanted billing as David Ruffin & the Temptations. And he wanted creative freedom. As choreographer–and creator of the “Temptation Walk”–Cholly Atkins once said, “The Tempts[‘] . . . . choreography was all about conforming to a routine. David could do it–he could move with the best of them–but he wasn’t built to conform to anything. He resisted discipline like a cat resists water.”
Lowe notes that Ruffin’s “solo career got off to a promising start with the powerful ballad ‘My Whole World Ended . . .’ which cracked the pop and soul Top Ten in early 1969.” Lindsay Planer adds:
Although drugs would begin to erode his immeasurable talents from the inside out, Ruffin can be heard at the top of his game on My Whole World Ended . . . . [H]e was still considered a key component in the Motown family and, at least for a while, was afforded support by the best and brightest that the label had to offer. Among the perks was working with top-notch hit making producers . . . all of whom add their magic to the mix. Ruffin’s vocals are uniformly inspired . . . . In the end the project didn’t need too much help to take to the top of the R&B album survey for two weeks and into the Top 40 on the pop side.
After going Top 10 with the [album’s title song], Ruffin would struggle for years while his former group scaled the charts . . . . The promising first album . . . with standout tracks like . . . “The Double Cross” . . . seemed to ensure stardom. But the follow-up Feelin’ Good . . . felt like a retread, with sub-par material . . . . [U]nlike fellow Motown rebels Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, Ruffin did not write his own songs. Consequently, he was at the mercy of the Hitsville staffers, who loaded his third album with more B-minus material.
Ruffin died in 1991 at the age of 50.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
509) The Smoke — “No More Now”
Nuggets 2 concludes that this ‘67 Kiwi B-side “features some of the most vicious, overdriven guitar performances ever to be released in the Southern Hemisphere. . . . Brett Tauri’s savage slash ‘n’ burn guitar[,] including a strangled raga break . . . makes the song one for the ages.” Whoa, indeed it does. Andrew Schmidt calls “the feedback laced” song one of the best New Zealand singles of the ’60s. (https://www.audioculture.co.nz/profile/the-smoke). That is saying something.
Who is Brett Tauri? Andrew Schmidt informs us that:
The Smoke’s slight, long-haired guitarist Brett Tauri left home at 15, got his own flat . . . learnt one of the new instruments of teen rebellion (the bass) and grew his hair long, copping the usual redneck flak around town. At 16, Tauri hit out for America, playing guitar on a cruise ship headed for San Francisco . . . . He returned to New Zealand in 1965 . . . . Smoke played their first show at the infamous Battle of the Bands at the Auckland Town Hall in January 1967, when a bogus Australian promoter skipped with the proceeds and the prizes. The Smoke attracted the attention of local promoters . . . who set them up with South Auckland residencies . . . . ‘No More Now’ was one of the Smoke’s rave numbers, a loosely structured, semi-improvisational jam. . . . [It] sold well in the Auckland area, gaining the band a lot of work. It also made good ground in the Dunedin and Christchurch charts, and sold well in the United States, England and Germany, where it had good radio play on Radio Berlin. . . . . The Smoke [then recorded] their follow-up single, a version of Procol Harum’s Someone ‘Following Me’, together with a . . . Tauri composition, ‘Control Your Love’, which featured a swinging dance beat, wild Tauri guitar, and a reflective lyric. They played one final . . . tour with Larry’s Rebels . . . . Then . . . they were gone. Brett Tauri played in several bands in New Zealand . . . . [and then] worked as a session guitarist well into the 21st Century.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
508) The Kinks — “Ring the Bells”
Glorious album track from the Kinks’ third album — The Kink Kontroversy (’65). As Andrew Hickey says, it “has one of [Ray] Davies’ loveliest melodic ideas, based around a beautiful acoustic guitar riff”.
Of TKK, Richie Unterberger notes that:
The Kinks came into their own as album artists — and Ray Davies fully matured as a songwriter — with The Kink Kontroversy, which bridged their raw early British Invasion sound with more sophisticated lyrics and thoughtful production. . . . [G]reat songs on this underrated album include the . . . plaintive, almost fatalistic ballad[] “Ring the Bells” . . . .
It’s such a nice melodic idea, in fact, that the Rolling Stones used it as the chorus to Ruby Tuesday a year later. . . . [T]he similarity is so strong it’s astonishing that there appears not to have been a lawsuit.
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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
507) KAK — “Lemonaide Kid”
I think someone definitely spiked the lemonade on this gentle but epic psych-folk-rock track from Kak’s only album (’68). Gio Arlotta says that:
[“Lemonaide Kid” is] one of the most evocative unknown songs of the late ’60s . . . . This song’s light, sativan* riff flies like a colored butterfly above leaves of droning tablas and flowers of sitars. You’ve reached the astral plane but you’ve got cotton mouth, the only cure is Lemonaide, kid.
Kak were formed by the remnants of the Oxford Circle, a garage beat band from San Francisco . . . . Frontman Gary Lee Yoder would then go onto heavier stuff with Blue Cheer, but here we find a band ethereally floating around like a falling leaf in the summer of love’s comedown. Kak were signed to a major label before having even recorded anything and were given a mansion to live and write in in San Franscisco. They recorded one album worth of material, Kak-Ola, in 1969, which at the time didn’t have the success they were hoping for — it has since gained a cult like status — and unfortunately, the band disbanded shortly afterwards.
Unterberger somewhat dismissively adds:
The self-titled Kak LP was minor-league San Francisco psychedelic rock influenced by a lot of bigger Bay Area bands, particularly Moby Grape . . . . Kak’s album was barely promoted and didn’t sell well. It didn’t help that the band played less than a dozen shows before breaking up in early 1969 . . . .
Alec Palao gives his take on his friend Gary Lee Yoder and Kak:
A rapid local notoriety notwithstanding, it was in the psychedelic ballrooms of San Francisco that the [Oxford] Circle’s legend was made manifest . . . . [O]ut front was Yoder, parlaying either a dark folk-rock croon or demonic blues howl on a selection of Brit R&B or his own punk originals, often delivered whilst writhing on the stage floor, or with the coaxing of otherworldly feedback from his Gibson guitar. Something as fierce as the Oxford Circle was bound to burn too bright to last, and despite their popularity, the group only managed one single, some failed auditions and a gigging schedule that barely took them out of Northern California. A new group was quickly assembled at the end of 1967, when Yoder ran into an admiring Gary Grelecki, nascent songwriter with some intriguing connections. Grelecki instigated a deal with Epic Records and . . . . [t]he group spent most of 1968 lollygagging in a tony San Francisco townhouse whilst waiting for their album to come out, only to fracture immediately after its release, with just a handful of gigs under their belt.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
506) The Millennium — “I Just Want to Be Your Friend”
Sunshine pop went supernova with the Millennium, a 60’s sunshine supergroup that created Begin, the greatest sunshine pop album ever recorded. One of the loveliest songs on the album, and B-side to the Band’s first single, is the melancholy “I Just Want to Be Your Friend.”
Begin cost more to make than any other album from ’68 other than The Beatles (the White Album)— and no one buys it (at least until era of CD reissues). As Richie Unterberger writes, it was “at once too unabashedly commercial for underground FM radio and too weird for the AM dial.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-millennium-mn0000814312)For more on the Millennium and Curt Boettcher, see #396.
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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
505) The Liberty Bell — “Look for Tomorrow”
Scorching hot ‘68 B-side by Corpus Christi garage band.
Bruce Eder talks of the band:
With a few breaks, the Liberty Bell might have been America’s Yardbirds — as it worked out, however, the group suffered the undeserved fate of being a footnote in the history of Corpus Christi rock bands. . . . [O]riginally named the Zulus[, they] played a mix of blues-rock drifting toward psychedelia, driven by some fairly ambitious guitar work by lead axeman Al Hunt. In 1967, they hooked up with Carl Becker, the co-owner of J-Beck Records, which, at the time, was recording the hottest local band, the Zachary Thaks. Becker signed them to his new Cee-Bee Records, and suggested a name change to the Liberty Bell. . . . [T]he group sound[ed] like an American version of the Yardbirds with more of an angry punk edge, courtesy of lead singer Ronnie Tanner. But the real star of the group was lead guitarist Al Hunt, who wrote most of the material in those days and played like Jeff Beck On a good day. Tanner exited the group in early 1968 and was replaced by Chris Gemiottis, formerly of the Zakary Thaks . . . . [who wrote “Look for Tomorrow”].
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
504) Victoire Scott — “4eme”
Victoire’s ‘68 A-side, “The 4th Dimension”, “describes hallucinations following an LSD take” (https://www.last.fm/fr/music/Victoire+Scott/+wiki). Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe proclaims in Yé-Yé Girls of ‘60sFrench Pop that the song “is a baroque pop masterpiece, a Paris Existentialism-meets-American psych rock kind of thing. Its string arrangements, atmosphere, and texture created a unique vision.” (https://formalcontentsonly.wordpress.com/tag/victoire-scott/)
About Victoire, Lastfm wiki says (courtesy of Google translate) that:
From 1968 to 1971, the wonderful Victoire Scott released a few records that are part of the great mysteries of French pop history. Completely ignored despite the beauty of the texts and arrangements, it was the Swiss Stéphan Rossato who “revealed” her in her encyclopedia “The Dinosaurs of Rock” in 2004, when no one seemed to remember the ep’s and singles she released between the spring of 68 and the end of 1971 respectively on Decca and CBS. . . .
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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
503) Serge Franklin — “Exister”
This ultra-cool ‘68 A-side by Alain Patrice Amaraggi (AKA Serge Franklin) is the kind of freaky French freakbeat of which we were blissfully unaware. As Mark Deming says of the comp from which I plucked it:
Conventional wisdom has it that the French are not all that great at rock & roll — pop music, yes indeed, but not rock & roll . . . . But apparently there was a glorious window of time in the mid-’60s when France had a pretty lively rock scene . . . . [M]ost of the cuts could stand proudly beside the cream of American and U.K. garage and freakbeat sides from the era. . . . suggest[ing] there was a lot more going on in France during the garage era than most American fans ever knew.
Of course, not all agree. Darryl Bullock played the song on his show of the worst records ever made! —
Author Darryl W. Bullock presents an hour of terrible records. From the dawn of recorded music right up to some of today’s most hateful aural atrocities, spend 60 minutes with some of the worst, and most hysterically funny, records ever made.
Who was Serge Franklin? Wikipedia explains (courtesy of Google Translate):
Serge Franklin’s artistic journey began in the 1960s as a singer-songwriter. He publishes several super 45 rpm under his name. He quickly became a studio musician as a sitarist . . . . His journey continued to India in 1971, which led him to take the pseudonym Adjenar Sidhar Khan. In love with primitive string instruments, he immerses himself in oriental, African and Brazilian music. Some of his albums are then signed with the pseudonym Black Sun. At the same time, for eight years, he composed stage music . . . . [He] then turned to film music by collaborating on Arcady’s first five films (The Blow of Sirocco, The Great Forgiveness, The Great Carnival, Hold-Up and Last Summer in Tangier). Subsequently, he worked mainly for television . . . .
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
502) Peter Pan & the Good Fairies — “Kaleidoscope”
One of the great psychedelic instrumentals. John “Mojo” Mills said of the comp from which I plucked “Kaleidoscope” that it contains “the kind of incidental music to be heard during the trip scene of drug-ploitation flicks and no-budget sci-fi TV shows.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/buzz-buzz-buzzzzzz-vol-2-mw0000088482). Ah, “Psych-Out”! They sure don’t make movies like that anymore. Hey, wait, Quentin, I have a screenplay!
Who is Peter Pan? Technicolor Web of Sound says:
Very little is known of this presumed to be studio concoction that issued one outstanding instrumental 45 . . . on the Challenge label in 1967. The record was the brainchild of a Jim Gordon . . . who would later go on to cut a respectable instrumental solo LP in 1969. It should also be noted that, contrary to popular belief this is not the same Jim Gordon of Derek & The Dominos fame.
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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).
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
501) Harumi — “First Impressions”
“Impressions” is the B-side of Harumi’s only single. Dr. Schluss says it’s “a great track that mixes British style whimsy with the lighter side of San Fran acid rock. Plus it has vibraphone, which as you may know, is always a plus”. (http://psychedelicobscurities.blogspot.com/2008/02/harumi-1968-harumi.html). The song is taken from Harumi’s self-titled ’68 album. He, 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.
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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
500) Les Sauterelles — “Heavenly Club”
The “Swiss Beatles”! Their pop psych classic “Heavenly Club” asks the eternal question “What if I get to heaven and can’t pay the admission fee?”, and it was the first Swiss song to hit #1 in the Swiss chart! The song was promoted with one of the first music videos (watch below!). As Ursula Klein explains (Google Translate):
The band made their real breakthrough in 1968 with the single “Heavenly Club”. The disc stayed in the Swiss charts for 13 weeks, six of which were at number 1. “Heavenly Club” was the first Swiss song to make it to number 1 in the official hit parade. [They made] the clever move of advertising themselves as “The Swiss Beatles” during the Flower Power . . . .
A Swiss ’60s band that have sometimes been mistakenly identified as a British group due to their 1968 single “Dream Machine,” a quite catchy and enjoyable facsimile of British flower pop . . . . The band had actually been recording since 1965, and established themselves as one of Switzerland’s best and most popular groups. . . . . Much of their first LP (1966) was filled with covers of popular rock hits. . . . interpreted . . . with a brash energy that makes the record stand out . . . . “Dream Machine” was a more original effort, and an album from 1968, View to Heaven, also had a more pronounced folk and psychedelic feel than their earliest outings. Les Sauterelles continued recording all the way into the early ’70s . . . .
And the band’s website says in sort of broken English (courtesy of Google Translate):
“Heavenly Club” was launched as a single and appeared on July 9, 1968 as the first Swiss production in the “Media Control Charts” of the official hit parade. She stays there for a sensational 13 weeks, 6 of them at number 1. Les Sauterelles are at the top of the listener hit parades of popular radio stations such as Radio Luxemburg or Südwestfunk Baden-Baden. The single is adopted by most European countries, released in the US and even in Japan. They have almost become regular guests on Swiss television in the show “Hits à Gogo”. Gianni Paggi shoots a small film with them that will achieve cult status and is considered the first video clip of the pop era! The album “View To Heaven” will be released at the end of August. The Sauterelles are to be brought out by Decca Germany. This invites the band to Hamburg for the program “4-3-2-1” and organizes a well-announced media conference in the press tower.
And now the big surprise: drummer Düde Dürst wants to leave the Sauterelles, of all times, when things should really get going. But Rolf Antener is also somehow burned out. A feat, as Les Sauterelles had been constantly on the move in recent years with over 300 performances a year! Toni Vescoli therefore decides to dissolve the entire formation, because Peter Rietmann and Fritz Trippel have unfortunately become “problem children” lately.
“How about: LES SAUTERELLES,” says one of the [original band members]. “What does that mean in German?” you want to know. “Hop, grass-hop or something like that!” “Ah, locusts!” Toni specifies. “I think it’s great, it goes well with the chirping, shrill guitar tones.”
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist! + Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock Merchandise
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
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THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
499) The Open Mind — “Cast a Spell”
Here is the spellbinding B-side to the band’s legendary ’69 A-side “Magic Potion.” (see #148)
John “Mojo” Mills says of the Mind that:
As a defining point of the U.K. psychedelic/progressive rock crossover, the Open Mind’s sole album is the perfect specimen. With a singing style rooted in the freakbeat era, rather than the operatic tenor screams hard rock ushered in, and acidic duel guitars, heavier than those of a typical psychedelic act, The Open Mind filled the gap between the beginning of one era and the end of another.
This outfit from . . . South London . . . . played hip London venues such as The Electric Garden, UFO and Happening 44, and gained a residency at The Marquee where they were sometimes fronted by future Yes man Jon Anderson . . . . Boxing impresario Benny Huntsman landed the band a deal with Philips on the condition that his son Roger became their manager (though in effect it was Benny who ran the show), and their excellent self-titled album on that label was recorded in 1968, though not released until July 1969.
When asked about the origin of some of the Open Mind’s songs, bassist Timothy Dufeu explains that:
I wanted to get away from the soppy songs like “Dear Louise” and become more edgy. I had a set of French graphics Sci-Fi books. As I couldn’t speak French I used my imagination to think up the ideas for songs such as “My Mind Cries”, “Thor the Thunder God”, “Magic Potion”, “Horses & Chariots”, “Before My Time” and “Cast a Spell”. . . . Mick [Brancaccio] and Terry [Schindler] put the words to my ideas.
My mum chose it, really. I told her I needed to think of a new name for the band and was thinking up all sorts of weird things. She said “Why not call it The Open Mind” because she said she didn’t understand my way of life but had to have an open mind.
Thank God mom didn’t tell him “Why not call it The Never Calls because you never do!” Anyway, it is a cool name and a cool story, but Rob Horning thinks the band’s inspiration ran dry when it came to the album cover: “Largely ignored by the record-buying public in its day (perhaps because of its dopey cover, featuring the band crawling out of a statue’s cracked skull — get it?)”. (https://www.popmatters.com/the-open-mind-the-open-mind-2495694576.html)
Dufeu’s concluding reflection is that “Life’s too short for regrets! Only I wish I had kept my original copy of the LP – it’s worth a bit more that it was when released!” Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Check out the site’s new page: Stick It to the (Fish)Man:Feedback — 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! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song.
All new subscribers will receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock magnet. New subscribers who sign up for a year will also receive a Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock t-shirt or baseball cap. See pictures on the Pay to Play page.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist and a physical address to which I can sent a magnet/t-shirt/baseball cap. If choosing a t-shirt, please let me know the gender and size you prefer.
Just click on the first blue block for a month to month subscription or the second blue block for a yearly subscription.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊 