384) Wimple Winch — “Atmospheres”

The band released three singles (see #49). This was to be the 4th A-side. Well, it did sort of sneak out as the B-side of the 3rd single:

1967 Fontana notification to records shops that the Wimple Winch’s 3rd single had been withdrawn. [T]he band’s 3rd single was mis-presssed with a track called Atmospheres on the B-Side, the proposed 4th single. The single was repressed with the intended B-Side the diabolically awful Typical British workmanship. Along with Save My Soul, the epic track Atmospheres has earned that band their reputation as one of the most collected and sought after UK – so called- Freak Beat 45rpms. Condition : Near Mint £200.00

https://pleasuresofpasttimes.com/popt-shop/the-wimple-winch-fontana-1967-flyer-atmospheres-rumble-on-mersey-sq-south/

As to “Atmospheres” itself, it is one of the great ones. Vernon Joynson calls it a “stunningly complex and punchy composition, . . . veer[ing] towards psychedelia and featur[ing] a highly melodic chorus.” (The Tapestry of Delights Revisited) The Chocolate Soup for Diabetics comp calls it a “beautifully-crafted mixture of pounding hard rock and sweet harmonies.”

Wimple Winch. Mark Deming writes that:

Liverpool’s Wimple Winch are best known to obsessive collectors of U.K. freakbeat for a handful of rare but potent singles, such as the malevolent “Save My Soul” . . . . [I]n early 1966, something kicked in with this band, which adopted the new name . . . and embraced a far more aggressive and compelling sound, with a crispness that suggested the mod sound that was coming into vogue, along with shades of psychedelia creeping into “Atmospheres” . . . . [T]his is fascinating stuff for those enamored of the point where beat music fell under the lysergic influence, and reveals just how weird a seemingly ordinary, clean-cut band could get during the first era of acid.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/tales-from-the-sinking-ship-mw0000808821

Vernon Joynson adds that:

Their manager, Mike Carr, owned a club named The Sinking Ship near Mersey Square south in Stockport and, having become the house band, it wasn’t long before Wimple Winch secured a record contract . . . . In 1967 the Sinking Ship caught fire, and all the band’s gear was lost. They rallied to record some tracks that summer, but momentum was lost and they split soon afterwards.

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Here is the song performed for radio:

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383) The Sir Douglas Quintet — “Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day”

How could this pop rock masterpiece not have been a smash hit? Well, being left off the SDQ’s classic ‘69 album Mendocino and not released till two decades later might help answer the question. Think Pleasant Valley Sunday without the ironic social commentary.

Steve Huey gives us some context:

Arguably the greatest and most influential Tex-Mex group ever, the [SDQ] epitomized Texas’ reputation as a fertile roots music melting pot and established the career of Tex-Mex cult legend Doug Sahm. The [band] mixed country, blues, jazz, R&B, Mexican conjunto/norteño music, Cajun dances, British Invasion rock & roll, garage rock, and even psychedelia into a heady stew that could only have come from Texas. Although they went largely underappreciated during their existence (mostly in the ’60s), their influence was far-reaching and continues to be felt in Texas . . . and beyond . . . . According to legend, the [SDQ] was the brainchild of Houston producer Huey P. Meaux, who at the height of the British Invasion took a stack of Beatles records into a hotel room and studied them while getting drunk on wine. He found that the beats often resembled those of Cajun dance songs and hit upon the idea of a group that could blend the two sounds well enough to fool Beatles fans into giving a local band a chance. . . . Meaux told Sahm his idea and Sahm quickly formed a band . . . . Meaux gave them the deceptively British-sounding name the Sir Douglas Quintet . . . . [T]heir . . . single . . . the British Invasion/garage-flavored “She’s About a Mover” . . . became a classic of Tex-Mex rock and an international hit, climbing into the U.S. Top 20 in 1965. . . . [The band] recorded one of their finest albums, 1969’s Mendocino; the title track became a Top 40 hit and a Tex-Mex rock staple . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-sir-douglas-quintet-mn0000018708

Ah, Doug Sahm. As Adrian Mack explains:

Sahm’s good vibes weren’t just some artifact of his ’60s roots . . . . Sahm was internally groovy. It was fundamental to his nature. It’s partly why we love him so much, and . . . . [i]t . . . explains how he can come up with something as simultaneously daffy and beautiful as the amber Texas pop of [“Sunny Mill Valley”].

https://thetyee.ca/ArtsAndCulture/2011/03/24/TheGroover/

Daddy and beautiful — yeah, that pretty well sums up the song.

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Here is a version by Frank Black and the Catholics:

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382) The Rolling Stones/Gene Pitney — “Andrew’s Blues”

The Stones, with Gene Pitney providing vocals, “lovingly take the piss out of” their wunderkind manager Andrew Loog Oldham in this raunchy sing-a-long (https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_rolling_stones_phil_spector_and_gene_pitney_get_drunk), which Stansted Montfichet calls “an obscene studio shtick”. (https://www.allmusic.com/album/black-box-mw0001081820)

Ah, ALO. Richard Havers writes that:

Oldham masterminded The Rolling Stones rise . . . . [He] was a month younger than Keith, who himself was the youngest member of The Stones, which makes his achievements all the more remarkable. It was ALO’s innate sense of promotion, his flair, his pushiness, and his understanding of music marketing, long before anyone else understood what it meant, that helped make The Stones who they became. [He] was much more than a manager for The Rolling Stones. He “produced” their early recordings without really knowing what a record producer did. The fact is he had a sixth sense as to what worked. When the band were struggling for a follow-up to their first single, Loog Oldham hustled John Lennon and Paul McCartney into giving the Stones an unreleased and unrecorded song to cover. “I Wanna Be Your Man” made No.12 on the UK charts and was the catalyst for much that followed. . . . Loog Oldham famously coined the headline, “Would you let your daughter sleep with a Rolling Stone?” Sadly, the ever-conservative Melody Maker changed “sleep” to “go.” From the outset, ALO cultivated the image of the band as anti-establishment, provocative, intelligent, and very much their own people. According to Andrew, “When The Beatles were having hit records and bridging the generation gap, The Stones were saying, you either like us or f**k off.” Every parent hated The Stones, which meant that just about every teenager loved them; ALO was a big part of furthering that feeling. . . . Perhaps most famously of all, he got Mick and Keith writing songs together. Maybe the story of locking them in a room until they wrote a hit is a little far-fetched, but it was undoubtedly Loog Oldham who saw the sense in getting them songwriting.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/andrew-loog-oldham-a-true-original/%3famp

But, back to “Andrew’s Blues.” Bart Bealmear writes that:

On February 4th, 1964, the Rolling Stones entered Regent Sound Studios in London for a session. . . . joined by some special guests: singer/songwriter Gene Pitney, Graham Nash and Allan Clarke from the Hollies, as well as genius record producer Phil Spector. By night’s end their combined efforts resulted in a few completed tracks, including one called “Andrew’s Blues,” which is quite possibly the raunchiest song the Stones have ever committed to tape . . . . In his autobiography, Stone Alone: The Story of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Band . . . Bill Wyman wrote about the wild session . . . .

“We’d become friendly with Phil Spector and attended a star-studded party in his honour thrown by Decca a week earlier; so he continued the friendship by dropping in our recording. . . . Gene Pitney arrived direct from the airport, with duty-free cognac. It was his birthday, and his family custom was that everyone had to drink a whole glass. Pitney played piano while Spector and the Hollies played tambourine and maracas and banged coins on empty bottles. We recorded three songs . . . . The session then degenerated into silliness, but everybody had a great time cutting ‘Andrew’s Blues’ . . . which [was] very rude.”

The main vocalist . . . is Gene Pitney . . . . The boys lovingly take the piss out of Oldham . . . but they also mock the hell out of Sir Edward Lewis, the founder and chairman of Decca Records—the Stones’ label—and the track as a whole can be seen as a commentary on the music business. Or just a drunken lark.

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_rolling_stones_phil_spector_and_gene_pitney_get_drunk

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381) The Kinks — “Time Song”

A stunning ‘68 meditation on time, lost opportunity, and mortality. Ray Davies didn’t actually mix the song — a Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society outtake — until 2018. Ryan Reed explains that:

The Kinks meditate on lazy days and mortality in “Time Song[.]” . . . “Time lives our lives with us, walks side by side with us/ Time is so far from us, but time is among us,” frontman Ray Davies croons on the song over a slow, hazy waltz of acoustic guitar and piano. . . . Though the . . . band never included “Time Song” on a studio album, they performed the track live in January 1973 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, England, celebrating Britain’s inclusion in the Common Market. “When we played a concert at Drury Lane in ’73 to ‘celebrate’ us about to join what was called the Common Market, I decided to use the song as a warning that time was running out for the old British Empire,” Davies said in a statement.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/hear-the-kinks-previously-unreleased-song-from-1968-711548/amp/

Ah, Village Green. As Essentially Pop describes it:

Created in difficult circumstances by a band on the verge of disintegration and who refused to follow fashion, it is an album of timeless, perfectly crafted songs about growing up and growing old, and the decline of national culture and traditional ways. Enduring and unsurpassed, with its wit, sadness, quiet anger, regret and charm, it is generally considered the high point of The Kinks’ outstanding career and Ray Davies’ masterpiece.

https://essentiallypop.com/epop/2018/08/the-kinks-release-previously-unreleased-track-time-song-and-announce-are-the-village-green-preservation-society-50th-anniversary-edition/

What did it mean to Ray? —

I think The Village Green Preservation Society is about the ending of a time personally for me in my life. In my imaginary village. It’s the end of our innocence, our youth. Some people are quite old but in the Village Green, you’re never allowed to grow up. I feel the project itself as part of a life cycle.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/latest-news/listen-to-an-unreleased-song-by-the-kinks/amp

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380) Tom Jones — “Dr. Love”

When I last featured a song of Tom Jones (see #330), I proclaimed that Jones’s take on “Hold On, I’m Coming” was so lascivious that he made Sam and Dave sound like choirboys. Well, today’s song by the Voice makes his “Hold On” sound like “Puppy Love.” I give you “Dr. Love.” “When I see her comin’, all I see is lovin’ inside”!

The song was on his A-Tom-ic Jones LP., a record that had “no hits singles on it sold poorly and failed to chart” (https://www.udiscovermusic.com/artist/tom-jones/). But udiscovermusic is dead on — “[W]hy no one thought to release the LP’s opening track as a single is a mystery. ‘Dr. Love’ is pure Tom!”

Oh, and apparently the American LP cover dropped the nuclear bomb so as to minimize the album title’s fallout with the fans. Silly — I think Americans had already learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.

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379) Hard Meat — “On the Road”

Hard Meat hailed from Birmingham, and “were basically a hippie outfit who played a brand of progressive rock”. (Vernon Joynson, Tapestry of Delights Revisited). “On the Road” is from the second of their two ‘70 LPs. The song has an irresistible groove. The band, however, had an unfortunate name. Allegedly, “hard meat” means corn and hay fodder for animals. Yeah, well, I’ll leave it at that.

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378) The Zipps — “Kicks and Chicks”

“Well I’m a bloody guy with a knack. I read all the books of Jack Kerouac.” I so love Dutch garage rockers with their over-exuberant use of the English language. “Kicks and Chicks”, a Zipps ‘66 A-side, is “cocky beat-punk rebellion” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/album/be-stoned%21-dig-zipps-mw0000952858) and a “stone cold killer of a second single [with the singer’s] accent . . . mak[ing] an already stonking performance a masterpiece.” (Joe Whimister, http://northeastbeast.blogspot.com/2012/03/zipps-kicks-and-chicks.html?m=1)

After this single, Jason Ankeny says the Zipps “steered their garage-influenced sound towards [drug-soaked] psychedelia, and thanks in part to their hallucinatory light show, they earned the sobriquet ‘The Dutch Pink Floyd.” https://www.allmusic.com/artist/zipps-mn0000581348). “All in all, it’s just another finger in the dike.”

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Here are the Zipps live:

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377) Lazy Smoke — “Under Skys”

This previously unknown John Lennon song comes from his lost Lazy Smoke weekend. Don’t believe me? Well, where do you think “People say I’m lazy dreaming my life away” came from? OK, actually, it’s “Beatles-tinged psyche rock, aided largely by a lead singer whose vocals conjure John Lennon” (Jittery White Guy, https://www.jitterywhiteguymusic.com/2020/06/lazy-smoke-corridor-of-faces-1968.html) — “a vocalist with a remarkable resemblance to John Lennon.” (Richie Unterberger, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lazy-smoke-mn0000147197/biography)

Or, was that Julian Lennon? Jittery White Guy says that “Under Skys” is “an infectious jammed-out ballad that sounds like Julian Lennon smoked a bowl before recording his first demo tape.” Stu Shea says of the song that:

[It] is among the best on the LP. It commemorates the very moment that a relationship is ending, the lyrics consisting of images already embedded in the singer’s mind. But lead guitarist Ralph Mazzota, who co-wrote the track, adds a booming, psychedelic solo—recorded in the studio while the rest of the band actually played outdoors—gives an edge of aggression to the otherwise bucolic, heartbreaking proceedings.

http://tenrecords.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-song-day-lazy-smoke-under-skys.html

Shea continues:

The discerning listener to some of Corridor of Faces’ quieter tracks may hear similarities to some of John Lennon’s ‘White Album’ material. Interestingly, Lazy Smoke recorded those tracks months before The Beatles was released. Despite being a “rock album,” C of F feels hazy, dazed, and lazy. The acoustic numbers are appropriately pastoral, with gentle guitar textures and beguiling melodies that flow effortlessly despite odd shifts in key and tempo.

And, as JWG says, the band’s lone album is “surprisingly good . . . above-average psychedelia, trippy and generally mellow . . . .” But who was Lazy Smoke? Richie Unterberger enlightens:

[It was an] obscure Massachusetts band of the late 1960s . . . . [t]heir biggest debt was to the Beatles [with] the resemblance commanded more attention due to the fairly close similarity of leader/chief songwriter John Pollano’s vocals to those of John Lennon. Pollano’s compositions bore a heavy Lennon stamp as well, often sounding like callower derivations of Lennon’s more sedate White Album-era tunes. They pressed a few hundred copies of one album for the tiny Onyx label in 1969, Corridor of Faces, before splitting. . . . Lesser imitations of the early Beatles aren’t hard to find, but it’s much tougher to locate diligent imitators of the group’s late-’60s sound. Here is one unheralded example . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lazy-smoke-mn0000147197/biography

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376) Jan and Dean — “Girl, You’re Blowing My Mind”

You know those songs of Bruce Springsteen on Tracks that surely would have been iconic hits had they actually been released on or around the time of The River? Well, “Girl, You’re Blowing My Mind” by Jan and Dean SURELY would have been a smash in the late 60’s, but it didn’t see release until 2010! In the liner notes to the 2010 Rhino release of JD’s Carnival of Sound “lost” album, Domenic Priore and Mark Moore describe it as “a breezy folk rocker that could have easily made the charts” and that “this upbeat, poppy A-side . . . . was just the track that might have brought Jan and Dean back to the charts” and Terry Staunton in Record Collector says that “there’s a formidable sophistication to the grandiose” song. I say that it is an irresistible pop psych confection that Brian Wilson would have been proud to have written and produced. As George Harrison might say, pull everything else out, we’ve got a Savoy Truffle.

“Girl” was first recorded shortly before Jan Berry’s near-fatal auto accident in April ’66. Andrew Sandoval and Mark Moore write in Carnival of Sound‘s liner notes that it was originally recorded in 1966 and “heavily overdubbed and edited during 1967 and 1968, resulting in an almost totally different sounding recording . . . .” Priore and Moore write that “[i]n September 1968, [it] was to have been released [as a single].” Jan kept tinkering with it, and Sandoval and Moore conclude that:

[S]ingles will never be pressed, either due to the fallout from Jan’s Screen Gems contract cancellation or the fact that Jan has decided to remix [the song] yet again . . . . Jan delivers his final mono mix [on December 10, 1968]. Though the label will cut a reference lacquer on this track on February 19, 1969, for possible release or at least review, Warner Bros. will leave the entire project vaulted for the next 40 years.”

Anyway, the song comes from the fabled Carnival of Sound (sorry, no “Carnival of Light” here) album. Staunton informs us that:

The Beach Boys are rightly held in awe for making the journey from the throway Surfin’ Safari to the eloquent genius of Pet Sounds in less than five years, but they weren’t the only sunkissed Californians pushing the envelope. History has often overlooked Jan & Dean, but Jan Berry always hungered for the teen symphonies so commonly associated with Brian Wilson. The duo’s career was put on hold after Berry’s horrific car crash in 1966, but he continued to piece together the components of Carnival Of Sound during his long recovery.

https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/carnival-of-sound

Bruce Eder adds that:

[I]f not as well-known as Brian Wilson’s Smile, Carnival of Sound is just as tantalizing a “lost” artifact of the psychedelic ’60s . . . . [It] was pushing the envelope of what Jan Berry was capable of doing in 1967-1968; listening to it is akin to watching someone run a marathon with a partly injured foot — they might succeed and possibly even do it well, but there’s also the dread of doing untold harm to themselves in the process. . . . What is here is mostly fun, and beautifully accomplished, with superb playing and excellent singing; and the production is, at times, stunning, and also far more self-consciously ambitious than prior Jan and Dean* releases . . . .

All Music Guide

* Dw. Dunphy notes that while it was “[e]ssentially a solo album, [it was] credited to Jan & Dean contractually . . . .” (https://popdose.com/cd-review-jan-dean-carnival-of-sound/)

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Here is Jan’s final single mix:

Check out this other version:

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375) Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera — “Reactions of a Young Man”

The opera ain’t over till the fat Elmer sings! This “proto-prog” (https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/elmer-gantrys-velvet-opera) “brilliant ballad” (https://psychedelicized.com/playlist/e/elmer-gantrys-velvet-opera/) came from the Opera’s ’68 “minor masterpiece” of an album. (https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/elmer-gantrys-velvet-opera) The album, and especially “Reactions”, sounds as if it was written yesterday. The song is so wise, and it sort of sounds like Supertramp.

As Jan Zarebski recounts, the band “emerged from R&B/soul act The Five Proud Walkers after experiencing a conversion to psych following a support slot beneath [the church of] Pink Floyd. Well… who wouldn’t? Their upbeat blend of the new scene with the primal beats of their earlier work got them noticed.” (https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/elmer-gantrys-velvet-opera) Marmalade Skies adds that “[t]he band began to get quite a following and played clubs and university gigs all over the country and at London venues like the Marquee and 100 club and Electric garden. They would also occasionally play at the Speakeasy where Jimi Hendrix would jam with them . . . . (http://www.marmalade-skies.co.uk/elmer.htm)

Zarebski goes on:

The urgent, brilliant Flames, which they cut as their first single, became a cult hit, and a fledgling Led Zeppelin incorporated the song into their act. Unfortunately, that was as close as [they] got to the big time, but their debut remains a rather superb slice of British psych-pop. . . . Reactions Of A Young Man . . . illustrate[s] the eclecticism and talent on show, but it’s the group’s more general mastery of melody and rhythm that marks this album out. Rather like The Zombies and, more obviously, The Beatles, [they] found a tune wherever they looked, and the results stand up with much of the period because of that.

https://recordcollectormag.com/reviews/album/elmer-gantrys-velvet-opera

Why didn’t they make it big? Jo-Ann Greene says that:

Although labeled a psychedelic band in their day, the Opera never sat comfortably in that strawberry field, partially because of the diversity of their sound, but also due to the simple fact they were just too far ahead of their time even for the psyched-out crowd. In fact, [the band] continued to sound thoroughly modern for decades, while their myriad musical meanderings took them down wayward byways that later became stylistic highways — at least in their native U.K. So it’s no surprise then, that this band would have slotted perfectly into the Britpop scene, or going back further in time, into the R&B-drenched mod scene.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/elmer-gantrys-velvet-opera-mn0000131151/biography)

Iván Melgar Morey agrees:

ELMER GANTRY’S VELVET OPERA, a very long name for a short living British band formed in 1967 during the peak of British Psychedelia, but despite their formation era, they were one of the most advanced bands from their era, blended with great respect R&B, Jazz Psychedelia a la early Pink Floyd and a touch of The Nice style . . . . Despite being a very good and incredibly advanced album for their era, never reached the popularity deserved, because it was too hard and eclectic for the average listener, but still remains as one of the most powerful and elaborate albums from the pre King Crimson Progressive Rock era.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2503

Ih, and where did that name come from? Marmalade Skies clears it up:

Velvet Opera was chosen initially, which was amended to Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera within days after Dave [Terry] turned up to a session wearing a long black cape and a preachers hat and had to endure some piss-taking from the rest of the band (Elmer Gantry was the fictional hero of a Sinclair Lewis novel and 1960 film about a preacher). . . .

http://www.marmalade-skies.co.uk/elmer.htm

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374) Paul McCartney — “Heather”

How many times has it been said that most musicians would sell their souls to write a “throwaway” composition scribbled by a musical genius as an afterthought or on a whim? Well, I’m not sure, but I do remember that movie Amadeus. Hey, I’m not saying that Paul McCartney is a modern day Mozart . . . . Wait, that is exactly what I am saying! And just think of what Paul could have written had he only lived till the tender age of 35, when Wolfgang was poisoned.

Anyway, today’s song is a perfect example of a Paul McCartney throwaway that I myself would gladly sell my soul to have written. As Happy Nat explains:

Heather Louise was Linda[ Eastman]’s daughter from her previous marriage to Joseph See. In 1969, after [Paul’s] marriage to Linda . . , Paul legally adopted Heather (then aged 6 years old). . . . While working on new Apple Records artist Mary Hopkin’s Post Card album (the date was almost certainly Friday Nov. 22, 1968), Paul . . , who produced the album, was in the studio with Mary and Donovan Leitch, who also contributes heavily . . . . Paul and Donovan sit around and play some guitar to warm up as the tape rolls. Linda and Heather are also with Paul in the studio and for a couple minutes Paul decides to entertain Heather with a nursery-rhyme styled tune he improvises using her name. As he makes out the tune on his acoustic guitar, Donovan starts to play along and harmonize. Mary Hopkin offers some harmony too and someone else joins in by slapping out a beat on their legs.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140803020125/http://www.thebeatlesrarity.com/2013/01/14/beatles-rarity-of-the-week-heather-improvisation-1968/

“Heather” (not to be confused with “Heather” on the Driving Rain album that Paul dashed off many years later while playing around on the piano) is, of course, enchanting.

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373) The Great Scots — “The Light Hurts My Eyes”

‘66 A-side from “the most kick-ass garage band ever to don kilts” (https://sundazed.com/great-scots-great-lost-great-scots-album.aspx) and “Canada’s answer to the Beatles”! (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-great-scots-mn0000070866/biography). Utterly fantastic song — compelling riff and the message that sunlight isn’t always the best disinfectant.

Cub Koda informs us that:

[T]he biggest group from Nova Scotia: the Great Scots . . . cut three singles of wild punk music, loaded with solid playing and great screaming vocals. . . . Hailed in the Canadian press as “Canada’s answer to the Beatles,” the group flew down to California in 1965, looking for bigger horizons to conquer. [They] capitalized on their Scottish heritage and wore Nova Scotian tartan kilts onstage, causing quite a stir everywhere they played. [They] sported solid harmonies and a wide musical palette that embraced everything from blues to rock & roll to a smattering of jazz. Their fame in California grew by leaps and bounds, doing guest shots on both American Bandstand and Shindig! [and] receiving the key to the city from the mayor of Santa Barbara, California. But the good times came to a quick end by 1967 because of the Vietnam War. The members had permanent visas, meaning they were all eligible for the draft. When [one member] was [drafted,] the others . . . called it a day and moved back to Canada.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-great-scots-mn0000070866/biography

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372) Tim Hollier — “In Silence”

A gentle ode to silence and daydreams by the great Tim Hollier (see #298, 299). Think “The Sound of Silence” but without the electric guitar solo the record label stuck in. Paul Cross calls the song “majestic folk-pop.” (http:/rockasteria.blogspot.com/2018_12_12_archive.html)

“In silence . . . I hear the truth I have always known.”

Bruce Eder is right on — “Tim Hollier was one of the most unfairly neglected of folk-based artists to come out of late-’60s England, his brand of trippy, quietly elegant psychedelic folk-rock deserving an infinitely wider hearing than it got.” (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tim-hollier-mn0002024094)

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371) Sharon Tandy — “Hold On”

Richie Unterberger gets it right for once, calling Tandy’s ‘68 A-side “galvanizing soul-freakbeat” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/you-gotta-believe-its-mw0000741620) and “storming soul-psychedelia.” (https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-magic-world-of-ruperts-people-mw0000984861). Nostalgia Central says that “her fiery version of Hold On . . . became her signature tune – with her breathless rasp going head-to-head with searing Yardbirds-like guitars.” (https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-l-to-z/artists-s/sharon-tandy/)

The song and its performers are intertwined with yesterday’s group, Rupert’s People. Unterberger explains:

Sweet Feeling’s manage, Howard Conder . . . recruited . . . Les Fleur de Lys, who had released some respectable mod rock records of their own without a hit [see #32, 122] to record [“Reflections of Charlie Brown”] in an arrangement reminiscent of early Procol Harum [and] a B-side, “Hold On,” but [they] decided not to work with Conder after the tracks were done. The single was released anyway, and has become regarded by collectors as one of the better little-known British psychedelic 45s. Conder’s original idea was to have Sweet Feeling change their name to Rupert’s People so that there was a band to promote the single. Sweet Feeling declined, so a [different] Rupert’s People lineup was formed . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ruperts-people-mn0000203419

The People’s story gets even more convoluted, so let’s turn to Sharon Tandy. As Steve Leggett explains:

Tandy already had a career as a singer and performer in South Africa before relocating to England in 1964 at the suggestion of Frank Fenter, then the U.K. head of Atlantic Records and soon to be her mentor, manager, and husband. Pairing her with the British mod group Fleur de Lys, Fenter used his clout to land her an opening slot on the 1967 Stax-Volt U.K. tour and, also convinced Stax to sign her as an artist . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sharon-tandy-mn0000010390

One of the fruits of the Tandy/Les Fleur de Lys collaboration was, hold on, yes “Hold On.” Tandy’s version is in my mind far superior to that of the People.

Leggett expands on Tandy’s legacy:

[While her] recorded legacy doesn’t contain any big commercial hits, [Tandy’s] unique phrasing and passionate vocal style suggest things could easily have been different. . . . Her output during the U.K. years, which saw her delivering sides that were mod-tinged and sometimes lightly psychedelic pop-soul, and sounding at times like a hipper, tougher version of Dusty Springfield, remain at the heart of her legacy.

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Here is Tandy singing “live” on Beat Club:

Here is Rupert’s People’s version:

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370) Rupert’s People — “Dream On My Mind”

“Dream On” — no, not that “Dream On”!!! — is the B-side of the People’s second of three singles (’67). Claudia A appropriately calls it “a great slice of rock-pop psychedelia” (https://www.music-news.com/review/UK/8862/Read) and 45rpy says it “may be the[ People’s] most definitive statement [with] a driving beat, killer guitar and some captivating melodies”. (https://45rpy.wordpress.com/2019/08/15/ruperts-people-the-magic-world-of-ruperts-people-1967-69-2001/). Unfortunately, “[d]espite considerable airplay on pirate radio . . . in the U.K. the[ People] failed to breakthrough[, though t]hey were very big in Germany”. (Vernon Joynson, Tapestry of Delights Revisited).

45rpy says that “[t]he history of Ruperts People . . . is so convoluted I won’t try to recount it here, but they were a real band to some extent, though their first single [the canonical “Reflections of Charlie Brown”] was actually an incognito Les Fleur De Lys . . . .” Well, I’m not gonna recount their history either, but in my mind “Dream On” is their crowning achievement. Power to the Rupert’s People!!!

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OK, check out the band’s video for the song, clowning around in the requisite Swinging London fashion:

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369) The Shady Daze — “I’ll Make You Pay”

This B-side of the Chicago garage band’s debut single (‘67) is one minute and fifty six seconds of pure mayhem, pure teenage romantic revenge fantasy. Garagebill says:

[B]eware, it sounds like your house is being demolished. Between the crashing cymbals which sounds like glass and appliances shattering, and the buzzy fuzzy guitar which sounds like a chainsaw wrecking the walls, this should be the theme song of every wrecking crew!

https://steemit.com/garagerock/@garagebill/garage-rock-fuzz-fest-i-ll-make-you-pay-by-the-shady-daze

And Gilesi says that it is “an up-tempo fuzz monster that radiates an effortless cool.” (https://cosmicmindatplay.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/classic-singles-24-the-shady-daze-love-is-a-beautiful-thing-ill-make-you-pay-1967/)

I’m not sure the lyrics are all that coherent. How do the Daze think that making a lover beg for love is going to let her wounded ex do all the things she deprived him of? No matter — the teenage years can be confusing!

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368) Billy Preston — “Hey Brother“

I offer today’s song as a tribute to the courageous and resolute Ukrainian people fighting for their freedom (and, ultimately, for all of ours), their country and their lives. I think Billy would approve:

“Hey, brother, where you goin’ with that stick in your hand? He said, “Goin’ over here. Goin’ to destroy another man’s land.” . . . I’ll tell you what’s wrong, I was born to be strong. To be tied down, I can’t stand it. Listen, wrong or right, black or white, we all deserve an equal right. Hey, brother, learn how to live with one another.”

As Bruce Eder says, “Hey Brother”, a ’68 A-side and ’69 album track, is “a topical rewrite of ‘Hey Joe'”, the folk song of disputed authorship indisputably made famous by Jimi Hendrix’s brilliance. (https://www.allmusic.com/album/thats-the-way-god-planned-it-mw0000264134) Billy transformed the song into a soulful ode to freedom and equality.

Of course, Billy Preston needs no introduction, but let me quote from Bruce Eder:

Billy Preston spent most of the 1960s as a working musician . . . . one rooftop concert and the “Get Back” single later, he was among the most famous musicians ever to work with [the Beatles] on a recording. Preston was also the first artist that Apple Records pulled away from another label to sign, buying out his existing contract and four finished songs [including “Hey Brother”] for an upcoming LP from Capitol Records.  Preston finished what became [the album] That’s the Way God Planned It . . . with George Harrison producing . . . . Sadly, the LP never sold the way Apple’s management had hoped [peaking at #11 in the UK but only #62 in the U.S.] . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/album/thats-the-way-god-planned-it-mw0000264134

As Sharon Davis writes, the album “remind[s] us of Billy’s enormous and irreplaceable contribution to music.” (http://www.bluesandsoul.com/review/1353/thats_the_way_god_planned_it_billy_preston_appleemi/)

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367) The 49th Parallel — “Missouri”

Super-cool ‘68 B-side from Calgary band about being stuck in California missing Missouri!

Canadianbands.com says:

[B]y ‘67 they had all but outgrown the local circuit. They played the prairies relentlessly for the next year or so, making over a dozen stops in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan at The Temple Gardens alone. They signed with Don Grashley’s Gaeity Records and by the spring of ’68 had released a string of singles [including] “Blue Bonnie Blue” (co-written by Delaney Bramlett about his wife Bonnie Bramlett) b/w “Missouri.” They all did relatively well but none broke the band with a larger audience. . . . In between tours they managed to record another pair of singles [including] “Twilight Woman” . . . .” The expanding tour stops were paying off, and both of the new singles got airplay in Toronto, with “Twilight Woman” even cracking the top 10 on CHUM’s playlist and getting some airplay in the US, albeit briefly. . . . [The label] slapped together enough material for a full length album, comprised of the singles and some studio throw-aways . . . . But it was barely on the shelves for a month when [Dennis] Abbott left, who was replaced by new frontman Dorn Beattie. . . . . They continued to tour sporadically over the next six months while writing material for a follow-up album. But after the single “I Need You” came and went without a whimper on two separate occasions, the band packed it in by the spring of 1970.

https://www.canadianbands.com/49th%20Parallel.html

Bruce Eder says that:

49th Parallel was one of an unusual breed of garage punk bands to come out of Canada in the mid-’60s. . . . In the spring of 1969, they finally had a national hit in Canada with “Twilight Woman[.”]. . . The group was never able to capitalize on the success of “Twilight Woman” . . . in part because they were unable to hold their lineup together. [The l]ead singer . . . quit . . . and in the course of changing personnel . . . their sound changed. . . . . At their best, [they] had a hard, cutting sound that could have put them in the front ranks of garage punk bands, their slashing guitars and swirling organ around [the] lead vocals making a compelling and memorable sound . . . .

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/49th-parallel-mn0000919821

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[The LP version is] TOTALLY DIFFERENT from the 45 version. I’ve never seen such a steep difference between 2 versions of the same song. I like both, but this one is the most hard-rocker I’ve ever heard!

I think the LP version is far, far superior. It is hard rocking and poppy at the same time. It would have made a great A-side:

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366) Buddy Miles Express — “My Chant”

JP in the Selvedge Yard writes that Buddy Miles was a “blues/rock funkmaster legend if there ever was one.” (see #112, 221) (https://www.google.com/amp/s/selvedgeyard.com/2010/03/25/buddy-miles-the-band-of-gypsys-funky-badass-mother-drummer/amp/) Yes indeed he was. And “My Chant” is such a sweet song that just gracefully lopes along as Miles lays out a young man’s hopes and dreams:

Now I’m just a big old boy about the age of 22. For seven long years I’ve been out here paying a whole lot of dues. It would be nice if someone would comfort me. Oh, it would be sweet if someone could relieve me. And I know someday soon I’m gonna walk outside and I know I’m gonna find somebody to stand by my side.

Richie Unterberger notes that:

[The Buddy Miles Express’s Electric Church album] . . . gets most of its attention in retrospect for the role of Jimi Hendrix, who produced part of it and played on some tracks as well. . . . . The songs are mostly vehicles for Miles’ high, soulful vocals and the energetic funky arrangements . . . . Miles . . . show[s] he’s capable of handling more tender soul melodies and sentiments in . . . “My Chant.”

https://www.allmusic.com/album/electric-church-mw0000862281

JP goes on to say that:

Miles was given the nickname “Buddy” as a child by his aunt– after the original drumming legend, Buddy Rich. . . . He and Jimi [Hendrix] worked their way up in the music scene together around the same time– Buddy playing in various jazz, soul, R&B, and rock acts before finally co-founding the short-lived Electric Flag. . . . Electric Church . . . was . . . produced by Hendrix [and] Miles returned the favor and recorded with Hendrix on Electric Ladyland. Later, with his signature afro and psychedelic get-ups that rivaled even Jimi– he, along with bass player Billy Cox, backed Hendrix in Band of Gypsys after the disbanding of The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/selvedgeyard.com/2010/03/25/buddy-miles-the-band-of-gypsys-funky-badass-mother-drummer/amp/

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365) Ray Brown & The Whispers — “Ain’t It Strange”

For a few bright shining years, Ray Brown & The Whispers were beat superstars in Australia. “Ain’t it Strange”, their seventh A-side (’66), is such a cool, hypnotic garage rocker with a guitar riff that gives me close to the satisfaction I get from Keith’s “Satisfaction” riff. While RBW had plenty of #1 hits in Australia, the authoritative Milesago (Australasian Music & Popular Culture: 1964-1975) says that it “barely ma[de] the Top 20 — which is a pity, since this powerhouse number certainly ranks as one of their best efforts.” (http://www.milesago.com/artists/raybrown.htm) Agreed!

Milesago gives a good summation of their story:

Ray Brown & the Whispers were in the vanguard of the first wave of Australian beat pop, from 1964-67, and during their brief career they were one of the most successful and celebrated bands in the country. Aided by his boyish good looks and considerable charm, singer Ray Brown [was] one of the most popular stars of the period, and The Whispers are now widely recognised as being one of its most accomplished bands. Although they enjoyed unprecedented success at the time, the group was short-lived, and their contribution to Australian music, both during and after the beat boom, is still sadly under-appreciated. . . . Probably the Whispers’ greatest love . . . was American soul and R&B, [of which] they were tireless champions . . . . Their first major break in came late in the 1964 when they secured the gig as resident band at Sydney’s Surf City and The Beach House . . . . Within a short time the Whispers were regularly pulling in 2000 punters per night on Fridays and Saturdays, and by the new year they were rivalling The Easybeats for popularity in Sydney. . . . Their rise to national fame was meteoric — in just six months they scored four Top 5 hits in a row in Sydney, including their record achievement — still unbroken — of three consecutive #1 hits from their first three releases! They were also among the most prolific recording outfits of the day, with a nine singles, ten EPs and five albums to their credit in in little more than two years. . . . They made regular appearances on all the major pop TV shows and were reputedly so popular that during a Queensland tour, some country towns were given a special holiday to mark their arrival. . . . [B]ehind the scenes, business problems were making things increasingly difficult for the band . . . . The team came unstuck mainly due to management hassles — Ray had been under 21 . . . at the time he signed his first contract, and had virtually no control over his career. It took more than a year for him to extricate himself from this predicament, and as a result Ray and the original Whispers split at the end of 1966 . . . .

(http://www.milesago.com/artists/raybrown.htm)

While “Ain’t It Strange” was indeed “stunningly original” (https://nostalgiacentral.com/music/artists-l-to-z/artists-r/ray-brown-whispers/), it wasn’t a Whispers original. The song was written earlier that year — titled “Strange” — by the Uniques from Louisiana and released as a B-side. As Richie Unterberger describes:

Years before Joe Stampley began his ascent to country stardom, he fronted a Louisiana rock band, the Uniques, who were quite popular in the South, although national attention eluded them. The group were ironically named in light of their failure to establish a truly distinctive style. They were adept at blue-eyed soul [and] also capable of waxing good, original, Southern-flavored pop-rock . . . .

While the Uniques were good, it really took Ray Brown and the Whispers to make “Strange” larger than life.

I have added a Facebook page for Brace for the Obscure 60s Rock! If you like what you read and hear and feel so inclined, please visit and “like” my Facebook page by clicking here.

Here is a “live” on TV performance, a hoot with the crazy fish-out-of-water dancers:

Here are the Uniques:

Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist!

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