Category Archives: Uncategorized

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,167) The Daughters of Eve — “Help Me Boy” This song twice charted in ‘66 — Cleveland’s Outsiders reached #37 and Eric Burdon’s Animals reached #29 (#14 in the UK), both in October. But the best version was issued a year later (withContinue reading “The Daughters of Eve — “Help Me Boy”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 6, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,166) Damon — “Poor Poor Genie” A Lounge Lizard becomes Lizard King and gives us a mystical and almost mythical LP that “just oozes lysergia” (Tymeshifter, https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5DDDE08017204B40), consisting of “tranced out gypsy Arabian acid fuzz crooner psych with deep mysterious vocals, a captivatingContinue reading “Damon — “Poor Poor Genie”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 5, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,165) Ambrose Slade/Slade– “Pity the Mother” The first song to be written by Slade’s future songwriting team of Noddy Holder and Jim Lea., this “hauntingly folky” (Dave Thompson, https://www.allmusic.com/album/beginnings-mw0000849687) “SAD song [is] about a pitiful lonely single mum, featuring stunningly heart-rending violin byContinue reading “Ambrose Slade/Slade — “Pity the Mother”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 4, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,164) Q’65 — “I Despise You”  The dutch punks’ nasty ‘66 A-side reached #19 in the Netherlands. High Times calls the ‘65* (see #108, 557, 913) ugly, slobs, and less intelligible than a New York cab driver, and it means that as aContinue reading “Q’65 — “I Despise You”: (Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 3, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,163) Earth Island — “Doomsday Afternoon” Another helping of stellar sunshine pop from Earth Island’s sole album (see #448, 653). Ecologically-aware, but from when sunshine was still a good thing! The album is a “Sunshine Psychedelic gem”. (https://psychedelic-rocknroll.blogspot.com/2009/02/earth-island-we-must-survive.html) By all accounts, Curt Boettcher mustContinue reading “Earth Island — “Doomsday Afternoon”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 2, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,162) Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around” Recorded in Big Pink’s doghouse, this is the song that fetched the Pulitzer for Dylan. Dalriadajohannsen says that “My dad used to sing this when he was drunk.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odybt2tHOB4) That also seemsContinue reading “Bob Dylan and the Band — “Kickin’ My Dog Around”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — April 1, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,161) Aretha Franklin — “Won’t Be Long” Released on December 23, 1960, this A-side was Aretha’s first charting song (#76 and #7 R&B) and the first track on her first album. It displayed “wanton exuberance in the (broken) mold of Ray Charles’ ‘IContinue reading “Aretha Franklin — “Won’t Be Long”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 31, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,160) Ian & the Zodiacs — “No Money, No Honey” Germany’s favorite Star-Club playing British beat group! OK, other than the Beatles. This ‘66 A-side “is exceptional, powerful mod R&B with fuzz guitar and a pounding beat with forceful drumming in a tightContinue reading “Ian & the Zodiacs — “No Money, No Honey”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 30, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,159) Freddie Scott — “He Ain’t Give You None” Freddie Scott (see #735) cut a “fine version of Van Morrison’s [see #188, 253] big-voiced beat ballad” (Heikki Suosalo, https://www.soulexpress.net/freddiescott.htm), and it reached #100 (#24 R&B). Fine? It is so fine, so funky, andContinue reading “Freddie Scott — “He Ain’t Give You None”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 29, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,158) The Syd Dale Orchestra — “Eliana” If Swinging London had a theme song, it would be . . . OK, it would be “Soul Bossa Nova” by Quincy Jones. But had Austin Powers never shagged its way into our collective consciousnesses, itContinue reading “The Syd Dale Orchestra — “Eliana”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 28, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,157) Skip Bifferty — “Yours for at Least 24” Here is a rollicking, shuffling, UK pop psych album track from Skip Bifferty* (see #288), who “RCA allowed . . . to cut a full LP, which contained some notable psychedelic and experimental tracks”Continue reading “Skip Bifferty — “Yours for at Least 24”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March , 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,156) Kippington Lodge — “Turn Out the Light” Kippington Lodge* is “[b]est remembered as the vehicle for the earliest Nick Lowe . . . recordings . . . stemm[ing] from Lowe’s first band . . . which he formed with school pal, BrinsleyContinue reading “Kippington Lodge — “Turn Out the Light”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 26, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,155) Double Feature — “Baby Get Your Head Screwed On” Here is a mod-tastic A-side cover of a track off Cat Stevens’ first album — “gritty vocals combine with R&B guitar, percussion, cello, organ and horns in a superb production . . .Continue reading “Double Feature — “Baby Get Your Head Screwed On”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 25, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,154) Sandy Posey — “Patterns” Countrypolitan icon Sandy Posey blesses us with Barbara Cooper and Frank Catana’s alluring “supremely moody [song] (released by Cooper herself in 1967)[, which] showcases Posey at her finest”. (Joe Marchese, https://theseconddisc.com/2024/01/23/its-wonderful-to-be-in-love-cherry-red-reissues-sandy-poseys-complete-mgm-recordings/) “For countrypolitan)[, it has an] unusually broodingContinue reading “Sandy Posey — “Patterns”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 24, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,153) Los Cuatro Monedas — “Mira de Frente”/“Look Straight” First “Groovin’”, then “Groovy”, and now just an irresistible groove. This ‘71 B-side is “one of the[] best” (liner notes to the CD comp Fading Yellow, Vol. 14: Spanish Popsike and Other Delights) fromContinue reading “Los Cuatro Monedas — “Mira de Frente”/“Look Straight”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 23, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,152) The Fireballs — “Groovy Motions” In the 60s, squares sometimes tried their hand at psychedelia and the results were expectedly awful, but sometimes they were positively groovy. There’s a whole CD comp — Marshmallow Skies — featuring both varieties. This ’68 B-sideContinue reading “The Fireballs — “Groovy Motions”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 22, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,151) The Sound Barrier — “Groovin’ Slow” This ’68 B-side is “an interesting slice of [UK] psychedelic pop” that “has a number of tempo changes before culminating in a hazy, disorienting ending”. (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited). The song is aContinue reading “The Sound Barrier — “Groovin’ Slow”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 21, 2024”

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,150) Sun Dragon — “Far Away Mountain” This absolutely gorgeous and “achingly beautiful” ’68 UK B-side “is melodic, orchestrated pop of the highest order” (Stefan Granados, liner notes to the CD comp Listen to the Sky: The Others/Sands/Sun Dragon: The Collected Recordings 1964-73)Continue reading “Sun Dragon — “Far Away Mountain”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 20, 2024″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,149) The Enfields — “I’m for Things You Do” Did this ‘66 B-side, a “wonderful rocker” (On the Flip-Side, https://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2012/03/song-of-week-enfields-she-already-has.html) by a Wilmington, Delaware band, inspire Tom Hanks’ “That Thing You Do”? Only Gump knows for sure, but I do know that theContinue reading “The Enfields — “I’m for Things You Do”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 19, 2024″

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD 1,148) The Four Tops — “Look Out Your Window” From the fab Four Tops’ ’69 album Soul Spin comes a song with “a fantastic, brooding, ominous and dark quality that was as far away from anything most would have expected from a FourContinue reading “The Four Tops — “Look Out Your Window”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — March 18, 2024”