Archive for the ‘Jeff Beck’ Category

Lulu

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Listen: The Boat That I Row / Lulu
The Boat That I Row / Lulu

Mickie Most: producer. Mickie Most: never a moniker more perfect.

This guy’s name framed a 60′s pop music producer with total accuracy. Don’t know much about him, never got to meet. Yet his records from the ’66 – ’68 period really had a stamp. And the legacy continued into the 70′s, with his label RAK. But back to the 60′s….

Not sonically unlike Donovan’s ‘Sunshine Superman’ or ‘There Is A Mountain’, The Yardbirds’ ‘Goodnight Sweet Josephine and ‘Ten Little Indians’, as well Jeff Beck’s ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’ and ‘Tally Man’, all of them Mickie Most productions, I’m guessing his secret was a magic wand chock full of studio compression. Not being an engineer, I can’t say for sure, but indeed there are similarities whereby certain instruments get maxed out in a most appealing way. Maybe that’s where a play on the word most, or Most, gets a little too clever. Sorry.

Seriously though, I do recall hearing ‘The Boat That I Row’ those first few times on my local Top 40. It was warm, springlike weather and wow, did this song jump right out of the sludge. I wanted Lulu to have a US hit for seemingly ages, and now, clearly, the moment had arrived.

Technically, this single reached #1 in the States, but oddly not as ‘The Boat That I Row’. Instead, the original B side, ‘To Sir With Love’ suddenly gained momentum, given the film had just successfully debuted in theaters and was on a tear. So radio stations flipped it, as it was referred to in those days, meaning they began playing the B side and shunning the A.

‘To Sir With Love’ scaled to that coveted #1 slot, but in my world, ‘The Boat That I Row’ was always the chart topper. I mean, it technically sat right there on the pointy part of the pyramid.

Jeff Beck

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Hi Ho Silver Lining / Jeff Beck

Hi Ho Silver Lining / Jeff Beck

Listen: Hi Ho Silver Lining / Jeff Beck
Hi Ho Silver Lining / Jeff Beck

From all reports, Jeff Beck hates these records. Shame. But I do wish I’d seen him perform them, as he must’ve done for a brief time just prior to recording and touring TRUTH.

Saw him a few years back at Roseland. His playing superb, and from where I was, he looked almost the same as when with The Yardbirds. Slim, no change in haircut, frozen in time. That show was way better than I remember The Jeff Beck Group being years prior. I was so disappointed that he didn’t play these two singles that night in 1969. We’d hitch hiked all the way to The Fillmore for the show, a bluesy metal jam instead of the clean English group sound we’d expected, based mainly on these two solo singles.

As with ‘Night Of Fear’ by The Move, the first time I heard ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’ was via American Bandstand’s Rate A Record segment. My trusty tape recorder Tivo’ d the moment, 1967 style.

Tallyman / Jeff Beck

Listen: Tallyman / Jeff Beck
Tallyman / Jeff Beck

A ‘Tallyman’ highlight was the nice double tracked guitar solo, as well as his fills through to the end. Not to mention the vocals, which must really make him cringe. I don’t think he ever sang again actually.

Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

Listen: She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man / Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages ScreamingLordMonster.mp3

I finally got around to reading the Screaming Lord Sutch feature in the June issue of MOJO. Try to do the same, maybe it’s even online. A few priceless pictures and so many stunning details, I really don’t know where to start. He was everything I already knew and way more as well. Some of the live show descriptions and antics, well we now know where Alice Cooper got more than one idea. Don’t blame him for lifting a few, they’re just too good to waste. Okay, here’s a tiny bit: “cherry food dye, cold scrambled eggs with a few masticated inches of seaside rock and it’ll look like you’re spitting out teeth”.

No question about it, his recordings were made very inexpensively, several produced by Joe Meek, complete with dreadful sound effects – and I mean that in a good way. As the ’70′s arrived, more than one act paid respects. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, The Damned and The Revillos even covered and released as their A side as well, ‘She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man’. You’d think the song was written just for them listening to the original above.

Listen: Dracula’s Daughter / Screaming Lord Sutch ScreamingLordDracula'sDaughter.mp3

So many soon to be name musicians passed through the ranks of being Savages in the ’61 – ’63 period, prior to their own later successes. The list, also in the article, is long and fairly jaw dropping. Jimmy Page plays lead on ‘She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man’, and Jeff Beck on ‘Dracula’s Daughter’. Even then, in ’64, his style was recognizable and it’s easy to see how much he moulded The Yardbirds’ sound from one listen.

The usually precise MOJO does flub one detail. ‘Dracula’s Daughter’ was not his last for Decca, it was his first for Oriole after being dropped by Decca. While I’m at it, the above Cameo Parkway 7″ is the only US release from his period with The Savages.

The Strawbs

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

strawbsbenedictus, Strawbs, Tony Visconti, Tom Allom, A&M

Listen: Benedictus /The Strawbs StrawbsBenedictus.mp3

I heard ‘Benedictus’ on my local Top 40 station, once, in the middle of the afternoon. It was WNDR, the tight playlisted one as well. Huh? It sounded so out of place – and indeed pretty great. In the mix of then current nastiness, like Three Dog Night and Jim Croce, it made me believe there might be hope for the radio again, for a good couple of months even. Not so. As much as I tried to catch it once more at least, I never did. And I could not find the single – no surprise. I’d seen The Strawbs’ albums in stores, and despite my then soft spot for English folk, I never did spring for one, until now. I had to have this song. Years later I found the above promo. Probably not all that rare, so if you see one, get it.

strawbslaydownuka, Strawbs, Tony Visconti, Tom Allom, A&M

Listen: Lay Down / The Strawbs StrawbsLayDown.mp3

‘Lay Down’ was starting to indicate these guys just might be churning out some great 7′s consistantly. By now I was nicely ensconced at my college radio station, where everyone only wanted to play, and steal, albums, so the singles were a free for all. A&M would send out stock copies often instead of promos, and I was so happy when one arrived. Released simultaneously in the UK, where it reached #12, meant I had it before I even had to worry about getting it. I was jonesing to live in England by this point. To walk around the house or drive in the car and be able to hear this stuff on the radio – enough reason to figure out a way to get there. That was around the corner.

strawbspartuka, Strawbs, Tony Visconti, Tom Allom, A&M

Listen: Part Of The Union / The Strawbs StrawbsUnion.mp3

“Part Of The Union’ might be one of those songs that folks in the UK still cringe at, simply because it was played everywhere, forever. A #2 in early ’73, it was still a pub singalong by that summer, when I finally made my way to London. Like Jeff Beck’s ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’, I never did tire of it.

Just a few months prior, in April, I had to make a torturous decision. The Pretty Things and The Strawbs were playing the same night, at different venues. How fucked up was this? I chose The Pretty Things. Til this day, I have never seen The Strawbs.

The Yardbirds

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

Goodnight Sweet Josephine / The Yardbirds

Listen: Goodnight Sweet Josephine / The Yardbirds YardbirdsJosephine.mp3

The band’s stock had nose dived by April ’68, the month their final single ‘Goodnight Sweet Josephine’ was released. Maybe because having both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck in the lineup, as well as producer Mickie Most, all pretty much deciding on their material. It was a recipe for disaster, although I love the final few singles that resulted. Their live show was moving toward what would become Led Zeppelin, yet the records were being positioned for pop radio success (‘Ha Ha Said The Clown’, ‘Ten Little Indians’ and this). ‘Goodnight Sweet Josephine’ was my very favorite single for months, it’s psychedelic attack still sounds incredible. The guitar tone, lead line and solo being signature Jimmy Page. The band lip synched this on the syndicated UPBEAT show out of Cleveland, whose archive is apparently still intact but being hideously under exploited. There’s a lot of fantastic stuff in those file cabinets guys.

Despite one week on Billboard’s Bubbling Under The Hot 100 chart at #127, (see below), there were apparently very few copies in actual circulation. Impossible to find for years, the occasional one that does appear still commands a $75+ price tag. I bought mine week of release. Somehow, our local shop got the obligatory three (always started with three to test the water) copies. A best friend and record nut at the time, Denny and I scooped one each and the third…an old girlfriend Marsha. Hmmm. I think she lives close to my sister still.

Billboard’s “Bubbling Under The Hot 100″