THIS BLOG'S ABOUT MY FAVORITE 7" SINGLES. ALL KINDS, ALL GENRES. AND ANYTHING ELSE: INFO, STORIES, CHARTS, CLIPPINGS, ETC. EVERY SONG IS CONVERTED FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION TO MP3. AND NOT ONE THAT I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND YOU SEEKING OUT. ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WHO DON'T WANT THEIR MUSIC HEARD HERE – JUST LET ME KNOW, AND DOWN IT WILL COME. CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE.
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I religiously collected local radio station charts placed in all the record shops and record departments at the variety stores. Every town had them. They’re really fun to scour nowadays for the national non-hits as well as being a great snapshot of the music you could hear at that given moment. If you search ‘music survey’ at eBay, there are always a bunch listed for auction.
I recall WT Grants on Salina Street in Syracuse had a huge record department, and stocked everything you could want, especially as WOLF, one of the town’s two Top 40 stations was pretty adventurous, playing a lot of obscure English rock and US RnB. This was a God send for me from ‘65 – ‘67, until they buckled and went all Billboard on us. That said record department had a soda counter attached to it, up a few steps with typical glittery colored American Graffiti style booths looking down on the hustle/bustle of kids pawing through and buying records (today you see the same activity at an Apple store or Game Stop), and they had a great jukebox. It was jammed with all the latest up and comers. I remember investing a dime to hear ‘Bend It’, well not only hear it but watch the single spin round on the store’s lavender/purple Rock-ola, at the same time admiring a factory printed Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich jukebox tab to accompany it. I wonder where that tab ended up. Hate to think.
My only problem with WT Grants or Walt’s being there were so many choices, and not enough money to buy them all on my $1/week allowance and a bit of cash from mowing lawns. I still get cold sweats hearing a lawn mover. I would literally walk up and back neighbor’s yards behind their mowers deciding what record this torturous act would earn me. I distinctly remember suffering through several yards earning enough to buy FRESH CREAM. I went cheap, and sprung for the mono pressing as they were $1 less. Who knew then that monos would end up way more valuable. Man, am I happy I bought them: Pink Floyd’s PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN, The Jimi Hendrix Experience AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE and Big Brother & The Holding Company CHEAP THRILLS to mention a few that reaped incredible returns. Well if I ever decide to sell them that is. I soon figured out other ways to get all these records – and more – for free. That saga is covered in my Jack Dupree post for the more curious of you.
Meanwhile, the one record that got played by WOLF (and I bet only by WOLF in the whole of the US as I’ve never seen it on any other local chart – ever) but NOT stocked, was ‘Richard Corey’ by Them. It’s actually a cover written by Paul Simon. Van Morrison reportedly hated it.
If you couldn’t find something at Grant’s there was also Walt’s Records, just down a block and right next to a peanut shop, freshly roasting their wares.
Walt’s was a great shrine to obscure stuff, and very RnB heavy. The place smelled fantastic – a constant mixture of fresh vinyl and roasted nuts. Like Grant’s, I was told they “couldn’t get” this single by Them either. “Couldn’t get”, what the hell does that mean? Turns out the lyric “He went home last night and put a bullet through his head” was a big deal….I’m guessing neither outlet dared stock it just in case. Guns were not cool once – it’s a shame that’s changed. And it took me years to find this as I’m sure not many were pressed. How WOLF got away with playing ‘Richard Corey’ – a lot – for several weeks without a problem is surprising, but they did.
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I saw The Rolling Stones for the first time on October 30, 1965 at the Syracuse War Memorial. I had forged a press pass, a typed note actually, on letterhead from a weekly paper in my little hometown. My Dad had set me up with the pompous owner of it, as I wanted to interview the band for a feature.
Looking back it was quite a good idea on my part, but this self celebrating fellow was nasty and dismissive. Even though I ended up meeting the band, I still loathe him for his attitude, not towards me, but towards my Father. He was so busy being busy, running in and out of his pathetic office, that I just reached over and grabbed a few pages of letterhead when he wasn’t looking. I shook with fear at what I’d done (I was still a good Catholic boy), but too late, I’d done it. So he tells me, “We don’t need a piece on this dirty English combo”, and that was that – or so he thought. Indeed, they didn’t need a a kid in his late single digits writing a review.
To be exact, this was the Canastota Bee Journal, as close as you can get to Mayberry. He and the paper, I’m guessing, are long gone. Still, I composed this laughable letter, claiming to be a writer on assignment – and needing to interview the band.
In those days, arenas were filled with hysterical, screaming kids – so how I managed to slide backstage so easily still baffles. An usher fell for that forged letter, and brought me back, where Bill Wyman was wrapping up his cords. Bill reads it, stares me straight in the eye and says (in hindsight with a knowing smirk), “Come on and we’ll meet the rest”.
Holy shit. Is this really happening? It was the first time I nearly blacked out. I seriously remember that vividly. We are suddenly walking up the steps to the dressing room, knees weak, where in years to follow, I would meet, more like pester, (here goes – I know this is all a bit name droppy, but it really, really happened. I met all these bands and I’m proud of it): The Mindbenders, Them, The Moody Blues, The Nashville Teens, The Yardbirds, The Ikettes, The Who, The Pretty Things, Manfred Mann, The Kinks, Humble Pie, Heads Hands & Feet, Fairport Convention, Free, John Martyn, Steppenwolf, Canned Heat, Caravan, Curved Air, Toe Fat, Derek & The Dominoes, Jethro Tull, The Jeff Beck Group, Grand Funk Railroad, Frampton’s Camel, Family, Wild Turkey, Blodwyn Pig, The Faces, T. Rex, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Mother Earth, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Chambers Brothers, Sly & The Family Stone, Savoy Brown, Ten Years After, Iron Butterfly, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Big Brother & The Holding Company, The Jimi Hendrix Experience – even Vivian Green, who I work with now, was in that very room when on tour with Maxwell. Talk about coming full circle.
The management knew me and my friends well early on, they must’ve gotten a kick out of these crazy little kids, who’s Mom’s & Dad’s would wait patiently for until the shows ended. Our parents befriended the office staff, and in turn, those nice ladies always let us backstage.
The Rolling Stones were great, so nice. No one was in their dressing room except the band, and one other guy, I guess the tour manager. No food, nothing but bottles of Coca Cola. They signed my copy of 12 X 5, it probably lasted all of a minute – but I still can relive it to this day. Here I was, with this exotic band from England that changed my life, which prior I could only see on TV every 3-4 months tops. I thought at that very moment, “This is the life for me”. I’m completely convinced it led to my career in music – no question.
One of their current album at the time, THE ROLLING STONES NOW, was not a real album at all. In those days, the English labels released singles and EPs, in addition to albums. Not only were the EP tracks not on the LPs, but the singles weren’t either. So the US companies were always dropping off intended LP tracks to make room for the singles and sometimes strong ones from those EPs. For this particular release, London Records basically cobbled together some singles and EP songs, as well as unused UK LP tracks (the UK LPs were 14 songs compared to our 10-12, thereby creating even more choices). Probably by coincidence more than design, THE ROLLING STONES NOW actually works as a proper LP. It was certainly a big success – slowly but very solidly scaling the US LP charts and staying Top 10 for ages, as it deserved to. The record’s filled with dark, minor key classics (‘Heart Of Stone’, ‘Little Red Rooster’ and ‘Pain In My Heart’ – which they played on that night, Brian sitting at a huge B3 organ, wailing away).
It’s ok if you’re getting tingles. Take your time. You’ll need it. They were back, nine months later, during the AFTERMATH tour, and that’s whole ‘nother post waiting to be written.
This all leads us to ‘Down Home Girl’, a song on THE ROLLING STONES NOW. Little did I know then that it was a cover. I don’t even think I knew what that meant. They were all Rolling Stones songs to us. Years and years later I wised up, seeked out the original, and became a dangerous Alvin Robinson fanatic.
Here’s his version. Get any of his other releases – all of them actually.
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If you ever see the double LP, HARD UP HEROES, do yourself a favor, buy immediately. Released on UK Decca in ‘74, the compilation is a proper collection of their deep 60’s catalog, mostly gritty blues leaning acts, and packaged beautifully. It was here that I first heard ‘The Uncle Willie’.
As with other tracks by The Graham Bond Organization, Alexis Korner, Them, The Birds and John Mayall, it epitomized what I imagined the seedy clubs of London’s Soho to sound like. I’ll never know, but bet I’m right.
Zoot Money already had his Big Roll Band rolling by then. For whatever reason, their moniker was left off the label copy, but their signature sound was sure there to be heard. Man, did I want to own this single from that first listen. Took me a few years, but I got it. Just as expected, the audio on the 7″ was even more authentic than the LP pressing – which in original mono, sounded pretty great already.
Years later, like thirty or so, a live cd from The Flamingo was issued. This band was clearly full and exciting live, as their rendition of ‘The Uncle Willie’ proved.
Listen: Big Time Operator / Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band
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Pretty sure it was 2003, the Maximum Rhythm & Blues Tour, a yearly-ish event, played The Royal Albert Hall, and by sheer luck, I was there for work. Jackie Hyde arranged not only tickets, but passes to the after show. As if having just watched Manfred Mann, with both Paul Jones and Mike D’Abo doing their respective hits, Chris Farlowe, The Alan Price Set and Colin Blunstone wasn’t enough, the post show bit was a corucopia of their musician friends from the 60’s. I’m sure there were guys milling about, by now unrecognizable, that would’ve been great jukebox tab scores, but who could tell.
Not the case with Zoot Money. You couldn’t miss him. Jovial and very approachable, he laid a bunch of Marquee stories my way and had no idea ‘Big Time Operator’ came graced with a picture sleeve in the US.
What a great guy to talk with, and pretty good memory too. Wanting a jukebox tab, I didn’t know the B side to ‘The Uncle Willie’, but he did.
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Discount Records, in the mid 60’s through to the early 70’s, was what you’d call a full catalog store. Owned by CBS, the classical and non-classical titles ran very deep. It wasn’t just the bins that’d be full, so too were the ‘understock’ shelves below. These were arranged by label, then numerical within each. Almost daily, stock would need checking, business was so brisk. Not only did you have to count quantities of big sellers, but also determine missing titles by number, checking them against the respective label’s current catalog, all the while entering the quantities onto inventory sheets. The designated store buyer would eventually decide how many of each to order.
Everyone hated taking inventory, but not me. I couldn’t wait to get started on my first day in mid ‘74. Within a week or so, I was on fire. I didn’t even need the catalogs. I’d been studying labels for years at that point. Basically when it came to records, I could remember every detail, still can. Bob at the second location in Syracuse was the same. To us, the catalog numbers were fun. They basically made up our entire conversations. When it came to doing anything else – I was useless. If I had to hang a picture, I’d bend the nail. But this stuff was easy.
Like anywhere, there were store regulars, all with their specific and peculiar tastes. One guy would visit almost daily, trolling the $1.99 bins for country titles. His name was Dave Disinger. We had these large, fluorescent red markdown stickers, and once something sat long enough, you’d eventually price it cheap to make it move. Plus, overstock from other locations would be shipped in for just these bins. Occasionally, some location in Michigan or somewhere would close, and we’d get boxes of their stuff – always really good finds in those. I vividly remember getting several copies of THEM AGAIN this way. It was like Christmas morning when those boxes would arrive.
Well Dave was addicted to country markdowns. I made amusement for myself by intentionally pulling full price, more obscure titles and throwing on the sticker, then wait and watch. Sure enough, he’d be joyous at these finds. One day we get to talking – I was sorting a bunch of newly arrived 45’s at the front counter. He mentions he used to be a singles guy, rock and soul, but moved on to country LP’s. He didn’t even play his singles anymore. Clearly, I was his direct opposite. Somehow or another, he mentions as a kid, he worked at WNDR, the tighter Top 40 in the market but very popular in the 60’s.
So wait Dave, do you have a lot of old stuff? Now I’m getting interested – and pretty quickly I’m offering a lot of on the spot country markdowns in exchange for some of those radio station copies from the day. He heads home then and there, returning with a box, probably 200-ish.
Fantastic! Fuck me – this was a goldmine. He brought them till his supply was dry. Only drawback was he’s written his name on every last one. Still, the stuff was crazy. That first box included The Riot Squad ‘How Is It Down’ and The Kinks ‘Waterloo Sunset’, plus, as you can see, ‘I Can’t Let Go’. It was the very copy that WNDR never did play.
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I was working at Discount Records in the early 70’s when this came in. Discount was a deep catalog chain between ‘65 – ‘75 or so. Their stores were concentrated in the northeast, and their home office was in Scarsdale. The location on the Syracuse University campus was always a haven for the most obscure albums, all the British and west coast names you’d heard of. When I finally got a job there in ‘74, it was a real win. You see, each store could buy direct from the labels. So although it was a chain, you weren’t just allocated the hits. There was serious inventory maintenance and responsibility required. This was of course huge fun.
One weekend, I really got into the old Billboard magazine collection and with intense detail, compiled a many-paged list of singles to order from each of the labels. The one that really came through was London Records. Unlike pretty much all the others, somewhere deep in their fulfillment warehouse were tucked sole copies of countless singles. I opened that big box about a week after placing the order resulting from said weekend, to find crazy London, Parrot and Deram singles from years prior (Them, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, The Honeybus, The Attack, Hedgehoppers Anonymous, The Cryin’ Shames, Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours, Savoy Brown). Ah, the good old days.
But back to Betty’s version of ‘Shoorah Shoorah’. I was very into The Meters around this time and hence insatiable for all things Allen Toussaint. Reading that he had written this one in the Billboard singles review section that particular week, I ordered myself a copy. Smart move. It was a classic. I proceeded to get in a box, and with in store play sold them through nicely. Wish I had kept a few more.
Listen: Take Me For What I’m Worth / The Searchers
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Despite their clean cut Mersey look, The Searchers made consistently good singles for years. A staple of The English Invasion, like The Beatles and Freddie & The Dreamers, their past haunted them a bit when smaller labels in the US that had issued unsuccessful debut singles trudged them out to compete with more current hits. Didn’t seem to harm them much as ‘Sugar & Spice’ fared equally well next to ‘Needles & Pins’ in ‘64.
A short time later, hits became a bit of a struggle (although most were well chosen covers), with spotty airplay hindering P.F. Sloan’s ‘Take Me For What I’m Worth’ unfairly. It’s seven week run that began in January of ‘66 got it to only #76. Oddly, it didn’t fare much better back at home (#20).
Listen: Have You Ever Loved Somebody / The Searchers
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Maybe the suits needed to go, and the adaption to an image more in line with Them, The Yardbirds or The Kinks would have kept initial fans interested. Even The Beatles dumped that look, probably in their constant effort to unsuccessfully keep up with The Rolling Stones, although for predictably klutzy flower power / Nehru gear. ‘Have You Ever Loved Somebody’, like ‘Take For What I’m Worth’ before it, was highlighted by a very unique vocal harmony that gave both singles something irresistible. Again, US airplay was playing it’s fickle hand and it’s short three week chart run found it stalling at #94, with a similar fate in the UK (#48).
Listen: A Little Bit Hurt / Julien Covey & The Machine
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An unheralded supergroup this. Julien Covey, real name Phil Kinorra, played with Brian Auger in his early days. As well as fronting the band vocally, he also drummed. Amongst it’s members were John Moreshead on guitar, who played with Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, The Shotgun Express and The Ansley Dunbar Retaliation. In addition, the band included Peter Bardens (Them, Camel), Jim Creagan (Blossom Toes, Family) and Dave Mason at various times. Their lone release, ‘A Little Bit Hurt’, was co-written produced by Jimmy Miller in ‘67, who brought along his freshly used prodcution techniques, successful on The Spencer Davis Group’s ‘Gimme Some Lovin” and applied them to The Kinks ‘You Really Got Me’ riff, to help create this now, Northern soul classic.
Listen: Green Door / Wynder K. Frog
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Between ‘64 – ‘67. the sound of the Jimmy Smith/Jimmy McGriff hammond B3 was the prevalent connection that bridged hip rock and soul, bringing the jazzy black Flamingo club sounds (Brian Auger & The Trinity, Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames, The Graham Bond Organization) to a more mainstream public, as with The Spencer Davis Group. A key factor was the production sound of Jimmy Miller. He worked his magic of some less successful, commercially for the time that is, singles. Like the aforementioned Julien Covey & The Machine track, and ‘Green Door’ by Wynder K. Frog. Although not chart records, they became club dance floor fillers then, and still to this day, on the Northern circuit.
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Let’s face it. The theme song to ABC’s syndicated daily pop show, WHERE THE ACTION IS, titled ‘Action’ by Freddie Cannon, was so good, even The Ramones could have covered it.
I lived for WHERE THE ACTION IS and saw many a great act each day after school. Our local Syracuse affiliate, WSYR-TV, was wishy-washy, and many times pre-empted it with other things. Looking over the complete, chronological list of episodes and guests, I’ve only just discovered missing Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours, The Action and Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich for just that reason. Indeed, I’m a bit crushed having now discovered these atrocities. Scumbags.
But seeing an LA centric act, who were basically down the street from the studios I’m guessing (The Guillteens, The Ikettes with and without Ike & Tina Turner, The Vejtables, The Leaves, The Seeds, Gary & The Hornets, Love, Dino Desi & Billy, The Buffalo Springfield and Jan & Dean) almost daily was bliss.
Not to mention the RnB stuff: Martha & The Vandellas, Doris Troy, The Royalettes, Mary Wells, Brenda Holloway, The Toys, Maxine Brown, Kim Weston, Carla Thomas, Billy Stewart, Bobby Hebb, Alvin Cash & The Crawlers or Felice Taylor. I still replay The Vibrations doing ‘My Girl Sloopy’ vividly in my memory.
Then there were the black and white segments from England, a real high for this sicko: The Small Faces, Gary Farr & The T-Bones, Them, The Mindbenders, The Zombies, The Moody Blues, The Kinks, Unit 4 + 2, The Who, Wayne Fontana, Marianne Faithfull and The Yardbirds. Surviving somehow for all to see, The Cryin’ Shames clip (complete with Dick Clark’s intro):
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Listen: Peaches & Cream / The Ikettes
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Listen: I’m So Thankful / The Ikettes
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All the behind the scenes drama, politics, tension and sleeze associated with Ike & Tina Turner is an endless source of stimulation for this voyeur. Get hold of every last cd booklet accompanying their reissues, and especially the box sets (the Time/Life one is hugely advised) and study. The countless sessions and musical chairs will never really be figured out, but when this bunch was on – they were truly on. Whether as an after thought, or a genius parallel business model, The Ikettes were the bomb. ‘I’m Blue’ premiered them to vinyl and was probably an unexpected hit. The first of many sizzling, gutteral vocal performances – you could always depend on an Ikettes single.
‘Peaches & Cream’ sounded fantastic on AM radio in ‘65, and I was well excited to see that summer’s Dick Clark Caravan Of Stars make a Syracuse stop. The Ikettes took the stage in silk fringed orange mini dresses and gyrated though four numbers including this one. Being afforded the benefit of headliner Tom Jones’ full brass back up band transformed it into a crazy wild Soul revue. Not surprisingly, these weren’t The Ikettes at all, at least not the ones on record. Still through Ike’s revolving door it seems everyone was an Ikette for a minute, so who’s complaining. Considering they followed Them on stage after ‘Here Comes The Night’, ‘Call My Name’ and a rousing ‘Gloria’, and upped the stakes is proof of their power.
Like The Flirtations’ ‘Nothing But A Heartache, ‘I’m So Thankful’ is one of the great Motown records that was never on Motown. You’d swear it was recorded right there on Grand Blvd.
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I woke up one day realizing albums by The Rolling Stones serve as introductory encyclopedias for figuring out the best American RnB and Blues originals. I felt really behind the curve at that moment, but considering it was still 1969, I did ok. They, or someone in their camp, had impecable taste when picking this stuff. I still read the occassional story of their early visits to the US, whereby they’d all flock to now infamous record shops in Harlem or East LA just to buy all the black releases. Man, those stores must have been amazing. And where are all those records now? There were plenty of original US pressings amongst the Tony King collection…..
Don Covay entered my world via OUT OF OUR HEADS. The Rolling Stones started Side One of the US version with ‘Mercy, Mercy’. It’s their fourth and final US album to pressed initially in the UK, then exported to the US and sleeved here. Only recently have collectors been alerted to this detail, but for years I was buying up those UK copies at garage sales for $1. They are particularly easy to spot – the font is obviously different than US London labels, but they’re also deep groove, and they indicate ‘Made In England’. Quite helpful. A few other London releases during the era (‘64 – ‘66) were intially pressed in the UK as well: Marianne Faithfull, Tom Jones and Them, that I’m aware of.
When I worked at Island in the late 80’s, Chris Blackwell signed Don Covay, who came by regularly to see Holly Furgeson in office was next to mine. She did the A&R admin, and Don handled all his own business. I remember him working diligently on the project only to have it shelved, a bad habit Island always had.
I was well pleased to find not only the original DJ copy of ‘Mercy, Mercy’ amogst Tony’s records, but the very nice UK reissue as well, both pictured above.
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Listen: Trouble In The World / The Only Ones
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I’m a sucker for an atonal vocalist. So The Only Ones’ Peter Perrett is right up my alley. These two singles are by far my favorites from the boys. Never did get to see them, some arrest nonsense cut their US tour short – the one whereby they were hitting my town. Hence not much to say about them, except I still love these records. Oh, hold on, the sleeve pictured for ‘Trouble In The World’ was sent along, at the time, by Howard. He A&R’d the band, by assignment as opposed to choice. He doesn’t reflect fondly on it all. Whether by coincidence or design, ‘Trouble In The World’ echoes Mott The Hoople, with it’s Sue & Sunny background female vocals. Seems like an HT influence to me.
For reasons unknown, the sleeve was scrapped allowing or forcing the record to be issued in a stock CBS bag. The label was quite good at making pitiful judgement calls when it came to picture sleeves. Unlike in the US, picture sleeves were quite uncommon in England until punk. So what did CBS do? They released a bunch of punk singles WITHOUT them. Although the corporate waste exponentially accelerated by the time I was employed by Columbia (’95), it seems seeds were planted decades before. Hey, let’s actually manufacture the sleeves – then destroy them, why cancel it in the pre-production phase? Kill another tree – no problem.
But the records speak for themselves. Great stuff. And although spelled differently, you have to admit – Peter Perrett was pretty hip to choose, for his surname, that of the great US label, Parrot, which included Them, The Zombies, Los Bravos, Lulu & The Luvvers and Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours amongst it’s roster. Oh wait – that wasn’t intentional?
Listen: Zabadak / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
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Last year around this time, Bob Lefsetz (who publishes a great subscription letter you should all Google and sign up for) wrote about hearing The Box Tops during Christmas break in Vermont, ‘67. It was a nice piece, time traveling me back to that Christmas/New Year’s week, growing up outside of Syracuse – a ten year old obsessed with records. I wrote him a response with much of the following, but don’t know if he ever read it, he never responded. That’s fine. It motivated me to start my own blog, so all good.
Basically, I still like the winter weather as it reminds of that week off school as a kid. Everyone wants to escape it here in NY nowadays but I love staying home, hanging around the deserted city, having friends over especially if they bring Christmas cookies, keeping the fireplace going and hoping for snow. Growing up near Syracuse was pretty drab but we had one remarkable perk: a Top 40 station, WOLF, that from ‘64 – ‘67 seemed to flawlessly play the good bits of Billboard’s chart alongside national non-hits, most of them British – and many rightfully considered classics today, including several each by The Who, Them, Manfred Mann, The Zombies, The Kinks, The Moody Blues, The Pretty Things and The Move. So I’d spend that whole week glued to the radio, crawling the record shops and record departments at W.T. Grants & Woolworths, collecting chart handouts, asking for discarded Billboard magazines and stocking up on deletions. One of the UK bands whose label, Fontana, didn’t or couldn’t put the needed payola cash behind them on a national level, actually had hits upstate: Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. Some consider them too pop, or zany, but I just loved their image (paisley pants/flowered shirts) and music. Eventually, they switched US labels in late ‘67, to Imperial, who made a big attempt at breaking them here – and almost did. ‘Zabadak’ got a lot of play, charted in many markets – and got great reaction (KHJ in LA took it Top 10 – see chart above). I was feeling liberated. Finally they were having a hit, and The Small Faces too (‘Itchycoo Park’ was doing equally well). US radio was about to be on pulse – I didn’t need to move to England. Then THUD. ‘Zabadak’ stalls at #52. Seems it’s been all down hill ever since.
December 28th: it’s been 41 years today (the receipt is still in the sleeve) that I bought ‘Zabadak’ at Walt’s Records on Salina Street, doing my part. It’s a fantastic single – all jungle drums with haunting strings and chants. Sounded stunning on the radio – like nothing else – a lot of stations played it for a few weeks. The kind of record that zaps me right back, hence I always remember the date – and I’ll always remember that great shop. I can easily visualize the decor – it’s unique record shop smell – I wanted everything in the place – still do. One whole wall was lined with brackets that held 25+ copies of a single, where all the biggest sellers made it. But the obscure records – many of the ones I mentioned – would reside in the back – on a four sided carousel that swirled, and had slot like pockets, each able to hold 10 or so copies of a single. I would go straight to that unit every visit (usually once or twice a month), having to decide which two or three singles I could afford on a dollar a week allowance. Some of the ones I had to pass up took me years to locate (The Small Faces ‘All Or Nothing’ with the picture sleeve and The Riot Squad ‘How Is It Done’ come to mind). But there were many I did get (Pink Floyd ‘See Emily Play’, Them ‘Richard Corey’, The Yardbirds ‘Goodnight Sweet Josephine’ & The Herd ‘From The Underworld’). On December 28, 1967 I tore to that rack – and there it was – ‘Zabadak’. My Aunt Nancy, a grand lady, had brought me shopping and kindly paid, thereby allowing me to spend my dollar allowance to buy Inez & Charlie Foxx’s ‘Count The Days’. We went on to visit another relative that afternoon where I was tortured, staring at these jems, jonesing to get home and play them.
Now I’m convinced Hot Chip could do a killer remake of ‘Zabadak’. Please consider it guys.
Oh and one other tid bit about Walt’s. I ran there to buy Traffic’s ‘Hole In My Shoe’ the day after seeing them at Syracuse University’s Jabberwocky Club on their first tour. As I walked in, out came Traffic, with loads of soul and jazz albums. They patiently waited as I bought the single then signed it’s picture sleeve.
