Listen: Apparently Nothin’ / Young Disciples YoungDisciplesApparently.mp3

The first time I heard this, knowing it was on Talkin’ Loud, the classy if short sell-by-date label from the early 90′s, I thought – yes, Young Disciples are an act with plenty more fantastic tracks like ‘Apparently Nothin’ in the pipeline.

Apparently not. I faithfully got every single, well several before kinda wandering away. For me, nothing quite lived up to this moment. But having your solid 15 minutes in the spotlight is better than none.

Listen: A Young Girl / Noel Harrison
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Everyone was drawn to teenage death records, it wasn’t just me. They would even get radio play and chart on BILLBOARD. ‘A Young Girl’ did just that (US #51 in ’66), and got played heavily on my local Top 40, WNDR. Possibly helped onto the airwaves by his role in NBC’s The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., one of many b&w spy/comedies of the mid 60′s, or his famous Dad, Noel Harrison’s English adaptation of this Charles Aznavour song indeed still sounded both very French and rather menacing. If you told me The Pet Shop Boys were influenced by it, I’d believe you.

It was an ear catching song to hear on the radio in the day and has become a perfect period piece, frozen in time while simultaneously disappearing into the black hole of never-to-be-airplayed-again records.

Listen: Everybody Plays The Fool / The Main Ingredient MainIngEverybody.mp3

I think there were some redeeming moments out of many seemingly formula soul acts, I guess you’d call them, in the early 70′s. They appeared pretty faceless to me then: The Chi-lites, The Dramatics, New Birth. I was very put off by the decade’s version of 60′s Motown fashion, by then having evolved into leisure suits of questionable pastel colors. On further investigation, there were some great singles in there.

I overlooked the image straight away when it came to The Main Ingredient. I mean the sleeves to their albums were almost psychedelic, some designs resembling Hypnosis. I doubt it was intentional, but those albums helped plant the acid jazz seed that years later dj’s like Giles Peterson and and labels such as Talkin’ Loud would coin.

‘Everybody Plays The Fool’ got and, still deservingly, gets heard. I never switch it off.