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.
