Archive for the ‘The Troggs’ Category

The Troggs

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Listen: Night Of The Long Grass / The Troggs

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Pawing through my Troggs 7″ collection, jonesing to hear ‘Night Of The Long Grass’, I realized what we all know, this band made a lot of great singles, for ages. I’m not sure why they didn’t have the occasional chart hit as the years progressed. They always toured, and were really good as well.

“Night Of The Long Grass’ was criticized for being bit unsettling musically. Well not by me, but most who heard it. Had a bit of a ‘From The Underworld’ creepiness, a bigger compliment is hard to get by the way. It’s without a doubt the most obscure of their US Fontana releases, especially a stock pressing, which took me years to find. Never seen one since.

Listen: Summertime / The Troggs

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Speaking of summer, what better time to talk about the most clever seasonal lyric, maybe ever. With more songs than anyone I can count encompassing schoolboy sexual eye winks, ‘Summertime’ is their true juvenile masterpiece. How this didn’t blow up, given they reunited with producer Larry Page from their Fontana/Page One hit making days, has to be down to one, and only one reason. No airplay.

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Posted in Fontana, Larry Page, Page One, Penny Farthing, Pye, The Troggs | Comments Off

The Virgin Sleep

Monday, March 8th, 2010

VirginSleepLoveUKA, Virgin Sleep, Deram, Noel Walker, Keith Mansfield, Rod Buckle

VirginSleepLoveUK, Virgin Sleep, Deram, Noel Walker, Keith Mansfield, Rod Buckle

VirginSleepLove, Virgin Sleep, Deram, Noel Walker, Keith Mansfield, Rod Buckle

Listen: Love / The Virgin Sleep

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For a UK summer ‘67 psychedelic snapshot, Deram were a pretty dependable label. Extending Decca, their parent company’s policy of the previous four years (basically grabbing up as many blossoming bands as possible and awarding them a single or two to see if they had something) gave The Virgin Sleep their 15 minutes. ‘Love’ has ranked respectfully among the most sought after period singles, and obviously for good reason. Sounding not unlike The Troggs’ more druggy tunes, the band modelled this after the Buddhist chant ‘Om Mane Padme Hum’ and logically threw in a sitar. ‘Paint It, Black’ beware.

VirginSleepHaliford, Virgin Sleep, Deram, Noel Walker, Keith Mansfield, Rod Buckle

VirginSleepHallifordUK, Virgin Sleep, Deram, Noel Walker, Keith Mansfield, Rod Buckle

VirginSleepHallifordUSB, Virgin Sleep, Deram, Noel Walker, Keith Mansfield, Rod Buckle

Listen: Halliford House / The Virgin Sleep

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Produced by in-house Decca staffer, Noel Walker, both ‘Love’ and it’s B side, ‘Halliford House’ left no psychedelic studio trick untried. The crack ending here being solid proof.

VirginSleepSecrets, Virgin Sleep, Deram, Noel Walker, Keith Mansfield, Rod Buckle

Listen: Secret / The Virgin Sleep

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Things went a bit more commercial for their second and last swing at the hit parade. Keith Mansfield was brought in to ‘arrange’. His history was incidental music for TV and film. Nice choice. Didn’t work though, as far as chart success went. Sounding not unlike the future classical ideas The Move would explore makes me wonder if Roy Wood was a fan. Still the psychedelic accolades remained intact, as ‘Secret’ has turned up on a few hardcore comps of the genre.

VirginSleepComes, Virgin Sleep, Deram, Noel Walker, Keith Mansfield, Rod Buckle

Listen: Comes A Time / The Virgin Sleep

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As with ‘Secret’, ‘Comes A Time’ was produced by Rod Buckle. He must not have enjoyed the experience given his name never surfaced again, to my knowledge. Despite some nice Honeybus moments, it’s always ignored. This B side really grew on me, by accident if truth be known. The turntable was on repeat.

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Posted in Deram, Keith Mansfield, Noel Walker, Rod Buckle, Roy Wood, The Honeybus, The Move, The Troggs, The Virgin Sleep | No Comments »

SMASH / FONTANA CATALOG 1968

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Smash Fontana Catalog

Smash Fontana Catalog

Smash Fontana Catalog

Smash Fontana Catalog

God knows where I got this – probably wrote away for it being the record collector I was at 8 years old. Still have a few Fontana 7″ mailers from that time period as well. I would write to this person, Claranelle Morris, at Fontana’s main office in Chicago back then, pestering her about The Herd and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. She’d send photos, bios, sometimes even a single. I guess she figured you couldn’t hear or buy them in the sticks of the Syracuse suburbs, so give the kid the record already. We’re going to toss them anyways. Thank you Claranelle. To go back and police the Fontana dumpsters – if only.

It was years later, when I finally got a break to get into the business (Howard Thompson gave me my 1st A&R job at Elektra – without him, I’d still be struggling), that I discovered as soon as a record isn’t current, being worked at radio or believed in (at Columbia, my last label job, this often happened within a few weeks: Charlie Walk in particular convinced many he was quite good at A&R, he’s now unemployed) – off to the dumpster went the product, and many times off to the scrapheap went the act’s career.

But let’s not lose focus……so I found this catalog in one of the many trunks of ’stuff’ I’ve saved over the years. It’s just like new, man, I wouldn’t mind a box lot of many of the titles here. Of course, I loved the English groups back then, but also had a jones for Gloria Lynne. It wasn’t only because she was on Fontana (which was always a favorite label – Suzanne King made me a great Fontana T Shirt for my birthday one year. She lives in Chicago now – visit the Fontana building Suzanne. It was at 35 E. Wacker Drive.). Gloria Lynne had a bunch of records on Everest prior. I had a copy of ‘Indian Love Call’ from that period, given to me in one of the Saturday morning piles of singles my uncle, a jukebox operator, would drop off instead of trashing when I was very young, about 5-6. It’s probably the reason the record collecting gene was dangerously awakened in my DNA.

I paid attention to Gloria Lynne singles. I often heard them on the radio playing in the local barber shop where I’d get my haircut as a little boy. Must have been an AC station of it’s day, way before it’s then output turned into bachelor pad, lounge, hipster stuff decades later.

And check out some of the soundtracks too.

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Posted in Claranelle Morris, Columbia, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, Elektra, Fontana, Gloria Lynne, Howard Thompson, The Herd, The Mindbenders, The Pretty Things, The Troggs | No Comments »