THIS BLOG IS ABOUT 7" RECORDS ONLY. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY. EVERY SONG IS CONVERTED TO MP3 FROM MY PERSONAL 45 COLLECTION, AND THERE'S 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 IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
Believe it. Don Fardon, age 68, has a hit single in Holland. This very minute. A song called ‘Im Alive’. I heard it with my own ears just last week blaring out of The Bulldog coffee shop, aka legalized pot cafe, near Amsterdam’s American Hotel.
Years ago, Corinne and I visited for a long weekend. It was an irrational, last minute idea we got on a Friday morning and by evening, we were on some cheap KLM ticket out of Heathrow for said adventure. I was in London for several weeks at a patch back then, as Island was still UK based.
Saturday afternoon was spent working off my first Indonesian meal (gado gado) by digging for 45′s in the shops and outdoor flea market stalls near the American Hotel, the best place to stay even to this day. My collection is strictly US and UK pressings, but the rules do get bent for Dutch 7′s from the 60′s, especially those Decca/Deram ones in the generic picture sleeves, all with the same geometric layout yet using some very obscure band photos. Love those.
This was around November ’88, and shockingly, there were still plenty of nice items to snag. Amongst them The Attack ‘Colour Of My Mind’ in the Dutch sleeve. Very nice.
As the day wound down, Corinne wanted to try out a coffee shop, sample the brownies. Reluctantly, I agreed. The heavy dub reggae blaring onto the street convincing me to live a little.
Oh boy. Big mistake. One brownie didn’t seem to touch me, so I bought a second. No sooner was that down, and boom, the first one hit. Hard. Couldn’t get back to the hotel fast enough.
I always scurry past those coffee shops these days, even a flashback is too frightening a thought. But I was well pleased to hear Don Fardon from down the block last week.
Anything sounding remotely tribal has always caught my ear, and that’s how I kind of describe ‘Indian Reservation’. Not unlike Don Fardon’s first band, The Sorrows, and their UK hit, ‘Take A Heart’ before it. Both are heavy with original arrangements and stand out big time from most other releases during their respective time periods.
Shockingly, ‘Indian Reservation’ was a US hit (#20) as well as a British one (#3). Despite being on a small indie, I guess it picked up some airplay and broke through on quality.
Yesterday’s post about historic, often unsung producer Owen Bradley had me locked into a historic, often unsung producer funk. Somewhere in my Top 5, Roy Thomas Baker sits.
Well I suppose he’s had various moments in the sun, but not lately. If the great minds decide to ponder the character responsible for inventing corporate rock, then by all means, RTB should get the crown. Seriously, who can touch a production like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’?
Weened at the Decca Studios in London as an engineer (check your record sleeves from the 60′s) meant learning how to mic and record accurately was his required foundation. So for RTB to build a skyscraper – piece of cake.
When he ran the west coast office of Elektra in ’85, he’d welcome us junior New York A&R guys every time we made our way to Los Angeles. And the action never, not ever, slowed. Honestly, there was no stopping and certainly no sleeping. It was that simple.
When I pull out Journey singles, there are four or five that eat up the next half hour or so of my life, each getting a couple of spins minimum. Tonight, ‘Just The Same Way’ won hands down. Is there anything that isn’t absolutely perfect about this single?
Steve Perry’s call and answer bits push the bar, one classic inflection after the other. Then there’s the guitar solo, and the tones. It’s an AOR radio masterpiece.
Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, k. d. lang. Now that’s some serious lineage. Well Owen Bradley produced them all. Why is he not recognized more often? I guess the ghetto of country music creates a constant oversight.
Although the handful of recordings he made as steel guitar player with The Paradise Island Trio don’t on the surface appear to have historical value, in actuality, their ambience in sound and tonality very much do. Completely typical of the clean, electric hollow body picking prevalent during ’62, ‘Adventures In Paradise’ most likely benefited from Owen Bradley’s producing and/or engineering skills. His mic technique alone is difficult to mistake.
I believe the island of paradise in question here is Nashville by the way, where combining stereophonic sound with Hawaiian tropics was a license to print money. The Three Suns were a must for every Noguchi knock off coffee table and Don Ho was right around the corner.
With this blog nudging towards it’s third birthday, the one guy constantly crossing my mind that’s overdue for a post is Jonathan King. Forget the many acts he produced, and forget the many more he signed to his label, UK Records. The single releases as a solo artist on his own are daunting. Therein lies the reason a Jonathan King post has yet to appear. Didn’t know where to start.
It dawned on me only today, I probably won’t live forever. Therefore suddenly high on the list of missions to accomplish was getting to the Jonathan King singles for some posts. This is the first. More are planned.
Pretty near the top of my JK chart, maybe even at the top, is ‘Round Round’. Given that scouring radio station surveys on eBay has become an addictive pass time, it’s hard not to notice ‘Round Round’ appearing pretty often on local stations all around the country throughout the spring and early summer of ’67. Despite the amount of airplay the record clearly got starting in April, it didn’t chart high nationally, peaking at only #122 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under The Hot 100 during a five week stay. My guess is had the radio play been concentrated during a shorter timeframe, the record would have achieved a much higher chart number.
I recall my first time hearing ‘Round Round’, during a Sunday drive through the countryside Mom and Dad would occasionally take us on. A most perfect soundtrack to an early spring, post thaw, upstate New York, winter is finally behind us afternoon. One listen and there was no question, despite it’s message, I needed this happy and bouncy anti-drugs single.
To this day, when on occasion, there’s a copy in a store stack or at the record fairs, I grab it. You can never have too many.
What it must have been like. Probably more glamorous as a fantasy than in actual reality. Like life on the chitlin circuit, or what this song has always captured for me: the Beat Group circuit, if I may. English touring combos, most with an undeservingly flop single or two out, driving up and down the UK in nasty, smelly, unheated vans, getting paid squat, existing on grease drenched, vile motorway fry-ups to compliment their dirty clothes, hair and fingernails…check the photo on the back cover of Decca’s compilation HARD UP HEROES to capture the essence. Why The Beazers’ ‘Blue Beat’, a Decca master, wasn’t included on that comp baffles me. It’s about my only criticism though, a superb, must have collection and package.
A slightly eerie and haunting soundtrack to that predominantly regretful lifestyle, ‘Blue Beat’ also marks one of Chris Farlowe’s earliest recordings, actually his third release, and second for Decca. Apparently recorded to cash in on the brief bluebeat movement, which seems to have resurfaced more times than we can all count, it’s a pretty fine record, faux ska guitar pattern and all.
About ten years back, armed with a page of blank jukebox tabs, I approached Alan Price for a signature at an after party for the 60′s Extravaganza show featuring his band, The Alan Price Set, plus The Zombies, Manfred Mann and Chris Farlowe at The Royal Albert Hall. Having done his jukebox tab duty with ‘Simon Smith And The Amazing Dancing Bear’, he was only too happy to volunteer Chris Farlowe sign one as well. Shouting across the room for him to come quick, our man B lined my way.
Upon arrival, Alan Price proclaims, “Chris, you have to do this, it’s a top idea”.
Baffled, Chris Farlowe obliged. Pretty handy that these guys were from a generation that would, sometimes catastrophically, sign anything, hence here was my chance:
Somehow, this B side got a lot of play on both of our Syracuse Top 40′s: WOLF and WNDR. A few singles down the line from ‘The Pied Piper’, it always looked like the story of a Top 5 was about to be repeated, yet ultimately never happened.
‘But She’s Untrue’, in hindsight, was distinctively very Everly Brothers. Those guys were a generation or two ahead of us and unbeknown to any teen then, their sound was very addictive to an untrained ear. Mix in a nice Joe Meek knockoff production and the resulting single becomes a memorable period piece.
Transports me right back to winter ’67 when this was inescapable. Can vividly recall walking back to school in blizzard-like conditions after lunch, ‘But She’s Untrue’ getting played literally everyday at 12:45…for weeks. A cold transistor radio clamped to my frost bitten ear. It was worth the suffering.
Listen: Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? / The Rolling StonesStonesMotherShadow.mp3
Today is Mick Jagger’s birthday, and still very much in top form.
The 1966 Rolling Stones were in top form too, dropping double A sided singles every few months, looking better seemingly by the day in paisleys, polka dots, pastel trousers, flowered jackets – you name it. Their summer US tour to promote AFTERMATH, by far one of their greatest (and thee greatest) albums, caused riots everywhere, including my hometown of Syracuse on 7/6/66, where Brian Jones was arrested post show for allegedly dragging a US flag along the ground.
Having made my way backstage, full colour program in hand to be autographed, I’ll testify that I saw no such behavior. The guys talked to me at length having remembered our first meeting that previous fall and all the blues records we enthused over. As they rounded up their bags to get into the awaiting station wagon, I left. Whatever supposedly happened must have occured within the next few minutes. But considering their exit would have been down the same flagless stairway and through the same flagless door I traveled, it’s quite hard to believe. As I exited, I saw their said awaiting car. I did, however, also witness a bunch of pudgy, balding, aggressively intimidating policemen who had earlier been jealously eyeing the flawless visual perfection of Brian Jones and his band upstairs. One of many crooked law enforcement setups that were coincidentally about to plague The Rolling Stones? Quite possibly.
That night’s show opened with ‘Everybody Needs Somebody To Love’ (as it had on their previous visit October 30, 1965) before launching into a merciless onslaught of masterpieces: ‘Mother’s Little Helper’, ‘Paint It, Black’, ‘Lady Jane’, ‘Under My Thumb’, ‘Cry To Me’, ‘Heart Of Stone’, ‘The Last Time’, ’19th Nervous Breakdown’, ‘Get Off Of My Cloud’, ‘Not Fade Away’….I’m still not fully recovered.
By September of ’66, it was as if AFTERMATH was old hat, and the seminal songs kept coming. This time in the form of a loud, chaotic soundclash of fuzz, brass, piano and tom toms: ‘Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?’. Even the title broke all the rules. It took years for many to realize the superior genius of the track. I spun it dj-ing a month or so back and the freaking place blew up.
A few years ago, I asked Tony King if he knew where the infamous drag shot of the band was taken, having tortured myself for years trying to work out the spot. I could tell from the street and buildings it was clearly NYC. That picture, and a shot of the group in the same location wearing identical outfits as on the Ed Sullivan Show (9/11/66) – most likely shot the same day, made up the front and back sleeve of the US single (compare clip to sleeve):
After a few days, Tony emailed me, having heard back from the original photographer with the location. I hurried over to said spot – lo and behold – there it was. I milled about for some time. It was early evening, quite cold, and either the brisk air or other worldly energy, or both, had me shivering ever so slightly. A true high that I will never forget.
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 a week allowance and some 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 and I distinctly remember suffering through several yards earning enough to buy The Cream 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 than their stereo counterparts. Man, am I happy I bought them: The Pink Floyd 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 Paul Simon cover and 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 vinyl and those 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’ heavily for several weeks without a problem is surprising, but they did.
The Cryin’ Shames ‘Please Stay’ was also from the haul that brought the Marsha Gee record into my collection. Unlike hers, this song I knew about and had a UK copy of. But finding a US pressing was quite an event.
The Drifters had a hit with ‘Please Stay’ in ’61, and their version of this Burt Bacharach classic is indeed great. This one however, has the added ambience of Joe Meek’s production.
Much has been deservedly written about Joe Meek, one of England’s first independent producers. In those days, late 50′s / early 60′s, all the producers were on the label staff. They did their job, and got their pay check. But it all began to change around ’63 and Joe Meek was a catalyst. This of course meant that, because he had built his own studio, he would not only produce the records but own the masters too. The labels didn’t like not owning their catalog, as Joe Meek and the other independent producers would license titles to the majors for a certain time period only. So he was always given terrible treatment.
Get one of the books about him. He was fascinating. And he had a real thing about other worlds. His huge international hit, ‘Telstar’ by The Tornadoes had his signature, haunting extra-terrestrial, almost frightening sound to it. Pretty much all his other recordings did too. You can certainly hear it on ‘Please Stay’, his last ever UK chart entry. Lead vocalist, Charlie Crane, had an amazing voice. One quite perfect for his Meeksville sound as well as this track.
For some time the Dick Clark footage had been embeddable via youtube. Now disabled, but still there. Go direct.
Joe Meek claimed to be possessed by the ghost of Buddy Holly, and on the anniversary of his death, February 3, 1967, he took his own life, along with his landlady’s. Horribly demonized by a lawsuit that left him penniless, his Tornadoes royalties tied up in litigation, one of the last records he made was by this same band: The Cryin’ Shames, titled ‘Nobody Waved Goodbye’. Yikes.
True story. I know you will think this is a lie, but I swear on a stack of Ramones albums that it is not.
UK manager Dennis Muirhead paid me his yearly visit at Columbia Records in the late 90′s. We’d met back in ’85 when I’d first joined Elektra and he always stopped by when he came through town. One of his clients at the time was Stuart Colman. Stuart lived then in Nashville and had produced many successful country acts, but had prior UK hits with Shakin’ Stevens. Dennis gave me a package including all his producers latest discographies which I browsed while catching up. I noticed Stuart had started his career in the 60′s with The Shadows. So I said to Dennis, hey this guy goes back a bit, is he English? Affirmative. I proceeded to say I wish these fellows would list all those really early engineering jobs they would have started out doing prior to that first producer opportunity. “I mean, Dennis, he could have worked on something obscure like…..Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours or something”. I just grabbed that fun, eccentric example out of my head.
Dennis looks me square in the eye and says “He was IN Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours”. Silence. Neither of us could believe what had just transpired. “You’re not kidding are you, well call him now”. He suggested one better, that I ring his place asking for him as a member of the band, which I did. I let Stuart know fairly fast that Dennis was there with me, and we had a very nice chat. I mailed him this jukebox tab, he autographed it and sent it straight back.
Above: Jukebox Tab signed by Stuart Colman
As for the group, I was interested because of the name. When I saw their first single ‘Mirror Mirror’ entering the UK charts, I had to hear them asap. But it wasn’t to be for ages. Even though released Stateside, it was nowhere to be heard or found. WMCR, the little station that gave me all those unwanted promo singles at the time, weren’t serviced by London, parent company of Parrot Records – home to Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours. Damn. I was jonesing by the time their second single hit. ‘Don’t Stop Loving Me, Baby’ limped into the UK Top 50 at #50 for one week. I love a good followup flop usually more than the previous hit, so this was reaching fever pitch.
Finally I was successful, finding it in a 25¢ bin at The House Of Oldies on Bleeker Street in NYC when my Aunt Nancy invited me along to visit some relative for a few days. I got a ton of London titles there – The Cryin’ Shames, Lulu & The Luvvers, The Gonks, Hedgehoppers Anonymous and Jonathan King among them – all nice orange swirl promos. This is a great double sider. Not overly special but a solid British staple. Actually, just tonight I realized some similarities to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich thereby explaining a lot of it’s appeal for me.
The B side ‘Will Ya’ is my favorite of the two, but just. That timid but still wildish fuzz solo is the tie breaker. Mike Goldsmith picked me up the stock copy pictured, only a few months ago, at Academy Records in Brooklyn. I had never seen nor heard of one being pressed as it seemed likely this would never have made it beyond the promo stage – but here it is.
Pull this out and give it a spin. You’re bound to say, “Man I have not heard this in ages”. Well, my guess is you’ll say that. I loved all the singles up through and including ‘Pictures Of Lily’. Then came ‘I Can See For Miles’. Something about that one, it was good but didn’t hit dead center. Was a first real understanding of my body’s reaction to music. ‘I Can See For Miles’ may have been the record that set the template for an A&R career years later: if I didn’t love it – chances were good it’d be a huge hit. Hey, as long as you know how to read the indicators, that’s all that really matters. ‘I Can See For Miles’ was in fact their only ever US Top 10. Hard to believe I know.
Back then, The Who weren’t much different than The Small Faces or The Move when it came to US radio. You never heard them. Yeah radio was much better in the 60′s, but still fairly narrow. These bands just didn’t get national airplay – if they were lucky, regional exposure was usually the extent of it and then maybe a crossover….leads me to an interesting memory about The Who.
I and my Anglophile friends religiously bought every single by The Who. My teenage girlfriend and I missed our junior prom the night I got ‘Substitute’ it was so good – we just played it over and over and fiddled about, as someone once coined. It was the plan anyways.
There were a few shops around town that would get two to five copies of the non hits, or hopeful to be hits – like Walt’s Records or Smith’s Records or that huge record department in WT Grant’s on Salina Street in Syracuse. So starting with ‘I Can’t Explain’, we bought ‘Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere’, every single right through and including the immaculate ‘Substitute’, ‘I’m A Boy’, ‘The Kids Are Alright’ and this one, the psychedelic ‘Happy Jack’, which actually did crack the Billboard chart peaking at #24 in ’67. A few years later when TOMMY was released, everyone noticed a rock opera similarity between that and it’s predecessor, The Pretty Things S.F. SORROW, still we listened to them both regularly during several weekend Parcheesi matches. The Who finally made a return visit after opening for Herman’s Hermits a few years earlier. Even though in my opinion the glow of those earlier singles had dimmed down noticeably, of course I went along. TOMMY admittedly wasn’t bad.
After the show, a few of us waited around for autographs, brought albums, singles, the works. I wasn’t quite as fussed and brought nothing, but seriously, was there something better to do in Syracuse as a teenager than possibly say hello to The Who? When my best friend Denny went up to Pete Townshend proudly with his MY GENERATION album to get signed, the guy turned his nose away, dismissiveley refusing to sign anything. He proceeded to make his way toward their station wagon with band members including Keith Moon and Roger Daltry already inside waiting. Even Keith Moon jumped out of the car to oblige, looking at Pete with a ‘you asshole’ glare, I couldn’t resist. So I spoke up.
“Pete, you know those few copies of the older singles you used to sell in towns like this prior to your hits, we were were the kids that bought them.” As the car pulled away, plain as day, I recall him hanging out the window, wearing a coat that looked like a piece of ghastly ornate drapery, middle finger on both hands projecting at me and shouting “you got a show for your $6 prick”.
Hmm. Not really, you didn’t play any of the aforementioned songs I came to hear. Not one. Still it was rude, certainly embarrassing and I never bought another record by The Who. Big deal, basically my bitterness toward he and unfairly the other guys in The Who went unnoticed and I’m sure Pete Towshend never lost a wink of sleep because of me.
About thirty years later, his keepers were doing the rounds of labels trying to hawk a new, not very good Pete Townshend album. I was at Columbia then but decided to pass on the record, or more specifically on him, his talent to write those gems long ago withered in my opinion. Still, it was a very hard call. You’d be a fool to not want to work with Pete Townshend. Honestly, he is a higher form of life but I’d experienced his temper. Once bitten, twice shy.
My bet: not much was expected when Maggie Bell (Frankie) came to London from Scotland to record ‘I’ll Hold You’ which she’d co-written with Bobby Kerr (Johnny) for UK Decca, and eventually licensed to the US Nashville based Hickory label. Hickory an odd choice admittedly, although they did pick up, with great success, the early Donovan releases as well as a few other British acts.
This was a few years before Maggie Bell joined/formed Stone The Crows and then onto solo releases via Swan Song Records. In that time (around five years) much would change about Maggie Bell, most noticeably her voice which on this recording was quite smooth. Yet by the time she began with Stone The Crows, a rough Janis Joplin quality was well in place.
Wish I had that original Decca or Hickory pressing to post and own, but meanwhile this later Inferno release is doing nicely as a temp. I will find those originals, that I can assure you.
The below post, originally from 1/15/09, is worth revisiting. Firstly, one can never hear The Poets enough, and secondly, thanks to Lindsay Hutton from Next Big Thing, he snagged me the jukebox tab below, which is well worth sharing.
Probably by fluke, The Poets first single ‘Now We’re Thru’ perfectly captured what we Americans heard as the black and white sound of drizzle drenched England in a 2:13 sonic snapshot. Black and white? We only ever saw these bands that way. Color photos of brand new groups were thin on the ground. As for the magazines: newspaper style, with color covers at best.
Then there was TV. Who had a color set in ’65? Sure by ’67 TV, like everything else, went to eleven, to technicolor. But those early UK bands the world was insatiable for, all in black and white, and usually photographed on some wet cobblestoned street. Think about shots of Them, The Pretty Things, Manfred Mann, whoever, shivering from the damp.
‘Now We’re Thru’, it’s a minor key classic, a perfect balance of over echoed background vocals, cymbal free distant drums and that ever present Decca tambourine, possibly a non negotiable contractual boiler plate item. Andrew Loog Oldham produced their early releases, probably managed, obviously owned the publishing and gave them a leg up in many situations I’m guessing. A deal with Decca for starters. He even elbowed them on to America’s teen weekly SHINDIG:
“You want The Rolling Stones, take The Poets too”, just an educated guess mind you.
Above: Jukebox Tab signed by George Gallacher
He had a few others signed up at the time: Marianne Faithfull, Adrienne Posta, The Mighty Avengers, Vashti and clearly got a taste for his own label.
What the hell, let’s give The Poets credit for helping create Immediate Records. They certainly were the only act he took along but no one ever seems to mention that bit.
‘Call Again’ was issued as Immediate 006 (theoretically the label’s 6th release). By now that destinctive vocal sound of singer George Gallacher was in place. If only they’d had a chance to work extensively in a studio, OGDEN’S NUT GONE FLAKE style….if only if only if only.
Listen: 365 Rolling Stones / The Andrew Oldham Orchestra AndrewLoog365.mp3
In ’64, Andrew Loog Oldham clearly ruled the roost at Decca Records. And why not? He managed their biggest act, The Rolling Stones. So if and when he felt like making a record, smartly the powers that be (Sir Edward Lewis I assume) turned on the green light. Despite their popularity, it was still a time when he could march his band members into the studio to do the instrumental backings for his sonic fetishes.
Listen: Oh, I Do Like To See Me On The ‘B’ Side / The Andrew Oldham Orchestra AndrewLoogBSide.mp3
Occasionally, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts, along with Ian Stewart, were allowed to stretch into muiscal territory that was more their natural habitiat than the commercial Andrew Oldham Orchestra A sides. ‘Oh, I Do Like To See Myself On The ‘B’ Side’ being the most prime example. And, how uncommonly generous too was Sir Andrew, the boys even got writer’s credit and hopefully publishing – although despite The Rolling Stones growing popularity at the time, and name checks in the song titles, none of his singles sold squat – so not sure that pub money amounted to more than a few teas and English fry ups. Not so bad I must admit. I do love a trad breakfast fry up, vegetarian that is, in some unrenovated, chilly, damp, not been changed since the 60′s cafe – usually out of gentrified Central London I’m sad to say.
Above: Jukebox Tab signed by Andrew Loog Oldham
And how nice of Andrew Oldham, manager of truly the world’s greatest rock and roll band ever to generously fill in a jukebox tab for my collection when approached by dear friend Lindsay Hutton on my behalf. Thank you Lindsay. That great rock and roll band, just to be clear, were not the ones that quit after five or so years, their silly vaudeville music being continually decimated production wise by that stiff, suit and tied George Martin, who also destroyed The Action’s career with his souless ‘talent’. Yes, I’m referring to the overrated Beatles. Quitters, thankfully.
Listen: There Are But Five Rolling Stones / The Andrew Oldham Orchestra AndrewLoog5Rolling.mp3
Very nice Joe Meek production nick here. Some say this represents Andrew’s constant attempt to replicate Phil Spector’s sound, but no this is unquestionaably Joe Meek territory. As stated above in similar vocabulary, anyone who claims it’s not The Rolling Stones, or various members, playing on these is just stupid. Compare the guitar solo on the outro of ‘There Are But Five Rolling Stones’ with the middle break on the band’s version of ‘It’s All Over Now’. Only question being is it Keith or Brian?
Listen: Da Doo Ron Ron / The Andrew Oldham Orchestra & Chorus AndrewLoogDoRon.mp3
And before heads got too big, can you guess who Andrew wheeled in to vocal ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ for his UK Decca album 16 HIP HITS by The Andrew Oldham Orchestra & Chorus? If this doesn’t bring you back to Denmark Street, chills up the spin included, nothing will.
Listen: A Walk In The Black Forest / Horst Jankowski HorstForest.mp3
A good dose of instrumental muzak never hurt anyone. Having been occasionally amazed in a supermarket or drug store by a version of some really un-obvious choice is the best part. I wish I could remember a few, but other than The Seeds ‘Pushin’ Too Hard’, I can not. Even hearing that took a good minute to identify, they can really trip you up.
Somehow, Horst Jankowski managed a US #12 Billboard single, and a UK #3 with ‘A Walk In The Black Forest’ in ’65. Great song title as well. The album from which it came reached #18 here in the States. His easy listening, and presumably inexpensive to make LP’s were released, minimum of three per year through 1970, with four in ’67 alone. It made for a nice break in a landscape of Motown and British Invasion pop radio I will admit. Today, it’s more than happening when it gets the unexpected spin my the jukebox.
I’ve not seen that many other singles by the fellow, given the number of albums issued, but they may have simply evaded me. One big surprise was stumbling on his extremely easy listening version of ‘Zabadak’. I knew of several others, easily a dozen from obscure places around Europe and Japan. The most famous being those by Boney M, Dana Valery and The Sorrows. The wildest one comes as part of the German Decca LP release by The Charing Cross Boys: DANCE TO THE SONGS OF DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH, which by the way I’m jonsing for.
Found this one at a record fair – you guessed it, in a 10 for $1 box. That’s 10¢ each for those of you without a calculator or a knack for math.
Howard, Chris and I went to see the Ian Dury movie the other day. It was pretty great – the end bit got a touch depressing but the film certainly brought me right back to how absolutely stunning he and The Blockheads were on stage during their moments in the sun. Never realized Chaz Jankel was such a vital part of the band and songwriting until the credits rolled.
We had Indian lunch prior, and as usual, started digging into a whole lotta obscure record trivia. I was always a fan of UK Decca’s various production deals. One such was with Gruggy Woof. The company included both Neil Slaven and David Hitchcock. Slaven’s production’s seemed to lean more towards the bluesy side (Savoy Brown, Miller Anderson, The Keef Hartley Band, Chicken Shack) whereas Hitchcock tipped more progressive (Caravan, Camel, Cured Air, Genesis). By the way, I don’t have a clue where that rather bad name originated from, but I liked most of the records these guys/their production company were involed with.
For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what single I had in my hands literally earlier that very day, with it’s unlikely David Hitchcock production credit. Given that Howard mastered a slew of these during his apprentice years at Trident, we racked our collective brains to no result.
Well tonight I suddenly remembered: Mellow Candle. Their sole album is insanely valuable, and this single is not far behind. Quite why I’m not sure. I always thought ‘Dan The Wing’ was rather watered down Steeleye Span, sonically more in line with what B & C were releasing: folky prog stuff.
Look deeply into the Decca/Deram release history and you will find many an obscure, highly collectable and hence, steeply priced prog rock array of every flavor. I picked this up for pennies in the dj copy heavy outdoor vendor racks at Cheap Cheap on Soho’s Rupert Street during that summer ’73 spent in London. In fact, this copy sat there unsold for literally months until finally having been humiliatingly relegated to the 5p row – I just couldn’t pass up the Deram A label – I mean seriously, 5p?
At first it indeed sounded lightweight and weedy, but I eventually got addicted to it’s weaknesses. They are charmingly innocent, now I play it often.
Listen: I Thought Of You Last Night / The Konrads I
A year or two back, there was a sizeable piece in RECORD COLLECTOR about The Konrads ‘I Thought Of You Last Night’, primarily due to David Bowie’s involvement as a one time band member, if only for a few short weeks. Although it’s unclear, and I think unlikely, that he plays on this particular single, it’s understandably become a most desirable item nonetheless.
The article focused on the US Decca release, and at the time of writing, a standard pink label promotional copy had finally surfaced, thereby verifying it’s existence beyond only ever appearing in an old Decca release schedule. The most interesting part being the writer’s fairly adament and embarrassingly for him, dismissive position that the record absolutely did not make it beyond the promotional pressing stage. Therefore supposedly no commercial copies were manufactured. I mean, come on, how the fuck would a journalist some forty years later even know that anyway?
Well, it’s not true. I own a commercial copy.
I emailed the chap a few times, but he never responded.
I’ll make this real simple. The single’s a double sider must have. Despite one of my most hated words being ‘mellow’, I tolerate it just fine here. I loved when this got pop airplay back in ’67. And did you know while making solo vocal records, he also played with The Packers and Dyke & The Blazers? Me neither.
Phil and I played this at the Otis Clay show we DJ’d a few nights back. Nothing like the A side, this is an instrumental for instance, it sounds damn good loud. As with many a food inspired title, how do you not listen to a single called ‘Cornbread And Buttermilk’?
Taking the ‘p’ out of psychedelic – maybe. There has always been some debate about The Accent’s authenticity. Summer ’67 had many happenings, some were intentional imitations. Bands appeared from nowhere with songs that were almost formula, simply by adding fuzz, backwards guitars, phasing, you name it.
Fact: The Accent issued but one single, ‘Red Sky At Night’. Not much of their history survived, they were from Yorkshire and landed a residency at Billy Walker’s Upper Cut Club in 1967, which, as a side note, had a legendary opening week (see below).
The single’s wild start/stop LSD wrenched production rivals some of that day’s best: Pink Floyd, The Smoke, Tomorrow etc.
Produced by the usually blues strict Mike Vernon, he showed his competitive strength to the Norman Smiths and certainly validates the band’s credibility.
The flanged vocal effect on the lyric ‘shaking’ at 2:22 always made me laugh and wonder too, is this one of Blue Horizon’s serious blues worshipping bands, say Fleetwood Mac or Chicken Shack, just taking the piss?
No, instead they and their single are a classic piece of history.
Hard to believe, but once was a time when a color photo of a UK band was a big treat. Color usually wasn’t the first look you’d ever get of a new act in the mid 60′s. Coincidentally, the only exception I can think of is The Applejacks. They were pictured, in color, like all the other bands, on the cover of ENGLAND’S GREATEST HITMAKERS, a benefit compilation album issued by London Records in aid of the Lord’s Tavern Fund, which was an association that helped finance cricket fields in England. My how the causes have become rather more worthy through the years.
There was once talk that bassist Megan Davies was sister to Ray and Dave. The fact that they covered and released as their fifth single an obscure Ray Davies song fueled the rumour for years. Turns out it wasn’t true. But the potentially accurate info at the time made the agony of struggling to hear The Applejacks even more acute. Despite blagging promos from the local adult station, WMCR – and having some really good shops (Walt’s Records, Smith’s Records) that would stock three to five copies of just about any new English band, The Applejacks first few singles were very evasive. Years later, I guess in the early 70′s, I finally scored a coveted US stock copy of their first single ‘ Tell Me When’ (pictured above), which spent one short seven day run on BILLBOARD’s Bubbling Under The Hot 100 chart at #135 (6/6/64). And that was their entire chart history in the US. Don’t feel bad, I’m embarrassed too.
‘Tell Me When’ paralled the stereotypical Beat Group sound, leaning a little too close to Freddie & The Dreamers. Still at the time, the wait was so long (almost six months – then a lifetime), that all it’s Mersey leanings were forgiven once a copy arrived from my cousin Anne in London.
The real surprise was ‘Baby Jane’, it’s B side. More loud and bluesy, this was closer to The Spencer Davis Group or The Downliner’s Sect than any of their eventual tracks. ‘Baby Jane’ is also one of the first released songs from writers Pete Dello and Ray Cane, who would eventually form The Honeybus, so it’s historical value is quite high. I like to think this was indicative of The Applejacks live. Can you imagine how fun that would have been to see?
Listen: Three Little Words (I Love You) / The Applejacks ApplejacksThree.mp3
Their third single was also the last to make the UK chart (#23). ‘Three Little Words (I Love You)’ also became their finalt US release, for some reason retitled ‘I’m Gonna Send My Love (Three Little Words)’. Megan was a pretty swinging bassist, you’ll notice her carrying this one along too. The single came into the radio station, I recall seeing on the counter, but not in my stack of weekly rock discards, which would clearly have been headed for the rubbish bin until God put me on earth to save them all. I learned then and there to ask and you will recieve.
1965′s ‘Bye Bye Girl’, like ‘Baby Jane’, has a slightly heavier, early Moody Blues slant that I much preferred to their often Liverpool sounding tracks. By now, cousin Anne was well trained in grabbing The Applejacks’ 7′s week of release. She in turn, wanted The Mamas & The Papas’ singles. No problem. They were everywhere. A more than fair trade.
B side, ‘It’s Not A Game Any More’, was another early Pete Dello song. Clearly still finding his footing, practising you could say, on The Applejacks, there are a few signature Pete Dello twists and turns here – if you know his work, they’re easy to spot.
There are those who insist the album was never released in North America. Proof above otherwise. A cherished item.
