Posts Tagged ‘The Yardbirds’
Saturday, November 23rd, 2013
Listen: Grotty Drums / Bobby Graham
Grotty
Listen: Hold Tight / Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
Hold
Possibly you’ll notice a distinct similarity between these two singles. Both on Fontana and both released during February ’66 in the UK.
‘Grotty Drums’, the B side to infamous session drummer Bobby Graham’s second solo release ‘Teensville’, was co-written with Jimmy Page. At the time not only a member of The Yardbirds, but like Bobby aka Bobbie, he was a very in demand session player himself. Both played on hundreds of singles from the era, many recorded for Fontana, the label in common. It’s also one of the loudest cut singles I can think of. Upon close inspection, the grooves resemble a graph of the Dow Jones during a volatile month.
Probably coincidental but fun to imagine one or the other being impressed by the instantaneous drive and swing of that 4/4 attack, and borrowing it a bit.
Tags: Bobbie Graham, Bobby Graham, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, Fontana, Jimmy Page, The Yardbirds
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Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
Listen: The Boat That I Row / Lulu
The Boat That I Row / Lulu
Mickie Most: producer. Mickie Most: never a moniker more perfect.
This guy’s name framed a 60′s pop music producer with total accuracy. Don’t know much about him, never got to meet. Yet his records from the ’66 – ’68 period really had a stamp. And the legacy continued into the 70′s, with his label RAK. But back to the 60′s….
Not sonically unlike Donovan’s ‘Sunshine Superman’ or ‘There Is A Mountain’, The Yardbirds’ ‘Goodnight Sweet Josephine and ‘Ten Little Indians’, as well Jeff Beck’s ‘Hi Ho Silver Lining’ and ‘Tally Man’, all of them Mickie Most productions, I’m guessing his secret was a magic wand chock full of studio compression. Not being an engineer, I can’t say for sure, but indeed there are similarities whereby certain instruments get maxed out in a most appealing way. Maybe that’s where a play on the word most, or Most, gets a little too clever. Sorry.
Seriously though, I do recall hearing ‘The Boat That I Row’ those first few times on my local Top 40. It was warm, springlike weather and wow, did this song jump right out of the sludge. I wanted Lulu to have a US hit for seemingly ages, and now, clearly, the moment had arrived.
Technically, this single reached #1 in the States, but oddly not as ‘The Boat That I Row’. Instead, the original B side, ‘To Sir With Love’ suddenly gained momentum, given the film had just successfully debuted in theaters and was on a tear. So radio stations flipped it, as it was referred to in those days, meaning they began playing the B side and shunning the A.
‘To Sir With Love’ scaled to that coveted #1 slot, but in my world, ‘The Boat That I Row’ was always the chart topper. I mean, it technically sat right there on the pointy part of the pyramid.
Tags: Donovan, Epic, Jeff Beck, Lulu, Mickie Most, RAK, The Yardbirds
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Saturday, May 7th, 2011
Listen: I’m Alive / The Hollies
I'm Alive / The Hollies
Talk about an explosive and immediate intro, here’s one of the most. This tore through my hand sized orange AM transistor radio, an item that almost needed surgically removing from my hand after a couple of years. We went everywhere together, to school, on lunch breaks, to the barber, dentist, shopping for records, the shower and even to bed.
I would wait religiously for the latest single from the UK’s Hit Parade to get an initial airing. Decades before info was a click away, we seemed to know pretty fast about new singles from the English groups, and would wait for that first listen. Many times wait and wait and wait to hear them, unsuccessfully.
I recall writing a letter to Jim O’Brien, the 7-midnight disc jockey on Syracuse’s WNDR, asking would he please play more of the new English bands and he actually read it. This was spring ’66, when playlists were fairly loose but didn’t exist at all to a kid listener. Back then, the stations took and played requests and as well, read letters on-air. I mentioned a few bands, The Alan Price Set being the only one I can recall at this moment. And he read my letter, rattled off all my requests and said “We’d love to play these but they just don’t get released in the USA”.
Not true.
I knew about these records via BILLBOARD. Not only were they printed in the HITS OF THE WORLD section of the publication, whereby they reproduced international Top 10′s and in the case of the UK, their Top 50 chart; but the magazine also listed weekly new US releases in their SINGLES REVIEW section, with label and catalog number. They were all released here, it’s why I wrote the letter.
And so, in hindsight, my mistrust of American radio officially began.
I will say this, Jim O’Brien clearly got some free plays during his shows. For a short period, he did a feature called ECHOES OF ENGLAND, during the British Invasion years. I heard some great stuff on that program: Them, The Silkie, The Yardbirds, The Honeycombs, even The Pretty Things ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’. And for a few weeks in September ’67, he opened most of his shows with The Pink Floyd ‘See Emily Play’. But he did tell a disappointing fib that night.
Regardless, to his credit, it was the grand man himself who played ‘I’m Alive’ one evening. Holy whoever, did it sound fantastic. Dwarfed the songs on either side of it. I loved ‘I’m Alive’ immediately, and excitedly thought I’d be hearing it often, but never did, not ever again.
It had an equally short lived life nationally, a one week spike at #103 on BILLBOARD’s BUBBLING UNDER THE HOT 100 chart, and that my friends, was that.
Tags: Billboard's Hits Of The World, Bubbling Under The Hot 100, Imperial, Jim O'Brien, Parlophone, The Hollies, The Honeycombs, The Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, The Silkie, The Yardbirds, Them, WNDR
Posted in Billboard's Hits Of The World, Bubbling Under The Hot 100, Imperial, Jim O'Brien, Parlophone, The Alan Price Set, The Hollies, The Honeycombs, The Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, The Silkie, The Yardbirds, Them, WNDR | No Comments »
Friday, January 14th, 2011
Listen: Substitute / The Who
Substitute / The Who
I missed the junior prom because of this record. My childhood sweetheart girlfriend Marianne was an Anglophile like me, most kids were back then really. But the two of us, we were hardcore.
Basically, as soon as I’d get home from school on Fridays I would head to Smith’s Records in Oneida, either on my bike or my Dad would drive me, bless him. Mrs. Smith gave me her week old Billboard magazines like clockwork, and I’d always buy something as well. Occasionally, one of the special orders we’d put through would actually show up. And every time, she’d buy two extras for the shop. Usually either my two friends, Mark or Denny, or Marianne, would buy those copies. Some pretty great things ended up in our collections that way, like The Pink Floyd ‘The Gnome’, The Yardbirds ‘Ten Little Indians’ or The Pretty Things ‘Don’t Bring Me Down’.
On this particular day in May ’66, I was shocked to discover that ‘Substitute’ had come in, only a week after placing the special order. Most records never did turn up as Mrs. Smith was forced to buy from a one-stop, and they’d pretty much stick to the mainstream hits. You had to be set up direct with the major labels to get their obscure non-hits. Being a tiny Mom & Pop store, she could never do enough business for them to be opened up as a direct client. Hence always a surprise when an obscurity arrived at Smith’s.
I tore into her little listening booth seconds after she handed me the single saying “One of your records came in” upon entering the shop. My insides knotted up. I’d wanted this single so much, having seen it scale the UK charts those previous few weeks. The seconds it took to get it out of the sleeve and onto the thick spindle of the automatic turntable, then waiting for it to drop and the tonearm to connect felt like fucking minutes. Half way through, I was losing it. ‘Substitute’ was so good.
That wasn’t to be the last claustrophobic meltdown I’d have in that little booth let me tell you.
The Who were very left of center to programmers then, not having a US hit until the next year with ‘Happy Jack’. They got no airplay to speak of nationally but our crazy local Top 40, WOLF, played all their singles (click on chart below to enlarge). This US only version has the lyric “I look all white but my Dad was black” swapped out for “I try moving forward but my feet walk back”. ‘Substitute,’ being the only US single by The Who available on Atco (6409), was issued with a far superior mix than any other version ever – hands down.
A year or so later, they re-released ‘Substitute’ (as Atco 6509) although via a safer, not so wild mix. Well I think it’s the mix but it may indeed be a less hot, less bright mastering. Neither version has ever appeared on a compilation that I know of.
I called Marianne from the shop, told her it had come in and we ended up spending that evening listening to the single over and over and over. True. We missed the prom.
Tags: Atco, Radio Charts, The Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, The Who, The Yardbirds, WOLF
Posted in Atco, Radio Charts, Smith's Records, The Pink Floyd, The Pretty Things, The Who, The Yardbirds, WOLF | No Comments »
Friday, November 19th, 2010
Listen: Tongue Tied Blues / Jack Dupree
Tongue
This was a bizarre discovery from that very first pile of singles I blagged off WMCR, claiming to be from the local Children’s Hospital and needing donations. There were many greats in that stack of about fifty (The Others, The Pretty Things, Inez & Charlie Foxx, The Mickey Finn, The Hullaballoos, Ike & Tina Turner, Jimmy Reed), but this earned an immediate spot.
I played it for everyone, all as baffled as myself on first listen. We were feeling confidently hip to this blues music The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and The Kinks claimed as their influences, even though we simply were not. A true and pure example had yet to be served our way until that very first spin of ‘Tongue Tied Blues’. Just listen and you’ll understand.
Tags: Ike & Tina Turner, Inez & Charlie Foxx, Jack Dupree, Jimmy Reed, King, The Hullaballoos, The Kinks, The Mickey Finn, The Others, The Pretty Things, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, WMCR
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Saturday, September 11th, 2010
Listen: Rising Sun / Medicine Head MedicineHead.mp3
Despite being comprised of three former Yardbirds, Box Of Frogs, formed around ’83/’84, were basically a formula US sounding AOR band that held no appeal to these ears. Fronted by Medicine Head vocalist John Fiddler, it was through shear luck that, when looking for a deal (having achieved some success with Epic prior but clearly not enough) he rang the A&R department at Warner Brothers. The front desk put him through to my office (I was running The Medicine Label at the time). I quickly tried dodging the conversation about Box Of Frogs by informing this fellow named John that I wasn’t really part of the Warner Brothers A&R department, but instead ran my own imprint. So he asks, “What’s it called?”.
Upon answering, he says “What a coincidence, I used t be in a band named Medicine Head”.
“Is this John Fiddler?”
“Yes, how did you know my last name?”
And so the conversation immediately plowed into fifth gear. Holy fuck – I was talking to John Fiddler.
He was as shocked that I knew his history with Medicine Head almost as much as I was to hear him down the other end of the line. I didn’t hesitate to inform him how much I loved ‘Rising Sun’, and that it was indeed one of my singles during summer of ’73, which I miraculously spent in London. Although not a UK chart #1 like their previous release ‘One And One Is One’, no amount of arm twisting will convince me that ‘Rising Sun’ is not, by far, the better 7″. I seem to recall him agreeing.
Tags: Box Of Frogs, John Fiddler, Medicine Head, Polydor, The Medicine Label, The Yardbirds
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Sunday, June 20th, 2010
Listen: She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man / Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages ScreamingLordMonster.mp3
I finally got around to reading the Screaming Lord Sutch feature in the June issue of MOJO. Try to do the same, maybe it’s even online. A few priceless pictures and so many stunning details, I really don’t know where to start. He was everything I already knew and way more as well. Some of the live show descriptions and antics, well we now know where Alice Cooper got more than one idea. Don’t blame him for lifting a few, they’re just too good to waste. Okay, here’s a tiny bit: “cherry food dye, cold scrambled eggs with a few masticated inches of seaside rock and it’ll look like you’re spitting out teeth”.
No question about it, his recordings were made very inexpensively, several produced by Joe Meek, complete with dreadful sound effects – and I mean that in a good way. As the ’70′s arrived, more than one act paid respects. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, The Damned and The Revillos even covered and released as their A side as well, ‘She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man’. You’d think the song was written just for them listening to the original above.
Listen: Dracula’s Daughter / Screaming Lord Sutch ScreamingLordDracula'sDaughter.mp3
So many soon to be name musicians passed through the ranks of being Savages in the ’61 – ’63 period, prior to their own later successes. The list, also in the article, is long and fairly jaw dropping. Jimmy Page plays lead on ‘She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man’, and Jeff Beck on ‘Dracula’s Daughter’. Even then, in ’64, his style was recognizable and it’s easy to see how much he moulded The Yardbirds’ sound from one listen.
The usually precise MOJO does flub one detail. ‘Dracula’s Daughter’ was not his last for Decca, it was his first for Oriole after being dropped by Decca. While I’m at it, the above Cameo Parkway 7″ is the only US release from his period with The Savages.
Tags: Alice Cooper, Cameo Parkway, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Joe Meek, Oriole, Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, The Damned, The Revillos, The Yardbirds
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Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Listen: Take Me For What I’m Worth / The Searchers SearchersTakeWorth.mp3
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 SearchersHaveSomebody.mp3
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).
Tags: Freddie & The Dreamers, Kapp, P. F. Sloan, Pye, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Searchers, The Yardbirds, Them
Posted in Freddie & The Dreamers, Kapp, P. F. Sloan, Pye, The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Searchers, The Yardbirds, Them | No Comments »
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
Listen: Havana Anna / The Crocheted Doughnut Ring CrotchedHavanaUKA.mp3
Listen: Happy Castle / The Crocheted Doughnut Ring CrotchedHappyCastle.mp3
Sometimes the great thing about a truly obscure band, one where none of the members went on to bigger fame and success, is just that. You get to keep them as a limited edition, private pleasure. Having changed their name and label in ’67 to fit in with the currant craze, psychedelia, I’m glad to report – or sadly for the fellows I suppose – they kept their obscurity intact despite a nice production from Peter Eden. Sounding similar to Decca’s Toby Twirl (that’s a good thing), they’re honorary members of CHOCOLATE SOUP type collections these days.
Listen: Gee Too Tiger / The Force Five ForceFiveGeeToo.mp3
Before their new found sound, label and name, most of them soldiered forward initially as The Force Five, recording five echo drenched RnB styled singles, this one actually getting a US release. A must for every decent collection, it clearly had high hopes of sitting beside singles from The Yardbirds and The Pretty Things, I’m guessing.
Tags: Ascot, Decca, Deram, Peter Eden, The Crocheted Doughnut Ring, The Force Five, The Pretty Things, The Yardbirds, Toby Twirl
Posted in Ascot, Decca, Deram, Peter Eden, The Crocheted Doughnut Ring, The Force Five, The Pretty Things, The Yardbirds, Toby Twirl | No Comments »
Saturday, April 25th, 2009
Listen: Goodnight Sweet Josephine / The Yardbirds YardbirdsJosephine.mp3
The band’s stock had nose dived by April ’68, the month their final single ‘Goodnight Sweet Josephine’ was released. Maybe because having both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck in the lineup, as well as producer Mickie Most, all pretty much deciding on their material. It was a recipe for disaster, although I love the final few singles that resulted. Their live show was moving toward what would become Led Zeppelin, yet the records were being positioned for pop radio success (‘Ha Ha Said The Clown’, ‘Ten Little Indians’ and this). ‘Goodnight Sweet Josephine’ was my very favorite single for months, it’s psychedelic attack still sounds incredible. The guitar tone, lead line and solo being signature Jimmy Page. The band lip synched this on the syndicated UPBEAT show out of Cleveland, whose archive is apparently still intact but being hideously under exploited. There’s a lot of fantastic stuff in those file cabinets guys.
Despite one week on Billboard’s Bubbling Under The Hot 100 chart at #127, (see below), there were apparently very few copies in actual circulation. Impossible to find for years, the occasional one that does appear still commands a $75+ price tag. I bought mine week of release. Somehow, our local shop got the obligatory three (always started with three to test the water) copies. A best friend and record nut at the time, Denny and I scooped one each and the third…an old girlfriend Marsha. Hmmm. I think she lives close to my sister still.
Tags: Bubbling Under The Hot 100, The Yardbirds
Posted in Billboard, Bubbling Under The Hot 100, Epic, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, Mickie Most, The Yardbirds | No Comments »
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
Listen: Never Ending Song Of Love – Delaney & Bonnie & Friends 06 Never Ending Song Of Lov.mp3
I never got too deeply into that American country sound, the occasional single by The Band or Poco once in a while, I guess. In hindsight, the more country/blues, loosely shambled records actually appeal from time to time. Seems like everybody has forgotten about Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. Probably best known for letting Eric Clapton join their band after the success of The Cream, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and The Yardbirds was just too much to handle, they seemed to fade away as soon as he left. Don’t know about you, but I never hear them anywhere. Bonnie Bramlett got into a scrabble with Elvis Costello after he’d made a racial slur towards blacks in a hotel bar once. So I do give her props for that. Once in a while, I like the laziness of their back porch sound to be honest.
Tags: Atco, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Eric Clapton, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Poco, The Band, The Cream, The Yardbirds
Posted in Atco, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, Elvis Costello, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, Poco, The Band, The Cream, The Yardbirds | No Comments »
