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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

In Dan’s Garage… #107

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Greetings once again music lovers. As I reflect on the quiet snow falling outside while I write this, I dream of flowers blooming in the spring breeze and even gentle rain showers in the summer that bring comfort to one’s frozen winter soul. Oh well….right now I have to settle for the sweet sounds scratchy 45s on my turntable deep within the bowels of my man cave. It seems that most of my posts lately have been heavy on “major labels”, something that I’m sure the G45 muckity mucks would pooh pooh (I jest) but as we all know, beauty is in the ear of the beholder, and today, lo and behold, I offer fresh fruit for hungry ears. Seriously though, there’s some cool sounds here that many of you will be familiar with, and if you’re not I’m sure you’ll like them anyway. So let’s get with it already……#107.

Swinging Blue Jeans – Hippy Hippy Shake / Now I Must Go (1964)
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I had to do it. One of my all time favorites even though it’s been played to death, but it was in the stack and I couldn’t think of a better way to kick start this edition. The flip is seldom heard by the way…….

Nightcrawlers – Little Black Egg / You’re Running Wild (1966)
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Another familiar cut and one of the most often covered songs by garage bands in the sixties.

Roy Junior – Victim Of Circumstances / Looks Like The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (1966)
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One of the great snarling garage/punk songs of the 60s. This 45 is kinda weird in that It’s one of those Rock & Roll-Country crossovers. Don Gant was a bigwig at Hickory Records and worked as a song writer for Acuff/Rose as well as being an artist himself. The song here was written by Don Turnbow who was probably an in house writer like Gant and has the distinction of writing the classic “Hipsville 29 B.C.” which brings me to wonder if this is The Sparkles backing ol’ Roy on this track. Hmmmm???

Pretty Things – Cry To Me (1966)
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The Pretty Things released “I Can Never Say” twice. Once with “Honey I Need” on the flip, and the other with this bluesy R&B classic.

McCoys – Say Those Magic Words / I Wonder If She Remembers Me (1967)
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The McCoys certainly need no elaborate introduction. Hang On Sloopy” is practically the anthem of the state of Ohio, and IS the anthem of Ohio State University. The McCoys had a nice run back in the mid to late 60s recording and releasing a slew of singles on Bang Records and later some real good psychedelic stuff on Mercury. This one, from ‘67, is a standout and was also a well known song by Britain's The Birds which featured a young Ron Wood on guitar at the time. There's some debate as to which is the better version. Many prefer The Birds’ rendition but I like this one.

Plunkers – Hippy Lippy Goosey / Night Time Love (1966)
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Not sure where this one’s from. I think L.A. maybe????? In any case, it’s sort of a novelty song, but it has a real good band providing backup to a goofy sounding vocalist.

Johnny Fever – Zombie (1967)
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Here’s a real mystery. To this day I’ve speculated on what , or who the hell “Johnny Fever” was. I know he was a character in the mid-seventies sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati”, but this isn't the same guy. “Zombie” is a novelty song…..I guess, but it’s so freakin’ cool that it goes beyond that, with it's fuzzy guitars, spatial production, and the guttural “ZOMBIE” at the end of the chorus. Some out there have asked to hear the flip. Take my advice….you don’t want to even bother. It’s total pop crap and sounds kind of like Johnny Mathis. Wait……do you think?????? Nah.

Lost Souls – Artificial Rose / Sad Little Girl (1967)
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A popular group from Dickenson, North Dakota they had two releases and this was one of them. This 45 was originally issued on the local Dawn label and was then picked up by Liberty for national distribution. Read more about them HERE. 

New Hudson Exit – Come With Me / Waiting For Her (1967)
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The New Hudson Exit have the distinction of being guitar virtuoso Phil Keaggy’s group before he joined Glass Harp and then went on to fame making Christian music. Both sides of this showcase his talents, but they’re so different. The A side is blue eyed soul with some intense riffing and the flip is a rather lightweight psyche/pop number.

Standells – Try It / Poor Shell Of A Man (1966)
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Can the Standells make a crappy record????? They may have, but I’ve yet to hear it.

Unchained Mynds – Going Back To Miami / We Can’t Go On This Way (1968)
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A group from LaCrosse, WI that tackles Wayne Cochran’s classic song. They do a stand up job too! The flip is kind-of well…good but pales compared to the A side.

Paupers – Think I Care / White Song (1967)
paupers
One of the most popular of all Canadian bands in the late 60’s. Unfortunately, they had relatively little output consisting of a handful of 45s and a couple of LPs.  This 45 version is distinctly different than the LP version.

Hangmen – Dream Baby / Let It Be Me (1968)
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Washington D.C.’s Hangmen are most famous for their song “What A Girl Can’t Do” a garage/punk classic. On this 45 they cover two early sixties classics by Roy Orbison and the great Everly Bros. giving both the late sixties psychedelic treatment.

Orange Colored Sky – Sweet Potato (1969)
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An L.A. pop group that had several LPs and 45s in a mixture of styles. This ones a hard hitting blue eyed soul tune.

New Survivors – The Pickle Protest / But I Know (1968)
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An unknown group from Kansas led by Tony Teebo who I assume wrote and sang lead vocals on this interesting  novelty two sider. I love this one because even though it’s a late 60s effort, it still retains that ultra-cheezy Farfisa organ driving the whole thing.

Koobas – The First Cut Is The Deepest / Walking Out (1969)
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This band from Liverpool were contemporaries of The Beatles but unfortunately didn’t have nearly as much luck as their “paisans”. Hell, they didn’t even have as much luck as The Swinging Blue Jeans!!! That being said, they did leave us with some more than worthy beat music, and in their latter stages took on a more psychedelic feel as evidenced in this fantastic two sided slice of freakbeat.

HERE

12 comments:

  1. Another great selection....Cheers Dan!

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  2. OMGoodness Dan, I can't keep up!!! Hahahahahahaha. I love it. Such fun music and it's tres cool 2 see the labels with all the info. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for sharing! 107!!! And still going strong. Yay!!!

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  3. Dan great mix! Many thanks

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  4. Johnny Fever "Zombie". Record produced by Neely Plumb. His daughter was "Jan Brady" on the Brady Bunch TV show. "Producer Neely Plumb's credits include the platinum selling movie soundtracks of The Sound of Music (number one pop for two weeks), Bye Bye Birdie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, True Grit, and the 1968 Franco Zefferelli film Romeo and Juliet. Plumb was a staff A&R producer at RCA Records for almost a decade beginning in 1959. The arranger/conductor/clarinet player also worked with such diverse acts as Artie Shaw, the Limeliters, Jefferson Airplane, Victor Young, Glenn Yarbrough, Ann-Margret, Juan Esquivel, and Ray Noble. He also produced some pre-stardom sides on the Carpenters. Plumb arranged the million-selling number one pop hit "Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley. At the age of 88, Neely Plumb died of heart failure in Sherman Oaks, CA, on October 4, 2000." I would say that definitely narrows it down to L.A.

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    1. Holy moly! Now THERE'S some info for you all! Thanks very much!

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  5. Thanks for yet another great comp.

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  6. Thanks Dan

    I dig both Kooba's songs. Pickle Protest and Hippy Lippy are a catchy jingles, of course I like novelty stuff. But it's all good pickings. Good luck diggin yourself out from all that new england snow. Spring's not toooo far away.

    Scott

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    1. Ha!!! Big snow totally missed us but we did get 4 or 5 inches in my neighborhood. Funny. I went to work which is 15 minutes south of me and they only got an inch or two. Such is life in Upstate NY where roving bands of lake effect snow wreak havoc on the population. Glad you're enjoying the music.

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  7. Major labels - pshaw to that! Last week, my radio show focused on many of the obscure beat/garage/psych singles on Epic - and a week later, I'm still listening to many of them. Check out "Is It Love" by Jon for a great example of an obscurity off of a major label.

    I already get shit from the G45central guys from being half their age (at least)...so no worries there!

    A couple of comments on the track selection this time around: the Koobas is an absolute killer and one that I'm still looking for. As for the Standells, "Ninety-Nine And A Half"/"Can't Help But Love You" is much weaker compared to their other singles, at least to my ears.

    Another great one, Dan. Thanks!

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  8. Agree with Record and his appreciation of Jon. They were a four piece band from the UK with their 2nd single 'Is It Love' being released on UK Columbia DB 8249 in August '67. It received plenty of airplay on the UK offshore pirate station Radio London prior to its enforced closedown on August 14th 1967. A truly great record which just shouts summer of love '67 style.

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  9. It's been a little while since I came here and I'm "5 comps" late! Great times to come, thank you thank you thank you Dan!

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  10. Roy Junior was Roy Acuff Jr., whose Dad was one of the founders of Acuff-Rose Publishing, of course. Don Gant went on to head up Acuff-Rose. Gant had a very interesting life with a lot of rock 'n roll connections, and was also the lead singer of the Neon Philharmonic.

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