Greetings music lovers! Glad to be here again after another long hiatus. I wish I had more time to do this, but as long as I can get something in a few times a year, I'll be happy. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving holiday this year, I know I did, and I hope the upcoming Christmas season will be a good one as well. I'm trying to be optimistic this year, as my lovely wife and I have experienced some setbacks, most notably, the passing of our cat Miko, who was what we all called a "love whore". He was a lovable little fuzzball, and we will miss him dearly. We also had a catastrophic breakdown of our refrigerator just before Thanksgiving day, which threw our plans into chaos, but with the help of family, we managed to have a nice celebration without any issues.
That being said, my NY Giants are absolutely HORRENDUS this year, and the Yankees did make it to the World Series, but were beaten soundly by the LA Dodgers. Kudos to those guys. I'd rather see the Yanks get beat by The Dodgers than anyone else in the league.
Records... Yeah, these things keep coming into my mail box and I have a ton yet to be blogged, so I'll keep going into the non-foreseeable future. I just wish I had more time to record and write, but hopefully I'll find some xtra hours when we start hunkering down taking things slowly during the winter months.
As usual we've got a veritable "cornucopia" of fine 45's here so please enjoy!
Sonny Flaharty And His Young Americans - Whole Lotta Shakin' / Please Be Real (1964)
Dayton Ohio's Sonny Flaharty had a slew of 45s released from the 50's into the 70's with, most notably, The Mark V, The Grey Imprint, and The Young Americans as we hear on this 45. Super tuff version of the Jerry Lee Lewis classic here, with a decent B side.
Mad-Ladds - Dream Lover / Midnight Terror (1964)
I'm not exactly sure where The Mad-Ladds were from, but Ohio would be a really good guess. Pressed at the infamous Rite Records pressing plant, this was one of thousands of 45's released privately during the 50's through the 70's. real straight up garage band stuff here.....
Smoke Ring - That Girl Was My Girl One Time / Her Love's A Lie (1966)
The Smoke Ring were from the Midwest, Norfolk, Nebraska to be specific and had somewhat of a hit in 1969 with "No Not Much". This, their first, was released in 1967 and has a lot of Beach Boys/Four Seasons style falsetto vocals but it moves along quite nicely. "Her Love's A Lie" is a decent moody ballad.
Blackburn & Snow - Stranger In A Strange Land / Uptown Downtown (1967)
Jeff Blackburn and Sherry Snow were a Folk Rock duo from San Francisco and were in the thick of the mid-sixties music scene there at the time. This 45 is a real gem, and is at least as good as, or better, than most of the stuff that came out of San Fran at that time. Unfortunately, they really never hit the big time like many of their contemporaries, and that's a shame.
As a side note, it was rumored that Sherry Snow was considered to be Signe Anderson's replacement in The Jefferson Airplane, but she declined wanting to continue with Jeff Blackburn. "Stranger In A Strange Land", was written by David Crosby using "S. Omar" as a pseudonym.
Erik - She Belongs To Me / One Too Many Mornings (1965)
I'm trying to hash out the history of "Erik" and his other 45 which I featured a while back on IDG #66 part 2, but as far as who "Erik" was, I haven't come up with any facts. Yet.
General International was a label established by Alan Lorber who was responsible for creating the "Bosstown Sound", that were bands from Boston who were supposedly paralleling the scene in San Francisco at the time. Lorber created that for MGM records and they featured some really good groups like The Beacon Street Union, Pluph, Orrpheus, and several others. Unfortunately, The Bosstown thing never really caught on and was panned by some of the press.
General International released only three 45s in its existence, two by Erik, and one by Layng Martine Jr. who became a successful writer of country music.
One of Erik's songs was co-written by Bobby Comstock, so is Erik Bobby Comstock perhaps????
Probably not, but Erik's rendition of "She Belongs To Me" is really good with some ringing 12 string guitar at the fore. "one Too many Mornings is OK but falls a bit short.
Gary Farr & The T-Bones - Give All She's Got / Don't Stop And Stare (1965)
This was the only record that Gary Farr And The T-Bones managed to release in the U.S., but they did have an E.P. in the U.K. entitled, "Dem Bones Dem Bones Dem T-Bones", a clever title if you want my humble opinion. This is a great 45 which I was extremely glad to get my hands on, both sides are great mid-sixties British R&B, although "Give All She's Got" is definitely on the moody side. Keith Emerson was in this band for a spell, but I don't think he plays on this particular 45.
Brotherhood - Are You A Turtle? (Yes I Am) / Mari (1969)
Here's a 45 that's interesting, not that the music is anything special, it's just a good ol' band from the South doing a high energy James Brown thing, and very well I might add. It's the "Turtle" thing that makes it interesting. A "Turtle" you ask????? Well... "This was the theme song of the unofficial U.S. Space Program's Turtle Club, of which Wally Schirra was president" That's a quote I obtained from an unknown commenter on the "It's Great Shakes" blog, a fine one indeed. Another commenter stated that these guys were originally "The What-Knots", whose 45, also on Dial entitled "I Ain't Dead Yet", was featured in IDG #123. That's most likely very accurate as a B. Wilfong appears on the writing credits of both 45s. By the way, The What-Knots 45 shares the same high energy James Brown vibe as this one does. OK, hit the dance floor!
Les Sauterelles - Dream Machine / Heavenly Club (1968)
I remember first hearing this on "Electric Sugar Cube Flashbacks Vol. II" way back in the 80's. It was a comp I had stumbled upon after hearing Vol. I which was perhaps THE FIRST, 60's comp I ever purchased. I remember going into The House Of Guitars one Sunday afternoon, and I bought Flashbacks and "Acid Visions", which at the time was only one volume. Oh yeah, this 45 was on Vol. II, and I always loved it. I managed to get a copy rummaging through Fat Chuck's warehouse way back when, but like a complete idiot, I sold it on Ebay, with some other way cool 45's that I won't mention here because it pisses me off just thinking about it. I was fortunate enough to find another copy just recently after taking several stabs at it on Ebay, and scored a decent one for what I consider a bargain.
Les Sauterelles were a very popular band from Switzerland, that released ten 45s in their country but managed to get only one here in the U.S. "Dream Machine is superb with it's mix of acoustic and heavily fuzzed out electric guitar, and the kooky "music box" interlude toward the end. "Heavenly Club" is a somewhat more subdued psychedelic number.
Doug Adams & The Early Morning Traffic - I Can't Wait To See You / Hontusharaya (1967)
I don't have much info on these guys, except that they were most likely from El Paso, Texas and that Doug Adams was in another band called "Wailing Wall" that had an L.P. on Suemi records in 1970. Kind of makes sense as that label was also out of El Paso. As for the record, it's decent moody fuzz laden folk/garage/psyche with more than a hint of Christian overtones in the lyrics.
Notes From The Underground - Down In The Basement / I Wish I Was A Punk (1968)
Here's another Bay Area group from Berkeley to be specific, that probably should've gotten a little more publicity. A real good two sider from this period where bands from this area took a few more chances than most.
Eric Marshall & The Chymes - The Countess / I Can't Love You Anymore (1968)
I'm gonna try to piece together a "bio" on this band, based on what paltry info I could come up with on the interwebs. Eric Marshall and The Chymes were most likely a Minneapolis/St. Paul area group. "Moby" Steinberg was an artist, songwriter, and producer for Dove and Candy Floss records. Much of Candy Floss' output was finely crafted pop songs as we can hear on this record, an early release on Sire. This was included on a comp called "The Lost Music Of Mid-America", but I haven't heard it yet, but I'd really like to!
Fast Eddy - Hey Lou / Do You Wanna make Love (1971)
There's not a lot of info on this early seventies "bone-cruncher". I kinda figured that Fast Eddie was from Ohio, given the fact that this was pressed in Cincinnati by QCA, but from what I can gather, "Smooth Ruth Productions" was out of Grand Rapids, Michigan and this may have been their one and only release.
Shira - Liar / Frank's Ant Farm (1973)
I coulda swore I saw some detailed info on these guys, but alas, it got lost somewhere in the google universe. What I do know for sure is that Shira was from Philadelphia, and were apparently a very popular hard rock band at the time that didn't quite make it. Too bad, this is really great heavy psyche.
