I just got done painting a ceiling this morning. Do you know how messy that is???? Right now my face is speckled with teensy white dots all over the place, not to mention all the drywall dust that came tumbling down when I prepped it for a coat. It gets in your hair, up your nose. A real mess. Why am I mentioning this??? Because this little blog o'mine keeps me sane and prevents me from going ballistic on a wall, or something that might break easily. Just joking. I did do the ceiling today, but I thought I'd add those thoughts for dramatic effect and some comic relief. Now it's time to relax and dig into another pile of cool 45s. I'm still working a few bugs out of my system here and I'm getting things nailed down. I've acquired a piece of new software that really does a nice job keeping the pops, crackles, and that annoying "fizzy" sound to a minimum without sacrificing fidelity. I may go over the entire catalog with this thing, and if I do I'll keep you posted on re-ups. In the meantime check out this edition and feel free to tell me what you think. Enjoy!
Thee Midnighters - I Found A Peanut (1966)
Yeah! Look at this 45. It's hammered, but the grooves contain one of the coolest tunes ever! I guess "I Found A Peanut" is an old children's sing a long thing, but I don't ever remember hearing it or singing it to my kids. Basically a guy is hungry, looks in his pocket, finds a peanut, eats it, gets sick, and DIES!!!! What the hell is THAT all about???
Birdwatchers - Then You Say Boh Bah / Put A Little Sunshine In My Day (1967)
A rather prolific Miami, FL outfit that released a slew of 45s in various styles, but mostly sticking to a pop formula. This one is a good example.
Countdowns - You Know I Do / Strange Are The Shadows (1965)
I love "Fuzz, Acid, and Flowers". It describes this 45 as an "undistinguished effort", but thinks bands like "Coyote" are "worth investigation". Sheesh, gimme a break please. These guys may not be "genius", but they're far more worth investigating than stuff like Coyote. This Iowa City group went on to become Uncle And The Anteaters.
Black & Blues - Bye Bye Baby / Come To Me (1968)
I love this one! A great mix of garage/punk and good production. From Indiana.
Great Scots - The Light Hurts My Eyes / You Know What You Can Do (1966)
In my opinion the best 45 put out by these Halifax, Nova Scotia legends. Awesome, tough vocals, great guitar work, and excellent production make this one a top-notch winner.
Pickwicks - Apple Blossom Time / I Don't Want To Tell You Again (1964)
Moving on, we have here The Pickwicks from Coventry who give us this nice, if rather lightweight peice of British pop.
25th Hour - Love Is ABeautiful Thing / It's Called Life (1968)
This southern blue eyed soul group takes an interesting stab at The Young Rascals' "Love Is A Beautiful Thing". Both sides have horns, but they're not too bad.
Tropics - This Must Be The Place / Land Of A 1000 Dances-Summertime Blues (1967)
The second 45 released on Columbia by this Tampa, FL group. Dig the two guitars soloing against each other!!!!
Poor Boys - Still Love You (196?)
More blue eyed soul from a totally obscure group from who knows where.
Sapians - Love Ain't Makin' It No More / Ask Yourself Why Babe (1965)
OOOHHH!!! This has to be one of the coolest 45s ever. If you're into garage slop/grunge then this ain't your bag. But if your into tough, well crafted 60s garage, then this one's for you. Both sides of this gem are awesome. It's too bad this Newburgh, NY group didn't put out an album of this stuff.
"Us Too" Group - The Only Thing To Do / The Way It Must Be (1967)
A very popular group from Cincinnati, OH. Great garage/pop on this one.
Power Plant - She's So Far Out She's In (196?)
A great, but relatively unknown 45 that was most likely a studio group headed by Baker Knight, a musician from Birmingham. Alabama who had a very prolific career writing, performing, and producing songs from rockabilly to garage to country. This one is done in a "Sir Douglas Quintet" style. Dino, Desi, & Billy" would also do this one too.
Wylde Heard - Stop It Girl / Take It On Home (1967)
Another fantastic garage two sider from the Midwest. "Stop It Girl" has great, wild guitar riffs, while "Take It On Home" sounds a lot like the Left Banke. Not a bad thing if you ask me....
Herbie's People - Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. Jones / Residential Area (1967)
The same as the Manfred Mann hit, except the Manfred's replaced "Mr. Jones" with "Mr. James". It's too bad they got beat on this deal, I like this version much better, and the flip is a superb British psyche affair with intense fuzz guitars.
Pack - Next To Your Fire / Without A Woman (1968)
While the story of Terry Knight and The Pack is rather complicated one, you can't deny that this 45 by "The Pack" was a precursor to Grand Funk Railroad.
Dream Police - Living Is Easy / I'll Be Home (In A Day Or So) (1970)
An interesting 45 from a band that would upon break up, enter into two of Britain's more popular groups, The Average White Band, and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. I would have joined up with Alex Harvey in a heartbeat.....
Get it HERE
Dan thanks for digging out another batch of gems
ReplyDeleteHello Dan
ReplyDeleteBilly Fury recorded a totally cool version of 'She's So Far Out She's In'.....I'll post it on my blog next week.
The lead singer of the Power Plant was a guy named Freddie May (they had a follow up single on Diamond credited to Freddie May and the Power Plant) -- he later had a solo release for RCA ("Let's Get Naked And Jump In A Pile") and unbelievably after that release found him being an executive for the label. I have no idea if he still works for RCA, or if he has retired, or if he is even still alive....I wrote to Baker Knight's people shortly after Baker passed away to try to get some info on this group or to get copies of Baker's demo recordings which were all promised to me but then I never heard back from them. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteI use SoundForge and cut the pops and ticks out of the .wav "by hand" and then re-EQ. Works better than the filters as they tend to dull the sound. A lot of the crackle also comes from playing an old mono disc with a modern stereo cartridge. I use an old mono cart from Denmark which tracks the big mono groove without slapping around like the smaller stereo styli. If you can't do that you can listen with headphones and might find one side is much noisier than the other side. Just select the quieter wav and make it a mono single wav recording and that will eliminate a lot of the crackle. If you have a problem disc e-mail your raw recording to me and I'll see what I can do with it.
ReplyDeleteWow, I never considered checking out one side of the wave. I wish I had the space in my home to really stretch out and use top notch equipment (which I have) but don't have the space for at the moment. A mono cartridge would also be very nice!!! EXPO, can't wait to hear Billy Fury's version of "She's So Far Out", and thank you Tom for the extra info on The Power Plant and Baker Knight!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'd definately buy a MONO cartridge. They can be quite expensive though it depends on your budget.
ReplyDeleteI use an Ortofon (made in Denmark) and paid about $100 for it, but they can be way more expensive than that...
Hi Dan,
ReplyDeleteThe Birdwatchers were originally from West Palm Beach, but broke out of Miami and were based there for most of their career. The Tampa story came from Fuzz Acid & Flowers (I think) and just isn't factual. Jeff
Always good choices you make. I have Poor Boys 45 as being from 1966.
ReplyDeleteDid it again!!! Yes, The Birdwatchers are indeed from Miami.
ReplyDeleteThis may be my favorite volume. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHey Dan just found the blog and love it! You have a helluva collection of 45's! In my free time I occasionally do artwork for concert flyers and album covers for fun, just wonderin' if i could do some psychedelic covers for your future installments of "Dan's Garage"? If interested shoot me an email toekneevee@yahoo.com.
ReplyDeletewhere did you get that tropics 45?!?! i want it.
ReplyDelete