collage

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Sunday, August 4, 2013

In Dan’s Garage…#89

89 front
   Greetings friends and followers! You know, summer has been fairly decent this year, although we’ve had what I consider an abundance of rain, but it hasn’t been a complete washout. We had a massive heat wave in July (well for these parts anyway), and now were settling into a very comfortable weather pattern. Great for sitting on the patio and smoking fine stogies, drinking fine beer, and sipping fine whiskey or wine, so here are 28 “nuggets” so to speak, that are finely suited for such activities. You could actually rename this series, “Music To Enjoy The Finer Things In Life By”, or “Music To Grill By”, or whatever your favorite activity is at the moment. It all works.
   As usual I’ve compiled whatever ends up in my hands at the moment, and I came across a few 45s that were posted as a comp titled “60s Uncovered”. That was my first foray into digital conversion of 45s and the results were OK at best. Some of those 45sw have been re-converted and have been added to this comp. I think the results are a definite improvement. So please, enjoy your summer afternoon or evening digging what I’ve put forth here, and have fun wherever you are!

Boys Next Door – There Is No Greater Sin / I Could See Me Dancing With You (1965)
boys next door
An Indiana based group that were originally known as the Four Wheels. They melded solid Beach Boys style harmonies with a folk rock flair as evidenced in “There Is No Greater Sin” quite possibly one the finest examples of songwriting in this genre ever. I really think it’s that good. Excellent arrangement and perfect harmonies. Oh yeah, the Beach Boys tribute on the flip is no slouch either.

Strange Loves – I’m On Fire / Love, Love (1964)
strange loves
We all know the Strangeloves from great classics like “I Want Candy” and “Night Time”, but before they had those essential hits, they released this Jerry Lee Lewis rip-off backed with a solid teen rocker.

Twilighters – Shake A Tail Feather / Road To Fortune (1966)
twilighters
These guys were from Cleveland and have no relationship to the group from Plattsburgh, NY.

Adlibs – Neighbor Neighbor / Lovely Ladies (1965)
adlibs
A tough sounding mystery group from the U.K. gives this R&B classic a good workout.

Wild Things – I’ll Taste Your Lips / Summer’s Gone (1967)
wildthings
A great moody folk rocker by another group from Cleveland, OH. They also released the great A.C.I.D. (Another Colored Ink Drawing).

Romans – He Don’t Love You / I Just Had To Fall In Love (With You) (1966)
romans2
The Little Rock, AK group that released the very cool “You Do Something To Me” (IDG# 42), switches over to a funky soul sound on the A side of this sophomore effort. The B side is a decent moody ballad.

Leaves – Too Many People / Girl From The East (1966)
leeeves
One of the great bands from LA in the mid-sixties. They were the first to cut a version of Hey Joe! and theirs is considered by many to be THE definitive version. Founding member and bass player Jim Pons would go on to join The Turtles and later play with The Mothers.

Cole & The Embers – Hey Girl / Love Won’t Hurt You (1967)
cole&embers
Here’s a truly great 45 (IMHO) by a band from Kirkwood, MO. The A side is a great mover with some nifty Hammond B-3 sounds and the flip is a cool moody number. You can read more about these guys here.

Human Instinct – Death Of The Seaside (1968)
human instinct
The Human Instinct are from New Zealand and have been active in some way since they formed in 1966. “Death Of The Seaside” was the flip of "A Day in My Mind's Mind" which was released by Deram in the UK, but this promotional U.S. issue has the same song on both sides. I’ve never seen a copy with “A Day” on it, so it may have never been released here. They went on to release a classic hard psych LP titled “Stoned Guitar” and continue playing to this day.

Catfish Knight & The Blue Express – Web Of Trouble / See Saw (1968)
catfish
I’m not sure who Catfish Knight was but this record followed up “Deathwise”, a crazed, fuzzed out psychedelic tune that’ll get featured in a future post. This one here is a moody laid back song backed with some blue eyed soul.

Elation Fields – Light Side Table (1968)
elation fields
Nice, light pop/psyche with a prominent 12 string guitar produced by Dick Wagner. They were from the Flint, MI area and probably were pals with the likes of Terry Knight & The Pack.

Pawnee Drive – Ride / Break My Mind (1969)
pawnee drive
Fast moving bubblegum from what I would assume to be a studio group. This was also released on Bell 791 as River Deep with a different flip.

Racket Squad – The Loser (1968)
rackettsquad
Formerly known as The Fenways, these guys released two LPs that were hit and miss. This 45s A side is pretty good and features some slick special effects on the organ and guitar as well.

Shy Guys -  Rockin' Pneumonia And The Booga Loo Flu /  You Are My Sunshine (1967)
shyguys
A group from the LaCrosse, WI area tackle Huey ’Piano’ Smith’s classic with a cool prominent Farfisa organ driving the whole thing, as well as some horns. The flip is a take on the standard we all know so well.

Rich Dodson – Stone Blind (1972)
rich dodson
I included this latecomer because I think it’s a pretty good tune that fits in nicely with what we do here at Dan’s Garage Central. Rich Dodson had somewhat of a hit in Canada(his home country I might add)  with “Julia Get Up” the flip side of this record, but he is probably best known for writing the AM rock hit from 1971 “Sweet City Woman”, a huge hit for his band The Stampeders.

Wizard – Come Away / A Familiar Story (1970)
wizard
This was the sole 45 released by this Montreal based trio.

GET IT HERE

20 comments:

  1. Dan hits the spot again....cheers!

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  2. Wow, you're leading off with a couple of gems. I highly recommend the Strangeloves comp cd on Sony Legacy. I got the I Want Candy lp as a kid & still have it 48 years hence (tho bought a mint copy in the 70s). The Strangeloves were a studio outlet for songwriters/producers Richard Gottehrer, Bob Feldman & Jerry Goldstein.

    Your 1st cut, "There Is No Greater Sin", was co-written by another all-time fave of mine Al Kooper. Al was a regular for about a year on Spectropop (mailing-list dedicated to the golden era of pop & rock-n-roll production, etc), where he wrote about that song:

    http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/spectropop/message/18299

    Cheers and thanks so much for your efforts making these cuts available to the work at large.

    Cheer!

    - Michael aka popville

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    1. I always loved the Strangeloves and was surprised that Al Kooper was involved with that Boys Next Door 45. I read the same thread that you posted the link to and was amazed that he still remembered the lyrics. To me that song is perhaps one of the best examples of that rare melding of "All American" surf music and Byrds style folk rock. Perhaps the most unique aspect of it was that a group from the Midwest produced it, but I'm not surprised. A lot of bands in the "flyover" states made "west coast" style records at least as good as, if not better than the "real thing".

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  3. The inner view of Dan's garage is good and the place is well utilized.

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  4. good stuff as usual.

    Not sure of the date of that Strangeloves disc but they pitched the song to the Killer and I believe he recorded it first.

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    1. Yeah, I kind of thought that Jerry Lee did that one first, but when I saw the writing credits, it sort of threw me off. I should've done my homework on that one. Thanks for weighing in and correcting the info. You are always welcome to throw in ant pertinent info.

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  5. Dan:
    One day I'm going to make a road trip to your area and see if I can dig up some of these gems.
    Great post.

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  6. MERCI DAN !!!!!!

    great work
    RV

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  7. Dan, Thanks for another great volume. I'm curious as to how you made the UK connection with The Adlibs? It shows producer Randy Wood who is quite famous (musically) and also founded Dot Records and then there is Vocals: Crazy Cajun. The Leaves recorded and released Hey Joe 3 times with the third attempt being the national hit. You can listen to all 3 here: http://nowitsthesameoldsong.blogspot.com/2012/09/hey-joe.html I'm curious, but too lazy to look, if you've ever posted a song here with a female vocal?

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    1. OK a three part comment!
      1. The Adlibs were indeed from the UK. They were a mod group from London that played exclusively at The Adlib Club, hence their name. The VOCAL is not by Huey Meaux, although he actually co-wrote the song and was a hit here in the US by Jimmy Hughes on the Fame label, it simply indicates that the song on that record was a VOCAL. This was a common practice used by many record labels at the time, and as far as the production credits going to Randy Wood, I'm assuming that is purely coincidental. There's more info at this website... http://bobbywellins.co.uk/discography/discography-1960s/
      2. I've heard all three versions of Hey Joe by the Leaves, but unfortunately only own one of them. The "hit" version I believe.
      3. Yes I have posted songs with female vocals as well as several guy/gal duets. A few that come to mind are The Paper Cup (IDG #23 & 59), The Vejtables (IDG# 6), and The Bootles (IDG #80)
      Hope I was of some help.

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    2. Sort of looks like someone in the US, maybe someone at Dot, a distributor, or just one of the stamping plants, picked up on the Adlibs record in the UK and had some promo's made and put them out there to see what happened. If it got hot they could have pocketed some nice change before anyone would have caught up with them.
      As for the female singers, I only asked as back in those "chicks are only eye candy" days there weren't too many rockers. They had to be nice girls. Grace & Janis kicked in a lot of doors for women in 1967.

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    3. Sure, anything is possible. It appears that Interphon was an outfit that specifically distributed groups from across the Atlantic, the most famous being the Honeycombs who had three releases on the label including their hit "Have I The Right".

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    4. Here's some more info on Interphon...
      http://www.bsnpubs.com/veejay/interphon.html

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  8. Wow! I played Pawnee Drive on the radio recently and turned friends onto them, but I never expected to find "Break My Mind" soon afterward. Thank you, good sir!

    One friend insisted he'd heard "Ride" on a car commercial, but I don't believe him.

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  9. thx Dan,another good one ;)// max from sweden

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  10. thanks for another load of shiny diamonds, Dan. My fave is the outstanding double-platter by the Boys Next Door, never heard!

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  11. Hey Dan, I'm late to the party, I just discovered your blog but I'm loving all the discs you've shared. I've got months of great listening ahead of me! COOL! Thanks for all you've done, and congratulations on such an epic blog. Best wishes from England. Bill

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