In Dan’s Garage…#106

Greetings music lovers and Happy New Year to all! Thanks to all of you out there that sent best wishes for the holidays, I certainly hope all of yours were happy. Since the cold weather keeps me indoors much of the time, and since I don’t have any major home improvement projects on the near horizon, I suspect I’ll have a more time to churn out these posts and do them a little more frequently. When I initially began this blog I started with the “Obscure 60’s Garage” posts that were made up entirely of music ripped from cassette tapes that I had swapped with another collector back in the mid 80s. Since I posted those, many of the links have gone dead and I never did get a a chance to re-up those files. I never really did like the way those turned out as I was using an inferior PC at the time which was rather slow (for doing this type of work anyway) and you can tell by the frequent “skips” on some of the tracks, besides I really didn’t format them to fit onto a CD-R which I’m sure some of you like to do. Personally I just load my mp3 player up with as much as I can fit on there, set it on shuffle and I let ‘er rip, but I digress. I’m considering a whole new rip of those tapes and formatting the posts properly to around 28 or 29 songs apiece and re-upping the whole shebang with what I hope will be some better sound quality as well. This will be a time consuming affair so be patient! Also, as I have mentioned many times ad nauseum, I figured I’d get maybe 50 or so posts from my initial stock of records which amounted to about 8 or 9 of those 45 RPM boxes that you see at record shows. Well, since I began this blog I’ve been back into record collecting whole hog if you will and my collection is blossoming, so we should be at it for quite a while. I essentially was on a 15 year hiatus dealing with vinyl before I started the blog and concentrated mainly on amassing a huge digital library, but I couldn’t resist the temptation of buying records anymore and much of that desire is fueled by this blog and my attempt to procure fresh sides to share with you. It’s a ton of fun and I hope to keep it up for a few more years. I’m closing in on cleaning up the last of the “original” collection and will be getting into some real interesting stuff in the near future.    Apologies for the rant in the last post. I just got a little frustrated with some of the comments I received (very, very few by the way) in regards to “passwords”. I hope everyone out there has got it by now. I could do a re-up, but I’d have to archive the stuff again, upload it, edit the post, blah, blah, blah. I’ll let you hash that one out while I keep trying to churn out new stuff OK? Love you all, enjoy.

Swinging Blue Jeans – Good Golly Miss Molly / Shaking Feeling (1964) One of my all time favorite bands ever. The Swinging Blue Jeans were from Liverpool, and like The Beatles did time at The Cavern Club and similar venues. They specialized in doing great upbeat covers of Rock & Roll standards like the A side here, but they also had several excellent originals like “ Shaking Feeling”, the B side of this great 45.

Drafi Deutscher & His Magics – Come On Lets Go / Shake Hands (1964) I never realized how many Drafi 45s I really had until I started pawing through my collection in order to get this blog going! This was one of his first releases although I can’t say for certain, but It definitely came out before “Marble Breaks and Iron Bends” his most popular song from the 60s. I like this one with it’s half German, half English delivery which is probably why London saw fit to release it in the States. Interesting.

Wild Ones – Never Givin’ Up / For Your Love (1966) A pretty good effort by this New York City band whose other releases are featured in IDG #39 and #93.

Link Wray – Turnpike USA / Weekend (1963) Here's a little instrumental interlude from the great Link Wray who churned out a ton of this stuff on Swan records well into the 60s. Link had a real knack for making his tunes sound exactly like the title suggested. We love you Link!!!!

Michael & Henry & The Sentrymen – Tag-A-Long / Another Chance (1965) Tough to pin down a date or any concrete info on this moody lightweight garagey obscurity. I couldn’t even get any info on “Carlson International Pictures” which I’m certain had some real blockbusters in it’s heyday.

String & The Beans – Come Back To Me / When I Get That Feeling (1966) A great two sider from Birmingham, AL. The A side is a moody ballad with a KILLER guitar solo and the B side is up-tempo and just as good. Check out some real in depth info HERE.

Druids – It’s A Day / A Man Should Never Cry (1966) The first of two 45s by this group from Scranton, PA. Both are decent folk-rock.

B.J. Thomas & The Triumphs – Candy Baby (1966) B.J. Thomas’ band before he hit it big doing Bacharach/David songs like “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”. This one, originally released on Huey Meaux’s Texas based Pacemaker label is the flip of a Hank Williams cover of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” which apparently was somewhat of a hit and propelled Thomas’ career. Obviously I would have preferred he did more stuff like this, but what the hell do I know?????

Distant Cousins – Stop Running Around Baby (1966) A duo from New York City that had several 45s that mixed pop with some garage as we can hear on this 45.

Jamie & The Blackhawks – Candy Man / What You’re Doing To Me (1966) A group from the Memphis area led by Jamie Isonhood who was a session musician before he started up The Blackhawks that as far as I know released this sole 45, a rendition of “Candy Man” backed by an original. Read up on Jamie’s history HERE.

Richard & The Young Lions – Open Up Your Door / Once Upon Your Smile (1966) One of the all time great, classic garage 45’s from the 60’s. Richard & The Young Lions were from Newark, NJ and had a somewhat intricate and complicated history as they developed from several local acts. It’s rather interesting that the guys who wrote “Open Up Your Door” were the same guys who wrote the Distant Cousins 45 that we hear earlier in this set. Both were Bob Crewe productions and have very similar production values. If you want the whole story of this band check out their website HERE.

Standells – Riot On Sunset Strip / Black Hearted Woman (1966) The Standells are what many consider the “benchmark” fro garage bands. Although they had great production and had their records released on a major label, the snottiness and bad attitude in their songs cannot be denied.This 45 is perhaps their best two sider in my opinion

Stained Glass – If I Needed Someone / How Do You Expect Me (1966) The first 45 released by this underappreciated group from San Jose. On the A side they do a decent rendition of George Harrison’s “If I Needed Someone” with a bit of folk-rock styled harmonica thrown in. The B side is a terrific brooding ballad that laments how lousy girls and relationships can be. Genius.

Last Word – Can’t Stop Loving You (1967) A pretty good group based in Florida that recorded several 45s in a few different styles from psych to soul. This one leans heavy on the psych side with some cool guitar riffs.

Syn – Grounded / Created By Clive (1967) Here’s the group that included guitarist Peter Banks and bassist Chris Squire who would eventually become Yes, perhaps one of the most revered and vilified of all the “progressive” rock groups depending on which side of the fence you sit. I went to a Yes concert once and actually fell asleep. That’s the extent of my comments on them, but The Syn were a fantastic Mod/Psych group and “Grounded” is a classic as well as “14 Hour Technicolour Dream”, a true masterpiece.

Whether Bureau – Why Can’t You And I / White And Frosty (1968) A 45 that I cannot for the life of me find any info on probably because every time I Google this I end up with endless pages from the National Weather Service or some other related website. I do know that it was arranged by Al Gorgoni a “Brill Building” session guitarist, and this could just be a NYC studio group. Both sides are nice dreamy psychedelic numbers with great vocal harmonies and cool organ.

HERE