Greetings music lovers and welcome to Summer 2025! Oh yeah, Ima justa waitin' to have some good times these next couple of months and the upcoming "Fourth Of July Week" is a great place to start. I'm heading over to a weekly flea market in nearby Avon, NY this Sunday, something they've been doing for years and this is going to be my first go around. Hopefully we'll find some good wax there to feature on the show! Wish me luck!
On the more somber side of things, it seems that some of our more beloved rock musicians are seemingly leaving us in droves. Brian Wilson, James Lowe of the Electric Prunes, Sly Stone, Rick Derringer, and Mick Ralphs, and teen idol Bobby Sherman just to name a few. Fortunately most of these guys lived fairly long lives and gave us some very enjoyable music, especially Brian Wilson. Between 1965 and 1967 he wrote some of the greatest music of all time. I mean that. He was a guy that had to grow on me over the years. I always viewed The Beach Boys as a "lightweight" act singing surf songs and slow ballads like "Surfer Girl". They were kinda held in high regard by my brother Vinny who really loved them and compared them somewhat to the Beatles in a sense, or at least that's what I remember. "Surfin Safari" got a lot of playtime when I wad a kid. I guess back then he saw something in them that I didn't. As I grew older and wiser I learned to view or rather "hear" music quite differently. I started to break things down and analyze songs instead of just having them go in one ear and out the other. To be honest, I react to music viscerally as opposed to cerebrally, but there's this part of my brain that likes to listen to something, and as a musician myself say, "what the hell were these guys and gals thinking when they recorded this???"
As a fledgling "record producer" I I'm fascinated by the way songs were recorded and especially arranged. Some of this stuff blows my mind and every day I learn something new about what guys like Brian Wilson did in the studio. He was a true genius and he will be missed.
One of the more lesser known artists that passed away recently was James Lowe of The Electric Prunes. They were actually one of the more creative bands from the 1960's but in my opinion, their moniker kept them from hitting the real big time. I know...in that era you had all sorts of kooky names, but prunes aren't exactly something that people endear themselves to. In any case, The Prunes were a hell of a band and they had what I would consider the template for the "psychedelic garage band sound". I've featured a couple of songs by them on this blog, and I'm including one of their best in this edition.
I was never really a fan of Sly Stone, but he did produce some really cool records in the mid 60's for The Mojo Men, The Vejtables, and The Beau Brummels. A lot of music fans will miss him.
As I grew into my teens and began playing the guitar, my brother Vic, also a guitarist, was heavily into glam rock ala Bowie and Mott The Hoople who he thought were great. I remember his band playing "Driving Sister" and always thought that was a cool song. Ralphs would later join Bad Company, perhaps one of the greatest hard rock bands of the 70's and the rest is history.
Honorable mention goes to teen idol Bobby Sherman. I remember him being a guest star on the last episode of season 1 of "The Partridge Family". Good times for a 10 year old indeed.
These artists will all be remembered for bringing us some good times in our life. May they all rest in peace.
I've got another "potpourri" of 45's to share this time around, with perhaps a little less focus on poppier sounds. I have been coming across more instrumentals these days and I hope you all like them. I'm already working on the next post so stay tuned. In the meantime please enjoy this one.
Round Robin - Land Of A 1000 Dances "The Na Na Song" / Yea Yea (1965)
Round Robin was a guy named Robin Lloyd who had a bunch of 45's on Domain Records like "Do The Slauson". This was his version of "Land of A 100 Dances" and it pretty much falls in line with all the other versions out of L.A.
Rondels - Back Beat No.1 / Shades Of Green (1961)
Not to be confused with the "Ron-Dels" that featured Delbert McClinton or even the very obscure "Rondells" from Louisville, KY. This was an east coast group, from Boston perhaps? They released five 45's on Amy which were all instrumentals, I believe, and a couple on Nota Records out of Boston, Mass. (I featured one of the Nota 45's in IDG #145). Pretty tough sounding instros on both sides.
David Wilson & The Characters - Jamie / With All My Heart (1965)
Here's a head scratcher from a group who's origins I know nothing about. Both sides are lo-fi garage band sounds with a cool Farfisa organ. The 'B' side has a distinctive "Stones" vibe to it.
Rockin' Berries - The Water Is Over My Head / Doesn't Time Fly (1966)
The Rockin' Berries were a rather schizophrenic band out of Birmingham and I don't use the word "schizophrenic" in the pejorative. They were a really good band that had a few hits in the U.K. and they were one of the groups featured in the film "Pop Gear!" amongst other acts from the U.K. like Peter & Gordon, The Animals, The Spencer Davis Group, and The Honeycombs. This 45 is a good example. The 'A' side is a finely crafted pop tune with excellent vocal harmonies that feature a fair bit of falsetto vocals ala The Four Seasons and The Beach Boys. The flip side on the other hand is a straight up rockabilly tune with a couple of way cool short, but nifty guitar solos. I featured one of their other 45's in IDG #8. Boy, was that a long time ago......
Shane - Don't Turn Me Off / That Girl Of Mine (1965)
Here's another record with some twists and turns in it's history. I won't bore you too much or take you too deep into the weeds, "Shane", whoever he was, also released a 45 as "Kenny Shane". The songs were written by Angelo Spezze and his nephew Ken Ancell who I'm guessing is "Shane", although I could be wrong as usual. Both were involved in a bunch of records including some by "Johnny Shane" that came out on Imperial Records. The End.
Jimmy Rabbit - Wishy Washy Woman / My Girl (1965)
Finally, a 45 that has some concrete information. Jimmy Rabbit was from Dallas Texas and was a DJ at KLIF, a popular radio station in the area at the time. Jimmy thought he'd try his hand at being a rock & roll singer so he released a few 45's in 1965 this being one of them. Originally released on the local "Knight" label, it was picked up nationally by Josie Records. Jimmy had a couple of local 45's, and is probably most famous for his version of "Psychotic Reaction" by the "Positively 13 O'clock", a bona fide garage classic. Thanks to the awesome website Garage Hangover for the info.
Electric Prunes - Get Me To The World On Time / Are You Loving Me More (But Enjoying It Less) (1967)
Berkeley Kites - Alice In Wonderland / What Goes Up Must Come Down (1969)
A nice sunshine pop group that had three 45's on Minaret Records. No one is exactly sure where they were from, but Nashville, TN or Florida is a good guess. I wish I had more info.
Berry Street Station - Sick Birds Can't Fly / Sweet City Song (1972???)
Typical weirdo Texas shit from a group that had several 45's on a few local Texas labels, this one from Fort Worth. Don't know much else about them.
Graffiti - He's Got The Knack / Love In Spite (1968)
Supposedly the remnants of Washington D.C.'s "The Hangmen" that relocated to NYC and started up this band managing to get a contract with ABC Records and having their L.P. produced by Bob Thiele who worked with guys like John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and a bunch of other wild jazz musicians that ended up on ABC or Impulse! Records. Pretty good heavy psyche with some impressive guitar and keyboard work.
Mighty Manfred & The Wonderdogs - Bo Diddley / By The Time I Get To Phoenix (1969)
One of my favorite groups from the 60's. The Stained Glass probably should've had more success, but they were hamstrung by major labels that didn't promote them properly. Too bad, they left us with some excellent music.
Ars Nova - Pavan For My Lady (Fall Winter Summer Spring) / Zoroaster (1969)
I'm not sure what to make of some of these groups from the 60's like The New York Rock And Roll Ensemble, or The United States Of America, or as we have here, Ars Nova, a band that incorporated classical music with rock. Sometimes this stuff really missed the mark, but I think this 45 is OK.
