|
|
Post by petrolino on May 31, 2020 1:17:28 GMT
Stone Free
The Rolling Stones were at their trippiest when experimental multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones was in the band. A masterstroke was to record backing vocals by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for the song 'We Love You', on which Jones played the mellotron. Being the Rolling Stones, they had many other talented friends to hand, but bringing in Beatles emphasised your psychedelic street credentials.
"When the album Their Satanic Majesties Request was finally completed, it was the first Stones album to be released on both sides of the Atlantic with the same running order and inside the same record sleeve. The title was a satirical take on the words inside a British passport: “Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary Of State requests and requires…”
The album came during a transformative year in music. The summer of 1967 had been dominated by The Beatles’ pop art masterpiece Sgt Pepper’s Lonel Hearts Club Band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Are You Experienced and Pink Floyd’s The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Bands the world over wanted to be part of a psychedelic revolution that was changing pop music. And The Rolling Stones were no different.
Their Satanic Majesties Request was a tangle of psychedelic sounds and influences, complete with iconic 3D artwork. Keith Richards later recalled, “We made that set ourselves. We went to New York, put ourselves in the hands of this Japanese bloke with the only camera in the world that could do the 3D. Bits of paint and saws, bits of Styrofoam.”
The 10-track album perplexed fans back in the day, but how does it stand the test of time? The mix of songs is eclectic, with the odd debatable moment (‘Gomper’), but it has more than its fair share to recommend it. ‘Citadel’ abandons psychedelic trickery for guitar riffing, while ‘In Another Land’ is not just the only Stones song to feature Bill Wyman on vocals, it was also a way to vent his frustrated creativity on an evening when he was the only band member to turn up at the studio. The song, which features Small Faces Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane as backing musicians, memorably ends with the sound of Wyman snoring. Jagger and Richards had recorded him sleeping and tagged it on to the end of the song as a joke.
‘She’s A Rainbow’ is a sweet chorus-based pop song that features Brian Jones on Mellotron and deft string arrangements from future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Another success is ‘2,000 Light Years from Home’, while the haunting ‘The Lantern’ is arguably a forerunner of ‘Shine A Light’ from 1972’s Exile On Main St.
Their Satanic Majesties Request entered the US charts on 22 December 1967 and reached No.3 in the UK. It remains a charming curiosity. Though the band went straight back to their rock- and blues-based roots the following year with Beggars Banquet, their foray into flower power was a bold and fruitful attempt to branch out."
- Martin Chilton, UDiscover Music 'Acid In The Grass'
"Brian Jones looked like hell. Fame had not rested easily upon the golden Stones’ shoulders as Gerard Mankowitz’s photo of the band on the cover of Between the Buttons revealed. The blurry portrait of the Stones shot on a brisk autumn morning at London’s Primrose Hill in 1966 perfectly captured what Mankowitz later described as “the ethereal, druggy feel of the time.” This was the first glimpse the public had of how quickly Brian (whose predilection for mixing booze and pills would lead him to an early grave, two years later in 1969) was deteriorating.
Standing on the edge of the photograph was Keith Richards grinning behind a pair of shades, as Charlie Watts, looking like a hit man, leaned into the wind, while the hollow-cheeked, heavy-lidded, Bill Wyman stood like a zombie, aloof in the rear. Haggard and agitated, Mick Jagger’s barracuda grimace appeared as if he might eviscerate you at any moment.
Jones, the band’s original leader who’d christened the group after Muddy Waters’ song “Rollin’ Stone,” wound up odd man out in his own band while his former acolytes, Richards and Jagger moved away from playing Chicago blues numbers and began writing their own tunes at the prodding of their manager/producer Andrew “Loog” Oldham. As his one-time girlfriend, the glamorous German model/actress Anita Pallenberg claimed, Brian “was writing songs constantly.” But Jones tragically lacked “the confidence” to show any of his compositions to Jagger and Richards, so “he just erased them.” But Brian’s stamp was all over the band’s latest release.
Bored with playing rhythm guitar on Jagger/Richards compositions, Jones had reinvented himself as a nimble multi-instrumentalist, intuitively adding a pallet of exotic sounds to the mix, from the sitar that helped catapult “Paint It, Black” (the lead-off single from Aftermath in the U.S.) to No. 1, to playing a delicate Appalachian dulcimer on “Lady Jane” (undoubtedly inspired by folk singer/author Richard Farina).
Jones, an avid jazz fan (who named not one, but two of his sons after his hero, alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderly) admired vibes players like Milt Jackson and Chico Hamilton and the sparkling aural textures of mallet percussion, and had employed the marimba on Aftermath’s “Under My Thumb” as well as xylophone on “Yesterday’s Papers,” the opening track of the British release of Between the Buttons."
- John Kruth, The Observer
'Back Street Girl'
'We Love You'
|
|
|
|
Post by cypher on May 31, 2020 3:02:53 GMT
Demon Fuzz - Past, Present and Future
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 2, 2020 22:56:53 GMT
Hollistic Hallucinogens
The Hollies were pitted against the Beatles by competing sections of the music press for a number of reasons. The Beatles were from Liverpool and the Hollies were from Manchester so it was easy to stir up evocative visions of a local, north-west rivalry. Both bands recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London and they attended some of the same art exhibits and social functions in the capital (not least because, they were actually friends). The Hollies' producer Ron Richards was a protege of Beatles' producer George Martin. And to cap it all, both groups were blessed with 3 major songwriters.
Hollies members Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks and Graham Nash wrote most of the songs on the Everly Brothers' classic album 'Two Yanks In England' (1966) under the collective pseudonym L.Ransford. This was a great honour for them as they'd grown up idolising Don Everly and Phil Everly while studying their close-set harmonies. Jimmy Page (The Yardbirds), John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) and Elton John also attended the recording sessions for this album; John would later record several piano parts with the Hollies. In a simple twist of fate, the Hollies developed their own intricate style of elaborate close-set harmonies, building from two voices, to three voices, and even to four voices. When Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead) met Nash, he asked him how they were able to achieve their harmonies live and in the studio, influencing the development of the psychedelic San Francisco Sound. Nash was only too happy to be of help and would soon become absorbed into America's psychedelic west coast scene. Nash never looked back, while the Hollies went on to develop a more mature, progressive rock sound over the next few years. The truth is, many jazz musicians regarded the Hollies as one of the best live acts in the music industry and they were considered to be exceptional studio players too.
"While Liverpool’s Cavern Club holds a revered place in pop history as the club that nurtured the Beatles, a certain band from Manchester also owe their career to that dingy corner of Mathew Street. With their pioneering and distinctive three-part vocal harmony style, The Hollies became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s. In fact they went on to sell more singles than any British act other than the Fab Four during the seven years after first hitting the UK charts with 1963’s (Ain’t That) Just Like Me.
Formed as The Deltas by school friends, Alan Clarke and Graham Nash, the band renamed themselves The Hollies in tribute to Buddy Holly and, on February 3, 1963, found themselves on the bill for one of the Cavern’s legendary Rhythm and Blues Marathons alongside The Beatles, The Merseybeats and Cilla Black.
“At the end of our set this guy came up to us and said he was called Ron Richards and was from EMI at Abbey Road and would The Hollies like to come down to London and make a demo,” recalls Nash. “We were like ‘of course!’ We went down, recorded the song and it got in the charts and we never looked back. With the success of The Beatles and the money EMI were making the first thing they thought was ‘they can’t be the only ones – there must be some more people in the north so let’s go and chase them down’ and that was what Ron was doing at the Cavern that day. What great timing!”
- Graham Nash, Get Into This : Beats, Drones And Rock & Roll
The Hollies record 'On A Carousel' at Abbey Road Studios in 1967 | 'Listen To Me'
..
One of the interesting things about the Hollies is they were able to create psychedelic sounds through simple musicianship. I remember being fascinated as a boy by Hicks' purring guitar line on 'Stop, Stop, Stop' which sounds like an electric guitar, a banjo and a sitar all within the course of one song. The chugging guitar-bass tandem they employed for their heavy-set cover of Evie Sands' 'I Can't Let Go' created another unusual sound. Drummer Bobby Elliott was a stick-twirling jazzman who always wore a hat, so he became known as the showman in the back, but he was also one of the finest drummers England ever produced, and he liked to play every part of the kit, even tapping out intricate rhythms by way of the sides of his drums and cymbal stands.
"I don't really like talking in terms of 'pure rock' or 'pure pop' music. As you might have guessed, I'm a fan of diversity, and 'pureness' doesn't really combine well with diversity. Great bands, starting from the Beatles and ending with... er... Ten Years After, maybe, were all fairly diverse. However, if there is a 'pure pop' band to be found somewhere around, it would certainly be the Hollies. One of Britain's most famous bands ever (they were actually only beaten by the Beatles in terms of hit singles in the Sixties), they seem to be pretty much neglected in the States, which is understandable. Americans don't really need the Hollies that much. Their national pride are the Beach Boys, whom the Hollies could have been said to be pretty much a reflection of... at least, in some ways. Famous for their catchy pop melodies, scarce, but always rational, instrumentation, and, above all, immaculate vocal harmonies, they could have been dubbed as British Invasion bubblegum, along with Herman's Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers and other stuff like that, if not for one reason. The Hollies were hugely professional. Their music probably represented the highest level of Britpop which nobody could help to attain, not even the Beatles. I mean, the Beatles weren't really 'pop' in the 'pure' sense: they were a beat group, their image was 'wild' - not as wild as the Stones, of course, but not quite tame nevertheless, and, moreover, they were hugely unpredictable. Their main 'function' was to innovate, and their 'pure pop' stage, if there ever was one, was just one of the multiple transitions they underwent over the years.
The Hollies, meanwhile, had none of that. They just delivered album after album of perfect, smooth, well-polished, ideally memorable ditties with good, sometimes slightly intelligent, but never snobby or pretentious, lyrics, drenched in great three-part harmonies of Clarke, Hicks and Nash. They might seem a little samey to the unexperienced listener, but not really: the guys did know a lot about music and they took good care not to end up sounding like they were re-writing the same melody again and again.
This blistering pop marathon lasted for about three years before time took its toll on the band and they decided to get experimental, too: 1967 even brought them a 'psychedelic' vibe. However, 1967 turned out to be the culmination of their 'evolution': soon afterwards Nash, who was always the 'innovative' one, quit to join forces with Crosby and Stills, and the others led the band back onto its 'pure pop' rails. Guess what? They fell out of the public life totally by 1969. That doesn't mean that their late Sixties - early Seventies output is worthless, though. In fact, some of their later albums still hold up quite well (Distant Light is one of my favourites). The problem is that they did little to change, mostly sticking with the same early Sixties formula, and this eventually led to their transformation into very long-bearded 'dinosaurs'. Then again, same thing happened to the Beach Boys, didn't it?"
- George Starostin, Only Solitaire
'When Your Light Turned On'
'Elevated Observations'
'Dear Eloise'
'I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top'
Graham Nash joined forces with David Crosby (The Byrds) and Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield) to audition as a trio for Peter Asher (Peter & Gordon) and George Harrison (The Beatles) but they were rejected. They were also rejected by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Eventually, they did secure a record deal, and the band was soon augmented by gifted session players, as well as Stills' former bandmate Neil Young (Buffalo Springfield). Stills had originally approched Steve Winwood (Spencer Davis Group) to be in the band, which might have created an equally interesting dynamic, though perhaps a bit more in line with the bluesy rock 'n' roll of supergroup Blind Faith which Winwood did become a member of. From my own point of view as a fan, I think both Nash and Winwood ended up in the right groups, both for them, and for their bandmates.
"The truth is we [the Hollies] were kids from Manchester who escaped having to do what our fathers did. You were supposed to go down the mine or into the mill. But my mother and father let me escape that."
- Graham Nash, The Guardian
'King Midas In Reverse'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 5, 2020 20:14:19 GMT
Kinksized Sessions
The Kinks are another British group from the original beat wave that demonstated the benefit of having in-band songwriters within a basic musical set-up. In this band's case, guitar-playing brothers Ray Davies and Dave Davies both contributed songs, elevating the band high above other groups of the era. Some musical outfits relied heavily on bringing in professional songwriters from the outside, which could lead to variable quality between recordings. Others were simply covers bands - including the Animals who are generally regarded to be one the greatest British bands of the 1960s, though to be fair to their grounded musical ideology of "animalism", they always had talented songwriters in their midst, they just didn't use them until the orignal band had splintered into factions.
"Lazy revisionist theory has tended to reduce psychedelia to a set of cosmetic symbols from the ‘60s underground - beads, bangles, acid tabs, peace signs and the rest of it. In reality, it was an era of complex and deep-rooted change in musical culture, with artists reshaping existing forms and mapping out entirely new ones in a sensory climate of freedom of expression. And while not everything was successful, or even worthwhile, in the right hands rock music could be as mind-altering as the drugs that often went with it."
- Malcolm Dome & Rob Hughes, Louder
'Last Of The Steam Powered Trains' / 'Picture Book'
The Kinks managed to ride out their problems, of which there were many, including volatile bust-ups and a series of debilitating, self-inflicted wounds. They became one of the most distinct and original bands of the rock 'n' roll era. Outrageous jazz drummer Mick Avory was to prove their wildcard, the brothers Davies constantly cajoling, poking and eventually pushing him towards the creation of some extraordinarily percussive pyrotechnics that reached their zenith across the concept albums 'Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire)' (1969) and 'Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround, Part One' (1970).
"Songwriter Randy Newman a few years ago wrote a song in which he declared “the end of an empire is messy at best”. The music of “The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society” laments societal change in England as an empire heads toward autumn. And as social tumult consumed the States, such understated and melancholy thematic fare simply wasn’t at the forefront of hotter discussions.
But as author and sometimes music critic Jonathan Lethem told me earlier this month while talking about “Village Green,” “One of the things the English have on us is that they’re way out ahead on the empire-in-decline curve.”
Admittedly, empires decline in different manners, dependent on their culture and economic and social structures. Fitting, then, that the Kinks’ album was more melancholy with a British stiff upper lip, compared to the petulant and angry pouting that engulfs a culture across an ocean decades later.
A pastoral folksiness runs through the record, which runs contrary to the Kinks’ reputation as a tightly wound progenitor of the British Invasion. Ray Davies' meditations on people and structures gone was mirrored by the guitar parts played by his brother Dave, whose visceral, serrated work just a few years earlier helped define the sound of rock ’n’ roll on songs such as “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night.” They were no longer singing three-minute garage-rock songs about girls. They were summoning ghosts.
“Everything was psychedelic,” Dave says. “That wasn’t what we were going for. We wanted it more mystical. Something that captured this feeling of lost innocence. This idea of embracing the new but missing the old.”
“Ray was never one to follow a trend,” says Mick Avory, the Kinks drummer. “He always tried to set one. When you got a trend, something in fashion, at that time, it was very difficult to break it. … But he was more interested in telling a story with some quality. Not a throwaway. I think that’s why it had a different sound and feel, all part and parcel, from what we did before.” {'Big Sky'}
There were indications before 1968 that the Kinks were headed in a different direction. The band formed around its sibling core in 1964 in Muswell Hill, in the northern part of London. By October that year, the Kinks were rock stars thanks to those singles, “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night,” which played well in Britain as well as the States, where each broke into the Top 10.
The turgidity of the music hung like a gray cloud around the band, even after the songs finished. The Kinks were famously among the most internally pugnacious bands in rock history. Their reputation likely played a part in being banned from touring the States just as the group found its groove. So from 1965-69, the Kinks were a nonpresence in the U.S., which explains a four-year blackout from the charts.
Which doesn’t mean the Kinks stopped making music. And perhaps the insularity back in England helped them. Because the band found itself distanced from trends of the day. The 1966 single “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” may have been written as a swipe to trend-following British listeners, but the Kinks in the late-’60s found themselves freed of connection to what was in vogue in North America. Albums “Face to Face” in 1966 and the aptly titled “Something Else” a year later showed a group uninterested in hitching its wagon to any pre-existing trend.
The sound on the album is interesting. Though the Beatles’ White Album — also released in November 1968 — was informed by a ramshackle looseness, likely a response to the every-hair-in-place quality of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” a year earlier — the Kinks played songs that sounded loose.
I brought up Al Bowlly, the popular ’30s British vocalist, and Dave Davies’ came alive. “Yeah!” he said. “We wanted people to know the influences from the past were important and that we were reintegrating them. We had vast influences as kids. It was a big family. My sisters all played piano and sang. My dad played the banjo. Obviously, the blues and Chuck Berry were a big influence, but so was skiffle and all this stuff we heard growing up. It was a wealth of influence.”
Avory pointed out that Davies was a fan of American vaudeville, which can also be heard on the record, as well as old musical theater. “Imagine a bar band,” he says, “but rehearsing a bit more. Because all these great ideas needed to come out.”
That instrumental approach was inviting and engaging, giving the record an almost informal vibe, which gently obscured just how specific the themes in the songs were.
“There’s something particular about English nostalgia,” Avory says. “That’s what Ray was writing about. We were very English people, interested in our culture. And there are things that change and they’re good, and there are things that change and they’re not for the better. Buildings become boxes. Ray looked at the idea of a Village Green and all these things that went with it. It was quaint. But it also made you think about change. Things move on, but it’s not always a progression, is it?”
- Andrew Dansby, The Houston Chronicle
"New Orleans became Ray Davies' long term base in the US, a city he first encountered while touring in the 1970s. "There's an unspoken code of, dare I say, togetherness there," he explains. The appeal was not quite immediate, until a chance encounter with a French quarter marching band playing one of his songs, 1971's 'Alcohol', rekindled his love of Dixieland music and sparked a long-term immersion in the city's multi-faceted music scene. "When I first went down there to stay longer I was impressed by the lack of musical snobbery, you weren't a jazz musician or a pop singer or a folk singer, you were a musician. I warmed to that."
Snobbery has long been a bugbear of Davies'. "When I was young I was the youngest player in the Dave Hunt Blues Messengers, they were all older jazz players and there was inverted snobbery there, and there still is now. You'll go to so-called jazz players and the best of them will play anything. The really scared ones are the ones who say, 'Oh we only play jazz,' they won't make music. There's a protectiveness, but if you look at the great players like Jerry Mulligan, Max Roach, Billie Holiday, they're singing their art, they're not just singing jazz.
"New Orleans reminds me very much of England," he continues of the city. "Small shops, tree lined streets like where I grew up in North London, and the music is just a part of it. I like the social dynamic, apart from the muggers and murderers." He's alluding to an incident in 2004, in which he was shot by a New Orleans mugger; the joys of the city, he makes clear, do not mask the nation's faults. "I understand why guns are part of the constitution in a pioneer sense, but then organised crime is another. The guy that pulled the bullet out of my leg said it was a Walmart bullet. He probably bought his gun from Walmart too.
"America is ungovernable. You can govern Louisiana, just about, Detroit, just about, but you can't govern both at the same time. I think it is what it is, it's a giant landmass, which is part of the allure, but also it's a dangerous place, it's so big that people can just disappear." It's those kind of themes, the many, constantly shifting faces of the United States, that the Americana project tackles. "There's a song called 'Long Drive Home To Tarzana', for example, about two people just looking for a place to settle. You know they're never get there. Dorothy Parker said 'Everyone's trying to get there, but once you get there you realise there's no there there'. It's a long, long way to paradise."
Elsewhere he addresses the duplicity of the American entertainment industry, the death of independence in the wake of capitalist gentrification and more, and with such weighty themes in Davies' crosshairs, it seems appropriate that Americana should match them in heft. As well as the two albums and the book that preceded them, Davies has plans for "a big theatrical experience. Not to make it a theatre piece, just to have its own identity. Avant garde theatre, visuals, sounds. I don't want to preach to the audience, I just want them to absorb."
Yet there will always be those clamouring for the hits. He acknowledges that he may have to rework a few of the classics in order for them to fit his new vision. It could well be a drawback to Davies' creative thirst – he's already got his sights set on his next project and a number of scores for TV – that he's so constantly dogged by his own reputation, his place among the Great British Songwriters. "'Great' is a big word, but first of all I'm a songwriter," he says, giving little away. "Great songs come from Hungary, they come from New Jersey, a great song is a great song, it doesn't matter. I first wrote songs as a hobby, for my family to see."
{'Wicked Annabella'}
It is depressing, but true, that it's hard to discuss Davies' identity in terms of its Britishness without the looming spectre of current politics. Is he proud, I ask, to be British? "I'm concerned to be British, because flats are being built but they're going to hedge funds, as an investment rather than somewhere people can live. Proud is a strange word. Britain's lost, politically, we don't know where we are. Big corporations, these cathedrals of consumerism, have taken over our identity."
Davies looks out of the window at the North London street below with a tinge of frustration. "I think one matures, one becomes not embittered but angrier with age because you feel you've tried to change things but they're still there. Unless we deal with it, it's going to ruin us. Something's got to happen, this neighbourhood is going to be like a ghetto soon. I don't know what the answer is, but it's cruel to tax people who are helpless, people who rely on their business to live. Not every business can run like Philip Green.
"The same thing happened in Manhattan. I lived on the upper west side, in Spanish West Harlem, and it was affordable. When I first rented there in the 80s my next door neighbour was a window cleaner. Now they're merchant bankers. Gentrification is everywhere, rents have gone up, small shops are going out of business and Costa Coffees moving in.
"Years ago I wrote a show called Preservation. The Kinks would do half an hour of hits then I'd turn into this man, Mr Flash, he was the head of a country called Preservation that relied on corporate money and foreign oil to keep going, it's a dictatorship where he rules by media. The band members play different characters, Dave was Mr Twitch, the head of propaganda, the drummer Mick [Avory] was the head of secret police, we had a guy called The Bishop who's a religious leader. In simplistic terms it's a great morality piece, but very appropriate to now. I'd love to stage it again, it feels very appropriate."
With all that being said, it's surprising to hear Davies say he's reluctant to describe himself as political. "A lot of people think that because I write political songs, particularly for Preservation which was quite radically political, that those politics are mine, but I'm a character actor rather than a singer. Those politics belong to the character, not to me." What then are Ray Davies' own politics? "I've never voted," he says. "I haven't found a political party that adequately expresses how I feel about the world. My dad was a working class socialist, but as a person … I just don't want people in shops to have to sell their businesses, I don't know what that makes me [politically]."
That said, he also believes "the time is coming for everyone to find out what they are, politically. It's got to happen in the next five years. I wish I had time left in my life to be political - I'd like to change things politically. I wouldn't say run for parliament because you're already in the system if you're running. If you're nailing your colours to the mast you're part of the system. If I could find a way of being outside the system and still being politically involved, I would."
- Patrick Clarke, The Quietus
'Fancy'
'Lincoln County'
'Sitting By The Riverside'
'Shangri-La'
'Powerman'
'20th Century Man'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 5, 2020 21:08:44 GMT
Oh, Pretty Things
The Pretty Things are connected to the Rolling Stones by bassist Dick Taylor who played in both bands (drummer Mick Avory auditioned for the Stones before joining the Kinks). Taylor and Stones guitarist Keith Richards both attended Sidcup Art College in London. The Pretty Things released a string of thought-inducing albums that included one of the most divisive psychedelic longplayers of the 1960s, the concept album 'SF Sorrow' (1968).
"In 1969, the Pretty Things performed their recently released album SF Sorrow in its entirety live. Or rather they didn't: unable to work out how to reproduce its complex patchwork of sounds on stage, they opted to mime to backing tapes. Miming an entire gig would probably have spelled disaster anyway, even had the whole band – and, crucially, their soundman – not opted to take LSD before the performance. The ensuing debacle is recalled on the DVD accompanying this deluxe reissue. "Every time he pressed the button to start the tapes, because he was on acid, nothing happened," remembers singer Phil May, wearing the strained smile of a man who remembers rather too clearly what it feels like to stand in front of an audience, on LSD, with no sound coming out of the speakers.
It was another calamitous chapter in the history of a band virtually born out of a capacity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory: they had been formed following guitarist Dick Taylor's timely decision to leave the Rolling Stones months before the Rolling Stones became hugely successful. Still, the Pretty Things had a better name and an image so feral even his former bandmates looked a little prim by comparison. There was an initial burst of public enthusiasm for fabulous, sneering, thuggish singles such as 1965's Rosalyn, but it didn't last. By the Summer of Love, the band who had once been Britain's wildest, longest-haired R&B upstarts were being corralled into the studio with Reg Tilsley and His Orchestra – you can somehow tell from their name they weren't shock troops of the psychedelic revolution – and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky Mick & Tich's producer, a former member of a Spanish pop band called, enticingly, Los Flaps.
SF Sorrow was supposed to be the album that re-established the Pretty Things in their former position at the vanguard of psychedelia: "Yes, I need LSD," they had sung on a B-side in 1966, the same year their legendarily Neanderthal drummer Viv Prince accompanied Paul McCartney on his first acid trip. Unfortunately, the album failed to make the charts at all on its release in November 1968. Worse, the following spring, the Who put out Tommy, an album similarly structured around a story: cue an argument about who wrote the first rock opera that rumbles on. The conspiracy theorists might note the passing similarity between the intro of Old Man Going and that of Pinball Wizard, while cynics might note that neither the plot of Tommy nor that of SF Sorrow makes any sense whatsoever. But in truth, the albums don't seem much alike. Although it was released only five months after SF Sorrow, Tommy already sounds like a product of the 1970s, with its grand instrumental overtures and tone of portentous import. Laden with sitars, backwards guitars and lyrics about resting your head on a rainbow and wiping a flower from your eye, SF Sorrow is very much of the pre-prog 60s, which probably accounts for the differing fortunes of the two albums. Released the same week as Beggars Banquet and The White Album, SF Sorrow must have seemed dated on arrival: the Band-inspired, back-to-basics, post-psychedelic comedown had arrived, but the Pretty Things were still gamely singing about flying to the moon on the back of a spoon."
- Alex Petridis, The Guardian
The Pretty Things perform 'Private Sorrow' in France in 1968
Just about every creative psychedelic band wanted to get their recordings or original compostions into movie soundtracks in the 1960s, and many of them succeeded in doing so, as film studios recognised this as being mutually beneficial. It offered filmmakers a bump in advertising and added another incentive for seeing their work, as they tried to tap into a burgeoning youth market.
Still, few British groups of the era became established house bands for hire, like they often did on the continent. The Pretties were perfect for this role due to the scope, diversity and ambition displayed by their music. They were also prolific songwriters so they rechristened themselves Electric Banana (aka. the Boogaloo Bananas) in order to undertake a series of alternate cinematic journies together.
'Initially coming together during a Fontana-era lull in The Pretty Things’ prodigious career, the band’s now-legendary body of work for music library de Wolfe as The Electric Banana saw their alter-egos become parallel universe superstars, their work utilised by film and TV producers in everything from soft-porn skin-flicks, a Norman Wisdom vehicle and horror classic Dawn Of The Dead to small-screen ratings winners like Dr. Who, The Sweeney and Minder.
In the Sixties, the Banana recordings mirrored British pop’s gradual evolution into rock, courtesy of brass-led Swinging London ravers (‘Walking Down The Street’, ‘Danger Signs’), primal garage punk (‘Street Girl’, ‘Love Dance And Sing’) and maximum psychedelia (‘Eagle’s Son’, ‘Alexander’). They switched gears again in the Seventies, confidently mixing swaggering bar-band hard rockers (‘The Loser’, ‘Sweet Orphan Lady’), putative terrace-anthems (‘Whiskey Song’), metal-based rock (‘Maze Song’, the Hendrix tribute ‘James Marshall’) and jangly, Byrds-inflected power pop (‘Do My Stuff’).
Taken from the original master-tapes, the 3-CD set The Complete De Wolfe Sessions represents a number of firsts: the first-ever legitimate CD issue of these recordings (authorised by both The Pretty Things and de Wolfe), the first time that the Banana’s Sixties and Seventies work has been made available under one roof, and the first time that the karaoke-anticipating backing tracks have been made commercially available.
Housed in a clamshell box that includes a lavish illustrated booklet, The Complete De Wolfe Sessions incorporates the original albums artwork, an extended essay on the band, quotes from pivotal members Phil May, Dick Taylor and Wally Waller, and some priceless photos of the classic “Even More Electric Banana” line-up, taken from the summer-of-’68 Swinging Southport film What’s Good For The Goose.
More than forty years after The Pretty Things last donned the Electric Banana mantle, this long-overdue complete package is the final, definitive word on these seminal and much-loved recordings.'
- Press release from Cherry Red Records
The Electric Banana entertain Sally Geeson in 'What's Good For The Goose' (1969)
'We'll Play House'
'Death Of A Socialite'
'Baron Saturday'
'She's A Lover'
'Cries From The Midnight Circus'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 5, 2020 21:57:26 GMT
Who's Left?
The Who were considered to be a quartet of unbeatable talents. One of my favourite English filmmakers, Ken Russell, directed the band in the big screen musical 'Tommy' (1975). He also worked with the band's frontman Roger Daltrey on 'Lisztomania' (1975), a biopic of composer Franz Liszt - Russell spent much of his life working on films and documentaries concerning classical music. I mention this as he said Daltrey's voice was as good as any singer that he'd come across, including those active within the world of classical music and opera.
"They might be best known by many for providing the CSI themes these days, but the Who are, without doubt, one of the best British rock bands of all time. Pete Townshend proved himself to be one of the most expressive British songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s while Roger Daltrey was one of the most commanding frontmen of the era. They were also one of the first British bands to introduce the idea of a concept album, too, with 1969’s hugely successful Tommy. Who’s Next is one of the great UK rock albums, too, and the band are still talking about their generation five decades on."
- Harry Fletcher, The Evening Standard
'I'm A Boy'
As their career progressed, the Who became more advanced musically, enhancing their reputation among music critics as being the most gifted of the British bands to emerge in the early 1960s. I think some people regard them as the greatest rock 'n' roll live attraction England's produced to date.
"What’s a more iconic visual representation of the toe-curling, gut-roiling, eardrum-hammering power of rock and roll than the Marshall stack? Go ahead, close your eyes and imagine a Judas Priest or a Slayer gig without that trademark, Stonehenge-sized backline. Now open them again safe in the knowledge that this nightmare scenario will never come to fruition. And it all began with these dudes.
In the early ’60s, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle engaged in an arms race of sorts to see who could generate as much volume as possible — part of this was simply to be heard over Keith Moon’s thunderclap-loud drumming. They were friendly with Jim Marshall, the West Londoner who founded Marshall Amplification, and at their urging, he created the four-valve power amp."
- Jason Bracelin, Las Vegas Review-Journal
'Cobwebs And Strange'
'Armenia City In The Sky'
'I Can See For Miles'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 6, 2020 0:19:19 GMT
Monolithic Mann
It's hard to overstate just how dangerous touring could be amidst the hotspots of the 1960s, a truly revolutionary decade in modernist terms. As Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards once said, America was a mythical land you only ever saw on a tiny, black and white television set with one channel, if you were lucky ... maybe a photograph in a newspaper ... whereas nowadays, through a combination of globalism, cheap travel and the technological revolution, all the mystery's gone. Fortunately for one band of rebels, they were tough enough to take on all comers, in all corners of the globe.
“Right at the beginning, our songs came from us. Our very first hit was '5,4,3,2,1'. That was written by Manfred [Mann], Mike [McGuiness] and me and then we followed that up with another hit in England called 'Hubble Bubble', but that didn’t do any business anywhere else.
"And the record company said to us, ‘you guys don’t write any more of your own songs’. This was really ridiculous.”
Despite '5,4,3,2,1' making the top five, the band went along with their record company's wishes.
“They were the people with the money and they were paying us and when they said 'you don’t write any more of your own hits' we had to go along with it.
“They tried it with The Beatles. Unfortunately, nobody in our band had the guts of people like John Lennon! So we just went along with it.”
Manfred Mann developed a reputation for clever, commercially successful Bob Dylan covers.
“The first one we ever did of his was 'With God on Our Side'. It was a kind of pacifist, ironic, satirical song about people who claimed to have God on their side and I thought it was a powerful song.
"And then we got a bit more commercial with stuff like ‘If You’ve Gotta Go, Go Now’… Bob did like our versions, yes, having been very complimentary to The Byrds as well. He then did say we were the band who did the best versions of his songs – apart from his own, of course.”
Jones also brought lesser-known songs to his Manfred Mann bandmates.
“I just listened to the radio and I heard things and I liked them and we learnt them, and lo and behold we had things like ‘Do Wah Diddy’, 'Sha La La' and ‘Come Tomorrow’.” It was the band's skill at recording simple, effective arrangements that gave which tunes their commercial sheen, he says.
“The person who did that was the most intellectually oriented musician of the band and that was Manfred [Mann]. He was the person who said 'simplicity, you have to go for simplicity'. And considering I’d been reading his articles in Jazz News for some years at that point and he was writing about harmony and improvisation and phrasing and here he was shedding all of that and just saying ‘right, the first thing you do, with any song, is the chorus and then you can go back and start with the first verse, but you do not start the song with the first verse’ and he was absolutely right.
“Manfred always had a great sense of what people could take and what people would like to listen to. He was also responsible for the arrangements… I brought the songs in but how we did the songs ….he was very good at that.”
At the height of the band’s success, Jones left to pursue a solo music career and acting.
“I had an acting career that lasted for something like 20 years starting in 1966... I had a call asking if I would like to talk to a man called Peter Watkins about a film he was about to make [the 1967 Jean Shrimpton film] Privilege.
“I didn’t do a great job of acting in Privilege but it was the start of an acting career that I did rather better at a bit later on.”
Jones announced to the band that he was leaving, but agreed to stay on until a replacement could be found... which took longer than he anticipated.
He says the band had become too 'poppy' for his liking.
“While I was in the band, there were songs being bandied around which I didn’t want to do and I think that hastened my departure … I actually announced my decision to leave in October 1965 and finally got out in July 1966.
“At first there was a certain amount of anger and antipathy but we got over that and then they said ‘will you stay on until we find someone that we’re really happy with?’ I said 'of course I will', thinking that they meant six weeks or two months or something – it was nine months!
“During those nine months we made a Number 2 record – 'If You’ve Gotta Go' – and the other one was a Number 1 – ‘Pretty Flamingo’. So I didn’t lose out much by staying in the band for those extra months.”
Ace bass player Jack Bruce was recruited into the band at this time, despite being a seemingly unlikely fit.
“I think having announced I was on my way out I had removed the franchise from myself [and] I no longer had the vote! But if I had had it, I would have voted with 100 percent alacrity and enthusiasm for Jack Bruce because I always thought he was absolutely wonderful.” Jones’ path crossed with Bruce again when he was asked to put a band together for an American album showcasing the best contemporary blues music called What’s Shakin’.
“In 1966, when I was still in the band, somebody had approached me from Elektra Records and said 'there’s a rumour that you’re leaving Manfred Mann, would you put a band together for a compilation of white boy blues we’re doing? We’ve got lots of Americans but no Brits.
"I said I’d try and the first person I called was Jack Bruce. are you interested? He said ‘I am, who else are you thinking about?’
"‘Well, I think it would be great if we could get Eric Clapton on guitar and what do you think, Ginger Baker on drums?’
"And there was a sort of pause and he said ‘How much do you know?’ I said 'About what?'
“So you’re talking to the man who accidentally put Cream together. Although the truth is they were already rehearsing, already planning their supergroup.”
Clapton agreed to do the sessions, Baker declined and along with Steve Winwood, the short-lived Eric Clapton’s Powerhouse was formed.
“Despite the fact I had assembled the band!”
- Matinee Idol (speaking with Paul Jones), Radio New Zealand
'My Name Is Jack'
Manfred Mann were hard-nosed poppers who superseded their competitors in the name-identity field. I think they were also the first beat group from the south of England to top the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart during the peak years of the British invasion, through their cover of the Exciters' 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy'. Fanatical about Bo Diddley, the Manfreds made their own music part of their growing brand, influencing numerous domestic pop acts in the process, while informing the development of a rapidly evolving technological business model. They were also one hell of a band, and up there with the Byrds when it came to maximising the pop potential of Bob Dylan's stellar songcraft.
"Can you save the planet by packaging up tiny parcels of it? Idealism may have withered over a plot to stop the third runway at Heathrow but it lives on in mid-Wales, thanks to prog-rock legends Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. Some of the 100,000 people, including Emma Thompson and Alistair McGowan, who signed up to become beneficial co-owners of an orchard in the middle of Heathrow’s proposed third runway have been left fuming by the revelation that Greenpeace quietly sold the lease back to the original landowner for £1 in 2012. The charity wrongly believed it had won the battle against the third runway.
More happily, however, one of the pioneering examples of celebrities trying to save the planet by handing out little plots of land is in rather better shape than the derelict orchard outside Heathrow. Forty years ago, Manfred Mann’s The Earth Band gave away a 1 sq ft plot on a Welsh hillside to everyone who bought their album The Good Earth.
The purveyors of Blinded By the Light and other 70s classics are today as vague as any rock stars over the precise location of the 10-acre hillside near the head of the Irfon valley but they and fans who have made the pilgrimage to this elusive nirvana say it remains as unspoilt as ever.
“The first time I went, I was quite cynical about the whole thing,” says Andy Taylor, founder of the Manfred Mann fan club and one of thousands of plot owners. “I thought: ‘What can you do in the Welsh hills? No-one’s going to spoil them,’ but when I got there it was amazing.
“All these other hills have been planted with regimental lines of conifers by the Forestry Commission and it’s the one natural piece of land in the middle of it.”
Taylor has since got to know Mann, who is still touring with his band, and says the musician would “bite your ear off” if his Welsh hillside was regarded as a publicity stunt.
“He believed he was making a statement for the environment,” says Taylor. “It’s a great album, a great idea and it was meant very genuinely by Manfred at the time. I’m frequently asked which is my square foot but I haven’t got a clue – we share this piece of countryside which has been preserved.”
- Patrick Barkham, The Guardian
'5-4-3-2-1' ("Uh-huh, it was the Man-freds ...")
'Trouble And Tea'
'Cubist Town'
'Ha! Ha! Said The Clown'
'Mighty Quinn'
|
|
|
|
Post by cypher on Jun 6, 2020 1:51:37 GMT
The Balloon Farm - A Question of Temperature
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 6, 2020 20:33:41 GMT
Burning Zombification
One of the great English musical success stories of the 1960s was the rise of the Zombies. They were formed by keyboardist Rod Argent, guitarist Paul Atkinson, guitarist Colin Blunstone and drummer Hugh Grundy in sleepy St. Albans, a picturesque city in Hertfordshire. The band was soon augmented by the hiring of elegant jazz bassist Chris White, a local boy from nearby Barnet. Together, they developed the Zombies sound which melded blues, classical, country, folk and jazz influences to create textural soundscapes set to driving beats. All were virtuosos, all were multi-instrumentalists and they all worked together in solidarity for the purposes of the song.
“We were in the States last year and at the end of the summer tour we did a festival at the Santa Monica Pier. Now, admittedly it was a free festival but we had the biggest ever audience there. We had between 17 and 22 thousand people there. It was just extraordinary to think that that could happen at this stage and that was the biggest audience that we’ve ever played to, apart from the Philippines audience way back in 1967. So the feeling that you can still move forward and that it’s important for you to do that creatively- I think that is part of something which keeps things fresh and honest for other people.”
- Rod Argent speaking in 2015, VIVA
The Zombies practise 'The Way I Feel Inside' during rehearsals
If I had to select one American psychedelic album to represent everything I feel about psychedelia, it'd be 'Forever Changes' by Love. This has been my feeling ever since a postman I used to know in Stoke-On Trent played it to me (we were both massive psych fans) about 25 years ago.
If I were asked the same question with regard to English albums, my choice would be 'Odessey And Oracle' (1968) by the Zombies. I discovered it through an article covering the top 100 albums of all-time, as selected by the staff of 'MOJO' magazine. I forget when it was first published, but I think it was probably in the early 1990s. At the time, I was seeing a girl from Liverpool who counted the Zombies' song 'She's Not There' as one of her three favourite songs of all-time, so I'd been listening to early recordings by the Zombies. When I put 'Odessey And Oracle' on the player, I was instantly swept away to another time and place by the music - it was akin to the feeling I get when looking up at space - yet, there was something intensely personal about the lyrics and the songwriting. It's a great feeling discovering those records that stay with you for the rest of your life, a feeling you can't manufacture. The quest for music must never end.
"THE LATEST VOLUME of MOJO ’60s, MOJO’s decade-specific sister magazine, features a brand new catch-up with ’60s cult heroes The Zombies. MOJO ’60s Volume 9, featuring The Zombies, Keith Moon and more.
The venerable group, still led by original undead Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent, are set to tour the US later this month, and are also due to play their classic Odessey And Oracle album in its entirety at the prestigious London Palladium on September 29.
“I’m mystified that people are still discovering the record,” says Blunstone, speaking to Lois Wilson in MOJO ’60s Volume 9. “I can only explain the renewed interest through word of mouth. Musicians like Paul Weller and Dave Grohl often say how much they like the album and that has led to its reassessment and helped introduce it to new generations.”
Odessey And Oracle occupies an exceptional place in the rock canon. Widely proclaimed a work of genius comparable with The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, it is also, simultaneously somehow, a well-kept secret. In many respects, this dichotomy is symptomatic of the position in which the band found themselves back in early 1968 just prior to the album’s release.
Formed in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in the early ’60s, The Zombies arrived in the disguise of a typical beat group of the time. Their debut single, She’s Not There (released in August 1964), provided them with a Top 20 UK hit and peaked at Number 2 in the US, the track characterised by Colin Blunstone’s winsome vocal and composer Rod Argent’s electric piano. In terms of commercial pop success, they never bettered it.
However, by 1967 The Zombies’ sound had grown more sophisticated and they’d signed to CBS, beginning work on a more ambitious second album. Their budget was modest – a mere £1000, with sessions beginning in June and using downtime at Abbey Road and Olympic Studios. However, by the time Odessey And Oracle emerged in April ’68, the five-piece of Blunstone, Argent, Paul Atkinson (guitar), Chris White (bass) and Hugh Grundy (drums) had effectively split. The failure of two singles prior to the album’s release – Friends Of Mine (October ’67) and Care Of Cell 44 (released November ’67) – contributed to their disillusionment with the industry, exacerbating internal tensions over the band’s musical direction.
Since then Odessey’s reputation has grown amongst connoisseurs and, to a degree, mainstream audiences. The album was afforded further exposure when, from the late ’90s onwards, key track Time Of The Season was used in a string of TV commercials to sell goods as diverse as women’s hygiene products, soft drinks and cider. In addition to their appearance in MOJO ’60s, the group and their masterpiece album are documented in a brand new book entitled The Odessey: The Zombies In Words And Images which is published by Reel Art Press/BMG Books."
- Phil Alexander, MOJO
'Time Of The Season'
'Maybe After He's Gone'
'Telescope (Mr. Galileo)'
'Smokey Day'
'Conversation Off Floral Street'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 6, 2020 21:27:03 GMT
Wavering Faces
Small Faces were the psychedelic summer's quintessential London band. They quickly worked their way up through the live circuit and were formidable musicians. They also proved to be insanely prolific songwriters within the group's short lifetime. Because they were all a bit on the small side, they decided to play up to this through the selection of their band name, their song titles ('HappyDaysToyTown' takes the cake), their lyrics and their artwork.
“I wish we could have stayed together, but Steve (Marriott) was gung ho.”
- Kenney Jones
Small Faces perform 'Song Of A Baker' in England in 1968 | Small Faces perform 'Tin Soldier' with P.P. Arnold
..
Guitarist Steve Marriott left Small Faces to form the band Humble Pie in 1969. The remaining band members brought in singer Rod Stewart to be their new frontman and guitarist Ronnie Wood, both of whom were members of the Jeff Beck Group. The band then shortened their name to become the Faces (after a short stint as Quiet Melon).
"I think Mick Jagger is more of a showman than I am. And I’m more of a singer than he is. That’s not a put-down of either of us. I don’t sit in front of a mirror and work anything out, they just develop and if people like something I leave it in. Jolson used to jump up on the piano. He’s my hero. Al Jolson. It’s just a way of putting a point across. Everybody’s been doing it. Jumping up on pianos, sliding across the stage. Actually I’ve never seen anybody else slide across the stage. That might be just mine. I used to do it real low when we had a glass stage. I’d slide across on my stomach and get these huge red marks going up and down. Like I’d been whipped. Looked incredible … so they tell me."
- Rod Stewart speaking in 1973, Rolling Stone
'Here Comes The Nice'
'The Universal'
'Ogden's Nut Gone Flake'
'Afterglow Of Your Love'
'Stone'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 6, 2020 22:43:41 GMT
Terminal Troglodyte
Among the original beat groups, the Troggs were the raucous outfit that went on to become psychedelia's great romantics, which is a reflection of their talent and diversity. They were discovered by Welsh pop singer Larry Page, a talented songwriter who'd become manager of the Kinks. Page contributed some songwriting to the Troggs' albums though the group's principal songwriter was frontman and ocarina player Reg Presley.
"Twenty-five years after Wild Thing, the Troggs soldier on. Indeed, they've recently interrupted their busy schedule of live engagements to once again enter the recording studio – their real forte, as many will agree. They've just demo'd three songs ("very commercial") for a new album to be recorded in the Seychelles and perhaps produced by none other than Roger Daltrey, whom Reg Presley hasn't seen since the Troggs supported the Who in America in 1968. Chris Britton and Reg remain from 21 years ago; the immortal Ronnie has been replaced by Dave Maggs ("an Aylesbury lad"); playing bass is Peter Lucas from Salisbury.
Reg, however, has another string to his bow: in 1974 he designed and patented for a year an automatic fog-warning device. When the patent expired, the system was adopted for the end of the runway at Heathrow.
Presley : "And now I think it's being used along the M25. At the time I was brought down by the Road Research Centre. When I phone them, I thought maybe it's not such a good idea, hahaha. I didn't realise at the time how smart the bastards were, hahahaha! I thought they'd be on my side, but you live and learn, hahaha! I've got another idea now for reclaiming the desert – but nobody's going to know until it's patented for life."
- Mat Snow, The Guardian
'Little Girl'
The Troggs were a massive influence on punk but this has a lot to do with their early recordings, including singles released in 1966 like 'A Girl Like You' and 'Wild Thing' (a song written by Chip Taylor, the American songwriter behind 'I Can't Let Go' which was recorded by the Hollies). Buzzcocks used to cover the Troggs live which is telling as they were arguably the most romantic of English punk bands.
'In March 1970, the Chicago Tribune quoted main Fug Ed Sanders to the effect that his solo album was “punk rock—redneck sentimentality” — this is widely regarded as the first use of the phrase. Such references are scattered all over the early 1970s. Suicide advertising a November 1970 gig with the phrase “punk music,” Lester Bangs calling Iggy Pop a punk, Lenny Kaye describing what we would today simply call garage rock bands as “classic garage-punk.” For Christ’s sake, Ellen Willis was using the term in the pages of The New Yorker. It was a thing, and everybody had a different take on what “punk music” was and what it meant. It was, in short, a moniker looking for a movement. A certain kind of music fan was looking for something, but didn’t quite know what it was.'
- Dangerous Minds
"Beat merchants turning three chords into pure gold, the Troggs issued an impressive, hard-to-top string of singles from 1966 through 1973. They have been covered by everyone from Jimi Hendrix and the MC5 to Spiritualized, X and R.E.M, and along the way influenced countless garage bands and punk rockers. Some might call the Troggs style simplistic or even neanderthal, but is that such a bad thing? So turn up your speakers, do not relax, and for heavens sake avoid floating downstream."
- Dave Swanson, Ultimate Classic Rock
'Jingle Jangle'
'Cousin Jane'
'Purple Shades'
'Love Is All Around'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 6, 2020 23:22:24 GMT
Blue Moods
The Moody Blues are psychedelic titans but I find they're a difficult band to pick out individual songs for. This is because their albums are like operatic suites, with lots of overlaps, songs in segments, and music that flows continuously. They evolved this way over time as their early singles were raw and alive but they were always drawing from opera, classical music and musicals. Their first album, 'The Magnificent Moodies' (1965), included the group's rendition of 'It Ain't Necessarily So', a song by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin. If you listen to this recording, you can hear the basic framework for the band's most iconic track, 'Nights In White Satin'.
"My first job was with a rock ’n’ roll singer called Marty Wilde, just playing guitar for him when I was 17 when I started. He told me then that just to survive in the business you have to create your own identity, and the best way of doing that is through songs. So I really came to the Moodies with the purpose of getting my songs done. I don’t find it easy to listen to my own voice. I’m not really a singer — I’m a guy who does these songs."
- Justin Hayward, Variety
The Moody Blues perform 'Dr. Livingstone, I Presume' & 'Ride My See-Saw' in France in 1968
So, to my mind, the best way to immerse yourself in this band's progressive psychedelics is to play their albums which are carefully sculpted, fluid in motion, packed with ideas and rich in artistry.
"The Moody Blues had started out as a rootsy band, as far removed from symphonic rock as they could be. "We were originally a rhythm-and-blues band, wearing blue suits and singing about people and problems in the Deep South," frontman Justin Hayward told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. "It was okay, but it was incongruous, getting us nowhere, and in the end we had no money, no nothing." Then came what Hayward says was "a series of wonderful accidents." Their label, Decca Records, was looking to recoup money it had advanced the Moody Blues, while promoting then-new stereo recording equipment that produced the so-called Deramic Sound. Already a hit with classical listeners, Decca was hoping stereo would take off with the rock crowd, as well.
"Up until that time, most albums, of course, were only in glorious mono," bassist John Lodge told the St. Petersburg Times in 2000. "Later, we had to actually go back into the studio and remix it into mono, because so many people wanted it in mono. They didn't have stereo players."
Decca suggested blending classical and rock ideas, in the hopes of speaking to both audiences.
"They wanted us, as a way to pay off that debt, to do a demonstration record of a rock version of Dvorak with [conductor] Peter Knight playing the real Dvorak between our pieces and an engineer mixing them together so people would say, 'Oh, that sounds wonderful in stereo,'" Hayward noted on the Moody Blues' official site in 2012. Producer “Michael Barclay, whose project it was to get these demonstration records together, suggested we do it the other way around: We do our songs and then Peter Knight would orchestrate pieces in between our songs, and so that's what we did."
It was a stroke of genius – or, more correctly, a stroke of accidental genius. Through sheer force of will, the Moody Blues created the perfect vehicle for a groundbreaking combination. "We said, yeah, sure we'd do it," Hayward told the Los Angeles Times, "and then, after we said yes, we went down to the pub and decided to do our own songs instead."
- Nick Deriso, Ultimate Classic Rock
'Boulevard De La Madeleine'
'Evening : The Sunset \ Twilight Time'
'Tuesday Afternoon'
|
|
|
|
Post by cypher on Jun 9, 2020 0:30:53 GMT
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - The Supernatural
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 9, 2020 21:11:11 GMT
Speed Deemons
One of the first English rock 'n' roll bands formed in the 1960s was Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. They've enjoyed something of a revival in fortunes of late, due to critically acclaimed American genre filmmaker Quentin Tarantino including their song 'Hold Tight' on the soundtrack to his organic action spectacular 'Death Proof' (2007).
This oddly named collective was founded in Salisbury, Wiltshire and consisted of young musicians living in and around the local area. In the second half of the decade, the group spent more weeks combined on the national chart than high-profile bands like the Kinks and the Who, such was their popularity at the time. Elton John recorded a cover version of 'Snake In The Grass' which is a track from their album 'Together' (1969).
"Two former BBC employees, Ken Howard and Howard Blaikley, were managing the Honeycombs and they saw Dave Dee and the Bostons on the same bill at a ballroom in Swindon. They offered to manage them but said that they should become Dave Dee, Dozy (Trevor Ward-Davies), Beaky (John Dymond), Mick (Michael Wilson) and Tich (Ian Amey).
"We thought they couldn't be serious," said Ward-Davies, "but it was a clever move. The disc jockeys would play our records and get the name wrong and then spend the next minute getting it into the correct order. It was a talking point, and it is a good name. You can't say those names in any other order and make it flow."
It was also a clever move because, as Howard pointed out, it indicated that there were five individual personalities in the group, although the focus was the winking and grinning Dave Dee. The band was signed to Fontana Records by Jack Baverstock and assigned to the producer Steve Rowland. Howard and Blaikley wrote the A-sides of their singles and the big breakthrough came in March 1966 with "Hold Tight!".
- Spencer Leigh, The Independent
'Hold Tight'
Whether channeling homegrown music-hall ditties on 'Loos Of England', West African rhythms on 'Zabadak!', or North American harmonies on 'Mr. President', Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich always took unsuspecting listeners for a wild psychedelic ride. They experimented a lot with sound, providing a crucial early blueprint for abstract outfit XTC who arose under similar circumstances in Swindon, Wiltshire a decade later. Six-string guitar maestro Ian Amey [Tich] and drummer Michael Wilson [Mick] still reside back home in Salisbury (bassist Trevor Ward-Davies [Dozy] lived in Patney, Wiltshire until his death in 2015).
“All of us were friends growing up in Salisbury, in Wiltshire, and Tich lived across the road from me. As youngsters, we learned the chords on our cheap instruments until it hurt. We were big fans of The Shadows and Tich wanted to be Hank Marvin, while I saw myself as Bruce Welch. We dreamed of the big time and formed a band called Dave Dee and the Bostons, while we also kept down our day jobs; Dave was a policeman and I was a painter and decorator. Mick our drummer gave us all nicknames and we became Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich in 1964 – a name which just stuck and worked well for us. You Make It Move, our first song in 1965, reached number 26 and then Hold Tight! got to number 2 while we were doing the Gene Pitney tour in 1966."
- John Dymond [Beaky], The Express
'Shame'
'The Tide Is Turning'
'Love Is A Drum'
'The Legend Of Xanadu'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 9, 2020 22:35:14 GMT
Hermit Kingdom
The Animals sang 'Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood' (first recorded by Nina Simone in 1964) but no band was more misunderstood than fellow cover artists Herman's Hermits who fell victim to the pressures of the pop music industry in much the same way the Monkees did in the United States of America. They were backed by a powerful corporate machine that held them down to secure its own interests. Sometimes their own choice of compositions were swept aside in favour of happenin' cover material, their members were replaced by session players and frontman Peter Noone was made the centre of attention to the point of almost being the sole focus of attention.
They were discovered in Manchester by Harvey Lisberg who became their manager. Among Lisberg's clients was a talented young songwriter from Salford named Graham Gouldman (10CC), which was to prove crucial to the Hermits' musical development, as he provided them with songs like 'For Your Love', 'Listen People', 'East West' and the working-class anthem 'No Milk Today'. Gouldman's compositions 'Evil Hearted You' and 'Heart Full Of Soul' were recorded by proto-supergroup the Yardbirds, who emerged from the bicycle lanes of the Surrey Delta.
Gouldman's songs 'Pamela Pamela' and 'The Impossible Years' were recorded by another Manchester outfit, Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders, and when Gouldman later became a member of the Mindbenders himself, he served up controversial songs like 'Schoolgirl' and brought fellow bassist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) into the creative fold as an arranger. Gouldman also presented 'Look Through Any Window' and 'Bus Stop' to local hitmakers the Hollies, establishing an already growing reputation for being one of Manchester's most promising young songwriters to emerge in the mid-1960s.
Today, English music scholars suggest, if not for Gouldman, the Hermits would have been stuck performing covers of songs by George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin. Renowned record producer Mickie Most also had a stake in the band's fortunes and helped push them as a wholesome, clean-cut, family-friendly attraction for the aspiring girl next door to follow.
Renegade rhythm section John Bonham & John Paul Jones get their ramble on ...
Meanwhile, the Hermits' arch city rivals the Hollies had become prolific songwriters and were moving in the opposite direction completely. They knocked out a self-penned tune in 1968 that loyal Hermits fans maintain to this day could have been a Herman classic, if the band had gotten hold of it, the psychedelic sunshine anthem 'Jennifer Eccles'. Interestingly, the Hollies then recorded a song written by Tony Macaulay (a songwriter for the Foundations) and Geoff Stephens while guitarist Terry Sylvester (The Swinging Blue Jeans) slotted into the band, resulting in the soaring psychedelic regret parable 'Sorry Suzanne' which I've always thought might easily have been a hit for the storytelling, late 1960s incarnation of the Hermits, had it emerged just a year earlier.
"Hey, girls, who's your favorite Herman? Only one answer to that question, of course. It had to be Herman. The other four guys - who knew their names? If you were really up on things, you knew Herman's real name was Peter Noone. But unless you were British, you probably didn't know that he began his show business career in 1961 under the name Peter Novak, playing a recurring character in the British soap opera "Coronation Street." He was all of 13 at the time and only 15 when he joined the Heartbeats, a Manchester quartet looking to make it on the coattails of bands from that city's rival, Liverpool.
With Noone's arrival, the band changed its name to Herman and the Hermits and acquired two managers, Harvey Lisberg and Charlie Silverman who also wrote songs. Noting the band's popularity at home, Lisberg and Silverman bundled them down to London where they recorded two of their songs with producer Ron Richards who was working with another Manchester band, the Hollies.
Mickie Most, a hotshot young producer currently working with the Animals heard the demo and told the managers that if they replaced the rhythm section, he'd take a chance with them. And the new guitarist Derek Leckenby said he thought the name Herman's Hermits would be better. So they changed it. In July 1964, Most finished producing the Animals and took the Hermits on for his next production, a recent hit for an American singer, Earl-Jean written by the dynamic duo of Carole King and Gerry Goffin.
'Woke up this morning feeling fine.
There's something special on my mind.
Last night I met a new girl in the neighborhood.
Oh, yeah.
Something tells me I'm into something good.
Something tells me I'm into something good.
She's the kind of girl...'
Copying the original in everything but gender, the record soared to the top of the British charts and scored an American deal with MGM, which had already signed the Animals. It only got to number 13 in the states, but the follow-up hit number two and Hermania - as they were calling it in England - was born."
- Ed Ward, National Public Radio
"The Hollies came to Sweden in the shadow of Herman’s Hermits, but went home as the great winners. Their vitality knocked the socks off both the critics and the public in Tennishallen. They became the main attraction at the show, even to the extent that many people shouted –“We want the Hollies”, or stood up and walked out when Herman (& the Hermits) entered the stage – he was on after the Hollies. A bitter moment for cute Herman!
The Hollies play “proper” pop music. They are the kind of band that has got followers who are listening instead of screaming and jumping. There is never any charging of the stage or any disturbance at the doors after a Hollies concert. But it’s wrong to think that they are any the less popular! The Hollies play anything from sad ballads to the wildest songs of Chuck Berry. And they prepare their songs thoroughly, arranging harmonies and solos. And add to that, that every note is perfectly clear and that it swings, then it’s easy to understand that they stole the show.
You can tell that the Hollies are very inspired by Country & Western music, and they gladly admit it. And of course the Beatles and Chuck Berry are among their favorites. At least one of Chuck’s songs is always included in every concert – here they did “Too Much Monkey Business”. And they made you realize that the song is really good!
The Hollies consists of five lads from Manchester. They are between 23 and 25 years old, and they don’t have extremely long hair. Allan Clarke is the name of the singer – one of England’s best pop singers.
Tony Hicks, solo guitar, is a little guy, alert as a squirrel, with an amazing dexterity, who has a whole bunch of guitars with him on stage. He sings too.
Graham Nash, rhythm guitar, is a calm and nice bloke, who sings himself blue in the face behind the microphone.
Eric Haydock takes care of the bass - with a confident sense of rhythm that is the backbeat of the band.
Finally Bobby Elliott at the drums – a guy with fair hair and a checkered shirt.
None of the guys is so cute or really sweet that he awakes motherly feelings or makes girl’s hearts beat faster.
Both musically and personally, the Hollies are a tight unit. No one is mentioned before the other, and no one is always standing at the front of the stage. They all make the point that it’s not Allan who is singing or Tony who performs the guitar solos, but it’s simply the Hollies who do.
"We try to keep together as much as possible", says Graham Nash. "We haven’t got a bandmaster, everyone has an equal say. This works most of the time, and if it doesn’t, our manager comes along and gives all five of us an equal telling off."
- Review of a concert given by The Hollies & Herman's Hermits in Stockholm, Sweden, published in Bildjournalen in 1965
'Jennifer Eccles' ~ The Hollies ~ 'Sorry Suzanne'
..
The Hermits sold a ton of records but it wasn't until the release of their soundtrack album 'Hold On!' (1966) that they began to break free of the shackles, recording a number of bright pop tunes composed by Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan, at the behest of Lou Adler. The band appeared in Arthur Lubin's popular film musical 'Hold On!' (1966) in the same year.
The following year, they set about recording two albums containing a smattering of Gouldman compositions and a few hand-picked cover selections, securing a new reputation for themselves as the commercial candy confectioner's answer to the toffee-heavy Vanilla Fudge, while earning eternal bubblegum pop god status in the process. A friend of Manchester, John Paul Jones worked as an arranger for the band during this productive period.
"This is FRESH AIR. The Beatles overwhelmed America when they led the British invasion in 1964. But within a few months, many other bands were vying for attention. Most of them managed a hit or two. But Herman's Hermits hit the American pop charts a total of 22 times. Bear Family Records has released a 66 track compilation record of their work called the "Best Of Herman's Hermits."
- David Bianculli, National Public Radio
'Museum'
'Sunshine Girl'
'Upstairs Downstairs'
'It's Nice To Be Out In The Morning'
|
|
|
|
Post by cypher on Jun 11, 2020 15:44:26 GMT
Gypsy - Turning Wheel
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 11, 2020 20:11:19 GMT
Animalympians
I bought the complete Animals compact disc box-set when I was a teenager which I think had pretty much every available recording laid down by the band in the years up to and including 1966. They then shifted gears due to line-up changes, leading to the inauguration of Eric Burdon & the Animals. Following the dissolution of the original group, in the autumn of 1966, guitarist Hilton Valentine (Skiffledog) embarked upon a solo career, keyboardist Alan Price (The Alan Price Set) worked on a variety of musical projects, keyboardist Dave Rowberry (The Mike Cotton Sound) played sessions and recorded with the Kinks, organist Mick Gallagher (The Blockheads) composed music scores and recorded with the Clash, bassist Chas Chandler became a record producer and worked extensively with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and drummer John Steel (Eggs Over Easy) became a proto-pub figurehead to the retrospective pub rock movement. Only drummer Barry Jenkins (The Nashville Teens) moved forward with singer Eric Burdon to become part of the new disguise.
"Contrary to the notion popularized by our record label at the time, we did not choose the name The Animals because of our "wild stage antics," but after the coolest outlaw in Newcastle, a guy named Animal Hogg, who was a prominent member of our gang, which we called the Squatters. He was a colorful local character, living out in the countryside with his faithful dog by his side. We would join him out in the wild on the weekends, and share stories around a campfire. We named ourselves in honor of his free, "animal spirit."
- Eric Burdon, Forbes
'Clapping'
Eric Burdon & the Animals rose in tandem with Jimi Hendrix & the Experience, drawing fan focus and media attention to their respective leaders through a combination of branding, soloing and stage theatrics. With the Animals now belonging to Burdon, he set about writing original songs with Jenkins, multi-faceted guitarist Vic Briggs, multi-instrumentalist John Weider (Family) and bassist Danny McCulloch (The Casuals). Under the new moniker, the cult of Eric Burdon grew strong.
"In their hey-day in the 1960s, The Animals were one of the hottest bands of the British Invasion. Much of that had to do with the raw charisma and powerful voice of the group's lead singer, Eric Burdon, who later went on to form War and also have a solo career."
- Jim Clash, Forbes
'The Black Plague'
'Orange And Red Beams'
'The Immigrant Lad'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 11, 2020 21:47:29 GMT
Heebee Geebees
The Bee Gees had three spiritual and physical homes and remained attached to them all. They were born in Douglas, on the Isle Of Man, where they spent many summers as young boys. They were raised in Chorlton, in the English city of Manchester, where the family had roots and would ultimately move back to. And they spent a susbtantial part of their youth in Australia, after the family emigrated, before eventually returning to the north-west of England in order to pursue their musical ambitions. Their kid brother Andy Gibb, who performed as a solo artist, was born in Manchester.
'Bee Gee Barry Gibb took a trip down memory lane when he visited his childhood home in Manchester during a concert tour. The Gibb brothers were born in the Isle of Man but later moved to Keppel Road in Chorlton, before emigrating to Australia in 1958. Gibb visited the terraced house, which he has bought to rent out, as well as his primary school - Oswald Road - and showed the BBC's entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson around.'
- Bee Gee report pubished by The British Broadcasting Corporation on October 1, 2013
'Paying tribute to the bands legacy, Bee Gees Way is a 70-metre walkway in Redcliffe, free to see every day and night, celebrating the illustrious career of the band. The Moreton Bay Region is the home of the Bee Gees, a group whose tunes have been heard all over the world, having sold more than 200 million records.
Every night from 7pm to 9.30pm, visitors witness light shows set to the Bee Gees’ greatest hits, such as “Stayin’ Alive”, “How Deep Is Your Love”, and “Night Fever”.
Bee Gees Way was developed in collaboration with Barry Gibb. It features life-size statues of Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. Be sure to snap a shot with both of the statues.
#BeeGeesWay
Bee Gees Way hosts more than 60 captioned photographs, 13 album covers, personal stories and reflections and a 70-metre mural featuring the artwork of the Gibb brothers. It also has a giant 5.3 square metre video screen playing exclusive interviews with Barry Gibb and never before seen home movie footage, along with Bee Gees songs.
The annual Bee Gees Way Dinner is always a sell-out event in September. Also enjoy the many restaurants, cafes and bars nearby.
#BeeGeesWay
Due to current health advice on social distancing, please contact the business for the most up to date information regarding opening times and services.'
- 2020 press release authorised by the Queensland Tourist Board
"It is very emotional to see the plaque - Robin brought me here many, many times. He always wanted to show us different places on the Isle of Man, the place he had his first bee sting, the place he had his first ice cream and the place where he was born, that's why it has been so emotional."
- Dwina Gibb discusses the unveiling of a blue plaque in tribute to the Bee Gees on the Isle Of Man, in an article published by the British Broadcasting Corporation on April 24, 2013
"The iconic south Manchester building where the Bee Gees first performed could be kept alive after a lifeline was given regarding its future. Earlier this week, it was reported that the Chorlton Community Land Trust’s (CLT) bid to try and stop the former Gaumont Cinema building from being demolished was rejected. The building, which is owned by The Co-Op, was where the Bee Gees brothers first band The Rattlesnakes made their live debut in 1957."
- Adam Maidment reporting on January 24, 2020, Manchester Evening News
A Bee Gees promotional film for 'Idea' created for German television in 1968, with designs by Belgian pop artist Guy Peelleart
The Bee Gees were a key group in the evolution of psychedelic pop music. In the 1970s they achieved further success, earning the band the title, Britain's Kings Of Disco.
"We were watching the Easy Beats and the Seekers go back to England and having great success and it was really the Beatles yes, but the Hollies more. We loved the Hollies and the Four Tunes. Remember the Four Tunes? It’s terrible that people don’t talk about them anymore because they were probably the best vocal group I ever heard. They did that song 'You’ve Got Your Troubles'. Anyway, it was the Hollies, the Four Tunes and the Beatles that convinced us we got to do it. We could do the harmonies and we could go back there and take a shot and that was sort of what we did. And typical of the whole journey we were told along the way we couldn’t make it. “Don’t worry about it boys, you just need to get a job, don’t worry about it.” And we wanted to be discovered! We didn’t know what it meant, but we wanted to be discovered."
- Barry Gibb discusses how the Gibb Brothers convinced their parents to move back to the north-west of England from Australia, The Listener
"From 1964 onwards, The Beatles were by far and away the most significant influence on Australian pop musicians. During 1964-1966, other acts also influenced musical trends Down Under such as the early versions of The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Manfred Mann and The Kinks. These bands in particular “opened the door” to Blues music, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, etc. Other influences were the Motown and Soul artists, The Hollies, The Who and the Small Faces. The Yardbirds, with Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, also had an influence that was later enhanced by Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
With regard to The Hollies, it is important to note that they influenced a number of significant and internationally successful Aussie bands. These were the Bee Gees (they covered “Just One Look” in 1964), The Twilights, Zoot and Little River Band, all harmony bands. Each of these bands had members who enjoyed international success either through their band (Bee Gees & LRB), as a soloist (Zoot’s Rick Springfield) or as a songwriter for other artists (The Twilight’s lead guitarist Terry Britten).
Graeham Goble, a harmony singer and composer in LRB has recognised The Hollies as an early influence. His first band had 3 part harmonies similar to The Hollies. LRB, which had 6 Top 10 hits in the USA (the same as The Hollies), featured the three way harmonies of Goble, lead singer Glenn Shorrock and Beeb Birtles.
Shorrock was previously the lead singer of The Twilights, a band that covered The Hollies on 3 occasions. The Twilights took 2 album tracks, being “Come On Home” (from “In The Hollies Style”) and “What’s Wrong With The Way I Live” (from “For Certain Because”) for their 2nd and 8th singles and also the hit “Yes I Will” for their first LP.
In 1966 Birtles was in a band called “Down the Line” named after The Hollies’ track on their 3rd LP. Birtles later was in Zoot, a band that sang “Rain On The Window” (from “Evolution”) on local television.
When considering the merit of The Hollies’ influence on Australian artists during the Sixties, it is important to note the most successful artists of that decade in terms of Top 40 chart longevity. Elvis Presley and The Beatles dominated the Adelaide, Australia, Top 40 charts for 733 weeks and 586 weeks respectfully during the Sixties. They were followed by other acts of influence being The Rolling Stones (256 weeks), The Animals/Eric Burdon & The Animals (199), The Hollies (180), Manfred Mann (174), The Who (147) The Kinks (141) and The Yardbirds (127).
Interestingly, the British bands that were not generally considered to be influential (but may have been in some quarters) had strong runs in the charts. These were The Shadows (268 weeks), Herman’s Hermits (250), The Dave Clark Five (177), Gerry & The Pacemakers (158), Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (127), The Troggs (124) and The Searchers (107).
Some British singers charted more strongly than the bands, such as Cliff Richard (379 weeks), Petula Clark (247), Tom Jones (239), Dusty Springfield (200), Donovan (155), Cilla Black (150) and Sandie Shaw (137). The following USA acts also enjoyed lengthy stays in the charts. Roy Orbison (387 weeks), Gene Pitney (315), Del Shannon (195), The Monkees (176), Nancy Sinatra (158), Peter, Paul & Mary (145) and The Beach Boys (111). Needless to say, many of these acts were influential.
For The Hollies to be grouped with such wonderful talent is an achievement in itself. However, to be able to stand out from the crowd and influence other musicians is something else. The Hollies, with their brilliant vocal and instrumental performances, were able to do this. They captured the hearts and imagination of Australian musicians and inspired them to pursue their love of music. As noted above, some went onto to become international stars. Others just carried on playing their music in pubs and clubs and at parties. The Hollies should be very proud of having earned the respect and admiration of other musicians and for having influenced them along the way."
- Eric O'Dock, 'Elevated Observations'
'Turn Of The Century'
'Lemons Never Forget'
'Deeply Deeply Me'
'Odessa (City On The Black Sea)'
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Jun 12, 2020 11:05:15 GMT
Five Finderouters
The Dave Clark Five were at the forefront of the British Invasion and pushers of the Tottenham Sound, a response to Liverpool's Mersey Beat sound. American G.I.’s were among the first to hear this group from London as they regularly performed at American military bases in the United Kingdom. They were one of the first English beat pop bands to tour the United States of America - possibly even the first - and they enjoyed immense popularity stateside. From 1962 to 1970, they knocked out one hit single after another, and headlined filmmaker John Boorman's pop fantasy, 'Catch Us If You Can' (1965).
"If the Beatles ever looked over their shoulders, it was not the Stones they saw. They saw the Dave Clark 5 or Herman's Hermits."
- Andrew Loog Oldham
'Live In The Sky'
The band's occasional ventures into psychedelic territory have often been overlooked, though perhaps for a reason. A canny businessman and keen entrepreneur, drummer and bandleader Dave Clark successfully controlled the group's fortunes, engineered their abrasive sound and retained private rights over the master recordings. It's an impresive feat for the times, but this is also credited with the band's recordings having frequently fallen out of circulation, which is unfortunate. Across a three-minute single, there were few better than the Dave Clark Five.
"I'm the first one to admit I may look like this hopelessly stuck-in-the-Sixties nut for some people, and whatever nuttiness of the sort I may possess, I rarely get the urge to fight it, that's true. However, I'll also be the first one to admit that the Sixties - and the early Sixties in particular - also had a lot of crap music (even if I would take crap music from 1962 over crap music from 2002 regardless of pretty much anything). Many of the bands of that epoch were little more than stars-for-a-day; many have long since completely been written out of history as bubblegum rubbish with no lasting value. (Does anyone still listen to Herman's Hermits? And these guys had their share of catchy tunes.).
Nevertheless, the reverse is also true: due to the enormous overshadowing figure of the Beatles, a great lot of bands that are quite worthy in their own limited rights have been forgotten alongside the truly wretched combos. That fate nearly befell the Pretty Things (still revered only in select "secret cult societies" for their unique psychedelic twist in the late Sixties); that fate nearly befell the Hollies; and that fate totally befell the Dave Clark Five, a band that, curiously, used to be one of the main pillars of the British Invasion.
I am not saying that the Dave Clark Five were a great band. In artistic terms, my judgement is that they could never even threaten the Hollies, much less the Fab Four. And then, of course, there is this 'classic' argument about the Dave Clark Five which is always mentioned whenever the band is mentioned: namely, that they were formally the first British band to follow the Beatles' success in the States and actually knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts with 'Glad All Over'. Of course, the argument has to be taken with a grain of salt. Somebody had to knock the Beatles off the top of the charts, right? Particularly if every teenager in Britain and in the States had already bought a copy of 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. The Beatles were monster hitwriters, but their output wasn't enough to saturate the market. In order to satisfy the demand, in come Dave Clark and his trusty five (four, actually).
Frankly speaking, the Dave Clark Five had a lot of good things going for them. First and foremost, they wrote most of their material themselves - not even the Beatles could boast that around 1963 or 1964. Second, Dave Clark, the band's obvious leader and drummer man, in addition to being the band's own manager, produced their albums all by himself; again, no mean feat for the early Sixties. (Nasty rumours claim, however, that he was barely competent on the drums, and that all the playing on studio recordings was done by session players. Other nasty rumours tell that he never really wrote anything - his name, tacked on beside either Smith, Davidson, or Payton, merely reflected that he, too, wanted his share of the royalties. Away with you, nasty rumours! Scram!)
Third, they made effective use of the saxophone: Denny Payton, the blower, was a full-fledged band member, and who could name me another early Sixties beat band with a sax player? (Oh, right, Manfred Mann. With which the DC5 actually had a lot in common. But they still started out much earlier on this voyage, so you can't confuse me). And fourth, Mike Smith used the keyboards in lots of novel and interesting ways: whereas he was never as technically proficient as, say, Alan Price of the Animals, his array of organ tones is mighty impressive even today, for these demanding little ears of mine. I could swear he was playing Moog synth on a large bunch of DC5 tunes, but no carrot. That's organ, and that's clever.
All of these things collectively came to be known as "the Tottenham sound", and you might as well replace 'Tottenham' with 'London' here, because the important thing was that the DC5 were meant to provide the capital's answer to the scruffy Liverpoodlians. And on a purely factual basis, there was little reason to mock the definition - the Dave Clark Five were bright, upbeat, immediately recognisable, and besides, the Beatles just had two guitar players, and these guys had a guitar player, a piano player, and a sax player, and a pretty good contract, too. If anybody was poised for world domination back in the day, it was this nice clean sweater-clad bunch of Londoners.
But of course, the Dave Clark Five also have a lot of things against them, and if you ask my arrogant (as usual) opinion, it's hardly coincidental that today what few fans of the band there are, in my experience, prefer to speak of them in terms of record sales and organising attitudes, specially emphasizing Dave Clark's personal talents as a businessman. (For instance, he was notorious for securing the copyrights to all of the band's songs from the very beginning, thus making sure that the members would always get their due and not be manipulated by some witty crook like the proverbial Allen Klein or Shel Talmy). It would be wrong to say that the Dave Clark Five sound never evolved with the years - at least on their singles they tried a little bit to follow the times, dabbling ever so slightly in hard rock and psychedelia, but for the most part listening to their LPs reveals their main weakness: they were hopelessly stuck in the sound of the early Sixties. Consequently, the very best output of the DC5 can be found on their earliest and best records, like American Tour. This is, indeed, a terrible flaw, but then it's rather typical of the majority of early British Invasion bands - most just faded away through a sort of natural selection, and the Dave Clark 5, though they managed to last a little longer than others (and even had a couple chart comebacks in the late Sixties), couldn't help but follow suit.
That said, some (much, even) of their output is still worth hearing, even if only for historical reasons, to get a truer perspective on these innocent early Sixties. Those who have no problem with early Beatles, early Hollies, or early Beach Boys, and don't hold any serious biases against that kind of music (a.k.a. "fluff"), but are instead predisposed towards easy-going, catchy, well-written pop melodies, will probably be able to get their kicks out of the Dave Clark 5 as well."
- George Starostin, Only Solitaire
'Sitting Here Baby'
'Inside And Out'
'Maze Of Love'
|
|
|
|
Post by cypher on Jun 12, 2020 15:13:13 GMT
The Kinks - See My Friends
|
|
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-9375374-1479654821-9299.jpeg.jpg)
