Pinkerton's Colours "Magic Rocking Horse"

PINKERTON'S COLOURS-Magic Rocking Horse/It Ain't Right UK DEcca F12493 1966

Quite often folks my age have the 80's British Bam Caruso label and their excellent "Rubble" series to thank for turning us onto a host of amazing tunes. Among those is a track by Pinkerton's Colours (also known as Pinkerton's Assorted Colours) "Magic Rocking Horse".  I was first actually familiar with the tune as it was covered by Milwaukee's lyseric purveyors of psychedelia Plasticland on their untitled 1984 debut LP (along with The Pretty Things/Electric Banana "Alexander"). My intro to the the original version first came via a cassette tape my guru Ron Rimisite passed on to my friend Rudie in 1985. Bam Caruso eventually included it on their 1988 Rubble Vol. 14 "The Magic Rocking Horse" LP.

Though not as trippy as one might suspect due to it's inclusion on a "Rubble" volume, "Magic Rocking Horse"  is nonetheless worth checking out. It was the third and final Decca single released by the U.K. 5 piece previously credited as "Pinkerton's Assorted Colours".  "Magic Rocking House" is a great baroque  pop with ringing acoustic guitars and a melancholy vocal delivery complete with a delightful 12 string acoustic guitar solo that would do The Poets proud.

The flip, "It Ain't Right" sounds like a totally different band (not that that's a bad thing). It's upbeat, rocking and almost a raw r&b/freakbeat thing. High marks!

The band then moved to Pye for three more singles before changing their name in 1969 to The Flying Machine and scoring a massive world wide hit (#5 in the US ) with "Smile A Little Smile For Me".

"Magic Rocking Horse" as mentioned above is available on Bam Caruso's "Rubble Volume 14: The Magic Rocking Horse" and both sides were included on an exhaustive two CD set compiling all the Pinkerton's/Flying Machine recordings titled "Flight Recorder From Pinkerton's Assorted Colors To The Flying Machine".

Hear "Magic Rocking Horse":

https://youtu.be/sGwBkLgR9eU