God Bless Bam Caruso Part Two

THE FLIES-House Of Love/It Had To Be You U.K. Decca F 12594 1967

One of the many joys of Bam Caruso records "Rubble" series is it introduced me to new bands I'd never heard of and furthered my listening experience for bands I'd heard other stuff by. I'd been familiar with The Flie's from their searing fuzzed out cover of The Monkees "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" from "The Great British Psychedelic Trip" LP. I purchased Bam Caruso's "Electric Crayon Set: Rubble Volume Five" and among the many groovy tracks was "House Of Love" by The Flies. Years later I actually found a 45 of it!

Flash back to the Melody Bar in New Brunswick, NJ in 1998, I'm spinning 45's with my pal Scott Belsky at our monthly DJ night "Hub City Soul". I decided to give one of my new purchases a test run on the crowd, who liked to dance. I'd always mixed up U.K. 60's soulful tinged stuff amongst the standard fare of U.S. 60's soul with pretty good results (The Quik, George Fame, The Action, The Nite People etc). Luckily for me the moment the needle hit the grooves on "House Of Love" the floor stayed packed and month after month it became my standard and a favorite of our faithful punters. Banish all thoughts of the same band who cut the mind melting freakbeat insanity that is/was their version of "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone", this is something slightly different. Opening with pounding bass and sneering vocals "House Of Love" might not seem like a dancefloor groover but once it all falls into place with organ and high soulful backing vocals complete with "call and response" it is, as one man said, "a stone gass". The flip is dreadful, like so many U.K. 60's classics (ie Carnaby's "Jump and Dance") the B-side here makes you think two things; 1.) Is this even the same band? and 2.) Why did the back such a monster cut with such a lame track?

Luckily those of you who are interested can still get it on The Flies "The Complete Collection 1965-1968" CD or Bam Caruso's "Electric Crayon Set: Rubble Vol. Five".

Hear "The House Of Love":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSJbtFYLpEQ

THE FLIES Decca promo photo

When Freakbeat Met Soul

THE KOOBAS-You'd Better Make Up Your Mind/A Place I Know U.K. Pye 7N1707 1966

The Koobas ( Stu Leathwood-vocals/rhythm guitar, Roy Morris-guitar, Keith Ellis-bass and Tony O'Reilly-drums)were from Liverpool. They were previously known as "The Kubas" and had a cut on the "Ferry Cross the Mersey" film soundtrack (but were sadly not in the film) before dropping the "u" and adding "oo" to their name. They were managed by Tony Stratton-Smith, who also managed the Creation. They'd cut one beat single as The Kubas ("I Love Her/Magic Potion" on Columbia DB 7451 in January 1965) before moving on to Pye records. Their first offering on Pye as The Kooba's was a competent version of Evie Sand's soul ballad "Take Me For A Little While" b/w "Somewhere In The Night" Pye 7N 17012 in December of 1965 (with numerous non-U.K. picture sleeves for the 45 showing the band in their black shirts and floral hipsters, including one in the U.S. on Kapp). Never commercially successful, the band had a somewhat decent following on the Continent (like most of the best 60's U.K. unsung heroes who never had a chart hit).

Their second single for Pye (and their final before moving onto Columbia for the next two final years of their career) was more interesting. Arriving in April of 1966 it coupled a cover of the Brooks O'Dell soul heart breaker "You'd Better Make Up Your Mind" with an original "A Place I Know", written by Leathwood and Ellis on the flip. Usually U.K. soul covers can go either way: lame (listen to any Keith Powell soul cover) or good (like, The Action!). By now The Koobas had shifted from a beat group to more of a mod/freakbeat type band with far more soul covers and guts to their music and period pics show them in patterned trousers and stripey sweaters/tennis shirts with center parted hair and onstage with Rickenbacker guitars. Their cover choice was fairly obscure and they made it their own by throwing in some fuzz guitar to play the original versions horn section's melody line. This earns it the "freakbeat" tag and vocalist Stu Leathwood's pipes are nice and strong but solemn enough to pull this one off perfectly. Truth be told I'd heard The Koobas version a good 15 years before the original! Flip it over and you've got a mid-tempo "mod" dancer with lots of lyrics about grooving, cool places and the like. It's accented by some high backing vocals and a funky beat and is a taste of the brilliant original material the band would soon be relying on over the next two years. There are two seperate appearances of the band on TV in Germany on "Beat Beat Beat" performing it live in November 1965 and September 1966 respectively!

Both sides have seen proper reissues: "You'd Better Make Up Your Mind" appeared on Sequel's "Doin' The Mod Volume Four:Ready Steady Stop" CD while "A Place I Know" graced "Doin The Mod Vol One:The Go Go Train".

"A Place I Know":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2evIVILgQSI

"You Better Make Up Your Mind":

https://youtu.be/PDn1u-zXfm0

Unsung Great U.K. Psych Pop 45's

OCTOPUS-Girlfriend/Laugh At The Poor Man Penny Farthing N51-1-8 Portugal 1970

Don't let the year "1970" fool you, there are plenty of good U.K. psych/pop 45's out there that sound like 1967. "Laugh At The Poor Man"/"Girlfriend" by Octopus is a perfect example. This was their first single and it appeared on Larry Page's newly launched Penny Farthing label (as PF 705 in the U.K.). The label featured a number of obscure acts and names but did introduce the U.K. to the Dutch act Shocking Blue as well as being a home for talented vocalist Samantha Jones. The single even got a release in Portugal where I scored my copy a few weeks ago, which is somewhat interesting as most Portuguese pressings of British records at that time came from hitmakers, making the debut recording of the relatively obscure Octopus a startling find! I recently heard from the band's guitarist Paul Griggs who tells me the band made a special trip to Portugal (with Samantha Jones) to promote the 45!

Octopus were formerly known as The Cortinas, who released one 45 on Polydor 56255 in 1968 called "Phoebes Flower Shop"(which popped up on the Strange Things Are Happening's "Circus Days Vol.5" CD) . At the time of the debut Octopus 45 the group were: Paul Griggs-vocals/guitars, Rick Williams-guitar, Nigel Griggs-bass(later to join Split Enz) and Brian Glasscock-drums.

"Girlfriend" is a perfect pop record. It's well produced and it's got these three tier harmonies that remind me of the first few Marmalade 45's (before they got crappy and began doing all those dreadful Macaulay-McLeod MOR pop pap numbers). The lyrics boast an amusing line (very obviously pre-sexual revolution) "and my wife, stays at home and works around the house all day" whilst being introspective from the point of view of a happily married man ("thinking back again I can remember very well, the girls I knew, the jukebox songs, the stories I can tell..."). The A-side, "Laugh at The Poor Man" is a bit more wiggy thanks to some wobbly phlanging on the guitar intro but equally entertaining. It almost reminds me of early Badfinger with a slight psychedelic tinge. Both tracks were produced by Larry Page and former Plastic Penny(then Troggs) bassist Tony Murray and are available as bonus cuts on the CD reissue of the band's hideously rare debut LP. Octopus went on to cut another single The River/ The Thief (Penny Farthing PEN 716) before issuing the previously mentioned LP.

Get the full story on Octopus at:

http://www.p.griggsy.btinternet.co.uk/Untitled/Oct1.html

And Paul Griggs book at:

http://www.diaryofamusician.com/

Hear "Laugh At The Poor Man":

https://youtu.be/36PRPv74s6o

Hear "Girlfriend":

https://youtu.be/PXecFfYScus

Walker VS Walker:The Final Straw?

THE WALKER BROTHERS:
SOLO JOHN/SOLO SCOTT E.P. Phillips BE 12597 U.K. 1966

Solo John: Sunny/Come Rain Or Come Shine

Solo Scott: The Gentle Rain/Mrs. Murphy

On a recent trip I scored a few 45's, this being one of them. Yes I don't buy vinyl anymore but there's always something fun in my Lisbon record goldmine(no names, a true anorak does not publically disclose his sources). I'd recently purchased the Scott Walker U.K. DVD documentary "30th Century Man" from Amazon.co.uk (which was waiting for me when I got home) and lo and behold this E.P. gets a mention in it! There's no point in running down any Walker Brothers history, anyone who knows about them will tell you Scott was the talented one. Scott gets the fame thanks to his solo career, Gary gets heavy duty street cred with me because of his amazing post-Walkers freakbeat band Gary Walker & The Rain (responsibile for an amazing but horribly rare Japanese only LP "Album No.1" and some equally cool 45's) and then there's John. What's John known for? Not being as talented.

This E.P. was no doubt in some small way responsible for the rift in the band that led to their split right after their 3rd LP "Images". It's pretty much a given that Scott had the better voice of the three Walkers so it was a severe shot in the foot by whoever had decided that two Walkers be given separate billing on an E.P. Scott had just returned from the Quarr Monastery (where the press stated he'd gone to escape the pressures of life, Walker later stated in an interview a few years back that he'd gone there to learn Gregorian chants) and had been writing material which little by little was gaining a foothold in a band largely reliant on other's compositions. This E.P. would unveil one of his best Walker's tracks that was a window into his signature compositions on his four solo Lp's.

John Maus's (nee Walker) opening E.P. cut, a version of Bobby Hebb's "Sunny" is pointless. The original (as well as a cover by Georgie Fame) were both previously U.K. hits. In fact Fame's version had just reached it's top position (#11) on the U.K. charts a few weeks before this E.P hit the streets. Maus's reading is bland and listless. It's only noteworthy item is the James Bond "007" melody/lick added after the main chorus. His other contribution, the lushly orchestrated "Come Rain Or Come Shine" is not so much as terrible, it's just god awful boring MOR crooner material and it's not helped by his vocal inability. Scott Engel's (nee Walker) contributions are FAR more noteworthy. To be fair and quite perfectly honest, Scott's first cut "The Gentle Rain" is equally boring MOR crooner pap despite sweeping strings (c/o the famous Reg Guest). The next and final cut of the E.P. is "Mrs. Murphy", a Scott Engel original which is well worth the price and sits as the crown jewel on this otherwise lackluster MOR E.P. It's spine tingling intro and sombre strings/woodwind backing is downright brilliant (akin to something on David Bowie's debut LP) with the trademark Walker Brother's Spector-esque tambourine, drums and bass thundering in after the first verse. The lyrics are akin to the social observations that would appear on his later solo work like "Montague Terrace" or "The Amorous Humphrey Plugg". "Mrs. Murphy" is lyrically snippets of apartment building gossip between tenants Mrs. Murphy and Mr. Wilson in a bleak style that evokes British b&w kitchen sink dramas like "A Taste Of Honey" complete with a married woman's (Mrs. Johnson) baby borne by a young man in the building ("poor Mr. Johnson being married to a wife who should be caged, it's the child who will suffer and to think that young man is half her age..."), a relationship that continues after the baby's birth as the last line betrays. Gritty stuff for 1966 England, especially from a band/artist who's audience were screaming teenyboppers more interested in grabbing a hunk or their hair or a scrap of the clothes than actually listening to the lyrics, an issue that would plague Mr. Engel through to his solo career.

All four E.P. cuts appears as bonus tracks on the Phillips reissue CD of the Walker Brothers LP "Portrait".

Hear "Mrs Murphy":

https://youtu.be/5PBdIhlpNXE

God Bless Bam Caruso Part One

THE MIRROR-Gingerbread Man/Faster Than Light Phillips 326 878 BF 1968 Germany

In 1984 or 1985 when I'd firmly decided it was OKAY to call myself a mod and still listen to decidedly "un-mod" music like British 60's psychedelia Mick London (of Mod Fun) turned my pal Rudie and I onto the "Rubble" compilation LP series put out by the good folks at the decidedly strangely monikered Bam Caruso records. The series focused on British 60's psychedelia and freakbeat ( a phrase actually coined by one of the labels founding fathers Phil Smee). Rudie and I duly set out to Vintage Vinyl to seek out these LP's. He purchased "The 49 Minute Technicolor Dream" and I snagged "The Psychedelic Snarl". On my choice there was a poppy little ditty called "Faster Than Light", the sole 45 release by a British band called The Mirror. Despite the 1968 recording/release date it was not at all heavy and sounded distinctly out of place for the era. It also transpires it was the flipside to the semi-ludicrously named "Gingerbread Man".


While original U.K. copies have always been quite scarce German pressings (some even in picture sleeves) were not. At least back in the mid 90's anyway and were not terribly hard to come by. One would assume it had some hit potential in Der Fatherland because there is footage of the band on Beat Club lip syncing the A-side and "Beat Club" did not seem to make a habit of featuring no hope acts. Regardless, let's talk about the record. Despite the daft title, "Gingerbread Man" is not a bad song. The lyrics are typical nonsensical nursery rhyme goobledegook without an ounce of lysergic irony ("lemonade streams and chocolate trees and houses made of sugar...") BUT there's these eerie phased/phlanged horns that brings to mind The Rolling Stone's "We Love You" or The End which are so way out. It's like someone dosed Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers or fed magic mushrooms to Amen Corner. It moves along at a really choppy pace and the middle section features those wiggy horns playing various melodic scales (my favorite part). Flip it over and we're back where we began: "Faster Than Light", the B-side. It begins with an amped up jangly riff and throbby bass and then the uptempo vocals kick in. Imagine The Pre-Fab Four's "Last Train To Clarksville" on a handful of leapers, lyrically it sounds like it could be about a bad trip, but is it? There's a phlanged section in the middle when everything speeds up and the drummer goes Keith Moon style apeshit and it's washed back down to it's beginning speed in a whirl of psychedelic mixing board knob twiddling. Brilliant! "Gingerbread Man" has yet to surface on a legit compilation, but "Faster Than Light" is available in all it's glory on "Rubble One:The Psychedelic Snarl" (don't let the title scare you, go ahead..taste it) or as part of the wonderful box set "The Rubble Collection:Volumes 1-10".

Watch "Gingerbread Man" on German TV's "Beat Club" 1968



Hear "Faster Than Light":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-ig0OTktZ4

60's Brum Beat Part One

MIKE SHERIDAN'S LOT-Don't Turn Your Back On Me Babe/Stop Look And Listen U.K. Columbia DB7798 1966

First off let me start by answering a few questions about my blog: no I won't be posting audio clips with the songs I write about because A.) I don't know how, B.) there's no one to show me how and C.) I don't care. In answer to another question, I only write about 45's I've owned or still own. I've sold off most of my 60's 45 collection so on occasion I have to steal scans from elsewhere because I didn't have the foresight to scan all of the 45's I let go years back when I began the massive analog vinyl divestment.

Here we've got the very last 45 by the Birmingham, U.K. beat group fronted by Mike Sheridan. Formerly known as Mike Sheridan & the Nightriders they became Mike Sheridan's Lot for their previous 45, the brilliant "Take My Hand". The group is also known as the starting point for one Roy Wood, shortly to leave this group and join members of other "Brum beat" acts Carl Wayne & the Vikings and Danny King's Mayfair Set as The Move (in fact the Move were a functioning band for a few months by the time this 45 hit the streets in January 1966).. The A-side is a Jackie de Shannon number. Jackie's tunes were scooped up quite often by British beat acts , usually with fairly decent results and this one is a perfect example of what her tunes were capable of in the hands of competent musicians. This version is especially good because of the gutsy lead guitar riff by Roy (who adds his distinct backing vocals) throughout the number and Sheridan's strong voice. The flipside "Stop Look Listen", while not incredibly good, is not terrible either. It's a mid paced "beat number" not too dissimilar from The Roulettes or The Merseybeats when they tried mid tempo stuff. After Roy Wood's departure for The Move the band became The Nightriders for one final 45 on Polydor (of cover of The Kingsmen's "It's Only The Dog") in late 1966 before morphing (minus Sheridan) into Idle Race following the addition of one Jeff Lynne.

Sadly neither tune has turned up on CD yet and for some odd reason Edsel never issued their complete late 80's Mike Sheridan compilation LP "Birmingham Beat" on CD unlike most of their other titles, leaving these two tunes unheard of by most folks outside of us 60's anoraks.

Hear "Don't Turn Your Back On Me":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz8OnDYI0XU

White British Long Hairs On Blue Beat

MICKEY FINN and THE BLUE MEN-Tom Hark/Please Love Me U.K. Blue Beat BB203 1964

For those not in the know, Blue Beat was a label set up in the U.K. by an enterprising gentleman named Emil Shalit for the purpose of pressing and releasing Jamaican ska music records in England (the label's best seller was the well known ska legend Prince Buster). Ska was quite lucrative in the U.K. owing to the West Indian expat communities mass consumption of such sounds and to a lesser degree the mod movement's discovery of it care of DJ's at the Roaring Twenties club in London. Chris Blackwell helped score a major hit with the ska flavored "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small on Fontana records in the summer of 1964 and the scene seemed set for mass ska craze in Great Britain.

British bands were quick to pick up on the ska craze, but others were already there and done with it by then. Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames had previously cut two ska instrumental 45's (J. A. Blues / Orange Street R&B JB 114 and Stop Right Here / Rik’s Tune R&B JB 126) earlier in their career as The Blue Flames for the small ska label R&B in 1963 and were including ska numbers in their live set (and eventually releasing an entire E.P. of ska covers "Rhythm N' Blue Beat" on Columbia SEG 8334 in 1964 ). Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds cut a 45 under the pseudonym of "The Beazers" called "The Blue Beat"(Decca F11827 1964) and the dreadful Migil Five had a hit with a cheezy ska flavored version of "Mockingbird Hill"(who cares what label it was on, it was god awful).

Britain's Mickey Finn & The Blue Men were an odd lot. They'd been playing r&b, had Jimmy Page actually in their band for a time later on and (to my knowledge) hold the distinction of being the only white British band to have a single released on Blue Beat. Their one and only item on the label came in the form of "Tom Hark", a number that was a 1958 #2 U.K. hit for a South African group called Elias and the Zig Zag Jive Flutes. Georgie Fame included his take of it on his "Rhythm n' Blue Beat" EP in 1964 as well, though I still haven't been able to ascertain which act cut it first. Anyone familiar with it's infectious melody will know how hard it is to remove from your head once you've heard it. Mickey Finn & the Blue Men's take is an instrumental that chugs along with a shuffling mid tempo with some lively organ and plonky bass until a very lively sax bursts in joins on for the rest of the song. The arrangement is unusual because the band's next few releases featured no horns. The B-side "Please Love Me", is sadly a dreadful affair delivered by a VERY deep voiced gentleman who would've been better suited singing doo-wop to the mild ska backing similar to the A-side, it was also written by one Alan Hawkshaw! The record failed to dent the charts but the band held firm to their ska influences when they released their next 45 later in the year on Oriole CB-1927 coupling versions of Bo Diddley's "Pills" b/w Jimmy Reed's "Hush Your Mouth, both numbers being cut with a ska rhythm behind them (you can read about that here) . Both sides of the Blue Beat 45 have been legally reissued to the collection of their work "Garden Of My Mind: The Complete Recordings 1964-1967".

POSTSCRIPT 2015:
It was recently revealed in "Ugly Things" that the actual band Mickey Finn and The Blue Men had nothing to do with this record and that it was recorded using session musicians, among them Alan Hawkshaw who would go on to find fame with The Mohawks and as a KPM house musician.

"Tom Hark":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuf6rTA0-ec

"Please Love Me":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHgYJlrGnfI