Syd Sings!

SYD BARRETT-Octopus/Golden Hair U.K. Harvest HAR 5009 1969

When The Pink Floyd decided not to pick him up any more on the way to a gig in the Spring of 1968 the world had wrongly assumed it had heard the last of Syd Barrett. On November 14, 1969 he was back with a new single produced by ex-bandmates David Gilmour and Roger Waters.  Both the A and B sides were new and would later crop on his debut LP "The Madcap Laughs" (a line in "Octopus") released in January 1970 (U.K. Harvest SHVL 765).

Unless you've been living in a mud hut in Paupa New Guinea or a cave in Afghanistan since 1967 you'll know this so I won't bore you with the stories of Pink Floyd's late founding father Syd Barrett.  You don't need to know how wiggy he was either.  If you do you can read the lyrics to "Octopus":

"Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro'

you have no word
trip, trip to a dream dragon
hide your wings in a ghost tower
sails cackling at every plate we break
cracked by scattered needles
the little minute gong
coughs and clears his throat
madam you see before you stand
hey ho, never be still
the old original favorite grand
grasshoppers green Herbarian band
and the tune they play is "In Us Confide"
so trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro'
you have no word
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!


Isn't it good to be lost in the wood
isn't it bad so quiet there, in the wood
meant even less to me than I thought
with a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
clover honey pots and mystic shining feed...
well, the madcap laughed at the man on the border
hey ho, huff the Talbot
"Cheat" he cried shouting kangaroo
it's true in their tree they cried
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!


The madcap laughed at the man on the border
hey ho, huff the Talbot
the winds they blew and the leaves did wag
they'll never put me in their bag
the seas will reach and always seep
so high you go, so low you creep
the wind it blows in tropical heat
the drones they throng on mossy seats
the squeaking door will always squeak
two up, two down we'll never meet
so merrily trip forgo my side
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!"

Needless to say you get the drift. But for me there's something entertaining to this track. Sure it's pure gobbledygook, but it's entertaining gobbledygook from it's choppy chaotic chord/key/tempo changes (recording with Syd must've surely been an exercise in patience AND madness) and Syd's rapid fire wordplay delivery. Try and sing it all sometime and not screw it up. Mad genius indeed. The flip, "Golden Hair" is a James Joyce poem put to music. I'm not terribly down with poetry, and certainly not any by James Joyce and even a Syd fan like me can't be converted by him mucking around with some. But you've got to give the boy credit for pulling it off. It's spooky and lovely!

Of course the single went absolutely nowhere and became extremely collectible, copies before Barrett's death in 2006 were changing hands in the vicinity of $100-$200, and have since tripled.

Our hero outside his Earl's Court Square flat 1969.

Pic by Mick Rock, the Pontiac was Syd's.

As mentioned earlier both tracks are available on his debut LP "The Madcap Laughs", which you should hear at least once before you check out. There's also a groovy version of "Octopus" called "Clowns And Jugglers" where Syd is joined by The Soft Machine who back him.  This was lovingly unearthed for the outtakes compilation "Opel".

Hear "Octopus":

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

Hear "Golden Hair":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfvh8nn_JkM

Hear "Clowns And Jugglers":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KIfR7ut2Fg

Syd badge from Ivor Trueman's "Opel" fanzine, 1980's.

I've still got mine somehow!

The JB 7's Last Stand at the R&B Corral

THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN-Twenty Four Hours Ago/Seven Faces U.K. Columbia DB 7414 1964

I'm not going to give you a run down on the history of Sir John Barry and his beat instrumental combo The "JB 7" as their drum logo proclaimed, but I will tell you two things about our 45 in question: it was their last and it was their first to feature vocals!

By 1964 The JB 7 had logged an impressive 11 singles, but by this time the veritable band which had been a who's who of British session musicians (among them pianist/arranger Les Reed, guitarist Vic Flick and drummer Bobby Graham) was barely a shell of it's former self.  In 1963 Barry left the band in the hand's of trumpeter Alan Bown remaining part of the band in name only.  By the time of this singles recording the band's line-up was: Bown (trumpet), Mike O'Neill (vocals/keyboards), Terry Childs (baritone sax), Dave Green (tenor sax), Ron Mencinos (guitar), Stan Haldene (bass) and Ernie Cox (drums).

Released in November of 1964, "Twenty Four Hours Ago" suffers from a somewhat strained vocal performance but the musical backing is solid.  With the full power of three horns and added Hammond organ the band could easily have passed for a Flamingo Club "Hammond n' horns" r&b combo.  The flip side, the mod-titled "Seven Faces" is far superior.  It's a mod-jazzy instrumental that's led by Bown's trumpet with some tasty Hammond licks and brilliant sax work and could easily be confused as an outtake by The Graham Bond Organization or Zoot Money's Big Roll Band.

The John Barry Seven (Alan Bown far right)

The band disintegrated shortly after this single and Alan Bown took sax men Haldene and Green with him along with Mike O'Neil's replacement Jeff Bannister to form the nucleus of Anorak Thing friendly mod/r&b band The Alan Bown Set, but that, as they say is another story for another time!

"Twenty Four Hours Ago"  and "Seven Faces" were reissued on the CD collection "John Barry: The EMI Years 1962-1964 Volume Three".

Hear "Twenty Four Hours Ago":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlz3j_prqaE

Great British 60's Freaky 45's

THE SLEEPY-Love's Immortal Fire U.K. CBS 3532 1968

Every now and then you come upon a record by a band you've never heard of and the song just blows your mind you find yourself thinking "how come I've never heard this or how come nobody I know has ever turned me onto this?".   A number of years ago my then girlfriend and I hit Rockit Scientist in NYC (NYC's grooviest CD/vinyl emporium) and I bought this CD compilation of U.K. 60's tracks in a D.I.Y. series called "Jagged Time Lapse" and several glasses of red wine later we were playing this track over and over.  In fact thanks to it's brilliance (and perhaps the wine) decided to skip going back into NYC to attend "Smashed Blocked" and just stay in and continue to groove on this tune.

Years later I'm no closer to knowing who they were or what their story is, but I'm still blown away by this record.  It's got all my favorite mid/late 60's ingredients: flute, a groovy Hammond organ, vocals by a guy who sounds suitably stoned and "mellow", man. The groove it lays down is down right infectious. It's like some song from an imaginary 60's Swinging London film I came up with in my head years ago while being nice, only better. It's good to know that after 25+ years of "Rubble", "Chocolate Soup" and "Electric Sugarcube Flashbacks" there are still a great deal of amazing British psych records like this that have yet to be comped!

Hear it for yourself and be forever changed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSQ-Nw8-xo8

Dozens Like Us

THE PURPLE HEARTS-Millions Like Us/Beat That U.K. Fiction FICS 003 1979

Back in 1981 at the height of my mod mania a friend scored a pile of U.K. "new wave" 45's at a local flea market for .50 a piece.  Among them was the debut single by a U.K.'79 mod band, The Purple Hearts (not to be confused with those Antipodean 60's r&b/freakbeat/mod legends of the same moniker).  Luckily I managed to persuade him to pass it onto me after a good deal of begging, pleading, bribing etc.  Being the lone mod in a small little gang of punks in a rural New Jersey town I took a lot of verbal ribbing from my friends (a nice alternative to the rib kickings we'd often take from the knuckle dragging headbangers or testosterone filled jocks).  One of them derisively referred to the record as "Dozen's Like Us" as his mock ultimate mod put down and on occasion took to referring to me as "Shadbolt Stebbing" (two of the band's members last names). 

Nearly 30 years later most of the '79 mod bands I listened to in the early 80's provide little more than a nostalgic flash that's usually well and truly over after a playing (or attempting playing) of a 2-3 hour iTunes "'79 mods playlist".  Most of The Purple Hearts '79/'80 material for some reason, still appeals to me (Squire and the odd Chords number too), and none more so than this brilliant debut 45 launched in August 1979 just as the Summer of Mod was in some ways drawing to a close. I think what doomed a vast majority of '79 mod bands was their tendency (intentional or not) to come off like a poor man's Jam.  The Purple Hearts vitality, brutality and angst filled 2-3 minute power pop bursts transcended the usual '79 stuff.  True "Millions Like Us" might sound anthemic in it's title but it's sincere and doesn't get up on it's "mod soapbox" with boasting like "Glory Boys" or any of that.  It was far more appealing to this 14-15 year old's ears and mind and still is:

"I wonder why we got so much to prove,

I wonder why we carry on like we do....."

Or my favorite line, which still holds true today:

"You can live by yourself and bore yourself,

you can survive on anything at all, but unless

you're putting something in you'll get nothing

out you'll never win..."

Of course all of this is delivered over a cacophony of harmonious, powerful '65 Who/'66 Creation styled power chords, rave ups, feedback, slashing guitars and a thumping beat. I don't think there was ever a finer record offered by any British mod scene after the 60's, and probably never will. The best part of it all is the slow boil rave up that starts at about 1:54 into the track that builds to a crescendo of pure mod/power pop mayhem.

The flipside, "Beat That" is equally cool.  A little slower and more chaotic/discordant than the A-side it's still spunky with some searing cynicism from the pen of guys who were probably just out of their late teens and living at home with mom and dad:

"Oh how I wish it hadn't happened,
oh how I wish I hadn't been caught,
there's a mortgage and it's over my
head I've got a wife and two kids to
support.  The divorce came through
the other day..."

The B-side was re-recorded for the band's debut LP "Beat That" where it lost a bit of it's spark. But The Purple Hearts went on to make some more great records, covering , and in turn turning me onto 60's Bowie ("I Can't Help Thinking About Me") and The Equals ("The Guy Who Made Her A Star"). Luckily both sides of the 45 were added as bonus cuts (along w/ the other Purple Heart's Fiction records 45 tracks) for the CD reissue of the "Beat That" album and someone at Rhino records had the forward thinking to include "Millions..." on their power pop compilation "Starry Eyes-UK Pop 2 1977-1979" in their magnificent "D.I.Y" series.

Hear "Millions Like Us":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzbrVosGiZ0



The Purple Hearts in the film "Rough Cut And Ready Dubbed".

POSTSCRIPT:The latest (September-October 2010) issue of "Shindig!" magazine features a spread on The Purple Hearts. For more info go to:

http://www.shindig-magazine.com/index.html

Thank Heavens For The J.T.Q !

The James Taylor Quartet made us all get real in the 80's.  Think about it.  How many of you out there were like me, a(n) (American) mod with his head up his own ass, utterly oblivious to cool music that had emanated from his country?  Instead you were listening to some crappy pseudo-60's band that were in their 30's or 40's or some god awful dogshit British mod/60's band with the thinnest, worst production ever committed to vinyl (where was Toe Rag when you needed them back then?). Or some really pretty decent British band doing note for note Hammond instrumentals of...cover versions of U.S. 60's soul or jazz tracks!!!!!  Instead you could've been out plundering U.S. jazz LP's/45's that were probably quite plentiful and ripe for the taking learning where The J.T.Q. got it all from.

The James Taylor Quartet are, in retrospect, nothing monumental.  James Taylor is an amazing keyboard player, but their early records really aren't much more than carbon copy/xeroxes of the obvious, the originals are stunning though and once they'd found their feet with the debut long player "The Money Spyder", things were GO!  But they had their place for more reasons than being the first band to use a real Hammond and create kitschy soundtracks for films that never were.  At least for me they did.  Most important of all they sent me back to school, made me get an education in my own backyard and I went out and snapped up Jimmy McGriff LP's on Sue, some Jimmy Smith stuff, made me take a closer look at Booker T. & The M.G.'s 45's not only the early ones but even the one's from '67, a Herbie Hancock LP or two, not just the "Blow Up"  soundtrack and Ray Charle's god-like "Genuis + Jazz= Soul".  My pals in D.C. and P.A. were on the same wavelength and through them came Brother Jack McDuff, King Curtis and Wes Montgomery.  Back to the drawing board for a refit, a smartening up a "proper" musical education on eternally cool stuff, not plastic garbage 80's music.

When Acid Jazz manifested (or was it "festered"?) itself I was aghast, I'd just started to get into this jazz thing and somebody goes and turns it on it's head.  Thank god somebody started a war and I got called up and missed the whole thing, eventually getting demobbed and missing it all!  Hah!  But by then all the mods were gone, most of the ones I knew had moved on already anyway, but the rest were scattered.  They'd either gone to ground, fell in with the 500 DYI ska bands that were appearing like rabbits, became Manchester baggy/indies, proto Brit-poppers or Acid Jazz listening casuals...ack.  God the 90's were even worse than the 80's to be a mod. By the time I'd gotten back to work and Kuwait was firmly ours (read "the oil companies") and I once again shed my uniform for my cardigans, stripey t- shirts, Fred Perry's and pegged trousers I met this cool older retired Air Force African American gent at work who looked like Dizzy Gillespie and he turned me firmly onto the likes of Shirley Scott, Mose Allison etc and while in uniform in some god awful places I'd stumbled upon Dexter Gordon and Donald Byrd on good old radio and this gent gave me further recommendations by them.  But back home in the real world, now sharing a nice bachelor pad with two other guys by that point I'd entirely given up on the notion of "mod bands" or even bands for that matter (unless they were my friends).   Luckily I had the Empire State Soul Club in NYC and didn't need bands and started digging deeper into U.S. 60's soul music whilst continuing on my steady diet of U.K./Euro 60's sounds all the while digging up more jazz as time went along.  The quest still continues, 21 years later.................

Thanks James Taylor, who knows where I'd have been without you and your Medway misfits to show me the TRUE path......

Denny Laine's Brilliant Solo Deram Debut

DENNY LAINE-Say You Don't Mind/Ask The People U.S. Deram 45-7509 1967

When Denny Laine had enough and quit The Moody Blues (see May 27, 2009 entry) who knew he'd bounce back so quickly?  By 1967 he'd been signed over to Decca's "new" offshoot Deram and in April of that year saw the release of his "solo" debut (Deram DM 122) which even got a U.S. release as we can see here.

     Denny looking cool with his
     psychedelic Rickenbacker  1966

 With help from Denny Cordell, upon leaving The Moodies in the summer of 1966 Denny had managed to put together what was known as "Denny Laine's Electric String Band", a band with multiple violin/cello players as well as a bassist and ex-Pretty Thing's madman Viv Prince on drums. The band actually did a fair amount of gigging (one wonders where they played with two violinists and two cellists). The project's fruition was his debut single in question here.  "Say You Don't Mind" is one of those classic Deram releases that broke new grounds (The Move, Cat Stevens, Bowie, Tintern Abbey etc).  From it's woodwinds, strings and rocking backing track it should've been a number one.  No doubt it was probably kept away by some tripe like Engelbert or The New Seekers.  But you can say this, there weren't many people doing this "string section" bit this early on in Deram's roster.  Groundbreaking I think one of the "Disc & Music Echo" clips I have somewhere said.  Denny's voice is strong and hits some notes few could get away with.  Everyone always raves about the Colin Blunstone version, but for me this is the genuine article.  The flipside, "Ask The People" is equally strong .  It's simple acoustic guitar at the beginning is sparse and then leads into some more orchestration.  Laine's vocals and lyrics are amazing (he wrote both sides), in fact I like just as much if not more than the A-side!! 

Sadly there was only to be one more Denny Laine single on Deram: "Too Much In Love" b/w "Catherine's Wheel" (U.K. DM 171 in January 1968).

I'm sure neither of these cuts have cropped up on a CD reissue as of yet, which is beyond criminal.  If they have give us a shout.  One would hope there's a bevy of Laine Deram era material laying in vaults someplace given the brilliance of these two singles............but right now there are just horrible iTunes "Oldies" style re-recordings of "Say You Don't Mind" available with (ack!) synthesizers replacing the strings!




1967 promo film for "Say You Don't Mind". Wiggy eh? Those were the days I'm guessing..

Paul & Bloody Barry Ryan

THE RYANS-Two Of A Kind U.K. Decca LK4878 1967

SIDE ONE:
1. That'll Be The Day
2. I Made Her That Way
3. I Can't Make Your Way
4. Tonight's The Night
5. Love You Don't Know What It Means
6. Am I Wasting My Time
7. Fifi The Flea

SIDE TWO:
1. Pay You Back With Interest
2. Progress
3. Hey Mr Wiseman
4. 'Twas On A Night Like This
5. You Don't Know Like I Know
6. Comedy Girl
7. Silent Street

In his book "All The Rage" Small Face's organist Ian McLagan recalls a U.K. 60's duo he calls "Paul and bloody Barry Ryan" (because more than a few acts on a British 60's package tour could expect to share a bill with Paul & Barry Ryan).  Despite being British 60's pop music's most prominent instance of "nepotism equals stardom" Paul & Barry Ryan could occasionally pull off some brilliant records.

Twin brothers born to British singer Marion Ryan (who was more or less Britain's Doris Day) the boys were further served by the fact that their stepfather was Harold Davidson, one of Britain's foremost booking agents (dubbed by Frank Sinatra as "my main man in England").  In fact it's been stated that the duo's godfather was none other than ole blue eyes himself.  With plenty of pull like that they secured a contract with Decca in 1965 and cut several singles with heavyweights like Les Reed handling the musical backing, few of which save "Baby There You Go" (the flip of their second single, "Have Pity On The Boy", January 1966 Decca F 12319) were very inspiring. 

My intro to them came through a roundabout way.  As a child my provincial/rural town did not have it's own post office or library so arrangements were made that whatever municipality brushes up against the part of town we lived in would provide services for us. The library that we used had a British book on pop with fascinating b&w photos of band's I was familiar with and bands I'd never heard of or seen before.  Indeed this book gave me my very first glimpse of The Yardbirds, The Small Faces, Julie Driscoll and a mod looking duo with center parted hair (on, as it later transpired, "Ready Steady Go"). MANY years later my mentor Ron Rimsite passed on a 45 by them which blew my mind called "Keep It Out Of Sight" (a Cat Stevens penned number, Decca F 12567 1967) which of course I taped for all and sundry.  My pal Larry Grogan a year or two later scored an original copy of their brilliant debut 1967 LP "Two Of A Kind" which we are now discussing!

The LP was fleshed out by a host of session men and produced by the best talent having well connected parent's could buy you and reads like a 1960's who's-who: Les Reed, Mike Leander, Ivor Raymond AND ex-Searcher Chris Curtis! It opens with an interesting version of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be There" with cool harmonies and layers of funky 12 string guitar (possibly Big Jim Sullivan it's been suggested and is one of the distinct trademark's of the LP's best tracks).  The 12 string is again the driving force behind the brilliant " I Made Her That Way".  A version of The Yardbird's "I Can't Make Your Way" is next, differing very little from the original except for the brother's harmonies. The does LP contains it's share of "pop" fluff but these are easily overtaken by decent tracks.  "Am I Wasting My Time" is basically 1967's version of what nowadays would be criningly referred to as a "power ballad" , but it's still pretty over the top and sits well with all of The Walker Brother's releases from that same year and The Hollie's "What Went Wrong" which appeared around the same time.  On the subject of The Hollies comes Graham Nash's track "Fifi The Flea", apologies to my wife, the world's biggest fan of the man but no matter who's doing this track it doesn't do much for me and Paul or Barry, whoever is singing the lead on this, has trouble hitting Nash's notes.  Even a moody harpsichord can't save it.

Luckily Side Two rejuvenates both the album AND the Hollies with their powerful reading of "Pay You Back With Interest".  Props to whichever producer chucked in some brilliant brass scoring on it double props to session drummer extraordinaire Clem Cattini's Keith Moon style work on the track. The brothers give it some soul in the vocals department too!  The Pretty Things "Progress" is next.  I always thought The Prettie's cod-Stax style on this track fell a little short.  Paul and Bazza's version, in my book, blows it out of the water and then sinks all the lifeboats.  From it's murky bass intro and fuzz guitar and up tempo soulful via Swinging London "in" discotheque sound it's a gas all around, one of my faves on the long player, though my all time favorite of the long player accolades go to it's next track.  The unmistakable sound of a Burns 12 string guitar introduces the stellar "Hey Mr. Wiseman" and recalls Scotland's 60's legends The Poets.  The riff carries the number along with brilliant harmonies, call and response "la la la la's" and again driven by Mr. Cattini's engine and some swooping bass runs on the fade out.  The rest of the LP slides in a cabaret nightmare after that (see, or actually don't, IGNORE: "Twas On A Night Like This", "Silent Street" and "Comedy Girl").  The musical backing on "You Don't Know Like I Know" might have some funky organ, but as a rule artists shouldn't cover Sam & Dave songs, (unless you're Cliff Bennett or The Artwoods, right Monkey?) so where does that leave Paul & Barry?  Firmly in the doghouse.  Fortunately there's some excellent numbers on the LP that can compensate for this transgression.

The LP did not place very high sales or chart wise and is fairly hard to come by luckily Rev-Ola reissued it on CD, though sadly did not see fit to chuck on any bonus cuts!