Pretty Things:Good Bye To R&B

THE PRETTY THINGS-Rainin' In My Heart/London Town/Sittin' All Alone/Get A Buzz  U.K. Fontana TE 17442 1965

I'll own up to being bored sh*tless by The Pretties earlier r&b sides and it wasn't till what I call their "Mod period ("Come See Me", "Midnight To Six Man" etc) that my interest really starts for them.  That was, till I owned this E.P.  It took me ages to dig it and I bought it because, well it looked cool.  It's also one of their last 7 inches from the "classic line-up" which to me included the soon-to-be-leaving madman Viv Prince on drums.

"Rainin' In My Heart" still bores me, more of that boring bluesy Pretties era stuff that just leaves me cold. Sorry, I much prefer The Olympics rocking version on Loma.  "London Town", now here we're onto something kids.  It's mind blowing to me, the way it starts with just acoustic guitar and bongos and Dick Taylor's little riffs bleed in and out here and there while Phil May sings in this sleepy (stoned?)/weary tone like he's just travelled the length of the British Isles.

"Sittin' All Alone" could be a bit mundane and bluesy by it's title but it's not .  It's got these great sorta out of tune 12 string bits and these snippets of rave up double timed strumming ever now and then and these ominous but atmospheric background harmonies (yes that's right, harmonies on a Pretty Things record). It also sounds somewhat "stoned" too.  Which leads us to..."Get A Buzz".  If "Get A Buzz" had more feedback and some faint Hammond it'd sound like a number from the first Small Faces album.  The whole thing is sort of this ad lib, piss take attempt at being soulful, it isn't, not by a long shot.  But that doesn't mean it's not great.  The whole number sounds like it's just going to fall apart from lack of cohesion any second, but it doesn't, not for 4 minutes plus it doesn't after lots of harp blowing and nifty string bending from Dick and Phil who sings like he was making it all up on the spot!  In the end Dick turns up the fuzz and everybody calls it a session.

All four of the E.P.'s tracks are available in multiple places. I've got them as bonus cuts on their second LP, CD reissue on their "mod period "album "Get The Picture".

The Artwoods: Fin

THE ARTWOODS-What Shall I Do/In The Deep End U.K. Parlophone R 5590 1967

By 1967 The Artwoods had been giving a good show up and down the British Isles in a transit van for 5 years with little to show for it but a small, now horribly collectible, discography. By 1967 they had released 5 singles, an E.P. and an L.P. before being dumped by their label Decca. A one off followed on EMI's Columbia label, but it would be their last as The Artwoods.

Both sides show a weird darkness to them, like their choice of material and the somber mood of both tracks reflected their career.  Even both titles reveal a plaintive sense of foreboding doom: "What Shall I Do" and "In The Deep End".  Why?  For starters The Artwoods career was never helped by the choosing of American r&b, soul and blues numbers as their A-sides, made null and void once the English public began to have greater access to American import 45's and domestic pressings of some of these became available.  Why would you want to hear The Artwoods version of a Benny Spellman track when you could own the original?  Granted most of their choices weren't exactly lifted direct from the U.S. Top 40 R&B charts, so they at least get high marks for their material choices.  Once again their one off EMI single was no exception to any of those rules.  "What Shall I Do" is a pretty faithful note for note version of Marvin Jenkin's "What Shall I Do" (originally released in the States on the Palomar label) differing from the original only by adding some Bluesbreakers styled guitar licks from guitarist Derek Griffith's who trades the lick with organist Jon Lord and "fattening up" the sound a lot from the mildly jazzy original.  I like it though, it's tough thanks to the fuzz guitar and fuller sound. The B-side is far more heavier and almost a precursor to Jon Lord's future band Deep Purple with some very heavy (well "heavy" for an Artwoods record) guitar raga licks and Brian Auger Trinity style organ noodling.  Of course it sank without a trace and is rarer than their Decca singles.  The band made one more 45 as the ill advised St. Valentine's Day Massacre eight months later ("Brother Can You Spare A Dime"/"Al's Party" U.K. Fontana TF883) before chucking it in for good.

Both tracks have resurfaced on the Repertoire CD compilation "Singles A's & B's" and as bonus cuts on their CD reissue of their lone LP "Art Gallery".

Hear a groovy BBC session of the band from May 9, 1967 featuring a cover Billy Preston's "Steady Gettin' It", the Otis Redding styled version of "Day Tripper" and their B-side "What Shall I Do":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZHpFuWv4Nw

Hear "What Shall I Do":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTumlwQN0Sw

Hear "In The Deep End":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlkSeQDL8sE

100 LP's You Should Own

These aren't necessarily my faves but these are 100 albums I think everyone needs to own, or at least hear:

1. The Moody Blues-Days Of Future Passed
2. John Barry-The Knack And How To Get It O.S.T.
3. Scott Walker-Scott 3
4. Dr. Feelgood-Down By The Jetty
5. Kaleidoscope-Tangerine Dream
6. The Pink Floyd-Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
7. Bill Fay-Time of The Last Persecution
8. Fairport Convention-Liege And Leif
9. Nick Drake-Five Leaves Left
10. Billy Nicholls-Would You Believe
11. The Hollies-For Certain Because
12. T Rex-Electric Warrior
13. Locomotive-We Are Everything You See
14. Elastic Band-Expansions On Life
15. Mighty Baby-Mighty Baby
16. Davy Graham-Midnight Man
17. Herbie Hancock-Takin’ Off
18. Chad & Jeremy-Of Cabbages And Kings
19. The Everly Brothers-Beat & Soul
20. Simon & Garfunkel-Sounds Of Silence
21. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles-Going To A Go-Go
22. Mark Murphy-Rah
23. The Tea Company-Come and Have Some Tea With Me
24. John Mayall-Bluesbreakers With John Mayall
25. Manfred Mann-Up The Junction
26. Gene Clark-With The Gosdin Brothers
27. David Bowie-Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
28. Booker T & The M.G.s-Green Onions
29. The Kinks-Are The Village Green Preservation Society
30. The Faces-1st Step
31. The Beatles-Revolver
32. The Bee Gees-Bee Gees 1st
33. Georgie Fame-Two Faces of Fame
34. The Rolling Stones-Aftermath
35. Caetano Veloso-Tropicalia
36. The Specials-More Specials
37. Kilburn & The High Roads-Handsome
38. XTC-Black Sea
39. Gabor Szabo-Jazz Raga
40. Hank Mobley-The Turnaround
41. Howlin’ Wolf-Howlin’ Wolf (the “Rocking Chair” LP)
42. Os Mutantes-same (1968, 1st LP)
43. The Graham Bond Organization-There’s A Bond Between Us
44. Deep Purple-Shades of…
45. Various-Club Ska ‘67
46. King Pleasure-King Pleasure Sings (w/ Annie Ross)
47. Mose Allison-A Word From Mose
48. The Yardbirds-Five Live
49. The Who-Sell Out
50. Tommy James & The Shondells-Crimson & Clover
51. Curtis Mayfield-Superfly
52. The Jimi Hendrix Experience-Are you Experienced?
53. Gal Costa-Gal Costa
54. Dexter Gordon-One Flight Up
55. Grant Green-Grantstand
56. The Beatles-Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band
57. Jacques Dutronc-same (1st LP)
58. The Small Faces-Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake
59. Caravan-same
60. The Stone Roses-same
61. The Zombies-Oddysey And Oracle
62. Bob Dylan-Highway 61 Revisited
63. The Velvet Underground-Peel It And See
64. The Jam-All Mod Cons
65.The Outsiders-C.Q.
66. Prince Buster-Fabulous Greatest Hits
67. Oscar Brown Jr.-Sin & Soul
68. The Clash-London Calling
69. The Pretty Things-S.F. Sorrow
70. Donovan-Sunshine Superman
71. The Tages-Studio
72. David Axelrod-Song Of Innocence
73. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers-Moanin’
74. Lee Morgan-The Sidewinder
75. The Byrds-5D
76. Duncan Browne-Give Me Take You
77. Gary Walker And The Rain-Album No. 1
78. Serge Gainsbourg-Couleur Café
79. Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab-Vampryos Lesbos Sexadelic Dance Party
80. Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity-Open
81. Various Artists-This Is Soul
82. The Move-same
83. The Association-Renaissance
84. Love-Forever Changes
85. Walter/Wendy Carlos-A Clockwork Orange O.S.T.
86. Milt Jackson-same
87. George Benson-It’s Uptown (The Most New Exciting Guitarist On The Jazz Scene Today)
88. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band-Part One
89. The Turtles-Battle Of The Bands
90. Stiff Little Fingers-Inflammable Material
91. The Stranglers-Black And White
92. The Doors-same
93. The Beach Boys-Pet Sounds
94. Jorge Ben-Ben E Samba Bom
95. Harry Nilsson-Pandemonium Shadow Show
96. Vashti-Just Another Diamond Day
97. Kevin Ayers-Joy Of A Toy
98. Alice Cooper-Easy Action
99. The Sweet-Desolation Boulevard
100. The Troggs-Cellophane

Cool Foreign 7 Inches Part Seventeen:Booker T & The M.G.'s

BOOKER T & The M.G.'s-Soul Limbo/Heads Or Tails France Stax 16038 1967

Great British Pop Genuises: Duncan Browne

DUNCAN BROWNE-On The Bombsite/Alfred Bell U.S. Immediate ZS7 5010 1968

The name Duncan Browne usually doesn't raise too many eyebrows.  He's known among us anorak's for his rare 1968 Immediate LP "Give Me Take You"(U.K. IMPS 018 and amazingly, according to this 45's label, U.S. Z12 52012. Has anyone ever seen a U.S. pressing?). Though not as heinously collectible as the Billy Nicholl's LP on the same label it's still a scarce one. I can't tell you much about Duncan Browne other than I like his stuff.  His music would fall into the same genre as Nick Drake, early Al Stewart or Bill Fay in my estimation had any of them been backed by The Zombies.  Any of the album's tracks would not be at all out of place on Chad & Jeremy's "Of Cabbages and Kings" LP (see June 18, 2010 entry).

"On The Bomb Site" is a work of choral pop precision with it's angelic voices, muted horns, and harpsichord wrapped around Duncan's Colin Blunstone-ish tones and acoustic guitar.  The lyrics are decidedly English and evoke the oft discussed childhood past time of playing on bombsites that littered post war Britain with:

"those were days of wooden swords and dragons would appear I was Lancelot and you were Guinevere"

There are some creative metaphors about growing old and leaving childhood games behind amidst the lush arrangements:

"but there came a dragon I couldn't fight he was too strong"

All in all it's a wonderfully, wistful paean to the simpler times and the carefree days of youth before the weight of the world and adulthood came along and ruined it all.

"Alfred Bell" starts out with a chorus of children chanting on a playground (or bombsite?)

"Alfred Bell he's no good chop him up for firewood..."

It's less orchestrated than the A-side and reminds me of Cat Stevens more somber moments on either one of his Deram LP's .  Lyrically it's another social observation in that great vein of British 60's vignette songs.  This time it's about a lonely, old, sad teacher from dawn to dusk, another perfect British 60's personal encapsulation of a sad, tragic, yet fictional figure.

Duncan Browne and friend

Both sides of this single are available on the CD reissue of the highly recommended "Give Me Take You" LP.

Hear "On The Bombsite":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P9ijHQfOlw

Hear "Alfred Bell":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEkuebIz23Q

A Religious Experience........

Get thee to a store that sells a multi region DVD player OR go to this site and see if they've got hack codes for the one you own:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks?&next=50#next

Because kids, I'm talking about the greatest music film I've seen in my life:"Telstar".  Forget  garbage like "Stoned", forget even amazing films like "Slade in Flame", this, as they say is "the sh*t".  I'd always thought a pic about the life of Joe Meek would be a worthy subject and well, someone's done it, and done it VERY well too.  What I liked most about it is, like most period pieces being shot in the U.K. these days there was meticulous attention to detail.  It was made even better by the fact that other than the Screaming Lord Sutch "live" scene and Duffy's version of the Cryin' Shames "Please Stay" all original versions of Meek's creations were used (the credits roll as "Crawdaddy Simone" by The Syndicats brilliantly plays).  How often does that happen?!

The magnificent Con O'Neill as Joe Meek in "Telstar"

Con O'Neill does a fabulous job at portraying Joe Meek and really gives you the feel of what, by all accounts, the man was about.  Along for the ride are Kevin Spacey (Major Banks, one of Meek's financial backers), Pam Ferris as Meek's ill fated landlady Mrs. Shenton, JJ Feild as Heinz Burt and downright spooky Tom Burke as Geoff Goddard. Another very cool touch are the cameos which read like a who's who of pre-Beatles 60's British rock n' roll playing various characters (leaving younger actors to play themselves), many of whom were artists who worked with Meek: Jess Conrad (who plays Larry Parnes!), Mike Sarne, Clem Cattini, Chas Hodges and John Leyton.  Rita Tushingham plays a fortune teller and there's even Jake Arnott (author of "The Long Firm") on board as a board of trade member.

The Real Deal: Joe Meek

The film sticks to most of Meek's life and death in meticulous detail enough to give you an idea what he was like (or so I've gathered from reading about him).  It offers a few fictitious moments though. Such as, no one is really sure if Meek ever received a demo from Brian Epstein, though it's possible but he's seen on the phone with him while binning a Fab Four demo tape complaining to his assistant about "Brian and his Liverpool beat group".  The film avoids the "Suitcase Murder" which figured prominently in Joe's final months and also leaves out the time he hung up on (after cursing out) Phil Spector, which would've been interesting. It takes the liberty of giving Mitch Mitchell a perm when he was drumming for a session where Meek pointed a shotgun at him to "get the take right"(maybe it's best he and Phil never met!), even though Mitchell had not adopted an Afro hairstyle well after joining Jimi Hendrix.  Don't expect lots of "air" time for your faves, here's just a glimpse of The Honeycombs and it glosses over all of Meeks act's save The Tornados, John Leyton, Heinz, Screaming Lord Sutch and The Outlaws.  No Syndicats, Tom Jones, Riot Squad or David John & the Mood I'm afraid.  The film is riveting and as it draws to a close with it's inevitable violent conclusion the tension is chilling numb.

Anyway I've watched this film twice and I'll probably watch a third and fourth time to pick up on things I've missed.  Hopefully someone in the U.S. will get with it like they did with the Scott Walker documentary "30th Century Man" and domestically release it on DVD here. 

The Tornados, with Larry Parnes (played by Jess Conrad far left) and Joe Meek (far right) accept their gold record for "Telstar".

Mad Henry Goes Solo.......Chris Curtis "Aggravation"

CHRIS CURTIS-Aggravation/Have I Done Something Wrong U.K. Pye 7N.17132 1966

The story of ex-Searchers drummer/lead singer Chris Curtis is a sordid one that could easily make for a depressing but interesting bio pic like "Telstar" did for Joe Meek. Born Chris Crummy (I'm serious) he founded The Searchers and sang on quite a few of their numbers as well as penning several B-sides and LP tracks before being booted out in 1966 after a somewhat disastrous Australian tour with The Rolling Stones. Known to many on the pop scene for his gobbling handfuls of speed and his twitchy/uptight mannerisms, George Harrison is alleged to have nicknamed him "Mad Henry" .  Posted below is a famous clip of the band playing the "NME Pollwinners Concert" in '64 doing "What'd I Say" where he is completely, presumably out of his head on uppers.  Watch how his band mates, especially guitarist Mike Pender, stare incredulously at him:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOs6HAlGdpo

 His hyperactivity (no doubt a by product of his massive speed consumption) and homosexuality were well known in circles at the time (both Bill Wyman and Dave Davies have documented some of his semi-seedy/druggy behavior in both of their books) and led to more than their share of problems in his career. It has been said that The Searchers original bassist Tony Jackson was given his walking papers after attempting to blackmail the band's manager for a bigger cut by threatening to "out" Curtis.  In his very last interview Curtis intimated that Jackson "threatened Tito Burns (the band's manager) that he'd reveal something about me to the public", a move which saw Jackson out and in came ex-Cliff Bennet's Rebel Rouser Frank Allen. The band finally had enough of his speed induced behavior and paranoia and he left in March 1966.

Curtis was nonetheless a very affable man who's pop contacts enabled him to cut a solo single in June of 1966.  "Aggravation" is an uptempo cut written by Joe South (more on him in a bit).  Curtis' ear for good American tunes often meant that he was the man behind many of the tracks The Searchers covered from both publishers demos (he was a champion of Jackie DeShannon) and cover versions of tracks like "Love Potion Number Nine".  He also authored and produced the amazing "Snakes Snails & Puppy Dog Tails" for Alma Cogan in 1965.  On "Aggravation" Curtis had the assistance of Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and no doubt female vocal group The Breakaways.  It's a rather swinging number in sort of a Tom Jone's "discotheque" way with it's horns, female backing vocals and driving beat and is carried quite well by Curtis' strong voice.  It blew me away the first time I heard it on a PRT records 10" E.P. called "It Happened Then" in the mid 80's.  The flip side is a composition of his own called "Have I Done Something Wrong" (perhaps a thinly veiled message to his ex-band mates?).  It falls flat for me because it's sort of cod country, the production is amazing and it's got lots of nice touches but the song itself is just a "cry in your beer dirge".  For Scouser sh*tkickers only I'm afraid.

The single failed and the vinyl world heard no more of Chris Curtis (though versions of "Baby You Don't Have To Tell Me" and "I Who Have Nothing" from presumably the same session, have popped up on the "Rare Unearthed Merseybeat" series) but he continued producing records, among them "I Love how You Love Me" By Paul & Barry Ryan and a version of The Hollie's "Have You Ever Loved Somebody" by Paul & Barry (which went up against a version by his ex-bandmates).  By 1967 he had added L.S.D. to his drug diet and the stories only grew in outrageousness and number. Curtis of course will be forever credited (somewhat erroneously) as the man who formed Deep Purple albeit as an idea called "Roundabout".  Speaking to "Mojo" a few years ago organist Jon Lord attempted to clear up some of the misnomers on the subject.  He was never in the running for the drum spot, they weren't room mates (Curtis was dossing at Lord's apartment) but several facts, according to Lord ARE true: Curtis introduced Lord to the man (Tony Edwards) who would become Deep Purple's manager, he covered Lord's apartment in tin foil while Lord was off touring with The Flowerpot Men and he suggested a German based guitarist named Ritchie Blackmore to him.  There is conflicting stories about another Joe South recording called "Hush" which would give Deep Purple their first hit (in America anyway).  Curtis claimed in an interview with Spencer Leigh in "Record Collector" in 1998 that he played Lord the Joe South original when they were "roommate's", Lord maintains they'd heard Billy Joe Royal's version in lots of clubs/ballrooms where it was a big dance floor hit.  Who's to know?  Since Curtis did already record a Joe South track his story is plausible.

Curtis retired from music in 1969 and went to work for the Inland Revenue Service (the U.K.'s version of the I.R.S.) before retiring in 1988 and passing away in 2005.

To my knowledge neither side has seen any sort of CD reissue, though it is possible it's been slipped on a Searchers CD anthology as they shared the same label.

Hear "Aggravation":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AeK2uwkm08

Hear "Have I Done Something Wrong":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q5sQWdoNUI