Return of Yet More 60s Shite

I'm digitizing some bootleg Duke Ellington air checks from 1949 while I type this.

Don't expect much on my end.

Someone I Knew (1969)

Swan song release by the Lollipop Shoppe who featured a very young Fred Cole who would be in a shit load of bands that a lot of people are quite taken with. His vocal stylings are certainly an acquired taste of which I never quite managed to get, but he touched enough people to merit a New York Times obituary, so there's that.
I'm unlikely to warrant one, so good on him.

Take the Good & the Bad (1967)

The Live Five were a fine group of young fellows who hailed from Salem, Oregon and wore some really fancy striped trousers. That's enough for me.

More 60s Shite

I'm tired and need to make coffee.

The Girl I Love (1965)

One of at least five different bands calling themselves the Lost Souls all at about the same time in different parts of the world.

Of special note is that this is NOT the Long Island band that foisted Billy Joel upon the world as a musician. This one is actually listenable.

This one was on Bang Records and as such like the Strangeloves probably didn't exist as anything but a studio creation of the producer looking to make a buck or two off unsuspecting teens. If either song had become a hit they'd have recruited some enterprising young men to impersonate the concept for a paying audience. It didn't so they didn't bother.

Too bad, the flip here "Simple to Say" is a nice garage number.

All You've Got (1967)

Here they're called the Lovin', but previous to that Children, after that the Nerve and finally Duffy Taylor Blues.

Here they make a nice Mod Pop racket for you and your Vespa.

The Stuff of Legends

Still have a baker's dozen of 12" records that I still need to digitize from the last couple of months (and a bunch more shit currently in the mail to be delivered in the next week). I'm kind of slow to get on that shit. After that is an accounting of Julie London Lps and more singles starting at "Mo".
Such is part of my free time.

But first the very definition of legendary

To Find Out (1967)

First off, let's get this out of the way. This is a repro boot copy I picked up a number of years ago just to be clear. I've never had the kind of money to throw around for one of the maybe dozen copies that are known to exist. But I did have a few bucks to throw thing at this on eBay.

So here we are.

Aquarium Drunkard can fill you in on the legend and why Jack White is alleged to drop a couple of grand on a copy. Another thing a couple of sites mentioned is that the band is also alleged to have to change its name every time they played out so people would not know who it was and show up.

Raw, Primitive and plaintive.
Just like I like it.

Thoughts and Visions (1968)

The Liberty Bell hailed from Corpus Christi, TX and made a decent garage noise with some psychedelic overtones. This is their penultimate single.

Like a lot of local records of the time the money shot is the flip "Look For Tomorrow" which is a lot more lysergicly derived than the promoted song despite the promising title.

Grab a sugar cube and put on repeat and dive into the fuzz..

Volume 2

It's the day before Valentine's Day.

Suck it romance.

Ils Sont Fous Ces Gaulois! - Vol. 2 Le Retour! 

Here's the second volume as a companion to the previous volume I posted last month.

It's more of the same only there's even a band from the Belgian Congo.

Upend this record and let it flow over your beleaguered mind like so much absinthe over a sugar cube.

You'll hate yourself in the morning

But probably not much more than you already do.

 

Get Hip to Those Crazy French

Fuck it.

This is the shit you need in your life.

Ils Sont Fous Ces Gaulois! 

A 1997 vinyl compilation of the cool hip sounds of Young French speakers in the middle 1960's from France and Canada.

If you haven't heard this.

You need to.

That's all I have to say about it

 

Jesters and Jokers

I'm not going to work too hard on this post.
I don't usually work that hard, but I'm going to just go with it.

The quality of the music itself is more than anything I might add to it

Jesters of Newport (1965)

Yeah, I paid the princely sum of twenty bucks for this monster back in the middle 80s.
Currently you would not be so lucky.
Even so.
Worth every fucking penny.

Jokers Wild (1967)

From Minneapolis, MN. Both sides are great stuff.

A Midwest 60's Invasion.

I don't know.

Here's a couple of things.

Breakout (1964)

Some instrumental madness from the Invictas. The Discogs entry for them simply says "US group probably from Michigan" and mentions that they later picked up a singer and changed their name to Ruth Anne & the Footsteps. Now you know as much as I do.

The Invasion is Coming (1967)

A nice little garage rock number about an alien invasion. Maybe. It's not like the lyrics really make a whole lot of sense on any closer examination. They don't need to. It's a garage rock song. It's better if they don't.

According to Discogs these guys were from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and had previously called themselves the Ethics. They had second single.

I wish I had that one too.

Cold Pizza

I'm typing with on hand while I use the other to hold a slice of cold pizza.

 Don't Get Mad (1980)

Power Pop from the Bay Area from 1980 by the Imposters.
It's good stuff.

Hey Who (1967)

What would probably have been a Power Pop equivalent for the time by a band from the Chicago area called the Ingredients.

Also the good stuff.

Hotshots from the Hoosier State

It's the 13th.

This one is entitled Hoosier Hotshots.

It's a compilation of various Indiana bands of the 1960s.

It should not be confused with the vaudeville musical group of the 1930-40s that also went by the name of the Hoosier Hotshots. They are very different things.

Hoosier Hotshots (1992)

Indiana in the Garage Era

Side 1
1 The XL's - Second Choice
2 The XL's - Mary Jane
3 The Cirkit - Yesterday We Laughed
4 Shooting Stars - I Love Her Anyway
5 The Ferris Wheel - Come Back Baby
6 Sir Winston & The Commons - One Last Chance
7 Teen Tones - Long Cold Winter
8 Blues Inc. - Tell Me Girl

Side 2
1 The Endd - Come On Into My World
2 The Tikis - Careful What You Say
3 Wild Things - I'm Not For You
4 The Cirkit - I Was Wrong
5 The Backdoor Men - Evil
6 The Dukes - Take Your Love
7 Idle Few - Farmer John
8 Mere Image - Get Stoned (Goin' Out Tonight)

The Homer & Jethro Project #56

#56

It's the last day of May and full on Summer is fast approaching.
Hopefully you're getting swimsuit ready.
Fortunately for the world, I don't swim, so I'm already ready for not being in a swimsuit.
It's better for everyone that way.

September 1967 - lsp-3877 - Somethin' Stupid

I have nothing to add about this one except that it makes me really miss having a decent Jewish bakery around where I could get an actual bagel.

*sigh*

A1	The Ballad Of Roger Miller	2:32
A2	Somethin' Stupid	1:58
A3	Upside Down	2:20
A4	The Bagel Song	2:20
A5	I Can Spell Banana	2:20
A6	Kosher Chitlins	1:57
B1	Laugh And Scratch	2:52
B2	Smellin' Like A Rose	2:27
B3	Human Cannon Ball	2:13
B4	Pearl Handled Pocket Knife	2:50
B5	Old Grand Dad	2:30
B6	Sow, Sow, Sow Your Oats	1:37

The Homer & Jethro Project #55

#55

The end is in sight, kids. Down to the last dozen posts for this Spring Spree.

It's not everybody's cup of tea, but for some it's the something they didn't actually know they needed in their tiny lives. (I didn't until I heard it and my life was pretty small even before)

Now I do. And I'm willing to share.

So onward we go even deeper into 1967 for today's installment of the H & J P

May 1967 - lsp-3822 - Nashville Cats

A1	Nashville Cats	2:40
A2	Laugh It Up	2:12
A3	No Matter Where You Go	2:20
A4	Go To Hal	2:27
A5	The Square Song	2:00
A6	He's Goin' Down	2:31
B1	She Loves You	2:20
B2	Hillbilly Hands	1:59
B3	Winchester Cathedral	2:25
B4	Doctor Quincy Quack	2:27
B5	Pusan U (Sioux City Sue)	2:50
B6	Playin' Checkers With My Poodle	2:25

The Homer & Jethro Project #54

#54

I've still got more than a dozen of  these posts yet to do up at the moment, but I am pleased to say that I just yesterday scored one of the early singles that I've been looking for an original copy of for many  years already. If you've been playing along at home all this time, you've already been enjoying the upgraded fruits of my search for the elusive "I've Got Tears in my Ears/She Made Toothpicks of the Timbers of my Heart" for a while now. But as I type this, I have yet to actually receive it. There's a decent placeholder rip from somebody else sitting in the queue. I eagerly await the opportunity to swap it out for my own copy because it's mine.

It's a matter of personal pride.

January 1967 - lsp-3701 - It Ain't Necessarily Square

Following up half a decade later from "Playing It Straight" the boys throw down another straight up instrumental record of all playing and no jokes. There's some recent hits thrown in with another batch of jazz standards and as always a double helping of Ellington tunes to cap off the festivities.

I have no issues with any of this.

• A1 Call Me
• A2 Lil' Darlin'
• A3 Broadway
• A4 More (Theme from "Mondo Cane")
• A5 Cute
• A6 Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)
• B1 The Shadow of Your Smile (Love Them From "The Sandpiper")
• B2 The Sweetest Sounds
• B3 Shiny Stockings
• B4 Satin Doll
• B5 Take the "A" Train

Home and Hombres

This is another post.

I have business to take care of.

It will be short.

Home and Garden (1986)

"By 1982, Pere Ubu, a band that had blazed a trail of influence (if not outright commercial success) through the punk/new wave scene, had broken up. Scott Krauss, Ubu's founding drummer, who had left a year before the band's dissolution, was already exploring new musical avenues when he was joined by Ubu bass player Tony Maimone. Together they entered the recording studio as Home and Garden" 

That should be enough to start you off. The last update from their site is from 2012. So there you go.

Let It Out (1967)

The Hombres. Garage. The A-side is a classic. B-Side is a lost classic. Let it all hang out, baby.

My sleeping schedule is all messed up

Went out of town for a week and had to flip my schedule to normal people time now I'm in some weird twilight sleep where I'm neither completely night nor day and awake when I really shouldn't be. It's going to take weeks for me to sort this shit out.

In the meantime here's some oddities to wet your sonic whistle

Daddy LoLo (1958)

Yeah, so it's kind of hard to figure out what was going on here. This single released by Ganim's Asia Minors was the product of Charles Ganimian, and Armenian-American musician and virtuoso oud player whose parents had emigrated from Turkey in the early 20's

Here he applies his heritage and oud playing to making a novelty rock and roll song.
It works.

I Wonder Why (1967)

Here's Utah. 

At least that's what the intertubes says, and I for one, am inclined to just go ahead and trust it on that.

So imagine if you will that you are a young hip garage band from Provo, Utah and you've got a sweet raw garage fuzz number and something important to say to the world, but you don't trust that any radio station that might play your record will choose the song you want to share with the world. 

What do you do?

If you're the Gents the solution is to put a version of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" as the flip to the fuzz number. Ain't nobody going to play that shit.

(Or it could be that they only had the one song. Either is plausible)

That's Your Problem (1966)

A pleasant enough 60's garage number foisted upon an unsuspecting teen audience by the production factory at Bang records under the auspices of songwriter Jerry Ragovoy. This was in the days when there were still professional songwriters who would cobble together a track with studio musicians and throw it out to the radio stations like so much sonic chum. If somebody picked it up and it started gaining some traction, they'd quickly assemble a group of long haired youth to go out and be that group for as long as the momentum lasted. Bang had a few of these faux teen groups ( the Strangeloves being probably their most famous product)

Which isn't to say that this isn't a nice track. It is. It's a professional product and nicely done. Jerry knew what he was doing and his intended audience. That it was the product of a white collar dude in his 30's for a rebellious teenage market is just icing on the proverbial cake.

It's almost weirdly reversely subversive. The revolution will not be televised, but it will be packaged and sold back to you wholesale.

Have an issue with that and your delicate sense of authenticity?

As the song goes:

"That's your problem, it ain't mine..."

Another one off the list

It looks like you can mark Oklahoma off your fifty states list.

Front Page News (1967)

About all I could find about this single is that the band was from Tulsa, OK and recorded this fuzzy little number in Fort Worth TX and were originally called the New Imperials.
Who cares. It's a great fucking tune.
The older generation just doesn't get the younger generation with their loud music and long hair. It's the same old story of the ages. Flip is uptempo show number that might have gotten them some regional airplay if anybody had bothered to notice.

I Lost Her (1965)

One of a pair of singles by the four Fried brothers from Penns Grove, New Jersey. Both sides of this make me happy. I only wonder if they're about the same doomed romance.

Garage Hangover has the scoop and a metric shit ton of more of  the same kind of raw 60's teen garage gooey goodness if that's what you're into.

It's a free country, more or less, and my dinner's ready.

unreasonable searches and seizures

A quickie because I have to get ready for work.

the 4th  Amendment (1968)

There's really very little info that pops up about this single, least ways where they hailed from. It's some really nice garage. Kind of primitive and could have come from just about anywhere.

Taste the mystery.

B-side is a song called "Whiskey Man" that is not a Who cover. So there's that as well.

Holdin' On (1967)

The penultimate of eight singles by  Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame inductee George Leonard with his group Georgie Porgie and the Cry Babies. If you've been following along at home you may remember them from a previous post.

The good song on the flip of this one, "He's Just Like That" is not entirely up to the musical snuff of the previously posted single, but it pretty special in its own right.

 If you want to you could imagine that the protagonist of this song is friends with or perhaps even the same person as the "Whiskey Man" on the 4th Amendment flip and find a certain zen peace in the contemplation.

Mopping up.

Here's the last of the last batch of things I digitized literally months ago and have sat in a folder on mediafire just waiting for me to get my lazy ass shit together.

It's more Comped to Death shit.

I Cannot Stop You (1967)

A snazzy little garage number from this Saginaw, Michigan band that even the presence of a horn section cannot quite diminish. It was a decent regional hit back when those could happen because one company didn't own all the radio stations in the country and decide what the country was going to consider a "hit". I don't listen to radios.

It's Cold Outside (1967)

Yeah, it's been comped a million times. You may have already. But this is my copy and I fucking love this song. I'm a little less enthused by the b-side, but I fucking love "It's Cold Outside". 

The band were from Cleveland, OH and would eventually reconjigger to become the Raspberries best known for a AM hit about trying to convince a girl to bang you. (Kind of like a slightly less graphic "Paradise by the Dashboard Light") Eric Carmen who sang for the Raspberries would go on to a successful solo career making dreary light rock songs for the rest of the 70's. I don't recommend them.

Unrelated things

Kind of orphan singles that don't pair up neatly with other things that I've digitized recently.

the Claim (1993)

This was, based on Discogs, the swan song release for the Claim. It's on Bus Stop. They formed in 1980. They were English and played with the Dentists. Now we're up to speed.

Splash One (1967)

If the Clique are remembered for anything it's got to be that REM covered one of their songs for a minor hit long ago when wooly mammoths roamed the fruited plains and everyone smoked in elevators. Speaking of elevators. (note the clever transition) Here they do a cover themselves of fellow Texans 13th Floor Elevators track "Splash 1" which seems much less implausible in retrospect than it did to my naive self back when I got it. They don't fuck it up, but do manage to sand a few of the edges off it. If I were a noted rock critic who treated people's records like high school essays on literary symbolism in SE Hinton's "The Outsiders" I'd give it a solid B.

Countdowns

Two singles that sit side by side in the box.

the Countdowns (1967)

New England garage on a Holyoke, Mass label. A lovely song celebrating the girl who works third shift. I can relate. I work nights.

I'm always a little confused by dates on stuff like this because it sounds to me like it should have been released at least a couple years earlier. I like both sides a lot on this one, but I've always been a big proponent of the New England 60's garage sound. I mean, I love a good fuzz punk pounder as much as the next person, there's something about the moody pop side that hits me deep in the feels.




Meanwhile in Galveston, Texas

the Countdown 5 (1967)



There's apparently a picture sleeve for this with a first pressing on a different label of the band all neatly coiffed and in matching collarless white jackets with black trim (I'm assuming since it's a black and white photo) They look like fine upstanding young men.

Mostly Unintentional Novelty Songs

 It's hard to tell what they were thinking.

 

 the Cleaning Ladys (1984)

The extremely annoyingly improperly pluralized Cleaning Ladys  were apparently from the Chicago area. The lyrics are reprinted on the back of the sleeve in case you miss the jokes. (She won't French Kiss, but she'll otherwise bang you six ways to Sunday) There was an official video to go with it. You can youtube it yourself. I've got other things to do with my time.

               

 
the Bee Jays (1980)
Same song both sides. A hilariously droll gay take on the Angels hit. With only a few minor lyrical modifications. I smirk every time he gets to "He knows that you've been lyin'/Soon we will be KYing"

I'm funny that way.







  What Do We Do With the World (1967)

It's difficult to get people to really understand that the most popular and successful musical act of the 20th Century was not the Beatles that your grandparents like to remind you that nothing your generation will do will be half so awesome as. (fuck off, gramps.) It was Bing fucking Crosby. He dominated music, radio and movies for thirty plus years and then turned into a national treasure. He was also apparently a pretty nasty fucker to his kids, but beloved by millions otherwise. You may know him from "White Christmas" which is the only thing anybody remembers him for.

 For a while at one miserable cooking job doing Sunday Brunch prep over the course of salaried 60 hour weeks I used to listen to a radio show dedicated to the Bingmeister. He recorded a lot of hacknied dreck and dreary ballads which apparently went over like gangbusters during the Depression and WWII. This little number stood out the one time I heard it such that I  had to track this thing down. It's as close as Der Bingle ever got to Rock and Roll and ever so dingily and dimly psychedelic that I knew I would have to have it.

What would we do with Earth once we've started colonizing the stars?

Fucking progress...