DAY 123.
Iron Butterfly............................In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida    (1968)





Listened to the whole album last night, can't say I was overly impressed. This album for me was one of the most dated I've listened to, we even had the proverbial drum solo near the end of side two.



All in all a quite forgettable album, with nothing that really grabbed my attention, and as a result shan't be added to my collection.



Bits & Bobs;

Ingle's father was a church organist in Omaha, Nebraska, passing on the interest and talent to his son.


 
The band, in their early years, had regular gigs at the famous L.A. music clubs, the Whiskey-a-Go-Go and the Galaxy.


 
They gained success by opening for the Doors and Jefferson Airplane.


 
Weis and Penrod would later be members of the late Sixties "supergroup" Rhinoceros.


 
Penrod, DeLoach, and Braunn all formed Flintwhistle after Braunn left the first time.


 


Pinera was from Blues Image (he would later play with Alice Cooper) and Reinhardt's claim to fame was living with Gregg and Duane Allman.


 
The group can be seen in the film Savage Seven. So can Cream and Duane Eddy.


 
Several lineups have appeared over the years.


 
The album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida was by far their greatest success, selling over four million copies and staying on the charts for 140 weeks. It was Atlantic Records' largest selling album until Led Zeppelin.


 
They were the first band to fill an entire side of an LP with just one song.


 
Phil Kramer had an odd death. He was a computer genius, and after leaving the band was working on a way to find missing children simply by popping a piece of a picture into a computer. But one day he called 911 to tell the operator he was going to kill himself. He vanished in 1995 and in 1999 hikers found his van in the desert mountains. This story was featured on the Unsolved Mysteries TV show.


 
Larry Reinhardt and Lee Dorman left in 1971 to form Captain Beyond with original Deep Purple vocalist Rod Evans and drummer Bobby Caldwell.


In- A -Gabba- Da -Vida;
This was written by Doug Ingle, Iron Butterfly's vocalist and keyboard player. His father was a church organist.


 
The title was supposed to be "In The Garden Of Eden." Someone had written "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," possibly while drunk, on a demo copy. A record company executive saw it and decided to use it as the title, since it sounded mystical and Eastern spirituality was big at the time, with The Beatles going to India and The Rolling Stones experimenting with Indian instruments.


 Doug Ingle did not intend it this way when he wrote the song, but he album version is over 17 minutes long. The single was edited for radio.


 
Ron Bushy's drum solo is not as long as people think; it only runs about 2 1/2 minutes, from 6.30 to a little past 9 minutes. Doug Ingle's organ solo immediately follows.


 
The band's original guitar player quit before this was recorded. He was replaced by Eric Braun, who had only played the guitar for 3 months.


 The title loosely translates as "In The Garden Of Life."


 
This was the first hit song that could be classified as "Heavy Metal." The phrase was introduced that year in the Steppenwolf song "Born To Be Wild."


 
Iron Butterfly would have performed this at Woodstock, but they didn't make it because they were stuck at the airport.


 
Hip-Hop artist Nas has 2 different songs that sample this. The first was "Thief's Theme" from his 2003 double album Street's Disciple. The second was the title track of his 2006 album Hip-Hop is Dead.


 
Danny Weiss of Iron Butterfly was recommended to Al Kooper by David Crosby (of Crosby, Stills, & Nash), right when Kooper was forming Blood Sweat & Tears. As given in Back Stage Passes and Backstabing Bastards "I loved the guitarist, introduced myself, and explained this concept to him. He thought it was a good idea, but insisted that he was committed to the band he was in. His name was Danny Weiss, and his band was Iron Butterfly. He left soon after we met anyway, and and joined the great but doomed band Rhinoceros."


 
The recording that is heard on the album was done as soundcheck filler for engineer Don Casale while the band waited for the arrival of producer Jim Hilton. However, after the rehearsal was completed it was agreed that the performance was of sufficient quality that another take wasn't needed.


 
The song was used in The Simpsons episode "Bart Sells His Soul," where Bart switches a hymn out for this song and convinces the Reverend Lovejoy it is penned by I. Ron Butterfly. The whole 17-minute version is played by the First Church of Springfield's exhausted church organist.


 There are only 30 different words in this song, even though it is over 17 minutes long.

That United States of America album would displease you, arabchanter, as it was mostly written by one of the Byrds! I think it's ok as an album, but I enjoy hippy sounding stuff. Same with Iron Butterfly, but I prefer them, possibly because I liked the name when I was a youngster. Too much guitar stuff plus other solos for you, maybe.

And in amongst all the American albums on the list presently, Dr John's Gris Gris is my favourite............. but I'd forgotten all about him over the years, so there's the benefit of your hard work, arabchanter! Oh aye, and a classic on it: I Walk on Guilded Splinters.

I'll wait until you've written thoughts regarding S.F. Sorrow before entering my tuppence worth.

Last edited by PatReilly (11/12/2017 5:05 pm)

DAY 124.
The Pretty Things................................S.F. Sorrow     (1968)








For the avoidance of doubt, I never liked any of the so called rock operas, Tommy (I can see how it would be perceived, Townsend borrowed bits from this album) and The Wall left me pretty much .....Meh.

This album left me in a very similar frame of mind. The thing with all these so called rock operas is they have to try and work to a story, which for me in all the cases, has meant that lyrically some of the writing really leaves a lot to be desired.

I had the misfortune to read the lyrics of S.F. Sorrow as I listened to the album, and as a friend said to me in the pub "The Pretty Things were alright, but the reason in his humble opinion that they never reached the heights of the  other bands of their era, was they couldn't write a song as lyrically they were very poor" and I'm afraid I must concur, as far as this album goes.

Maybe Pat can point me in the direction of an album or two of theirs that can alter my view of The Pretty Things, as I hope this is not their pinnacle.

I won't be putting this one in my collection.


Bits & Bobs;


With their fourth overall album released in late 1968, The Pretty Things produced what was arguably the first true rock opera called SF Sorrow. The album was based on a short story by guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Phil May, which tells the tragic story of the fictional Sebastian F. Sorrow, who grows increasingly mad and disillusioned as the story (and album) moves forward. Band members and some critics have claimed SF Sorrow was a major influence on The Who’s Tommy (released the following year) although Pete Townshend has claimed it had no influence on his writing. In any case, the eclectic styles of rock by The Pretty Things seemed to have a big influence on several later artists.
Named after a Bo Diddley song from 1955, The Pretty Things evolved from a group called Little Boy Blue, which featured Keith Richards and Mick Jagger and guitarist Dick Taylor. All three joined Brian Jones’ and Ian Stewart’s band, called “Rollin’ Stones”, but Taylor quit after a few months to study at art school. Here he joined up with May and manager Bryan Morrison to form the original incarnation of The Pretty Things. Through 1964 and 1965, the group had a handful hit singles in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and some European countries, but they never broke though in the United States. By the end of 1967, there had been much personnel turnover and the newest incarnation of The Pretty Things entered Abbey Road studios to start their most ambitious album.


 Recorded over a full year and produced by Norman Smith, the album sessions featured two tracks which were omitted and instead released as a single in February 1968, “Talking About the Good Times” and “Walking Through My Dreams”. The following month, drummer Skip Alan suddenly quit the band and was replaced by Twink from the recently defunct band, Tomorrow. Songs on the album have a nice blend of rock, folk, blues, and psychedelic elements with innovative arrangements. However, the production and mastering techniques contain a lack of focus make it sound a bit dated and inaccessible for all but the most seasoned listener.

 The songs on SF Sorrow, run sequentially with the story line of the protagonist from birth to death. In many instances, the songs start with an excellent groove or rock riff only to later dissolve into unnecessary embellishments, which tend to take away from the overall vibe. The opener, “S.F. Sorrow is Born” starts with the bent acoustic notes in the introduction and a very strong rhythm, driven by bassist Wally Allen, before a short middle section adds some very short flourishes of horns, strings, and mellotron. “Bracelets of Fingers” was the first track recorded in November 1967, featuring a vocal harmonies intro before rock verses with marching drum beats and an ever-present wah-wah guitar by Taylor. The story tells of Sorrow’s childhood and adolescence in Britain until it ends abruptly when he needs to get a job at the “Misery factory”. The only bright spot in his life is the pretty girl across the street, focused on in the song “She Says Good Morning”. With a harmonized guitar riff to start, this is harder and heavier than anything thus far on the album, almost proto-punk for the 1960s.


 An acoustic riff and underlying march beneath a plethora of instruments, make “Private Sorrow” a very entertaining listen. Here the story follows Sorrow to war (World War I), which he survives and eventually moves to America. He sends for his unnamed sweetheart and she arrives on a zeppelin (Hindenburg) which bursts into flames in “Balloon Burning”. The closer of the first side, “Death”, contains a doomy and haunting, yet excellent riff, like a twisted blues song. In between the very British verses, the riff holds together this excellent tune, which features a sitar lead by John Povey and haunting background vocal choruses.


 While side one contains the forward-moving story, side two focuses on the post-mordem, psychedelic horrors which plague the protagonist Sorrow. “Baron Saturday” is well ahead of its time with the vocal effects which sound like they could have come a decade later. Povey’s choppy piano during the choruses indicate that this could have been a big radio hit and is a definite classic in spite over-the-top, slightly off beat percussion ensemble in the unnecessary mid-section. “The Journey” contains acoustic with overlaid electric guitars, sounding like it has a definite George Harrison influence and does well before an unfortunate psychedelic outro.
“I See You” has a bass and drum roll with slowly strummed guitar doubled by distorted electric and a haunting – vocal chorus, along with Taylor’s most intense lead guitar on album. May’s vocals sell the overall intensity of this song excellently.


 The short sound collage of “Well of Destiny” starts an awkward second side medley, continuing with the piano song “Trust”, which contains great vocal rhythm throughout. “Old Man Going” is a rocker which sounds like a preview of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, with strong acoustic, sharp electric, high pitched-vocals, and sound effects spread throughout. Thematically, the story takes its final tragic turn as Sorrow is driven into a dark mental seclusion. The short, minute and a half “Loneliest Person” closes the album as a short acoustic ballad, solidifying the melancholy and unhappy ending, where Sorrow identifies himself as “the loneliest person in the world.”This dark nature of the album’s content along with lack of label support, and being overshadowed by concurrent British releases such as the Beatles’ White Album, led to SF Sorrow becoming a mainly forgotten masterpiece from the late 1960s. The band only attempted to play the concept album live once in the next thirty years and by 1969 Taylor left the group, because of disillusionment over the commercial failure of this album. 


Hopefully all up to date now, roll on the next 877   

I wouldn't think of SF Sorrow as the best ever Pretty Things album, and I also would have put the likes of Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Small Faces) as being recorded prior to this as the first concept/rock opera album.

The first two Pretty Things LPs were better records, and if it's just the music I've to recommend, I'd say the compilation "Greatest Hits 1964–1967" released in the mid-seventies is my favourite (as I have it). It includes many tracks of these two albums.

The Pretty Things were billed by some as the ugliest band in rock and roll, and Phil May claimed to have the longest hair in music. Cannae substantiate either, but they weren't too photogenic. And I don't think they were too lucky with their record companies either, who tended not to promote them like other 'prettier' bands, as they didn't appeal to the female audience too well.



Regarding lyrics, I have no great beef with the quality of these, as the words of songs are secondary to the sounds for me.

Here's my favourite Pretty Things song, Buzz the Jerk:




which closely beat this into second place, Come See Me:




 

DAY 125.
Simon & Garfunkel...............................Bookends   (1968)





Bookends, is a very good album in my humble opinion, but here's the rub, does anyone else feel that their albums are just too clean, sanatised and downright too perfect.


Now this shouldn't be a problem, but I can't help but think if for some reason  someone in the studio hit a bum note, Paul Simon would go into a complete meltdown, and Arthur would be scrabbling for his Afro comb, such would be their disgust.

Please don't get me wrong, I think Simon & Garfunkel are a really tight harmonising duo with great songwriting ability, but sometimes I find them just that touch to twee.


As I mentioned previously one of my brothers loved Simon & Garfunkel and had all their albums, now I havn't heard this album for at least forty odd years, but as the album played I found that I new all the lyrics, now for someone who often finds himself getting to the top of the stairs, and thinking "what the hell did I come up here for" I find that quite the feat.


I did enjoy the album but as alluded to earlier, their albums always seem that they need something more, for me, so unless my brother gives me this album as well as "Parsley Sage" gratis, I can't see me putting this one in.


Bits & Bobs;


America



In this song, Paul Simon and his longtime girlfriend Kathy Chitty (from "Kathy's Song") are coming to America (moving from England). Paul is deeply confused and unsatisfied, but he doesn't know why. He just knows that something is missing. It is also about the "American Dream" - the guarantee that you will make it if you stumble upon this country. That is why they are coming to America.
The song is a great example of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel singing in unison, which was a hallmark of their sound. Garfunkel is especially fond of the section where they sing, "And walked off to look for America." To told Paul Zollo in 1993: "That has a real upright, earnest quality because we both have the identical soul at that moment. We come from the identical place in our attitude, and the spine that's holding us up, we are the same person. Same college kid, striking out."


 
There are no rhymes in this song, which is quite a feat of songwriting. Gerry Beckley of America (no relation) broke it down: "The entire song is prose. There's not one line that rhymes and I will tell some of the best songwriters you've ever met that particular element and you can see them stop and go through it in their head. We're oblivious to that being an ingredient because we're so involved in the story. You're not sitting there going, 'That didn't rhyme, wait a second.' It's not an issue."


 
The prolific session drummer Hal Blaine played on this, and considers it one of his favorites. Blaine also played on Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson."
Other musicians on the track include Joe Osborn on bass and Larry Knechtel on organ.


 
At their live show in Central Park, Simon & Garfunkel repeated the line "Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike" because the home crowd could relate to the image of massive traffic on New Jersey highways.


 
This was used by James Leo Herlihy in his all-but-forgotten classic novel, The Season of the Witch. The story begins with a pair of teenage runaways traveling by bus to New York, riffing off the lyrics all the way. When they actually see the moon rising over an open field, they feel their journey was meant to happen.


 
In the movie Almost Famous, the teenaged character Anita (Zooey Deschanel) plays this song to explain why she is leaving home to explore the country. The song is included on the soundtrack to the film.


 
The progressive rock band Yes recorded a vastly different version which they released as a single in 1972. Their rendition, with layered vocals and musical breakdowns, made #46 in the US. The single version ran 4:06, but a full 10:28 version was also released on a sampler album called The New Age of Atlantic later that year, and included on their 1996 Keys To Ascension album.





Yes bass player Chris Squire explained: "When Yes first formed, Simon & Garfunkel were very prevalent hit makers at the time and both myself and Jon Anderson were big fans of them. That's why we covered the song 'America.' But we did it differently than their way. We wanted to expand things, which is basically what we did. When Pop tunes were expected to be three minutes long, our mantra was, 'Let's make them 10 minutes long.' So that was really what we did."


 
Paul Simon gave Bernie Sanders permission to use this song in a campaign ad when Sanders was campaigning for the Democratic nomination against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Simon told Billboard magazine: "Look, here's a guy, he comes from Brooklyn, he's my age. He voted against the Iraq War. He's totally against Citizens United, thinks it should be overturned. He thinks climate change is an imminent threat and should be dealt with. And I felt: Hats off to you! You can use my song."

Mrs. Robinson

This was written for the movie The Graduate, starring Anne Bancroft as Mrs. Robinson, a middle-aged woman who seduces the much younger Dustin Hoffman. Bancroft, who died in 2005, had a long and successful film career, but is best known for her part in this movie.


 
Regarding the famous line, "Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?": DiMaggio was a star baseball player for the New York Yankees who was briefly married to Marilyn Monroe. Simon was using him to represent heroes of the past. DiMaggio was a little miffed when he heard this, since he was still very much alive even though he retired from baseball in 1951, but he realized that he had become a new icon now with the baby boomer generation due to this song's success.




Simon, who is a huge fan of The Yankees, explained in a 1990 interview with SongTalk magazine: "The Joe DiMaggio line was written right away in the beginning. And I don't know why or where it came from. It seems so strange, like it didn't belong in that song and then, I don't know, it was so interesting to us that we just kept it. So it's one of the most well-known lines that I've ever written."


 
Paul Simon was a much bigger fan of Mickey Mantle than Joe DiMaggio. On The Dick Cavett Show, Simon was asked by Mantle why he wasn't mentioned in the song instead of DiMaggio. Simon replied, "It's about syllables, Mick. It's about how many beats there are."


 
When DiMaggio died in 1999, it was a very emotional event for many baseball fans who grew up watching him play. The part of this song that mentions him summed of the feelings of many people who felt there was no one left to look up to. Simon wrote an editorial about DiMaggio in The New York Times shortly after his death.


 
Simon began writing this as "Mrs. Roosevelt," and had just the line, "Here's to you, Mrs. Roosevelt" when he changed it to "Mrs. Robinson" for The Graduate.




Eleanor Roosevelt was a likely influence on the song. Some of the lyrics support this theory

We'd like to help you learn to help yourself
Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes

Going to the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at it, you lose



Roosevelt was a female rights and black rights activist, always helping everyone but herself during the Great Depression. A lot of the time she seemed to have been running the country as much as FDR, but never would have actually won the presidency because she was female.


 
When Mike Nichols was making The Graduate, he used three existing Simon & Garfunkel songs as placeholders: "The Sounds Of Silence" "Scarborough Fair, Canticle" and "April Come She Will." He was hoping that Paul Simon would write some original songs for the film, but touring and work on an upcoming album left him drained. Nichols decided to use these placeholder songs, but really wanted a new song to serve as the soundtrack.




Art Garfunkel had heard Simon working on "Mrs. Roosevelt," and mentioned this to Nichols, who realized the title had the same number of syllables as "Mrs. Robinson." Desperate for a song, Nichols asked Simon to change it to "Mrs. Robinson" and write the rest of it. Simon decided to give it a shot.


 
According to Art Garfunkel, this song may never have been recorded had it not been for The Graduate director Mike Nichols, who asked the duo for songs for his film. Garfunkel said that at the time, the tune was "A trifle song we were about to throw out," but when Nichols heard this early version, he heard something in it and asked Simon to adapt it for the film.




"His intelligence allowed him to hang loose and make all these different, fabulous choices," Garfunkel said of Nichols, who died in 2014. Nichols directed Garfunkel in the 1971 movie Carnal Knowledge. (source of quote: Entertainment Weekly)


 
This would have had a good chance to win an Oscar for Best Song From A Movie, but it was never nominated because Simon & Garfunkel never filled out the forms to get it considered, leaving "Talk To The Animals" from Doctor Dolittle as the winner. Simon explained, "It was the '60s, we just weren't paying attention." It took 35 years, but Simon finally was nominated for an Oscar in 2003 for his song "Father And Daughter," which was used in The Wild Thornberry's Movie.


 
According to a "making of" feature on The Graduate DVD, Paul Simon did not originally write a full-length version of this song, only the verses that are heard in the movie. After the movie became a hit, he finished the lyrics and recorded the full version that is known today.


 
This song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1969.


Speaking with Mail on Sunday's Event magazine, Garfunkel recalled: "We tightened the harmonies, and it became something very appealing. I remember walking into the studio, with Hal Blaine playing congas, Larry Knetchel playing bass, and Paul playing terrific, chugga-chugga rhythm guitar, all around one microphone.




I tiptoed into the control room to check that we were recording, and started getting very excited, thinking, this has got it! It swings like a mutha."

 
A cover version of this song was recorded and charted by the '90s group Lemonheads. Their single peaked at US #8 on the US Modern Rock chart in 1992, and hit #19 on the UK Pop chart. The Lemonheads were asked to record the song for the 25th anniversary release of The Graduate, prompting Lemonhead Evan Dando to comment, "Some people, probably wearing Italian shoes, said, 'Hmmm, we need to get The Graduate out to more of a flannel-wearing kind of audience." Dando would later say, "I'm more proud of my own songs than the version of 'Mrs. Robinson,' which frankly I can take or leave – mostly leave."


 A Hazy Shade Of Winter

• In this song, the singer seems to be lamenting how he was looking for something (or someone) perfect, but never found it, and now time is running out on his dreams. Paul Simon wrote the song, and uses seasons as a metaphor for the cycle of life.



In 1987, the Bangles recorded this number and it hit #11 in the UK and #2 in the US. Their version was used in the film Less Than Zero, in which Brad Pitt appears as an extra (Partygoer/Preppie Kid At Fight). He earned $38 for his appearance.



On the Bangles website, Susanna Hoffs talks about meeting Paul Simon after watching Simon & Garfunkel in concert: "We had loved Simon & Garfunkel, and naturally we also loved Paul as a solo artist, and we were really happy to see them perform and then go backstage for a meet-and-greet. This was after our version of 'Hazy Shade of Winter' had come out, and although I don't think we talked about it very much, I remember he was very sweet, and I'm sure he was happy the song had done so well. I think it's always good to have your song covered, but it was a little uncomfortable talking to him about it, because when Simon & Garfunkel did the song, it had gone to #17 (sic), and the Bangles version went to #2. You're proud, of course, but you never want to come off as full of yourself or arrogant you know?"


At The Zoo

"At the Zoo" is from Simon & Garfunkel's fourth studio album, a sort of concept album. The first side of Bookends contained age-progression type songs while the back side had songs that didn't make the cut for the cult classic film The Graduate. "At the Zoo" closes this second side.



Who else but S&G could write and perform such a whimsical piece? All of the animals are described with a playful frame of mind, with lines like "Zebras are reactionaries; Antelopes are missionaries; Pigeons plot in secrecy; And hamsters turn on frequently," painting a poetic montage. Anybody who can't smile at this song has a heart made of charcoal.



This song was licensed for TV commercials for the Bronx Zoo and the San Francisco Zoo in the late 1970s. Not only that, but in 1991 a children's book was published by Paul Simon, titled "Simon and Garfunkel at the Zoo," with rich, chocolatey illustrations by Valerie Michaut. However, the lyrics and concepts had to be altered slightly; for instance, the hamsters were given little headlights on their head to explain why they'd "turn on."

PatReilly wrote:

I also would have put the likes of Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (Small Faces) as being recorded prior to this as the first concept/rock opera album.

 

You mention them and then here they are, impressive!

DAY 126.
The Small Faces.................................Ogden's Nut Gone Flake     (1968)







I know it's a cliche but this album was defiinately for me " a game of two halves"

The album opens up well, with the instrumental, "Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake," which I enjoyed, in fact the only track on side one I had reservations about was " Long Agos And Worlds Apart" as I couldn't hear the vocals, but to be fair I have to say this album in the round, apart from the afore mentioned track, was actually well balanced compared to previous albums I've listened to, where guitar is God and seems to overwhelm the rest of the band.


Then there's Side 2;


"Are you all seated comfortable,
too square on your botty ?
Then I'll begin"


I really can't say I enjoyed this side, I had a few laugh out louds at Stan Unwin's narrations but the rest for me left a lot to be desired.


"Rollin' Over" was probably the best track, and that's with a Hendrixesque opening, and you know who I feel about Hendrix, but then it nosedives into a "The good old days," "Down at the old Bull and Bush" kind of Pearly King and Queen type of gig.


All in all gonna give it another spin, so will stick this on the subbies bench, but to be honest I can't see me buying  this one.


Bits & Bobs;


They got their name because they were all under five feet six inches. The face part came from the Who song, "I'm the Face." This showed their mod hipness.


 
Marriott was a former child actor. He played both Oliver and the Artful Dodger in the stage version of Oliver! He died in a fire in his home in 1991.


 
Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane first met in July 1964 at a gig of Marriott's band The Moments, but did not become friends until they met again in 1965 in a London music shop called J60, where they also met Jimmy Winston. Kenney Jones played in The Outcasts with Lane, and the group found Ian McLagan through a music magazine, after Winston had been thrown out.


 
When their first and only #1 "All Or Nothing" hit the charts in 1966, it shared the top spot with "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles.


 
The band finally split up in late 1968/early 1969, as Marriott had already formed Humble Pie with Peter Frampton, the band did not get on anymore and they felt the press and their audience did not take them seriously as musicians. They played their final gig on the 8th of March 1969 at the Springfield Theatre in Jersey on the Channel Islands.


 
They changed their name to The Faces in 1969 when Rod Stewart and Ron Wood joined. Both of them were from the Jeff Beck Group and both were much taller than the other members at the time, so the band really wasn't small any more.


 
Lane suffered from multiple sclerosis from the late 1970s until his death in 1997. It went into remission when the mercury fillings in his teeth were removed.


 In May, 1974, the band embarked on a tour they called the "Passing Show." Shows were held under a circus tent, complete with jugglers and fire eaters. It was a bust, and ended in July because it was losing too much money.


 
During a short reunion in 1975, the band filmed videos for "Itchycoo Park" and "Lazy Sunday." Lane quit after those videos, but Marriott, McLagan and Jones recorded two more albums together: Playmates in 1977 and 78 In The Shade in 1978.


 
They were recommended by singer Elkie Brooks to a pub owner who got them gigs throughout London, and made them quite well-known in London before they had a manager.


 
Out of 12 Top-40 singles in the UK, only 1 got to #1: "All Or Nothing" in August 1966.



Afterglow   (probably my favourite track on the album)



The Small Faces broke up in March 1969 with Steve Marriott going on to form Humble Pie. Their manager Andrew Loog Oldham released this power ballad as the unofficial final song by the group. The band never publicized the tune and it only managed to reach #36 in the UK charts.


 
Marrott's lyrics are a paean to his model wife, Jenny Rylance, and were played at their wedding service in May 1968. Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley commented to Mojo magazine: "Only Steve could write a beautiful love song about what it feels to have a fag after sex!"




A previous Small Faces single, "Tin Soldier" had been written by Marriott in an attempt to woo Rylance.


 
An alternate version titled "Afterglow" originally appeared on the Small Faces' 1968 album, Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake.



Lazy Sunday Afternoon


This Steve Marriott penned song has a traditional East End of London Music Hall sound. Keyboardist Ian McLagan recalled to Uncut magazine: "When Steve came in with this it was slower. We started taking the piss out of it while he was out of the room. The 'Root-ti-doo-ti-di-day' thing stop and he laughed when he came back in and heard us. So we cut it like that. It was a piss take!"


 
Marriott sung much of the song in a greatly exaggerated cockney accent. Drummer Kenney Jones told Uncut : "Steve had been a child actor, he was the first Artful Dodger in Lionel Bart's Oliver in the West End. He brought back that theatricality to this."


 
Marriott was against his manager Andrew Loog Oldham's decision to release this as a single and that was one reason why he left the group shortly afterwards. Jones recalled to Uncut: "We were on tour in Germany, picked up Melody Maker and this was a hit! Andrew had released it without our knowledge, like 'My Minds Eye.' So this dragged us back into poppy-land. We wanted to be known for being as good as the Claptons of this world. We wanted a tougher image. It wasn't a fair representation of Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake.


 
The song features various sound effects including crowd shouts, chirping birds, surf, and church bells. If you listen closely, you can hear a loo being flushed just after Marriott sings, "while you flush out the moon."


 
 

PatReilly wrote:

'Passing Show' was a Ronnie Lane project, with his band, Slim Chance. The tour arrived in Falkirk with the circus tent I recall. 

Viv Stanshall was the 'Ringmaster' for part of the circus tour, and in a twist of fateful coincidence, he died in a similar way to Steve Marriott, in bed during a house fire. Marriott is reputed to have been high on a drugs cocktail at the time, while Stanshall (perhaps) set fire to his own luxurious facial hair while enjoying a smoke in bed. 

And, as a wee fact that I didn't realise until very recently, the Small Faces hit Sha La La La Lee was co-written by Kenny Lynch, one of the few black entertainers who were regulars on television in the 1960s.

To the album: I always liked it because it was 'trendy': used to be jealous of the older pupils at school who would bring albums as status symbols to school, and this circular album cover was eye-catching. And I looked up to the style of the Small Faces, looks, hair and clothes wise, at that age (and probably still ).

Ronnie Lane's MS wasn't known to the band for a quite a period of time, and he was gradually marginalised as other members thought he was becoming less professional. Some of his symptoms were mistaken for alcohol misuse. 

I'll agree Side One is better than Side Two, but overall it remains a favourite of mine.

Great post Pat, full of good info and I'd assume treasured memories

I'm sure I read somewhere that Kenny Lynch also co-wrote the title  track on "You'd Better Believe It" their debut album.
 

Sorry but going to have to do a double tonight.

I had another funeral yesterday, I wasn't going to go for a drink after, but met a few old faces and got ever so slightly bladdered, so never got a chance to listen to The Band's album.

I've got another funeral on Tuesday, I hope to God it's the last for a while.

Kenny Lynch co-wrote a few songs on the Small Faces first album, and in a connection to the Jeff Beck LP above, the two who joined the remaining Small Faces to form The Faces, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, were in the Jeff Beck Band for the Truth album. Wood was the bassist as Beck was the leader.

Won't say anything much about The Band, as I don't really like them. Interested in what you make of Beck's Truth album, though.

DAY 127.
The Band...............................Music From Big Pink    (1968)






Gotta tell ya I was looking forward to this, but found it very much of it's time, I should imagine around that time there would be several similar bands but maybe with better vocals.


I read somewhere that they said "we don't harmonise, as we are three separate voices"  there in might  lie my issue, it sometimes felt like the vocals were all over the show in my humble opinion.


As for the tracks, the first three I wouldn't play if I had the album, as were pretty standard country rock numbers, but from Caledonia mission, The Weight, and through to Long Black Veil" (thought it sounded familiar, it was on the Johnny Cash, Folsom prison album, and to be honest I preferred his version)) it wasn't to bad, but when we got to wheels On Fire, for me that's got to be the worst version I've ever heard, and I've heard some strange versions in the "clubby's o' Dundee, over the years, also I do feel that " I Shall Be Released " would be much better sung by somebody else.


This particular Band album won't be in my collection


Bits and Bobs;

Their vocals were often 3-part harmonies with Helm, Manuel, and Danko.
They were playing clubs as The Hawks when Bob Dylan asked them to be his backup band on his first electric tour. They were often booed by audiences who felt Dylan had sold out his folk fans.
Robertson, Danko, Manuel, and Hudson are Canadian. Robertson is Canadian by birth, but his heritage is half-Jewish and half-American Indian.

Bob Dylan got in a motorcycle accident while they were backing him on tour. Looking for a place to live and work while Dylan recovered, they rented a big, pink house in upstate New York (West Saugerties), where they recorded demos for their first album, Music From Big Pink, in the basement.


 
Robertson did a stint as a "creative executive" at DreamWorks Records.


 

Their second album, The Band, was recorded at Sammy Davis Jr.'s house, which they had rented.


 
They became known as "The Band" when they were living in Big Pink and locals recognized them as members of Dylan's backing band. When folks would spot one of them, they would remark that he was in "the band." That's the name the went with when they made a record.


The Woodstock festival was a bad experience for The Band, who were the only local act - they lived nearby and had to contend with tourists for the next few years. They were paid more for their performance then many other artists, including Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Grateful Dead, and The Who. They played the last night and left right after their set.

 
Songwriting credits and royalty payments were a contentious issue for The Band. Robertson was listed as the composer on most of the songs, even though the others helped write them. As a result, Robertson continues to get most of the royalties from the songs.


They played the Watkins Glen Festival on July 28, 1973 along with The Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead. With over 600,000 people, it was the largest US concert ever.
The Band performed their last concert on November 24, 1976 at Winterland in San Francisco. In 1978, the movie The Last Waltz, about this concert, was released. November 24 was the same day Eric Clapton had played Cream's farewell concert in 1968. It was partially because of The Band's music that Clapton decided to leave Cream


Levon Helm inspired the name for the title character in Elton John's "Levon"




They are a huge influence on Eric Clapton, who was in Cream when Music From Big Pink came out. Clapton formed Blind Faith with the idea of making music with more direction and fewer extended solos, which were the trademark of Cream. The Band played on his albums No Reason To Cry (1976) and August (1986)




Regarding their split, Robertson said (in Q magazine): "I was responsible for the break up of The Band. But did I do it on a whim? I don't think so! Drugs and alcohol were the real destruction of The Band – but that's always underplayed."


 
When they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, only three members were there. Levon Helm chose not to attend and Richard Manuel had died. When they played, Eric Clapton joined them to fill in the sound.




In 1969, these guys became the first Canadian band to appear on the cover of Time magazine. They were heralded as "The first to match the excellence of the Beatles."




Helm has gone on to an acting career. He played Loretta Lynn's father in Coal Miner's Daughter and appeared in The Right Stuff.



Levon Helm and Garth Hudson played drums and Hammond organ on Norah Jones' song "What Am I To You."


Plagued by drug and alcohol problems, Manual hanged himself after a show in Florida in 1986.


Levon Helm was honored in Woodstock, New York, as the town saluted him by making May 20th, 2006 "Levon Helm Day." Helm has lived there since the '60s, and he got the key to the city as part of the honor.


 
Helm and his band do a regular monthly gig called a "Midnight Ramble" at his barn, which is also a recording studio. The shows often attract special guests, and Elvis Costello and Steely Dan singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen have made appearances.



 
Robertson and the director Martin Scorsese became good friends after Scorsese directed The Last Waltz. They lived together for a while, and Robertson often worked on the music for Scorsese's films; he contributed songs or worked as a music consultant on The Departed, Gangs Of New York, Raging Bull, The Color Of Money and Shutter Island. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Last edited by arabchanter (16/12/2017 12:13 am)

Jeff Beck (a guitary man) AND, Rod Stewart, fuck!
Started listening, but will have to listen to this one in stages, will report back later

DAY 128.
Jeff Beck................................Truth    (1968)








Just finished listening To this album, and on reflection it wasn't quite as "guitary" as I was dreading.
Don't get me wrong "Jeffrey Arnold Beck" certainly had his moments, he often flew off in a tangent, but not for nearly as long as Clapton/Hendrix which was a blessing for this old listener.


Jeff Beck is a seriously good guitarist, and Rod Stewart is.......well Rod Stewart!
I quite liked Stewart when he was with the Faces, but I personally didn't think the two were a great mix, this may be choice of material right enough, but I didn't think they complimented each other.


As for the album it didn't open up very well for me with "Shape of things," and as for "Rock My Plimsoul & Ol' Man River" that's when I stopped listening for a couple of hours, I wish I'd been a bit braver and taken in the next track "Jeff's Greensleeves" as well in my first session, but I started up again with this piece of self indulgence, but to be fair I did enjoy "Beck's Bolero" and the last two tracks.


Reading about Beck I think he's a guy I would most likely get along with, he's also a damn fine guitar player, but I really didn't like it enough to buy it.


Bits & Bobs;

This is a bit long,  but I hope you find it interesting?


The Jeff Beck Group: The Story Of Truth;


In the late 60s, Yardbirds alumnus Jeff Beck formed The Jeff Beck Group. Here's the remarkable story of the making Of Truth, their debut album


 On July 29, 1968, Jeff Beck, along with a kick-around vocalist, a future Rolling Stone, and a drummer with a lot of bash released Truth. The album was a miracle of fury and berserk beauty, a testament to the jaw-dropping chops of a 24- year old guitarist who, over the course of 10 tracks and around 40 minutes, ran the gamut from electric blues and modified R&B to psychedelically influenced rock, classical, and even a little heavy-metal instrumentalism. With Truth, released just months before Led Zeppelin’s debut – and with songs and personnel in common – Jeff Beck, singer Rod Stewart, bassist Ronnie Wood, and drummer Mickey Waller (the core band) made an album that would become every guitar player’s bible and every hard rock band’s Holy Grail.


 But Beck would laugh at such grandiose observations. For the guitarist, the moment had come for the Jeff Beck Group to make an album, and in his head that’s all it was: “We decided it was about time that we recorded some of the rubbish we’d been playing on stage. And we didn’t have an album.”

 With the release of Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, Cream’s Wheels Of Fire, Free’s Tons Of Sobs, the Stones’ Beggars Banquet and The Beatles' seminal White Album, 1968 was a watershed year for rock music. Britain was a fertile stomping ground for players seeking like-minded musicians. Electric rock was in its infancy, and people were willing to embrace the daring and the different.

 With Beck having established himself as a guitar player of the first degree on a quartet of bold and wickedly wonderful Yardbirds albums in 1965 and 1966 (For Your Love, Having A Rave Up With The Yardbirds, The Yardbirds [Roger The Engineer] and Over Under Sideways Down), producer/manager Mickie Most, thinking to capitalise on the guitarist’s visibility, conceived the notion of turning Beck into a pop crooner. All but forgetting that Beck was first and foremost an instrumentalist, Most shackled him with a series of less-than-guitar-focused songs. In fact it turned Jeff into a Top Of The Pops insta-celeb. But you can’t deny the producer’s instincts: Beck’s ditties Hi Ho Silver Lining and Tallyman bounced up the UK chart to No.14 and No.30 respectively in mid-1967.

 In 1968 Beck recorded another Most selection, an instrumental version of the ballad Love Is Blue. But by now he’d had enough. Even while preparing to record that single, he had already been making moves towards forming his own group, like two other ex-Yardbirds guitarists. Cream, with Eric Clapton, were only a year away from extinction; Jimmy Page was commandeering his own juggernaut; Beck was determined not to be left out of the race.

 “I always kept my fingers on players,” Beck commented in the 70s. “Every musician around London always knew what the other one was doing. All groups used to come and see each other play, and it was really nice. There seemed to be a purpose. It was like a competition: ‘They’re doing that in their act, so we’ll have to cut that out'. It was great fun; nice, hot competition. I really liked the scene then.

 “I had to round up a singer,” he continued. “I couldn’t think of who to get. I always liked Rod [Stewart], I dug him, with the teased hair and all the rest of it. His hair wasn’t like it is now, it was kind of curled under at the back. It was just like a piece of molded fibreglass; it looked like he’d put a helmet on, it looked so bad. And I said: ‘Rod, please, get rid of that hairstyle!’.


 “He was out of work at the time. He was hanging around a [London] club called The Cromwellian. I asked him if he wanted a job and [thinking Beck was drunk] he said: ‘Yeah, but I don’t believe you. Ring me tomorrow'. And I was more sober than I’ve ever been that night. And I couldn’t believe that he said yeah, because I thought he was a snob.”



 With a singer in tow, Beck then set out to look for a bass player. Ronnie Wood continues the story: “I knew Jeff, but I’d never had a chance to go and sit through a whole show. I’d just heard little bits of him when he used to play with a band called The Tridents [Beck’s pre-Yardbirds band]. I suppose Jeff was one of my best friends, even though he was in another band.”


 After the relative ease of getting the first two band members, finding a drummer was a nightmare. Beck went through Ray Cook, his former bandmate in The Tridents, the Pretty Things’ Viv Prince, ex-John Mayall drummer Mickey Waller (we’ll come back to him), Rod Coombes (later of The Strawbs), and another former Mayall graduate, Aynsley Dunbar. Although the last namedheld real promise, it resulted in yet another drum debacle. “I played with Jeff for four months,” Dunbar told me years ago. “I led his band in the end, that’s what happened. I was also looking after Jeff as far as that was concerned. So I felt, seeing as I’m doing that, I might as well be running my own band and making some cash, because we were on a paid wage routine with him.


 “He was a bastard,” Dunbar complained of Beck. “He was so loud I couldn’t hear. I didn’t have any mics on my drums; the band had 100-watt Marshall amplifiers blaring; no monitors. You try and play something nice and subtle with 100 watts of amps blaring in your ear. Any little subtlety disappeared. It never had a feeling of being a band, it was always Jeff Beck and his sidemen.”

 With drummer Mickey Waller re-hired, and after several months of gigs, the quartet went into Abbey Road Studios on May 14, 1968, to begin recording an album. Mickie Most gave the green light to the recording sessions, although he had little, if any, faith in the band coming up with an album of any real merit (read: commercial potential), and he tended to avoid the sessions.


 Even the label itself was not quick to instil confidence in the project. “The Columbia [Records] promoters were confused,” Beck recalled years later. “They said: ‘We always knew Beck would make it. By the way, who’s the fellow on guitar?’. They said that. I’ve still got those words ringing in my ears.”


 With that dubious stamp of approval, the band set to work. “It was one of the first independent sessions that was allowed in Abbey Road,” recalled Truth engineer and in-house resident Ken Scott, who was already a veteran of many of The Beatles’ albums.

 “I think it must have been Mickie, sort of pulled some strings. But there was no producer there; any interaction that occurred was with Peter Grant [who would go on to manage the Jeff Beck Group and Led Zeppelin]. He was there for the entire recording session, and then Mickie just came in for the mix.”

 The material the group recorded was a combination of the live set, reworkings and some odds and ends. The album opens with a devastating slow version of the Yardbirds’ hit Shapes Of Things, with Beck turning in a virtuoso performance. Let Me Love You was part of the stage set and one of the few self-written pieces, setting up the call-and-response sequence between guitar and voice that Beck and Stewart had perfected live.



 Morning Dew, another song from the touring circuit, is a pulsating interpretation of Tim Rose’s classic, and it’s given a dirge-like solemnity from Beck’s breathtaking mastery of the wah-wah pedal. Here (and on closer I Ain’t Superstitious), Beck demonstrates amazing prowess with the then-new effects pedal.


 Then there is the great catastrophe of You Shook Me, the old blues chestnut written by Willie Dixon and originally recorded by Muddy Waters. The song was on Truth, and was then re-fashioned by Led Zeppelin for their debut album some months later.


 Rod Stewart has said that on more than one occasion Jimmy Page and Robert Plant would be in attendance at a Jeff Beck Group concert, and that this is where they stole the idea for the song. Whether Stewart’s claim is weighted with no small amount of professional jealousy is open to question. Jimmy Page, however, has his own explanation for why the Jeff Beck Group’s You Shook Me and Zeppelin’s version appear to have the same DNA.


 “You’ve got to understand that Beck and I came from the same sort of roots,” he said. “The fact that our first albums were akin was true, but not necessarily in terms of keeping an eye on each other. If you come up in the same roots, you’ve got things you like and you want to do them. To the horrifying point where we’d done our LP and done You Shook Me, and I’d heard he’d done You Shook Me. I was terrified that they were going to be the same. And I didn’t know he’d done it, and he didn’t know we’d done it.”

 According to the sleevenotes on Truth, written by Beck himself, he talks about “smashing your guts for 2:28” at the song’s finale. Indeed he did some smashing, of guitars, in those days.

 “Yeah, I just whopped it. Because I was a right little fucker then,” he has admitted. “I used to get a really bad temper. I just rammed it straight into the speaker and it stayed there. Then Townshend came along and did the whole thing with fire and everything [probably meaning Hendrix], smashing up Strats. The thing is, nobody saw me do it; I was just playing small clubs then.”

 Ol’ Man River, the Oscar Hammerstein II/Jerome Kern standard is an odd little creature. With Beck on bass, John Paul Jones on Hammond organ, and tympani by ‘You Know Who’ – actually Keith Moon – it is one of the album’s lesser moments. But it did prompt Truth engineer Ken Scott to recall The Who’s drummer living up to his ‘Loon’ nickname.


 “One has to remember Mr Moon playing tymps. The neighbours always hated Abbey Road Studios. And it didn’t help when Moony was leaving there in his Rolls-Royce. It had a pair of Tannoy speakers on the roof of it. There was this little old lady walking her dog, and he almost ran her over. She passed some comment, and he just turns on the Tannoys and he’s like: ‘You fucking cow. Get outta my fucking way’. Of course, it was so loud everyone heard it. I remember that one very well.”

 On vinyl, side two of Truth opens with Beck having picked up an acoustic for a shaky but stirring version of the classical... er, classic Greensleeves. “It was just an idle mess around in the studio while I was waiting for Mickie,” he said. “Why not? It was the vital last track of the album, and nobody could think of what to play, so I just played it. That’s why there’s all the plinking and plonking and bad notes in it. I can’t play acoustic guitar very well.”


 Rock My Plimsoul is a track Beck recorded back during his Mickie Most/solo career period. That staggered little drum lick from Aynsley Dunbar (who is uncredited) sets the song in motion, and provides a rhythmic trampoline on which Beck’s guitar jumps and twirls. Here, the sense of what the Jeff Beck Group may have sounded like with Dunbar on drums comes to mind.


 And then there is the timeless and epic instrumental Beck’s Bolero. Recorded in May 1966, this rendition of Ravel’s famous Bolero was the B-side of Hi Ho Silver Lining and was meant to serve as the launching pad for Beck’s idealised supergroup. Players include Jimmy Page on electric 12-string, Keith Moon on drums, John Paul Jones on bass, and Nicky Hopkins on piano.


 If Beck and Page toss dazed and confused looks at one another trying to explain why they recorded the same track on their debut records, when it comes to unravelling the mystery of who wrote this monster instrumetal, total amnesia sets in.


 “No, Page didn’t write that song,” Beck has insisted. “We sat down in his front room once, this tiny, pokey room, and he was sitting on the arm of a chair and he started playing that Ravel rhythm. He had a 12-string, and it sounded so full, really fat and heavy. And I just played the melody. And I went home and worked out the other bit [the up-tempo section].”


 When I interviewed him, Jimmy Page had a different recollection of how Beck’s Bolero took shape: “Even though he said he wrote it, I wrote it. It was just left to me and Jeff, because the producer, [Simon] Napier-Bell, just pissed off. He wasn’t seen. So, Jeff was playing, and I was sort of in the box [control booth]. I’m playing all the electric and 12-string, but it was supposed to be a solo record for him. The slide bits are his, and I’m just basically playing around the chords. The idea was like Ravel’s Bolero, it was built around that. It’s got a lot of drama. It came off right. It was a good line-up, with Keith Moon and everything.”



 John Paul Jones also recalled the chaos of that recording session: “The group that played on Beck’s Bolero was going to be called Led Zeppelin,” Jones remembered. “We were thinking of going out on the road – can you imagine this bunch of loonies? I remember that Moon did this amazing fill around the kit and a U47 [mic] just left its stand and went flying across the room; he just cracked it one. And the engineers were going: ‘Uh, Keith, we don’t seem to be getting your top kit too well'. It was fun.” It is an astounding track and one of the truly remarkable pieces on the album. Even John Paul Jones, a veteran session man who had played with all the great guitarists of the day including Page and Ritchie Blackmore, was mesmerised by Beck’s performance. “He could have been as big as Led Zeppelin but he’s not consistent enough,” Jones has said. “He’s funny though, he’d play a wrong note and go and kick the amp or start shouting at a roadie.”


 The shouts and screams on the next track come not from an angry Beck but from an enthusiastic crowd. Blues Deluxe is a straight blues rigged up with a live-audience ambient backing track to give the feeling of a live performance. “Yeah, I faked that up. It was good fun,” Beck laughed. “We just added a bit of The Beatles’ reception at the Empire Hall, Wembley.”
 With the album in the can, producer Mickie Most talked to Columbia about a release date. Not only did they not have a date in sight, they were reluctant to even assign one. Here Beck was, sitting on an album that could launch his band as the next Cream or pre-empt Zeppelin, and he was exiled to a hellish limbo. Ultimately, Peter Grant intervened and set about undoing Mickie’s mistakes.

 Grant’s first move was to fly the group to the US to play some dates – a typically bold and incisive decision. It paid off. American audiences were astonished by what they saw and heard on those trailblazing Jeff Beck Group shows. The band had struck gold.

 The following day The New York Times ran a stunning review, and Grant realised that he was sitting on a gunpowder keg and the fuse had just been lit. He immediately wired the review to Epic Records, and they responded with the offer of a deal. Amazingly, given that Beck has never been a man of constant... well, anything, he remains with the same label to this day. In fact, he is the label’s longest-serving artist. The label, desperate to capitalise on the Jeff Beck Group’s triumphant tour in the US, accelerated the initial release date of the album there. On July 29, Truth shipped out to America; Britain and Europe wouldn’t receive the album until October 4. It got to No.15 on the US chart – a true victory for an essentially unknown English rock band. In the UK the record never even charted.


 Almost 40 years after it was conceived, Truth still has the ability to make you long for a time when such albums were being made.


 Of course, 1968 will never come again, but Jeff Beck is still here recording. “Well, I think I try about as hard as anyone. All I want is to try and put something together and present it to the audience’s attention. I’m not gonna cram anything down anyone’s throat. It’s a waste of time. Like trying to pull a chick that ain’t into you.”


He said this about "Hi Ho Silver lining" it was “Like having a pink toilet seat hanging round my neck for the rest of my f**king life”

 

Last edited by arabchanter (16/12/2017 11:41 pm)