While the crop of old school sounds that have popped back into consciousness within the past ten or so years may be looked at as a revival or comeback, only a fool would say that soul music had EVER gone away.
Music has always been the center of my existence, and I remember back in the late 70's/ early '80's, TV commercials were full of reworked soul tunes (remember that floor cleaner using Robert Parker's 'Barefootin'?), and it's impossible to go anywhere in the world without hearing classic soul music, whether on the radio, piped into stores, etc. Not difficult to understand, as this music is LIFE.
Of the current soul groups, I really, really love Oakland, CA based Myron & E. They've released 4 great 45's in the past few years, and the first time that I heard 2010's 'It's A Shame" I was fooled for a moment and thought it was an early '70's bay area track that I'd never been hipped to before! The song has that perfect melancholy-but-swinging late '60's/ early '70's sound that's heard on records by the likes of The Natural Four, but adds a definite little bit of post hip hop flavor in a way that I can't quite explain. The duo vocals have a very unique vibe that's part hesitant, part confident, but 100% pure soul.
Turns out that Myron has been performing for 20+ years, and was one of the dancers on TV's In Living Color in the early '90's. He eventually relocated to the bay area, toured as a backing singer with Blackalicious which is where he met E (aka E Da Boss). E has been collecting soul records and DJing since his teens, and released a solo album as E The Boss. While on tour in europe, E recorded some tracks with The Soul Investigators group, and eventually realized that the tracks were perfect to collaborate vocally with Myron on.
The duo's debut LP is set to be released this July- preorder it from Stones Throw and get an immediate four song EP download (which is fabulous, by the way).
PLUS, I'm super excited to be sharing the stage with these fellas Saturday night in berkeley at the Starry Plough, with my band The Bang Girl Group Revue. The super cool New Love Soul Revue are also on the bill, and E will be joining me behind the turntables for some DJ action.
Some of you Rock Fans may have heard of Alan Merrill (... "The Face of '69"! Just like Peter Frampton was "the Face of '68", does that ring a bell? ) :
If not, here's for reminders :
The son of two jazz musicians, singer Helen Merrill, and saxophone/clarinet player Aaron Sachs, Alan is mostly known for having penned the original version of Joan Jett's mega-hit : "I Love Rock'n'Roll" with his band of American and English expats in Japan at the time, The Arrows (... Not the Davie Allan garage-band famous for Biker movie anthem : "Blues Theme"! ) :
After auditionning for New York band, the Left Banke in 1968, Alan left to Japan when that band dissolved, to join and replace Mark Elder, the lead guitarist of The Lead, a band of other American expats on RCA Victor Records, sharing the scene with Japanese G.S. (Group Sounds) bands of the era like the Spiders, Tigers, Tempters, the Mops or the Carnabeats... It was a foreign Tokyo based act who had one hit single, "Aoi Bara" (Blue Rose) and did a good cover of the famous psychedelic pop tune found on Clint Eastwood's '68 hit movie "Coogan's Bluff" : "Pidgeon Toed Orange Peel"...
Recommended to the group by his girlfriend Michi Nakao (a featured Go-Go dancer at Tokyo's most prestigious discotheque in the 1960s : Mugen), Alan helped them finish their second album for RCA, "Sound Of Silence" (also an album of cover songs) which was already in progress, singing four songs on the recording and playing lead guitar on a few tracks. When another member, Phil Trainer, had similar legal complications in Japan as Mark Elder previously and left Tokyo in 1969, the label dropped the band. Alan then went solo with Watanabe Productions, and was the first male signing to Atlantic Records Japan, recording the chart hit single "Namida." (Merrill's later career is well documented on the internet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Merrill His most famous act being the Arrows, formed by him back in London in 1974 where he played as lead singer and bass guitarist, and their aforementionned classic hit covered by Joan Jett...)
Now, Alan is part of my friends on Facebook (yes, I have the honor of sharing friendship with quite a few 60's legends on there, hehe... ) where he regularly pops up on my News Feed and I had noticed for some time the ressemblance he had now with "Bad" era Michael Jackson that, one day I couldn't help commenting this under one of his photo updates (a lot of other friends must've noticed too but, I was one of the rare daring to point that out regardless of the fact that it might bother him...) and, lo and behold, Alan came back the next day on the chat line showing me this link from his Tumblr account with a story on that very similarity :
http://alanmerrill.tumblr.com/post/43326348710/michael-jackson-and-me
... I was stunned! "Michael Jackson and Me" : a first hand account of his meeting Michael and sharing the stage with the Jackson 5 during their first Japanese tour on May 1973, when Alan's new Glam band : Vodka Collins was enjoying further success in the land of the Rising Sun (during the interim after the Lead and before the Arrows hit); I found that chapter so interesting I got the idea for writing this new article for Bedazzled! on the spot. I asked his approval and somehow needed his kind participation, so... here you get that interview : (one good thing with the internets is that it render things instantaneous! )
1) Have people already dare point out your today's ressemblance to Michael Jackson?
My mother was the first person to point it out to me. She said that he was changing his face slowly with surgery, little by little, to look like me around 1972-'73. This ('72-'73) was during the time of my band Vodka Collins. Since then quite a few people have mentioned it and there are people who say I'm copying him. But I'm just being me.
2) What do you think of it, does it bother you or make you feel uneasy, knowing Michael's late fate?
No, foremost I'm happy that when we did the show together in 1973 in Tokyo at the Imperial Theater that I might possibly have made such a strong impression on him. Of course I'm sad that Michael passed away under such tragic circumstances. I did note that in the film (his last) "This Is It" he was wearing the same (recreated) silver lamé jacket that I was wearing when we performed together all those years ago in 1973. It gave me the chills.
3) You were already a recording star in Japan by the late sixties when the Jackson 5 had barely started; when did you first get aware of Michael?
I was aware of the J-5 when they started from the time of their first hit single "I want you back" which was in 1969. It was on the radio in Japan all the time. They were on the radio with that and then their next hit "ABC" and others. I started recording professionally in Japan in 1968 at age 17 with a band called The Lead (RCA Victor). But the J-5 didn't tour Japan until 1973 when we did the show together. The Vodka Collins / Jackson 5 double bill.
4) When you first saw him sharing that stage at that soundcheck while talking to his brothers Jermaine and Tito, did you ever imagined he would turn out the way he turned out to be : a Huge star and a kinda Pop martyr? Did you already sense that doom as well as felt his aura?
Michael was already a big star but not a super star in the Elvis league yet, but he would get there with "Thriller." He just seemed like a very shy boy of 15 years of age. Impressionable. In awe of being in Japan. It was their first trip to Japan as a band and the show we shared was the their first show ever in Japan. I thought he was very slick and professional for a teenager. Michael already had a solo hit with "Ben" then. I could never have imagined how his life would change and that he would have such a tragic ending ultimately.
5) What do you think of it now? Do you feel sad or are you just happy to have met the Motown child star then?
Yes, I'm sad. I wish I'd had the chance to see him again in this life. Of course I'm happy to have met him and all the J-5 and to have worked the same stage with them. Looking back, it's amazing.
6) Do you think your stage performance and appearance in full Glam attire and make-up as Vodka Colllins then had a definite influence on his later own stage appearances with the Jackson 5, for ex. during the Disco era and even later during his Billie Jean/ Beat it Superstardom?
I'll never know for sure. Other people tell me that all the time though, especially my friends and band mates who saw the show in Tokyo in 1973 and were backstage watching Michael watching me. He was clearly very impressed by what I was doing, smiling wide and dancing to my songs from the side of the stage. He didn't miss a minute of my sound check or my performance I think he saw a lot of new vistas opening up that he had been sheltered from. The glam rock thing was new and he was loving it. It was liberating for him, at least I think so.
7) Do you have something to add : what would be your last word on that encounter episode?
It was a fantastic one day experience. I was so impressed when The J-5 played their set because I knew every song. They were all hits, their whole show. I watched the show from the side of the stage. It was an honor for me to play on the same show with the J-5 on their first show ever in Japan, and if I actually made any influence on Michael I hope it was a musically and visually energizing positive experience for him.
... Interesting inside story, eh? So, the next time you'd be thinking of Michael Jackson, think again ... The Face of '69 is not far behind. :-)
By 1968, the hits had all but dried up for Tottenham's Dave Clark Five. With a run of massive hits recorded between '64-'65, this group was considered STRONG competetion for the Beatles, and many teen magazines speculated the Beatlemania was gonna wane and the Dave Clark Five would come out on top of the world. While history tells a far different tale, the DC5 released many fabulous records, well past the heyday of the British Invasion.
Buried on the b-side of a track that must have seemed like a relic from a bygone era (the downright putrid "Red Balloon") in the heady days of 1968, there's a gem lurking that is not only one of my favorite numbers from this group, but also one which I consider one of the ultimate freakbeat statements, ever. Driven along by Dave Clark's always powerul, upfront drumming and powered into the ether by some downright nasty single guitar notes played with attitude and fuzz tone on "10", "Maze Of Love" is a track that's every bit as forceful as other legendary English psych/ beat records. The boys had undoubtedly been digging the Jimi Hendrix Experience. This is how the song was heard in its release everywhere except for the US, and the picture sleeve shown is a Spanish issue.
For some reason, Epic Records in the US was given a completely different mix of the song. The track is slowed down (perhaps due to an error in mastering), making it sound far heavier, and the vocal is single tracked as opposed to the double tracked vocals as heard on the worldwide release. There's an overall echo added as well (especially heard on the vocals) giving the song a murkier sound. I love both versions, and my pal (and super duper DJ) Major Sean is on record as preferring the US version. When I DJ it, though, I always play the UK mix. The US mix is far rarer, as this single died a death commercially (I've only seen promo copies, never yellow label stock copies).
I was inspired to write this post, as tomorrow evening the Cyril Jordan- Chris Wilson version of The Flamin' Groovies are gonna be playing the tiny Elbo Room club in San Francisco (their ONLY US show, as a matter of fact). This gig sold out immediately, and you best BELIEVE I'm gonna be there. I've had the pleasure of seeing Cyril & Roy Loney recreate the warped insanity of the Flamingo/ Teenage Head era, but have never had the chance to see Cyril and power pop vocalist extraordinairre Chris Wilson together.
Back in those pre-internet days, I'd read about the Groovies in Goldmine magazine and such and they just sounded like the coolest band I could imagine! However, at the time EVERYTHING was out of print and my their records never turned up in my flea market/ garage sale digging and the bin cards in the used record stores were always empty. Luckily, in the early '90's a US CD compilation called Greatest Grooves was released and FINALLY I got to hear these songs I'd been reading about; they DID NOT DISAPPOINT and as a young music fanatic I was immediately struck by the obvious passion for music that these guys have shown on their releases. I spent the next several years collecting every piece of Groovies wax I could get my hands on (still kicking myself though for not buying an original copy of Sneakers at Reckless Records in Chicago back around 1992; THIRTY FIVE dollars just seemed like a king's ransom to spend on a record.
The first actual piece of Groovies vinyl that I found and purchased was shortly afterwords at the amazing (defunct) Record Swap in Homewood, IL. I can't say that I play Supersnazz very often, but I was sure glad to find it for $3.99. 'The First One's Free" was drawn from that album, and the loose and bluesy track (who else but the Groovies would feature a guitar intro with a few seconds of tuning up? too damn cool!) is heard here in a unique mono 45 mix, and sounds a tad more powerful than the LP as well.
The group was dropped by Epic records after this one LP failed to take off commercially, and they were signed to Kama Sutra for the incredible one-two knockout of Flamingo (1970) and Teenage Head (1971); two records that show the group in their most powerful era of Roy Loney's reign as lead singer. Once again, success eluded the band and Roy Loney decided he had had enough of the music business, and left the group to focus on acting. Cyril Jordan enlisted Chris Wilson (ex- Loose Gravel) into the fold as lead singer, and the group left San Francisco for an extended stay in England. Working with Dave Edmunds as producer, the group cut several tracks, of which the only ones released at the time were "Slow Death" backed with a raucous take on Freddy Cannon's 'Tallahassee Lassie".
The group were unable to release ANY records until Cyril Jordan presented Who Put The Bomp fanzine publisher with the astounding "You Tore Me Down", and suggested that Greg release it in late '74. The track, as produced again by Dave Edmunds, is one of *the* key power pop cuts, and was the first release on Bomp! Records in 1975. Unfortunately, there was no college radio at the time and Bomp had no distribution power, but the record recieved massive praise from critics which landed the Groovies a contract at Sire Records, where they cut the Shake Some Action LP; the title cut of which FINALLY provied Cyril and the Groovies a belated hit with its inclusion in the 1995 film Clueless.
It's the age-old question: "The Beatles or The Stones?". A lot of people like 'em both, but most everybody who's a fan of 1960s Pop-Rock music seems to have a preference for one or the other.
Music Video collector Spike Priggen (of the Scopitones.com & Bedazzled.tv blogs) will present a program of musical films by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones that compare and contrast their musical, song-writing and sartorial styles, year-by-year, trend-by-trend, from "mop-tops" to psychedelia.
The show will be a mix of live concert & television footage, mimed promotional clips, TV specials & promos, starting with some of their earliest known TV & newsreel appearances and taking them right up to the end of the 60s. Ocean County Library, Tom's River Branch, 101 Washington St. Toms River, NJ 08753 7pm on Monday May 6th 2013.
Link To Facebook Event Page. Link to Ocean County Library Event page.
Since there are several fine bios that tell the tale of The Zombies
quite well (the box set Zombie Heaven is essential stuff with a fabulous booklet/ history), I'll spare the history here and just present these amazing 45 sides for your listening pleasure.
The Zombies' first two US singles became massive smashes in '64-'65 ("She's Not There" and "Tell Her No") and the group's moody, organ-driven sound charted far higher in the US than their English home. Organist Rod Argent penned both of these classics, yet when the group was approached in the summer of '65 with a two week deadline to provide two songs for a film called Bunny Lake Is Missing, Argent's pen ran dry. Vocalist extraordinnaire Colin Blunstone was given his first shot as a compsoer for the a-side, and he penned the jaw droppingly incredible "Just Out Of Reach". The track is classic Zombies through and through, with an aching Blunstone vocal, hard driving beat sound and an organ break that show off the instrumental brilliance of Rod Argent. Sadly, the song made only the bottom rung of the US charts, and the film also tanked.
Butchers Tale (Western Front 1914)
This Will Be Our Year (mono)"Time Of The Season", pulled from Odessey became a massive US hit in 1969. The session for
the record found tempers within the group flaring, as Colin Blunstone stormed out of the session due to Rod Argent directing his vocals (Colin returned and cut the amazing vocal as directed by Rod for the released take). For all intents and purposes the Zombies were finished after the sessions were completed, bar for a few final live gigs at the end of '67. However, thanks to the massive belated success of "Time Of The Season", CBS UK and Columbia US wanted more Zombies product, and the single release "Imagine The Swan" was released. Essentially drawn from the earliest sessions of the group Argent (featuring Zombies Rod Argent and Chris White), the record certainly has the "feel' of a Zombies record with lovely Blunstone-esque vocals from Chris White. The amazing instrumental b-side "Conversation of Floral St" strikes me as being one of the last gasps of a swirling mod fantasy land that flashes images of Carnaby Street and well dressed folks dancing and clapping along with this track that, once again, highlights Rod Argent's superb musicianship and just generally sets an incredible mood.
Bonus sides:
While "She's Coming Home" followed up 'Tell Her No' in early '65 and is a lovely song in its own right, it failed to chart as high as the previous two records. It was issued with a cool picture sleeve in the US, and the b-side "I Must Move" is one of my favorite Zombies tracks. The Zombies were fortunate enough to have three superb writers in the band, and Chris White takes on a subject that's not easy to deal with on this track that shows off the groups' sophistication, class and grace in such a beautiful way.
"Friends Of Mine" was released as the lead-in single for Odessey And Oracle in the UK, where it never made the charts. The track is a favorite among Zombies fans, and with its sweet sentiment of love and friendship it has become a staple song heard at many a mod wedding! Columbia records wisely chose to release the track as the (US) b-side to "Time Of The Season", making the mono mix of the track easy to find for us mono-minded folks
"Here's MC5 filmed live on the campus of Wayne State University in Michigan and aired on hometown TV show "Detroit Tubeworks" in 1970 doing their biggest hit "Kick Out The Jams." We found the master tapes of over 11 hours from this legendary show which had been stored in a basement in Michigan. Other great guests we found on this underground show from 1968-1973 include MC5, Ted Nugent, Phil Ochs, Commander Cody, Captain Beefheart, Earth, Wind & Fire, Humble Pie, Fleetwood Mac featuring Peter Green and Joe Cocker. Also part of this archive is a 45-minute unseen concert of the Rolling Stones filmed at Olympia Stadium in Detroit on their 1969 tour."
"This clip is a fully edited composite of very rare footage of the Hollies recording "On A Carousel" in the legendary Abbey Road Studios in 1967. This was cut from a 20-minute piece which features each of the band members recording their individual parts on that historic day, when in the next studio the Beatles were recording pieces of "Penny Lane"."