Legendary songwriter (and singer of the world's most valuable 45 RPM record) Frank Wilson has passed away at age 72. Frank Wilson, born in Houston and relocated to Los Angeles as a teenager, was hired by Motown's Berry Gordy as part of Motown's then-brand-new west coast office (along with Hal Davis and Marc Gordon). Gordy left Motown and the music business in 1976 when he became a born again Christian. Along the way, Wilson wrote and or produced dozens of fantastic records for Motown and beyond; records which seemingly push higher and higher into orbit with each snare drum hit. Los Angeles' Brenda Holloway is a singer and songwriter of great reknown and a lady of pure class; in collaboration with Wilson, she penned one of her finest records, 1967's "You've Made Me So Very Happy". I saw her perform it in L.A a few years back, and she explained that the song was written as a goodbye to a former lover who left her. Not showing any spite, Brenda shows off that pure class in these lyrics and delivery on this track that reduces me to a mess of goosebumps every time I hear it.
Shortly before being hired by Motown, Wilson co-wrote the positively uplifting 'I'm So Thankful" for The Ikettes (1965), and everything about the song from the beat to the arrangement criest out Motown west; perhaps it was this song that convinced Gordy that Wilson was the right man for the job! A superb record, and one that perfectly captures the innocent and stomping sound of 1965.
Of course Marvin Gaye needs no introduction; he was an artist of the highest order, and one who consistently progressed and reinvented throughout the 60's and 70's. By 1968, his music had taken on a harder edge, and the success of his incredible duets had shown that the man was capable of ANYTHING. With Wilson behind the pen and the mixing board both, "Chained" shows Marvin at his most propulsive; the track is driven so strongly by the Motown piston drums and the sound of the conga; an important new sound to soul music that became ubiquitous in the 1970's.
"Do I Love You"'s backing track was also used for a take with the great Chris Clark on lead vocals; this one was also left unreleased. Perhaps Gordy was just feeling spiteful and ignored the obvious hit on his hands!
One can only wonder HOW Jimmy Page thought he could lift the melody, words, melody and riff relatively instact from Jake Holmes 1967 record, and frankly I'm dazed and confused why it took Jame Holmes over forty years to sue. Holmes was quoted as saying "let him have it" when interviewed about the song thievery in the '70's.
But legality isn't the point here with todays' post; I'm mostly fascinated that this incredibly non-commercial recording was even RELEASED as a 45 (the track is most famously found on the 1967 "Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes" LP)! Personally I'm glad that it was, so all of us 45 RPM junkies can all enjoy its freaky vibe in punchy, direct mono glory.
Here we find the San Francisco based soul-mod-freakbeat mavens The Bang Girl Group Revue in the studio with a three part documentary detailing the recording and mixing of their soon-to-be-released LP. The band did it just like it was 1968, recording to 8-track tape (multitrack, not those '70's cartridges we listened to in mom's Vega) with no digital enhancement or funny business. The limited edition vinyl LP is available for preorder HERE .
We've just uploaded a very rare video by UK Pop-Psych/Freakbeat group The Shakespeares. Shakespeares Guitarist Chris Stone recalls that time:
"May 1968 was an exciting period for the band, even though we split soon after. We were transitioning from being a hard-working ‘covers’ band, (playing regular gigs but with little musical satisfaction) to something a lot more interesting. The switch had a dramatic impact and caused us to implode pretty fast. I was one of the newer recruits to the line-up, along with vocalist, Martin Pigott.
Like most young bands in the late 60s, we were heavily influenced by the Beatles, particularly with the release of the Sgt Pepper album. The music of Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, and Frank Zappa was the soundtrack for three out of the five band members, whilst the other two guys preferred to keep to what produced regular work and the cash to survive.
Along with bassist Alan Escombe, Martin and I wanted to move on musically. Those ‘musical differences’ developed into a few verbal bust-ups and we split into two camps. It seems pretty quaint now, but in those days when a band started to beat the crap (verbally and/or physically) out of each other, the press release always referred to their ‘musical differences’.
We had recently moved from a small indie label over to RCA, who released our new single ‘Burning My Fingers’ a song I had written which (happily) the whole band thought was cool!
The single was picked up in France, featured heavily on national radio, and the new colour TV show Bouton Rouge arranged to film us at the Casino in Knokke in Belgium. This was the era when COLOUR TV was big news! We performed around the massive chandelier in the casino, whilst the cleaners did their stuff in the background. A strange concept, but I guess the director thought he was being pretty creative. (Friends tell me how they wish I’d kept that blue jacket!)
May 1968 goes down in history as the month that Paris exploded, with the biggest national strike in the history of France, and students battling police on the streets of Paris. Buildings were burned out, TV and Radio scheduling was drastically curtailed, and record shops stopped reporting to the charts. Along with a bunch of other records, our single disappeared without trace and the fate of the band was sealed.
Out of the ashes, we formed Fynn McCool, and signed afresh to RCA in London.
So what happened to the five guys from the Shakespeares?
Well guitarist Chris Kritzinger returned to his native South Africa and set up a successful record company called Transistor Records, which later became a major independent in Australia.
Bassist (and Zappa fanatic) Alan Escombe eventually joined RockIt Cargo, the leading shipper of rock’n’roll tours around the world. He became a director at RockIt and supervised the mega tours of U2, Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Madonna & the Eagles.
As for me, I (the #1 Beatles fan) became a record promoter at Decca Records in London, worked for the Beatles at Apple Records in Savile Row (how’s that for a dream come true?), moved over to Chrysalis Records promoting Procol Harum, Ten Years After, Blondie and Jethro Tull, and subsequently joined Sony/BMG, marketing their huge roster of international artists across Europe such as Whitney, Eurythmics, & Take That.
Latest reports have drummer Johnny Kreuger still pounding out a beat in a local band down in Africa, but the whereabouts of singer Martin Pigott are unknown. I’m guessing he’s exercising those sweet and raspy vocal chords on a Marvin Gaye classic somewhere in England." - Chris Stone
From Wah-Wah discos out of Spain's last batch of Rare Psych' and Prog' records, comes this deluxe reissue of cult exploito record by The Unfolding... which (or whom!) I had heard a song : "Play Your Game" on obscure Psychedelic Garage comp' "Echoes in Time" back in the late 1980s, and first heard an excerpt ("Prana") as a bonus cut on the number one compilation of that later termed "Acid-Punk" sub-genre : "The Acid Gallery"; vol.3 of the legendary Pebbles series. I had then managed to score a white label private repro of the album since the original was kind of a Garage-Psych holy grail on a budget label (Audio Fidelity) adding at least one figure behind the usual import price of 26 euros of this latest; the sound was like a xerox to boot (! ), so... this reissue with enhanced sound is very welcome indeed, adding a facsimile of the even rarer original insert!
Like all budget exploito labels everywhere (Design, Alshire,
Custom... for the USA, Saga in the UK or MFP, Europa or BASF in the Old
continent), occasionaly comes a true nugget among all the musak (101
Strings' "Astro Sounds From Beyond The Year 2000" being one, "Electronic
Music To Blow Your Mind By!!!" on Design being another, "Are You Experienced?" by T. Swift & The Electric Bag on Custom springs to mind too... and a year ago or so, the
same Wah-Wah records graced us with Staff Carpenborg & The Electric
Corona's "Fantastic Party", one hell of an Incredible Strange record in
similar Freak-out zone! ); these budget labels being geared mostly at
middle-aged house-keepers in local supermarkets, the Unfolding enjoins
us to have a Freak-out party : "Freaking Out" having been all the rage
the previous year among Hip crowds starting on the Sunset Strip, this
year '67, it tells us How to have that party and 'Blow Your Mind' in
swingin' suburbia trying to catch up... and Geez, like the Twist and
Hula Hoop before, you got a method to Turn-on now! Only this time, it
really sounds the deal, incredibly so... I wonder what mothers of fairly
conservative middle-class homes were thinking then when hearing this
record the first time 'round trying to impress the neighbors by throwing
a really hip party on the weekends?... Desperate Housewives, class of
'67 anyone?
The Press release describes the grooves inside
likening the music to the Mothers of Invention (its leader Zappa being
one of the conceptors of "Freak-Out"...) and other psych' exploitation albums like Love Machine, Mesmerizing Eye, Fire & Ice LTD or Friendsound but, I would find it more akin to some other Incredible Strange
records like Exotic tales set to Sitar music as Kali Bahlu's "Cosmic
Remembrance" or "The Perfumed Garden" by Chiitra Neogy and some of the
Trance found on "Children of One" too... And one commentator on You Tube wrote it
reminded him of the "Sunset Strip" sound of the era since he lived thru
the times during high school, despite the fact the studio group was
organised by Audio Fidelity records in New York circa '67, so there you
go : another Must-Have!
From what we can unscramble on the back cover liners, The Unfolding were:
If you're a serious fan of 60's Garage-rock/Psych' and Pebbles vol.3, Get it NOW! In the meantime, or... if you'd rather first want to sample some more sounds before deciding whether you really need this, you can always check-out the various clips available on YT, of which I have selected my fave track here : (The uploader mixed-up the first two tracks, which may be the influence of listening this psychedelic record, typically... but, it really is : "Play Your Game"! )
Featuring Chris Darrow (fresh from stints in world music pioneers The Kaleidescope as well as fellow country rockers The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) and Jeff Hanna (who also left the Dirt Band with Darrow), The Corvettes released a scant two singles before the core of the 'Vettes was chosen to be Linda Ronstadt's (fresh out of the Stone Poneys) backing band. The Corvettes occasionally played a few of their own tunes during Ronstadt's set, but Jeff Hanna headed back to the Dirt Band, who were poised for roots fame with their epic "Will The Circle Remain Unbroken" 1972 triple LP set.
(photo) Linda Rondstadt points to Chris Darrow as being a leading light in country rock.
Interestingly enough, Michael Nesmith was the producer of the disc. Nez was no stranger to Southern California roots rock, and the man simply does not get the widespread credit he deserves as being one of THE founders of country rock; readers of the fine print on Monkees LP's know that some of the best tracks from the band were written and produced by Michael . Luckily, Nez has a devoted core of followers (of which I count myself as a lifelong fan) who recognize the man's talent and foresight; he also shows here that he could spot talent in others, and his work behind the deck yielded one of the finest west coast twang 45's EVER heard, which I am proud to share with you today. This record is outtasight!
I'm also happy to be back posting regularly here at Bedazzled. It's been way too long.
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