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).
A
lot of self-proclaimed Rock Historians writers and commercials like to
brag about and market how Monterey was the first International POP
Festival, how it was an ideal of Peace, Love and Flowers embodying the
themes of Sunshine California as a focal point for the counterculture
and generally regarded as one of the beginnings of the "Summer of Love" in 1967, blah, blah, blah... two years before Woodstock, a model for all Pop Festivals to come, etc.
Well, that ain't exactly true. There were others before... only less star-system and showbizzy : not only was there The KFRCFantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival was an event held in June 10 and 11th, 1967
( a whole week before; Monterey was staged from June 16 to June 18, 1967... ), BUT. Even before that, in France, Paris, was held "Le 1er Festival International de Pop Music" at the Palais Des Sports, June 1st/ 1967... How's about that?!
It's a Recorded FACT. As can be seen on this clip (... the guy who uploaded that full-length video of the Festival on YouTube is Wrong; it was staged in June '67, over two weeks before the Mother of all Rock fests, that Monterey! ) :
It featured the boot clad pre-Spooky Tooth VIP's, still playing their Mod R'n'B/ Soul thing... the King of Le French Beat, Ronnie Bird... The Pretty Things in a fantastic stage performance with their second wildman drummer Skip Alan... John "Maus" Walker out of the freshly split Walker Bros... Jimmy Cliff years before "Reggae Night", when he was still doing his Wilson Pickett from Jamaïca routine... the ever surly Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in a strong performance as usual... the Troggs in one of their Best Live ever... Filmed for the French TV, it is not complete alas : the Cream appeared also but were left off camera because of contractual obligations (: there were to be NO images! ), and French Beat and Pop idols Herbert Leonard (late of Les Lionceaux, the first long-haired French band in the Beatles vein... going solo) and Alain Bashung (Pop chanteur beginner, who was to have HUGE success in the 1980's with "Gaby"... like a few other ex. sixties French Pop singers of his generation); they were probably edited out for budget reasons since they were considered minor artists. Oh! And the Who were scheduled to appear, but had to bail out because Moon was hospitalized at the time (officially for a case of hernia...); can you imagine the Who... appearing at both "Le 1er Festival International de Pop Music" AND "Monterey Pop"?!!!
If you watch closely in the beginning, you can clearly spot model, actress and chanteuse, Swiningin' Mademoiselle Zouzou sittin' in the aisles on some group gear, an amp' or something... and of course, a host of other stars and models of the day sittin' in the audience waitin' for the show, dollies runnin' around; the crowd itself, you can't help but notice, is pretty hip, all long haired and freak-beaty, not in the showbiz type but right off the streets and some from the suburbs. They dance to the Soul numbers, fruggin' like they would at the Locomotive... Shortly after the shootin of this major local event, excerpts of several of the artists would be edited on to some of the early Bouton Rouge series; a Cult French Pop TV program.
Here's what Dave Dee had to say about the French audience and organisation (lol! ) :
"Thu 1/06/67
1er Festival International de Pop Music, Palais des Sports, Porte de Versailles, Paris 15ème, France
With Herbert Leonard, Baschung, The V.I.P.'s, The Pretty Things, Ronnie Bird, Jimmy Cliff, The Cream, John Walker, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (Hold Tight / Hideaway / Frustration / Save Me / Watch Your Step) and The Troggs (The Who, top of the bill, had to cancel their performance because Keith Moon was in hospital for a hernia operation).
There are two shows at 3:00 pm and 8:30 pm. "Le Président Rosko", although on the programme, is not the deejay heard presenting the artists on stage. The Cream set was not recorded, as they were not contracted to the Philips label. The planned album of the event was not released.
Festival broadcast by Radio Luxembourg (French service), and taped for future transmission on French television (scheduled for December 1968, and finally screened on 11 January 1969).
The VIP’s are a quartet without Keith Emerson, who has just left to form The Nice. The Pretty Things consist of Phil May, Dick Taylor, John Povey, Wally Allen & Skip Alan (the group that recorded the “Emotions” LP with Steve Rowland). John Walker, without his “Brothers”, played ‘Do You Wanna Dance’ and ‘Land Of Thousand Dances’. Headliners The Troggs closed the show with an 8 song set, including ‘Hip Hip Hooray’, which they would not release on single before October 1968.
Watch Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich on YouTube:
Hold Tight and Watch Your Step
[...] It was making a happy beginning that Dave Dee, etc. were worried about when they sat in their Paris hotel waiting for a coach to take them to the Paris Pop Festival. “We just don't know what to do in France,” said Tich. “The first time we came over we didn't exactly set the place on fire. This is our fourth visit — and we still don't know what the people want.”
Dave Dee entered the lobby wearing a Hoss Cartwright hat and a glum expression. “I've been upstairs freaking out with the bedroom wallpaper,” he said. “It's positively psychedelic.”
“What about France?” I asked. “What's the French for ... ?” “Merde.” I said.
“As far as we're concerned it's the worst audience in Europe. The whole French scene seems to be a pretty closed shop. Even the Beatles and the Beach Boys didn't go a bomb when they first played here.” Dave said that in most other European countries the group got a good response “Our records always sell better than the cover versions in other European countries but it seems to be the other way around here.” [...]
“What else don't you like about France?” “The organisation,” said Tich. And road manager Jay Vickers said: “What organisation? There's supposed to be a bus coming to take us to the theatre — it's already half an hour late.” [...]
The bus was now forty minutes late. [...]
The bus wasn't coming at all. Somebody had phoned up to say there'd been a slight oversight and would everybody take a taxi?
At the Palais des Sports, along with the Troggs, the V.I.P.s, the Cream, the Pretty Things, John Maus of the Walker Brothers and Jimmy Cliff, Dave Dee & Co. were due to cross swords once more with what they regard as the most baffling audience in Europe.
Communication with French fans is difficult at the best of times, but it becomes a problem of major proportions when you can't get into the theatre.
Somebody forgot to give the group the necessary passes and they had literally to fight their way into the theatre. Oh, and somebody forgot to provide them with a dressing room. Oh, and somebody forgot to set up the proper equipment. Oh, and somebody forgot to provide transport back to the hotel. Oh and somebody forgot to pay the hotel bill.
Despite all the adversities, however, Dave Dee and Co went over pretty well with the audience. Dave Dee was certainly determined to make contact with the French fans, even if it meant taking a running leap off the stage into the front rows at the end of his act.
Which he did.
(Printed in Zabadak n°9, April 1992)"
That show was partly audio-mastered on CD even, that you can still order on line (mostly at the French Juke Box magazine site that first put it out!), here :
... So, the next time some auto-proclaimed Rock expert or wise journo proclaimes that "Monterey Pop was The First Rock Festival.. blah, blah, blah", think again! ;)
(With Special Thanks to Christian Fach providing the additional detail info! )
Giorgio Moroder became known worldwide not only as one of the pioneering disco producers, but also one of the most important producers to use and adapt synthesisers and sequencers; Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" was released only one year before "Moonshiner", but the two tracks come from different sides of a similar coin.
Using the pseudonym Tracey Dean (along with frequent collaborator Pete Bellotte), Moroder cut one of the ultimate glam-rock stompers in 1974. Several websites list Bellotte as the vocalist, but it sure sounds like Moroder to my ears, especially when heard in sequence with the nest track.
Flashing back a few years we have the delightfully Euro-trashy "Looky, Looky'; Moroder's first hit (on the European continent, at least). By the release of this record in 1969, Moroder had been working behind the boards for various groups for four years. One thing that binds both records (other than frightening facial hair) is their unrelentless beat; Moroder had a way with his productions that emphasised the hypnotic power of beats. And of course Giorgio shamelessly lifts The Rivington's "Papa Oom Mow Mow" here, which was also shamelessly lifted by The Trashmen ("Surfin' Bird').
Italian by birth, Moroder found his home in the studio in early '70's Germany, and eventually relocated to Los Angeles in the mid '70's. Check him out performing "Looky" on French TV.
Dutch Pop-Psych/Freakbeat combo performs slow Psych version of "Brand New Cadillac" while wearing diving outfits, flanked by hot babes also wearing wet-suits, while rear-projected fish sorta make it look like they're underwater.
Hip,Hip, Hooray! This track from their fourth album "Mixed Bag" was the Troggs' take on the wake of the post-Psychedelic, Bubble-gum sound, a Mixed-Bag of sound indeed, while still retaining that unmistakable Trogg cavalcade of rhythm...
So, it's only fitting that French Pop-Yéyé singer Claude François, himself a Bubble-gum star of sorts by the time this came out (he covered the 1910 Frutgum Company's "Simon Says" in the French adapation called: "Jack a dit"...) should introduce the Troggs on his French TV show.
Not to be confused with the more famous American Garage-rock band : "The Cryan' Shames" (who hit it big with "Sugar and Spice" and "It Could Be We're in Love", etc.), these were the Liverpool 'Freakbeat' band that turned down the management of Brian Epstein, had a minor hit with "Please Stay" (b/w "What's New Pussycat?") and their third single "Come On Back" as Paul and Ritchie and The Crying Shames produced by Joe Meek late in '66 (which is something of a Freakbeat classic now!).
Duo co-Singer Paul Crane went on of course to sing lead in ex. Walker Brothers, Gary Walker's Rain who had a modicum of success in Japan releasing an album there in '68, now regarded as a Classic Freakbeat Mod Psych album...
Here, following their minor success with "Please Stay" that was also launched in France, they were invited to play on the April 4th programme of Music Hall de France who had all the greats back then (like the Who, Yardbirds and Spencer Davis Group...); they give a rousing Organ-ized version of the recent then Them group classic :
Some of the best nights of my life DJ'ing have been in Spain; there is an enthusiasm for the music that is unlike anywhere else. In addition to loving soul and beat of the 60's, the Spaniards produced some great sides on their own.
The first selection is not technically from a Spanish group, but they were living there when it was cut so I can't resist sharing it.
Darwin Teoria (not to be confused with Charles) were a Dutch group
relocated to Spain who cut at least two singles, of which THIS is the
one. Immediately we are hit with an overload of fuzzed out wah wah
guitar and some Hammond organ that takes us on a wild ride whether it's
the dance floor, living room or behind the wheel. Almost silly, nursery
rhyme like verses make way for the anthemic chant of the chorus; my
friend Brian (aka DJ Midnight Cowbwoy, and that is not a misspelling)
played this song TWICE at Mod Chicago and when he played it again at
around 3 AM Saturday night/ Sunday morning it was a call to arms that
hypnotized and brainwashed me that I MUST HAVE THIS RECORD, while those
of us still awake were tearing up the dance floor to this massive sound.
Luckily I was able to score one of my own rather quickly. It's been
stuck in my head ever since.
Los Bravos (The Brave) were the one Spanish group that served up an international hit; the excellent "Black Is Black' from 1966. In addition to that classic, this group from Madrid (with a German lead singer) released some other great singles within their career that ran from 1965 til 1974. In addition to English language singles, the group released several in Espanol. "La Moto" followed hot on the heels of "Black Is Black" in '66, and it's a fun record with a very dramatic vocal melody and great fuzz guitar. Their follow up English language single "Going Nowhere" is heard on Nuggets II and was a very minor U.S hit in late '66.
Tragically, organist and founding member Manuel Fernandez took his own life in 1967 after the auto accident death of his wife. The group had one more minor US hit in '67 with "Bring A Little Lovin'"; a song originally recorded by Australia's Easybeats. The group became the stars of two Spanish films during this time, and this track was the theme song to the film ¡Dame un poco de amooor, itself a celluloid vehicle for the group.It's a rocking number driven along by some driving bass guitar, excellent, steady drumming and super vocals.
Bring A Little Lovin' Los Brincos (The Jumps) are often referred to as 'The Spanish Beatles", and the group certainly shows a melodic prowess on this excellent double sider which was produced in London by Larry Page (Kinks, The Who).
"You Know" is an obvious attempt to cross over into the English speaking market, and the sound of the song is very much in the Beatles' Revolver vein; progressively psychedelic pop music that is very well written and performed (capped off with an amazing fuzzed out guitar solo). Almost better yet is "Nadie Te Quiere Ya", the flip side. It's dark, moody, and magnificent! The title translates to "Nobody Wants You Now", and the mood of the song captures a bitter relationship send off extremely well.
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