The Myddle Class
Listen – The Myddle Class – I Happen To Love You – MP3
Howdy.
Welcome back to Iron Leg, and the second installment of Locals Only.
As I said in the first installment (Motifs), this would be dedicated to NJ (and when possible Monmouth/Ocean County) acts.
Today’s selection comes from one of the better NJ garage punk acts, from a little further up the Parkway in Summit.
The Myddle Class recorded three 45s for the Tomorrow label (one later reissued on Buddah) in 1966 and 1967. The group featured vocalist David Palmer – later with Steely Dan, he’s the guy singing ‘Dirty Work’ – and Charlie Larkey who would go on to play bass for (and marry) Carole King.
In addition to recording demos of Goffin/King tunes which were later redone (very closely) by the Monkees themselves, the Myddle Class had the distinction of having the coolest opening act of all time at a 1965 high school gig, that being the Velvet Underground. I used to have an old fanzine with a repro of the flyer from the concert, but it has long since been swallowed the huge, heaving pile of junk that has followed me around for most of my adult life.
Their first 45, a brilliant version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Gates of Eden’ (which I’ll feature sometime in the future) is, like their other two discs not all that hard to come by at a reasonable price and is highly recommended for fans of folky garage.
Today’s selection was the b-side of their second 45, the a-side of which ‘Don’t Let Me Sleep Too Long’ was pretty much stolen from the Blues Project (though the Myddle Class version is outstanding).
‘I Happen To Love You’ (also written by Goffin/King) , a tour de force of moody, atmospheric garage punk whine is by far the superior effort. Featuring reverbed tremolo guitar, a snotty vocal and a complex melody (I love the chords in the chorus), the tune was later covered by the Electric Prunes.
Dig it.
Peace
Larry
PS It’s my youngest son Sean’s first birthday today (Tuesday). Happy Birthday little dude.
9 Comments
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Nice music! I love it!
Thanks
hey thanks for the tunes and good words.
I m younger, but really enjoy music from the 60′s thru the mid 80′s.
especially the more obscure stuff.
The mr magoo thing is funny. I m asian as well so it is even more entertaining.
Wicked tune Mr DJ, love the shimmering cavernous sound and all that twangy angst.
Ye olde ‘y’ in ‘Myddle’ puts me in mind of the so-called heavy metal umlaut, which I knew nothing about till one day i decided to check out where they made Haagen-Dazs on Wikipedia and found out it’s as much of a confection as the ice cream they sell (‘That’s it, now I believe in nothing…!’)
Don’t know if there’s an equivalent for gratuitously introducing goes-up-to-eleven ‘y’s… though other bands have done it. Lynyrd Skynyrd liked it so much they did it four times…
Speaking of those Mr Magoo issues, here’s a neat little postscript vis-a-vis current cartoon censorship.
http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2007/07/comics_censorship
Forget it Larry, it’s Chinatown!
this is heaven!
thank you larry.
oh, i just had a thought!
that must be the very same david palmer who co-wrote “jazzman” with carole king!
you can send me the lyric of this song, be cause i have a band and we play thhis song but sing in spanish and we want know how is the lyric in inglish … send to mi email murillo_04@hotmail.com
Any chance you can post these on you tube? My favorite, and one I still have on 45 is Free as the Wind. Great song. See what you can do.
Many thanks,
Would love to hear “Free as the wind” again
FREE AS THE WIND
the 60′s band the DOUGHBOTS should re-do this song as theY are touring now 2009 \in the 21st CENTURY!!!!!!!Y