Listen – Go To Him – MP3
Greetings all.
I hope all is well, and that everyone had an excellent weekend.
If you dig the sounds of soul and funk (and you ought to, you know) my set from this past Friday’s Asbury Park 45 Sessions is up over at Funky16Corners. You’ll also find a link over there to the page at Jam Now where you can listen to all the individual DJ sets from that night, and I assure you that they are all worth checking out.
Today’s selection is a song that I’ve dug, and been digging for information on for a long, long time.
I first encountered ‘Go To Him’ by the London Knights many years ago on one of the Cicadelic 60’s compilations, where it appeared alongside some stellar folk rock by the Cascades, the Mods (not the Asbury Park Mods) and the Uncalled Four. The tune, filled with ringing guitars, atmospheric harmonies and a fantastic melody quickly became a fave.
Naturally I started to look for the original 45, which proved to be a much more daunting task than I had anticipated.
If memory serves, the LP (or the CD reissue, I can’t remember which) seemed to indicate that all of the tracks therein had been previously unreleased. At some point, while trawling the back alleys of the interweb in search of vinyl, I happened upon a listing for a 45 by the London Knights, and as the asking price was but a pittance, I grabbed it. Happily it turned out to be the very song I had been looking for.
It wasn’t until a little while later that the story took an interesting turn.
Back on the interweb, seeking information on the London Knights, I discovered a web site (which now apparently has gone dark) on which the story of a Leicester, UK band named the Foursights, and how their record ‘Go To Him’ ended up released on a New York label, under another name, without their knowledge, was related.
I don’t remember all of the details, but the gist of it is that the sister of one of the members (who was credited with having co-written the song) ended up in the US (apparently working press for none other than the Beatles), and the next thing you know, the demo that the Foursights had recorded (but not released) for EMI in the UK was issued on the New York label Mike Records under the name ‘The London Knights’. I’ve seen a reference that suggests that the version of ‘Go To Him’ on Mike is a version of the tune re-recorded in the US with one ex-member of the Foursights, but if memory serves, that old website stated that the master released on Mike, is in fact the same one recorded by them in the UK for EMI (there was a sound file of the original Foursights master, which was clearly the same as the US release).
Confused yet??
Oddly enough, the song also ended up being covered in Australia by Ray Brown and the Whispers, and in Oregon (on the great Pacific Northwest label Panorama*) by a group called Tymes Children.
The chronology – as to who covered the song first and how they got their hands on the song in the first place – is, as far as I can tell, unknown.
Either way, I think that once you give it a listen, you’ll agree that it’s a great record.
I hope you dig it.
Peace
Larry
*Panorama was also home to the legendary organist Dave Lewis, and Mr. Lucky and the Gamblers among others
