Listen/Download – Artie Wayne – Automated Man
Greetings all.
I’m gonna make this fast, since I’m writing this in advance of a short trip with the fam, so even though I’m here, I’m not actually “here”, if you get what I mean.
This is something groovy I picked up an a whim as a cheap ‘buy it now’ on account of it looked interesting. When it fell through the mail slot it revealed itself as at least ten times as cool as I thought it was going to be.
The name Artie Wayne was vaguely familiar, and when I started to research this one it was immediately clear as to why that was.
During the 60s and 70s (and beyond) Artie Wayne was a busy man, writing, producing and performing on tons of records under a variety of noms de plume (including Shadow Mann). Oddly enough, though his songs were recorded by tons of well known (and lesser known) pop, rock and soul artists, I’ll be damned if any of them ring a bell (with the exception of ‘Hallelujah‘ by the Clique, and the fact that he supposedly had something to with this…).
This of course renders Wayne one of the great ‘background’ songwriters/pluggers/producers of his day. He was clearly a very busy man (check out his web site for more info).
He recorded ‘Automated Man’ in 1966 for the Smash label, and a quick listen (or a long one) reveals it to be a minor lost classic, crossing the streams as it were between garage, folk rock, protest and pop. It’s an unusual combination , and it’s not hard to imagine ‘Automated Man’ playing in the background to a scene of 66 era Sunset Strip longhairs doing their thing.
I like it a lot and I hope you do too.
Now to start picking through the crates to see what other Artie Wayne tracks I can find.
Peace
Larry
PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some funk (what else?).
3 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Artie Wayne was part writer of the song Midnight Mary
Hi,
You mentioned an assistant named Gloria Sequoia on an entry a few years ago that I just read a moment ago.
I knew a Gloria Sequoia in LA back in 1970 when I was in acting class in Hollywood (I know…how cliché). Anyway, she had been involved with Tommy James before that and shared some rather rough anecdotes about their time together. The only reason I bring this up is to confirm who I am in case she’s the same lovely, raven-haired, part
American Indian (I forget which nation) lady I came to know.
If she is, please pass on my regards and email address. If not, no harm done!
Cheers,
Thomas Condon
Seattle
I just realized I made an assumption that I was addressing Artie Wayne in my last post, when it could have been going to someone at ironleg by mistake.
Anyway, if someone can forward that post above to Artie, I’d appreciate it.
Thanks!
T. Condon