The Sneekers
Listen/Download – The Sneekers – Sneaker Talk
Greetings all.
Welcome back to another week here at Iron Leg.
The 2012 Pledge Drive was a big success. I know that some of you that hit both Iron Leg and Funky16Corners dropped some cash into the virtual tip cup, so I send you my thanks.
The tune I bring you today is, despite its major-label-osity, almost a complete mystery.
I don’t remember when I picked up the Sneekers, ‘Soul Sneaker’ b/w ‘Sneaker Talk’ but I think it must be obvious why I did.
How, I ask you, could any digger/fan of music flip by a 45 like this and not put it in the keeper stack?
As far as I’ve been able to tell, the Sneekers 45 was released in 1965, but aside from that, little else in the way of hard facts have turned up.
The band – I’m assuming that the folks on the sleeve are in fact The Sneekers – have an oddly retro look for 1965, with the bow ties, suits and short haircuts.
While ‘Soul Sneaker’ is decidedly non-soulful, ‘Sneaker Talk’ has a kind of wild, beat-era rave-up feel to it. The guitarist is especially good on both sides of the record. While the lyrics are the kind of inane, dance-craze boilerplate that Brill Building/Tin Pan Alley cigar-chompers seemed to be rolling up and tossing out the window on an hourly basis (could they perhaps been a commercial tie-in done on spec?), the group is musically quite good.
While I wouldn’t describe the sound as garage-y, it is definitely butting up against the border of those kinds of sounds (imagine ‘Sneaker Talk’ with some fuzz guitar or organ).
Interestingly, the Ugly Things comp database lists a few other tracks by a group called the Sneekers, based in the UK, two of which were included on collections of Jimmy Page’s session work. I have no idea if this is the same band, or if Page played on these tracks, but the R&Beat sound certainly screams UK to me.
If any of you good folks have anything to add/confirm, please do so in the comments.
See you next week.
Peace
Larry
PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.
4 Comments
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As listed in the UT database, the “R&B Scene” comp LP on See For Miles includes “Bald Headed Woman” by The Sneekers. (The best ever version of that one if you ask me.) There’s a photo of the group on the sleeve, and they look like a typical UK Mod band, very teenaged, with sunglasses, skinny ties etc. – a million miles visually from this tux-wearing bunch. So I don’t think there is a connection.
I hadn’t seen that other picture. The search continues!
You can see the picture, or the part of it that fits on the sleeve, here (below the “NE” in “SCENE”): http://tinyurl.com/sneekers
Sadly there’s practically no info on the band in the sleeve notes. This was a one-off 45 produced by Shel Talmy, which pairs covers of “Bald Headed Woman” and “I Just Can’t Go To Sleep” off the Kinks’ first LP. If I wasn’t so much in awe of Talmy I’d e-mail him and ask, because I’m such a big fan of this particular version of “Bald Headed Woman”.
I got this 45 as a promotional gift with the purchase of PF Flyers sneakers. I think that was the brand but it was in the late 60′s and I was pretty young. I used to play it on our Hi-Fi. Not sure that this contributes much but I just thought I’d toss it out there.