Limey and the Yanks – Out of Sight Out of Mind

Limey and the Yanks

Listen/Download – Limey and the Yanks – Out of Sight Out of Mind

Greetings all.

Welcome back to the old leg of iron.

The tune I bring you today will certainly be a familiar one, whether you’re a garage head, or just an Iron Leg habitue.

I featured a different version (still my favorite) by the Bit A Sweet back in 2007.

As stated then, the version of the song that I knew first, was the one I bring to you today, by Limey and the Yanks.

Back in the olden days – when things were different – before CDs and iPods and what not, we had to listen to actual records.

On the garage/mod scene, though some of us had our mitts on the OG stuff, most of what we were hearing was via compilations (some legit, most not) of classic 60s garage, mod and psychedelic stuff.

The Limey and the Yanks version of ‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’ was initially revealed to me on one of the ‘Highs in the Mid 60s’ comps, one devoted to the sounds of the greater Los Angeles area.

I immediately fell in love with the song – it being a stellar example of the garage punk – and it was a few years on before I discovered the Bit A Sweet version.

Though I prefer the Bit A Sweet 45, I still love this one and was more than eager to fork over the dough when I found a copy at a record show last year.

Limey and the Yanks were a particularly interesting story for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, their lead singer Steve ‘Limey’ Cook did in fact hail from the UK, and had relocated to southern California as a teenager.

Second, and also very cool is the fact that despite the fact that they didn’t have a national hit, Limey and the Yanks were huge around LA and Orange County, releasing a couple of boss 45s (for Starburst and Loma, both 1966), headlining in every major local club, opening for a wide variety of national and international acts and appearing on LA-area radio and TV on the reg.

Their version of ‘Out of Sight Out of Mind’ (co-written by Steve Duboff of the Changing Times and Dave Morris) features cool guitars a great lead vocal by Cook and what sounds like an electric harpsichord.

You can read an interview with Steve Cook here where he infers that the band recorded a lot more material than ever saw the light of day on vinyl.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #25! Two Year Anniversary!

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Opener – Mansfield/Hawkshaw – Action Scene (KPM)
Thee Midniters – Love Special Delivery (Whittier)
Harvey Mandel – Wade In the Water Pts 1&2 (Philips)
The Equals – Police On My Back (RCA)
Chad Mitchell – For What It’s Worth (Amy/Dunwich)
Everything Is Everything – Ooh Baby (Vanguard Apostolic)
Sons Of Champlin – Fat City (Verve/Trident)
Sons of Champlin Radio Spot

Cowsills – River Blue (MGM)
Cowsills- How Can I Make You See (MGM)
Cowsills – the Fun Song (MGM)
Cowsills – On My Side (London)
Cowsills – Once There Was a Time (London)
Cowsills – If You Can’t Have It Knock it (London)
Cowsills – Mystery Of Life (London)

Bill Cowsill – When Everybody’s Here (MGM)
Bill Cowsill – Take The Gun (MGM)
Bill Cowsill – Nobody (MGM)
Bill Cowsill – 2 x 2 (MGM)
Bodine – Short Time Woman / Oakland (MGM)
Bodine –Statues of Clay (MGM)
Bodine – Disaster (MGM)
Lightmyth – Across the Universe (RCA)

Paul and Barry Ryan – I Can’t Make Your Way (Decca)
Paul and Barry Ryan- Pay You Back With Interest (Decca)
Billy J Kramer – His Love Was Just a Lie (Columbia)
Rainy Day Friends – Away To Some Other World (World Pacific)
Rainy Day Friends – Don’t You Feel Rained On (World Pacific)
Wool – The Boy With the Green Eyes (ABC)
Lloyd Green – Steel Blue (Chart)
Stone Poneys Pepsi Commercial

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 25 – 190MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

Welcome to this month’s episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

As hard as this is to believe, this – the 25th edition of the ILRS – marks the two-year anniversary of the show!

It was back in May of 2011 that I decided to create an Iron Leg-gy alternative to the Funky16Corners Radio Show (albeit on a monthly, not weekly basis) in which I could bring you all manner of pop, sunshine, garage, freakbeat, psych and whatever else sounds groovy.

This time out you get some cool new arrivals, a long, second installment of my exploration of the Cowsills and a couple of old favorites.

As always, I hope you dig it. If you do, there are 24 more episodes in the archive to stuff into your ears.

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

The Kingsmen – Long Green

The Kingsmen

Listen/Download – The Kingsmen – Long Green

Greetings all.

I though we’d get going this week with a little Pacific Northwest, headbanging, frathouse grind.

The Kingsmen – with the ‘Louie Louie’ and all associated iterations thereof – need no introduction, especially if you’re tuned into the frequency here at Iron Leg.

Oddly enough, to me anyway, they are as opaque as they are legendary.

You can say ‘The Kingsmen’ to almost any rock fan and thoughts of toga-clad yahoos vomiting on their sneakers pop into their heads, but strangely, no image of the band themselves.

I always go back to the clip that was making the rounds back in the garage/mod 80s, of the Kingsmen on some teen show lip-synching ‘Louie Louie’ but aside from that you could put any gang of longhairs (or semi-longhairs) in front of me, tell me that they were the Kingsmen and I’d pretty much have to take your word for it.

This has to do with the fact that the Kingsmen, were, like a lot of PNW bands, a revolving door of sorts.

Hit the Kingsmen’s Wiki page and take a look at the list of members over the years and you start to see familiar names, i.e. Jack Ely and Lynn Easton (two names I always identified with the core of the band) but also guys like Don Gallucci (of Don and the Goodtimes and producing fame), Turley Richards (who recorded a few albums of his own in a completely different style) and even (during the 80s) Andy Parypa of the original Sonics.

The Kingsmen were on and off the charts, sometimes high (Louie Louie, the Jolly Green Giant) and more often low, between 1958 and 1967.

They released ‘Long Green’ in late 1964, and it went on to chart regionally (Detroit) in early 1965.

If its rudimentary stomp and growl rings any bells for you, it’s probably because (in addition to any familiar ‘Louie Louie’-isms) it’s a loose rewrite of the Premiers ‘Farmer John’, which I suppose isn’t a HUGE deal, since both songs are built on a pretty simple frame, albeit one guaranteed to get your drunk uncle out of his armchair and grooving across the floor.

Once again, the Kingsmen have produced a largely indecipherable lyric, which is also pretty much irellevant, since this is more about communicating the WOMP, WOMP-WOMP on your way to the keg than it is about telling a story, though that in itself may very well be the story.

Either way, it’s good, cathartic stuff.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

The Phaetons – Leave It To Me

Listen/Download – The Phaetons – Leave It To Me

Greetings all.

The tune I bring you today is another one of those things that I discovered in an auction, dug the sound and grabbed the record despite knowing nothing about it.

Naturally, the sound is the main thing that matters, i.e. I love when a record has an interesting story behind it, but if the song is groovy, none of that matters.

Fortunately, when I started doing a little digging, I turned up a couple of interesting facts.

The Phaetons (or at least these Phaetons) hailed from Long Island, NY.

They recorded three 45s for Warner Brothers records, all in 1967/68, and all, interestingly enough, produced by the great Jerry Ragavoy, better known as one of the finest soul music producers and songwriters of the classic era.

The 45 you see before you today was released in 1968, and by catalog numbers appears to the the Phaetons last for Warner Brothers.

Both sides of the disc are cool, melodic pop rock, with the flipside ‘You Better Come Back’ sounding like something the Left Banke might have put together in one of their more upbeat moods.

The side we feature today is the groovy ‘Leave It To Me’.

Interestingly, the song – written by legends Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman – was first recorded by the UK group A Band of Angels in 1965. That group, which featured future Manfred Mann singer Mike D’Abo took the song at a plodding, almost ballad pace (you can pick it up on iTunes as part of a Picadilly Records comp).

The Phaetons version of ‘Leave It To Me’ cranks up the tempo a notch or two, which really brings the melody to life. The group had excellent harmonies, and the guitar is especially nice.

Lead singer Gerard Kenny went to to some success as a pop singer in the UK (also writing ‘I Made It Through the Rain’ for Barry Manilow) and some of the other members of the band recorded an LP in the 70s as Roland Jade.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #24

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Opener – Action Scene – Hawkshaw/Mansfield (KPM)
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart – Sometimes She’s a Little Girl (A&M)
Bobby Goldsboro – Little Things (UA)
McCoys – Like You Do To Me (Bang)
Paul Revere and the Raiders – SS396 (Columbia Special Products)
Left Banke – Lazy Day (Smash)
Robbs – Bittersweet (Mercury)
Love Generation – The Love In Me (Imperial)
Don and the Goodtimes – Little Sally Tease (Dunhill)
The Equals – My Life Ain’t Easy (President)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls Movie Spot

The Cowsills – All I Really Wanta Be Is Me (Joda)
The Cowsills – What’s It Gonna Be Like (Philips)
The Cowsills – Most of All (Philips)
The Cowsills – Gotta Get Away From It All (MGM)
The Cowsills – I Need a Friend (MGM)
The Cowsills – Make the Music Flow (MGM)
The Cowsills – Ask the Children (MGM)
The Cowsills – Can’t Measure the Cost of a Woman Lost (MGM)
The Cowsills – Paperback Writer (MGM)
The Cowsills – Good Time Charley (MGM)
The Cowsills – Anything Changes (MGM)
The Cowsills –Milk Ad

Hollies – King Midas In Reverse (Epic 45 Mix)
Balloon Busters – Alcock & Browne (Chess)
Changin’ Times – Free Spirit (She Comes On) (Bell)
Aerial Landscape – Proposition 13 (RCA)
The Banned – Goodbye Groovy Goodbye (Fontana)
Chris and Peter Allen – My Silent Symphony (Mercury)
Baker Street Philharmonic – Tycho (World Pacific)
The Cyrkle – Camaro (Columbia Special Products)
The Fashions – Baby That’s Me (Cameo)
Bonzo Dog Band – I’m the Urban Spaceman (Imperial)
Who Coke Spot

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 24 – 172MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

Welcome to this month’s episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

This time out you get a grip of stellar new arrivals, as well as the first part of survey of one of the truly underrated groups of the 60s, the Cowsills.

This month you get some early rarities and non-hit album sides.

Next month you’ll hear some of their later material, Bill Cowsill solo stuff as well as some other related rarities.

As always, I hope you dig the show, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Rainy Day Friends – Not Like Before

Listen/Download – The Rainy Day Friends – Not Like Before

Greetings all.

A few weeks back I had the pleasure of spinning a few sets at Keen Pop! At Hi-Fi in NYC.

It’s not often that I get to spin the 60s pop that I love so much, so when Keenan Popwell extended the invitation I packed my record box and headed on up.

One of the things we discussed between records that night was the fact that a lot of the more obscure 60s pop 45s out there can be had at bargain prices. There just aren’t that many people out there collecting this stuff and aside from the occasional big-ticket item, there’s a lot of groovy stuff to be had for a pittance.

One such bargain is the record I bring you today, ‘Not Like Before’ by the Rainy Day Friends.

Aside from the fact that they released two 45s on the World Pacific label in 1967, I haven’t been able to track down any info on the group.

Both of their 45s were arranged by George Tipton (who worked a lot with Harry Nilsson), and their second disc features a track (‘Don’t You Feel Rained On’) written by Stephen Stills.

The track I bring you today, ‘Not Like Before’ is a really fantastic bit of West Coast jangle pop, with harmonies that bear the influence of the Mamas and Papas.

The flip side is a slightly more conventional folk rock outing that sounds like it borrows a chord or two from the Velvet Underground’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’.

I’m on the lookout for a copy of their other 45 (which seems to be a little more pricey).

If anyone has any info on the band, please let me know.

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

The Beau Brummels – Lift Me

The 1967 Edition of the Beau Brummels (in watercolor form)

Listen/Download – The Beau Brummels – Lift Me

Greetings all.

I hope you all had a chance to dig into this month’s episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show. If not, take a few minutes, pull down the ones and zeros from the archive and stuff it into your iPod (or generic pod-like device) to listen to at your leisure.

The tune I bring you today is an especially groovy, if fairly obscure number.

I’ve always been a big fan of the Beau Brummels, though for many years all I really knew about (or listened to) was their early hits, and groovers like ‘When It Comes To Your Love’.

It was only in the last five years or so that I took the time to check out stuff like ‘Triangle’ and ‘Bradley’s Barn’.

The Beau Brummels “narrative” is kind of an odd one, considering that their period with Autumn Records, which lasted from 1964 to 1965, was followed by a stint with Warner Brothers. The brain trust at WB decided that the group’s first album for that label would be the odd ‘Beau Brummels ‘66’, an LP composed entirely of cover material.

Following that LP, the group was pared down to the trio of Sal Valentino, Ron Elliot and Ron Meagher, the line up that would record the remarkable ‘Triangle’.

Though I haven’t been able to find a sessionography that would confirm it, my assumption (since it was paired with the ‘Triangle’ track ‘Are You Happy’) is that the non-LP track ‘Lift Me’ hails from the same sessions (it certainly sounds like the Blossoms on backing vocals).

Released in 1967, ‘Lift Me’ is a fantastic bit of vaguely psychedelic (though I’d even say that it’s more spooky than outright psychedelic), country-inflected folk-rock.

There’s something really special about the Beau Brummels sound from this period. Their songwriting is as good as it ever got, and they seemed to be wrapping all of the sounds around them into a unique mix.

‘Lift Me’ was included in the Rhino Handmade boxed set ‘Magic Hollow’ back in 2005, though unless you’ve got a pile of cash burning a hole in your pocket it’d be a lot cheaper to just pick up the 45.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #23

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Opener – Action Scene – Alan Hawkshaw/Keith Mansfield (KPM)
Bill Wendry and the Boss Tweeds – Trying to Get To You (Columbia)
Bill Wendry and the Boss Tweeds – When He’s Home (Columbia)
Baker Knight and the Knightmares – Hallucinations (Reprise)
Kidds – Straighten Up and Fly Right (Big Beat)
Motifs – If I Gave You Love (Selsom)
Kit and the Outlaws – Don’t Tread On Me (Black Knight)
Darelycks – Bad Trip (Fine)
Blue Things – Orange Rooftop of Your Mind (RCA)
Kingsmen – Little Sally Tease (Wand)
Rationals – Danby’s Mens Wear Commercial

Mindbenders – It’s Getting Harder All the Time (Fontana)
Mindbenders – Off and Running (Fontana)
Lesley Gore – Off and Running (Mercury)
Dave Berry – The Crying Game (London)
Brenda Lee – The Crying Game (Decca)
Ian and the Zodiacs – The Crying Game (Philips)
Ian and the Zodiacs – Na Na Na Na Na (Philips)
Ian and the Zodiacs – Why Can’t It Be Me (Philips)
The Cake – Baby That’s Me (Decca)
Dick Hyman – The Liquidators (Command)
Hondells – Just One More Chance (Columbia)
Hondells Honda Commercial

Rainy Day Friends – Not Like Before (World Pacific)
Group Therapy – Bad News (Canterbury)
Holy Mackerel – Wildflowers (Reprise)
Francoise Hardy – Ce Petit Couer (4 Corners)
3’s a Crowd – Bird Without Wings (Dunhill)
Free Design – Bubbles (Project 3)
Brady Bunch – I Just Want To Be Your Friend (Paramount)
Apple – Buffalo Billycan (Page One)
Cat Stevens – Baby Get Your Head Screwed On (Deram)
Dead Sea Fruit – Kensington High Street (Atco)
Equals – The Guy That Made Her a Star (RCA)
Donovan – Museum (Epic)
Donovan – Pied Piper Movie Spot

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 23 – 177MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

Welcome to another episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

This month you get some groovy new arrivals, a set of garage fuzz, some interesting covers laid end-to-end and a nice long pop/freakbeat set.

As always, I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

The Thomas Group – Autumn

The Thomas Group, Tony Thomas, middle

Listen/Download – The Thomas Group – Autumn

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you well, and ready for something groovy.

If you follow the comings and goings here at Iron Leg, you’ll already be familiar with my deep and abiding love for the mid-60s, West Coast folk rock sound.

Over the course of musical history, there have been movements that have produced sounds that can’t help but remind you of a specific time and place, whether it’s Harlem in the mid-40s, Liverpool in 1963, or Carnaby Street in 1967.

The Sunset Strip of 1965 (and spread out over the next few years) is one of those places that really strikes a nerve with me.

This has a lot to do with intersections, of certain artists, but also of the strands of musical progression that they wove together.

Here you have the rock world fully electrified, the UK beat boom already peaked, folk rock underway and more progressive sounds starting to creep their way into the picture.

Though there were a wide variety of labels – both big and small – releasing classic material  at the time, one of the finest was Dunhill Records.

Formed in 1964 as Dunhill Productions (working almost exclusively with Johnny Rivers), the production company evolved into the record label that went on to release some of the finest rock and pop sounds of the mid-60s.

Dunhill’s first big hit was Barry McGuire’s ‘Eve of Destruction’ in 1965, going on to brilliance both major (Mamas and Papas, Grass Roots) and minor (Don and the Goodtimes, the Woolies. Lamp of Childhood) over the next few years.

One group from the label’s prime years that was unknown to me until only recently was the Thomas Group.

Featuring Tony Thomas (son of the famous Danny, brother of the famous Marlo) on drums, the Thomas group recorded four 45s for Dunhill between March of 1966 and November of 1967.

All but one of their songs were written by the team of PF Sloan and Steve Barri (major hitmakers for Dunhill).

The tune I bring you today, ‘Autumn’ is a great example of their poppy take on the folk rock sound.

Also recorded by the Vogues and Gary Lewis and the Playboys, ‘Autumn’ sounds a lot like the kind of song the Turtles were doing around the same time (also written by Sloan and Barri).

The Thomas Group performed the song on the Ed Sullivan Show, as well as ‘Where the Action Is’.

Despite the obvious quality of ‘Autumn’ it didn’t really make a dent on the charts (neither did any of the group’s other records).

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back next week with the latest installment of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Terry and the Chain Reaction – Keep Your Cool

Terry Woodford

Listen/Download – Terry and the Chain Reaction – Keep Your Cool

Greetings all.

Today’s selection is the rare and succulent fruit of the neglected, forgotten b-side.

I featured the other, radically different (very Beatley) side of this 45 in Iron Leg Digital trip #16, Almost Fab, just about 5 years ago.

It was only recently, during another one of those periodic empty-pockets internal re-digging sessions, in which I dive back into my own stash to see what I might find 9and I almost always find something groovy), that I flipped over the first 45 by Terry and the Chain Reaction and had my mind blown.

While the other side ‘Stop Stopping Me’ is jangly, melodic faux-Mersey, ‘Keep Your Cool’ is a wildly different sound in which the boys whip out their (combo) organ, turn up the tremolo on the guitar and get just the tiniest bit bad-ass.

‘Keep Your Cool’ (released in 1967, the band had one other 45 on UA which came out in 1968) was recorded at the storied Fame studios, produced by Rick Hall. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover that some or all of the Fame house band are playing on the 45.

Apparently the band was from Alabama and “Terry” was a cat named Terry Woodford who had recorded a couple of 45s before this under his own name (for Fame) and at least one later on for Cotillion. Woodford went on to a career as a successful songwriter and producer, and eventually became Chairman of the Board of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

The tune has an almost ‘Green Onions’-esque organ riff, choppy guitar and a sly, mostly-spoken vocal dispensing advice on how one might regulate their social temperature properly (even namechecking Frosty the Snowman toward the end).

Interestingly enough, ‘Keep Your Cool’ , which charted briefly in a number of wildly disparate markets (Vancouver, Muscle Shoals and Connecticut?!?) late in 1967 was covered by psyche revivalists Plan 9 in 1985 on their ‘Keep Your Cool and Read the Rules’ LP. They even made a video for it!

I hope you dig the tune and that you take my advice and flip over those 45s!

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.