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 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

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 Semi-Colons? – Beachcomber

Rudy and the Boys (above), Bobby (below)

Listen/Download – The Semi-Colons? – Beachcomber

Greetings all.

How about something a little crazy to flip thy wig?

A long-ass time ago (I can’t even remember when or where) I grabbed the 45 you see before you today.

I can’t even remember why I picked it up, other than maybe it looked interesting and was cheap (like so many other records in my vinyl cave).

That said, when I gave it a spin I was gassed, on account of ‘Beachcomber’ is a very groovy, fast-moving instrumental, and, when I gave the label a closer look I saw that it was credited to Bobby Darin.

My interest piqued, I started digging around a little and discovered – cue up wig flip number two – that the band on the disc, labeled as the Semi-Colons? Was in fact Question Mark and the Mysterians!

Whoa…

What was the deal?

That question remains largely unanswered to this day.

The record dates from 1967, and was a cover of an even more obscure piano instrumental that Darin recorded and released in 1960 (itself quite cool, if taken at a much more relaxed pace).

The flipside, ‘Set Aside’ is less interesting, but credited to members of the Mysterians, it does provide a direct link to the band.

Now, as I mentioned, Question Mark et al take the original Darin instro and cook it up into something much, much faster, dancier and all around cooler.

Where Darin’s OG has Mancini-esque pretensions, the Semi-Colons? tear into it in a Jerry Lee Lucid stylee.

Oddly (or maybe not) ‘Beachcomber’was left off the Cameo/Parkway Question Mark & the Mysterians comp that came out a few years ago and as far as I can tell is not currently in print in any form.

I would love the opportunity to whip this one on a room full of dancers.

I hope you dig it and I’ll be back next week with some more coolness.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #22

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Opening Action Scene – Keith Mansfield/Alan Hawkshaw (KPM)
New Colony Six – At the River’s Edge (Centaur)
Limey and the Yanks – Out of Sight Out of Mind (Loma)
Sandy Nelson – Boss Beat (Imperial)
Round Robin – Sit and Dance (Domain)
Beau Brummels – One Too Many Mornings (WB)
Beau Brummels – Are You Happy (WB)
Beau Brummels – Lift Me (WB)
The Thomas Group – Autumn (Dunhill)
Van Dyke Parks – Come To the Sunshine (MGM)
Van Dyke Parks Datsun Commercial

Thirteenth Floor Elevators – You’re Gonna Miss Me (IA)
Thirteenth Floor Elevators – Reverberation (IA)
Thirteenth Floor Elevators – You Don’t Know (IA)
Thirteenth Floor Elevators – Nobody To Love (IA)
Thirteenth Floor Elevators – Levitation (IA)
Thirteenth Floor Elevators – Livin’ On (IA)
Thirteenth Floor Elevators – The Scarlet and the Gold (IA)
Thirteenth Floor Elevators – Bull of the Woods Radio Spot

Kingsmen – Long Green (Wand)
Terry and the Chain Reaction – Keep Your Cool (UA)
Mickey Newbury – The 33rd of September / When the Baby In My Lady Gets the Blues (Mercury)
Rocky and the Border Kings – Michoacan (Epic)
Shangri-Las – Give Him a Great Big Kiss (Red Bird)
Shangri-Las – Right Now and Not Later (Red Bird)
Shangri-Las – The Train to Kansas City (Red Bird)
Bobby Fuller Four – Never To be Forgotten (Mustang)
Bobby Fuller Four – Gallancamps Shoes Commercial

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 22 – 161MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

Welcome to another pop-tastic episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

This time out, in addition to a grip of tasty new arrivals (garage punk, folk rock, singer songwriter etc) you get a whole set of the mighty Thirteenth Floor Elevators.

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

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

The Sound of the 44th Street Portable Flower Factory

Bob Dorough

Listen/Download – The 44th St Portable Flower Factory – Let’s Get Together

Listen/Download – The 44th St Portable Flower Factory – The Letter

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you all well.

The tunes I bring you today have been culled from one of the many interesting back alleys of musical history.

Though I suspect that there are those among you for whom the name Bob Dorough is an unfamiliar one, it is also just as likely that you know his voice.

Dorough, has been active as a singer, pianist, composer and arranger in the worlds of jazz and pop for more than 60 years.

Though he has crossed paths with artists as diverse as Miles Davis and Spanky and Our Gang, he is surely best known for Schoolhouse Rock.

Dorough was one of the main creative forces behind the beloved series of educational songs/animations that aired on ABC through the 70s and 80s.

He still performs today at the age of 89, and usually slips a Schoolhouse Rock number (or two) into his set list.

It was probably close to 25 years ago (or more) that I picked up an EP by the 44th Street Portable Flower Factory in a long gone record store.

My memory of the specific purchase isn’t clear or very detailed, but I can almost certainly say that I grabbed the record because it looked psychedelic, and featured a number of covers of 60s tunes.

It was only after I got it home and gave it a spin (and actually read the sleeve) that I realized that this was the work of Dorough (along with other moonlighting jazzers like Steve Swallow, Bill Goodwin, Dave Frishberg and Stu Scharf.

It was several years later (these being those long, dusty, pre-internet years) before I realized that there was more than one record by the group.

Though I’ve never been able to find any information about the genesis of the group, they recorded three EPs that were included with books about contemporary pop music published by Scholastic Books.

The records appear to have been recorded and released between 1970 and 1972 and included covers of songs by the Youngbloods, Donovan, the Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, James Taylor, the Supremes, the Box Tops and Tom Paxton.

The two tracks I include today are from the first two EPs, ‘The 44th Street Portable Flower Factory’ and ‘Rainy Day Garden’ (I have yet to grab a copy of the third record ‘Portable Flower Factory’).

The first is a very groovy, very mellow folk rock version of the Youngbloods’ ‘Let’s Get Together’. While it doesn’t approach the epic, hippy grandeur of the original, it does have a wonderful, blissed out, peaceful vibe to it.

‘The Letter’ appears on the ‘Rainy Day Garden’ EP, and has a slightly funkier feel to it. The guitar work by Scharf is excellent, as is the vocal by Dorough.

As far as I can tell, the third EP ‘Portable Flower Factory’, which was issued in 1972 was the group’s swan song.

There’s next to nothing out there about the group, and I’m thankful that Scholastic at least included credits on the EP sleeves.

The records turn up, if not frequently, with some regularity on Ebay (running from 5 to 20 bucks a pop).

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

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #21

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Show Opener – Action Scene – Mansfield/Hakwshaw (KPM)
The Spats – She Done Moved (ABC)
Sonny and Cher – It’s Gonna Rain (Atco)
WC Fields Memorial Electric String Band – Hippy Elevator Operator (HBR)
Buffalo Springfield – Mr Soul (45 Edit) (Atco)
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart – Out and About (A&M)
Boyce & Hart Coke Commercial
The Changin’ Times- How Is the Air Up There (Philips)
Gene Clark and the Gosdin Brothers – So You Say You Lost Your Baby (Columbia)
The Kaleidoscope – Egyptian Gardens (Epic)
Lamp Of Childhood – You Can’t Blame Me (Dunhill)
Lyme and Cybelle – Follow Me (White Whale)
Monkees – Teardrop City (Colgems)
Bobby Fuller Four – KRLA King of the Wheels Commercial
The Poor – She’s Got the Time She’s Got the Changes (York)
The Poor – Feelin’ Down (Decca)
Love – The Red Telephone (Elektra)
Thorinshield – Wrong My Friend (Philips)
Sagittarius – My World Fell Down (Columbia)

Cheques – Testify (I Wanna) (HIP)
Chain Reaction – Ever Lovin’ Man (Verve)
Fun and Games – Something I Wrote (White Whale)
Los Gatos Negros – No Milk Today (Vergara)
Sound Foundation – Magic Carpet Ride (SmoBro)
Sound Foundation – Morning Dew (SmoBro)
Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich- Master Llewellyn (Fontana)
Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich – Coke Commercial

The Collection – Tomorrow Is a Window (Hot Biscuit)
Crib and Ben – Emily (Decca)
Peter Robbins – If I Knew Then What I Know Now (RCA)
Phaetons – Leave It To Me (WB)
Phaetons – You Better Come Home (WB)
Sonny Curtis – The Straight Life (Viva)
Fairport Convention – Tale In Hard Time (A&M)
Jerry Garcia – The Wheel (45 edit) (WB)
Grateful Dead concert commercial

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 21 – 186MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

I hope all is well in your part of the world.

It’s time once again for the Iron Leg Radio Show, episode 21!

When I dipped into the crates to put this one together, it kind of got away from me as I pulled out on groovy LA-related side after another, and the first set stretched out to 45 minutes!

I don’t think you’ll be complaining, since it’s packed with some of the best music of the 60s, with stops in garage punk, pop, folk rock and psychedelia.

After that, you get two shorter sets – one heavier, one lighter – that I think you’ll also dig.

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

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Peter Fonda – November Night

Jane was supposed to pick me up hours ago…

Listen/Download – Peter Fonda – November Night

Greetings all.

Welcome to a new week here at the Leg of Iron.

The track I bring you today has been sitting in my crates for a good long time, passed along to me by a benefactor (I cannot recall exactly who) close to 20 years ago.

I do remember who turned me on to the song for the first time, since it was none other than Ugly Things honcho Mike Stax, via a cassette trade back in the 90s in furtherance of my Gram Parsons completism.

The song in question, ‘November Night’ is a song that Parsons wrote in the mid-60s but never took past the demo stage.

It was Parsons’ friend, actor Brandon DeWilde, who introduced he and the International Submarine Band to Peter Fonda, who enlisted them to appear in his 1967 film‘The Trip’.

Appear they did, but only after their music was dubbed over with a track by the Electric Flag, but that is – as they say – another story.

At some point in that convoluted interaction, Fonda, who was dabbling in music, picked up ‘November Night’ and recorded it.

As the story goes, none other than Hugh Masekela heard Fonda playing guitar at a party and suggested that he make a record. Fonda went into the studio during 1966 and recorded an album’s worth of songs for Masekela and Stewart Levine’s Chisa label, of which only ‘November Night’ and its flip side, a cover of Donovan’s ‘Catch the Wind’ ever made it to vinyl.

The record, produced by Masekela is,  aside from Fonda’s occasionally flat vocals, pretty cool.

The song itself is quite groovy, and the the arrangement is classic, mid-60s, California folk rock (it was included on Rhino’s excellent ‘Where the Action Is: Los Angeles Nuggets’ set).

Unfortunately the record, released in March of 1967 doesn’t appear to have caught on anywhere, failing to make a dent in the charts.

I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all next week with the first Iron Leg Radio Show of 2013.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.