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.

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

Ian Whitcomb & Bluesville – You Turn Me On (The Turn On Song)

Ian Whitcomb

Listen/Download – Ian Whitcomb & Bluesville – You Turn Me On (The Turn On Song)

Greetings all.

Welcome back to Iron Leg: the Sweltering…
I just walked out back to take out the garbage and I very nearly melted on my way to the bin.
Jeebus it’s hot out.
Naturally, not being a complete moron I realize that it is summer and I should expect temperatures like this (and in reflection I do remember griping about the cold during the winter), but no amount of reality prepares you for the feeling of your hair catching fire as you step out into the sun.
Fortunately (for me anyway) I’m writing this in the air conditioned sanctuary of my record room, with an album being recorded on the turntable and my sons on the other laptop playing computer games (my wife is recuperating on the divan…).
I have a backlog of vinyl awaiting digimatization, and since a lot of it is entire albums I want to record, I can just set up the recorded, drop the needle on the record and go about my business until the side is complete (now playing/recording Chad and Jeremy ‘Of Cabbages and Kings’ soon to be featured at a blog near you.
The tune I bring you today is of a slightly earlier vintage, and teeters right at the edge of Novelty Canyon, but I dig it for a couple of significant reasons.
Way back in the day, when I was a long-haired college student I pulled out my library card and borrowed a book entitled ‘Rock Odyssey’ by today’s artist, Ian Whitcomb.
Whitcomb, and Englishman who attended college in Ireland and had a couple of hits here in the States has had a very interesting career indeed, moving on later in life as a curator of sorts of early pop music, a re-popularizer of the mighty ukulele, writer and all around nice guy.
Though it’s been nearly 30 years since I paged through ‘Rock Odyssey’, I recall it being a fantastic read, both as a personal memoir and as a vividly rendered look at the world of rock and pop circa 1965/66.
Whitcomb hit the charts with ‘The Turn On Song’ in the Spring of 1965, just as the British Invasion was colliding with Sunset Strip mod-ism, so he fell right into the thick of the Shindig, the Hullaballoo and all such groovy things.
Interestingly, when Whitcomb first came to the US he was based out of the Pacific Northwest, thus the credit on the label of the 45 for Jerry Dennon/Jerden Records (as in The Sonics et al).
The record itself is a bright, poppy, piano driven blues all running under Whitcomb’s somewhat bizarrely affected falsetto (affected in that it sounds like a put on as opposed to a classic, doowop/soul falsetto) leading up to his breathless (quasi-orgasmic) heaving. It’s just the kind of thing that would have (and did) get an easy foothold in the charts, and as soon as America’s teenaged girls got a look at Whitcomb’s toothy smile and long, Beatle-y hair, it was all over but the shouting.
‘The Turn On Song’ was actually Whitcomb’s second chart hit with his band Bluesville (formed while studying in Ireland), the first being ‘This Sporting Life’, which scraped the outer limits of the Top 40 a few months earlier.
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll be back with something groovy later in the week.

Peace

Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for a new guest mix in the Funky16Corners Soul Club

The Standells – Little Sally Tease

The Standells

Listen -The Standells – Little Sally Tease – MP3

Greetings all.

I hope all is well on your end as another week comes to a close.
The daylight savings time thing has come to an end, and this year (as opposed to all those in the past that I can still remember with any clarity) it doesn’t seem to be causing me any trouble. Usually I find my self dragging my ass around for at least a week as I pull myself into synch with the clock.
I’m putting this post up a little early since the fam and I are hitting the road for a couple of days of R&R.
The tune I bring you today has been a favorite since back in the garage revival days of yore. Back then, next to the Chocolate Watchband, the Standells loomed over the mid-60s like some kind of garage punk colossus, having created several anthemic tunes and having the added benefit of having recorded for a major label and having their moving image captured on film a number of times.
Though for most garage heads the go-to Standells numbers are ‘Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White’ and the Nuggets-y ‘Dirty Water’, my faves by the LA combo have always been lesser known killers like ‘Why Did You Hurt Me’ and today’s selection, their ramped up cover of Don and the Goodtimes PNW classic ‘Little Sally Tease’.
Originally waxed by D&the GTs, then later covered by the Kingsmen, ‘Little Sally Tease’ is one of those stompers that seems as if it were created in the lab of a mop-topped mad scientist attempting to formulate the perfect garage punk record, having exhumed and stitched together pounding drums, throbbing combo organ, fuzz guitar and snotty adolescent girl trouble lyrics of the first order.
The original version of the song is no small potatoes, but the Standells took it into the studio and beat it like a rented mule until every single drop of snot and bad attitude was placed on display like a hood ornament on their own high powered muscle car. Things get off to a strong start with heavy bass and witch doctor drums, but it isn’t until the chorus, shredded guitar solo and combo organ workout that things reach a truly explosive climax.
‘Little Sally Tease’ is a cut on the 1966 LP ‘Dirty Water’ which may pack more garage punk power than any full length in the history of the genre. Alongside the title cut, ‘..Good Guys’, ‘Medication’, ‘Little Sally Tease’ and ‘Why Did You Hurt Me’, you also get slamming covers of ‘19th Nervous Breakdown’ and ‘Hey Joe’, as well as the cover photo of the Standells looking positively badass.
It’s just that heavy.
As your physician I recommend you get this on a CD (or patch the MP3 thingy into the car radio) and drive around with the stereo at full blast and the windows wide open. No sense in hiding the fact that you’re a fuzz addled freak from the rest of the neighborhood, is there? Hmmmm?
Dig it and I’ll see you all on Monday.

Peace

Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for the second half of the the 5th anniversary celebration.

Don and the Goodtimes – I Could Be So Good To You

Don and the Goodtimes

Listen -Don & the Goodtimes – I Could Be So Good To You – MP3

Greetings all.

I hope all is groovy in your corner of the universe.
Things are cool hereabouts, with some very cool new vinyl either safely cached in the vault or jetting its way to me as we speak. The new acquisitions include some unusual pop stuff, killer garage punk and a couple of additions to the ongoing Curt Boettcher-related project (which seem to be in a constant state of flux).
The tune I bring you today represents the commercial apex of one of the truly great Pacific Northwest bands of the 60s, Don and the Goodtimes.
Coming together in Portland Oregon, Don and the Goodtimes included in its ranks both Jim ‘Harpo’ Valley (later of Paul Revere & the Raiders) and Jack Ely (the cat who sang ‘Louie Louie’ for the Kingsmen).
Garage heads will be familiar with Don and the Gootimes’ OG version of the PNW garage standard ‘Little Sally Tease’ (written by Valley) on Dunhill*. The group recorded for that label (charting regionally), as well as for Wand and the ‘local’ imprint Jerden.
They were spotted by Dick Clark in 1966 who made them the house band on the TV show Where the Action Is. They were signed to Epic records and recorded the LP ‘So Good’. Today’s selection ‘I Could Be So Good To You’ hit the Top 40 in 1967.
A long way from the PNW/punk roots, ‘I Could Be So Good To You’ is a bright, sunny slice of good time pop with a singalong chorus. The tune was co-written and produced by no less than the mighty Jack Nitzsche.
Don and the Goodtimes would graze the charts one more time in 1967 with ‘Happy and Me’ before breaking up. Some of the members reformed as Touch in 1969. Don Gallucci went on to produce the Stooges ‘Fun House’ LP.
Sundazed has put out an outstanding CD comp of all the early Don and the Goodtimes material, including ‘Little Sally Tease’. Pick it up at Amazon.com.

I hope you dig the tune and I’ll be back on Monday.

Peace

Larry

**Keep your eyes and ears peeled for a great version of that particular song in the coming weeks.

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for a West Coast funk 45