Love Children on a Spanish picture sleeve (which I do not own…)
Listen/Download – Love Children – Paper Chase
Greetings all.
I hope everyone had a chance to dig into Episode 6 of the Iron Leg Radio Show.
As always, if you haven’t downloaded, it will still be available in the archive (see the tab in the header).
The song I bring you today is something from the lighter side of the Deram popsike merry-go-round.
I first heard Love Children doing ’Paper Chase’ back in the old garage mod days when it appeared on one of the British Psychedelic Trip comps.
Though I don’t know much about the group, I can say with certainty that they recorded two 45s for Deram in 1969 and 1970.
‘Paper Chase’ was the second of their records and the late date of its release goes some distance in explaining why the popsike whimsy seems to be drifting into a slightly bubblegummy side street, or at least what was passing for bubblegum over in the UK.
That said, it is indeed a very groovy side with the electric sitar touches, electric piano and the strings and the harmony vocals.
What ‘Paper Chase’ manages to do is illustrate the rather prominent vein of pure pop running straight through from the beat era into the early 70s. The only differences along that particular timeline being certain, time-specific flourishes, whether it be phasing, pocket trumpet (a la the Beatles), backward tape or what have you.
Oddly enough, the flip side is a weird, slightly heavier novelty called ‘My Turkey Snuffed It’ which opens with a nice, tight drum break and features some cool guitar. It also features a variety of irritating sound effects and lame lyrics, which is probably why it languished on the b-side (and in obscurity).
I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all next week.
Peace
Larry
Iron Leg 
my mate peter (morgan) kent was the drummer on this track. he now lives in Australia. go to http://www.tonitesthenite.com.au/index.php to see what he’s up to. he’s an unappreciated star.
barney