The Wanted – In the Midnight Hour

Their hit 45 and their Number One chart

Listen/Download – The Wanted – In the Midnight Hour

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you well.

The record I bring you today, in addition to being a swinging bit of garage soul, is that rarest of music unicorns, something that simply cannot exist in the current environment, a bona fide regional number one record.

The Wanted were a Detroit-area band that released a half dozen singles in 1967 and 1968 on the local Detroit Sound imprint as well as a few national releases on A&M.

Their version of Wilson Pickett’s ‘In the Midnight Hour’was a big success in the Great Lakes region, charting in the Top 20 all over Michigan, Ohio, Canada, and Wisconsin and a few other markets like Kansas City, Missouri.

However, and this was not an isolated incident (see Seger, Bob and the Last Heard ‘East Side Story’) they managed to top the charts in their home town of Detroit, making it all the way to Number One in March of 1967.

Oddly enough, I wasn’t able to find a picture of the band. There’s video of them performing on Robin Seymour’s local TV show bu the video quality was too poor to pull a screenshot.

Their version of the song (produced by local hotshot Doug Brown) is a certified ass-kicker with some very solid forward motion for the dancers making it one of the more memorable versions of song that became a standard of sorts for American garage bands.

The Detroit Sound label is a gas, as well, with pictures of the band’s gear and a full listing of personnel.

The Wanted had some minor local success the following year with a song called ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ (not the Beach Boys tune) and seemingly faded into oblivion after that.

It’s a groover and I hope you dig it.

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #20

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Opener – Action Scene – Hawkshaw/Mansfield (KPM)
Spirit – I Got a Line On You (Ode)
Spirit – Taurus (Ode)
Spirit – Girl In Your Eye (Ode)
Spirit- Straight Arrow (Ode)
Spirit – Topanga Windows (Ode)
44th St Portable Flower Factory – Let’s Get Together (Scholastic)
44th St Portable Flower Factory – The Letter (Scholastic)
Esko Affair – Morning Dull Fire (Mercury)
Roy Buchanan – Down By the River (Atlantic)
Spirit – Clear LP Promo

Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich – Shame (Fontana)
Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich- You Make It Move (Fontana)
Bang Girl Group Revue – Drink In Hand (Psychedelphonic)
Bang Girl Group Revue – Love’s Gone Bad (Psychedelphonic)
Dino Desi and Billy – I’m a Fool (Reprise)
The Finnz – East Side Story (Finnz)
Heather Black – Bill The Black Militant (Double Bayou)
Kitchen Cinq – Determination (LHI)
Terry Knight and the Pack – Got Love (Lucky Eleven)
Gary Lewis and the Playboys – Heart Full of Soul (Liberty)
Gary Lewis and the Playboys – The Flake (Kelloggs Corn Flakes Ad)

The Critters – Mr Dieingly Sad (Kapp)
East Coast Left – My Child (Kapp)
Epic Splendor – It Could Be Wonderful (Hot Biscuit)
Giant Crab – Help Yourself (Uni)
Giant Crab – It’s Getting Harder (Uni)
Hourglass – Power Of Love (Liberty)
Music Machine – Some Other Drum (Original Sound)
Tom Northcott – Blackberry Way (Uni)
Peter Fonda – November Nights (Chisa)
The 10:15 – Joe’s Acclamation ()
Semicolons? – Beachcomber (Cameo/Parkway)
Poco – Hurry Up (Epic)
The Rockets – Hole In My Pocket (White Whale)
Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere LP Promo

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 20 – 184MB/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 20!

This time around we start the show with a tribute to the late, great Ed Cassidy of Spirit, move on into some top shelf freakbeat and garage and finish up with a solid set of pop.

I hope you dig it all, and that you come back next week for the annual Year In Vintage Pop mix.

Until then…

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #8

Beep beep beep beep…..

Playlist

Hawkshaw/Mansfield – Action Scene (KPM)
Turtles – Outside Chance (White Whale)
Tommy Roe – Leave Her (ABC)
Van Dyke Parks – Vine Street / Palm Desert (Warner Brothers)
Van Dyke Parks – Music For the Ice Capades Pt1 (WB)
Van Dyke Parks – Music For the Ice Capades Pt2 (WB)
Van Dyke Parks – Music For the Ice Capades Pt3 (WB)
Zombies – Beechwood Park (Epic)
Who – Rael (Decca)
Mindbenders – Getting Harder All the Time (Fontana)
Cheetah Club Promo

Hour Glass – The Power of Love (Liberty)
Heather Black – She’s My Woman (Double Bayou)
Heather Black – Bill (the Black Militant) (Double Bayou)
Tygers – I Still Love Her (Teen Town)
Gary Lewis and the Playboys – Heart Full of Soul (Liberty)
The 10:15 – Joes Acclamation (Private Press)
Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters – Alley Oop (Verve)
Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters – Head Inspector (Verve)
Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters – Chelsea Morning (Verve)
Nobody’s Children – I Can’t Let Go (Bullet) Maryland
Rolling Stones – Rice Krispies Commercial

Small Faces – Tin Soldier (Immediate)
Small Faces – All or Nothing (RCA)
Unchained Mynds – Going Back To Miami (Buddah)
Walker Brothers – Hurting Each Other (Philips)
Scott Walker – Mrs Murphy (Philips)
Marian Segal and Silver Jade – Amongst Anemones (DJM)
Marian Segal and Silver Jade – Fly On Strangewings (DJM)
Bob Seger and the last Heard – Sock It To me Santa (Cameo)
Hals Record Shop Commercial

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode 8 – 155MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

Welcome to Episode #8 of the Iron Leg Radio Show, your home for all things vintage pop.

We’ve got some very cool stuff for you this month, including some rare, early Van Dyke Parks, wherein he wrestles with a Moog, pages from an unheard chapter in the history of Dave Van Ronk, a lost bit of groovy acoustic guitar from a very odd source, vintage garage and pop 45s and exactly one Christmas record.

I hope you dig the sounds, and if you haven’t picked up on any of the previous seven episodes, get your download on and luxuriate in the wonderfulness.

See you next Monday.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

The Underdogs – Love’s Gone Bad b/w Mo Jo Hanna

The Underdogs (and friends)

Listen/Download – The Underdogs – Love’s Gone Bad

Listen/Download – The Underdogs – Mo Jo Hanna

Greetings all.

The Iron Leg has returned, hopefully for the long run.

It seems likely that for a while anyway, I’ll be sticking with one post a week augmented with the occasional Iron Leg Digital Trip mix, but at least I’ll be able to share some groovy stuff with you all.

An important note, I’ll be taking part in the Spindletop night with DJ Perry Lane next Monday night, beginning at 10PM at Botanica, 47 East Houston Street (between Mulberry and Mott) in New York City. They have a very groovy thing going there so come on down to soak up the Hammond 45s, soul jazz and other swinging sounds.

The tune I bring you today is – in it’s original form – a masterpiece of hard edged Motown, as performed and recorded by Chris Clark.

Not long after I scored my copy of that particular record, someone (I do not recall who) informed me that there was a garage band version of the track, which also appeared on the VIP label.

At the time I assumed that this was probably unspeakably rare and did not hold out hope that I might snag so scarce a beast, but as its appearance in this space today proves, things often work themselves out over the course of time.

The version I bring you today was recorded in 1966 by a Detroit area band called the Underdogs.

Interestingly, the Underdogs were the first band to record for the stories Motor City garage label Hideout Records (also home to Doug Brown and the Omens and the Pleasure Seekers among others).

Composed of Dave Whitehouse (bass, vocals), Chris Lena (guitar), Tony Roumell (lead guitar) and Michael Morgan (drums), the Underdogs, a popular local band were apparently the beneficiaries of a certain Mr. Berry Gordy’s plan to expand into other markets.

They had already recorded for Hideout when they went into the studio with Clarence Paul, aided by Earl Van Dyke on piano and James Jamerson on bass.

The first time I heard the Underdogs 45, I thought that the two sides came from two different sessions. This is in fact not the case, but the sound of the two songs is different.

‘Love’s Gone Bad’ is compared to the Chris Clark recording remarkably spare, and much more what you’d picture a 60s punk band sounding like (aside from Van Dyke’s piano backing).

The flip side, a rendering of Henry Lumpkin’s oft covered ‘Mojo Hannah’ (listed here as ‘Mo Jo Hanna’) has a much fuller, more ‘produced’ sound to it.

‘Love’s Gone Bad’ went on to be a fairly substantial Detroit area hit.

Apparently the Underdogs went into the studio a second time (with no less a light than Norman Whitfield!) and recorded a cover of the Temptations ‘The Way You Do the Things You Do’ which was unreleased at the time, but later appeared on Motown reissue comps.

The Underdogs were reported to record the original version of Bob Seger’s legendary ‘East Side Story’, but Seger decided to keep it for himself, and the rest is history.

That all said, ‘Love’s Gone Bad’ is yet another savage example that the good people of Detroit harbored a lot of snotty longhairs amongst their many legendary soul singers.

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

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for a tasty Northern Soul 45.

Iron Leg Christmas Flashback – Bob Seger & the Last Heard

Greetings all.
The Yuletide is upon us, and to get things going I’m going to bring back last years Christmas post/track, followed on Monday with something new for the holiday season. I would have been more proactive but I suffered through a root canal this morning.
I hope you dig the track and I’ll see you all next week.
Peace
Larry

Originally posted December 2008

Bob Seger (top left) & the Last Heard

Listen – Sock It To Me Santa – MP3

Greetings all.
I hope all is well on your end.
Today I bring you the very first Iron Leg Christmas post (hopefully the first of many).
Though this blog has a much smaller audience than Funky16Corners, I’m having a tremendous amount of fun working on it. Though soul and funk are the main focus of my collectors mania, my musical interests – accumulated over all my 45 years – are much broader.
As I’ve related in this space a bunch of times, during the mid-80’s I was pretty deeply involved in the garage/mod bag, both as an active (fanzines, bands) and passive (fan, collector) participant. It is the music I was digging through during that period (and before and after) that I cover here at Iron Leg.
One of the positive aspects of doing a music blog is that it kind of forces you to go back into your crates and dig, rediscovering and more importantly re-appreciating music that may not currently occupy the center stage. In that respect, Iron Leg definitely fits the bill.
If you’re a Funky16Corners reader, you’ll already know that I’ve never been a big collector of holiday music. Certainly someone that consumes music as voraciously as I do is bound to grab a couple of Christmas sides, but it has never been my focus.
I was originally going to post something quiet and meditative for Christmas, on account of that’s the kind of mood I find myself in these days.
However…
The bygone 60’s punk that still dwells within took over and I decided that we would all be better served with something from the kick-ass side of the menu.
In service of that notion, I bring you one of the punkiest Christmas records this side of the Sonics, Bob Seger & the Last Heard’s ‘Sock It To Me Santa’.
I’ve touched briefly on the dynamic pre-Night Moves career of Seger before (and will go even more in depth in the future). I don’t have the original 45 of this number (I ripped it from a 20 year old Euro bootleg of his Cameo 45s, but for those of you interested in the early Last Heard sides there are a few of them (including ‘Sock It To Me Santa’ on the recent Cameo-Parkway boxed set, which I believe is available via iTunes).
Here we see the 1966 model Seger, in which later pretensions to arena-rock-osity were preceded by just a touch of that Detroit suburban whiteboy James Brown wannabee-ism, which by the way predates a similar (though not Yuletide) sonic assault a year later by his fellow Motorcity rocker Mitch Ryder.
That all said, I ride for early Seger up through his Capitol years and ‘Sock It To Me Santa’ is a fine example.
I hope you dig it.
I have two more Iron Leg podcasts in the bag, as well as a large supply of individual bangers, so stick around kids. I won’t be posting again til up and around New Years Eve, so you all have yourselves an excellent holiday.
Peace
Larry

Bob Seger System – Innervenus Eyes

Bob Seger circa 1969

Listen – Bob Seger System – Innervenus Eyes- MP3

Greetings all.
I hope everyone is having a good week.
You’re getting this one a day early because I’m taking the rest of the week off from the blog-o-sphere, so I figured I get all my ducks in a row, as it were.
I’ve gone on about the early, much cooler days of Bob Seger in this space before. If the concept is an unfamiliar one, the brief recap is thus:
Back in the olden days of Dee-troit sounds, Seger, first with the Last Heard, and slightly further on with the System, laid down some very heavy sounds, ranging from pure, fuzzed out garage snot, proto-whiteboy soul (not too far removed from Grand Funk-osity) and all-around good stuff that will flip the wig of anyone who thinks he’s all about ‘Like A Rock’ and other such commercial soundtrackery.
The tune I bring you today might be considered mid-period Seger, coming as it does from the days of the Bob Seger System (right in the middle as it were), before he struck out as a solo.
As I’ve heard it told, by 1969 the world of the regional rock bigshot was starting to leave a heavy imprint on the weary mind of Mr Seger, so much so that he was apparently considering chucking it all and going back to school (bringing to mind the nightmare vision of Bob Seger CPA).
It was during this period that Seger allowed a fellow named Tom Neme to join the band, and – it appears – take a significant amount of control. The second Bob Seger System LP ‘Noah’ features no less than five Neme compositions (a full half of the album). I’ve seen a quote from a 1972 interview where Seger makes it clear that he was on the verge of dropping out of the business, thus ceding a hunk of that album to Neme.
I’ve never been able to score a copy of ‘Noah’, so I can’t speak on the comparative quality of Neme’s songwriting or performance. The record I bring you today makes that something of a moot point, since it features one of Seger’s songs from the album.
‘Innervenus Eyes’ is a pretty hairy ride. Whether this is a direct reflection of the man’s psychological travails, or merely a taste of 1969 freakout is up for debate. I’ve always been a big fan of Seger’s early period vocals. That end of the 60s was positively thick with screamy whiteboy wanna be soul revue frontmen. Seger had enough of an actual voice to stay just this side of extreme, and his singing on cuts like ‘East Side Story’, ‘Heavy Music’ and ‘Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man’ is very cool.
That said, I hope you dig the tune.
Hang tight and I’ll be back on Monday with something groovy.
Peace
Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for two interesting covers from the world of James Brown.

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too…