Them – Bring ‘Em On In

That’s a mean looking bunch’o’spuds.

Listen/Download – Them – Bring ‘Em On In

Greetings all.

Welcome to the new week.

As I was flipping through the vast ‘to-be-blogged’ archive, trying to pick out a tune for this week, I happened upon something groovy, which – ironically – I had forgotten.

Unjustly, too, since the beat/blues wailing of George Ivan Morrison, the man responsible for my all-time favorite rock song (G-L-O-R-I-A…) is one of my very favorite sounds (as is his slightly later, much hippy-dippier profundity).

If memory serves I picked up this 45 at a record show, mainly because I had never heard (more accurately, did not remember) the songs.

As it turns out, both tracks on the single, ‘Bring ‘Em On In’ and ‘Call My Name’ appeared on 1966’s ‘Them Again’, which I owned a copy of (and have since misplaced/Lost) back in the garage/mod days of the 80s.

Though they are often grouped with the British Invasion, Them were much closer to (and quite close to the top of the class) the R&Beat sound.

That they had the voice and songwriting prowess of Morrison put them close to the front of the pack, but they were first and foremost a shit-hot band, in the end far more influential than they were successful.

On that note, it’s odd to discover that they were a much bigger deal (though still relatively small potatoes, no pun intended) here in the States than they were on the other side of the Atlantic.

They had a handful of moderate hits here in the US, with ‘Here Comes the Night’ being the biggest (and ‘Gloria’ the most influential), as well as a couple of regional successes.

‘Bring ‘Em On In’, released in 1966 as the B-side to ‘Call My Name’ (one of the aforementioned regional hits, making some noise on SoCal and Florida) is a hard-charging bit of R&B cum garage, with some fuzz guitar, piano and of course a searing vocal by Van the man.

Of course by this time, Them – in their Van led incarnation – were pretty much a done deal.

They imploded following a West Coast tour of the US, with Van moving on to working with Bert Berns, and some of the rest of the fellows continuing on for a few years.

It is a very sweet little number, and I hope you dig it.

I’ll see you all next week with a new episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Peter Law and the Pacific – Remains to Be Seen

Peter Law and the Pacific

Listen/Download – Peter Law and the Pacific – Remains to Be Seen

Greetings all.

I hope the new week finds you well, and that all of you have pulled down the ones and zeros for this month’s Iron Leg Radio Show.

I was lucky enough late last week to sneak in a little bit of unscheduled digging in one of my old, once great, vinyl repositories.

I say “once great”, because way back in the day, when I was but a sprite one would walk through the doors of this place and reel at the massive amount of records to paw through.

So large and wonderful a place that should you become bored looking through the rock and soul you could stoop down to floor level and start looking through the comedy, spoken word and international sections, all filled with interesting stuff.

Sadly, those days are gone, and with the influx of vinyl cut short, the outflux into the collections of my friends and I has also shrunken and the pickings, in the word of a great philosopher can only be described as slim.

That said, it’s still worth taking a ride out there every once in a while, if only to flex the digging muscles and get a taste (however slight) of the old ways.

Though most of the solid stuff is no more (the funk and soul section is probably 60% brand new reissues), there are still interesting things to be had if you put in enough effort.

So, dig I did, and I managed to pull out a handful of very cool things for the Iron Leg ‘to be blogged” folder, including today’s selection’.

I’d never heard of Peter Law and the Pacific before I laid hands on their album, but I could not very well leave a menagerie of mod haircuts and clothing sitting in the ‘New Arrivals’ bin, never having sampled its delights.

Said delights were not exactly abundant, but as is often the case, there, buried in a haystack of ordinariness and attempts at mass appeal, was a gem waiting to be discovered.

That gem was a tune called ‘Remains to Be Seen’.

Peter Law and the Pacific were a showband out of Northern Ireland that plied their wares through the 60s.

Showbands were (and still are) a kind of all-purpose entertainment machine, performing a wide variety of pop sounds in clubs, bars and theaters for an equally diverse audience. Most of the showbands included small horn sections, truncated from the days when the same kinds of entertainment were provided by full orchestras.

Peter Law and the Pacific played pop, rock and country, the latter bringing them a Canadian hit in 1968 with their cover the Mel Tillis song ‘Ruby’.

I did mention that they also recorded pop and rock, which is how they came to cover a fairly obscure but very groovy bit of Australian popsike (originally recorded in 1968) called ‘Remains to Be Seen’ which was originally recorded by the duo of Steve and Stevie.

Law and the Pacific recorded their version in 1969 and released in it Canada on the Capitol label.

What you get is a very nice approximation of Deram/Decca popsike with vocals by the band’s second singer Sean Fagan.

The original recording of ‘Remains to be Seen’ was released in the UK on the Toast label, which is where Law and the Pacific probably heard it.

It’s a very groovy, very obscure number, and I hope you dig it.

I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

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

Iron Leg Digital Trip #26 – Second Anniversary Mix

Iron Leg Digital Trip #26 – Super Duper 45RPM Folk Rock
Psychedelic Fuzz Dance Party!

Playlist

Bad Seeds – He’s Lying (Columbia)
Blue Things – You Can Live In Our Tree (RCA)
Ron-Dels – Picture of You (Smash)
The Wicked – The Spider and the Fly (Isabelle)
Beckett Quintet – It’s All Over Now Baby Blue (Gemcor)
Cast of Thousands – Girl What You Gonna Do (Tower)
Middle Window – Treasure Land (Garm)
New Breed – One More for the Good Guys (HBR)
HP Lovecraft – Wayfaring Stranger (Philips//Dunwich)
Five by Five – Hang Up (Paula)
Bards – Jabberwocky (Capitol)
Blues Magoos – We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet (Smash)
Bob Seger & the Last Heard – East Side Sound (Cameo)
Unlimited – You’re Never There (Century)
Them – Call My Name (Parrot)

This mix can be heard in the Iron Leg Digital Trip Podcast Archive

Greetings all.
As stated in my previous communiqué, I am currently a prisoner of sorts, bound by my ailing kidney to a hospital room. The food’s not that bad, and my wife’s here keeping me company, but at the end of the day there are few places I’d rather be less than the hospital.
The mix I bring you today has been assembled in celebration/commemoration of two years of blog-o-fication here at Iron Leg. When I started up Iron Leg – ignoring the little voice in my head that kept shouting that I’d never have enough time – I never figured I’d still be at it two years down the road.
Yet here we all are.
Though the write up will be a little shorter than I’m used to – since I am where I am – the music is (as always) of the finest quality, featuring a number of fairly recent acquisitions as well as some old faces from the crates. The vibe this time out is mostly garagey, with some prime folk rock, some psyched out fuzz and a couple of certified raveups.
Things get off to a jangly start with ‘He’s Lying’ by the Bad Seeds. I have to admit, when I bought this 45 I thought I was getting something by the legendary Texas punk band. When I got home and did a little research I discovered that this particular batch of Bad Seeds hailed not from the Lone Star state but rather from Kentucky. Both sides of this one are cool, and the flip will be featured here some time soon.
The Blue Things have appeared here before, and they remain one of my fave 60s bands, as capable with a beat number as they were with psyched out garage like the tune in this mix ‘You Can Live In Our Tree’. Dig the backward phased guitar and that Gregorian Chant-like chorus. Trippy.
I featured the more rocking flipside of the Ron-Dels’ folky ‘Picture of You’ a few weeks ago. ‘Picture…’ features a cool guitar effect that sounds like someone messing with the volume knob.
I have no idea who ‘The Wicked’ were, but am pretty sure that ‘The Spider and the Fly’ is one of the sickest records ever committed to vinyl, and provided the soundtrack to countless poor slobs who, thanks to lysergic assistance were suddenly convinced they could fly. Oddly enough the flip side is a fairly tame cover of Gary Lewis and the Playboys’ ‘This Diamond Ring’.
The Beckett Quintet hailed recorded for the Hollywood, CA label Gemcor, but actually came from New Mexico. Their blazing ‘No Correspondence’ appeared in the Iron Leg First Anniversary mix. The tune I bring you today is that record’s flipside, a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’, which was apparently a local radio hit in California.
The Cast of Thousands were in fact a Texas based band that recorded the slamming ‘Girl What You Gonna Do’ in 1966. This is as prime a slice of pure, mid-60s garage punk, with the combo organ, ringing guitar and snotty vocals as you’re ever likely to hear. I LOVE this one.
I know nothing about the Middle Window, or their oddly named record label GARM. I can say with assurance that ‘Treasure Land’ is a very nice bit of melodic garage pop.
The New Breed is one of those bands that recorded for HBR (like the Unrelated Segments) who’s records I’m always looking for but never finding – until last month. It was while pawing through a box of one-dollar 45s that I saw the HBR label and was stunned when it turned out to be a mint copy of the New Breed 45. The band came from the Bay Area in California and is best known as the starting place for one Timothy B Schmidt, later of an insignificant, barely known band called the Eagles. While I’ll feature this 45s well-known a-side ‘Want Ad Reader’ at a later date, I had to include the surprising flipside ‘One More For the Good Guys’ which has a bit of an Avalon Ballroom feeling.
‘Wayfaring Stranger’ – an adaptation of a traditional tune – was the first 45 and the lead-off track on the debut album by Chicago’s H.P. Lovecraft. Featuring the folkier sound of their decidedly psychey sound. The 45 comes on a cool Philips label with a Dunwich logo on the side.
The Five by Five came blazing out of Magnolia, Arkansas with the psyched out guitar of ‘Hang Up’ (the flip of which is a fairly cool cover of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Fire’).
The Bards were a Pacific Northwest band who recorded for the Picadilly label. Their adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’ appeared on the flip of a Curtis Mayfield cover. They later went on to record as Moses Lake, produced by none other than Curt Boettcher.
If there’s anyone here who doesn’t know ‘We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet’ by the Blues Magoos – for all intents and purposes the national anthem of garage punk – I’d be surprised. I just happened to pull it out of the box and decided to include it in the mix.
‘East Side Story’ by Bob Seger and the Last Heard is one of my all time faves. It was covered in the US by the Caretakers and in the UK by the St Louis Union. ‘East Side Sound’, basically an instrumental dub of the song appears on the b-side of the Last Heard’s Cameo 45.
If anyone has any information about the Unlimited, please drop me a line. They recorded the jangly ‘You’re Never There’ for the custom pressing label Century. Based in Saugus, California they pressed records by church choirs, high school bands, rock groups and anyone who had the dough and the wherewithal to send in a tape.
We close things out with a record that is not “technically” garage, but since it’s by the Irish group that launched a thousand garage bands, it’ll do. Them’s ‘Call My Name’ is from their second US album and displays many of the trademarks (including Van Morrison’s wail) of the nascent garage punk movement in the US.
That all said, I hope you dig the mix and I’ll be back next week with some more cool stuff.

Peace
Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some heavy Afro-Funk.

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too…

David McWilliams – The Days of Pearly Spencer

David McWilliams

Listen -David McWilliams – The Days of Pearly Spencer – MP3

Greetings all.

I hope everyone has had an excellent week.
I should begin by noting that in a typical bit of obliviousness I only just noticed that Iron Leg has been up and running for two years (last month). I was looking for something from an old post and noticed by chance that the first post here dated to June of 2007.
Much like Funky16Corners, things got off to a somewhat different start hereabouts before settling into a certain groove, as pertains to 60s rock and pop. I don’t think I thought I’d still be doing it two years on, but then I felt the same way about Funky16Corners, which will turn five later this year.
So, I’ll be putting up a celebratory edition of the Iron Leg Digital Trip this coming Monday, packed to the brim with all manner of garage fuzz, folk and psyche. I hope you dig it.
The tune I bring you today comes to us courtesy of a singer who I first heard back in the 80s mod/garage days. He wasn’t recording back then, but was in fact included on some reissue comp or other, and passed on to me – like so many others – on a tape by my man Mr. Luther.
I had largely forgotten the song – if not the title and the artists’ name, David McWilliams – when I happened upon a copy of his first album at an Asbury Lanes record show some months ago. I had always assumed, via his connection to the Rubble/Twinkly Fairydust Crocheted Donut Twirl scene that McWilliams was an obscure artist who’s work might only be procured via expensive 45s. I never imagined that he had an LP (maybe more than one?) released in the US.
When I got that album home I was shocked – though not disappointed – to discover that McWilliams was not in fact a purveyor of psychedelia, but could more accurately be described as yet another folkie singer songwriter sucked up in the paisley shirted vortex of 1967, ultimately having more in common with Bob Dylan than Syd Barrett.
McWilliams hailed from Belfast in Ireland, recorded his first album in 1966 (produced by Mike Leander). ‘The Days of Pearly Spencer’ – which admittedly has a slightly baroque feel due to the string section – the tale of a homeless man wasn’t a hit in the UK, but managed to make the charts on the European mainland, where McWilliams would find most of his popularity.
The rest of the album is actually pretty good, with bits of protest folk and the occasional Glenn Campbell-ish country twinge (‘Who Killed Ezra Brymay’).
McWilliams went on to record more than ten albums, eventually passing away in 2002 at the age of 56.
Interestingly enough, ‘The Days of Pearly Spencer’ was covered a number of times, in the 60s and much later, as in 1992 when Marc Almond’s recording of the song was a UK Top 10 hit.
As always, I hope you dig the tune and I’ll be back on Monday with that mix.

Peace

Larry

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for two Aretha Franklin covers.

Them – Mystic Eyes

HARP + LAGER= Van (not Harp Lager)

Listen – Them – Mystic Eyes – MP3

Greetings all.
I don’t know if you’re ready for the weekend, but after two days at home nursing a two year old with the chicken pox, I surely am.
In furtherance of such preparation, and in a continuation of sorts of the R&Beat vibe from Monday’s post (though today’s selection hails not from England but from my ancestral homeland of Ireland), I bring you one of the ass-kickingest, most blueswailing, proto-garage records ever recorded.
I remember very clearly the night when I came into possession of this record. More than 20 years ago, a pal of mine from work told me his (much) older brother* had a few boxes of records in his Mom’s basement, and I was welcome to them if I wanted.
As you might have imagined, I am not one to turn up my nose at free vinyl, so naturally I said I’d like to have a look.
When he brought the boxes up from the basement, I was struck by an initial wave of dismay, as every single album looked as if it had spent time at the bottom of the local boat basin. There was much water damage, but since the records were free, and there were a couple of gems in the box (mostly original rock LPs covering 1964 to 1967).
I got the records home and started cleaning the vinyl. The covers were by and large destroyed (I ended up tossing a few of them out of fears for my respiratory health), but most of the records were salvageable.
I was gassed when I saw a Them album in the box, and especially so when I saw that it included one of my top five records of all time (the OG version of ‘Gloria’). When I finally dropped the needle on ‘Mystic Eyes’ I was blown away.
If you’re one of those poor slobs whose exposure to Van Morrison is limited to the weird ramblings of the past few decades, then the pure power of ‘Mystic Eyes’ will come as a revelation.
Though I also ride for his mid-period Warner Brothers stuff (like ‘Astral Weeks’ and ‘St Dominic’s Preview’) I have to say that nothing he ever did, no matter how deep, comes within 100 miles of the intensity evidenced on his recordings with Them.
‘Mystic Eyes’ (and much of the rest of the band’s first two albums) is no less than explosive. I can only imagine that Them weren’t bigger over here because they were either too rough (they sound MEAN), or because their lead singer looked like a leprechaun with a bad attitude (or maybe both). I suppose you can take into account any stereotypes about Northern Ireland being a bleak place, but this record is the aural equivalent of a Guinness-fueled back-alley punch-up.
The song starts like a runaway train, with Morrison’s harmonica and Pete Bardens’ organ pumping wildly, with some powerful guitar riffing (maybe Jimmy Page?), before the vocals come in like a boot to the ribs. Powerful stuff, not to be taken in by the faint of heart, especially people who only think of Van the man as the soft focus, caftan wearing, gentle soul on the cover of ‘His Band and Street Choir’.
It was certainly a long way from Belfast to Marin County, and ‘Mystic Eyes’ is a souvenir from the beginning of that journey.
See you on Monday with a new edition of the Iron Leg Digital Trip.

Peace
Larry

*A brother who used to make me jealous with tales of having seen the Buffalo Springfield in concert…

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

PSS Check out Paperback Rider too…