Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #96

Why hello there!

Playlist

Glad – Johnny Silver’s Ride (ABC)
Glad – Bedtime Story (ABC)
Glad – Love Needs the World (ABC)
Sandals – Tell Us Dylan (World Pacific)
Sandals – Why Should I Cry (World Pacific)

Johnny Darrell – Willing (UA)
Johnny Darrell – These Days (UA)
Johnny Darrell – Mae Jean Goes To Hollywood (UA)
Lemonade Charade – The Straight Life (Bell)
Lemonade Charade – Your Sun Needs To Shine (Bell)

Joey Heatherton – God Only Knows (MGM)
Joey Heatherton – It’s Not Easy (MGM)
Joey Heatherton – Say Hello (MGM)
Ray Stevens – Mr Businessman (Monument)
Ray Stevens – The Earl of Stilton Square (Monument)
Ray Stevens – The Great Escape (Monument)

Impact of Brass – Second Street Exit (Rare Earth)
Impact of Brass – Flyin’ High (Rare Earth)
Impact of Brass – Care Free (Rare Earth)
Herbie Mann – Flying (Embryo)
Phoenix Authority – Come Together (Mainstream)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #96 – 180MB/256kbps

__________________________________________________________
It’s Iron Leg Radio time again!

We have a very cool show for you this month with groovy stuff from Glad, the Sandals, country from Johnny Darrell, pop from the Lemonade Charade, Joey Heatherton, Ray Stevens and cool instros from Impact of Brass, Herbie Mann and the Phoenix Authority!

Click here to subscribe to any of the Funky16Corners Radio Network shows!

So dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

________________________________________________

If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners

Advertisements

Canned Heat – Poor Moon

I

Canned Heat

Listen/Download – Canned Heat – Poor Moon

Greetings all.

The tune I bring you today is one of those tracks that I first encountered on a CD back in the day and had to track down on vinyl, eventually finding an Italian issue of the 45.

The song in question is one of the finest examples of Canned Heat’s far-out-itude, ‘Poor Moon’.

Recorded around the time of the album ‘Hallelujah’, yet only ever being issued as a 45 track, (flipped with the ‘Hallelujah’ track ‘Sic Em Pigs’), ‘Poor Moon’ is Al Wilson’s look at what might happen to the (actual) moon were it to be misused by earthlings as a nuclear test site/and or garbage dump.

What is especially groovy about ‘Poor Moon’ is the fact that it initially gives off a psychedelic vibe (it is wonderfully stoney, no matter what) but when you dig in you realize that what your listening to is an old-school blues drone with a little bit of amphetamine fortification, which, of course, Canned Heat was especially good at.

I love it because like ‘Time Was’ on ‘Hallelujah’, ‘Poor Moon’ carries a kind of gentle melancholy in its bones, like, ‘The hippy thing is better than living at home with my parents, but the lentils every morning and the mud between my toes is starting to get on my nerves.’

So, there’s that.

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

Peace

Larry

 

________________________________________________

If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Steve Allen and the Gentle Players – Fox/Flower Revolution

I

Steve Allen, coming down by the pool after a night of tripping his balls off.

Listen/Download – Steve Allen and the Gentle Players – Fox

Listen/Download – Steve Allen and the Gentle Players – Flower Revolution

Greetings all.

Today’s selections serve as both a reminder to dig deep into those discographies, as well as a short-form memorial (more to come soon) to the mighty Hal Blaine.

A while back I was searching in the back alleys of the windmills of the Dunhill discography and discovered that no less a light than Steve Allen had recorded for the label.

I checked out the album, credited to ‘Steve Allen and the Gentle Players’, took one look at the song titles/credits, and saw that the only other musicians credited were Gabor Szabo (high on my list of ‘buy anything you find by…’ ) and the mighty Hal Blaine.

I pulled the trigger, and when the album finally made it under my phonograph needle, I was very pleasantly surprised.

The record – and I’m going out on a charitable limb by assuming that Steve was playing piano here – is a very cool take on soft pop au go go with minor jazz filigree, featuring not only a bunch of contemporary covers, but also several Szabo originals.

The feel is fairly close to the Impulse sessions that Szabo was doing with Bob Theile (who produced this session), minus the vocal contributions of the California Dreamers.

The two tracks I bring you today, ‘Fox’ and ‘Flower Revolution’ are very groovy indeed.

‘Fox’ is the same song as ‘Are You There’ on Szabo’s ‘Wind Sky and Diamonds’ (that version, recorded the same year features vocals by the California Dreamers). The instrumental version is a tiny bit trippier, sounding like hip background music from a period film.

‘Flower Revolution’ has a slightly more upbeat take on that particular vibe, sounding like it was created as background music for a discotheque scene.

The rest of the album veers from stuff like these tracks to more the more ‘easy’ feel of ‘Here Comes Sgt Pepper’, and Blaine is dependably in-the-pocket.

Though the album doesn’t turn up too often, it’s inexpensive when it does, and comes highly recommended.

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

Peace

Larry

 

________________________________________________

If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Testify! Salutes Burt Bacharach

Testify Episode #100. Originally broadcast 02/27/2019

Testify! 100th Episode!

Love – My Little Red Book (Elektra)
The Love Affair – Please Stay (Muza)
Alohe Burke and the Five Stairsteps – The Look of Love (Cobblestone)
Alan Lorber Orchestra – The Look of Love (Verve)
Dionne Warwick – Promises Promises (Scepter)
Cher – Alfie (Imperial)

Marva Whitney – This Girl’s In Love With You (King)
Lou Johnson – Kentucky Bluebird (A Message to Martha) (Big Hill)
Lou Johnson – Walk On By (Big Top)
Dionne Warwick – This Empty Place (Scepter)
Dobby Dobson – Don’t Make Me Over (Pama Supreme)
Ian and the Zodiacs – This Empty Place (Philips)
Gloria Loring – I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself (Evolution)
The Tangeers – This Empty Place (Scepter)
The Free Design – Windows of the World (Project 3)
Tina Mason – Are You There With Another Girl (Capitol)
Tony Orlando – To Wait For Love (Epic)
Ben E King – They Don’t Give Medals To Yesterday’s Heroes (Atco)
Jackie DeShannon – Come and Get Me (Imperial)

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – Casino Royale Theme (Colgems)
Cal Tjader – Moneypenny (Skye)
Burt Bacharach – The Little French Boy (Colgems)
Enoch Light and the Light Brigade – Bond Street (Project 3)
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – The Big Cowboy and Indian Fight (Colgems)
Tony Mottola and the Groovies – Do You know the Way To San Jose (Project 3)
Burt Bacharach Orchestra and Chorus – Nikki (A&M)
Burt Bacharach – Pacific Coast Highway (A&M)

Shirelles – Baby It’s You (Scepter)
Manfred Mann – My Little Red Book (Ascot)
Brook Benton – A House Is Not a Home (Mercury)
Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles – There’s Always Something There To Remind Me (Atlantic)
Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends – Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (A&M)
The Four King Cousins – This Girl’s In Love With You (Capitol)
Dionne Warwick – Here I Am (Scepter)
The Drifters – Mexican Divorce (Atlantic)
Oscar Toney Jr – Any Day Now (Bell)

Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers – I Gotta Go Now (Up On the Floor) (Like)
________________________________________________________________

Greetings all
What you see before you is a recent edition of my WFMU – Give the Drummer Radio show Testify! which I thought would be of special interest to Iron Leg-gers.

Since WFMU is in the midst of it’s 2019 fundraising marathon, and Testify! is part of that effort, I thought that this week, I would use Iron Leg and Funky16Corners to push some traffic in that direction.

This particular episode of Testify! was a major labor of love, something that I’d wanted to do for a long time, and the assembly of which underwent many revisions over the course of several weeks (in an attempt to get it just right).

There are some faves here, but also a very large helping of deep cuts, from the worlds of rock, pop and soul, all in service of paying tribute to one of the all time great songwriters and record makers.

So, give it a listen, and if you dig it, and/or WFMU, click on this link (or on the WFMU logo above), DONATE and send some money their way to keep the greatest station in the nation up and running for another year.

That said, I will see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

The Assembled Multitude – Mr Peppercorn

I

Tom Sellers (right) with Gulliver (right next to Daryl Hall in the Batman shirt)

Listen/Download – The Assembled Multitude – Mr Peppercorn

Greetings all.

The record I bring you today is a testament to always grabbing the album attached to a big hit (whenever possible) so that you might luxuriate in the neglected LP-only tracks.

In the case of the Assembled Multitude, which had a big hit in 1970 with their version of ‘The Overture From Tommy’, the rest of the self-titled album is pretty interesting.

The album, composed mostly of covers (two Beatles, two CSNY, and some others) is – as instrumental/easy records go, if not ambitious, not unpleasant either.

The group was the work of Philly composer/musician Tom Sellers, who had worked with John Madara, and was a member of Daryl Hall’s early group Gulliver (who did a cool pop LP for Elektra in 1970).

The track I bring you today is a Sellers original, ‘Mr Peppercorn’.

The track is, if not entirely Beatle-y, at the very least Beatle-adjacent, sounding like a pile of Beatle scraps stitched together by someone with a taste for light classical and progressive rock.

The song floats along on a whimsical, yet vaguely sinister theme, with basic rock instrumentation laid over a bed of strings.

I dig it a lot, and if you have a taste for the more interesting side of instrumental pop, this is definitely worth a listen.

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

Peace

Larry

 

________________________________________________

If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Jan and Dean – Batman

I

Jan and Dean

Listen/Download – Jan and Dean – Batman

Greetings all.

Sometime in the last few years I grabbed the record you see before you, because, basically Jan and Dean, who made some superb, well known pop records but were also in some ways at the vanguard of studio expansion/ideas and much more interesting/creative than they are often given credit for.

That said, when I picked up the record, I assumed (mistakenly) that ‘Batman’ was a version of the famous Neil Hefti TV theme.

When I dropped the needle on the record I was surprised (pleasantly so) to discover that what Jan and Dean’s ‘Batman’ was, wasn’t the TV theme, but rather a groovy little pop art playlet, with comedic angles.

It is clearly influenced by the TV show craze, and sort-of quotes the theme (with a subtle key-shift), but goes off in unusual new directions.

‘Batman’ was actually a minor hit, skirting the outside of the Top 40 all around the country early in 1966.

The album as a whole, a collection of contemporary covers is not as interesting as it looks, some of the covers (their version of ‘Norwegian Wood’ for instance) are quite cool, indeed, and I’d go as far as to suggest that it’s worth it just for ‘Batman’.

So, I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you all next week

Peace

Larry

 

________________________________________________

If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Rewind – Two By the Lamp of Childhood

The Lamp of Childhood

Listen/Download – The Lamp of Childhood – Two O’Clock Morning

Listen/Download – The Lamp of Childhood – You Can’t Blame Me

Greetings all.

As a record collector of long standing, I often find myself entranced by the output of a particular label, usually because the imprint in question had its own special “sound”.

One such label is the storied California folk rock house of Dunhill.

Started as a production entity for the music of Johnny Rivers, Dunhill (led by Lou Adler) became a label in 1965.

Though it released all kinds of music, it is best known (rightly so) as one of the premiere producers of mid-decade, California folk rock.

Dunhill was home to the Mamas and Papas, Grass Roots, Barry McGuire, PF Sloan, the Thomas Group and today’s artists, the Lamp of Childhood.

Lamp of Childhood had a very interesting line up. The group’s founder was Jim Hendricks, who had been in the Big Three and the Mugwumps with (and was married to) Cass Elliot, featured a pre-Mothers of Invention Billy Mundi on drums, as well as the songwriting, keyboard and production input of Gabriel Mekler, who would go on to produce Steppenwolf.

Lamp of Childhood only ever released three 45s for Dunhill (all of which are excellent), and had a minor hit with 1967’s ‘No More Running Around’.

I find their output particularly interesting because their records encapsulate all that was great about the 1966 LA sound. They managed to combine folk rock, pop and the very first stirrings of the more progressive, psychedelic sound that was on its way in at the time.

There’s no better example than today’s selections. ‘Two O’Clock Morning’. Co-written by Hendricks, bassist Mike Tani and lead guitarist Fred Olsen, ‘Two O’Clock Morning’ features a rolling, Taxman-inspired beat, Mamas and Papas-style harmonies and a really interesting arrangement that incorporates brass and strings in an unusual way.

‘You Can’t Blame Me’ is slightly more straight ahead in a harmony/folk rock vibe, and includes some very cool lead guitar, which reminds me a little of the Buffalo Springfield.

After leaving the Lamp of Childhood, Jim Hendricks went on to write ‘Summer Rain’ for Johnny Rivers.

The group’s 45s aren’t terribly expensive, but they can be kind of scarce.

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

Peace

Larry

 

________________________________________________

If you dig what we do here or over at Funky16Corners, please consider clicking on the Patreon link and throwing something into the yearly operating budget! Do it and we’ll send you some groovy Funky16Corners Radio Network (and related) stickers!

_______________________________________________

PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.