Welcome to the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 25th November 2022. Feels like we're suddenly heading quickly for the end of the year; the fun fair is in town and parked up outside the house and our small Christmas tree is ready to pick up from the town Christmas Tree Scheme. After that's installed in it's bracket on the wall of the house, it'll be time for a brew and some tunes...over to....

Jackie -

"Remembering Wilko Johnson this week who died last Monday."

Nina -

"Hi folks. Here's my 3, courtesy of my lovely friend Wendy who's visiting from Norfolk.

Have a great weekend, all. More wild, windy weather will be battering Kernow, we'll be battening down the hatches & enjoying your choices.

Cheers!"

Jayne -

"Hope you enjoy these three from recent listenings/performances. All the best to you RPM lovelies…"

Dave -

"Hi everyone, here’s my 3 for this week."

Jean -

"I like to watch the Country Music Awards to see if there are any new acts that appeal to me. I also like to see the latest awful fashion that they wear. The only good parts of it are the wonderful cowboy hats which most probably cost a fortune. Anyway, this year they actually credited the Rolling Stones with influencing some of the country music. Hence my theme this week. The older members of RPM will remember that I had loads of Stones’ singles but not one album. I’m not quite sure why ! I enjoyed some of their recorded concerts recently and so I’m going for the raw sounding tracks from those today."

Piers -

"Hi there everybody! This week’s choices were easy to make.

A tune which I have been learning, a song which I have been listening to for about 55 years which reminds me of splendid times spent with old friends (or should that be old time spent with splendid friends?) and a virtuosic performance…. "

Alan -

"Greetings purveyors of fine sounds!!!!

Some late-ish sixties psychedelia this week from three of many compilations of garage/psych on the shelves."

Druids of Stonehenge- 'Six Feet Down' (initially on US only 'Creation' LP released mid 1968. UNI label. This from 'Baubles'. Vol 1: Down to Middle Earth' released early 1988. Big Beat label)

"A NYC group formed in 1965 as the rather ordinary monikered Druids, they went into Manhattan's Nola studio and laid down around a half dozen covers of Bo Diddley/ Screaming Jay Hawkins etc covers in 1965 and concentrated on regular gigs at the city's Cheetah and Ondine's nightclubs. Further demo's followed in 1967 but, after falling under the 'influence' of the burgeoning psychedelic scene, they relocated to LA in 1967, changed their name and were signed to the UNI label after recruiting their new lead guitarist Elliot Randall who would later play with Steely Dan, Seatrain and appear on many West Coast sessions. They released the 'A garden where nothing grows' single in late '67 before recording the 'Creation' album, mainly at the TTG Studios in LA but they also returned to the Nola studios for some sessions too. The album featured several group compositions as well as suitably psychedelicized versions of 'I put a spell on you', 'It's all over now, baby blue' and Love's mighty 'Signed DC' and was promoted with an appearance on NYC's cult Joe Franklin Show (which strangely didn't feature any of their recorded tracks) but, despite this, sales were minimal and, in early 1969 the band broke up. There were the inevitable reformations in the early 2000's and, in 2017, founder members David Budge and guitarist Carl Hauser reformed the band with lifelong friend and former Bob Dylan guitarist Billy Cross and recorded the 'Resurrection' album which explored the band's early roots in the blues. Having enjoyed the experience of 'Resurrection', and with its strong reception from college blues stations, they decided not to stop there and in October of 2020 the band released their first album of all-original material, 'American Ghosts.'

The 'Baubles Vol 1.....' is one of the better overviews, featuring luminaries such as Merrell Fankhauser (ex of Fapardokly), the Sonics, Daily Flash, Fever Tree and Strawberry Alarm Clock alongside less familiar names (to me leastways) Rabbit MacKay & Somis Rythm Boyz, the Hobbits, Nova Local and the excellent Lollipop Shoppe, whose lone album I once possessed but which probably now nestles in one of my friends collections!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSH5ik7WlTQ

Yesterday's Obsession- 'The Phycle' (initially US only 7" single b-side to 'Complicated Mind' released January 12th 1968. Pacemaker label. This from 'Texas Psychedelia from the sixties' French issue LP released 1986. EVA label)

"A real gem here, probably spanning garage as much as psychedelia but when that guitar kicks in............. !!! This is one song that I constantly tried to get Sue's nephew to cover with The Glass Arcade back in the eighties, earlier line ups had thrashed through 'For your love', Break on through', Psychotic Reaction' and 'I'm waiting for the man' with little regard to the recorded versions and I always thought they could have done this one justice. Oh well!! 'The Phycle' (or should that have been 'The Psycle' as some have opined?) is a truly great track from the Port Arthur, Nederland Texas area group whose only release was the lone 'Complicated Mind/The Phycle' single on Huey Meaux's tiny Houston based Pacemaker label which was recorded at that cities famed Gold Star Studio on January 8th and released just four days later!!!. Due to Meaux's dislike of psychedelia the record was only pressed in small numbers and, such was the lack of publicity and distribution that it would be the late seventies before a packing box full of the single was found in the studios back room. The group consisted of Greig Gabourel (lead vocal), Leo Oliver III (lead guitar), Kenneth Lee (bass), Frank Jeffers (rhythm guitar) and Stephen Fowler (drums) but the more observant RPM'ers will also pick out an uncredited organ and maracas in the murky mix somewhere. Although the members names are known, there are no photographs of the group except for three members in various Port Arthur area college yearbooks; in fact, the members were so young that it was their parents who signed their recording/management contract.

'Texas Psychedelia.....' French label EVA generally pay scant regard to licensing regulations so this probably goes under the heading of a 'bootleg' or semi-legitimate release but it does feature an absolutely excellent selection of relatively unknown groups with equally excellent songs ranging from Love's very early 'advertisement' for the Rambler Marlin motorcar to the Iguana's three single 'a' sides, both sides of the Bourbons 45, Sartori's classic '1000 micrograms of love' to Mechanical Switch's (probably unintentionally funny) 'Spongeman' (to wit: 'I soak up your love, like the clouds up above'!! Classic!!!)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFAACkJuFq0&t=0s

Things to come- 'Come alive' (initially US only 7" single released 1968. Warner Bros label. This from 'Transparent Days: West Coast Nuggets' released mid 2017. Rhino label)

"Strange that Things to come didn't cause a bigger splash, bearing in mind that their line up included soon to be famous drummer Russ Kunkel and respected session guitarist Bryan Garofalo, were signed to the Larry Spector stable who negotiated a contract with WB and recorded this pounding minor key(?) goody under the direction of Dave Hassinger whose earlier credits included the Rolling Stones and Chocolate Watch Band amongst others. Their debut 1966 'garage' single, 'Sweetgina' on the Starfire label, is virtually unseen on the market and even the 2016 reissue commands a respectable £15-30 price. The band secured a long residency at the Whiskey a Go Go, recorded this single and sat back awaiting the expected rewards but there was no immediate upturn in their fortunes. WB called the group back into the studio to record the guitar heavy, Oasis like 'Hello', produced by Dave Crosby, along with a clutch of demos, but with no commercial success the label dropped the band and they folded soon after.

However, this little article I found regarding those demos shows just how collectable the band are:

Discogs listing: Things To Come - Things To Come (LP, Album) $5500!!!!Sealed copy! Ultra Rare Original of Garage Psych Monster only released in the 70’s as a tax scam issue in a supposedly limited edition of 50 Copies of which maybe only a handful exist these days. For pictures please view our website!

'Transparent Days.....' is probably the best double album collection since 'Nuggets' (and I don't say that lightly) which comes in clear vinyl with a novel die cut sleeve and a fold out poster sized double sided run down of all the bands/tracks by respected critic Alex Palao. Each album side focuses on different genres of West Coast releases (e.g. Folk Rock, Garage, Pop-Psych and Psychedelia) and, from a total of thirty tracks, I only have six amongst the 40 or so compilations I have of those genres."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEzJWbIRXM8

Tony -

"Here's my random 3 for the week.......hope everybody is keeping well."

Tim

"Jackie's paid suitable respects to the one-off that was Wilko Johnson...nothing to add, so....

Here's three from bands seen live in York and Leeds this past week."

'Til Next Time...