Pebbles, volume 2 (1979) - BFD Records
Hello Friends,
Tiki T. and I have recently started collecting the Pebbles LP series courtesy of the BFD & AIP Record labels. Awesome compilation records, first released in the late 70's, subtitled as "Artyfacts from the First Punk Era".
They're a good companion to the more popular NUGGETS series-- records filled with 2 or 3 minute punk masterpieces mostly from the years of 1966 thru 1969. Bands consisting of pimply-faced kids in basements and garages scattered throughout the country. Some bands (and band members) would go on to bigger and better things, but most would only end up playing local teen centers, VFW Halls, dive bars and local college radio stations. Only a few would be fortunate enough to open for a touring national act like Herman's Hermits, The Jefferson Airplane or The Animals. A handful would be fortunate to record a 7" or two and then call it a day fading off into rock & roll obscurity.
One-Hit and No-Hit Wonders. Footnotes in the Rock & Roll History Books.
Some of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written may have only been heard by a handful of ears. These records provide a time capsule into an honest and less-cynical past. Behind every band, there's a story; some are triumphant; some are tragic; many are uneventful... but who doesn't love a good rock & roll story?
Tonight we've got the second Pebbles LP on the turntable. Sixteen more tracks (plus one fun bonus track!) that are pure garage rock gems!
Side One
1. "Makin' Deals" - The Satans. WOW! What a great song to start things off! A 1966 fuzz-fueled rocker about selling your soul to the devil and told from the point of view of Satan himself! It bears more than just a passing resemblance to the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" (released in 1968!) It even contains the repeated line, "Can you guess my name?" Is it possible that Mick Jagger would have heard this song while touring the States in '66 or '67? Maybe Keith Richards picked up the record in a West Coast record store and played it on the tour bus! One never knows! The Satans hail from Fullerton, California.
2. "99th Floor" - The Moving Sidewalks. Have you ever wondered what guitarist Billy Gibbons was up to before he formed ZZ Top? Well the answer, kids, is shredding guitar in the Texas psych-blues band, The Moving Sidewalks. A Houston-based band that would gain a lot of local recognition touring the area with Roky Erickson and The Thirteenth Floor Elevators. Great song!
3. "Feathered Fish" - The Sons of Adam. And we're three for three with great songs! This band started out in Baltimore, MD (where they were called Fender IV) but relocated to sunny, Southern California where they would frequently play clubs along the Sunset Strip and eventually be produced (and renamed) by Kim Fowley. Guitarist & singer Randy Holden would later form The Other Half and join Blue Cheer. If you think this song sounds a little like the band Love, extra points for you! It was written by Arthur Lee!
(Bonus Track) "Vox Wah-Wah Pedal Commercial" - The Electric Prunes. Fun little nugget with the Electric Prunes shilling the Vox Wah-Wah pedal!
4. "You Rub Me The Wrong Way" - The Road. Not much is known about this band of Ohio teens (also sometimes known as The Hard Road) except for the fact they knew how to play their Fuzz!
5. "So What!!" - The Lyrics. Great bluesy garage tune (with some killer harmonica) from Cardiff, California band.
6. "Lost Innocence" - The Buddhas. Next we head North to Bakersfield for this fun, psychedelic garage tune.
7. "Bad Girl" - Zakary Thaks. Good British Invasion rockin' blues tune from Corpus Christi garage band. This single gained some national attention and the band even got to open for The Yardbirds (their heroes), The Jefferson Airplane and fellow-Texans, The 13th Floor Elevators!
8. "Green Fuz" - Randy Alvey & The Green Fuz. What a lo-fi treat courtesy of this teenaged Texas quintet. I'm sure most listeners in 1968 would have criticized this track as being poorly recorded, but its muddled, crude and raw sound predates the Punk movement of the late 70's and the indie DIY movement of the early 90's. Primarily a covers band playing around the dance halls in and around the Dallas/Ft Worth area, The Green Fuz would, unfortunately, only record this one single (b/w their song, "There is a Land"). The Cramps would cover this little nugget on their 1981 record, Psychedelic Jungle.
Side Two
1. "Go Ahead" - The Squires. This B-side to the amazing, "Going All The Way" (from Pebbles Volume 1) is heavy on the Byrd's influence. Nice song, not nearly as amazing as its A-side, however.
2. "I Can Only Give You Everything" - The Little Boy Blues. Bunch of college kids from University of Chicago covering Them. What they lack in blue-eyed soul, they make up for in fuzz! (You might recognize that opening guitar riff, Beck sampled the Them version of this song for his song, "Devil's Haircut".)
3. "She's Gone" - The Dovers. Great, catchy, jangle pop song from Santa Barbara, CA garage rock band who despite recording a number of late 60's gems, never had any national exposure and only released 4 singles in 1965/1966.
4. "I Must Run" - Phil & The Frantics. If the Stones, um, borrowed some inspiration from The Satans for "Sympathy for the Devil" then Phoenix, Arizona's Phil & The Frantics probably owe some royalties to The Zombies for their song "I Must Run" which seems to be heavily inspired by the Zombie's 1965 B-Side, "I Must Move". No matter, The Zombies will be remembered as one of the architects of the British Invasion, while Phil & The Frantics probably played some pretty cool pool parties back in the day! This track was produced by Waylon Jennings.
5. "What Am I Going To Do" - The Dovers. The B-side to "She's Gone". More great harmonies and jangly guitars!
6. "It's Cold Outside" - The Choir. Amazing Brit-influenced pop song by The Pride of Cleveland, Ohio, The Choir. The Choir started out in various garages around Cleveland in 1964 as The Mods. After taking Cleveland by storm, the boys went up to Chicago to record some song and changed their name to The Choir. In 1966, "It's Cold Outside" was released as a single on the Canadian-American label but it was re-released by Roulette Records in the Spring of '67 and actually charted (at number 68) on the Billboard Charts. The Choir would go through several lineup changes and would eventually disband in 1969. Some of the members of The Choir would recruit fellow Clevelander, Eric Carmen, and form the power pop band, The Raspberries, in 1970. Our pick for best on the record!
7. "Wine Wine Wine" - Bobby Fuller. With a title like that, this could be Tiki T's theme song! Great Texas Rockabilly by that Bobby Fuller ("I Fought the Law") who would die under incredibly mysterious circumstances less than 2 years later!
8. "I'm A Man" - The Litter. Minneapolis, Minnesota's The Litter kicked things off for us on Volume 1 with the great "Action Woman". Now they're back to close things out on Volume 2 with their version of the Bo Diddley classic, "I'm A Man" and boy do they bring it! Clocking in at 4 and a half-minutes, the entire second half of this song is a strange, feedback-fueled psychedelic frenzy. Its tough to say, but their version gives the more famous, Yardbirds' version, a run for its money!
RATING: 4.5 Things in my pocket keep a lot of folks alive out of 5
Tiki T. and I have recently started collecting the Pebbles LP series courtesy of the BFD & AIP Record labels. Awesome compilation records, first released in the late 70's, subtitled as "Artyfacts from the First Punk Era".
They're a good companion to the more popular NUGGETS series-- records filled with 2 or 3 minute punk masterpieces mostly from the years of 1966 thru 1969. Bands consisting of pimply-faced kids in basements and garages scattered throughout the country. Some bands (and band members) would go on to bigger and better things, but most would only end up playing local teen centers, VFW Halls, dive bars and local college radio stations. Only a few would be fortunate enough to open for a touring national act like Herman's Hermits, The Jefferson Airplane or The Animals. A handful would be fortunate to record a 7" or two and then call it a day fading off into rock & roll obscurity.
One-Hit and No-Hit Wonders. Footnotes in the Rock & Roll History Books.
Some of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written may have only been heard by a handful of ears. These records provide a time capsule into an honest and less-cynical past. Behind every band, there's a story; some are triumphant; some are tragic; many are uneventful... but who doesn't love a good rock & roll story?
Tonight we've got the second Pebbles LP on the turntable. Sixteen more tracks (plus one fun bonus track!) that are pure garage rock gems!
Side One
1. "Makin' Deals" - The Satans. WOW! What a great song to start things off! A 1966 fuzz-fueled rocker about selling your soul to the devil and told from the point of view of Satan himself! It bears more than just a passing resemblance to the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" (released in 1968!) It even contains the repeated line, "Can you guess my name?" Is it possible that Mick Jagger would have heard this song while touring the States in '66 or '67? Maybe Keith Richards picked up the record in a West Coast record store and played it on the tour bus! One never knows! The Satans hail from Fullerton, California.
2. "99th Floor" - The Moving Sidewalks. Have you ever wondered what guitarist Billy Gibbons was up to before he formed ZZ Top? Well the answer, kids, is shredding guitar in the Texas psych-blues band, The Moving Sidewalks. A Houston-based band that would gain a lot of local recognition touring the area with Roky Erickson and The Thirteenth Floor Elevators. Great song!
3. "Feathered Fish" - The Sons of Adam. And we're three for three with great songs! This band started out in Baltimore, MD (where they were called Fender IV) but relocated to sunny, Southern California where they would frequently play clubs along the Sunset Strip and eventually be produced (and renamed) by Kim Fowley. Guitarist & singer Randy Holden would later form The Other Half and join Blue Cheer. If you think this song sounds a little like the band Love, extra points for you! It was written by Arthur Lee!
(Bonus Track) "Vox Wah-Wah Pedal Commercial" - The Electric Prunes. Fun little nugget with the Electric Prunes shilling the Vox Wah-Wah pedal!
4. "You Rub Me The Wrong Way" - The Road. Not much is known about this band of Ohio teens (also sometimes known as The Hard Road) except for the fact they knew how to play their Fuzz!
5. "So What!!" - The Lyrics. Great bluesy garage tune (with some killer harmonica) from Cardiff, California band.
6. "Lost Innocence" - The Buddhas. Next we head North to Bakersfield for this fun, psychedelic garage tune.
7. "Bad Girl" - Zakary Thaks. Good British Invasion rockin' blues tune from Corpus Christi garage band. This single gained some national attention and the band even got to open for The Yardbirds (their heroes), The Jefferson Airplane and fellow-Texans, The 13th Floor Elevators!
8. "Green Fuz" - Randy Alvey & The Green Fuz. What a lo-fi treat courtesy of this teenaged Texas quintet. I'm sure most listeners in 1968 would have criticized this track as being poorly recorded, but its muddled, crude and raw sound predates the Punk movement of the late 70's and the indie DIY movement of the early 90's. Primarily a covers band playing around the dance halls in and around the Dallas/Ft Worth area, The Green Fuz would, unfortunately, only record this one single (b/w their song, "There is a Land"). The Cramps would cover this little nugget on their 1981 record, Psychedelic Jungle.
Side Two
1. "Go Ahead" - The Squires. This B-side to the amazing, "Going All The Way" (from Pebbles Volume 1) is heavy on the Byrd's influence. Nice song, not nearly as amazing as its A-side, however.
2. "I Can Only Give You Everything" - The Little Boy Blues. Bunch of college kids from University of Chicago covering Them. What they lack in blue-eyed soul, they make up for in fuzz! (You might recognize that opening guitar riff, Beck sampled the Them version of this song for his song, "Devil's Haircut".)
3. "She's Gone" - The Dovers. Great, catchy, jangle pop song from Santa Barbara, CA garage rock band who despite recording a number of late 60's gems, never had any national exposure and only released 4 singles in 1965/1966.
4. "I Must Run" - Phil & The Frantics. If the Stones, um, borrowed some inspiration from The Satans for "Sympathy for the Devil" then Phoenix, Arizona's Phil & The Frantics probably owe some royalties to The Zombies for their song "I Must Run" which seems to be heavily inspired by the Zombie's 1965 B-Side, "I Must Move". No matter, The Zombies will be remembered as one of the architects of the British Invasion, while Phil & The Frantics probably played some pretty cool pool parties back in the day! This track was produced by Waylon Jennings.
5. "What Am I Going To Do" - The Dovers. The B-side to "She's Gone". More great harmonies and jangly guitars!
6. "It's Cold Outside" - The Choir. Amazing Brit-influenced pop song by The Pride of Cleveland, Ohio, The Choir. The Choir started out in various garages around Cleveland in 1964 as The Mods. After taking Cleveland by storm, the boys went up to Chicago to record some song and changed their name to The Choir. In 1966, "It's Cold Outside" was released as a single on the Canadian-American label but it was re-released by Roulette Records in the Spring of '67 and actually charted (at number 68) on the Billboard Charts. The Choir would go through several lineup changes and would eventually disband in 1969. Some of the members of The Choir would recruit fellow Clevelander, Eric Carmen, and form the power pop band, The Raspberries, in 1970. Our pick for best on the record!
7. "Wine Wine Wine" - Bobby Fuller. With a title like that, this could be Tiki T's theme song! Great Texas Rockabilly by that Bobby Fuller ("I Fought the Law") who would die under incredibly mysterious circumstances less than 2 years later!
8. "I'm A Man" - The Litter. Minneapolis, Minnesota's The Litter kicked things off for us on Volume 1 with the great "Action Woman". Now they're back to close things out on Volume 2 with their version of the Bo Diddley classic, "I'm A Man" and boy do they bring it! Clocking in at 4 and a half-minutes, the entire second half of this song is a strange, feedback-fueled psychedelic frenzy. Its tough to say, but their version gives the more famous, Yardbirds' version, a run for its money!
RATING: 4.5 Things in my pocket keep a lot of folks alive out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment