alternative sixties: part 2

…continued from Part 1 (1960–63)

The Rivieras—California Sun (1964)
This recording, with a pounding tom-tom beat, is a cover of a song originally recorded by Joe Jones in 1961 and is the only track that I know by this band.

Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland—Ain’t Doing Too Bad (1964)
I can’t remember what prompted me to buy an album by Bobby Bland, on which this was the stand-out track, but I do remember describing the singer as ‘a less histrionic version of James Brown’ at the time. However, when I listen now, that description is unfair to Bland, whom I consider to be a better singer than Brown.

The Valentinos—It’s All Over Now (1964)
The Valentinos were also known as the Womack Brothers, and this version of the song, written by Bobby Womack, is far better than the cover by the Rolling Stones.

Tommy Tucker—Hi-Heel Sneakers (1964)
Although Tommy Tucker was recorded by Chess Records of Chicago, he was an also-ran in a stable that included Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley. This is his only notable recording.

Don Covay—Mercy, Mercy (1964)
Don Covay was also a minor figure on his label, in this case Stax Records of Memphis, where the star performer was Otis Redding. The guitar on this record is played by Jimi Hendrix—before he developed his flamboyant individual style.

The Olympics—Good Lovin’ (1965)
The Olympics are the only performers to make this list that I also included in Music of the 1950s. By this date, doo-wop was a moribund genre, but you wouldn’t guess it by listening to this recording. The song is probably better known in an insipid version by the Young Rascals.

The Knickerbockers—Lies (1965)
When I was a student in Manchester in the mid-1960s, I spent a lot of time scouring second-hand shops looking for old 45s. I often had no idea what I was seeing, but any record on the London American label was snapped up immediately. This is the only reason I’m familiar with this recording, which sounds remarkably like the Beatles. It’s the only track I’ve ever heard by this band, which made no impression whatsoever in the UK.

Roy Head—Treat Her Right (1965)
The thing that should immediately grab your attention on hearing this record is the instrumental intro, which lasts no less than 34 seconds! This recording sounds like it’s by a black singer, but Roy Head was a white boy from Texas!

The Vogues—Five O’Clock World (1965)
This record is another result of my policy of buying London American 45s unheard. It’s also the only record I’ve heard by this band, and if you listen to it, you will probably ask why it was never a hit in the UK, given that London American was a Decca label, which should have guaranteed it plenty of airplay.

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs—Wooly Bully (1965)
This almost qualifies as a novelty record, by a novelty band, but what’s this song about? I’ve no idea, but I’ve always liked it!

Sir Douglas Quintet—She’s About a Mover (1965)
Although this record was a minor hit in the UK, the band quickly disappeared from view, and I never heard anything else by them. However, this track is definitely worth a listen.

Little Joe Cook—Stormy Monday Blues (1965)
When I was a student, I knew two fellow students who were blues ‘purists’ (‘white men can’t sing the blues’). I remember that they were full of praise for this record, which had been released on the Sue label, an outlet for American blues recordings at the time. They were mortified to learn a short time later that it was actually by Chris Farlowe and his band, who were moonlighting and therefore needed a pseudonym.

The point of this story: white men can sing the blues, although the title is a misnomer. This recording is actually a cover of Stormy Monday by T-Bone Walker. Stormy Monday Blues is a completely different song!

Jackie Edwards—Keep On Running (1965)
This song was a hit for Spencer Davis, who also covered Somebody Help Me, another Jackie Edwards original. Edwards, who was Jamaican, was more or less unknown to the general population in the UK, although I imagine that his music was appreciated by the country’s West Indian population.

Eddie Floyd—Knock on Wood (1965)
This is the only song on this list that I ever saw performed live. Floyd was part of the Stax Road Show, which I saw in 1967. Although Floyd was low down on a bill that starred Otis Redding and Sam and Dave, I still rate this record as a stand-out in the Stax catalogue.

The Electric Prunes—I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night) (1966)
Most people listening to music in the 1960s wouldn’t have become aware of LSD until the release of the Beatles’ Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, but this is when that notorious hallucinogenic drug first hit mainstream consciousness, albeit not in the UK. The title of the song says it all.

? and the Mysterians—96 Tears (1966)
The unusual feature of this recording is that the principal accompaniment is by staccato organ. It’s yet another one-hit wonder, which you would probably guess from the name of the band.

The Bobby Fuller Four—I Fought the Law (1966)
Unlike the songs covered by Blondie in this list, the Clash did a creditable version of I Fought the Law, which I included in a list of my ten favourite punk records.

Bobby Fuller was found dead in his car a couple of weeks after this record hit the US charts. His death was ruled a suicide, a verdict that spawned a few conspiracy theories because it did seem an unlikely scenario following his first (and last) major hit.

The Smoke—My Friend Jack (1967)
I never heard this song when it was released, which is not surprising, given that it was banned by the BBC because the lyric is a graphic description of what it’s like to ingest LSD. The disco version by Boney M in the 1970s was meaningless, because it retained just the opening line of the song:

My friend Jack eats sugar lumps

which was a popular method of ingesting acid when it first appeared on the scene. It sounds innocuous when it isn’t followed by lines such as

Oh! What beautiful things he sees.
…
Lost in a wonderland of colour and of sound.
…
He’s seeing things you can’t imagine

This was real psychedelia!

The Paragons—The Tide Is High (1967)
This is another sixties song covered by Blondie more than a decade later, and as with their earlier cover, they didn’t add anything to the original.

further reading
Black Music of the 1960s.