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Spectropop V#0267

  • From: The Spectropop Group
  • Date: 06/05/99

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       Volume #0267                            June 5, 1999   
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                   full dimensional stereo sound              
    
    
    
    
    Subject:     Fleetwoods
    Received:    06/05/99 12:15 am
    >From:        David Feldman, fexxxnderables.com
    To:          Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
    
    Jamie LePage says:
    
    > Yes, the Fleetwoods - my very favorite Seattle group!
    
    The Fleetwoods rock.  
    
    Plus the Mr. Blue front cover is one of my all-time 
    favorites.
    
    At the risk of being totally off topic (well, he is a very
    soft "rocker"), may I put in a plug for the latest Ron 
    Sexsmith CD, "Whereabouts?" For those of you who have a 
    notion that he is too arty or precious, I find this the 
    most easily accessible of his albums, and although the 
    melodies remain complex, the sentiments and sincerity are 
    clear and moving.
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     Fleetwoods go down under
    Received:    06/05/99 12:15 am
    >From:        james fisher, JHxxxv.net
    To:          Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
    
    Great to see spectropop in the mailbox again and I want 
    thank all who answered my queries about the missing vocal 
    tracks on the Mammas and Papas--another of life's little 
    mysteries solved. Also good to see The Fleetwoods get some
    ink (Do we still say that?) and I want to join in the 
    appreciative chorus for them....I lived in the outback of 
    Australia when I was about 14 and the projectionist at the
    local open-air movie theatre only had two records to play 
    before the saturday night flick would start--"Mr.Blue" and
    "Come softly to me". He would also play them again at 
    Intermission (remember that?) and once more after John 
    Wayne had ridden off into the sunset. I knew every Dum dum,
    dum da de dum de da etc even more certainly than I knew 
    that The Duke would triumph in the end. I wonder if Gary 
    and the girls realised that thier Seattle Teen Angst 
    fueled many a romantic notion about 12,000 miles away. 
    Great songs. BTW--someone told me that the song was called
    simply "Come Softly" but that this title was considered 
    just a bit too suggestive for the times...true? 
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     Re: Fleetwoods
    Received:    06/05/99 12:15 am
    >From:        Michael "Doc Rock"  Kelly, docxxx.com
    To:          Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
    
    I forwarded the Fleetwoods comments to Gretchen and invited 
    her to join SpectroPop.
    
    Doc
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     More posts please!
    Received:    06/05/99 12:15 am
    >From:        Runar Sorgaard, wuxxxet.se
    To:          Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
    
    This list is even more dead than *dead*....doesn't anyone 
    listen to music from the sixties anymore?!?! Well, anyway,
    here are some topics - good or bad - to discuss:
    
    * I saw Stan Getz' LP of Bacharach covers, is it worth 
    buying?
    
    * Modern record labels reissuing (hmmm, sp?) music from 
    the past - why are they always going for the Best Of 
    (which always seem to leave out some great songs that just 
    didn't become commercial hits) and rarely for the actual 
    albums the artists released in the first place? Is it just
    a matter of money? And is it *that* more expensive to 
    re-release the original albums in a limited edition (if 
    the label fears it won't sell) than to release The Big 
    Super Duper Compilation which gets marketed with lots of 
    ads in magazines and even the odd TV commercial?
    
    * What are the members of all our favourite soft rock 
    bands up to today? Roger Nichols, Innocence, Harpers 
    Bizarre, 5th Dimension, etc...what happened to songwriters
    like Sloan/Barri and arrangers like Perry Botkin Jr?
    
    * Many of the Spectropop-artists were studio projects - 
    were they much inferior live? Has anyone on the list 
    actually been to any concerts with the bands we talk about, 
    such as The Millennium (who I assume probably were great 
    live) or The Association or [insert soft rock band of 
    personal choice]??
    
    * We rarely discuss sixties music (this listy, that is, I'm
    not talking about non-Spectropop stuff) in a wider context.
    Without getting too non-listy (BTW, can you get non-listy 
    on a list that essentially has only two or three regular 
    contributors?), maybe we could discuss the influence of 
    Spectropop music on modern music (uhh, I need a synonym of
    "music" :)).....
    
    These are just a few topics to get this list A L I V E 
    again....I'm sure you can post a short comment during your
    lunch breaks :) 
    
    Tobias
    
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     Re: Nuggets
    Received:    06/05/99 12:15 am
    >From:        David Bash, Baxxxcom
    To:          Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
    
    
    
    > Subject:     the Nuggets box set
    
    > From:        Runar Sorgaard, wuxxxet.se
    
    > I'll soon be getting the Nuggets Box Set on tape, the 
    > tracklisting looks *very* interesting! I'd like to hear 
    > some opinions about the artists....what are the highlights
    > on the discs....the whole idea of the box is interesting to
    > me...are there actual reasons why most of these bands only 
    > released a couple of singles and then completely 
    > disappeared? It seems like not many managed to release 
    > more than one album!
      
    > Tobias (who does think The Mojo Men's Sit Down I Think I 
    > Love is a little bit out of place on Nuggets)
    
    Hi Tobias,
    
    I guess there are a few reasons as to why most of the 
    bands on Nuggets only released one or two singles:
    
    1. Budgetary: most of these bands were made up of very 
    young guys who simply didn't have the money to record more
    than a couple of tracks, and the local label who released 
    their record(s) didn't have the budget to help them out.
    
    2. Disenchanted with the fact that their first record(s) 
    didn't catch on or that they didn't generate any major 
    label interest, they simply gave up on their musical 
    aspirations and went on to do other things.
    
    3. Some of these people probably had other jobs to begin 
    with and did these records as a side project. Garage music
    was supposed to be fun, so perhaps the making of a record 
    was a lark to a few of them.
    
    I would like to post the review of The Nuggets box I did 
    for Entertaiment Today, a Los Angeles newspaper. It will 
    follow my signature. 
    
    -- 
    Spectropop Rules!!!!! 
    Take Care, 
    David Bash
    
    Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era
    (Box Set) Various Artists Rhino Records
    
    George Michael once exclaimed "If you're gonna do it, do 
    it right!", and it wouldn't be surprising if Rhino Records
    were among his listeners because when it comes to doing box
    sets, nobody does it "righter" than they do. Rhino's latest
    offering is a 4 CD box that celebrates not only a genre, 
    but an album that had become a watermark for the 
    garage-punk movement of the '60s, a two LP set called 
    Nuggets. The original Nuggets album had been released in 
    1972 and was filled with 27 punk and psychedelic pop 
    masterpieces, and had been compiled by respected 
    journalist and musician Lenny Kaye. Rhino Records has now 
    extended the concept with a remarkable package of 118 
    mindbending, scorching, fuzzed out garage rockers, psych 
    poppers, and folk punkers combining the well known and the
    obscure, easily adding up to the most amazing compendium of
    such music that has ever existed. The Nuggets box 
    illustrates most cogently that it wasn't just the hippies 
    that had attitude in the '60s. The punks made their voice 
    heard even earlier and did so with a vengeance, spewing 
    vitroil about the establishment, woman that did them wrong, 
    women that did them right, and their love/hate 
    relationship with drugs. Their emotional conveyance was so
    perfect; you don't even need to listen to the lyrics to 
    feel the venom, as the loud fuzz guitar, searing harmonica, 
    pounding drums, and ultra-snotty vocals do the trick 
    nicely. Many of these recordings were done at home, hence 
    the term "garage", and the genre is indeed one of recorded
    music's most collectable, with some of its 45s fetching 
    upwards of $500. This music was purely American, and 
    although it came from all over the U.S. it especially 
    gained noteriety in areas like Michigan, Texas, the 
    Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest. Disc 1 of this set is 
    a straight reissue of the original Nuggets album, and it's
    a cacaphonous soundscape of the punk sentiment, combining 
    some of the biggest hits of the genre such as "I Had Too 
    Much To Dream Last Night" by The Electric Prunes, "Dirty 
    Water" by The Standells, "Psychotic Reaction" by Count 
    Five, and "Liar, Liar" by The Castaways with lesser known 
    but extremely significant tracks like the almost laughably
    Dylanesque "A Public Execution" by Mouse And The Traps, 
    "Moulty" by The Barbarians, an autobiography about their 
    one handed drummer's emergence from his disability, "Let's
    Talk About Girls" by Sunset Strippers The Chocolate 
    Watchband, and perhaps the ultimate version of "Hey Joe" 
    by The Leaves. The album also featured several poppier 
    numbers like "Open My Eyes" by Nazz (featuring Todd 
    Rundgren), "Sit Down, I Think I Love You" by The Mojo Men 
    (their wonderful cover of the Buffalo Springfield tune), 
    and the pop-psychy "My World Fell Down" by soft-pop 
    legends Sagittarius.
    
     Disc 2 follows along the same lines as disc 1, and could 
    have easily served in the same capacity as the original 
    Nuggets. Highlights are the hits "Talk Talk" by The Music 
    Machine, the party favorite "Double Shot (Of My Baby's 
    Love)" by The Swingin' Medallions, the mocking "Little 
    Girl" by Syndicate of Sound, the Los Angeles classic "7 
    and 7 Is" by Love, and the stomping "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' 
    Yet" by Blues Magoos, as well as some essential 
    obscurities like the humorous "Spazz" by The Electric Band, 
    "Going All The Way" by The Squires, "I Wonder" by The 
    Gants, which sounds like a garage version of The Beatles' 
    "In My Life", and "Strychnine" by The Sonics, an ode to 
    their beverage of choice. This disc also includes some 
    tracks that only tangentially embrace the concept, but are
    nonetheless great songs like "Time Won't Let Me" by The 
    Outsiders, "Laugh, Laugh" by The Beau Brummels, and the 
    mega classic "Incense And Peppermints" by The Strawberry 
    Alarm Clock".
    
     Some of the tracks on disc 3 feature artists that would 
    later attain prominence, playing and singing in a style to
    which you might be unaccustomed, such as "Fight Fire" by 
    The Golliwogs, whose lead vocalist was a pre-Creedence 
    John Fogerty, the folk-poppy "Follow Me" by Lyme and 
    Cybelle (Lyme was the nom de plume for Warren Zevon), 
    "Like Fallin' Sugar" by The Palace Guard, a band that had 
    among its members the then 15 year old Emitt Rhodes on 
    drums (!) and background vocals, and the Cleveland classic
    "It's Cold Outside" by the Choir, a band that contained 
    several soon-to-be Raspberries. This disc also shows some 
    bands in a different light than what you might be used to;
    "At The River's Edge" by New Colony Six is an all out raver
    that typifies their beginnings but belies the middle of the
    road pop stylings they later rode the charts with, and 
    "She's My Baby" by The Mojo Men definitely shows a gritty, 
    rawer side to the band than they eventually transmuted to.
    Some of the higher quality obscurities on this disc are the
    Transylvanian-y "Put The Clock Back On The Wall" by the 
    E-Types, the surf-garagey "Run, Run, Run" by The Gestures,
    the spoken word, off the deep end "Knock, Knock" by the 
    ironically named The Humane Society, "Psycho" by the 
    legendary Sonics, which is a screamer that Little Richard 
    could have done, and the psychedelic, Animals-ish "I'm 
    Five Years Ahead Of My Time" by The Third Bardo.
    
     Disc 4 features some wonderful heretofore uncompiled gems
    like the haunting "Johnny Was A Good Boy" by The Mystery 
    Trend, the very catchy "Stop, Get A Ticket" by Clefs of 
    Lavenderhill, the snarling "Open Up Your Door" by Richard 
    and the Young Lions, "Codeine" by The Charlatans, which 
    perfectly communicates the altered state of consciousness 
    caused by the drug, the folk-punky "Mindrocker" by Fenwyck
    (for which a series of LP compilations was named), "I Live 
    In The Springtime" by the Lemon Drops, which features one 
    of the best fuzz guitar lines you'll ever hear, and the 
    minor key stomper "Hold Me Now" by The Rumors, as well as 
    classics like "Wooly Bully" by Sam The Sham and The 
    Pharaohs, "I Want Candy" by The Strangloves, the should 
    have been a bigger hit, pre-hippie slab of sarcasm "Are 
    You A Boy or Are You A Girl" by The Barbarians, and the 
    ultimate party record "Louie, Louie" by The Kingsmen, the 
    song that may have been the greatest influence on garage 
    music that there ever was.
    
     The Nuggets box also includes a wonderful booklet, with 
    liner notes by garage music's greatest authorities, Greg 
    Shaw and Alec Palao, as well as very complete annotations 
    by fellow expert Mike Stax. Sound Producer Bill Inglot 
    also took great care to make sure that as many tracks as 
    possible would be presented in their original mono form, 
    to preserve the energy and rawness that they were meant to
    have. All in all, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The 
    First Psychedelic Era is a huge winner of a box set.
     
    
    --------------------[ archived by Spectropop ]--------------------
    
    
    Subject:     The Ronettes on Charly???
    Received:    06/05/99 12:15 am
    >From:        Jamie LePage, le_pagxxxities.com
    To:          Spectropop List, spectxxxities.com
    
    Today I found a CD near my office during lunch that is 
    such an exciting find I had to share it with the list.
    
    The Ronettes "All the Hits" (CD CRB 560)
    
    It says "Manufactured by Charly Schallplatten GMBH". There
    is also a copyright notice c1995 Charly Schallplatten Gmbh
    
    And, there is a "Cedar Audio Ltd." trademark on the sleeve. 
    You know what that means...
    
    I thought Charly was a legit label, but surely neither 
    Spector nor ABKCO licensed this collection. It is the best
    Ronettes CD collection I own, including the Spector Box 
    material, the ABKCO Ronettes CD and the Marginal release 
    (the last of which favors Colpix material over the more 
    obscure Philles stuff). Everything on this CD is Philles 
    material, and the bulk of the "Introducing..." material is
    in true (((stereo)))!
    
    Here is the track listing (* indicates stereo) 
    1. Be My Baby*
    2. Baby I Love You*
    3. Best Part of Breaking Up*
    4. Do I Love You*
    5. Walking In the Rain*
    6. Born To Be Together
    7. Is This What I Get For Loving You Baby
    8. I Can Hear Music
    9. So Young*
    10 I Wonder (with recently discussed drum intro)*
    11 You Baby*
    12 How Does It Feel*
    13 When I Saw You*
    14 Oh I Love You
    15 Blues for Baby (rare B of Born to be Together)
    16 The Twist (from the Crystals sing the Greatest Hits)
    17 Why Don't They Let Us Fall in Love
    18 Chapel of Love*
    19 Mashed Potato Time (from the Crystals sing the Greatest Hits)
    20 What'd I Say*
    
    Great collection, but the CD clocks in at 57:04. I wonder 
    why they didn't put the Rare Masters tracks like I Wish I 
    Never Saw the Sunshine, Keep on Dancing, Soldier Baby of 
    Mine and Everything Under the Sun. Maybe because these 
    were first issued in the 70's and perhaps this is a 
    gray-boot (meaning 60's material is in public domain in 
    the territory of origin). Anyone know for sure?
    
    I have to go back to that store and buy every Charly/Cedar CD
    they stock. I saw Chubby Checker, Duane Eddy, Sonny & Cher, 
    Shangri-La's...
    
    
    Jamie
    
    
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