Dunwich Records: The Shadows of Knight - I'm Gonna Make You Mine and I'll Make You Sorry

I'm Gonna Make You Mine

I'll Make You Sorry

Day 5 of It's Dunwich, Man! As is evident from my last four posts, I love the Dunwich Records label out of Chicago, Illinois. Mostly small, obscure, one-off recordings of bands that popped their head up seemingly from nowhere and disappeared back in their hole just as quick as a whack-a-mole at a pizza parlor game room. That is not the case with today's feature, The Shadows of Knight. They were different. They were stars in Chicago. 

The Shadows of Knight were formed in the hallways of an Arlington Heights, Illinois High School (the school nickname was...the Knights. Get it?). After a few early mutations and instrument swapping, the band settled into the line-up of Jim Sohns on vocals, Warren Rogers on Bass, Joe Kelly on lead guitar, Jerry McGeorge on rhythm guitar and Tom Schiffour on drums. In early 1966, The Shadows of Knight would soon release the first ever Dunwich record. Their cover of Them's Gloria. Now we all know all three chords of Gloria and can sing every word in our sleep, but you may not know it if it weren't for the SoK. Long story short, Gloria was the Flip-Side to Them's first US single, Baby Please Don't Go. The SoK picked it up, cleaned up some suggestive lines, and, believe it or not, scored a certifiable hit with the song. It was largely after the SoK version charted sporadically around the country (Dunwich couldn't press enough to get it out at one time nationally) that the Them version was rediscovered. The band was rushed into the studio where they put together a largely blues cover album. One of only two bands to get a full length player on the Dunwich label.

Just 10 months after Gloria hit, The Shadows of Knight had released one LP and were releasing their fourth excellent single on Dunwich. It is this release, from October of 1966, which we feature both sides of today. This is a real double-sided gem if there ever was one. The A-Side is the power chord heavy, I'm Gonna Make You Mine which never saw an LP release. Lead guitarist, Joe Kelly, puts on the fuzz, turns his Gibson ES335 up to 11, and never lets up. The sexually suggestive, sexually aggressive lyrics are rather surprising for an A-side release in '66: 

I'm Living mean, That's how I live
I'm gonna take girl and you're gonna give
I'm gonna make you mine
I want you bad, so be prepared. 

But the Flip-Side, I'll Make You Sorry, is not to be ignored. And in some ways, maybe better. I'll Make You Sorry was written by Sohns and Kelly. But I think the real star here is rhythm guitarist Jerry McGeorge. That incessant three chord riff played on the Rickenbacker is just pure joy. I never, ever tire of it.

Credit where credit is deserved: I've nicked almost all of the photographs from a Joe Kelly fan site which can be found here.

We'll see you next time On The Flip-Side.