Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Song of the Week: The Unrelated Segments - Where You Gonna Go?/It's Gonna Rain

Where You Gonna Go?
It's Gonna Rain
The Unrelated Segments made three singles and they all kick some serious booty. They sound a little different than the work of other garage bands of their day, a little more ambitious, a little more polished, a little more accomplished, a little more serious.

The band was formed in Taylor, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, in late 1966. The band was Ron Stults on vocals, Rory Mack on lead guitar, Barry Van Engelen on bass, John Torok on rhythm guitar and Andy Angellotti on drums. Before they had even a single concert, only two weeks after their first jam session, the High School boys went into the studio to record their first record in early 1967, Story Of My Life/It's Not Fair, released on Hannah-Barbera Records. Both numbers written by Rory Mack and Ron Stults. 

Today, we're going to listen to their second single, Where You Gonna Go?/It's Gonna Rain as released on Liberty Records in September of 1967. Both numbers, again, written by Mack and Stults.

Where You Gonna Go? opens with a crazy cool guitar riff that sounds like it might be run through a Leslie speaker. Van Engelen then joins the fray with some brilliant bass work before the creaking sound of a flexi mic stand gives way to Stults who sings of the bleak reality of working all day for another man, smoking cigarettes just for something to do and falling further and further behind the American Dream. The ever so brief bridge at 1:30 is an unexpected gem that really lifts the song at just the right time. The relentless guitar riff now gives way to a swinging romp:
And you know you're selling out
And as anybody knows
They'll know it by your face
And know it by your clothes
It's Gonna Rain is even more bleak. A slow, somber number that, again, features a nice chord progression and stellar bass work from Van Engelen. It's a hell of a song to be featured on a Flip-Side. 
Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

7 comments:

  1. These guys just emerged fully formed. Great stuff. That opening riff gives it a Misunderstood edge, and the song is of that quality. The bass work is stellar as it is in Story Of My Life (albeit the bass in Story is out of this world). It seems he is saying "meanwhile" at :50 which has a way of adding a dose of ennui to the song. It's a cool effect and Chuck Berry does something similar in Little Queenie ("meanwhile, as I was thinking").

    How do you know how the grating sound effect was made?

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  2. I picked up on the dangling "Meanwhile" too. It's cool. And regarding your Chuck Berry reference, have you ever noticed that T-Rex uses it at the end of Get It On? "Meanwhile, I was STIIIIIILLLLL thinking...".

    Regarding the creaking noise, I remember Mike Stax telling me about it from some interview he had just conducted (back in the 80s) with one of them. And then I read it again online as I was prepping this.

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    1. I have noticed that, but don't think I made the connection.

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  3. Yeah! Like taking a dose of The Seeds and feverishly driving a spike through an oil pipeline...
    THANX

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  4. Cool riff! What about another Detroit garage cats The Underdogs 7" Man in the Glass / Friday at the Hideout (Judy Be Mine)
    I think it deserves review On The Flip-Side too. Cheers!

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    1. hmmm, don't know that one. I have a single of their's, Love's Gone Bad, but I'll have to check this out. Thx for the lead.

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