We're winding down our Down Under focus this week and we feature, by request from Jack Hayden, The Creatures doing their RCA Records release from 1967, Ugly Thing. It's the song that inspired the Raven Records collection of Aussie bands and the now 30 year old fanzine on crazed and depraved records, Ugly Things, run by Mike Stax.
The Creatures hailed from Mildura, a rural town in Victoria. The band was centered around three brothers, Herman Marcic on bass, Eric Marcic on guitar and Rudolph Marcic on drums. Greg Lawrie was also on guitar and Keith Matcham on vocals. Matcham and Lawrie are the composers of Ugly Thing, a song about, well, I'm not too sure. Mostly because I have no idea what Keith Matcham is saying at the beginning of the song. Or for most of the song, for that matter. But it still sounds cool.
The Creatures, as you can see from the picture below, liked to dye their hair various different colors. Truly some Ugly Things.
Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!
The photograph was taken at Caravan Head, near Oyster Bay in Sydney, where they lived with their Manager Tom Towle. It was just after I sent them to a hairdresser to colour their hair. This type of showmanship in rock music was done years ahead of bands like KISS.
ReplyDeleteI love my dad's pink hair its awesome
ReplyDeleteHe wears it well.
Deleteclarifications:Greg Lawrie replaced Eric Marcic. Pink hair in photo is Richard White. The unknown phrase at the beginning is Jugoslav or Croatian and says something like "crucify him again!
ReplyDeleteStanC - Thanks for the info! I was just talking to my fellow flipsider Morgan Young about this band and this single yesterday. I mentioned that I wanted to hear the cover of the Otis Redding song Your One And Only Man. Have you heard it? What's your connection to the band? Ugly Thing is absolutely mind-boggling great! Years after first hearing it, I'm still trying to figure out that opening phrase (repeated later in the song) and the best I could come up with was "Now don't get fixed stack-em up Johnny". Knowing it is a foreign language makes sense, and the translation complements the already bleak, heavy lyrics.
Delete