Day three of our Nor Cal Battle of the Garage Bands has us at the bottom part of our geographical line in Fresno, California.
The Road Runners were a top notch garage band from 1415 W. Scott Avenue (map here) in the raisin capital of the world. The quintet of farm boys released four singles in their brief life. Today's feature was their second release. Goodbye with a Flip-Side of Tell Her You Love Her was released on the local Morocco Records label on the first month of 1966. My copy is a standard black vinyl but the single was also released as a yellow tinted disc and a tiger-striped disc. How cool is that?
The band was fronted by Randy Hall who sang lead and played bass. Dale Samuelian was on organ, Bob Trippell on saxophone, Steve Heitkotter on drums and Denver Cross was the excellent guitarist of the band. Randy Hall penned both of these top notch numbers. The songwriting and musicianship is across the board excellent. Goodbye, the hard charging A-Side shows off Hall's vocal prowess and Cross' strong guitar work that shows, as with most artists in this genre of the day, he was listening to a ton of Jeff Beck. Hall seems particularly angry at his muse. Even a little heavy handed.
I get a call one day
she said she was sorry
now she wants be back to stay
I just slapped her face
walked away smiling
heard her crying
and now it's her turn to fade
so goodbye to love
goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
Whoa, little dude bass player. Take it easy. Show some class. It's never ok to slap a girl. Or slap a bass! Maybe, just maybe, my young Road Runner friend, you will find love soon. Real love. Where oh where can we find love?
That's right, On The Flip-Side!
The Flip-Side of the record is the lovely Tell Her You Love Her. Again, stellar musicianship with Randy Hall's vocals urging his friend to let go and let the woman in his friend's life know just how much he loves her. And don't hit her. Don't ever hit her. I'm talking to you Floyd Mayweather!
A real double sided gem. Seek out more from The Road Runners. You won't be sorry. Pictures and some info courtesy of this cool blog on San Joaquin Valley bands.
Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!
Thanks for posting this fantastic, virtually unknown band. "Tell Her You Love Her" is an absolute '60s garage gem! I have the BeatRocket collection that has all of the studio material on one side (killer) and live stuff on the flip (this material is OK as it's mostly covers). I would love to see someone reissue the singles someday. Cool blog you have here.
ReplyDeleteWelcome sfdoomed. Your comments are greatly appreciated. Tell You Love Her is way cool. Most of the stuff on those singles really are a cut above. You may want to check out another San Joaquin Valley band we posted about here. The Chosen Few were on the SF label, Autumn. They hailed from Stockton.
Deletehttp://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2014/03/song-of-week-chosen-few-nobody-but-mei.html
Come back soon.
Was asked recently to do some research on this band. It's funny, one of their fans could not remember if they had recorded any songs. So far I have been pleasantly surprised at the way they sounded. "Take Me" is a really nice song they recorded.
ReplyDeleteTake me is nice. It's the flipside to their first single on Miramar. It has an easy going Mersey sound that clues you in on the bands early influences. I've like everything I've heard by them and am particularly drawn to the unusual sounding and experimental flipside - Pretty Me - to their later single. It's a wild one.
DeleteWhat's the nature of your research? I'd love to hear of anything and everything you learn.
Thanks for stopping by!