Great Lakes Spotlight: The Turfits - Losin' One/If It's Love You Want

Day three of our Great Lakes Region of the Battle of the Garage Bands takes us to Ohio for the first time. That is where we find four Buckeye men wearing mini-skirts and frilly blouses. I don't know what more I can say about that.

The Turfits hailed from two small towns West of Cleveland, Fremont and Findlay, Ohio. The band was Whitey Gwinup, Gary Reddick, Kenny Turner and Roger Hilty. The members had been in various other bands and came together into one as The Other Ones. But, ironically, there was already another band called The Other Ones. So this other, Other Ones held a "name the band" contest at one of their shows. From that contest came the winning name of The Turfits. Okay. One has to wonder what the hell the other suggested names may have been for these hep-cats to choose The Turfits above the others? The Roadkill Kittens IV? The Pink Fluffies? The Mama's Boys?

Regardless, the curiously dressed, curiously named band recorded two songs written by Whitey Gwinup. Two songs he brought with him to the band. The A-Side is right out of garage songs 101. Losin' One has a  slow groove with a meandering Farfisa organ weaving it's way through the song. I particularly love the subtle fuzz guitar at 1:05 leading into the organ lead. The song was credited to the whole band per legal requirement. As is so often the case, the label misspelled a name. In this case, Gwinup's. The Flip-Side, If It's Love You Want, is a much more upbeat number. Again. Garage 101. Great back-up vocals, heavy organ, sweet guitar lead.

The record was recorded in Cleveland and released on Capitol Records in October of 1967.

As is the case with all things Ohio, we took a lot of info and pics from the great website, Buckeye Beat. They were given the pics from Whitey Gwinup and Wayne Van Doren.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!