Seven posts where the recording artist has joined the conversation.

Our narcissistic birthday bash continues as we engage in more self-love today. It's touching, really. As we mentioned on Monday, we get a big, big smile on our face when we are contacted by the very people associated with the record about which we are writing. It's one thing to write about a 47 year old record and have people excited to be turned on to the dusty groove for the first time. It's quite another level of cool to hear from the songwriter or guitarist or even the singer's children. Most of the musicians think the record has long been forgotten. Oh, no! You and I know that's not the case. Here are seven postings for which somebody closely associated with the record has left a comment or two on our site filling in more information and enjoying the well-deserved attention.

7. The Misunderstood -- Who Do You Love? [original post here] = 430 hits.

Abstract from comment by Stephen Whiting, bassist from The Misunderstood:

Anyway, if you listen closely, after I begin the lick, you'll hear Glenn fading in with long sustaining notes; when I start doubling the notes in the 2nd half of the lick, then you can hear Tony come in with a really nicely articulated counter-melody...good stuff!! I was very fortunate to play with a group of really GREAT guys who also happened to be incredibly talented, and together, we were just much more than the sum of our parts. 

6. The Enfields - She Already Has Somebody [original post here] = 447 hits.

She Already Has Somebody

Abstract from comment by Ted Munda songwriter and guitarist for The Enfields:

Glad the music is still moving people! Just a little hidden inside info for you; Vince Rago had NOTHING to do with this song. He was our crooked Manager. I wrote the entire song and called it" SHE ALREADY HAS". When the record came out his name was on it and he said it was because he changed the Title to "SHE ALREADY HAS SOMEBODY"

5. The Others - I Can't Stand This Love, Goodbye [original post here] = 540 hits.

Abstract from comment by Jim Destout, lead guitarist for The Others:

I never imagined that this would become kind of a "Garage Band" classic. But, listening to it now, it really holds up well.

4. The Dynamics - Misery [original post here] = 575 hits.

Abstract from comment by Chris Bramlett, guitarist on Misery:

I was playing a Fender Guitar and Amp at the time, im not sure what models. I....played lead on both sides, and all the songs were recorded at United Sound in Detroit.

3. The Toggery Five - I'm Gonna Jump [original post here] = 616 hits.

Abstract from comment by Frank Renshaw, singer and songwriter for The Toggery Five:

As Paul Young had only been with us a couple of weeks, he really didn't know many of our songs, so it was suggested we try a new song that I'd written called "I`m Gonna Jump". We did a run-through, then did it in one take. That was it, session over. To our horror, it was subsequently BANNED by the BBC as a suicide song. What !!!!

2. The Mourning Reign - Satisfaction Guaranteed [original post here] = 620 hits.

Abstract from Beau Maggie, singer for The Mourning Reign:

We were, quite simply put...In Times of Heaven and a bit crazy...but every day was so good....and BTW...it's not "mouth of hallucination"...it's "mass hallucination"...although mouth of...sounds better than what I originally wrote...

1. Murphy and The Mob -- Born Loser [original post here] = 1141 hits.

Abstract from Stephen Brewerton, lyricist for Born Loser:

I was a nerd going to junior college trying to avoid the draft....I met Terry and Dennis Murphy and somehow became their manager. I wrote the lyrics to “Born Loser.” I managed them for two months. After I quit managing them, Terry and Dennis put music to my lyrics and recorded the songs at Steve Wright’s recording studio.

Pretty damn cool stuff if I do say so myself. I hope you all check out the original posts and keep coming back. Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: The Who (High Numbers) -- Zoot Suit and The Dynamics - Misery

We're back with the overly-hyped day three of our look at a few covers by The Who and their origins. Without further ado, I present to you...

In the earliest days of The Who, the band was largely generic and directionless. The Who's manager at that time, Pete Meaden, was trying to find a hook for The Who and endeavored to make the band "more mod." As a result he changed their name to The High Numbers (a "high number" being a term to refer to a person having a relatively high social rank in the movement) and took Pete Townshend to a mutual friend's house to listen to American soul and blues records to build out the band's repertoire. In the early Summer of 1964 the two Pete's settled on four songs they would lay down for their first recording session: Eddie Holland's Leavin' Here, Bo Diddley's Here 'Tis, Slim Harpo's Got Love If You Want It, and, perhaps the most obscure of these, The Dynamic's Misery. But Pete Meaden really wanted the records to be mod anthems. So, rather unscrupulously, Meaden rewrote the words to two of the songs in an effort to capitalize on the mod lifestyle. Got Love If You Want It became I'm The Face (the highest rank a Mod could achieve) and Misery became Zoot Suit.

Meaden claimed writing credit for both "originals". The record saw a tiny release on July 3, 1964. I believe about only 1000 were pressed on the Fontana label but without a recording contract. Meaden shopped it to record companies and the band sold or gave away the record to the mods who crammed into the Railway Hotel on the weekends to see their boys play. Not much came of it and it hardly sounds anything like the band who would go back into the studio a few months later to record Pete Townshend's first ever original, I Can't Explain.

The little known original song from which this number was pinched, as already noted, was called Misery performed by a Detroit group called The Dynamics. It was released in the US on Big Top records in October of '63. It even saw a release in the UK the next month when London records picked it up.

Back in 2010 we wrote an article on this record. Much to our pleasure, the original guitarist, Chris Bramlett, found the article and left us some nice comments, including information on the equipment he used. Please see that article here for more information. It says more than I need to in this space.

Disclosure note, I picked up the picture of the handwritten High Number's Zoot Suit from White Fang's fan page. A great resource run by one of the mods that inhabited that Railway Hotel in the Summer of '64. Note that the name The Who was crossed out on the label and replaced with The High Numbers!

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

Song of The Week: The Dynamics -- Misery

Please see the comments below to learn more information about this song from the guitarist who performed on this number, Chris Bramlett.

What a nice little gem we have for you today. Even if you are a big-time music collector, I bet most of you are not familiar with this song. But, it might, just might, sound familiar. That's because this song, Misery, was the subject of some pretty blatant plagiarism by Pete Meadon. He being the one-time manager of The Who.

Back in 1964, Pete Meadon briefly changed the name of The Who to the High Numbers in an effort to get them bigger with the mod movement in London (being a High Number meant that you were of some importance in the gang). In June, Meadon and Chris Parmeinter took the band into the studio to cut some self-funded tracks that would have a very limited 1000-run pressing on Fontana Records. The lads recorded 4 tracks that day: Eddie Holland's Leavin' Here, Bo Diddley's Here 'Tis, and Zoot Suit and I'm The Face. The latter two songs were credited to Meadon who, in another effort to get in with the mod movement, wrote lyrics which spoke to the mod experience. I'm the Face is a not so subtle rip-off of the oft-covered Slim Harpo number, Got Love If You Want It. Zoot Suit, a not so subtle rip-off of today's song of the week. It is unlikely that Pete Townshend even plays on Zoot Suit, but rather that a studio musician brought in by Meadon and/or Fontana plays the jazzy guitar riffs. To be blunt, the sound, style and quality of performance are not Townshend at all. In Dave Marsh's book, Before I Get Old: The Story of The Who, Marsh refers to Townshend's style and makes no mention of a studio musician. However, on the liner notes of Odds and Sods, Townshend says of the studio musicians on these High Numbers tracks: "Superb jazz guitar solo from somebody I don't recognize, fast piano from some pilled-up lunatic who probably made more in session fees that day than we did from the ensuing year's work." In Pete's new auto biography, he says he played on the session but that the work shows his style was not fully formed yet. You decide. 

But that is not our SoTW, Misery is. In 1963 a Detroit band called The Dynamics sauntered into the studio to record this nice cross-genre song. This is just one of those great songs that surprises me. The catchy guitar riff never seems to fit the rest of the song -- in a VERY good way. The singer's temporary falsetto always catches me off guard and the sax solo is a surprise considering how dominant the guitar is in the rest of the song. And then there's the exit vocals. "No-no!" How frickin' cool.

Enjoy your misery.