Mid-Atlantic Spotlight: The Myddle Class - Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long / I Happen To Love You

The Myddle Class first came onto their local suburban New Jersey scene in 1964 as the King Bees but upgraded their name to avoid confusion with the King Bees releasing stuff on RCA Victor. Their first show under this new moniker was on December 11, 1965 in Summit, New Jersey. One of the opening acts for that show was a group playing its first live performance with its now core membership, The Velvet Underground. That's an auspicious start for our guys which consisted of Dave Palmer on vocals, Rick Philips on guitar, Danny Mansolino on Organ, Charles Larkey on bass and Michael Rosa on drums. Meanwhile, Al Aronowitz, New York Post columnist and band manager introduced the band to the songwriting team Jerry Goffin and Carole King who agree to write and produce for the Myddle Class. The bands first 45 was released on the short-lived Goffin-King label Tomorrow and features an excellent cover of Gates Of Eden as well as the brilliant folky original Free As The Wind.

Their next release on Tomorrow is our featured disc, released in June of '66. It opens on side A with the charging, barn-razing Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long. It's got screaming guitar work as well as some plain old screaming and gives the impression of the kind of raucous live performance for which they were known. The song is credited to the band, but it is well known that they copped it from The Blues Project's Wake Me, Shake Me while opening for them and even managed to get an earlier release than the original, itself taken from a traditional song. A later release on Buddha, while still crediting the band, gives arrangement credit to Al Kooper and The Blues Project. That's thoughtful.

The flip-side brings us to a Goffin-King song we flipsiders happen to really love, I Happen To Love You. The band was somewhat of a song tester for Goffin-King with some songs redirected to The Monkees, and one can easily imagine Micky Dolenz voice on this song. There are demos of Goin' Back and Pleasant Valley Sunday as well as others waiting for a well-deserved retrospective of The Myddle Class. The band only released one more single, also on Tomorrow. Charles Larkey married Carole King, Dave Palmer was an early vocalist for Steely Dan, and Rick Philips was senselessly murdered in 1969 by a jealous roommate.

You can also hear a version of I Happen To Love You by Them here.

See you on the Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: The Monkees - As We Go Along

The Monkees were left for dead following the "studio musician" scandal that exposed The Monkees to be a manufactured band who didn't write much of their own material or play instruments on their earliest work. Gasp! I've always defended the band. If you sit back and listen to some of the work and don't get hung up on process, just outcome, you have to admit, The Monkees put out some pretty damn good material.

The last work by The Monkees as the original band was the suicide note of a movie, Head. Co-written and produced by Jack Nicholson, musical input by Frank Zappa, songwriting by Carole King, instrumentation by The Monkees themselves (and guests). It was their swan song of sorts. Peter Tork would leave the band upon the movie's release. The lone single from the soundtrack would be the stellar Porpoise Song released on Colgems Records on October 2, 1968. (my copy above is the Aussie release on RCA).

The Flip-Side is also stellar and is our feature today. Written by Carole King, produced by Gerry Goffin, arranged by Jack Nitzsche, As We Go Along has a wonderful languid quality to it. It's remarkably un-Monkees like. Slow, acoustic guitar work with beautiful lead work throughout. It's got a loose ramble that feels like it could be from Pete Townshend's first solo album or from the Ron Wood and Rod Stewart era Faces. In fact, I would argue that it sounds a lot like a Faces song...but with a better singer. Oooh! We think you'll enjoy this one. 

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

Parrot Records Spotlight: Lulu and the Luvers - I'll Come Running and Here Comes The Night

I'll Come Running

Here Comes The Night

We're letting our Parrot Records freak flag fly for the third day. The first day found us in Newcastle, England. Then we went to Belfast, Ireland. Today we listen to Lulu and the Luvers who hailed from Scotland. 

Lulu scored a hit right out of the gate with her cover of the Isley Brothers' Shout in 1964. That got the diminutive Lulu attention from both sides of the pond. For her second UK single, Lulu recorded a song by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. That single got skipped by Parrot Records here in the US. But the next thing you know, legendary songwriter and producer, Bert Berns, (whom we have written about here extensively), came a-knockin on Lulu's door. He composed the A-Side and produced both sides of her third UK single (second in the US). We present today the unique US version which features a Bert Berns composition/production on both sides. As we tend to do, we're going to start by flipping the damn record over.

The Flip-Side of the November 1964 US single is the far superior song, in our flippy opinion. The song didn't make it onto any UK single, just the US. The song is the Bert Berns composition (under the pen name Bert Russell), I'll Come Running. The song has that trademark four-chord down beat that Berns made famous with songs like his oft-covered Everybody Needs Somebody To Love. But what makes this nasal voiced rocker a little different is the guitar work by session guitarist, Jimmy Page and his brand new wah-wah pedal. That's some pretty characteristically solid work from Page at 1:46. Lulu lets it all fly as she and Jimmy spar as the song fades out.

Here Comes The Night is the A-Side and it is damn solid and well worth being the chosen side. Garage fans will likely more closely associate the song with yesterday's act, Them. This version of the song is the first recording of the Bert Berns composition, predating Van Morrison and Co.'s take on the song by four months. While I will go on record as saying Them's version is the far superior, let's not blow this one off too fast. Lulu's voice is spectacular and Bert Berns' production is lush and fabulous. The guitar riff made famous in the Them version is still there, albeit a bit hidden. 

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

Tower Records Spotlight: Them - I Happen To Love You

Yeah baby, it's Them on Tower Records! Except it's not really "Them". At least not the Them that you know and love. It's a version of Them...post Van Morrison. Van Morrison wasn't very central to the band anyway.

So...here is the post-Van "Them" doing a Goffin-King song, I Happen To Love You. Also recorded by The Electric Prunes about the same time. Interestingly, this promo copy has I Happen To Love You on both sides. But when the song was officially released, it was relegated to a Flip-Side. From December, 1967.