And the winner of the So Cal Battle of the Garage Bands is...

What an epic adventure that was! Seventeen entrants in the So Cal region of the Battle of the Garage Bands. We tried to cap it at 10. Then 15. But our offerings of goodness just kept spilling over like a beer being poured by a blind barkeep.

Unbelievably we had a unanimous choice for the coveted number 1 spot! The Misunderstood, a band that had to leave their hometown of Riverside for the rain and fog of London to get a recording contract, have brought home the coveted "best garage record from Southern California" award. The other bands rounding out the top five are Love, The Grains of Sand, The Music Machine, all of Los Angeles, and The Lyrics of San Diego.

The Misunderstood are misunderstood no more. Now they saunter over to the holding pen where they will join our other regional winners as they await the next region. That region is Northern California and Hawaii. We'll launch that assault tomorrow!  Until then, here is a sample from all the winners thus far. And a nifty map down below.

Southern California: The Misunderstood - Children Of The Sun/I Unseen

Rocky Mountains: Phil and the Frantics: Say That You Will/'Till You Get What You Want

Mid-West: The Litter with Action Woman/Legal Matter

Texas: The 13th Floor Elevators with You're Gonna Miss Me/Tried To Hide

New England: The Squires with Going All The Way and Go Ahead

The South: The Bad Roads with Too Bad/Blue Girl

Great Lakes: The Shadows of Knight with Bad Little Woman/Gospel Zone

The Mid-Atlantic: The Enfields with She Already Has Somebody/I'm For Things You Do

New York: The Blues Magoos with We Ain't Got Nothing Yet/Gotta Get Away

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

Parrot Records Spotlight: Them - Richard Cory and Don't You Know

Richard Cory

Don't You Know

Day 2 of our Parrot Records Spotlight. Squawk! 

Northern Ireland's Them had to have been Parrot's most heart warming success story. The unknown Belfast quartet, you see, was fronted by a diminutive man with a big voice, Mr. Van Morrison, who went on to write a song or two in his day. The first release of Them in the US was the January '65 release of Baby, Please Don't Go with a Flip-Side of G-L-O-R-I-A...Gloria. That wasn't the hit you may think it was. It was the Chicago garage band, The Shadows of Knight, who turned that first Parrot Flip-Side into a US hit, not Them. The easy to play song took-off on stages all across the country and the musicians started to look closer at the little Irish band whose singer wrote the tale of teenage sexual frustration. 

Today we look at one of Them's lesser known releases on Parrot Records, Richard Cory. It's Them's 6th release (of seven) and it was released in the US on May 28th of 1966. The single went nowhere fast. The A-Side is kinda a cover of a Simon and Garfunkel song "written" by Paul Simon. In reality Paul Simon wrote the music, but the lyrics are a direct lift from the poem, Richard Cory, by Edward Arlington Robinson of Maine in 1897. The song, like the poem, tells the tale of a well todo man who is the beacon of his community. The story is told from a third person admirer who lusts for Richard Cory's life of wealth, privilege and excellence. Then one day, our narrator is shocked to learn that Richard Cory, the man who had it all, went home and put a bullet through his head. An act that our narrator still yearns to emulate. For years I heard rumors that Jimmy Page played the baritone guitar on Richard Cory but I have not been able to unearth credible evidence to suggest as much. Anyone? There is another version of Richard Cory that has surfaced on some odds and ends records out there. It is quite different with no baritone guitar, a more languid pace and a big heap of country styled harmonica. 

We're including the Flip-Side of Richard Cory, which is the very strong jazzy number Don't You Know, written by producer Tommy Scott. Scott, incidentally, wrote the A-Side of the preceding Them single, Call My Name, as well as the last Them single (with Van Morrison at least), the hugely influential I Can Only Give You Everything. 

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

Song of the Week: "I'm Gonna Dress In Black", Them

Listen - Them perform I'm Gonna Dress In Black.

Ahhh, it's Them. I must say, it has been a while since I had Them on the turntable. Too long. So how sweet it was when, just the other week, I pulled out some of my US label Parrot Records-stamped Them 45's, a few O'Dell's IPA beers, and had a grand old time playing records at ear splitting volumes.

Understandably, Them is often recognized for only two things: 1) being the first band of the 5'4" musical giant that is Van Morrison, and; 2) being the originators of the garage band standard, Gloria, a Van Morrison penned flip-side to the stellar cover of Baby Please Don't Go. But Them were much more than that. The Belfast boys put out two excellent records and a healthy amount of solid 45's. Them albums sounded different than most of their "British Invasion" brethren. Certainly part of it is their Irish homeland influence, but most of it can be traced to the multi-instrumental ability of their frontman and predominant song composer, Van Morrison. He brought Irish folk, American folk, American Jazz, American blues and rock-n-roll influences, and mixed them all together in a wonderful little stew. Only Manfred Mann albums had as much diversity as did the two albums by Them.

Today's SoTW comes from Them's first album, the excellent 1965 release, The Angry Young Them. The song seems to be neither a cover nor an original, but rather a song brought to the group. Perhaps by sometime Them producer and songwriter, Bert Berns. (See an old post on a bitching Garnett Mimms song he produced, As Long As I Have You). The song for the week is I'm Gonna Dress In Black. Thematically and musically, it has a certain feel similar to The House of the Rising Son as performed by The Animals. The organ dominant song features some of the most unexpected chord progressions, mixing up minor and major chords nicely, you're likely to hear out of song from this era. Van Morrison is, as always, exceptional on the song. You can really feel the Ray Charles influence in his performance. But it is really the organist who shines on this. Who that organist is, we just can't say. You see, Them was really a revolving cast of musicians with only bassist Alan Henderson and Van Morrison remaining constant. Additionally, it is very evident that studio musicians were employed generously on Them recordings. Question me on that? Just watch a live performance of Them and you'll hear a great difference in ability from stage to record. Whomever the musicians were, the song is killer.

Enjoy, today's SoTW, I'm Gonna Dress In Black. And enjoy the two vids below. The first is a live performance of the Bert Berns produced/composed Here Comes the Night, the latter a lip-synch version of Van Morrison's composition, Gloria.