The Fairies - Get Yourself Home

The Fairies are an odd group. They were led by their eclectic drummer who went by the name of Twink. The band hailed from Colchester, England and regularly swapped members with The Pretty Things and The Cops N' Robbers. At the time of this recording the band was John "Twink" Alder, Mick Weaver, John Acutt, John Gandy, and Nik Wymer on vocals.

Get Yourself Home was the band's second of three single and was the first with Wymer on vocals. The sophomore effort was released on HMV Records in March of 1965 in the UK. Dane Stephens of The Cops N' Robbers would soon replace Wymer and Twink would soon depart for a brief stop with The Pretty Things. Speaking of The Pretty Things, Get Yourself Home was co-composed by the band's road manager, one Johnnie Dee. Dee also composed The Pretty Things' sophomore release, Don't Bring Me Down. In fact, Don't Bring Me Down was originally written for The Fairies but wound up in the hands of The Pretty Things instead. And Get Yourself Home was written for The Pretty Things, but after that band rejected the number, The Fairies took this crack at it. I think we can agree that Wymer sounds a tad like The Pretty Things' Phil May. No? 

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

The Pretty Things - You'll Never Do It Baby

The same year that The Cops N' Robbers released their original composition, You'll Never Do It Baby, on the Flip-Side of a French only EP, The Pretty Things recorded the number for their second album. The number leads off side 2 of the Get The Picture LP. The Pretty Things modified the chorus structure and removed the piano and harmonica. The beat is slightly modified as well, making it less jazzy and more of a straight ahead, on the downbeat rock-n-roll number. Interestingly, The Pretty Things' drummer, Viv Prince, is not playing on this. A cat by the name of John Adler took over on this track as Viv was on his way out of the band at the time. 

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

The Cops N' Robbers - There's Got To Be A Reason

The Cops N' Robbers hailed from Watford, England where they kicked out only three records. Amazingly all three were also released in the US. The first on Parrot Records and the other two on Coral Records.

We focus today on the Flip-Side of their debut single. Released in November of 1964 in the UK on Decca and on Parrot in the states, There's Got To Be A Reason was the Flip-Side of the band's perfectly fine cover of the US folk/blues song, St. James Infirmary. The band, at the time of this recording was Terry Fox on keyboards, Henri Harrison on drums, Steve Smith on bass and Brian Smith on vocals. Brian Smith would soon depart the band to front a Pretty Things related band, The Fairies. The Fairies singer, Dane Stephens, would, in turn, sing for The Cops N' Robbers final single. To further complicate things, There's Got To Be A Reason was co-composed by some cat named Stephens. Dane?

The Cops N' Robbers barely made a blip in their home country and made not even a ripple here in the US. But they get credit for composing the song You'll Never Do It Baby. That song was only released on a French EP but was covered by Berlin band The Boots and UK band, The Pretty Things. More on that in a later post.

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

Song of the Week: Slim Harpo - Rainin' In My Heart/Don't Start Crying Now

Rainin' In My Heart

Don't Start Cryin' Now

Slim Harpo is a curious music figure. He barely registers for blues fans, but he was a huge influence on rock musicians. More specifically, the British Invasion musicians who mined the blues for their own material. 

Born John Isaac Moore, our hero today grew up in rural Louisiana and moved to New Orleans to work the docks at the height of World War II in 1942. There Moore labored away in relative anonymity, a laborer, not a musician. He played harmonica in his church band and occasionally played guitar for them as well. Anonymity was the word for many, many years. Then, sometime in the mid-50s, Louisiana blues man, Lightnin' Slim noticed John Isaac Moore in the church band and asked him to accompany him. It was with Lightnin' Slim that John Isaac Moore became known, first, as Harmonica Slim, and then later as Slim Harpo.

At age 33, Slim Harpo released his first single on the local Excello Records label in the Summer of 1957. That maiden record featured two originals,  I'm A King Bee/I've Got Love If You Want It. John Isaac Moore was no more and the anonymity was gone.  I'm a King Bee would be recorded by The Rolling Stones for their first full length release in '64. Similarly, the Flip-Side of Harpo's first single, I've Got Love If You Want It would be covered by The Kinks and plagiarized by The Who (as I'm The Face). The Rolling Stones and Dave Edmunds would later go on to cover Harpo's 1996 number, Shake Your Hips and the Yardbirds would plagiarize another of Harpo's 1966 singles, Baby Scratch My Back (The Yardbirds rechristened the number as Rack My Mind). Countless other European bands picked up on the covers by the Stones and Kinks in particular, and covered their versions, likely never hearing Harpo's originals. And the Moody Blues took their name from one of Harpo's songs. 

But we focus today on Slim Harpo's third single, also on Excello Records, from January of 1961. Recorded in the small town of Crowley, Louisiana, it would be Slim Harpo's first release to chart on the US R&B charts and the first single of his to see a release in the UK. The number is Rainin' In My Heart/Don't Start Cryin' Now. Both numbers written by Slim Harpo. Rainin' In My Heart would be covered by The Pretty Things in '65 and Don't Start Cryin' Now would be covered by Van Morrison's Them as the Flip-Side of their first release in '64.

Even if Slim Harpo never attained fame, never became a household name, his impact was felt far beyond his native Louisiana. Enjoy.

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

Song of the Week: The Pretty Things - I Can Never Say

This is the third time we've featured The Pretty Things here at the best music spot on the web. The first instance was a feature on their song My Time. That post has some of the fewest hits in the history of this website. And by few, let me just say that if you took every person who hit on that post, you still couldn't field two baseball teams. Then we featured The Pretty Things doing Come See Me as part of our "Under The Covers" series. That one did better. Much better. We could field many, many baseball teams with that post. And even have enough people left over to serve hot dogs and popcorn.

Today we're back at it with one of The Pretty Things' lesser known tunes, I Can Never Say. In the United States it was The Flip-Side of two of their obscure singles: the April 1965 release of the radio unfriendly Honey, I Need and the Flip-Side of the July 1965 release of their cover of the Garnet Mimms and Solomon Burke standard, Cry To Me. Both singles were released on Fontana Records. I Can Never Say has a simple, but great shuffle to it as singer Phil May sings with a great raspy restraint. The song never takes off into anything else. Just that simple shuffle with a real understated feel. May's harmonica being the only lead instrument. Nice.

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

Song of the Week: Solomon Burke -- Keep Looking

Burke never attained the ubiquitous success of his label mates, Otis Redding or Aretha Franklin nor the chart success of people like Ben E. King. Burke was, however, hugely influential on fellow musicians who were attracted to his powerful and personal vocals and his ability to span country, gospel and soul effortlessly and convincingly. The Rolling Stones made it an early habit to cover Burke songs (Cry To Me, It's All Right, If You Need Me). The Pretty Things also did a wonderful version of Cry To Me. The Blues Brothers covered Everybody Needs Somebody to Love and The Zombies did a great version of Burke's Can't Nobody Love You. And a little known band with connections to the Rolling Stones, The Artwoods (can anybody make that connection?), did a killer cover of today's SOTW, Keep Looking. My 1966 Atlantic Records 45rpm of this song is a bit fuzzy and crackly, but I think Burke still sounds damn good. Enjoy the late, great Solomon Burke performing Keep Looking.

Oh yeah...we have written articles on, and posted audio from The Rolling Stones, The Zombies, The Pretty Things, and, Burke's fellow Philadelphian and Bert Berns protege, Garnett Mimms. Search in the upper left corner for articles on all these acts.

Under The Covers: Come See Me by The Pretty Things and J.J. Jackson

The Pretty Things

We have an odd twist on today's Under The Covers. That's because the "cover" was published before the "original." Come See Me is perhaps The Pretty Things' single greatest recording (with apologies to Rosalyn and Midnight To Six Man). The Pretty Things released the pounding number in April of 1966 for Fontana Records.

J.J. Jackson

Come See Me was written in part by soul singer J.J. Jacson, but his recording of it wasn't released until April of 1967 for the Strike label in the U.K., as featured here.  Another version was released in March of '68 on the Warner Brothers down label, Loma Records, under the title Come And See Me (I'm Your Man). It's more than likely that a demo was shopped around by the publisher and The Pretty Things picked up on the so-rare-that-it-wasn't-even-recorded soul number, and made it their own. I'm willing to bet that this is a new one to most On The Flip-Side readers. This writer MUCH prefers The Pretty Things take on Come See Me, but I'll let you decide.

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

Song of the Week: The Pretty Things - My Time

The Pretty Things were an enigma. Any garage fan knows them and knows them well. Their reputation among that crowd as an inventive and wild, pounding UK band that produced songs that could peel paint off of a wall is well earned. Songs like Rosalyn, Don't Bring Me Down, Come See Me and Midnight to Six Man (see video below) secured that reputation in stone. But ask anyone else, "what'cha think of the Pretty Things?" and you are going to receive a look as desolate and unforgiving as the Sahara desert itself.

The band bubbled up in London in 1964 after Dick Taylor left his night job as the Rolling Stones bassist to form his own group where he would allow himself to play lead guitar. Taylor and raspy throated singer Phil May would front the beat band infamous for stage shows of debauchery and drunken punch-ups in any number of far away countries. It was an act that would win mostly male fans and influence numerous other bands in countries like Holland, Sweden, Germany and Australia. In America, they did nothing. Barely even got a label to release their stuff. By 1967, like so many other British bands (The Yardbirds and the Zombies come to mind), the band began to shows signs of buckling under the pressure of constant touring and recording and generally bad management. And on that last point, following the success of Sgt. Peppers by the Beatles, The Pretty Things management decided the blues based band needed to do a big production psychedelic album. Oh Joy. That album is the over produced, string-laden, gimmick filled Emotions. I'll be honest with you, it's not my favorite album. But it does have some gems. And one of those gems is today's SOTW. The song is the last song on the album and it is the wonderfully understated My Time, a band composition. The song finds the band exploring pop sensibilities and, unlike much of the rest of the album, the horn arrangement is tasteful and appropriately used as ambience. Taylor's restrained but driving guitar work is front and center and John Stax's bass work (particularly at the end of the song) adds a wonderful dynamic to the song. And of course, their is Phil May's quizzical vocals that question the path he is on.

It's not the wild raver the band was known for, but, in my opinion, that is one of the reasons it works so well. Enjoy The Pretty Things performing My Time.

And here is a video of them on German TV performing (live) Midnight To Six Man.

Have a great week.

Song of the Week: "Your Body, Not Your Soul", Cuby + the Blizzards

On this final Monday of 2008, our Song of the Week journey takes us on our first trip outside of America and Britain. And what a trip it is. Our flight takes us to a lowland paradise known as the Netherlands.

The year is 1966 and the Dutch have been subjected to a healthy dose of British invasion for two years. Screw the silly soft stuff like Herman's Hermits. Maybe it's living below a flood plain, maybe they are tired of jokes about little Dutch boy's sticking their fingers into dykes, maybe they are just excited that the Dutch haircut was finally en vogue, but the Dutch take to the grittier bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Kinks, The Who,  the Pretty Things and the Creation more than any other mainland Europe country. But more than just appreciating the Mod and R&B based Brit bands, the Dutch answer back with their own take on American soul and blues, adding a very unique accent to their interpretations. It becomes known as Nederbiet and, truth be told, it makes not a single ripple in the UK or the US. Outside of Holland the music explosion would rest in obscurity until a modest interest is rekindled by a handful of music enthusiasts in the 80's.

A huge treasure of music was left behind. But forty-two years of historical perspective reveals three Dutch bands as standing above the multitude of very good music to come out of Holland: Q65, The Outsiders led by Wally Tax, and our heroes of the day, Cuby + the Blizzards. Cuby + the Blizzards, named after a neighbor's dog and a word chosen at random from an English dictionary, were led by singer Harry Muskee and guitarist Eelco Gelling who took to the American blues better than any of their contemporaries (with apologies to Rob Hoeke). C+B released a handful of stylized singles between '65 and '67 that would only hint at what would become their blues dominant sound that would carry them through today. Those first singles were a stunningly original collection of songs that showcased the power of Muskee's brooding voice and Gelling's truly stellar guitar work. Following regional success of their first contribution of wax, Stumble and Fall, The band's second single was a cover of Manfred Mann's excellent song, L.S.D. (ostensibly standing for Pound, Schilling, Dollar). It was a great cover, but the real gem was the Flip-Side of the single (and our Song of the Week), the self-penned Your Body, Not Your Soul.

Opening with a distinguishing floor-tom to snare intro , C+B's Your Body, Not Your Soul quickly falls into a beautifully syncopated rhythm that showcases the masterful guitar work by Gelling who surely would have been a guitar hero of epic proportions if he had been British or American. His lead at the :46 mark has all the ingredients of a great lead, but it's the distinctive solos that close out each verse/chorus (as well as the lead) that are his high point in the song. Just linger on the riff at 1:30 for a moment to really appreciate his phrasing, tone and attack. But vocalist, Muskee is never outdone. Writing in a non-native language, he shows an acerbic wit with his quixotic lyrics which, truth be told, don't always make sense but somehow translate to a youthful universality. Sung in a broken accent, the young Muskee growls out: "I tell everybody that you gave me a kick. I felt so tired I gave myself a tick, 'cause I love your body, but not your soul." The lyrics are definitely not Gloria Steinem approved but I think most people have been there at one point or another in their life.

C+B caught the attention of the British musicians who toured Europe and noted the stellar musicianship of the band. When Van Morrison broke from Them late in '66, he toured Europe with C+B as his backing band. John Mayall, too, approached Gelling about joining the Bluesbreakers. And it is rumored (probably falsely) that Jimmy Page approached members of C+B to fill the gap between his stint in the Yardbirds and  Led Zeppelin.

So, enjoy your trip to Holland this week. And please, please, please play this song loud enough to annoy someone you love. After all, isn't that the original intent of the song? Last, maybe Gelling would be kind enough to let us know what equipment he was using.