New York Spotlight: The Rogues - You Better Look Now

The New York Spotlight continues!

Today's song comes from The Rogues out of Buffalo. The Rogues were James Pierotti on vocals, Michael Spriggs on lead guitar, Dave Smith on rhythm guitar, Robert Radel on bass and Gary Jaros on drums. They had a big following in the area and even had their own nightclub, The Rogues Gallery, which apparently would book them quite regularly. The guys released at least two, some say three, singles and we're gonna have a listen to the flip-side of their first single, You Better Look Now written by James, Michael and Robert and, like a previous New York Spotlight feature, was released on Audition. Frankly, it's among the finest examples of a garage pop ballad out there. It's really well- crafted with a lovely jangly reverby sound and a great little guitar solo to boot, but it's the sincere lyrics delivered soulfully over a perfect melody that drives it home. I also dig how the refrain seems to appear out of nowhere not to be seen or heard from again. It must have been tempting to throw it in again after every verse, but they didn't, and the result is perfection. Thanks guys! The A-side is an awesome version of Train Kept-a-Rollin too.

Like many, I first heard this song as performed by The Chesterfield Kings in the mid '80s and you can read more about it here.

The Rogues have a facebook page where our photos were found. Flower Bomb Songs has a bunch of fan photos too.

See you on the Flip-Side!

Album: Here Are The Chesterfield Kings

Sometime in the fall of 1984, while spending a year in England, I was thumbing through a record store in Guilford, south of London, when to my astonishment I came across a copy of Here Are The Chesterfield Kings.  Having just been introduced to this album – and 60’s garage in general – by a friend back in the States, I knew this album was gold.  Isolated from my friend’s and my collection of records back home, I found myself studying this and a few other albums in my lonely little high-schooler bedroom.  The songs Little White Lies, Sixty Second Swinger and Come With Me got special attention.  They gave insight into this other kind of music - unruly, menacing vocals set to a raw pounding beat and inventive instrumentation.  Other songs such as You Better Look Now, Time to Kill or Outside Chance showed the more melodic side to the mid-‘60s music I craved to hear.  As a whole the music on this album was so charged that at times I literally couldn’t believe what I was hearing; and the album was so faithfully presented in the vein of a mid-‘60s era release, from the actual recordings to the picture of the band on the front of album, right down to the images and layout on the back of the album, that I must admit to not knowing for some time in which era this was initially recorded.  This just added to the allure.

The Chesterfield Kings formed in 1979 in Rochester, New York, and were one of the earliest ’60s revival bands as they rode that first crest that included The Lyres out of Boston and The Crawdaddys out of San Diego. In the next few years the Chesterfield Kings – Greg Prevost, Doug Meech, Rick Cona, Andy Babiuk and Orest Guran – released several singles and played locally, and all the while several influential garage-specific compilations – Pebbles and the Pebbles offshoot Highs In the Mid-Sixties - entered the mix. By the time of the Chesterfield King’s 1982 release of “Here Are”, ‘60s garage or otherwise ‘60s-inspired music had a foothold, albeit a distinctly underground foothold, on both coasts and the garage revival was well on its way.  While many of these early acts embraced the ‘60s garage ideal with a zeal, and some frankly nailed it – see The Unclaimed’s Primordial Ooze EP or The Tell-Tale Hearts' eponymous LP – if you wanted the blueprint at a granular level it was Here Are Chesterfield Kings.

Today we look not at Here Are but at the original versions of the songs behind the album.  The album is all covers, something I didn't really get only until recently, such was their ownership of the material. Although the ‘60s garage comps were hitting their stride by 1982, as of the date of release of this album as far as I can tell only one song on it had been comped.  In the pre-internet, pre eBay days, the general awareness and availability of some of these songs, let alone the actual wax, must have been pretty slim indeed, which makes this album all the more stunning.

Today - Side 1.  Stay tuned for Side 2 in the coming days. Enjoy!

The Sonics - The Hustler

The Rogues - You Better Look Now

The Turtles - Outside Chance

Painted Ship - Little White Lies

Zakary Thaks - Won't Come Back

The Choir - I'm Going Home

The Chocolate Watch Band - Expo 2000