Song of the Week: The Crawdaddys - I Can Never Tell

Of all the garage revival records you can buy, for my money, the five songs contained on the Crawdaddys' 1980 EP, 5 x 4, is the best you can get. Apologies to The Tell-Tale Hearts' Too Many Lovers/Promise single and The Chesterfield Kings' first album, Here Are The.... (check out a great song by song article about that album here and here.)

The Crawdaddys' 1979 debut album on Voxx records was amazing, but it was lacking in originals. That problem was remedied with the band's subsequent release in August of 1980. Four of the five songs contained on this EP are originals. Specifically, written by guitarists Steve Potterf and Ron Silva (far left and far right, respectively, in the sleeve above.) The lone cover on the EP, Pretty Face, is an excellent cover of The Beat Merchants 1964 song, which never saw a release in the US.

Today we'll feature the first song on the Flip-Side of the EP, I Can Never Tell. Kick-ass bass thumping along, wailing harmonica and a time change replete with yelps make this the standout on the perfect EP. The Crawdaddys would release one more single with this line-up and then the band would start changing line-ups and musical styles quicker than a teenage girl can go through emotions. Jack Lopez, Peter Miesner, Fred Sanders, Carl Rusk and Mike Stax would all appear in the band at some point. Ultimately, Ron Silva and Carl Rusk formed the Nashville Ramblers and Mike Stax (and later, Peter Miesner) formed the aforementioned Tell-Tale Hearts.

If you want to learn more about the Crawdaddys and the San Diego garage scene that spawned the Crawdaddys, Nashville Ramblers, Tell-Tale Hearts, Town Criers, Morlocks and Gravedigger V, check out the excellent blog, The Che Underground. 

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

Vinyl Frontier - Elvis Presley

Original Song Project: Jack Hayden - Long Time Comin'

Here's a song about redemption I wrote while I was living up on the South Yuba River in the little town of Washington. Recorded last week on the same digital recorder used on the busker recordings. I hope you enjoy.

Song of the Week: The Gants - Smoke Rings/Little Boy Sad

Here is a GREAT double sided single from Greenwood, Mississippi's, The Gants. The Gants were led by Sid Herring who composed the high energy Smoke Rings, the A-side of their 5th single for Liberty Records. The other cats in the band were Johnny Sanders on guitar, Vince Montogomery on bass and Don Wood on drums. The song has it all, cool guitar riff, a second guitar being run through a Leslie speaker and nice smokey vocals replete with Herring screwing up the lyrics and then laughing at himself (at 2:04).

The Flip-Side of Smoke Rings is nearly as good. That song is called Little Boy Sad. I had always assumed the Gants did the garage arrangement of the song themselves, which differs greatly from the 1961 original by Johnny Burnette (also on Liberty Records). But...sometime around 1988, I was living in Australia where I sat in a music rehearsal room in Melbourne playing Little Boy Sad on guitar. The drummer of our band, said, "hey, that's my boss' song...how do you know that?" I told him it was a Gants song. Well, long story short, his boss had once been in an Aussie 60's garage band called The M.P.D. Limited who had a hit in Australia with it in the Summer of '65. A full year before the Gants did it. And it's definitely the same, unique arrangement. In Australia I picked up the M.P.D. Limited version of the song on Go!! Records. Much to my surprise, when I returned to the US, I found a US pressing of the aussie single on LTD International Records. That must have been from where the Gants nicked it.

At any rate, enjoy The Gants best double sided single: Smoke Rings/Little Boy Sad.

Busker Days: Zack and Brian - Hard Times

(Originally posted March 3, 2010)

It's interesting how things come together. I first came across Zack a year or so ago during one of my lunchtime forays over at Powell St Bart station. He was playing with his band, the Jugtown Pirates. Its basically a quartet comprising of stand-up bass, mandolin, guitar and violin. Zack's on the bass and vocals, both of which he handles with ease and earnestness, and I was impressed that day with a couple songs they played written by his brother. Around the same time over at Montgomery station I started noticing Brian playing solo, usually on a new model Gretsch hollow body plugged in to a little amp. The first song I heard him play was Rocky Raccoon and his nicely controlled vocal work stood out, as did his chord range on the guitar.  Fast forward to a month or so ago and they're together at Montgomery station.  I think it's a good match.  Listen here to Hard Times written by Zack's brother.  Thanks for the music guys!
You can hear other Busker Days recordings featuring Zack and Brian here and here.