Song Of The Week: The St. Louis Union -- East Side Story

The other week we highlighted the Manchester mod group, The Toggery Five, and their excellent original from 1964, I'm Gonna Jump. Today, we return to Manchester and spin the third and final record from a sextuplet named The St. Louis Union. The song is the blue-eyed soul raver from October of 1966, East Side Story. East Side Story, it should be noted, was written and first recorded by Bob Seger for Hideout Records. (You may recall, this is the same label that hosted The Pleasure Seekers, whom we wrote about just last week.)

Not long after this recording, The St. Louis Union moved to a state of disunion and the members scattered to the wind. Those members were singer Tony Cassidy, guitarist Keith Millar -- who apparently played with Rod Stewart forever --  Saxophonist Lenni Zaksen, organ player Dave Tomlinson, Bassist John Nichols and drummer Dave Webb. I want to give special love to John Nichols who really lays down a beautiful sounding bass line.

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

Vinyl Frontier - Megan Fox

Ziggy Stardust getting a little love from Megan Fox

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.