Video Diary - Them live on French TV doing Mystic Eyes and Gloria

Video Diary - Them

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!

Dunwich Records: The Shadows of Knight - I'm Gonna Make You Mine and I'll Make You Sorry

I'm Gonna Make You Mine

I'll Make You Sorry

Day 5 of It's Dunwich, Man! As is evident from my last four posts, I love the Dunwich Records label out of Chicago, Illinois. Mostly small, obscure, one-off recordings of bands that popped their head up seemingly from nowhere and disappeared back in their hole just as quick as a whack-a-mole at a pizza parlor game room. That is not the case with today's feature, The Shadows of Knight. They were different. They were stars in Chicago. 

The Shadows of Knight were formed in the hallways of an Arlington Heights, Illinois High School (the school nickname was...the Knights. Get it?). After a few early mutations and instrument swapping, the band settled into the line-up of Jim Sohns on vocals, Warren Rogers on Bass, Joe Kelly on lead guitar, Jerry McGeorge on rhythm guitar and Tom Schiffour on drums. In early 1966, The Shadows of Knight would soon release the first ever Dunwich record. Their cover of Them's Gloria. Now we all know all three chords of Gloria and can sing every word in our sleep, but you may not know it if it weren't for the SoK. Long story short, Gloria was the Flip-Side to Them's first US single, Baby Please Don't Go. The SoK picked it up, cleaned up some suggestive lines, and, believe it or not, scored a certifiable hit with the song. It was largely after the SoK version charted sporadically around the country (Dunwich couldn't press enough to get it out at one time nationally) that the Them version was rediscovered. The band was rushed into the studio where they put together a largely blues cover album. One of only two bands to get a full length player on the Dunwich label.

Just 10 months after Gloria hit, The Shadows of Knight had released one LP and were releasing their fourth excellent single on Dunwich. It is this release, from October of 1966, which we feature both sides of today. This is a real double-sided gem if there ever was one. The A-Side is the power chord heavy, I'm Gonna Make You Mine which never saw an LP release. Lead guitarist, Joe Kelly, puts on the fuzz, turns his Gibson ES335 up to 11, and never lets up. The sexually suggestive, sexually aggressive lyrics are rather surprising for an A-side release in '66: 

I'm Living mean, That's how I live
I'm gonna take girl and you're gonna give
I'm gonna make you mine
I want you bad, so be prepared. 

But the Flip-Side, I'll Make You Sorry, is not to be ignored. And in some ways, maybe better. I'll Make You Sorry was written by Sohns and Kelly. But I think the real star here is rhythm guitarist Jerry McGeorge. That incessant three chord riff played on the Rickenbacker is just pure joy. I never, ever tire of it.

Credit where credit is deserved: I've nicked almost all of the photographs from a Joe Kelly fan site which can be found here.

We'll see you next time 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.