The Shadows of Knight - Bad Little Woman

Our last post focused on the rare 1965 single from Northern Ireland's The Wheels and their composition, Bad Little Woman. We return today with a recording of the same song from Chicago hipsters, The Shadows of Knight. We've written about the band extensively on this site so we won't rehash their history today. 

The Shadows of Knight, who first captured lightning in a bottle with a cover of Gloria by Northern Ireland's, Them, released Bad Little Woman in August of 1966 for our beloved Dunwich Records. They even got a picture sleeve for the release! They must have figured re-recording Northern Ireland based bands was the key to success. The Shadows of Knight's version is very different than either of The Wheels' versions. Gone is the harmonica and slide guitar opening/closing riffs and the random tempo changes. In it's place is some blistering guitar work by Jim Kelly and ethereal organ work. I'll let you decide which version works best. 

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

The Wheels - Bad Little Woman/Road Block

Bad Little Woman

Road Block

Welcome to Belfast in Northern Ireland. Belfast is perhaps best known (musically speaking) for producing Van Morrison's launch-pad of a band, Them. But in the same clubs and dance halls another quintet was raving it up for the kids of Belfast. A band that had quite a lot in common with Them. That band was known as The Wheels. The Wheels were Victor Catling, Rod Demick, Brian Rossi (aka Brian Rosbotham, Tito Tinsley and Herbie Armstrong. The Wheels produced three records for Columbia Records in a brief 11 month span starting in the Fall of 1965. All to poor sales.

We feature today, The Wheels' second single, released in the UK on February 4, 1965. The A-Side is a band composition called Bad Little Woman. It tells the tale of, well, a bad little woman. She goes for the man with the money, big shiny Cadillacs and she even smells like - gasp! - gypsy rose. No!!!!! The song is a beat stomping raver in the first order.

The Flip-Side is another raver composed by the whole band and is called Road Block. It shares more than a passing similarity to Them's Mystic Eyes. And the similarity doesn't end there. Both sides are co-produced by Tommy Scott, whom produced much of Them's finest work.

Rather surprisingly the Wheels actually saw a US release of Bad Little Woman on Aurora Records in January 1966. The Flip-Side is not Road Block, but rather the Tommy Scott penned, Don't You Know, also performed and recorded by Them. And here is the kicker, the US version of Bad Little Woman is very different than the UK release. Further confusing, it was released under the name The Wheel-A-Ways. The website Garage Hangover, suggests it is an earlier take. Take a look at that site for lots of cool info on The Wheels. Also look at the video below to hear the US release of Bad Little Woman. 

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

Dr. Ross - Chicago Breakdown

(originally published, 6/10/11)

Dr. Ross originally hailed from Tunica, Mississippi and made many of his earliest recordings at the fabled Sun Records Studio in Memphis, TN with producer Sam Phillips. Today's SoTW, is the flip-side of Ross' second record (the first was for Chicago's Chess Records) and was recorded on October 3rd, 1952. Dr. Ross was known as the one man band as he often played guitar, harmonica, kick drum and sang all by his lonesome. This recording happens to have a guest musician, Reuben Martin, on washboard.

Doctor Isaiah Ross remains largely unknown, even to casual blues fans. Why? Well, his brand of blues was rough and droning and he lacked the sophistication that a Muddy Waters or Robert Johnson brought to the genre. Add to that the fact that Dr. Ross took a job in 1954 with GM in Flint, Michigan, which, in a huge understatement, is no music mecca. On top of that, Doctor Ross recorded for multiple labels and, like John Lee Hooker, to whom comparisons are obvious, recorded under multiple names and re-recorded his more popular songs multiple times. That all adds up to a hard to pin down musician and hard to break into a larger audience market.

Today's song is the Chicago Breakdown. While it is the flip-side of the single, it is the better known side. The droning open chord riff is complimented by Ross' guttural harmonica work that weaves seamlessly with Ross' hollerin' vocals. I think I would pass out if I was going between singing and blowing a harmonica like he does. Ross gives a little history of himself in the song and he sings it with quite a thick southern accent, y'all.

Below is a vid of him doing his one-man band thing in Germany circa 1965.

Vinyl Frontier - Audrey Hepburn

Happy Birthday Audrey Hepburn.

The Lionhearted - Too Bad

A follow-up to yesterday's post on the 1966 release by The Bad Roads. Today we come back with an ultra low-fi cover of the Flip-Side of The Bad Roads' single, Too Bad. The band is The Lionhearted and the unreleased recording of Too Bad was made in a garage outside of Davis, California during the Summer of 1988. The brief-lived band was Greg Baxter on vocals and a 1952 Silvertone guitar, Jack Hayden on an Epiphone Sheraton guitar, Morgan Young on a 1967 EB2D bass and a guy named Greg on drums. Yeeha!

You can hear another Lionhearted recording from the same rehearsal, this time of The Yardbirds' Honey In Your Hips, here. 

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