Sweet Tarts II: More Delicious Candies For Your Ears!

May 04, 2019

Sweet Tarts II: More Delicious Candies For Your Ears!

1 How Do You Feel?

How Do You Feel?

2 Morpheus • TALES OF JUSTINE
Imagine the expectations for this young trio of musicians who called themselves Tales of Justine. In 1967, they made a splash in London’s still influential musical underground, then were quickly scooped up by EMI, home of The Beatles. Ushered into the famed Abbey Road studios, they recorded a stack of high quality tracks under the careful watch of ace A&R man Tim Rice and a young arranger named Andrew Lloyd Webber. Uh huh, that’s right, the two behind Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. So how did a group with so much promise end up with a single 45 rpm and nothing more?

Weeks after their sojourn to EMI, the band faced a minor setback with drummer Bruce Hurford’s departure from the group. When the band finally found a replacement, it was clear EMI had already cooled their heels. Undaunted, they hit the studio again to record several songs including the dramatic “Morpheus”. While the tracks were promising, Rice & Webber had shifted gears, focusing instead on theatrical productions. Additionally, the two convinced lead singer David Daltry to join them as the door was closing behind them. Without anyone lobbying for TOJ at EMI, they were quickly forgotten and the band folded by the winter of 1968.

Clearly the group is not on board with their colleague's wrinkled sweater and flea market pants.

Morpheus

3 Bell, A Részeges Kutya • METRO
Metro was a mid-60’s Hungarian beat/pop quintet that eventually settled on a more psychedelic pop approach by 1969. Initially, prior to their recording contract, they performed in English, covering songs by the usual suspects: Elvis, Cliff Richards, Roy Orbison, etc. Qualiton signed them in late 1965 and they soon began crafting compositions of their own, with the bulk of compositions coming from Dusán Sztevanovity, their rhythm guitarist. By 1967 they were enjoying the fruits of their labor, having released a long string of 45’s and appearing on a compilation LP with their main local rivals Omega and Illés.

1969 looked quite promising for the group, with the release of an engaging self-titled LP. Unfortunately, as noted previously, the Communist Party was literally bringing down the curtain on the psychedelic generation in Hungary, and Metro was forced to call it quits in 1970. “Bell, A Részeges Kutya” (“Bell, A Drunken Dog”) is from a 1967 EP.

Bell, A Részeges Kutya

4 Shades of Orange • END
The End was a Brit band that formed in 1965 and brought to the attention of Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman by recording engineer Glyn Johns. They toured with the Stones that year but didn’t make much of an impact, and the The End only released a couple of singles over the course of the next twelve months. In 1968, while Wyman was at work on Their Satanic Majesties Request, The End managed to get themselves signed to the Stone’s label Decca, reigniting Wyman’s interest in the group. The Stones sessions at the time had a significant impact on the sound of the End, as evidenced on their Decca single “Shades of Orange”/”Loving, Sacred Loving.” “Shades” even appears on the ten disc bootleg of the Their Satanic Majesties Request sessions.

Shades of Orange

5 Little Soldier Boy • YARDBIRDS
The Yardbirds started out as a blues-based rock band and scored a few American hits in the mid-60’s, most notably “For Your Love” and “Heart Full of Soul”. In 1966, due to a persistent illness and explosive temper, Jeff Beck was forced to leave the group. Beck’s departure, combined with declining record sales, began to make their label Columbia rather nervous. In an effort to stimulate chart action, the label brought in hit-maker Mickie Most. Most had an impressive track record with The Animals, Herman’s Hermits, Lulu and Donovan, and was particularly famous his ability to identify singles destined for the top of the charts. This particular combination proved ill-fated however, as The Yardbirds were growing more experimental and focused on making cohesive albums.

“It was just so bloody rushed.

Everything was done in one
take because Mickie Most was
basically interested in singles
and didn’t believe it was worth
the time to do the tracks right
on the album”
- Jimmy Page

The Most sessions for the band’s fourth US album release Little Games were rushed and strangely haphazard. The bulk of the tracks were laid down in just three days, a feat that could only be accomplished with the use of studio musicians. Members of the band were reportedly ushered in and out so quickly they rarely heard playbacks. The vocalized trumpet sound you hear in “Little Soldier Boy” was only intended as a rough guide for the actual instrument! Most’s obsession with wrapping-up on budget lead the engineer to just leave it as it was. In hindsight, a fortuitous decision (IMHO). A couple singles were released from the LP, including a horrible cover version of “Ha Ha Said The Clown”, previously recorded by Manfred Mann.

Little Soldier Boy

6 World of Love • DUG DUG’s
First, let’s get the name out of the way. Dug Dug’s is an abbreviation for the home city and state in which they formed: Durango, Mexico. They moved about Mexico through the middle 60’s, relocating to Tijuana and then Mexico City, finding massive success in the country’s largest city. RCA signed them in 1966 and the resulting singles enjoyed great popularity. As fate would have it, an American tourist, Frank Mangano, caught Dug Dug’s fever and offered to pay their travel expenses if they would come to New York to perform. They accepted.

In New York, they completed the majority of the tracks which would appear on their self titled debut LP (later christened Lost In My World). Meanwhile, the hope that New York would take notice was fading, as union fees limited their ability to appear in large venues. They returned to their homeland, slightly dejected. Unfulfilled promises and long simmering internal strife soon resulted in the band’s dissolution. It would be three years before their completed album would see the light of day, though the singles culled from the work (“Lost In My World” b/w “I Got The Feeling” and “Let’s Make It Now” b/w “World Of Love”) apparently did quite well in Mexico.


The kind of wardrobe that helps you blend in on the streets of New York

World of Love

An interesting documentary on Mexican rock through the years: Dug Dugs featured at 24:50

7 One • WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS (movie clip)

Seriously... there is nothing I can add. The poster says it all.

One

See the trailer for this gem here!

8 Far Side Of Your Moon • THE FOURTH WAY
A magical secret locked in a round vinyl sarcophagus. Little is known about this 1968 one-off release on Soul City Records. It is unlikely they are related to the jazz fusion band by the same name that appeared on the Capitol label in the early 70’s. “Far Side” is written by Steve Venet, who was a well established producer and writer for many acts, including: The Monkees, The Ikettes, The Searchers and Freddy Cannon. Appropriately, it is produced by musical oddball Tony Marer. Marer worked as a producer for Dr. West’s Medicine Show And Junk Band, the group that introduced Norman “Spirit In The Sky” Greenbaum to the world a year earlier.

Far Side Of Your Moon

9 Just What I Was Looking For • THE SPECTRUM
RCA records made a fortune on The Monkees and tried their own hand at creating a manufactured band for the UK and European markets. So it’s no wonder this song sounds remarkably like a Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart finger snapper (“Out & About” comes to mind). Though the five piece were featured regularly on the UK children’s vehicle Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons (similar to The Thunderbirds), and spotlighted on pirate radio, they had only sporadic success in various European markets.

Regrettably, the group was unaware of their lead singer's walking phobia until it was too late.

Just What I Was Looking For

The Spectrum perform the Captain Scarlet theme!

10 Maria Joana • ERASMO CARLOS
Erasmo Carlos was a very successful and prolific artist in his homeland of Brazil throughout the mid and late 1960’s. The influence for much of his early pop output had been typically American (Berry, Presley, etc), something for which he took a barb or two. Perhaps this was partly the reason for Carlos jumping on the Tropicalia bandwagon.

His self-titled 1971 LP is notable not only for being one of the last gasps of the experimental movement but also for the interesting and unique sounds on display (most notably soul, psychedelia, and funk). "Maria Joana" is a wonderful marimba-driven steel drum ode to the dreamy wonders of marijuana, and was featured as the A-side on the first single culled from the album. “O amor. Vem como nuvem de fumaça!”

Maria Joana

11 Only Last Year • AVENGERS
The Avengers had two successful singles and the LP Electric Recording under their belts by the close of 1967. Taking full advantage of their rising popularity, they toured Australia and New Zealand extensively during early 1968. In June, they were quickly ushered into the studio to lay down tracks for a proposed third single. It was suggested they take a crack at the Del Satins song “Love, Hate, Revenge”, even though a version by The Episode Six appeared a year earlier in the UK. Smart move, as the record proved to be their biggest hit, reaching #2 in New Zealand. The flipside was Alan Galbraith’s psychedelic pop gem “Only Last Year”.

Only Last Year

12 Kara Tren • DÜN BUGÜN YARIN
The band’s name translates into English as “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”. The Turkish Anatolian-pop/folk/psych band was active in the early 1970’s, releasing over a dozen singles between 1972 - 1975. That said, it’s amazing what little is known about them. "Kara Tren" refers to the black steam engines which would deliver mail throughout Turkey. This single was released on Melodi Plak in 1972, a label known for handling Turkish distribution for the American labels Liberty & Reprise, among many others. Zihin üfleme!

Kara Tren

13 Dr. Tarr Professor Feather • CONDELLO
Michael Condello began as a musical director for two local Phoenix, AZ youth-oriented programs before taking a stab at a rock career. His first album was a Beatles parody titled Commodore Condello’s Salt River Navy Band which contained tracks such as “Sarafina Faces Life (Or At Least A Few Freaks)” and “Pollen’s Found A Home In My Nose”. I have to admit... those titles made me smile.

In November 1968, Condello released the psychedelic pop album Phase 1 on Sceptor records. To his credit, he wrote most of the tracks, including the one featured here. Notably, the LP also featured future Tubes guitarist William Spooner. Condello would release more records throughout the early 70’s and be inducted into the Arizona Music Hall of Fame. Sadly, he suffered from serious bouts of depression and killed himself in August of 1995.

Dr. Tarr Professor Feather

14 Porpoise Song • THE MONKEES
Perhaps my favorite song of all time... in any genre. Composer Carole King was Bob Rafleson’s favorite contributor on the Monkees project, so when it came to creating a theme song for his surrealistic band bio Head, he reached out to her. “Carole King was living in an apartment building on Sunset Boulevard, and I went to her apartment every day, and we would sit and we would talk,“ recalls Rafelson. “That song was critical to me. ‘A face, a voice, an overdub has no choice.’ In other words, the whole synthetic process of making The Monkees’ records was about to be [examined] in the movie.”

Expertly produced by King’s husband Gerry Goffin (misspelled as Jerry Goffin on the LP), the track was recorded in early February ‘68 and released in October that same year. Though failing to make an impact at the time, the record would be hailed by Quenton Tarentino, covered by The Church, Polyphonic Spree and Bongwater, and featured in the film Vanilla Sky and TV program Mad Men.

Porpoise Song

Watch the truly wonderful Porpoise Song (begins at 3:25)

15 Let’s Make The Water Turn Black • MOTHERS OF INVENTION
The early Mothers albums could well be classified as experimental comedy, and their third LP We’re Only In It For The Money was no exception. Originally conceived as the opening salvo for a multi-record project called “No Commercial Potential”, the album satirizes politics (left and right) and The Beatles (most notably the bloated Sgt. Peppers). Cool factoid: Orchestration for the record was borrowed from an instrumental release they did earlier for Capitol Records.

Being true satirists, there were all sorts of predictable corporate objections to the release; ranging from the artwork to the contents. The band paid $4000 to have a parody created of the Sgt Peppers cover, and even reached out to Paul McCartney for advanced approval. McCartney responded it was up to the business entities and EMI predictably balked. Likewise, there were numerous complaints by Verve Records parent MGM over the tracks themselves. On “Let’s Make The Water Turn Black”, the line “I still remember Mama, with her apron and her pad” was initially removed as it was thought “pad” referred to a sanitary napkin, rather than ‘order pad’. At least that's the story Zappa used to tell.

Faces only the mothers could love!

Let’s Make The Water Turn Black

16 Nice • CROCHETED DOUGHNUT RING
The Crocheted Doughnut Ring sprung to life from the remains of The Fingers (“Circus With A Female Clown”) and the Force Five just as the summer of ‘67 was coming to a close. The unique name was derived from a Peter Blake pop art collage and bequeathed upon the musicians by their producer Peter Eden. Eden also wrote the single, under a pseudonym, for which the band will forever be remembered: “Two Little Ladies (Azalea & Rhododendron)”.

When the record was shopped around, Polydor immediately gave it a thumbs-up. Reportedly, however, the band was not prepared with a B-Side. The enterprising Eden took elements of the song and ran them backwards, adding additional instrumentation and phasing. When it was completed, he titled it “Nice”. Pirate radio stations in the UK immediately fell for the odd flipside.

Peter Blake’s A Museum For Myself

Nice

17 I Can’t Reach You • THE WHO
A good friend of mine said the following when I mentioned I had been listening to several tracks by The Who: "The Who... seriously?" Yes, there was a time when The Who were an interesting and vital band and not a bloated stadium rock relic. Here we have yet another gem from the seemingly bottomless treasure chest of The Who Sell Out. I've documented a whole bunch previously about this LP, but there are a few more interesting notes about the 1967 release....

The audio jingles which appear throughout the album were recorded by the Dallas company PAMS Productions. PAMS was heavily used by the US and UK radio market to provide station ID’s. The organization apparently claims The Who were never given permission to release the recordings.
Production on the album proper began immediately after they returned home from an appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival and lasted three weeks.
Original copies of the record contained a locked groove at the completion of side two that endlessly played an instrumental that had been intended to be part of a mock radio jingle.


One look at those schnozes and you see why Photoshop became necessary.

I Can’t Reach You

Some PAMS stuff... beware, after 15 seconds you will have had enough!

18 She Was Perfection • MURRAY HEAD
The second Andrew Lloyd Webber-related performer on this compilation! Murray Head first gained prominence when tapped by Tim Rice to appear in Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Prior to that he had been a song writer and performer with singles on Columbia, Capitol and Immediate Records.

“She Was Perfection” was written by Head and produced by Mike Hurst for Immediate Records in 1967... the same year he made his acting debut in A Coeur Joie with Brigitte Bardot. Eighteen years later, he would enjoy a worldwide smash hit with “One Night In Bangkok".

A dubious duck skeptically listens to Murray's latest single

She Was Perfection

19 Si La Guerra Es Buen Negocio Invierte A Tus Hijos • LOS SPEAKERS
The English translation is “If War Is Good Business, Invest Your Kids,” which I guess clarifies on which side of the political fence these Colombian tune-smiths reside! Los Speakers were a Bogota-based outfit with origins in the early 1960’s. They essentially formed from the remnants of Los Dinámicos and Los Electrónicos and by the mid-sixties had successfully established themselves as a successful beat (“go go”) band.

After a string of successful LP’s and national adulation, the group made a rather bizarre move. They entered the studio and recorded two “tropical” albums under the name Los Angeles. Then, believing these recordings would cause their fan base to respond negatively, the lads strongly denied any association with this other musical entity.

A year later they were in the studio again, ready to delve into the world of pop psychedelia. The resulting work, En El Maravilloso Mundo De Ingeson, was recorded over four months in the summer of ‘68 utilizing marimbas, xylophones, tabla, glass, bells, and indigenous percussion. Sadly, even with positive critical response and significant promotion, the record only sold 800 copies.

Si La Guerra Es Buen Negocio Invierte A Tus Hijos

20 Smokeytime Springtime • DOVES
Vocalist/guitarist Terry Clark was looking for a new band after the collapse of The Herd. Through mutual friends, he was introduced to Henry Turtle. The hope was they would reform the band after Peter Frampton’s surprise departure. The Herd never did regroup, but Clark and Turtle did end up coaxing Mick Underwood (ex-Episode Six) to join them with a new project: The Doves. In the Autumn of 1967, they were at Decca studios recording the Turtle composition “Smokeytime Springtime” (Turtle on lead vocals). As with so much music from that period, the recording would not see the light of day until decades later.

10 years ahead of post-punk with this look. BOFFO!

Smokeytime Springtime

21 Love, Hate, Revenge • DEL SATINS
The Del Satins were a white doo-wop group from the early 60’s, mostly known for providing the harmonies on Dion’s early hits such as “Runaround Sue”. The Manhattan quintet also released a string of singles on their own, though most of the records failed to do very well. Over the course of their seven year career, the band would go through multiple personnel changes, culminating with Fred Ferrara, Johnny Maestro, Johnny Fielder, Richard Greene, and Mike Gregorio. It was this formation that recorded “Love, Hate, Revenge” for Diamond Records in January 1967.

Among the many striking things about the single, is the synthesis of beat, raga and psychedelic pop. Additionally, the stylistic metamorphosis of the band is quite remarkable, as doo-wop groups rarely found themselves following this sort of musical vibe. “Love, Hate, Revenge” was written by Ritchie Adams and Irwin Levine, and while it did nothing to further the Del Satin’s fortunes, the record has been covered multiple times. A month after their version was released, The Episode Six released their take, and in 1968 New Zealand’s Avengers had their biggest hit with an arrangement strikingly similar to the Del Satins.

Love, Hate, Revenge

22 NIMH (promo spot)

NIMH (promo spot)

23 Season Of The Witch • DONOVAN
From the author's own recollections: “Spooky, but true. I was the first pot-bust in London, followed by The Stones and The Beatles. I wrote this song before the bust. Prophecy again. How dare I be so cool? It’s a magic track. And the sorceress, she is dancing her kali dance into the numina!”. So that ought to put all the occult interpretations to rest. Or does it?

“You’ve got to pick up every stich.

Two rabbits runnin’ in the ditch.

Must be the season of the witch”

Though it’s reported this is the most performed song by the 60’s folk pop legend, it was never released as a single. The composition's first appearance was on the Sunshine Superman LP released August 1966 in the US. The ominous nature, musically and lyrically, have lead people to believe the song references the occult. And indeed, it was used a few years later for George Romero’s feminist horror film of the same name.


Sigourney Weaver wanna-be?

Season Of The Witch

Watch him perform it live!

24 Arrivederci • JODI
This intriguing track comes by way of Paraguay circa 1969. Upon returning from study under the renown Karlheinz Stockhausen (who?), brothers Joern (guitar, organ, lead vocals) and Dirk (drums and percussion) Wenger built a home studio so they could begin experimenting with sound and music. They created a style they called “spontaneous pop” and, with a couple of recorders, laid down over an album’s worth of material. The collection was eventually released on a 1971 private pressing. If you don’t see the lineage between this and the late 70’s work of Suicide, you need your hearing checked.

Hanson... eat your hearts out!

Arrivederci

25 Batman Merchandise (promo)

HOLY BOLOGNA SANDWICH BATMAN!

Batman Merchandise

26 Oranged Colored Sky • BURT WARD
Burt Ward recalls, “At the height of the [Batman] series, my agents brought me a number of lucrative offers for recording contracts. I am not a singer. Wait a minute. Let me be more precise. I am the world’s worst singer. I should have had the wisdom I now have when I signed a recording contract with MGM Records—I wouldn’t have signed it."

"MGM staffer Tom Scott was assigned as my producer. He brought in one of the visually wildest groups imaginable as my backup band, the Mothers of Invention. Their fearless leader and king of grubbiness was the late Frank Zappa. After recording with me, Frank became an internationally recognized cult superstar, which was understandable; after working with me, the only place Frank could go was up."

"For my records, the plan was to record four sides and then release two singles prior to producing an album. After listening to me sing, Frank got a wild idea to make use of my hideous voice to do a hilarious recording with a song that had some of the Batman feel to it. He picked 'Oranged Colored Sky.'"

"Though the intent was to create comedy by putting my lousy singing to good use, the actual result was so disastrous that the studio thought the tape had been left out in the sun and warped. They insisted on re-recording. I really tried to improve my singing in anticipation of the final recording session and eventual release of 'Oranged Colored Sky'. I practiced in my shower at home, even sang in the showers of my hotel rooms while on appearance tours. I rehearsed in showers because I thought it was the only safe place in the world where nobody could hear me. Was I wrong!”