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All posts for the month April, 2019

Grady and Brady – Star of the Show

Posted by funky16corners on April 28, 2019
Posted in: 45s, Au Go Go, Culture, folk rock, garage punk, Iron Leg, Leon Russell, Music, pop, Rock. Tagged: , , , . 2 Comments

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Grady and Brady on Shivaree in 1965

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Listen/Download – Grady and Brady – Star of the Show

Greetings all.

Today’s selection was picked up a while back in the midst of a David Gates dragnet.

Gates, best known for his work with Bread spent much of the decade prior to the founding of that group as an extremely busy songwriter and producer in Los Angeles.

Gates was part of the great Oklahoma to Los Angeles musical diaspora of the 60s (along with Leon Russell among many others) and worked in the studio with all kinds of acts, including the early Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.

Today’s selection is one of the last 45s by the twin-brother duo of Grady and Brady Sneed. There’s not much info out there about them other than that they recorded a string of 45s for southern California labels like Dolton and Planetary.

Today’s selection, ‘Star of the Show’ was written produced by Gates for the Planetary label (for which he’d also worked with Dorothy Berry) in 1965.

The tune is a great cross between a kind of Everly Brothers vibe with a 1965 garage/Stones wailing harmonica and guitar attack.

Despite the coolness of the record, it doesn’t appear to have gotten any radio play. What it did get was the twins a spot on the SoCal dance party show Shivaree. There’s a great clip on Youtube of their performance where you can see the Byrds in the background.

Their other Planetary 45, ‘Love or Money’ is also very cool in a similar vein.

I hope you dig the tune, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #97

Posted by funky16corners on April 21, 2019
Posted in: 45s, Au Go Go, Beach Boys, Beatles-esque Sounds, Brian Wilson, Bubblegum, Buffalo Springfield, Canadian Music, Country Rock, cover versions, Culture, folk rock, freakbeat, garage punk, Iron Leg, Iron Leg Radio Show, Music, Original versions, pop, psychedelia, Rock, Sunset Strip, Sunshine Pop. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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Why hello there!

Playlist

The Creation – Making Time (Planet)
The Soulful Bowlful – For All That I Am (20th Century Fox)
The Creation – Try and Stop Me (Planet)
John Wonderling – Midway Down (Loma)
The Tokens – For All That I Am (WB)

The Rose Garden – I’m Only Second (Atco)
The Rose Garden – Till Today (Atco)
The Rose Garden – Long Time (Atco)
Kitchen Cinq – Determination (LHI)
Strawberry Alarm Clock – Tomorrow (UNI)

Neil Young – Emperor of Wyoming (Reprise)
Neil Young – The Loner (Reprise)
Neil Young – The Old Laughing Lady (Reprise)
Three Dog Night – The Loner (ABC/Dunhill)

The Beach Boys – Wake the World (Brother)
Esko Affair – Morning Dull Fires (Mercury)
Hello People – If I Should Sing Too Softly (Philips)
PJ Proby – Don’t Forget About Me (Liberty)
Tom Northcott – 1941 (WB)
Tom Northcott – Sunny Goodge Street (WB)
Tom Northcott – Blackberry Way (UNI)
Tommy James – Draggin’ The Line (Roulette)

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #97 – 180MB/256kbps

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It’s Iron Leg Radio time again!

We have a cool one for you this month, with  set of Creation and Creation-originals, some folk rock, garage, psych, pop, early Neil Young, and a couple by Tom Northcott. 

Click here to subscribe to any of the Funky16Corners Radio Network shows!

So dig it, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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The Definitive Rock Chorale – Variations On a Theme of Hanky Panky

Posted by funky16corners on April 14, 2019
Posted in: 45s, Au Go Go, Baroque, Brill Building, Bubblegum, cover versions, Culture, Iron Leg, Music, pop. Tagged: , . 1 Comment

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Ellie Greenwich

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Listen/Download – The Definitive Rock Chorale – Variations On a Theme of Hanky Panky

Greetings all.

A while back, I included today’s selection on an episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show devoted to Pineywood Productions.

A songwriting/production cooperative formed by Ellie Greenwich and Mike Rashkow in the late 60s, Pineywood made records by a variety of performers, but the main showcase for their work was the trio of 45s by the Definitive Rock Chorale.

An assemblage of NY-based studio musicians and singers, the DRC released their records between 1967 and 1969 for the Philips and Bell labels.

Today’s selection is not only their best work, but in my opinion one of the best and most interesting, highly imaginative 45s of the era.

Released in 1967, ‘Variations…’ uses the Barry/Greenwich composition ‘Hanky Panky’ (most famously done by Tommy James and the Shondells) as its base, then taking off in a wild variety of stylistic direction.

It opens with an orchestral fanfare, moving into a straight pop reading of the song. It then moves on into a baroque interpretation, then – surprisingly – into a fairly faithful boogaloo take on the song (en Espanol, of course). Next up is a Free Design-style choral round, then into a soul shouting take, then into folk-psych, then again (have whiplash yet?) into a brassy, show-bizzy vibe, before disappearing in an echo chamber.

It’s crazy stuff, but not so crazy that it shouldn’t have made a splash on AM radio, which it did not, with the exception of weirdly scattered regional play on the East coast and the Midwest in the Spring of 1968.

The group’s biggest success was with their debut 45, ‘Mirrors of Your Mind’ in the Fall of 1967 (the tune was also recorded by Anthony and the Imperials on their groovy 1967 ‘Reflections’ album).

For a deeper look at Pineywood Productions, dig into Iron Leg Radio Show #84.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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The Jetset – Jetset Theme

Posted by funky16corners on April 7, 2019
Posted in: Beatles-esque Sounds, Bubblegum, Culture, Iron Leg, Mod, Mod Revival, Music, pop. Tagged: , . 1 Comment

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The Jetset

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Listen/Download – The Jetset – Jetset Theme

Greetings all.

Today’s selection goes back to the heyday of the 1980s mod/garage thing, in which my friends and I were marinating.

Thanks go out to Mr Luther for putting some of the Jetset’s songs on a mixtape way back when.

Formed in the early 80s, the Jetset were remarkable not only for writing great, catchy, 60s-sounding pop songs, but for operating under the conceit that they were a Monkees-esque, pop art, fully expanded, fully branded, uniformly-costumed, chased by packs of girls, unit.

When you pick up their first album, ‘There Goes the Neighborhood’, you are looking at what appears to be the soundtrack to a (non-existent) film, with cartoon versions of the band, a Jetset-mobile and a band factsheet complete with teenybop-friendly band favorites.

It’s the kind of postmodern schtick that you’d expect from a band today, but seemed really fresh and unusual back in the mid-80s.

That the Jetset were able to back up the put-on with well crafted songs was a bonus.

Today’s selection is the opening track from ‘There Goes the Neighborhood’, the self-explanatory ‘Jetset Theme’.

One of the things I find interesting about the Jetset is that although they came up right in the middle of the 60s-revival scene, and their songs are definitely working that side of the street, the production is pretty straight-ahead 80s.

‘Jetset Theme’ is filled with groovy hooks, an anthemic chorus and feels a little like a Jam tune, but not so much that it irritates me (since I’m pretty much alone in my peer group in not digging the Jam all that much).

The Jetset went on to release four more albums between 1986 and 1988, with leader Paul Bevoir going on to the group Smalltown Parade and solo albums into the 2000s.

I hope you dig the track, and I’ll see you all next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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