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All posts for the month January, 2016

Steve Marcus – Eight Miles High / Half a Heart

Posted by funky16corners on January 31, 2016
Posted in: cover versions, Iron Leg, Jazz, Original versions, Uncategorized. 2 Comments

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Steve Marcus

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Listen/Download – Steve Marcus – Eight Miles High

Listen/Download – Steve Marcus – Half a Heart

Greetings all.

Here’s an interesting one, and you’ll know why as soon as you pull the trigger on the ones and zeros.

If you know the name Steve Marcus, you’ll know that he was primarily a jazzer, though in the late 60s he fell firmly in the camp of young jazz cats straddling the worlds of rock and jazz, like Gary Burton, Larry Coryell etc.

Marcus recorded a trio of albums for the Vortex label in 1968 and 1969, all of which included a bunch of early, fusion-ish takes on contemporary rock tunes by folks like the Beatles, Byrds, Rolling Stones, Donovan and Herman’s Hermits.

‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was his first LP from 1968, and features Larry Coryell on guitar, and was produced by Herbie Mann.

If you dig the above-described sounds (as I do) then you’ll find a lot to dig here, with jazz on the way to psychedelia.

‘Eight Miles High’ – already an attempt to fuse Coltrane with folk rock when first recorded by the Byrds – is a pretty straight ahead reading, with just enough jazz freakout – Marcus taking it right back to Coltrane, as it were – to bug the rockers, yet maybe not enough to bring the straight jazzers back, which is OK since it was 1968 and it was all a big cauldron of bouillabaisse and nobody had to eat the whole thing anyway. It was there for the sampling.

Which brings us to the second track today in which the word sampling takes on a whole ‘nother meaning.

‘Half a Heart’ is very clearly the model for the sax line that Raphael Ravenscroft laid down in Gerry Rafferty’s 1978 hit ‘Baker Street’.

The provenance is clouded somewhat by the fact that Ravenscroft apparently denied knowing the Marcus recording (yeah, right…) and suggested that he was reworking an “old blues riff” (um, no). That,and the fact that the song ‘Half a Heart’ is credited to vibist Gary Burton, who has no memory of writing it.

Larry Coryell might by the connective tissue here, since he played on the Steve Marcus version, and then recorded his own version in 1969 (which remained unreleased until 1976) for which he took writing credit.

Either way, there’s no way that there isn’t at least an indirect line from Steve Marcus to Gerry Rafferty (apparently the demo that Rafferty handed to Ravenscroft had the riff in question already played on a guitar, in which case it may very well have been lifted from Coryell’s record), no matter how vociferously it was denied.

Check out this article in the Atlantic for more detail.

So dig the sounds, and I’ll see you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

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Summer Snow – Flying On the Ground b/w Your Thoughts Have Wings

Posted by funky16corners on January 24, 2016
Posted in: 45s, Buffalo Springfield, cover versions, Culture, Curt Boettcher, folk rock, Iron Leg, Music, pop, psychedelia, Sunshine Pop. 1 Comment

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Listen/Download – Summer Snow – Flying On the Ground

Listen/Download – Summer Snow – Your Thoughts Have Wings

Greetings all.

The 45 I bring you today is – on its own merits – a very nice piece of soft popsike from 1967.

Summer Snow were the husband and wife team of Rudy and Pam Parker, backed here by none other than the Peppermint Trolley Company.

From another angle, this is yet another facet in the Curt Boettcher discography. The “official” line on this one is that Curt was “involved” with the 45. He’s not credited as producer or arranger, but having listened to a lot of his stuff, I’d be willing to bet that he did some vocal arranging on this record. The lead and backing vocals on both sides (especially on ‘Your Thoughts Have Wings’) have that very special Boettcher touch (at least to my ears).

There’s precious little information out there on Summer Snow (though the A-side of this 45 has been comped on ‘Book a Trip 1, the Psych Pop Sounds of Capitol Records).

Their version of ‘Flying On the Ground (Is Wrong)’ puts a nice spin on the Buffalo Springfield original (though they omit the bridge).

‘Your Thought Have Wings’ is a very nice example of that grey area where folk rock was creeping up on the fringes of the psychedelic.

If sunshiney, mellow pop is your thing, you will definitely dig this one.

I hope you do (dig it), and I’ll see you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

The Velvet Underground – Heroin

Posted by funky16corners on January 17, 2016
Posted in: Culture, Iron Leg, Music, Punk, Rock. 2 Comments

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Look, if you dig the Velvet Underground, you might also like
the Righteous Brothers or the Cowsills!

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Listen/Download – Velvet Underground – Heroin

Greetings all.

I mean, hey, what can you say about the Velvet Underground and ‘Heroin’ what h’ain’t been said already?

Not much, as it turns out, aside from some Iron Leg-gy boilerplate reminding you all (and myself to a certain extent) about how important they were to folks like me, coming up in the 80s.

Next to the 13th Floor Elevators, Love, Nick Drake and Big Star, all of whom saw an underground renaissance of sorts during the first days of the alterna-boom, before it was co-opted and diluted (and shat upon, etc etc etc), The Velvet Underground were a heavy, heavy sound for me.

And I don’t say that lightly. Much like the Beatles were for me as a much younger kid, I can probably run through their albums in my head, note for note and when I spin the records, still discover some new things.

The weird thing is, because of my age, I was familiar with Lou Reed– and as it turns out, a number of VU songs – before I had any idea who they were.

I offer up this tune today, partly as a periodic refresher as to their amazingness, but also to show you this crazy record.

I’ve seen some inexplicable “greatest hits” albums, but this one really kind of bends the mind, because not only didn’t the VU have any “hits”, they could almost be considered having gone in the opposite direction, creating noisy, abrasive anti-hits, then dropping the mic and going off to slouch in the corner.

Whether this was some insider’s attempt to reinvigorate the VU (this was released in 1970, while they had passed out of Calesville and into Yule City), or just a weird contractual obligation in an attempt to recoup losses, I cannot say.

What I can tell you is that it is a really good, well-considered compilation of the band’s MGM stuff, encompassing melodic/tuneful ish like ‘Jesus’ (my all-time fave), ‘Femme Fatale’ and ‘Sunday Morning’, and noisy stuff like ‘White Light White Heat’ and the stark dirge of ‘Heroin’.

If you’re going to whip a one-LP comp of the VU on the kids, this is a pretty good way to do it.

So (re)listen to it, savor it, and crank up the volume at the end to dig that this is a slightly different mix of the song, with the sound at the end of someone putting something down/hitting something being louder/longer than the original LP mix (mighty small potatoes, I know, but interesting nonetheless).

Dig it, and I’ll see you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.

Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #57

Posted by funky16corners on January 10, 2016
Posted in: 45s, Beatles-esque Sounds, Brill Building, Buffalo Springfield, cover versions, Culture, East LA, folk rock, garage punk, Iron Leg, Iron Leg Radio Show, Laurel Canyon, Music, Original versions, pop, Rock, Sunset Strip, Sunshine Pop. 1 Comment

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Why hello there!

Playlist

Episode #57

Alan Hawkshaw/Keith Mansfield – Action Scene (KPM)
Cherry Slush – I Cannot Stop You (USA)
Live Five – Nice Knowin’ You Baby (Picadilly)
Ronny Rae and the Dynamics – Break Time (RJR)
Guilloteens – Hey You (HBR)
Guilloteens – For My Own (HBR)
Nino Tempo & April Stevens with the Guilloteens- I Love How You Love Me (Atco)
Guilloteens – Wild Child (Columbia)

Credibility Gap – Woodschtick (excerpt) (Capitol)
Credibility Gap – Kingpin (Reprise)
Credibilty Gap – Something For Mary (WB) (promo only 45)
Credibility Gap – Grammy Sketch (promo-only flexidisc)

Jimmy Webb – PF Sloan (Reprise)
Jimmy Webb – Psalm One Five O (Reprise)
Jimmy Webb – Three Songs (Let It Be Me/Never My Love/I Wanna be Free) (Reprise)
Jimmy Webb – Songseller (Reprise)

Vicki Gomez – Boys Are a Dime a Dozen (ABC/Paramount)
Barry St John – Long and Lonely Night (GRT)
Timebox – Girl Don’t Make Me Wait (Deram)
Connie Stevens – Most of All (WB)
Ohio Express – She’s Not Coming Home (Buddah)
Buffalo Springfield – Mr Soul (45 mix) (Atco)
Buffalo Springfield – Bluebird (extended mix) (Atco)
Buffalo Springfield – Un-Mundo (45 Mix) (Atco)

 

Listen/Download -Iron Leg Radio Show Episode #57 – 183MB/256kbps

Greetings all.

Welcome to this month’s episode of the Iron Leg Radio Show.

I have some cool stuff for you this month, including some new arrivals, some rare comedy, heady singer/songwriter stuff and a couple of old faves.

As always, I hope you dig it.

See you next week.

Peace

Larry

 

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PS Head over to Funky16Corners

The Houstons – Solar Light b/w Sea of Tranquility

Posted by funky16corners on January 3, 2016
Posted in: 45s, Culture, Instrumental, Iron Leg, Kitsch, Music, Now Sound, pop. 1 Comment

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One small step…

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Listen/Download – The Houstons – Solar Light

Listen/Download – The Houstons – Sea of Tranquility

Greetings all.

Here’s a crazy one.

I first have to thank Little Danny over at Office Naps for turning me on to this one a while back.

It took me a while to score this one, but it was worth it.

If you spend enough time rummaging around in piles of records, or if you are old enough to remember the moon landing in 1969 (which I am, sort of) you’ll know that it was something of a huge deal, and this was manifested partly in a bunch of progressively weird(er) records.

Some of them were just cash-ins/rehashing of news audio type things, but some of them, like today’s selections, were actually good music, too.

The Houstons (as in ‘Houston we have a problem..’) weren’t a real group in the classic sense of the word.
The music on this 45 was the work of Japanese film composer Nozomi Aoki.

‘Solar Light’ is for 1969, decidedly 1963/Joe Meek-ish in that weird Tornadoes/Shadows/Thunderbirds Are Go way, drenched in tremelo, reverb and sound effects, in other words, super cool.

The flip side, ‘Sea of Tranquility’ (named for the crater on the moon) is one of the as strange as the A-side is conventional. A weird, experimental soundscape, with what sounds like tape manipulation, and piano and organ noodling. I can just imagine some kid picking this 45 up at a department store and having their mind blown.

Very groovy, indeed.

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

Peace

Larry

 

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PS Head over to Funky16Corners for some soul.