This Review Along With Almost 300 Others Is Available In My
SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites
1960s and 1970s MUSIC ON CD - Volume 3 of 3
- Exceptional CD Remasters
As well as 1960s and 1970s Rock and Pop - It Also Focuses On
Blues Rock, Prog Rock, Psych, Avant Garde, Underground
Folk-Rock, Singer-Songwriter, Country Rock and more
Just Click Below To Purchase for £3.95
Thousands of E-Pages - All Details and In-Depth Reviews From Discs
(No Cut and Paste Crap)
"...Going
Out Tonight..."
Tempted
by the fruits of the Various Artists CD compilation "Making Time: A Shel
Talmy Production" released a year earlier by Ace/Big Beat Records in April
2017 (see my review) - I lunged slippers-first in my New Breed duds at this
April 2018 Big Beat follow-up CD. This time Ace focus 24-Tracks on Shel Talmy's
Production credits for the hugely collectable but short-lived British label
'Planet Records' (almost all tracks are from 1966 to be specific).
All
the right names and slants are here - compiled by ALEC PALAO with his usual plethora of fantastically detailed liner notes (cool period photos and memorabilia etc) -
Nick Robbins mastering, mega rarities making their digital debut and a whopping 15 of the
24-track haul 'Previously Unreleased'. And as you see from the wildly eclectic
artist-list provided below by yours truly - there's a world of cool 60ts music
to get through and much to discuss. So once more my mod-dancing pasty-faced
groovalicious Banditos unto the Daddy Longlegs and Gamma Goochie (if you catch
my drift)...
UK
released Friday, 27 April 2018 - "Planet Mod: Brit Soul, R&B And
Freakbeat From The SHEL TALMY Vaults" by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Ace/Big Beat
CDWIKD 336 (Barcode 029667085120) is a 24-Track Mono CD Compilation that plays
out as follows (60:11 minutes):
1.
Daddy Longlegs (Alternate Version) - THE UNTAMED (first issued on the 2000 CD
compilation "The Best Of Planet Records: A Shel Talmy Production" on
RPM Records RPM 215)
2.
Unto Us (Demo Version) - THE NEW BREED (2018, Previously Unreleased)
3.
Searching - THE SOUL BROTHERS (2018, Previously Unreleased)
4.
Mai Lee - JOHN LEE HOOKER (May 1966 UK 7" single on Planet Records PLF
114, A-side)
5.
Call Me Girl - THE THOUGHTS (2018, Previously Unreleased)
6.
Take My Tip (Alternate Take) - KENNY MILLER (2018, Previously Unreleased)
7.
I'll Never Fall In Love Again - JOHN LEE'S GROUNDHOGS (January 1966 UK 7"
single on Planet Records PLF 104, A-side)
8.
Don't Let It Be - THE TRIBE (2018, Previously Unreleased)
9.
Why Do You Stand In My Way - THE PROS & CONS (2018, Previously Unreleased)
10.
Have You Ever Had The Blues (Alternate Take) - RAY GATES (2018, Previously
Unreleased)
11.
I'm Leaving - THE UNTAMED (2018, Previously Unreleased)
12.
Too Much Of A Woman - THE CORDUROYS (December 1966 UK 7" single on Planet
Records PLF 122, B-side of "Tick Tock")
13.
Goodbye Girl - THE PREACHERS (2018, Previously Unreleased)
14.
The Skip (Alternative Version) - GOLDIE & THE GINGERBREADS (2018,
Previously Unreleased)
15.
Pretty Girl - THE THOUGHTS (2018, Previously Unreleased)
16.
Stone Crazy - SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS (First issued on the January 2017 CD
compilation "The Planet Sessions" on Ace Records CDCHD 1493)
17.
Over You Baby - JOHN LEE'S GROUNDHOGS (January 1966 UK 7" single on Planet
Records PLF 104, B-side of "I'll Never Fall In Love Again")
18.
Life's Too Good To Waste - TONY CHRISTIE AND THE TRACKERS (1966 UK 7"
single on CBS Records 202097, A-side, A Barbara Ruskin song)
19.
The Gamma Goochie - THE TRIBE (February 1966 UK 7" single on Planet
Records PLF 108, A-side)
20.
Broken Truth - A WILD UNCERTAINTY (October 1966 UK 7" single on Planet
Records PLF 120, B-side of "A Man With Money")
21.
Mary Ann - THE PROS & CONS (2018, Previously Unreleased)
22.
Think - THE TOTAL (2018, Previously Unreleased)
23.
I'm Going Out Tonight - THE UNTAMED (First appeared on the 2001 CD compilation
"Gimme Gimme" on RPM Records RPM 223)
24.
Goodbye So Long - THE SOUL BROTHERS (2018, Previously Unreleased)
All
tracks are in MONO
Fifteen
tracks are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED - they are Tracks 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11,
13, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 24
JOHN
LEE'S GROUNDHOGS featured TONY McPHEE on Guitar, PETE CRUICKSHANK on Bass and
KEN PUSTELNIK on Drums
Who
would become 60ts and 70ts Blues-Rock band THE GROUNDHOGS
The
20-page booklet is a typically splendiferous affair - pictured are uber rare
release-sheets for The Tribe's single "The Gamma Goochie" (4 Feb
1966), John Lee's Groundhogs and their version of "I'll Never Fall In Love
Again" (21 Jan 1966), an I.B.C Studios Acetate for The Pros & Cons
unreleased "Mary Ann", a gorgeous colour picture sleeve from Germany
on Hit-Ton Records for John Lee Hooker's "Mai Lee", Planet Records
publicity calling cards for The Thought, A Wild Uncertainty and The Untamed, an
outtake photo of Screamin' Jay Hawkins with his wife Ginny, a snap of the
mighty Hook with his guitar backstage at The Twisted Wheel in 1964, and a
mastertape from a November 1966 session.
Paulo
is the kind of geezer who has way too much knowledge but thankfully his
enthusiasm and love for this music never abates. Who else would know that Danny
Alexander joined Liverpool's 'The Thought' for their European Tour in 1967 and
is this fellow Scouser who sings lead on "Call Me Girl" and a roaring
version of The Easybeats "Pretty Girl" - both tracks unreleased
(slated as the follow-up to the hugely collectable "All Night Stand"
single).
NICK
ROBBINS has mastered the compilation and considering the vintage - it's a
bang-up Mono job. Most of these cuts are dripping with that hard-hitting Kinks
garage sound – groovers and boppers – and some like the unreleased
"Searching" by The Soul Brothers would have been hit-record material
in 1966. OK – this CD doesn’t contain those mythical darlings of Mod – The
Creation – and not everything on here (strictly speaking) has Talmy’s
involvement (they admit this). But as Paulo’s notes point out – his fingers and
choices are all over every cut. Frankly though – when I’m grooving to the
fabulous bopper-cool Alternate Take of "Take My Tip" (dig those brass
jabs) by Kenny Miller or the Hammond sexy Boogaloo instrumental "The
Skip" by Goldie & The Gingerbreads (another Previously Unreleased
Alternate) – I don’t care about strict rules – this stuff is wickedly good.
Tony
McPhee and Groundhogs fans now get both the A&B-sides of their second UK 45
on Planet PLF 104 from January 1966 – a £100-plus R&B rarity that often
sells for way more (if you can find a copy). The Pros & Cons get two
unreleased poppers - "Why Do You Stand In My Way" and "Mary
Ann" – the first being a rather weedy Beatles copy with the second being
better. Far better is "Have You Ever Had The Blues" – Ray Gates
wrapping his Chris Farlowe/Jackie Wilson vocals around a great cover of a Lloyd
Price song. The Untamed catch the Southbound train on "I'm Leaving"
whilst getting piano-rowdy on the dancer "I'm Going Out Tonight" –
our hero telling his baby that he’s going to have a drink or two and call up
some girls he knows (that’ll show lad for sure). I can't get over how good the
unreleased Soul Brothers finisher is - "Goodbye So Long" - a 'hey hey
hey' shuffle that will have Mod dancers wishing it was on a 45 they could hunt
down and salivate over.
"...You're
Too Much Of A Woman! Hey Now! Oh Lord!" - The Corduroys tell us earnestly
on "Too Much Of A Woman" - testifying their groovy passion.
A rather
fantastic little compilation in my books - well done to all involved...
