Few groups have had as strong a second wind as the Rubinoos. After releasing two beloved albums in the late ‘70s (available together in a box set), the group went on hiatus for over a decade. But since their return to studio for 1998’s Paleophonic, they’ve dropped four albums of new material alongside numerous reissues, odds ‘n’ sods collections and live recordings. This latest album, their first since 2005’s Twist Pop Sin has been released initially in Spain (where the band has been warmly welcomed on tour) and features the longtime core of Jon Rubin (vocals/guitar), Tommy Dunbar (guitar/vocals/keyboard) and Al Chan (bass/vocals). Joining the trio on drums this time out is the album’s producer (and, yes, one time “Cousin Oliver”), Robbie Rist.
Dunbar’s nine original songs (including new versions of “Must Be a Word,” previously waxed by Vox Pop, and “Earth #1,” which appeared on the band’s Biff-Boff-Boing!) are complemented by a pair of covers: a sumptuous guitar-and-harmony take on Johnny Johnson’s soul side “Blame it on the Pony Express,” and a punchy run through Los Bravos’ “Black is Black.” The new tunes celebrate the basics of four-piece rock ‘n’ roll, the early days of the Beatles, and the superiority of our third planet from the Sun. There are garage rock riffs, kid-friendly horror and humor, and the sort of heartaches that make the band’s early records so memorable. The terrific “Same Old Heartbreak,” released several years ago by the song’s co-writer Kyle Vincent as modern pop on Sweet 16, resounds with the romantic urgency of the Rubinoos’ earliest gems.
Veil lifted from terrific mid-60s pop/garage hoaxers
Although the Strangeloves were reputed to be a trio of Australian brothers (Giles, Miles and Niles Strange), they were actually a successful New York songwriting and production team. Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer wrote and produced the Angels’ “My Boyfriend’s Back,” but in the British Invasion’s wake they opted for the mystery of foreign roots. The deception worked, as their debut single “I Want Candy” hit #11, and the rhythmic follow-up “Cara-Lin” cracked the Top 40. Their final chart success, the hard-driving “Night Time,” topped out at #30 and was selected (in its edited single form) by Lenny Kaye for the seminal Nuggets album. The trio played a few live dates, but the bulk of the Strangeloves’ touring was handled by the studio musicians who worked on the records.
Perhaps the most famous track recorded by the Strangeloves was their non-charting version of “Hang on Sloopy.” Written by Bert Russell (for whose Bang label the Strangeloves recorded) and Wes Farrell, the backing track was reused for the McCoy’s hit single. The version here includes the extra verse cut from the McCoys’ single (the uncut McCoys version appears on One Hit Wonders of the ‘60s, Vol. 2). The Strangeloves’ biggest hit, “I Want Candy,” was reborn with the 1982 new wave cover by Bow Wow Wow. The album’s cover songs, including Gary U.S. Bonds’ “New Orleans” and “Quarter to Three,” Johnny Otis’ “Willie and the Hand Jive” and the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” are all sung in the group’s trademark style, heavy on the vocals and rhythm.
Sixty garage rock tracks from the ‘60s at a bargain price is not as great a bargain if (a) several of the titles aren’t garage rock tunes, (b) the songs aren’t all rooted in the sixties, and most unforgiveably, (c) some of the tracks are mediocre re-recordings. As with many such collections, they make an honest effort to recreate the original instrumental and vocal arrangements; and it’s possible that original artists are involved, but some of the remakes (such as Blues Image’s “Ride Captain Ride”) simply sound anemic. Remakes never capture the once-in-a-lifetime excitement that made the hit a hit. The combination of people, place and times can’t be repeated decades later. Worst of all, mixing remakes and original hits blurs the historical record, leaving those who didn’t log extensive hour in front of their AM radios to ponder what’s real, and wonder why these tracks were hits in the first place.
Terrific 3-CD anthology of underappreciated powerhouse
Pacific Northwest powerhouse Paul Revere & the Raiders seem to have been lost in shadow of Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets and the hundreds of garage-rock compilations that followed in its wake. They aren’t exactly a secret, having recorded for Columbia, scoring fifteen Top 40 singles, garnering a feature spot on Where the Action Is and hosting their own shows, Happening ’68 and It’s Happening. But neither are they afforded the recognition their hits, B-sides, album cuts and live performances really earned. Perhaps it was the genesis of their stardom in Southern California or their major label association that kept them from garage band legend. Maybe it was the themed costumes – particularly the three-corner hats – or that vocalist Mark Lindsay had a soulful finesse which went beyond the typical garage-punk snot. Or maybe it’s that their run into the mid-70s outlasted their roots. Whatever it was, it’s left the Raiders rich catalog remembered only by a few high-charting hits.
The Raiders’ garage and frat-rock credentials were minted on a string of indie singles, and a recording of rock ‘n’ roll’s national anthem, “Louie, Louie,” that was laid down only a few weeks after the Kingsmen’s. The Raiders version bubbled under the Top 100, and along with the Wailers’ earlier version helped root the song in the Pacific Northwest. Picked up by Columbia the single had a good helping of regional success before Columbia A&R honcho Mitch Miller scuttled it. The group’s original follow-up “Louie-Go Home” sounds more like a grungy take on Otis Blackwell’s “Daddy Rolling Stone,” than a riff on Richard Berry’s original, and once again only managed to grazed the bottom of the Billboard chart. These early single, fueled by Lindsay’s fat saxophone tone and covers of R&B tunes “Night Train” and “Have Love, Will Travel,” weren’t as raw as the Sonics, but were still a lot meatier than most of their L.A., Chicago or Northeast counterparts.
“Louie, Louie,” originally released on the Sande label, turned out to be the Raiders ticket to the big time: a deal with Columbia Records. The group continued to crank out R&B covers for the next year, including a fuzz-heavy cover of Gene Thomas’ country-tinged “Sometimes” and a solid take on the Aaron Neville hit “Over You.” The group’s original were initially limited to B-sides, such as the instrumental “Swim,” but in 1965 the Lindsay/Revere composition “Steppin’ Out” began the group’s assault on the charts. Revere’s organ riffs and a confrontational lyric gave this single a tougher garage sound that took them just shy of the Top 40. A short-lived detour into Jan & Dean-styled car songs (“SS396” b/w “Corvair Baby”) was followed by a trifecta of the group’s best remembered hits.
First up was “Just Like Me,” with a wickedly insinuating organ riff, a brilliant double guitar solo, and a vocal that rises from barely contained verses to emotionally explosive choruses. Next was Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil’s anti-drug “Kicks,” turned down by the Animals and taken to #4 by the Raiders. Lindsay really sells the song, singing the lyric as both a lecture and a plea, forceful on the verses and understanding in the choruses. The group cracked the Top 10 again with another Mann & Weil tune, “Hungry,” propelled by its hypnotically powerful bass line. The group (with Terry Melcher) subsequently began writing many of their own hits and B-sides, including “Good Thing,” “Him or Me,” and “Ups and Downs,” and Melcher began adding studio musicians to the mix.
As 1967 turned into 1968 the band stretched from their Northwest rock roots into sunshine pop, bubblegum, folk rock, soul and light-psych. Fine sides from this period include the Beatle-esque “Too Much Talk,” the groovy theme songs “Happening ‘68” and “It’s Happening,” and the chewy “Cinderella Sunshine” and “Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon.” The latter two are among the sides Lindsey produced for the band after their separation from Terry Melcher and the arrival of three replacement Raiders with Southern roots. By the end of the 1960s the group’s singles were charting lower, often outside the Top 40, but their quality never dipped, and the advent of stereo releases (with 1969’s “We Gotta All Get Together”) finally detached their sound from the monophonic thrash of their Northwest roots.
Their success was renewed in 1971 with a cover of John D. Loudermilk’s “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian),” a song that had been recorded a decade earlier by Marvin Rainwater and with some commercial success by Don. The Raiders’ version topped the singles charts – they’re only #1 – and sold a million copies. The renewed success was brief however: a follow-up cover of Joe South’s “Birds of a Feather” just missed the Top 20, and their next four singles charted lower and lower, ending their run with 1973’s barely charting pre-disco “Love Music.” The group’s contract with Columbia ended in 1975, lead singer Mark Lindsay left for a solo career, and though the group soldiered on with sporadic new releases they became more of a fixture on the oldies circuit.
Collectors’ Choice’s 3-CD set offers sixty-six tracks that cover all of the group’s Columbia singles. The B-sides offer some real treats, including the autobiographical “The Legend of Paul Revere,” the Las Vegas grind-styled instrumental “B.F.D.R.F. Blues,” the flower-power “Do Unto Others,” the trippy “Observations from Flight 285 (in 3/4 Time),” the muscular jam “Without You,” the Band-styled country-rock “I Don’t Know,” the Peter & Gordon-ish “Frankford Side Street,” and the organ instrumental “Terry’s Tune.” There are four rarities: the withdrawn “Rain, Sleet, Snow” and its flip “Brotherly Love,” and promo songs for the GTO (“Judge GTO Breakaway”) and a Mattel doll (“Song for Swingy”). The collection closes with the post-Mark Lindsay “Your Love (is the Only Love),” featuring Bob Wooley on lead vocal. Missing are the group’s pre-Columbia singles, including their boogie-woogie instrumentals “Beatnik Sticks” and “Like, Long Hair,” and their last single “Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong.”
Terrific collection of AM radio’s highly varied legacy
Rather than picking an artist or label or scene or sound, Legacy’s pulled together thirteen original hit recordings that show the range of music that AM radio brought to its listeners. Collected here is New Orleans R&B (“Ya Ya,” 1961 and “Working in the Coal Mine,” 1966), Dixieland Jazz (“Washington Square,” 1963), Easy Listening (“A Fool Never Learns,” 1964), Folk Pop and Rock (“We’ll Sing in the Sunshine,” 1964 and “In the Year 2525,” 1969), Garage Punk (“Little Girl,” 1966), Soul (“I’m Your Puppet,” 1966 and “Cherry Hill Park,” 1969), Bubblegum (“Simon Says,” 1968), Trad Jazz Vocal (“The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde,” 1968), and Vocal Pop (“Worst That Could Happen,” 1969).
Even within these individual songs you can often hear more than one genre exerting its influence, such as the steel guitar and horns that provide accents to the superb pop production of Merrilee Rush’s “Angel of the Morning.” In this day of highly balkanized music channels and individually programmed MP3 playlists, it’s hard to imagine such variety inhabiting a single mass-market playlist, but that was part of AM radio’s power to attract and keep a broad swath of listeners. Playing this collection will remind you how good record and radio people were at picking and making hits – the winnowing process disenfranchised many, but what got through the sieves, particularly what got to the top of the charts, was often highly memorable.
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Power-pop, soul and garage-rock from the Rubinoos
