Way back in the early days of The Rally, I did a post about one of my Dad's old 45s. In that earlier post (here) I talk about how I played the B-Side of one of the singles without flipping it over for about 15 years (shades of Father Dougal McGuire, methinks). So here are some other great B-Sides!
Los Bravos - I Want A Name (B-Side of 'Black is Black')
Completely
mental song, featuring a deranged vocal performance from a man with so
few mates that he doesn't even have a name. If he keeps making the
"Waaa-ooow!!" noise (first appearance at 0:37), then frankly I'm not
surprised.
Love the music-therapy feel of the glockenspiel in
the background but let's be honest, they've thrown the lot at this and
fair play to them for that. Seemingly-pissed guitar makes first
appearance at 0:46.
In the second verse he dreams of a dog
without a collar that he can befriend. Could singer Mike Kogel have
given any more in this performance? I think not - I especially love the
impassioned "help me!" bits.
"Black Is Black" was Number 2 in the UK,
Number 4 in the US. And this piece of genius-lunacy was on the other
side. Los Bravos - I salute you!
Little Eva - He Is The Boy (B-Side of 'The Locomotion')
One
of those great tracks where it sounds like they've left themselves with
15 minutes at the end of the session to write and record the B-Side.
It's a lazy shuffle with Eva intoning her love for a (in short order)
thick, lazy, ugly so-and-so who happens to be good at kissing. The piano
solo from 1:48 is a work of genius, especially the bit where they
obviously didn't finish writing it - there's also a great stumble right
at the end, which they obviously couldn't be arsed to correct. Plus the
backing vocals sound like they've been phoned in!
It sounds like I
hate it, but the ramshackle nature and the matter-of-fact coolness sell
it to me every time. I would happily trade in much of my more
"fashionable" music collection for more songs like this.
But the thought that this feckless swine might be the guy who inspired "He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss)" is pretty troubling, don'tcha think?
Curtis Lee - Gee, How I Wish You Were Here (B-Side of 'Pretty Little Angel Eyes')
The GREAT thing about this track is the fantastic vocal support from The Halos - they're not quite
there all the way through... hell, let's face it there are some proper
CLAMS - that opening chord is a bit shonky for a start. And what's going
on in that final section?
But this has such a great feel and a
great matinee idol lead vocal from Curtis Lee. Great lyrics, fantastic
instrumental backing.... God I love this song! Great memories of singing
along with this one on the way back from the pub in the back of our
mate's Land Rover!
Buy - Los Bravos
Buy - Little Eva
Buy - Curtis Lee
Read - Los Bravos on Answers.com
Read - Little Eva on Wikipedia
Read - Curtis Lee on Wikipedia
Thursday, September 07, 2006
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2 comments:
cool post dude. let's have more of these old b-sides w/ commentary in the future.
ted
What he said! I love the commentary - best post in ages! Music is pretty damn good as well...that Little Eva...I'd show her a good time..
[Francis]
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