Garage-Mania

with Robby and the Nurse

Top 25 Garage Bands of All Times

Part 4

      Hi everyone! Garage Rock lives at GARAGE-MANIA on www.wprnd.org from Cerritos College, CA. with your hosts Robby Russell and my zany sidekick Nurse Cheril. We would like to thank all of you for the great response from my first three columns in RCN.

       We will now continue our picks for our favorite 25 Garage Bands of all time starting where we left off and countdown from #6 to number one. But in case you missed my last 3 columns, here are the bands from 25 to 7: 25 - Barry & The Remains, 24 - Gonn, 23 - Count 5, 22- Sonics, 21 - We The People, 20 - Moving Sidewalks, 19- Kenny & The Kasuals, 18 - The Haunted, 17 - The Lords, 16 - MC5, 15 - The Stooges, 14 - Human Expression, 13 - Chocolate Watch Band, 12 - New York Dolls, 11 - Chesterfield Kings, 10 - Paul Revere & Raiders, 9 - Music Machine, 8 - Standells, 7 - Electric Prunes.
     Our selections are of course subjective, partially based on airplay on Garage-Mania. We welcome you to agree or disagree with our picks and remember the focus is from 1965-1972. By popular demand, in my next column we will expand the list to the top 50, with each band’s best song and where you can find it; We will continue to offer any reader of RECORD CONVENTION NEWS a free copy of one of my Garage­Mania Shows on CD. Just e-mail me directly from my web site: www.robbyrussellshow.com. Now here are our choices of the best garage-bands starting from # 6.

#6 The Seeds - “Pushing Too Hard”, “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine” The Seeds are best known for their rock classic “Pushing Too Hard” combining the raw appeal of garage rock with ragged, trashy psychedelia. Rock critics dismissed them as amateurish oddballs. Their musical abilities were limited to two irksome chords and mystical meanderings on sex and drugs. Sky Saxon described his music saying “We were from L.A. like the Doors, but opposites. We didn’t play rock and roll: never did. That’s why we are not credited in rock histories. We were seeds planted underground, flower children and played flower­power music.”
      Lead singer Sky Saxon formed the Seeds in 1965 in Los Angeles with guitarist Jan Savage, keyboardist Daryl Hopper and drummer Rick Andridge.
     “Pushing Too Hard” was released in November 1966 and charted for 11 weeks peaking at # 36. Its raw, simple riff and Saxon’s howling, half-spoken intonation established a pattern that remained almost unchanged throughout the group’s career. Saxon has said the song was about a popular night club on Sunset Strip in the 60’s called Pandora’s Box that was torn down to make a parking lot. “The establishment did it!” he claims and he wrote the song in 10 minutes as a protest in that parking lot.
      The Seeds attempted to branch out into improvisational blues-rock and psychedelic on their first two albums, The Seeds, and Web of Sound which both came out in 1966. Their third album Future in 1967 was an attempt of a psychedelic concept album in the vein of Sgt. Pepper. It had a minor hit “A Thousand Shadows” that was featured in the movie “Psych-Out”, but the album was not a big seller. Two more albums came out later but both were generally ignored and the band broke up.
      During the early ‘70s Saxon re­emerged as “Sky Sunlight” fronting several bands before retreating from society and moving to Hawaii. In 2002 Sky Saxon resurrected the Seeds with a new line up, playing all of the Seeds classic songs. In 2004, still a new line up appeared, touring today.
      We at Garage-Mania feel.the Seeds are much underrated, influencing countless musicians and bands over the years. In fact, all 6 Seeds albums have never gone out of print. To this day, Sky Saxon remains a cult icon in the international psychedelic crowd and his song “Pushing Too Hard” a staple among oldies radio stations.

#5 Amboy Dukes - 1965-69 “Journey to the Center of the Mind”, “Baby Please Don’t Go” The Amboy Dukes introduced “the Motor City Madman” to the world -guitarist Ted Nugent. Their 1969 acid-rock classic “Journey to the Center of the Mind” is one of our top songs ever of Garage-Mania. We want to mention that in this article we are only referring to the Amboy Dukes only up to 1969.
      Nugent was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1948 and, started playing guitar when he was nine years old. He started his first band at the age of 12. He later moved on to The Lourds which won a Battle of the Bands contest when he was 14. He wowed the judges with a guitar solo on their table. In 1965, Nugent’s family moved to Chicago. He started a new band. He had heard of a Detroit band that had broken up called Amboy Dukes and took their name. The Amboy Dukes was actually a name of a novel about gang members and their lifestyle. Nugent had seen the book but says he never read it. Nugent returned in 1967 to south eastern Michigan starting a new Dukes line up featuring John Drake from his old Lourds band, rhythm guitarist Steve Farmer, bassist Bill White, keyboardist Rick Lober and drummer Dave Palmer. They quickly became a hot attraction in Detroit. It is interesting to note that Nugent didn’t sing in those days .It was Drake who sings vocals on Journey.
       After a series of personnel changes the Dukes released their first album Journey to the Center of the Mind in 1968. The title track became a major hit climbing the charts to number 16. The song was written ‘by Steve Farmer, the music was written by Nugent. The song was perceived as drug related but Nugent claims to have “never smoked a joint.. .never done a drug in his life”. He says the song meant looking inside yourself and moving forward.
      In 1969, the Dukes recorded their third LP Migrations with Rusty Day replacing John Drake on vocals, but that album and its follow up effort Marriage on the Rocks were commercial disappointments. This lead to the band’s break-up when Day, Salomon and Palmer left the group. Nugeiit took some time off but his life was changed when he went to Colorado and discovered deer hunting. Of course, Nugent later went solo becoming a major rock star starting in 1975 with his self titled album, his reputation for hell raising and exciting live shows.
      We feel the Amboy Dukes’ version of “Baby Please Don’t Go” is garage rock at its best, deserving its high rating (no pun intended) on our list.

#4 Pretty Things - “Midnight to 6 Man”, “Rosalyn” The Pretty Things are the most underrated garage, R&B and psychedelic band of all time. Period. We in this article will focus on their garage and R&B days, although on Garage-Mania we do play many of their psychedelic songs.
      Let’s begin with guitarist Dick Taylor who played in a school band when he attended Sidcup Art School, called Little Boy Blue & the Blue Boys. The band also featured Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. They discovered Brian Jones at a club playing with Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated. By the middle of 1962 they were playing as the Rolling Stones.
       Taylor left the band to remain at art school but soon started his own band with fellow student friend vocalist Phil May, bass player John Stax and guitarist Brian Pendleton. They named the band, the Pretty Things in homage to Bo Diddley. Things happened quickly for them when their original song “Rosalyn” became an immediate hit in the U.K. The Pretty Things were a sight to behold. The Pretties dressed sloppily, Phil May had the longest hair in rock & roll, and suddenly the Stones had competition for the mantle “the group parents loved to hate.” Many of their shows ended in riots and the British media posed the question “Would you let your daughter marry a Pretty Thing?
      The group went through a slew of drummers until they found their missing link in Vivian Prince with his unique drumming style. The early Pretty Things garage songs are outstanding including “Don’t Bring Me Down” (later covered by David Bowie), “Get the Picture” and many more. The band eventually evolved more into a more psychedelic vein, with such demented tunes as “Defecting Grey” and “Old Man Going”.
      The band had many different lineups, far too many to list here. Their album P.F. Sorrow is their lost claim to fame, the first rock opera. It was based on Phil May’s short story about Sebastian F. Sorrow, his loss of self and eventual death in a soulless techronatic society. Pete Townshend reportedly listened to the album non stop for almost a week, giving him the inspiration to help compose Tommy. “S.F. Sorrow was released three months before the Who’s Tommy in early 1968 although it took many months later to reach America. Ironic.... It was criticized for being derivative of Tommy until Townshend and May later cleared it up to set the record straight. The Pretty Things have perhaps more songs on Garage-Mania’s play list , except for Arthur Lee and Love, than any other bands we play.

#3 Bob Seger System ? (1966-1969) “Last Heard”, “East Side Story”, “2 Plus 2”, “Heavy Music” Bob Seger was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1945, a son of a big band leader. His father quit the music business to work in a local factory, but eventually abandoned the family completely, for a move to California. Never finding success, he sadly died in a fire in 1968. His family was left in near poverty and had to move to a small one-room apartment.
        In 1961 . Seger was in his first band called the Decibels and later joined Doug Brown and the Omens. He became the groups’ vocalist and song writer. The band evolved into Bob Seger and the Last Heard. In 1966-1967 they released 2 incredible garage rock classics “East Side Story” and the powerful “Heavy Music” on the Cameo label. The 2 songs were smash hits in Michigan, the Midwest and in a few markets such as Miami, Pennsylvania and Cleveland but hardly anywhere else. By 1968 his records amazingly outsold the Beatles in Detroit and had 5 Top Ten singles there. I first heard these songs from Motor City powerhouse CKLW radio which could be ‘heard all through the East Coast. CKLW was located at 800 right next to my home town top 40 station in New York - WABC 77. “East Side Story” with its haunting organ and its crime doesn’t pay theme just blew me away. It was Detroit’s answer to “Gloria”.
       Cameo went bankrupt in 1967 just when Seger was possibly on the verge of breaking nationally. It temporarily slowed down his rising success. In 1968, Bob formed his Bob Seger System and was signed by Capitol Records. Only drummer Pep Perine and bassist Dan Hanaker remained from the Last Heard. In January 1968 the single “2 Plus 2” was released. It was perhaps the greatest anti-war song ever. Many statiOns wouldn’t play it because it was thought to be too controversial.
       Seger finally had his first national hit later that year in December 1968 with “Rambling Gambling Man” which charted for 14 weeks and peaked at number 14. The band continued to 1971 releasing the excellent Mongrel album but was unable to repeat their earlier success. Seger disbanded the group in 1971. Of course, Seger later went on to incredible success later in his career with his Silver Bullet Band, but we at Garage-Mania love his relatively unknown earlier recordings. In fact “Eagt Side Story” and “Heavy Music” have never been released on an authorized CD to our knowledge. There is different version of “2 Plus 2” on the Rambling Gambling Man album but the vocals are hard to hear compared to the original single version. We would love to see an authorized CD of Seger’s earlier works sometime in the future. It is long over due.

#2- LOVE “ 7 and & 7 Is”, “Revelation” “7 AND 7 IS” by Arthur Lee and Love is the most popular song we have played On Garage-Mania. The song is described in the liner notes from Nuggets Box Set One as following: “A full-bore assault on the senses: a breakneck tempo, frantically strummed guitars, deep, sliding bass runs and Arthur Lee’s enraged vocal and encrypted lyrics. Only an A- bomb could stop it.” The song was released in June 1967, peaked at number 33 nationally but was a massive hit in Los Angeles.
       Love was led by singer, songwriter and guitarist Arthur Lee, and the second song writer, guitarist Bryan MacLean who died on Christmas day in 1988. The band defined the new face of L.A. rock in 1966, the sound of the street, one of the top bands of the night club scene on Sunset Strip. Love was the first band to be signed by Elektra, the second to be signe’d were the Doors.
       Their first album Love featured the single “My Little Red Book”, a cover of the Bacharach-David song from the film “What’s New Pussycat”. It also featured garage rock classics “My Flash on You”, “You I’ll Be Following” (which certainly influenced Tom Petty) and the ballad “Signed D.C.”.
       Their second LP Da Capo included pronto-punk rockers like “Que Vida!”, “She Comes in Colors” and the almost 19 minute rave up “Revelation” which must be listened to at full volume.
       Their third album Forever Changes is a masterpiece, and is thought of as the greatest psychedelic album of all times by many critics. I have a copy of that album on LP, cassette, 8 track, and CD over a span of four decades. I can never get tired of it. “Alone Again Or” was a minor hit and was covered by UFO while “You Set the Scene” and “Let and Let Live” became staples for album rock stations for years. We recommend that these three Love albums are a must for your collection’ for all rock n roll fans.
       Personal problems landed Lee in prison during the 90’s but when he got out he re­formed Love. We recently saw Arthur Lee and Love, with original guitarist Johnny Echols in concert. The concert was about a year and a half ago and it was just amazing. They performed all the songs from “Forever Changes” plus all their hits it was a mind blower. Finally, in closing, Lee when asked questions just why he never connected to a mainstream audience, he replied”Elektra didn’t promote me like the Doors and then too, I wasn’t white.”
#1 - Rolling Stones -“Satisfaction”, 12 X 5 LP, Out of Our Heads LP We chose the Rolling Stones as number One because no . band influenced garage rock more than them. In the late 60’s it seemed like every band wanted to look, sound and act like them. Cheril and I were in awe watching the Stones performing “Satisfaction” at the Super Bowl half time show.It was a good feeling to realize our favorite music will “not fade, away”. Our hats off to Mick and the boys!

GAGRAGE-MANIA

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