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Happy Holidays to all. Thanks to everyone who has supported the blog recently, and over the years! In order to celebrate the 13th birthday of TDATS and its return earlier this year, I have put together an end-of-year retrospective "best of" TDATS, something I have not done since 2015.
Here we have a collection of tracks picked from every published volume starting at #128, going to #145 (the most recent), plus a track from the forthcoming volume 146, which will be out soon.
Since the end of 2015 there have been 10 regional volumes: Ireland (131), Irish Punk (132), Macedonia (134), Argentina (137), France (141), Venezuela (144), plus multiple USA volumes covering Southern Rock (139), Ohio (140), Birmingham Alabama (128) and the year 1970 in the USA (142).
We've had another girl-fronted set (129), slide guitar (133), covers and common lyrical themes (130 & 138), a tribute to German producer Dieter Dirks (135), Guest band-curated (136) and extra long tracks (145).
In this time there has also been an Interview with Dan Keady, guitarist of Boston heavy psych band Fort Mudge Memorial Dump (link), and an interview / music special with leader of French band Arsenic, Bertrand Repellin (vol 143)
A few random stats covering the blog since it started: There are now around 1,650 artists included, in 2,014 songs which have a combined play-length of almost exactly 6 days. The best year for hard rock is proven beyond much doubt to be 1971, with 327 of the 2,014 tracks being from 1971, runners-up: 1970 with 292 tracks and 1972 with 264 tracks.
TRACKS
01. Crimson Tide - Turning Back (1978)
from v128: Sweet Home Birmingham, Alabama
02. Duck - Buried Alive In The Blues (1972)
from v129 Mother Trucker [Girl-fronted bands]
03. Melvin McRae Band - Evil Woman (1976)
from v130 Bad Bad Woman
04. Eire Apparent - Here I Go Again (1968)
from v131 Land Beyond The Wave [Irish Special]
05. Cobra - Graveyard Boogie (1978)
from v132 Punk Rockin' Granny [Irish Punk Special]
06. Terry Stamp - Itchy Feet (1975)
from v133 A Lot Of Bottle [Slide Guitar Special]
07. Madrigali - Imeto naše e Madrigali (1977)
from v134 Macedonian Special
08. Tea - Cool In The Morning (1974)
from v135 Der Herrscher [Dieter Dirks Tribute]
09. Essjay - Twins Of Evil (1971)
from v136 Mainline Riders [Guest Band-Curated]
10. Contraluz - La Sarna Del Viento (1973)
from v137 Tierra del Fuego [Argentina Special]
11. The Blackburds - Get Out Of My Life Woman [Instrumental] (1967)
from v138 Get Out Of My Life Woman
12. Wits End - Tribute (1979)
from v139 Busted In Georgia [Southern Rock Special]
13. Myth Band - Cold Wind Blows (1976)
from v140 Greetings From Ohio [Ohio 45s]
14. Joël Daydé - Can I Live My Life (1971)
from v141 Le Démon du Rythme [France Special]
15. Raymond Louis Kennedy - Miss Goody Two Shoes (1970)
from v142 Sweet Marie [The USA in 1970 Special]
16. Arsenic - Mister X's Dream (1978)
from v143 Arsenic Band Music & Interview
17. La Fe Perdida - Lady Lola (1971)
from v144 La Sayona [Venezuela Special]
18. Sweet Pain - Joy (1970)
from v145 Come All Ye Faceless [Long Tracks]
19. Electra - Bemuhe Dich (1975)
from v146 HALLO! DDR Rock part 1 [Preview for v146]
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| Crimson Tide self-titled LP 1978 |
We kick off with a killer track from Crimson Tide. Although their 1978 self-titled debut had a couple of harder cuts on it, and "Turning Back" is one of those, their second LP, "Reckless Love", is the most consistent. The kingpin of the outfit was guitarist Wayne Perkins (wiki), who started out as a session player in his teens, and in '60s Birmingham bands like The Vikings. After working in the famous Muscle Shoals scene, and a stint working in the UK in Smith Perkins & Smith, who made a record in 1972, he wound-up back home in The Alabama Power Band (originally started by his brother Dale, who was the drummer). They had changed name to "Crimson Tide" by the time of signing with Capitol.
The playing is impeccable through-out with nice slide guitar, but the band didn't last long after their second record. Wayne's session career continued as before, he made his first solo record in '95 and throughout his career has played for everyone from Don Nix to Bob Marley.
It's not too easy finding the whereabouts of the remaining guys, but keys-man Richard "Wolfie" Wolf is a Los Angeles-based music producer, remixer and composer, with numerous film, television credits too.
Alabama Record Collectors Association - "Wayne Perkins, through the help of drummer Jasper Guarino, became a session guitarist at a studio in Muscle Shoals owned by Quin Ivy at $100 a week. He later formed a band, Smith, Perkins and Smith for a very short time. He then was a member of several different bands, including the Gap Band. Wayne was even considered at one time to join the Rolling Stones, but was decided against because he wasn’t British, but did play on one of their albums in 1974.
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| Crimson Tide - Wayne Perkins center |
One day Wayne Perkins went to hear his brother Dale's band, Alabama Power. "They had a great band and no songs," he says. "They had the vehicle and I had the gasoline. I had the connections in Hollywood after all these years." Perkins says that lawyers for the Alabama Power Company were not pleased with the band's name, so the group changed it to Crimson Tide. "I much preferred the name Alabama Power to Crimson Tide because that's sacrilege, to me. Crimson Tide is a great name but [the University of Alabama] was already using it." Crimson Tide released two albums on Capitol Records, the self-titled Crimson Tide in 1978 which provided the single “Love Stop,” and Reckless Love in 1979 and a single of the same name, the latter produced by Donald "Duck" Dunn, bassist for Booker T. and the MGs, with the MGs' Steve Cropper contributing guitar parts.
Crimson Tide became the house band at the Crossroads Club in Roebuck for a couple of years in the late '70s, where well-known acts such as Yes, Joe Cocker, or Rick Derringer, if they had performed elsewhere in town that day, often showed up to sit in. "That's one thing about the Crossroads Club. You never knew who would show up," Perkins says. Crimson Tide split up in 1979. Perkins later released a pair of solo CDs, Mendo Hotel in 1995 and Ramblin' Heart in 2005, as well as having his songs included on soundtracks for several films and TV shows. The members of the band were: Dale Perkins, Wayne Perkins, Greg Straub, Bobby Delander and J.J. Jackson. By the second album, Richard Fox, who played keyboards on both albums, was an official member."
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| Melvin McRae Band - Queen Of Hearts (1976) |
Melvin McRae Band - Evil Woman (1976)
Melvin MacRae Band was Melvin McRae (guitar, vox), Rauni Osterman (drums) and Hannu Takala (bass) which is the same as the final lineup of another Finnish band which came before, Yellow, minus Helge Koskela. Melvin was apparently from the UK but so far I've drawn blanks on how he ended up in Finnish bands and what happened to him afterwards. There's a few great tracks on the album "Queen Of Hearts" (1976) which is a mix of hard rock and boogie rock.
Eire Apparent started out in Belfast as the final 1960s incarnation of 'The People', including Henry McCullough. After moving around (reportedly sharing a farmhouse near Blackpool at one time with Lemmy's early band The Rockin' Vicars) they found significant success in Dublin, and sought greater success by relocating to London. While there they got co-signed by Soft Machine manager Mike Jeffery and Hendrix manager Chas Chandler, after a performance in the famous UFO club. This landed them a support slot on a Hendrix/The Move/Pink Floyd tour.
Hendrix befriended them, producing and playing on their only album, 1968's 'Sun Rise', which was put out by US label Buddah Records after they made a name there supporting Hendrix, Soft Machine, The Animals etc. The band appears to have had problems caused by it's fanbase being spread too thinly and failed to really nail it in either the UK or US. After personnel changes, they disbanded in 1970. Various members would go on to play with acts such as Freedom, Sam Apple Pie, T.Rex, Pretty Things, Wings and others. My favourite track is a b-side which was not on the album, 'Here I Go Again', and that is what appears here!
Cobra from Belfast. The final band that were on the 'Belfast Rock' album, Graveyard Boogie is the b-side to the 'Looking for a Lady' single. Both sides of it are great, not so much punk really, they could even be described as one of Northern Ireland's first entries in the NWOBHM.
Next up is Terry Stamp's solo record from 1975, cryptically called 'Fatsticks'. I'm sure i'm being dense as usual but answers on a postcard if you know what that means, the drummer's preferred tool of his trade maybe? Singer/guitarist Terry was in Third World War, which many of you will know as that rather cool British proto-punkish band. So Fatsticks was mainly written by Terry, a collection of new and old songs of his, some from before TWW, with some assistance from Jim Avery (The Attack, Thunderclap Newman). Terry had been writing/playing since the early sixties and you can hear two of his compositions on Harsh Reality's 1969 LP, 'Heaven And Hell'.
Fatsticks has an interesting story behind it that can be read at the Terry Stamp/Jim Avery website (link) and I recommend reading it, it's a great example of talented musicians making an album in an off-the-cuff way and going about their business afterwards without thinking about it again, like it was just another day's work for a musician back then.
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| Terry Stamp - Fatsticks |
I may be a bit presumptuous there as I have only heard four tracks from Fatsticks, that's all I can find at the moment. It has not been re-issued (it should be!) and seems to command higher prices than I am prepared to pay at the moment! The four tracks I have heard from it would lead me to think it's a great album, with plenty of the proto-punk attitude that Terry injected into TWW. I have used a track from it called 'Itchy Feet' which displays some absolutely blazing lead and slide guitar work from Peter 'Ollie' Halsall (deceased 1992) who was in Boxer (also Timebox, Tempest, Patto) later and covered a couple of tracks from Fatsticks with Boxer.
Madrigali - Imeto naše e Madrigali (1977)
Madrigali is a band that is well-regarded in the FYROM (Former Yugoslavian Republic Of Macedonia) but don't appear to have released an official album of their own. They specialise in great guitar harmonies and the track I included, 'Imeto naše e Madrigali', exemplifies that with cool galloping rhythms. It would seem they are still around as in 2013 they collaborated in live shows with Croatian singer Dado Topić, who's career has included bands like Time & Korni Grupa from different regions of the former Yugoslavia.
The best vintage Madrigali recordings I have heard were made during a 1977 TV performance with singer/flute player Cane Nikolovski, that you can watch here:
Tea - Cool In The Morning (1974)At 8th place on this volume is the Swiss band Tea. When doing the Swiss volume 83 (link) I decided not to include them, but on checking them out again for this, it seems that was a bit of an oversight as they do have some sterling music to offer.
It would appear that German producer Dieter Dierks was closely allied to the band, as its engineer and producer. Also appearing as backing singers for Tea was a Chilean pop band called Santiago, who Dierks produced for the BASF label (even the omni-present Rainer Marz showed up playing guitar on Santiago LPs).
More info from ProgArchives.com: "Tea is a heavy progressive rock band formed in 1971 in Switzerland. The founding members were drummer Roli Eggli, guitarist Armand Volker, and bassist and vocalist Turo Pashayan. The band's name is derived from these three member's first initials. In 1972, the band augmented their lineup with lead singer Mark Storace. The band heavily toured in Switzerland and France, earning a name for themselves before they had even released any material, which led to them landing a spot on television, unheard of for many bands in their day, in 1973. In 1974, the band finally began to release music, beginning with a few singles that led up to, although they were not included on, the band's debut self-titled album in 1974. After the album's release, they even toured with international superstars Queen as the band's "special guests".
1975 saw the band's second album, "The Ship," The album protracted a similar positive buzz as the first album, with many positive reviews published about the album. The band again toured across Europe. In 1976 the band released their third album, "Tax Exile." Yet another European tour commenced, which even included singer Storace's native Malta. Although the band had enjoyed great success up to that point, Tea played their last concert in 1977.
In 2007 however, Eggli, Volker, and Storace began thinking about a reunion. The band began rehearsing as a trio, as Keinholz declined to be included in the band and Pashayan was discovered to be in a German prison due to fraud charges. 30 years after the band dissolved, they released their fourth album "Reloaded," which was a retrospective album that included lesser known works & non-album tracks. The band began to play shows again in December of 2009."
London's 'psych face-melters' Purson suggested a rare 45 from 1971 called 'Twins of Evil' from TDATS #136. Bandleader Rosalie Cunningham has this to say about it: "I could listen to this sinister slice all day, it’s so groovy!
It's a rearrangement of the orchestral theme for the Hammer Horror film of the same name. It was released as a single by ‘Essjay’, a pseudonym for composer Mike Batt who also wrote the Wombles TV theme!"
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| Contraluz - "Americanos" |
Contraluz opens firing on all cylinders with the next track, they made an album in 1973 called "Americanos" which has a diverse mix of plaintive folk-tinged prog with flutes and some heavy blasters with really fierce guitar credited to Carlos Barrios.
"La Sarna Del Viento" rages along with impassioned vocals from Alvaro Cañada, it's about as heavy and foreboding as anything from 1973. The break-down at the half way point is pure over-driven heavy metal and this whole track is an absolute delight that builds and builds. Contraluz has made occasional re-appearances and recorded a new album as recently as 2011.
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| The Blackburds |
The Blackburds - Get Out Of My Life Woman [Instrumental] (1967)
France's The Blackburds appear to have played with pop star Johnny Hallyday, and they made an EP in 1967 called "Play the Bugaloo" which this groovy instrumental is taken from.
Wits End from Garland, Texas are here with an absolute barnstormer of a track in 'Tribute'. Mike Franklin (drums), Karl Lois (lead guitar, voc), Harvey Martin (bass, voc) and Michael 'Bitch' McSpadden (guitar, voc) make up the band and they put together a strong album recorded in Dallas called 'Rock and By God Roll'. The album has a lot of rocking tracks, and aside from a few ballad-like ones which were not so much their forte, they all have funky, tight and fast guitar with shared vocal duties. 'Tribute' is the stand-out which distils all their skills into four minutes of pure rock bliss. They were apparently a christian band but the lyrics don't particularly show it.
A layered production and late-'70s sound is welcomed in this excellent track. There's still plenty of energetic riffing to enjoy, along with atmospheric keys and studio effects. I can find no further information on Myth Band, beyond what's mentioned on Discogs etc. A shame, as this is a highlight of the set and worthy of any famous band's repertoire. The flipside to this has a cool name, "Satan's Sorrows", but is a country affair of less interest here...
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| "Daydé" LP |
Here's a slice of heavy blues with Hendrixy guitar. Joël Daydé was in the early lineup of Zoo, who have appeared in the blog before and will again in this comp. He made a series of solo albums in the '70s and this track is taken from 1971's "Daydé". His albums traverse many styles of electric & acoustic blues. with progressive and hard rock touches. According to FR wikipedia (link) he had his biggest early success with a single called Mamy Blue (yt) and his singing has been compared to other gravel-voiced front men like Joe Cocker and Roger Chapman of Family.
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| Raymond Louis Kennedy |
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| La Fe Perdida |
Here's an excellent slice of heavy, doomy psych. I love the swagger of this track and it is certainly up there as one of the best heavy songs from the country in the early '70s. This band created just a few singles. The singer and guitarist is Frank Quintero from Caracas, who later went on to success in jazz and world music, and is still performing now. Drummer Iván Velásquez played with many underground acts such as Gladys and Vytas Brenner. Keyboardist Rafael Medina played with acts such as Joseph and Una Luz, and supervised the 1971 scene compilation “2001 Juvenil”, on which the Tsee Muds track in this volume appeared. Frank Quintero made a youtube interview in 2022 (link).
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| Sweet Pain |
This is a groove-monster with a dance-able beat throughout, and a nimble, almost flemenco feeling accompanying the lively pace at times. It's quite a distinctive track and the drummer (Marty Foltz) is excellent, holding the full 9 minutes of addictive jams together, along with the blistering psychedelic guitar leads coming in and out frequently.
California's Sweet Pain had a tough-guy cover photo on the LP that this track is taken from, but in truth the music only touches on hard rock occasionally and this record is mainly an attempt at chart-friendly pop rock. There was a second Sweet Pain album in 1973, but it seems the band lineup had changed so much by then they were basically a different band, and moved even further from hard rock.
Happy holidays and festivities for the end of 2022! Rich
Further listening:
