The Easybeats: Album by Album Thread (pt2)

yep Merry Christmas to everyone!

 

I was looking for the cover version by The Pete Best Beatles. Luckily I couldn't find it or this thread would have been closed as soon as a Gort clicked the link

 

Another loosely connected Easybeats Christmas tune



Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

 

Alongside the studio work that culminated in the "Vigil" LP and its attendant singles, Vanda and Young also somehow found time to work with other up and coming bands via the Staeb Productions organisation. Although necessarily a lesser consideration than The Easybeats' own recording career, Staeb was intended to provide the duo with an opportunity to produce other acts, and the next tangible result appeared in October with the release of the second single by Scottish outfit My Dear Watson (Parlophone R 5737). Neither "Stop Stop I'll Be There" nor "Make This Day Last" was a Vanda and Young composition, but the pair produced both sides, using the expertise they had developed over the past year.


Unfortunately, the single got lost in the end of year rush and it flopped miserably. It would be two years before My Dear Watson recorded again, by which time Staeb Productions would already be history.

Another outside production dating to this period is the mysterious session recorded in Central Sound by fellow Australians The Groop. By now unrecognisable from the four-piece, amped-up skiffle group who had shared stages and TV screens with The Easybeats back in 1965 and 1966, the now five-man Groop had enjoyed a big Australian smash in 1967 with "Woman You're Breaking Me" before arriving to try their luck in the UK. Despite reasonable efforts on the part of their label, CBS, their 1968 single "Lovin' Tree" failed to break them into the UK charts, and the band's mood was not improved when the label insisted on recording a follow up using only singer Ronnie Charles backed by session musicians in a bid to turn the band into a second Love Affair. Charles, ever professional, complied, but the band were seething.

According to organist Brian Cadd's autobiography, he and Charles moaned about things to Harry Vanda (The Easybeats were generally on hand to welcome Australian bands to the UK), and Vanda invited the band down to Central Sound to record something more suitable. Even though Vanda usually worked in tandem with George Young, Cadd makes no mention of the latter, so the resultant recording may be a solo Vanda production, although whatever the circumstances, it would have been a Staeb Productions effort.

Two songs resulted from the session: the rough and tumble "Mandrake Wine" and the (allegedly) somewhat raunchy "Maid of Iron", both Groop originals. Neither sounded much like The Easybeats, but nor did they sound like The Love Affair, and The Groop were happy with them, although CBS was not, declining to release the record (the "Love Affair record" was also shelved). Cadd subsequently fell under the spell of The Band and The Groop slunk back to Australia, where they cut two more excellent pop singles before breaking up, with Cadd and guitarist Don Mudie forming Axiom.

"Mandrake Wine" finally appeared on a flexidisc issued with "From the Vault" magazine in the eighties; "Maid of Iron" remains unreleased. An acetate featuring both recordings was recently sold online for nearly 500 US dollars (see here: http://collectorsfrenzy.com/details...0s_MAID_OF_IRONMANDRAKE_WINE__UK__EMIDISC__45 ; if anyone reading this bought it, please get in touch!!!).

 

A quick trip back in time.




1965 fan club picnic, courtesy of Susie Gamble's "Go!! Show" tribute page on Facebook.

 

And now, 15 May 1967 - Dept. Immigration photographs of pop group The Easybeats with family, friends and fans at the press conference for the presentation of Gold Records for selling 1,000,000 copies of the single "Friday on my mind"...

 

And more...

 

And more...

 

I want one of those Easybeats posters!

 

Photo legend:
1-2: From Sydney Lord Mayor John Armstrong reception. Not sure who the lasses are in photo 2
3: Stevie with his parents, SSGT and Mrs George Wright
4-5: Harry with Lorraine and Gail, Presidents of the Easybeats' Fan Club
6: Not sure who is with Stevie
7: George with his parents, Mr and Mrs William Young
8: Not sure who is with George
9: Not sure who is with Snowy
10: Just the group BTW - is that a smile on Dick's face???
11. George and parents. Not sure who the lass is

 

Excellent haul of photos. The band are sartorially eloquent (to borrow a phrase).

 

From Stevie Wright's Facebook page this morning:

"Happy New Year everyone !!
May you have a healthy, wealthy, wise, & loving 2014.
May you be with a loved one, friends or family.
If your along tonight & today for some reason or another, please be kind to yourself & know you are loved & worthy.

Have a safe evening where ever you are.
Be kind to one another & always show love to the people in your life, no matter weather they are near or far' as you never know how much time we have on this precious earth.

So make every minute count, while you pass through this place called earth, It makes you feel great, it gives your journey hope, love, courage & self worth.
Take nothing for granted, always try to be grateful for every little thing.

There's always room for new beginnings.
Though no one can go back & make a new start, anyone can go back & make a new beginning

Happy New Year !! 2014 !!
Lots of love, kindness, peace & health for the New Year.
Love SW xxx"

 

The Central Sound Sessions


Central Sound Recording Studio crica 1975. During the Easybeats time it was still a 4 track studio.

The second half of 1967 was one of commercial disappointments. Vanda and Young now turned their focus to their newly formed Staeb production company. The idea of Staeb was the extend the songwriter's songs beyond The Easybeats and onto other pop artists *. From late 1967 to throughout 1968, the songwriting team used services of a small demo studio located at 9 Denmark Street called Central Sound Recording Studio. Denmark Street was most notably known as "The British Tin Pan Alley" and was home to Britain's music publishers, recording studios and music stores. The work flow at Central Sound was extremely productive – they would record backing tracks in one afternoon then come back the following day to track vocals. The group appeared on most of the recording. At times, Harry or George would replace Stevie on vocals if the song was in too high of a register for his high baritone voice. Some of these demo recordings even saw the light day on the bands official releases (and sometimes without the bands consent). The songs not suitable for release with The Easybeats would be sold off to other artists. Some of these songs would include - 'Bring A Little Lovin'' by Los Bravos ('Wait a Minute' was offered but not used), 'Look Out Out I'm On The Way Down' by Pepper and 'Little Red Bucket' by The Bubble Gum (the original Easybeats demo lyrics say "Little Red Jug"). Back at home; Albert Productions would have local artist record these songs like Rev. Black and the Rocking Vicars ('Down To The Last 500', 'Such a Lovely Day' and 'Walking and Talking') and Mike Furber ('I'm on Fire' and 'Watch Me Burn').



It is unknown the exact number of songs recorded during this period. Years after the band discontinued, rock journalist Glenn A Baker approached the band's record label Albert Productions with the idea of compiling an album of unreleased material from the group. This album was released in 1977 as The Shame Just Drained: The Vanda & Young Collction Volume 1 and featured 7 Central Sounds demos. The following year, Baker and Ken Burnes would publish a list of unreleased Easybeats songs in the rock magazine BOMP. This list would include more of the fabled Central Sounds demos for Easybeats fans to speculate over. By 1979, Baker's own Raven Records label had secured the rights to release some of these recordings via a set of three E.P's. The second E.P. Son of Easyfever featured 2 more songs from the Central Sounds sessions ('I'm Just Trying' and 'Look Out, I'm On The Way Down') while the follow up (the amusingly titled Son of Son of Easyfever) featured 2 more tracks listed as being from Central Sound ('Watch Me Burn' and 'Little Red Bucket').

Below is a list of the known Central Sound Studio demos – both released and unreleased.

Released during the bands career

'Bring A Little Lovin'' - The Australian version of Vigil (1968)
'Down To The Last 500' – The Best of The Easybeats Volume 2 (1969)
'H. P. Man' – B-side to 'Perculiar Hole in the Sky' (1969)
'Such A Lovely Day'- The Best of The Easybeats Volume 2 (1969)
'Peculiar Hole Hole In The Sky' - Single (1969) 1

Released posthumously (post 1970)
'I'm On Fire' – The Shame Just Drained (1977)
'Wait A Minute' – The Shame Just Drained (1977)
'Peter' – The Shame Just Drained (1977)
'Me And My Machine' – The Shame Just Drained (1977)
'The Shame Just Drained'– The Shame Just Drained (1977)
'Kelly' – The Shame Just Drained (1977)
'Johnny No-One' – The Shame Just Drained (1977)
'I'm Just Trying' – Son of Easyfever E.P. (1980)
'Look Out I'm On The Way Down' – Son of Easyfever E.P. (1980)
'Watch Me Burn'– Son of Son of Easyfever E.P. (1981)
'Little Red Bucket' – Son of Son of Easyfever E.P. (1981 with the original "Little Red Jug" lyrics) 1

Still Currently Officially Unreleased

'Fly With Me'
'Got Till the Morning'
'I'm Gonna Be Somebody'
'Lori'
'Monkey See Monkey Do'
'Moonshine and Whiskey Galore'
'Mother Mother'
'Hey, St. Peter' 2
'Sweet Jelly Brown Is Swinging' 3
'Walking and Talking'
'Watch Me Burn'
'You Don't Care No More'
'You Don't Know'

Notes:

* see posts #831 Part 1 and #54 in part 2.

1. It is still unclear if these songs were initally recorded at Central Sound with horn and string overdubs at another studio (possibly Pye Studios) or completely tracked at Central Sounds (although a small demo studio, they did facilitate recording strings for other recordings - as exampled here and here). The liner notes for Son of Son of Easyfever, written by Glenn A. Baker, state that 'Little Red Bucket' was recorded at Central Sound Studios. In regards to 'Peculiar Hole Hole In The Sky' - an October 1969 interview with the group, broadcasted on Australian music program GTK, said the song was already 18 months old (April 1968). This also places it around the time tracks for Vigil were being recorded at Pye Studios.

2. This song has been offten claimed to be an unlreleased Easybeats song from this period. As of the time of writing - there has been no evidence to show that a demo of 'St. Peter' from Central Sound exists. The original log of titles at Albert (which the BOMP article references), lists only 'Peter' ('Peter' was not listed in BOMP as it was released the previous year on The Shame Just Drained). Interviews with Harry and George have said the songs spoken word verses were written during the recording of the Flash and The Pan debut album (singing the verses was attempted, but they were disatisfied with the results). However this does not rule out the possiblity that there is still a 1968 demo of 'Hey, St. Peter' yet to surface.

3. This is the song's copyrighted title. It was listed as 'Sweet Jenny Brown Is Swinging' in the 1978 BOMP magazine article.

 

Shel Talmy's Easybeats sound continues: on The Nashville Teens' "I'm Coming Home" issued March 10 1967

 

Complete with "Choo choo choo choo choo" 's!!!

 

That's very "Easybeat-y", isn't it?

 

Of the officially unreleased list, we know that two were used by other artists - "Walking and Talking" by R. Black and the Rockin' V 's (of which, more to come in a future post) and "Got Till the Morning" by Los Bravos (retitled "You Got Until the Morning"). Assuming "Hey St Peter" is correct, this leaves only nine genuinely unheard songs from this period, plus of course the two left over from the "Good Times" sessions in 1967.

Of the sixteen for which Easybeats' versions have been released (and I include both "Little Red Jug" and "Peculiar Hole in the Sky" in this, even though I don't think either of these actually ARE demos), ten were picked up by other artists. (We've already covered seven - "Bring a Little Lovin' ", "Down to the Last 500", "Such a Lovely Day", "Peculiar Hole in the Sky", "The Shame Just Drained", "Look Out I'm on the Way Down" and "Little Red Jug / Bucket" - and we'll get to the other three during 1969). That means that twelve out of the twenty-eight titles were successfully farmed out by Staeb or Alberts for use elsewhere. Not a bad strike rate.

 

And there's 11 songs that would make for fantastic bonus tracks or would fit into into a box set (hint hint Alberts ). My theory on 'Hey, St. Peter' is if there is a record demo with a The Easybeats then it would sound nothing like the well known Flash and the Pan song. The melody of the chorus may of been there (which is a killer hook), but Harry and George were playing with the structure and delivery of the verses at the time of recording the 1976 version.



Great clip BTW!

 

The cover of "You Got Until The Morning" by Los Bravos. It's a clip taken from their second movie "Dame Un Poco De Amor" (1968).

 

Nice find!!!

 

Here's another Central Sound track from Dame Un Poco De Amooor...! This time it's 'Bring A Little Lovin'' (which is also the film's English title).

 

By the way, in the liner notes of "The Shame Just Drained" there is some mistake because it's said that "Wait A Minute" was rejected by Los Bravos and that's not true, Los Bravos recorded "Wait A Minute" in late '68 and they included in their last album "Ilustrísimos Bravos" from 1969; They also had been covered "We'll Make It Together" which they released as single in 1968:

http://www.45cat.com/record/mo485

 

Some poster art for Dame Un Poco De Amooor...!

 

Garethofoz also briefly covered the soundtrack back in part 1: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...m-by-album-thread.314263/page-34#post-9682660

 

As Dandelion 1967 has mentioned, the links between The Easybeats and Los Bravos were quite strong.

Before 1968 was out there would be one final foreign release of note, once again in Spain where Los Bravos, looking for another hit to match the success of "Bring a Little Lovin' ", turned their attention to the 1967 cast-off "We'll Make It Together" which had seen service for The Pepper in the UK during the (northern) summer. The song was perfect for their dynamic approach, if rather lacking the uptempo appeal of its predecessor, but was relegated to flipside duties (Columbia MO 485) on their end of year single "Just Holding On" (a song with no Easybeats connection), which does not appear to have charted anywhere, not even in Spain.



"We'll Make It Together" reappeared early in the new year on the band's "Illustrísimos Bravos" LP (Columbia CP 9033) in the company of another Vanda and Young song, "Wait a Minute". (As noted by Dandelion 1967 above, Glenn A. Baker claimed in the liner notes to the archive LP "The Shame Just Drained" (not included on the CD reissue) that this song was offered to them as a follow up to "Bring a Little Lovin' " but "was foolishly rejected by them"; if so, he must have been referring to release as a single, as it turned up here).



As already noted by Paulisdead, The Easybeats had earlier laid down a demo of the song at Central Sound but with "Vigil" already on release and no real demand for new material, they had nowhere to take it, so no proper version was ever recorded and in any case, it had already been offered to Los Bravos. The "Illustrísimos" album sold moderately well in Spain (and has recently been reissued on both vinyl and CD), but neither of the two Vanda and Young tracks it contains seem to have been issued anywhere else in the world. The Easybeats' original demo of "Wait a Minute" surfaced, alongside the 1967 recording of "We'll Make It Together", in 1977 on the aforementioned LP "The Shame Just Drained".

1969 would bring yet more covers from the Vanda and Young songbook, but we'll get to those a little later.