Anyone else besides me like Segarini's 70's band "The Wackers" ?

I absolutely love the three Wackers albums, "Wackering Heights", "Hot Wacks", and "Shredder ". I was very happy that Collector's Choice Music issued them on cd. I think they are classic Beatles influenced breezy pop/rock, but they get zero press or respect . Am I a cult of one concerning these guys ? Anyone else have a warm spot for their tunes ?

 

This has always puzzled me. They are powerpop titans and few people outside of 70s rock critics like Greg Shaw has ever heard of them. They were great and that Shredder lp is a dead classic. "Day and Night" is so cool. The entire lp rocks. Their Beatles/Paul McCartney/Dave Edmunds "I Hear You Knockin' take on "Don't Be Cruel" from "Wackering Heights" continues a late 60s/early 70s tradition started with "Lady Madonna".

Maybe we're a cult of two. I have multiple copies of all their LPs. The one thing I'm missing is the original 1975 Bomp! 45 single release of "Captain Nemo", but that's available on the 1978 Bomp! compilation lp "The Best of Bomp" (but it sounds like a needledrop).

Dale

 

I have that 45. It's one of thier best songs IMO. I'm probably a bigger fan of The Family Tree (Segarini's earlier band) but the Wackers have some great music. I Hardly Know Her Name, Find Your Own Way, I Believe in You, I Like... all classics!

 

What about Segarini's 70s solo LPs? I've read good things about those--never heard 'em though.

Dale

 

A lot of people like Gotta Have Pop but I never thought much of it except his cover of Slade's "When the Lights Are Out." It's a great song and a good version. I could just never get into the LP. Otherwise I don't know his solo work.

Captain Nemo was apparently part of an aborted album project with the Wackers. Bullseye in Canada has said that they will release the album but I think everyone doubts it will appear. Segarini has been trying like heck to get all of his material in print. I even lent him a needle drop of one of the early Family Tree singles but never heard back from him. Fortunately that Family Tree stuff is going to get out soon.

Maybe Glenn knows more about that unreleased album. I have friends who have been after the recordings for many years.

 

Cool ! Somebody else loves the Wackers !

I also think their cover of John Lennon's "Oh My Love " is one of the few Beatles/solo covers that stands up to the original, and gasp may be ...better.

I lucked out in the seventies. I went into a record store and asked the guy if they had "Shredder". At first he said no, but then he said wait a minute. He went to the back and brought me out a promo copy of "Shredder". He sold it to me for $3:00 or something , and probably pocketed the money because I don't think promo's cost the store anything, but I didn't care. There were three or four pieces of pink paper enclosed with reviews of "Hot Wacks", live shows by the Wackers etc. Too cool !

 

Aren't The Wackers from Montreal? They played at my brother's high school, Loyola High in the early seventies. Randy Bishop had a good solo hit here called Don't You Worry. It wasn't rock at all, but a very melodic easy listening tune.

 

It's better IMO. It's also so much like the Beatles that its eerie.

 

Brings back memories. Don't have much by the group, but their "Travelin' Time" from the Wackering Heights album is on a 3-LP sampler set issued by Elektra in 1971 (which I still have). The set was called Garden of Delights and was issued as Elektra's answer to the Warner Bros. samplers being issued at the time.

 

This is interesting - I have heard the Wackers cited in Cancon circles as an example of a group who headed South to make it, but I never knew they so much as released an album. I also only know Segrani through the Gotta Have Pop album and his quotes in articles about the history of Canadian rock music.

 

I on the other hand have never picked up Family Tree . Collector's Choice was selling a Family Tree cd a couple of months ago. Is this worth picking up ?

 

I don't know if you remember, but The Wackers version of "Oh My Love " ended up on a Tobe Milo Beatles EP bootleg back in the seventies. I wrote to " you know who " behind the Tobe Milo records at the time and he brushed it off.

I'm glad you agree. If there is a better Beatles/solo cover version I haven't heard it, or need to be reminded of it.

 

Unfortunately its been delayed. I think its going to be available in September now. It's one of my favorite albums of all time (not that that means anything). It's Segarini in his Nilsson mode, very melodic and Beatley too. They're putting out the band preferred mono mix so I'm excited as I've only heard it in stereo. So... I think you'll like it Glenn, once it finally gets out.

 

I heard something about that. It's not surprising. If Grapefruit can get mistaken for the Beatles then that track certainly could pass. The backing vocals are pure Beatles - something Lennon obviously didn't do without McCartney.

My main issue with Lennon's version is that he doesn't seem convinced by the song. He seems disinterested. The Wackers actually seem to like the song and give it a good arrangement.

 

The three albums were all on Electra originally, and Collector's Choice Music has released them on cd recently.

Why the Wackers were not huge baffles me except maybe a timing issue. Too late after the Beatles and before power pop had a resurgence.

Think...Badfinger with a sense of humor. Great great songs, great harmonies, great arrangements. Can you tell I like them ?

 

Yep, the Wackers did "Oh My Love" like the Beatles would have done it . The koto was an inspired arrangement choice.

Regarding their unreleased album "Wack and Roll": All I know is what is stated in the "Shredder" cd booklet.
Five tracks had been recorded live in Westport, Connecticut,including "Queenie", "I Started To Rock" and "Teenage Love". Segarini says they had demo'd "Rock and Roll Circus","She Loves You", and Randy Bishops "Old Mr. Hard Times.", besides "Teenage Love". According to Segarini, all uptempo rock and roll songs that an Electra promo guy really liked, but Electra rejected the record.The album was finished but never even mixed.

I also had bought All The Young Dudes, his next bands album, but never cared for it.

The trivia of the day is : Randy Bishop lives in Nashville now and co-wrote Toby Keith's huge 2001 country hit "My List".
Not being a contemporary country music fan , I have never heard it.

 

Hey, if it's one of your favorite albums of all time I HAVE to get it. You are on most of the threads that I am on , so I assume our tastes may be similar.

Rats though.I am rarely a mono fan over stereo.

 

I don't know where the individual Wackers came from originally, but they assembled in California and recorded their first album there, but recorded the next two albums in Montreal.

 

Randy Bishop was from either Portland or Boise. His brother, Bart, was part of Providence, based out of Portland in the early 70s (they put out one LP on Threshold). Randy was well thought of in Oregon, but the Wackers were virtually unknown outside of the vinyl junkies. No tours that I remember and Elektra's idea of promotion was placing a few ads in Rolling Stone. No real backing that I ever saw. Too bad.

Frank G

 

But their first LP was released in 1971--they were contemporaries of Badfinger. I think it was the near zero backing that did them in. IMO Shredder, especially, could have been huge had it been promoted. So consistent, ripe with potential singles, and I love the jam with You Really Got Me.

Shredder would be such a great candidate for a SH/Acoustic Sounds remaster audiophile treatment...

Dale

 

Well, Badfinger kind of got screwed also. "Wish You Were Here" and all of their albums after Apple tanked, and they all were excellent in my book. Had Badfinger not had the silver spoon blessing from the Beatles, who knows what they would have sold? Zeppelin and the heavier bands were the vogue at the time. Segarini himself says the problem was a timing thing.To quote him: " I think our timing was five years too early, or five years too late."

 

Good info. I am learning more on this thread in one day than I have learned about this band since the seventies !

 

Maybe you're right. Still, I wonder what they'd have recorded had their first LP come out in 1976. Some great powerpop was released in that year for sure, but a lot of the powerpop artists got swamped by disco and deemed wimp by punks. Few winners, a lot of losers.

Dale

 

Yeah Dale,who knows?

Cheap Trick is the only power pop band that I can think of off the top of my head that did well around 1976 and beyond.
I'm friends with all the guys in Shoes who were a good pop band but a couple of years later, and they only had one album that sold well, even though they get referenced all the time these days by power poppers. Timing is a strange beast,huh ?

 

The Shoes? I loved Present Tense, and their first original single version of Tomorrow Night (different from the one on Present Tense) is just about perfect powerpop.

Dale