Every RPM Canadian Content #1 single discussion thread 1964-2000

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by bunglejerry, Aug 17, 2020.

  1. danasgoodstuff

    danasgoodstuff Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    shouldn't be so snarky about a successful band from my hometown, but if you were to do a parody of a local band single from this era it would probably sound a lot like this.
     
  2. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I wasn't trying to be funny, for sure . . . just bringing forth the facts. But in a sense, I could see why US Decca would've passed on it . . .
     
  3. danasgoodstuff

    danasgoodstuff Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    I meant 'I shouldn't be...', not saying I think you were. Misogyny is pretty much a given in this genre, papered over with flowery images and period production in this case.
     
  4. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    Here's two of the Poppy Family's strangest gigs: "Dr. Wong's Psychedelia For Pstraights" presented by Vancouver psychiatrist Dr. Bennet Wong in an effort to help adults understand the "youth". The Poppy Family took part in the first two: October 20, 1968 at the Retinal Circus, and February 16, 1969 in Squamish. They would be replaced by the Wiggy Symphony in future "Psychedelia For Straights" and presentations such as "Dr. Wong's Revolution! Youth In Protest!"

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  5. 7solqs4iago

    7solqs4iago Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    The last 10 pages has been some of the best stuff I've had provided by the internet, can recall more than a few of these songs.
     
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  6. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    Yeah, for me 1964-1967 was a bit of a slog from time to time. Things are definitely picking up. 1969 is a banner year!
     
  7. Paul C

    Paul C Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    According to the Songbook set, Lightfoot wrote "Bitter Green" in a taxi in London, England. "My wife adopted that as her song after our divorce."

    Among the many acts to have recorded "Bitter Green" are the Irish folk group The Johnstons, who made it the title track of an album in 1970. While Gordon Lightfoot was charting with "Bitter Green", The Johnstons were on the RPM 100 with another song written by a Canadian, Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now". Throughout its chart run, RPM misspelled their name 'The Johnsons'.



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    Last edited: Dec 17, 2020
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  8. Paul C

    Paul C Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    The RPM 100 initially listed the versions of "Both Sides Now" by The Johnstons and by Judy Collins as one listing. After the November 25, 1968, issue (by which the listing had reached #23), The Johnstons were dropped from the listing, while the Judy Collins version would go on to reach #6 two weeks later. Collins recorded a new version of "Both Sides Now" for her 1972 Colors Of The Day: The Best Of Judy Collins album. Ever since, when the song is played on the radio, it is often this later re-recording that is heard. This is the 1968 version (the 45 was mono even though American pressings erroneously stated 'stereo'):



    Within the next nine months, Judy Collins would chart with two more songs written by Canadians.
     
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  9. Paul C

    Paul C Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    In addition to being an edit of the LP version, the 45 version of "Magic Carpet Ride" features a different vocal take:

     
  10. Paul C

    Paul C Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Neil Young's "On The Way Home" is the only track on the Buffalo Springfield Last Time Around album on which all five original members appear (including, by my count, three Canadians). The single peaked at #86 on the RPM 100 on November 25, 1968, by which time the recording was already about a year old. Although a Neil Young composition, Richie Furay is actually the lead vocalist on the recording.



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    Last edited: Dec 17, 2020
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  11. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    And here's the U.S. label:
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    Meanwhile, for . . .
    . . . the US label for that:
    [​IMG]
    What was the allergy that Canadian Quality had to mentioning producers, I wonder? (We'll be hearing from Messina - or at least, the U.S. will - in the coming decade, as one-half of a duo.)

    As for "Magic Carpet Ride," I much prefer the vocal take as on the edited 45, hands down.
     
  12. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    76. RAINBOW RIDE
    by ANDY KIM
    DOT STEED 711X
    #1 for 2 weeks: January 6 and 13, 1969




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    It is certainly fitting that we start 1969 with Andy Kim, given that it will be quite a year for him, culminating in an appearance at the number one position of the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1969 (and number 28 as well).

    "Rainbow Ride" is the title track of Kim's sophomore album, also released in late 1968. It is his third single on Steed and actually bears a consecutive matrix number after "Shoot 'Em Up, Baby". The cover of that second album tells the whole tale; where Kim's first album shows the sixties becoming the seventies, in appearance plausibly a James Taylor-style singer-songwriter album, Rainbow Ride is a clear look back at the now-dying late sixties, with "psychedelic" lettering and a back cover making Kim look for all the world like a refugee from Pepperland.

    So it is musically as well, with fuzztoned guitars, Bo Diddley rhythm, massed harmonies and a Hammond B3 with ridiculous amounts of tremolo. Part Beatles, part Monkees, part Who, all sixties. Well, it was still the sixties after all! What does it mean when a song that sounds two years old suddenly sounds "retro"? The Yellow Submarine film didn't even come out in the USA until November 1968!

    Pastiche though the song may be, it's still a great record, one I have distinct memories from my 1980s childhood of listening to on CHUM-AM's iteration as an oldies station. It came out in Canada and the US, and also the UK, Greece, Brazil and the Netherlands. Only the Netherlands (where the b-side was "Shoot 'Em Up, Baby") got a picture sleeve.

    Fourteen songs will hit the number one position in the year 1969. And I would say that of those fourteen, eight have gone on down the decades to still be remembered today. So while there is a lot of hand-wringing on the pages of RPM in the year 1969 about the need for government assistance to bring the industry to life, the simple fact is that the revolution in Canadian music is already happening.

    ON THE PAGES OF RPM: More on the concept of "legislated radio" from Ritchie Yorke (a fascinating figure in Canadian and international rock journalism who you should definitely Google). Some excerpts:

    It's a fair assumption that Canada does have the necessary raw talent to create a local recording industry of some influence. One has only to look south of the border at the number of non-American stars who were born, raised, and gained musical education here. A partial list includes The Band (whose album, Music From Big Pink, is regarded as a major international trend setter on the pop scene), Steppenwolf, Ian & Sylvia, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, the Collectors, Kensington Market, and members of the Mamas and Papas, Union Gap, Blood Sweat and Tears, Buffalo Springfield, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Rhinoceros, and many more.

    True, production could be better, but that will only come when we have the best producers and engineers on tap. Money is what brings in such talent, and money only comes from sales on previous domestic hits.

    Which brings us to the issue of legislation. The aforementioned band of people battling to make it in Canada have long looked at the TV situation, where to obtain a licence, an operator must program 55 per cent Canadian (or British Commonwealth) content. This ruling, although subject to all sorts of dodges (such as devoting hours of non prime time to insignificant Santa Claus parades and sporting-events) has provided the incentive for a large number of creative people to live and work in this country. Why such a ruling was never also applied to the broadcasting scene is completely beyond most of us. It can probably be attributed to the significant lobbying strength of broadcasting in political circles.

    ...

    Historically, Canada is a country with its industries heavily protected by various tariffs and restrictive trade agreements, No one, even if they wanted to, could import cheap wheat from say, Australia, to compete with the local industry. No one believes a domestic record industry could rival wheat as a dollar producer, but it could certainly inject new blood into a vein which has been dry for a very long time.

    Radio stations often bring forward the theory that Canadians do not buy Canadian in the entertainment area. This is possibly true, but they should at least be given the opportunity of doing so. Look what has happened in other areas of the entertainment sphere in Canada - the National Ballet is widely regarded as the third best in the world, after the Bolshoi and the Royal Elizabethan; the Toronto Symphony; and new conductor, Karel Ancerl, is highly regarded in symphony circles; and the National Film Board of Canada is renowned internationally.

    All this, and not one national show business personality other than Gordon Lightfoot. Even Lightfoot has sometimes experienced difficulty being programmed at some stations.

    We understand that the CRTC intends to discuss the legislation issue with broadcasters in the Spring & Summer of 1969. Already, the possibility of such a legal move has forced some stations into opening their eyes to local talent. And of course, the stations, few and far between, that always have played Canadian discs, are continuing to do so.

    NETHERLANDS:

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  13. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    And the U.S. ish' of this . . .
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  14. mavisgold

    mavisgold Senior Member

    Location:
    bellingham wa
  15. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    Peaking at #59 the week of January 6, the final single by Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, "Malinda" b/w "It's Growing". It would receive a picture sleeve in the Netherlands. Funny thing though, RPM would not place it on the Canadian chart. Through the chart run, it would be listed as being by Bobby Taylor when it's clearly a track from the group's LP. Like "Does Your Mama Know About Me?", it would be more successful in the U.S. (#48 in Billboard, Top 20 in L.A., Chicago, Houston, Detroit, and Philadelphia.) In Canada it hit #17 in Vancouver and #19 in Swift Current SK.



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    Bobby Taylor would release his first and only solo LP, Taylor Made Soul on Gordy in 1969, which included a cover of "Eleanor Rigby":
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aoZCHKOYQY

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    He would release several singles throughout the 1970s on V.I.P., Mowest, Sunflower, Tommy and Playboy, but none found any success. He would resurrect the Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers name in 1990 for an album recorded in Europe that has no connection whatsoever to the original group. His greatest claim to fame, though, would be for discovering the Jackson 5, who opened for Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers in Chicago in 1968

    Metroactive Music | Bobby Taylor
    Bobby Taylor, Motown Singer Who Discovered Jackson 5, Dead at 83

    Tommy Chong would return to Vancouver to run his club the Elegant Parlor (now called the Parlor).
    Tommy Chong's Vancouver | Cannabis Culture
    Cheech and Chong and Gaye Delorme

    And the rest is history. (Gaye Delorme's main claim to fame would be for writing "The Rodeo Song")


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    Wes Henderson would release a lone single, the psychedelic soul of "Reality" b/w "In Bed" on Rare Earth in 1969. It was produced and co-written by ex-Vancouverite Tom Baird (formerly of the Classics), now working at Motown. It would get the picture sleeve treatment in France and Germany, and "In Bed" would be covered by Rare Earth and Three Dog Night. After working at Motown, Henderson would move back to his hometown of Edmonton and would play on the local jazz scene there.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxxJ3KmJD5s
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYLMeXvFIZk

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    Robbie King, Eddie Patterson and Duris Maxwell would all end up in the Vancouver band Brahman, who we'll hear from later. King and Patterson would play together in both the Hans Staymer Band and the Hometown Band, King and Maxwell would play together in Skylark (who we'll hear from). As session musicians they would play on 90% of the records made in Vancouver during the 1970s and 80s. Actually that's an exaggeration, but only slightly.
     
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  16. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    77. THESE EYES
    by THE GUESS WHO?
    NIMBUS NN-9005
    #1 for 8 weeks: January 20 and 27, February 3, 10, 17 and 24, March 3 and 10, 1969




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    The last time the Guess Who hit number one on the CanCon charts, it was 1967 and they were still Quality recording artists. Jack Richardson's gamble had not immediately reaped rewards; the Guess Who's first two Nimbus singles would peak at numbers four and ten on the CanCon chart (which at that time had only ten positions) and 75 and 97 on the big chart.

    But all that changes right now. With this single, the Guess Who's "imperial" era begins, the first of a stretch of five singles that I would argue are the equal or better of any five-single run of any artist you might care to mention, including the Beatles. The Guess Who's breakthrough wasn't limited to Canada. It wasn't limited to the United States (where it became the Guess Who's first RCA single, peaked at number six and eventually sold a jaw-dropping million copies).

    When we consider the international reach of singles we've looked at so far, "These Eyes" is really at a whole new level. Discogs has single releases for "These Eyes" in (deep breath): Canada, the USA, Greece, Italy, Australia, France, New Zealand, Germany, South Africa, the UK, Spain, El Salvador, Rhodesia, Turkey, Japan, Jamaica, Peru, Chile and Mexico. In the last three, the song was titled "Estos Ojos" (and hilariously the b-side "Lightfoot" became "Pie Ligero"), and in every country except Canada it was released on the incredibly wide-ranging RCA Victor label. Six of these countries got picture sleeves, and those can all be found in the gallery below.

    I have quoted Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap Stories several times so far. Let me do it again:

    The record that changed it all for us was, of course, “These Eyes.” I wrote the piano part for “These Eyes” in Regina one night waiting to take Lorayne Stevenson, my future wife, on a date. That was back in the summer of 1966 and we hadn’t known each other long. She wasn’t ready, so as I waited and noodled around on her parents’ piano in the living room, I came up with the chords. I’m not a piano player, but I sat down at the piano and I started playing these two chords, Dm7 to Cmaj7. I liked how they sounded and decided I would write a song with those chords. The words I had were actually “These arms” with the line “These arms long to hold you.”

    Burton Cummings and I used to meet every Saturday morning at his grandmother’s house, Granny Kirkpatrick, on Bannerman Avenue in the North End of Winnipeg to write songs. We each kept these Hilroy notebooks with us all week and would jot down any ideas for songs we came up with. Then we’d show each other what we had and see if we could come up with a song. So Burton listened to my two chords and my words to “These Arms.” I also had the descending progression down to the A minor chord. He said, “Hmmm. Can we move that to the second line and make the first line ‘These eyes cry every night for you’?” Then we came up with “These arms long to hold you again.” He also had the long line “These eyes have seen a lot of loves but I’m never gonna see another love like I had with you.” It all fit together perfectly. And from that we wrote a song that would forever change our lives. “These Eyes” started out with a guy who could only play piano in the key of C, and that’s why the beginning is so simple. That’s all I could play on the piano.

    In 1968 we took a demo of that song to Jack Richardson, the man who would become our record producer, in Toronto. He later took us to New York to record at A&R Studios with the great Phil Ramone and engineer Dave Greene. They didn’t want the intro to be played on a full piano. They wanted something different, so Burton played it on his little Hohner electric piano which had a built-in tremolo. That became the opening and the signature sound of “These Eyes.”

    Jack bought out our contract with Quality Records in Canada and signed us to RCA Records in New York. We actually didn’t want “These Eyes” to be our first single with RCA. We saw ourselves as a rock ’n’ roll band, not a smooth ballads band. We wanted a rocker like “When You Touch Me” as our first single off Wheatfield Soul. RCA and Jack Richardson wanted “These Eyes,” and they won. Jack sat us all down and told us, “This is the best song on the album. You have no other chance. I’ve mortgaged my house for this.” He was right. RCA paid less than $10,000 for the Wheatfield Soul album with “These Eyes” on it. Don Burkhimer at RCA Records told me years later they would have paid ten times that because they believed in “These Eyes” being a hit. It became our first million-seller.


    One thing Randy fails to mention is how incredibly sumptuous the song's arrangement by Ben McPeek is, with a thick bed of strings and contrapuntal horns building to a dramatic crescendo. McPeek, of course, arranged Bobby Gimby's "Canada" and was a co-founder of Nimbus Records. Even Jack Richardson's second mortgage wasn't enough to get "These Eyes" and its parent album Wheatfield Soul made, so McPeek was forced to go into the red as well. Lucky it paid off!

    Despite the international success of "These Eyes", its legacy runs a bit deeper here in Canada, where it has been covered or interpolated down the years by Gowan, jackSOUL, Maestro Fresh-Wes and... er... Michael Cera in Superbad.

    ON THE PAGES OF RPM: Time for the Annual RPM Awards! "Most promising" categories seem to have disappeared, sadly. Still, here we go! Top Male Vocalist is Andy Kim over Bobby Curtola (!) and Allan Bruce (an old-timey singer of Scottish music who released, for the first time in eight years, an album in 1968 that had liner notes by Walt Grealis). The never-very-competitive Top Female Vocalist is Debbie Lori Kaye over Catharine McKinnon and Colleen Peterson. Top Vocal Instrumental Group is the Guess Who over Five Man Electrical Band (now trading under that name) and Mandala.

    On the folk scene, the Top Folk Group award fails to impress, with the Irish Rovers beating the Raftsmen (who?) and the Irish Rebels (who?), but interestingly Top Folk Singer is by far the most competitive award this year, with Gordon Lightfoot beating Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.

    Technically sneaking in with a December 1968 release, "These Eyes" wins Best Produced Single (it really is sensational) over "Don't Ask Why" by (a misspelt) André Gagnon and "Whiskey on a Sunday" by the Irish Rovers.

    The incredibly stagnant Country awards are: Tommy Hunter for Top Country Singer Male over Gary Buck and Jimmy Arthur Ordge, Diane Leigh for Top Country Singer Female over Myrna Lorrie and Lynn Jones, and Rhythm Pals for Top Country Instrumental Vocal Group over Mercey Brothers and Rainvilles. The same three artists won last year, and seven of the nine nominees were the same as last year. Five of the nine were the same as two years ago! Even going back as far as 1966, the winners were Gary Buck, Diane Leigh and the Rhythm Pals.

    ITALY:

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    FRANCE:

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    SPAIN:

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  17. bunglejerry

    bunglejerry Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Toronto, ON
    GERMANY:

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    TURKEY:

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    JAPAN:

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  18. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Has the Guess Who's Quality records ever been collected and issued in the CD era? What is the status of those recordings?
     
  19. Paul C

    Paul C Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Although "These Eyes" was the #1 CanCon song by January 20 and would reach its peak of #7 on the RPM 100 on March 3, it did not enter the Billboard Hot 100 until April 5, by which time it had already fallen out of the RPM Top 20. It peaked at #6 on the Hot 100 on May 31.
     
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  20. Pelvis Ressley

    Pelvis Ressley Down in the Jungle Room

    Location:
    Capac, Michigan
    Sundazed issued a compilation in 2001.

    Guess Who, The - Shakin' All Over! CD
     
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  21. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    In the U.S., where it was the third release in RCA's stereo-only catalogue series (issued as 74-0102 near the end of January), there were three different variants over the course of its release (all from pressings by their Rockaway, NJ plant):
    [​IMG]
    Matrices XPKS-5918/5919, both sides Cirrus Music BMI
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    Matrices XPKS-4905/4906, both sides still Cirrus Music (my copy with this variant still lists the prior matrix numbers in the deadwax)
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    Publishing changed to Dunbar Music Inc. (RCA's BMI publishing arm); on lacquers with this number (on Rockaway pressings there was a -5S dash number), a slight tape dropout was heard in the solo Hohner organ opening. (The master serial number for the tape would have been XPA5-, 'A' signifying an RCA master tape ['B' was for RCA distributed labels], '5' indicating a recording at a non-RCA studio within the U.S.)

    Besides the CRTC influence and RCA execs' confidence, another factor in this breaking big in the U.S. was the huge reach (heard in several states) of Windsor, ON station CKLW AM 800 ("The Big 8"). I once lived in a house in New York City where, at night, CKLW came in relatively clear, nestled in-between WABC (Musicradio 77) and WNYC (then at 830 AM). Indeed, CKLW identified itself in those days as "Windsor / Detroit," with a sales office in the Motor City; their "20/20 News" updates (and those reading them) would become the stuff of legend.

    Although in Canada Nimbus was not yet distributed by RCA at this point, they still had their fingers in Nimbus' pie, as their Smiths Falls, ON plant pressed that label's product.

    Oh, and B.T.W., UK RCA Victor issued this single in mono. "Da noive," as they'd say in Brooklyn.
     
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  22. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    Just called CK here. As I said before, it never acted as a Canadian station. Rosalie Trombly knew a smash hit when she heard it.
     
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  23. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    A 20/20 news item
    "A tisket a tasket, they came back in a basket. Some of Detroit's young people won't be coming home. They were s-c-r-a-p-e-d off the pavement......"
    Byron MacGregor was a legend. Also Lee Marshall, best known as a wrestling commentator for the AWA started as one of those basso newsreaders.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  24. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    Video for "These Eyes"



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    Israel

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    Uruguay

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    Argentina back cover

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    Taiwan

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  25. bekayne

    bekayne Senior Member

    At #7 the week of January 27, A Mythical Meadow with "You've Got That Lovin' Look" b/w "I Am The Sun". It would peak in the top 100 four weeks later at #93. The band was from Ottawa, and the A-side was written by fellow Ottawan (?) Les Emmerson.



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    This would be the first of four singles for the group. With each release they would shorten their name:
    A Mythical Meadow>Mythical Meadow>The Meadow>Meadow.
    We'll hear more from them later.
     
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