Hooterville Trolley / Creation ?

[gregk25]

While Chris is preparing a much anticipated Hooterville Trolley post on garagehangover: Could this really be the earlier incarnation that also recorded "no silver bird"?

 

[eleelandc]

Why are they abbreviating New Mexico as "N.W."?

 

[chas_kit]

Here's what I could find out about the band. The keyboard player Bill didn't have any recollection of a band called Creation, and wasn't familiar with that other version of No Silver Bird.

http://www.garagehangover.com/hooterville-trolley/

 

[Don Julio]

Fascinating stuff. There's still lots of unsolved mysteries out there.

My money is on the Creation 45 being an authentically '60s recording.

 

[MopTopMike]

I've listened to that acetate version. It really sounds like an out-take of some sort, doctored up to sound "old"
The 1st Creation 45 sounds nothing like the supposed group who recorded "No Silver Bird". My bet is that the release is pure fiction. That label scan is laughable, doctored / created, then photocopies 20 times to make it appear legit.
The whole one of a kind story seems like it was fabricated to ensure some sort of feverish frenzy to send collectors scurrying about, in hopes of finding a morsel of info. Reeks just like some of those northern soul scene one-off make believe discs. I cite the "northern" version of the TR5 "Can't Wait Much Longer" - someone spent a lot of time and effort via digital software work to create a variant version that pumps up the rhythm track, etc to fit the distorted view of what makes something "northern".

 

[chas_kit]

I'm leaning towards fake. The Trolley's version became very well-known in England as a precursor to the shoe-gazing & psych revival of Spacemen 3 etc.

 

[Don Julio]

I've listened to that acetate version. It really sounds like an out-take of some sort, doctored up to sound "old"
The 1st Creation 45 sounds nothing like the supposed group who recorded "No Silver Bird". My bet is that the release is pure fiction. That label scan is laughable, doctored / created, then photocopies 20 times to make it appear legit.
The whole one of a kind story seems like it was fabricated to ensure some sort of feverish frenzy to send collectors scurrying about, in hopes of finding a morsel of info. Reeks just like some of those northern soul scene one-off make believe discs. I cite the "northern" version of the TR5 "Can't Wait Much Longer" - someone spent a lot of time and effort via digital software work to create a variant version that pumps up the rhythm track, etc to fit the distorted view of what makes something "northern".

So you guys are alleging that

a) somebody found a copy of a rare, local psych 45 in the '70s or later (The Hooterville Trolley)
b) for some reason, they decided to record a new version of the track and tried to make it sound like an authentically '60s track
c) they also decided to completely alter the lyrics
d) they decided to credit this to a local band also from Albuquerque, The Creation (even though nobody at that time knew where the Hooterville Trolley were from; there is nothing to connect the Trolley 45 to the first Creation 45)
e) they then created a fake label for the record based on the first Creation 45
f) the fake track and label were then included in The Incredible Expanding Universe Of Brain Shadows - Vol. 1, an LP with otherwise documentable 45s

I'm not saying collectors haven't done crazier things than this, but that seems like a pretty elaborate and quixotic effort just to fool a few people. If so, they did a great job, unlike Thee Wylde Maniacs.

But I think the altered lyrics are the smoking gun in this episode. A member of the Trolley states on Garage Hangover:

"Ernest Phillips wrote the original song but we (Martin, Don and I) re-wrote the words because we didn’t think the original words were “heavy” enough for the songs of that time, but let him still get the credit for the song."

The Creation 45 has the original lyrics. They are indeed pedestrian, and the Trolley were right in re-writing them to make them into something trippier and heavy. When the Creation heard it, they got pissed off, since they had recorded it originally (but not released it). That's when they put out their version.

The Creation lyrics have the song title in the verse. The Hooterville's version does not. It doesn't make sense why the Hooterville's song is titled "No Silver Bird," but it does for the Creation.

I think that's more likely than the collector's hoax. The main thing going for that theory is that nobody seems to have seen an actual copy of the Creation 45.

 

[Don Julio]

I also don't agree that the first Creation 45 sounds "nothing" like "No Silver Bird." Their first effort is indeed lightweight pop, but the vocalist sounds very much the same.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/The-Creation...3962981?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item4d1d4b6865

 

[chas_kit]

All good points Don Julio though I don't hear the connection between the vocals for the Creation really. I agree the change of lyrics is something of a smoking gun.

If it's authentic, the Creation's version is an amazing anticipation of future sounds.

Who was behind The Incredible Expanding Universe Of Brain Shadow? Can someone ask him/her?