Least favorite of the major 1966 era bands?

[MopTopMike]

13th Floor Elevators - they had one good song, and that was couresy of The Spades.

Thanks for providing the laugh of the day

 

[Dave Baldwin]

John's Children - freakbeat classics? Their entire recorded legacy pales next to other examples (insert your favorites here).
"Smashed:Blocked" might as well be the "Winchester Cathedral" of '60s obscurities that are in fact over-rated.

As for the Action - their originals are good, the remakes are limp and sanitized. "I'll Keep Holding On" and "Baby You've Got It" are rather pedestrian lame 'beat' sides, not really any better than a Herman's Hermits hit single.

John's Children - freakbeat classics? Their entire recorded legacy pales next to other examples (insert your favorites here).
"Smashed:Blocked" might as well be the "Winchester Cathedral" of '60s obscurities that are in fact over-rated.

As for the Action - their originals are good, the remakes are limp and sanitized. "I'll Keep Holding On" and "Baby You've Got It" are rather pedestrian lame 'beat' sides, not really any better than a Herman's Hermits hit single.

Great lead vocals from Reg IMO on most Action sides...definitely more soulful than Mr. Noone.
Kinda cool to hear how Motown songs can sound with Rickenbacker guitars in the mix.

 

[Perkeo]

Syndicate of Sound, Little Girl always seemed sooooo lame, especially after the Cream Puff War article showed what bro'ed out creeps they were.

 

[soundog III]

A real-time report from the front lines circa 1966ish...:

And the problem with this is ???

 

[troggy]

I'm convinced that about half this thread is some bizarro version of G45 Central.

 

[Dave Baldwin]

I guess Rich Dangel of the Wailers really deserves a lot of the credit for the style of all subsequent versions of the Louie Louie break. There are probably hundreds of garage band lead breaks that literally steal sections of that (Kingsmen's) break, note for note. Sometimes thay are hard to recognise, unless you have really studied how that break is played.

Dave Davies must have REALLY liked it...

 

[Hallucalation]

First three Spoonful albums with Zal (not counting soundtracks) are really good and quite rockin'. Byrds first 5 albums is beyond brilliance. Buffalo Springfield were amazing from start to finish.
I don't understand the point of comparing entire discographies of major bands with small 1965-66-67 garage outputs by bands like Music Machine or Seeds. Mid sixties garage stuff should be compared to mid-sixties stuff by major bands. It would be stupid to call Rolling Stones 60's output lame because they managed to release 20+ horrible albums starting with 1971-72 or so.

By the way, Grateful Dead first album is killer save for shitty Pigpen "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" interlude. After that it just went downhill and boring. But best of all is their late 1965 Warlocks demos.

 

[Granny Goose]

First three Spoonful albums with Zal (not counting soundtracks) are really good and quite rockin'. Byrds first 5 albums is beyond brilliance. Buffalo Springfield were amazing from start to finish.
I don't understand the point of comparing entire discographies of major bands with small 1965-66-67 garage outputs by bands like Music Machine or Seeds. Mid sixties garage stuff should be compared to mid-sixties stuff by major bands. It would be stupid to call Rolling Stones 60's output lame because they managed to release 20+ horrible albums starting with 1971-72 or so.

By the way, Grateful Dead first album is killer save for shitty Pigpen "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" interlude. After that it just went downhill and boring. But best of all is their late 1965 Warlocks demos.

 

[Granny Goose]

Jefferson Airplane, basically not that great a band, "White Rabbit" aside. The Great Society version of "Somebody To Love" is absolutely beautiful and the Airplane murdered it in my opinion.
Added to that - they spawned a huge trend of gloomy, female singer lead bands that could have been making far better music if they hadn't followed that trend.

I think all of the San Francisco bands are way overrated when compared with those from Los Angeles but history is written by the victors and Rolling Stone won that battle.

 

[Dave Baldwin]

Jefferson Airplane, basically not that great a band, "White Rabbit" aside. The Great Society version of "Somebody To Love" is absolutely beautiful and the Airplane murdered it in my opinion.
Added to that - they spawned a huge trend of gloomy, female singer lead bands that could have been making far better music if they hadn't followed that trend.

I think all of the San Francisco bands are way overrated when compared with those from Los Angeles but history is written by the victors and Rolling Stone won that battle.

Did you just praise The Grateful Dead and trash The Jefferson Airplane? Must have been some kind of Freudian slip (lol).
I actually prefer the Airplane's hit version of "Somebody To Love" to The Great!! Society!! take. Clearly the Airplane
had paid attention to The Thirteenth Floor Elevators when they played SF in '66 and learned how to rock harder and
still maintain their 'psych' bona fides. Jorma's solo has one of the dirtiest Gibson ES-335 guitar tones I've ever heard
outside of a few over-the -top Chicago blues cats. Magnificent! I like Darby Slick's solo on the 'Society ' version too
because he sounds like 'Squires-era' Neil Young trying to solo while falling off of a high bar stool...also Brilliant! Too
bad Grace Slick hadn't learned how to sing the song yet. She did better on the 'B' side where she sounds like a real
live 'Burqa model'.

 

[greenfuzz]

I think all of the San Francisco bands are way overrated when compared with those from Los Angeles but history is written by the victors and Rolling Stone won that battle.

100% agree. It’s not even close in my opinion.

 

[Dave Baldwin]

100% agree. It’s not even close in my opinion.

Not sure if I'd bet on that if you include the East Bay, San Jose/Peninsula/Davis & Sacramento bands as "SF" acts.
Many musicians from those scenes became members of 'San Francisco sound' bands like Quicksilver/Blue Cheer/
Santana etc. L.A. was a MAJOR national music industry hub. San Francisco and Nor/Cal were as provincial as Oregon
up until late 1966 or early 1967 when the media hype kicked in.

 

[HarvestmanMan]

Can't help but notice that no one has mentioned the Smoke. A good chunk of their output ranges from insipid to near unlistenable. (Not garage, but if John's Children and the Action are under examination...)

 

[Dave Baldwin]

Can't help but notice that no one has mentioned the Smoke. A good chunk of their output ranges from insipid to near unlistenable. (Not garage, but if John's Children and the Action are under examination...)

None of the groups you mentioned is "garage" as most would define it here...even "garrige" as the Brits like to say. But then again,
neither were The Yardbirds...despite the fact that garage bands all over the world did cool "garage" covers of some of their songs.

 

[abc]

The Seeds





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just kidding