Let’s review the ground rules here. The Mystery Date song is not necessarily something I believe to be good. So feel free to rip it or praise it. Rather the song is something of interest due to the artist, influences, time period… Your job is to decipher as much as you can about the artist without research. Who do you think it is? Or, Who do you think it sounds like? When do you think it was recorded? Etc…
If you know who it is, don’t spoil it for the rest. Anyone who knows it can play the “mockcarr option.” (And I’ve got a hunch that one of you knows this one.) This option is for those of you who just can’t hold your tongue and must let everyone know just how in-the-know you are by calling it. So if you know who it is and want everyone else to know that you know, email Mr. Moderator at mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com. If correct we will post how brilliant you are in the Comments section.
The real test of strength though is to guess as close as possible without knowing. Ready, steady, go!
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/05-Mystery-Date-120310.mp3|titles=Mystery Date 120310](Thanks to the Townsperson who gave me this album—and make sure you of all people respect the mockcarr option.)
If you clicked on our new Mystery Date minutes after this was posted you may have experienced some technical difficulties. I think I’ve got them straightened out now.
I hate to say it, but it sounds like somebody has been seriously influenced by Jefferson Airplane. The Great Society?
Tha’s all I got. Interesting song.
Yeah, I am hearing a west-coast Jefferson Airplane sound overall, and a McGuinn-ish form in the Rickenbacker. But the production sounds a bit later to me, perhaps very early 70s? For some reason the name Lindsey Buckingham popped into my subconscious for a moment while listening, which makes no sense. Finally, there is something a little bit prog rock about the middle section.
trigmo has done tremendous work to build on the initial placement by jeangray! I’ll say more as we get closer to the heart of the matter.
Yeah, at first I was confused what sounded like muddy 80s indie band rickenbacker jangle, then the vocal harmonies and drums came in and took it back into, I’m guessing, the mid-70s, I can’t add much to trigmogimo and jeangray’s info, it seems like late stab at the Airplane sound as it was becoming a starshit, especially the guitar licks, but with maybe with that throwback Byrds-bass stuff in the middle – was Hillman invovled? I can’t recognize the voices, so it remains anonymous to me.
No Hillman, but mid-’70s is the era. I need to warn you, however, that you are so close, mockcarr, that you may need to enact the mockcarr option.
Is it that mid-70s Hillman cheeseball supergroup? Hillman-Souther-Furray or something? I always that concept was pretty pretentious — a “supergroup” (and named like one) that featured three guys nobody had ever heard of!
Did I hear that right? In the beginning part of the song did she sing that you have to “analyze your baggage?” I think that had me laughing until the not too bad guitar solo that seemed to happen before the song went to East Bongwater for about three minutes.
I’ll say it’s early 70’s, California. For some reason, One Tin Soldier by The Original Caste is stuck in my head now.
As stated previously, Hillman was not involved in this record, but that’s a highly reasonable guess.
Mid-’70s is correct, but the band is not from California, as much as it sounds that way.
I do like that solo, too, and I like how you describe its eventual destination, 2K!
How about something weird, like a more rocking version of the Seekers or New Seekers?
I can’t believe this is from the mid-70s. It really has a 1966-67 west coast vibe. I’m guessing that was less an intentional production choice and more ineptitude in the control room that gave this song it’s throw back sound.
Is this one of those second tier English folk rock bands like Renaissance?
The lyrics are reall bad and I am getting a “made for TV” vibe. Is this a mid-70’s Cowsils number?
Like cdm, I am very surprised that this is from as late as the mid-70s. With the very strong Byrds vibe and the Dylanesque lyrics, I had it pegged for 66-67. Apart from the vocals it could be a 5D or Younger Than Yesterday outtake–like someone took one of those Byrds instrumentals that appears as a bonus track on the reissues and added stuff. The Airplane/Great Society connection occurred to me, too, but I know that material only dimly; but at any rate it is too early, apparently, and the production seems totally different.
I think I need to listen to this some more, since it is so familiar sounding–but I’m not sure if that is just because it sounds like so many things I know or if I’ve actually heard it. Good song, too, in its way.
Right, as produced by someone like Tom Petty…but no. Nevertheless, you’ve also gotten to the spirit of this oddity.
It’s not an English band, cdm, or even a Dutch one:) Weird, isn’t it, how authentic the vibe is? From what I’ve read about this band it does seem that a good deal of their sound was intentional.
I like your “made for TV” comment, but no, it’s not a band that ever appeared on TV, as far as I know.
It was the guitar bizness that sounded 70s to me.
I’m taking the mockcarr option.
As an irrelevant sidenote, I was listening to the earliest Fairport Convention recently, and I was struck by how Airplanesque they were. Apparently this was a conscious effort on their part.
With the Mystery Date song, it seems to be as well, right down to the combination of 12-string electric and fuzzy leads. But then the middle section comes in and the 12-string takes the lead in a very McGuinnish way, part 8 Miles High/part Do You Wanna Be a Rock&Roll Star. It’s quite a feat, but no surprise that this went nowhere in the 70s.
This was pretty good and everyone above hit the main points like this sounding like the intersection of the Byrds and Jefferson Airplane.
I seem to remember hearing that Ann Wilson of Heart learned the ropes with a predominately male band in the early 70’s (White Heart or something like that). And the Pacific Northwest would have been a few years behind LA and SF in terms of musical trends so that could explain the 60’s sound and 70’s timeframe.
BRAVO to BigSteve for nailing the mockcarr option! I’m amazed. I didn’t think anyone would know this but the Townsman who gave it to me and maybe his long-absent friend.
That would be a perfect explanation for this song, k., but it’s not.
Let it be known that misterioso has successfully played the mockcarr option! Congrats, smartypants.
wow…that’s an amazing choice of words by mockcarr
I’m pretty sure that this is the brief and brilliant flowering of a rather brief coke and whiskey-fueled affair between Getty Lee and Ann Wilson which originated in Wilson’s lawyer’s pale green Lincoln Continental on a road trip through the southwest with a stuck 8-track cartridge of Younger Than Yesterday sometime in the early Fall of 1971.
We’ll reveal our Mystery Date later tonight, but I hope history somehow rewrites itself and substitutes your story, Tvox.
Tvox, I, too, heard the dulcet tones of Geddy Lee in those dusty grooves!
As far as I know, no Canadians were involved in the making of this album.
oKay — I liked this cut a lot. Can someone please tell me how to download it? Thanx!
On a PC, jeangray, you should be able to right-click and download it. On a Mac, I don’t know that there is an easy way to do this. It’s one of those Adobe issues that Apple won’t deal with. Let me know if any can download on their Mac and how you do it. Thanks.
Um, I’m using a PC with Windows 7 and I still get the Adobe Flash thing when I right click.
Thanks for that report, Tvox. Mine downloads through RealAudio, which I don’t have on my Mac. Maybe that’s the key. I’ll see if I can get a free download of RealAudio on my Mac. For now, though, this is the audio player we use, and it’s kind of nice to have something self-contained and with some protection against charges of us making music too free and ripping off major corporations and all that nonsense.
Yes, I just downloaded Real recently, and it constantly prompts me to download things, like say youtube videos. I’ve got to think this won’t last, but for now it works on these mp3’s.