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 some of you know 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/2011/03/Mystery-Date-032211.mp3|titles=Mystery Date 032211] [audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Mystery-Date-032211b.mp3|titles=Mystery Date 032211b]
Were any non-Rod members of the Faces involved in this? If so, they should be ashamed. This blows. And it’s endless. Christ, 8 minutes? WHY?!
No.
This could be from any year after 1969
God knows the Faces weren’t notably original, but even on a bad day, on their worst day, they weren’t as derivative as this. I feel like this is Uriah Heep or Spooky Tooth or one of those bands that I lump in together even though I don’t know much by them. (And, I must admit, someone recently posted a Spooky Tooth clip that was quite good.) Spooky Heep?
I don’t hate it as much as Oats, but I’ll agree, it gores on too long, and what is up with the end of the song? It’s like when kids get dizzy spinning on baseball bats and then try to race to a certain point and everyone goes off in a different direction.
Vocally, it sounds like one of the guys that’s not Chuck Negron in Three Dog Night.
And at first I thought it might be Hendrix sitting in with someone, but it’s not. And then I was going to guess Marc Benno, but it’s not him.
Because some of you are so busy that you can’t commit 8 minutes to your Mystery Date I’ve provided a second, more concise track for you to chew on. I’m telling you, you will be mighty impressed when I reveal the identity of our Mystery Date.
And no, it’s not Marc Benno, but that’s a good, timely guess!
I don’t think it is as bad as some suggest. At first I thought this might be something from Sharks, that band that both Andy Fraser and Chris Spedding were in. It does kind of sound like Spooky Tooth a bit, but then I only have listened to a handful of Spooky Tooth songs.
I kinda like the second number. The drummer is an extrovert, and a pretty good one at that. I’ll kick myself if it turns out it’s Carmine Appice and this is some Vanilla Fudge deep track. I could swear I recognize that guitar player, like he went on to something else, or came from something cultishly important. I have two guesses:
1. That’s Peter Frampton in some bizarro pre-Humble Pie lineup.
2. That’s Ollie Halsall in Patto.
I like the second one. It sounds like what Chicken Shack would have sounded like if they were as good as my friend used to tell me they were.
Patto is one of those bands I keep telling myself to check out, but never do. If this is them, I need to try harder. The first song is pretty wanky, but the second one is strong — and
Mike PattoOllie Halsall (who I’ve heard in other things) really is all that and a bag of chips, if you’re into intelligent tweedlee-tweedlee-twee-style soloing, which I admit I sometimes am.All I’ll say for now is that two Townsmen, BigSteve and tonyola – our newest cat who knows his stuff! – have correctly played the Mockcarr Option. Stay tuned for the Big Reveal!
British blooze, not particularly notable except for the production. Man, that sounds like an empty, featureless room they are recording in. One of John Mayall’s numerous, faceless lineups after Clapton and Peter Green?
Mr. Royale suggested that track 2 is good music to fix your car to. So that made me think of the Dazed and Confused soundtrack, a la Foghat.
There must have been something in the British water between, say, 1968 and 1974. Tons of “heavy blooze” groups and records seemingly sprung up out of nowhere. Free, Ten Years After, Uriah Heep, Patto, Savoy Brown, Humble Pie – the list goes on and on and they all tended to sound alike after a while. Even groups like Procol Harum were turning to the “blooze” by 1971 or so.
Sorry, I meant I’d heard Ollie Halsall in other things.