Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In Mr. Moderator talks sausages, spins records, and introduces the exclusive worldwide premiere of a long-awaited mini-documentary on the making of The Four Seasons‘ overlooked 1969 psychedelic gem The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. It’s an Italian-American rock fan’s dream episode. As you listen, read up on the album’s surprise collaborator, Jake Holmes. (And whaddayouknow, our old Holmes piece was written by mrclean, whose drumming graces this episode’s playlist!)
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-26.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 26][Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download of each week’s podcast.]
If you ID’d the last track I didn’t catch it.
Interesting show, but I’d hesitate to label Genuine Imitation Life Gazette as “psychedelic”. The year 1968 produced an odd musical phenomenon – wildly-overproduced groovy lush pop, sometimes with a message, sometimes not. I can’t really call it rock, but it did try to be “hip”. Examples:
“MacArthur’s Park” – Richard Harris
“Eloise” – Barry Ryan
“If I Can Dream” – Elvis
I’d put GILG in with this bunch. However, one can hear a “Hey Jude” nah-nah-nah borrowing near the end of the title song that does turn briefly psychedelic with phasing and distortion. Interestingly, around the same time, the Four Seasons did release a mildly-rocking single that wasn’t included in GILG – “Electric Stories”. It made the lower reaches of the charts and even has some fuzzy guitar. Sadly, I can’t find a playable link to share. As compensation, I give you the wildly over-the-top “Eloise”, a big hit in England in late 1968.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8535BznoLos&feature=related
BigSteve – you know the singer. But I’m not making that mistake again. I don’t know what would be worse than becoming an “option”, but I try to make sport, not spoil it.
Well, he knows the guy who plays the one of the singer-guitarists, Ritchie Keith, of third-rate Welsh Invasion band Autumn Carousel. He’s also familiar with the bassist. That was “Up All Night,” from 1967, if memory serves.
Great show and I have to agree a little with your Neko Case comments — she’s good, and I listen to a few songs of each album, but she’s not a “go-to” artist for me.