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Beware of the Skin Deep!
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Jung,
REO Speedwagon came to mind with the question of favorite concerts. For sure one of the top five for me. I might place “Riding The Storm Out” close to my top ten (non MLT) rock songs. I heard them live and during the long wait for them I heard the warmup group that I hadn’t heard of before “Tower of Power”. HOLY cow! I never knew horns could sound so amazing. Part of why I enjoy “Candy Dulfer” so much and some friends of mine the “Brunson Brothers.”
This forum is so eye opening seeing the popular groups of other countries that I have never heard of or how someone popular in the US was not known elsewhere. I’ve really enjoyed the education and introduction to new (to me) groups and songs I hadn’t known before that Howard, yourself and others share. I’ve picked up many new favorites and some great appreciation for some fine artists.
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Hi, John.
One great British beat group from the 60’s that we Americans are pretty much completely ignorant of is Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. I discovered them through very indirect means a few years ago. Check them out on YouTube.
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David,
Interesting group. I had never heard of them. Some great vocals and very unique songs. I listened to about a dozen songs and might have thought it was a dozen different groups – in a good way. They seemed to be real explorers with some very interesting flavors all mixed together. Such a variety of sounds or influences – Rock, POP, Latin, even a little country in one song. It would take a while to identify each different instrument. Each song that I heard seems different like they have a musical buffet going. Hard to tell though as almost half the videos are blocked in my location. Thanks for sharing that group.
What an interesting world the internet has opened up for us. To learn of and hear groups from 50-70 years ago and have such a variety available. I think often as I pick up my phone about the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy” and how the little hand held “book” or device had all the knowledge of the universe. That sounded so amazing and yet so impossible at the time. Maybe 42 really is the answer. I’ll have to find some mice to ask 🙂
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I share your sense of wonder about the internet, John. I remember hearing once upon a time about some museum of broadcasting that supposedly contained tapes of everything that had ever been shown on TV, and I thought what I’d give to spend a few years there. Now I’ve got that museum in my home with YouTube. I’ve lost count of how many long-ago favorite TV shows and commercials I’ve found that I was sure I’d never see again, plus all the great music and other entertainment of the past that I absolutely never would have encountered otherwise.
Not to mention how with search engines you can look up the answer to almost any question you might have about anything, no matter how inane. Time was when there was no point in wondering about something unless there was a chance that someone had written a book about it. Now I literally learn something new every day that used to be unattainable.
And yes, they always say that futurists never saw the internet coming, but Ford Prefect was effectively a Google employee.
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Hi John
I haven’t heard “Riding The Storm Out” by REO Speedwagon before. It is really nice, and some great guitar sounds in there. They are quite a diverse band.
Tower of Power and Candy Dulfer do indeed play some intense brilliant horns and sax. Do you like Chicago, as they are another band with a lot of brass in their music which I enjoy a lot? I agree, I’ve been exposed to so many great bands here that different people have mentioned. Some real gems. Thanks for mentioning these!Edited to add:
BTW, I mentioned this Canadian band before, but check out Trooper. They are unknown outside of Canada but have some awesome songs like “Pretty Lady” and “Two For the Show”, both some of my favorite ballads.
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“Bend It” by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich was one of the first singles I can remember buying and it was second hand, back in late 1966. The first new album I bought was “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1967. I have mentioned this in other Topics and they probably got a mention in my Topic “MLT – Cover Requests.” In the early eighties I bought a CD of their hits.
This is an extract from Wikipedia.
“Ken Howard said that: “We changed their name to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, because they were their actual nicknames and because we wanted to stress their very distinct personalities in a climate which regarded bands as collectives”. The distinctive name, coupled with well produced and catchy songs by Howard and Blaikley, quickly caught the UK public’s imagination and their records started to sell in abundance. Indeed, between 1965 and 1969, the group spent more weeks in the UK Singles Chart than the Beatles and made the odd tour ‘down under’ to Australia and New Zealand, where they had also experienced some marked chart success. They also scored a Number One hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1968 with “The Legend of Xanadu”. The combined sales figures were in excess of one million copies. Their other top 10 UK hits included “Hideaway”, “Hold Tight!”, “Bend It!”, “Save Me!”, “Touch Me, Touch Me”, “Okay!”, “Zabadak!” and “Last Night in Soho”. “Bend It!” was a big hit in Europe, including a Number One in Germany. To obtain a bouzouki sound on the recording, an electrified mandolin was used.”
I hope you can open this link in your country.
I’m not sure what’s going on with those dance moves by the audience and I’m sure our reluctant Twin dancers, Mona and Lisa could show them a thing or two.
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And this, also from 1966.
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I’ve mentioned this before, but my favorite song of theirs was recorded after Dave Dee left the group, and it didn’t chart at all, but it skillfully blends three different melodies into a vocal smorgasbord:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHuyU1iKnTU
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It’s really weird they still called themselves Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich after Dave Dee had left, but I guess they were trading on a successful name.
Interestingly, vocalist Dave Dee, an ex-policeman, was at the scene of the motoring accident that took the life of the American rock and roller Eddie Cochran and injured Gene Vincent in April 1960.
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I think that the inclusion of Dave Dee in the credit is just an error on the part of the YouTube poster, Howard. I’ve seen a picture of the record jacket for the single, and the group is just called DBM&T.
I can’t locate it now, but originally I found this video on YouTube preceded by an introduction by the host of a contemporary music TV show. The regular host was off that week, and the guest host was… Dave Dee! I guess that kind of bookends the Eddie Cochran coincidence.
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