Occasional Albums Thing 008 - Various Artists “Decca Originals”

In a 1980’s (?) interview Frank Zappa explained “One thing that did happen in the 60s, was some music of an unusual and experimental nature did get recorded, did get released”. The executives of the day, he explained, were “cigar-chomping old guys who looked at the product and said, ‘I don’t know. Who knows what it is? Record it, stick it out. If it sells, alright!’”. He could very well have been describing the A&R policy of Decca Records during the early to later 1960’s. Those be-suited exec’s may not have had a clue about what the likes of The Syn or Tintern Abbey were getting at but hey, stick it it out, it might just sell and we’ll all make some money. If you trawl through Decca’s (and Columbia and Parlophone and Fontana et al’s) back catalogue’s from 1962 to 1969 they are littered with some weird, wonderful and in some cases, these days, very expensive releases. That is what “Decca Originals” collects together.

I’m cheating slightly here as the “Decca Originals” series is made up of 9 (I think) double LP’s each devoted to a particular musical style, all titled “The <musical style> Scene”. I own the albums dedicated to the Mod, Freakbeat, Psychedelic, R&B, Beat, Girls and Northern Soul Scenes (I passed on Blues and Rock ’n’ Roll). They are beautifully presented, extensively annotated collections of, mostly, singles that Decca and its subsidiary labels stuck out purely to see if it would sell…most of it didn’t. But in their attempt to generate sales and make money those besuited, cigar chomping executives gave a release to some genuinely fantastic records. I’ll try and point you toward some highlights.

“The Mod Scene” is worth owning for The Quik’s opening Hammond driven instrumental alone. “Bert’s Apple Crumble” was the B-side to a fairly forgettable A-side (a hippy drippy item called “Love Is A Beautiful Thing”) but once the drummer kicks things off after 44 seconds this a proper Mod rave-up for the remaining 90 seconds or so. The Hammond player, whoever he may be, makes his instrument absolutely scream and powers this thing along, playing intricate lines interspersed with vicious stabs at his keyboard…and that’s only the first track. The Poets moody “That's The Way It's Gotta Be” is another highlight as is the Small Faces instrumental “Grow Your Own”, another B-side (do you see a theme developing here ?), this time to “Sha-La-La-La-Lee”. There’s soul, jazz and R&B vibes throughout, music made by Mods rather than, perhaps, what the Mods were actually listening and dancing to.

We’ve talked about Freakbeat somewhere before in this blog. It’s a loosely defined genre that grew out of the Mod Pop of the earlier 60’s as it morphed toward Psychedelia. “The Freakbeat Scene” contains some belters, among them The Scores 1966 lone single (you’re looking at £250 these days), a proto-metal take on the Fabs “Please Please Me”. Then there is The Syn’s Psychy groove “Grounded”. Chris Squire and Peter Banks from The Syn went on to form Yes (but we don’t talk about that a lot). We get contributions from The Birds (Ronnie Wood’s first band), Psych-Soul boys Timebox, former Small Face Jimmy Winston & His Reflections superior take on his old bands song “Sorry She’s Mine” and Fire’s fantastic “Father’s Name Was Dad” (which will likely cost you in excess of £750 these days if you could even find a copy). Freakbeat was more of an 80’s invention as a genre to label a group of records being played in Mod clubs in London but there is some fantastic music that lives under that banner.

“The Psychedelic Scene” is where things get proper bonkers. The Syn return with their “14 Hour Technicolour Dream” extolling the joys of said festival held at Ally Pally in April 1967 (featuring The Pink Floyd, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Soft Machine, The Move, Tomorrow, The Pretty Things, Jimmy Powell & The Five Dimensions and Yoko Ono performed watched by John Lennon). But the jewel here is Tintern Abbey’s utterly hatstand “Vacuum Cleaner”. Again, another band with just one release, and once more the track featured is the B-side (the A-side was called “Beeside” ! And now we’d be talking four figures for a 7”). It is truly wonderful, the lyrical hook of “Fix me up with your sweet dose” likely suggests where these cats heads were at. Band names start to become Psychedelic too so we have tracks by the wonderfully named Felius Andromeda, Garden Odyssey Enterprise and World Of Oz.

In the early part if the 1960’s there was a huge R&B boom in the UK. Lots of earnest white boys forming groups to try to emulate their Black American heroes. “The R&B Scene” probably should have sat before the albums we’ve already covered but here we are. This one is littered with names that would become much bigger in later years. Ronnie Wood is back with The Birds, Lulu and her Luvvers give us a blueprint for the Blues Brothers on “I’ll Come Running”, Davie Jones of the King Bees would soon change his surname to Bowie so as not to be confused with his namesake in The Monkees, John Mayall rattles out the frantic “Crawling Up A Hill” and Rod “The Mod” Stewart treats us to “Good Morning Little School Girl” and a lyric he’d maybe get arrested for these days. The absolute gem in here is Dave Berry’s brooding “Don't Gimme No Lip, Child”, B-side (!) to his big hit “The Crying Game” and later famously covered by the Sex Pistols.

Beat can probably best be described as the pop music that developed out of the R&B scene in the wake of the success of The Beatles. Joe Cocker’s debut single “I’ll Cry Instead” doesn’t yet feature that growling vocal style he would eventually develop but is a bright and breezy Fabs pastiche (produced by Mike Leander who would go on to shape the sound of Gary Glitter !). Talking of the Fabs the Pete Best Four tackle "I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door" a song that in 1974 would provide a #11 hit for “Little” Jimmy Osmond. Lulu is back with the vocal-chord shredding “Surprise, Surprise” and equally as good is “Did You Want To Run Away” by Brummies, Tierney’s Fugitives, a group vocal delight with a folky feel to it.

“The Girls Scene” is really an extension of “The Beat Scene” but featuring purely Girl groups and singers. The Vernons Girls were so named as they all worked at the Vernons Pools HQ in Liverpool. Janice Nicholls was a Black Country wench who appeared on the TV show “Thank Your Lucky Stars”. Her catchphrase of "Oi'll give it foive” in the record review section of the show got her on to record with her Decca single “I’ll Give It Five" (Slade style spelling was a few years ahead of us). BTW the B-side “The Wednesbury Madison” is a treat. Olivia Newton-John’s debut UK single “Till You Say You'll Be Mine” is very forgettable. Once again Lulu comes to the rescue with the classy “Try To Understand”. There are contributions from actresses Susan Hampshire and Beryl Marsden, David Bowie’s old girlfriend Dana Gillespie and the debut single by Vashti (later to be known as Vashti Bunyan) “Somethings Just Stick In Your Mind”, which I’m sure is a lyrical rewrite of a much better known song but I can’t figure what it is.

And finally…ahhh, how to define Northern Soul ? Well, obscure, non hit records by Black American Soul artists from the 1960’s that became an obsession in the clubs of Northern England in the early 1970’s, in general. But if that is so how do you explain ‘Out Of My Mind” by Rain with Charity Brown, a Canadian Rock band, or Muriel Day’s “Nine Times Out Of Ten” the B-side of a 1969 single by an Irish Eurovision entrant, or “I’ll Do Anything” by Lenny Gamble who was actually Tony Blackburn! In the Northern Soul rush of the early 70’s anything that had the right groove was played whether it was Black, American or a cheesy British DJ which is how we end up with an albums worth of Decca Northern tracks featuring Elkie Brooks, David Essex and Brotherhood of Man !!! Now to be fair there are some bangers on here, Brotherhood of Man among them which is a slinky almost 70’s crossover tune worked up by session musicians working under that name, none of whom had anything to do with “Save Your Kisses For Me”. Opening track “I’ll Hold You” by Frankie & Johnny (in reality Maggie Bell of Stone The Crows and fellow Scot Bobby Kerr) is the very definition of Big City Soul, if the big city were Glasgow instead of New York, and I have seen stampede’s toward the dance floor at Soul nights as its Horn filled intro crashes in. “Name It You Got It” by Micky Moonshine is actually the creation of Paul Curtis, a man who wrote over 20 entries that made it into the Song For Europe competition to find the UK’s Eurovision entry. Whatever, it’s a great tune. This is really a subset of what is generally regarded as Northern Soul but all these records had, and in some cases still have, their places on the dancefloors of the North.

I’m absolutely fascinated by the music of the 1960’s. Not, on the whole, the big artists but more the next couple of layers down, those hardworking groups who if they were lucky produced a couple of singles one of which was a stone cold killer that still resonates now, around 60 years later. I blame it all on my dear friend Phil Barlow who at a particularly receptive point in my life introduced me to the US Garage bands like the Count Five, the Electric Prunes, the Chocolate Watch Band and the Nuggets and Rubbles compilations. It was a wildly creative period from 1964 to 1969 and I’m still mining it. Bands played live in the studio, these are real musicians making these records with studio techs who were stretching the boundaries of what you could do with some recording tape and microphones. I hope some of this catches your ear.

The Quik “Bert’s Apple Crumble” - https://youtu.be/VKiyOQOkqyI?si=0TjmODs6xLCNUymj

Fire “Father’s Name Was Dad” - https://youtu.be/d7Ut4s6ocaw?si=2NWHtgT57zp1n7rZ

Tintern Abbey “Vacuum Cleaner” - https://youtu.be/xB9GpU3Y5n8?si=F6nezuUiucdqVLJI

Dave Berry “Don't Gimme No Lip, Child” - https://youtu.be/chndBxcmvMo?si=yrxUSgOjfDYZxAhC

Tierneys Fugitives “Did You Want To Run Away” - https://youtu.be/kqmAwuk-NTg?si=kDKuTprdkPrbAlB6

Lulu “Try To Understand” - https://youtu.be/MrbaOFbJ7xY?si=0JbcurBtTcB5YJaz

Frankie & Johnny “I’ll Hold You” - https://youtu.be/HZKtZiXxloI?si=juhlCXLN3tyBIShs