The Greatest Obscure Rock-and-Roll Tunes (Just for Fun)

4/09/02 | Myself

[Chi-townChief]

Forgive me for a little diversion from the day's events.

How about these two numbers:
"I Want Candy" by The Strangeloves
and for a ballad:
"Smokey Places" by the Corsairs

Whaddya think?

[Dan from Michigan]

I'm not familiar with them.(Good excuse, I was born in the late 70's).

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

They Call Me The Breeze by J.J. Cale

or how about Johnny Cash doing Soundgarden's Rusty Cage? You can hear anything eclectic, zany or virtuoso on KPIG.com

KPIG in Freedom, CA - pure pork radio live on the internet. My favorite radio station. (Ramblin' Rory has the best show in the late afternoon...)

Rock, Blues, Country, Oldies, Rockabilly, Cajun, Bluegrass, Kinky Freidman, and the funniest damned commercials you have ever heard. Give 'em a squeal.

Give 'em a "hog call" if you feel the need to oink at 1-831-724-PORK (warning: anything you say can and will be used on the air!)

[ladyinred]

I didn't recognize that song at all by title! Thanks for the link!

[ladyinred]

I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night! Wow , what a walk down memory lane! I loved that song.
It was played a lot then, but perhaps not well remembered now until you read the title here!
I am singing it in my head now.....probably drive me nuts the rest of the night! :)

[BluesDuke]

I was listening to "I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night" in the car on the way home from work. I have it on a cassette with such other, reasonably similar jewels as "Time Has Come Today" (the Chambers Brothers - the full length version), "Itchycoo Park" (the Small Faces), "7 and 7 Is" (Love), "Pushin' Too Hard" (the Seeds), "Liar, Liar" (the Castaways - I've always thought there was a good argument that this was the actual first psychedelic-style hit), "Oh, Yeah" (the Shadows of Knight), and "Moulty" (the Barbarians), among others...(you guessed it: I'm a sucker for classic garage-band psychedelic music)...

[BluesDuke]

All of which reminds me of why I liked (and still like) the original Psychedelic Furs - they sounded almost precisely like a modernistic version of those exquisite 1960s one-shot garage-psych bands we've been talking about. They sort of lost the edge of that sound as they went on, but their first two albums (The Psychedelic Furs and Talk Talk Talk) nailed it cold.

For that matter, so did another early 1980s band - the Fleshtones. Granted, they had only one truly excellent album in them, but what an album Roman Gods was! Especially tracks like "Fleshtone '77," "The World Has Changed," "Chinese Kitchen" (a hell of a harmonica-led instrumental), "Roman Gods," and their heartpunch cover of Lee Dorsey's "Ride Your Pony"...I thought it a shame they couldn't sustain that high level, but Roman Gods is still a gem.

[uglybiker]

"Liar, Liar" the Castaways ...

You wouldn't have a link to the lyrics to that, would you? As hard as I've tried, I can't understand a g**damn word in that whole song!

[uglybiker]

Une Nuit a Paris
Blackmail
I'm Not In Love
Second Sitting For The Last Supper
I'm Mandy, Fly Me
Life Is A Minestrone
..............10cc

Goofing Off
Propoganda
White Women
Here Comes Bob
.............Sparks

All The Way From Memphis
Overnight Angels
Just Another Night
Cleveland Rocks
.................Ian Hunter

My Friend Jack
.................Brownsville Sation

Vambo Marble Eye
Amos Moses
Next
Tale Of The Giant Stone Eater
.....................Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Stone Blue
Boogie Motel
Zig Zag Walk
*songs and albums*
..............Foghat

And just about everything else from this bunch!

[Chi-townChief]

Good catch on Sam the Shame - What do they say about the mind being the second thing to go?
My Boy Lollipop is great instrumentally with its proto-reggae beat but Ms. Small's vocal makes the tune virtually unlistenable.
Another one along those lines is "Tallahassee Lassie" by Freddie "Boom Boom" Cannon about 1959. It's a pretty dumb song but then he breaks into a cool guitar solo that's quite a way ahead of its time (at least in the rock-and-roll lifespan.) The sound of things to come!

[Chi-townChief]

Oops - Sam the Sham; too early, I guess. Didn't Foghat do a pretty wicked version of Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" on one of their albums?

[Rocko]

"Sweet-Loving Man," by The Magnetic Fields.

[Chi-townChief]

Liar, Liar
THE CASTAWAYS
(Jim Donna)

Liar, liar, pants on fire
Your nose is longer than a telephone wire

Ask me, baby, why I'm sad
You been out all night, know you been bad
Don't tell me different, know it's a lie
Come kill me, honey, see how I cry

Why must you hurt me, do what you do
Listen here, girl, can't you see I love you
Make a little effort, try to be true
I'll be happy, not so blue

If you keep on tellin' me those lies
Still goin' out with other guys
There'll come a day I'll be gone
Take my advice, won't be long

When that day comes, won't be mad
Be free of you, but I'll still be sad
In spite of your cheatin', still love you so
I'll be unhappy if I let you go

[Chi-townChief]

I have the Johnny Burnett Trio's "The Train Kept a-Rollin'" on MP3. Any idea how to link it? How about Billy Burnett's (Johnny's or Dorsey's son, I can't recall) "Tired of Toeing the Line."

[bleudevil]

Here's one from the 1970s - "Run Run Run" by Jo Jo Gunne. I ran across it a few years ago on one of those 70s compilations and liked it. It would fit in on classic-rock FM radio with the Stones, Aerosmith and T-Rex, but I don't remember ever hearing it on the radio. The band had some members of the band Spirit, which did have a hit with "I Got a Line on You."

[wafflehouse]

wow.. i havent heard of most of those..
although, i wouldnt have counted "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" - Led Zeppelin as obscure..
that one of my favorite songs

[BluesDuke]

I like "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do," too, but it isn't one of Led Zeppelin's better-known songs. I was surprised that it didn't turn up on Led Zeppelin III, as did its A-side ("Immigrant Song"), even though the single's label credit showed it as being from the album, since it does fit well with what they were trying to achieve on that album. (I still remember Led Zeppelin fans wondering at the time if they hadn't sold out already, since Led Zeppelin III wasn't an end-to-end metallic jerk a la Led Zeppelin II...)

[BluesDuke]

How about Billy Burnett's (Johnny's or Dorsey's son, I can't recall) "Tired of Toeing the Line."

You're thinking of Rocky Burnette. He was, I believe, Dorsey's son; "Tired of Toeing The Line" was his only top 20 hit.