...and really to show that not every page in the book is negative!
Day 117
April 26th
The Misunderstood-Who Do You Love? -
Fontana Single
For ages I
thought this was a cover of the Doors track, but it’s only when writing about
it now that I’ve found out that the song was actually written originally and
recorded by Bo Diddley. That’s how much I really know about music I guess.
The Doors
version was on their 1970 live album and this version by The Misunderstood was
the b-side of their single “Let Me Take You To The Sun” from 1966. This is a
truly wild version of the song and knocks spots off anything The Doors (one of
the most over-rated bands of all time) ever recorded. The guitar is distorted
and fuzzy all the way through the song as well as being played through a wah-wah
pedal. Over forty years after it was recorded it still sounds innovative and
could easily stand up next to anything Jack White would be recording at the
moment. If this was played blindfold it could readily pass itself off as the
latest Jack White project.
But it was from
way back in 1966, and The Misunderstood were a band from California who were
co-incidentally managed by John Peel. He was quoted as saying, “If I had to
list the ten greatest performances I've seen in my life, one would be The
Misunderstood at Pandora's Box, Hollywood, 1966. My god, they
were a great band!”. They only released
a handful of tracks, although there is a compilation album of rarities and
outtakes floating around. No live recordings however, so we just have to take
Peel’s word for it. He was so enamoured of the band that he brought them over
from America to London where they recorded seven songs, but had to disband as
the lead singer, Rick Brown, was drafted into the Army to serve in Vietnam. He
never went though, as being a pacifist, he absconded from boot camp and spent
twelve years as a fugitive in India. Whilst in India, he had a spiritual
epiphany and is now also known as Hrishkesh Das. Never mind, we still have this great single
to treasure.
I think that it
also appeared somewhere along the line on one of the many “Pebbles”
compilations of 60’s punk/surf/garage/psyche music. There were 12 LP’s released
in two years within the series-I think I had Volumes 1, 2, 4 and 9. Had, being
the operative word, as they didn’t survive the great record cull. This is a
deep regret, as not only did they have some astounding tracks on there, but I
think that they were the only records that I had that were from a record label based
in Kookaburra, Australia. I’d get them, shrink- wrapped as imports from Probe
Records in Liverpool, with not much, if any, of a clue as to what they sounded
like. They were purchases made solely on the basis on the sleeve notes, cover
art and the names of the bands. They
were so 60’s- ish that a sign of quality was if the bands had deliberately
mis-spelt names-i.e. The Crykle, Green Fuz etc. Generally speaking, the greater
the number of badly spelled names then the better the album, though looking
back now I wish I had bought (and kept) all 12 albums.
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