A Luck That's Brought Me Down

The last 45rpm released by The Action before Parlophone canceled their recording contract was Shadows and Reflections.   Produced by George Martin, the song was written by Larry Marks and Tandyn Almer.  Mr. Almer was the composer of Along Comes Mary as well as co-writer of Sail On Sailor with Brian Wilson.  This track gives a good idea of what the Rolled Gold tracks might have sounded like if they had ever made it past the demo stage.

After a lovely but sad harpsichord introduction the verse kicks in and Reg King reminisces about love that is lost:

There's an old vacant apartment
Above the shop on the square
Something keeps bringing me back to
Those final moments we shared
To that glass the reflections
Cast their glow on the door
Empty shadows of night on the floor

At the 1:50 mark that Martin magic comes blaring in with horns and heavenly harmonies carry through to the end. 

I Haven't Seen A Thing Like This Since You

There is a particular guitar sound that one sometimes finds on a mid 60's pop song.  I refer to it as "rubber band" guitar.   Today's tune is a perfect example of what I am referring to.  This is not meant as a derogatory description, as in this particular case the notes being played are crazy genius work.

I am referring Look At The View, yet another amazing track from The Action's Rolled Gold LP.  After the guitar intro, the first verse adds vocals and bass.  But on the second pass, the drums come in and this turns into one hell of a great 60's stomp rocker.  At 2:45 the song goes off into quavering Strawberry Fields land with hazy high vocal harmonies with organ accompaniment.  If only this had made it past demo stage, one can just imagine what George Martin's production wizardry could have done for this track.  But no complaints from me - their demo more than shows what excellent rockers and melody writers they were.

Remember Me

Two chords.   Generally my tastes call for lots of chords, with interesting progressions and odd harmonies.   For years Elvis Costello tried to write a song with only one chord - but always ended up using at least two.   Two of those are amongst my favorites.  "Beyond Belief" spills over with word associations and builds to a fevered pitch.  And "Uncomplicated" begins with thunder and cuts to the bone.  Those two gems are about the only two chord songs that I would care to list amongst my favorite songs.  Until last week.  When I discovered the long lost Rolled Gold LP by the mod British rockers The Action.

For a bit of background on that album, they were produced by none other than George Martin, and released less than half a dozen singles on Parlophone Records, none of which made a dent in the UK charts.  But they had a large mod cult following, apparently not so far behind The Who and The Small Faces.   About the time that they were dropped by Parlophone in 1967, they were working on demos for an album.  By this point they had graduated from American soul covers to writing their own acid drenched rockers.   Many of the songs had fully fleshed out melodies and harmonies, but the lyrics were just placeholders awaiting further tuning, and the arrangements were still quite spare.  No Martin magic had yet been applied.

Thirty years passed and the LP never saw the light of day.  Then an ex-band member released an acetate to a small label that put it out on CD.   The quality was poor but it piqued some interest, then another ex-member acknowledged that he had the master tape in his possession.   Finally released in its full yet spare glory, it sat there for about fifteen years waiting for me to discover it over at the excellen Monkey Picks blog.  There are many truly great songs on this album that never was.

That was five days ago.  And since then I cannot stop playing it.  Especially the song that inspired today's post.  "Brain" is that holy grail - the two chord song that has everything it needs.   The chiming rhythm guitar and a phased lead set the environment for alternating loud and soft sections.  Thrust forward by some just killer drumming, the song pummels and pleads.  And best of all is the passionate vocal by lead singer Reg King.  His voice is almost a ringer for Pete Hamm of Badfinger, but with even more soul.   It is all still new to my ears, but I can guarantee you that I will playing it loud for many years to come.

Take your brain it's time to go
You don't have long to go
Remember me (re)member me
Cause I'm the one that made you see
(re)member me