The Front Line “I Don’t Care” and “Got Love” on York Records

The Front Line were based in San Rafael, in Marin County, California. Members included Gary Philippet on keyboards, Bill Bowen on drums, Rex Larsen, Jim Brewer and Dennis Lanigan. Philippet had been in a few earlier bands, including the Mystics and the Pullice. Bowen and Philippet were both part of Electric Train, who recorded two songs found on an acetate but not released at the time.

Front Line Cash Box, October 23, 1965
Front Line receive notice in Cash Box, October 23, 1965
The Front Line’s first record was “I Don’t Care” backed with the explosive “Got Love”, with strong psychedelic guitar work. Both sides were written by Philippet and Lanigan. Cash Box and Billboard reviewed the single favorably on October 30, 1965.

The York label was part of Charles Greene and Brian Stone’s York/Pala production company. Greene and Stone produced Sonny and Cher, and also worked with the Daily Flash and with the Buffalo Springfield on their early sessions at Gold Star. With a distribution deal with Atco, it’s no surprise that the Front Line 45 was released in the UK on Atlantic. Green and Stone’s connections also landed the Front Line opening slots on a Sonny and Cher tour.

Front Line reviewed in Billboard Oct. 30, 1965
Front Line reviewed in Billboard Oct. 30, 1965
Front Line reviewed in Cash Box Oct. 30, 1965
Front Line reviewed in Cash Box Oct. 30, 1965

Their second 45 was “Saigon Girl” / “Three Day Pass” on the Titan label, which I haven’t heard yet.

Rex Larsen wrote to me with information from the beginnings of the group:

The Front Line formally The Mystics were formed in 1961 in my freshman year of high school. We, the group were all serious about making a great band. Aside from a drummer change we played all through high school every weekend all over the san Francisco bay area. We were from San Anselmo in Marin County.

I was, at that time also working at Sherman Clay Music store in San Francisco during the summers. The store decided to open one in San Rafael right near where I lived. I managed the musical instrument department. Then the store decided to start a music school in a house they leased nearby. I was in charge of the school also giving guitar lessons. One of my students was the son of the manager of Coast Recorders in San Francisco. His father asked me if I wanted to exchange studio time for guitar lessons and of course I said yes. The Mystics recorded 3 or 4 songs there.

Then Gary Phillips and I went to Los Angeles to see if we could get a record deal. Very brave at the ripe age of 16. We decided on two places to go. Phil Specter and Green and Stone Productions. To make a long story short both wanted to sign us but we went with G&S. Several weeks after, I think, the 2nd trip down to L.A they called us and asked us if we wanted to back up Sonny and Cher and do our own set. His name was The rest is history.

I never knew about the single being a hit in England until many years later. Jim Brewer quit the group during the Sonny and Cher tour. There is more to the story for me but maybe for another time.

Late in ’66, Bowen went into an early lineup of the Sons of Champlin. Philippet, later known as Gary Phillips, joined Freedom Highway, Copperhead and Earthquake. He passed away on January 17, 2007.

Sources include the Gary Phillips tribute site www.garyphilippet.com/ – now defunct. Thank you to Rex Larsen for info on the early days of the group.

Don Norman and the Other Four

Don Norman and the Other Four, Leonard Alexander Agency promo
Don Norman and the Other Four, Leonard Alexander Agency promo

RPM, January 3, 1966 The Esquires: original members Ric Patterson and Brian Lewis out, new members include Ted Gerow, John Cassidy and Doug Orr
RPM, January 3, 1966
The Esquires: original members Ric Patterson and Brian Lewis out, new members include Ted Gerow, John Cassidy and Doug Orr
Don Norman had been playing guitar and singing in Ottawa bands since 1961, with the Continentals, the Jades and the Esquires, who cut his song “Cry Is All I Do”.

Don described his early work:

I began playing guitar in 1958 and was composing songs by late 1959. Early influences were Elvis, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. The first time I was in a professional recording studio was September 1961 and I still have the master tape. The session was for two songs that I had composed and the band was known as the Continentals.

By the year 1963 I had joined a band by the name of the Esquires, which had already released two singles in Canada for Capitol Records. I became the vocalist for this group and some months later, in the early spring of 1964, we recorded an LP for Capitol. This was followed by three more single releases including “Cry Is All I Do”. I wrote the song in 1964 and it was recorded in early 1965 and released that spring.

Don Norman and the Other Four photoDon had an acrimonious break with the Esquires in the summer of ’65, leading to a lawsuit when he named his new band Don Norman and the Esquires. He gave up the Esquires name, but his departure from the band cost the original Esquires their contract with Capitol. The band he formed became Don Norman and the Other Four: Gary Comeau (who had also been in the Esquires) on lead guitar, Bill Hellman bass, Ron Greene organ and Brian Dewherst on drums. With the addition of John Matthews on sax, the Other Four were five!

Don Norman and the Other Four Barry 45 The Bounce / All of My Life
Don Norman and the Other Four Barry 45 The Bounce / All of My Life

At their first session at RCA’s Hallmark Studios in Toronto, they recorded two different singles. They backed Bob Harrington on “Changes” / “Country Boy” on REO 8947X, the A-side being a Heinz cut, the flip a Phil Ochs composition. It was released as “Bob Harrington with Don Norman & the Other Four”. Bob Harrington was the original lead vocalist of the Esquires who Don had replaced in the band.

 Les Demi-Douzaines - actually Don Norman & the Other Four
Les Demi-Douzaines – actually Don Norman & the Other Four
The other single without Harrington was their upbeat cover of the Olympics’ hit “The Bounce”, with Don’s original “All of My Life” on the flip. It was released on the Barry label (a subsidiary of Quality) in the summer of ’66. Despite being picked up by MGM for distribution in the U.S., Quality failed to get behind the release and let it fade.

There is also a French version on the Solfege label, “Le Bounce” / “Je T’ai Cherche”. The band listed, Les Demi-Douzaines (“The Half-Dozen”) was actually Don Norman & the Other Four under a pseudonym. Ivan Amirault wrote to me: “I have a copy of it. Funny thing with mine is it doesn’t have the same Quality number as the one shown in your site. Mine has a one hundred series number which is what the label used for their Quebec French titles.”

Dissatisfied with Quality’s promotion of the band, their manager, DJ and CJOH-TV’s Saturday Date host John Pozer started the Sir John A label with Ron Greene to back Don’s songwriting and vocal talents. Gary Comeau left after “The Bounce” to join the Townsmen.

Don Norman and the Other Four Sir John A PS Low Man
Don Norman and the Other Four Sir John A PS Low Man
Don Norman and the Other Four Sir John A 45 Low Man
Don Norman and the Other Four Sir John A 45 Low Man

The band’s first 45 on Sir John A was the amazing “Low Man”, definitely one of the great moments in Canadian rock. Don recalls recording it at Stereo Sound in Montreal while the studio was still under construction! Don used a Gibson fuzz box on the bass to get that distinctive sound. “Low Man” was released in November of ’66, backed by a cover of “Mustang Sally”, and featured their new guitarist Art Kirkby.

The picture sleeve that accompanied the 45 was printed with the opening for the record on the bottom, so most copies were cut up and pasted onto plain white sleeves.

Don Norman and the Other Four Sir John A 45 Your Place in My Heart
Don Norman and the Other Four Sir John A 45 Your Place in My Heart
Next up was another Norman original, the fine “Your Place in My Heart”, featuring John Matthews on vocals, backed with “Trae Hymn 1”.

Their third and last 45 on Sir John A was just a pairing of the last two a-sides: the label scans I’m featuring here. Both songs were produced by Norman Greene.

Several factors have been mentioned as reasons for why this talented group didn’t make a bigger mark at the time: a disinclination of the band to tour, a lack of enthusiasm from Ottawa audiences, John Pozer’s departure to work for Variety Artists in Toronto, and the low distribution of Sir John A records.

In early 1967 the band went through a drastic line-up change, keeping Ron Greene on keyboards, but with Don moving to bass, and three members of the Bittersweet joining: John Winskell on lead guitar, Rick Paradis on vocals and Skip Layton on drums.

With a new pop sound, they recorded what was to be the band’s next single, “Nothing To Do, No Place To Go”. The band broke up without even recording a b-side, so it remained unreleased until the 1997 release of ‘Ottawa Rocks! The Sir John A Years’ compilation. Disillusioned and not seeing a future in music, Don retired from performing at the age of 23!

Sources include Erin Truscott’s interview with Don Norman in Misty Lane #15; the Sir John A site (link); Don’s own description of his career (link); and Glynis Ward and Alex Taylor’s history of the band.Special thanks to Ivan for his scans of record sleeves and promotional materials.

Don Norman and the Other Four, RPM, July 25, 1966
RPM, July 25, 1966
 RPM, June 27, 1966
RPM, June 27, 1966
Don Norman & the Other Four promo photo
Don Norman & the Other Four promo photo
 "All of My Life" promoted in RPM, October 24, 1966
“All of My Life” promoted in RPM, October 24, 1966

Quadrangle

The Quadrangle were a New York group, and this is their only 45, released in October of 1966.

“She’s Too Familiar” now is a classic garage song. Every element is striking: the keyboard intro, the bass line and drums, the sharp guitar parts and the fantastic vocal, with a tambourine-led chorus that brings it all together.

The b-side, “No More Time” combines a New Orleans type beat with a bit of Donovan’s Mellow Yellow vocal delivery.

I had thought they were only a studio group until I found a mention in the April 30, 1966 issue of Billboard that states “Ray West’s group the Quadrangle closed at Arthur last week and will now record under the supervision of Artie Kornfeld.” Artie Kornfeld did produce them, using the songwriting team of Michael Konstan and Jay Fishman.

Kornfeld had a lot of experience writing classic songs as half of the Changin’ Times with Steve Duboff. Their original versions of “Pied Piper” and “How Is the Air Up There” were covered with more success by other bands. Kornfeld went on to work with many other acts as producer. Michael Konstan released a solo lp on RCA in ’73. I’d like to know more about the other members of Quadrangle, though.

The Distortions

The Distortions: Ned Bibb, Bobby Marlin, Zac Zachery and Robert Alexander
From left: Ned Bibb, Bobby Marlin, Zac Zachery and Robert Alexander
(thanks to Dale Aston for the correction)

Distortions Sea 45 Can You TellFrom the Ensley Highlands section of Birmingham, Robert Alexander (bass), Ned Bibb (vocals and guitar), and Bobby Marlin (drums) started playing in high school in 1962, rehearsing in Robert Alexander’s basement.

In 1965-66 they backed Travis Wammack, then took the name The Distortions from his record “Distortion pt. 1”. They added Zack Zackery on keyboards, and recorded their first three 45s on Sea Records. These included an interesting Ned Bibb original, “Can You Tell”, which was backed by a slow, loopy take on “Hound Dog”; and a raging version of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning”.

Distortions Malcolm Z. Dirge 45 Thank You JohnThe band added Eddie Rice on guitar in 1966 and switched to the Malcolm Z. Dirge label for their next release, “Thank You John”, which reached the charts on WSGN in town. On the flip they recorded a fine version of the Rascals’ oft-covered “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore”.

When their next 45, “Behind My Wall” was picked up for national distribution by Smash, they had their biggest hit, selling 10-15,000 copies according to their producer Ed Boutwell. Their penultimate 45 was a good Bill Haney original, “I Found a Girl”, with a version of “I Don’t Really Like You”, originally done by Baton-Rouge’s Canebreak Singers on Montel and written by Mike Crespo. It was produced by Haney and Richie Becker and released on Casino, a subsidiary of the Dover Records company of New Orleans.

In ’67 the Distortions added Roy Alexander on saxophone.

Distortions Rally with Torquays, Hard Times, the Vikings, the Rockin' Rebellions, This Side Up at Birmingham City Auditorium

Distortions, Capitol promo shot, 1968: Roy Alexander, Roy Zachary, Bobby Marlin, Steve Salord, Dale Aston and George Landman
Capitol promo shot, 1968, from left: Roy Alexander, Roy Zachary, Bobby Marlin, Steve Salord, Dale Aston and George Landman

Dale Aston of the Torquays sent in the photo above and writes about his time with the band:
Distortions Casino 45 I Found a Girl

I played guitar with the band. Steve Salord and I had just left The Torquays and joined with The Distortions for a brief period. We recorded “Let’s Spend Some Time Together” at Boutwell Studios in Mountain Brook, AL.

As I recall Ed Boutwell had a hand in getting Capital Records to pick up “Let’s Spend Some Time Together”. The other labels were homegrown and produced by the band for local distribution only.

Their last release was a cleaned-up version of the Stone’s “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, retitled “Let’s Spend Some Time Together”. This was picked up by Capitol but didn’t sell particularly well.

Henry Lavoy took over on drums during the late 1960’s.

The band split up in 1969, but Zack Zachery and Roy Alexander played college and club shows as the Distortions into the ’70s, with Clif Payne on drums and Ed Finn.

Clif Payne sent in the photo of the group from the 1970’s as well as four unreleased songs from 1975 in a polished, commercial sound the band developed later on, something akin to the Average White Band. See Clif’s comment below for more information about that band at this time.

Roy Alexander and Bobby Marlin are now deceased.

Distortions Magna Club Booking photo

45 releases:

Hound Dog / Can You Tell – Sea 100
Take This Ring / You Know I’m On My Way – Sea 101
Smokestack Lightning / Hot Cha – Sea 102
I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore / Thank You John – Malcolm Z. Dirge 45000
Smokestack Lightning / Behind My Wall – Malcolm Z. Dirge 45002
A Love That Loves You / Behind My Wall – Smash S-2068
I Don’t Really Like You / I Found A Girl – Casino 501
Let’s Spend Some Time Together / Gimme Some Lovin’ – Malcolm Z. Dirge 45008 and Capitol 2223

Sources: Reunion of the Sons and Daughters of the Sixties program, May 8th, 1987; Birmingham News. April 30, 1987, Birmingham Weekly, vol. 10.

Thank you to Mike Pair for loaning me the Birmingham News article, “Hair” Rally notice and Reunion program.

The Esquires (Arkansas)

 

The Esquires formed in 1964 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, a town closer to Memphis than Little Rock. Members were Jim Grimes vocals, Rick Metzler rhythm guitar, Stanley Knight lead guitar, Rick Murray sax, Scott Snellgrove bass and Roger Barnhill drums.

As a live act they were popular at local clubs like the Cave, the Place Next Door, and the Hotel Noble as well as in Memphis, where they appeared on the Talent Party television show. They competed at battles of the bands with acts like Knowbody Else, Tommy Jay and The Escorts, the Gentrys, the Devilles, and the Guilloteens.

They recorded “Sadie’s Ways” at Alley Records’ studios in Jonesboro. It’s possible that four additional songs were cut to acetate. Alley Records also released a great 45 that I’ll feature very soon, the Newcastle Blues’s “Cotton’s Mama”/ “Walkin’ the Dog”.

The Esquires broke up in 1966. when Grimes and Rick Metzler went into the Marines.

Sources include: Mike Dugo’s interview with Scott Snellgrove. Great photo there too.

The Grass on Goldust Records

Stanley and the Grass at Las Cruces High School 1965, Lynn McIntyre, Dennis Finn, Stanley Stenner, James (Timmy) Schaefer, and JT Archer
Stanley and the Grass at Las Cruces High School cafeteria dance, Fall, 1965.
Left to right: Lynn McIntyre, Dennis Finn, Stanley Stenner, James (Timmy) Schaefer, and JT Archer.

The Grass came out of the Las Cruces, New Mexico scene that included bands like the Keymen, the Four Dimensions, the Morfomen and the Outer Limits.

In August 1966 they released their only 45. recorded at Emmit Brooks’ Goldust Recording Studio, “I’m Getting Tired” (written by Dennis Finn and Lynn McIntyre) backed with “Y’Love”.

In the lyrics of “I’m Getting Tired” the singer is having trouble finding a girl worthy of his continued attention:

There’s just one reason why the girls never hit me with a put down,
I’m cool enough to know just when to put my foot down.
They offer me their love – what can I do then but take it?
Offer me their heart – what can I do then but break it?

JT (Tim) Archer sent in the photo at top, adding “here is a pic of Stanley and the Grass before the Goldust recordings with The Grass w/ Larry Lucero. Notice two of the guys are wearing ‘belt-straps’ instead of regular guitar straps. Except me, I left mine at home.”

JT wrote more about the band in comments below:

I was the lead guitar player for The Grass. The band included myself and Lynn McIntyre (formerly of the Checkmates and The Hustlers), Dennis Finn, and Tim (James) Schaefer. We first formed with Stanley Stenner as our lead singer and thus Stanley and The Grass was born circa 1965-1966. When Stanley left, we added Larry Lucero and he was the lead singer on our Gold Dust sessions.

I played a Fender Jazzmaster; Tim Schaefer played a Strat; Lynn played a Precision Bass. We refinished them all white and used belt straps instead of regular guitar straps… How cool is that?

I grew up on the Ventures and even during The Grass days we played a few instrumentals including “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue”. The band broke up and I went to Hollywood and tried to make it with Stanley, Lynn, Dennis and other friends from LC. Great experience -tough business! After Hollywood, I still pursued music and toured in lounge bands and even worked with Link Wray in Tucson.

I recorded two solo albums: Canyon (Gold Dust 1974) and Who’s Watching (my label – see CD Baby). I am now into Jazz and R&B. I hope to someday release another album under my jazz persona – Joey Primo. I have quite a guitar collection including a Mosrite which Semi Mosely custom made for me. It’s a keeper!

I have a picture of Stanley and The Grass at a Las Cruces High Dance. I also have a few pictures of me in the Shandels at Skylanes Bowing alley in El Paso when I filled in for Bob Allinder when he was on vacation one summer. I also have a picture of The Hustlers that pre-dates the Grass.

Stanley Stenner had a 45 on the Dynasty label from the early ’60s, “Teri” b/w “Angel of Mine”, written by Stenner, Charles and Richards for Borgelin-Melissa Music, BMI, orchestra conducted by Gene Garf. It’s a pop vocal style record.

Dennis Finn added:

Stan was one of the elves [Curly, one of the Lost Boys] in Peter Pan. He was from Hollywood. His dad was the great grampa on the Munsters. He also performed in Vegas with Sammy Davis, Jr., a great singer. He went back to Hollywood, and we got Larry Lucero to be the lead singer. I wrote “Y’Love”, and Lynn and I wrote “I’m Getting Tired”. We recorded them at Emmit Smith’s Gold Dust records.

Later, Pete Hecker and John Leduc (from the Outer Limits) and Dennis Lucero (from the Shandells) and Tim Archer and me (Dennis) went to Hollywood, and played at Ciro’s for 16 weeks in the summer of ’69. It was wild and crazy, and we had long hair, but were mainly hicks from New Mexico. In 1970 we came back to New Mexico, either to go back to college, or whatever.

Goldust is still in business: for more information see their website www.goldustudios.com

If anyone has photos of other Las Cruces groups of the time, please contact me.

The Renegades on Polaris

The Renegades I’m writing about today were from Manchester, New Hampshire, about fifty miles NW of Boston. They have no connection to Richie’s Renegades who also released a record on Polaris.

Both ‘Waiting For You’ and ‘Tell Me What To Say’ were written by Lorin Ruggiero.

It was produced by Joe Melino and arranged by Harry Palmer. Polaris was a Boston-based label, Ray Fournier engineered many other sessions for the label.

The Juveniles “Let Me Tell You Girl”

Juveniles, Ed Rod, San Mateo Times, July 15, 1966
Ed Rod ran this ad on at least three occasions in the San Mateo Times, this one from July 15, 1966

This 8″, six song acetate of the Juveniles on Century Custom Records was found at the estate of a music teacher who had a small studio at his home in Palo Alto, California.

“Let Me Tell You Girl” has a great opening fuzz riff and a fine solo. “Goodbye Girl” is also excellent garage.

The other four songs feature trumpet as the lead instrument. One of these is very good: “Don’t Kid Around”. The others are decent instrumentals, titled “Work Song”, “Bosa Nova” (sic), and “What Now My Love”, which is basically “Tequila”.

For years I didn’t know anything about the group or where exactly this was recorded, only that these kids sound young, like 14 or 15 maybe. As it turns out, most of them were even younger than that, ranging from 11 to 14. Geoffrey’s comment below about Ed Rod let me to search the San Mateo Times and I came up with the article seen below, something far beyond my expectations!

Members were:

Scott Beall (San Mateo) – guitar
David DeVee (San Mateo) – guitar
Don Schneider (Burlingame) – bass
Lester Lovitt (Hillsborough) – trumpet
Jim Sanchez (Redwood City) – drums

The Juveniles, San Mateo Times, July 2, 1966
The Juveniles, featured in the San Mateo Times, July 2, 1966

According to the article by Barbara Bladen, David and Scott took lessons from Eddie Rod in Redwood City, then found Don Schneider and eventually Jim and Lester joined. The group played the Cow Palace, the Burlingame Exchange Club, and the Circle Star Theatre among other venues.

Thanks to Derek for loan of the acetate.

The Juveniles – Let Me Tell You Girl
The Juveniles – Goodbye Girl
The Juveniles – Don’t Kid Around

The Juveniles and the Renaissance in the San Mateo Times Oct. 18, 1968
The Juveniles and the Renaissance in the San Mateo Times Oct. 18, 1968

The above article from October 1968 is interesting, – either the San Mateo Times mixed up the band names, or the Juveniles, now a couple years older, took on a new name, the Renaissance, and gave their Juveniles name to a new band of youngsters, consisting of Steve Grippi, Bill Weber, Mike Trantham and Pat Loeb.

The Far End


The Far End in 1967. From left: Joe Costa, lead guitar; Tommy Broadfoot (wearing hat), drums; Frank Demascio, bass; John Berg (standing to right in foreground), lead singer & rhythm guitar

The Far End formed at La Habra High School in Orange County, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. Lead singer and rhythm guitarist John Berg is generously sharing a few songs they recorded at home.

“Don’t Invite Me Over” has a great, crude quality to its sound. The chords and verse put me in mind of Simply Saucer, and the solos have all the intense fury of the Velvet Underground. Their version of “Gloria” is solid, with Tommy Broadfoot’s steady drumming and nice guitar trills by Joe Costa, and John doesn’t hold back on the vocals. “Please Don’t Say” shows the versatility of the band, and the harmonica solo isn’t as bad as John makes it out to be.

Other songs on the tape include versions of the Beatles’ I Feel Fine, It’s Only Love and That Boy; Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth and the Dave Clark Five’s Because.

John writes about the band:

I was lead singer/rhythm guitarist in “The Far End” between 1966-’68, based in La Habra, California (Orange County, between Fullerton and Whittier.)

Our music started off strongly influenced by a weird mixture of Beatles, Stones, Dave Clark Five, Them, the Standells, and some surf and wedding party music our guitarist Joe Costa insisted we play. Gradually we became more “psychedelic” though our actual musical talent never quite matched the sounds we heard in our heads.

We were a 4 piece “living room band”, i.e. we rarely made it even out to the garage — though we did play the Hollywood Teen Fair two Springs in a row, the second time (’67) as the “demo band” at the Sunn Amplifiers booth. We played a few other local “gigs” including the opening of a pizza parlor on Whittier Blvd – performing outside in the parking lot to hardly anybody beyond family members — and a few other similar occasions.

Our real passion was writing songs — more than 50, of which we only managed to record a couple onto a Sony reel to reel machine in my living room in the spring of ’67. Actually, we also cut two originals to tape at the JBL booth at the ’67 Hollywood Teen Fair, but the girlfriend of our lead guitarist Joe “borrowed” the tape to play for some friends and promptly lost (or perhaps destroyed?) it, so I never even got to hear it.

I have a whole 3 ring notebook full of sheets of paper containing the lyrics for the songs that I and Joe Costa co-wrote, none of which ever got recorded other than these two originals, “Don’t Invite Me Over” and “Please Don’t Say” (wretched harmonica “solo” by yours truly) and of course our take on “Gloria” since Van was my #1 fave singer of the era.

We were heading more and more into the “psych zone” but girlfriends, college classes, jobs and sundry other things got in the way of our actually getting to record this music. I did write down the chords alongside the lyrics, but can only recall how a few of the songs actually went. One song, “Joy Ride”, was heavily influenced by The Doors (who I first saw in early June 1966 when they opened for Them at The Whiskey A Go Go in Hollywood).

Please Don’t Say does indicate the part of our band persona that was pop/Beatles-influenced, whereas the other two songs show off our more blues/garage side. The unrecorded stuff covered all these veins and more, though certainly we were heading more in the “psych” direction — or at least as much as we were capable of in terms of “chops”. That photo is the only one that has survived the rages of 40 years.

I recently was able to reconnect with my old La Habra High School class of 1966 mate Mike Lewis, who was lead guitarist in the band The New Breed that has three tracks on the recent Big Beat label CD It Came From The Garage [including the great I Got Nothin’ To Say To You] .

Over the ensuing years I continued as a fan of all the musicians who played in the ranks of Them and was able to make contact with several of them, which led in the mid-1990s to me and my friend Neal Skok releasing a CD by the band “Truth” that compiled tracks cut in 1970 by three ex-Them members — same guys who were on the two “Them” albums on the Tower label that have more recently been reissued by Rev-Ola. The music of “Truth” is really much more well-realized than either of those two Tower albums — we only recently made the CD available in case you want to check it out.

The Far End – Don’t Invite Me Over
The Far End – Gloria
The Far End – Please Don’t Say

The Soul Twisters on Romat Records

Soul Twisters Pitt Sound Studio promo photo

The Soul Twisters had two singles on Romat Records out of Greenville, North Carolina. Their first was “Swinging (On a Grape Vine)”, written by J.R. Daniels, Florence Farmer and E. Perkins, and “Soul Fever” by J.R. Daniels and J. Early.

It was recorded at Pitt Sound Studios in Greenville and produced by James Perkins. The Soul Twisters had a second 45 on Romat, #1004, “Doing Our Dance” / “If It Takes A Year”.

I didn’t anything about the group until James Early and Johnny Ray Williams left comments.

James Early wrote to me:

I joined the band after it started. James Perkins, Samuel Perkins, and Ernest Perkins can tell you more about its beginning.

James Perkins was manager during the time of these recordings….not drummer!

The members of the group on the 45s were:

Johnny Daniels – lead vocal on “Doin’ Our Dance”, background on “If It Takes a Year” and guitar player on all songs.

Fred Farmer – lead vocal on “If It Takes a Year” and background on “Doin’ Our Dance”. He is deceased.

Johnny Williams of Farmville, NC was drummer on all songs.

Joe Daniels was bass player on all songs.

I was on the two 45s as keyboard player.

We all called Roy Mathews (studio owner) “Zeke” jokingly.

I have a sleeve of the 45s with the picture of the group at that time.

We played beach, soul and could adapt to any audience. We played all surrounding areas. We had a female vocalist (Ella Daniels) that could take a dance crowd [off] their seats to pay attention.

The Soul Twisters was the first group I played in. I played an Olympia organ and a Fender Jazz bass. Chapter Three (later name used for our band) did not make any records or tapes.

I played in other groups Jazz Plus, Blues Plus and Poison. I have done and still doing studio sessions with other artist and groups.

James “Bro” Early

Romat was run by Roy Matthews, its first release was the Sound System, which I reviewed here a few months ago.

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