ALBUM REVIEWS : P,Q,R

Note: Due to regular updating these reviews are not in strict alphabetical order

This 5-piece band from Long Beach, California were renowned amongst the L.A. teens for their onstage antics almost as much as for their music - the shaven heads, the beatle-wigs, even riding elephants on their way to a gig - but underneath all of the gimmicks there was a damn fine little garage band, bursting with raw power. Their one Top 10 hit, “Penetration”, issued during November of 1963 (and composed by bassist Steve Leonard), was initially written as a response to the sudden success that The Chantays had achieved with their mega-hit “Pipeline”, and it remains a classic in surf-instrumental terms, albeit one that drives along with a steady rhythmic beat, as opposed to ripping the chords ala “Wipe Out” or “Misirlou”. The subsequent album that followed contains a mixture of garage vocal and instrumental tracks, none of which are particularly linked with ‘surf’ as a sport, although for whatever reasons The Pyramids are widely regarded as one of the better ‘surf instrumental’ bands. Maybe it was the simple fact that they played a lot of gigs around the local hangouts for the beach-crowd, such as the infamous Rendezvous Ballroom (although they were banned from this particular venue after just one gig, after stripping down to their underwear mid-set …). Nevertheless, “The Original Penetration” is an enjoyable gathering of recordings containing, alongside the hit single, Skip Mercier’s wild instrumentals “Pyramid Stomp” and “Paul”, the teen-ballad sentimentalism of Willy Glover’s “Here Come Marsha” and the tub-thumping sounds of Ron McMullan’s drum solo on “Sticks And Skins”.

Of the cover versions featured, highlights include a fine take on The Kingsmen’s frat-anthem “Louie Louie”, the Sonny Bono composition “Koko Joe” (written under the pseudonym of Sonny Christy), and a decent enough cover of Tommy Roe’s “Everybody”, whilst the album is filled out with a fun version of rockabilly artist Murry Kellum’s hit, “Long Tall Texan” (covered shortly afterwards on the “Beach Boys Concert” LP) and, somewhat bizarrely, presumably in a company marketing ploy, a recording of The Mar-ketts performing “Out Of Limits” and the Road Runners doing “Road Runnah”. Sadly this was to be the only Pyramids album, and despite a short liaison with the Gary Usher songwriting team during the summer of 1964, which resulted in four great hot-rod recordings (“Custom Caravan”, “Midnight Run”, “Record Run” and “Bikini Drag”) and a spot in the AIP beach-flick “Bikini Beach”, by 1965 the band were drifting apart - and so it is with this album alone that The Pyramids have staked their claim as the ‘crazy crowd’ of surf-music …

Although the first hit by Ronny & The Daytonas is widely accepted as one of the finest hot-rod recordings from the early 1960’s what listeners find most surprisingly is the fact that exponents of such a fine, fine recording didn’t actually come from the golden lands of Californ-i-a at all. In fact, they hailed from the distinctly country-music-orientated climes of Nashville, Tennessee – and ‘they’ were, in truth, the singular ‘he’ … as in John “Buck” Wilkin …

Wilkin had written “G.T.O.” whilst at High School during early 1964, inspired by the likes of Chuck Berry and Brian Wilson, and via his mother’s songwriting connections had linked up with publisher and producer Bill Justis, who took the aspiring composer into a local recording studio in downtown Nashville to commit the new composition the tape. With the addition of various local studio ‘regulars’, including Bergan White and Bobby Russell, the session resulted in such a success that no more than six months later the song was sitting at #4 on the Billboard listings. Subsequently, this album followed shortly afterwards …

Whilst never in the same production quality as either Wilson or Usher, the songs featured on this release offer a raw, youthful exuberance that perhaps the Beach Boys only managed on their debut offering. The great opening number, “California Bound”, gives credit to the land that inspired the sound, whilst “Antique 32 Studebaker Dictator Coupe” continues the driving beat, although all numbers contain a noticeably organ-based rhythm track that takes away much of the ‘garage’-feel of the vocals. “Little Rail Job” is a virtual rewrite of the hit single, and that is perhaps the problem with the entire package – as virtually every track contains too-obvious connections with “G.T.O.”, as opposed to managing individual statements, although the closing number “Little Scrambler” contains a strong enough melody and arrangement to be a credible standout offering. The only cover version on the album is, interestingly, an excellent take of Jan & Dean’s novelty-number “Bucket ‘T’” (presumably chosen due to the ‘Tennessee mud’ reference), with a vocal arrangement that competes comfortably with the original …

In 1965 Wilkin linked up with fellow Nashville resident Buzz Cason, and a few more California-influenced recordings credited to Ronny & The Daytonas surfaced, including the excellent “Beach Boy” and “I’ll Think Of Summer”, along with a second album entitled “Sandy” – from which the beautiful title track achieved another Top 30 placing. Not bad for a bunch of rock and rollers from the home state of country-music …

The story of the Rip Chords is one of the most documented sagas in the ‘surf and drag’ music history books – the story of how a small recording act was virtually overhauled and taken over by a couple of studio wiz kids, who then turned in a classic, top ten smash.

Back in 1962 Phil Stewart and Ernie Bringas were aspiring young singer-songwriters, recently signed to Columbia Records. Under the guidance of in-house producer Terry Melcher they achieved a modicum of success, and on the back of that they recruited two other members, Arnie Marcus and Rich Rotkin, in order that they could take the success out on the road. Meanwhile, Melcher kept developing the sound of the band in the studio, along with his new musical partner Bruce Johnston, and by the time of the Rip Chords third single release, “Hey Little Cobra”, a top 10 hit, Melcher and Johnston were virtually running the operation, both on the production side and the performance, whilst the four actual members of the band were often reduced to supporting roles.

The first album released, titled after the single, was really an amalgamation of both sets of the Rip Chords. The Melcher-produced Stewart and Bringas team offering up the three early recordings “Here I Stand”, “Ding Dong” and “She Thinks I Still Care”, whilst the new Melcher and Johnston partnership blossomed with the auto-driven “Trophy Machine” and “The Queen”. Four adequate cover versions, three from the Beach Boys stable, one from Jan & Dean, and a rather out of place instrumental number, “40 Ford Time”, filled out this enjoyable but somewhat average package. However, for the second album, titled after their cover version of a Jan Berry/Roger Christian composition, Melcher and Johnston shifted up a gear. The production was fuller, the vocals were sharper, and Melcher in particular was reaching a peak period with his lead vocals.

Original Rip Chord, Phil Stewart, was brought in to provide lead vocals on the Johnston/Melcher number, “Old Car Made In 52” and that of his own composition, “Bonneville Bonnie”, a solid enough album cut, but other than that the touring band were virtually absent for the whole of the second album. The timeless hot-rod classic “Hot Rod USA”, co-written by Melcher with Bobby Darin, makes its debut on the release (and the flip-side of “Three Window Coupe”, issued as the bands fourth single), as does the gorgeous ballad “Beach Girl” (also released as a Melcher/Johnston production for Pat Boone shortly afterwards). In addition, three wonderful Phil Sloan/Steve Barri compositions also made their first public appearance - “This Little Woodie”, “Surfin’ Craze” and “My Big Gun Board” – all of which reappeared two months later on the Baggys own album, with Sloan and Barri’s vocals simply dubbed onto the same backing track. In fact, the only real disappointments on the entire album come in the form of a rather unnecessary, and unimpressive cover of “Surf City”, and a new take of the Jan & Arnie tune “Gas Money” (hardly one of Berry’s more impressive numbers) … a shame really, for this is fine collection, just needing that extra push to reach the checkered flag.

Released during the initial surge to convert the four-wheeled auto anthems of the hot-rod craze into two-wheeled cycle songs, following the initial success of Gary Usher and The Hondells “Little Honda”, this album is yet another result of session guitarist Jerry Cole being encouraged to take his trade into the studio – that being the role of singer, songwriter and producer. Wisconson-born musician Cole had previously been a member of a local band known as The Flaming Coles, and his three fellow band members joined him in the studio for this partiucular album, with Cole himself and Jerry Capehart assuming the roles of producers.

The opening number, “Pico Hornet #28”, sets the stall out for the remainder of the album, a rather short yet enjoyable number, with lead vocals supplied in unison by the three vocalists (with Cole himself often handling both bass and falsetto ranges). Whilst perhaps the vocals don’t blend as well as many of the other auto-related recordings from this era (with Usher’s crew, and the Wilson brothers particularly in mind) the multi-layered lead vocal effect is a definite improvement to Cole’s previous works on the Crown label, but the most noticeable difference between this and the Usher sessions going on across town is that these vocal sessions don’t include any background arrangements. The harmonies constantly kick in alongside the lead melody, but there’s no audible sign of any backing support – the obvious ooh’s and aah’s – and Cole, Cass and Gebheim simply deliver their lines around the microphone together. Subsequently, the overall sound is raw, with little warmth or depth … with maybe the most enjoyable inclusion being the title track, interestingly the only outside-contribution to the set – composed by Gerald Zukowski, and brought into the sessions by producer Capehart. Nevertheless, this slightly barren collection of two-wheeled singalongs is an interesting addition to the expanding genre and, as with many of these rush-release offerings, still deserves an airing.