The Sting Rays covers, Part 2 by Bal Croce.

 
 

Cat Man - Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps

When Nick Garrard came up with the concept of the Rockabilly Psychosis LP, including the old tracks by the Phantom, the Novas etc, were obvious but who would Big Beat choose for the more contemporary bands?
Fortunately for us, they asked us to contribute a track. We put our heads together and decided to take a crack at this great Gene Vincent song. We had always loved it.

Gene and the boys cut their first two LP’s in 1957, just four months apart. Cat Man appeared on the second and stands out as a bit different from most of his other songs. Most of Gene’s repertoire consists of really fast screaming rockers (often with up to three guitar breaks, showcasing the wizardry of their great guitarist Cliff Gallup) or lovely ballads.

Cat Man was this weird spooky mid tempo shuffle with Dickie ‘Be Bop’ Harrell using brushes and a discordant jittery guitar. We felt it fitted right in to the Rockabilly Psychosis vibe. I don’t think we ever did it live. It was recorded at Pathway (where we did all our early stuff 1st EP, Bananamen, Cats Ain’t Nothing….) and was the last studio appearance of our original bassist Keith ‘MK’ Cockburn.

 

Panic - Reparata and the Delrons

One of the great advantages of being signed to Ace/Big Beat was they had so many labels releasing all types of cool music. One of their subsidiaries was a label called Kent, reissuing great American 60’s soul.
Alec and I got really into soul. The stuff was predominantly compiled by collector/dealer/DJ Ady Croasdell, a really nice guy (we used to go down to his Northern Soul all-nighters at the 100 club, and Alec later ended up running the cloakroom there, after Shane MacGowan gave the job up for fame and fortune with The Pogues). Panic was one of the classic Northern Soul songs that we discovered and it was in our set around the time we did our first live LP.
Reparata and the Delrons were a white all girl group. They started at a New York, Catholic girls school in 1962. The line up would changed with head spinning regularity and the act would recorded for a dizzying array of labels including Laurie, RCA and Kapp. Their first release was in 1964 they carried recording material right through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Panic was the b side of their 13th single released in the U.S. on Mala records. Alec came across it on an LP called Casino Classics.
Ady originally hailed from the town of Market Harborough (he wrote the sleeve notes for the Kent records releases under the non de plume Harboro Horrace). He booked the Sting-Rays into a gig in his old home town, which I remember ended in a massive punch-up! Sorry about that Ady.

 

I’m Rowed Out - the Eyes

The Eyes started out life in their native Ealing (West London) as typical suburban British beat boys, firstly as instrumental group the Renegades, then adding a singer and continuing as Dave Russell & the Renegades, then the Heartbeats. But by 1965 with the advent of the Who and mod culture they togged themselves out in pink parkas (with scooter tire marks down the back) and weird rugby shirts with massive eye logos on the front and relaunched themselves as the Eyes (the rugby shirts always made us laugh, as we associated those with the hooray henrys we knew at school - “with your rugby shirts you all look f*****g stuffed” copyright Croce/Palao). But more importantly they wrote some cracking good tunes (check out When The Night Falls, You’re Too Much and My Degeneration). They were signed to Mercury and created a real buzz around the clubs in London.
Sadly fame eluded them and after three singles (and an EP with a great picture sleeve), they just had time to pocket £180 to record an LP of Rolling Stones material, which came out on the budget Wing label A Tribute To The Rolling Stones by The Pupils.
We covered the B Side of their first single which was I’m Rowed Out. It’s got a great opening lyric “You’ve got a grey suede coat and a soul like fire”!

 

Inside Looking Out - The Animals

The Animals were of course one of the biggest British Beat bands, scoring number one hits both here and in the U.S. Following in the wake of the Beatles they were in the vanguard of the British Invasion of the U.S. charts.
Hailing from Newcastle they quickly established themselves as one of the hottest local bands, so in 1964 moved down to London and were signed and immediately enjoyed major chart hits such as We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood and of course House of the Rising Sun. Eric Burdon possessed one of the most powerful voices on the scene at the time. Other band members such as Chas Chandler, Alan Price would go on to form their own successful bands and in Chandler’s case bring Jimi Hendrix to the UK and manage him and later on Slade!
We rehearsed the Animals track I’m Crying but I don’t think Alec thought our version was up to scratch, so we never played it live. But later he proposed we try Inside Looking Out, which we did play live (it is also on our first live album Live Retaliation).

 

Double Decker Bus - The Count Five

The last couple of songs are not stuff we covered, but inspirational starting points for our first two singles. As Alec was quoted in the sleeve notes for the Klub Foot CD, on how he wrote songs “I’d find a song I really liked and try to figure it out and learn it, and in the process of doing that I’d come up with some weird combination of things that together made something original”.
In the case of Alec’s composition of our first single Escalator it was the Count Five’s Double Decker Bus.
The Count Five were another way cool 60’s garage band whose sole hit was the great Psychotic Reaction (which we covered and recorded - as a bonus Bananamen track). They (like pretty much every garage band) were huge fans of the British invasion bands. On their 1966 album they included this ode to London’s iconic route master bus, the band formed in San Jose, California in 1964 and signed to the L.A. Double Shot label. They had a great look sporting boss Beatles mop tops and wearing cool black capes! Shortly after we released Escalator, the Vibes (who played with us a lot at that time) started to do Double Decker Bus live, Alec wasn’t too happy!

 

Feelin’ Lost - The Rationals

For the blast off for our second single Don’t Break Down, Alec was inspired by the 1966 single of Michigan’s Rationals ‘Feelin’ Lost’.
The Rationals never really broke nationally (they had one single creep into the bottom end of the top 100 in late 1966), but were really hot in their local state of Michigan, where they had a rabid following for their great live sets, and classy and unique discs.
They gigged extensively, appearing on local tv and radio and releasing a large selection of discs on a variety of labels including stints signed to Cameo and Capitol.
Despite the lack of chart success, their popularity and local fame kept the band gigging until late 1970.

Time Is After You The Peanut Butter Conspiracy

Alec was a a real fiend for the West Coast 60’s Psych Scene ( he eventually moved there and producing a fanzine on the scene and compiled a whole stack of CD’s charting the bands and labels).
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy (like the Byrds) crossed over from the folk circuit to the flourishing psychedelic rock scene. They were produced by legendary producer Gary Usher who also worked with the Beach Boys, the Byrds and Dick Dale. Time Is After You comes from their second LP The Great Conspiracy, although an earlier more garage-y version was released as single in May 1967. They also went on to record music for some biker movies and Russ Meyer’s Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls!
Weirdly the song’s format adapted really well for our sound and it became a fave with the Klub Foot crowd.

 

 Down On Me - Big Brother and the Holding Company

Big Brother were one of the top bands on the West Coast Psychedlic rock scene. Initially they were an instrumental act, playing as the house band at the legendary Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco. They decided they wanted a singer, but it had to be someone with real power who could compete with their heavy sound.
In Texas a young Janis Joplin was hanging out with the 13th Floor Elevators. Word of her powerful full throated blues style reached San Francisco and she was invited to audition for the post by the band’s first manager, Chet Helms of the Family Dog. It was a marriage made in rock and roll heaven and soon they were blowing away audiences across the country, including a legendary appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Down On Me was their second single released in 1967.
Musical differences, poor management, probably drug fuelled disputes and financial squabbles split the band up. They later reformed without Janis, who proceeded as a solo act until a heroin overdose terminated her career in 1970.
We included it in our live act around the second year of playing, and thrashed through a take of it at the tail end of a session at Pathway studios. It turned up on the vinyl retrospective Big Beat released in 1987 ‘The Essential Sting-Rays. Ironically, Big Brother’s bass player Peter Albin is now Alec’s neighbour (and yes, he has heard our version!).

 

Loose Lips Sync Ships - The Hogs (aka The Chocolate Watchband)

The CWB were formed in 1965 in the south of the San Francisco Bay area, by a bunch of guys who had all played in a variety of blues and rock and roll bands. The name was originally chosen as a bit of a joke but it grew on them and they stuck with it. They were playing a lot of British Invasion type sounds, and were particularly influenced by the Kinks and the Rolling Stones (later their punky, snarly,  bluesy rock and roll sound had the Watchband often cited as the American Rolling Stones).

They quickly started becoming popular in the Bay Area, but there were a lot of early line-up changes and even a temporary hiatus when a couple of guys swapped to another band. It was not until the spring of 1966 that original line up member, guitarist Mark Loomis revived the name the Chocolate Watchband and recruited Bill Flores, bass (of the Shandells, who they had both been playing with) and Gary Andrijasevich on drums, Sean Tolby on second guitar and David Aguilar on vocals. They were red hot and soon started getting loads of gigs and offers. The band signed with Green Grass  Productions in LA ran by Ed Cobb and Ray Harris, who in turn  got them on Tower Records.

It was whilst they were recording material for their first Tower album in late 1966 that Harris came to the studio with a copy of Davie Allen and the Arrows fuzz drenched classic Blues Theme (which had been recorded as the theme tune for the forthcoming Roger Corman biker flick the Wild Angels). Harris had heard it wasn’t going to be released as a single (just included on the Wild Angels soundtrack LP). He thought it was a hit and got the boys to learn and record it, there and then. Once this had been achieved they needed a b-side Dave Aguilar told Alec in an interview conducted for his magazine Cream Puff War “…we took a break, figured something out, came back and just jammed through it”
And so Loose Lip Sync Ship was born. Alec loved it’s off the wall weirdness, it’s cool minor key ethereal sound and it’s disjointed middle and end sections.
Harris and Cobb didn’t take the single to Tower but to Hanna Barbera records (an off-shoot of the cartoon company). It was released as  by “the Hogs” (because of the bands Tower deal). A “hog” being biker’s slang for a motorbike. Sadly it wasn’t a smash hit but if it had been that could have been a bit awkward. So the Chocolate Watch Band could get on with their day job of being the Chocolate Watchband!
We used to open with Loose Lips in the early days and later recorded our version for the b-side of our first single Escalator (along with an instrumental version of Escalator). I am pretty sure the a-side was recorded at a studio in Camden Town but the two b-side instrumentals were done at our favourite studio Pathway.
Ironically many moons later when Alec actually played with the CWB they rehearsed ‘Loose Lip’ but couldn’t get it to work!

 

Psycho - The Sonics

The Sonics probably need no introduction here. Their shit kicking, no nonsense stomp made them a big favourite of the ‘Rays.
From Tacoma, in Washington State, they originally formed in 1960, but went through a myriad of members until their definitive line up came together in 1964 with keyboard player Gerry Roslie tackling vocal duties with his screaming, fog horn delivery.
They released the Witch in in 64 and followed that with Psycho the following year. They initially recorded 3 LP’s in the early Sixties but later reformed and continued to record and gig over the years.
We rehearsed some Sonics stuff but never got around to playing any live until a tour of Europe in 1986 found us in Switzerland. Playing on a stage made up of two barn doors balanced on beer crates we belted out Psycho and tried to copy the antics of the Beatles in 1960’s Kaiser Keller; where they had a competition with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes as to who could stomp a hole in the stage first. The Hurricanes won!

 

I Can Only Give You Everything - Them

Belfast’s Them came together to to play a residency at the Maritime Hotel in Belfast in 1964. Previously Van Morrison had sung with a band called the Golden Eagles, and the new group he joined had been called the Gamblers, but switched to the moniker of Them (inspired by the 1954 horror/sci-fi movie of that name featuring giant killer ants!).
They recorded some monster garage anthems including Van’s Gloria, a definitive version of the blues classic Baby Please Don’t Go and I Can Only Give You Everything. All of which were covered by a multitude of U.S. garage and U.K. beat bands.
Whilst Van was (and is) an accomplished song writer he was happy to record stuff by other people as long as he thought it was up to standard, As was the case with I Can Only Give You Everything, brought to him by the producer of Them’s 2nd LP (Them Again), Tommy Scott who had co written it with Mike Coulter.
The Sting-Rays loved Them but as far as I remember we only played I Can Only Give You Everything once live, at a gig at Gossips in Soho, run by Creation’s Alan McGee; we were supporting the Pogues. It was after Keith had left and we were searching for a new permanent bass player. At this particular gig Alec switched from drums to a play a fretless electric bass, Tom Cullinan who at that time was the drummer for the X-Men, sat in on the skins.

 

So You Say You Lost Your Baby - Gene Clark

Alec really started pushing the envelope with his choice of songs we covered once he moved from drums to playing guitar with the ‘Rays. Around 1987 we incorporated Gene Clark’s So You Say You Lost Your Baby into our live set.
Gene was born dirt poor in Tipton Missouri in 1944. His dad was a musician and taught him harmonica and guitar, Gene was soon writing songs and performing locally. He cut his first single at the age of 14 and by his 18th birthday he was spotted by members of the New Christy Minstrels, who were riding high on the folk scene; they asked him to join them. Very popular at the time the New Christy Minstrels were a frankly a cheesy, clean cut folk novelty act doing stuff like 3 Wheels On My Wagon. He joined and recorded and performed with them for a while but eventually left them and moved to L.A. where he pursued his own vision of a band.
Combining the influence of his folk roots, and the new emerging popularity of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, Gene formed the amazing Byrds. They soon found massive success with hits like Bob Dylan’s Mr Tamborine Man and Gene’s penned I Feel A Whole Lot Better and Eight Miles High.
However tensions developed within the group, as Gene had written so much of their material he was getting more money than other members and they fell out with each other. So he went on to a solo career, the first LP from which this track comes from. Despite his prodigious talent he never really found  success as a solo artist.

 

They Walked In Line - Warsaw

I always maintained the ‘Rays were a punk band, we were just the right age to be part of the punk scene, and we all had stuff like the Buzzcocks, the Sex Pistols and Dirk Wears White Socks era Adam and the Ants records in our collection. I then argued that Rockabilly was the first wave of punk and 60’s garage punk the second, and that was what we were about, the punk DIY ethos very much a part of who we were.
So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise when we started playing Warsaw’s They Walked In Line as part of our live set.
Warsaw formed in Salford in 1976 after a bunch of mates witnessed the Sex Pistols playing live at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall. They recorded an early LP for RCA but were dissatisfied with it and never released it, and bought themselves out of the contract. They then released a self financed EP which brought them to the attention of Factory Records Tony Wilson, who signed them up.
Changing their name to Joy Division (as there was a London based band called Warsaw Pakt). They went on to become really popular, and at the vanguard of the whole Manchester scene
Sadly their lead singer Ian Curtis suffered epilepsy and depression and with the additional problems of a complicated love life he sadly took his own life in 1980. The rest of the band regrouped as New Order.