rayge
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Post by rayge on Mar 12, 2020 19:21:16 GMT
A Elias & his Zig Zag Jive Flutes - Tom Hark
B Strawberry Alarm Clock – Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2020 4:53:37 GMT
Short and annoying v. Longer and boring...More went into the second track..Vote B
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Post by Crunchy Col on Mar 13, 2020 21:17:01 GMT
I'm familiar with the cover of 'Tom Hark' from 1978 or so, can't remember the name of the group. But loved it. This one is simply too much with those shrill flutes, bad recording. No fun, really, the spirit of the thing killed off by all that blowing.
Strawberry Alarm Clock did about four very nice songs as well as 'Incense and Peppermints', and this is one of them. Evocative, beautifully dated little tune. Great stuff.
B
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2020 18:35:03 GMT
B
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Post by DarknessFish on Mar 15, 2020 22:14:21 GMT
Ooh, a still of a 45. Can my heart take the excitement. Actually, I never knew this was called Tom Hark, who'd have thought it? And it's actually quite pleasant, a joyous little thing of no great importance.
I've heard enough psyche stuff to last me a lifetime, it all sounds as dreary and damp to me, all that harmonising while going "oooh mushroooms", it's just twattish.
A
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2020 0:50:32 GMT
Beautifully hypnotic and dreamy.
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Post by Crunchy Col on Mar 16, 2020 1:17:20 GMT
and it's 'psych' not 'psyche' (which would be pronounced 'sike-eeh' and has a completely different meaning)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2020 6:38:05 GMT
Morning coffee isn't helping much with this one.
As a pedant and flautist, I'd like to point out that they're penny whistles in A, not your actual flutes. And there's a lot of loveliness to B - and yet it's too busy and a bit too dated.
That isn't my main objection to A, it's the "da-na-na-na-na-na-nahhhh" repetition throughout.
I find that, even though it's a bit mushroom-forced, I rather like
B
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rayge
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Post by rayge on Mar 16, 2020 11:33:15 GMT
I'm familiar with the cover of 'Tom Hark' from 1978 or so, can't remember the name of the group. But loved it. This one is simply too much with those shrill flutes, bad recording. The Pirhanas.
A was a huge hit in the UK in the mid-1950s, and either then or soon after it was the theme to a TV drama series about diamond trading called, I think, The Killing Stones. It sold 3 million all told. It's a bunch of teenagers recorded in 1956 in a South African township, and there are of course no flutes on the recording, as you can see from the picture of the band - 'jive flutes' are penny whistles, the main element of kwela music. South African era garage at its supreme best; sorry that the production values weren't up to scratch for you, John.
B is about as psychedelic as smoking banana peel, and has fucking flutes on it.
A
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2020 11:38:52 GMT
I'm familiar with the cover of 'Tom Hark' from 1978 or so, can't remember the name of the group. But loved it. This one is simply too much with those shrill flutes, bad recording. The Pirhanas. When I lived in Brighton I would see their singer Boring Bob in my local all the time. He really was boring or at least incredibly miserable!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2020 11:43:04 GMT
I'm afraid A's one of the worst picks of the round, monotonous and irritating and a terrible sounding record. Difficult to imagine it as the best of anything.
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fange
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Post by fange on Mar 16, 2020 12:35:52 GMT
A is bouncy and fun in its way, but also a bit shrill. B is a lovely number and wins this one pretty handily.
B
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osgood
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Post by osgood on Mar 16, 2020 12:47:35 GMT
Well I did enjoy A a lot. In fact I enjoyed it more than B which sounded a bit of a drag.
A
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toomanyhatz
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Post by toomanyhatz on Mar 17, 2020 21:48:51 GMT
A is rather delightfully loopy, though I know what people mean about it being annoying. It is a bit shrill. But I'm willing to allow that it's probably a function of the recording more than anything else.
B is another name-dropper for me - I actually know the flute player on it. Not well, and I've never played with him (though friends have). And I do like this one (albeit not as much as the B-side of "Incense and Peppermints," "The Birdman of Alkatrash," which is also delightfully loopy and someone should've picked for the novelty thread), but since both are period pieces, I'm going for the period less overly mined already.
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toomanyhatz
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Post by toomanyhatz on Mar 17, 2020 21:58:31 GMT
By the way, the really scary thing about the flute player on B, Steve Bartek (aside from the fact that he later joined Oingo Boingo) is that he's not 70 yet - he was a teenager with the SAC. According to Wikipedia (and I can believe it having met him), he was born in 1952. Which means he was 16 at the time of that recording.
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