For those of us born right around the time Elvis kinda invented rock ‘n’ roll, but especially for any VH1-educated readers out there who actually believe The Beatles truly were, are, and 4-everafter shall be the B-all and end-all of it all, socio-musically Sixties-speaking that is:
The current Fufkin dot com contains a big piece-o-Piggery regarding three (yes, count ‘em !!) grand new discs from The Viper Label which more than answer the following musical questions …and THEN some:
* What did Gerry and the Pacemakers sound like long before they ever hooked up with Big George Martin or even Joe Meek?
* Which semi-skiffle combo out of the very northern U.K. recorded Johnny Cash songs – possibly inventing cow-punk and/or alt. C&W in the process — decades before Rank and File actually did either??
* Did those B-52’s, masquerading beneath the nom-de-group The Four Just Men, really first record “Rock Lobster” circa 1964???
* and, lastly but far from leastly, did the one and only Kirkbys really usher in that Merseybeat-snuffing Summer of ‘67 as The 23rd Turnoff — singing the until-now seldom-heard-indeed “Flowers Are Flowering” — only to surface yet again as (…wait for it…) proto-proggers Wimple Winch ??!!!
The answers, my friend, are flowing cross the Mersey,
but you gotta click right here to get gear, luv…..
Wimple Winch! Now there was a terrific psych band. "Marmalade Hair"…"Bluebell Wood"…I love this stuff. Good to know they had roots. They always sounded to me like they were gnomes from some surrealist novel that sprung to life and formed a band.
There is also a Merseybeat collection from some years back called "What About Us," which is interesting because it leads off with Tommy Quickly’s "Tip of My Tongue" — a song so bad that even Beatle fanatic Mark Lewisohn dissed it in one of his books.