Boneyard Media

“Mindrocker,” as recorded by So. Cal. band Fenwyck in ‘67 has become a garage-psych classic, and it was written by Keith “Enamorado” Colley from a few posts ago. He also wrote, with his wife Linda, the Knickerbockers’ “One Track Mind.” Here’s Colley’s demo of “Mindrocker” which gives the Fenwyck version a serious - I mean serious - run for its money. This cut, by the way, comes from a recent collection of demos put together buy Colley himself. Do yourselves a favor and, if you don’t buy the whole thing, at least go to iTunes and download “Mindrocker,” “Time” and “Bird Doggin’” (yeah, the same one later done by Gene Vincent). They’re all there.

Keith Colley - “Mindrocker”

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posted by Kim Simpson

Pop Matters is doing an anniversary feature on the Beatles’ White Album in which each song is commented on by a staff writer. I do a serviceable job on “Mother Nature’s Son” even though McCartney was probably just goofing on Donovan.

posted by Kim Simpson

In the early sixties Keith Colley was headed toward a Gene Pitney-esque sort of situation - crashing the gates as a teen idol while working behind the scenes as a songwriter and publisher. For Colley, though, the behind-the-scenes stuff won out and he ended up with only one charting single, “Enamorado,” which peaked at #66 in ‘63 (although his “Queridita Mia” did bubble under at #122 later that year). Colley, a non-Spanish-speaking Washingtonian, wound up giving this track the south-of-the-border treatment at the visionary behest of his label. And it sounds, in fact, a bit like Gene Pitney singing in Spanish. Doo-doo-be-doo. More on Colley soon.

Keith Colley - “Enamorado”

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posted by Kim Simpson

So you have this charming Jesus album floating around forever, then you come to find out the duo that recorded it is actually Kevin Bacon’s brother Michael and Larry Gold, a guy responsible for some of the entire Philly soul genre’s crucial string arrangements.

Good News - “I’m a-Losin’ My Mind” (1969)

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I came across this anecdote when I was reading Alice Cooper’s Golf Monster last summer, and I guess it will now accompany every Liberace encounter I’ll ever have. Take it away, Alice:

Liberace had two dressing rooms. He had his meet-and-greet dressing room and another private area for his closest friends. We went back to the meet-and-greet room, and he told us, “Look, if you guys could just wait in the other room, that would be great.”

No kidding. Then Liberace comes out wearing a pair of Levi’s, a white T-shirt, and cowboy boots. “Hey, guys, let’s go grab a beer someplace. Don’t worry. Nobody’ll recognize me”. . .
If he was messing with us, he was really good at it.

posted by Kim Simpson

Thanks to my friend Dennis who steered me toward this truly extraordinary version by Liberace (1919-1987) of the Neil and Barbra torcher, recorded sometime during the great one’s last decade with us. More on Liberace tomorrow.

posted by Kim Simpson

Here’s John Martyn circa ‘77 doing his version of “Spencer the Rover,” about the return on Guy Fawkes Night (Nov. 5) of something thought to be lost. As for me, I’ll never forget the 4th.

There’s this big bully of a company starting with the letter D that put out a splendid little film in 1973, a cartoon version of Robin Hood. The one and only Roger Miller did the songs and narration in the form of a rooster. If you don’t know about any of this, well, I don’t know what to tell you other than this: somehow I ended up with an Italian version of the main theme. Have a listen.

Italian stand in for Roger Miller - “Urca urca tirulero”

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posted by Kim Simpson

My new radio show’s called “The Folk Bazaar,” and starting tomorrow it will air every Wednesday at 3. The focus (?) is internationally-oriented folk music, psychedelic/acid/weird/neo folk and folk rock, solo instrumental folk, inventive singer-songwriters, exotic medinas, heads in clouds, imaginations running wild. The Serbian group above, S vremena na vreme (From Time to Time), is right in the pocket (the song’s called “Strange Tree” from 1973). If you’re in Austin, spin the dial counter-clockwise to 91.7 FM. If you’re listening on the web, catch a live stream at the KOOP website (click “listen now” at top left).