8 August 2008
Barnaby Rudge - Joe, Organ & Co
Label: CBS
Year of Release: 1968
On the last Beatles cover versions update, I briefly mentioned the Morgan Studios in North London and the tight circles of talent that operated in that environment. Barnaby Rudge is yet another Morgan "project", in this case a cockney hippy character created by studio hands Wil Malone and Danny Beckerman.
Sounding for all the world like a Deram-era David Bowie single, "Joe, Organ & Co" is really just a curious novelty track with a slightly melancholy edge. Focussing on the adventures of an organ grinder and his monkey, it is a simple piece punctuated by sound effects and undercut by a slightly downbeat lyric, the entire package reflecting the child-like nature of a lot of vaguely psychedelic pop of the period.
Despite plugs on several record stations (where Wil Malone was on occasion interviewed in character) the single wasn't a hit. Wil would later have more success in the nineties, working on the string arrangements for Massive Attack and The Verve - this is such a far cry from the style of those artists that it's hard to even make a connection, although I for one would love to hear Richard Ashcroft's cover version of this ditty.
I've included the B-side "Railway Jim" here for reference as well, a sprightly piece of nonsense which borders on irritating. Sadly, I don't have any access to the numerous Barnaby Rudge tracks which were apparently left in "the can" (as they say) although I find it hard to imagine how a whole album of this material could work.
http://sharebee.com/2d5de172
Labels:
Barnaby Rudge,
Morgan Studios,
sixties
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Labels
sixties
seventies
eighties
novelty
nineties
psychedelia
The Beatles
folk
glam rock
christmas
one hit wonders
reggae
northern soul
garage
easy listening
KLF
comedy
library music
synthpop
alan blaikley
ken howard
Bill Drummond
disco
bob dylan
eurovision
mark wirtz
romo/ new romantic
Microdisney
cover versions
earl brutus
promotional items of a dubious quality
Beach Boys
Morgan Studios
Wales
animals that swim
bad taste
dora hall
embassy
roger greenaway
the bee gees
creation
elton john
BBC
C86
bob morgan
chris andrews
howard blaikley
john pantry
Eastenders
KPM
blessed ethel
Inaura
Joe Meek
Medicine Head
The Critters
brian bennett
czech rock
don crown
noel edmonds
Birdie
British Gas
Peel Sessions
Salad
Walham Green East Wapping Steam Beating Carpet Cleaning Rodent and Boggit Exterminating Association
pete the plate spinning dog
3 comments:
Is there possibility to download this song, because I can't find it anywhere...?
Hi,
If you go to the Sharebee link above and click on "Badongo", they definitely still have it available for download. Simply enter the letters you can see into the text box on the right, click "Download the file", and Bob's Yer Uncle.
Thank you very much, it can be hard to find some old bands like this on internet, even Last.fm doesn't have a description for that artist... So thanks again, and greetings from Croatia. Lucija ;)
Post a Comment