Label: Intrepid
Year of Release: 1969
"Admit it, Dave, you bought this single purely because you liked the title, didn't you?"
"What do you mean 'admit it'? I would happily volunteer that information without inquisition or any sense of shame".
Sadly, as much as I'd love to say that "Aunt Matilda's Double Yummy Blow Your Mind Out Brownies" is a piece of rambling psychedelia about "special cakes" with tons of phasing and an improvised instrumental break, it's not. It's actually a piece of chirpy bubblegum which might be totally lyrically innocent. Although as the singer chirps "It's a magical place where the rabbits go/ It's a wonderland where the flowers gro-oo-wow-ow!" I somehow doubt it. Though the more I think about it, those could also be the opening lines to any number of children's TV shows from the seventies and eighties.
And who was the man peddling this cod-psychedelic filth to our kids? Why, none other than The Archies session lead singer and future Barry Manilow producer Ron Dante. This fact seems horribly obvious the second it's revealed to you, and you have to admit he had an ideal singing voice for this kind of thing - irrepressibly gleeful and cartoonish, turning what could have been something quite irritating into a track that's difficult to not like. In fact, the whole thing is a huge sugar high (rather than any other kind of high) with its rapid tempo and stuttering electric organs.
Dante is still active to this day, releasing records and performing live, and doubtless creaming off all kinds of excellent record royalties.
The song's authors Vance and Pockriss were also behind hundreds of songs throughout the period, including their most famous effort "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini".
2 comments:
7/21/16
RobGems.ca Wrote:
Somehow this "Brownies" song is even more zany than Ron Dante's "Leader Of The Laundromat" with the Detergents (which was wacky enough as is.) Intrepid's two biggest hits were The Leer Brothers' "Mystery of Love" and the Underground Sunshine's cover of The Beatles' "Birthday", both from 1969. Intrepid was distributed by Mercury Records from Chicago. Pockriss & Vance also managed to get Dante in another band, The Cuff Links, for the smash hit "Tracy" on Decca Records. When Dante didn't want to tour as The Cuff Links, they later replaced him with Rupert Holmes for the vocalist.
The Intrepid label put out some interesting 45s during their brief lifetime. The one I'd love to hear is Dennis Linde's "Ballad Of A Blood Crazed, Trained Killer".
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