Particular People - Boys Cry/ What's The Matter With Juliet

 

Haunting take on the Eden Kane hit

Label: Big T

Year of Release: 1967

One thing I find fascinating about the late sixties is how often bands were tempted to take earlier beat or pop hits and twist them like plasticine into unexpected new shapes. The most obvious example of this would of course be The Score's version of "Please Please Me" which took an already raucous rave-up and turned it into some kind of mental collapse conmbined with a freakbeat freak-out. Jason and The Centremen's bash at "Singin' The Blues" in 1966 also shows how dementedly far-out Joe Meek could be as the decade passed the halfway mark.

Stangely uncompiled and seemingly unloved is also this beauty, a cover of the 1964 Eden Kane hit "Boys Cry" from Particular People, a duo consisting of Ken Lewis (of Carter, Lewis and The Southerners fame) and Rod Clark of the Moody Blues (for about five minutes in 1966). "Boys Cry" drenches the track in Spectorish echo, mellotron and Everly Brothers styled vocals, making it sound both faintly retro and of-the-moment, on-the-button 1967. Like a sweet cough syrup dream, the track is a gentle, faintly dizzy trip into the comforts of a childish past. 

The B-side is intriguing too. "What's The Matter With Juliet" was a Carter and Lewis composition which would find itself on the flipside of the Canuck band The Sceptres debut UK 45 five months later, and also the B-side of a single by The Wheels in the US in 1969. Clearly nobody ever considered it strong enough to put on an A-side, and yet it's a persuasive bit of tunesmithery which with a forceful enough arrangement might have hit home. The Sceptres version is up for sale on my Discogs store (coughs) for anyone who is interested. 

While both members would go on to do other things - Ken Lewis with more songwriting and Rod Clark with the groups Storyteller and Spinning Wheel - this was the duo's sole 45 and has been largely forgotten since. There's no good reason for that, really.

If the previews below aren't working properly, please go right to the source.