Pedestrian cover backed with a surprising kick of garage soul
Label: Beacon
Year of Release: 1969
Here we go again with a familiar old story - it looks as if this cover of Zager and Evans' hysterical doomfest "In The Year 2525" was released in an attempt to beat the original American performers to the UK charts. Mr Zager and Mr Evans didn't pop their heads above the magical Top 40 line until 9th August 1969, perhaps convincing Beacon Records that they had a chance at a free-run themselves with one of their own groups.
Of course, they didn't, and the very idea that the homespun efforts of the tiny label could have taken on the might of RCA was hugely optimistic. To make matters more difficult, this single also sounds like an unenthusiastic demo, a run-through of the track with no spin, punch or passion to speak of. If you walked into a London club with some sophisticated recording gear and taped a competent group doing a soundcheck with this song, chances are the end results wouldn't have been much different.
That's deeply regrettable, because tucked away on the flip-side here is a group composition which possibly hasn't seen enough daylight due to the track it's been coupled with. "Parting" is a soulful effort filled with honking brass, organ stabs, driving rhythms and agitated vocals which has led to some online comparisons to Dexys Midnight Runners - obviously it's not quite up there with the quality of the young soul rebels, but it's certainly an extremely early example of aggressive, adolescent pub rock moves combining with soul arrangements and structures. Only a certain lack of emphasis on the rhythm section in the production holds it back, but as the track was apparently recorded in someone's front room [citation needed], this is probably forgivable!
