Spanky & Our Gang

"Sunday Morning" and "Like to Get to Know You" are both absolutely stunning productions. And it's a crime that radio programmers were scared off by "Give a Damn."

reminds me of one of the Dukes of Stratosphear pastiches

er, I meant to say Dukes of Stratosphear Hollies pastiches, but, nonetheless, I'm sure I made my point!

The harmonies, ow

Holy wow, I forgot how genius the segues on that "Without Rhyme or Reason (Anything You Choose)" record are. Was anybody even doing stuff like that at the time? Probably...(1969)...but at least one track is just some non sequitur thing of guys (& pretty obv. not the band) rambling on in the studio. Bookend that with sublimely smooth harmony pop songs, as is the case on the record, and I say, fuck the Mamas and the Papas! These guys were the avant-garde Maccas to put the John Lennon-John Phillips axis to shame.

Okay, that is a bass-ackwards analogy, admittedly, but I'll stand by it, nonetheless...I mean, it preceded "If Only I Could Remember My Name" and other more realistic touchpoints chronologically.

All I'm trying to say is that, either Spanky & Our Gang are severely underrated, or I am completely in over my head. I suspect the truth lies in-between, but leans towards the former.

Er, not really, but still,

I haven't been able to really deeply appreciate a lot of "sunshine pop", or however you wanna categorize their stuff, for some years now, but for whatever reason, the time is ripe at the moment.

It's weird how one's subjective listening-cycles go. At least, I think so.

"I crave you, more than righteousness or fame...I found out...I LOOOOOOOVE YOU"

Yeah, the third album is clearly the best. I do think they are underrated, especially in light of their jugband/vaudeville/psych hybrid thing that Elephant 6 folks did and got far more praise for, whatever reason that is. Maybe the Gang were too vaudeville for the canon, so to speak?

I admit I like the third album moreso because it's less vaudeville... (also, while I understand "Ha-SO" jokes in the 60s pans all over the pop music spectrum, it's kinda painful to hear it today. Also the Klan song on the live portion of the box set.. I know it's satirical and very much a late 60s humor thing, but still, "nyuk nyuk the Klan" rubs me the wrong way in any context.)

Nothing can touch "Yesterday's Rain" as far as dreamy 60s psych pop.

Oh geez, you're absolutely right about the cringeworthy nature of some of the "jokes". Ouch.

But, oh god, those harmonies. Those people had some beautiful voices.

I have no problem rating them over the Mamas and the Papas...though I've never heard "People Like Us", which as I understand it, is supposed to be a pretty weird end-of-the-line record for those guys.

I really don't recommend People Like Us. I'd rather pretend it never happened.

Really? Wow, ok. Now I'm really curious, though.

people like us is actually not bad. it has a nice sunshine pop vibe as opposed to the folkier stuff from the 60s. yeah, it was a total contractual obligation job, but some of the songs are so charming - "snowqueen of texas" "shooting star" "pearl" are modest little classics. one thing to note is that Mama Cass is barely present, but even that's kinds cool because you get to hear a lot more of michelle.

Cool. I really need to sort myself with a copy of that.