Exploito Records Update - is there no end????

I must say I'd thought I'd come to the end of the line with the whole 60s exploito thing. I mean could I scrape the barrel any more?
The answer, of course, is yes, I could.
Over the last few months I've spotted some more records from the same stable as some of the ones I've already mentioned.

First up is this beauty. It just goes to show how in thrall I am to these kind of records that I got really excited by finding a Spanish issue of the Black Diamond's Hendrix tribute record. Which of course is nothing more than a repackaging of the Animated Egg record. How many copies of this in different versions do I now own??
Read about some other Hendrixploitation records here and here

 Another find that got me hot under the collar was the 101 Strings Play Hits Written By the Beatles. The image on the front is from a California Poppy Pickers LP and lurking towards the end of side two is Blues For the Guru - a sitar type thing written by Mike Kelly that also appears on their Sounds of Today LP and Love is Blue - here and here

But, by far and away the most exciting find has been this one. On the even-more-budget-than-Alshire label Oscar, Block Busters by the Young Sound of Today, this is manna from heaven for an exploito addict like myself.

Recognise the girls on the front? Of course you do, they first appeared on the Mustang's Organ Freakout (you can see his organ in the foreground - phoar) before making another appearance on the Haircuts and the Impossibles - here and here
And as for the music....
Basically this record is a reissue of the Young Sound of 68 record put out by Somerset clicky

Everything on it appears on other releases as well. There are two Animated Egg tracks, one by Donnie Burks, one by The Mustang, one by Little Joe Curtis and four by the Strings for Young Lovers/ 101 Strings. I could go on and on about where they all appeared (for instance the MacArthur Park appears with vocals on the Stone Canyon Rock Group LP). If you really want to know, go through some of my old posts and join the dots.

Here we have Golden Oldies Vol. 3 by the 101 Strings. Surely none of the Animated Egg tracks could be described as a Golden Oldie? I know that the record originally came out in 1968 and this record was released in 1973 (on Alshire International in Canda no less!), but not even DL Miller could call it a Golden Oldie?
But guess what? On side B we have Flameout from the Astro Sounds Beyond the Year 2000 LP. Amazing cheek I call it!
I quite like their take on Hound Dog, so if you see this, pick it up! 


No doubt there are even more out there. If anyone wants to point me in the right direct I'd be very grateful.

Jerry Cole - Between Surf and Psych

Between his reign as the go-to guy for surf and hot rod instrumentals (read about it here) and inadvertently spawning a slew of psychedelic cash-in (read about The Id and the Animated Egg here), Cole was involved in a series of rockabilly inspired records. Sticking with the Bihari's Crown and then Custom labels, Cole followed the tried and tested cheapo record formula - get into the studio, record as much material as possible, use as many old ideas as you can (why waste anything) and leave the design geniuses at the record label to package them up in as corny a way as possible. If you want to read more about Crown click here.
However, despite everything seeming to count against these records having anything of interest in their grooves, Cole's musicianship and professionalism shine through.
Its not psychedelic, its not surf, its not really even rockabilly. But don't let that put you off. These are worth turning your ears to.

Credited to the Stinger, Guitars A Go Go features some fine, fuzzy blues based playing. I particularly like Mo Jo, which is really just a Howlin Wolf knock off - but this is the world of exploito so who cares? I'm also partial to the opener, 007 Rides Again, if only because the title is trying to link the record to the Bond-craze. Its got zero to do with James Bond. Meanwhile, Mustang has a very Buzzsaw-type vibe with loads of Link Wray-esq fuzzy guitar action. Side one closes with Dang Thing which has some nice, clean, surf playing from Cole. I'm pretty sure it appears on one of his hot rod records but I can't place it. Time to crack open the sax for side two and frankly, to these ears, its not an improvement. That is until we get to the slightly crazed, uptempo One for the Money. You can image the kids go-going to this one! All in all I like what the Stingers are doing on this record. Sure the production is almost nonexistent and sure the music is derivative but its no-nonsense fun stuff. And I've got to love it for that!

 
It made a kind of sense to put out the first Stingers record in 1965 but by 1967, when Volume 2 (now credited to Jerry Cole and the Stingers) came out it must have been old hat. However, it does open with Yeah Yeah Yeah, which is just The Id's Boil the Kettle Mother without the strange lyrics. Done in a more obvious rock and roll style its pretty good although it fails to reach the levels of weirdness the Cole got to with the Id. There's a lot of very fine blues-y piano on this record, and thankfully no sax! It's not as good as its predecessor, however. As usual the titles are amusing as they are obviously trying to reference hits of the day. Paperback Lover (Paperback Writer), Along Came Mary (And the Wind Cried Mary), Yeah Yeah Yeah (She Loves You Yeah Yeah Yeah).

Its a return to form with A Go Go Guitars, although unfortunately not a return to fuzzy guitar. Now Jerry has dropped the Stingers altogether so perhaps Crown thought people would buy the record for his name alone. It opens with Hip Hugger - which appeared in a different guise on a number of other Crown exploitos. And guess what, next we have another version of the song that would become Boil The Kettle - here called Boss Hair. I'm sure I've also heard Teen Age Fair before as well, but I'm so addled by all these exploito records I can't be sure where I've heard it. Side 2 has a distinctly blues-derived sound and while its a long way from actually being the blues, its very listenable for all that!

What do you do when there's a new 'fad' and you are a knock-off label like Crown? Of course you repackage your old stuff as new stuff. Don't buy these records. Why I hear you ask? Because they are just repackages of the A Go Go/Stingers stuff, because they are NOT psychedelic in any way, and because, for some reason, they sound even worse than their predecessors. 

 

Jerry Cole - Super Charged Knock Offs

Jerry Cole was a go-to guy in the LA session world. Not only that he had a sideline (lucrative I hope) in exploito records, usually, but not exclusively with Crown Records.
Hot Rods, Surf, Bikes and even Drag Boats - he provided soundtracks to them all under a number of pseudonyms.

Here are some.

The Hot Rodders - Big Hot Rod

Jerry Kole and the Stokers - Hot Rod Alley (not a very good attempt at hiding his identity)

The Deuce Coupes - The Shut Downs

 

The Winners - Checkered Flag

The Blasters - Sounds of the Drags (notice that all of the images have been used for other records!)

The Kickstands - Black Books and Bikes

The Scramblers - Cycle Psycho

The Hornets - Motorcycles USA

The Hornets - Big Drag Boats USA (this boat apparently was trying to break the water speed record)

Mike Adams and the Red Jackets - Surfers Beat

Jerry of course, had his own band Jerry Cole and the Spacemen as well as playing in a lot of the Gary Usher studio bands, such as the Super Stocks and The Risers.

Any more that I've missed off?

Exploito # 12 - Crystal Blue Persuasion and Other Sounds of Today with Vocals by the Orange Grove

Welcome back for more recycled budget label cash-in fun.
This time we have ...... well its not really clear who we have as this record doesn't seem to have a band name on it.
Of course the vocals are attributed to the Orange Groove (geddit!). Can we assume that this means that this is the name of the band? Or maybe its the Sounds of the New Generation, or perhaps this is what you listen to if you are part of the new generation?
I'm confused!
And haven't we seen those happy fuggers before somewhere? Of course we have. We've seen them here and here. This will be the last time we meet them. I promise. Unless anyone can point me in the direction of any more covers with them on, and then we might have a reunion party!
Anyway, this is one of the best of this kind of record and if you pass one in your travels I suggest you pick it up. My copy came from the same place as my copy of the Black Diamonds. Initially I didn't even know that his was another Animated Egg record. I was in a for a pleasant surprise.
The record kicks off with the the title track Crystal Blue Persuasion a hit in 1969 for Tommy James and the Shondells. According to Tommy James the song was inspired by the bible but for many in California is seemed to be referring to drugs and I am sure its that angle that our exploito kings at Somerset were hoping innocent record buyers would pick up on.
Not being very familiar with the original version I have to say that I quite like the version on this record. Its quite calming in a folky kind of way.
Next is the amazing A Bad Trip Back to '69 which is from the 101 Strings Astro Sounds record which in turn is a version of Down Down and Gone from the Animated Egg LP but with added strings. I love this song. Here it is from the 101 Strings record. I'm not sure but I think that the version on this record is slightly more fuzzed out!

Next is Can't You See I'm Right . When I first heard this song I that is sounded very much like a real band. There was something about the way it was played, something I couldn't quite really put my finger on that just seemed, for want of a better word 'real'.
I was first made aware that it appears on this record:

Now if this bunch on the sleeve don't look like a fake band then I'm a monkey's uncle, I said to myself. Sure enough Can't You See I'm Right appears unchanged from this record.
It rather a nice, unassuming record in a slightly folk-rock vein.
So, Doctor Marigold's Prescription aren't real?
According to this site they are. click here and read the comments as well
I'm not in the slightest bit surprised to see that there is a Marble Arch connection. After all so many Alshire/Somerset records appeared on Marble Arch as well. I guess that the flow of records went both ways but typically the musicians from Doctor Marigolds Prescription never knew about their record being sold in the US and never received a penny!
Down Home Baby sounds like a Mustang out-take and I am sure that if I spent enough time I could track it down - but life is just too short.
The first side closes with the amazing Street King. I can't imagine where this song came from. Imagine a girl group Spector-ish record but with the girl's voices sped up to Chipmunks levels - its that crazy. Slashing electric guitar and Mo Tucker style drumming back the squeaky voices as they tell a story of unrequited love for a young road racer who "Doesn't take it from no one, yeah". You just know it will end badly. "The Street King talks about far off places" - of course he does! Some off beam harmonies and basic drumming fade out this absolutely remarkable track.
Side opens with Sockerina which we've come across before on the Sock It To Me LP and on the Now Generation record. Recycling at its best. Rinky dink organ noises from our man Paul Griffin. Don't spend too long on this one.
Now we have The Land of Fusan by Dr Marigold's Persuasion. I like this song very much. I reminds me of Cat Stevens circa Tea for the Tillerman. Escape from the horrors of the contemporary world to an imaginary place with beautiful animals - how very hippy. It has a lovely mandolin part which I like very much.
Poppy's to be Picked is a countrified affair that quickly overstays its welcome. Not good.
Troubled Mind is another intriguing song. Funky bass, fuzzy guitar and words about the world being saved by love this is something you can imagine in a movie being played while the heroes dance in an underground night club. Its so funky it seems unlike anything on an exploito record. There's even a cool breakdown. Its helped enormously by the double tracked vocals.
And finally More Than Now. Female singers, perhaps the same as the ones from Street King but this time without the speed-up sing in an almost hymnal way about wanting more. Its lovely stuff and completely unexpected. But then this record is completely unexpected. Every track is unlike its predecessor and not what, even someone like me who's listened to many such record, one expects.
I would like to think that there was a mad genius behind the song selection, someone who had a master plan. Unfortunately I fear that the record's success is as much down to chance than anything else. Which is the beauty of the record.

Exploito # 10 The Stone Canyon Rock Group - MacArthur Park

I can still remember hearing Richard Harris sing/talking his way through MacArthur Park and thinking "what the phuck is he going on about????"
But like many strange things repeated exposure changed my mind and I now believe it is one of the best songs ever committed to wax.
It has everything, intrigue, pathos, melodrama, suspense and release. Jimmy Webb's arrangement is masterful and Harris's Tramp Shining vocal efforts make Lee Hazelwood sound like Pavarotti. Unbelievable stuff.
Which of course brings us to the record here. MacArthur Park has of course been covered by everyone from Donna Summer to Wylon Jennings but no one has take the song and given it quite the same treatment as the Stone Canyon Rock Group. These guys, and despite the pretty girl under the blossom on the cover, they are guys, tackle the song without the string orchestra. Fair enough perhaps you might say. And although the singer lacks Richard Harris's vocal delivery and phrasing you could say that no one else can treat a song in the same way that he can.
However, the result is something that sounds sadly like a cake left out in the rain. Soggy, washed out and tasteless. Everything that is good in the original, everything that saved it from falling into saccharine pretentiousness has been taken out.
All that is left is a thumping piano and a singer straining at the top of his abilities.
Please heed my warning and avoid this track. It's not worth the five minutes of your life.
Who could be behind such a travesty you might reasonably ask. Look no further than Jerry Cole.
I Can't Stand It, Wild Times and I Love You (originally Don't Think Twice) and from the Id Sessions. I would guess that they are alternative takes as they feel much more 'country' that then versions of the Inner Sounds of the Id reissue.
Can the rest be originals? Of course not what a stupid question. If you are a bit of a trainspotter you would recognise Baby Can't You See as I'm a Man, Most of All There's You as Lisa and Light Show as Strange Shadows, all from the Generation Gap Up Up and Away album. Read about it here
Light Show/ Strange Shadows is a very eerie slice of surf instrumental. Recommended.
The last two track could, I am sure be tracked down on a Cole county record, but to date I haven't been able to do so.
All in all, unless you like bad covers of Richard Harris songs I would avoid this record and get The Generation Gap instead.
On a final note I had always though that the Stone Canyon Rock Group owed its name to Ricky Nelson's Stone Canyon Band. It would explain the country element to most of the songs as the Stone Canyon Band were pioneers of that sound. However, if they were then they were very prescient as Ricky's band didn't release a record until 1971. Maybe they got their name from this record!

Exploito # 9 - Everything Electric and the Firebirds

Knowledge of electricity stretches back to at least 1600 and according to some sources as far back as ancient Greece.
By the end of the sixties there was nothing new about electricity. It did not represent the cutting edge of technology, or a science fiction future. In fact it was pretty mundane in the US and Europe.
So how to explain the slew of 'electricy' records put out by exploito kings Crown?
Within a few years 'bands' such as the Underground Electrics, The Electric Underground, Lee Akers and the Electric Generation and the Electric Firebirds, not to mention T Swift and the Electric Bag (already discussed in another post), were all unleashed on an unsuspecting gullible record buying public.
The obvious thought it that the word electric was supposed to make record buyers think of electric guitars and thereby making them think that they were buying some fuzzed out, scuzzed out, deep down and dirty masterpiece.
Of course the electric guitar was not a recent invention and its use in pop music, not to mention jazz, rock and roll, surf, country and western and soul, was old hat. But why let that stop you!

Hey Jude by the Underground Electrics starts badly and gets a whole lot worse!
Seemingly the work of a group of musicians struggling to master their instruments as they are being taped, the Underground Electrics would have been thrown out of any self respecting bar for sounding too weak.
They are not helped by the recording which gives every impression that they are in a lead lined barn. Songs stop suddenly, drum mistakes are retained, fade in and outs are sloppy by any but the most generous of standards.
Everything sounds like a first take, frequently of songs that no one in the band has played before.
The mixing favours the drums over the guitar which might not be so back if the drummer could have kept time. There is a bass in there somewhere but you have to really strain to hear it.
As for the singer, he gets to be placed at the front of the mix which makes his every bum note excruciating. Album opener Hey Jude showcases his peculiar song killing abilities to devastating effect. The good news is that if you can get through it the rest of the record's blues-by-numbers tracks are a better fit to his voice. But only just.
Without doubt the best thing about this record is the psychedelic yoga miss on the cover.
Things have GOT to get better!

Heavy Heavy Heavy by the Lee Akers and the Electric Generation begins promisingly with And When I Die. While not 'heavy' its a fun romp combining blues and country elements. I quite like it to be honest!
Having amused with the bar-room world weary And When I Die, Lee keeps up the pace with All I Ever Tried to Do Is Try. Unfortunately his voice starts to go a bit on the higher notes and he's now heading further into some obvious country territory. Not a heavy song either.
What's this with An Evening in the Country? Lee starts to stretch out a bit and growls a little and ups the tempo. His Electric Generation band mate on guitar provides one of the worst solos committed to vinyl but there's a fun piano solo which comes out of nowhere so we'll give it a pass.
However, having pleased with An Evening in the Country Lee and his cohorts make the fatal mistake of repeating the song for the rest of the record. All of the subsequent tracks sounds the same and for any but the most ardent of Lee Akers acolytes that's nine songs too many.
After a while he begins to sound increasingly demented while his band sound increasingly like an incompetent country bar band. And I don't mean that as a compliment.

We move on to the Electric Underground the their Guitar Explosion.
Look at those crazy cats with their weird facial hair, psychedelic light show and sunglasses - cool man!
And dig the linear notes:-"Electric guitars of today are as far a cry from the guitars of yesteryear as the music that is played on them. Through a process of evolution, the guitar, traditionally a simple folk instrument, has been developed and updated to play the music of NOW; the music that is a true reflection of our present super-technological age. Controlled by buttons, knobs and whatever other device the player has added on his own, the electric guitar has gained a new versatility. Used by today's talented rock groups, the psychedelic sounds produced can be described as a truly 'mind-bending' experience. Presented here is a collection of music recorded by such a group. The titles themselves, THE ULTIMATE TRIP, UNDERGROUND FREAKOUT and AERIAL FLIPOUT give a clue to the rockin' good time you will have listening and dancing to this album."
I love the bit about guitars having buttons and knobs!
Sounds great doesn't it? Alas when the needle comes down you get some sax led rock and roll from the early sixties that is in no way psychedelic.
In fact its our old friend Jerry Cole but this time in an even earlier incarnation as Billy Boyd from about 1963!
Fun but unlikely to trip you out!

Love this lady's mod threads. Although we wouldn't get along well if she treated my records like that!!!!
Is this the same as the Electric Generation? No. Is it the same as the Underground Electrics? Nope. How about the Electric Underground? Could be!
In fact this is Jerry Cole again. That's right its another recycling of an old Cole record, in this case Guitars a Go Go. Two songs from that record did develop into Animated Egg tracks but in their
current form the guitar is very clean and almost polite, they still have a surf/instrumental feel to them.
Again the titles are great but intentionally 'psychedlic' - Woodstock Hour, Let's Make It, Live Cream, Heavy, Doors Time.

No need to do a double take. This is actually a completely different record but with the same sleeve. I'm still not happy about her slap dash way with records.
Bit of an odd one this. The Associated Soul Group, Top Hits of Today, put out on theContessa label its actually a gatefold! The inside contains adverts for other Contessa releases such as The Best of the Polynesians and Top Pop Hits of Today

The covers of Scarborough Fair and The Sound of Silence are as weak as all exploito vocals. And they've also included the cover of MacArthur Park by the Stone Canyon Group, so obviously someone liked it, and Up Up and Away from the Generation Gap.
But would you believe it, all of the other songs are Id/ Animated Egg tracks!
We' get Our Man Hendrix on the Projection Company LP, Are You Experienced from T Swift, Wild Times from the Stone Canyon Rock Group (amongst others) and Don't Think Twice (also known as I Love You I Do) also on the Stone Canyon record and Uh Uh Uh and I Can't Stand It are outakes from the Id LP.
Almost everything is taken from somewhere else. No wonder they had enough money left over for a gatefold! Great exploito stuff!

You've probably guessed already that the Firebirds have nothing to do with the Electric Firebirds - thankfully!
Not a repackaging of an earlier record, Crown obviously splashed out on some musicians. I don't think they spent overly much on them but they were lucky enough to get a band who, within their limitations, really knew what they were doing.
Go straight past the very average Door's cover that gives the record its name and the second track Delusions which is frankly dreadful and play track three, Reflections. Do you like heavy, fuzzy, stoner rock? In which case this record is for you. If you like Blue Cheer and Steppenwolf and the Stooges you will like this. Primitive and hard this is the kind of music that all the other 'electric' 'heavy' records above said they were but weren't.
There were obviously enough tracks in the can to put out two records. I haven't got the 31 Flavors - Hair but by all accounts its the same band doing the same thing.
Check out the YouTube clips below

Exploito # 8 - Hendrixploitation and beyond

Charles Shaar Murray in his wonderful book Crosstown Traffic (which, if you haven't read you really must - its one of the best pieces of writing on pop and rock that I have ever read) points out that the Hendrix image can stand for a range of things.
There's drug use, phallocentric hard rock, wild sex and anti-authoritarianism.
Of course, if you were a teenage boy in the late sixties what could be more attractive than sex drugs and rock and roll? What did you care about the real man, or maybe ever the real man's music? If you could associate yourself with the image of Hendrix maybe people, or even better girls, would see you as the bad boy you really wanted to be? Which in a nut-shell is the purpose of exploito records - image over content every time!
Hendrix, however, was a guitar genius and where were the likes of Miller and Sherman going to find one of those? Jerry Cole of course.
T Swift and the Electric Bag are Jerry Cole and his Id buddies. This record came out in 1968 around the time of Electric Ladyland when Hendrix was at the peak of his popularity and powers.
The cover versions are all competent and quite fun. A Jet is a version of the Box Tops The Letter while Take it Easy Baby is really just Spooky by Classics IV - but we already know that Jerry Cole is very good a 'reinterpreting' the hits of the day.
Interestingly What's Your Bag is Our Man Hendrix which appears on the Projection Company LP  - an even earlier example of Hendrixploitation!
It wouldn't be a Miller record without some Animated Egg which we get in the form of Free Form in G which is really Sock it My Way from the Animated Egg LP.
The Stinger, the Strut and Red Eyes are re-tooled amped up tracks from an even earlier Cole exploito record called Guitars a Go Go - well why waste them even if they were recorded before Hendrix released his first record under his own name?
My favourite is Expo in Sound. A freeform freakout that is quite brilliant and which should have made it on to the Animated Egg LP.

Of course, Hendrix was only one of a number of counter cultural sources that the exploito merchants would draw upon.
That changed dramatically in 1970 when Hendrix died mysteriously in his flat in London, possibly of an overdose of legal sleeping tablets, an overdose of illegal drugs, or as some conspiracy lovers claim, he was killed by the CIA.
What should the owners of a record label do to mark the passing of a guitar god? Release some knock off records of course!

It would have cost money to use some of Hendrix's own music and as we know spending money was not something that the owners of Alshire liked to do.
Instead why not simply use a photo of the dead musician on the cover and retitle some old songs so that they sound a bit like ones Hendrix wrote?
So we have Hazy Color - Purple Haze, Flame - Fire, Experienced You - Are you Experienced? etc etc. All credits are to Sherman/Miller!
But what about the music I hear you ask. Oh yes the music. It is of course the Animated Egg LP. Of all the things that Jerry Cole was, a Hendrix follower was not one of them. And given that he recorded the Animated Egg tracks in 1967 it would have been pretty amazing if he had been!

Alshire liked the Black Diamonds approach so much that they licensed the record to Swedish record company Super Sound. It was repackaged with this slightly scary free-floating woman's head on the cover and retitled Fire Music, although the Hendrix-y song titles were retained.
To be honest I'm slightly surprised that this only got a limited release.
Perhaps Alshire/Europa realised that they had already released the Animated Egg LP in as many countries as they could and they just couldn't squeeze anything more out of it. Maybe the Black Diamonds didn't sell well enough? Or perhaps they just didn't think of it?
Instead they continued to use the Hendrix image but this time with the twist of some new songs!
Although there are some Hendrix originals, such as Fire, Purple Haze and are you experienced, there are some new tracks, which of course are by Miller/Mueller.
To be fair they are not bad, but not a patch on anything that came from the Animated Egg.
This record, however, does have one other claim to fame. Fat Boy Slim/ Norman Cook sampled the intro to Acid Test for this track Build It Up - Tear It Down. It seems fitting that a Mueller record should be sampled.

Here are the priceless linear notes: "Alex Boggs is a young man "with hair down to his knees" (as the man said), that sings and plays a wailing guitar under the name, The Purple Fox.  His sidemen: Bob Gray, bass, and drummer: Raff Witkin: both came up from New Orleans to join The Fox in St. Louis about a month after Jimi Hendrix's untimely death.  Their understanding of the Hendrix idiom is uncanny.  Their drive and the Fox's blues inflections could possibly fill the void left by Jimi." Or maybe not.

The Purple Fox must have been pretty successful because in Germany someone called Jeff Cooper and his band the Stoned Wings came out with this.

 But wait a minute! Look at the track listing. Acid Test (a track name that appears on numerous Miller/Sherman exploito records), Patch of Grass, Git Some, Gittin' Busted and Requiem for Jimi appear on both records - as does the Jimi track Fire.

There are some other originals, Blues for Jimi

Having typically squeezed two records out of the sessions that produced the originals the same tracks continue to pop up in the most unlikely of places.

Bluesy hard rock, or Motown, or Soul??? Perhaps none of the above.

Some rather lame Motown covers find themselves rubbing shoulders with three tracks (Talkin Trash, Road's End and Steve Says) from the Purple Fox/ Jeff Cooper sessions. Dianne and the New Worlds was put out on the Stereo Gold Awards label in 1971. Stereo Gold of course was Mueller's UK exploito label.

Looks like a Gladys Knight record - but of course its just a covers record.

For some reason there weren't enough Knight covers to fill the paltry 40 minute record so something else was added. You guessed it, two of our ex-Hendrix tribute tracks, Talkin' Trash and Road's End.

This time attributed to Funky Junction who were also supposed to be behind a Deep Purple tribute record which if you find I suggest you leave it behind!

But who was behind these records. It has been suggested that it was the same people behind at least one of these beauties.

The first is better than the second, which is not saying very much, however, the guitar work does sound very similar. 

The model for both sleeves appears in a number of other easy/exploito/Top of the Pops record sleeves from that era but I don't know her name.

I have read somewhere online that the Purple Fox is actually the Chicago-based Christian  band the Exkursions.

 Well they do sound quite Hendrix-y but then so did lots of other bands.

Its not impossible, although the singer is definitely not the Purple Fox. However, it seems highly unlikely.

I am sure that there were any number of bands and musicians in Europe who would have jumped at the chance to make a few pounds or deutchemarks and knock out a few dodgy tracks one day.

Finally, just in case you thought that this was in any way an exhaustive trip through Hendrixploitation here is a copy of a Canadian Hendrixploitation attempt. Purely covers of the man's songs, some better than others, none great. I love the cover though. There are literally hundred of these kinds of records, just as there are hundreds of Beatles cash-ins. Which are you favourites?

Exploito # 6 - The Haircuts and the Impossibles - Call It Soul!

Recognise those happy frugging girls? Its the same cover shot as the Mustang Freakout but with the Mustang cropped out. They're still having a far out time though.
Kicking off with a cover of the Beatles Why Don't We Do in in the Road (uncredited of course) the Haircuts, or is it the Impossibles get off to a good start.
I would guess that this was Miller and Sherman's attempt to tap into the Beatles market. After all, what did people know about the Beatles? They had funny haircuts!!!!
The guitar playing on the second song Bun Buster sounds familiar - could it be Jerry Cole?
And then we get to Sock It My Way, which thankfully is the Animated Egg. Its such a good song - slightly weird and freaked out, slightly slow and menacing, the shimmering guitar refrain is pure class and the tightly coiled, aching lead seems to be imitating an evil snake and it coils and darts at us. Brrrrrr!
Wilson Otis and Aretha however, is Paul Griffin which is the same song as Joshua Got Busted on the Mustang Freakout record. It sounds too much like 'I'd Rather Be A Hammer than a Nail' to me.
Billy Blues is a fun sax led thing. Its taken from yet another exploit record, Guitars a Go Go, which was yet again done by Cole but before psychedelic music became popular. I'm sure that I'll get round to Cole's pre-Animated Egg/Id output.
Over on the B Side Cherry Pie is not another Beatles cover, unfortunately but a very lame slow organ dance thing with some truly awful singing.
Down the Road Apiece is another weak song but I'm fairly sure its Cole in an earlier guise.
Luckily its followed by more Animated Egg - Inside Looking Out. This version though seems to have been recorded in a well. Its full of very odd sounding and strange echo. Perhaps Miller and Sherman had their engineers play around with it. Or more likely it was just another take on the song - why spend money on anything.
Next comes more Paul Griffin on Frankie and Johnny which was one of his 'hits' of 1968 - or indeed on his Dance to Swinging Organ LP from 1964.
And finally yet more Animated Egg on Down Down and Gone. Perhaps not the best Animated Egg track but still a fuzzy piece of danceable fun.
Its time to say goodbye to Paul Griffin aka the Mustang. But don't worry exploito psych lovers - next time we're going to get into T Swift and the Electric Bag.

Exploito-psych # 4- The Generation Gap - Up Up and Away

I like this cover. There's something very strange about a girl's face in a psychedelic apple!
If you've ever wondered what Up Up and Away would have sounded like if it was sung by one person instead of The Free Design and then that person's voice was multi-tracked in a poor attempt to make him sound like a vocal group - then this is the record for you!
I'd hazard a guess that the voice belongs to Cole - it sounds very like his.
For the most part the vocal numbers are pretty disposable.
Once you've got over the horrors of the title track we are subjected to I'm A Man (sadly not the Howlin Wolf classic) and a rather strange, slightly country song called Make Up Powder and Paint.
So far so not very psych!
But then we get Lisa. Amazingly, for an exploitation record, this sounds like an original vocal song. And even more unusual its quite good with some very fine guitar work and a plaintive, hazy vocal. It's not impossible that this an out-take of the Id sessions.
I also like the next track, High On Love. Of course, this is in the context of this kind of record. We're not talking about an undiscovered popsike gem. Just a slightly catchy song.
Over on side 2 is where the Animated Egg/Id action is. Don't hang around on Woman of Mine but head straight to Hard Times (I Said She Said A Cid from the Animated Egg), Strange Shadows (Sure Listic from Animated Egg) and Fool's Luck (Our Man Hendrix from the Id out-takes).
The ex-Animated Egg tracks have lost the phasing and other effects that have been layered all over that record - they sound rawer and slightly more aggressive.
Then in true exploitation style the record concludes with an absolutely dire vocal number. But you got three great fuzz instrumentals - what more do you want?

Exploito psych #3 The Projection Company - Give Me Some Lovin'

 So what do we have here?

What a moody cover. I'm glad I never saw her what I was tripping!!!!

But its still kinda cool - don't you think?

And it sounds just like that Animated Egg record. Is that because some of the tracks are from the Id sessions?

No, its because ALL of the tracks are Jerry Cole Id/ Animated Egg songs. Some of them you know from the earlier records. But Kimeaa is a true stoned cold freaked out classic. Unless of course you've heard any 60s psych in which case it sounds like just what it is - a pastiche of psychedelic sounds.

But that's ok with me because I love the fake sounds.

The instrumental verion of Boil the Kettle Mother is the highlight - shorn of all the cod-Freudian babble its a fuzz monster of a track.

Exploito psych #2 - 101 Strings - Astro Sounds Beyond the Year 2000

I've never been clear why this record seemed like a good idea at the time.
I mean, here you are running Crown and later Alshire, both cheap exploitation record companies and you get your hands of the original masters on some great west coast psych by Jerry Cole, intended for the Id album but never released.
So you do the obvious thing and put it out on record and give it a stupid 'hippy' name - the Animated Egg.
But what weird chain of thought do you go through that leads you to think that you can add strings, give it a space age feel and sell it to middle American 101 Strings buyers? Maybe they thought that times had moved on and people were ready for something different.
Well, something different was exactly what they got.
All of the Animated Egg tracks appear here - just with different names. Overdubbed on each one are some, frankly, freaky string arrangements. Amazingly it works!
In my opinion Astro Sounds is a better record than either the Inner Sounds of the Id or the Animated Egg.
Maybe those wacky guys in charge of Alshire Records did know what they were doing!

The spirit of the age was obviously catching, because in the same year Alshire released 101 Strings - Sounds of Today.
Although it has nothing to do with the Animated Egg it does have some great covers and some very good originals (Stone Baroque, Karma Sitar, Blues for the Guru and Strings for Ravi) by Monty Kelly who would arrange most of the best 101 Strings records in the sixties. These tracks would reappear on a number of other records - some of which we will meet in later posts!
I love this record. I love the wildly over the top covers of MOR standards. The imaginative mix of strings and small 'pop' group sounds. It a great record all the way through.

Exploito-psych #1 The Id and The Animated Egg

The Animated Egg - S/T
The Id - The Inner Sounds of the Id

Picture the scene. Perhaps we are in Utah, or in Dorset or maybe in Cologne. A teenage boy is in a supermarket with his mother. There by the cash register is a display of records. Light orchestral stuff in the main or Beer Drinking Songs or Polka Hits. Suddenly his attention is drawn to one of the records. It has a young woman on the front in bright clothes, even better she has large breasts. It looks as though it might be 'cool' and somehow connected to that psychedelic stuff that the boy has heard so much about but which seems so far away. Even better it is so cheap that his mother is happy to buy it for him. When he finally gets it on the turntable, does it deliver on its promises of wild unfettered drug-addled freakiness? What do you think?

Welcome to the world of exploito-psych records.

As the counter-culture became increasingly prominent business minds of all types came up with ways to turn it into profit. As most of these minds had no intention of being 'turned-on' the products they produced bore little, if any, relation to what was really happening. Films like Mary Jane, Psych-Out, Teenage Rebellion or Wild in the Streets were reflections of how male middle aged, middle-America saw the counter-culture.

The same was true in music. Records were produced that tried to be hip and weird and inadvertently some were very good. However, you were just as likely to find a re-titled surf tune, or a soul tune lifted from an earlier exploitation record or perhaps a rock and roll number. Or you may just find that it was the same tune that you had already heard on a previous exploito record.

The story of Jerry Cole and the production of the Animated Egg is well known.Click here

And so is the story of DL. Miller and Al Sherman. Click here and here

Jerry Cole worked on a number of Rock/Surf/Hot Rod albums for the Bihari brother's Crown label in the early sixties. Although these were often produced in the space of a few days all of them contain some real nuggets of pure adrenalin fueled instrumental guitar action. Perhaps not as wild as Davie Allan's stuff a few years later but great stuff nontheless. Although he was a successful session guitarist Cole continued producing records for budget labels until the end of the sixties.
By 1967 he decided to break away from session work and move into a 'real' band.
Together with some of his friends who were also session musicians he formed the Id.

The Id never really clicked with the record buying public. However, their manager did a runner with the season tapes. Outtakes from the Id recording then went on to become the Animated Egg.

You can only imagine the look on the faces of Miller and Sherman when they were given the opportunity to put out some genuinely great music. Not so much an Animated Egg but a golden egg. The Id outtakes that appear on this record have been eq-ed within an inch of their lives and sound all the better for it.
So much did Miller and Sherman love this record that they released it in the UK on the Marble Arch label, in the US on their Crown Label and in Europe on Europa.
Plus they re-edited, repackaged and generally played around with the songs so as to squeeze the most out of them. Over an irregular number of posts, we will be following what happened to these songs, where they appeared and how they were changed. And we might also have a few digressions into other exploito records and some exploito sleeves that sufered the same recycling fate.