DAVIE ALLAN - FUZZBUSTIN'

The surf scene in California started the careers of many musicians who would go on to be mainstays of rock, jazz and pop music. Lee Hazlewood, Jerry Cole, Emil Richards, Phil Spector, Jack Nietzsche, Glenn Campbell, Carol Kaye, Tommy Tedesco, Hal Blaine and many others came out of the surf music scene. One of the strangest collaborations was between aspiring producer and label owner, Mike Curb and a young adventurous guitar player called Davie Allan. Never really part of the mainstream, Davie Allan nonetheless produced some of the toughest wildest music ever to have come from surf - that is until Klaus Fluoride of the Dead Kennedys!
Allan is most famous for his work on a number of budget biker flicks. His unique fuzz guitar sound seemed to perfectly emulate the sound of an angry Harley and his wild, almost psych, approach to music seemed to encapsulate the growing counter culture in California. That he was a very straight guy with no personal experience of bikes or drugs doesn't seem to matter. As well as the biker films Allan also provided music to any number of drugs, teen, violent, mondo films
The story of Curb and Allan's work together is usually portrayed as one of typical record company exploitation. It's alleged that Curb took writing credit for many of the tracks that Allan played on, forced Allan to play on many of the releases on his Sidewalk and Tower labels and mismanaged Allan's solo career. It doesn't help that after Allan and Curb stopped working together, Curb went on put out ever poorer quality records usually by the eponymous Mike Curb Congregation, became an executive for a 'proper' record label, MGM, where, having got religion her persuaded them to drop any artists whose drug use he disapproved of and then finally he got into politics as a Republican.
However, although the relationship between Curb and Allan was not equal, I don't see it as being any more unequal than many other producer/artist relationships. Curb genuinely did write a lot of the material that Allan recorded and Allan has even said as much. As for the accusation that Allan was forced to work on too many sessions and record too many terrible song, Los Angeles was full of session musicians looking for work and who were prepared to play any gig as long as it paid. The list above shows how many brilliant musicians there were who also appear in some surprising and not always very good musical places.
Having said all that it is Allan's playing that stands out and long after Curb is forgotten it is Allan's signature fuzz guitar sound that will live on.
Follow me through the Davie Allan story on vinyl. As ever there are some omissions and I will aim to fill these in as soon as I come across the necessary records!

Curb and Allan were in the same choir and when Curb's ambitions led him to Mercury he took Allan with him. Finally he was taken on as a producer and worked alongside surf producer extraordinaire Gary Usher. He used many of Usher's techniques on his motorcycle records, including the recycling of tracks and the tendency to include one or two great songs and lots of filler. West Coast Action Sounds - Go Go With the Buddies is the second Mercury motorcycle record he produced and already it contains a number of tracks lifted of his earlier Buddies and Compacts record! Covering just about every Californian fad from bikes, to cars, to skate boards to skiing this is a nice but not exactly adventurous record. Allan had yet to fully explore the possibilities of fuzz and while there are some hints his playing is very much in the Dick Dale mould. Good, but don't loose any sleep if you haven't got a copy!

Allan and the Arrow's first album is a little cracker. Skip over their version of the Shadow's Apache and head straight to Tee Pee to get a full blast of their sound. Driving, fast paced, relentless surf with pounding drums and a catchy piano lick, its a great tune. A harmonica makes an appearance in Twine Time and to close the first side we get the great Rebel (Without a Cause). Side two is dominated by Scratchy. A great slab of Duane Eddy inspired guitar instrumental with a hint of the fuzz that would make Allan's name. The LP closes with Comanche (after Apache - geddit?) and a great end it is too.

Allan would explore the fuzz further on his next record and first soundtrack, Skaterdater. Released on the Mira label and featuring Al Casey on guitar, Larry Brown on drums and Joe Osbourne on bass, this is the soundtrack to a short film about LA teenage skateboarders. The film was quite successful as you can see from the record cover!
However, in the main it's still basically coming from the world of surf music. Producers had been trying to find other pursuits to replace surfing that would continue the music and take it beyond the West Coast. So there were hot rod records, motorcycle records, power boat records, skiing records, and skateboarding records. However, perhaps unintentionally it lay the foundations for the rest Allan's career.

 Before leaving Mira Allan was session guitarist on this frankly bewildering record.
Without doubt the campest record in my collection, Teddy and Darrel take out most of the double in double entendre and leave you in no doubt that they are singing (if you can call it that) about sex.
Lisping and simpering in a completely stereotypical way the duo fly very close to the bone for a record released in 1966. Someone must have thought that there was a market for these camp covers or else why would they record These Are The Hits You Silly Savage? You should listen to These Are The Hits as, for no other reason, it will make you completely reasse Hold On I'm Comin! As far as Allan in concerned there is nothing in the way of fuzz guitar and so don't get it if you want something tough!!

Luckily for history exploito film producer Roger Corman liked the fuzz he heard in Skaterdater and decided that it was what he needed for his forthcoming biker flick Wild Angels (what kind of movie might he have made if he'd heard Teddy and Darrel!).
The Wild Angels created a template that Allan would follow for much of his soundtrack work. There was a theme, The Theme From the Wild Angel, a freakout track, an absolute powerhouse of crazed fuzz, in this case the justly famous Blues Theme and some filler - no one needs to hear the Hands of Time's Lonely in the Chapel. Although some of the tracks are credited to Davie Allan and the Arrows, Allan and his Arrow cohorts played on every track and the bands credited were entirely fictional. Curb obviously liked to make it seem that he was in charge of a larger roster of acts when in fact other than Allan there were few others.

So successful was The Wild Angels and Blue Theme was such a runaway hit that Curb hurriedly got Allan and the Arrows back into the studio to knock out a follow up.
The Wild Angels Vol. II runs to just under twenty minutes and is nothing more than a retread of material on the original record.
However, Dark Alley and The Last Ride come to the rescue and save what might otherwise have been a pretty desperate record.
Allan's fuzz sound is now very much to the fore which is a good thing.

 But Allan and Curb won't only working on biker soundtracks. Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs was a kind of James Bond meets Gidget movie staring Vincent Price and Fabian. There is even a sequel of sorts Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine.
The soundtrack includes Curb stalwarts, Terry Stafford, Guy Hemeric, Harley Hatcher and Davie Allan.
If you listen closely you can hear him playing on the Candles track This I Say.
Overall I like this record more that I should. Its stupid and lightweight and generally pointless. Or perhaps those are reasons that I should like it? I'm particularly partial to the Mad Doctors tracks for some reason!

Riot on Sunset Strip is justly a classic soundtrack if not a classic movie. Using real band, The Standells and the Chocolate Watch Band there is a real garage punk feel to this record. It might really be music that kids listened to rather than music that record and film company executives thought they listened to! However, Curb, as he was the producer, couldn't help but add some of his own bands. So we get the forgettable Debra Travis, Drew, The Mugwumps and The Mom's Boys. There was also the Sidewalk Sounds, really Davie Allan and the Arrows. Allan also played on Mugwumps and Mom's Boys tracks. None of these stand up to the fuzz of the earlier biker soundtracks unfortunately.

 Meanwhile Curb agreed with Corman that Allan would provide the soundtrack for Corman's next biker film Devil's Angels.
Curb pulled out all the stops and teamed Allan with Wrecking Crew stalwarts Carol Kaye, Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel and Jerry Styner.
My God but its a killer group! Fuzz monsters such as The Devils Rumble, The Ghost Story and Devil's Angels are just too mean and hard to keep within the grooves of a record. They demand to be let loose to go screaming down the road, raising hell, taking bad drugs, and sleeping with your wife. If you have to get one Allan biker soundtrack it must be this one. Sure there is the usual filler, a bongo theme and a strange carnival track but the good tracks are just too good to miss.

Taking a small break from relentless soundtracks, Allan and the Arrows next appeared on Sidewalk's Freakout USA LP.
Anyone familiar with exploito psych records will immediately see this for what it is - a plastic trip of the first order!
Curb 'bands' the Hands of Time, the Mom's Boys and The Mugwumps reappear for this cash-in. They are joined by other 'groups' The Aftermath, International Theatre Foundation, The Glass Family and Everybody's Children.
I'm pretty sure its Allan on the Hands of Time (I Like the Way You Freakout and Psychotic Reaction), the Mom's Boys (Yellow Pill and Up and Down) and the Mugwumps (Season of the Witch). Most likely its him on the other tracks too!
As it says on the back "..you can rest assured that you'll fall down and pass out screaming with the Psychotic Reaction sounds of today's frenzied Freakouts - USA". Of course! Pick it up for fun. If you look closely at the photo of my copy you'll see that someone has added transfers of old cars to the cover - in my mind that just makes it even more of a freakout!

Thunder Alley was a vehicle (geddit?) for Fabian and Annette Funicello after the surf movie fad had run its course it was similar to Elvis's racing movies, Spinout and Speedway.
The soundtrack boldly announced that it was introducing the Band With No Name and includes on the reverse a picture of some likely looking lads in 'mod' attire. In fact not only did the band have no name it wasn't even a real band. It was really just Davie Allan and the Arrows in disguise. And so was the Sidewalk Sounds who we last saw on the Riot on Sunset Strip soundtrack and who we will see later.
As for the music, all the Band With No Name and the Sidewalk Sounds contributions have Allan's twangy fuzz guitar in full effect. My favourite is the Theme From Thunder Alley which closes the record but Calahan's Vision is also very fine. Pete's Orgy wins the prize for best title even through the song itself is only about 30 seconds long!

 Isn't this one of the best record covers you've ever seen? Very cool. Teenage Rebellion was a mondo movie purporting to show the 'real' life of teenagers. And in case you are in any doubt the track titles tell you what these kids are up to. Orgy Around the World, The French Kiss, Pot Party, The Call Girl and The Gay Teenager (perhaps Teddy and Darrel?). Oh to have been a teenager in the 60s when it was all sex and drugs. When I was a teenager I would have killed for sex or drugs, but that's a different story.
There are no bands credited on the record but there can be no doubt that its Allan behind the opener Teenage Rebellion, The Young World  (an early version of Action on the Streets) Make Love Not War and Pot Party. Only Allan could produce that deep down dirty fuzz sound. I'd guess that the slightly surf inflected other tracks feature our man as well. Special mention must be made for Pot Party. Over a Duane Eddy like background a super serious voice over warns/titillates the listener about the drug problem. "If marijuana is the appetiser the advent of the space age technology has provided the main course - LSD, the crazy acid!" Of course.
I also have a soft spot for A Young Girls Mistake which is a crazy moog track that could be straight off a JJ Perrey library record.

Gypsy Boots was a LA character who was into nature and the ecology before it was hip. A friend of Eden Ahbez who wrote Nature Boy, Gypsy Boots had his own health food store and appeared numerous times on Steve Allen's TV show.
With long hair a beard he look positively bizarre in the late 50 and early 60s. Now he wouldn't make anyone look twice.
I've no idea who was the brains behind this record. Boots can't really sing but shouldn't have been a problem. The real problem is that the songs are terrible and the music is appalling. My advice to you is not to buy this record.

Now we're talking! Packed with mosrite monster fuzz action Blues Theme is all killer and no filler. Every track is a perfectly delivered slice of guitar instrumental mind warp. However, in 1967 no one was interested in this kind of music. The cash-in movies that Allan provided soundtracks for were a better indication of where the kids' minds were and unfortunately for him they were no longer at the beach.
The record starts with the Arrows most famous cut, Blues Theme and also includes Theme from the Wild Angels. Theme from the Unknown and Sorry 'bout That are all recycled from elsewhere. But as they are amazing examples of surf guitar shredded by fuzz its not a problem.
Action on the Streets is a particularly wild and crazed piece of music that could only have more fuzz if the vinyl grew a beard. It has to be heard to be believed. Their take on the Thunderball Theme is also pretty damn fine too.
I can't tell you how great this record is, you'll just have to go out and buy a copy and find out for yourselves!

Mondo Hollywood was a similar kind of film to Teenage Rebellion. A 'documentary' the supposedly revealed the strange side of LA it included our friend Gypsy Boots.
Thankfully he didn't contribute to the record but some other familiar names crop up. Remember Teddy and Darrel and The Mugwumps? It also has the first appearance of the 18th Century Concepts, a band for whom Curb would produce a number albums.
Allan only contributed Moonfire, a typically fuzzed out excursion into the freakiest areas of guitar action.
I suspect that he is also on all the other tracks but who knows?
Great cover, don't you think?

Another great record cover.
Using their Sidewalk Sounds alias, Allan and the Arrows fourth biker soundtrack could have built on the strengths of Devil's Angels.
Instead someone at Tower/Sidewalk though that the way to go was Mariachi Brass. Not so much fuzz as brass!
There are some moments of relied, notably The Loser's Bar and Gangrene's Fight but its too little too late.
By now Allan had been working on so many records, soundtracks, sessions and his own records, that perhaps the quality control had gone a little awry? Or maybe Bob Summers, who produced the record had cloth ears?

Cycle-delic Sounds - the title says it all. If you are reading this you should stop right now and go and track down a copy of this record. It is without doubt one of the greatest instrumental records ever produced and it takes the surf-based format and injects about as much fuzz as anyone before or since has injected into any music.
There are three tracks from biker movies - Cody's Theme and Devil's Angels from the Devil's Angels soundtrack and Born Loser's Theme from the Born Losers.
The rest are all originals and are incredible. The record opens with what is Davie Allan's greatest moment. A seven minute trip into the unknown and back again. Layers and layers of distorted and crunched guitars attack the music as though life itself depended on it. Screaming from every side, Allan's guitar sounds like it is blazing off to another planet and is taking you along for the ride. It weaves in and out, builds up, comes back down only to build up once again.Its a howling fuzz monster that you need to hear - now!
After that the other tracks seem almost polite in comparison. But they aren't. Invasion, Blue's Trip, 13th Harley, Another Cycle in Detroit and Grogg's Hog tear through your ears like bats out of hell. Rough, raw and fierce they are the sounds of surf put through a blender and reconfigured as a new musical creature.  The record closes with Mind Transferal which features backwards vocals and even backwards drums!
If you have any taste at all you will love this remarkable and unique record.
Oh, and isn't the cover cool?

After reaching such a pinnacle of fuzzed out mayhem what else was there to do but record another biker soundtrack? Credited to the Sidewalk Sounds and Eddie and the Stompers the music on this record keeps up the tremolo/fuzz pace of its predecessors.
The main action is at the Stompers and the Souls and the Glory Stompers.
As usual there is a fair share of filler but you've come to expect that by now haven't you?
Apparently some of the music on here was originally intended for another Corman classic The Trip but the Electric Flag got that gig instead!

I wonder what a film called Mary Jane could be about???
Staring Fabian and Diane McBain its a rather disappointing dangers of drugs film. Its not as good as Psych Out.
The soundtrack on the other hand is very good. Grogs Hog gets recycled as Bay City Boys but the rest of the music is original. You'll have to skip over the Mary Jane Theme twice. Once by Mike Clifford was bad enough but to have it again sung by Mrs Miller is too much for anyone to take.
There's no mental fuzz action but that's ok because its a largely percussion lead affair.
Standout is Gas Hassle.

Fabian was, again, the star of the next Allan soundtrack record - Wild Racers.
Its largely a snooze-fest despite the Arrow's involvement, again sometimes credited as the Sidewalk Sounds.
The Wild Racer's Theme raises a little interest but overall its not a very interesting record.
Possibly the most interesting thing about my copy is that its from Canada!

Wild in the Streets is a pretty groovy movie starring Christopher Jones, Shelley Winters and Richard Pryor.
Allan's fuzz doesn't feature much on this record although it does have its moments, most notably Psychedelic Senate which has some groovy sitars. The music was composed by exotica god Les Baxter or Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill.
Mos of the tracks are credited to the 13th Power which I suspect is really another Curb non-band and is actually Allan and his Arrows.
Allan and the Arrows also recorded their own version of the soundtrack which was released at the same time. I haven't tracked a copy down yet but as soon as I have I'll add it in.

Another spin off from the movie soundtrack was this record which included the tracks Shape of Things to Come and Fifty Two Per Cent from the movie.
Its actually not a bad record and has some fine moments. I particularly like Captain Hassel and Shine It On as well as the two movie tracks.
I don't think its Allan, there is certainly none of his trademark guitar sounds on it.
Does anyone out there know who Max Frost and the Troopers were?

The next biker movie that Allan would work on was the Hellcats.
As you can probably tell from the cover it was about female bikers.
Just as the momentum was going out of biker films so it was going out of Davie Allan and the Arrows. The title track is another fuzzed out stormer but is it just me or by now hasn't Allan done about all there was to do with this sound? Its not a bad track it just isn't very inspired.

Allan would play on a few further biker soundtracks. Wild Wheels pitted beach buggies (good) against bikers (bad).
The music is a bit of a disappointment although it does have Allan singing on Makin' Love which is a re-recorded version of the Arrows' Makin Love Is Fun.
Its credited to the 13th Committee - possibly related to the 13th Power from Wild in the Streets?

Allan also contributed a very surf sounding track to another biker movie The Hard Ride.
Its a lovely song but has absolutely no fuzz at all.



Allan would also play on a surfing movie called the Golden Breed. I've yet to track down an original copy I can afford but when I do I'll include it here.







In 1969 Curb would sell of Sidewalk Productions for $2 million and go and work at MGM. Allan found that the work simply dried up and disappeared. tI wouldn't be until the 80s that he recorded under his own name but it is for his incredible body of work in the late 60s that he will be best remembered.

If music be the food of love * - Cleopatra Goes Jazz

1963 was the year of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Cleopatra. The epic movie won four Oscars, not however, for the soundtrack which, although nominated lost out to the music for Tom Jones - remember that one (nor me)?
But nothing could stop the juggernaut of Cleopatra and Alex North's music found itself covered by such easy listening stalwarts as Al Caiola, Ferrante and Teicher and Dick Hayman.North had already scored the  sword and sand epic Spartacus and Yusef Lateef had taken the Love Theme and made it an achingly beautiful jazz classic. Read about it here
Not only did Burton and Taylor sizzle on screen, their real life romance obvious to the millions who saw them, but the story of love against the odds, of passion and, lets face it, exotic sexual lust, was irresistible.
Who couldn't fall for it? Who could jump on the bandwagon?
In jazz, as in all other genres of music, a movement cannot be allowed to pass by in case it can bring you to the attention of more people. Hence the fad for producing records of jazzed up Broadway musicals, or doing James Bond knock-offs and exotica cross-overs. If millions liked the movie, maybe they'll buy a jazz records related to it?
Three Cleopatra themed jazz records made it into the shops and each would take a slightly different approach to turning the epic movie into a piece of jazz history.

Cleopatra represented something more than a sexy screen idol. She was exotic and sensual but not just in the way of any number of record covers that showed exotic ladies in states of undress, or North African belly dancers and concubines, or wild Cuban or Haitian female dancers. Cleopatra was a world famous beauty as well as a Queen. She was a perfect combination of beauty and brains - but because she was from Egypt and an historical figure she could be depicted wearing titillating clothes!
And although she was played by the very British Elizabeth Taylor, the real Cleopatra was, of course from Egypt. In 1963 there was an ever growing awareness amongst black Americans that the history of the world was not necessarily the same as the history of white Europeans. Egypt was part of the African continent and therefore part of the original homeland of many who were starting to question their white-American-determined roots and heritage. Of course none of this is visible in the movie, nor in the music. However, it is worth noting Sun Ra's Egyptian obsession, Wayne Shorter's Black Nile and Jackie McLean's On the Nile as instances of the jazz world taking notice of Egypt.
The first to give it a go was Paul Gonsalves.

Gonsalves for some reason didn't take full advantage of the opportunity to have a picture of Liz Taylor on the front of his record and instead opted for a picture of himself in from of a stone, carved coffin. No accounting for taste!
A very solid effort on Impulse, Cleopatra, Feelin Jazzy sees the ex-Ellingtonian teamed up with a crack group consisting of Hank Jones, Dick Hyman, George Duvivier, Kenny Burrell and Roy Haynes. Even I could make a great record with these guys helping! However, despite the all star cast its the least adventurous of the three records.
Gonsalves acquits himself magnificently throughout, his tone and phrasing are impeccable. They cover two tracks from the original soundtrack, Caesar and Cleopatra Theme and Anthony and Cleopatra Theme. After that they are free to let rip.
However, although the original compositions (and Ellington's Action in Alexandria) are all given titles that relate to the movie - Blues for Liz, Cleo's Blues, Cleo's Asp and Cleopatra's Lament, the music itself has no hint of Egypt, Africa, exotica or anything other than an American swinging hard bop. Its all very nice but not great. There is little that is either exotic, or indeed particularly spectacular about Cleopatra Feelin Jazzy. It a good sold listen but once the needle leaves the record the music quickly fades.

Next up is another Paul - Paul Horn and he is fielding a more West Coast team than Gonsalves. This Paul called up some mates, Emil Richards, Larry Bunker who would later play with him on his Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts (read about it here) as well as some other experienced studio musicians such as Brit expat, Victor Feldman, Chuck Israels and Colin Bailey.
They also used this opportunity to have a very suggestive picture of Liz Taylor on the cover. As you can see she fixes you with a direct stare before your eyes are dragged down over the amazing necklace and shimmering gown.
Horn and co did not bring any original material to this record but their interpretations of Alex North's music is so original that I don't think that matters.
Horn's soaring flute work is given an even more exotic backdrop by Richards' vibes and Bunker's percussion work and although it is uncredited Horn also plays the melodia on some tracks. Taken together this makes this a very enjoyable and satisfying record. It mixes just the right amounts of exotica and jazz to make it interesting throughout. Compared to the massive orchestration of the original, Horn's record sound refreshingly clear and fresh.
There is nothing remotely North African or indeed Egyptian or even Arabian about this music. It owes its exotic nature as much to the movie's depiction of Cleopatra as to any knowledge of music beyond the borders of the United States.
Having said all of that, this is one of my favourite Horn records and although it takes Alex North's music as its starting point it is, in my view, has very much its own character. Of course, Horn and Richards would go on to make more 'authentic' records later in the decade.

So, finally, on to the wild card in the pack.. What is this all about?
The Music of Cleopatra on the Nile was released on the small Mount Vernon Music label based in New York.
There is exactly no information on either the sleeve or the label as to who was behind this record. No musicians listed, no producer credited, no writer acknowledged. It seems to have come out of nowhere.
And the music, I hear you ask? Well the it is an amazing amalgam of jazz, of what to my ears sounds like Eastern European clarinet - almost klezmer in places, an instrument that sound like an oud (read about Ahmed Abdul Malik and his fusion of oud and jazz here), and some great percussion of bells, gongs and hand drums. It sounds like music from North Africa rather than music from America - or more precisely it sounds like music played by musicians who were familiar with music outside of jazz but familiar with jazz as well. Particular highlights for me are Passionate and Exotica, both of which provide a great danceable mix of styles. Dance of the Perfumed Veils is strangely hypnotic and alluring.
Who made this music? There is some speculation on the web that Sun Ra had a hand in it. I'm afraid that I just can't hear that. I know he made the Batman and Robin record but this just doesn't sound like anything by Sun Ra I've ever heard.
I like the fact that we may never know who was behind this. It just means that there is nothing to distract you from the music. Unless its the busty drawing of our Liz on the front cover!
Track this one down. Its an obscure joy.

Or click here to go to the whole album


* Yes I know this is from Twelth Night - so sue me!

BLAXPLOITATION EXPLOITATION

I have a confession to make. I don't really like Shaft very much. I know he's a tough black dude who doesn't take any shit from anyone - not even the white police. I know he's a love god who is about as much of an alpha male as its possible to be. In the world of Shaft there are only three kinds of people - friends (not many of those), enemies (who deserve to be thrown out of a window with out any remorse) and women (who all want to sleep with him). He's as unlikeable as James Bond, but crucially, he has much funkier music.
Issac Hayes' soundtrack to Shaft is a phenomenon and if nothing comes up to the brilliance of the Theme from Shaft then, to be fair, not much else does. Its a ground breaking song which seems to distill the essence of Shaft but also to embody the swagger and confidence of a new black American sensibility. Shaft may have been a caricature but he was one that struck a chord with a lot of black men in the US.
Although Shaft was not the first US movie that had a powerful black lead, was set in the contemporary world and was set in the criminal underworld (the honour goes to the amazing Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song) it was the  most popular.
Hayes' Theme to Shaft would go on to be covered by just about everyone in just about every style. From Horst Jankowiski, to the Ventures to Decimo's disco version and even Sammy Davis Jr's crack at it, everyone with a wah wah peddle had a crack at it.
The record was such a success that all the following Blaxploitation movies tried their hand at hit soundtracks - often without success.
However, in the US, soundtrack records to b-movies had been released since the 1950s. Nothing was going to change for this new genre.
What was slightly different was that, the popularity of the Bond movies, and Morricone's music to the Leone westerns, had shifted the focus from b-movies with b-grade soundtracks (albeit with some unintentional moments of genius) to the creation of a demand from the record buying public to own the themes to popular movies, but without the hassle of owning the whole soundtrack.
The UK in the late seventies saw a glut of movie and TV soundtrack records as big bands tried to stay relevant and hence stay alive. In the US there seems to have been more of a market for slightly different covers of movie music. Anyone for mariachi, or rockabilly, or jazz takes on famous themes?
So we come to Blaxploitation covers records -  Blaxploitation exploitation.
By far and away the best is Cecil Holmes Soulful Sounds - The Black Motion Picture Experience.

Cecil Holmes was a veteran of any number of movie themed, big band cover records.
Here he stays close to the originals, albeit in a big funky band format.
It has one of the few themes from the movie Slaughter committed to vinyl, which for that alone, makes it work picking up.
The Soulful Sounds don't linger long but they manage to get through Across 110th Street, Slaughter, Ben (bit of a stretch that one I can't help feeling), Freddie's Dead, Superfly, Trouble Man, Shaft and Love Theme from Lady Sings the Blues - which although not the funkiest track seems the most imaginative.
As good as this it, however, it exemplifies two of the problems with covering themes from Blaxploitation movies. Not only are the originals much better and funkier, but, most crucially, most people won't have heard the originals. So you all own a copy of the Shaft soundtrack. But what about Slaughter and Across 110th Street and Trouble Man, and Superfly?

The unknown Superdudes have a crack at the same thing on their unimaginatively titled effort on Pickwick.
The music stays reasonably close to the originals, this time with vocals. Unfortunately the singer appears to have been recorded down a well and lets the band down somewhat. None more so that on their version of Slaughter (another 'rare' version). It sounds as though the singer is straining everything he has to be 'rough' and 'funky' and just about manages gruff.
They also go for some less obvious tracks, covering Booker T and the MGs' Time is Tight (competent), Symphony for Shafted Souls from Shaft's Big Score and Bumpy's Blues and Bumpy's Lament from Shaft. They just can't stay away from Superfly, Freddie's Dead and, of course, the Theme from Shaft!

Pickwick also released Soul Mann and the Brothers' Shaft record. Leaving aside the truely awful name (is it just me that thinks it sounds like the brainchild of some white record executive?) and the bizarre cover photo which has nothing to do with the movie, the really odd thing about this record is that it is just as good as the original. The cover versions are so like the original versions that sometimes, if you were doing something else, and weren't really thinking about what was on the turntable you might think that it WAS the Hayes' record.
Its not a bad record. Its just a rather uncessary one. But if you thought that one record that sounded like a carbon copy of the Shaft soundtrack was one too many - you were wrong!

In case you weren't able to get your hands on the original Issac Hayes double album or any of the subsequent slimmed down versions, and the US Pickwick version was difficult to track down in the UK you could get this record on Hallmark - a subsidiary of Pickwick.
Don't be fooled by the cover. The fighting men on the front may look just like the guys on the cover of the Pickwick record - and that's because they are the same.
Someone must have thought that Soul Mann was a really stupid name, and that Mack Browne was somehow more sensible. Still accompanied by the Brothers though!
In the modern music world its hard to imagine a situation where anyone would think that a good way to make money was to make a record that sounded just like a record that was already one of the best selling soundtracks of all time. If you can get the orginal, why would you go for Soul Mann, or Mack Browne??

The Generation Gap plays Theme from Shaft and Other Hits isn't really a Blaxploitation Exploitation record. They only cover the Theme From Shaft - the rest of the record are covers of other funky tracks.
More big band stuff with tough drums you should pick this up if you find it cheap - just don't pay any real money for it!
Clearly there weren't enough people buying these records to tempt people to produce many more of them.
If there had been this post would have been much longer (aren't you pleased?).

BIKER MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS - PART II

Welcome back after our brief intermission.
Hope you've had a chance to grab a beer, smoke a reefer and have some wild sex with a stranger you've just met in a bar.
Now its time to get back on your hog and back into the desert that is Hollywood biker movies.
We're going to take you to some pretty far-out places so better drop that acid now - you're gonna need it!

We're into 1969 and the biker craze is still going strong. However, while keeping the drinking, dangerous driving and rampant sex, most bikers are now the bad guys. No longer misunderstood misfits, by the end of the sixties, as the hippie dream started to fade with Altamont (real bikers no less!) and Manson (real sex mad crazies no less!) bikers are now out and out villains.

And what could make the point more starkly than this film?

A really nasty film in which bikers do little else other than rape and kill innocents, while riding through the desert this is probably as close to real exploitation this side of a snuff movie.
Starring, somewhat incredibly Russ Tamblyn from West Side Story this nasty piece of work was allegedly filmed at the Spahn Ranch in Simi Valley at the same time that the Manson Family were living there.
Its another soundtrack with a Mike Curb connection. This time yet another of his cohorts, Harley Hatcher is given the reins and he produces some of the lamest, softest, most pathetic music for any film, much less such a vicious and amoral biker movie.
The Nightriders are credited with some tracks, and Mr Hatcher takes credit for a few as well.
But it is the mysterious Paul Wibier who is the diamond in the rough here. His title theme is so preposterous that it tips over from parody into something truly dark and disturbing.

1969 also saw the release of Hell's Angels 69.
Renowned for starring Angels from the famous Oakland Chapter this film shows us that Sonny Barger, Terry the Tramp, Magoo, Winston and Preacher were better at being bad to the bone than they were at acting. My God, they were probably better at almost anything than acting!

The movie is a surreal mix of the bright lights of Las Vegas circa Fat Elvis and mean long-haired drug-addled Angels - two things that just shouldn't be put together.
The soundtrack by Tony Bruno is quite good.
As usual, I struggle to see Sonny and his mates putting in on the record player but if you like your music funky then there are a couple of cool tracks here.
The best of the bunch are Goofin and Chase of Death.
Needless to say the vocal numbers are very weak - including a track by the wonderfully named Stream of Consciousness.
One to pick up if you see it for cheap.
Here is Chase of Death - a great clip for the bike action as well:

A rather sad coda to the Arrow's involvement in Biker Movie Soundtracks - although not quiet the last fling for Davie Allan.
Its a rather sad shadow of the former Davie Allan glories - just as the film is more like Herschel Gordon Lewis's  She Devil's On Wheels than Wild Angels.
Davie produces an adequate title track and recycles an earlier tune as the Angry Mob.
After that its a very sedate affair.
It would be fun to imagine that Davy Jones and the Dolphins are somehow connected to the Monkees' Davy Jones. But alas no.
Somebody's Chyldren are best avoided.
The back of the sleeve advertises a novel based on the film. Would love to track down a copy!


Also released in 1969 was Run Angel Run.

My wife hates this cover!
The music is by the ever reliable Stu Philips so you can expect some goodies.

The Tammy Wynette title track,however, is confusing on so many levels that I can't really do it justice in words.
We have the usual made up band - this time the Windows
And as usual Phillips provides some slightly off-kilter interesting and funky tracks.
Its not quite what you would call THE funk but it makes for an interesting listen

The music for Wild Wheels is as confused as the movie itself. The film doesn't know if it wants to be a beach movie with dune buggies or a biker film.
The movie attempts an update of some of the beach movie cliches by adding some harder edged biker elements but never really gets away from those very cliches and, for me, remains too close to the beach side of things.
In some ways however, it does show the cross over from one form of exploitation movie to another and perhaps why surf type instrumental music was featured in so may biker films.
Harley Hatcher is again in charge and as usual turns in a very whitebread effort.
Terry Stafford also features and Carole Curb (a relation to Mike?) handles the linears.
There is a tune called Makin' Love which features an uncredited Davie Allan on guitar. It turns up on a number of earlier biker movies under other names but there's something about the innocence of the lyrics that tickles my fancy.

Back to some more hardcore biker fare with Naked Angels and one of the nastiest covers of any biker soundtrack - or possibly any soundtrack.
Jeff Simmons, who would later join the Mothers of Invention, together with Randy Sterling are responsible for this acid rock offering.
With loud drums over rock jams and dirty fuzzy guitars, this feels like the closest music to what bikers might actually listen to.
There's a loose feel to the music that epitomises the devil-may-care biker cliche.
And unlike many biker soundtracks its a pretty good listen all the way through

Angel Unchained was my first biker soundtrack which I picked up for cheap on the basis of the cover alone.
I should have read the linear notes first!
The music is by Randy Sparks (surely not his real name!) who according to  the notes composed to The Littlest Hobo, toured with Bob Hope and wrote for Disney and the Singing Nun. He also likes to sing about conservation and ecology. Oh dear!
And sure enough the music is soft enough to drip through the cracks in the pavement.
Let's just say that this one doesn't get on to the turntable much.

The Angels Die Hard soundtrack features a track by Fever Tree which seems to be why most people are interested in it.
The rest is largely taken up by a band called East-West Pipeline. Although I can't find anything about them they do sound like a real band and not a fictional group.
Their sound is west coast rock with some nice vocal harmonies.
There is also quite a fun version of Sly Stone's I Want to Take You Higher which is so bad is good.
The highlight for me is this track by Rabbit MacKay - again about whom I can find nothing
 

 

 CC & Company starred baseball player Joe Namath and Ann-Margret who is a long way from her Elvis days!

For reasons best known to himself, Lenny Stack (a name almost as good as Randy Sparks) chose to produce a big band funky soundtrack to a biker movie.
Sure he added some fuzzy guitar action but if you want some biker rock then look away now!
If however you have a fancy for orchestral funk then this is the record for you!

The wind was beginning to go out of the bike movie sales but the bandwagon had a little way to go before it completely ground to a halt.

Harley Hatcher is back for the Hard Ride and after his previous efforts you have to ask why.
The so-called smash single touted on the front is a sub-Tom Jones bash through the hymn that would embarrass a rural church choir.
As for the rest Harley turns in his usual soft and unremarkable work.
Davie Allan appears, again uncredited, on the Sounds of Harley track and this is the best of the bunch, again showing the links between surf exploitation and biker exploitation.

 The Outlaw Riders came out in 1971 and features music by Simon Stokes and the Nighthawks, apparently taken from his first album, although I've never heard it.
Stokes was a psych blues rock bandleader from LA and his music was actually listened to by bikers.
Its not hard to see why from these tracks. Anguished vocals, driving rhythm and searing guitars, these tracks are dirty and hard and are just what you think should be in a biker film.
Even the tracks that are not by Stokes are pretty good in a hard rocking kinda way.
Judging from the film stills on the back cover the movie was pretty dire but the album has a roughneck charm that I can't quite put my finger on. Good stuff!

A bit like the Sidehackers, On Any Sunday isn't really a biker movie, rather its a movie about people who ride bikes.
Anyway here it is - so sue me!
Funky big band action from Dominic Frontiere that is really great.
The movie, including Steve McQueen showing his Great Escape skills is supposedly a documentary.
The band features some of the LA Wrecking Crew, Larry Bunker, Emil Richards, Tommy Tedecso and Carole Kaye. Needless to say the band is tighter than a pair of concrete underpants.
Highly recommended.

We finish off with two horror biker cross-overs that have been resurrected by two of the best reissue labels in the world - Trunk Records and Finders Keepers.
Both are deep, heavy, Krautrock-esque, bass heavy monsters.
The films are stupid as hell but the music is serious. Track them down if you can.

There you have it. There are some great tracks on these records. Just don't go expecting a great play from begining to end!

There are some biker soundtracks that I haven't yet been able to lay my hands on, notably Cycle Savages and Stone. If/when I pick them up I'll add them in.

There are also loads of biker films that don't seem to have released their soundtracks such as The Mini Skirt Mob, the Black Angels, Devil Rider, Hell's Chosen Few, The Peacekiller, etc. etc.

I have deliberately not included Easy Rider as it is not a film about bikers but rather a film about hippies on bikes.

BIKER MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS - PART I

I've always had a strange fascination with biker movie soundtracks. Partly because most biker movies are terrible and the music is pretty terrible too.
What did bikers listen to? Whatever it was that was of no interest to the people who made the films or the music.
Most biker soundtracks are pure exploitation. Wrapped in the dangerous mystique of nihilistic outlaws the records promised wild unfettered angry music. Instead what was usually presented was very tame.
Rather like the soundtracks to other exploitation pictures of the day the music was supposed to evoke the feelings of being wild and carefree, of being young and dangerous, of having nothing to loose except your virginity!
However, these records cover a wide range of different musics - jazz, rock, funk, easy, country, surf - sometimes it seems as though anything was worthy of being in a biker film.
Biker soundtracks usually include a title theme which is often the most rocking track. They often have a theme for the main character, which is slower and intended to indicate that he is thoughtful and above the animalistic bikers. They have a theme for the lady of the film, a 'freak-out' track and, weirdly often something with a country element. This may have something to do with bikers being depicted as essentially modern cowboys.
The movies started with bikers as, basically, misunderstood individualists, existential heroes who just wanted to be left alone to do their own thing. However, by the end of the biker fad they had become wild, savage beasts who raped and murdered their way through any unsuspecting squares who were unlucky enough to meet them.

Follow me for a mad dash across the desert of biker soundtracks, picking up some of the best tracks along the way.
 
It all started with Marlon in the Wild One. To my mind one of the most improbable biker leaders ever, he definitely set the tone for the wilder sixties screen bikers.

For the soundtrack Leith Stevens was brought on board. Stevens had written soundtracks previously, although mainly in television.
It was his use of jazz that was the deciding factor in hiring him. In 1953, jazz was the baddest music around. Rock had yet to take over as outlaw music and jazz still had all the connotations of sex, drugs and even a little bit of race!
The record on the left is a four track 45 EP recorded by Shorty Rogers of the main tracks from the movie.
He's accompanied by other West Coast luminaries such as Bill Perkins and Bud Shank.
For reasons that don't seem very clear, Decca brought out another version of the soundtrack.

This time its credited to the Leith Stevens All Stars. The All Stars included Shorty Rogers (for some reason called Roger Short on the sleeve), Bud Shank, Jim Guiffre, Shelly Mann (or Manny Shell as he is called on the sleeve), Maynard Ferguson and Russ Freeman.
Much less 'wild' than the EP this is great stuff nonetheless.
However, as with the majority of biker soundtracks I struggle to believe that the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would really have been listening to this kind of thing.
Decca released a further LP with some extra tracks from the soundtrack but I don't have that!

It wouldn't be until 1966 that bikers returned to the screen. This time in the American International Pictures' Wild Angels.
Starring Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra and the amazing Bruce Dern this is one of the classics of the genre.

For the soundtrack AIP supremo Roger Corman turned to Mike Curb. Curb, who would go on to prominence in the Republican party after releasing a slew of cheap records on the world, turned to Davie Allan.
Curb and Allan had worked together previously on a film called Skaterdater - about a skate board gang!
Allan is to exploitation movies what Dashiel Hammett is to hard-boiled detective books. In a word he is the 'boss'.
Coming from the world of surf guitars, Allan would add a ton of wild, crazed fuzz action. It was raw, it was loud, it was the sound of a Harley on the open road.

However, the soundtrack album also introduced all of the other elements to biker soundtrack LPs. On a short LP there is a lot of filler.
As well as Blue's Theme for the Fonda character Heavenly Blues, there was a party/freakout track and there were tracks by imaginary bands. Everything was played by Allan and the Arrows, whatever the names on the back cover said.

Mike Curb was completely unprepared for the success of the Wild Angels.
But not for long! He got Davie Allan back into the studio and before long they had knocked out another 35 minutes.
To be honest, if you've got the original soundtrack there isn't much reason to get Volume II.
By now however, Allan and his Arrows were relegated to a footnote on the record sleeve and Curb took full credit for writing all the music - a situation that would continue much to the detriment of Davie Allan - although he would stick with Curb for quite a while.

Wild Angels had been made for next to nothing and had been a huge box office success. Everyone involved in making it wanted to repeat the magic.
The result was Devil's Angels released in 1967.

 This time though Curb teamed Davie Allan's phenomenal fuzz with the Wrecking Crew, particularly Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye.
It was a winning combination and the music on this record is, to my mind, some of the best the Allan committed to vinyl.
In true exploitation style most of the best tracks reappear on other records, most notably Cycle-delic Sounds. But don't let that put you off finding a copy.
As usual there is a track by a fictional group, in this case Jerry and the Portraits, which is terrible. There is a theme for the main character, Cody and a psych-out number as well.
The Devil's Angels soundtrack is consistent and rocking in a way that few others would be. The rhythm section really pushes Allan to produce some of his best, most freaked out, guitar lines and at little over half and hour it never outstays its welcome.

The onslaught did not let up and in 1967 Born Losers was also released.
This again came from the Corman stable and again featured music by Davie Allan, but this time masquerading as the Sidewalk Sounds (Curb's production company being called Sidewalk Productions).
The film introduced the character Billy Jack who would later star in his own movies and it is a reasonably fun film.
It also featured Jack Starrett who would go on to direct his own B Movies eventually making Ride With The Devil amongst others.
The music is good but repeated the same formula as the other Curb soundtracks.
Overall not as consistent as the earlier efforts, perhaps reflecting the pressure the Allan must have been under to produce the music.
Allan's guitar playing is as superb as always but the quality of some of the songs is not very high.
Also featuring on here is Terry Stafford, another member of the Tower Records roster. His contribution is best described as weak but that didn't stop him cropping up on other Curb soundtracks.

1967 was a very busy year for cinematic bikers as AIP released The Glory Stompers.
Suffering from the same problems as the Born Losers soundtrack there are far too many fillers here.
Max Frost and the Troopers, Eddie and the Stompers and Cassey Kasem all put in below par appearances.
The Sidewalk Sounds (Mr Allan of course) also seem to be sleepwalking through what, by now, had become biker record cliches.
The cover, however, is one of my favourites.

In 1967 Hells Angels of Wheels came out and introduced another name that will be familiar to soundtrack collectors, Stu Phillips.
Phillips was involved in a number of biker films, not all of which saw the release of his music - although some tracks have recently been released on CD.
His music tends to be less rocky and more funky than Allan's as well as more varied.
There are some great tracks on Hells Angles on Wheels, and as its not that hard to track down, I recommend it to everyone.
The only fly in the ointment is the track by the Poor, which is just that - poor.

The Savage Seven Soundtrack makes an effort to include music that real bikers might have listened to.
Cream provide Anyone for Tennis, a typically hard rocking instrumental and Iron Butterfly contribute two tracks, The Iron Butterfly Theme and Unconscious Power, both good examples of West Coast heaviness.
The rest of the record however, is given over to none other the Mike Curb and true to form we have two tracks by Barbara Kelly and the Morning Good - both of which are terrible and some instrumental tracks which sound very much like Davie Allan on an off day.

Released on Tower Records the Angels from Hell soundtrack is a real corker.
This is what biker soundtracks from the sixties should really be all about. For once some real bands were brought on board to provide some original material.
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy and the Lollipop Shoppe did better stuff elsewhere but their contributions here are still pretty good examples of West Coast psych.
The rest of the music is from Stu Phillips who mixes some funky tunes with some great faux hippy vibes and some great titles.
If you only get one biker soundtrack, get this one!

Hell's Belles is another great little soundtrack.
Released on Sidewalk records (its Mike Curb again) this is entirely given over to music composed by exotica-master Les Baxter and is surprisingly funky.
Almost every track has great drums pushed up in the mix and it has some wonderful orchestral funk moments.
I have to admit that my copy is the re-issue/boot
Hot Wind is a very funky little number!

I'm cheating slightly by including The Sidehackers soundtrack as its not really a film about bike gangs, more about psychotic people who race bikes with sidecars.
I have no idea who The New Life were although there is a picture of some moody looking guys on the back.
Its another Curb product and this time he's brought his friend Jerry Styner along for help.
As with most Curb productions the majority of the songs are pretty weak.
The exceptions are Ha Lese (Le Di Khanna) and the shockingly titled Psychedelic Rape which is the best freakout track on any biker soundtrack.

Come back for Part II where we'll run through more hairy biker soundtracks such as Satan's Sadists, Hell's Angels 69 and Psychomania.
See you later.