Maggie's Farm

--i had all their albums --some wore out and had to be bought again. At all times, for several years, at opportune moments (nobody around) would fire up the stereo and 'sing-along' --blown away by the three-part harmony. When Dave Guard left, that was it, never even listened to the reconstituted band with that wazzisname playing the DG place.

I wanted to link "Coast of California" for Dave Guard's banjo, which was incredible by that time. But EMI has taken that song and some others down. Bummer.

However, here's three top faves --each is different and has a special thing going on.

For a beautiful sound like "Scotch and Soda", try "Senora" --a young suitor down in Old Mexico (back when young courting couples were never left alone) appeals to his beloved's Dueña (chaperoness) to 'grant us a moment alone':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PBNkCnAPeA

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--"Fast Freight", the boys roll out the full 1930's American train iconography and then apply their massive talent to drive the music down new tracks --spectacularly, for example, the Doppler Effect in "hear the whistle blow --and the rhythm guitar (if you don't use headphones, you may miss the wheel & track clickity clak). The music tempo rises and falls with the train velocity as the balladeer's psychodrama hitches story arc to train trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1rWyyYfQaw&feature=related

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--remember the toon strip Rick O-Shay? It'll come to mind in "Speckled Roan", a bright and wonderful (and little known, it seems) paean to carefree youth in the wild west horse culture --complete with yodels, period colloquial argot, and --you'll swear you see'um --those cowboy coloras of endless dun desert stretching forever away beneath the big robin's egg blue cerulean sky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk2GQpcwHVU&feature=related

--reminded me of Jackie Gleason's signature line,

"How Sweet it IS!"

He didn't mean to be talking about two decades, '45 to '65, but looking back, he might as well have been.

Here's The Seekers and We Five --from mid-60s. Just pop bands, four guys playing mostly guitars and a chick singer fronting, performing two of their big top 40 AM radio hits.

But.

Watch these two girls' delivery. Listen to the sentiment of the lyrics. This is really good stuff. Universally good, but the pinnacle of the genre. These two performances especially --the videos capture essence better than same groups same songs elsewhere on youtube.

The Beatles were already in ascendancy, and the Frisco bands were getting heavy --so even to us class of 65 highschoolers in smalltown deep south these two groups and these two songs were already kinda lightweight to us soi disant cogno senti ears-wet-behinders.

But, cut to now, many a year later, and finally some of us can recognize how good these folks really were. Catch Bev Bivens singing dance steps on "You were on my Mind" --that's like, maximum cute. Judith Durham's love song face and hand expressions on "I'll Never Find Another You", she's living the lyrics.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ga9Bs4fzSY&feature=related



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdgb4waNhn4&feature=related

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