For this week's #threetunetuesday share, I'm going back in time, yet again. I grew up on what was then called "oldies radio" back in the 1980s. I couldn't help it. Sure my friends liked Def Leppard and Motley Crue, but I couldn't pull the plug on listening to the old harmonies and melodies. There must be something to them, though, as they still stick in my head...
One of my favorite past times, honestly, is searching YouTube for old live clips of songs and bands I loved from that time period. I've found a ton; so for this week's #TTT entry as inspired by , we're going old school, overdubbed, "live" performances from the 1960s. Here we go!
Another one of Joe Meek's finds, the Honeycombs were a North London group led by drummer Honey Lantree. From most reads on music, I discovered that Lantree was one of the few female leads/drummers of that time. If you want to hear her percussion all out (it's quite a thundering, driving rhythm too), one should check out Have I The Right by the Honeycombs. It's a great song, and the drums drive it to an easy classic status, but this one always resonated me for some reason. It might be the Everly Brothers harmonies, I'm not sure, but it's another unheralded gem from 1964.
When I was young, the Moody Blues were on tour and actually visited the city I lived in. Everyone was all about Days of Future Past and their prorock classics. I always preferred this song, though, over the others. It's a cover, of course, but I think I'm a sucker for that piano chord progression; I also like the slightly off harmony lead vocal of Denny Laine. It has a very melancholy feel to it, and I like melancholy. A lot.
Note Denny on the Rickenbacker. Denny went on join Macca with the Wings...so...yeah, there is some Beatle mystery in all of this. Which leads us to the last share this week...
Speaking of Beatle mysteries, the last song this week is Peter and Gordon's Woman. What is going on with this song and what does it have to do with the Beatles?
Well for starters, it was written by Paul McCartney. It was also written around the time of Revolver. Revolver is, in my honest opinion, the Beatles at their zenish. Yet, for whatever reason, Paul and John didn't want to run with this song. Instead, Macca gave it to his then-girlfriend's brother's group, Peter and Gordon. It's an awful shame. Gordon and Peter have wonderful vocals and harmonies, and this is a superb track, but I would have loved to have heard John and Paul ring this one out with the Eleanor Rigby style orchestration in the background. Would it have killed them to make this at least a B-Side???? Seriously?? Macca, I know you are reading this...drop a line below, please!
For what it's worth, I loved this song before I even knew it came out of Liverpool. It's another FM oldies classic that I always got excited to listen to when the DJ decided to play on the old radio. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about in regards to DJ's and FM radio.
That's what I was thinking for this week. Let me know what you think! Hopefully, a few of these are new for all the young ones out here on Hive.
Thanks for reading, as always!