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This is another of the Northern soul classics listed this week for auction. It is a song that really needs no introduction but if you want some more info go to his Allmusic. One intersting thing of note from this 45 is that the flip side “When the Party Is Over” was the intended A-side. This audio comes from the 45 for sale
by Cousin Geoff
Ann Arbor based rock and rollers Brownsville Station had a breakout hit in 1973, with Smokin’ In The Boys Room, rising as high as #3 on the U.S charts that year. Smokin’ was one of the first teen-angst songs, about pissed off students taking relief by sneaking into the boys room for a smoke. I like the B side even better, though, a great garage cover of Robert Parker’s classic jam Barefootin’, also done well by The Rationals off their album on Crewe.
According to Wikipedia, the bass player, Mike Lutz, works at Oz’s music in Ann Arbor and teaches guitar and bass lessons. That’s awesome! Mike, if you read this, can you tell us a little more about the band? Brownsville Station was led by crazy man Cub Coda, whose wild stage antics were well-respected and studied by many, including Alice Cooper. Can’t you hear School’s Out as the perfect song to play next after Smokin’?
Check out Barefootin’:
And here’s Smokin’ in the Boys Room:
by Max Conroy
I first heard about the Third Power on this site a long time ago when the Cousins did a write up about their bass player Jem Targal in response to finding a signed copy of his rare solo album Luckey Guy. I downloaded Believe, the only album released by the Third Power and didn’t feel too bad about it because of the album’s obscurity; I believe that it isn’t too hard to track down on CD though. The download that I got was ripped from a record and the guy recorded the second side first, which I didn’t realize till finding the vinyl a few weeks ago. It doesn’t get much better than this if you’re looking for an aggressive, Grande-era Detroit power trio. I’ve scoped this record every now and then for the past few years on EBay and it seems like every copy that I’ve seen was in Europe, which is odd since it only sold about 16,000 copies, mostly in the Detroit area.
Like the record itself, information regarding the band is pretty rare. For the most part everything out there is very basic and states that the band formed in Detroit in the late 60s, were very loud, had a cult following, released one record, it flopped, they went their separate ways, the guitarist Drew Abbott went to play lead for Seger’s Silver Bullet Band, and Jem recorded Luckey Guy in the late 70s. I did find an early biography of Jem Targal, their lead singer and bassist, on someone’s personal website. The biography reads a bit strange, almost like it’s Targal speaking in the third person (pardon the pun). According to the site, Targal was born in Ann Arbor, his father studied and taught at the University of Michigan, and when he was young his father accepted a position at the American University of Istanbul and moved his entire family there: ”There were seven families, all related, living in the house together. Targal’s grandfather, a retired general, was there. So, too, was Targal’s uncles. One had been the head of NATO forces for seveal years; the other uncle was a professional wrestler.” Sounds like a trip, man. His family moved back to the Detroit area in 1951 and eventually many years later he met Abbott at Oakland Community College in a speed reading class. Abbott taught Targal the bass and they formed several groups, met their drummer Jim Craig, a solid powerful drummer, and came up with the name the Third Power in the van on the way to their first show together at a club called the Fifth Dimension (a popular venue that had featured Hendrix and the Yardbirds). Power trio…trio…third…third…power…like to the third power, man…get it? The band moved into a farmhouse on Haggarty road, between 12 and 13 mile roads. They were known for having massive parties at their place where rock icons like Rod Stewart and Badfinger would hang out. The band kept playing around and became very popular in the Detroit area, playing shows with local acts like the Rationals, Seger, and the MC 5. They signed with Vanguard, who also featured another Detroit act of the era the Frost, in 1969. The album was produced by poet and blues scholar Sam Charters and came out in 1970.
I almost shit my pants when I saw it in the stack at Encore. They pile up their new arrivals on the floor against the bins, in front of the register. I was in there a few days prior to finding it and noticed that they had a massive pile of new arrivals and quickly paid for whatever I had gone in there to find, so as not to be tempted by whatever was in the new stacks. A few days later I was walking in the neighborhood and decided to go back to see what was left in that pile, and there it was, perfect, in the shrink, bronze Vanguard label. I bought that and Grant Green’s Alive! for $30 and the dude working there said bye to me using my name off of my credit card. Respect, mon. Irie! I got it for $20; the price guide says $30 mint, but Popsike lists anywhere from $50 to $250 previously on EBay.
by Max Conroy:
Today’s generation probably has a rough time of it when it comes to collecting some older rock records. I’m 28 and most of the people my age whose parents didn’t listen to oldies stations in the car don’t have the same reference point that I do with some classic and oft overlooked oldies and classic rock. Groups like the Lovin’ Spoonful, the Dave Clark Five, Manford Mann, the Turtles, Tokens, all that shit’s drifting further into obscurity. They’re part of the mortar-pocked no man’s land of 60’s pop acts that were popular then that haven’t been fortunate enough to have a significant cult following, like the Nuggets garage bands or a constant following like the Stones or the Dead. Some of these bands are truly great and don’t deserve the dustbin quite yet.
I was watching the Dead Boys Live at CBGBs DVD’s extras and Stiv Bators was asked what bands were his influences: uuuh, Iggy Pop, all of his bands, the early Stooges, ya know, the New York Dolls, I really like the New York Dolls, and Paul Revere & the Raiders, yeah Paul Revere & the Raiders, they’re for me. What? I can definitely see Iggy and the Dolls, but Paul Revere & the Raiders. I remembered that there was a bar where I went to college called Paul Revere’s and naturally they had a Paul Revere & the Raiders CD on the jukebox; their version of Stepping Stone was one that I’d play every time I went there. Stepping Stone rocked, but I assumed it was a fluke or something. I watched this interview a few years back and have had it in the back of my mind ever since to pick up one of their records and finally got around to it a month or so ago. I picked up their first album on Colombia Here They Come! from 1965 for $2. Frankly the record store didn’t have much else to offer, I was hung over and didn’t have attention span for proper digging and this record was in their new arrivals bin.
Half of the record is live and half is studio. It apparently took Colombia two years after signing them to release a full-length record; they released numerous singles that were regional hits in the Northwest. The Northwest was a shockingly good area for R & B influenced garage acts. It was home to the Wailers, the Sonics and the Kingsmen to name a few, and these bands were fiercely competitive, constantly playing against each other in battle of the bands competitions. So by the time this album was released, the band had been together for the better part of eight years, breaking up briefly after Revere was drafted, and had developed a powerful live act as the first side of this record testifies. Paul Revere was the keyboardist’s real name, he was usurped as the lead singer after Mark Lindsay joined the band, and was at the age where rock stars die, 27, when this record was released.
It’s about a three star album, certainly worth the $2. The live side swings with reckless abandon and the studio side has a protopunk/pop jangle to it, so it’s no wonder the latter-day Flamin’ Groovies chose to cover the track Sometimes. The Raiders’ version has a lot more character though.
Sometimes
You Can’t Sit Down
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*Cousin Geoff adds:
We get their records in quite a bit, but at the same time they sell fast too. We have the greatests hits album in the store, you can buy it here.
Detroit busted out in the 60s with an explosion of sweet Motown soul, inspiring Michigan garage bands to play rhythm and blues and soul covers to screaming white fans. This was the new sound, putting the soul into rock n roll, Motor City style.
Two 1960s Michigan bands stick out in my mind as being the kings of white boy garage soul: The Rationals and Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels.
The Rationals were a little edgier and punkier, not strickly sticking to a soul sound, but instead branching out into more of a classic psych/British invasion style for some of their songs. They DID do a sweet version of Otis Redding’s Respect that inspired Aretha Franklin do her much more famous interpretation. The Rational’s unique sound is exactly what grabs me, even when they were doing other stuff, they were still damn soulful. The song you’ll hear below is Something’s Got A Hold of Me, off their self titled LP on Crewe, first done SO right by the one and only Etta James.
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels are hugely underrated. Their records don’t sell for very much on ebay - although this may be because they’re relatively easy to find (because they were so popular to begin with). They didn’t venture too far away from their sound, they stuck with a garage take on soul and R&B, and they had more of a pure style - incorporating many elements of gospel including organs and call and responses (Ah said I get lonely YEAH YEAH in the middle of the night! YEAH YEAH turn of your lovelight TURN ON YOUR LOVE…) In addition to Bobby Blue Bland’s Turn On Your Lovelight, which I selected for you to listen to, they did a bunch of great soul covers, including Walking The Dog, In The Midnight Hour, Oo Papa Doo, Stubborn Kind Of Fellow, Shake a Tailfeather, and more. Their Breakout LP on New Voice (pictured above) is highly recommended.
The Detroit soul-garage group The Capreez recorded this 45 in 1966 on the Detroit Sound label. The A side, Rosanna, was the bigger hit, a dreamy ballad about missing a girl (Rosanna) that hit on the local charts in the summer of that year.
The B side, Over You, again sings about a lost love, but has a great swinging blues sound with a killer hamonica thrown in. A perfect song for this overcast fall Sunday morning.
I’m going to email the lead singer of the Capreez, Al Reid, and see if he’ll comment on this and tell us more about the band. If he does respond I’ll repost this with his story.
Listen to a clip of Over You:
Fuck the man. Mark Farner once said don’t worry about no jury. The night time is the right time. At the end only god can judge. He is a super sweet partner in crime. Bust up into a jewelry store and shoot them all. I can see you mama you are movin down the line. She is a hot movin momma. She’s got heels like a youngin’, lord have mercy on you’re woman and you’re wicked soul. She is gonna live until she is 104 years old. Let her in my door and don’t look back no more. All the haters will one day recognise how sweet Grand Funk brought it. Should a man give up his rock and roll dream. When so many men before him have lived it or died during it? You keep on talking to me until your face turns blue. I’m gonna leave what is behind me behind. I saw an old high school friend the other day and he did not ask me how I was doin’ but how was my pay. Is this a good friend. Fucking Grand Funk goodness. Were is the railroad. Guitar love!!!!!!!!!! Rock and fucking roll!!!!!!!!!!!One more time and another side!!!!!! Squeeze that rock juice out of it!!!!!! Can he still play that solo??? God fucking damn. Now it is time for side two. I can not believe I saw that Standells record that was too thrashed to buy. What is the best record you saw that was too trashed to buy? If you live your life as if you were still young do you really stay young? Life is too short for a dog growing old. Wow a Guitar is floating through my head. Someone is waiting on the other side of the door to take you away. God keeps smokin that thing. Ice cold water through my veins tryin to get me to work again. Work all day to make a burlap bag. Talk to me guitar. Guitar solos are fucking whup ass!!!!!!!! I need you right now baby!! You better get up and get down with me. Pull out my harmonica and play along. Make me feel all right. Fucking Grand Funk Railroad-Grand Funk 5 Crunchy Tacos out of 5!
Cousin Justin
A-Square Records
jsREVIEW:
The fashionable take with the Rationals is to point out how Jeep Holland, their manager, rooked ‘em, and how they coulda been contenders. They’re perpetual rock also-rans, lamented more than listened to.
But the Rationals DID make it, at least at the time. Sure, with a little more responsibility on Holland’s part, they coulda been as big as The Standells or the Electric Prunes, but some forty years on, would that have been a huge improvement?
While they predated The Stooges and The MC5, they certainly existed contemporaneously in terms of the scene, if not aesthetic, and Bob Seger’s band learned a thing or two watching them. But frankly, the Rationals were just too good to ever really fit in. Lead singer Scott Morgan had pipes that no other white boy could touch, and had more in common with Van Morrison than with Iggy Pop, which is readily apparent on this early single.
This is the best version of Goffin/King’s “I Need You” ever recorded, hands down, and Morgan belts like a more refined Otis Redding (who was a huge, maybe evven primary influence— it was The Rationals’ cover of “Respect” that led to Aretha Franklin covering it).
The b-side, “Out in the Streets” is a treat too, though it’s more of a go-go goof than timeless classic, but one timeless classic should be enough for any 45. It’s a lyricless r&b bit better suited for interstitials in the Electric Company than repeated listening (though that’s not a knock on it).
Far from one of the lost, forgotten dregs, The Rationals are a touchstone for a generation of Detroit artists and I refuse to treat ‘em any other way. This single shows why.
