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I like this one a lot, so much that I haven’t really decided if I want to sell it. The Six O’Clock News were formed by Rockabilly hall-of-famer and Detroit native James Wayne Boyer. He originally formed the band Jimmy Boyer and The Newports, who were a top local band in Detroit and Windsor in the early to mid 60s. Around ‘68 or ‘69, he formed the Six O’Clock News, who recorded only one 45, Train Ride Down Jasper Way / Working On The Road, in 1969 on Novi based label Adell. After the Six O’Clock News broke up following their brief time together, Boyer went on to play in a few more local bands before touring nationally with a Nashville based group called the Billy Swan Band.
The A side to this promo copy, Train Ride, is a great song. Jimmy’s rough and gruff voice give emotion to a hard working railroad love song, backed by a Dennis Coffee-esque funkabilly band. It’s a fairly rare 45, but it’s unlike many small label Michigan garagers that we come across, the song writing is actually good (and original). If CCR put this out, it could have been a national smash hit. As it was with a relatively unheard-of Detroit band in 1969, they produced about 1,000 or so promo copies, sent them out to as many radio stations as they could, and probably received little if any airplay. The records then sat for years, with a few surfacing here and there. This one came out of a collection we bought recently that was the remnants of a local radio station’s backstock, hundreds of discarded 45s, deemed not popular enough to be worth a damn, forgotten for almost 40 years, until they landed with us to revive them again. NOW FOR SALE
Listen to Train Ride Down Jasper Way:
Note: The B Side on this, the pop-pysch Working On The Road, was featured on the comp “Voyages Into Pop-Psych Vol. II”, and also on the internet radio station/website Technicolor Web of Sound.
150+ new early R&R and Rockabilly 45s just listed. I’ll post some audio soon.
Billy Riley, Rock With Me Baby, Sun
Ronnie Hawkins, Bo Diddley, Roulette
Mar-Keys, Last Night, Satellite
Plus lots more….And more to come. Garage and psych are coming up next, then the big soul/doo-wop batch.
Justin and I met the lead singer for the garage psych band The Pastels from Battle Creek. We were over at his house about a year ago for a record buy when he told us about his band and gave us a few copies of the original 45s. He was a great guy - we sat around on that Saturday morning drinking coffee, listening to his stories and then digging through his massive record collection which took up a full room upstairs and then half of his basement. This copy resurfaced in another collection we bought recently. They recorded this 45 on the sought after West Michigan label Phalanx in 1966. It’s the classic Michigan garage sound of the 60s, organ and all, but The Pastels are a bit spookier than most. A really, really good 45, and a hidden gem among Michigan rock history.
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See the listing here.
This was recorded on the famous Detroit Hideout label, back when Ann Arbor’s Bob Seger was playing all the local bars around South East Michigan for his fellow teenagers. Another Michigan 60s garage classic.
See the listing here.
A great selection of 45s is up for bid right now: early rock n roll, rockabilly, garage, psych, plus rare Stones, Dylan, Beatles, Elvis, Zeppelin and more.
Ann Arbor saw a resurgence of the blues in the 70s. In 1972, the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz festival featured top Chicago blues acts along with a few local artists, and was recorded live by Atlantic. The Ann Arbor blues scene grew, with The Blind Pig record label on 208 S. First Street playing an important role. Along with local bands like The Silvertones, their impressive line up included legendary bluesmen Walter Horton, Roosevelt Sykes, and Boogie Woogie Red.
The Silvertones recorded their only LP, One Chance With You, on Blind Pig in 1976. Longtime Ann Arborite George Bedard, now of George Bedard and The Kingpins, fronted this band with some help from Steve Nardella, who went on to launch a solo career a few years later (I’ll do a post on his first album sometime). The Silvertones were incredibly popular locally, blending the blues with rockabilly at area bars that made for some swinging nights out on the town.
Listen to the title track .
