Seeing as how Latin America's Day of The Dead festivities begin today and go thru Nov. 2, now's the perfect time to rock out to these juvenile delinquents from, of all places, Lima, Peru. Trashy surf/garage sounds from the 1960s, all instrumental reverb and fuzz guitars and sleazy electric organ, with one song ("Holy's Psicodelicos") even featuring a theremin. "Campo De Vampiros" is the appropriate party-starter by these Dia de Los Muertos daddy-o's.
I would be interested to know how Los Holy's (sic) fit into Peruvian culture of the time. Were they considered makers of no-good teen trash by the mainstream culture, but revered as cool cats by the kids? Or was this stuff so foreign to their society that they were playing a kind of 'world music,' without any of the controversy that this kind of primitive rock created north of the border?
Los Holys "Sueno Sicodelico" (1967)
1. Campo De Vampiros2. Sueno Sicodelico3. Melodia Encantada4. Reunion Psicodelica [a cover of the Markett's Space-Age surf classic "Out of Limits"]5. Piedra De Doce Angulos6. Hawaii Five-O7. El Hombre Desnudo8. Holy's Psicodelicos9. The High Chaparral [cover of the '50s movie theme "Moulin Rouge"]10. Psicodelico Desconocido [cover of the Meters' funky soul groover "Sissy Strut"]11. Spectro I12. Choque De Vientos
(Muchas gracias to El Count Otto Negro!)
The recent news about the passing of actress Marcia Strassman payed little heed to her short, strange music career. She recorded a few singles in the late '60s, including one of my all-time fave examples of...what's a word for something that you know is awful, but love it just the same? Maybe there isn't one. (Let's invent one!) Whatever it is, that's what Strassman's "The Flower Children" is. This 1967 Uni records 45, one of those only-in-the-'60s odes to the counter-culture, was one of the last gasps of the big-hair, lushly produced girl-group sounds. Soon the flat-haired, acoustic guitar strumming singer-songwriters would take over. But not before Mrs. Kotter sang the hell out of this ridiculous number, redeeming it thru her passion and sincerity (and a great arrangement). It was a hit in California, if nowhere else.
The equally ludicrous follow-up, "The Groovy World of Jack and Jill," similarly has a swell pseudo-Phil Spector sound. And, really, I like all of her records (tho surprisingly, a Kim Fowley production ["Stargazer"] is a bit of a dud.) How can you not like such choice lines as: "My toys are all dead, but my friend is here/nothing is wrong with me" (from the song "Self-Analysis").
Even more tragic than her early death from cancer - the fact that her frog-voiced "Welcome Back Kotter" co-star John Travolta was the one with the far more successful musical career. A great record like "The Flower Children" languishes in obscurity, while that execrable "Grease" soundtrack lives on. Won't someone please think of the children?!Marcia Strassman - Singles (1967-68)
1. The Flower Children2. Out Of The Picture3. The Groovy World of Jack and Jill3. The Flower Shop4. Self-Analysis5. Stargazer
This isn't a complete discography. I am missing one of her songs: "Flower Shop." Anyone, anyone..? Mega-thanks to super-reader Holly for supplying not only the missing song, but higher-bitrate copies of the other songs AND the artwork!
Rockin' soul, surf, lounge, jazz, comedy, novelties, outsider oddities, movie ads and dialogue clips...hey kids, it's a '50s/'60s lowbrow All Hallow's Eve! Inc. dusty vinyl corpses robbed from my tomb, er, record closet, that I attached electrodes to and ripped to mp3. Featuring such creatures as: Mort Garson on the Moog; schoolkids singing about stealing trick-or-treaters' candy bags; a song-poem called "Vampire Husband;" Lon Chaney Jr "singing" the theme to the classic cult film "Spider Baby;" a James Brown rip-off; visits to Japan (The Golden Cups) and France; two different songs called "Surfin' Hearse," and jazz drummer Philly Joe Jones doing a goofy Dracula bit inspired by Lenny Bruce. And then you've got Bobby Christian's infamous "The Spider and the Fly," described by Lenny "Nuggets" Kaye as the most demented record ever made. (And who am I to disagree?)
The BAT Pack
01 "Horror of the Zombies"02 Guy Marks (as Bela) - Begin the Beguine03 Lon Chaney - Song From Spider Baby 04 "bloodbeast"05 Bobby Christian and the Allen Sisters - The Spider and the Fly06 Richard Rome - Ghost a go go07 The Quads - Surfin' Hearse08 Jan and Dean -Surfin' Hearse09 "Lady Frankenstein"10 Serge Gainsbourg - Docteur Jekyll & Mister Hyde11 Helen O'Connell - Witchcraft12 Bela LaGoldstein - Old Boris13 the Ventures - Exploration in Terror14 "Dr.Tarr's Torture Dungeon"15 Arthur Prysock - (I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance16 Alvino Rey - The Bat17 "Brain that Wouldn't Die"18 Little Tibia and the Fibulas - The Mummy19 Happy Monsters - Clap Your Tentacles20 The Golden Cups - Spooky21 Jack Marshall - The Teen-Age Surfing Vampire 22 The Ramrods - (Ghost) Riders in the Sky23 "Bloody Pit of Horror"24 Nancy Dupree with Ghetto Reality students - Bag Snatchin'25 Mort Garson as The Blobs - Son of Blob26 Shelley Stuart & The Five Stars - Vampire Husband27 Cre-shells - Dracula28 "Frenzy of Blood"29 Philly Joe Jones - Blues for Dracula30 Guy Marks (as Boris) - Don't Take Your Love From Me
(FANGS a lot to Count Otto for a couple of these. Art by Shag.)
