Sunday, June 23, 2013

WHO'S GOT THE SMOKES?

Here's another great band photo, this one, the Chocolate Watch Band. Can you tell they liked the Stones? It was from that era, roughly '64-'67, when American bands were getting deep in hairy. There always seemed to be one holdout in a lot of these bands, the guy who thinks, "You guys go ahead. Grow your hair like Brian Jones. I'll be right over here in short hair land waiting for you when the fad dies". These guys, while definitely having a little Stones thing going on, did so with an eye on their stateside competition. They were on Tower Records,  home to the Standells, and some of Dave Allan and the Arrows stuff. The label was run by Ed Cobb who was known to write songs for his roster of bands, and often substituted studio musicians during recording sessions, including lead singers. So, who's playing on what? Good luck.

You really can't go wrong with any of the cuts below, but definitely check out "Are You Gonna Be There?", a slower sinister sounding one with a very cool solo. It's hosted at DivShare, so it's a couple extra clicks, but it's worth it. Once you get to DivShare, click on the green "Download" button, and scratch your head for fifteen seconds. When the button reappears, you're good to go.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Chocolate Watch Band - Are You Gonna Be There mp3 (via DivShare) at On The Flip Side
Chocolate Watch Band - Let's Talk About Girls mp3 at Planet Mondo
Chocolate Watch Band - Don't Need Your Lovin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Chocolate Watch Band - No Way Out mp3 (via DivShare) at On The Flip Side
Visit:
Chocolate Watch Band at Wikipedia
Chocolate Watch Band Official site

3 comments:

missjulied said...

Dude, what's up with "Don't Need Your Lovin'" - the verses are an exact ripoff of the verses from Milk Cow Blues by the Kinks.

Tom G. said...

Hurray! Someone's paying attention! I noticed that too, but from Eddie Cochran's version. To further the knife twist, one website I ran into claimed that they wrote it!

missjulied said...

Wow, that's some nerve. I think the Kinks were the first (that I know of anyway) to start the song with the "I tried everything to get along with you..." verse, which is exactly what the CW do. There is NO WAY they didn't hear the Kinks' version. Anyway, kind of hilarious.