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Sweden Yeah Yeah Yeah: Caesars and The Lonely Boys

05 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Artist Spotlight

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Caesars, The Lonely Boys

Screen Shot 2020-05-05 at 6.52.15 PMWith just ten million people, Sweden definitely punches above its weight in international popular culture. I mean, sometimes it seems like every second person there must be a crime fiction writer or member of a rock combo. Maybe both. Today I feature just two fab Swedish bands that deserve more scrutiny from discerning international poprock fans: Caesars and The Lonely Boys.

Screen Shot 2020-05-05 at 6.56.15 PMFirst up: Caesars, aka Caesar’s Palace, aka The Twelve Caesars. Confused? They started with Caesar’s Palace for the first few albums but worried about problems with a certain US hotel chain and so shortened it, while the 12 was added for tours around Scandinavia, for reasons that are unclear. Well, suffice to say, everything can be found under the Caesars brand now. Altogether the band released five albums between 1998 and 2008 but the first two are not generally available, though some of their songs appear on the 2003 compilation 39 Minutes of Bliss (in an Otherwise Meaningless World). The group’s breakout record was 2002’s Love for the Streets and it’s not hard to hear why, the album is chock-a-bloc full of hummable wonders that tap into a wide range of sixties and indie eighties motifs. From the anthemic “Over ‘for It Started” to the tripping good-time feel of “Candy Kane” to the more country-ish Stonesy feel of “Cheap Glue” the LP slips by effortlessly in easygoing party mode. The overall strength of the record is typically overshadowed by its underground monster organ-heavy hit “Jerk It Out” but I urge listeners – don’t stop there! It’s a cool tune, for sure, but there is so much more to love from this band. Both 2005’s Paper Tigers and 2008’s Strawberry Weed are solid albums, full of melodic treats, like “We Got to Leave” from the former and “Stuck with You” from the latter.

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/11-we-got-to-leave.m4aWe Got To Leave

Screen Shot 2020-05-05 at 6.57.19 PMNext, a band created to provide a soundtrack to a book about a fictional 1965 band. In 1995 one half of Swedish duo Roxette agreed to put together a group and songs for Swedish author Mats Olsson’s 1995 novel The Lonely Boys. The results are 1965 fabulous! Per Gessle and his ragtag band of veterans from the Swedish music scene essentially become The Lonely Boys. They easily nail the sixties vibe as well as better known retro efforts like That Thing You Do, which came out a year later. The self-titled debut cranks through all the classic Beatles/Stones sounds but there is also a solid dollop of 1979 on tracks like “Lonely Boys” (with that slightly sped up Beatles sound). Then there’s “I’m Not Like You” which draws more on the Kinks and Who while “Keep the Radio On” flashes more Merseybeat. The only cover here is the Jagger/Richards rarity “So Much In Love” but “Flowers on the Moon” also sounds pretty late 1969 Stonesy. And then there’s the killer jangle on “Genius Gone Wrong.” For the uninitiated, The Lonely Boys will an unavoidable full-record listening session.

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/01-lonely-boys-2006-remastered-version-1.m4aLonely Boyshttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/03-keep-the-radio-on-this-is-the-perfect-song-2006-remastered-version-1.m4aKeep the Radio Onhttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/09-flowers-on-the-moon-1.m4aFlowers on the Moon

Seems Sweden used to be just famous for massages and a pretty good welfare state. Well, they needn’t stop there. Get caught up on these Swedish pleasures online.

Cover Me! Jagger/Richards “So Much in Love”

19 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by Dennis Pilon in Poprock Themepark

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Andrew Loog Oldham, Charles Dickens, Cheek, Ian and the Zodiacs, Ian Crawford, Jagger/Richards, Johnny Chester and the his Chessmen, Roxanne Fontana, The Hitmakers, The Inmates, The Lonely Boys, The Mighty Avengers, The Rolling Stones

Screen Shot 2020-04-19 at 7.04.20 PMDigging through my vinyl collection I came upon a 1974 Deram/London (Decca in the UK) Records release entitled Hard Up Heroes, a compilation focused mostly on lesser known tracks from British artists from the ‘beat’ era (roughly 1963 to 1967). It’s got some cool stuff on it but the real find was a track called “So Much in Love” recorded by The Mighty Avengers. What a tune! So subtle in its earwormy effects. Now imagine my surprise to discover it was a Jagger/Richards cast off from a period when they were trying to mimic the Beatles’ songwriting largesse by giving away their excess material to other artists. And what makes the story even more intriguing is just how many acts tried to make this a hit – unsuccessfully! Most of the versions came out in the mid-1960s period, with a few in the 1970s, one in the 1990s, and then one last version in 2018. And, of course, there may be other versions I’ve yet to find. I won’t feature them all here, just the ones that take the song in slightly different directions.

In my view, arguably the ‘best’ version of “So Much in Love” was the 1964 original by The Mighty Avengers. They were a Coventry band that were briefly a part of Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s stable of artists (as he attempted to mimic Beatles manager Brian Epstein’s success managing multiple acts). Oldham procured the song for them from the Stones and then produced the cut, with help from future Led Zeppelin member John Paul Jones. I love the sound of this era of British poprock and the band squeezes a nice amount of hookiness out of the tune, helped by some great plinky piano and a straight up early Moodies-style vocal.

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/so-much-in-love-1964.mp3The Mighty Avengers

Subsequent versions of the song split between more poppy and rocky takes. In 1965, three covers of the song typify this division. Australia’s Johnny Chester and his Chessman offer up a very genteel, mannered pop arrangement that stylistically would not be out of place as an Everly’s album deep cut. Ian Crawford amplifies the song’s pop elements with horns and fancy background vocals. By contrast, Liverpool’s Ian and the Zodiacs deliver a classic Merseybeat version. Three more covers in 1966 continue this trend with The Herd rocking things with plenty of soul organ, Denmark’s The Hitmakers blowing up the pop sound, particularly on the vocals, while sometime fashion photographer Charles Dickens vibes a little Beach Boys with production help from Andrew Loog Oldham.

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/so-much-in-love-with-you.mp3Johnny Chester and the his Chessmenhttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/ian-crawford.mp3Ian Crawfordhttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/so-much-in-love.mp3Ian and the Zodiacshttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/so-much-in-love-1.mp3The Herdhttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/so-much-in-love-2.mp3The Hitmakershttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/so-much-in-love-3.mp3Charles Dickens

Despite its failure in the 1960s bands would continue to keep trying to push “So Much in Love” onto the charts. Arguably the most successful was Australian band Cheek, whose 1977 version briefly made that country’s top 50. However, the band broke up shortly afterwards, having released only two singles and no album! Three years later UK pub rock/new wave band The Inmates featured a rollicking version of the song on their second album, A Shot in the Dark. The next cover came 15 years later from a band that technically didn’t exist. The Lonely Boys were created to provide the music for a fictional 1960s band featured in a 1990s book and movie of the same name. The band’s performance exceeded all expectations, producing a strong debut album and a killer version of “So Much in Love” that seemed to out-sixties the actual 1960s recordings. Most recently Roxanne Fontana turned out a peppy yet understated classic rock and roll rendition of the tune in 2018.

https://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/so-much-in-love-4.mp3The Inmateshttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/08-so-much-in-love-2006-remastered-version-1.m4aThe Lonely Boyshttps://poprockrecord.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/01-so-much-in-love-1.m4aRoxanne Fontana

Discovering this great lost Jagger/Richards tune has got me thinking there has to be a Songs the Stones Gave Away collection out there somewhere, full of overlooked gems, even if their efforts did not bear the same fruit as their Merseyside competitors.

This post benefited from research insights from PopArchives.com and SecondHandSongs.

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