Freakbeat! Yeah!!
First things first, what is it? The term was coined by English music journalist Phil Smee (who later started the Bam-Caruso Label) to describe the harder, fuzz loaded and sometimes psychedelic mutations that happened to the British Mod scene. A rock'n'roll sub-genre, graphic design style, and aesthetic in general that was prevalent throughout the mid-to-late '60s. Freakbeat bands combined aspects of rhythm & blues, beat, pop with psychedelia and proto-punk, a sonically distinct kind of music often drawing parallels with the American garage punk.
The diversive music style of the Mods, characterised mainly by soul elements, became somewhat lost in the mid-sixties when psychedelic drugs and vibrant clothing became the defining attributes of a (new) generation. These elements included definetely fuzztones which are often manipulated with trippy echoes and other effects.
As you might have guessed, the lines between what is and isn't Freakbeat are blurry. The same thing happened when I was trying to create the compilation that I'm offering here. The songs have changed many times - I've actually lost count. As always, I wanted to include obscure and unprocessed gems of the era, as well as more well-known songs, at least to those familiar with this period. I also wanted to compile tracks from outside the British and US scenes. I'm fairly confident that I've succeeded, but as always, you're the judge.
Anyway, to be more precise I changed the title to "Lysergic Acid 60s Punkers, Raw Mod and Freakbeat Fuzzters". All the tracks contain the elements I mentioned in the opening lines. The Who, The Yardbirds and The Pretty Things collaborate with lesser-known acts who are equally brilliant and perhaps even wilder! For example, there's St. Louis Union's amazing take on Bob Seger's early garage stomper "East Side Story", Jimmy Winston covering the band he founded and played on the first single with (The Small Faces), Them going punk R&B under the direction of sleazy mogul Kim Fowley after Van Morrison left and Northwest proto-punks The Kingsmen, (in)famous of course for "Louie Louie", covering this time an unknown Freakbeat tune by The Fairytale. There's also Viv Prince's band after The Pretty Things (The Bunch of Fives), The Action going psychedelic pop under the Beatles' producer, Q65 and the Outsiders' off the rails Nederbeat, and The Fleur de Lys doing "Hold On" under the pseudonym of Rupert's People before handing it to Sharon Tandy. There's even Mickey Finn's "Time to Start Loving You" (before MC5 change it to "Kick Out the Jams"), and an Italian guy who relocated to Greece singing a cover of the Troggs' "I Want You" in... Greek! Τhe range is so big actually that you'll find young savage punks from Quebec and Iceland to New Zealand and Australia. It's almost impossible to write you even a few lines about each song, although each one has a unique story behind, like the ones I've already given you to get an idea of what you'll hear.
In the true spirit of Oscar Wilde ("The drawback of stealing a thing, is that one never knows how wonderful the thing that one steals is"), I even tried to recreate Bam Caruso's label logo, with Joe Meek taking the place of the famous girl for the cover. By the way, if you're wondering who's that guy carrying the guitar and playing the tambourine, look for the golden-haired founder of The Rolling Stones. I even asked myself if "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby" by the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band fitted in, but I gave up in the end - after all, there are so many songs and bands that need more pairs of ears.
Dig!
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