In The Past: Garage Rock Podcast

This week's show is a pre-Halloween extravaganza that takes you to the Twilight Zone and points beyond (i.e., Idaho)! The Serlingesque shenanigans start with "Out of Limits" by The Marketts (1:57). The famous 4-note riff is present, along with triangle, organ, castanets, and French horn! The Marketts manage to throw the sound of Western and spy movies into the mix, too - whooo! The...

What do you give the podcast listener who has everything? Answer:  an episode on Them 's 1966 garage hymn "I Can Only Give You Everything", which has every thang : a gravedigger riff with fuzz, overdriven organ, pounding drums, a snarling vocal performance, some wild modulation and a messed up chord change (1:51)! Ain't that enough? Of course not! A couple of months later, the...

In the latest episode we make sense out of nonsense, meaning we crack open three 'goofy greats' and feast on the goo inside! Back in 1956, The Chips released "Rubber Biscuit," a rockin' doo wop number with insane vocables that we find hides a serious message (1:39). Two years later, David Seville went to visit the "Witch Doctor" (58:54). We don't know if he...

Watch it now, watch it! We're talking about quatro versions of "Wooly Bully" this week, but we have to go back to 1962 to listen to the origins of the insanity, namely the tune "Hully Gully, Now" by Big Bo & the Arrows (1:11).  The bass is incredible. The organ is incredible. The vocals   (by Little Smitty)... will leave you incredulous ! Words can't capture the w...

Randy Newman 's 1970 rocker "Have You Seen My Baby" is the subject of this week's episode: the original is in a rollicking Fats Domino barrelhouse-style with RN's love-it-or-leave-it voice (0:48).  The lyrics are about a deluded  romantic, and the arrangement is melancholically delightful. She ain't his baby! The following year, the Roy Loney-era Flamin' Groovies...

4 of Weldon's fave girl group songs on this one! We start off with "Party Lights", a smash hit for Claudine Clark in 1962 (1:15). She wrote and sang this clever little ditty, but the word is she also played piano as well.  CC begs, pleads, uses her best Lowtower and even throws a tantrum but her mama ain't letting her go to join the kids across the street.  That same year, some...

In the new episode, we make some pretty music while watching the world go by - listening to 4 versions of a classic from Nuggets helps! The original "Night Time" was done by The Strangeloves in 1965 (1:11). It's a table-topper and guitar chopper, with a cool barrelhouse piano riff,  bashing drums, clever lyrics and a cool , sort of meta spoken-word section. In 1966, Swedish snotster...

In 1962, The Isley Brothers released "Nobody But Me," a big production of upbeat braggdoccio with wild vocals, raunchy saxes, piano, and some "no, no, no"s in the middle section (1:08). The song didn't really catch on, but two years later a Mersey versh appeared courtesy of beat merchants  The Mojos (34:02). Their dual vocals somewhat detract from the original's mouth...

Mourn (or celebrate) the end of summer with these four odes to the (hot) dog days, all from 1967! Our first number is "C'mon Summer's Happening" by The Hot Dog Stand (1:52). This mysterious mob of studio musos create an unbelievably peppy little piece of commercial cotton candy, with an odd mix of funky guitar and Wonderbread vocals. Sink your teeth into something more substant...

We keep counting down and chewing up James Miller's list of the Top 50 Canadian songs ever -   in this episode we go from numbers 24 to the much-anticipated Number One song! Listen to your intrepid hosts risk their Canadian citizenship  to knock some mythical Maple Leaf musos off their high horses (or mooses?)! Corey Hart impressions! 2002 women singer-songwriter anthems!! A Neil Young song s...

Episode 101 features our heroes discussing James Miller's list of the top 50 Canadian songs of all time . If you're a Canuck, listen to us revise our nation's musical history! If you're not from the Great  White North, then you'll hear about a host of hosers who had hits you've never hitherto heard !! What songs should move up the list, or down ? Which songs should be...

After almost two years at the crease, we at In The Past: Garage Rock Podcast are proud to celebrate reaching  our first century: 100 episodes. And we've never missed a week since we started!  To mark this achievement, we've selected four songs to discuss our own dogged determination: two of them are 80s anthems, and two are garage rockers from the snarling 60s. The usual crucial digressi...

We return to The Hollies '  1965 tearjerker, "So Lonely" because there are so many good versions we couldn't fit in our June 19 episode! The first in part 2 is The Henchmen,  who created a garage derangement of the song in 1966, with organ and cool-dude-attitude vocals (2:07) That same year, The Ashes   produced a haunting folk-rock take (34:49). Sparse, subdued and Cowboy Junk...

A small but determined pressure group has been ... well ... pressuring us  to finally talk about some obscure orchestral pop psychedelia. Worried for our lives, we capitulate and chat about J.A. Freedman 's 1969 slice of Piccadilly Sunshine,  "Dance with the Man in the Teapot" (2:15). No three-chord garage rocker this! An account of a crazy costume party which throws in everything b...

In this episode, we chew on a sweet piece of 1966 bubblegum, "Stop! Get a Ticket" by The Clefs of Lavender Hill (1:11). People say it's Beatle-esque, but we think it's better described as Hollies-esque, The handclaps (and drumbeats) will be what you remember the most, but don't sleep on the "race for your love" lyrics or you're gonna lose your baby! In 1967,...

In 1940, bluesman Bukka White recorded "Parchman Farm Blues," a lament about being imprisoned in the infamous Mississippi State Penitentiary (2:30). Insightful lyrics, impassioned vocals, great slide guitar, and some nice accompaniment from Washboard Sam to boot! Even though he denied it, jazzman Mose Allison adapted White's song in 1958, titling it "Parchman Farm" and giv...

In this episode, we prescribe Buffy Sainte-Marie 's 1964 beautiful folk-drone masterpiece "Cod'ine"(1:08). It's a harrowing tale of opiate addiction, and Buffy delivers a hair-raising, frightening vocal performance that'll scare you straight. Dare we say "it's as relevant today ..."? We also discuss her immense legacy,  especially her incredible appeara...

Listen in this week to a textbook discussion of the process of garagification:  the transmogrification of Fred Neil 's "That's The Bag I'm In" from a corny folk ditty to a  titanic garage tune. Casey Anderson gets us started with the first released version of the song , way back in 1962 (5:18). A very Greenwich Village rendition, from the era represented by "Inside Ll...

Prepare to cry,  because this week's episode centers on the sad & spangly song "So Lonely", originally done by The Hollies in 1965 (1:21). A perfect pop tune! The riff is beautiful & bright, sad & sharp, but it's underpinned by heavenly harmonies and some surprisingly groovy drum fills by Bobby Elliott. The Everly Brothers essayed the number in 1966, and those Kentu...

In this episode, we study one of the greatest rock songs of all time, "Wild Thing." The original versh is by the aptly-named Wild Ones , some New York neanderthals who recorded Chip Taylor's made-to-order tune in 1965 (1:57). Next up is The Troggs' 1966 cave-painting (44:00). True to form, we reinterpret the song by finding the sweet side of this savage number.  The ocarina sol...

Well looky here - we have The Kinks up first this week with "Who'll Be the Next In Line" - a minor hit for them in 1965 (2:02). In this under-rated rock rhumba, Ray Davies and the band inhabit the mind of a bitter pub drinker: a lurching, sorta Latin groove and vocal performance make this one of the earliest examples of musical theatre in  RD's songwriting catalog. Next in line...

In a week when Jif was being recalled in Canada, we won't be recalling this episode! Three dumb songs about our favourite legume: the peanut.   Little Joe and the Thrillers start spreading the madness with "Peanuts," the nuttiest hit song of 1957 (5:22). We're crrrazy about it. There's a "twist" in our discussion of Little Joe, so listen close. Next, following up...

In this episode, we speck -ulate on the meaning of that inscrutable garage rock classic, “Little Black Egg": the song with the famous RIFF and the enigmatic lyrics ... The first in our carton is the 1965 original by The Nightcrawlers (1:44). The REAL MEANING IS FINALLY REVEALED! And it's a SHOCKER!! Goldurn! The second peep comes from The Next Five , whose 1967 version is peppy and organ...

In this episode, we present possibly the most  sophisticated  song we've ever discussed, the Burt Bacharach/Hal David   weeper, "Walk on By." And in case you think we've left the garage for the piano lounge, don't you worry, the 60s kids have you covered . The first step, though, is taken by the inimitable Dionne Warwick and the 1964 original (2:25).  A restrained, elegant...

Our Mother's Day special episode features 4 versions of a song only a mother could hate -  Bo Diddley 's 1964 putdown, "Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut." The original has a great riff, a funky strut, vibrato on the vocals (Bo is a way underrated singer), and overall,  the tremendous tremulous sound you know from Bo (1:33). The next year,  The Pretty Things   make the song less f...