Decades later, these slapped-together recordings still have the ability to charm their listeners – or at least this listener. I have one of Kim Fowley’s collections of his early recordings entitled Under Ground Animal, filled with 15 great songs by virtually unknown bands plus one of his own excellent recordings, “Astrology”. Among these obscurities are “Teen Animal”, the second single by the Gamblers; Discogs notes that the “A” side of their first single, “Moon Dawg!” is sometimes regarded as the first surf music single (“LSD-25” was the flip). The two tracks by the Renegades (both instrumentals), “Charge” and “Geronimo”, which represent Fowley’s first credit as a record producer, are also here and date from 1959. The Hounds released two albums in 1967 and covered the classic “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, originally by the Tokens. The Rogues were a garage rock band that included Michael Lloyd and Shaun Harris that were later in the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.
The last song on the album is the most chilling cautionary tale about the dangers of drug abuse that I have ever heard, “The Story of Susie” by Bill Woods; the chorus (the only part that is sung) goes: “She wanted to be like everyone else / Now she’s all alone in a room by herself”. Along with Buck Owens, Bill Woods with his band the Orange Blossom Playboys was a pioneer of the Bakersfield sounds in country music.
Norton Records has issued at least three Kim Fowley collections in this vein, with the first being titled One Man’s Garbage and the second Another Man’s Gold.
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Kim Fowley’s own albums are an uneven lot to say the least, though this appears to be intentional to a considerable extent. His third album, Outrageous (1968) is the only one of his albums to (barely) crack the Billboard Top 200 Albums charts. I don’t have the album, but there is a mélange of radio ads for the record that is given at the end of Under Ground Animal.
(January 2015/1)
