YouTube has a few Wanderers tunes in its database. Their single, "Ready to Snap" (audio only) can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5VOfIS8skQ ; and "Take Them and Break Them" (again, with only audio) is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TRAZ5_Mllo .
(February 2013)
I caught the hit "88 Lines About 44 Girls" by the Nails on YouTube, and it really is a hoot.
In 1971, two ex-members of King Crimson – Ian McDonald and Michael Giles – along with Peter Giles released an album under the name McDonald and Giles; I actually saw a copy of the album cover last year in a local junque store called Garage Sale. Even though the disc itself was missing, I bought the cover anyway (that's how much of a collector I am!). The entire album is actually available on YouTube, so maybe I don't need the disc anymore?
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The best-known song by Bohemian Vendetta, "Enough" shows up on numerous garage-rock and psychedelic-rock compilation albums, including Ear-Piercing Punk (both the LP and the CD) and the original Pebbles, Volume 1 CD. There are several YouTube entries for this song, including this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1dIGlVZGI4 ; all are basically audio only, but one of them (not this one) shows a completely unrelated movie clip in the background (also apparently from the 1960's).
One of my recent acquisitions is a Voxx Records compilation CD put together by Greg Shaw of crazed psychedelic material called Beyond the Calico Wall. That album included another Bohemian Vendetta song, a brain-twister called "Paradox City"; it is also available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNiJ6HnMptI . Perhaps their best song of all, the more conventional "Riddles and Fairytales" can be heard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gllqc0-4BYc . Additional songs can also be heard on YouTube if these are to your liking.
(April 2013)
The third issue of Who Put the Bomp was subtitled Whenever a Teenager Cries; whereas I grew up with the other two songs and loved them both, I wasn't familiar with this song. Their 1964 song "Whenever a Teenager Cries" was by one of Greg Shaw's favorite girl groups, Reparata & the Delrons. (I did find the song on YouTube, and it is another great one without a doubt).
The songwriter is Ernie Maresca; while I didn't really know that name either, I certainly know his work: He wrote or co-wrote several of the biggest hits by Dion, including "Runaround Sue", "The Wanderer" and "Donna the Prima Donna". Maresca was also the songwriter behind one of my own favorite lesser known early 1960's songs, "Party Girl" by Bernadette Carroll. I stumbled upon the song again on a compilation album not that long ago.
(May 2013)
Several years ago, I found the bandleader Holly Ramos' website, where (in the pre-YouTube era) she had posted some songs from the Fur.CD. At that time, she was primarily an actress; that's understandable, since there are several photographs of her on/with the CD that hardly look like the same woman at all.
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As far as I am concerned, Pat Boone had a real feel for rhythm and blues, and his recordings have held up over the decades since they were made. But don't take my word for it; YouTube has dozens of them available for listening.
(June 2013/1)
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Any in-depth discussion of Bob Dylan inevitably comes to the supposedly controversial and dramatic "going electric", where he was booed at some concerts and called "Judas" at another. The single "Mixed Up Confusion" – the very first 45 released by Dylan – muddies those waters considerably, and this is perhaps the reason that this ground-breaking recording is given short shrift in both Wikipedia and Allmusic. In fact, I found almost nothing about the song except YouTube videos, lyric sheets, download sites, and the other usual Internet folderol.
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There are several YouTube songs by the Unknowns (also known as Bruce Joyner and the Unknowns); here is a striking performance taken from New Wave Theatre of their song "The Streets" (also known as “Shadows Stalk the Night”) that also shows off the other wacky stuff on that channel besides punk rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqRQcWJVnbk . This is another live performance (from 1990) of another great song, "Dream Sequence": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfg0sS8nhAY . If you need any other proof that the Unknowns are not like anybody else, check out this demo performance (audio only) of "Common Man": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO4_5A5pwEE . There are other Unknowns songs on YouTube, plus additional Bruce Joyner music from his bands the Plantations and Reconstruction.
(June 2013/2)
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YouTube has numerous Rip Chords songs on hand; their big hit "Hey Little Cobra" can be heard at www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc6FmZCT0Zc accompanied by numerous photographs of vintage hot rods. Plenty of playbacks of their follow-up Top 30 hit "Three Window Coupe" are available on YouTube, but here is a nice live performance of this song by the band in 2012, together with a well-known surf instrumental as the introduction whose name escapes me ("Pipeline"?): www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNRTGOOGhz8 . "Here I Stand", their first single that features Glen Campbell on guitar is available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMQx_Ycl7pw .
(July 2013)
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I have already noted my sorrow about the recent passing of Andy Colquhoun's bandmate in the Deviants, Mick Farren. I couldn't find anything in YouTube that is taken from Andy's solo CD's, so here are some killer Deviants cuts for you: "Lost Johnny", audio only (from the gloriously good 1996 album Fragments of Broken Probes) – www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpDOvLk7dtc ; "Police Car", from a live 1984 performance, though it is still audio only –www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWqt9boKKVo ; and a live track, "the Fury of the Mob" from a 2013 concert on the summer solstice (that's Andy Colquhoun on the right) – www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kW2Q-4ymcc . There are plenty of live Deviants songs on YouTube, but they are typically amateur videos having questionable sound quality.
(August 2013)
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There are actually a lot of websites out there that talk about Blair 1523: It might be surprising to some that a search of the band name in quotes brings up 18,100 hits on Google. The first page of Google hits has a YouTube video of "Fantasy of Folk", the Bomp! Mailorder site where the "last copies" of the CD can still be purchased plus another listing on Amazon.com, the mention of the band in my Wikipedia article on the Outcasts, the Allmusic review and the Julian Cope blog mentioned above, a listing on last.fm that actually has some information and even a photo of Blair 1523, and more barren listings on mtv.com, Discogs, and Rate Your Music . Further Google pages bring up other barebones listings – the one on Ticketmaster that offers concert tickets and tour schedules for a band that broke up 20 years ago is particularly hilarious – and other places to buy the CD and rate the music and see the lyrics and download "free" MP3's (Napster lives!).
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(September 2013)
Several songs by Jim Sullivan are available on YouTube; in fact, the entire album can be listened to, as is true of many obscure albums in fact. The title track of his album U.F.O., "U.F.O." is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH0l7nIMfw0 . The clever and humorous "So Natural" can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmymU89kWXw . And another great song from the album, "Highways" is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3I4TdOCVpw . These are all audio only of course.
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This band is definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea; the Ugly is the only rock band I have ever heard described as "Hoodlum Rock". The original version of "Disorder", as taken from their CD that is also called Disorder, is available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTMnaWon6nE . It turns out that the band released a single after all, "Stranded in the Laneway (of Love)" b/w "To Have Some Fun"; both sides of the 45 are on YouTube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_vOQt--ZCc . While "To Have Some Fun" is on the CD that I have, "Stranded in the Laneway" is not, so that song is new to me. These songs are audio only, though the latter clip includes several stills of the band.
Other news is that the Ugly has evidently reformed, and several recent live tracks are given on YouTube also. Try this live set from 2010 of the song "Revenge" (f-bombs flying as usual!): www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEazcLXbhB4 . The original lead singer, Mike Nightmare has passed away.
(November 2013)
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YouTube has the Nuggets track by the Magicians, "An Invitation to Cry" in several locations, such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJB-DKoXD1A . This version has several wedding invitations and shots of brides and grooms, and the like. I only found one other song by the band, "And I'll Tell the World (About You)"; this song can be heard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oPxNrOzyFE . This is a soft-rock song that is more like their other songs, from what I have heard; "An Invitation to Cry" is the song with an edge.
(December 2013)
