The English Freakbeat Series is a group of compilation albums that were issued by AIP Records featuring recordings that were released in the mid-1960s by English rock bands in the early punk, proto-punk, R&B, mod, and beat genres. The series served as a follow-up to the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP (which was originally released much earlier, in 1980); subtitled The Roots of Mod, this is the only album in the Pebbles series that is devoted to English music. When the English Freakbeat series was reissued as CDs in the 1990s, this LP was included as English Freakbeat, Volume 6. (More from Wikipedia)
Whatever else might be said of the Pink Fairies, the name and the “pinkness” clearly come from Twink; besides suggesting the name, he had been a member of a hard-rocking R&B band called the Fairies that formed in 1964. I first encountered this band on the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP – evidently the only LP in the entire Pebbles series to feature British music – that was subtitled “The Roots of Mod”. Three of the tracks on the LP and also the later CD, English Freakbeat, Volume 6 were by the Fairies; this was the first time in the series that a band got that many songs on an album. One of these songs, “Get Yourself Home” was later included in the second box set in the Nuggets series, Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969.
The music on the English Freakbeat Series is similar to what is on the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP that was mentioned earlier; indeed, when that album was reissued on CD in 1996, it was named English Freakbeat, Volume 6.
(March 2014/2)
* * *
Kim Fowley always wanted to be where the action was, so he relocated for a period of time to London by late 1963. One of the first fruits of his sojourn there might have been a rollicking cover version by Bo and Peep of the Sonny James/Tab Hunter romantic ballad “Young Love” that was released on Decca Records in 1964 not long after Fowley arrived in the UK. The long-time Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham was on hand, and it is clear from the record that the studio was jammed with people. Rumored to be among those participating in the recording are Mick Jagger (and perhaps other Stones), Gene Pitney and Kim Fowley. The song is included on the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP and the English Freakbeat, Volume 6 CD.
There is no question that Kim Fowley was there for the peculiar flip side of the Bo and Peep single, “The Rise of the Brighton Surf”, which is included as a CD bonus track on English Freakbeat, Volume 6. Andrew Loog Oldham and Kim Fowley are listed as the, uh, songwriters; and that is Fowley doing the vocalizing on a reworking of “The House of the Rising Sun” as a paean to the English coastal resort town of Brighton with lyrics that (as Greg Shaw says in the liner notes) appear to have been made up on the spot.
(January 2015/1)
