Enough

 

And there was another song that still stood out on Ear-Piercing Punk., though it was almost tame by comparison to a lot of these other great songs:  “Enough” by a band called Bohemian Vendetta. 

 

Bohemian Vendetta was originally called the Bohemians, and this line-up recorded two demo acetate singles, “Irresistible” b/w “Petrified, Like Stoned” (later called “Like Stoned”) and “I Don’t Go that Way” b/w “All Kinds of Lows and All Kinds of Highs”. 

 

After neither disc went anywhere, the lead guitarist and drummer quit and were replaced.  The newly-rechristened Bohemian Vendetta recorded three more songs:  “Enough” plus “Half the Time” and “How Does it Feel”.  United Artists Records picked up the first two songs and released them as a single in the spring of 1967.  “Enough” got some local radio play and even had a spot on Dick Clark’s “Rate-a-Record” on American Bandstand.  This was, er, enough to get the band some better gigs; they opened for Vanilla Fudge and also another Long Island band the Vagrants.  (The Vagrants had a regional hit song with Otis Redding’s “Respect” before Aretha Franklin’s version of “Respect” propelled them from the charts; bandmembers included Leslie West, later a member of the hard rock band Mountain).  

 

If I find a garage rock song on one of the many compilation albums in my collection that I truly love, I will often try to track down a retrospective album by the band to see what else they have recorded.  In this case, I found a 22-track CD on Distortions Records called Enough.  Unlike many such albums, which are basically collections of miscellaneous, unconnected songs, this Bohemian Vendetta CD really sounds like an album.  Highlights include the early single “Like Stoned” (which has the feel of a Dutch “Nederpop” song with its offbeat tune and unusual vocal style), their last single “Riddles and Fairytales” (both the album version and the 45 version are included), “Charity Killjoy” (which was bumped from the Mainstream Records album in favor of “Satisfaction”), the willfully eccentric “Paradox City”, and of course “Enough”, a plaintive plea from a guy who is fed up with his girlfriend. 

 

(April 2011)