THE PREMIERS
The Premiers were an American garage band in the 1960’s, best known for their 1964 hit, “Farmer John”. (More from Wikipedia)
There about midway through the fourth side of
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 was a song that I didn’t think quite fit in: “
Farmer John” by
the Premiers. It was earlier than any of the other tracks, dating from
1964, and it sounded like it was recorded live at somebody’s picnic. The lyrics were simple – “Farmer John . . . I’m in love with your daughter . . . whoa-oh-oooh” – as was the beat and the slow, loping groove; but it just kept growing on me. Eventually
Neil Young recorded a cover of the song in the same style on his excellent
1990 album
Ragged Glory. The songwriter is
Richard Berry – he is not related to
Chuck Berry but has some seminal songs to his credit nonetheless; “
Louie Louie” heads the list, but “
Have Love, Will Travel” is almost as good.
(See below).
Only last year did I discover that
the Premiers were a
Chicano band; there was a show on
PBS that explained how this band and so many other
Latin bands had been chased off the charts by the
British Invasion. They are hardly the only ones;
Question Mark and the Mysterians are a dynamite
Latino garage rock band with a big hit to their credit, “
96 Tears”. Their bandleader legally had his name changed to
? (though it was usually spelled out) decades before
Prince did something similar – at least
?’s was a pronounceable symbol.
Thee Midniters is yet a third one familiar to those in the know; generally bands who use “thee” are
Latino bands.
As I have thought it over though, I realize that
Hacienda sounds more like
the Premiers than anyone else I can think of, so maybe it is a special
Chicano sound that they have. I had originally brought up the latter band as a device to start talking about
Chicano rock bands – and as a way to write a tribute to one of my very, very favorite albums. In any case,
“Farmer John” is not to be missed, so I have included a link to a
YouTube video of the original 45 of this great song:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qz5Ax30T-E . (I am not positive that this is the one that was on
Nuggets, but it probably is, though the odd introduction about “Has anybody seen Kosher Pickled Herring?” is omitted).
(January 2011)
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To some extent, I think that Providence guides my hand as I am writing. For example, in the post about the UARB Hacienda (one of the few current bands that I have written about), I started out talking about the Premiers in an examination of Hispanic rock bands and artists. Their song “Farmer John” – which Neil Young covered much later – is the next-to-last song on the classic compilation album Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968 and also the oldest, dating from 1964. As I struggled with how best to describe their sound – having been dissatisfied with the descriptions I had read in reviews and other places, including their own label’s promotional material – I realized that Hacienda’s music was actually quite similar to this song by the Premiers.
(June 2013/2)
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