Thursday, August 06, 2009

An Early Clue to the New Direction: Special Milli Vanilli Lives! Video Edition

From 1970, please enjoy bubblegum legends The Ohio Express and their infernally addictive (and more substantial than the genre usually gets) "Sausalito." Written by the great Graham Gouldman. Yes, the same guy who wrote "Bus Stop."



Okay, the interesting (I know, you'll be the judge of that) thing is that the guys in the clip were NOT the guys who played and sang the record. The clip guys, who admittedly have the then contemporary rock star look down pretty good, were a Mansfield, Ohio band called Sir Timothy & The Royals, who were renamed the Ohio Express and hired by the Kasenetz/Katz bubblegum factory to represent, as the kids say.

So who played on the record? Well, given Gouldman's fingerprints on the thing, you might guess it was his future band 10cc, and you'd be right; "Sausalito" is, in fact, the work of the same pop geniuses behind records like "Rubber Bullets" and "I'm Not in Love." Gouldman and company spent a year basically toiling as Brill Building hacks for Kasenetz and Katz; they had their own recording studio which they were trying to turn into a viable commercial enterprise at the time, and grinding out bubblegum tracks for K&K paid the bills. For more on the whole history of the Ohio Express, you should probably go over here.

And just to show you what a nice guy I am, here's a link so you can download a nice clean copy of the record itself. Love that twangy sitar!!!



In any case, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize will be awarded the first reader who gleans the clip's relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Listomania.

21 comments:

Kid Charlemagne said...

This could be a Kinks song!

steve simels said...

The riff is wonderful, actually.

Gummo said...

Hm, we've done city names already, haven't we?

Good music but those lyrics!

Groovy/like a movie

Oy.

Libby Spencer said...

Sweet song. As for the clue, I don't have one. We've already done food recently or I would guessed that with all the food references in the clue. And we did do New York City, and we've done streets but have we done songs about cities that are not New York?

ms. rosa said...

Great, great tune...

'Serious' (ahem!) Buddha-related bands?

TMink said...

State name bands?

Songs with sitar or other interesting instruments?

Front groups for songwriters?

Trey

Noam Sane said...

That's a Coral Electric Sitar, I believe, very popular in the day - think "Cry Like a Baby" by the Boxtops or "Hooked on a Feeling" by BJ Thomas. "Green Tambourine."

Ummm...songs that feature the Coral Electric Sitar?

steve simels said...

All good guesses, but noooooooooooo.

Let's see what kind of a hint I can give without being too obvious...

The title is irrelevant. So is the instrumentation....

FD13NYC said...

I miss Joey Levine's voice!

FD13NYC said...

Oh, groups lipsinking over other groups records?

Anonymous said...

Releases featuring someone else then the stated artist.

I'd state a few examples but might give away a few of your planned songs for tomorrow if I've guessed correctly.

ROTP(lumber)

MBowen said...

Have no clue, but damn, this is a great song. Thanks for posting it.

steve simels said...

Uh...okay.

It's about the song's genre.

Anonymous said...

Guilty pleasure favorite bubble gum songs?

ROTP(lumber)

The Kenosha Kid said...

Best songs written by Graham Gouldman?

For Your Love
No Milk Today
Bus Stop
Heart Full of Soul

dSmith said...

Songs from genres we might have hated at the time but sound much better in retrospect?

steve simels said...

You're getting close...

It's about the genre, by which I mean my personal affection for said genre....
:-)

dSmith said...

Guilty Pleasures?

steve simels said...


dSmith said...
Guilty Pleasures?


Not exactly, but close enough.

Your coveted PowerPop No-Prize can be found out on Highway 61. Congratulations!!!!

sidfinch1 said...

Boss song!

Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth!

John Shipley said...

this song kicks ass.