An Early Clue to the New Direction: Special "Is the Heather in Bloom this Time of Year?" Edition

Hey everybody -- before we go any further, I just wanted to mention that your humble scribe and a certain Shady Dame of my acquaintance will be winging our way across the pond later today.

Destination: London. Where we'll be doing all sorts of fun stuff for the next several days. Of course, I'll try to keep you guys up to date as to what we're up to, British Isles wise, but posting may be, necessarily, a little erratic until we return next Wednesday.

Hey, give BG and I a break. I mean, the bottom line is -- damn, both of us need and deserve this vacation something fierce.

Okay, with that out of the way...From 1965, please enjoy The Beau Brummels and their spectacular cover of The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebatian-penned semi-obscure ode to "Good Time Music."

BTW, the Spoonful version, which is also wonderful, if lacking that great a capella choral intro the BBs appended to their arrangement...

...can be found on What's Shakin', the fabulous 1966 Elektra Records sampler pictured above.

Which is, BTW, worth getting for Al Kooper's early solo version of "I Can't Keep From Cryin'" (better known today from the remake he did with The Blues Project) all by itself.

You will perhaps not be surprised to learn that one of the proudest moments of my life was when I learned how to reproduce Kooper's piano solo from it note for note. (I can still play the thing, BTW.)

In any case, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize© will be awarded to the first reader who gleans the relevance of both our current travels AND "Good Time Music" to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Essay Question.

Which, you're welcome very much, I was thoughtful enough to have written prior to our departure.