The Gurus: What if They Gave a Love-In and Nobody Came?

From 1966, please enjoy Greenwich Village stalwarts The Gurus and the A-side of the first of their two singles "Come Girl."

From All-Music:

One of the first rock bands to heavily incorporate Middle Eastern music into psychedelia, the Gurus in fact put more Middle Eastern influences into their sound than almost any rock band of the 1960s. Though the two singles they managed to release on United Artists in 1966 and 1967 were somewhat gimmicky, they were pretty fine, adventurous efforts mixing raga-rock with hypnotic melodies and wailing vocals. However, although a 1967 LP release was planned and even advertised, the album never came out, and the band broke up without having made a wide impact.

I will confess that I was completely unfamiliar with these guys. In fact, I only first became aware of them last Sunday, when a certain Shady Dame of my acquaintance discovered the aforementioned 45 single, complete with picture sleeve, in a box of her old vinyl stuff that had been sitting for years in a storage facility in our building in Forest Hills. It was in perfect condition, BTW, but since we don't have a turntable I immediately went to YouTube, which had a lot of the band's material, thus living up to its reputation as the Library at Alexandria of the Modern World.

In any event, the Gurus' album finally saw the light of day (via Sundazed Records) in 2003. You can order the CD version, which includes perhaps the most jaw-droppingly wiggy cover of "Louie Louie" ever heard by sentient mammalian ears...

...or stream it over at Amazon HERE.

BTW, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize© will be awarded the first reader who gleans the song's relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Fin de la Semaine essay question.