Friday, January 10, 2014

Your Friday Moment of Canadian Content

Okay, blame Canadia.

As you may recall from yesterday's post, I just discovered that my fave obscure Turtles song -- the Mann/Weill "Glitter and Gold," from the band's 1965 debut LP -- was actually a remake of an earlier Everly Brothers record.

And by accident, too; I learned it when I chanced across the following Sloan album at a download site I frequent. Which claimed, in the track listing, that the song was an Everlys cover. Who knew?




Sounds more like the Turtles version, if truth be told, but whatever. Very nice job, lads.

Anyway Sloan, who've been around for twenty years without a personnel change, are the closest thing our neighbors to the North have come, musically speaking, to The Beatles, unless you count The Wackers, which I do. They were actually one of the first bands I reviewed here after NYMary gave me the metaphorical keys to the car; in a piece on Sloan's 2007 album Never Hear the End of It, I noted that a friend had described it as "sounding like side two of Abbey Road extended into infinity," which moved me to listen to the thing for the first time in several years. Guess what: I still agree with that description.

The Everlys/Turtles cover above, incidentally, comes from a bonus disc included with their 1996 album One Chord to Another; titled Live at a Sloan Party, it's a tribute to the Beach Boys 1965 fake live unplugged album, and like that record it was actually recorded in the studio with applause and sound effects added later.

You can download the whole CD -- which also includes a nice cover of "I Can't Let Go" by The Hollies -- over HERE.

7 comments:

Shriner said...

I lurve Sloan. I think there's only one duffer album in their catalog.

They don't get near enough props, but they keep cranking out good album after good album.

Hannes A. Jónsson said...

Evie Sands you mean ;-)

FD13NYC said...

I agree with Shriner. Good band! Nice version of the song.

Hannes A. Jónsson said...

Btw, The turtles' version was the original ('65), while the Everlys' version was issued in 1966.
And Evie Sands recorded "I Can't Let Go" way before The Hollies ever did.

Anna said...

Ah, bless you, Steve...I just went through the LPs and pulled out the Wackers albums to play later because of your mention.

It's an effing shame that while other early 70s worthies like Big Star et al. have finally gotten their props, the Wackers never did.

Apparently, they've all been reissued on CD, but reviews at Amazon say that Collector's Choice did a crap job remastering them–a shame, since the LPs sound so good.

And, since we're talking Segarini, I'm running back downstairs to pull out the Dudes' LP, too. Not as solid as the Wackers, but the opening track, "Saturday Night", was *gorgeous*.

...and I'm betting that Steve knew that Evie did "I Can't Let Go" first, guys.. :)

Hannes A. Jónsson said...

You think?

Mark said...

Thanks for the SLOAN link, Steve.