It’s a Mod, Mod World…

Occasional Albums Thing 069 - Various Artists “Modernists”/“Mod Jazz”/“Planet Mod”

Cheating here by, as I have done previously, lumping a bunch of related comps into one entry. So what we have here is music for Mods, in order of how they’re listed in the header there’s an Ace R&B/Soul comp, another Ace comp of Mod related Jazz and finally British Soul, R&B and Freakbeat produced by Shel Talmy for Planet Records. The Jazz and Planet collections are on coloured vinyl (Red and Orange).

One highlight from each you say ? OK, here goes…

From “Modernists”, which has a very cool sleeve image of some hip kids browsing in a 60’s record shop, it would be Chuck Higgins version of Titus Turner’s much recorded “All Around The World”, a proto-funk floorfiller making it’s first official appearance on vinyl. The album itself is a collection of the music of 1960’s Black America, it’s certainly all R&B, not quite what is now known as New Breed R&B, too early to be Funk, not exactly Jazz and too much of all those three to be considered Soul. But all of it has at one point or other been claimed to be Modernist by those that call themselves Mods, bearing in mind that everything from John Coltrane to Paul Weller via Prince Buster has been claimed by a Mod at some time in the last 60+ years. I’ll throw in a special mention too for final track “East Side” by Hank Jacob’s, a slow-groovy Jazz instrumental that conjures the feel of a late night taxi ride around a rainswept NYC.

From “Mod Jazz” (and there are many contenders to choose from) we’ll go for Billy Hawks “Whip It On Me”. Billy only made 2 albums, “The New Genius Of The Blues” and “Heavy Soul” (we see you Paul Weller, getting your second name check in this piece) in 1966 and 1968 respectively and then disappeared. “Whip It On Me” was released as the B-side of a single in France coupled with another track from “Heavy Soul” the driving “O Baby (I Believe I'm Losing You)”. Although the single carried the title “The New Genius Of the Blues” neither track appeared on that album. Both songs are Hammond heavy (Billy was an organist) Jazzy R&B groovers with minimal vocals by Billy. Both were picked up on by the Acid Jazz scenesters in the 80’s which is how they come to be extensively compiled since then. I’d point out that none of “Mod Jazz” is Jazz as in Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. It’s all more of a soul/jazz/latin crossover by the likes of Mongo Santamaria, Cal Tjader and Jimmy Witherspoon, although there are some contributions from proper Jazzers like Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Stitt, but from the poppier end of their catalogues. 

“Planet Mod” collects together releases helmed by Who and Kinks producer Shel Talmy for Planet Records. Planet most famously released records by Mod heroes The Creation whose biggest “hits” would be “Biff Bang Pow” and “Painter Man” (the latter covered by Boney M ! BTW Creation guitarist Eddie Phillips was actually the first guitarist to play guitar with a violin bow, not some guy from Led Zeppelin, you can hear it on their single “Makin’ Time”, and he was at one time asked to become the 2nd guitarist in The Who). There are some well known names included, John Lee Hooker, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Groundhogs…it’s not all skinny, bouffanted Mod boys wanting to be Pop stars. So what will we chose ? In this case it’s The Tribe’s crazed exhortation to join them doing “The Gamma Goochie”. The Tribe were the house band at the State Ballroom in Kilburn and were rushed into the studio in 1966 to record this cover of the song that was racing up the US charts in a version by The Kingsmen of “Louie Louie” fame (another Mod favourite dontcha know). To my thinking The Tribe did the better job on it.

One further note of interest about “Planet Mod”; track 2 on record 1 is by one Kenny Miller, an American singer and actor who featured in such cinematic classics as “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” and “Attack Of The Puppet People” (!), and is titled “Take My Tip”. It was the B-side of Kenny’s 1965 Stateside single “Restless”. The song had been written, recorded and also released as a B-side (to their single “I Pity The Fool”) by David Jones with his band the Manish Boys, also produced by Shel Talmy who no doubt suggested the tune to Mr Miller. What makes it interesting is that not only was “Take My Tip” the first song written by David Jones to be commercially released this is also the first recorded cover version of a song written by David Jones who, just a year later, and I’m sure many of you have figured this out already, changed his name to David Bowie.

Mod is a broad church musically. The Mods of the 1960’s were a fast moving, forward looking bunch, always desperate for the next new thing whether that be in the world of musical styles, the cut of a suit or modes of personal transport, ironic then that todays Mods are such a backward looking bunch. These three compilations cover 3 differing areas of music for and by Mods, some better than others as is the way with compilations, and, although there is a lot here, they don’t even scratch the surface of music for Modernists.

Chuck Higgins “All Around The World” - https://youtu.be/hBGM96OZy3Q?si=mtYD3Dx73r8EoVXJ

Billy Hawks “Whip It On Me” - https://youtu.be/QK9-vzVwfHs?si=f2uTHA6iYH8WfyW6

The Tribe “The Gamma Goochie” - https://youtu.be/gy5ojy_sv7o?si=ee9UbY5UCklfzAJB