We have left Denmark and the family arrived this week in London, certainly one of the great rock'n'roll cities in the world.
While the American garage bands of the 1960's loved and imitated the British Invasion bands, the British rock bands loved the American R&B and soul bands. The import/export market worked very very well and all borders were open.
It is damn hard to pick one London band or one London song. But we're going with one you might not but should know: "Tin Soldier" by The Small Faces:
"Tin Soldier" was released in 1967. It was written and sung by the great vocalist Steve Marriott. Mojo Magazine picked it as one of the top 10 British rock singles of all time. While beloved in the UK, it was inexplicably not a big hit in the US.
What an amazing band Small Faces were. You could spend a month on songs from that bunch... I guess most folks know that Jimi Hendrix was inspired by their song "Rolling Over" for the riff on "Purple Haze"? It is said that the missed a chance to "crack" the US when they turned down Hendrix' invitation to tour the US together. What might have been... but then, would we have that great Humble Pie material that Frank wrote about?
ReplyDeleteGreat song, great band. Mariott was one of the all-time best. And PP Arnold here on backing vocal.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PP_Arnold