Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

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Charlie O.
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Charlie O. » 31 May 2008, 21:31

Billybob Dylan wrote:
Quaco wrote:And his version of "Lies" totally works

That isn't The Knickerbockers' Lies by any chance, is it?


Nancy Sinatra did a good version of that.
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Jeff K » 31 May 2008, 21:37

A. wrote:Bump.

So what should the next band in this series be?


I'd like to see someone take a stab at some of the bubblegum bands. I'd do it but there's so much of this stuff that I don't have that it wouldn't be comprehensive enough.
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Charlie O. » 28 Aug 2010, 04:13

Quaco wrote:Listen! was particularly interesting to me, as it was I guess meant to be sort of his Revolver. The songs get stranger, and hearing normal Gary singing them both makes him seem more normal and the songs seem even stranger. "Bring the Whole Family" (a song about a family that obsessively gambles together) is somehow totally wrong for him, but all the weirder for it. It sounds like something Sharon Tate would have listened to. And yet, Lewis excels at wistful teenage stuff like "Young and Carefree", one of his many Beach Boys-type tunes.

This is about to be released as a stereo/mono two-fer (yay!) on Now Sounds (a Cherry Red imprint). I may have to pick it up.
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Re:

Postby Nolamike » 28 Aug 2010, 04:25

Jimbo wrote:Gary Lewis and the Playboys is the band that comes first to my mind when I think of the Tom Hank's movie, That Thing You Do.


Billybob wrote:
Quaco wrote:And his version of "Lies" totally works

That isn't The Knickerbockers' Lies by any chance, is it?



Funny thing, the Knickerbockers' "Lies" is what comes to mind when I think of the Tom Hank's movie, That Thing You Do.

I have a ridiculously disproportionate amount of love (quality to love) for that flick.
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Snarfyguy » 28 Aug 2010, 05:31

Snarfyguy wrote:
DougR wrote:Their set consisted of a few originals and covers of an assortment of Beatles songs and 60's hits.

It really disappoints me when I see an older band and they play lots of covers they weren't known for.

As long as things are coming and going around again in this thread, it's funny to see this grouse above, from a couple of years before I nearly had a coronary about the very topic at an Association show.
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Charlie O. » 28 Aug 2010, 05:56

Snarfyguy wrote:
Snarfyguy wrote:
DougR wrote:Their set consisted of a few originals and covers of an assortment of Beatles songs and 60's hits.

It really disappoints me when I see an older band and they play lots of covers they weren't known for.

As long as things are coming and going around again in this thread, it's funny to see this grouse above, from a couple of years before I nearly had a coronary about the very topic at an Association show.

Funny, too, that I went to see Herman's Hermits Featuring Peter Noone tonight - and as mentioned on your Association thread, they do the same thing. BritishInvasionmania. (Still a very enjoyable show, though.)
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Re:

Postby Muskrat » 28 Aug 2010, 23:36

Muskrat wrote:Warning: the Hoffman forum is a hotbed of Gary Lewis fans. Your ultimate resource if you want info in mono-stereo, non-album b sides and the like.



As I said...

And this. Both threads are current.
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Re: Re:

Postby Quaco » 29 Aug 2010, 04:21

Muskrat wrote:And this. Both threads are current.

YEAH!
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Charlie O. » 01 Apr 2012, 06:01

Charlie O. wrote:
Quaco wrote:Listen! was particularly interesting to me, as it was I guess meant to be sort of his Revolver. The songs get stranger, and hearing normal Gary singing them both makes him seem more normal and the songs seem even stranger. "Bring the Whole Family" (a song about a family that obsessively gambles together) is somehow totally wrong for him, but all the weirder for it. It sounds like something Sharon Tate would have listened to. And yet, Lewis excels at wistful teenage stuff like "Young and Carefree", one of his many Beach Boys-type tunes.

This is about to be released as a stereo/mono two-fer (yay!) on Now Sounds (a Cherry Red imprint). I may have to pick it up.

I finally did! I started listening to it (mono mix) on the way home from work - got through "Reason To Believe" (first song on the original Side 2).

Wow - really good! I'm inclined to think that that's in spite of Gary's singing... nonetheless, the disconnect Quaco speaks of above is key. Actually, I think maybe it has the effect of making Gary seem stranger, rather than more normal - like he's in the middle of a breakdown or something.

Jack Nitzsche (who arranged the album) was a genius. We were not worthy.

(D'you think the Beatles heard this album? I'm probably just reading into it, but this version of Tim Hardin's "Don't Make Promises" sounds almost like a missing link between "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "Dear Prudence"... and look, here's a song called "Look, Here Comes The Sun", two years before Abbey Road!)
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Quaco » 01 Apr 2012, 06:14

Charlie O. wrote:(D'you think the Beatles heard this album? I'm probably just reading into it, but this version of Tim Hardin's "Don't Make Promises" sounds almost like a missing link between "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "Dear Prudence"... and look, here's a song called "Look, Here Comes The Sun", two years before Abbey Road!)

I definitely think "...Promises..." is a "Lucy..." ripoff. Though it shares the same chord progression as "Dear Prudence", I'm not sure The Beatles needed a missing link per se between "Lucy..." and "...Prudence". The "...Prudence" progression is not so strange that they would need to have heard the Lewis tune to come up with it. But it is like a combo of those two tunes.

But the idea of "Look Here Comes the Sun" influencing Harrison, that seems ever so slightly more possible. It's a nice thought anyway!
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Re: Re:

Postby Jimbo » 01 Apr 2012, 20:46

Nolamike wrote:

I have a ridiculously disproportionate amount of love (quality to love) for that flick.


Well then you will just have to kiss my ring when i tell you that two nights ago I went to see Fountains of Wayne here in Tokyo and the opening act was a guy I never heard of named Mike Viola. It was just he and his guitar doing some really good, original (power) pop songs. For his last number Adam Schlesinger came out with his bass and they performed "That Thing You Do." I read later Viola co-wrote the song and was the singing voice in the film. :D
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Re: Re:

Postby Charlie O. » 01 Apr 2012, 23:39

Jimbo2 wrote:
Nolamike wrote:

I have a ridiculously disproportionate amount of love (quality to love) for that flick.


Well then you will just have to kiss my ring when i tell you that two nights ago I went to see Fountains of Wayne here in Tokyo and the opening act was a guy I never heard of named Mike Viola. It was just he and his guitar doing some really good, original (power) pop songs. For his last number Adam Schlesinger came out with his bass and they performed "That Thing You Do." I read later Viola co-wrote the song and was the singing voice in the film. :D

If it's the guy I'm thinking of, he used to front a band called the Candy Store Butchers.

I saw him once, too, but I didn't like him. :)
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Re: Re:

Postby Jimbo » 01 Apr 2012, 23:44

Charlie O. wrote: he used to front a band called the Candy Store Butchers.

I saw him once, too, but I didn't like him. :)


That's the guy. Was his music too sweet for you?
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Charlie O. » 01 Apr 2012, 23:52

No, I don't remember it being particularly sweet. I just didn't think the songs were that good, and I found him annoying to watch. (I've never actually listened to one of his records, though.)
Last edited by Charlie O. on 16 Jul 2022, 06:08, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Muskrat » 02 Apr 2012, 02:12

Charlie O. wrote:No, I don't remember it being particularly sweet.


I think there was a joke there involving "sweet" and "candy store."

Clever of you to play it straight in your answer.

Inndicentally, the old group was the Candy Butchers.
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Charlie O. » 02 Apr 2012, 03:09

Muskrat wrote:Inndicentally, the old group was the Candy Butchers.

Right you are - though I wouldn't say there's anything particularly inndicent about the name.
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Charlie O. » 24 Jan 2014, 22:03

Just read this brief item in the February 1968 issue of Hit Parader (in the "Granny's Gossip" column - italics hers):

When Neil Young left the Buffalo Springfield temporarily last summer, he worked with arranger Jack Nitzche. Jack had to arrange a Gary Lewis album in one day, so he gave half the job to Neil. One of the songs Neil arranged was "Jill" and it became a hit for Gary...


Hmmm.
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Re: Not cool enough (#2) - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

Postby Quaco » 15 Jul 2022, 23:19

Charlie O. wrote:Just read this brief item in the February 1968 issue of Hit Parader (in the "Granny's Gossip" column - italics hers):

When Neil Young left the Buffalo Springfield temporarily last summer, he worked with arranger Jack Nitzche. Jack had to arrange a Gary Lewis album in one day, so he gave half the job to Neil. One of the songs Neil arranged was "Jill" and it became a hit for Gary...


Hmmm.

Wow, kudos to Neil. That's a great arrangement. Neil was always best when in an echoey '60s recording studio rather than a '70s barn.
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