THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

The Four Greatest Pre-MTV Music Videos: Straight Outta Swinging London Courtesy of Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity

Brian Auger & the Trinity — “Black Cat”; Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity — “Break It Up”; Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity — “Season of the Witch”

Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity* define Swinging London for me. “Sadly short-lived, but the combination of Driscoll’s vocals and sex appeal and Auger’s musicanship was stunning for a while.” (Vernon Joynson, The Tapestry of Delights Revisited)

“Auger is one of the truly great Hammond slingers to come out of the UK in the 60s . . . . [He] wasn’t any run-of-the-mill organ grinder hammering out blues riffs with his elbows either. His roots were in jazz and he had the chops to bring the heat. . . . [JDBAT] created a grip of enduring dance floor classics, melding jazz, R&B, beat, and psychedelia”. (Larry)

“‘Jools’ was as much a sixties icon as Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy, but she neither sought nor enjoyed the attention.” (Duncan Heining) As Cathi Unsworth describes her:

For a brief moment in time, ‘Jools’ became ‘The Face’ of Swinging London. And what a face — huge eyes with dark shadow and long, long lashes dominated the heart-shaped, pale-lipped visage of this arresting beauty. Needing no unnecessary adornment, she wore her hair close-cropped and moved with a spider’s shadowy grace under layers of chiffon and feather boa. Her deep voice was just as captivating and the detached way she deployed her vocals added to the mystique.

Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth

Of course, Driscoll’s re-recording of “This Wheel’s on Fire” as the theme song to Absolutely Fabulous, but did you know that three songs from JDBAT’s ’67 debut LP Open, resulted in four absolutely fabulous music videos, surely the greatest of all pre-MTV videos?

Well, they did, and I feature them all today cause whatever I choose is cool because I am cool!

Two of the “videos” were part of a German Bee Gees TV special. “The set was designed by Guy Peelaert . . . . The whole show is awesome.” (DJKimiazHotLixx) Sagitta tells us that:

“Idea was a television special starring the Bee Gees with Brian Auger and The Trinity, Julie Driscoll and Lil Lindfors. It was aired on 11 December 1968 on Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen] ZDF. It was directed by Jean-Christophe Averty. Belgian artist Guy Peellaert provided art direction. This special was intended to promote their new album Idea on French television. The Bee Gees performed ten songs from their Horizontal and Idea LPs.

Brian Auger & the Trinity — “Black Cat”

Of this Open track and ’68 B-side (France) (that did not feature Driscoll) and the accompanying video:

• “What the Hell! This mind blowing!!! What music — what a video — 1968?! This has to be one the best things ever heard and seen on You Tube/what a gem !!!!!!” (gnjp8340)
• “Auger doing uh MTV video BEFORE! MTV began in 1981.” (petegobeckli1386)
• “In 1967, the keyboard innovator was fusing jazz and rock to create a fabulous Hammond B3 sound. ‘Black Cat’ is a smokin’ hot psych funk mod belter. Oh yeh baby! And as for the video…” (Richard Samuel)
• “‘Black Cat’ is where [Open] REALLY comes to life and hits you straight between the eyes. It’s a storming Jazz rocker with Brian Auger taking lead vocals. This is where Brian Auger gets to display his amazing dexterity on the Hammond organ with some incredible keyboard runs. His fingers literally fly over the keys like lightning on the . . . video that accompanies this barn-storming song. This song is no timid ‘Black Cat’. No, this is a growling black panther which leaps out at you and grabs your attention right from the first blast from Auger’s powerful Hammond organ.” (Psyechedelic Paul)
• “Auger wasn’t much of a vocalist, but he could dig deep and get the emotion out of a song — especially in a funky number like ‘Black Cat,’ which featured a killer though uncredited studio horn section.” (Thom Jurek)
• “‘Black Cat’ is a positively storming, monster of a tune, with a vocal by Auger (not all that common), heavy horn chart and some absolutely fiery Hammond action. . . . [I]t has more than enough momentum for the dancers (it’d fit right in if anyone ever decided to do a recreation of Swinging London right, I’m giving you the stink eye Austin Powers).” (Larry)

Here, Brian Auger & the Trinity and the Molly Dancers perform on West Germany’s Beat Club:

Here it is in Italiano!:

Here are Spain’s Los Dixie’s with a cool ’68 cover:

Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity — “Break It Up”

As to this Open track and ’67 B-side (France):

• “[T]he most 60’s video I’ve seen in my whole life”. (Goryllo)
• A “storming Jazz-Rock song.” (Psychedelic Paul)
• “Probably the greatest 60’s music video. . . . Years ahead of its time. Yes, the “Season of the Witch” video has an awesome set. It just drags a bit in length . . . and, in my opinion, is a rather underwhelming cover. Now, “Black Cat” I had neither heard before nor seen its video — and, wow! Yes, incredibly visually dynamic for its time. For me, it’s a tie between “Cat” and “Break.” This video, to me, is the best overall package — the strongest song with strong visuals.” (jeremyr.3180)
• “This one is very nice . . . but to me lacks the spark of genius of Cat (the sliding perspective in the white room making it look like musicians are zooming around) or the raw manpower of Witch (a huge set constructed with many very specific effects in mind).” (lqr824)
• “A warped Big Ben chime then introduces the Booker T/Stax influenced Break It Up, which really should be kept a secret from the samplers. Driscoll’s vocals sound more assured with this original number, going into Aretha Franklin territory in style, if not spirit. The vocal improvisations intertwine well with the piano, and the fadeout comes all too soon.” (Certif1ed)

Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity — “Season of the Witch”

As to this Open track and ’68 A-side (France) and its two fab videos:

• “deeply groovy” (David Pescovitz)
• “One day, I will reach Queen Witch levels this powerful. In honor of Halloween and the Season of the Witch, I present the indomitable JULIE F*CKING DRISCOLL, babes!” (Delia Celeste)
• “[T]he real highlight of the album . . . a song originally co-written and recorded by Scottish songsmith Donovan in 1966 and also famously covered by Vanilla Fudge . . . . This is spooky bedknobs and broomsticks music to listen to under a full moon on the night of Halloween with a glowing hollowed-out pumpkin for company, although in reality, the song is probably no more scary than a box of Black Magic chocolates.” (Psychedelic Paul)
• “A reading of Donovan’s ‘Season of the Witch’ that single-handedly established [Driscoll’s] reputation as a vocalist of great interpretative ability and emotional dexterity. Almost eight minutes in length, it is the perfect interplay for the quartet with its dark, smoky swirling energy and extant soul groove, and capos the album on a high note, making it a delightful precursor to the classic Streetnoise which was to follow.” (Thom Jurek)

Finally, Matthew Greenwald:

The final selection on the brilliant and underrated Open album, [JDBAT’s] reading of Donovan’s classic “Season of the Witch” fits the band’s jazzy/psychedelic threat like a glove. Taken at an even slower tempo than the author’s original, the song meanders around a downtempo, soul-intensified groove. Featuring both Julie Driscoll’s dark, soulful vocals and Brian Auger’s evocative Hammond organ, this song focuses on the band’s strongest overall vibe, to great effect. A slightly disturbing, dissonant, and powerful harmony vocal section in the middle of the song adds to the overall Halloween vibe and give the listener an even more accurate picture of the darkness that was already at hand throughout the counterculture movement. Cut at approximately the same time as the excellent Al Kooper/Stephen Stills version to be found on Super Session, one of these covers most likely influenced the other in terms and mood and feel.

Here is the segment from Idea:

Here is the utterly fab video of the song from the Norwegian TV special Groovy:

Here is all of Groovy:

Here is a live performance:

As to Julie Driscoll, Jason Ankeny tells us:

As a teen [she] oversaw the Yardbirds’ fan club, and it was the group’s manager and producer Giorgio Gomelsky who encouraged her to begin a performing career of her own. In 1963 she issued her debut pop single “Take Me by the Hand,” two years later joining the short-lived R&B combo Steampocket alongside Rod Stewart . . . John Baldry and organist Brian Auger. After [it] dissolved, Driscoll signed on with the Brian Auger Trinity, scoring a Top Five UK hit in 1968 with their rendition of Bob Dylan’s “This Wheel’s on Fire.” Dubbed “The Face” by the British music press, Driscoll’s striking looks and coolly sophisticated vocals earned her flavor of the month status, and she soon left Auger for a solo career. Her debut solo album 1969 heralded a significant shift away from pop, however, enlisting members of the Soft Machine and Blossom Toes to pursue a progressive jazz direction. Also contributing to the record was pianist Keith Tippett, whose avant garde ensembles Centipede and Ovary Lodge Driscoll soon joined. She and Tippert were later married, and she took her new husband’s name, also recording as Julie Tippetts. With her 1974 solo masterpiece Sunset Glow, she further explored improvisational vocal techniques in settings ranging from folk to free jazz. Two years later, [she] joined with Maggie Nicols, Phil Minton and Brian Ely to form the experimental vocal quartet Voice . . . .

As to the breakup with Brian Auger & Trinity, Driscoll explains:

“I suppose, I had a lot to get off my chest really[. ] But as we were doing a lot of travelling, I would have my guitar with me. I bought myself a Martin in New York, which I still have and which I love, and I started writing a lot of material[.] I was always searching for my identity. I think it was almost inevitable that the songs I was writing — because they were based on the guitar — would take on a different life. I suppose with hindsight, I was pulling in another direction. But I have to make this clear, it was not because I didn’t love the work I was doing with Brian Auger and the Trinity. I loved it and I would love it to this day. Brian had found what he wanted to do and he perfected that. Whereas, I really needed to find something else.”

As to Brian Auger, William Ruhlmann tells us:

[H]is swinging, jazzy keyboards remained at the fringes of British rock through the 1960s. His roots were in R&B-inflected jazz . . . and he thrived during the late ’60s and into the 1970s by playing adventurous, progressive music . . . . [F]or decades, [Auger swung] between jazz, rock, and R&B . . . . [He] was raised in London, where he took up the keyboards as a child and began to hear jazz by way of the American Armed Forces Network and an older brother’s record collection. By his teens, he was playing piano in clubs, and by 1962 he had formed the Brian Auger Trio . . . . [In] 1964, he won first place in the categories of “New Star” and “Jazz Piano” in a reader’s poll in the Melody Maker music paper, but the same year he abandoned jazz for a more R&B-oriented approach and expanded his group . . . as the Brian Auger Trinity. This group split up at the end of 1964, and Auger moved over to Hammond B-3 organ . . . . By mid-1965, Auger’s band had grown to include guitarist Vic Briggs and vocalists Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart, and Julie Driscoll, and was renamed Steampacket. More a loosely organized musical revue than a group, [it] lasted a year before Stewart and Baldry left and the band split. Auger retained Driscoll and brought in bass player Dave Ambrose and drummer Clive Thacker to form a unit that was billed as Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & the Trinity. . . . Open, was released in 1967 on Marmalade Records (owned by Auger’s manager, Giorgio Gomelsky), but they didn’t attract attention on record until the release of their single “This Wheel’s on Fire,” (music and lyrics by Bob Dylan and Rick Danko) in the spring of 1968 . . . . The disc hit the Top Five in the U.K., after which Open belatedly reached the British charts. Auger & the Trinity recorded the instrumental album Definitely What! (1968) without Driscoll, then brought her back for the double LP Streetnoise (1968) . . . . Driscoll quit during a U.S. tour, but the Trinity stayed together long enough to record Befour (1970) . . . before disbanding in July 1970. Auger put together a new band to play less commercial jazz-rock and facetiously called it the Oblivion Express, since he didn’t think it would last; instead, it became his perennial band name. . . . Their initial LP, Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express, was released in 1971, followed later the same year by A Better Land, but their first U.S. chart LP was Second Wind in June 1972 . . . . Meanwhile, Auger had moved to the U.S. in 1975, eventually settling in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As to Open, Thom Jurek opines that:

Open has been unfairly characterized as a kind of groove jazz rip, one that combines Wes Montgomery, Jimmy McGriff, and the rock sensibilities of the psychedelic era. Whatever. There are many tracks here, from deep grooved funky jazz to lilting ballads and greasy blues numbers and the skronky exotica number “Goodbye Jungle Telegraph.” Auger may not have been as gifted an organist as Alan Price technically, but he could more than hold his own on the Hammond B-3 (as evidenced by the first two tracks here which are instrumentals, “In And Out” and “Isola Nate”). He was also able to pull more sounds out of the instrument than any of his peers.

* “‘The idea of the Trinity’, [Auger] reflects, ‘was a combination of Blues, Motown and Messengers.’” (Atavachron (David))

See my website at bracefortheobscure60srock.com.