Plain Or Pan?
Vanilla Coke
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As requested, here’s the Vanilla Fudge Coke commercial. It’s a wah wah ‘n’ Hammond B3-heavy psychedelic freak out. Reminds me a bit of Deep Purple’s ‘Hush’. I’m not too familiar with Vanilla Fudge, so I’m not sure if this track is a pastiche of one of their other tracks. “20,000 eyes diggin’ Vanilla Fudge onstage with Coke!” Here you go.
Coke got soul
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Following on from a previous post a while back, here’s more Coke commercials from the 60’s. All soul tracks, all fantastic.
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell were well know for their duets (It Takes Two, The Onion Song, You’re All I Need To Get By etc etc). Less well known perhaps is the fact that Tammi rarely ever sang on any of these tracks. A hopeless alcoholic, she was usually replaced by any number of mimicking Motown session singers and no-one knew any better. So I have no idea if it really is her duetting here with Marvin, but this track swings like all those other tracks just mentioned.
“For the first time, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin the King and Queen of Soul, for Coca Cola.” This track sounds like they’re singing their hearts out in celebration of their love for one another - “You bring on the good times darlin’ you know that is so” and then you remember they’re singing about a fizzy drink! Sounds great though! Things go better with Coke indeed.
Otis Redding died way too young. He set the Monterey pop festival on fire. OK, Hendrix may have had yer actual flames on his strat, but it was Otis who had the whole hippy audience eating out the palm of his hand thanks to the inter-racial group (the MGs and the Mar Keys horns) and the sheer dynamism and soulfulness of his performance. You can get the Monterey video from any number of decent online DVD sellers. Do yourself a favour etc etc, and while you’re waiting for it to arrive, hear Otis put his heart and soul into a paen for the sweet taste of Coke here.
“Joe Tex talks to his baby!” And it’s a bottle of Coke! Pistol crack snare, tight horn section, tickling piano, a conservative bass line and that great Joe Tex vocal on top. Come on baby, let’s go! Here you are Quinny.
Got loads more of this stuff, so let me know what you want to hear next. The Bee Gees? Vanilla Fudge? More Aretha or Marvin? Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch? Who needs gimmicky Coke and iTunes promotions when Plain Or Pan is open for requests…..
*Added 5.12.07 More Coke tracks here!
Bloody crap computer viruses piss me right off
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Sorry folks. My PC has been virused to within a millimetre of death for the past 2 weeks. I think I’ve cleared it up, so new stuff will be up here very soon. In the meantime here’s some advice. If you find yourself virused, attach one of these onto your modem. It seems to have done the trick…..
TFC @ KEXP
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Teenage Fanclub live on the radio, Wednesday August 3rd 2005, at KEXP in Seattle to promote the release of ‘Man-Made’. What can you say about Teenage Fanclub that’s not been said already? Not a lot, which is why I’ll let the music do the talking this time. This session is an all-acoustic affair, although ‘Born Under a Good Sign’ benefits from some subtle fuzzed-up lead guitar, and sounds like a lost outtake from Forever Changes, or maybe even LA Woman-era Doors. Yep. It’s that good. This session is worth getting just for this track alone. In the interviews, Norman does most of the talking, which veers from golf, to “plodding along” as Teenage Fanclub, to playing dice with the Posies, to not listening to his own records. Not all that exciting, but as far as Teenage Fanclub material goes, you need it to fill the gaps in your collection, at least until their next album or single or song or verse or new chord or something comes out. Haste ye back Fannies, we’re missing you.
All tracks have been seperated, but if you burn them ‘gapless’ in Nero or whatever, you’ll get that full seemless radio listening experience.
Insert your own Teenage Fanclub ‘Radio’ joke here:
A potted history of The Primitives
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The Primitives were from Coventry and formed in 1985. They filled the gap post-Smiths and pre-Stone Roses and I bloody loved them. Their first single was ‘Thru The Flowers’ which was released in May of 1986. I’ve got it on super sexy seven inch and I am open to offers. It’s not the same version that appeared on their debut album ‘Lovely’. Initially, they were very primitive and all the songs were noisy and sloppy because that is how they played. The obvious focal point was Tracy Tracy who was cute as cute and looked a bit like Ruth Ellis (the last woman to be hanged in Britain). The others dressed head to toe in black, wore skinny jeans and pointy boots and had Ringo Starr circa 1965 haircuts. Paul the guitarist was clearly in love with Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground and had a great collection of guitars. The band went through more line-up changes than Spinal Tap. The original drummer Pete Tweedie wasn’t very good, so most of their early stuff was actually done with a drum machine (something most people don’t realize) and Pete would play the ride or hi hat. They released six singles with the sixth being a re-recorded version of ‘Thru The Flowers’ before they eventually signed to RCA in 1987.
In 1988 the album ‘Lovely’ was released and it is brilliant. It was a night and day change from their early singles. All of a sudden they knew how to play their instruments. The first change they made was getting rid of Pete the drummer. The other key to their sound was producer Paul Sampson who went back through all their old demos and found ‘Crash’ a song they had scraped. This was their only big hit and became a bit of an albatross for them. You’ve probably heard it. That guy from Busted has got a version out just now. It’s in the new Mr Bean movie. Honestly! Anyway, sales inevitably diminished, and the band continued to release great singles that only myself bought. ‘You Are The Way’ being a fine example. Co-written by Ian Broudie it shoulda been a massive hit. But wasn’t. The hidden jewel in their crown for me though is a track that originally appeared on the b-side of ‘Way Behind Me’ and was re-recorded with the guitarist singing. ‘All The Way Down’ is a brilliant piece of pseudo-Nuggets hammond ‘n’ bongos psychedelia and YOU NEED IT!
Of course, the band eventually petered out. Tracy added her vocals to some generic Ministry Of Sound pish dance track, and Paul is now a graphic designer. Download the 3 tracks above and remember them this way. And get over to Amazon or Play or wherever and pick up their Best Of for about £4.
tracy tracy ruth ellis
