Blues Magoos: 3 Classic Albums: Psychedelic Lollipop 1966 + Electric Comic Book 1967 + Basic Blues Magoos 1968

 

The Blues Magoos are an American rock group from The Bronx, a borough of New York City, United States. They were at the forefront of the psychedelic music trend, beginning in 1966. They are best

known for the hit song "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet".
The band was formed in 1964 as "The Trenchcoats". The original members were Emil "Peppy" Thielhelm aka "Peppy" Castro (vocals and guitar), Dennis LePore (lead guitar), Ralph Scala (organ and vocals), Ron Gilbert (bass) and Jon Finnegan (drums). The band made a name for itself in various clubs in Greenwich Village. The band changed its name first to the Bloos Magoos and by 1966 to the Blues Magoos. Mike Esposito joined as lead guitarist and Geoff Daking as drummer. 

 

The Blues Magoos are an American rock group from The Bronx, a borough of New York City, United States. They were at the forefront of the psychedelic music trend, beginning in 1966. They are best known for the hit song "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet".

The band was formed in 1964 as "The Trenchcoats". The original members were Emil "Peppy" Thielhelm aka "Peppy" Castro (vocals and guitar), Dennis LePore (lead guitar), Ralph Scala (organ and vocals), Ron Gilbert (bass) and Jon Finnegan (drums). The band made a name for itself in various clubs in Greenwich Village. The band changed its name first to the Bloos Magoos and by 1966 to the Blues Magoos. Mike Esposito joined as lead guitarist and Geoff Daking as drummer. 

                                                                                  

In late 1966, Mercury Records signed the band to a record deal and the group's debut album Psychedelic Lollipop was released shortly thereafter – following the 1966 trend to include the word "Psychedelic" on the sleeve (after the 13th Floor Elevators' The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, and The Deep's Psychedelic Moods, both also from 1966).

                                                                                

The group's most successful song was "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" reached number 5 on the U.S. charts, and number 4 in Canada.
The next single by the Blues Magoos was "There's A Chance We Can Make It".
The two albums released after Psychedelic Lollipop (Electric Comic Book and Basic Blues Magoos) were not successful. By 1968, the band split up.                                                                          

In 1981, Castro resurfaced again with the group Balance whose song "Breaking Away" reached No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In July 2008, the Blues Magoos with original members Ralph Scala, Castro and Geoff Daking reunited for the first time in years for two concerts, including one with The Zombies at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza in New York City. In December 2009 they traveled to Spain for the Purple Weekend festival.

                                                                             

In 2014, The Blues Magoos released their first new album in 43 years, titled Psychedelic Resurrection. The Blues Magoos toured in 2015.                                                                         

PSYCHEDELIC LOLLIPOP  1966

(AllMusic Review by Mark Deming)

The Blues Magoos sound less like psychedelic visionaries than a solid garage band with a taste for the blues on their debut album, Psychedelic Lollipop, though the lysergic reference of the title certainly put them ahead of the curve in 1966, when LSD was still obscure enough to be legal in much of the United States. The album leads off with the group's first and only major hit single, "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet," and unlike most albums released by one-hit wonders of the mid-'60s, the single isn't the most exciting song here. That honor goes to the Magoos' cover of J.D. Loudermilk's "Tobacco Road" (which

Lenny Kaye selected for his iconic garage rock compilation Nuggets), featuring some gutsy guitar work from Mike Esposito and Emil "Peppy" Thielhelm and impressive organ swells from Ralph Scala as the tune leans into a major rave-up midway through. Outside of that, Psychedelic Lollipop rarely sounds like a classic, but it's solid stuff -- the covers are chosen and played well (including a committed take on James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy"), the originals show the band knew their way around rock & roll, R&B, and blues with no small aplomb, and the band could stretch out on numbers like "Sometimes I Think About," "Worried Life Blues," and "Tobacco Road", while generating excitement and not losing the plot. Psychedelic Lollipop doesn't sound like the work of a great band, but certainly like one who were better than average, and considering how many bands who cranked out a single like "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" ended up making albums clogged with filler, it says a lot that even the weakest tracks here show this group had talent, ideas, and the know-how to make them work in the studio.

Blues Magoos ‎– Psychedelic Lollipop
Label: Repertoire Records ‎– REPUK 1049
Format: CD, Album, Reissue, 2005
Country: UK
Released: 1966
Genre: Rock
Style: Garage Rock, Psychedelic Rock

TRACKS

                                                                                

01. (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet (Written-By – Esposito, Seala, Gilbert)  2:18
02. Love Seems Doomed  (Written-By – Esposito, Seala, Gilbert)  3:02
03. Tobacco Road  (Written-By – J.D. Loudermilk)  4:42
04. Queen Of My Nights  (Written-By – D. Blue)  3:05
05. I'll Go Crazy  (Written-By – J. Brown)  2:03
06. Gotta Get Away  (Written-By – A. Gordon, R. Adams)  2:42
07. Sometimes I Think About  (Written-By – Theilhelm, Esposito, Seala, Gilbert)  4:13
08. One By One  (Written-By – Theilhelm, Gilbert)  2:52
09. Worried Life Blues  (Written-By – M. Marriweather)  3:53
10. She's Coming Home  (Written-By – H. Miller, R. Atkins)  2:43

Bonus Tracks (Single Versions)

11. Tobacco Road  (Written-By – J.D. Loudermilk)  4:42
12. Sometimes I Think About  (Written-By – Theilhelm, Esposito, Seala, Gilbert)  4:13
13. (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet  (Written-By – Esposito, Seala, Gilbert)  3:02
14. Gotta Get Away  (Written-By – A. Gordon, R. Adams)  2:41

Personnel

Ralph Scala – keyboards, vocals
Emil “Peppy” Theilhelm – guitar, vocals
Ron Gilbert – bass guitar, vocals
Mike Esposito – guitar
Geoff Daking – drums, percussion

MP3 @ 320 Size: 106 MB
Flac  Size: 274 MB

ELECTRIC COMIC BOOK 1967
                                                                                  

Electric Comic Book is the second album by the American rock band the Blues Magoos, the follow-up to their successful debut release Psychedelic Lollipop. The psychedelic garage rock style is followed

again on this release but without a high-charting single. A couple of tracks, "Intermission" and "That's All Folks" (a very brief, hard-rocking parody of the Looney Tunes end theme) showcase the band's bizarre sense of humor.
One single was released from Electric Comic Book, "Pipe Dream" b/w "There's a Chance We Can Make It". However, "Summer is the Man" and "Life is Just a Cher O'Bowlies" were released as B-sides of two singles from their next album, Basic Blues Magoos.

Blues Magoos ‎– Electric Comic Book
Label: Repertoire Records ‎– REPUK 1050
Format: CD, Album, Reissue 2004
Country: UK
Released: 1967
Genre: Rock
Style: Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock

TRACKS

01. Pipe Dream  (Written-By – Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)  2:26
02. There's A Chance We Can Make It  (Written-By – Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)  2:14
03. Life Is Just A Cher O'Bowlies  (Written-By – Emil Thielhelm, Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)  2:35
04. Gloria  (Written-By – Van Morrison)  6:02
05. Intermission  (Written-By – Michael Esposito)  1:05
06. Albert Common Is Dead  (Written-By – Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)  1:48
07. Summer Is The Man  (Written-By – Michael Esposito, Ronald Gilbert)  2:59
08. Baby, I Want You  (Written-By – Emil Thielhelm, Ronald Gilbert)  2:42
09. Let's Get Together  (Written-By – Jimmy Reed)  3:06
10. Take My Love  (Written-By – Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)  1:50
11. Rush Hour (Written-By – Emil Thielhelm, Geoffrey Daking, Michael Esposito, Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)  2:35
12. That's All Folks  (Written-By – Michael Esposito, Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)  0:08

Bonus Tracks (Single Versions)

13. So I'm Wrong And You Are Right  (Written-By – Lewis, Shorter  2:25
14. The People Had No Faces  (Written-By – Shorter) 2:50
15. Pipe Dream  (Written-By – Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)  2:25
16. There's A Chance We Can Make It (Written-By – Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)  2:14
17. One By One (Written-By – Emil Thielhelm, Ronald Gilbert) 2:45
18. Dante's Inferno  (Written-By – Emil Thielhelm, Geoffrey Daking, Michael Esposito, Ralph Scala, Ronald Gilbert)   3:23
19. Summer Is The Man  (Written-By – Esposito, Gilbert)  2:59
20. Life Is Just A Cher O'Bowlies (Written-By – Thielhelm, Scala, Gilbert)  2:35
21. Jingle Bells (Adapted By – Blues Magoos)  2:35
22. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (Written-By – H. Gillespie, J.F. Coats)  1:25
23. So I'm Wrong And You Are Right (Alternative Stereo Mix) (Written-By – Lewis, Shorter)  2:25

MP3 @ 320 Size: 131 MB

Flac  Size:  320 MB

BASIC BLUES MAGOOS 1968

(AllMusic Review by Lindsay Planer)  

Basic Blues Magoos (1968) -- the final long-player with the lineup of Ralph Scala (keyboards), Ronnie Gilbert (bass), Emil "Peppy" Thielheim (guitar), Mike Esposito (lead guitar) and Geoffrey Daking

(drums) -- is arguably their best and easily most progressive outing. Perhaps this can partially be credited to the combo's retreat from creating in the comparatively uninspired environs of a studio. Instead, they essentially cocooned themselves into their legendary Bronx, New York digs, which at one time had been inhabited by none other than Gram Parsons. The autonomy paid off, as did their sizable influence from the U.K.-derived mod and freakbeat scenes, kick-started no doubt by a recent tour with the Who.

TRACKS
  

 

01. Sybil Green (Of the in Between)  (Ron Gilbert / Ralph Scala / Emil Thielhelm)  02:41          
02. I Can Hear the Grass Grow  (Roy Wood)  02:18         
03. All the Better to See You With  02:19         
04. Yellow Rose  (Ron Gilbert / Emil Thielhelm)  02:30     
05. I Wanna Be There  (Ralph Scala / Emil Thielhelm)  02:57         
06. I Can Move a Mountain  (Emil Thielhelm)  03:49          
07. President's Council on Psychedelic Fitness   02:44     
08. Scarecrow's Love Affair  04:01     
09. There She Goes  (Mike Esposito / Ron Gilbert / Ralph Scala / Emil Thielhelm)  02:50          
10. Accidental Meditation  01:41         
11. You're Getting Old  04:14
12. Subliminal Sonic Laxative  01:05     
13. Chicken Wire Lady  (Ron Gilbert / Emil Thielhelm)  04:07          

MP3 @ 320 Size: 121 MB
Flac  Size: 300 MB