"What's the name of your band?"

"I won't reveal that"

The story of my life

Continuing a recent trend, here's another band from Detroit. This time it's the Unrelated Segments. Both of the band's first two 45s were Top 10 in Detroit while the band was still in high school.

Guitarists Rory Mack and John Torock asked Ron Stults to sing for a band they were forming. Torock named the band The Unrelated Segments after a term he learned in an Economics class. The band wrote their first original song - "The Story Of My Life" - at their second rehearsal. A Michigan label called SVR Records signed the band and chose "The Story Of My Life" to be the Unrelated Segments first 45 in early 1967. The single (backed by "It's Unfair") was a Billboard Regional Breakout in April 1967. It did not make the Billboard Top 100 but was popular enough to get the Unrelated Segments 10 appearances on local TV.

The band also played a lot of shows in 1967. They appeared on bills with The Jeff Beck Group, The Spencer Davis Group, The MC5 and the Who. One night, the Unrelated Segments had The Amboy Dukes featuring Ted Nugent opening for them.

The local success of the band attracted Liberty Records, who released the Unrelated Segments' second single "Where You Gonna Go" was released in 1967. It is a good song. I prefer the b-side, a slow menacing song called "It's Gonna Rain".

Things started to fall apart in 1968. The band's third single "Cry, Cry, Cry" was not a hit. The flip side was "It's Not Fair", the same song (with a minor name change) that had been the flip of the first 45. Barry Van Engellen was drafted then drummer Andy Angolleti was let go after a disagreement with the band's manager. The band shortened their name to U.S. and then broke up.

Later, members of the Unrelated Segments recorded some demos for Rare Earth Records using the name Lost Nation. The songs were not released at the time.

Everywhere I go

everywhere

You should have been there

at the party last night

One hand in the darkness

Früt Of The Loom was a Detroit psychedelic band that started in 1966 to sometime in the early Seventies. The band didn’t record much, one self released 45 and two LPs that came out in 1971 and 1972, after the name had been shortened to Früt. I’ve never heard the LPs, the 45 though is pretty good.

Who knows how a copy of that 45 (on Loom Records) got from Detroit to a North Alabama flea market. It got banged up on the trip though, there’s a lot of dirt and scratches. I’d like to find a clean copy. One side has been re-issued on a comp. The other hasn’t. Both songs are pretty good though.

I tried to find out more about Früt Of The Loom. There a lot of mentions of the band on other sites but nothing really useful. Allmusic has some information and there is a picture here. There’s also what looks like a poster for a 2007 reunion show. No details though.

Better set you house in order

may be coming soon

2 + 2 is on my mind

Bob Seger doesn't want anyone to re-release the string of records he made in the late sixties. That's too bad because they are all very good records. A few have were included on a Cameo-Parkway box set a few years ago. The others have never been widely available since they were originally released.

I posted "Florida Time" by the Beach Bums yesterday. Seger doesn't appear on that song but he did sing on the A-side "The Ballad Of The Yellow Beret". It stinks - you don't need to hear it.

"East Side Story" was the first 45 Seger released under his own name. The record went to #3 in Detroit in 1966. In 1967, Seger recorded "Persecution Smith"/"Chain Smokin'" and "Vagrant Winter"/"Very Few" and "Heavy Music". These records were very popular in Michigan, some selling over 50,000 copies. Cameo records was not able to break Seger nationally though. They were busy going out of business. Capitol Records noticed Seger's record sales and signed him in 1968.

The first Capitol record was "2+2=?", one of the best anti-war songs ever recorded. The song's politics were probably what kept it from being a hit but it did go top 10 in Detroit. The next record is even better. "Ramblin Gamblin' Man" was Seger's first national hit, making the top 20 in the U.S. and Canada. Naturally it was a #1 record in Detroit. I never get tired of this song. Strangely, after "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man became popular, Capitol Records re-released "2+2=?". It still didn't get much airplay.

Seger's debut LP was released in 1969. It was supposed to be called TALES OF LUCY BLUE but the name was changed to take advantage of the success of "Ramblin'Gamblin' Man. The LP is as good as the singles, pick it up next time you see a copy.

The second LP - NOAH - is where things start to get strange. Seger was having some personal problems so a guy named Tom Neme was brought in to help out with the band. Neme's contributions aren't bad, they're just not what Seger would have done.

The events surrounding the recording of NOAH affected Seger so strongly that he went back to college and considered quitting music entirely. Which could be the reason Seger doesn't want any of these early records re-released. They probably bring up too many bad memories for him. It's too bad though, these records should be heard by more people.

Like to hit Nassau

but my wallet is dead

I'm a pilgrim

and a stranger

"The sky is very dark;

the Earth is bluish. Everything is seen very clearly"
- Yuri Gagarin

The greatest hit

The Blue Orchids were formed in 1979 by Una Baines & Martin Bramah who were founding members of the Fall. The Blue Orchids don't sound like The Fall. At times, they sound like Opal playing with The Neats.

In 1980, The Blue Orchids released 45 of "The Flood"/"Disney Boys" on Rough Trade records. This was followed by the band's first LP THE GREATEST HIT (MONEY MOUNTAIN) which I think is the band's best work. There was a Blue Orchids song on the NME's C-81 cassette. In 1982, the Blue Orchids did a tour of Europe as Nico's backup band. There was a 4-song EP on Rough Trade and then the Blue Orchids went on a long hiatus.

The first time I heard The Inspiral Carpets and some of the other Madchester bands, I thought that they sounded like the Blue Orchids. Martin Bramah must've noticed something too because restarted the Blue Orchids with a new set of musicians at around the same time.

(Yeah, it's another rerun.)

You and your folks,

me and my folks

Put it in a sock

Mary Hunt, Mildred Pratcher, and Shirley Thomas were working as backup vocalists in Memphis when Bill Justis hired them to sing on a song called "Down At Papa Joe’s”. It’s a good Dixieland-ish rock & roll song but I really like the flip side "Rock, Rock, Rock".

Justis called the trio The Dixiebelles and released the record on Sound Stage 7 Records. “Papa Joe’s” was a top 10 hit, another top twenty hit followed and the trio made an LP. I’ve never heard it. Billy Sherrill was the engineer on the sessions.

I’d never heard the Dixiebelles before I got the single but I got it because of the billing on the label. I figured any record that gave credit to Cornbread and Jerry (no last names) was worth hearing.

In this awful world of sorrow

on this wicked path of sin

Banzai Pipeline

Three
different
ones.

Why

don't you stop?

R.I.P.

Klaus Dinger.