 |
| Drugs, yes, sex and rock 'n' roll optional. |
The Hit
Actually didn’t know “Sugar on Sunday” until this past week. It’s pretty generic late-60s pop-rock (1969, specifically), but it’s a pretty tune, bright instrumentation (think that mincing electric organ that paces the melody), and laced through with good, ear-wormy hooks (“femme jolie, femme jolie). It’s about lover’s parting…and that’s all I’ve got.
The Rest of the Story
To anyone thinking “Sugar on Sunday” sounds a whole lot like something else, you’re on to something. Tommy James, yes, the frontman to The Shondells, not only wrote the tune, he also performed it. That wouldn’t be the only occasion – and this quote covers a lotta ground:
“Tommy James came through and gave us our third single on White Whale called Sparkle and Shine, but I guess it should have been called Fizzle and Die, as the flame went out somewhere around 100 on the Billboard charts.”
Actually didn’t know “Sugar on Sunday” until this past week. It’s pretty generic late-60s pop-rock (1969, specifically), but it’s a pretty tune, bright instrumentation (think that mincing electric organ that paces the melody), and laced through with good, ear-wormy hooks (“femme jolie, femme jolie). It’s about lover’s parting…and that’s all I’ve got.
The Rest of the Story
To anyone thinking “Sugar on Sunday” sounds a whole lot like something else, you’re on to something. Tommy James, yes, the frontman to The Shondells, not only wrote the tune, he also performed it. That wouldn’t be the only occasion – and this quote covers a lotta ground:
“Tommy James came through and gave us our third single on White Whale called Sparkle and Shine, but I guess it should have been called Fizzle and Die, as the flame went out somewhere around 100 on the Billboard charts.”
Give “Sparkle and Shine” a listen or three and you’ll see that Oscar Houchins – the band’s…second keyboardist - has a point. The few sources I found on The Clique don’t clarify whether they count as actual proteges to Tommy James, but it does make clear that they looked to James and a guy named Gary Zekley for hit-worthy material.
If there’s a key phrase in this entire post, it’s “second keyboardist.” I can’t identify even one member that I’d call a key or central member to the band. Jerry Cope replaced John Kanesaw on drums; Tom Pena replaced Bruce Tinch on bass; Houchins replaced Sid Templeton, who’d already replaced Larry Lawson on keys; Bill Black replaced Cooper Hawthorne on lead guitar, etc.: and all that churn took place before they recorded Tommy James’ hit. Houchins stayed in music – even worked with Wilco once – and one of the members as yet unnamed, Randy Shaw (vocals and horns) might even have had the bigger career (e.g., “at one time the highest-paid entertainer in Seattle”), but the rest took straight jobs. Call this a comment, call it a punchline, but this sums things up nicely:
If there’s a key phrase in this entire post, it’s “second keyboardist.” I can’t identify even one member that I’d call a key or central member to the band. Jerry Cope replaced John Kanesaw on drums; Tom Pena replaced Bruce Tinch on bass; Houchins replaced Sid Templeton, who’d already replaced Larry Lawson on keys; Bill Black replaced Cooper Hawthorne on lead guitar, etc.: and all that churn took place before they recorded Tommy James’ hit. Houchins stayed in music – even worked with Wilco once – and one of the members as yet unnamed, Randy Shaw (vocals and horns) might even have had the bigger career (e.g., “at one time the highest-paid entertainer in Seattle”), but the rest took straight jobs. Call this a comment, call it a punchline, but this sums things up nicely:
“White Whale member Tommy Pena: bass player and anesthesiologist.”
The “White Whale” in that sentence refers to a record label based in the “Golden Triangle” of Texas – e.g., an area with Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange at its corners. The Clique started in Beaumont, but later relocated to Houston, the nearest big city, and operated out of there for the brief time they were around. This was all pretty much during and around 1969, and…that’s more or less the entire story for this bunch. I don’t like how that sounds, for what it's worth, or even the whole “one-hit wonder” label, because it looks past the fairly unique and weird reality that all these bands experienced. Even a run as short and random as The Cliques puts them in a reality that the vast majority of human people will ever live. With that in mind, here’s a parting shot:
“If you can believe this we were headlining the show and Grand Funk Railroad was our opener. The fans, well, I should say the girls, were crazed. They actually had to stop the show halfway through our set to remove many of them from the stage. We then knew in a small way what it must have been like to be a Beatle.”
Again with The Beatles, the one, eternal fixed point of reference.
About the Sampler
The Clique’s discography, and the unanswered questions around it, easily rates as the most interesting thing about them. They put out only two albums – an eponymous debut and a sharply titled follow-up, The Self-Preservation Society (good band name, fwiw) – and one right after the other, but, even the B-side of The Clique shows a different, harder-edged sound. Rather than drag this out with all the questions, here’s the big one: did the Zekley/James writing team write, say, “Memphis,” or “Southbound Wind,” or did they only supply the “sunshine pop” A-side tracks to sell The Clique’s records like, say, their other, near-hit, “I’ll Hold Out My Hand” (didn’t make the sample) or the slightly heavier “I’m Alive” (yeah, yeah, “Southbound Wind” is hardly a “rocker,” and “I’ll Hold Out My Hand” didn’t make the sampler).
The reason those songs strike me as significant follows from the sound I got out of “125,” “Reggie” (clearly not a "mod" tune, even if the inspiration works out), and “Why Do I Cry” (related, this is not a "1993 demo"), all from The Self-Preservation Society (and all on the sampler): heavier, darker, trending toward other hits from the era – e.g., “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” etc. And that’s the other question: if The Clique put out one more album, what would that have sounded like?
Right, that’s everything. Oh, one more note: R.E.M.’s “Superman”? The Clique did it first (just to note it, that's the album version, but I kept the single version for the sampler, because it’s better/leaner).
Source(s)
Wikipedia – The Clique
Wikipedia – Sunshine Pop
Houston Chronicle Retrospective (2008, about some reunion shows and who’s still around)
Pop Diggers Overview (2006; short and pretty favorable: "worthy enough of inclusion in any decent jukebox")
No comments:
Post a Comment