Rockadrome - Royal American 20th Century blues (1969 CANADA) REQUEST
This Toronto, Ontario, band's album is one of the rarest to come out of Canada. Musically, it's a mixture of psychedelia, blues and rock. Some tracks like Inside Out, Inside In and Royal American Twentieth Century Blues Reprise sound strongly influenced by The Beatles circa Sergeant Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour. There's some nice guitar work on Thirteen Miles Down and a nice chimey intro to Good Dream. The remaining tracks are frankly rather ordinary. There was a repress in the late eighties, buy this before forking out for an original.
Shortly after recording this album, they also acted as session musicians for Hyde. Mike Clancy recalls:- "We had finished recording Royal American 20th Century Blues by Feb.'69. Art Snider, our exec. producer and owner of Sound Canada Studios - asked us if we would provide the back-ing music for this folk singer named Hyde. We were not really in a position to refuse, since Art had given Rockadrome so much free studio time. So we did it in two or three weeks. There was no real input from us, except to learn each tune and record it. After it was all over, we each received a copy of the album, and I don't think any of us ever saw him again."
Ron Dove, Paul LaChapelle and Mike Clancy also recorded a further album in 1969, backing The Allan Sisters, The Allan Sisters, Jackie and Coralie (Sound Canada SC-7704) 1969. This too was produced by Art Snider.
Ken Dove:- "Paul LaChapelle started his own recording studio in Oshawa in the early '70s and is still busy with that. Rick still plays on weekends and we all miss Ron very much. His wife also passed away about 10 months after he did. They left 3 kids who are very much thrilled about this Rockadrome album. We didn't know anything about the album being a collector's item until I came across the Psychedelic Music website and saw the Pepperisms album etc."
Mike Clancy had previously played drums in late 1962/3 with Jack Bailey and The Naturals, (from Peterborough, Ontario) and Jerry Warren and The Tremblers, (from Hamilton, Ontario). Both bands had recordings. (Dreams fantasies & nightmares)
Rockadrome hail from Ontario, Canada, and their album is one of the rarest to emanate from the country. The music contained on here is a mixture of rock, psyche and a touch of blues, and some of the tracks are definitely Beatles influenced. The album opens with 'R.A.T.C.B. Teaser', which is used as a theme throughout the album, with a reprise at the end and the main song later on the disc. The first proper song is 'Very Strange' - which it isn't. It is a nice taste of Canadian psyche with some fetching guitar-work, and is followed by the more bluesy 'Thirteen Miles Down' which includes the requisite blues guitar solo. The title track is split in two and done as a rock version and a psyche/pop version, both of which are very good, and 'There You Go Again' has a Byrdsian chime to it coupled with a Dylan-influenced vocal. 'Inside Out, Inside In' is one of the Beatles-y songs, but there is nothing wrong with that if it is done well, which this is. The intro to 'T.O. Town' has evinced comparisons with the Monkees as it is very similar to 'Last Train To Clarksville', but the song itself is a great garage rocker. 'Ain't It A Shame' is a little too close to goodtime pop for my liking, but put against the high quality of the rest of the album this can be forgiven. It was bootlegged in the 80's with a black and white cover, but you can now get an exact repro with colour sleeve, although it is quite pricey for the vinyl. Haven't seen it on CD for a while, but it usually follows fairly quickly, and when it does it is highly recommended. (Peter Jolly)
R.J. DOVE: lead gtr, vcls
MICHAEL R. CLANCY: gtr
RICK VALLIERES: drms
PAUL LACHAPELLE: bs
1 r.a.t.c.b. teaser
2 very strange
3 thirteen miles down
4 royal american 20th century blues
5 live and love child
6 there you go again
7 inside out, inside in
8 t.o. town
9 ain't it a shame
10 good dream
11 r.a.t.c.b. reprise
|
