Pebbles, Volume 10 LP

PEBBLES, VOLUME 10 (LP)

Pebbles, Volume 10 is a compilation album among the LP’s in the Pebbles series. The music on this album has no relation to Pebbles, Volume 10 that was released on CD many years later. (More from Wikipedia)

As best I can recall, the above albums were the first two that I acquired in the Pebbles series that has filled my life with great, unknown 1960’s garage rock and psychedelic rock for more than 30 years. These LP’s, Pebbles, Volume 9 and Pebbles, Volume 10 were the last two albums in the first group of 10 that was released in 1979-1980, purportedly by BFD Records of Kookaburra, Australia. Actually, the series was masterminded by Greg Shaw, founder of Bomp! Records in North Hollywood.

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In 1983, another long series of Pebbles LP’s came out on a brand-new label called AIP Records (standing for “Archive International Productions”) that was openly affiliated with Bomp! Records. But even at that point, the idea that there were 10 volumes in the Pebbles series, and that these two (Pebbles, Volume 9 and Pebbles, Volume 10) were so good made me determined to get them all. Before it was over, I had purchased close to 100 LP’s and CD’s with the Pebbles name, and I still don’t have them all.

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On the back side of the Pebbles, Volume 9 and Pebbles, Volume 10 LP’s were cool liner notes that normally (not always) gave some information about the bands and the songs on the album. Greg Shaw wrote the liner notes for the original Pebbles release (they are available online now).

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The song that I love best on Pebbles, Volume 10 is “Train Kept A-Rollin’” by the Bold (also known as Steve Walker and the Bold) – actually there is a song by this band on both Pebbles, Volume 9 and Pebbles, Volume 10. This was the first time that I had heard this song; I have since collected several more that include versions of “Train Kept A-Rollin’” by luminaries like the Yardbirds and Aerosmith, and it has become one of my very favorite songs regardless of who is doing it. It is hard to top this blistering performance, however.

“Train Kept A-Rollin’” is a jump blues song that was originally recorded by Tiny Bradshaw in 1951; the 1956 rockabilly recording of “Train Kept A-Rollin’” by the Johnny Burnette Trio is said to be the first rock and roll record to deliberately use distorted guitar. (The trio is also known as the Rock and Roll Trio but are not to be confused with the Johnny Johnson Trio, where Chuck Berry started out). This song even predates Link Wray’s “Rumble” in this regard (that instrumental came out in 1958), though Wray is still the man credited with bringing power chords to rock guitar.

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Pebbles, Volume 10 was my first introduction to the Ugly Ducklings, one of the greatest 1960’s Canadian rock bands; I have written about them before on several occasions. The cut here is one of their best songs, “Just in Case You Wonder” (sometimes called “Just in Case You’re Wondering”); the liner notes mention: “Apparently they have reformed and released a new LP in 1980 with remakes of some of their classics, though not this one.” I managed to find that album – Off the Wall – and it now hangs on display in my office, completely battered by Hurricane Katrina and utterly unplayable.

Pebbles, Volume 10 is also how I came to find out about the Human Expression, one of several garage-rock and psychedelic-rock bands that I wrote about in Wikipedia in the pre-UARB days. The album also includes a song by the Ides of March that came out before their hit song, “Vehicle”; as well as an early song by the Five Americans of “Western Union” fame. “Primitive” by the Groupies, one of the best songs on this album was later featured on one of the Born Bad CD’s.

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Yet another band on the 10th Pebbles album, the Moonrakers featured members of the later band Sugarloaf that had two hit songs in the 1970’s: “Green Eyed Lady” (1970) that I simply loved back in my college days (there is a “long version” on their album, as well as the short version that is all they play anymore on the radio); and “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” (1975). The latter song was aimed at CBS Records (a/k/a Columbia Records) after they turned down Sugarloaf for a recording contract; in retaliation, the band included toward the end of the song the touch tones for an unlisted telephone number at the record company, plus those of a public number at the White House.

(July 2013)

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Items: Pebbles, Volume 10 LP