Time to put your feet up and enjoy another Friday morning coffee break, starting with one of the many, many bands called The Outsiders that popped up in Namesakes a few weeks back...
I do like my coffee hot. So hot, in fact, that I regularly burn the roof of my mouth. Which can't be good for me. The perfect cup of coffee should be just hot enough to not do that. But no cooler.
Benjamin Sherman Crothers began his musical career as a teenager in the 1930s. He took the name Scatman in reference to his improvisational singing style. Whenever I think of scat singing, I hear Louis Prima singing I Wanna Be Like You, from one of the first albums I ever owned (on cassette), the soundtrack of The Jungle Book. Scatman Crothers wasn't in The Jungle Book, but he did voice another famous cartoon character...
Do you know they only ever made one series of Hong Kong Phooey?
You don't say.
I find that impossible to believe, since it seemed to be on TV constantly when I was a kid.
You don't say.
I guess the karate craze didn't last long enough to support a second season.
You don't say.
(What did he say?
He didn't say.)
Scatman was also the voice of Scat Cat in the Aristocrats...
...and, later, Jazz The Autobot in The Transformers cartoon.
However, the role for which he'll forever be remembered is Dick Hallorann...
The Outsiders was one of the many, many comics I read when I was growing up. They were a team of off-beat superheroes put together by Batman when he fell out with the Justice League, though inevitably they ended up falling out with Batman too. Everyone falls out with Batman, because he's a bit of a dick, to be honest.
The Outsiders proved to be the most popular band name I've come across to date. Of the acts listed on discogs, I probably rejected more than I selected. These, then, are the cream of the Outsiders crop. You might want to put the kettle on and make yourself some sandwiches for later...
THE OUTSIDERS #1
I'm gonna start with this because it's excellent. Early 60s, that's about all I can tell you. There's a couple of other tracks on youtube by the same band, but they're very formulaic Beach Boys / Chuck Berry rip offs. This, on the other hand, is a cut above. Although it might owe a slight debt to Jimmy Dean's classic Big Bad John.
Dutch garage band who got together in 1964, comprising Wally Tax, Ronnie Splinter, Appie Rammers , Tom Krabbendam, Leendert "Buzz" Busch, and Frank Beek. Far be it from me to find comedy value in Dutch surnames. We're past all that - it's not the 1970s anymore, granddad, and this ain't Mind Your Language.
Look, George - one of them has a flute! Don't think he's playing it on this though...
Surrey-based Outsiders with a song written and produced by a young Jimmy Page in 1965. Guitarist Mick Wayne would later twang his strings as part of Bowie's Space Oddity.
1965 US garage band getting jealous over all the girls fancying guys with moptops. They might have called this a novelty record back in the day, but I still dig it, daddy-o. The guitarist is keen to tell us on youtube that he went on to play with The Left Banke.
These Outsiders were a garage band from Tampa Bay, Florida, led by singer Hardy Dyal. They released a couple of singles in 1965 & '66 and eventually changed their name to The Soul Trippers to avoid getting into conflict with all the other Outsiders.
Arguably the most successful Outsiders were this Ohio band who hit the US Top 10 in 1966 with the song below, followed by three more Top 40 hits. They were originally known as The Starfires, and after their break-up, various band members went to court to fight to continue using the name The Outsiders... ironic, considering how many other bands have used it since.
Wimbledon punks from the late 70s, led by Adrian Borland who would go on to form well-regarded post-punk band The Sound. Iffypedia tells me, "in sharp contrast, The Outsiders’ music received generally negative reviews". Which seems a little harsh to me...
This, on the other hand, I wouldn't have wasted my money on. Seven and a half minutes of jazz-rock fusion from 1989... live, to boot! Surely, not even George can dig this?
From Colne, Lancashire, where my old mate Dave grew up. Back in 1995, Dave would probably have been a similar age to the guys singing this... I wonder if they lived on his street?
Extra marks for the harmonica solo around the 2 minute mark...
Brazilian punks from 1996 who make a right old racket, but the fact that a 50" clip of their chaotic live show is preserved forever on the tube of you endears them to me greatly.
These guys are probably all middle-aged stockbrokers now...
Ingenious alternative spelling from these Peruvian rockers who released this track late last year...
I think 30 bands is the maximum I'll allow for this feature... but you should have heard some of the Outsiders I rejected. Ah, who am I kidding? You didn't hear more than a couple of the ones I allowed in. Still, when I'm lying on my deathbed and I look back on my life, I'll know it wasn't all a waste...
