The ringing, echo-drenched electric 12-string guitars on the debut single by Scottish rockers, The Poets, are such a striking sound for 1964 and yet a strangely familiar one: might it be possible that the band later reincarnated as Brian Jonestown Massacre?
“Now We’re Thru’” by The Poets (1964)
play at strong volume
What a revelation when one finds out — thanks to Richie Unterberger‘s interview with lead singer and songwriter, George Gallacher — “apparently, there were no 12-string guitars, but what there was, was the two guitars having the 1st and 2nd strings tuned the same, thereby creating a semi-12 string effect.” That very same year interestingly enough, Lou Reed would take this concept to the ultimate extreme when he tuned all six strings to the same note for his satiric (non) dance hit, “The Ostrich.”
With the utmost of commitment from each and every band member, “Now We’re Thru’” is a classic A-side from top to bottom, with the chiming guitars – and particularly the lonely vocal at song’s end – ratcheting up the mystery and angst. The song would find release in Japan (manufactured by the “other” King Records), as well as the US, Australia, and the UK, where the song charted at #31, doing particularly well in Scotland, confirms Unterberger in his (revised) history of ‘overlooked innovators and eccentric visionaries,’ Urban Spacemen and Wayfaring Strangers.
Billboard‘s December 12, 1964 edition gives the back story on the single’s release here in the States:
“Bob Crewe, independent record producer, has formed his own label, Dynovox, which will be distributed by Amy-Mala Records.
The label’s first release is ‘Now We’re Thru” by the Poets. Crewe is currently producing sides for the 4 Seasons, and current releases ‘Watch Out Sally‘ by Diane Renay on MGM; ‘Dusty‘ by the Rag Dolls on Amy-Mala; newcomer Michael Allen on MGM Records with ‘She,’ and the forthcoming Travey Dey release on Amy-Mala.
The New Crewe label will not confine its efforts to pop releases. The New York Youth Symphony and show and movie scores are being recorded for future releases.”
Unterberger attributes much of the “brilliance” of The Poets’ singles to their manager/producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, and proclaims the band to be “certainly the most talented act in Oldham’s production/management stable other than the Stones.” According to a November, 1964 edition of New Music Express, the band’s name is “presumably derived from the fact that they wear their hair Burns-style and have ruffled lace-fronted shirts.”
After recording two singles for Oldham’s Immediate label, The Poets would carry on for one more single after Gallacher’s departure – 1967’s “Wooden Spoon” – before disbanding. Wait a minute, 1967 is the birth year for Anton Newcombe: coincidence or musical reincarnation?
The Poets would reunite in 2011 for a live performance at Glasgow’s Eyes Wide Open club. Clink of the glass (yet again) to Tom Avazian for hipping me to this track via UK anthology album from 1983: 20 One-Hit Wonders, Volume 2.
1968 Crown Durango Electric 12-String
– courtesy of Drowning in Guitars –
Historical Sidebar:
First Electric 12-String Guitar on UK Recording
Tony Bacon’s Rickenbacker Electric 12 String, The Story of The Guitars, The Music, and The Great Players informs who the electric 12-string pioneers in the UK were:
In fact, [George] Harrison’s Rickenbacker wasn’t the first electric 12-string on a British recording session. That honour belongs to a Burns guitar played by Hank Marvin of The Shadows. Marvin, a Fender Stratocaster player, had teamed up with British guitar-maker, Jim Burns, to design a new solid-body six-string electric. Burns also came up with an electric 12-string, and around October, 1963, Marvin received an early sample of the Burns Double Six. He took it along to various sessions at EMI’s Abbey Road studios in London where he was recording with Cliff Richard & The Shadows.
Marvin intended to record “Don’t Talk to Him” using the Burns 12, but problems arose, so instead he doubled a six-string line to achieve the prominent hookline. A few weeks later, however, he recorded another Cliff session and played the prototype Burns 12-string for “On The Beach.” Unusually, the 12 was strung like a six-string bass plus octave strings, clearly heard on the song’s low-down double string runs. Later in November, Marvin used the Burns 12 with regular stringing for “I’m the Lonely One.” These Cliff Richard songs weren’t released until 1964 — in the UK singles chart, “I’m the Lonely One” went to Number 8 in February and “On the Beach” to 7 in July — but they are important as early British recordings of the electric 12-string sound.
The book goes on to say:
The very first release of a British record with electric 12-string — just ahead of The Beatles and well ahead of Cliff & The Shads — was the result of another Abbey Road session. Paul McCartney gave one of his songs to Peter & Gordon, a new duo signed to EMI. They recorded their single “A World Without Love” at Abbey Road in January 1964, with sessionman Vic Flick [of James Bond theme fame] on guitar.
