The History of the Scrapped 2nd UK Album

1. History
2. Legal Issues
3. Vigil vs. the “scrapped” album
4. Olympic Sound, London – July/August 1967
5. A & M Studios, New York City – August 1967
6. Pye Studios, London with Bill Shepard – September/December 1967
7. ‘Hello, How Are You’ sessions with Alan Tew and later sessions at  Pye and Central Sound – January/June 1968
8. Notes

RECORDING DETAILS

June 1967 until August 1967. Studio: Olympic Sound Studios, London.
August 1967. Studio: A & M Studios, New York City. (“Falling Off the Edge of the World”)
Late 1967 until 1968. Studio: Pye Studios, London (‘Land of Make Believe’, ‘Music Goes Round My Head’, ‘Come In You’ll Get Pneumonia’, ‘Hello, How Are You’, ‘Peculiar Hole In The Sky’, ‘Little Red Jug’, ‘Amanda Story’).

Producer: Glyn Johns and The Easybeats.

HISTORY

In mid 1967, the creative momentum still strong with The Easybeats and the band started work on their next album.  The group chose Good Friday engineer and then emerging producer Glyn Johns (who would later go on to produce The Who and The Beatles).  The group returned to the famed Olympic Sound Studios where they had recorded their last single ‘Heaven and Hell’ on 6th May.  With Snowy Fleet staying back in Australia after their recent tour in May, the band hired friend and session musician Freddie Smith to sit on drums until a replacement for their departed comrade could be found.

The songs Harry and George had written for this album were a solid mixture of hard rock songs (‘Good Times’ and ‘My Old Man’s A Groovy Old Man’), epic ballads (‘We’ll Make It Together’) and psychedelic power pop (‘Station on Third Avenue’, ‘Mr. Riley of Higginbottom & Clive’).   During the sessions, Small Faces vocalist Steve Marriott stopped by the studio to lend his vocals to the track ‘Good Times’ and (according to Disc and Music Echo) ‘We’ll Make It Together’.  According to band manager Mike Vaughan:

“Apparently Steve Marriott was driving back to London from a date at Margate and stopped by the Olympic Sound studios at Barnes.  He said he felt like signing – and joined in with the group”

Mike Vaughan. Disc and Music Echo. July 29, 1967

In the same month that Sgt. Pepper was released, The Easybeats were on their way into the psychedelic age.

In August, the band left for the U.S. for their nationwide tour.  According to Disc and Music Echo (August 5th, 1967), John’s was due to join them after the tour in September to record what was mean to be the “final” track for the album.  The group instead recorded ‘Falling Off The Edge of The World’ at New York’s A & M Studios at the beginning of the tour in August.

When they returned to the U.K., more recording took place at Pye Studios in London with arranger Bill Shepard providing strings to Olympic Studios tracks and record new ones including their follow-up singles ‘Hello, How Are You’ and ‘The Music Goes Round My Head’.  Further sessions at Trident Studios and Central Sound would continue until mid 1968.  12 months of recording would eventually be released as Vigil in June 1968.  The released album has been criticized for being unfocused.  A hodge-podge of the different musical directions the group took during that time to play catch-up to the changing landscape of the mid 1960’s.

LEGAL ISSUES

Another factor that has been cited by the group as the cause of the album’s delay is legal dispute The Easybeats, and their management, would be caught up in with their Australian label – Albert Productions. When the Easybeats were first signed to the production company in 1965, they had signed a world-wide deal with giving Albert Productions (the record music arm) rights to their recorded material and Albert Publishing Pty. the rights to all songs written by the members of the group in Australia, with other companies in other regions. Because of the agreement, when their manager Mike Vaughn had struck a deal with the U.S. label  United Artists Records in mid-1966, he actually engineered a “lease agreement” between Albert Productions and U.A. This meant Albert Productions would own the rights to the recordings which they leased out to Parlophone in Australia and through United Artists for the U.S, U.K., Canada and other countries in Western Europe (in the U.K. and Europe EMI handled distribution while in the U.S., U.A. would do this themselves). This was a five-year contract with the option for yearly renewal after that. The initial U.A. agreement was a short-term agreement to cover the release of ‘Women’ in the U.S. and ‘Come and See Her’ in the U.K. A formal contract was signed in New York between Albert Productions Managing Director and the band’s long time Producer Ted Albert and U.A. President Michael Stewart on July 16, 1966.

In the beginning, this worked fine. After the false start  – with the rejected attempt at recording a single at Abbey Road Studios (two were recorded, ‘Baby, I’m Coming’ and ‘Mandy’,  produced by Ted Albert), the group signed a production agreement with Shel Talmy for their next recordings. Shel Talmy was known for his early success with The Who and The Kinks.

“So the band’s financier and “head honcho”, Ted Albert, scion of the established J Albert & Sons publishing company in Australia, brought the band to London, in search of much wider acceptance.

The deal that (Mike) Vaughan made with UA, included anointing Albert as the Easybeats producer

I never heard them, but evidently what Albert produced for the band in London was so bad, that U.A. removed him as the producer, and Vaughan had to find a replacement, and so found his way to me.”

Shel Talmy. Facebook. 9th March, 2021

The group and their management directed IBC Studios to send mono and stereo mixes and, eventually the multi-tracks, to United Artists in New York (rather than Albert Productions in Sydney). U.A. in New York would duplicate the masters and pass copies onto their subsidiaries in the U.K. and Europe. U.A. would then send Albert Productions copies of the master tapes, which must have annoyed Alberts considering they owned and paid for the original master tapes.

When ‘Friday on My Mind’ and the Good Friday album was completed, United Artists directed royalty’s to Albert Productions on all United Artists records sold, as per the lease agreement. After Alberts Productions took their percentage, they passed on the remaining royalties onto the Easybeats’ company: The Easybeats Ltd. However the band and Mike Vaughan felt that they should be receiving royalties directly from their international sales without Alberts acting as middle-men. Talmy too was receiving his percentage via Alberts Productions and with ‘Friday On My Mind’ a hit record he felt he should have been in a better position.

Interviewer (Richie Unterberger) ¹ : “What did you think of the Easybeats?”

Shel Talmy:“More management problems. I had never done anything but hits with them, right? As I had never done anything but hits with the Who. First record out of the box was “Friday On My Mind.” Their manager was Ted Albert. I had a royalty deal for records extending through that plus an album. After “Friday On My Mind” became a worldwide hit, he said, “Well, not that you’ve made them a hit, you’re earning x percent, now you can take less.” So I said, fuck you (laughs). I said, go record them yourself. So of course he did, and that was the end of The Easybeats.”

Shel Talmy interview, Richie Unterberger.com

Ironically enough, The Who were in a similar situation with Shel Tamly’s production company and they too would end up breaking their contract.  Shel and the group and Alberts parted ways with Glyn Johns stepping in as producer on the next single; ‘Heaven and Hell’ in mid-1967.

Unhappy with the Easy’s current deal, the band and their management wanted out of their current contractual arrangement. According to both Glenn A. Baker and Vanda and Young biographer John Tait – their manager Mike Vaughan was also in negotiations for a new contract with another label (the band would sign with Polydor Records later in 1969). It is unclear in the timeline when the next events took place but when Albert Productions heard about this – all payments from Albert Productions were ceased until the issue between The Easybeats and the labels could be resolved. With the already group essentially penniless (much of their initial Australian earnings already spent while in England), the recording of the album came to a halt. An agreement was eventually reached between the three parties.

The Easybeats would owe one more album to Alberts/U.A. before being released from their exciting recording contract. All subsequent releases would be through Polydor Records. Their song publishing contract with Albert Publishing Pty. would still stand. After the legal battle was over, the multi-track tapes for ‘Good Times’ and ‘Land of Make Believe’ were purchased for remixing for the Vigil album and the studio bill and Glyn John’s fee was settled. But by this time, the band had moved on and the album would stay forever unreleased in its indented form.

VIGIL VS. THE “SCRAPPED” ALBUM

Unlike the transition from The Beach Boys lost album SMiLE and Smiley Smile the line between what was the “scrapped” album and what became Vigil is lot more murky due to the length period of recording activity and the lack of information out there about its final track listing.  The “scrapped album” never officially had a name and has been misquoted from the liner notes of their 1980 career retrospective Absolute Anthology as being named Good Times. 

“…..so we dug out this thing we had recorded for the scrapped album called ‘Good Times’”.

George Young.  Absolute Anthology liner notes (1980).

The quote has been misread as Young stating that the ALBUM was called Good Times.  George was originally interview by Australian music historian and journalist Glenn A Baker for Rolling Stone Australia in 1976.  That publication is pretty much the prototype for the Anthology liner notes.  But in that article George is even less descriptive:

“…by this time (around Vigil) everybody in the band was pretty jacked off, so we dug out this thing that was recorded sometime previous called “Good Times” and it was the next single.”

George Young, Rolling Stone Australia (1976)

To date neither cover art nor an official final track listing has surfaced. There was a photo shoot from the period featuring Tony Cahill that may have been indented for the final album artwork, but there is no hard evidence to prove this. These photos would later appear on The Best of The Easybeats Volume 2 in 1969 and The Shame Just Drained in 1977.

So where does the “scrapped album” fit in the timeline to Vigil?  And is the scrapped album George is talking about from the Glyn John sessions,  the Bill Shepard sessions or a mixture of everything like Vigil would become?

There is no information at what stage during 1967/1968 that album was created other than the reports from Disc and Music Echo that the album was near completion around August 1967.  In John Tait’s book Vanda & Young: Inside Australia’s Hit Factory he compiled his own possible track listing that according to John was verified by Harry Vanda himself during interviews.

• Good Times
• Land of Make Believe
• My Old Man’s a Groovy Old Man
• I Know It
• Where Did You Go Last Night?
• We’ll Make It Together
• Mr. Riley of Higginbottom & Clive
• Where Old Men Go
• Amanda Story
• Station on Third Avenue
• Heaven and Hell.

With so much Glyn Johns material, one would lean towards the idea that the album was heavily based on those initial June/August sessions.  Another cue in regards to a track listing is in the reports from Disc and Music Echo about the opening track and the group recording the final track in the U.S. with Glyn Johns.  The about track was reportedly titled ‘We Can Make It’ which at first seems like a misheard printing or early title of ‘We’ll Make It Together’.  

In the following issue of Disc and Music Echo, the publication reported that the group would be recording…

“their next single and final track for their first LP at the end of their current American tour”.

Disc and Music Echo.  August 5th, 1967.

The Easybeats’ first LP for United Artists had been already released at this point so it was neither Good Friday nor its final track ‘See Line Woman’ they were talking about.  So we can only put this down to a misprint.  The only confirmed recording in the U.S. was ‘Falling Off The Edge of The World’ in August.  This would work as an album closer and it was the band’s next single (all though only in the U.S. and Australia).

The Glyn Johns material from Olympic could be considered the unfinished remnants of the follow-up to Good Friday.  You could even add the single ‘Heaven and Hell’ and ‘Falling Off The Edge of The World’ which was meant to be produced by Johns and you’d have an album.

When they returned from the States in September 1967 and began recording with arranger Bill Shepard (known also for his work with fellow Aussie expats The Bee Gees) as Musical Director.  Many of those versions with Shepard did not see the light of day until after the band broke up on various compilations or even released on obscure singles across the globe.

In 1968, the album’s direction had changed again.   Songs recorded with Shepard like ‘Hello, How Are You’ would be reworked again with composer Alan Tew.  The strings from ‘Land Of Make Believe’ were taken out of the mix and sessions would now continue at Central Sound Studios until Vigil was released in June 1968. 

RECORDING SESSION DETAILS

OLYMPIC SOUND, LONDON – JULY/AUGUST 1967

recorded during this period:
* Station On Third Avenue * Where Old Men Go * bad news (C & W Title) * land of make believe * we’ll make it together * i know it * good times * my old man’s a groovy old man * mr. riley of higginbottom and clive * where did you go last night * amanda storey (first version)

A compilation reel  of 10 tracks from the Olympic Sound sessions were given to Mike Stewart by Mike Vaughan on a 7 ½ ips reel. This was taken back to New York to the offices of United Artists.  The existence of the tape was found on a UA Records master tape compiled on 11th January, 1971 which also contained mono and stereo masters of “Houng Dog” and mono mixes of “Who’ll Be The One”, “Hello, How Are You?” and “Falling Off The Edge Of The World”.

The tracks on that tape (in order) are as follows:

• Station On Third Avenue
• Where Old Men Go
• C & W Title
• Land of Make Believe
• We’ll Make It Together
• I Know It
• Good Times
• My Old Man’s a Groovy Old Man
• Mr. Riley of Higginbottom and Clive
• Where Did You Go Last Night

The third track listed as ‘C & W Title’ was later renamed ‘Bad News’ (according to the copyright records at Albert Publishing). The song, as its working title suggests, is a country and western pastiche complete with honky-tonk piano, featuring Stevie singing a sad tale of a cowboy receiving the new of the death of his parents.

Chorus:

Didn’t know what I had ‘till I lost my mama
Didn’t know what I had ‘till I lost my pa
Now the only thing left for me is drinking
I feel like living here anymore.

The song would later be given to Australian country crooner, Dee Donovan. Donavan’s version was much more loungy and straight than The Easybeats’ recording, which was much more tongue-in-cheek and in the vain of the country section of The Who’s ‘Quick One While He’s Away’.

‘I Know It’, which was featured on the vinyl version of the bootleg album Steady On is a upbeat, jazz-inspired, bubble-gum pop song that almost could be passed off as the best song The Monkees never had written for them. It is unclear why it never made the cut for The Shame Just Drained as the catchy up-tempo pop song is definitely worthy of release.

Acetates of the above mentioned tracks were sent to Alberts as a reference for publishing. In 1977 when The Shame Just Drained was assembled by Glenn A. Baker, these acetates were the only source Alberts had at the time, as the 10 song tape was still in the United Artists New York vaults. This explains the poor fidelity of these songs on that album. ‘My Old Man’s a Groovy Old Man’ would later be released on The Best of The Easybeats Volume 2 in 1969.

Another track said to have come from these sessions is ‘Amanda Storey’.  A discovered acetate disc of earlier version was uploaded to YouTube by a collector. It features a mellotron like ‘We’ll Make It Together’ does and a more stripped down production, which may date this early version to the June-August sessions.  As stated on the label, the pitch has been slowed down to the key of C, presumably so it could be used as a demo for other artists.

Amanda Story acetate.

A & M STUDIOS, NEW YORK CITY – AUGUST 1967

recorded during this period:
* Falling off the Edge of the World (single version) * Hit the Road Jack (rumoured) * I Can’t Stand It

It was also reported in the August 5th, 1967 issue of Disc and Music Echo that Glyn John was due to fly out and meet the group in September to “supervise” the session of the “final track” of the album. 

The only songs known to be recorded in the U.S. was ‘Falling Off The Edge of the World‘ (at A & M Studios in New York.  ‘Falling,’ would be released as a single in September 1967 with the previously released ‘Remember Sam’ as the B-Side.  In John Tait’s Vanda & Young: Inside Australia’s Hit Factory the two cover songs from what was to become Vigil  (‘Hit The Road Jack‘ and ‘I Can’t Stand It‘) were also recorded during the U.S. tour.

It’s highly unlikely that Johns would have flown out during this time. He was already committed as the Chief Recording Engineer of The Rolling Stones’ Their Satanic Majesties Request sessions which would recommence during August 10th and September 7th while The Easybeats where on their U.S. Tour. During his time as The Easybeats’ producer in July/August, The Rolling Stones were also recording at Olympic Sound, so working with the two artists wouldn’t have been a problem.

PYE STUDIOS, LONDON WITH BILL SHEPARD – SEPTEMBER/DECEMBER 1967

recorded during this period:
* Amanda Storey * The Music Goes Round My Head (fast) * The Music Goes Round My Head’ (regular released version) * Come In You’ll Get Pneumonia (single version) * Falling Off The Edge Of The World’ (Second Version) * Hello, How Are You’ (First Version) * Land Of Make Believe’ (string overdubs added) * Little Red Bucket * Sha La La La Yeah * Peculiar Hole In The Sky

After the group returned from their August/September tour of the U.S., they began recording with their new drummer Tony Cahill.  These sessions would continue at Pye Studios with arranger Bill Shepherd.  These sessions would produce the single: ‘The Music Goes ‘Round My Head’ / ‘Come In You’ll Get Pneumonia’.  The material from these sessions shows The Easybeats moving away from their beat sound and towards baroque pop.   Other material recording during this period included:

• ‘Amanda Storey’ – a re-recorded version with strings. The song would ultimately go unreleased until The Shame Just Drained compilation in 1977.
• ‘The Music Goes Round My Head’ (fast) – two versions of these track were recorded at Pye Studios.  The first was faster pop version with a bigger production of strings and horns (which was released as a single in Spain and Italy.  It was later released on the Absolute Anthology in 1980.
• ‘The Music Goes Round My Head’ (regular released version) – the second version was a ska inspired version.  A big influence on Harry and George was the ska compilation album Club Ska ’67.  Jamaican ska music was then currently popular among London’s mod scene.
• ‘Come In, You’ll Get Pneumonia’ (single version) – The single version opened with a blasting horn section, percussive instruments and flange drenched vocals.  The production is much more kitchen-sink than the more stripped down version re-recorded for Vigil.
• ‘Falling Off The Edge Of The World’ (Second Version) –  a re-recording of the song that was originally released in the US and Australia as a single.  This more dramatic re-recording with strings and horns would become the UK single version.
• ‘Hello, How Are You’ (First Version) – an early version of the song that was more psychedelic than the released version with composer Alan Tew (recorded later).  This version be released on the Drum reissue of The Best of The Easybeats Volume 2.
• ‘Land Of Make Believe’ (string overdubs added) – a string and vibes arrangement was overdubbed onto the original Good Times recording. A stereo mix of Shepherd’s arrangement was released as the Italian single release. While different mono mixes would be released in UK as a single and in Australia on the Drum reissue of The Best of The Easybeats Volume 2.
• ‘Little Red Bucket’ – not released until the Raven Records EP Son of Son of Easyfever in 1982. Available as a bonus track on the Repertoire Records CD of Friends.
• ‘Sha La La La Yeah’ – another ska inspired track released on the Vigil album.
• ‘Peculiar Hole In The Sky’ – released as a single in Australia and on The Best of The Easybeats Volume 2.  It was stated in an interview with the group in Go-Set (October 1969) that the recording released was actually a “demo disc”.

Andy Morton in an article for Shindig magazine speculated that some of the tracks from these sessions would have also been contenders for a 1967 album along with the Olympic Sound sessions.

Andy Morton’s List

1. Amanda Story
2. Mr. Riley Of Higginbottom & Clive
3. Where Did You Go Last Night
4. We’ll Make It Together
5. Where Old Men Go
6. Station On Third Avenue
7. My Old Man’s A Groovy Old Man
8. The Music Goes Round My Head (Fast Version)
9. Come In, You’ll Get Pneumonia (Single Version)

‘HELLO, HOW ARE YOU’ SESSIONS WITH ALAN TEW AND LATER SESSIONS AT  PYE AND CENTRAL SOUND – JANUARY/JUNE 1968

recorded during this period:
* hello, how are you * Come In You’ll Get Pneumonia (vigil version) * can’t take my eyes off of you * lay me down and die (with and without vocals) * what in the world * fancy seeing you here * see saw * MacArthur Park (rumoured) * we all live happily together *

‘Hello, How Are You’ was a product of the original recording sessions with Musical Director Bill Shepard in late 1967. Originally the song started life as a baroque-psychedelic-pop track – recorded with strings, full band and with Stevie’s lead vocals drowning in tape-delay. But for reasons unknown, the decision was made to scrap this version.

Still intent on releasing it, the band returned to the studio and re-made the song with a slicker more commercial production style. For this second version, band enlisted composer Alan Tew to arrange the orchestration. Tew was not only known for his soundtracks, but also his work on Cat Stevens’ debut album Matthew and Son.  This new recording would be the released single and Vigil version released in 1968.

In 1968, The Easybeats re-recorded much of the material from the Bill Shepard sessions into more stripped down versions.  A remix of ‘Land of Make Believe’ had the strings and other psychedelic trappings of the previous year’s version toned down.  The musical landscape had changed, psychedelic music was on the way out and bare bones rock and R&B music was on its way back.

Click here for my own recreation of what could have been released in 1967

Updated: 13 June 2022.

NOTES

1) the full interview with Shel Tamly can be found here at Richie Unterburger’s site: http://www.richieunterberger.com/talmy.html

References

Tait, John (2010). Vanda & Young: Inside Australia’s Hit Factory. Australia: University of New South Wales Press. ISBN 978-1-74223-217-1.

Baker, Glenn A. (1976). “George Young Interview”. Rolling Stone Australia. Australia.

O’Driscoll, Michele (1969). “George and Stevie of The Easybeats talk to Mitch”.  Go-Set. Australia