Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Daily Nugget #5: Wimple Winch, "Marmalade Hair"

One of the best things about the Beatles is that they had, and continue to have, thousands and thousands of copycats. Unfortunately only the Beatles can be the Beatles, but that has never stopped people from coming up with Beatles-esque songs, some of which are blessed with genius, even if it's only parrot-genius. Writing, playing, and singing an efficient, economic three-minute pop song which has memorable melodic and/or rhythmic energy remains the musical equivalent of Mt. Everest—you can get there, but it ain't easy.

Wimple Winch were a beat group from Liverpool who recorded a handful of singles in the mid-60s. I have to say that I find their choice of moniker pretty bad (by today's standards, at least—in the 60s, people seemed to have a greater tolerance for "zany"), but that's the only bad thing I can say about these guys, since they wrote some real gems.

This track, "Marmalade Hair", pledges sonic allegiance to the Beatles, but has an identity all its own (check out that sunny chorus), and it's been swirling in my ears for the last month. Remarkably, this brilliant track is a demo—it wasn't even released until the 90s.

"Marmalade Hair":

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