Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 153

Record label: Capitol

Produced: Koppelman–Rubin

Recorded: Century Sound Studios, New York; late 1967

Released: 1969

Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)

Personnel: Peter Sando (g, v); Frank Hubach (p, ep, o); Bob Muller (b); Davy Bauer (d)

Track listing: Golden Earrings (S); Hang Onto A Dream; Never Too Far; Scarlet Ribbons; You Upset the Grace Of Living; Can You Travel In The Dark Alone?; Nature Boy; Tiffany Rings; Me About You; I Watch The Moon

Running time: Unknown

Current CD: See For Miles

Further listening: Gandalf 2 (1970)

Further reading: There is little to be found on the band, something that is made harder by the fact there is an Austrian new ager and a contemporary metal band under the same name.

Download: Not currently legally available

In the explosion of record company interest occasioned by flower power, many excellent groups were treated shamefully. Take The Rahgoos. Having paid their dues for years in the bars and clubs of New York and New Jersey, they were offered a regular gig at the legendary Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village. Refining their set night after night at the centre of a scene including such luminaries as Fred Neil, The Lovin’ Spoonful and Tim Hardin, they were excellently placed for signing – and so it proved to be. Their friends Bonner and Gordon (writers of Happy Together amongst other hits) urged their managers Charlie Koppelman and Don Rubin to catch the band live in the summer of 1967. Blown away, they swiftly added The Rahgoos to their impressive roster, and a deal to release albums on Capitol via their own production company had just been struck. It all seemed too good to be true – and it was.

Firstly, they were made to rename themselves Gandalf, which they resented but agreed to. After a month of intensive rehearsals, they entered the studio at the end of 1967. The sessions were swift, and the band felt increasingly sidelined. ‘Don Rubin and Brooks Arthur, the engineer, were great to work with initially, but when they got what they needed, we were cut out of the sessions’, says their leader Peter Sando today. Cover versions dominate the album, including three by Tim Hardin, two by Bonner and Gordon and a magnificent rendition of Eden Ahbez’s much-loved Nature Boy, featuring a gut-wrenching, heavily distorted solo from Sando, whose own songwriting confidence was not yet fully developed. This is a great shame as, wonderful though the covers are, the group’s finest performances are reserved for his mere two originals – the wistful Can You Travel In The Dark Alone? and the thundering I Watch The Moon. The former features a dizzying blend of electric sitar, vibes and organ and the latter ends with a full-on psychedelic jam, complete with great swathes of fuzz guitar.

With such strong performances on tape, the group was understandably excited about its prospects – but as quickly as opportunity had beckoned them, they were spurned. Unbeknownst to them, the deal with Capitol was collapsing. When the record finally appeared in early 1969, in a glorious psychedelic sleeve, yet another blow was to befall them. Shipped with the wrong disc inside, all copies were recalled, and any momentum it may have gathered was lost. Barely promoted, it sank without trace – but its reputation and price tag have never stopped growing since. As Sando puts it today, ‘it’s great to get a little credit – even after 35 years!’