Friday 28 March 2008

It's the Curse I tell you!


Oh Wow! This is getting very spooky indeed. In fact, it could be a case for Mulder and Scully if only I knew how to contact them. Regular readers will recall how I posted a piece about The Waitresses only to find that their lead singer, Patty Donahue, had died. This was followed a short time later by a piece on Shocking Blue, where once again it transpired that their female singer, Mariska Veres, had died.

You will not be surprised, therefore, to learn that I was going to write a bit about those late sixties hippies, It’s a Beautiful Day, only to discover yet again, that their woman at the mike, Patti Santos, died in a car accident in 1989.

WARNING: if you are female and sing in a band and you find that I am researching you for a post on this blog, be afraid...be very afraid. The Curse of the Music Obsessive is alive and operating in your vicinity. Hahahaha....

(Ahem)...now where was I? Oh yes, IABD. Like everyone else, I discovered this band around 1971 through airplay of their one good song, ‘White Bird’ which, if you close your eyes, will transport you magically back to 1960s California in an instant. (Time travel as well as Curses – I should sell the rights of this post to some Hollywood mogul). Don’t bother to buy the eponymous album from which it comes as the rest of it is fairly nondescript, just download it – it is a wonderful period piece of hippie lyrics and great rock violin, courtesy of David LaFlamme, carrying a sunny Californian melody. You can almost smell the hot air and hear the cicadas, so evocative is it. It’s one of those must-have tunes that should grace any collection. Being a massive fan of Darryl Way, Curved Air’s violinist at that time, I was open to anyone who played a rock inspired violin. David’s solo on ‘White Bird’ is one of those float away moments that those addicted to music experience every once in a while.

Unfortunately, the follow up album, ‘Marrying Maiden’ was not that great but their third, ‘Choice Quality Stuff...Anytime’ was much better and I had a cassette copy of it at one time but it seems to have gone AWOL (the Curse again?) and it doesn’t seem to be commercially available now, except by download and I do like to have the CD where possible, which is a bit of a pain.

Does anybody know whether it can still be bought anywhere? I guarantee that no harm will come to you!

2 comments:

Cinnamon Girl said...

Patti was truly amazing. David and Co still tour. They just did the state fair here in Oregon =)

music obsessive said...

Yes, such a shame. So many people in the rock business are no longer with us - witness Layla's 'Gone but not forgotten' pages.

Glad to see that IABD are still touring and playing for people. Thanks for stopping by!