Fred Cole + added bonus

Fred Cole, man. He sang in this group called The Weeds that was briefly signed as The Lollipop Shoppe in the mid to late 1960s. They recorded an album and toured up and down the West coast before disbanding with no real hits by which to remember them. But with Rhino’s re-release of the infamous Nuggets compilation in a box set with three extra discs of forgotten gems in 1998, interest in The Weeds aka The Lollipop Shoppe was renewed, and their one album was re-mastered and re-released on CD. I stumbled upon it in a stack of used discs at a shop in Portland and thought it was cool that the group had had its picture taken on the fire escape of the Crystal Ballroom nearly 40 years ago. I bought the album and, when I first listened to it, thought it was total shit. The music itself wasn’t that bad; the band was good enough and the songs were about as novel as I’d expected. It was just Fred Cole’s vocals; they grated on me like fingers on a chalkboard. Certainly, he sings with an admirable passion, but his voice can still be discomforting when he wails like an inconsolable mother, grieving over the body of her dead child.

Though Fred Cole has a horrible singing voice, one that calls to mind a tone-deaf drunk caterwauling through the worst karaoke performance ever (EVER), he’s got a great voice for garage rock. And garage rock, by definition, is unpolished. It’s the sound of youth, of inexperience--it’s the candid sound of a guy’s first band with the friends who just picked up instruments because they wanted to get their rocks off and make some noise (and maybe get some girly action in the process). Cole and company embody these things and his voice, at once cringe-inducing and bizarrely sensitive, is the band’s cornerstone. He sets it loose, freeing it from the reins of restraint without letting trivial details like pitch and timbre encumber it or impede his quest for rock and roll action. Seriously, sometimes he sounds like a lost dog, bawling at the moon. Check out “I’m Gonna Be There” at 1:21 and 2:08 or the opening lines in “Don’t Look Back” to hear him [willingly?] disregard musicality and harness the tangible torment of his inner stray. He’s losing himself in the music, and his dedication to it, however harsh and ill-received, is enough to get me excited. Fred Cole knows that rock and roll doesn’t exist to please everyone--it’s more about pleasing yourself…and upsetting squares.

Free ad idea! “Blues’ Theme” by Davie Allan & The Arrows is an instrumental psychedelic romp from 1967 that would fit nicely in a commercial highlighting new technology. The sound is completely dated but belies its age with an inspiring sense of progressiveness and the promise of the positive change that seemed so close and within reach in the late 1960s. The accompanying visuals would do well to be somewhat busy and flashy, leaving as quickly as they came. Narration of course, would be key. I think a grizzled voice with a matter-of-fact tone would be effective in communicating the message that ‘the future is now’ or ‘don’t get left behind.’