Descrizione

PREMESSA: LA SUPERIORITA’ DELLA MUSICA SU VINILE E’ ANCOR OGGI SANCITA, NOTORIA ED EVIDENTE. NON TANTO DA UN PUNTO DI VISTA DI RESA, QUALITA’ E PULIZIA DEL SUONO, TANTOMENO DA QUELLO DEL RIMPIANTO RETROSPETTIVO E NOSTALGICO , MA SOPRATTUTTO DA QUELLO PIU’ PALPABILE ED INOPPUGNABILE DELL’ ESSENZA, DELL’ ANIMA E DELLA SUBLIMAZIONE CREATIVA. IL DISCO IN VINILE HA PULSAZIONE ARTISTICA, PASSIONE ARMONICA E SPLENDORE GRAFICO , E’ PIACEVOLE DA OSSERVARE E DA TENERE IN MANO, RISPLENDE, PROFUMA E VIBRA DI VITA, DI EMOZIONE E  DI SENSIBILITA’. E’ TUTTO QUELLO CHE NON E’ E NON POTRA’ MAI ESSERE IL CD, CHE AL CONTRARIO E’ SOLO UN OGGETTO MERAMENTE COMMERCIALE, POVERO, ARIDO, CINICO, STERILE ED ORWELLIANO,  UNA DEGENERAZIONE INDUSTRIALE SCHIZOFRENICA E NECROFILA, LA DESOLANTE SOLUZIONE FINALE DELL’ AVIDITA’ DEL MERCATO E DELL’ ARROGANZA DEI DISCOGRAFICI .

THE SHADOWS OF KNIGHT
raw ‘n alive  at the Cellar , Chicago , 1966



Disco LP 33 giri , sundazed , LP 5006 , 1992 ,   u.s.a., white vinyl

ECCELLENTI CONDIZIONI, vinyl ex++/NM , cover ex++.

Etichetta: Sundazed Music Inc
Catalogo: LP 5006
Matrici : LP 5006A – 1A / LP 5006B – 1A
Data di pubblicazione: 1992

• Supporto:vinile 33 giri
• Tipo audio: mono
• Dimensioni: 30 cm.
• Facciate: 2
• white vinyl, poly inner sleeve

The Shadows of Knight were a 1960s American rock band from the Chicago suburbs, who played a form of British blues mixed with influences from their native city (see Chicago blues). The band’s self-description was as follows: “The Stones, Animals and Yardbirds
took the Chicago Blues and gave it an English interpretation. We’ve
taken the English version of the Blues and re-added a Chicago touch.”,
to which noted rock critic Richie Unterberger
commented as follows: “The Shadows of Knight’s self-description was
fairly accurate. Although this mid-’60s garage band from the Windy City
did not match the excellence of either their British or
African-American idols, the teen energy of their recordings remains
enjoyable,if not overwhelmingly original. The group took a tamer
version of Them’s classic Gloria into the American Top Ten in 1966, and also took a Yardbirdized version of Bo Diddley’s ‘Oh Yeah’ into the Top 40 the same year.”

What the Cavern was to the Beatles, the
Cellar, in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, was to the Shadows
Of Knight. The only difference is that the Shadows Of Knight not only
got their first break there– with their manager, Paul Sampson, they
co-owned the place.
This smoking 1966 live set, then, is recorded on
home turf in front of a vocally enthusiastic crowd and features most of
the Shadows Of Knight’s first two albums, GLORIA and BACK DOOR MEN,
plus a handful of well-chosen blues and R&B covers. Naturally,
their hit version of Van Morrison’s “Gloria”–the one time an American
band did a British Invasion band’s song better than the
original–closes the show, and naturally, it blows the roof off the
place. This well-recorded live document is essential for all fans of
’60s garage music.

Track listing

1.Got My Mojo Working
2.Oh Yeah
3.Tomorrow’s Gonna Be Another Day
4.It Takes A Long Time Comin’
5.Let It Rock
6.Hey Joe

7.Gospel Zone
8.Got To Get You Off My Mind
9.Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
10.Don’t Fight It
11.Spoonful
12.Dark Side
13.Gloria

Performers

Jim Sohns: Lead Vocals
Joe Kelley: Lead Guitar, Blues Harp on 3
Jerry McGeorge: Rhythm Guitar, Bass on 9
Tom Schiffour: Drums, Vocals
David ” Hawk ”  Wolinski :  Bass, Electric Piano on 9

---

The Shadows Of Knight was a garage/punk band out of Chicago that
recorded one of the most electric songs that helped to define rock
music in the mid-60’s. Along with groups such as ? and the Mysterians
and the Troggs, the Shadows Of Knight did their part to shake up the
pop music world in 1966.

The group was formed in 1964 in Chicago. The original lineup
had Jim Sohns on lead vocals, Warren Rogers playing lead guitar, Norm
Gotsch on rhythm, Wayne Pursell on bass guitar, and Tom Schiffour on
drums. All attended Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect, Illinois. A
short time later Gotsch left the group, Rogers switched to rhythm
guitar, and Joe Kelley came on board to play lead guitar. Guitarist
Jerry McGeorge also joined the group. The group practiced in garages in
the Chicago area and at one point agreed to play at the Cellar Club in
Arlington Heights, a suburb of Chicago. A concert was set up at the
Cellar Club to put on a show for any record producers who might care to
stop by.

Among those in the audience were Bill Traut and George Badonsky
of the struggling Dunwich Records label, which was a subsidiary of
Atlantic. The showstopper that night was The Shadows Of Knight and
their driving, frenetic version of Gloria.
It was a song that had originally been recorded by a group from
Northern Ireland known as Them. The song had been written by George
Ivan Morrison, lead singer of Them. Ivan referred to himself as Van
Morrison and eventually, after leaving the group, went on to a long and
illustrious career as a solo act, with top ten hits such as Brown Eyed Girl and Domino. Although Gloria
had been released by Them as a B-side record, when the Shadows Of
Knight got a hold of it, it was the perfect blend of song and artist.

The Dunwich Records executives thought they may have found the
act that would bring their label to national prominence, and as it
turned out, they were right. The Shadows Of Knight signed with Dunwich.
They were a group that played their songs loud, and with Sohns’
forceful lead vocal and Schiffour’s hard-driving drum accompaniment,
the group recorded their version of Gloria,
which would go on to become a rock classic. It entered the charts in
April of 1966 and took off, eventually reaching the number ten
position. Local amateur bands across the United States picked up on the
song. Although Gloria was regarded as a somewhat risquè song for the mid-60’s, it received plenty of airplay on the various radio stations.

The Shadows Of Knight recorded other songs and put four in the top 100 in 1966, including Oh Yeah
which just made the top forty. The band underwent numerous personnel
changes. By 1969 Jim Sohns was the only original member left with the
group. They became involved with bubblegum rock producers Jerry
Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, who had produced such top ten records as 1, 2, 3, Red Light, Yummy Yummy Yummy, and Little Bit O’Soul. Under this arrangement they recorded Shake,
which became a top fifty record for the revised group. More songs were
recorded, and more deals were discussed with other record labels. In
the early 70’s the group reformed once again, this time bringing in Lee
Brovitz and Paul Roy as musicians and songwriters.

In the late 70’s punk rock came into vogue, and the Shadows Of
Knight were regarded by followers of that style of music as one of its
forerunners. A group that includes Sohns, Brovitz and Roy was still
touring in the early twenty-first century.

The recording of Gloria that was such a success for the Shadows Of Knight endures as one of the great songs of rock’s most glorious decade.

As described by one reviewer, “Though best remembered today for
their classic take on Van Morrison’s ‘Gloria’–probably the definitive
version of that oft-recorded song–the Shadows of Knight started out in
the suburbs of Chicago as a tough little white blues band, specializing
in punky recastings of the gems coming from the Chess
studios on South Michigan Avenue. Being so close to the source, the
Shadows of Knight captured the mystery of the blues much more clearly
than most.”

Initially formed in 1964 as simply The Shadows, the band learned in spring 1965 of a preexisting English group, The Shadows. A friend of theirs, Max Winters, who worked for their manager, Paul Sampson in his record shop, came up with the name “Shadows of Knight” to tie into the British Invasion in music of that time, and because all four of the band members attended Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, whose sports team had the name the “Knights.”

They would release three albums in their first five years of existence. Founding members included Warren Rogers (lead guitar), Norm Gotsch (rhythm guitar), Wayne Pursell (bass guitar), Tom Schiffour (drums) and Jim Sohns (vocals). During 1965, Joe Kelley was recruited to play bass, replacing Pursell. Kelley would swap bass and lead duties with Rogers in late 1965 at the time of the “Gloria” recordings. Guitarist and vocalist Jerry McGeorge replaced Norm Gotsch in late 1965 after Gotsch was drafted into the U.S. military. David “Hawk” Wolinski, who later worked with Rufus and Chaka Khan, replaced Rogers on bass in late 1966.

After performing in and around Chicago’s northwest suburbs in 1964 and 1965, the Shadows of Knight became the house band at The Cellar in Arlington Heights, Illinois,
owned by Sampson. They attracted over 500 teenagers every Saturday and
Sunday at the “Cellar” for over six months until Sampson began booking
other bands, giving them a break.

A stellar performance in support of The Byrds at Chicago’s McCormick Place in early summer 1965 attracted the attention of Dunwich Records record producers Bill Traut and George Badonski. During that show, they performed “Gloria” by Van Morrison‘s Northern Irish Them band. The band signed with Dunwich shortly thereafter and recorded “Gloria” as a first effort.

Released in December 1965, “Gloria” received massive regional airplay. The band had slightly altered the song‘s lyrics,
replacing Morrison’s original “she comes to my room, just about
midnight ” with “she comes around here, just about midnight” after
influential Chicago station WLS had banned Them‘s original version. This simple change overcame the prevalent AM radio censorship of the era, and got the Shadows of Knights’ cover version of the song onto the playlist of WLS that had censored the original.The single reached the #1 position on the radio station’s countdown, as well as on local rival WCFL. On the Billboard national charts, “Gloria” rose to #10. The secondary publication Cashbox ranked “Gloria” as high as #5.

There is reason to believe the Billboard charting understated the song’s popularity
and The Shadows of Knight’s version of “Gloria” reached number one in
several markets where it received airplay. But, because Dunwich was not
a national label, the single was released on a staggered basis around
the country. This caused it to peak in certain markets before being
released in others, diluting its weekly placement. Most significantly,
the song received little airplay in certain major markets, such as
South Florida (Miami) and California, where Morrison’s release of “Gloria” had just been a major hit the previous year.

The Shadows of Knight soon released the Gloria album, followed by the Back Door Men LP, in the summer of 1966. Subsequent singles included their version of the Bo Diddley
song “Oh Yeah” (which reached #39 nationally and was introduced to
their lead singer, Jimmy Sohns by Max Winters), “Bad Little Woman”
(#91) and the powerhouse “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” (#90), which can be
seen as a precursor to hard rock.
However, none of these releases approached their initial commercial
success. Failure to find a winning followup to “Gloria” handicapped the
band’s earning power, and led to its disintegration. Tom Schiffour left
the band in Spring 1967. McGeorge departed for acid-rock band H.P. Lovecraft shortly thereafter, while Kelley left to front his own blues band. Hawk Wolinski also left the band to form Bangor Flying Circus with Schiffour, guitarist Alan De Carlo and drummer Michael Tegza, also of H.P.Lovecraft.

By mid-1967, the only original member of the Shadows of Knight
remaining was vocalist Jim Sohns, who, through simple default,
inherited the band’s name and legacy.
Sohns had hoped to take the band in a British power-rock direction, but
the Super K record label pulled them into a more commercial
orientation, pairing the band with bubblegum groups such as the 1910
Fruitgum Company and the Ohio Express on tour. In 1969, the second
generation Shadows of Knight released “Shake” on Buddah Records subsidiary Super K Records;
the track eventually climbed to #46. That same year, without the band’s
knowledge or consent, the unsuccessful update “Gloria ’69” was released
by Dunwich. It consisted of new bass and guitar tracks overdubbed by
Peter Cetera (later of Chicago) and Jim Donlinger, both Chicago rock veterans.

“Shake” and its B-Side, “From Way Out to Way Under” were actually
recorded by Sohns and a number of studio musicians, on the
understanding that a Shadows of Knight reassembled by Sohns would
record the follow-up album. That album, Shadows of Knight is
today regarded as a distinct recording oddity, being an attempt to mix
punk and bubblegum music. As described by one reviewer, “It was
supernatural. As well as crudely produced and swept into a schizoid
zone all its own where it barked and drooled while trying to behave.
Which it did — badly. It is one of the most incorrigible displays in a
space and time renowned for incorrigibility. The album is a catalog of
first takes, mistakes, outtakes and every-other-kinda-takes as well as
how NOT to produce a record; let alone one to rescue a diminishing
career with some semblance of a return to form. But as far as providing
true con-o-sewers with enough fuzz, junk, kicks and yucks for its half
an hour duration, it scores a big time punk “f***, yeah!” Although not
zackly up there with the likes of Basic Blues Magoos (let alone The Litter’s far more consistent Emerge)
it is strange, unique and nonplussing-as-f*** enough to earn laurels
galore from those starved for more rama-lama-fa-fa-fa from the twilight
zone twixt garage, heavy Rock and points beyond (Namely: ‘people like
me’ as Jim Sohns once sang in his usual gutsy, adenoidal and succinct
manner.)”

The four years following the breakup of the original Shadows was a
dark creative period with little financial success. The band’s
repertoire consisted mostly of pop cover songs, which allowed them to
survive by playing clubs. The second iteration of the band consisted of
John Fisher, former lead guitar of the Glass Menagerie,
on bass, Woody Woodruff and Dan Baughman on guitars, and Ken Turkin on
drums. Turkin was replaced in early 1969 by Paul Scarpelli, and in 1970
Jack “Hawkeye” Daniels replaced Woodruff on guitar. The band’s lineup
remained the same for two years, and they recorded “I Am the Hunter,”
which did well in several B markets. John Fisher was replaced by Edgar
Winter alum Jorge Gonzales on bass in 1971, who was subsequently
replaced by John Hardy the following year. He was then replaced by
studio bassist Don Ferrone.

Over subsequent decades, Sohns fronted varying incarnations of the
group on the oldies circuit. The band later enjoyed a resurgence,
sparked by the mid-90s release of the original albums in remastered
form by Sundazed Records.

In 1992 Performance Records (aka “Donewitch” Records) release “The
Shadows Of Knight -Live ” This was an unreleased performance recorded
live in Rockford Il in 1972. This performance featured Lee Brovitz on
Bass (later of BLUE ANGEL) and the late Paul Roy on guitar.

In 2006, the Shadows of Knight headlined Little Steven‘s cross-country “Underground Garage” tour with The Romantics. The Shadows also joined the Cheap Trick’s
Halloween show(“Cheap Trick or Treat”), along with guest appearances by
members of The Romantics & The Charms ; this performance was
subsequently televised on VH-1 Classic.

At shows on the 2006 tour ,they were joined onstage at various times by Rick Mullen (of Van Morrison, Commander Cody, Don McLean), Vince Martell (Vanilla Fudge), Mark Stein (Vanilla Fudge) and members of The Romantics.

A CD of new material was released in 2006 entitled A Knight To Remember.

The band is working on an all star album for release in late 2008.

They are also part of a Halloween Anthology being released in Oct 2008 by Scary Monsters Magazine.

The Shadows have the lead off track an all new song “Boppin’ At The
Black Lagoon” written by bassist Lee Brovitz and manager Pat Horgan.

The anthology also has new tracks by Nazz, Vince Martell(of Vanilla
Fudge), The Shirts,Tommy Frenzy (of Tuff Darts),The Shirts,Thunder Road
and Peppy Castro (of The Blues Magoos)

New Package Tours dates have been released for 2008 under the banner
“The Psychedelic Shack Tour” featuring The Shadows,Nazz,Vince Martell
and at selected shows Henry Gross.

The Shadows and Vince Martell and Nazz share the same manager, Pat Horgan (who also acts as agent for Henry Gross)

In April 2008 The Shadows Of Knight inked a new record deal with Collectables Records.

The new release for Collectables Records is called Rock’n’Roll Survivors/COL-8187

Dubbed “the American Rolling
Stones”, the Shadows of Knight shot to the top of the music
charts in 1966 with the rock anthem “GLORIA”.

Over 8 million copies later, those three
famous chords
and that unashamed mating chant has found immortality among fraternities,
presidents, wanna-be’s, rock stars and the rest of the nubile
world. “GLORIA” has become the party song of generations
and the Shadows of Knight have become the legendary messengers.

Chicago’s “golden boys of pop”
released four subsequent hits,”I Got My Mojo Workin”, “Bad Little Woman”, “I’m
Gonna Make You Mine”, and the much lauded version of the Muddy
Waters tune, “Oh Yeah”. In late 1968, the band left Dunwich
Records (Atlantic) to sign with Team Records (Buddah) and the ”
bubble gum” empire of Jerry Kasentz and Jeff Katz. They recorded
anonymously on tracks such as “Quick Joey Small”, “Yummy,
Yummy, Yummy (I’ve Got Love In My Tummy)”, “Chewy,
Chewy” and many more hit records. The Shadows of Knight then
released their final chart hit, “Shake !” culminating
in another million seller.