John's Children - A Midsummer Night's Scene
Something from the Bam-Caruso vast archive of re-released psyche bands. Surrey Mods John's Children were probably most famous as one of Marc Bolan's first bands. In truth, he was only with them for three months but did write several of their best tracks and contributed to their notoriety with much mischief, controversial lyrics and subject matters. The surprisingly commercial debut single Smashed! Blocked! was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, yet was laden with subtle drug references, the b-side Strange Affair is quite brilliant! Desdemona was banned in the UK due to the sexual references in Bolan's lyrics. Come And Play With Me In The Garden is a mod classic (also reworked here as Remember Thomas A'Beckett) and was surely responsible for several a few Led Zep lyrics. The band toured extensively with The Who after signing to Track Records, but both bands allegedly fell out when Bolan tried to upstage Townsend and chums on stage. I am not sure of the connection, consequences or time line but the riff on But She's Mine is very similar to I Can't Explain. John's Children did record an album, Orgasm in 1967, but it took three years to see the light of day after censorship issues in the USA. By then, all the fuss has blown over and everybody had forgotten John's Children.
Ripped from a vinyl album released on Bam-Caruso Records (KIRI 095) in 1988 to high quality lossless flac audio.
A1 Smashed Blocked
A2 Just What You Want - Just What You'll Get
A3 Desdemona
A4 Remember Thomas A'Beckett
A5 It's Been A Long Time
A6 Arthur Green
A7 Strange Affair
B1 Midsummer Night's Scene
B2 Sara Crazy Child
B3 Jagged Time Lapse
B4 Go-Go Girl
B5 Come And Play With Me In The Garden
B6 But She's Mine
