The Barbarians | |
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| Origin | Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States |
| Genres | Garage rock |
| Years active | 1964-1967 |
| Labels | Joy Laurie |
| Past members |
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 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2013) |
The Barbarians was an American garage rock band formed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, that was active from 1964 to 1967. They are known for their 1965 hit song "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl", and their album of the same name.
The Barbarians were formed in the summer of 1964 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, by original members Victor "Moulty" Moulton, Bruce Benson, Ronnie Enos, and Jerry Causi. [1] Victor Moulton was born on February 24, 1945, in Provincetown, Massachusetts. [2] The band was quickly assembled by Moulton, who had agreed to do a gig at The Rumpus Room, an ex-jazz club where his cousin worked. After packing the house for their opening performance, they were asked to come back numerous times throughout the season. By the end of the summer, record companies had heard about them and they were taken to New York to start their careers. [3] While their first single, "Hey Little Bird" produced by Al Ham (on Joy Records (New York)) was unsuccessful, [1] two of their next three singles (on Laurie) charted on Billboard , (with "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?," peaking at No. 55) and also made the Cash Box charts. "Are You a Boy" was produced by Doug Morris, who went on to head Universal Music Group.
They received their biggest break when featured on The T.A.M.I. Show (performing "Hey Little Bird") alongside other artists such as The Rolling Stones, The Supremes, Lesley Gore, Chuck Berry, James Brown & The Famous Flames, The Miracles, and Marvin Gaye. [4] Their "pirates on the beach" look—leather sandals, open necked/bloused sleeved shirts (sometimes a vest as well), black jeans, longer-than-usual hair—was distinctive, topped by the sight of drummer Moulton's hook-shaped prosthetic left hand, which he would use to hold his left drumstick during performances. [5] [6] Having lost the hand in an explosion when he was fourteen, Moulton had enabled his drumming by modifying the prosthesis to hold a drumstick. At the height of their popularity, the band was touted as an American counterpart of The Rolling Stones. [4]
During their tenure, the Barbarians produced two nationally charting hits, including the novelty single, "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?". [5] [7] A later, minor hit, entitled "Moulty", was a humorous and melodramatic autobiographical song chronicling the drummer's life and the loss of his hand. [4] [5] [1] Moulton sang lead on the track, but instead of the original members, he was backed by New York session musicians including members of Levon & the Hawks, later to be known as The Band. Although it barely scraped the Billboard charts, the song would gain a cult following when it was included on Lenny Kaye's Nuggets compilation in 1972.
In 1965, Boston guitarist Geoffrey Morris replaced Ronnie Enos on lead guitar, providing the arrangement of "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?," a song parodying the trend towards long hair popularized by British Invasion rock acts, such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, which was regarded at the time by parents as a bad influence on young males. [6] The song would be released as a single in 1966. [6] In 1967, Benson, Morris, and Causi left The Barbarians to form Black Pearl. [1] One year later, having become a version of the group incorporating Denny Romans aka Demian Bell (from Maypole) as the lead guitarist and lead singer, and Walter Parks as Bass player, the Barbarians disbanded. They had evolved to combine martial arts and music by rigorously rehearsing nearly every day at a Karate dojo owned by Moulton's brother-in-law. They briefly re-formed in 1973 to cut an album under a different lineup. [4]
The Ramones' song, "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?," which appears as the opening cut on their End of the Century album, includes "Moulty" in the litany of rock and roll figures and institutions name-dropped in its lyrics. [6]
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | T.A.M.I Show | Themselves |
Ronny & the Daytonas were an American surf rock group, whose members included John "Bucky" Wilkin, Paul Jensen, Thomas Ramey, Lynn Williams (drums), and Lee Kraft (guitar), with contributions from others such as Larry Butler (organ), Ronny Clark, and Buzz Cason.
Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era is a compilation album of American psychedelic and garage rock singles that were released during the mid-to-late 1960s. It was created by Lenny Kaye, who was a writer and clerk at the Village Oldies record shop in New York. He would later become the lead guitarist for the Patti Smith Group. Kaye produced Nuggets under the supervision of Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman. Kaye conceived the project as a series of roughly eight LP installments focusing on different US regions, but Elektra convinced him that one double album would be more commercially viable. It was released on LP by Elektra in 1972 with liner notes by Kaye that contained one of the first uses of the term "punk rock". It was reissued with a new cover design by Sire Records in 1976. In the 1980s, Rhino Records issued Nuggets in a series of fifteen installments, and in 1998 as a 4-cd box set.
The Chiffons were an American girl group originating from the Bronx, a borough of New York City, in 1960.
Lou Monte was an Italian American singer best known for a number of best-selling, Italian-themed novelty records which he recorded for both RCA Victor and Reprise Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s, most famously "Lazy Mary" (1958) and the 1962/63 million-selling US single "Pepino the Italian Mouse", plus the seasonal track "Dominick the Donkey". He also recorded on Roulette Records, Jubilee Records, Regalia Records, Musicor Records, Laurie Records, and AFE Records.
"I'll Be Doggone" is a 1965 song recorded by American soul singer Marvin Gaye and released on the Tamla label. The song talks about how a man tells his woman that he'll be "doggone" about simple things but if she did him wrong that he'd be "long gone". The song was written by Miracles members Smokey Robinson, Pete Moore and Marv Tarplin, initially for The Temptations, who rejected the song.
Jim Pons is an American bassist, author, singer, and video director who most notably played for the Leaves (1964–1967), the Turtles (1967–1970), and the Mothers of Invention (1970–1971) and Flo and Eddie (1971-1973).
The Twilights were an Australian rock band, which formed in Adelaide in 1964 by Peter Brideoake on rhythm guitar, John Bywaters on bass guitar, Clem "Paddy" McCartney and Glenn Shorrock both on lead vocals. They were joined by Terry Britten on lead guitar and Laurie Pryor on drums within a year. Heavily influenced by the British Invasion, they became a significant Australian band during the mid-1960s. They were noted for their musicianship, on-stage humour and adoption of overseas sounds and trends. Their most popular single is a cover version of "Needle in a Haystack", which topped the Go-Set singles chart in 1966. Also in that year, they won the Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds competition and were awarded a trip to London.
The Leaves were an American garage rock band formed in the San Fernando Valley, California, in 1964. They are best known for their version of the song "Hey Joe", which was a hit in 1966. Theirs is the earliest release of this song, which became a rock standard.
Stay with the Hollies, also known by its American release title Here I Go Again, is the debut album by the British rock band the Hollies and was released in January 1964 on Parlophone Records. In Canada, it was released on Capitol in July 1964, with a different track listing. In the US, Imperial Records issued the album under the title Here I Go Again in June 1964 to capitalize on the moderate success of the singles "Here I Go Again" and "Just One Look". It also features covers of well-known R&B songs, not unusual for Beat groups of the day.
Edwin Thomas "Ed" Shaughnessy was a swing music and jazz drummer long associated with Doc Severinsen and a member of The Tonight Show Band on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
T.A.M.I. Show is a 1964 concert film released by American International Pictures. It includes performances by numerous popular rock and roll and R&B musicians from the United States and England. The concert was held at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 28 and 29, 1964. Free tickets were distributed to local high school students. The acronym "T.A.M.I." was used inconsistently in the show's publicity to mean both "Teenage Awards Music International" and "Teen Age Music International".
The Strangers were an Australian rock band formed in 1961 and existed until 1975. The band started out playing instrumental songs in a style similar to The Shadows, with influences from Cliff Richard. The original line-up was Laurie Arthur, Peter Robinson (bass), Graeme "Garth" Thompson (drums) and Fred Wieland. Robinson had previously played with a local band The Thunderbirds and went on to replace Athol Guy in the Seekers in the late 1970s.
Doug Morris is an American record executive. He served as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Universal Music Group from 1995 to 2011, as well as Sony Music Entertainment from 2011 to 2017. He founded the record label 12Tone in 2018, where he's since served as CEO.
The Mixtures were an Australian rock band that formed in Melbourne in 1965.
Ronald Eugene Dove is an American pop and country music singer-songwriter who had a string of hit pop records in the mid to late 1960s and several country chart records in the 1970s and 1980s.
Black Pearl was an American rock and roll band, formed in San Francisco, California, which was active from 1967 to 1978.
Somebody's Image were an Australian pop and R&B band formed in 1966, which included Russell Morris on lead vocals. Their highest charting single is a cover version of Joe South's "Hush", which peaked at number 14 on the Go-Set National Top 40. Morris left in 1968 to start his solo career and the group disbanded in the following year.
"Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl" is a song written by Geoffry Morris for the American band The Barbarians. It was released as the group's second single, and was the first and most successful tune for the Barbarians to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cashbox.
"Moulty" is a song by the American band The Barbarians, and was released in 1966 on Laurie Records. It was written by Doug Morris, Barbara Baer, Eliot Greenberg, and Robert Schwartz, and was also produced by Morris. The lyrics refer to drummer Victor "Moulty" Moulton's loss of his left hand, and the feelings of estrangement that followed. The song was released as a single, and gave The Barbarians their second and final hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
Showcase is a studio album by American country singer-songwriter Bill Anderson. It was released in November 1964 on Decca Records and was produced by Owen Bradley. The album was Anderson's third studio release as a recording artist and second to be released in 1964. It included two singles that became major hits on the Billboard country chart along with subsequent B-sides.
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