The Lemon Pipers
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| The Lemon Pipers | |
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 The Lemon Pipers, as shown on the cover of their "Green Tambourine" album
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Oxford, Ohio |
| Genre(s) | psychedelic pop, bubblegum pop |
| Years active | 1966 - 1969 |
| Label(s) | Buddah Records |
| Associated acts | Starstruck |
| Former members | |
| Ivan Browne Bill Bartlett |
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The Lemon Pipers were a 1960s bubblegum/psychedelic pop band from Oxford, Ohio [1] known chiefly for their song "Green Tambourine", which reached number one in the United States in 1968. The song has been credited as being the first bubblegum No.1 hit and ushering in the bubblegum pop era.[1]
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[edit] Career
The band, formed in 1966 from two Oxford bands, Ivan and the Sabres[1] and Tony and the Bandits[2] comprised singer Ivan Browne (b. 1947), guitarist William Bartlett (b. 1946), keyboardist Robert G. "Reg" Nave (b. 1945), drummer William Albaugh (1948-1999) and New Zealand-born bassist Steve Walmsley (b. 1949).
The band played a mix of blues and rock jams regularly in Oxford clubs and a Cincinnati underground rock venue, the Ludlow Garage,[2] and released a single on the Carol Records label, "Quiet Please". In late 1967 they were offered a recording deal by a talent scout from Buddah Records[1] and moved to New York.
Working with producer and songwriter Paul Leka, the group’s debut on Buddah was a Bartlett composition, "Turn Around and Take A Look". When the song failed to make the charts[3], the label approached Leka and his songwriting partner, Shelley Pinz, who were working out of an office in the same Broadway building as Buddah,[4] to come up with a song. The pair wrote "Green Tambourine" and the band reluctantly recorded it. The song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at the end of 1967 and hit No.1 in February 1968. The song peaked at No. 7 in the UK and was also a hit worldwide.
Its success led to pressure being placed on the band by the label to replicate the song with an identical follow-up and in March the band released another Leka/Pinz song, "Rice Is Nice", which peaked at No. 46 in the US and No. 41 in the UK in May. The band had little enthusiasm for either song. however, dubbing them "funny-money music" and recording them only because they knew they would be dropped by Buddah if they refused.[1]
Their pop success created what Nave has described as "the duality of the Lemon Pipers": "We were a stand-up rock 'n' roll band, and then all of a sudden, we're in a studio, being told how to play and what to play."[2]
The chasm between the label’s aspirations and the band’s own musical tastes became apparent on the Lemon Pipers’ debut album, Green Tambourine (1967). Produced by Leka, the album contained five Leka/Pinz songs and the band-written free-form and extended blues-inspired tracks "Fifty Year Void" and "Through With You" (the latter bearing influences of The Byrds and running to more than nine minutes).[1] Writing in Bubblegum is the Naked Truth, Gary Pig Gold commented: "It was the Pipers’ way with a tough-pop gem in the under-four-minute category which was most impressive by far: 'Rainbow Tree', 'Shoeshine Boy' and especially 'Blueberry Blue' each sported a taut, musical sophistication worthy of The Move and, dare I say it, even the Magical Mystery Beatles."[1]
The band recorded a second album for Buddah, Jungle Marmalade, which again showed both sides of the band – another Leka/Pinz bubblegum song, "Jelly Jungle", (released as a single and peaking at No. 51 in the US), a version of the Carole King/Gerry Goffin song "I Was Not Born to Follow" (released in 1968 by the Byrds) and an 11-minute, 43 second epic, "Dead End Street/Half Light".
The band left the Buddah label in 1969 and later dissolved. Bartlett, Walmsley and Nave formed a band called Starstruck, whose recording of a Lead Belly song, "Black Betty" was reworked by Super K Productions producers Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz and released in 1977 under the name of Ram Jam, a new band featuring Bartlett. Browne moved to California to continue playing music, Walmsley plays bass around Oxford. Nave is a jazz DJ and plays organ occasionally with Greg Schaber & High Street.[2]
Drummer Bill Albaugh died on January 20, 1999 at age 53.
[edit] Discography w/Billboard peak positions
[edit] Singles
- Quiet Please / Monaural 78 -- Carol 107 -- 1966
- Turn Around And Take A Look (#132) / Danger -- Buddah 11 -- 10/67
- Green Tambourine (#1) / No Help From Me -- Buddah 23 -- 12/67
- Rice Is Nice (#46) / Blueberry Blue -- Buddah 31 -- 3/68
- Jelly Jungle (Of Orange Marmalade) (#51) / Shoeshine Boy -- Buddah 41 -- 5/68
- Wine And Violet / Lonely Atmosphere -- Buddah 63 -- 1968
- Hard Core / Rainbow Tree -- Buddah 124 -- 1969
- I Was Not Born To Follow / Rainbow Tree -- Buddah 136 -- 1969
[edit] Albums
- Green Tambourine (#90) -- Buddah BDM-1009 (Mono)/BDS-5009 (Stereo) -- 2/68
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- Rice Is Nice / Shoeshine Boy / Turn Around And Take A Look / Rainbow Tree / Ask Me If I Care / Straglin' Behind / Green Tambourine / Blueberry Blue / The Shoemaker Of Leatherwear Square / Fifty Year Void / Through With You
- Jungle Marmalade -- Buddah BDM-1016 (Mono -- promotional release only)/BDS-5016 (Stereo) -- 1968
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- Jelly Jungle / I Was Not Born To Follow / Everything Is You / Catch Me Falling / Hard Core / Love Beads and Meditation / I Need Someone (The Painter) / Lonely Atmosphere (mistitled as "Mirrors" on the album cover) / Wine And Violet / Dead End Street/Half Light.
The U.S. version of the "Jungle Marmalade" album contains "Lonely Atmosphere" (side 2, track 2) and is listed as such on the side 2 label, although it is mis-identified as 'Mirrors' on the back of the album jacket. Conversely, the Canadian issue of this album features a totally different song (presumably, 'Mirrors') on side 2, track 2. On the Canadian issue, the track is erroneously identified as 'Lonely Atmosphere' on the side 2 label. The jacket remained unchanged, so 'Mirrors' is correctly listed on the back cover. In short, the U.S. version does not contain 'Mirrors' and the Canadian version does not include 'Lonely Atmosphere'.
It would seem that 'Lonely Atmosphere' was included on the U.S. version of the album as a last-minute commercial gesture, since the song was released as a single.
[edit] Compilations
- Green Tambourine: The Best Of The Lemon Pipers -- Buddha 99798 -- 2001
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- Green Tambourine / Rice Is Nice / Shoeshine Boy / Rainbow Tree / Blueberry Blue / The Shoemaker Of Leatherwear Square / Jelly Jungle (Of Orange Marmalade) / Everything Is You / Love Beads and Meditation / Catch Me Falling / I Was Not Born To Follow / Wine And Violet / Dead End Street/Half Light
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g Eds, Cooper, Kim & Smay, David (2001), Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Feral House, ISBN 0-922915-69-5
- ^ a b c d "Lemon Pipers: More than 'Green Tamborine'" by Larry Nager, The Cincinnati Enquirer
- ^ Nite, Norm N. and Newman, Ralph M.: "Rock On: The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Rock N' Roll, (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1978,) P 276
- ^ Liner notes to Best of the Lemon Pipers, Camden/BMG, 1998.
