“Monaural 78” / “Quiet Please” (Carol Records 107) January 1968
The Lemon Pipers – Quiet Please: Here’s my third trip down the long-forgotten alleyways of Ohio and the extremely underrated Lemon Pipers. And why not?
I’ve been delving into their recorded material over the weekend and knew that I had a copy of their debut disc, so pulled it out of the box for a review.
They formed out of the ashes of Ivan & the Sabres and Tony & the Bandits, who were a very good sixties Beat group.
I have their 45s and they’re well worth investigating. Some of my archive reviews are on ‘The Monocled Alchemist.
“Quiet Please”, the Lemon Pipers first single was released on a local label in the summer of ’67. The Dana-Lyn label may not have had much clout beyond Ohio but at least it was a start.
I don’t have the early release on Dana-Lyn but both sides are “Quiet Please”, produced by Tom Dooley who was a disc-jockey at WSAI-AM radio, Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Lemon Pipers – Quiet Please
The group were signed to Buddah Records sometime at the back end of 1967 and work commenced on giving them a more commercial sound, including songs written and produced by Paul Leka.
This change, of course reaped benefits when “Green Tambourine” became a smash hit in USA and here in Britain, where it reached Top 10 status in March 1968.
With the Lemon Pipers flying high the guy who retained the masters for the Dana-Lyn single tried to “cash-in” by reissuing the tunes on a Louisville, Kentucky based label (Carol Records) in January 1968.
“Monaural 78” was chosen as the A-side which may have been a mistake because the goodtime Lovin’ Spoonful inspired number was probably too old hat for the hippies.
It’s still a decent tune though and my ears can even withstand the kazoo.
Much more interesting is “Quiet Please” on the flip with it’s liberal use of fuzztones and fluid acid lead guitar frills. Add some tambourine shake and hand-claps over the Eddie Cochrane “Summertime Blues” riff and the Lemon Pipers could have had an underground hit on their hands.
More of my Lemon Pipers indulgence on ‘The Monocled Alchemist’
Leave a Reply