Monocled Alchemist

THE GORDIAN KNOT – ”We Must Be Doing Somethin’ Right” / ”Broken Down Ole Merry-Go-Round” (Verve VK 10612) August 1968

The Gordian Knot | We Must Be Doing Somethin’ Right | (Verve) 1968 | With a running time of four and a half minutes ’Broken Down Ole Merry-Go-Round’ was clearly intended as an album track but the song found it’s way on the flip of this single release. The instrumentation is minimal as the song is heavily arranged in favour of the angelic three part harmonies.

There’s also room for a weird mid song break where it goes English toytown but then reverts back to  melancholic pop psychedelia

The A-side of the single ‘We Must Be Doing Somethin’ Right’ is pure pop heaven with blissful harmonies and beautiful melody lines typical of professional outfits from Los Angeles during the 1966-68 era.

According to information from an issue of Billboard in March 1968, The Gordian Knot were scheduled to make a TV appearance on The Steve Allen Show on 28/03/68. Maybe one day that performance will end up on YouTube.

Pretty teen easybeat side along the lines of the Mindbenders ‘Groovy Kind Of Love.’ Side could find a war welcome from the pop dee-jays and listeners. Flip: ‘Broken Down Ole Merry-Go-Round’ (Cash Box, 07/09/68)

The Gordian Knot | We Must Be Doing Somethin’ Right | (Verve) 1968

You may not have heard of the Gordian Knot, but people like Nancy Sinatra, the Smothers Brothers, Eddie Fisher, Richard Harris and Natalie Wood are among their fans, so what are you waiting for?

Though Los Angeles is now home, the group was originally formed at the University of Mississippi in 1964. They finished school in ’65 and headed for New York, where they starved, and following a short jaunt to Pennsylvania they returned home to Miss.

In the fall of ’65 singer Jim Weatherly came to California to film “Shindig,” and decided this was the place to be. So in the summer of ’66 the Gordian Knot drove across country in a camper—two in the front seat and three in the camper.

Things were kind of bad for a while but after Nancy Sinatra saw and liked them they were asked to accompany her on a 17 day USO trip to Vietnam and shortly thereafter became the house group at L.A.’s newest exclusive nitespot for celebrities, The Factory, where they gathered their star studded fan following.

Now they’ve signed with MGM Records and are about to let the rest of the nation in on the Gordian Knot.

THE GORDIAN KNOT – ’The Year Of The Sun’ (Verve V6-5062) 1968

According to the liners on the back of The Gordian Knot studio album ’Tones’, the group relocated from Mississippi to the go go wonderland named Hollywood, Los Angeles.

This proved to be a good move because their multi layered harmony pop was perfect ear fodder for the sunshine set.

They rubbed shoulders with film stars and influential music people, playing private party gigs for Richard Harris, Natalie Wood and Eddie Fisher.

They managed to secure a six month residency at P.J’s in 1967, then in August of that year opened a new hip joint called The Factory.

By 1968 they had enough of their own material to record an album and entered MGM/Verve Studios in L.A. with producer Clark Burroughs.

He had recently performed production duties on many of The Association’s hits. According to the Verve Records Catalogue (this can be found online) The Gordian Knot recorded all of the songs found on their album on the 26th March 1968.   

’The Year Of The Sun’ is pure pop perfection with soaring complex harmonies, flute and acoustic guitar. The song was lifted from the album and released as a single with ’If Only I Could Fly’ but it was unfairly overlooked.