Speaking of Lee Hazlewood, let's talk about a relatively obscure band on his LHI label, one that he eventually dropped due to their commercial failure. The underground of the sixties had more than just Garage Rock, and despite the name of this journal, I love to find obscure bands from other genres as well. Well, without further ado, here's a bit of Garage-Soul (there's even a distorted and kinda-fuzzy guitar in one of the tracks!), brought to you courtesy of...
Honey Ltd.
Honey Ltd.! Back in the mid sixties, college students Laura Polkinghorne, Marsha Temmer, Joan Sliwin, and Alexandra Sliwin formed a band, playing at venues (like The Hideout!) in their local city of Detroit. They called themselves "The Mama Cats", and eventually were signed to LHI (prompted by a move to the west coast) under the name "Honey Ltd." After recording their self-titled debut in 1968, Alexandra left the group, and they carried on under the name "Eve". Attempting to carry on despite a lack of commercial success, they released "Take It and Smile", before LHI decided to drop them. Here, we'll be examining their debut (the only LP they released as the band Honey Ltd.), which was apparently backed by "The Wrecking Crew", a large group of studio musicians in Los Angeles who provided instrumental backing for innumerable stars and hit songs.
In the tradition of honoring the unusual and forgotten musicians of the sixties, here's Honey Ltd.!
Honey Limited! Clockwise from top right: Marcia Temmer, Joan Sliwen, Laura Polkinghorne, and Sandy Sliwen! I believe Laura Polkinghorne was the 'lead' vocalist, often taking the helm in their songs.
1. "The Warrior" - Honey Ltd. opens their album with a smooth song that starts as a Folk Ballad, with a burst of the Motown influenced soul (during the chorus) that would help create the Funk sound of the seventies. Not a bad start! And no, it has nothing to do with the movie "The Warriors".
2. "No, You Are" - A Vocal-Pop number in the vein of The 5th Dimension, this one obviously has an emphasis on clean harmonies. I like the guitar in the background, but it's far too quiet (and gets overpowered by the vocals), as well as the brief electric organ number near the end. The chorus shakes up the beat from the rest of the song, but I think a fuzz guitar could have added the dirty contrast that this song needs. As it is, it's a good song that really ought to have charted (at the very least locally) in it's day.
3. "I've Got Your Man" - Similar to the last number, only this time a single vocalist takes the reins while the others back her up. Again, I like the guitar but it just can't compete with the loud vocals. Anyway, this track has a pretty catchy tune, and soul to spare! Also, the vocalists work really well together, especially for the final thirty seconds of the track.
Lee Hazlewood just can't resist crashing their advertisement, in the bottom left corner.
4. "Silk 'n Honey" - The end of the A-side, this one is a pretty smooth and relaxing number. The weird vocal effect from Lee Hazlewood's song "Nobody Like You" returns briefly over the backing vocalists in the second half of the song, and who doesn't love a generous serving of tambourine? Alright, time to flip the record over...
5. "For Your Mind" - Opening up the B-Side, this one is livened up by the solid drumming. Really, these girls have nailed down vocal harmonies. From the two minutes and eight seconds mark onward, the guitar/bass and drums work very well with the harmonies, and it makes me wonder why they didn't have more of an emphasis on instrumentation during the rest of the song (and the rest of the album, for that matter).
6. "Come Down" - A moving and compelling track with fabulous vocals, and the drumming is top notch once again. I'm normally not the biggest fan of Soul/Folk and Vocal-Pop (though I do love "The Mamas and the Papas", among other bands), but I actually really like this one!
It's been a hard day's night... Sorry, I automatically sing that whenever I see a band running somewhere.
7. "Louie Louie" - A cover of Richard Berry's Rock 'n Roll classic, this is definitely the stand-out song of the album! With fantastic vocals and a distorted guitar that lets loose in the second half of the song, not to mention awesome funk-drumming, everything just comes together perfectly! I highly recommend this one, regardless of what genre you normally enjoy listening to.
8. "Tomorrow, Your Heart" - The last track of the album, we're played out with a light and slow Vocal-Pop piece that kind of reminds me of Spanky And Our Gang. However, the song every now and then breaks into a fast beat, with a touch of Funk to it, and these parts work well with the otherwise clean and steady meat of the song.
Another day, another album (or two, in this case). I was very surprised with how much I liked "Honey Limited" (especially their cover of Louie, Louie), and it really confounds me as to how they failed to destroy the charts (and that they were dropped from LHI). But the underground is full of bands like them, who despite having a very marketable and clean sound just never managed to take off. It's also interesting that a Vocal-Pop band shared a stage with some of the tougher acts of the local Detroit scene in the sixties. My hat's off to you, ladies.
Here's a video of them performing live in Vietnam!