| Personnel incl: |
| TOM COLLINS |
drms |
A |
| ERIC GULLIKSEN |
12 string gtr, bs, vcls |
A |
| TOM ZAGRYN |
ld gtr, vcls |
A |
NB: (1) later issued on Lawn (L-225) a subsidiary of Swan and later reissued on Itzy (11). (3) Most copies destroyed - roughly 12 copies known to exist.
From Worcester, Massachusetts, this outfit got together at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and are notable for including pre-Orpheus bassist Eric Gulliksen. Their first 45, originally issued on Tom Zagryn and Eric's Bristol label, was a local hit - significant enough to be picked up by Swan. Eric recalls: "If you listen hard, you can hear Tom Collins' bass drum pedal squeaking throughout."
The group's name came from their use of home-built tape-delay echo units. Eric: "...we used the echo units on vocals and guitars. I played electric 12-string and doubled on bass guitar. Our initial 'claim to fame' was that we were playing a New York style of R&R-cum-R&B called 'shake' with a beat typified on Tiger Talk - nobody else in the area could play this stuff".
Local station WORC-AM, known to the industry for sniffing out future trends and hits, picked up on Blue Bell Bounce. It reached No. 5 on their charts and generated much label interest. The group signed with Swan who issued it on their Lawn subsidiary. "Unfortunately it was released on the day that JFK was shot and, as you may know, for several weeks no radio station played any R&R at all, so the record died".
For the second 45, the Bristol label was renamed BEP ('Blue Echo Productions'). Incidentally Tom Zagryn also produced the Squires' Going All The Way 45, but sold the rights, when they signed to Atco. He also produced their earlier 45 as The Rogues too.
Eric adds:- "How in the name of all of the gods of music did you ever come up with
the Respectable 45? When we recorded it we went to a different pressing plant than the one we had been using, to try to save money (mistake no. 1). Unfortunately this company went intobankruptcy before we received product (we'd already paid for it). We screamed and yelled and threatened lawsuit, and finally received product. However, they had rushed it so much that they had evidently applied the labels before the ink was dry; they were all smudged, print had transferred from one to another, etc. The sound wasn't too bad, but nothing to write home about. Anyway, at the end of the day, we never released this record, and destroyed most of the copies (mistake no. 2). There may be as many as a dozen copies in existence (Tom and I each have one), but there wouldn't be any more than that. The record numbers on Bristol and BEP are sequential (B-101 through B-104). B-102 was a record which Tom and I wrote and produced - Andromeda / Swamp Rat - by a group from Gardner, MA, named Kenny and the Night Riders. It was a good record, sold very well in Gardner, but never went anywhere else."
Gulliksen had also previously worked with a few folk groups of various names. One of these, the Wanderers, which included Jack McKennes (also later of Orpheus), had a Kennedy tribute 45, The Man, as The College Boys. He played concurrently with the Blue Echoes and Wanderers until the fall of 1963, resigning from the latter as the Blue Echoes' popularity and commitments were increasing and they were about to release their debut 45.
Compilation coverage has so far included: Tiger Talk on Scum Of The Earth, Vol. 1 (2nd Edition LP), Scum Of The Earth, Vol. 2 (LP) and Scum Of The Earth - Complete Collection; Blue Bell Bounce on Oldies I Forgot To Buy (CD).
(Max Waller w/thanks to Eric Gulliksen)
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