WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . JOHN FRED: Soulman in disguise (with Beat pop)

During the height of Beatlemania (1963-65) there were numerous tribute songs, parodies and humorous copies in the Beatles' style. Not to mention hundreds of artists covering the Lennon-McCartney originals.

Among the many tributes were the 18-year old Cher (as Bonnie Jo Mason) weighing in with Ringo I Love You, on the New Zealand homefront Rochelle Vincen covered Donna Lynn's My Boyfriends Got a Beatle Haircut and the Howard Morrison Quartet offered the lame I Wanna Cut You Hair.

There was Peter Sellers reading the lyrics of A Hard Days Night in the manner of Shakespeare's Richard III and She Loves You like a prissy vicar. And other such gimmick hits and misses.

The fad faded as fads are wont to do and by the late Sixties there were fewer such parodies although the number of covers just kept growing as the Lennon-McCartney (and then Harrison) catalogues grew incrementally.

However Shane's St Paul (a cover of a song by Terry Knight) arrived in 1969 and, ironically for a tribute to McCartney, mostly included lines from Lennon-penned songs.

One of the more interesting Beatles-referencing songs – and an actual chart-topping hit in 10 countries (top 10 in New Zealand) – came from John Fred and His Playboy Band in 1967.

It was Lucy in Disguise (With Glasses) written by the band's John Fred Gourrier and Andrew Bernard.

Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)

 

It got a lot of mileage out of John Fred mishearing the title of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds as “Lucy in disguise with diamonds”.

What went past most listeners just catching the Beatle reference is what a sassy slice of horn-driven Southern soul it was.

"We were a bunch of white guys trying to play black music," Gourrier said. "We grew up listening to Big Joe Turner and Fats Domino and Smiley Lewis and all those great New Orleans artists. That's the kind of music we liked, and all the kids loved us."

John Fred and the band may have been one hit wonders but they had a very decent pedigree and their 1967 album Agnes English – which included the hit -- put them closer to soulful British bands like the Spencer Davis Group and Small Faces. And the likes of Otis Redding.

John Fred said Fontella Bass' Rescue Me and the Four Tops' I Can't Help Myself, inspired the great bass line on Lucy in Disguise.

“Bass lines were dominant at that time," Gourrier said in 1999. "So I had this bass line in mind for months. And then we were in Fort Lauderdale out on the beach and all these girls were starting to wear these big glasses. You really couldn't tell what they looked like."

John Fred Gourrier out of Baton Rouge had his first hit Shirley (recorded in New Orleans with Fats Domino's band, the Fatman being a hero) while still a 16-year old in high school in the Fifties and appeared on the Alan Freed Rock and Roll Show in New York.

He subsequently recorded with the Jordanaires and had a stab at the charts with Down in New Orleans.

After high school he and His Playboys – renamed as His Playboy Band to avoid confusion with Gary Lewis and the Playboys – hit the touring circuit around the south east and their covers include John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillin (which Elvis admired) and a very passable treatment of The Harlem Shuffle (the Bob and Earl hit, later resurrected by the Rolling Stones for Dirty Work).

On their Agnes English album – their second and popular regionally before the single broke – there is a soulful version of Percy Sledge's hit Out of Left Field, She Shot a Hole in My Soul (another well chosen soul cover), the rough-edged R'n'B outsider song Most Unlikely to Succeed and the punchy No Good to Cry.

She Shot A Hole in My Soul

 

John Fred was a fine white soul singer, not quite in the league of Southside Johnny but close.

That sole hit however worked against them and although the album has a couple of nods in the British Beat direction (the title track is slighlydelic, Achenall Riot is just psyche-odd) they remained a soul band with organ and trumpet.

To further cash in on the single's success the album was repackaged with different tracks and a more groovy Mod cover.

There were more singles (their original Hey Hey Bunny a rewrite of the Spencer Davis Group's Keep on Running) and another album with the Playboy Band, Permanently Stated in 1968, which goes very flower power and into whimsical British psychedelic pop (Mary Jane, We Played Games, Surprise Surprise).

After the band broke up John Fred carried on other groups.

But John Fred's story is a depressingly familiar one: years of hard work on the circuit but a struggle to get royalties for his recordings, then even more touring.

Later he had his own popular radio show Roots of Rock'n'Roll (which knew all about as a soul and r'n'b fan) but to the rest of the planet he had the misfortune of being thought of as a one-hit wonder.

He was in way, but on the 20th anniversary of his death on April 15 2005 let's remember him differently.

I Just Want to Make Love to You

 

John Fred was a genuine soul, rock'n'roll and blues man . . . and that's why we need to talk about John Fred Gourrier

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You can hear the Agnes English album at Spotify here

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For other articles in the series of strange or different characters in music, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . go here.