off: "little black egg"

[Doug Pearson]

"Little Black Egg", originally by the Nightcrawlers, is one of those old
garage rock chestnuts that's been covered by a zillion bands, including the
Imperial Pompadours and ICU.

On Wed, 25 Aug 1999 16:04:41 EDT, Larry <DASLUD at AOL.COM> wrote:
>...coulda sworn i had an aircheck w/a version of this song by someone other
>than the nightcrawlers...guess not.

It could easily have been by someone else since there are *many* cover
versions and I hardly know them all.

>according to info gleaned by the mighty mac SHERLOCK, it was released on lee
>in 8/65, and then on kapp 11/65 and 11/66

Lee was the local Florida label that originally issued the Nightcrawlers'
single, which was such a big local hit that it was picked up by Kapp (the
same NYC-area label that released the two original Silver Apples albums),
who also released the Nightcrawlers' sole LP (this might be the 11/66
release).

>...found an in-house playlist from KFWB Los Angeles for the week of 3/8-15/67
>which has it making its debut at #36.

Ah yes, the days when songs could be local hits in several parts of the
country without being national hits.  Sort of like the Thirteenth Floor
Elevators' "You're Gonna Miss Me" - a hit in Texas and San Francisco, but
nowhere else.

>i remember hearing it at least once as an oldie on a phoenix top 40 station
>circa 1970, and reading about how it was banned in some places for allegedly
>being about hashish, but if it dates back to '65 i'd kinda doubt it >>though
>i believed that part until a few minutes ago!<<

hmmm ... I had heard it was banned because it was allegedly about
micegenation (interracial relations) ... I guess it's one of those songs
like "Louie Louie" that was condemned by people who had no idea what it was
actually about, or that the lyrics are ambiguous enough to interpret
however you want - the ICU version sounds to me like it's (literally) about
an alien creature's egg - I don't get that impression from any of the other
original or cover versions!

>in addition the the ep doug p. pointed out, it's also on nuggets vol. 6 and
>CD vol. 2...

... the original Nightcrawlers version.

>and much later covered by the lemonheads

Late-80s/early-90s alternapoprock band from Boston led by Evan Dando.  Yuck.

>and tarnation, whoever they are...

Great folksy band from the Bay Area, now defunct.  I'm embarassed to say
that I've never heard their version, I'll have to check it out.
Leader/singer/autoharpist Paula Fraizer is now in another great band called
Virginia Dare (with ace producer/recordist Greg Freeman, whose credits
include the Faust album on Table of the Elements, on bass).

>still gonna check my aircheck tapes for another '60s version...doesnt look
>good, though.

I don't know of any other 60s versions, but the Pagans (77-era Cleveland
punk band) did a great version as a B-side to their "Dead End America" 7"
(I think it was that one).

Then there are also the three Nik versions, first by the Imperial
Pompadours (recorded, of course, after Nik, Trev, Dino and maybe Bob had
only heard the song once), and then by ICU proper, with slightly-different
versions appearing on the 'Blood and Bone' 12"EP and video.  I'm sure that
Steve Pond could fill us in on the differences between the vinyl and video
versions.

A couple good places to get information about songs are the ASCAP and BMI
databases, although the ASCAP one is currently down and the BMI one doesn't
list "Little Black Egg" (meaning that it's probably controlled by an
ASCAP-afilliated publisher):
http://www.ascap.com/ace/ACE.html
http://www.bmi.com/repertoire/database.html

I'm sure there are more versions of the song out there, since it's such a
great one (I wouldn't be delving into all this trivia if it wasn't)!

        -Doug
         ceres at sirius.com