Vanilla Fudge or Chocolate Watchband or Strawberry Alarm Clock?

ahh, missed opportunity to top it with Peanut Butter Conspiracy maybe

I'm going to vote for Vanilla Fudge, if only for this clip on the Ed Sullivan Show where, as one of the comments points out, the lead singer-organist spends the whole performance trying to shoo away flies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dJO47d26kc

XP Peppermint Trolley Company too.

One of my fave ILM achievements: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy is Threading!

XP ...and Peppermint Rainbow

no 1910 Fruitgum Company, no credibility ;)

idk prob the one that wrote "Incense And Peppermints" which I do love

went for Chocolate Watchband on the strength of their first LP, which really doesn't have any stinkers. their cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On" sounds like an early Mothers track, and "Gone and Passes By" sounds like a mix between Kaleidoscope (US) and West Coast Pop Art Ex. Band with the swagger of early Stones

also their first two records have excellent cover art

Lemon Pipers ftw

Recently listened to two Strawberry Alarm Clock albums and I think they were OK. Haven't listened to the Chocolate Watchband in years but probably should again. Have never listened to a Vanilla Fudge album, their shouty organ-based bombast frightens me a bit.

ok now I should def check out Chocolate Watchband who I have unjustly neglected

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Didn't see this poll in time, but I did watch Riot on the Sunset Strip a few nights ago on Amazon Prime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUsc8avW_bk

I'm going to vote for Vanilla Fudge, if only for this clip on the Ed Sullivan Show where, as one of the comments points out, the lead singer-organist spends the whole performance trying to shoo away flies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dJO47d26kc

― Ashley Pomeroy, Thursday, 19 December 2024 19:11 (yesterday) link

i can't decide if this band looks incredibly uncool or if it circled back around to really cool

i think they won me over by the end, just a bunch of dorks in ugly clothes rockin the fuck out

Their clothes like their music straddle that line between ridiculous and "hip when perceived from a certain angle."

I saw a reunion show of theirs in the aughts where unfortunately they came out in normal clothes. The guitar player had at some point become very religious and I seem to recall him blessing the crowd.

Oh I misread that and thought you meant he'd become very religious during the show - as a result of it in fact.

Yeah I saw VF last year (as detailed on their own dedicated ilx thread), and Vince Martell gave a mercifully short blessing to the assembly. They were pretty good actually! Not too bad anyway. Seems both the Strawberry Alarm Clock and Chocolate Watchband are still going too in one form or another. Do bands ever truly die nowadays?

Didn't see this poll

Strawberry - only know their hit. Supposedly their follow-up album Wake Up...It's Tomorrow is worthy.

Chocolate - their first album has a couple of good instrumentals on top of the stuff that doesn't ape the Stones too closely, but who knows to what extent the credit goes to the (watch)"band".

Vanilla -
1st album - two good songs in a sea of dross
2nd album - 100% dross with a coating of pretension
3rd album - campy gothy organ psych that starts to foretell Purple & Heep
4th album - a little more of the same with a side of self-indulgent improvisation

I would have voted Fudge because even though they fell on their faces repeatedly, at least they invented something.
All these bands are better than Count Chocula and his crew though.

Chocolate Alarm Fudge!

honestly VF look like they're having so much fun in that clap, you sort of have to give it to them

used to have a Strawberry Alarm Clock compilation and there was plenty of good stuff on there.

Yeah, I prefer the goofy bubblegum psych of “Sit With The Guru” to the overblown organ jams of Vanilla Fudge. This thread is a good impetus for me to check out more Chocolate Watchband, and some of the other bands mentioned.

lol was this poll 5 hours long? def Chocolate Watchband

yes sorry for snafu

SAC

Inner Mystique is a solid album, good production. I’m just now checking out Vanilla Fudge and they seem way more “important” and also delightfully portentous. Strawberry Alarm Clock I just know the one song and it’s alright I guess, I thought it was cooler before I heard heavier stuff.

Enjoying both songs on the new SAC single “Monsters.”

"monsters" has a killer guitar solo!

Pretty wild, Steve Bartek!

The idea that the Strawberry Alarm Clock was putting out a single is kinda mind blowing.

My tie to this stuff is Cactus and the law firm of Beck, Bogart and Appice, those recordings I really like quite a bit. Those two were one heck of a rhythm section and it is kinda a trip to hear them singing together in BBA.

I think Vanilla Fudge being originators of the heavy organ maaaan is probably the thing that gives them a bit of a nudge in comparison to these 3 bands from my ears. It probably led to Vincent Crane getting a record deal for a band etc. (and other stuff).

I'd say "Fire" by Arthur Baker is another tone bar in the heavy organ maaaannn sound too and it catching on. The UK just had a bunch of dudes that had been playing piano and it was a way to get with it.

John Lord is definitely the Lord of that style, so apt a nom de guerre.

John Ford is John Ford and Jon Lord is Jon Lord. I'd be worrying about early onset, but I have made those type of post errors eternally. Epitaph to read - 'He could have used an editor.'

Didn't see this poll

Strawberry - only know their hit. Supposedly their follow-up album Wake Up...It's Tomorrow is worthy.

― Halfway there but for you, Friday, December 20, 2024 8:46 AM (ten months ago)

Very much so. Very pleasant, eclectic album, goofy at times in an appealing way.

The fact that the SAC included very significant, future members of both Lynyrd Skynyrd and Oingo Boingo is like the ultimate trivia tidbit.

earlnash, I’ll be your editor and point out “Fire” was Arthur Brown, not Baker, but I knew who you meant.

I did not know about a SAC/Boingo connection.

Yeah, Steve Bartek. He did not tour with the SAC because he was still a kid, but has co-writing credits and plays on the records.

Fifteen years old. Co-wrote four songs on the first album.