Concrete and Clay was a #1 hit in 1965 on the UK Singles Chart. It made it to a respectable #28 on the US Billboard chart. Just popular enough, but obscure enough, to interest someone like Wes Anderson. Here it is, along with a protozoan-era music video:
Ya gotta love Unit 4+2’s vibe. By the look of them, they’re obviously going to do the record producer’s taxes after the session, or maybe do some retirement planning for elderly couples in Tunbridge Wells. It demonstrates ably that the sixties was two different decades wrapped into one. The first half looked like this, and the latter part was all feather boas and paisley shirts and satin carnival uniforms. The song itself is seriously sprightly. It’s got a slightly exotic Brazilian beat, a copious amount of rebar on display in the video, and absolutely the correct amount of cowbell.
The band was called Unit 4 for a while, until they decided they could really use a guitar player and a drummer, hence the +2. The +2 turned out to be Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit. You think you don’t know who those two guys are, but you sort of do if you’re my age. They later hooked up with the keyboardist from the Zombies and made this earworm in the ’70s:
Yes, hair and clothing styles for performers had changed in the interim.
Anyway, let’s get back to Concrete and Clay. I was tickled when my sons started banging it out in their rehearsal space. My brother gave my son a cowbell for Christmas, and they immediately knew exactly what to do with it. I wish I had recorded it before I sold their practice room, mostly because it was attached to the rest of the house. But it was a song with legs, if you ask me. It’s peppy and obscure enough to be interesting, but familiar enough for people to respond to it when you start in with the cowbell.
Right? Isn’t it? Am I wrong here? I have my doubts now. I went looking around for covers of Concrete and Clay, but they’re vanishingly rare on these here intertunnels. Has my thinker upper failed me on this one? Let’s see who’s executing the song on the WooTube:
Whoah. A lot can be explained by the fact they’re German. Our Deutsche freunde are rarely noted for their cooking, but they’re really not noted for their sense of humor. Here’s a German joke:
Judge: So you had a disagreement with your neighbor over a parking space. You accosted them in the street, cursed at them, drove them into a forest, and beat them with a tree limb! Don’t you think that was taking things a little too far?
Defendant: You’re right, your honor. I should have beaten them right there in the street.
Oh well. Let’s head further north, and see How Ilkka & LPX paid homage to the tune:
The late sixties also introduced a lot of people to psychedelic drugs. But WooTube beats magic mushrooms, hands down.