Mop Top Not

January 22, 2015 4:38 PM

In the early 60s, the Beatles' signature haircuts rapidly became de rigueur for any and all rock bands seeking a crack at the big time. Conformity to the new look became, almost overnight, the norm. One band, though, said later for all that, and went for a truly radical look. That band, of course, was The Eggheads.

There is a serious dearth of information out there on the nets concerning these guys. Besides the linked video, the only other thing I've been able to find was this promo shot.

posted by flapjax at midnite (48 comments total)

SEE ALSO: The Monks

If I recall they actually dubbed themselves "the anti-beatles"
posted by Ferreous at 4:52 PM on January 22, 2015 [8 favorites]

Came for the egg, stayed for the heads.
posted by the bricabrac man at 4:56 PM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

It is wonderful to know that there were musicians this early that were fighting against conformity to Orthodox Beatlism that has kept the world in a stranglehold for over fifty years.
posted by charlie don't surf at 5:01 PM on January 22, 2015 [8 favorites]

Eggcellent.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:01 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh, the irony. The Beatles originally had Elvis style haircuts. Their move away from that is said to have been critical in breaking into the big time.

The Origin of the Beatles Haircut

How a haircut changed the world: The Beatles create the moptop
posted by Michele in California at 5:10 PM on January 22, 2015

The YouTube comments, for once, are great. It's an adorable meet up of the younger relatives of the band, and at least one band member. Maybe they've got more stories to tell, flapjax.
posted by lesli212 at 5:17 PM on January 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

Well, of course. There was a big yolk music scene in the sixties.
posted by yoink at 5:25 PM on January 22, 2015 [12 favorites]

maybe they've got more stories to tell, flapjax.

Yes, I hope so! And you're right about the comments: a refreshing change from the usual YT awfulness.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:26 PM on January 22, 2015

There was a big yolk music scene in the sixties.

Of course, outside of Richie Havens and a couple of old blues guys, it was very white. And these days the scene is a shell of its former self. A lot of the early players got too deep into drugs and wound up pretty fried.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:30 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Somebody mentioned the Monks, but there's also the interracial circa 1964 surf-skinhead band, The Pyramids.
posted by jonp72 at 5:37 PM on January 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'd like to hear the whole album...en.
posted by jonmc at 5:39 PM on January 22, 2015 [22 favorites]

Wow, that is awesome. And they fucking rocked, too. And had moves.

I'd like to hear the whole album...en.
Jon, omelette you finish, but first I wanna say that the Beatles still beat these guys, over easy.
posted by chococat at 5:43 PM on January 22, 2015 [12 favorites]

here's also the interracial circa 1964 surf-skinhead band, The Pyramids.

Wow, and they were also a *mixed-race* band. Very few of those in rock history.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:44 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

There was a classic piece in MAD Magazine #90 about new fads riding the coattails of the Beatle wig craze. It culminated in a picture of a kid wearing a Beatle Wig, Barbara Streisand nose, David Janssen ears, and Burt Lancaster teeth.
posted by usonian at 5:44 PM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

They just poached these guys ideas.
posted by jonmc at 5:44 PM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Hey, here's the Pyramids again.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:48 PM on January 22, 2015

Also I remember seeing a punk band called Egghead in Port Chester back in the mid 90's who were just great.
posted by jonmc at 5:50 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yes, ChurchHatesTucker, Eggcellent
posted by Zedcaster at 5:51 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

nothing but a bald gimmick
posted by pyramid termite at 5:59 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

nothing but a bald gimmick

I guess you're right, pt. And what good did it do them? They never cracked the Top 40.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:02 PM on January 22, 2015

Hey, here's the Pyramids again.

That's a dead link, or maybe just truncated or something, it takes me to the yt front page. I kinda wanted to see it, the other clip is from a movie and looks like a bunch of actors faking it, I wanted to see if they were real musicians.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:04 PM on January 22, 2015

That's a dead link, or maybe just truncated or something

Sorry, here it is.

wanted to see if they were real musicians.

Well, it's a TV spot where they're miming. Pretty goofy moves they've got.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:15 PM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Musicianship: C+. Choreography: A-. Commitment to gimmick: A.

What we see here is the deep roots of The Blue Man Group.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:25 PM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Another hair gimmick, from Quebec: Les Classels (they also did original songs).
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 6:44 PM on January 22, 2015

Commitment to gimmick: A.

They were focused like chalaza.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:52 PM on January 22, 2015

Looks like they played the Laurels Hotel.
posted by unliteral at 7:01 PM on January 22, 2015

Foolin' Around 45 dubbed over Patty Duke Show clip. From the comments - "It was also the first single on Columbia Pictures' famous Bell Records label which later became Arista Records in the mid 70's."
posted by unliteral at 7:09 PM on January 22, 2015

Well, it's a TV spot where they're miming. Pretty goofy moves they've got.

I am not quite sure what to think of the mixed band being watched by the whitey white folks with a gorilla sitting at their table.

That Dick Clark kinescope was fun, thanks for the corrected link. They have a nice surf sound, but I was disappointed that the sax guy never blew a note. I wanted to hear surf sax.
posted by charlie don't surf at 7:20 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

There's a newspaper clipping somewhere in my parents' attic with a photo of my father at age 13 or so getting the first Beatles haircut in his hometown in southern New Jersey. He's seated in the barber's chair and the barber is posing behind him with scissors in one hand and a can of hairspray in the other

Some 40 years later that I took a close look at that photo and pointed out to him that it wasn't hairspray that the barber was holding. It was a can of RAID.

Way to go, puny barber. Way to go.
posted by thecjm at 7:38 PM on January 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

SEE ALSO: The Monks

Yes, we love the Monks here at Metafilter!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:45 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Here's the 45 single "(Why Don't You Stop ) Fooling Around", dubbed over video from the Patty Duke Show.
Here's the 45 label: Bell Records 601 .

The Eggheads aka the Keytones aka the Keystone 4 aka Bit of Honey . . .

The Keytones "I was a Teenage Monster"
The Keytones "La-Do-Da Da"
The Keytones "I don't Care"
        The 45 record label

This later effort credited to Charlie James - "Lost on the Bayou" may be one of the Keytones.

The Keystone 4 maybe backed Rod McKuen on a couple tracks.

Charles Herman (bass, lead vocals)
Charles "Lucky" Licciardi (guitar, vocals)
Jimmy ? (guitar, vocals)
? (drums, vocals)

Looks like Lucky Licciardi passed away last November.

Oh, and there's 1980s rockabilly band still active today also billed as The Keytones. Don't be confused.

And remember to get your ketones tested (Cub Koda say, ya gotta pee in the cup . . .
 
posted by Herodios at 8:03 PM on January 22, 2015 [4 favorites]

"The record came out first as the keytones pictured above left. both promotional and black stock. It was reissued later on as the Eggheads with a label over the top of the Keytones." [scroll down, third from the bottom]
posted by unliteral at 8:29 PM on January 22, 2015

Thanks for pointing me to the Youtube comments. They really are grand. Maybe the first ever I've seen that don't make me sad for all humanity. For example:

bigman12396 years ago
I saw these guys when they opened for Peter & Gordon at the NY World's Fair more than 40 years ago. I never heard them, or heard of them, again, and wondered if I had dreamt the whole thing. Thank you youtube, for helping me prove to my friends and family that they really existed!
posted by cccorlew at 8:44 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Chuck from the band shares his memories.
posted by maxsparber at 9:01 PM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

It is wonderful to know that there were musicians this early that were fighting against conformity to Orthodox Beatlism that has kept the world in a stranglehold for over fifty years.

i know this is throwaway lulz, but the real oppressive miasma is led zeppelin.
posted by emptythought at 10:22 PM on January 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

Youtube comments have a bad rep, but I've noticed that on more obscure music videos, they tend to be actually pretty good, as they're almost always populated by fans and enthusiasts, often also including the band members...
posted by MartinWisse at 10:43 PM on January 22, 2015 [2 favorites]

Every new band needs a gimmick.
posted by mazola at 11:47 PM on January 22, 2015

Bet they wished they hadn't split up when they heard 'I am the Walrus.'
posted by colie at 1:50 AM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

1964 surf-skinhead band, The Pyramids

Is that...Don Rickles with a bird on his head? Why.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:35 AM on January 23, 2015

Don't fuck with The Baldies!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:39 AM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Every new band needs a gimmick

egg gimmick band deserved fame
posted by flabdablet at 6:40 AM on January 23, 2015

That's en-oeuf.
posted by Devonian at 6:50 AM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Just recently I started musing about Paul McCartney's hair. And it turned into this (self link alert).
posted by Man-Thing at 7:12 AM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

It is wonderful to know that there were musicians this early that were fighting against conformity to Orthodox Beatlism that has kept the world in a stranglehold for over fifty years.

i know this is throwaway lulz, but the real oppressive miasma is led zeppelin.

Whatever bands you like today either grew up listening to those two bands, or to other bands who grew up listening to them.
posted by rocket88 at 8:49 AM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's actually a shame they went for a novelty thing because they were good musicians on the evidence of the video. Their 're-imagining' of She Loves You was almost different enough from the original to have been a hit if they'd changed the words, changed the tempo, moved the structure around. God knows there were enough truly bad Beatles imitators making a buck at the time.

Hardly any other male acts at the time or since could reproduce the falsetto 'oohs' that made the Beatles famous, but these guys appear to have done it really well, and in She Loves You the effect is especially transcendent because John and Paul are singing a B and a D above the D7 chord. It makes an ecstatic sixth chord (John sings the B); actually a different effect from the 'ooh' in Twist and Shout (which is just a major triad), where they got the idea from and many believe they just chucked it in. The shock/ecstasy/rapture falsetto effect is repeated in dozens of their songs from the early period but in most cases the notes selected form different chords.
posted by colie at 11:21 AM on January 23, 2015

God knows there were enough truly bad Beatles imitators making a buck at the time.

It's pretty astounding.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:38 AM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

God knows there were enough truly bad Beatles imitators making a buck at the time.

Who is imitating who? My desultory research shows that Adam Faith released plenty of hit records in the five years before the Beatles ever released a single song. And bad? To me, his voice sounds much more pleasant than the Beatles. I may have a damaged ear, but listening to that howling falsetto actually caused me physical pain, while Adam Faith's song did not.
posted by charlie don't surf at 1:48 PM on January 23, 2015

Fair enough, charlie don't surf, there is no right or wrong in pop music, and it all steals from itself constantly and without morals... I am often on MeFi arguing that it doesn't matter musically if, say, Iggy Azalea is inauthentic or somehow 'wrong'.

But with Adam Faith, he'd had hits before 1963 with songs like What Do You Want, but several of these were imitations of Buddy Holly in both vocal styling (front of the mouth) and purely diatonic musical framework (as opposed to either blues- or modal- based songs).

As soon as the Beatles blew up, he instantly discarded this style and his manager hired songwriters who could accurately imitate the Beatles. If you listen to his essentially gormless repetition of the line 'I don't know' in The First Time, compared to its model, the Beatles' pre-chorus ascent in 'Please Please Me', it sounds clear who's got the inspiration and belief in what they're doing.
posted by colie at 2:09 PM on January 23, 2015