Smokestack Lightnin': Got A Good Love/Look What You've Done (White Whale WW 256)

Smokestack Lightnin' were a group that came out of the Sunset Strip area and reportedly were the house band at the Whiskey A-Go-Go for a number of years. They recorded one LP and six singles, most of them for Bell. This is their second 45 from 1967 and, while this group was said to have a blues-based sound, you get two different flavors with this 45.

Flavor #1: Slow, psychedelic-styled tune with a nasty fuzz guitar solo. That's what you get with "Look What You've Done, which starts off softly with mournful guitar and vocals and haunting organ and then builds to a crescendo of loud mayhem, upon which that wicked fuzz guitar solo is dropped in like a hydrogen bomb on an unsuspecting village. It's comped on Sundazed's "Garage Beat '66 Vol. 1" if you're interested.

Flavor #2: Fast, upbeat garage mover. "Got A Good Love" opens with a super-charged Bo Diddley beat then switches to a more standard rhythm for the choruses and verses. Snappy vocals dominate this, while the back-up vocals sing "Got a good love" cheerfully. Then, we get lyrics like this:

Go ahead on and play,
Cheat if you must,
But when the sun goes down,
That's the time for lust.

And we get another great fuzz guitar break, topped with a harmonica solo at the fade out.

In short, two different styles on a 45 well worth seeking out. I believe that most of this group's singles can be found at relatively reasonable cost. I don't remember paying any more than five bucks for this, but I might be wrong. Whatever the cost, you can't go too wrong with this, me says.