"Baby, you're driving me crazy/I'm going out of my head/you turn me on/then you shut me down/PSYCHO!"
"Psycho," The Sonics (1965). Garage rock from Tacoma, WA and proto-punk rock before the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix & Dylan takeover. The musical inspiration is hard R&B. Richard Berry's original "Louie Louie," a proto-punk rock standard, sports an insistent Afro-Cuban beat; and was made a hit in 1963 by The Kingsman from Portland, OR. The Sonic's put a Little Richards' cover on the B-side of their first single. Honking saxes go back to the Wailers, also from Tacoma, and hot traveling '50s R&B bands. Chuck Berry was an iconic model, although Berry wrote songs about teenagers and these guys actually were teenagers or barely beyond that age. Anyway, they turn up the aggression, or sexual frustration, or spastic psychotic reactions like teenagers. And what they lack in the musical virtuosity of Berry (either one) or Richards they attempt to make up for by banging it all out with a smirky, brash, sneering and slurring swagger. The pounding tempo or "force-beat" on "Psycho" is one bridge between the punk rock classes of '65 and '77.
Bonus track: "Kicks," Paul Revere & The Raiders (1966); from Boise, ID. First anti-drug and alcohol Straight edge punk rock song?! Fully embracing the British Invasion, the cosplay can be a bit much, apparently, helped the Raiders get on TV and they ended up about as popular as proto-punk rock ever got. Originally "Kicks" was written for The Animals but Eric Burdon turned it down, which off-hand seems like poor judgment.
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