Blues Magoos “Gotta Get Away” b/w “(We Ain’t Got) Nothing Yet” – Mercury (1966)

And now for something completely different…
As a fan of protopunk, garage, and psych music, seeing a 45 in a cheap bin scrawled with “Garage/psych” is always exciting. When I pulled this out I realized it was the one and only Blues Magoos! Blues Magoos are a band that I had only heard of because of reading old posts on the wonderful Flower Bomb Songs blog. The Brit that does this blog has taught me more about 60’s punk than any other source. He knows his stuff and finding stuff he recommends is always cool.
Once you get past their awful name, Blues Magoos wrote a handful of really catchy singles in the mid-to-late 60’s, and were one of the first bands to use the word “psychedelic” to describe their music. I think it’s kind of funny, because there isn’t a ton of “psych” going on with this single. “Gotta Get Away” is a really great stomping garage song with a blistering chorus and bridge. The guitar solo is actually much punker than most of their contemporaries.
“(We Ain’t Got) Nothing Yet” was the Magoos big hit and it’s the reason this record can be score for a buck. It’s a garage rock classic that was probably bought by every fan of the genre in 1966. The bass line, and the mirrored organ riff, are danceable and punchy in the same way that some of the 13th Floor Elevators tracks are. As a band, the Elevators do a much better job with this genre, but Blues Magoos most popular single really does have it all.
The copy I bought was from the new Captured Tracks storefront in Greenpoint and is an old cut-out that’s in pretty good shape. If you see this single (or the earlier one on Verve) it’s definitely worth picking up.