Radio London - Field's Fab Forty

They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Haa!

Napoleon XIV/Kim Fowley

Throughout the Big L 2001 RSL, Paul Graham regularly featured tracks from the weird LP by Napoleon XIV, aka Jerry Samuels. Bearing the same title as his much-banned single, They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Haa, this album, which unsurprisingly features a collection of bizarre tracks, has now become something of a collector's item.

Norm Katuna, spotting the fact that there are two versions of the single in this week's Fab, asked, did this mean that Kim Fowley had a separate release of this song, along with the original by Napoleon XIV? Kim Fowley released They're Coming... on CBS 202243.

Brian Long, in The London Sound, reveals that the Kim Fowley's B-side is called You Get More For Your Money, On the Flip Side of This Record, Talking Blues. (You certainly got more than on the B-side of Napoleon XIV's version, which was just the A-side played backwards!) The song is published by Pall Mall, the company partly owned by Radio London. (See Tornados story below) The publishing contract for You Get More... credits both Fowley and one Anthony X Bulldog as composers. Bulldog was Mike Stone, a Californian who held the post of Radio London's PR and promotions man. Presumably, the pseudonym 'Bulldog' was chosen with tongue firmly in cheek, because the lyrics of They're Coming... considered so controversial at the time, are about a missing dog, as in, "I'll find you yet and when I do I'll put you in the NSPCA, you mangy mutt!"

The full lyrics to They're Coming... are widely available on the Internet, but for an up-to-date take on the song, see: I'm Going To Ban Your Domain, Ha-Ha!

Climbers:
Is That A Ship I Hear?	Tornados
Turn Down Day	Cyrkle
Here There And Everywhere	Episode Six
Never You Hurt The One You Love	Laurel Aitken
Disc of the Week:
Step Out Of Line	Twice As Much
Album of the Week:
The More I See You	Chris Montez

Is That A Ship I Hear?

Tornados

Columbia DB 7984

In July 2006, The Guardian published an article by Alexis Petridis in which he describes Do You Come Here Often?, the B-side of Is That A Ship I Hear?, as "the most astonishing record of 1966". The cause of the astonishment is that the otherwise instrumental B-side was boldly enhanced by Joe Meek with a conversation between two men who sound camper than Round the Horne's Julian and Sandy. The recording is regarded as the first indisputably gay single and is highly collectible, mint copies fetching around £40.

The Guardian feature covers the release of a 24-track CD compilation, From the Closet to the Charts: Queer Noises 1961-1978, which includes Meek's 1966 masterpiece alongside the Kinks' See My Friend. The Kinks released their single (apparently regarded as an oblique paean to homosexuality) in 1965, however, Do You Come Here Often? is regarded as the first release of something rather more blatant.

Do You Come Here Often? is published by Pall Mall, the company partly owned by Radio London. The Pall Mall catalogue contained eleven Joe Meek titles. Members of the Tornados are accredited as the ditty's composers, although as Alexis Petridis remarks:
"Quite what the Tornados made of their pill-maddened producer's latest wheeze, let alone anyone who heard the song in 1966, is an intriguing question."

It's possible the Tornados laid down an instrumental and Meek mixed in the risque conversation later. Either that, or the Tornados were so used to the camp goings on chez Meek, that they regarded the recording as 'just another job'. Whatever the case, Is That A Ship I Hear? and its controversial B-side was to be the band's final single. All the original members who had enjoyed an international mega-hit with Telstar, had departed their ranks by this time.

The Radlon management who were later to take exception to the lyrics of Arnold Layne and ban it from the Big L playlist, presumably remained blissfully ignorant of the existence of the 'astonishing' Tornados B-side. Ironically, it would have been perfect for the Camp Coffee Break!

Last	This	*Presented by Ed Stewart*
Week	Week	*Presented by Ed Stewart*
1	1	Yellow Submarine / Eleanor Rigby	Beatles
2	2	God Only Knows	Beach Boys
7	3	More Than Love	Ken Dodd
3	4	I Saw Her Again	Mamas & Papas
8	5	Doctor Love	Bobby Sheen
10	6	Hi-Lili Hi-Lo	Alan Price Set
5	7	With A Girl Like You	Troggs
4	8	I Want You	Bob Dylan
22	9	Just Like A Woman	Manfred Mann
11	10	Headline News	Alan Bown Set / Edwin Starr
17	11	Give Me Your Word	Billy Fury
16	12	Big Time Operator	Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
20	13	All Or Nothing	Small Faces
30	14	They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Haa!	Napoleon XIV/Kim Fowley
23	15	Warm And Tender Love	Percy Sledge
24	16	Got To Get You Into My Life	Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers
9	17	Summer In The City	Lovin' Spoonful
14	18	Tell Her	Dean Parrish
13	19	Lovers Of The World Unite	David & Jonathan
33	20	So Fine	Santelles
21	21	Where Were You When I Needed You?	Grass Roots
12	22	Visions	Cliff Richard
19	23	Barefootin'	Robert Parker
26	24	The Moment Of Truth	Three Good Reasons
29	25	Popsicle	Jan & Dean
–	26	Out Of This World	Chiffons
39	27	When You Walk In The Sand	Tuesday's Children
19	28	How Long Is Time?	Odyssey
34	29	Harlem Shuffle	Mike Cotton Sound
–	30	Too Soon To Know	Roy Orbison
28	31	I Love How You Love Me	Paul & Barry Ryan
–	32	Tossin' And Turnin'	Dave Davani Four
40	33	Summertime	Billy Stewart
–	34	Good Day Sunshine	Tremeloes / Glen Dale
37	35	This Heart Of Mine	Jimmy James & the Vagabonds
–	36	Goodbye Bluebird	Wayne Fontana
–	37	I Cast My Fate To The Wind	Shelby Flint
–	37	Stop That Girl	Chris Andrews
–	38	Working In The Coal Mine	Lee Dorsey
–	39	You Can't Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd	Roger Miller
–	40	I Can't Turn You Loose	Otis Redding
–	40	You Make Me Feel Like Someone	Billy J Kramer

DJ Climbers:
My Heart's Symphony	Gary Lewis & the Playboys	Tony Blackburn
Sunny	Bobby Hebb	Chris Denning
Distant Shores	Chad & Jeremy	Dave Dennis
I Dig Everything	David Bowie & the Buzz	Kenny Everett
If You Ever Leave Me	Jackie Trent	Paul Kaye
Just A Dream	Chris Farlowe	Mike Lennox
Ashes To Ashes	Mindbenders	Mark Roman
Distant Drums	Jim Reeves	Keith Skues
It's Been Such A Long Way Home	Garnet Mimms	Ed Stewart
Go Where You Wanna Go	Overlanders	Norman St John
(You Make Me Feel) So Good	McCoys	Tony Windsor