Previously Unknown/Undocu_mented pre-Fleetwood Mac Single!!!!!

[jeffretro]

While searching for obscure 60's/early 70's single to burn I came across a record on the Karma Records label out of the Bay Area pairing a rock version of "What The World Needs Now" with a very cool garage pop track called "You Don't Get Young Anymore" by a group listed as Sincerely, San Jose on the label. While trying to put a year to the single I ran a Google search on the composer of the B-side, Javier Pacheco. Knowledgeable Mac/Buckingham/Nicks fans can probably already see where this is headed. J

Of course the Google search led to The Penguin Javier Pacheco Q&A Session at http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/...acheco_qa1.htm. It became clear that the single I had was a legitimate release of two of the three Fritz tracks recorded during a demo session in San Mateo in 1968 with Lindsey singing the lead on both (the info is in Section Three of the Q&A mentioned above; the third, unreleased track is "Wondering Why" with a Stevie lead vocal). Going back and relistening to the single it's clear that it indeed is Fritz with Lindsey and Stevie! As stated before Lindsey sings lead on both songs, and while he obviously sounds younger here, he already has all the vocal inflections that would characterize his later work. And Stevie is clearly audible in the harmonies, especially on "You Don't Get Young Anymore" where she stands out more in the vocal blend.

How did Karma Records - who around the same '68/'69 timeframe also released a now very expensive Northern Soul collectable called "Woman, Love, Thief" by Stemmons Express - get ahold of these tracks? And why was this issued under the name Sincerely, San Jose? Well, whatever the answers, we should be glad they got these tracks out there. The cover of "What The World Needs Now" is about the same tempo as the Jackie DeShannon hit version, but has more of a rock drive to it. But it's the flip side that's the real keeper, a great garage pop track with multiple changes in tempo and feel with cool organ and guitar work throughout (and great ba_ss as well).

I am going to be putting this record up on ebay within the next few days with scans of both labels on the ebay page. And since I realize there's likely to be some skepticism as to the authenticity of this new discovery, I'll also be putting up a web page where you'll be able to download an mp3, 1:38 in length, with excerpts of both sides highlighting Lindsey and Stevie's vocals (it'll be a 64 kbps mono mp3 as the single is mono; this will give it the same sound quality as a 128 kbps stereo mp3 while being easier and quicker to download).

Right now I'm looking at putting these up about 4 PM US Pacific Daylight Time this Sunday (June 13). I'll post here again when it's up.

And good luck in advance to anyone who bids on what might be a new FM Holy Grail item!

Jeffrey Glenn
Burbank, CA

[wondergirl9847]

SOMEONE BID!!! LOL We need to hear these!!!! Lindsey on lead on both, oh crap...there goes my life savings. EEEEEEEE...an mp3 of it!!!!!!!! AAAAAHHHH!!! Thanks Jeffrey!! Oh, and welcome to the Ledge!!

[dontlookdown]

Congrats on your investigation.

I'm actually really surprised that it's taken this long for this stuff to see the light of day. I guess we have the internet to thank!

It's pretty clear that this indicates that there is more out there.

Knowing Lindsey and his attention to detail and perfection, you'd think he has all these masters somewhere up in the attic - or at his parents house....

Maybe we'll get a nice boxed set of vintage Buckingham Nicks someday


when our hair is silver and grey.

[wetcamelfood]

So Jeffrey, what are you going to title the auction?

John

[sodascouts]

I hope whoever gets this shares it! I have a bad feeling it will get too rich for my blood very quickly. I'll bid on it anyway, lol.

[wetcamelfood]

Originally Posted by wetcamelfood

So Jeffrey, what are you going to title the auction?

Oh, and please post a link to the site you'll be creating for this itrem here as well, thanks in advance.

John

[jeffretro]

Thanks, dontlookdown.

Let me address a couple of the things you said in your post.

"I'm actually really surprised that it's taken this long for this stuff to see the light of day. I guess we have the internet to thank!"

This single dates from '68/'69, so it saw the light of day back when it was newly (or fairly recently) recorded. How it got released under the name Sincerely, San Jose apparently without the band members knowing it - Javier Pacheco says in the Q&A that he doesn't think anything was commercially released by Fritz - is anybody's guess. Do we know if Fritz had a change in managers during that time period? If so there's always a chance that the original ousted manager sold the masters to Karma Records for cash which he then pocketed (the name "given" to the band kind of sounds like a goodbye salutation from a letter, possibly meaning the original manager's "parting shot"). Anyway, that's only one possible - and I emphasize possible - scenario.

And yes, we do have the internet to thank for me being able to make the connection of Fritz to this single (and as far as I know I'm the first to discover it though the record's been out there for some 3 1/2 decades). Before the internet there wasn't much info on Fritz out there.

"It's pretty clear that this indicates that there is more out there."

Well, we know there's one other song from the same 1968 San Mateo demo session - "Wondering Why" with a Stevie Nicks lead - and Pacheco says he has live tapes of the band. Oh, and there's Stevie's demos from the Fritz period, but those aren't full band recordings. Pacheco doesn't mention any other Fritz sessions in his Q&A, so we really don't know right now if there may be more stuff out there. We know he wrote quite a few songs for the band, and if "You Don't Get Young Anymore" is any indication of the quality then I'd love to hear more too.

"Knowing Lindsey and his attention to detail and perfection, you'd think he has all these masters somewhere up in the attic - or at his parents house...."

I have to say that I don't think this is particularly likely. When this was recorded Lindsey was only 19 years old or so and probably wasn't the perfectionist that he later became. It was probably one of his first, if not the first, times in a studio, and he was probably thrilled just to be there. You have to objectively look at it in perspective with what was going on at the time. Pacheco says these were just demos, and I'll bet he'll be as surprised as anyone to find out that they had been released. As far as Lindsey having the masters now, I'm sure he wasn't thinking about making sure he had the masters so that he'd have them when the box set of his work was compiled. :-) I would think it's more likely that the manager at the time had them.

And then there's the issue of what you mean by masters, because there will be at least three sets of masters - the original multitracks (probably 4- or 8-track, with the vocals being done as overdubs), the mixdown masters (most likely done only in mono, but I'd love to find out that stereo mixdowns were prepared as well!), and the final "mastered" masters from which acetates and records could be cut. It's possible that the multitracks were left at the studio (something The Beach Boys did way too often; when their box set came out back in 1993 they found the 8-track vocal session tape for "California Girls" at Columbia Studios in Hollywood; now it's back in their custody where it belongs. And the 8-track vocal session tape for "Good Vibrations" is currently lost because it was probably left at the same studio and now can't be found, so a true stereo mix of "Good Vibrations" is currently an impossibility). It's also possible the mixdowns were left at the studio and that the only copies the band or manager took were the final "mastered" copies. All pure speculation, but quite possible. Hopefully someone will do a follow-up interview with Javier Pacheco or maybe one of the other members of the band that can shed more light on all of this.

"Maybe we'll get a nice boxed set of vintage Buckingham Nicks someday."

How long have we waited for the Buckingham Nicks album to be issued on CD now?

I'd love to see these Fritz tracks get a legit reissue as part of some historical set, even if it had to be mastered from vinyl (btw, the single I have is in very nice shape). And I'd love to see what Lindsey and Stevie thought of these tracks once they heard them anew. Both tracks enhance their legacy, and we all know that that isn't always the case when you hear early tracks by performers who later became famous.

Jeff

[diamondsnake]

Why don't you just post all the songs on the internet so we can listen to them?

[jeffretro]

The heading is:

Fritz 45 Lindsey Buckingham Stevie Nicks Fleetwood Mac

The item # is 4018778913

The direct link to the item is http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=4018778913

And the webpage with the mp3 mentioned in the original post is at

http://lostjukebox.tripod.com/ebay.html

Good luck!

Jeff

[seteca]

Excellent stuff!

I recognised that final clip from Lindsey's "Behind The Music"....I really like that song!!

By the way thanks for putting this up for auction and setting the starting bid at such a reasonable price.

[kristin]

It sounds a little bit Mamas and the Papas-ish. I like it a lot.

Kristin

[EnchantedSLN]

Originally Posted by jeffretro

with a very cool garage pop track called "You Don't Get Young Anymore"

Wow, it sounds so... Strawberry Alarm Clock. I half expected to hear Incense & Peppermints . Amazing stuff... this would be a fun time to have another Javier Pacheco Q&A! Thank you for the sample.

[shackin'up]

Wow, Lindsey sounds more mature in the low parts than he does now!!!

[Jessica Leigh]

lol my first thought was "oh wow... strawberry alarmclock!!!!" then i thought about it a little more... and i hear some partridge family in there too! lmao

[hayley]

Congratulations on your good fortune, Jeff... hahahaha