Inveterate record label/sleeve note readers will know the name of JOHN(NY) GOLDEN. Since the late sixties he has earned a reputation as an elite and prolific mastering engineer, credited with cutting thousands of masters for generations of artists across all kinds of genres. Amongst those who have benefited from his skills are The Fifth Dimension, Bill Withers, Iggy Pop and Sonny Rollins.
What the anoraks might not know is that before embarking on that particular career, Mr G harboured ambitions to make his own music, fronting a band called JOHNNY’S UNCALLED FOUR! They were an enthusiastic, early 60s teen combo (that’s what “bands” were called back then) and they occasionally cut material – their own tunes and covers. There was no success though and the band members drifted off into other jobs – Johnny into sound engineering.
By 2011 John had his own set up, Golden Mastering, an audio studio in Ventura, California, that was (indeed is) run and operated by John, his wife Diane, and his son, J.J. Now in 2011 Daptones’s Gabreil Roth came to the studio to master his label’s first record and by chance came across a whole albums worth of 60s music cut by the aforementioned Johnny’s Uncalled Four. He loved it!
Now it’s taken a while but with Daptone’s help this ‘Lost Album’ is set for release on Wick Record in mid-summer. Previews reveal the LP is 14 tracker and each cut is a perfect aural definition of 60s garage rock. The cuts are a mix of orignals with a smattering of covers including takes on Buddy Holly’s ‘Maybe Bay’, the Dave Clarke Five’s ‘Glad All Over’ and the Animals’ ‘House Of The Rising Sun’, here given a rousing instrumental treatment. Soul collectors will be intrigued by a naïve version of Gladys Knight and the Pips’ ‘Every Beat Of My Heart’ . This is music as it was and, many would say, how it should be! If you’re a serious collector watch out for this one! And hey! What a great cover! (above)
