Monday, August 15, 2011

The Stud Leather story: Roger Cook –Samantha Dear -unreleased acetate


Roger Cook –Samantha Dear -unreleased acetate (1972 UK)

OK, we are not talking about demon-infused dementia as on Cut Loose http://purepop1uk.blogspot.com/2009/02/cut-loose-stud-leather-story.html, but a lighter, gentler form of madness from Stud Leather’s Roger Noel Cook, Alan Kirkham and Dickie Graves.
Never intented for commercial release, Samantha Dear is a fun near-ragtime drinking song, featuring a neat line in spoon dexterity. It could be a Kinks-like satire, but the sincerity is overwhelming -they really mean it man!

From Roger himself, here’s the inside scoop:
Roger: "This was the founder members of Stud Leather recording a song I wrote while drunk in the bath...It was a tribute to skiffle....Dickie Graves played eccentric piano and it set off my vocal a treat (as long as you were drunk while listening to it...and while taking part)....Dickie also played spoons on it and there was a waste basket kicked over at the end...This was at least 18 months before "Cut loose"....and was never intended for release... There are at least 3 or 4 other songs long forgotten that went onto acetates but were never intended for release "Hour after Hour"....."We're Gonna Fly" and others all recorded a cheapo studio run by a bald guy called Curly..."

Hear a full version of Samantha Dear

1 comment:

Steve said...

Hi Robin,

I don't know if you're still in touch with Roger but I have a question for him - totally unrelated to music, so I hope you'll forgive me sending this via your blog.

Did he write first Shrinker story or did he take over the character from someone else - Tom Tully, perhaps? It's an old favourite of mine from the days it was reprinted in Valiant.

Regards,

Steve
Steve AT uworldst.demon.co.uk