Raw Meat –Stand-By Girl

Raw Meat –Stand-By Girl/Out in The Country –Blue Hour BH9 -1001 (1969 US)

Raw Meat’s Stand-By Girl is a prime example of an overlooked obscurity, which is bound to gather better-late-than-never recognition for those still hunting for Heavy gems of outstanding worth. Stand-By Girl is a wondrous tour-de-force in heavy fuzz-faced shenanigans, with a solid Bonehead foothold, but on the edge of tipping over into an undocumented world of weird. Stand-By Girl has one of the heaviest/scuzziest heavy fuzz sounds anywhere. Then the weirdness sets in from initial medieval vocal interludes into…well the heart of weirdness. More great guitar ensues. What were they thinking?

The B side is a bit more sane; featuring cowbell, layered vocals and more great guitar. It appears the A side was produced by Richard Thomas with some deft edits and crude yet all inclusive recording techniques. Full credit should also go to engineer Ken Smith and the band for some of the arrangement and production ideas. “Ken Smith was most likely the recording engineer on “Stand-By Girl,” because he was a close friend and a studio innovator; it was his idea to release “Stand-By Girl” in stereo, which garnered a lot of attention back then…” (Susan Gallion) “The boys in the band came up with the vocal ideas. I did edit the single in a couple of places including adding the ending to the very start of the song to kick it off. The other edits tightened the arrangement but I don't remember where they were or if they were used in the final release…” (Richard Thomas) The B-side was recorded at Dave Kennedy Studios, one of the first multi-track studios in the U.S., and it was produced by the band members. The A-side became popular on radio in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and a few other places beyond Milwaukee.

(Richard Thomas and Susan Gallion ran The Blue Hour label at the time. They recorded and released the Burst of Life LP as Susan and Richard Thomas in 73. They are both still active in music today: www.richardpaulthomas.com  www.OceanbirdMusic.com

But what of the band?

They all lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The line-up was: Drums: Michael Jablonski, Lead Guitar: Don Gruender and Gene Peranich on bass guitar. It seems that all three of them sang and co-wrote the songs. At the time, the band was going through some personnel problems and didn’t do any traveling to promote the record. A few months after the record was released, Don, the guitar player, left the band. (He passed away in 2012.  A new Raw Meat was formed sometime in 1970, but they had a different musical focus.

There is more news for 2015 as Richard has recently licensed both tracks for a forthcoming vinyl release on Permanent Records http://www.permanentrecordschicago.com  About time!

Hear a full version of Stand-By Girl



Hear a full version of Out in The Country