Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Cleo – I Don’t Mind/Take It Easy -Obscure US Powerpop 1973



Cleo –I Don’t Mind/Take It Easy –Garlin Records GSP 108 (US 1973)

Apart from a link to a Van Nuys newspaper article from 1973, there is zilch in terms of information on this one. Its total obscurity doesn’t increase its musical merit, but both sides are rare examples of early 70s Beat updates, however its Californian provenance soaks up the prevalent atmosphere of the time while showing similarities with the burgeoning Powerpop ethics of the likes of Blue Ash, or The Raspberries on a national level.

I don’t Mind is the more obvious 60s beat update number, similar to the Poppees, while Take It Easy has a beefier White album grounding with a more contemporary Californian feel in the chorus. Neither tracks re-write history in any way, but are further examples of succinct pop induced ditties of which there are bound to be further examples remaining to be uncovered out there

Hear a full version of I Don't Mind




Hear a full version of Take It Easy

3 comments:

Graham said...

Listened to both of these. Quite pleasant and as you said, nothing to set the world on fire. But equally not deserving of total oblivion either. I wonder if there are any more 45s by this group out there waiting to be discovered.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for putting this out. I had fun recording it. A little obscure information. The name Garlin Records was a combination of our managers children Gary an Linda. Again from myself and the rest of Cleo, thank you
Dick

Anonymous said...

No more 45's but somewhere there's an old master of about 10 more songs we did at Hold Star in Hollywood. I can't believe anyone found this. It was the beginning of probably 200 songs I wrote after that.