Monday, March 30, 2020

The Pages – High School – The earliest MC5 cover (1970)?





The Pages – High School/ Sugar on The Road – UA Recording -667-54300 (US 1970)

The Pages from Iowa were a long-standing cover band (1964 -1972). Starting as a quartet covering the obvious Beat/Garage hits of the day they became best known for adding a  horn section in the early 70s. High School  was their sole release and came at a time when half the band wanted to take a more Proggy jazzy approach, whilst the others wanted to go more “Rock”. So minus horn section, the band deliver this straight cover of the MC5 tune from Back in The USA
Although lacking the punch and swagger of the original, The Pages win the prize of the earliest known cover of an MC5 original. The B side Sugar on the Road is a Ten Years After cover from Cricklewood Green


Note: There are mentions that this single was released in 1968, but as far as I can work out the actual release date is probably late 1970, or early 1971
More info on The Pages here: http://pagesfanclub.tripod.com/history.htm


Hear a full version of High School