Nuggets: Love’s Gone Bad by The Underdogs
Before he became Patti Smith’s bass player, Lenny Kaye compiled the 2 album set, Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era. Released in 1972, the two-LP set covered American garage rock and psychedelia from the years from 1965-1968, and was a major influence on punk rock. Rhino Records reissued an expanded version of the set in 1998, with 118 tracks in total. I’m profiling and rating each of these 118 tracks, working backwards.
Track 113: Love’s Gone Bad by The Underdogs
Release Date: 1967
From: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Aphoristical Rating: 6/10
The Underdogs were early adopters in the Michigan rock and roll scene, a bunch of high school students led by bassist and vocalist Dave Whitehouse. They played at the teen dance club Hideout, where the audience would include other notable Michigan musicians like Bob Seger, Suzi Quatro, Glenn Frey, and Ted Nugent.
The band only released four singles, of which ‘Love’s Gone Bad’ was the last. Their earlier singles were released on the Hideout club’s own record label, and distributed by Reprise, but ‘Love’s Gone Bad’ was released by Motown. They were reportedly the first white band to sign to Reprise, and they were given ‘Love’s Gone Bad’, a Holland-Dozier-Holland song that had previously been recorded by another white Motown act, soul vocalist Chris Clark.
The Underdogs’ version of ‘Love’s Gone Bad’ is an interesting fusion between garage rock and blue-eyed soul, but I prefer the more straightforward soul take from Chris Clark in 1966:
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Aphoristical
Graham Fyfe is fascinated by pop music, and he may be the only blogger in the world to cover Neil Diamond and Ariana Grande.
You can tell they had the Motown treatment. I looked up a couple of their other singles…not bad…and unlike some of the others in this collection not really loud or as aggressive.
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Yup, it is interesting to hear a white band try the Motown thing, but I don’t think they’re as sophisticated as some.
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Love it!
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Cool! Wasn’t my favourite so far, but it was fun hearing a rock band playing R&B,
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Yeah!
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Little ‘Rascals’ vibe going on. And a few more I can think off. I really like it.
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Kind of the same blue-eyed soul thing, right?
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I get an Animals, Them feel also. But those bands were steeped in the blues so it makes sense.
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T meant to apply that to the first cut you posted.
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Think I agree with you in preferring the Chris Clark version.
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It’s interesting hearing a rock band play R&B, but the Chris Clark one is better IMO.
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