Before he became Patti Smith’s lead guitarist, 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 1965 to 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 69/118: Falling Sugar by The Palace Guard
From: Los Angeles, California
Aphoristic Rating: 7/10
FALLING SUGAR – The Palace Guard [2:07]
(Lawrence Rush/Paul Leka)
Personnel/MIKE CONLEY: vocals * CHUCK McLUNG: lead guitar * DON BEAUDOIN: guitar, vocals * RICK MOSER: bass * EMITT RHODES: drums, vocals * DAVE BEAUDOIN & JOHN BEAUDOIN: vocals
Produced by TUDY HUDGINGS for ORANGE-EMPIRE PROD., INC.
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA
Orange-Empire single #OE-400 (2/66); Verve single #VK-10410 (5/66)
The Palace Guard grew out of an earlier band, The Emerals. The band consisted of three Canadian brothers, supported by other musicians, most notably teenaged drummer Emitt Rhodes. Rhodes left The Emerals due to a contract dispute, but soon rejoined a slightly retooled lineup, renamed The Palace Guard. I’ll let Lenny Kaye’s Nuggets liner notes fill you in:
“Victims of acute Anglophilia, The Palace Guard decked themselves out in red British guardsmen’s uniforms (wisely foregoing the huge bearskin hats)…the three Beaudoin brothers were natives of Montreal, Canada, but relocated to Los Angeles around 1964. Though bereft of any discernible musical talent, they didn’t let that obstacle stand in their way, surrounding themselves with teenage bandmates who did have some, including 15-year-old, Emitt Rhodes. After months of rehearsal, the band sounded halfway decent and were ready for their big break, which came when KRLA DJ Casey Kasem invited them to perform on his local TV dance show, Shebang. Their recording debut came in mid-’65, backing Don Grady (who played Robbie on My Three Sons) on a song called ‘Little People.’ They then released two more singles in their own right on Orange-Empire, before waxing their almost-hit ‘Falling Sugar’ in early ’66, a catchy Moptop-ish toe tapper brimming with youthful fervor.
Lenny Kaye, Nuggets Liner Notes
Kaye’s description of the band as Anglophiles is accurate – ‘Falling Sugar’ has the harmony-laden pop/rock sound that recalls The Hollies or the early Beatles. For all of Kaye’s disparagement, the vocal blend between Dave Beaudoin and John Beaduoin is a key part of the song’s appeal. It’s pleasant, but it’s not particularly consequential.
Emitt Rhodes eventually sought more of the spotlight – it started when he took a solo turn at Palace Guard gigs to sing The Beatles’ ‘Michelle’, accompanying himself on guitar. Still merely 16, Rhodes left The Palace Guard to form his own band, The Merry-Go-Round, also featured on Nuggets. Rhodes also released acclaimed one-man-band albums in the early 1970s, most notably his 1970 self-titled debut.
The Palace Guard recorded enough material for a 12-song retrospective, The Palace Guard, released in 2003.
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Aphoristic Album Reviews is almost entirely written by one person. It features album reviews and blog posts across a growing spectrum of popular music.
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Graham Fyfe has been writing this website since his late teens. Now in his forties, he's been obsessively listening to albums for years. He works as a web editor and plays the piano.
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Typical 1960s pop rock, Not that it’s a bad thing .
It is a wee bit generic I think – less personality or edge than most of the Nuggets.
The harmony singing is pretty decent. I agree with you the song isn’t exactly earth-shattering but pleasant enough to listen to.
Yeah, I think it’s one of the lesser songs on Nuggets. I’m like 40 songs in and nothing has been that bad really.
I didn’t know they had anything to do with Emmett Rhodes. And I didn’t know that they used to wear costumes. I love it how a lot of those bands wore costumes. Especially ones that were some kind of uniform. These guys would have been good on a double bill with Paul Revere and the Raiders cuz they had the American Revolution army uniforms and these guys had the British uniforms. Between sets they could have done Revolutionary War reenactments like the way there’s people who do them now. The audience would have loved it. I actually did see one at Fort Niagara Canada and I loved it. They reenacted the Battle of Fort Niagara. They had cannons that fired real cannonballs and shit. And the uniforms were awesome. But it wasn’t actually a Revolutionary War reenactment, but The War of 1812, I think. I like this song cuz it’s nice and lively and has a snappy beat . And I like that kind of singing on this kind of record. I don’t understand the title though. How could something be like sugar falling? When does sugar ever fall? Why would sugar ever fall? It doesn’t, So what are they talking about?
Yeah, that Revere double bill sounds great. I don’t think these guys ever made it beyond local fame though.
I knew this band sounded familiar… I must have come across them while researching Emitt Rhodes. The song was alright…but those harmonies are impressive from a band that young. It’s much harder emulating that style than a rock/blues sound.
Yeah, I can’t sing harmony at all so I’m always impressed by people who can.
Listening to all of these bands from this collection…we fell into the Mick type sound when we started out…I found out later how hard harmony singing is…especially live.
Actually my friend just told me that Fort Niagara is in Niagara Falls, New York and not Niagara Falls, Canada, which is just right across the river anyway. I was thinking of Old Fort Erie which is on the Canadian side not too far from the other one. I went there too but unfortunately they didn’t have any battle reenactors at that one. So I liked Fort Niagara better. Lol. And Fort Niagara also had a really cool prison.
I’ve been reading another blog post about the Niagara falls yesterday, over on https://keepsmealive.wordpress.com/2022/07/09/til-niagara-falls/
Two kinds of Nuggets tune – poppy British Invasion and Yardbirds/Them. This is the former. Catchy. Overall ‘Nuggets’ is a fun album. I’d love to know what most of these guys are up to. Maybe they tumbled down like falling sugar.
Apart from Emitt Rhodes, all I could find out was that one of the three brothers started a commercial painting business.
“All the stars thar never were are parking cars and pumping gas.”