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 72/118: Knock, Knock by The Humane Society
From: Simi Valley, California
Aphoristic Rating: 8/10
KNOCK, KNOCK – The Humane Society [2:54]
(Woody Minnick/Danny Wheetman)
Personnel/DANNY WHEETMAN: vocals, guitar * JIM PETTIT: lead guitar * WOODY MINNICK: guitar * RICHARD MAJEWSKI: bass * BILL SCHNETZLER: drums
Produced by DICK TORST & DICK PARKER for 2-D PRODUCTIONS
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA
Liberty single #55968 (4/67)
The Humane Society formed in Simi Valley, California, in 1965, originally called The Innocents. They were discovered by two producers, both named Dick, when playing a gig on a flatbed truck outside a record store.
Their first single was ‘Tiptoe Through The Tulips With Me’ – released in 1967 before it was popularised by Tiny Tim. It’s markedly different than its b-side – ‘Knock, Knock’. ‘Knock, Knock’ is simmering danger – an aggressive slice of garage rock. It starts off as an R&B tune in the vein of The Rolling Stones or Them, but it’s notable for the closing section where it speeds up and Wheetman’s vocals are unhinged.
The Humane Society’s second single, for a different label, was unsuccessful and the band folded. Vocalist Danny Wheetman continued in the music industry, with a career that diverted from ‘Knock, Knock’. He recorded an album in 1975 with the country-rock band Liberty, and also toured with John Denver for years. He’s recorded a dozen albums with the roots-rock/gospel outfit Marley’s Ghost.
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“Knock, Knock” is an usual tune with those tempo changes. I agree the slow part sounds inspired by the Stones and Them. The fast part gets a tiny bit too chaotic for my taste.
You may be surprised I kind of like that Marley’s Ghost gospel tune. Their singing is pretty good!
I listened to a bit of the Marley’s Ghost track and liked it. I think they’re pretty into The Band.
I just listened to Tiptoe Through The Tulips With Me…. it sounded like a drunk sing-along at the end. Yea completely different than this. I like the freak out at the end…it put a bit of personality on it…I like chaos though.
I didn’t make it through all of Tiptoe Through the Tulips. Pretty big contrast – I’m glad people gave the b-side a chance.
This one is pretty alright I guess. In fact I really like it. Especially I like how it changes from slow to fast without warning into that really fast punk rock beat. And the sleazy sounding guitar thing is a really good one. And everything is nice and clear and loud and sounds good. Can you believe that I once had a job cleaning kennels at the Humane Society in my neighborhood?? It was just like a summer job and I didn’t get paid or anything but I just liked all the dogs and cats. Now they just call it the ASPCA, the Society for the Protection of Animals I think, but I forget what the first A and the C stand for. I think the A probably stands for American, but I don’t know what the hell the C stands for. I’ll have to look it up to refresh my memory a little bit.
It’s Prevention of Cruelty in NZ.
Oh yeah, prevention of cruelty. How could I forget. I wonder why this band named themselves The Humane Society? Maybe they were animal lovers. Or maybe they used to work there too. lol
I worked as a city planner in Simi Valley in the 80s, and lived there for three years. What a boring place. I imagine it was a nothing town in the 60s. There’s still no ‘there’ there…
Funny, I hadn’t heard of it before Nuggets.
Then you must have not read all those Charlie Manson books like I did, cuz If you did you would have heard of Simi Valley before cuz one of the Manson girls was called Simi Valley Sue or something like that. It might not have been Sue, but it was Simi Valley somebody.
I have not read a Manson book. I do know the song he wrote with Dennis Wilson.
Now that I think of it I believe her name was Simi Valley Patty and not Simi Valley Sue. And that was to distinguish her from a different Patty in the Family. That sounds more familiar to me than Sue. If I still had my Charlie Manson books I could look it up, but I sold them at a yard sale one time when I was really broke and needed money for rent. Lmao.
It’s a very suburban-style city of 125,000 with almost zero character, but in a lovely valley surrounded by hills. One of hundreds of characterless cities in the Los Angeles metroplex with over 100,000 population. It’s really quite astonishing, and we pass through many of them on our 120-mile drive from Palm Springs to downtown L.A.
Sounds like the place I live actually! Population 112,000, in a valley surrounded by hills (and harbour), a satellite city of the capital (which it relies on for personality).