The Shangri-Las - The Leader of the Pack
A tale of woe via young love and death by Harley Davidson, The Leader of the Pack is viewed as possibly the greatest of the Brill Building classics. Sung in classic call-and-response style by some delinquent street toughs from Queens, New York (ring any bells?), legend has it that this song features both a real Harley Davidson (driven into the studio which happened to be on the second floor of a hotel, via the lobby) and a young Billy Joel playing the piano. The song was also refused airplay by the BBC because it was thought that it may incite mod/rocker violence*.
The song? It's horribly produced. The instruments are muddy, the vocals are metallic and the mix is wishy-washy as hell. It's almost a relief when Jimmy the leather-jacketed thug crashes his bike and you know that the end is near. This is rebellious schoolgirl music for the cloth-eared. I'm sure that it's a great song (and the minor key vocal style is enticing) but it's just too harsh on the ears, in a bad way, to bear repeated listens.
*And that's a bad thing? I would have paid good money to see Keith Moon beat the piss out of Elvis.
Verdict: Mods beat rockers.
Tomorrow: Toots and the Maytals - Pressure Drop
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