Post by glimmer on Jan 7, 2012 13:43:29 GMT -5
I was listening to a garage compilation a few years ago when a particular song struck me. Like Louie Louie, it had a very basic three-chord structure with a few audible flubs, recorded in mono in a very primitive studio in a single take (although the vocals sound double-tracked). The song was called Whirlpool by a band called Alan Burn with the Ushers. I did a search on Google and much to my astonishment, a couple sources indicated that they hailed from York, Maine - one town over from my hometown of Kittery.
Further Googling suggested that Alan grew up in Kittery!
My attention was definitely piqued, and recently I did some serious digging for more information. I've constructed a biography as best as I can determine from Google searches, having as yet never met nor contacted him to corroborate. Most of what I've found might be totally wrong, and the information connecting the Alan Burn in these recordings to the Alan Burn of Kittery might be completely spurious. But no more, say, than the link between William Shakespeare of Stratford and the William Shakespeare who may or may not have written a number of plays for a troupe of actors in London in the late 16th and early 17th century.
An Attempt at a Biography, via Google
I paid two bucks on PeopleFinder to find information about an Alan G Burn who at one point lived in Kittery, and got a birthdate in 1944. His known addresses, in addition to Kittery, include various towns in upstate New York (near Albany) and on the north shore of Massachusetts. The listed phone number (assuming it is the most recent) has an upstate NY area code. Most intriguing was an address that Google Maps says is a foster care institute in Missouri; could he have been an orphan or foundling?
There's a reference in the Nov 2 '81 Portsmouth Herald court listings naming an Alan G Burn age 39 of Kittery who was fined for possession of a number of short (undersized, and therefore illegal) lobsters. This would place his birth year circa 1942, slightly at odds with the PeopleFinder data. So if he went to Kittery schools (and finished) he'd have graduated between 1959-1963, putting him in his early to mid-20's when he cut his three (known) singles, assuming of course that it's the same guy. The 1944 birthdate would most likely place him in the class of 1962; Classmates.com has the high school's 1961 yearbook online but he doesn't appear in it as best as I can determine, and there are no earlier yearbooks viewable in case the 1942 date is more accurate.
An Alan Burn is listed among Kittery residents who served in Vietnam. One might conclude that as his music career was in mid-climb, he either enlisted or was drafted into service; a safe guess would be 1968. Upon his return, he appears to have worked as a lobsterman, leaving his musical aspirations behind. Assuming of course, it's the same guy.
One Google search that may be completely spurious lists an Alan Burn connected with a lobstering co-operative in Belize. Was that short lobster charge in Kittery evidence that Burn turned to lobstering after music, and this career would eventually take him to Belize? That link even mentions a fellow in said co-op named Billy Usher. It might be a stretch to connect Messrs Burn and Usher with Alan Burn and the Ushers of "Whirlpool" fame, but stranger things have happened (and entire doctoral theses have been written on even more dubious connections).
Burning Up The Charts... Nearly
How he got his start in music is unknown to me at this point. The earliest known (thus far) appearance of Alan Burn on record is a single released on the Mala label in 1965. Mala existed as a label from 1959 to 1969, and scored many big hits including "G.T.O." by Ronnie and the Daytonas as well as "The Letter," "Cry Like a Baby" and "Neon Rainbow" by the Box Tops, and its roster included at one time or another Chad Allen, Spooky Tooth, Billy Fury, Chip Taylor, R Dean Taylor, David Gates, Solomon Burke and Link Wray. So Alan Burn apparently exhibited enough promise to be signed to a not-insubstantial national label, if not a major one.
Mala Single Discography: www.globaldogproductions.info/m/mala.html
Mala History and Album Discography: www.bsnpubs.com/bell/mala.html
Alan Burn
Somebody Wrote Their Name / Beach House
Mala 510 (1965)
The single contains the songs "Beach House" and "Somebody Wrote Their Name," the latter of which is available for listening on YouTube. Alan is credited as songwriter. For its time, released in '65, it's somewhat dated, with a riff and a chord progression lifted from "Silhouettes" and reminiscent of the weepy teen ballads (and vocal stylings) of Neil Sedaka. Burn laments in 6/8 time how he spied his girlfriend's name on the blackboard inside a heart with another boy's name, indicating she's no longer his. Awwww.
As far as I can tell, this single has never been included in any garage comps; understandable as it's pretty far removed from the garage sound.
The Arf-Arf Records website offers a single in good condition for $3, listing Alan Burn as a "legendary Maine artist." www.arfarfrecords.com/cgi-bin/BVload.cgi?section=4&start=0 This reference is the strongest indication linking musician Alan Burn to the former (or perhaps current) Kittery resident. I just won an eBay auction for a near-mint copy, paying $18.50.
This is Alan Burn's sole release on Mala; apparently not having made a dent on the charts, he was dropped. The other two singles were released on Tuesday Records (Google reveals nothing about this label). One single bears an Albany NY origin, the other Boston MA, so this may well tie together the upstate NY Alan Burn with Kittery's Alan Burn (Kittery being an hour's drive from Boston).
Credited only as "Alan"
See Susie Run (w/the World of Darkness) b/w
Information (Help Me Please) (w/the Ushers)
Tuesday TR-SSR (1966)
His second single, "Information (Help Me Please)" / "See Susie Run" is credited simply to "Alan;" the former side is sub-credited "Music by the Ushers" and the latter side "Music by The World Of Darkness." The similarity in vocals in all three singles as well as the "Music by the Ushers" arguably identifies "Alan" as Alan Burn. I've heard "Information" on a podcast...
www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/index.php/rock-town-hall%E2%80%99s-saturday-night-shut-in-thrifty-music-edition/
(scroll to approximately 20:12 in - I can't isolate it to make an MP3 of it)
...and I think it's great! A charmingly garage-y tune worthy of the Monkees, Blues Magoos, or any popular guitar-pop band of the time. Two guitars (and two chords!) and an organ with bass and drums, with vocals laced with tongue-in-cheek humor as Alan seeks some assistance from Ma Bell in nursing his broken heart:
Both sides are included on a compilation that I have yet to locate, "Upstate NY - Both Sides Now." Recently an original 45 sold on eBay for $97, not a bad price.
Alan Burn
Whirlpool / Lion In Love (Music by the Ushers)
Tuesday 11 (1967)
A year later he teamed up with the Ushers again for the single for which he's best-known, "Whirlpool." I know of two garage compilations on which it appears, "Total Raunch" and "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum." From the image I pulled off the internet, I can't make out much detail from the 45's label. Burn is co-credited with another writer whose name I can't decipher. Again he is backed by the Ushers.
Musically, this is archetypal mid-60's garage rock. A 4-beat rhythym with a descending G/F#/Em chord progression, organ and possibly two guitars (one fuzzy lead and another rhythm guitar) with bass and drums. Alan sings lead and sounds double-tracked. It sounds like a pretty rushed affair, his singing is a bit timid going into the bridges. Another vocal take might've been in order, but perhaps there wasn't time - though he is credited as producer, so I guess the call was his. Nonetheless, it has a ragged glory to it that I find quite compelling and interesting. So do garage rock collectors, who can ask over $100 on eBay for the handful of surviving 45's.
The lyrics paint a portrait of someone going through some pretty substantial existential angst. What a progression from his first single! As a writer and a person, he sounds as if he's endured some traumatic real life experiences that have left permanent scars on his psyche.
As far as I can tell, this is the extent of his recording career. Assuming he's the Kittery resident listed as having served in Vietnam, he likely was drafted, killing any momentum he may have generated up to this point. I wonder what his feelings were on his return; nearing thirty, having experienced the horrors of war, and having exhausted any realistic opportunity of pop/rock stardom. Maybe he despaired at his lost chance, or perhaps he took it in stride and moved on. He evidently stayed in Kittery as late as the fall of 1981, and at some point appears to have relocated to upstate New York - or maybe the Massachusetts North Shore? It's possible that there's a connection between his upstate life and his recording on an Albany-based label. Maybe he shuttled between here and there, settling upstate to raise a family? I look forward to finding out.
So what is there to say about Alan Burn, and why am I so interested? He was as worthy of success, if not more so, as any of the garage artists that blossomed into one-hit wonders. He displayed chops, if not genius, as a songwriter; "Somebody Wrote Their Name" could've been cut by Neil Sedaka had it been written five years earlier. Had he hailed from New York or LA he could've sold a song like "Information" to a publisher and seen it recorded by a flavor-of-the-month rock band. Perhaps it was a lack of persistence, opportunity, connections, timing, or any number of factors that kept the brass ring from his hands. As I ponder my own pursuit of my own brass ring and contemplate where I am in my quest, I look to people who didn't make it despite their talents to get a sense of perspective.
I'm going to send some inquiry postcards to the addresses I pulled up... I'll report back with any findings.
Further Googling suggested that Alan grew up in Kittery!
My attention was definitely piqued, and recently I did some serious digging for more information. I've constructed a biography as best as I can determine from Google searches, having as yet never met nor contacted him to corroborate. Most of what I've found might be totally wrong, and the information connecting the Alan Burn in these recordings to the Alan Burn of Kittery might be completely spurious. But no more, say, than the link between William Shakespeare of Stratford and the William Shakespeare who may or may not have written a number of plays for a troupe of actors in London in the late 16th and early 17th century.
An Attempt at a Biography, via Google
I paid two bucks on PeopleFinder to find information about an Alan G Burn who at one point lived in Kittery, and got a birthdate in 1944. His known addresses, in addition to Kittery, include various towns in upstate New York (near Albany) and on the north shore of Massachusetts. The listed phone number (assuming it is the most recent) has an upstate NY area code. Most intriguing was an address that Google Maps says is a foster care institute in Missouri; could he have been an orphan or foundling?
There's a reference in the Nov 2 '81 Portsmouth Herald court listings naming an Alan G Burn age 39 of Kittery who was fined for possession of a number of short (undersized, and therefore illegal) lobsters. This would place his birth year circa 1942, slightly at odds with the PeopleFinder data. So if he went to Kittery schools (and finished) he'd have graduated between 1959-1963, putting him in his early to mid-20's when he cut his three (known) singles, assuming of course that it's the same guy. The 1944 birthdate would most likely place him in the class of 1962; Classmates.com has the high school's 1961 yearbook online but he doesn't appear in it as best as I can determine, and there are no earlier yearbooks viewable in case the 1942 date is more accurate.
An Alan Burn is listed among Kittery residents who served in Vietnam. One might conclude that as his music career was in mid-climb, he either enlisted or was drafted into service; a safe guess would be 1968. Upon his return, he appears to have worked as a lobsterman, leaving his musical aspirations behind. Assuming of course, it's the same guy.
One Google search that may be completely spurious lists an Alan Burn connected with a lobstering co-operative in Belize. Was that short lobster charge in Kittery evidence that Burn turned to lobstering after music, and this career would eventually take him to Belize? That link even mentions a fellow in said co-op named Billy Usher. It might be a stretch to connect Messrs Burn and Usher with Alan Burn and the Ushers of "Whirlpool" fame, but stranger things have happened (and entire doctoral theses have been written on even more dubious connections).
Burning Up The Charts... Nearly
How he got his start in music is unknown to me at this point. The earliest known (thus far) appearance of Alan Burn on record is a single released on the Mala label in 1965. Mala existed as a label from 1959 to 1969, and scored many big hits including "G.T.O." by Ronnie and the Daytonas as well as "The Letter," "Cry Like a Baby" and "Neon Rainbow" by the Box Tops, and its roster included at one time or another Chad Allen, Spooky Tooth, Billy Fury, Chip Taylor, R Dean Taylor, David Gates, Solomon Burke and Link Wray. So Alan Burn apparently exhibited enough promise to be signed to a not-insubstantial national label, if not a major one.
Mala Single Discography: www.globaldogproductions.info/m/mala.html
Mala History and Album Discography: www.bsnpubs.com/bell/mala.html
Alan Burn
Somebody Wrote Their Name / Beach House
Mala 510 (1965)
The single contains the songs "Beach House" and "Somebody Wrote Their Name," the latter of which is available for listening on YouTube. Alan is credited as songwriter. For its time, released in '65, it's somewhat dated, with a riff and a chord progression lifted from "Silhouettes" and reminiscent of the weepy teen ballads (and vocal stylings) of Neil Sedaka. Burn laments in 6/8 time how he spied his girlfriend's name on the blackboard inside a heart with another boy's name, indicating she's no longer his. Awwww.
Everybody's starting to talk.
There it was, written in chalk.
Your name in a heart with his
Gave me such a start, gee whiz.
As far as I can tell, this single has never been included in any garage comps; understandable as it's pretty far removed from the garage sound.
The Arf-Arf Records website offers a single in good condition for $3, listing Alan Burn as a "legendary Maine artist." www.arfarfrecords.com/cgi-bin/BVload.cgi?section=4&start=0 This reference is the strongest indication linking musician Alan Burn to the former (or perhaps current) Kittery resident. I just won an eBay auction for a near-mint copy, paying $18.50.
This is Alan Burn's sole release on Mala; apparently not having made a dent on the charts, he was dropped. The other two singles were released on Tuesday Records (Google reveals nothing about this label). One single bears an Albany NY origin, the other Boston MA, so this may well tie together the upstate NY Alan Burn with Kittery's Alan Burn (Kittery being an hour's drive from Boston).
Credited only as "Alan"
See Susie Run (w/the World of Darkness) b/w
Information (Help Me Please) (w/the Ushers)
Tuesday TR-SSR (1966)
His second single, "Information (Help Me Please)" / "See Susie Run" is credited simply to "Alan;" the former side is sub-credited "Music by the Ushers" and the latter side "Music by The World Of Darkness." The similarity in vocals in all three singles as well as the "Music by the Ushers" arguably identifies "Alan" as Alan Burn. I've heard "Information" on a podcast...
www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/index.php/rock-town-hall%E2%80%99s-saturday-night-shut-in-thrifty-music-edition/
(scroll to approximately 20:12 in - I can't isolate it to make an MP3 of it)
...and I think it's great! A charmingly garage-y tune worthy of the Monkees, Blues Magoos, or any popular guitar-pop band of the time. Two guitars (and two chords!) and an organ with bass and drums, with vocals laced with tongue-in-cheek humor as Alan seeks some assistance from Ma Bell in nursing his broken heart:
One... Two-One-Two...
Five-Five-Five... One-Two-One-Two...
Information, can you help me? Here's my situation
I need the numbers of the girls in your town
I don't mean to mess around, but I've been put down, yeah.
Help me, Information!
Both sides are included on a compilation that I have yet to locate, "Upstate NY - Both Sides Now." Recently an original 45 sold on eBay for $97, not a bad price.
Alan Burn
Whirlpool / Lion In Love (Music by the Ushers)
Tuesday 11 (1967)
A year later he teamed up with the Ushers again for the single for which he's best-known, "Whirlpool." I know of two garage compilations on which it appears, "Total Raunch" and "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum." From the image I pulled off the internet, I can't make out much detail from the 45's label. Burn is co-credited with another writer whose name I can't decipher. Again he is backed by the Ushers.
Musically, this is archetypal mid-60's garage rock. A 4-beat rhythym with a descending G/F#/Em chord progression, organ and possibly two guitars (one fuzzy lead and another rhythm guitar) with bass and drums. Alan sings lead and sounds double-tracked. It sounds like a pretty rushed affair, his singing is a bit timid going into the bridges. Another vocal take might've been in order, but perhaps there wasn't time - though he is credited as producer, so I guess the call was his. Nonetheless, it has a ragged glory to it that I find quite compelling and interesting. So do garage rock collectors, who can ask over $100 on eBay for the handful of surviving 45's.
The lyrics paint a portrait of someone going through some pretty substantial existential angst. What a progression from his first single! As a writer and a person, he sounds as if he's endured some traumatic real life experiences that have left permanent scars on his psyche.
Milling in my mind
Are a billion sands of time
It's an hourglass of wrath
Where no man makes a path
[...]
My life was wasted 'til I tasted sin, sweet honey
I got things that just cannot be bought with money
I lost my miiiiiiind!
As far as I can tell, this is the extent of his recording career. Assuming he's the Kittery resident listed as having served in Vietnam, he likely was drafted, killing any momentum he may have generated up to this point. I wonder what his feelings were on his return; nearing thirty, having experienced the horrors of war, and having exhausted any realistic opportunity of pop/rock stardom. Maybe he despaired at his lost chance, or perhaps he took it in stride and moved on. He evidently stayed in Kittery as late as the fall of 1981, and at some point appears to have relocated to upstate New York - or maybe the Massachusetts North Shore? It's possible that there's a connection between his upstate life and his recording on an Albany-based label. Maybe he shuttled between here and there, settling upstate to raise a family? I look forward to finding out.
So what is there to say about Alan Burn, and why am I so interested? He was as worthy of success, if not more so, as any of the garage artists that blossomed into one-hit wonders. He displayed chops, if not genius, as a songwriter; "Somebody Wrote Their Name" could've been cut by Neil Sedaka had it been written five years earlier. Had he hailed from New York or LA he could've sold a song like "Information" to a publisher and seen it recorded by a flavor-of-the-month rock band. Perhaps it was a lack of persistence, opportunity, connections, timing, or any number of factors that kept the brass ring from his hands. As I ponder my own pursuit of my own brass ring and contemplate where I am in my quest, I look to people who didn't make it despite their talents to get a sense of perspective.
I'm going to send some inquiry postcards to the addresses I pulled up... I'll report back with any findings.