There were a number of bands calling themselves the Shags in the ’60s, this group came from Winnipeg, Manitoba. The only member I know of was Greg Leskiw, later of the Logan Avenue, the Guess Who and Mood jga jga.
“Smiling Fenceposts” is a great psychedelic song, written by Merritt & Steward. The group vocals remind me the Strawberry Alarm Clock, and the song has a fantastic buzzing guitar break. The drumming is excellent as well.
“Dr. Feel-Good” is more formulaic, but has another fine guitar solo. The singer is looking for women who weigh at least 400 pounds! It was written by someone named Smith, and is a different song from the Aretha Franklin tune.
Wes Nowosad founded Eagle Records, releasing records by Winnipeg groups including the Quid, Satan and the D Men, Good Feeling and the Shondels. He died last year, Dec. 4, 2006.
The drumming on “Smiling Fenceposts” is indeed spectacular: the contrast with the folky vocal harmonies makes this one interesting piece of vinyl. I wish the guitar was a little less polished and more wyld/unpredictable/excessively reverby. If it were, we’d almost be looking at another “Suzy Creamcheese” caliber garage psych classic with this. Vernon Joynson gives the year for this 45 as 1967, and from the sound I’d guess early ’67: right in that tantalizingly brief temporal window (roughly 8/66 to 5/67) when garagepunk groups were taking stabs at psychedelia but still trying to make singles for Top40 radio.
Just discovered a clip on YouTube this evening by this band. It’s an instrumental, more recent than vintage, judging by its production sound, and there’s a date onscreen at the intro, Jan. 1, 2000. No real explanation given for the clip, plenty of info on the band though. A shame the clip gets cut off at the end, I would’ve liked to have heard the whole thing. Is there more?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4I09hJGFcU
The audio track is NOT the “Shags” and has NOTHING to do with the Shags!!! The credit for the track is listed below the video.
I was lease singer in Madhatters and married to the super deceptive Dan Norton. Not a good time in my life. But he did have a wee part in the creation of an amazing girl singer, chef , restaurant nightmare solver , pastry chef, song writer so he not all bad. But he almost wrecked my life. I am way OK now. No thanks to this con man .