new discoveries, De La Salle Prep-Rock/Garage Listen

$

163

        new discoveries, De La Salle Prep-Rock/Garage Listen!!!           Lot of 3, 1 of these records has already fetched $1000                 DESCRIPTION
De La Salle is a private Catholic High School on a small island in the Mississippi river adjacent to Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. Not one of your "Elite" eastern prep schools , Andover, Horace Mann, etc, but an excellent private school with a impressive scholarship program. Back in the sixties it was a boys only school. The school, of course, had a music department and the chorus which was part of it was used as a community outreach program to help promote the school through public concerts locally as well as other points within the state; by 1965 the chorus was an official Minnesota State cultural representative to the World's Fair. As with many school Bands , Orchestras, Glee Clubs, and Choruses throughout the history of recorded sound there has always been the desire to capture the talent of these groups through small private pressings. What this lot represents is three years, 1963 through 1965, of these recordings from De La Salle High School. The styles of music on the records changes from year to year and was no doubt influenced by the prevailing popular culture outside the school. What follows is a year by year appraisal of the three records, then a short story about how these records were discovered. I have included many scans and most importantly,MP3 clips of the tracks with the most interest to Garage & Surf collectors.

1963: The title is "America Sings, Again" since I don't have the 1962 version , if there was one, I assume it would have been titled "America Sings" The selections are typical for the time , loads of Show Tunes, a few traditional folk songs, some patriotic numbers and a sacred song. These are all performed in a very competent Choral style; the De La Salle boys had talent and so did their director Brother Fidelis ( Latin for faithful ) a former student turned faculty member. With no intended disrespect, I have to say that this disk isn't too interesting to me and on it's own isn't worth much except to someone who participated in it's creation. But the 1963 version is included to provide a stark contrast to the 1964 disk. The '60s was a time of great social change in America and someone at De La Salle was open to change as well.

1964: Titled presciently, "Sounds of The Sixties", there is a big difference in the song selection. There are still a few Show Tunes but there are more folk oriented songs and most importantly there are Surf, R&B, Rock n Roll, and British invasion covers! The Choral style has receded and smaller group performances with and without drums & electric guitars dominate. My guess is that this record is more of a school talent document than, strictly speaking, a De La Salle chorus creation. Each one of the really cool numbers on this record features a different vocalist and probably a different backing band. It may be that these uncredited groups were actively gigging in the Twin City area.
These are all studio recordings and since the matrix numbers have a KB prefix, it is likely they were recorded by the legendary Kay bank studios, Trashmen, Underbeats, Jesse J. and The Bandits etc, and perhaps even produced by George Garrett. That this was either a remote recording or done in the studio has resulted in a great recording! The drum, guitar and vocal sound is great, truly exceptional. "Point Panic" has an accomplished guitarist and drummer and the performance sounds equal to many commercially released sides, This sound was about to become obsolete but there had been a heavy surf scene early in the decade so the chops and desire were still there. "My Little Girl" actually refers back even further in rock history as it is a garage rocker with an almost Buddy Holly vocal. This is very likely an original but no publishing credits are printed on the label. "I Saw Her Standing There" is perhaps the high point, these guys must have grown bangs, switched to matching collarless suits, and worn out several Beatles records to get this good that fast. The blood curdling scream midway through must have delighted classmates and dismayed a few administrators. "Money" wow! what a durable tune! Every group at the time must have known how to put this one over and this group acquitted themselves well. The record ends with a manic "Twist And Shout' and you have to wonder if they were covering the Beatles , again, or had they remembered the Isley's version from when they was babies! All told, a major Minnesota and US find!

1965: You can almost tell from the title "De La Salle Chorus '65" that this one would be anticlimactic. The sounds have definitely gotten softer but there also seems to be a continuation of the small group idea. There are performance credits on the label for various solos, duos and small ensembles. Brother Fidelis , who released a single on the local Bangar label around this time and had a very nice voice, even gets a solo credit. There are still two really cool performances within the Beat and Garage genres on this record. A duo of Hansen & Le Verque perform Freddie and the Dreamers "I'm Telling You now" and even better, Eddie Robbins and backing make a great medley out of The Zombies "She's Not There" and Bobby Lewis' "Tossin" and Turnin'. These songs in themselves would make this a desirable record. Since I don't have any later releases by the De La Salle Chorus , you can be sure I will keep looking, I have no way of knowing if any Rock songs made it onto the 1966 or subsequent releases. The 1964 release may have been a total fluke; the people being in authority perhaps feeling momentarily unsure of their own judgment and consequently willing to let the kids have it their way. We should all be glad they did.

OK! So How did these recordings come to light in the present day? The short story goes something like this, I went to one of the VFW, bi-monthly record show within the last year and stopped to talk to one of my friends and fellow collectors who always sets up at this show. He had a funny glow about him and spoke in low tones explaining how , in the course of checking out a private school record in a local thrift store he had discovered that there were some rock titles on it. Many of us know about the sub-commercial genres which include private pressings by school groups, lounge acts, Christian-Folk/Rock groups, and all manner of vanity pressings and my friend is no exception. When he spotted the Op-art "Sounds of The Sixties" cover he may have felt the twinge that one gets just before gold is discovered. He initially thought it might be something that another mutual friend of ours would want who is into finding school band covers of big rock hits. After taking the find home and auditioning it he now knew that he had something special. Back at the record show, the De La Salle record is shown to one of our local heavies who is a really big player in the garage rock field, he used to produce a Garage Rock fanzine, has worked on several comps of local reissues and first issues of previously unreleased material, and has his own weighty presence on ebay, "He has never heard of this record" which makes the finding of it nearly miraculous. The discussion quickly turns to the matter of money, the local heavy knows a well-heeled buyer who will want this item. A call is made, the buyer commits sight unseen/unheard and my friend is $1,000.00 richer. Imagine how I felt? I could only bring up my own score of a scarce "Isabel Baker" record as a counter.
The record had actually vanished from the VFW by the time I got there so I didn't even know what the cover looked like. After hearing the story I knew that I would need to find my own copy. After six months of keeping my eyes peeled every time I went record hunting I came upon the exact thing! and I felt the twinge. I actually one-upped my friend because exactly one week later at the same store I found the De La Salle Chorus '65 record! Nobody knew about that either. A few weeks go by and I find the 1963 record, different store however, so now my work is really done. Maybe not,
After listening to the records I wanted to know more about the school , the people, and the circumstances surrounding the recordings. For me it was a little story that could become big with the right information. I found out from a friend at work whose two older brothers had attended De La Salle at the time that Brother Fidelis was now the President of the school. He had earlier moved to and worked in California for a long time but was now back home. I went to the school website and emailed him with my take on the importance of the recordings and a score of questions that I had. Eventually one of his associates sent an email back stating that Brother Michael ,as he is known now, was out of town at the moment but that he, as someone who works in alumni relations, was very much interested in the recordings. Apparently these records were well remembered by the students of the time and this gentleman was often asked about them and how could they be made available again. It came out that the school did not have a single copy of any of these records. I sent him digital copies of all the music and cover scans too. I am still waiting for the answers to my questions but remain confident that Brother Fidelis will one day give me an audience.-

Condition of 1963 Cover VG+ Record VG+ , 1964 Cover VG- , split upper and lower seams and a deep scuff on the front cover Record, numerous visible marks play with some light crackle VG to VG+, 1965 Cover VG++ still in original shrink, Record VG- to VG plays with light crackle through out. Just for the record, the copy that my friend found was NM.













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