We’ll Follow The Sun

I can’t find anything this morning that sounds any better than this- Del Shannon’s 1965 single Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow the Sun). Great singing, tinny production (that’s a compliment), foot stomping drums on the chorus and a bittersweet vibe throughout.

Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow the Sun)

>Majestic Shannon

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Del Shannon died twenty one years ago yesterday, by his own hand as they say. Born with the gift of a golden voice, his last 60s hit was this- Keep Searchin’ (We’ll Follow the Sun), brilliant 1964 pop with bin lid drumming, drenched in reverb, drama, melancholy and melody. Stunning still all these years on.

keep searchin we\’ll follow the sun.mp3

Del Shannon ‘Gemini’ Pilooski Re-edit

Back at the start of Bagging Area I featured the original version of this, Del Shannon’s Gemini, a lost baroque/psyche/pop classic from 1968. A song in praise of the elusive Gemini, ‘always heavy on my mind, blue eyes’, in the way those girls always seem to have been in the late 60s. This is French wonderkid Pilooski’s re-edited version and it’s arguably better than Del’s- faster, toughened up, dance floor drums, cut-up vox in parts, stretched out, but retaining Del’s otherness and great vocal. Superb.

gemini.mp3

Del Shannon ‘Gemini’

I only discovered this in the last year or so, after getting into some of those Pilooski Dirty Edit re-edits. This is a real treat- off Del Shannon’s late 60s baroque- psyche ‘lost masterpiece’ (everyone in the 60s has got one of those havn’t they?) The Further Adventures Of Charles Westover. Ended up buying a re-issue of the album on cd, and it’s good-ish, but this is clearly the standout. The Pilooski edit’s good too, and out there somewhere in internet land, but this is better. He did a similar job on The Human Beinz ‘Nobody But Me’, equally great source track and re-edit. Brilliant song, great instrumentation, great vocals. Enjoy it.

07 Gemini.wma