11 January 1969
Another year in ’60s Ireland, another Irish showband with a cover version at the top of the charts. But wait! This Irish showband sounds like they’re actually living in the ’60s! And the record isn’t altogether bad!
Though the clumsy title suggests some sort of plaintive country ballad about a Wild West gunfighter, and there’s still a jailbreak and sheriff involved in the lyrics, ‘Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run)’ is late-’60s US bubblegum pop from the year before, by mixum-gatherum vocal group the Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus. Their lead singer puts on the sort of contrived rock n’roll accent you might get in FBI public information films of the time warning you about the dangers of Hell’s Angels injecting tablets of pot. Thankfully, Dublin’s Real McCoy has their singer Mike O’Brien forgo the comedy American accent – mostly. (Drummer Dave Pennefather goes on to become a well-known Irish record industry head.)
The Irish crew stick to the original’s driving blues-rock beat and bright female-voiced chorus, and their straight bat with the vocals helps play down the song’s watery whimsy. However, more impressively and surprisingly, Real McCoy’s version innovates by starting with a burst of artfully-found feedback pulses. A ’60s Irish showband hit that’s not only decent but exhibits symptoms of sonic playfulness and borderline psychedelia? Jesus, Mary and Joey!
