How is it possible that a Spanish pop group with a German lead singer, living under the quasi-fascistic military dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, managed to score a Top Five single in the UK and the US? Was the Generalissimo a secret garage rock fan? Did he think The Kingsmen were the mierda?
I guess we’ll never know, but the fact remains that Los Bravos, whose lead singer Mike Volker Kogel (aka Mike Kennedy, Mike Keller) was coerced into moving to Spain by a Spanish band called The Runaways he ran across in Cologne, who then changed their name to Los Bravos and scored big internationally with “Black is Black,” one of the catchiest pop songs (you’ll know it if you hear it if you don’t know it already) released during the summer before the Summer of Love.
It’s got Swinging London written all over it, but it was written and recorded by a band (in addition to Kogel they were Antonio Martinez on guitar, Pablo Gomez on drums, Miguel Danus on bass, and Manuel Fernández on organ) that was based in Madrid and would have undoubtedly have ended up in prison (the concentration camps were history) had they written a song called “The Generalissimo Can Eat Me.”
So far as I know, Los Bravos never toured the UK or the US, but they were so popular in Spain they were the subject of two film comedies, 1967’s Los chicos con las chicas and 1968’s ¡Dame un poco de amooor…! I haven’t seen either, but Columbia Records released the soundtracks to both films. The former includes the frantic and very fuzzed-out “Going Nowhere,” on which Kogel barks out each word in a military cadence that would have made Franco proud. The latter includes the fuzz-guitar and organ garage-freakout “Like Nobody Else,” a stellar example of Authoritarian Groovy.
You’ll find both—and several other songs from the above soundtracks—on Black is Black, a 1974 compilation from the German wing of Decca Records. But beware: there are at least a half-dozen other compilations out there with the same title, and none of them are as good. Several of them belong in concentration camps.
At their worst, Los Bravos are MOR pop, and Engelbert Humperdinck should be encouraged to release a tribute album. And much of their material works (duh) in a Spanish pop music vein that is unlikely to brighten the otherwise lugubrious day of your average non-Spanish rock fan. Although there are happy exceptions, “Como Nadie Mas” is psychedelic gold, all fuzz, horns, organ, and Beatlesque vocal harmonies. Unfortunately, you won’t find it on the Decca compilation.
As for the comp. In addition to “Black Is Black” and “Going Nowhere” (which is so cool it found its way onto Rhino Records’ Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969) you get 1968’s indispensable “Bring a Little Lovin’,” which was, get this, written FOR Los Bravos by Australia’s The Easybeats, who also released a version. It also found its way onto the ¡Dame un poco de amooor…! soundtrack, and good thing—it’s Motown-friendly and bounces along like a little red rubber ball, while the horns go wild and Kogel and company give their all and then some on vocals. It’s German-eyed soul and lacks (fortunately) the hokum quotient that mars some of their other songs.
“Make It Last” is one of those songs—it strays into Tom Jones territory, but Tom Jones would never inject the quaver into the title like Kogel does. His “Make it laaast, make it laaast” never fails to crack me up. “I Don’t Care” is a shoulda-been Northern Soul classic—it’s obscure, boasts a great dance beat, and features groovy Motown-school female backing vocalists. And lots of “La la la” at the end. “Trapped” is all glorious trumpets and Kogel singing (he’s got this commanding voice and he demands your attention) “Trapped,” pause “in the prison of love.” I’m betting the 1971 Elvis could have done a killer version of this baby.
“Deeper Roots” is string-heavy romantic shlock, with Kogel dueting with an unknown female singer, known only to the obsessed. “If I Were a River” is worse—it’s Kogel gone Las Vegas, accompanied by a string section that should have been turned away at the Nevada border. Ditto the female backing vocalists. “I’m All Ears” is cooler than you’d expect—it boasts some nice organ work, lots of tambourine and hand claps, and Kogel sings it like a rocker, not a crooner. He even comes out with a gritty garage scream. Another Northern Soul fave that wasn’t, and the speed-fed geezers at the Twisted Wheel and the Golden Torch would have loved it.
“Sympathy” is all horn blare and swinging beat and very cool in an Austin Powers kind of way, especially when Kogel gets down with his bad self towards the end. “Baby Believe Me” is Gene Pitney meets the Tijuana Brass, and you can hear it at the Rumba Room at the Ramada Inn in sunny Erie, Pennsylvania, this coming weekend. Afterward, you can go bowling!
Los Bravos are a mixed bag—mostly synthetic pop as interpreted by a band at a great distance from where the good stuff was being made, and with a singer with a bad case of the Tom Jones. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that they covered “It’s Not Unusual.” But “Black is Black,” “Going Nowhere,” “I Don’t Care,” and “Bring a Little Lovin’” are all great, and a few of the other tracks on Black is Black are definitely worth a listen.
In the end, “Austin Powers” are the words that best sum up Los Bravos. They’re a little rock ’n’ roll, and a lot of period cool. “Yeah, baby!”
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B
