Nik Cohn’s Pop Scene

Nick Cohn’s ‘Pop Scene’ column for Queen magazine 1966-1968

Nik Cohn’s view of pop in Pop from the Beginning aka Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, or from his commentaries that accompanied Guy Peellaert’s illustrations in Rock Dreams, is well-known, but, other than fleeting references to his review of The Who Sell Out, his contemporary reports from pop’s front-line have remained hidden since they were first published, twice a month, in his Pop Scene column for Queen magazine, 1966-68.

If you care about such things, and I do, you’ll want these reports brought into the light. Someone should publish them along with his other dispatches from the time. To help you navigate your way through back issues of Queen you can find below a comprehensive list of his column and a few choice examples. 

When I began to search out these columns, I had no idea when Cohn started or finished with Queen but that was fine because ‘Pop Scene’ had, as I discovered, been previously captained by Ready Steady Go choreographer Patrick Kerr; a man who had his finger on the pulse with a great review of ‘Anyway Anyhow Anywhere’, a sighting of Keith Moon sitting in with P. J. Proby at a London nitery, and a report on the confusion the number of pop figures with the name David Jones was causing. I was less pleased to discover that when Cohn quit the column in June 1968 it was taken over by the utterly boring Benny Green, jazz lover and pop hater.

Cohn’s columns are flippant and throwaway, which is as they should be. Individually they represent at best a bit of evidence that this or that group passed before his critical eye and that this or that disc was released and listened to, but taken together the columns represent a fascinating view of the rapidly evolving pop scene across the months of 1966-1968.

Old copies of Queen are incredibly expensive, coveted for their fashion spreads often shot by the best photographers of the day, such as Helmut Newton. The British Library grants easy access to a complete run of volumes on microfilm, unfortunately only in black and white, but the London College of Fashion has bound volumes if sitting in front of a reader is  not to your liking.

There will be more on Cohn’s features for Queen and on his contributions for other magazines at some future point.

By 1967, Nik Cohn had achieved enough notoriety to be featured in Jonathan Aitkin’s series of profiles of London’s most happening photogenes, rag traders, artists, politicians and entertainers. Cohn was then earning a good income – Aitkin is obsessed with how much money his subjects make – as a scriptwriter for dubbed foreign language films, which paid the bills and allowed him to carry out his preferred occupation. He told Aitkin that his ‘Pop Scene’ column ‘is my little pet, it matters to me more than anything else’.

1.     March 16, 1966, p.24.

A new breed of pop manager – David Nicholson. Charlie Rich – ‘He belongs firmly to the era before pop became intellectual and sophisticated.’

2.     March 30, 1966, p.20.

James Brown live in Walthamstow – ‘The alto player kept yelling his name, “James Brown,” and the audience took it up like a Hitler chant.’ P. J. Proby – ‘Pop is glamour, and brouhaha and it can’t afford to lose star quality. That means it can’t afford to lose Proby.’

3.     April 13, 1966, p.21-22.

John Walters, trumpet player with the Alan Price Set. Otis Redding – ‘current in-crowd godhead. . . he’s too good at his worst to need mindless worship at his worst.’

4.     April 27, 1966, p.36.

Rolling Stones – ‘out went all the gauchness and edginess, and with them went all the excitement too.’ The Action supporting The Searchers. The latter ‘London’s current rave group’.

5.     May 11, 1966, p.24.

New American groups – The Lovin’ Spoonful, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds and The Beach Boys Today: ‘like almost every record they’ve made, it is a classic.’ The Troggs “Wild Thing’ predicts a solid hit.

6.     May 25, 1966, p.20.

NME Poll Winners’ Concert – including The Who, the Stones, the Beatles and Cliff Richard. It was ‘as if we were watching an act of history, not a pop show.’

7.     June 8, 1966, p.20.

The role of the compére. Georgie Fame’s Sweet Thing LP.

8.     June 8, 1966, p.18.

Phil Spector ‘has had to put up with a lot of insults over the years . . . and the sheer violent volume of his records comes out like revenge.’ Review of Motown Magic.

9.     July 6, 1966, p.19.

Andy ‘Wipe Out’ Wickham – publicist, entrepreneur, surf fan.

10.  July 20, 1966, p.28.

Graham Bond Organisation – ‘They project violence and meanness, and The Who are the only other group I can think of who have the same total unpredictability.’

11.  August 3, 1966, p.24.

The Flamingo to watch Georgie Fame – ‘half of any Flam audience is always West Indian’. The Move at the Marquee – ‘They have all the fashionable preoccupation with sounds . . .’

12.  August 17, 1966, pp. 31-2. 

The Beach Boys – ‘Pop fascinates me for two reasons. Firstly I like the sound it makes and secondly, I get excited by some of the fantasy worlds it creates.’

13.  August 31, 1966, p.24.

The Beatles Revolver, The Yardbirds LP, Live! The Ike and Tina Turner Show reviewed.

14.  September 14, 1966, p.32.

Club bookers demanding more showmanship: Geno Washington, Herbie Goins, Jimmy James, Zoot Money. The Who’s ‘I’m a Boy’ reviewed with a rant against companies releasing archive recordings of hit groups.

15.  September 28, 1966, p.28.

Interview with the Small Faces – ‘everything is becoming more life-size, less interesting; the day of the showman may have been and gone.

16.  October 12, 1966, p.43.

Sandie Shaw ‘has always been high on my list of pop favourites’. New singles from Walker Brothers and Jimmy Ruffin reviewed.

17.  October 26, 1966, p.32.

Ike and Tina Turner’s River Deep–Mountain High album reviewed alongside Georgie Fame’s Sound Venture, Temptations’ 45 ‘Getting’ Ready’, and Stevie Wonder’s Up-Tight. Four Tops and Beverly mentioned.

18.  November 9, 1966, p.40.

Simon Napier-Bell interviewed about his new group John’s Children. Notice of Jacques Brel at the Royal Albert Hall.

19.  December 7, 1966, p.68.

The Mothers of Invention Freak-Out! About which the ‘English pop intellectuals are already running around in circles with their tongues out’. Reviews of Soul Sixteen LP and B.B. King’s Live At The Regal.

20.  December 21, 1966, pp.15-16.

Reviews of Supremes A’ Go Go and Chiffons ‘Sweet Talking Guy’

21.  January 4, 1967, p.16.

Review of The Who’s A Quick One: ‘by far the most interesting thing they have ever done . . . Under the surface exhibitionism there is oddness and withdrawal and originality.’ Kinks’ ‘Dead End Street’ and Tim Buckley on Elektra also reviewed.

22.  January 18, 1967, p.16.

The Pink Floyd ‘are the most committed psychedelic group I have yet heard in this country.’ In defence of Cher’s latest disc.

23.  February 1, 1967, pp.15-16.

Brian Epstein and Jimi Hendrix . . . ‘a coloured American who looks like a cross between Bob Dylan and the Wild Man of Borneo and he’s currently laying London dead.’ Cohn’s all-time top ten.

24.  February 15, 1967, p.20.

Four Tops at the Royal Albert Hall and Hendrix supporting The Who at the Saville . . . ‘ Pop is developing beyond the joke stage and people like Hendrix could lift it on to an entirely new level.’

25.  March 1, 1967, p.15

Rolling Stones, Between the Buttons . . . ‘I felt I knew the [songs] off by heart before they even got started.’ The Temptations and Martha and the Vandellas greatest hits albums. Alan Price Set and Supremes 45s.

26.  March 15, 1967, p.23

Chuck Berry and Herbie Goins and the Night Timers at the Saville.

27.  March 29, 1967, p.15.

Shangri-Las Golden Hits . . . his ‘favourite girl group ever’. The Pink Floyd, ‘Arnold Layne’. . . ‘what I really like about it is that it takes some chances.’

28.  April 12, 1967, p.24.

The Stax revue Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd etc. . . The Byrds  . . . ‘I can’t detach their music from their hyped-up hippyness and their richboy arrogance.’ Fats Domino at the Saville.

29.  May 10, 1967, p.19.

Nina Simone at the Albert Hall – ‘the most original, most magnetic woman singer to emerge since Billie Holliday.’ Also on the bill was the comic Dick Gregory and The Peddlers. New singles from Bee Gees and P. P. Arnold.

30.  May 24, 1967, p.22.

John Lee Hooker Live at Café Au Go-Go . . . ‘the whole atmosphere conjures up Skid Row hotel rooms, overflowing ashtrays and last-ditch drunken despair. It ought to make depressing listening but it is so fierce and honest that it is exhilarating instead.’ B. B. King Blues is King. Walker Bothers after the break up – Scott ‘has all the equipment to become a fully-fledged pop version of James Dean’.

31.  June 7, 1967, p.19.

The ballyhoo surrounding Monterey pop festival and its place within pop ballyhoo more generally.

32.  July 5, 1967, p.20.

The sci-fi atmosphere of recording studios. P. J Proby’s Enigma – too many runoff the mill pop songs. He needs ‘back-dated cornball ballads, saccharine monstrosities on which he can let his imagination and humour and real hugeness run riot.’ Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced? – exciting but also a ‘little pretentious and clumsy.’ Small Faces album on Immediate. Aretha Franklin is the ‘greatest thing since sliced bread.’

33.  July 19, 1967, p.16.

Current influx of hippydom, Cream’s ‘Strange Brew’ – ‘a most depressing dog record.’ Scott McKenzie . . .

34.  August 2, 1967, p.14.

Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man – ‘the richest and most unfettered pop-blues record I have heard in years.’ Lulu and Mickie Most. The Creation – ‘If I Stay Too Long’ . . . ‘I like it very much.’ Art ‘What’s That Sound’ – ‘gutsy’. Tom Jones, ‘I’ll Never fall In Love Again’ . . . ‘Personally I hate it, but it is still a quite brilliant performance.’

35.  August 16, 1967, p.16.

Column renamed ‘Jazz and Pop’.

Ronnie Scott’s, Chris McGregor Band, Dave Davis “Death of a Clown’ and other clown songs.

36.  August 30, 1967, p.12.

Column returns to its previous name: ‘Pop Scene’.

National Jazz and Blues Festival featuring Cream, Jeff Beck, John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac  et al. Move’s ‘Flowers In the Rain’ – ‘I’m no closer to liking them . . . I can’t understand how the Move can claim to be progressive on one hand and produce this back-dated pulp on the other.’ Commends The Smoke’s new disc ‘If The Weather Is Sunny’.

37.  September 1967, pp.14-15.

An overview of Ray Davis and The Kinks 3 years on from ‘You Really Got Me’.

38.  September 1967, pp.16-17.

Shilling for Track records: Crazy World of Arthur Brown. ‘What I like so much about Track is that it jumps on no bandwagons, adopts no pretensions, burns no incense and peddles no plastic flowers.’ P. J. Proby new album Phenomenon – ‘Jet Powers lives’ – and Bobbie Gentry ‘Ode to Billie Joe’. . .  ‘I like it without reservations.’

39.  October 11, 1967, pp.23-4.

Scott Walker . . . ‘I don’t share Walker’s vision of quality . . . I’m irritated by his seriousness but, after all that, I still think that he has certain talents and I’d like to see him win through.’

40.  November 8, 1967, p.21. 

Emperor Rosko, Top Gear and ‘Autumn Almanac’ b/w ‘Mr. Pleasant’ from The Kinks: ‘Davis writes bouncy little melodies that are really beautiful.’

41.  November 8, 1967, p.32.

Aretha Franklin, Aretha Arrives . . . ‘part of a campaign to establish her as a family entertainer’. Hapshash and the Coloured Coat . . . ‘apart from anything else, it’s quite marvellous for getting high to.’ Nashville Teens ‘The Biggest Night of Her Life’  . . . ‘It ought to be number one.’ And a nod to the sleeve design of Dominic Behan’s self-titled album – ‘not so much Pop as Protest’.

42.  November 26, 1967, pp. 36 & 41.

The emergence of the Underground. . .’obviously pop is going to come up with some very good, progressive music in the next years. It’s just that separated from all the traditional showbiz shackles, I rather doubt if I’ll be interested. . . . I’ve always been hooked on pop as a ragbag, a chaotic stew of the good and the awful, the coy and the vulgar and the heart-pumping and the downright ludicrous and, however crass it may have been, it has always toted an immense vitality. This, I think, is dying.’

43.  December 1 1967, pp.29-30

Nice are plugged along with singles by Parliaments ‘(I Wanna) Testify’ – ‘the best record the Temptations have ever made’ –  Laura Lee ‘Dirty Man’ – ‘backdated but tasty just the same’. Flatt and Scruggs, ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’(Bonnie & Clyde) and Mike-Carr-Tony Crombie Duo.

44.  December 15, 1967, pp. 29-30.

‘At some time in the past three months almost every major stylist in modern jazz has played London’: Thelonius Monk Big Band, Miles Davis and Archie Shepp Quintet.

45.  January 3  1968, pp.12-13.

Reviews of Christmas releases: Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour (‘terrible forced zaniness’), Jimi Hendrix, Axis: Bold as Love, Rolling Stones, Their Satanic Majesties request (‘a strange one’), Procul Harum (sic.), Small Faces (‘a most appealing noise’), The Who Sell Out (‘too late for a detailed review’).

46.  January 17 1968, p. 13.

The Who Sell Out  . . . ‘it could have been pop’s first ever masterpiece and it simply isn’t.’ Reviews of John Fred and His Playboy Band and Smokey and The Miracles, ‘Ooh Baby Baby’.

47.  February 1 1968, p. 20.

Jools by Julie Driscoll who makes him realise “once again just how poverty-striken the rest of our girl singers are. Almost without exception they are lousy.’ Love shots at Lulu, Cilla Black (‘I’d piut hard money on her remaining a star as long as she lives’), Sandie Shaw, Petula Clark, Marianne Faithful and Dusty Springfield follow.

48.  February 14 1968, p. 11.

Bert Berns has died . . .Love Affair, Grapefruit, Sandie Shaw, Nicole Hernandez, Arl Guthrie, Lovin’ Spoonful and The Move, ‘Fire Brigade’ are covered.

49.  February 28 1968, p. 18. 

Elvis’ ‘Guitar Man’ Presley ‘the place where pop begins and ends’. Donovan ‘Jennifer Juniper’ – ‘saintly, limp, , hushed’. Peddlers, Freewheelers . . .

50.  March 13 1968, pp. 26-7.

Billy Fury . . . unaware ‘that a rock revival existed.’ The Dells and Reperata and the Delrons.

51.  March 27 1968, pp. 22-3.

A blues revival with Fleetwood Mac and Nice’s The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack.

52.  April 10, 1968, p. 28.

Dinner with the more mature post-Stones Andrew Loog Oldham, who somewhat disappoints; ‘I’m a comic-strip romantic from way back and I couldn’t help being secretly disappointed that the bug-eyed monster from Planet X had turned out human after all.’  A recommendation  for the new Idle Race 45, ‘The Skeleton and the Rioundabout’ – ‘Count Mordo meets George Formby’.

53.  April 24, 1968, p. 24.

Bee Gees at the Albert Hall: ‘they put on the campest pop show I’ve ever seen in my life.’ The Move’s first album, about which he’s left cold. Aretha Franklin, a strong favourite, releases her best yet, Lady Soul. Most played single: ’Marjorie’ by Joe Cocker.

54.  May 8, 1968. p .28.

The best summary of Tyrannosaurus Rex to date, I brook no argument.

55.  May 22, 1968. P. 23.

A long review of Idle Race’s ‘The Skeleton and the Roundabout’. Spots for Easybeats and name checks for Ian Carr Quintet, Phase Three and Don Rendell.

56.  June 5, 1966, p. 28.

Nik Cohn is on a writers retreat in Ireland but still gets to see the Everly Bros. at the local dance hall. Elvis’ ‘U.S. Male’ ‘confirms the resurgence.’ Isobel Bond’s cover of ‘Cry’

57.  June 19, 1968. P. 19.

The final column. Review of Small Faces ‘Ogdens Nut Gone Flake.’ Billy Vera and Judy Clay, The Dells, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Amazing Johnny A get the once over.