The Fifth Estate (band)
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The Fifth Estate was a rock n roll band originally formed in Stamford, Connecticut as the The D-Men in early 1964.
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[edit] The Fifth Estate (the early years as The D-Men)
At the start they played many small shows and local clubs, but they soon gravitated to Greenwich Village and larger clubs where they often played 6 nights a week for long stretches. They played a proto punk form then called Beat music, which later evolved into a rock/pop form and group The Fifth Estate that played around the USA through the 60s at large theaters and at the coliseum level. Early on as The D-Men they released three singles with considerable success, two on Veep/United Artists and one on the Kapp labels, which along with much of their later material has become collectors' items and established them as a central part of the Garage Rock movement. Boston Skyline released a 28-song collection of their music in 1993 and published a 41-page booklet of their story.[1]
They were originally a surf punk outfit and performed their now garage classic "I Just Don't Care" on Hullabaloo (television). They had numerous appearances on TV including Hullabaloo, which at that time was co-hosted by Brian Epstein, then also The Beatles manager. He "almost" signed them, but this was cut short as it was just at the time of John Lennon's bigger than Christ comment, after which they were lost in the shuffle and forgotten with all the ensuing problems and then Brian's untimely death. They won a Murray the K call-in contest for best new release over The Dave Clark Five and The Animals in 1965, and in 1966, after a rather horrendous yet still somewhat ridiculous turn of events based around the British Invasion/American Band dichotomy and what they now call the 'Murray The K Fiasco,' they changed their name to "The Fifth Estate," after an underground magazine they discovered while in Chicago on a blues club tour. The Fifth Estate magazine was and continues to be anarchic and quite anti-establishment. That sounded good to them at the time; after all they had just gone through with what had just become the "new record business establishment." See The Fifth Estate Story at 60sGarageBands.com.[2]
[edit] The rise to success (Again)
They then, now as The Fifth Estate, released the single "Love Is All A Game" on the Red Bird label, which became a regional hit, and which now receives a great deal of air play around the country as has much of their music as they again have become more highly regarded through their connection with the garage band revival and garage rock movements in general.[3] They had a national/international hit in 1967 with “Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" which reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and which they recorded and released with great success around the world in 5 different languages (Japanese, Italian, French, German and English). It is in the Top 100 record releases of 1967. [4] For over 40 years it has been the biggest hit with the highest chart position of any Harold Arlen or Wizard of Oz song performed by any artist. [5] A version of the tune had been the theme song for "The Goon Show," starring Peter Sellers, the program which heavily influenced the production of The Beatle's "Hard Day's Night" and "Monty Python's Flying Circus."
The band had recorded it as a jest about where rock and pop music was headed and in response to a bet that the band could have a "national hit" if it really wanted to, but also felt that the message of the song was universally meaningful and needed to be heard once again, especially with all that was happening in the world at the time. Due to the band's version of the song the phrase "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead" has moved on into the lexicon of terms used by many people and was used at the end of the Viet Nam War and then again after Sadam Hussein's passing. The band meant it to signify the overcoming of internal demons, or the end of a bad situation and the start of a positive new day.
Of course after The 5E made it a hit, all the radio programmers and their record company wanted from them was more of the same. This the band fought against. Two other releases more their own rock and roll and garage rock style skimmed the bottom of the charts. Then in 1968 their own "Morning Morning" was also a sizable hit in Australia. This tune didn't make much of an impact back in the USA since at that time mainstream music had moved away from rock and roll and garage rock to sweeter pop forms, bubblegum and on the other end of the spectrum hard rock, heavy metal and FM radio. They were and always remained a Rock and Roll group, dance band style. "Morning Morning" was a tune about coming home in the morning after playing music all night. This was the story of their lives basically and what they had done for years and years already although the average age of the 5 guys was still only 19/20.
The original 5-member band lineup was consistent for 6 years and in that time recorded about 100 songs, released 13 singles, one album, had another album ready which was not released then, and they played live and did TV shows continually. Sam and Dave jumped on stage and sang Soul Man with them at one of their theater shows. One of the Vandellas sang and recorded one of their tunes with them as her next release. They were in a 1967 TV Episode of Malbu U, which was a forerunner of MTV video, with weird overlays and film footage. The Monkees covered The Fifth Estate's version of Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead on Episode 58 of their TV show in 1968, "The Frodis Caper.".[6]
The Fifth Estate constantly toured with acts like Count Five, The Electric Prunes, The Music Explosion, The Buckinghams, The Ronettes, Gene Pitney, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Turtles, The Byrds, The Easybeats and many more too numerous to mention, except they were on a taping session for the NYC Clay Cole Show with The Rolling Stones one of the first couple of times they were in the US. They also did the Upbeat (TV series) with another Greenwich Village band, The Velvet Underground. See The Fifth Estate at 60sGarageBands.com. See link below.[7], [8]
They then took a short break in 1969 to better explore the true meaning of life. They have since reformed and will keep exploring that meaning by creating, recording, and performing at high profile shows.
[edit] Members
- Rick Engler - guitar, fuzz bass, lead vocals, harmonica
- Ken 'Furvus' Evans - drums, vocals
- Doug 'Duke' Ferrara - bass, lead harmony vocals
- Wayne 'Wads' Wadhams - harpsichord, piano, organ, lead vocals
- Bill Shute - guitar, shugro 8, vocals
- Chuck LeGros - vocals, harmonica (1966)
- Bob 'Bobby Lee Fine' Klein - vocals, keyboards, harmonica (1969 + 2006-)
[edit] Discography
[edit] US singles discography
- as The D-Men
- Don't You Know b/w No Hope For Me (Veep/United Artists 1206-A / 07,1964)
- I Just Don't Care b/w Messin Around (Veep/United Artists 1209-A / 03,1965)
- So Little Time b/w Every Minute of Every day (Kapp 691-A / 05,1965)
- as The Fifth Estate
- Love Is All a Game b/w Like I Love You (Red Bird RB 10-064 / 1965)
- Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead b/w Rub-a-Dub (Jubilee Records 45-5573 / 1967)
- The Goofin Song b/w Lost Generation (Jubilee Records 5588-A / 1967)
- Heigh Ho b/w It's Waiting There for You (Jubilee Records 5595-A / 1967)
- Morning, Morning b/w Tomorrow Is My Turn (Jubilee 5607-A / Feb, 1968)
- Do Drop Inn b/w That's Love (Jubilee Records 5617-A / April, 1968)
- Coney Island Sally b/w I'll Let You Know (Jubilee Records 5627-A / July, 1968)
- Night On Fire b/w I've Never Been (Evolution Records 1011 / Sept, 1969)
- In 1969 2 unauthorized singles were released under the band name and w/o their participation.
[edit] Albums
- Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead (Jubilee Records JGS 8005 / 1967)
- Ding Dong! The Witch Is Back: 1964-1969 (Boston Skyline BSD 116/1992)
[edit] References
- ^ Booklet "The Witch Is Back", Boston Skyline BSD 116, published 1993.
- ^ 60sGarageBands.com", Fifth Estate HTML, 2004.
- ^ Booklet "The Witch Is Back", Boston Skyline BSD 116, published 1993.
- ^ (Cashbox Top 100)
- ^ Reuters: McPhee's "Rainbow" hits Oz gold. (BILLBOARD article)
- ^ Episode 58 "The Frodis Caper."
- ^ 60sGarageBands.com, Fifth Estate HTML, 2004.
- ^ "Billboard" (talent section) section one, August 6, 1966.
