Rough Riders - Hot California Beach (1974)

Here's a great little Power Pop/Surf/Glam single I picked up for £1 on Leicester Market by a band known as Rough Riders. It turns out that these guys used to be Muswell Hill's second most popular popsike heroes, Turquoise. By 1974 they were rolling under the name of Slowbone, with a line up consisting of Barry 'Lea' Hart (Guitar/Vocals), Jim Hunter (Organ/Piano/Vocals), Jeff Peters (Bass/Vocals) and Keith Shepherd (Drums).

Slowbone

For reasons unknown, but probably because they needed to pay the bills, Slowbone drafted in seasoned songwriters Miki Antony and Phil Chapman to write them a pop song and the results were the remarkable "Hot California Beach", which channels the spirit of the Beach Boys circa 1962 with some hip 70's production courtesy of Peter Anders (The Rockits). Released on the Rare Earth label in 1974 and sounding more like the retro pop of the Rubettes than their usual Deep Purple influenced funky hard rock, it's a shame Slowbone didn't do more moonlighting as the Rough Riders.

Still, we should be grateful that they left this pop nugget behind as it's a real killer, as is the slightly tougher, b-side, the Hart/Peters composition, "Do You See Me", which I have personally DJ'd at a psychedelic club night and it filled the dancefloor. Get yourself a copy while they're cheap!

Lyrics
Hot California Beach
(Antony/Chapman)

The weekend's here we're gonna have some fun
We're gonna drive out west into the summer sun

They love to surf, they love to swim
They love to love at drive-ins
And they dance together on the sand together
And they walk together, hand in hand together
Yeah, the girls are great to meet on a hot California beach

The T-bird's ready and I'm on my way
The hallway's faster down to San Jose

They love to surf, they love to swim
They love to love at drive-ins
And they dance together on the sand together
And they walk together, hand in hand together
Yeah, the girls are great to meet on a hot California beach

When the sun goes down over Sunset Strip
I'm gonna find me a chick that loves to have some kicks