AFVN Dave Rabbit: Rare & Unreleased 1966-1969

👀👀👀

1. Dreams - Monarchy (CBS 4247) May 1969 UK. Flip is Softly, Softly.

2. Crackerjack Society - Play This Side First (Columbia 44434) NY 1966/1967 A-side is Walk In The Sky. Credited to co-producers Murray Wecht and John Walsh.

3. Coral Reef - Cherry, Cherry. (Epic 5-10120.) US? 1967 Flip is Pretty Flamingo. Mexploitation. Although Neil Diamond probably couldn't've gotten away with playing it this way, it seems that this is how the song was meant to be played.

4. Dave Rabbit. All Dave Rabbit broadcast excerpts included here are from Saigon c. 1971. All excerpts have been left untitled.

5. Dust - Bertha (NOT NY Heavy metal dust) (YAS 109-B Stereo) (Chicago) Parody of Gloria that is much more interesting than "Melvin," despite lacking the penultimate "i" for the original's "i-i-i-i." They seem to have forfeited that riff for the jokes. B-side is The Pledge (He Ain't Heavy), which appears later on this disc. Although it doesn't sound like it, this is the same Dust that did "Gone" (PA9).

6. Dave Rabbit. The cassette from which this material originates was for sale via Rolling Stone magazine in the mid 70s. People have sold unofficial copies of the recording throughout the years, but this has never seen a legitimate release. How could it? No one has been able to publicly identify who Dave Rabbit was.

7. Anglo Saxton - Ruby (Lucky Eleven) 1967; (Tower 401) Detroit, Early 1968. This is the original version. Although it isn"t way out, it's included because most 60s collectors would want to have heard it. The First Edition hit is almost sadistically fast for a story about a disabled Vietnam veteran, but perhaps that pace reflects the world relative to the protagonist. The slower pace is more aligned with the character and offers a more focused view of his cynicism.

8. Dave Rabbit. Numerous hypotheses exist as to the identity of Dave Rabbit. Perhaps the most mainstream belief is that he was a sergeant in the air force for one year and then stayed longer in order to broadcast to the troops. While that story might contain elements of an heroic myth, those were heroic times, and that was an heroic location.

9. Keith Gordon - A Teenager's Answer (Tower 383) Flip is an instrumental version of the same. A response song to Victor Lundberg's Letter To My Teenage Son.

10. Final Solution - America the Beautiful (San Francisco. 1966) Unreleased. True, it predates Hendrix's Star-Spangled Banner, but they don't seem to be making the same kind of statement. 11. Steff (AKA Steff Sulke) - I'll Never Let You Go (Epic 5-10015 1966) Switzerland A-side is She's All Right, on LSD 2. No matter what you think of his music, you must admit he had a helluva range.

12. Dave Rabbit. Perhaps the most interesting speculation is that Dave Rabbit was actually an agent of the Viet Cong posing as an American to subvert troops, lower their morale and weaken them by encouraging drug use. It is a fact that the US employed a similar strategy, dropping for VC soldiers small radios with red dots marked close to the frequency of a popular Hanoi station. The soldier would then hopefully tune into the station to hear US-trained impersonators of Hanoi radio personalities.

13. LSD-Mystery of the Mythical Invasion (Musicor New Talent 429) New England 1967 A-side is the Girl I Once Knew. Touted by some as a psychedelic masterpiece. Others might think it's just pretty darned weird.

14. Everyman - It's A Pushbutton World (Mainline ML-1362) Cleveland 1966 B-side is Eternal Youth. Apparently a folkie adjusting to the changing times.

15. Foremost Authority - Childhood Friends (GNP Crescendo GNP-403) LA, 1968. B-side is Woe Is Me. This narrator's childhood friends have not melded into the American image of canned normalcy. Nowadays being different is the norm, but back then this was social commentary. A good reminder for those who believe that the 60s didn't change anything.

16. The Music Combination - Mechanical People (American Music Makers 0012) B-side is Bambi. Pittsburgh Label info suggests c. '67-8, but one of these electronic sounds show up on Head Shops "Infinity," 1969. Is the commonality between the songs solely Mechanical, or does it include People? The band released at least two other singles.

17. Dave Rabbit. Some Vietnamese bars allowed Gls to broadcast on homemade equipment with a small broadcasting range, so as to draw more Gls in the bar. The Dave Rabbit broadcast was considerably more sophisticated, with an estimated broadcast range of 50 miles or greater. Those involved apparently had professional training. The quality of the broadcast has led to the speculation that the whole tape was an elaborate hoax that might've been put together by people working for the official Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN). Yes. This was considered a high-quality broadcast for pirate radio. No doubt much of this quality has been lost in the taping, although it must have been a direct feed because the tape has no signs of reaction.

18. Damn Mess- (Audiodisc Metal Acetate) Title Unknown. That riff around 0:56 is definitely familiar, but so far none of us can place it. I suspect that identifying the riff would identify the band behind this unusual obscurity. Whoever can identify that tune please notify us, so we can stop scratching our heads.

19. Breeze - F Oh B (A&M 1131) 1969 A-side is The Rainmaker Amusing commentary on the irrelevance of rock 'n' roll lyrics.

20. Paul Slade - Remember Daphne UK (Decca 1968) This singer later moved to France, where he was able to continue his career. Interesting how the song transcends from theatrically-blissful calm to chaotic, consumeristic fadeout.

21. Dave Rabbit. The AFVN stations neither gave the Gls the uncensored news they needed, nor the "hard, acid rock"" they craved. To boost morale, the AFVN broadcasts promised a speedy end to the war, and censored any mention of Jane Fonda or of protests back home. The alternative radio station in Vietnam was probably more vital to the soldier than it was to the civilian back home.

22. Carriage Company - The Beasts (Jan D' Haese) 1969 (CBS 4144) Belgium. B-side is Come Along.

23. Format - Maxwell's Silver Hammer (CBS 4600) UK 1969 B-side is Music Man. Same band as The Fourmost. Some Brit humor brings out what is basically a humorous song to begin with, but one that's easily dismissed as silly. It was only a few years back that I got the line about Joan being "late nights all alone with a test tube." As opposed to a real tube!

24. Dave Rabbit. Similarly, alternative newspapers thrived in Vietnam, at least 215 of them, although many of them only lasted one issue.

25. Jay Telfer - Life, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness (Sir John A 6) Ottawa 1967/8. B-side is Watch The Birdie. Solo effort from the guitarist and lead vocalist of A Passing Fancy. This has been released on the 1998 cassette The Sir John A Leftovers, which only had a distribution of 100. 26. Dave Rabbit. Whatever the truth behind these broadcasts, those who've been fans of his for over 30 years have only been able to uncover one 3-hour broadcast, although some claim he was broadcasting in 1970 as well as '71. Are other tapes MIA? One wonders if the soldier who taped this ever made it home to hear the tape.

27. Chicago Loop - Saved (Mercury 72755) Chicago 1967 B-side is Can't Find the Words

28. The Jonston McPhilbry - Woke Up Last Night (Fontana TF 663) 1966 Torquay UK A-side is She's Gone. Moderately absurd, hipster razzmatazz.

29. Inrhodes - Hold the High Ground - (Dunhill 4055) 1966 Flip is Lookin' Around. The flip was reissued on Dunhill 4078 in 1967 with Try And Stop Me as the B-side. Wonder why they didn't try again with this side.

30. Golden Toadstools -Silly Savage (Minaret MIN-138) 1968 B-side is Weeping River. Almost like the Laugh-In instrumentals where they'd frug, and then the music would stop and they'd tell a joke. Nice band name.

31. Dust - The Pledge (He Ain't Heavy) (YAS 109-B Stereo) If they played this number at their high-school assemblies, did they find a way to segue to the official pledge?

32. Purple Wine - It's My Mind -UK 1971 EP. Matrix Number MHC 1; no catalog number Released by The Mental Health Council, which paid for production. Most unsold copies were removed from the Mental Health Council and destroyed. Other tracks on the EP are "I'm Lonely" and "Friends." The band also privately pressed a self-titled album that same year.

33. Dave Rabbit. Gave Dave the last word here, since he's so good at it.