| Pacemakers "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" (Paul Simon) B-side of "Looking For My Life" (Laurie Records) released May, 1967
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We've superimposed Gerry and the Pacemakers on the Grateful Dead's Anthem of The Sun album cover to prove a point--these well-tailored Liverpudlians simply weren't paisley material! In 1965, while rock's other notable Gerry--Jerry Garcia-- was just starting up the Warlocks, the Pacemakers were furiously busy staying behind the times with the live Gerry In California EP. Tired oldies like "What'd I Say" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" from the group's Hamburg days were hardly what was needed to catapult the group into a second golden era of hitdom. |  The "Gerry In California EP". Note the complete abscence of flowers in anybody's hair! |
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Not wishing to venture one day into the Summer of Love, the Pacemakers called it quits in May, 1967. Few noticed but the group did throw down one last defiant single. Its topside was, rather predictably, another string laden ballad, "Looking For My Life," in which a resigned Gerry giving the world notice he was no longer a candidate for maintaining the status quo:
"I am not responsible |  |
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Eventually, this restless Cockney rebel would pursue his idea of personal freedom-- on the international cabaret circuit! It was left to the single's B-side to point which musical direction Gerry might've gone had he decided to slog it out with the likes of Lothar and the Hand People. But don't get your hopes up too high--no sitar sightings here! The last Gerry recording ever to reach the ears of the few remaining faithful is a cover of Paul Simon's go-go opus "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine," a song used to great martini-swilling effect in the motion picture The Graduate. Notably, it is the only Gerry recording to bitterly acknowledge the existence of the encroaching counter-culture which already tossed him off the charts
"Do hippies always seem to get the jump on you? |  Despite this truly psychedelic
wallpaper in his mum's kitchen, whenever Gerry Marsden drops tea, it's usually with some fresh homeade crumpets and minced tarts nearby! |
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Also notable is the slightly droning vocal from the always perfect pitched Gerry ("You'll feel just fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine nooooooooooow!"). While drones are a hallmark of Indian music, there's no evidence here to suggest the Pacemakers ever read The Bhagavad Gita or indeed even glanced at a menu with too many curry dishes. Instrumentally, the Pacemakers was still behind the times in 1967, choosing to emulate the "goodtime" sound of last year's model, the Lovin' Spoonful. No sitars, but a swell ukulele and a big ominous bell on the chorus. But we don't need to tell you for whom the bell tolled. It tolled for Gerry, Freddie, Les and Les. Let that be a lesson to any other band with too many guys named Les! |  Franticly, the Pacemakers plead with Gerry not to drag them to their deaths by the neck of his guitar! |
| For the curious, "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine," "Looking For My Life" and the live Gerry In California EP are available among the 14 bonus cuts on an import CD on Repertoire, the elusive soundtrack to Gerry's first and only feature film Ferry Cross the Mersey. A Best of Gerry and the Pacemakers available on Razor and Tie also captures everything that was reasonably good and sometimes great about the group.
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