Customer Reviews

Lies: Very Best of

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Vocally these guys sounded very much like John and Paul. They were definitely drawing heavily from The Beatles style-a bandwagon that several groups at the time were eager to jump on. But if you listen closer you see that they were doing some interesting things with distortion that were a bit ahead of their time. The Knickers had their thing together and Lies! is a great addition to the sound of the '60s. Check it out!

AllMusic.com calls "Lies" the "best and most accurate early Beatle imitation ever recorded; the lead vocals were a dead ringer for John Lennon and the whole production could have fit in snugly on the second side of A Hard Day's Night."

I completely agree. It was a great song. This 1966 recording fooled everyone, self included, until told otherwise. It could have even fooled Lennon ... depending on his mental state.

After listening to samples from other tracks, The Knickerbockers (from New Jersey) sound to me like they were a gifted, working club band -- required to play familiar hits every night. There's plenty of good musicianship and vocal talent present. There is even originality, but restrained to writing new material in the style of others -- as "Lies" amply demonstrates. Successful forgery is a kind of artistic achievement, after all.

Too bad that these guys didn't have a mentor who could have channeled their talents into something stronger.

If you're into 1960s minutiae and trivia, this CD probably rates more than 3 stars, but I gave it 3 for general, old fogey, audiences.

For what it's worth, "Lies" is the greatest Beatles song ever not written by the Beatles. I think this band only had one hit, but man did they summon the spirit of the Fab Four on this song.

Let's see now. Collectables puts out a 24-selection compilation for a group that had exactly three charted hits, and the only B-side they give us is the one [Stick With Me] that backed their lowest charting hit - High On Love - which was also their third and last, struggling to reach # 94 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in July 1966.

By then most fans realized these weren't The Beatles in disguise, one of the many rumours that greeted their first Challenge release late in 1965, Lies, which made it to # 20 Hot 100 in January 1966 b/w The Coming Generation. In fact, that rumour had already been dispelled for the most part by the time their second single came out in March 1966, One Track Mind, which made the Top 50, settling for # 49 b/w I Must Be Doing Something Right.

Originating in Bergenfield, New Jersey [they took their name from Knickerbocker Avenue in their neighbourhood after starting out as The Castle Kings], there is no doubt they sounded very much like The Beatles on Lies. Among the group was Buddy Randell, previously with The Royal Teens and a co-writer of their huge 1958 novelty hit, Short Shorts, along with Jimmy Walker who would later briefly replace Bill Medley with The Righteous Brothers [although never scoring a hit record with Hatfield].

Leave it to Collectables to leave off two B-sides for a group that had so few hits to begin with, including the one that backed their best. So typical.

I'm trying to fight off my own negativity while reviewing this record but if you've played music long enough, you can pretty easily sit down with the Beatles material, pull from it, and create a hybrid Beatles throwaway song. These guys did just that. You can trace a drawing and you can do the same thing to music.

So I guess they get an A for effort for being able to accurately rip off the early Beatle sound.

Also, The Beatles were very much identified with Rickenbackers; I'm guessing that's where the name "Knickerbockers" comes into play, but whatever. Golf-claps for The Knickerbockers.