Like most other people I discovered P.F. Sloan through some covers of
his songs.
In 1967, at the age of 13, "Eve of destruction" was one of my two
candidates for a playback contest
at school, but in the end I didn't choose that 'old' cover by Barry McGuire but
the more recent
"Friday on my mind" by The Easybeats
instead. At that time I didn't take a look on the label for
the name of the songwriter as I do now, so the name P.F. Sloan didn't ring a
bell yet.
In 1974 the inlay of the Turtles-compilation "Happy together again!"
made me realise the writer of
"Eve of destruction" was responsible for "Let me be",
"You baby" and "Can I get to know you better"
as well. And by the time I had found out the best Searchers-song "Take me
for what I'm worth" and
one of the best Herman's Hermits-songs "A must to avoid" also bore
Sloan's signature, I was forever
convinced about his talent for writing songs with a good melody and good
lyrics.
It wasn't before 1982 though, through an article in the Dutch magazine
"The Fabulous Sounds Of
The Sixties", that I found out that P.F. Sloan had made records by himself
as well. I started to collect
them and discovered at least three classics: his first two solo-albums
"Songs of our times" and
"Twelve more times" and the Grass Roots-LP "Where were you when
I needed you". For me they
belong to the best singer-songwriter and folk-rock records ever made. And the
CD "Child of our times /
The Trousdale demo sessions 1965-1967" from 2001 surely is the fourth
pearl in Sloan's discography.
Ray Davies of The Kinks will always be my favorite songwriter, but Sloan
definitely comes second best.
So after The Kinks -
Down all the days it wasn't too difficult to find a subject for
a second project:
P.F. Sloan - Take him
for what he's worth.
This time it's not only a booklet, but also a CDR.
next page: Connections
between P.F. Sloan and The Kinks
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