Love this.

I'm passin' the wind

Cult records are rarely as curious as "Well At Least It's British", the 1964 oddity from Alan Klein, who should not be confused with Allen Klein, the music biz impresario and manager of the Rolling Stones. This Alan Klein wanted little to do with the Rolling Stones, who were his labelmates at Decca in 1964. Disgusted at how the Stones celebrated American culture at the expense of British conventions, Klein decided to embrace dear old Blighty, writing songs about modern England that built upon the country's grand musical traditions. If this story sounds familiar to modern ears, it's because it mirrors the tale of Damon Albarn, who rejected American grunge in 1993 and invented Brit-pop with Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish. This is no coincidence. Albarn discovered "Well At Least It's British" after Blur fell out of fashion following their 1991 debut, "Leisure", and Klein's defiant celebration of England was as inspirational to Damon as was his love of Ray Davies. While true, this story gives the impression that "Well At Least It's British" is some kind of lost British pop classic, perhaps even that it has something to do with early British rock & roll, when nothing could be further from the truth. Klein had nothing but contempt for rock & roll, particularly blues-based rock, which he sends up twice here ("Going to Bluesville," "First Taste of the Blues"), and that hostility is jarring next to Meek's frivolous, frilly pop, derived partially from music hall traditions but mainly from the light mainstream pop that persisted on the British charts long into the heyday of Beatlemania; This production had little of Meek's well known sonic ingenuity, (he produced two singles for Klein, the As and Bs of which are found as bonus tracks on RPM's 2008 reissue). So, the music feels like pre-Beatles rock & roll, but in its sensibility "Well At Least It's British" is quite modernistic, from how Klein follows through on his concept to how he overloads his songs with mocking wit and how he sings in an exaggerated British accent. All of this is interesting -- it's easy to see how the theatricality and dogged eccentricity of the whole affair sparked something within Albarn -- but it's a conceptual album that's of note for its concept, not its execution, as for all of its dramatic flair it lacks enduring melodies. Ultimately, it's little more than a curio, a piece of pop archeology that's worth consideration, but only briefly. [The RPM reissue includes his two post-'Well At Least It's British" 1965 singles, including "Age of Corruption," his kinda funny banned parody of Barry McGuire's "Eve Of Destruction."] AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

This is gold bit like the Dan Treacy of the 1960s satire of the in-crowd is always a good way to sell a record

A-bo-de-o-dough - It's Tristram VII - Earl of Cricklewood, the lead singer of the New Vaudeville Band!

1) The mockery singer is complaining that everything can't be said in 3 minutes protest song. That's true. So the singer could have made his song much longer. 2) "Denounce all the wars just senseless killings… for six shillings"-Perhaps the singer thinks that the real value of peace is much more. It's a pity that he presents this idea as a mockery. 3) "We'll make it obscure, so no one can understand it" - BBC understood Barry McGuire's song and placed it on a "restricted list". Radio Scotland banned Barry's song, and it was also banned in some parts of the U.S. (Wikipedia). Jar Rauma

I see how Billy Bragg's music relates to this

Apparently, Damon Albarn bought this LP from a charity shop and fell in love with it claims it as an influence on Parklife, so it influenced one of the biggest albums of the 90s. Which was nice.

P. F. Sloan and Barry McGuire - I wonder if they tried to do something to prevent this record from reaching the US?

Pretty funny satire in a Mad Magazine kind of way. Nice poke at self righteous singers, and still relevant aside from a few dated references. "Pray to Bob Dylan?" I like Bob an I still find that hilarious.

Did Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction plagiarized the music from this?

This is crap. I'm grateful for the person that posted it. But, I am from that time. Going after Dylan and McGuire is pretty low. Bobby was righteous. Still is. This is the worst kind of pandering.