Shel Talmy: the kid is alright

I don't know about you, but my favorite songs by The Who and The Kinks were from the mid-sixties, ones with in-your-face crunchy guitars and killer harmonies. Think "The Kids are Alright" and "You Really Got Me." The man behind the controls for those classic recordings was Shel Talmy, an American who made his way to London in the early 1960s. Talmy cut his teeth on early recordings by The Kinks, The Who, and The Creation, among others, later working with British folksters The Pentangle and their guitarist Bert Jansch.

This playlist offers a sampling of just some of the classic recordings Talmy produced, including my favorite find of the past month, Manfred Mann's amazing song "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James," which sounds to me like the theme song for a lost Wes Anderson film. Enjoy!