The Smoke
If ever there was a psychedelic one-hit wonder, it was The Smoke.
Not that My Friend Jack was much of a hit when it was
released in February 1967. The BBC banned the song, and only
strong support from Pirate Radio raised it to the giddy
heights of Number 45 - although it fared better in continental
Europe.
The BBC may have turned a blind eye to the connotations of the
group's name, but the line "my friend Jack eats sugar
lumps" was a trip too far - since the underground community
had a well-known predilection for using sugar cubes to ingest
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-25 (that's LSD to you, me and the News
Of The World).
After moving down to London from Yorkshire in early 1965, The
Shots (as they were then called) were briefly taken under the wing
of millionaire businessman Alan Brush, before his collapsing
empire led them into the clutches of Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
Keen students of contemporary pop music (ahem!), the Krays were
starting to dabble in pop management, before being sidetracked by
more pressing matters (extortion, torture, murder etc). But the
chance to have a stake in a group called The Shots was just too
good an opportunity to pass up, and The Krays signed the band to
an exclusive management deal - only for the band to find their
bookings suddenly drying up.
When The Shots contested the contract (brave lads!), the twins
retaliated by slapping an injunction on them preventing them from
recording or performing. Blithely unaware of the Krays'
reputation, The Shots ignored the paperwork, innocently continuing
to record with producer Monty Babson at Lansdowne Studios.
In the summer of 1966 they started work on a song that would
become their defining release and a nudge-nudge wink-wink
acknowledgement of the counter-culture's use of acid. On being
presented with the single by the newly re-named The Smoke (another
clear drug reference, though their official line was that it was a
tribute to the band's adopted home city!), EMI chairman Sir
Joseph Lockwood was appalled, insisting that the lyrics made the
song too hot to handle. After a furious row, singer Mick Rowley
backed down and replaced some of the overt drug references with a
toned-down, travelogue-style lyric.
Even with its watered-down lyrics, My Friend Jack was
still the most blatant espousal of the burgeoning drug culture
thus far. Seizing the opportunity to bait the authorities,
the Pirate stations played the track incessantly - unlike the
BBC, who were probably driven to their ban by a News Of
The World exposé which shrieked the headline "This
Disgraceful Disc".
The single topped the German charts for several weeks (and was
covered there in the 70s by Boney M).
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