I'm curious about the track "Animal" by The Tokens. Have you ever discussed this strange track in FH? Ideas on
why/how the group were convinced to record it?
David Lewis
No … in fact, I wasn’t really familiar with this tune until
you mentioned it. And yes, it IS a bit
bizarre (but it comes from an album called “Intercourse” so what else would you
expect?!?!?)
My GUESS is that by 1968, when this album was recorded, The
Tokens were feeling a little bit “behind the times” … music had changed
drastically over the last couple of years and by 1968, we were knee deep in
psychedelia and much heavier rock … but these were INCREDIBLY talented and
ingenious guys, so they probably wanted to try something completely out of left
field to see if they could still fit in.
Reading what little I could find, it looks like Warner
Brothers flat out refused to release the album, dubbing it non-commercial and
not worthy of release. But although The
Tokens were tied contractually to Warner Brothers Records at the time (and had,
in fact, had a recent Top 40 Hit with “I Hear Trumpets Blow” the year before),
they also had their hands in BT Puppy Records as well, where they were
regularly recording and producing hit records for The Happenings, and they reportedly pressed
a few copies of their own rejected album to sneak it out to see if they could
find an audience for their new sound.
It’s available for download now in these “anything goes” times but has
reportedly been quite a rare find over the past 50 plus years. (Can you even imagine looking for an album
called “Intercourse” in a mainstream record store back then? It wasn’t likely going to be displayed on the
sales counter!)
But these are all just speculations on my part … and rather
than continue guess any further, I decided to give Jay Siegel of The Tokens a
call and ask him what HE could tell us, being “hands on” at the time … and this
is what he told me:
JAY SEIGEL - Actually it was
Mitch Margo who had the idea to do the song about animals from the take of
“What if WE’RE the animals and they’re watching us?” Meaning everything’s the opposite of what we
think it is and when we go to the zoo to watch the animals, it’s really the
animals that are watching us – we’re the ones on display – and Warner Brothers
just couldn’t get the concept of that -
it was too far out there and they wouldn’t release it – and we had some albums
pressed up and people were offering us – the REAL fans of The Tokens who
collected everything we did – were offering us like $600 for a copy at the time
– and this is 1968! So we knew we had
something rare and even now I have about three or four copies of it left, the original album on vinyl, and somebody recently offered me $3500 for it. Can you believe it! $3500!
It was a very interesting album
– we wrote all the songs on the album – and I know you were asking because
somebody was asking about the track “Animal” - so how did that come up? What was the question?
kk: I think it’s
really a case that even after so many years, this record still falls under the
radar. I mean, you can buy a copy of it
now, which doesn’t surprise me because in 2025 nearly EVERY record has a word
or two bleeped out of every line of the song – but this record wasn’t recorded
at the time to be shocking – it was just an extension of the time – psychedelia
was in, it was big, and the sounds you heard coming out of your radio were very
different at the time. And I think as
people hear about it now – and learn that it was never released at the time, their
curiosity is piqued to see just what it’s all about. There’s a “mystique” to it, if you will. But for MOST people listening at the time, I
think this is one that’s probably off the mainstream radar.
JS: Well, it probably is … but collectors are
certainly aware of it … I’m getting many, many emails and inquiries about the
album from collectors and for the person (or anyone) who wanted to know about
the song “Animal,” believe it of not, that record was a hit down south. In fact, we got booked in 1967 or 1968 at the
St. Louis County Fair, in St. Louis, Missouri, just because that record was
getting played so much down there – who would ever think that that single would
be taken out of the album and be played down there and we did a whole couple
days down there playing the single and the album in St. Louis.
And what the song is about is
it’s comparing human beings to the animals and maybe WE’RE the animals and the
animals are looking at us. Simply that. I think that was what the intention was –
Mitch Margo wrote the lyrics – sort of a “I wonder who’s looking at who” - you
know, when the animals are in the cage – maybe WE should be in the cage and the
animals should be looking at us. That
was the concept. That was 1967 or 1968.
kk: And you really
can’t say that The Tokens hadn’t had a hit in a while … I mean “I Hear Trumpets
Blow” was a big hit just a little bit ago, viewed as maybe a bit of a comeback
single, but people knew who The Tokens were … and you were producing big hit
records for The Happenings …
JS: Yeah, that was a Top 40 Hit – in New England,
it was a Top Ten Record there in New England and we got booked there a lot. But that had a typical Tokens sound.
kk: Exactly, and all of a sudden this new release was COMPLETELY out of left field – like nobody was even supposed to know it was
The Tokens – completely unexpected. I
just didn’t know if this was kind of your way of “fitting in” with the new
sounds, thinking maybe we can fit into this genre or maybe a way of making
commentary on these new sounds and more of a snub of this genre. I think unless you were a collector, this
album really slipped beneath the radar for most listeners, especially having
not been released at the time.
JS: Well, you know The Beatles had “Sgt Pepper”
and you know, that was a concept – our terminology for that was that that was a
concept album, Sgt. Pepper, and that had big impact on EVERYBODY that was a
songwriter or was a producer – and this was our idea of putting out a concept
album. And too bad, Warner Brothers
didn’t get it, and maybe if if was released on Warner Brothers it would have
made some noise, but it wasn’t – but it’s still pretty well known “under the
radar,” as you say.
kk: And it IS available now again, correct? You can actually order this album.
JS: Yeah you can get it online, go on Amazon –
there are two separate covers, separate pictures. Now “Intercourse” it was not meant in the
sexual sense. I don’t know if you’ve looked at the original cover, Kent, but it
has the Webster dictionary definition of what intercourse is … and it’s like
what we’re having right now … we’re
having intercourse right now … it’s a discussion or verbal intercourse, that’s
what we’re having right now between you and me.
It’s a conversation.
kk: Hmm … well, was
it good for you?
JS: (laughing) I don’t know …
but that’s about all I can tell you about that.
So anyway, there’s some
collector who has every record that we ever produced – every commercial that
we’ve ever sung on and every album that we’ve ever made – and he needed the
“Intercourse” album in order to complete his Tokens collection. And he offered me $3500 for it – I couldn’t
believe it – so you know what I did, ‘cause he was a big fan of ours … I told
him, “I’ll tell you what. I have about
three copies of the LP and I’ll tell you what I’ll do (and this is before the
$3500 price was presented to me) ... I’ll
tell you what I’ll do … you can pay me for that album whatever you wish … and
whatever you pay me, I’m going to take half of it and donate it to MusicCares …
and that’s when he came up with the price of $3500. I
was shocked. And he did buy it … and I
did donate half of it to the MusicCares Foundation.
kk: That’s awesome. So
just to recap, you guys had B.T. Puppy Records and things were happening there
thanks to the recordings by The Happenings … they seemed to be the big driving
force.
JS: Yeah, The Happenings had a
bunch of big hit records – and we eventually recorded for B.T. Puppy, too. And by the way, a little bit of trivia for
your readers … you may be wondering where the name B.T. Puppy came from …
The B.T. was Bright Tunes, that
was our publishing company, and Bright Tunes came from Brighton Beach, where we
all grew up.
And Puppy, when we were on RCA
Victor, the label mascot was Nipper, The Dog, and what we had was a newly formed, embryonic label
so we named it Puppy instead of an adult dog. So anyway, that’s a little rock
and roll trivia for you.
kk: And then just one more thing before you go ... (man, I feel like Columbo
here!) ... after that, you guys went off and recorded as Cross Country and had a medium-size
hit (big hit here in Chicago) with your slowed-down version of “In The Midnight
Hour.”
JS: That was a pretty big hit –
Billboard and Cash Box recognized it as a hit – I was very influenced by Crosby
Stills and Nash and that kind of vocal harmony and when I told them I wanted to
do “Midnight Hour,” which as a heavy R&B Wilson Pickett type of number,
they said “You’re Kidding!” and I told them what the concept was and we made
the record, presented it to Atlantic Records and they loved it – and we did an
album and we were on the road for about
a year and we were touring with Anne Murray and B.J. Thomas. And in those days,
we would do the entire album as part of the show. And then at one point we would say, “Well,
you know, before we did the Cross Country album, we did THIS record,” and then
we’d go into “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” And that became the high-point of the
performance.
kk: Well, at the
time, it wasn’t known that this was The Tokens.
Cross Country were just presented as a brand new band and people liked
them for what they were without any history knowledge.
JS: No, no, we didn’t want it to be known. I
don’t know if you’ve ever listened to this whole album, but I’ve always thought
that it’s just the best album that we’ve ever done - some of the best work – the
vocals, the arrangements – just a beautiful sound
kk: You nailed it, as
they say!
JS: I hope so!
kk: So are you doing
package shows again now or what? The
last time I saw you was several years ago and you were here as part of a
package show with Freddy Cannon and The Earls …
JS: Was that at The Arcada? Yeah, I remember, it was summertime and it
was not air conditioned and they had all these fans going in all the hallways and windows – there’s a lot of
history there, that Arcada Theatre.
kk: Well, since you
guys have been here, he has opened another place called The Des Plaines Theatre
which just last weekend had their 100th Anniversary – BEAUTIFUL
theater and just recently both have been complete refurbished.
JS: I don’t think we’ve been there yet – I can’t
remember everywhere – but it’s kinda like that Johnny Cash song, “I’ve been
everywhere, man” … or it feels like it.
Well, Kent, I’ve got to tell
you, you’ve got a great website – you know more about me that I know about
me!!! You know how I was first made
aware of your site? Freddy Cannon told
me about it. Freddy’s not been working
much these past few years but I still keep in touch with him every couple of
months … he’s an old, dear, dear friend.
He lives out in California.
kk: And he just lost
his wife recently …
JS: Yeah, yeah, Jeannette … he would have been
married, I think, 66 or 67 years …
kk: He’s just
genuinely nice guy … the true definition of a genuinely nice guy.
JS: Old, old friend of mine.
I hope you just keep on doin’
what you're doin’ – ‘cause you do a great job of it – I hope I gave you
something you can use
kk – You did … and thank you for callin’ – I’d much rather
get it right from the horse’s mouth than just make up shit! (lol)
JS – When you get a chance – and
you really want to relax – give a listen to the WHOLE Cross Country album –
there’s just some wonderful songs in it.
kk – will do. Thanks,
Jay!
EDITOR’S NOTE: At Jay’s
suggestion, I DID listen to the entire Cross Country album … and no, you would
NEVER know that this was a Tokens record.
Some VERY laid back, mellow sounds, typical of the early '70's soft rock era. There are some very pleasant sounds, to be
sure, but nothing there that ever really punches things up. It’s almost like they took the concept too
far. “In The Midnight Hour” is
definitely the highlight. That being
said, I also have to agree with Warner Brothers that there was nothing remotely
commercial on the “Intercourse” album.
Still, I give these guys a lot of credit for pushing the envelope WAY
outside their comfort zone. “The Lion
Sleeps Tonight” was a one-of-a-kind hit record … and nothing was ever going to
top that … but these guys forged their knowledge of the record business, rising to new
heights with their production credits, proving that lightning COULD strike
twice, thanks to their success with The Happenings, who went on to score SIX
Top 40 Hits of their own. That’s two
more than The Tokens achieved! (kk)
And while we may not have covered their "Intercourse" album before, we certainly have done some deep-digging into The Tokens' career over the years. In fact, here’s a great
piece that we did on the group from a few years ago in Forgotten Hits …
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-token-of-our-appreciation.html
Anybody who's ever thought of writing The Tokens off would be sadly mistaken ...
Their #1 Smash "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" charted again in 1994 thanks to the mega-hit movie "The Lion King" ...
And Jay Siegel's Tokens are still entertaining audiences on land and at sea some 65 years later.
