Color plate by Walter Fitch from British sea-weeds : an introduction to the study of the marine algae of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Channel Islands, 1867
In 1967, Teddy Flores Jr. and some friends started recording music in San Jose - they were called the Patches after the eye-patch worn by Teddy himself (supposedly, he had lost an eye to cancer.) So why did the Patches' first A-side bear the name "Suzy Creamcheese"? Suzy Creamcheese was a fictional character (a singer and Salt Lake City resident) created by Frank Zappa for the Mothers of Invention's debut album Freak Out (released in '66). Apparently, Teddy & His Patches heard the Mothers' epic freak-out "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet" shortly after its release and decided to "borrow" a snippet of it as an intro for their debut single. According to the Patches' keyboard player, he never even knew who Frank Zappa was until after their single was released.
I always think of "Suzy Creamcheese" as one of the wildest tracks on the garage-rock compilation Pebbles Volume 3. After the intro stolen from Zappa, it goes into a "Louie Louie"-esque organ riff with some pretty wacked-out vocals. This is followed by a pretty decent psych instrumental section, and then the song ends with an entirely different slower bit with clearer vocals and some simple organ arpeggios (a sound that reminds me of Korean psych-rock band San Ul Lim.) Listening to Pebbles Volume 3 now, though, "Suzy Creamcheese" is not even close to being the craziest thing on here. It's catchy and well-executed, but it can't compete with the insanity of the Driving Stupid's "Horror Asparagus Stories" or the Hogs' "Loose Lip Sync Ship". Teddy & His Patches actually made the local pop charts with a second single in '67 titled "Suzy", but I've never heard that song.
"Suzy Creamcheese" by Teddy & His Patches
2 comments:
Hey, how's it going? Dave Conway is my dad - he wrote Suzy Creamcheese with Teddy & His Patches (he was the keyboardist). Just wanted to comment on a couple things in your article. 1) That quote from my dad is wrong. *He* didn't know who Zappa was at the time, but Teddy and the other guys most definitely did. 2) "Haight Ashbury" was a single, yes, but it didn't chart. Suzy is the song that charted. It was number 1 in the Oakland and Monterey areas in 1967. The Patches were big enough to play with the Doors and have Strawberry Alarm Clock open for them - based soley off of Suzy. My dad is currently working with Gradie O'Neal on getting the masters of the other songs they did out from the archives. There will be an interview on 60sGarageBands.com soon. Currently, there's one with 2 of the other band members. It can be found here: http://www.60sgaragebands.com/teddyhispatches.html I hope that info is helpful and have a good one! - Jason Conway
Jason:
Thanks for the helpful information! I'm sorry if that statement from your dad is a misquote - I got it from a seemingly authoritative source of some kind. I've corrected the text of the post.
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