W.O.C.K On Vinyl: Daddy Cool - D.C.E.P. The Daddy Cool EP (1971)

 Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song / album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.

Although Daddy Cool were only around in their original incarnation for less than two years – from 1970 to 1972 – they packed a lot of music into that time. They released two brilliant studio albums, the first of which does for west coast R&B what the Stones were at the time doing for delta blues, the second of which adds a punkoid Mothers Of Invention-like freakishness to it. They farewelled their fans with a live album that shows how their delicious lightness of touch, perfect groove and inspired musical lunacy put them well ahead of anyone else treading the same ‘50s-inspired path.

In January 1971, when both The Sons of the Vegetal Mother and Daddy Cool played at one of Australia’s first outdoor rock festivals at Myponga in South Australia in January 1971, the rapturous crowd response to DC signalled time for the Vegetals. In March, just a couple of months later, Daddy Cool signed to the fledgling Melbourne label Sparmac. By June, “Eagle Rock” had begun a remarkable 17 week stretch atop the Melbourne charts. It was soon No.1 nationally, where it stayed for ten weeks. By July, the group’s amazing first album Daddy Who? Daddy Cool was No.1. and on its way to earning an unprecedented ten gold albums. By the end of August, Daddy Cool were on a plane to The Promised Land.

Daddy Cool 1971
L-R: Ross Wilson, Gary Young, Jerry Noone, Ross Hannford, Wayne Duncan

After returning from the States, they decided to release an EP titled D.C.E.P – which was more of the same, with each member taking the lead on a track. Wilson’s great teen lament “Long After The School Days Are Through” is maybe the pick of a riotous bunch that also included “Flip” and the most widely played track "Lollipop" with vocals by Hannaford, as well as Wayne Duncan taking his only ever lead vocal on The Kalin Twins’ “Three O’Clock Thrill”, and a hard-driven instrumental “Jerry’s Jump”, in honour of their new sax and keyboard player Jerry Noone, who’d previously played in The Vegetals and had made a name for himself in Company Caine. (Ross: “’Jerry’s Jump’ was for Jerry Noone on sax and we play the riff in unison – sax and harp – and there are solos. His name was actually Jeremy Kellock but he called himself Noone for ‘no one’ as it was conscription/call up Vietnam-era and he was dodging that at the time.”). 

The EP reached #12 in the Australian charts. One unique feature of the EP's cover was it's four flap foldout design, as shown above - something that had never been done before by a record company and has made this EP highly sort after by record collectors.

So this month's WOCK post features a rather rare release from an Australian iconic band, and so it ticks the Obscure box in my opinion. I have only seen one other copy in my 50 years of record collecting, and am very proud of my near mint copy.  The EP was ripped to FLAC and includes full Hi-Res Artwork and label scans.

Track Listing

01 - Flip [Vocals: Gary Young]

02 - Lollipop [Vocals: Ross Hannaford]

03 - Jerry's Jump [Sax: Jerry Noone]

04 - Long After Schools Days Are Through [Ross Wilson]

05 - Three O'Clock Thrill [Wayne Duncan]

Daddy Cool were:

Ross Wilson - Vocals, Guitar

Wayne Duncan - Bass, Vocals

Gary Young - Drums, Vocals

Ross Hannaford - Guitar, Vocals

Jerry Noone - Saxophone, Keyboards

D.C.E.P Link (81Mb)