I was saddened to hear of the recent passing of P.F. Sloan. This was one talented guy – singer/songwriter/ guitarist/ producer.
He never achieved the public acclaim that he so richly deserved,but he is deeply respected today by musicians and musicologists. Although I never met the man, I am proud to have had a small musical connection with him through the Peppermint Trolley Company’s single release of Lollipop Train.

After a meteoric rise to prominence in the music business, Sloan seemingly disappeared from the scene for decades, only to reappear later with his talent intact. Here is a brief background on the man:

Originally  from New Jersey, Sloan’s family moved to West Hollywood in 1957 when he was 12. At 13 he began playing guitar, and a year later, while at Wallach’s Music City, he ran into Elvis Presley, who graciously gave him an impromptu lesson. He recorded his first rock and roll single for the  R&B label, Aladdin that same year.

In the early sixties he became a session back-up singer and guitarist and part of the famed circle known as the Wrecking Crew. As a staff writer for Screen Gems he formed a partnership with songwriter, Steve Barri, and the team had their  first hit  with Kick that Little Foot, Sally, Sally by R&B singer, Round Robin. They also recorded their own surf album as the Fantastic Baggies.

As songwriters Sloan and Barri were stylistically versatile and their ears must have been keenly attentive to where things were going, for by the mid-sixties they were writing in a style that  would soon be called folk rock, a genre which had its roots in New York’s Greenwich Village, but which really blossomed on the West Coast. Folk rock was America’s first artistic counter punch to the British Invasion  The team penned a slew of hits for various artists such as The Searchers, Jan and Dean, Hermits’s Hermits, the Turtles, the Grassroots, and the Mamas and Papas.  But it was Eve of Destruction, the multi-million-seller protest song performed by Barry McGuire that put the partnership, and Sloan in particular, on the map.  For a brief time between 1965 and 1967 the songwriting team had its finger on the pulse of youth culture, infusing pop music with the street  savvy sensibility of the poet/outsider.

In the summer of 1966, my brother Jimmy and I, along with our band, the Peppermint Trolley Company were fortunate to get the chance to record and release Sloan-Barri composition, ‘Lollipop Train’, as a single on Valiant Records. We were so jazzed to get the chance to interpret one of his tunes, and considered  producer Dan Dalton’s securing of the song a major coup.

‘Lollipop Train’ was one of those snarling put-downs, and Jimmy, all of seventeen, is sufficiently edgy
with his lead vocal… 

You better roll it over in your mind carefully
Before you say that you can do far better than me
Look at the queen in her ragged gown
Demanding to her jester a crown to hold

Don’t you complain. Don’t let me hear you complain
You’re riding on a lollipop train and you never had it so good

In our arrangement  the tune unexpectedly veers into a slightly psychedelic direction.   Dalton, who thought the song was a perfect fit for our band got the idea to change the meter to  3/4 in the final line of the chorus.  With Jimmy, Buzz Clifford and I softly harmonizing, the tune briefly morphs into a trippy kaleidoscopic waltz, and then … thump, thump, thump, thump… it returns to its straight ahead acerbic delivery. It’s a folk/psychedelic rock hybrid, and anticipates the classic Peppermint Trolley sound of two years later.  The ’66 band was the P.T.C.’s first incarnation. with band members Jimmy Faragher, bass, Steve Hauser, sax and acoustic guitar, Dave Kelliher, trumpet and electric guitar, Brad Madson, piano, Dick Owens, drums, and me on trombone and harmonica.

We performed all the horn parts ourselves. Dave and I  each  over-dubbing  three tracks that were later  ping ponged to one.  Brad  found the right sound on the B3 organ to compliment the arrangement.

The record, though not a hit, did receive some airplay, and the connection with Sloan added a certain cachet. British born D.J.,  John Ravencroft (later to gain fame as John Peel), spun the record  on KMEN, San Bernardino, our hometown station, and let everyone know who’d written the song.

I listened to the record recently and really dug it. I think it stands up. So… get on board the Lollipop Train!

After decades of illness, P.F. Sloan resurfaced, recording, giving interviews and playing select concerts.
Here’s to the genius of P.F. Sloan. The world will miss the man, but the music lives on.

Listen. and watch.