One of the most enduring garage rock songs from the '60s was Gloria by Them. Them was a blues band fronted by a very young Van Morrison. Gloria was covered countless times by aspiring bands, undoubtedly owing to the fact that the song's structure is the same three chords over and over.
For this Thanksgiving weekend, On The Flipside, Your Caring, Sharing BlogTM, offers four versions. First up is live version by Van the Man himself. This is from a 1968 concert with Dutch blues band Cuby and the Blizzards backing him. Next comes Fingers, a Japanese band (singing in English), followed by the Shadows of Knight. Finally, Patti Smith gives her brilliant deconstruction of the song from her 1975 album Horses (has it really been 30 years?).
Thanks to Shake Your Fist for the S.O.K. version. Some other nuggets can be found at this post. The Fingers' version was taken from Record Brother's Sixties Japanese Garage Psych Sampler. There is also a Mexican and Italian sampler here.
Van Morrison w/Cuby and the Blizzards - GloriaFingers - GloriaThe Shadows of Knight - GloriaPatti Smith - Gloria
3 Comments:
my favorite`s definitely Patti`s version!
Yes. And, I can't believe it's been 30 years since that song blew my teenage lesbian mind.
By 
, at
12:27 PM
Don't forget the great Jimi Hendrix version.....
By , at
7:37 PM
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