SONG OF THE DAY The Knightsmen – Daddy Was A Rolling Stone

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Indiana’s garage band, The Knightsmen are one of so many one-hit wonders of the 60’s.  Full of promise and meaty psych goodness, this band released only one 45 in April 1966.  The A-side was a very cool rendition of Fever and the fantastically howly b-side was today’s tasty nugget, My Daddy Was A Rolling Stone. 

The band was founded by Gary Irwin and Tom Rea in 1964 under the name, The Demensions.  The initial line-up in its entirety consisted of: David Lee, keyboard and back up vocals (age 15), Gary Irwin, drums (age 15), Mark Tribby, lead guitar (age 15), Tom Rea, bass guitar (age 14), Don Lee, rhythm guitar (age 14), Rob McCoy, lead vocalist (age 14); Darrell Ball, lead vocalist (age 15) and Karl Hinkle, lead vocalist (age 13)……quite the group of talented young whippersnappers it would seem!! In 1965 the band discovered that another group existed with the same name and so promptly changed their title to The Knightsmen!

My Daddy Was A Rolling Stone is such a smashing track and for a band of such young beginnings its a crying shame they never carried on!! Just listen to that wailing guitar solo, the rolling drums and striking, sharp vocals!  They possessed all the perfect ingredients for some truly wholesome psych-rock just bubbling away, waiting to be unleashed and yet stopped after just one single!!!  Reading what little info I can find out there about the group it would appear that the reason they disbanded was because lead vocalist, Karl Hinkle moved away and without him they couldn’t go on!  Check out an interview I found with Karl Hinkle here if you want to discover more and now just sit back and absorb 2:57 minutes of gorgeous garage rock deliciousness above.