Yellow Dog

1978 mostly English band fronted by Kenny Young

LINKS

Andy Roberts.  Not on this record but provides some interesting memories of the earlier Yellow Dog/Fox recordings: http://www.andyrobertsmusic.com/music_yellowdog.html

Beware of the Dog: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kW9lXWWXxShGMsn8oL43s2cFC5jyRml4U

Kenny Young obit:  https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/07/kenny-young-obituary

Herbie Armstrong: https://herbiearmstrong.wordpress.com/

Herbie Armstrong, 2011 Britain’s Got Talent Semi-finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45t1NwDUBtA

Phil Palmer: https://philpalmer.com/

2025 Palmer interview on The Guitar Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0jcnqK3JkQ

Mick Feat; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eDl6D9Ib-8

Peter Van Hooke:  https://grokipedia.com/page/Peter_Van_Hooke

Rick Shrimpton:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0QdAbGym8A

Link to Video:

There is a lot to unpack, here.

[pic]

“Beware of the Dog,” the 1978 debut by Yellow Dog should be taken literally. Its pretty bad. And yet, it had a top 10 hit in Australia and the UK.  So how did these really good English session guys [pic] wind up on this stinker? This guy [pic], Kenny Young. 

Now Kenny is what you think of, when you think of the classic era of song writers. Born Shalom Giskan in 1941, moved to the US as a baby, raised in New York’s Lower East Side and Brooklyn, went to public high school and then goes to CUNY, all classic New Yorker stuff. But Shalom decides he wants to be in the music biz, so he changes his name, and lands a job writing songs for Bobby Darrin at The Brill [pic]. But Kenny Young was not just part of that classic era, he was going to mold it, because in 1964 he and Artie Resnik write, “Under the Boardwalk.” Yea, THAT Under the Boardwalk. [Drifters pic]. Its been covered by everyone from The Rolling Stones to Bette Midler to the Tom Tom Club. And that means, by age 23, Kenny has made an indelible mark in Rock History. 

Fast forward about a decade plus, and Kenny has been living in London writing radio-playable songs for Clodagh Rodgers, and Young’s band, Fox[pic]. Also in that band is guitarist and fellow song writer, Herbie Armstrong [pic] who prior to Fox, worked on-and-off with Van Morrison for years. When lead singer Noosha Fox leaves the band, Kenny and Armstrong take their songs and form Yellow Dog.

The only other “member” of the band, but with no song writing credits, is session guitarist, Phil Palmer [pic].  Phil is well respected, and has been on over 500 records and played on over 5000 songs in his career, but his other super power is that gets to call Ray and Dave Davies [Kinks pic], “uncle.”

Now before we get into “Beware of the Dog,” I quickly want to mention the use of cover songs on records. Covers were used in the music industry to showcase an artist’s range. Covers were used so songs could “cross over,” “Hound Dog” [Big Mama Thornton/Elvis pic] and “Tutti Fruiti” [Little Richrd/Pat Boone pic] are perfect examples of that. Covers, good covers continued the popularity of already popular songs. The Supreme’s 1966 hit, “You Keep Me Hanging On” was covered by Tom Jones on both his 1967 and 1968 records. Jimi Hendrix, Nancy Sinatra, The Ramones, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith all did covers. No shame in it.

There are also “evergreens.”[pic] These are songs that are recognizable over many years, decades. The Beatles did a version of “Ain’t She Sweet” in 1964. Eddie Cantor [pic] made that song popular in 1927.  Smokey Robinson! [Pic]  Smokey has bazillions of evergreens. And if we want to bring it back to the yellow topic at hand, “Under the Boardwalk” is a perfect example of an evergreen.

So then please, in the name of all things Iggy, some one please explain to me why the first song on the first side of “Beware of the Dog” is not just a cover, but a cover of the movie version, the cleaned up version of West Side Story’s, “Gee, Officer Krupke.” [WSS stock image]  With exaggerated accent.  It isn’t “Maria,” or “Tonight,” or “America,” all still popular. NO! The choice was the comedically depressing pressure valve of a song from a musical where two of the main characters die, and Natalie Wood [sad NW pic] has to process trauma for the rest of her life.

That was the choice that was made by producer Kenny Young

The second song, “Love in the Balcony” is about this guy going on a date to the theatre where Lincoln [penny pic] was assassinated, and at the end of the song, someone else dies. I think it’s someone else, I don’t know, it could be a recap. And then, a couple more songs in, they’re singing about aliens [XFiles pic]. That’s just side one.

Side Two has the hit “Just One More Night,” a song about a guy hounding someone to let him stay at their place.{man begging wife photo] If you listen to the words, the bargaining isn’t just annoying, but sad and creepy. This song went to #8 in the UK, and #6 in Australia.  Australia also named this whole record, Beware of the Dog, #49 in their list of Top 100 records of 1978.

I didn’t mention the two other musicians supporting Yellow Dog [pic of Pancake], Mick Feat on bass, and Peter Van Hooke on drums.  Both session guys with ties to Van Morrison.  Many years earlier, Van Hooke was in a band called,”Ric Parnell Independence.”[pic]  You may know Ric Parnell better as Ric Shrimp-ton, drummer for another American/English band, Spinal Tap. [pic]

You should be able to find copies of this record in the cheaps, Discogs definitely has it. I also have a link to the complete record on BandsoftheLost.com, along with other strangeness.

If you’d like to hear about records you may or may not have owned back in the day, feel free to subscribe to Bands of the Lost YouTube channel or check us out on BandsoftheLost.com.

Happy digging