The Vacant Lot - Leaving Here (1967)

The Rationals - Leaving Here (1966)

(Eddie Holland - Lamont Dozier - Brian Holland)
 USA

Single on the A² label (also styled as A-Square or A2).

The Rationals were an accomplished r&b-soul-Britbeat-influenced band from Ann Arbor, Michigan. They had local hits but no national chart success beyond a #92 Billboard with their version of Otis Redding’s Respect.

The band and their frontman Scott Morgan are still held in high esteem long after they broke up in 1970, especially by those who remember them from that same Michigan music scene that produced the likes of MC5, Iggy & The Stooges, and Bob Seger.

The Rationals are now well-served by reissues, after years of absence. Listen on SPOTIFY

Watch a live TV performance of Leaving Here YouTube

If you weren’t there, these pages cover everything you need to know about The Rationals:

Richie Unterberger’s biography of The Rationals at all Music: When serious collectors compose lists of the top shoulda-been-bigger bands of the ’60s, the Rationals are often among them.

Steve Geer’s Southeast Michigan bands & musicians page [archived]: Of all the Michigan talent that flirted with stardom but never got invited to the party, there is probably no other band of the era so beloved and still so mourned as Ann Arbor’s The Rationals. 

Ken Shimamoto’s Let’s Get Rational: Scott Morgan’s Garage Days Revisited [archived]: As garage bands go, the Rationals were almost too good to be true…; [they left] in their wake a half-dozen killer singles on almost as many labels and an album that’s an ignored classic.

Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame: ...they produced a batch of excellent songs that displayed the powerful instrumental attack of drummer Bill Figg, bassist Terry Trabandt, and guitarist Steve Correll, along with the best Michigan vocalist west of Bob Seger in Scott Morgan…

Tages - Leaving Here (1966)

(Eddie Holland - Lamont Dozier - Brian Holland)
 Sweden

B-side on Platina by popular and prolific British-beat influenced band from Gothenburg, Sweden. Also on album Tages 2 (1966).

Tages were pop stars in Sweden with thirteen Top 10 hits 1964-68, including two at #1 and five at #2, but they were never well-known beyond that region. (See their Top 10 chart history at Svensk pophistoria.)

Their covers were astutely chosen and took in a variety of genres, including rock’n’roll, skiffle, soul, and blues, but they also wrote their own songs and moved with the times. Listen, for example, to their original #2 hit Every Raindrop Means A Lot (1967) YouTube.

Their original song I Read You Like An Open Book was included on the landmark Rhino collection Nuggets II (Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969) (2001).

Tages recorded a version (1967) of The Easybeats’ Friday On My Mind (1966). Listen at YouTube

Further reading: 1. English Wikipedia’s Tages article seems to be a solid introduction to the band. 2. Tages history and data at Stefan Joveslou’s Svensk Pophistoria.

The group name is simply Tages. It is incorrect to use The before their name as it is not a plural noun as in, say, The Kinks.

The -s in Tages indicates possession (genitive case). In English it would be Tage’s. This was a common naming convention for Swedish bands, using the name of a band member, in this case guitarist-vocalist Danne Tage Larsson. (See Swedish Wikipedia’s Tages article on this.)

The D-Coys - Leaving Here (1965)

(Eddie Holland - Lamont Dozier - Brian Holland)
 Australia

B-side on Columbia, one of three singles released 1965-66 by Adelaide vocal duo Alistair Innes and Kevin Smith. By this time The D-Coys were based in Melbourne. Back in Adelaide they had been a trio led by founding member Innes, reduced to Innes alone until Smith joined. Smith later became lead singer of The Cherokees in time for their hits Minnie The Moocher and Oh Mona.

Now Comes A Day, the A-side of this second single by The D-Coys, was written by Alistair Innes. He also wrote both sides of their first single (billed as The Decoys), with the B-side I Don’t Want That charting Top 20 in Melbourne. On the third single, the B-side was written by Innes and Smith, but the A-side Bad Times (plural) was a remake of The Roulettes’ Bad Time (singular, UK 1964), written by Chris ‘Yesterday Man’ Andrews.

The D-Coys made a lasting impression with their three singles. Glenn A. Baker, who included Bad Times on his landmark Ugly Things Vol.1 collection (1980), wrote that they were remarkably adept at producing both great pop and great punk on either side of the one single, and noted that Innes was a fine songwriter.

Ian McFarlane in his Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (1999) digresses from his entry on The Cherokees to devote a paragraph to The D-Coys, and to echo Baker’s sentiments almost word for word, finding jubilant pop and tough garage-punk on either side of one single.

Bad Times was later included on another anthology (2012), Down Under Nuggets (Original Australian Artyfacts 1965-1967), with extensive liner notes by co-compiler Glenn A. Baker.

See also: The D-Coys at Kimbo’s History Of Australian Music From 1960 Until 2010.

The Birds [UK] - Leaving Here (1965)

(Eddie Holland - Lamont Dozier - Brian Holland)
 UK

Single on Decca by West London R&B beat band distinguished by the membership of Ron Wood (later of The Faces and The Rolling Stones) and Kim Gardner (later of Ashton Gardner & Dyke).

Ronnie Wood released his own version of Leaving Here on his album Not For Beginners (2001). Listen at YouTube

There was also an Australian band called The Birds. Two of its members are said to have been in a later, touring line-up of the UK Birds before migrating to Australia. See under I Can’t Let Maggie Go for more details.

Jimmy Hanna With The Dynamics - Leaving Here (1965)

(Eddie Holland - Lamont Dozier - Brian Holland)
 USA

Single on Seattle label Bolo Seafare. The Dynamics were a popular R&B band at North Seattle dance venues. They released several records 1959-66, then were renamed The Springfield Rifle which continued recording until 1970.

Reference, further reading: Peter Blecha’s 1984 account of The Dynamics, republished at North West Music Archives.

Listen at YouTube

The Who - Leaving Here

(Eddie Holland - Lamont Dozier - Brian Holland)
 UK

Recorded 1965, unreleased until 1985

This is one of several recordings of Leaving Here by The Who from April 1965, a few months before the release of their first album My Generation (1965). The song remained unreleased until Who’s Missing (1985). A recording of the song was also on the Thirty Years of Maximum R&B box set (1994) where it was wrongly attributed to The High Numbers, an earlier name for The Who. (It’s a tangled history: email me if you think I’ve got it wrong.)

Tommy Good - Leaving Here (1964)

(Eddie Holland - Lamont Dozier - Brian Holland)
 USA

B-side on Motown subsidiary Gordy, produced by Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr and Lawrence Horn. This was Detroit singer Tommy Good’s only release, but he recorded enough tracks for a 2006 retrospective CD.

Listen at YouTube