BUCKINGHAMS Kind Of a Drag V Rare Orig WITHDRAWN 1967 US LP I'm A Man Psych

	£		200
	$		265

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The Buckinghams

Kind of a Drag

Very Rare original Withdrawn US LP released on USA Records in 1967. 1st US Mono Withdrawn issue with the thrack 'I'm a Man'. It looks like there are 6 tracks on side one but the last two tracks are actually 'I'm a Man'. 

From Isthmus.co
Aah, the magic of a small label having a monster hit record out of the blue. There's nothing like it to create weird variations of vintage records for the obsessive collector to keep an eye out for decades down the road. One particularly obscure instance occurs with the debut LP from The Buckinghams, which exists both with and without a ripping, Yardbirds-styled cover of "I'm a Man."
Kind of a Drag is a pop classic and one of my favorite '60s discs, with or without "I'm a Man." But being a huge fan of Chicago garage sounds, the rare version of the LP has remained near the top of my want list since seeing its existence noted in an album price guide.
The specifics of that variation have largely remained a mystery over the years, with little solid information to be found either in old guides or online. Even the Sundazed CD, which includes the track, simply describes it as "unreleased" in the booklet notes. For years, I diligently checked every LP I saw for "I'm a Man" to be listed, only to eventually learn in some obscure corner of the Internet (where I can't find again) that one can't identify it by the album cover or label. The song was never in the track list, though many covers do mention it in the liner notes.
Well, all right, then: How can you identify one of these puppies? Obviously, the easiest way is by playing it, but that's not an option in many places where the record may turn up -- garage sales, thrift stores, and so on -- to say nothing of trying to find one online. I've spent time looking for a copy with an extra track (the "normal" version is 12). Another thought I had was to look for a really long song on the record itself, since "I'm a Man" is more than five minutes long. That method ended up working fairly well for identification purposes, but not for the reason I thought it would.
While looking at an unusually nice copy of the album recently, I noticed that the song "Summertime," normally the fourth track on side two and the standard album's longest song -- hence, the widest band on the disc -- was instead the third track. This got me thinking, but there was no really wide band to indicate the inclusion of "I'm a Man." However, this copy was also in better shape than any I'd seen in ages, so I took a flyer ... and hit the jackpot.
It turns out the alternate version of Kind of a Drag is quite a different animal. It's actually only 11 songs, and for mysterious reasons "I'm a Man" has a blank band in the middle like it's two tracks. Even goofier, one of the songs missing from the disc is "Kind of a Drag" itself! Also missing in action is "I've Been Wrong," the single A-side just before "Drag." Otherwise, the track order is shuffled around as well (see below), which leads to speculation time -- how, exactly, did this version come to even exist?
My guess is that this track lineup was an early projection for an LP after the band had some Midwest hits, and at least some copies were pressed up. Then, when "Kind of a Drag" became a monster hit the LP was reconfigured ... and somewhere along the line a few copies of that early version made it out the door, either accidentally or because the label was trying to sneak out the "incorrect" one to save on pressing fees. I can only imagine anyone buying the album at the time and finding it did not include "Kind of a Drag" was probably pretty miffed.
- See more at: http://isthmus.com/music/vinyl-cave/vinyl-cave-kind-of-a-drag-by-the-buckinghams/#sthash.Xaz4RI5J.dpuf

Given its source, Kind of a Drag was one of the most extraordinary albums of the 1960s. One expected great, diverse LPs out of the likes of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, among others; by contrast, even the better albums by top garage-punk outfits such as the 13th Floor Elevators generally had a one-note feel to them, or were conspicuously strong in one direction. So when a Chicago-based garage band (or were they a garage band?) like the Buckinghams, with one serious hit (the title track) to their name, put out a long-player that embraced soul, blues, garage punk, and English pop-rock with just about equal aplomb, it must have caught purchasers, radio programmers, and music writers alike off guard. Kind of a Drag isn't the kind of searing punk document that their Windy City rivals the Shadows of Knight presented with their two LPs -- the latter group's work stood next to the Buckinghams roughly where the Who's albums did next to those of the Beatles. The Buckinghams' lean, guitar-driven garage punk versions of "Sweets for My Sweet" (a cover of the Searchers' version, not the Drifters') and the Hollies' "I've Been Wrong" are juxtaposed with a horn-ornamented version of the Beatles' "I Call Your Name" -- on which the lead guitar is playing what sound almost like mandolin riffs; and all are sandwiched between the horn-driven "I'll Go Crazy" and the raw, bluesy "I'm a Man" (patterned after the Yardbirds' rendition, with some twists that are all the Buckinghams' own). They still come off somewhat as light-weights, as on their cover of "Lawdy Miss Clawdy," but that's a minor lapse.

Tracks Are :-

Side One

1 I'll Go Crazy 2:05
2 Beginners Love 1:55
3 Don't Want To Cry 2:09
4 Virginia Wolf 2:28
5 Im a Man Pt.1
6 I'm a Man Pt.2

Side Two

1 I Call Your Name 2:09
2 You Make Me Feel So Good 2:37
3 Summertime 3:32
4 Sweets For My Sweet 2:00
5 Love Ain't Enough 2:11
6 Makin' Up & Breakin' Up 2:12

• Released on USA Records in 1966

• Catalogue Number U.S.A. 107

• Side One is in Vg + condition (due to some small pressing dimples in the wax)

• Side Two is in Ex + condition

• Sleeve is in Ex + condition (drill hole in bottom left corner)

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