The Haunted

MyGen Profile Generator The Haunted came out of Montreal, Quebec, with a dirty and scruffy bad boys image. Formed by Jurgen Peter, it has previously been reported that the band formed as an instrumental group called The Blue Jays in late 1963. This is now known to be incorrect, although the band did start out playing instrumentals, with Bob Burgess on bass, The Blue J's were a separate high-school act for whom Jurgen Peter stood in on guitar once for one gig which was broadcast on local radio. Classic, scratchy, itchy garage rock from Montreal circa 1966. That was the year The Haunted's first single, "1-2-5" was released, making it to the Canadian charts and raising some eyebrows in the US and Europe. But subsequent years saw their label's lack of support push the band to obscurity (an old story).Finding obvious inspiration in the Stones, Them, and the Kinks, the Haunted added their own stamp to the hot sound of that time and were unafraid to tackle classic-bound material ("Out of Time" by the Stones, "Purple Haze" by Hendrix (um, in French), Sam Cooke's "Shake"), unafraid to add a soulful edge to their garagey sound, and most refreshingly, knew exactly where to use those tambourines and harmonicas to near-excess ("1-2-5", "Eight O'Clock This Morning").There are blatant rips of classic melodies that are so obvious one would think the band was working some kind of in-joke at the time: Donovan's "Season of the Witch" becomes "Run Down Every Street". At any rate, this stuff makes one long for a time when soul/punk/garage/pop, all rolled together into one glorious whole, ruled rock 'n' roll airwaves, and you could hear The Haunted right next to Otis Redding on your radio. Boy, I bet those were the days."