Vagrants

Most famous for featuring <a href="spotify:artist:0ks4E3VJXDIRABtxz2IiBE">Leslie West</a> on guitar in his pre-<a href="spotify:artist:7LCp4MN0SOIVWlssid9KyE">Mountain</a> days, the Vagrants were extremely popular in their home base of Long Island, New York in the mid-'60s, and recorded some decent singles without approaching a national breakout. Like fellow New Yorkers <a href="spotify:artist:5g2n2H9ndqvejERtwZ1rHh">the Rascals</a>, the Vagrants prominently featured a Hammond organ and often played soul-influenced rock. They were far more guitar-based than <a href="spotify:artist:5g2n2H9ndqvejERtwZ1rHh">the Rascals</a>, however, and projected a more garagey, less mature outlook; their later material lands somewhere between <a href="spotify:artist:5g2n2H9ndqvejERtwZ1rHh">the Rascals</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0vIMq3W8V63uR4Ymgm2pF1">Vanilla Fudge</a>.

One of the few rock bands signed to the folkie <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vanguard%22">Vanguard</a> label, the Vagrants cut some fair singles between 1965 and 1968 that suffered from a lack of identity: a <a href="spotify:artist:2jgPkn6LuUazBoBk6vvjh5">Zombie</a>-ish number here, a punk stomper there, a soul-rock thing here. "I Can't Make a Friend," which shows up on some garage compilations, is the most well-known of their initial efforts, but the group took their closest swipe at stardom after Felix Pappalardi helped them sign to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atco%22">Atco</a>. A rock version of <a href="spotify:artist:60df5JBRRPcnSpsIMxxwQm">Otis Redding</a>'s "Respect" (which surfaced on the first Nuggets compilation) was a hit in some Eastern regions, but couldn't compete with <a href="spotify:artist:7nwUJBm0HE4ZxD3f5cy5ok">Aretha Franklin</a>'s rendition, also released in 1967. After a couple of other singles on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Atco%22">Atco</a>, the group broke up in late 1968, when <a href="spotify:artist:0ks4E3VJXDIRABtxz2IiBE">West</a> formed <a href="spotify:artist:7LCp4MN0SOIVWlssid9KyE">Mountain</a> (which also included Pappalardi). Much of the Vagrants' material was reissued in the mid-'90s. <a href="spotify:artist:0ks4E3VJXDIRABtxz2IiBE">Leslie West</a> died on December 22, 2020 at the age of 75. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi