H.M. Subjects

There's a pretty good chance that, as the sort of person who reads this blog, you're aware of Miami, Florida's legendary Montells. It's also not unlikely that you're aware of their cover of the Pretty Things' "Don't Bring me Down," which was reissued as part of the Montells/Evil split compilation released on Corduroy in 2002 (apparently out of print). It's at least possible that you own the 45, and if you do, it might look like this:

...or it might look like this:

My copy, however, looks like this:

...and it sounds like THIS (i.e. pretty scratchy). Any of you record hounds seen one like this before? This copy just has the "censored" version on both sides with loud bleeps over the mildly suggestive lyrics, which makes it sound a million times dirtier. The gimmick, as well as the new, more "British" name (shades of the Sir Douglas Quintet!), was the brainchild of their manager, local WFUN DJ "Doc" Downey. Say what you will about  the late Morton Downey, Jr (and there's plenty that you could say!), he knew a few things about getting people's attention.