https://exchange.prx.org/p/570854
This week we have artists' sets from opposite ends of the San Francisco Bay, a couple progressions through the years and one seriously long set from 1967.
Artist: Nashville Teens
Title: Tobacco Road
Source: Mono CD: British Beat (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: John D. Loudermilk
Label: K-Tel (original US label: London)
Year: 1964
The Nashville Teens were not teens. Nor were they from Nashville. In fact, they were one of the original British Invasion bands. Their version of John D. Loudermilk's Tobacco Road was a huge international hit in the summer of 1964. The lead guitar parts on the recording are the work of studio musician Jimmy Page.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Steeled Blues
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Beck/Relf
Label: Epic
Year: 1965
The first Yardbirds record with Jeff Beck on lead guitar (replacing Eric Clapton) was a single written by Graham Gouldman called Heart Full Of Soul. The song featured Beck playing riffs originally designed for sitar, as well as his own solo in the song's instrumental break. The B side of that single was an instrumental blues jam called Steeled Blues that was basically a showcase for Beck and harmonicist Keith Relf, who trade off licks throughout the track.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: God Only Knows
Source: Mono LP: Pet Sounds
Writer(s): Wilson/Asher
Label: Capitol/EMI
Year: 1966
Possibly the first time a deity appeared in the title of a pop song was the Beach Boys song God Only Knows on the Pet Sounds album. Both Brian and Carl Wilson were going through a spiritual phase and were in the habit of praying for guidance throughout the making of Pet Sounds. The song was released, along with Wouldn't It Be Nice, as a double A sided single a few weeks after the album came out, and both songs made the top 40, although Wouldn't It Be Nice was the bigger hit in the US. In the UK, where Beatle Paul McCartney was enthusiastic in his support of the tune, God Only Knows went all the way to the # 5 slot, considerably higher than in the US.
Artist: Monkees
Title: The Door Into Summer
Source: LP: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer: Douglas/Martin
Label: Colgems
Year: 1967
After playing nearly all the instrumental tracks on their third album themselves, the Monkees came to the painful conclusion that they would not be able to repeat the effort and still have time to tape a weekly TV show. As a result, the fourth Monkees LP, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones LTD., used studio musicians extensively, albeit under the creative supervision of the Monkees themselves. The group also had the final say over what songs ended up on the album, including The Door Into Summer, a tune by Bill Martin, a friend of band leader Michael Nesmith. For reasons that are too complicated to get into here (and probably wouldn't make much sense anyway), co-credit was given to the band's producer, Chip Douglas.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Laléna
Source: CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: Sony Music Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year: 1968
Released only in the US do to an ongoing dispute between Donovan and the british Pye label, Laléna hit the Billboard top 40 in late 1968, hitting the #33 spot. A quiet ballad, Laléna was inspired by Lotte Lenya's character in the film version of Threepenny Opera. In a 2004 the Scottish singer/songwriter had this to say about the song: "She's a streetwalker, but in the history of the world, in all nations, women have taken on various roles from priestess to whore to mother to maiden to wife. This guise of sexual power is very prominent, and therein I saw the plight of the character. Women have roles thrust upon them and make the best they can out of them, so I'm describing the character Lotte Lenya is playing, and a few other women I've seen during my life, but it's a composite character of women who are outcasts on the edge of society.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Blues From An Airplane
Source: LP: The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (originally released on LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off)
Writer(s): Balin/Spence
Label: Victor
Year: 1966
Blues From An Airplane was the opening song on the first Jefferson Airplane album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. Although never released as a single, it was picked by the group to open their first retrospective album, The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane, as well.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Greasy Heart
Source: LP: Crown Of Creation
Writer(s): Grace Slick
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1968
The Jefferson Airplane released their fourth LP, Crown of Creation, in the summer of '68. Greasy Heart, a Grace Slick composition, was chosen for single release to AM top 40 radio, but by then the group was getting far more airplay on album-oriented FM stations with tunes like Lather and Triad and the mysteriously named House at Pooniel Corners. As a result, Greasy Heart, despite being a more commercial tune, is far less familiar to most people than any of those other songs.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Crown Of Creation
Source: LP: The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (originally released on LP: Crown Of Creation)
Writer(s): Paul Kantner
Label: Victor
Year: 1968
After the acid rock experimentalism of After Bathing At Baxter's, the Airplane returned to a more conventional format for 1968's Crown Of Creation album. The songs themselves, however, had a harder edge than those on the early Jefferson Airplane albums, as the band itself was becoming more socio-politically radical. The song Crown of Creation draws a definite line between the mainstream and the counter-culture.
Artist: The Blues Inc.
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: Mono CD: A Deadly Dose Of Wylde Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: United Audio)
Year: 1968
It's hard to imagine anyone doing an even heavier version of Arthur Lee's 7&7 Is than Love's original, but a band from Warren, Pennsylvania, a small (pop. 1000) city located about fifteen miles south of Jamestown, NY, certainly gave it their best effort on a B side issued on Youngstown, Ohio's United Audio label in 1968. Unlike the 1966 Love version, The Blues Inc.'s rendition of 7&7 Is features organ prominently.
Artist: Love
Title: Emotions
Source: Mono LP: Love
Writer(s): Lee/Echols
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
Emotions, the last track on side one of the first Love album, sounds like it could have come directly from the soundtrack of one the spaghetti westerns that were popular with moviegoers in the mid-1960s. Probably not coincidentally, the instrumental is also the only Love recording to carry a writing credit for lead guitarist Johnny Echols (with the exception of the 17-minute jam Revelation on their second LP, which is credited to the entire band).
Artist: Byrds
Title: Renaissance Fair
Source: Mono LP: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Crosby/McGuinn
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Younger Than Yesterday was David Crosby's last official album with the Byrds (he was fired midway through the recording of The Notorious Byrd Brothers) and the last one containing any collaborations between Crosby and Jim (now Roger) McGuinn. Renaissance Fair is one of those collaborations. The song was inspired by a free concert given in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park by the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, among others.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: The Wind Cries Mary
Source: CD: Live At Monterey
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/UMe
Year: 1967
The art of recording live rock bands was still in its infancy when the Jimi Hendrix Experience made their US debut at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June of 1967. For that matter, most live performances were marred by equipment problems, especially when it came to the public address (PA) system, which was the only way to make vocals heard over increasingly loud instruments. Monterey, however, raised the bar for both its sound system and the quality of the recordings made at the festival. In some cases, however, the improved sound system only made other equipment problems more noticable. One such problem was the annoying crackling sound coming from Jimi Hendrix's speakers during the Experience's performance of The Wind Cries Mary. Although it sounds at first like it might be a blown speaker, my own experience with Marshall amplifiers tells me that the problem was with Hendrix's amp, which was being pushed to its limits throughout the entire performance.
Artist: Boston Tea Party
Title: My Daze
Source: Mono CD: An Overdose Of Heavy Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Travis/Rich/Mike
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: Vogue International)
Year: 1967
Despite the implications of their name, the Boston Tea Party was actually from Burbank, California. The group cut three singles and one album before disbanding. The best of those singles was My Daze, released on the Vogue International label in 1967.
Artist: Cyrkle
Title: Don't Cry, No Fears, No Tears Comin' Your Way
Source: CD: Red Rubber Ball (compilation CD) (originally released on LP: Neon)
Writer(s): Dannemann/Dawes
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
If you were to look up the term "diminishing returns" in a pop music encyclopedia, you might see a picture of the Cyrkle. Their first single, Red Rubber Ball, was a huge hit in 1966, going all the way to the #2 spot, with the album of the same name peaking at #47. The follow-up single, Turn Down Day, was also a top 20 hit, but it would be their last. Each consecutive single, in fact, would top out just a little bit lower than the one before it. Their track record with albums wasn't any better, as the Cyrkle's second LP, Neon, only managed to make it to #164 on the album charts, despite having some decent originals such as Don't Cry, No Fears, No Tears Comin' Your Way. The group disbanded later that same year, with the two main songwriting members of the band, Don Danneman and Tom Dawes, going on to become successful jingle writers (Danneman wrote the Uncola song for 7 Up while Dawes came up with the Pop Pop Fizz Fizz jingle for Alka-Seltzer, among other things). Dawes also produced a pair of Foghat albums in the mid-1970s.
Artist: Five Americans
Title: Western Union
Source: Mono CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Rabon/Ezell/Durrell
Label: Rhino (original label: Abnak)
Year: 1967
One of the biggest hits of 1967 came from a band formed at Southeastern State College in Durant Oklahoma, although they had their greatest success working out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Having already scored a minor hit with I See The Light the previous year, the Five Americans hit the #5 spot on the national charts with Western Union, featuring a distinctive opening organ riff designed to evoke the sound of a telegraph receiver picking up Morse code.
Artist: Peter Fonda
Title: November Night
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Gram Parsons
Label: Rhino (original label: Chisa)
Year: 1967
Once upon a time the son of actor Henry Fonda was hanging around the swimming pool with his friends Gram Parsons, Stewart Levine and Hugh Masakela and decided he wanted to be a rock star. Levine and Masakela had started their own record label, Chisa (based on a Zulu "exclamation"), and Parsons provided the song November Night for Fonda to record. Although the single did get released, it failed to make an impression with anyone, and young Fonda decided that instead of trying to be a singer he perhaps should follow in his father's footsteps and become an actor like his sister Jane had. It turned out to be the right career move, as Peter Fonda would become famous for the film Easy Rider just two years later.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: You Keep Me Hangin' On
Source: Mono CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Holland/Dozier/Holland
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The Vanilla Fudge version of You Keep Me Hangin' On was originally recorded and released in 1967, not too long after the Supremes version of the song finished its own run on the charts. It wasn't until the following year, however, the the Vanilla Fudge recording caught on with AM radio listeners, turning it into the band's only top 40 hit (not that they needed one).
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Incense And Peppermints
Source: Mono CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Carter/Gilbert/Weitz/King
Label: Rhino (original label: Uni)
Year: 1967
Incense and Peppermints started off as an instrumental from Los Angeles band Thee Sixpence members Mark Weitz and Ed King, mostly because the band simply couldn't come up with any lyrics. Their producer decided to bring in professional songwriters John S. Carter and Tim Gilbert to finish the song, and ended up giving them full credit for it. This did not sit well with the band members. In fact, they hated the lyrics so much that they refused to sing them. Undaunted, the producer persuaded 16-year-old Greg Munford, a friend of the band who had accompanied them to the recording studio, to sing the lead vocals on the track, which was was then issued as the B side of the group's fourth single, The Birdman Of Alkatrash, on the All-American label. Somewhere along the line a local DJ flipped the record over and started playing Incense And Peppermints instead. The song caught on and Uni Records (short for Universal, which is now the world's largest record company) immediately signed the band (which by then had changed their name to the Strawberry Alarm Clock) issuing the record nationally with Incense And Peppermints as the A side. Naturally, the song went to the number one spot, becoming the band's only major hit.
Artist: Fun & Games Commission
Title: Someone Must Have Lied (To You)
Source: Mono British import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): DJ Greer
Label: Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1967
Apparently more than one person got the idea to call a band the Sixpence. In California there was one known as Thee Sixpence before changing their name to Strawberry Alarm Clock. The band I want to talk about, however, was from Houston, and originally called themselves the Six Pents, changing it to the Sixpentz in late 1966. When they discovered the existence of Thee Sixpence they made a name change of their own, to the Fun & Games Commission. They only released two singles before shortening their name to the Fun And Games; the first was a somewhat obscure record for a local Houston label, while the second was released on the larger Mainstream label in 1968. Someone Must Have Lied (To You) was the B side of the final Fun & Games Commission single. As Fun & Games they signed with the even larger Uni label in 1968 and had a somewhat unremarkable career as a bubble gum group.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Super Bird
Source: LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
Country Joe and the Fish, from Berkeley, California, were one of the first rock bands to incorporate political satire into their music. Their I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag is one of the most famous protest songs ever written. Super Bird is even heavier on the satire than the Rag. The song, from the band's debut LP, puts president Lyndon Johnson, whose wife and daughter were known as "Lady-bird" and "Linda-bird", in the role of a comic book superhero.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Shadows
Source: Mono CD: The Complete Reprise Singles (originally released as 45 RPM promo single)
Writer(s): Gordon Phillips
Label: Real Gone Music/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Released only to radio stations, Shadows may well be the last song issued by the original lineup of the Electric Prunes in the 1960s. The song was recorded for a film called The Name Of The Game Is To Kill (a movie I know absolutely nothing about), and was issued in between two singles written by David Axelrod for concept albums that came out under the Electric Prunes name in 1968. Stylistically, Shadows sounds far more like the group's earlier work than the Axelrod material.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: She Weaves A Tender Trap
Source: Mono British import CD: Melts In Your Brain, Not On Your Wrist (originally released in US as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Big Beat (original US label: Uptown)
Year: 1967
The third Chocolate Watchband single, Misty Lane, was made, according to rock historian Alec Paleo, "under duress". Reportedly, the band hated the single so much that they took turns tossing copies in the air and using them for target practice. The B side was even less appropriate for the band, being a ballad orchestrated by Lincoln Mayorga called She Weaves A Tender Trap. The song was provided to the band by producer Ed Cobb, who later admitted that he didn't really know what to do with them in the studio.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love-In)
Source: CD: No Way Out
Writer(s): McElroy/Bennett
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
The Love-In was a cheapo teensploitation flick from American International that included a clip of the Chocolate Watchband performing this tune, written at the last minute by Ethan McElroy and Don Bennett, studio musicians in the employ of producer Ed Cobb. As both the Watchband and AIP's soundtracks were on Tower Records it was a perfect fit.
Artist: Chocolate Watch Band
Title: I Ain't No Miracle Worker
Source: British import CD: Melts In Your Brain, Not On Your Wrist (originally released in US on LP: The Inner Mystique)
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
Originally recorded by the Merced California band the Brogues, I Ain't No Miracle Worker was penned by the same songwriting team of Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz that had written the Electric Prunes' biggest hit, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). The Chocolate Watch Band version is actually a touch slower and (unexpectedly) more melodic than the 1965 Brogues original.
Artist: Mothers Of Invention
Title: How Could I Be Such A Fool
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Frank Zappa
Label: Barking Pumpkin (original label: Verve)
Year: 1966
Historically, rock music and waltzes have been pretty much mutually exclusive. There are exceptions, however, and many of those were written by Frank Zappa. Perhaps the earliest of these was How Could I Be Such A Fool from the Mothers Of Invention's Freak Out album, which in many ways is one of the most conventional compositions Zappa ever came up with. I can almost picture some mid-60s mainstream and/or jazz singer releasing it as a single.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: 2000 Man
Source: CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1967
Setting any work of art in the relatively near future is always risky business. (Remember 1984? It's taken over forty years to actually start happening, and in a different country at that.) But then again 33 years seems like forever when you yourself are still in your twenties. I mean who, including the Rolling Stones themselves, could have imagined that Mick, Keith, Charlie and company would still be performing well into the 21st century when they recorded 2000 Man for their 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties Request? It's actually kind of interesting to listen to the lyrics now and see just how much of the song turned out to be an accurate prediction of what was to come.
Artist: Electric Flag
Title: Texas
Source: LP: A Long Time Comin'
Writer(s): Miles/Bloomfield
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
It's generally agreed that the two biggest names in the Electric Flag were guitarist Mike Bloomfield and drummer Buddy Miles. Oddly, though, the two only collaborated as songwriters on one tune, Texas, which opened the second side of the band's debut album, A Long Time Comin'.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Abbey Road Medley #2
Source: LP: Abbey Road
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple
Year: 1969
The Beatles had been experimenting with songs bleeding into other songs since the Sgt. Pepper's album. With Abbey Road they took it a step further, with side two of the album containing two such medleys (although some rock historians treat it as one long medley). The second one consists of three songs credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney: Golden Slumbers is vintage McCartney, while Carry That Weight has more of a Lennon feel to it. The final section,The End, probably should have been credited to the entire band, as it contains the only Ringo Starr drum solo on (a Beatles) record as well as three sets of alternating lead guitar solos (eight beats each) from Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon (in that order).
Artist: Cat Stevens
Title: I've Got A Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old
Source: CD: The Very Best Of Cat Stevens
Writer(s): Cat Stevens
Label: A&M
Year: Recorded 1970, released 2000
Cat Stevens was almost a classic example of a flash in the pan. His first four singles made the top 30 on the British charts, with two of them making into the top 10. His first album went to the #7 spot in the UK. But he soon found himself pigeonholed as a teen star, and spent the next three years trying to out from underneath that burdon. During this time he worked on developing a style that was more in line with his own personal preference to sit cross-legged on the floor with an acoustic guitar, playing whatever he felt like playing. In early 1970 he began sessions for Mona Bone Jakon, his first new album since 1967's New Masters (which had failed to chart anywhere). I've Got A Thing About Seeing My Grandson Grow Old is an outtake from those sessions that remained unreleased until 2000.
Artist: Fifty Foot Hose
Title: Rose
Source: LP: Cauldron
Writer: David Blossom
Label: Limelight
Year: 1968
Although most of the more avant-garde bands of the psychedelic era were headquarted in New York, there were some exceptions, such as San Francisco's Fifty Foot Hose. The core members of the band were founder and bassist Louis "Cork" Marcheschi, guitarist David Blossom, and his wife, vocalist Nancy Blossom. The group used a lot of unusual instruments, such as theramin, Moog synthesizer and prepared guitar and piano. After one album the group called it quits, with most of the members joining the cast of Hair. In fact, Nancy Blossom played lead character Sheila in the San Francisco production of the musical.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Watch Yourself
Source: CD: Volume 3-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Writer: Robert Yeazel
Label: Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Although the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band usually wrote their own material, they occassionally drew from outside sources. One example is Watch Yourself, written by Robert Yeazel, who would go on to join Sugarloaf for their second LP, Spaceship Earth, writing much of the material on that album.
Artist: Big Brother and the Holding Company
Title: Piece Of My Heart
Source: CD: Cheap Thrills
Writer: Ragovoy/Burns
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
By 1968 Big Brother and the Holding Company, with their charismatic vocalist from Texas, Janis Joplin, had become as popular as fellow San Francisco bands Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead. Somehow, though, they were still without a major label record deal. That all changed with the release of Cheap Thrills, with cover art by the legendary underground comix artist R. Crumb. The album itself was a curious mixture of live performances and studio tracks, the latter being led by the band's powerful cover of the 1966 Barbara Lynn tune Piece Of My Heart. The song propelled the band, and Joplin, to stardom. That stardom would be short-lived for most of the band members, however, as well-meaning but ultimately wrong-headed advice-givers convinced Joplin that Big Brother was holding her back. The reality was that Joplin was far more integrated with Big Brother And The Holding Company than anyone she would ever work with again.
Artist: Cream
Title: Deserted Cities Of The Heart
Source: British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Wheels Of Fire)
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year: 1968
The most psychedelic of Cream's songs were penned by Jack Bruce and his songwriting partner Pete Brown. One of the best of these was chosen to close out the last studio side of the last Cream album released while the band was still in existence. Deserted Cities Of The Heart is a fitting epitaph to an unforgettable band.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Queen Jane Approximately
Source: CD: Highway 61 Revisited
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
The thing that stands out to me about Bob Dylan's Queen Jane Approximately from his Highway 61 Revisited album is the fact that somebody's guitar is badly out of tune throughout the song. Yes, the song has sufficiently deep, meaningful lyrics (it is Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan, after all), and the rhyming structure is unique, but all I can hear is that out of tune guitar.
