Playlist 6/12-13/10

Artist: VANILLA FUDGE
Song Title: "Shotgun"
Source info: LP: NEAR THE BEGINNING (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1969
Yes, it's the Jr. Walker song. Hey, they did Motown before with "You Keep Me Hangin' On," so why not?

Artist: PINK FLOYD
Song Title: "Be Careful With That Axe, Eugene"
Source info: LP: UMMAGUMMA (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1969
Before "Dark Side of the Moon" came out, this was one of their most popular cuts.

Artist: PALACE GUARD
Song Title: "Falling Sugar"
Source info: single included on Nuggets CD box set.
Release Year: 1966
Whereas most garage bands favored a Rolling Stones approach to rock 'n' roll, this LA band tried hard to emulate the Beatles. Unfortunately, they didn't have the talent to really pull it off, despite the presence of drummer Emmet Rhodes, who would soon leave the Guard to front his own band, the Merry-Go-Round, then embark on a moderately successful solo career.

Artist: NASHVILLE TEENS
Song Title: "Tobacco Road"
Source info: single included on a CD collection called British Beat
Release Year: 1964
Despite the name, these guys were pure British rock. Maybe they and the Palace Guard should have traded names?

Artist: ROLLING STONES
Song Title: "High And Dry"
Source info: LP: AFTERMATH (CD reissue)
Release Year: 1966
This Stones album track is an early attempt at the sort of twisted country that would reach its peak with the "Let It Bleed" album in the early 70s.

Artist: JETHRO TULL
Song Title: "Beggar's Farm"
Source info: LP: THIS WAS (CD reissue)
Release Year: 1968
From the first Tull album, the only one to feature Mick Abrahams on lead guitar and the most bluesy of all Tull albums. And speaking of blues....

Artist: JOHN MAYALL
Song Title: "Blues From Laurel Canyon (Side 2)
Source info: LP: BLUES FROM LAUREL CANYON (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1968
The first release following the breakup of the Bluesbreakers, this album featured a 19-year-old Mick Taylor on guitar. The album itself is autobiographical, documenting Mayall's LA vacation in the summer of '68. The Bear that was "rolling in the shade" was Robert Hite, lead vocalist and harp player for Canned Heat. The "strange, elusive Miss James" was reportedly the famous groupie Catherine James. Other references to people and places are presumably just as real.

Artist: IRON BUTTERFLY
Song Title: "Real Fright"
Source info: LP: BALL (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1969
The last IB album to feature guitarist Eric Brann, who then moved on to a totally unremarkable solo career.

The landmark album Surrealistic Pillow was probably the most important album ever released by a San Francisco group. Not so much for the quality of the album itself, but for its effect on American culture. The success of Surrealistic Pillow was a major contributing factor to the mass migration of young people to the bay area that resulted in the "Summer of Love," which would forever change not only the city of San Francisco but America itself in ways that are still being felt today.

Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Song Title: "Today"
Source info: LP: SURREALISTIC PILLOW (CD reissue)
Release Year: 1967
Uncredited guest guitarist Jerry Garcia adds a simple, but memorable recurring fill riff to this Marty Balin tune.

Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Song Title: "D.C.B.A.-25"
Source info: LP: SURREALISTIC PILLOW (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1967
Writer Paul Kantner claims that the song title is nothing more than the chord changes of the song itself.

Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Song Title: "Somebody to Love"
Source info: LP: SURREALISTIC PILLOW (CD reissue)
Release Year: 1967
If not for this song, no one would even remember that Grace was once married to a guy named Darby Slick.

Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Song Title: "How Do You Feel"
Source info: LP: SURREALISTIC PILLOW (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1967
This song features one of the nicest recurring rhythm guitar rifts ever recorded.

Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Song Title: "My Best Friend"
Source info: LP: SURREALISTIC PILLOW (CD reissue)
Release Year: 1967
Written by Skip Spence, the original Airplane drummer who was already playing guitar for Moby Grape by the time Surrealistic Pillow came out.

Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Song Title: "3/5 of a Mile In Ten Seconds"
Source info: LP: SURREALISTIC PILLOW (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1967
The song title reportedly comes from two unrelated lines taken from the sports page the day it was written.

Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Song Title: "She Has Funny Cars"
Source info: LP: SURREALISTIC PILLOW (CD reissue)
Release Year: 1967
Apparently drummer Spencer Dryden's girlfriend had unusual tastes in vehicles.

Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Song Title: "Comin' Back To Me"
Source info: LP: SURREALISTIC PILLOW (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1967
When Marty Balin arrived at the studio with this brand new song, only Grace Slick, Paul Kantner, Jack Cassidy and Jerry Garcia were on hand to play on the subsequent recording. Balin, Kantner, Garcia and Cassidy all play guitar, while Slick provides the airy recorder track.

Artist: SIMON & GARFUNKEL
Song Title: "Sparrow"
Source info: LP: WEDNESDAY MORNING 3AM (CD reissue: The Complete Collection)
Release Year: 1964
One of Paul Simon's original tunes from the first Simon & Garfunkel album. The album, originally uncharted, was re-issued in the wake of the success of the newly electrified "Sound of Silence" in 1966.

Artist: MUSIC MACHINE
Song Title: "Double Yellow Line"
Source info: single, included on Volume 2 ("Punk") of 1980s vinyl Nuggets series.
Release Year: 1967
This song may have also appeared on the Bonniwell Music Machine album, but so far I've been unable to locate a track listing for that lost classic.

Artist: BLUES PROJECT
Song Title: "Black Night"
Source info: LAZARUS
Release Year: 1971
The fifth incarnation of the Blues Project was a power blues trio featuring founders Danny Kalb on guitar and Roy Blumenthal on drums and vocals.

Artist: CHAMBERS BROTHERS
Song Title: "Time Has Come Today"
Source info: 4 3/4 minute single version included on Vol. 9 ("Acid Rock") of the 1980s vinyl Nuggets series.
Release Year: 1968
This is actually the 4th version of this song to be released. The first, recorded in 1966, is entirely different. The second, appearing on the album The Time Has Come, runs over 10 minutes. A three minute, 15 second edit was issued as a single but was eventually pulled and replaced by this version, which bears the same catalog number. Technically this could be argued to be a fifth version of the song, since the single was only issued in mono. Probably the engineers at Rhino were the ones who meticulously re-created the original edits for this stereo version, although it is possible that they could have used a "cut down" from a syndicated programming company such as Drake-Chenault or Century-TM as well.

Artist: SAM & DAVE
Song Title: "Soul Man"
Source info: single (original 45 RPM vinyl)
Release Year: 1967
A lot of talent on this classic single from the Stax label, including guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, and songwriters Isaac Hayes and Darrell Porter, not to mention the Bar-Kays on horns. Although not considered "psychedelic" itself, it was still one of the anthems of the Summer of Love.

Artist: EASYBEATS
Song Title: "Friday On My Mind"
Source info: single, included on one of three Nuggets CDs released in the early 90s prior to the issue of the 4-disc box set currently in print.
Release Year: 1966
Considered by many to be the "greatest Australian song" ever recorded, it certainly was the first (and for many years only) major international hit to emerge from the island continent. Rhythm guitarist George Young would go on to produce another Australian band featuring his two younger brothers: AC/DC.