Playlist 7/16-18/10

This week it's the Red Coats vs the Blue Coats, with all but one track in the first hour from British artists, and all but one track in the second hour from American bands. (Yes, I know most of the members of Steppenwolf were from Canada, but the band itself wasn't called Steppenwolf until after they all moved to LA.)

Artist: AMBOY DUKES
Song Title: "Journey To the Center of the Mind"
Source: CD: THE BEST OF 60s PSYCHEDELIC ROCK (Originally released on 45 RPM vinyl and on LP: JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE MIND)
Release Year: 1968
The only track from an American artist in the first hour comes from this Detroit band led by outspoken Second Amendment supporter Ted Nugent. To my knowledge, Nugent is the only rock musician with a hit during the psychedelic era to be featured as a guest on G. Gordon Liddy's radio talk show.

Artist: BLIND FAITH
Song Title: "Do What You Like"
Source: LP: BLIND FAITH (original British import vinyl)
Release Year: 1969
They don't come any more British than drummer Ginger Baker, the writer of record of this 15-minute jam. Have you ever heard this bloke talk? Blimey!

Artist: JETHRO TULL
Song Title: "A New Day Yesterday"
Source: CD: STAND UP (reissue of original LP)
Release Year: 1969
Not only were all of these guys Brits, they even named the band after a British historical figure that nobody outside of Britain had ever heard of!

Artist: WHO
Song Title: "Summertime Blues"
Source: LP: LIVE AT LEEDS
Release Year: 1970
Last week I played Blue Cheer's heavy feedback version of this Eddie Cochrane classic. This time around it's the Who, rockin' it just as hard in their own way. Besides, they're British.

And lest we let the English completely dominate the British half of our show, here's a whole set from one of Britian's most successful singer-songwriters of the 60s, who happens to be a Scotsman:

Artist: DONOVAN
Song Title: "Sand and Foam"
Source: LP: MELLOW YELLOW (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl in 1966 as B side of "Mellow Yellow")
Release Year: 1967
The term singer-songwriter was not yet in common usage in the 60s. Instead, the term "folk singer" was applied to everyone from Joan Baez to Jerry Jeff Walker, however inappropriate the label might be. The song "Sand and Foam" is one of the best examples of Donovan the folk singer. Although sometimes unfairly characterized as a knockoff of Bob Dylan in his early days, here he shows himself to be much more rooted in the British folk tradition.

Artist: DONOVAN
Song Title: "There is a Mountain"
Source: CD: SUNSHINE ON THE MOUNTAIN (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Release Year: 1967
1967 was a year that saw Donovan continue to shed the "folk singer" image, forcing the media to look for a new term to describe someone like him. As you have already guessed, that term was "singer-songwriter." Here, Donovan applies Eastern philosophy and tonality to pop music, with the result being one of those songs that sticks in your head for days.

Artist: DONOVAN
Song Title: "Young Girl Blues"
Source: LP: MELLOW YELLOW (original vinyl pressing)
Release Year: 1967
In 1966 Donovan got into a prolonged contract dispute with his British record label, Pye Records. As a result, his two most successful albums, Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, were only released in the US. Eventually the dispute was settled and Pye released a British version of Mellow Yellow that was actually a pastiche of the two US releases. During the dispute, however, Donovan acquired a somewhat jaded view of not only the British music scene, but of British youth culture in general. 'Young Girl Blues" reflects this sort of youthful cynicism.

Artist: DONOVAN
Song Title: "Sunshine Superman"
Source: CD: SUNSHINE ON THE MOUNTAIN (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl and on LP: SUNSHINE SUPERMAN in edited form)
Release Year: 1966
This hugely successful single is sometimes credited as being the tsunami that launched the wave of psychedelic music that washed over the shores of pop musicland in 1967. OK, I made that up, but the song really did change the direction of American pop as well as Donovan's own career. Originally released as a 3:15 single, the full unedited 4:31 stereo mix of the song heard here did not appear on vinyl until the 1969 Greatest Hits album.

Artist: DONOVAN
Song Title: "The Observation"
Source: LP: MELLOW YELLOW (original vinyl pressing)
Release Year: 1967
Until the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, most popular recordings made in the UK (and many in the US) were made with the goal of getting a good monoraul mix. Stereo mixes were often done as an afterthought, if at all. Mellow Yellow was one of the last albums to be mixed only in mono, with the US stereo release actually being electronically rechanneled versions of the mono mixes (aka "fake stereo"). All the tracks from Mellow Yellow used in this set are from the original mono pressing of the LP.

Artist: DONOVAN
Song Title: "Lalena"
Source: CD: SUNSHINE ON THE MOUNTAIN (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Release Year: 1968
The CD Sunshine On the Mountain was a special promotional disc created for a particular record store chain in the 1990s. Essentially a collection Donovan's hits released in the US, certain songs (such as Mellow Yellow) are conspicously absent from the disc. As all of the songs on the disc are in stereo, I suspect that songs that were mixed only in mono were deliberately left out.

Artist: DONOVAN
Song Title: "Hampstead Incident"
Source: LP: MELLOW YELLOW (original vinyl pressing)
Release Year: 1967
The Beatles started a trend (one of many) when they included a harpsichord on the Rubber Soul album, released in December of 1965. By early 1967 it seemed that just about everyone had a song or two with the antique instrument featured on it. Unlike many of the recordings of the time, "Hampstead Incident" manages to use the harpsichord effectively without overdoing it.

Artist: DONOVAN/JEFF BECK GROUP
Song Title: "Goo Goo Barabajabal (Love Is Hot)"
Source: CD: SUNSHINE ON THE MOUNTAIN (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl and on LP: BARABAJABAL)
Release Year: 1969
Finishing up the British hour we have not only Donovan, but the entire Jeff Beck Group providing the instrumentation for this 1969 classic. The full title of this song is "Goo Goo Barabajabal (Love Is Hot)". Sometimes the song is known simply as "Barabajabal," but this is actually the title of the album the song appeared on, not the song itself.

Artist: HENRY MANCINI
Song Title: "The Pink Panther Theme"
Source: 45 RPM VINYL (reissue)
Release Year: 1964
When it comes to lounge lizard music, nobody did it better than Henry Mancini. His most lasting and endearing work is this classic movie theme. Besides, what better place to start the US hour but Hollywood, ground zero for popular American culture? Although the full stereo version of the song featured on the soundtrack album is close to four minutes long, it was this 2 1/2 minute mono version that was heard on nearly every radio format in 1964.

Artist: FLEETWOOD MAC
Song Title: "Looking For Somebody"
Source: LP: THE ORIGINAL FLEETWOOD MAC (originally released in the UK on the LP: FLEETWOOD MAC on the Blue Horizon label)
Release Year: 1968
The origins of Fleetwood Mac go back to 1966, when Eric Clapton left John Mayall's Bluesbreakers to form Cream with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. Brought in to replace Clapton in the Bluesbreakers was Peter Green, a young guitarist who more than adequately filled the void. After a year or so, Green convinced Mayall to hire Green's friend Mick Fleetwood as a drummer. In late 1967 Mayall presented Green with a gift of studio time. Green then borrowed Fleetwood and bassist John McVie from the Bluesbreakers and, along with slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer, recorded several tracks, including "Looking For Somebody." Although McVie had lent a hand in the studio, he did not want to give up the steady paycheck that came with working for Mayall, and bassist Bob Brunner was brought in to do a couple live performances with the other three musicians. For those performances that band used the name Fleetwood Mac for the first time, a name chosen by Green as a tactic to get McVie to join up full-time. The new group went over well enough to warrant the release of an album, and once the album starting climbing the British charts (peaking at # 4), McVie did indeed become a full-time member of Fleetwood Mac. Mayall, meanwhile, left without a band, officially disbanded the Bluesbreakers that summer and took a vacation to LA that inspired the suite of songs that became the album Blues From Laurel Canyon.

Our token British tune of the hour leads into a set from a band that started off in Canada as a group called Sparrow, but after moving to L.A. achieved fame as Steppenwolf. Their best known hits, "Born To Be Wild" and "Magic Carpet Ride," were both released in 1968. By 1969, the band was beginning to mature, which is where this week's set picks up.

Artist: STEPPENWOLF
Song Title: "Fag"
Source: LP: MONSTER (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1969
Starting off a set from the two 1969 Steppenwolf albums, we have the only blues instrumental Steppenwolf ever recorded. Thanks to Greg Cotterill for the donation of this LP to the show from his personal collection.

Artist: STEPPENWOLF
Song Title: "Lovely Meter"
Source: LP: AT YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1969
Steppenwolf's third album showed the band starting to move away from the more experimental sound of Steppenwolf the Second into what would come to be called hard rock. "Lovely Meter" is a softer sounding tune than is usually associated with the band.

Artist: STEPPENWOLF
Song Title: "From Here To There Eventually"
Source: LP: MONSTER (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1969
The final track of Steppenwolf's fourth LP is a perfect example of the band's typical hard-driving beat and John Kay's distinctive vocal style.

Artist: STEPPENWOLF
Song Title: "Cat Killer"
Source: LP: AT YOUR BIRTHDAY PARTY (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1969
This strange little track shows that the band was not quite done with their experimental period at the time "At Your Birthday Party" was recorded.

Artist: STEPPENWOLF
Song Title: "Monster/Suicide/America"
Source: LP: MONSTER (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1969
Steppenwolf always had a social/political side, as evidenced by songs like "The Ostrich" and "Don't Step On the Grass, Sam," but when it comes to pure political songs, the Monster trilogy is usually the first one that comes to mind. Personally, I consider it to be Steppenwolf's artistic peak and the perfect way to cap off the set.

Artist: ULTIMATE SPINACH
Song Title: EGO TRIP
Source: LP: ULTIMATE SPINACH (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1967
Although the "Bosstown Sound" was basically a promotional gimmick cooked up by M-G-M records, their is a strong stylistic similarity between this song and much of the first Beacon Street Union album.

Artist: TURTLES
Song Title: "Outside Chance"
Source: CD: 20 GREATEST HITS
Release Year: 1966
This song is distinctive for two reasons. First, it was the last single released before "Happy Together," the song that would become their signature song. It was also their first single since "It Ain't Me Babe" not to hit the charts, which is kind of hard to understand, as it really is a well-crafted record with a catchy hook.

Artist: BLUES PROJECT
Song Title: "Cheryl's Going Home"
Source: LP: PROJECTIONS (original vinyl)
Release Year: 1966
It's kind of odd to hear a cover of a Bob Lind B side on an album by a band known for its progressive approach to the blues, but that's exactly what "Cheryl's Going Home" is. They did a pretty nice job with it, too.

Artist: GESTURES
Song Title: "Run Run Run"
Source: CD: NUGGETS BOX SET (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Release Year: 1964
Soma Records was a small regional label based out of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, best known for the Castaways hit "Liar Liar." Soma did not have the resources to properly promote or distribute a national hit, which is a shame, as the Gestures' (originally the Jesters until someone discovered the name was already in use) "Run Run Run" was a fine effort, sounding a lot like the early Who several months before the Who themselves first hit the airwaves.

Artist: JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
Song Title: "We Can Be Together"
Source: CD: VOLUNTEERS (reissue of original LP)
Release Year: 1969
The opening track of the Volunteers album has the distinction of being the first song with one of the seven words you can't say on television to be performed uncut on national television (on the Dick Cavett show). Unlike David Peel, they didn't use the phrase in the song title, though.

Artist: MAX FROST AND THE TROOPERS
Song Title: "Shape of Things To Come"
Source: CD: NUGGETS BOX SET (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl and included on the motion picture soundtrack album Wild in the Streets)
Release Year: 1968
What can I say about this cut that I didn't say last week? Not much, other than to mention that it was written by the Brill Building songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and that it clocks in at under two minutes. That's all folks!