Yeah, I know this isn't being posted until after the show has already run. I'm kinda trying to keep a low profile with certain agencies that frown on advance posting of playlists. Apparently they seem to think people will tape them at home if they know ahead of time what's going to be played. Well, if people still actually used tape I might be able to see what they mean, but these days.............?
Anyway, here it is:
We start off this week's show with a request, which also serves to launch a set made up of cover tunes.
Artist: McKendree Spring
Title: Down By The River
Source: LP: McKendree Spring 3
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Decca
Year: 1972
Decca Records was considered one of the "big six" record companies of the 50s-60s, and one of the three based in New York. Unlike RCA Victor and Columbia, which had offices and studios on both coasts, Decca remained primarily an East Coast label, with a generous helping of imports supplementing the local talent. One of the last acts signed by the label was McKendree Spring, from Glens Falls, NY. Best described as a progressive folk-rock band, the group supplemented its basic rock instrumentation with violin, viola and synthesizers, all provided by Dr. Michael Dreyfuss. Their third album, released in 1972, starts off with a powerful version of the Neil Young classic Down By The River.
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: I Put A Spell On You
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
Before getting major attention for its string of top five singles (including three consecutive # 2 songs), CCR released a pair of cover tunes in 1968: Dale Hawkins' Suzy Q and this one from an entirely different Hawkins, Screamin' Jay. Although the Creedence version only made it to the # 58 spot on the national charts, it was still part of their repertoire when they played at Woodstock the following year.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Mary Mary
Source: CD: East-West
Writer: Michael Nesmith
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
Our third cover tune is technically not a cover tune at all, since it was actually the first version to get recorded. Still, since composer Michael Nesmith was the acknowledged leader of the Monkees, whose version came out in early 1967, the Butterfield version has to be considered a cover of sorts.
The next pair of songs were both requested by the same person that wanted to hear Space Hymn by Lothar and the Hand People. Unfortunately, the Lothar track is currently unavailable, but I do hope to get a copy of their earlier album soon. In the meantime, we do have these two tracks.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: The Park
Source: LP: Salisbury
Writer: Ken Hensley
Label: Mercury
Year: 1971
Uriah Heep's second album, Salisbury, saw the band shifting in a more progressive direction, thanks in large part to the input of keyboardist Ken Hensley, who wrote half the songs on the album. As the band's career progressed, Hensley would become the group's primary songwriter. One of the early Hensley tunes was the Park, a much quieter piece that anything on the first album.
Artist: Mamas and the Papas
Title: No Salt On Her Tail
Source: CD: The Mamas and the Papas
Writer: John Phillips
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1966
After only one album, mama Michelle was kicked out of the Mamas and the Papas for having an affair with papa Denny while being married to papa John. She rejoined the group midway through the recording of the group's self-titled second album in 1966, although I haven't been able to determine which songs she sang on and which ones featured temporary mama Jill. Am I the only one who groks a wrongness about this whole scenario?
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Sitting By The Window
Source: LP: Moby Grape
Writer: Peter Lewis
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Moby Grape's powerful 1967 debut managed to achieve what few bands have been able to: a coherent sound despite having wildly different writing styles from the individual members. One of Peter Lewis's contributions to the album was this tune.
To start the second segment we have a set of singles from 1965, stretching from coast to coast and kind of midway between the two. Following this up we have a set of tunes taking us through the years 1967 through 1969. The segment finishes with a set of lesser-known tunes from the Jefferson Airplane.
Artist: Wailers
Title: Out Of Our Tree
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Gardner/Morrill/Ormsby
Label: Rhino (original label: Etiquette)
Year: 1965
The Pacific Northwest was, and is, home to a louder, harder-rocking and generally raunchier style of rock and roll than most other regions of the country. It's never been explained exactly why this is, but Kurt Cobain may have touched on it when he said that because the weather is such that it discourages outdoor activities (i.e, it rains a lot), there really isn't much else to do but go to places where live music is played. Another reason for the scene developing the way it did might be these guys, who practically invented raunch and roll. The Wailers were formed in 1958, doing mostly instrumental versions of songs by Chuck Berry, Little Richard and other early rock and roll/R&B artists. One of the hallmarks of the Wailers was that they played hard and loud, influencing later bands such as the Sonics to do the same. This meant that in order to be heard over the instruments, a vocalist had to basically scream out the lyrics. Etiquette Records, which recorded both the Wailers and the Sonics, was one of the first labels to release records with a healthy amount of distortion built in. This may have been due to budget limitations or it could have been a deliberate aesthetical choice. The result was garage-rock classics such as Out Of Our Tree, the echoes of which can be heard in the Grunge movement of the early 1990s.
Artist: Barbarians
Title: Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Morris/Morris
Label: Rhino (original label: Laurie)
Year: 1965
From Boston we have the Barbarians, best known for having a one-handed drummer named Moulty who wore a hook on his other arm (and was probably the inspiration for the hook-handed bass player in the cult film Wild In The Streets a few years later).
Artist: Castaways
Title: Liar Liar
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Donna
Label: Rhino (original label: Soma)
Year: 1965
Our third and final track from 1965 is a classic example of a one-hit wonder. The Castaways were a popular local band in the Minneapolis are who, for less than two minutes at a time, dominated the national airwaves for a couple months before fading off into obscurity.
Artist: Standells
Title: Try It
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Levine/Bellack
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
After a series of singles written by producer Ed Cobb had resulted in diminishing returns, the Standells recorded this tune co-written by Joey Levine, who would rise to semi-anonymous notoriety as lead vocalist for the Ohio Express, a group that was essentially a vehicle for the Kazenetz/Katz production team, purveyors of what came to be called "bubble gum" music. The song itself was quickly banned on most radio stations under the assumption that the phrase "try it" was a call for teenage girls to abandon their virginity. The fact is that nowhere in the song does the word "teenage" appear, but nonetheless the song failed to make a dent in the charts, despite its catchy melody and danceable beat.
Artist: Them
Title: The Moth
Source: LP: Time Out! Time In! For Them
Writer: Lane/Pulley
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
From 1968 we have Van Morrison's former band, now fronted by Kenny McDowell, recording an album made up mostly of songs written by Tom Pulley and Vivian Lane, whom the band profoundly thanked in the liner notes for providing them with outstanding material to record.
Artist: Bubble Puppy
Title: Hot Smoke and Sassafras
Source: CD: Best of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: unknown
Label: Priority (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1969
From Houston we have a requested song from a band that was a couple years ahead of its time, displaying musical dexterity on a par with later groups such as Flash and Yes. Soon after recording Hot Smoke and Sassafras the Bubble Puppy would relocate to California and change their name to Demian, at least in part to disassociate themselves with the then-popular "bubble gum" style.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Turn My Life Down
Source: CD: Volunteers
Writer: Jorma Kaukonen
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1969
The fifth Jefferson Airplane studio album has a reputation of being their most political album. While that may be true, Volunteers is also the album that most showcases the growing diversity of writing styles among band members. In particular Jorma Kaukonen's contributions, such as Turn My Life Down, serve as a preview of the style that he and Jack Cassidy would adopt when they formed Hot Tuna the following year.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Plastic Fantastic Lover
Source: single B side
Writer: Marty Balin
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
Following the success of Somebody To Love, the Airplane quickly followed it up with their third single from the Surrealistic Pillow album, White Rabbit. Although it didn't get the same amount of top 40 airplay, Marty Balin's Plastic Fantastic Lover, issued as the B side of White Rabbit, has proved just as enduring as the A side. So much so that, when the Airplane reunited in 1989 and issued their two-disc retrospective, 2400 Fulton Street, they issued a special pressing of both songs on white vinyl as a way of promoting the collection.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: A Song For All Seasons
Source: CD: Volunteers
Writer: Spencer Dryden
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1969
When it comes to Jefferson Airplane rarities, there is nothing more rare than a Spencer Dryden composition. In fact, to my knowledge, A Song For All Seasons is the only one that he is given sole credit for. The song itself is a bit of a novelty, sounding like it would be more at home on a Rolling Stones (Let It Bleed era) album than an Airplane one, which is even odder when one considers Dryden's jazz background.
Our second hour this week is highlighted by a set of outstanding tracks from 1967. Before that we have a set that progresses from 1965-68. But first, a few words from Robert Zimmerman and some other singer-songwriters.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
Source: CD: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: CBS (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1966
After upsetting folk purists (and gaining mainstream success in the process) by adding rock instrumentation to his music in 1965, Dylan pretty much had a license to do whatever he wanted in 1966. It was a good thing, too; otherwise this track would have suffered the same fate as the Byrds' Eight Miles High released later that year. Since he was Bob Dylan, however, even Bill Drake (the most powerful man in top 40 radio), could not get this one banned for being a drug song.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Writer In The Sun
Source: LP: Mellow Yellow
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: Epic
Year: 1967
In 1966-67 Donovan's career was almost derailed by a contractual dispute with his UK label, Pye Records. This resulted in two of his albums, Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, not being issued in the UK. At the time he felt that there was a real chance that he would be forced into retirement by the dispute, and wrote this song addressing the subject.
Ironically his career was moving in the opposite direction in the US due to him switching from the relatively small Hickory label to industry giant Columbia's subsidiary label Epic Records and scoring top 10 singles with the title tracks from both albums. His success with those records in the US may have been a factor in Pye settling with the singer-songwriter and issuing a British album that combined tracks from the two albums in late 1967.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: Fly Away
Source: radio promo sampler LP (song released on LP: Projections)
Writer: Al Kooper
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
The Blues Project has a permanent place in rock history, both for pioneering the idea of touring coast to coast playing college venues and as the first jam band. Still, they were never able to break into top 40 radio at a time when a top 40 hit was considered essential to a band's commercial success. Keyboardist Al Kooper, on the other hand, was no stranger to hit records, having co-written This Diamond Ring, a song that became the first number one hit for Gary Lewis and the Playboys (although Kooper himself hated their arrangement of the song) in 1965. One of Kooper's attempts at writing a hit song for the Blues Project was Fly Away, included on their second LP, Projections.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Scarecrow
Source: CD: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol (original US label: Tower)
Year: 1967
When Pink Floyd first hit the recording studio, their primary songwriter was Syd Barrett. His genius was that he could compose strong singles such as Arnold Layne and See Emily Play as well as innovative album tracks like Scarecrow, establishing Pink Floyd as one of the most progressive groups in the history of rock in the process. Unfortunately, as is too often the case with geniuses, his inability to relate to mundane reality (combined with substance abuse) led to mental health issues that ultimately derailed his career.
Artist: Guess Who
Title: Shakin' All Over
Source: CD: Reelin' and Rockin' Vol. 7 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Johnny Kidd
Label: Happy Days of Rock and Roll (original US label: Scepter)
Year: 1965
Our progression through the years starts with a band formed in Winnipeg, Alberta, Canada in 1960. Originally calling themselves the Silvertones, they were by 1962 known as Chad Allan and the Silvertones, then Chad Allan and the Reflections and finally, by 1964 Chad Allan and the Expressions. During those years they had several lineup changes, scoring a few minor hits on the Canadian charts in the process. Finally, in 1965, with a lineup consisting of Chad Allan, Randy Bachman, Bob Ashley, Jim Kale and Dale Peterson, they decided to try a new tactic. Their latest single, Shakin' All Over, was already huge success in Canada, going all the way to the top of the charts, but the band had their eyes on the US market as well. Deliberately circulating a rumor that the record might actually be a British Invasion supergroup recording under a pseudonym, the band's US label, Scepter Records, issued the record with a plain white label credited to "Guess Who?" After the song was comfortably ensconced in the US top 40 (peaking at # 22) Scepter revealed that the band was actually Chad Allan and the Expressions. DJs in the US, however, continued to refer to the band as the Guess Who and within a few months the group adopted the new name. The band continued to chart minor hits in Canada using both Chad Allan and the Expressions and the Guess Who on their record labels, and for a time it looked like Shakin' All Over would be their only US hit. Burton Cummings replaced Bob Ashley in late 1965, sharing the lead vocals with Chad Allan, who left the group in 1966. Finally in 1969, after changing labels the Guess Who returned to the US charts with the album Wheatfield Soul, featuring the single These Eyes, and went on to score a series of hits in the early 70s.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Over, Under, Sideways, Down
Source: CD: Over, Under, Sideways, Down (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Dreja/McCarty/Beck/Relf/Samwell-Smith
Label: Raven (original US label: Epic)
Year: 1966
The only Yardbirds album to feature primarily original material was released under different titles in different parts of the world. The original UK version was called simply The Yardbirds, while the US album bore the Over, Under, Sideways, Down title. In addition, the UK album was unofficially known as Roger the Engineer because of band member Chris Dreja's drawing of the band's recording engineer on the cover. The title cut was the last single to feature Jeff Beck as the band's sole lead guitarist (the follow-up single, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, featured both Beck and Jimmy Page).
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: Intermission
Source: LP: Electric Comic Book
Writer: Esposito
Label: Mercury
Year: 1967
This track from the second Blues Magoos album is pretty much self-explanitory.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Jumpin' Jack Flash
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1968
After the commercial disappointment of their most psychedelic album, Their Satanic Majesties Request in late 1967, the Stones replaced longtime producer Andrew Loog Oldham with Jimmy Miller, who had made a name for himself working with Steve Winwood on recordings by both the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. The collaboration resulted in a back-to-basics approach that produced the classic single Jumpin' Jack Flash, followed by the Beggar's Banquet album.
Artist: Turtles
Title: She's My Girl
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Bonner/Gordon
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1967
Hot on the success of Happy Together, the Turtles again turned to the Bonner/Gordon songwriting team for this follow-up single. According to vocalist Howard Kaylan (or maybe it was Mark Volman), at that point in the band's career things were getting kind of weird, with one of the band members becoming convinced that he, not John Lennon, was in fact the walrus. Supposedly there's some strange things going on with the backup vocals on this track as well.
Artist: Love
Title: You Set The Scene
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Forever Changes)
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1967
During the production of Forever Changes, vocalist/guitarist Arthur Lee became convinced that he was destined to die soon after the release of the album. Accordingly, he crafted lyrics that were meant to be his final words to the world. As the final track on the LP, You Set The Scene in particular reflected this viewpoint. As it turned out, Forever Changes was not Lee's swan song. It was, however, the last album to feature the lineup that had been the most popular band on Sunset Strip for the past two years. Subsequent Love albums would feature a whole new lineup backing Lee, and would have an entirely different sound as well. Ironically, Lee was still around at the dawn of the 21st century over 30 years later (dying of acute myeloid leukemia in 2006), outliving several of his old bandmates.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Final Sequence
Source: CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1967
One of the great accidents of record production was the splice that turned the chicken at the end of Good Morning Good Morning into a guitar, starting off Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) and ultimately leading into A Day In The Life, with it's slowly dissolving orchestral chord that brings the number one album of 1967 to a close.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Like A Rolling Stone
Source: LP: Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
The first great rock festival was held in Monterey, California, in June of 1967. Headlined by the biggest names in the folk-rock world (the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Mamas and the Papas, Simon & Garfunkel), the festival also served to showcase the talent coming out of the nearby San Francisco Bay area and introduced an eager US audience to several up and coming international artists, such as Ravi Shankar, Hugh Masakela, the Who, and Eric Burdon's new Animals lineup. Two acts in particular stole the show: the soulful Otis Redding, who was just starting to cross over from a successful R&B career to the mainstream charts, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, formed in England in late 1966 by a former member of the US Army and two British natives. The recordings sat on the shelf for three years and were finally released less than a month before Hendrix's untimely death in 1970.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Show # 1103 playlist
This week we catch up on some requests that have been accumulating over the past couple weeks. The catch is you'll have to actually listen to the show to find out exactly which songs were requested and which ones weren't.
Artist: Fever Tree
Title: San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native)
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Fever Tree)
Writer: Holtzman/Holtzman
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Uni)
Year: 1968
A minor trend in 1968 was for producer/songwriters to find a band to record their material exclusively. A prime example is Houston's Fever Tree, which featured the music of husband and wife team Scott and Vivian Holtzman. San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native) was the single from that album, peaking in the lower reaches of the Hot 100 charts.
Artist: Focus
Title: House of the King
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Jan Akkerman
Label: Sire
Year: 1970
Dutch band Focus released House of the King as a single in 1970, between their first and second albums. The song finally appeared on an LP when Focus 3 was released three years later. Contrary to popular belief, the song was not re-recorded for the 1973 album.
Artist: Yes
Title: America
Source: CD: Yesterdays (originally released on LP: The New Age of Atlantic)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1972
Following the success of the Fragile album and the hit single Roundabout, Yes went into the studio to cut this ten and a half minute track for a special Atlantic Records sampler album. The song was then edited down for single release as a follow-up to Roundabout. The original unedited track was re-released on the album Yesterdays, which also featured several tracks from the first two Yes albums that featured an earlier lineup. Paul Simon's America was, in fact, the only track on Yesterdays that featured the classic Yes lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squires, Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman.
Artist: Seeds
Title: The Wind Blows Her Hair
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Saxon/Bigelow
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1967
I don't know for sure whether this non-album single from the original L.A. Flower Power band was intended to be the A side or the B side, as neither side made the charts. This is probably because the record came out at about the same time as the Mothers of Invention album We're Only In It For the Money, with its declaration that "Flower Power sucks" (in the song Absolutely Free), which was the hottest thing on the L.A. underground music scene in the summer of '67. In retrospect, The Wind Blows Her Hair was actually one of the Seeds best tunes.
Artist: Cream
Title: Mother's Lament
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Trad. Arr. Cream
Label: Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The shortest-ever Cream recording was this old English drinking song, led by drummer Ginger Baker, and chosen to close out the Disraeli Gears album. By one of those odd coincidences of the music industry, the album was issued in Europe on the Polydor label (as were many cutting-edge bands of the time, including the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Procol Harum and the Who), which at the time did not issue records in the US. By the late 1980s, however, Polydor was well established in the US and all the Cream albums on Compact Disc were released under the Polydor imprint.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: Baroque # 1
Source: LP: Ultimate Spinach (promotional mono pressing)
Writer: Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1967
Of the six major US record labels of the time, only two, Decca and M-G-M, failed to sign any San Francisco bands. Decca, which had been bought by MCA in the early 60s, was fast fading as a major force in the industry. M-G-M, on the other hand, had a strong presence on the Greenwich Village scene thanks to Tom Olson at the Verve Forecast label, who had signed such critically-acclaimed artists as Dave Van Ronk, Tim Hardin and the Blues Project. Taking this as an inspiration, the parent label decided to create interest in the Boston music scene, aggressively promoting (some would say hyping) the "Boss-Town Sound". One of the bands signed was Ultimate Spinach, which was led by keyboardist Ian Bruce-Douglas, who wrote all the band's material.
Artist: Who
Title: Disguises
Source: CD: A Quick One (originally released in UK on 45 RPM EP: Ready Steady Who)
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Reaction)
Year: 1966
After a successful appearance on the British TV show Ready Steady Go (the UK's answer to American Bandstand), the Who released an EP featuring mostly cover songs such as Bucket T and the Batman theme. Two tracks on the record, however, were Who originals: a new version of Circles (a song that originally appeared on the My Generation album) and Disguises, which made its debut as the lead track of the EP. When MCA issued a remastered version of A Quick One in the 1990s, the entire contents of the EP (except Circles) were included as bonus tracks on the CD.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Sing This All Together (See What Happens)
Source: CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1967
Following the critical and commercial success of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Stones responded with their most psychedelic album ever, Their Satanic Majesties Request, with its own cover parodying the Sgt. Pepper cover. As an added touch, the Stones album featured cover art done on special holographic paper (the same material used for holo rings purchased from bubble gum machines) to simulate a 3D effect. The first side wrapped up with the nearly eight-minute Sing This All Together (See What Happens), a sort of psychedelic jam track featuring an unusual array of instruments and effects.
Artist: Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys
Title: Track In 'A' (Nebraska Nights)
Source: LP: The Street Giveth…and the Street Taketh Away
Writer: Michaels/Smith/Equine/Chin/Packer
Label: Polydor
Year: 1968
When the Jimi Hendrix Experience toured promoting the Electric Ladyland album their opening act was Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys. Cat Mother was actually one of the earliest country-rock groups, with ties to Buffalo Springfield, Poco and the post-David Crosby Byrds, among others. Hendrix himself was so impressed with the band that he co-produced their first album, The Street Giveth…and the Street Taketh Away. The last track on the album is called, appropriately enough, Track In 'A' (subtitled Nebraska Nights), and is obviously a studio jam. This was also one of the first LPs to be released in the US on the Polydor label (see notes for Mother's Lament above for more on that).
Artist: B.B. King
Title: Losing Faith In You
Source: CD: Blues On Top Of Blues
Writer: unknown
Label: BGO
Year: 1968
Our final track for the first hour is a tune from the 1968 B.B. King album Blues On Top Of Blues, released on the Bluesway label. This was the first B.B. King album I ever bought. Unfortunately that copy disappeared from my collection many years ago; the CD I used for tonight's show is an import that is missing essential information such as songwriting credits and names of the musicians performing on the album.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: I'm A Man
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Winwood/Miller
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
The Spencer Davis Group, featuring Steve and Muff Winwood, was one of the UK's most successful white R&B bands of the sixties, cranking out a steady stream of hit singles. Two of them, the iconic Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man, were also major hits in the US, the latter being the last song to feature the Winwood brothers. Muff Winwood became a successful record producer. The group itself continued on for several years, but were never able to duplicate their earlier successes. As for Steve Winwood, he quickly faded off into obscurity, never to be heard from again. Except as the leader of Traffic. And a member of Blind Faith. And Traffic again. And some critically-acclaimed collaborations in the early 1980s with Asian musicians. Oh yeah, and a few major solo hits in the late 80s. Other than that, nothing.
Artist: Barry McGuire
Title: Eve of Destruction
Source: CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: P.F. Sloan
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1965
This week's longest progression through the years starts in 1965, with a song that represents the zenith of folk-rock's popularity. P.F. Sloan had already established a reputation for writing songs that captured the anger of youth by the time he wrote this tune, which Barry McGuire took into the top 10 in 1965.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Season of the Witch
Source: CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released on LP: Sunshine Superman)
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: Sony Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year: 1966
From 1966 we have an album track from Donovan's Sunshine Superman album. Due to a contract dispute with Pye Records UK, the album was not released in Donovan's home country until 1967, and then only as an LP combining tracks from both the Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums. Season of the Witch has since been covered by an impressive array of artists, including Al Kooper and Stephen Stills (on the Super Session album) and Vanilla Fudge.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: How Do You Feel
Source: LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer: Tom Mastlin
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
From 1967 we have the only song on Surrealistic Pillow not written by a current or former member of Jefferson Airplane. How Do You Feel was also issued as the B side of My Best Friend, the first single released from the album.
Artist: Electric Flag
Title: Over-Lovin' You
Source: LP: A Long Time Comin'
Writer: Goldberg/Bloomfield
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
We wrap up the set with a tune from the debut Electric Flag album. The Flag was an attempt to combine the quasi-Chicago blues style of the Butterfield Blues Band with an R&B style rhythm section. Guitarist Michael Bloomfield, who had just split with Butterfield, was the headliner for the band that also featured Barry Goldberg, Nick Gravenites and Buddy Miles, among others.
Artist: Count Five
Title: Psychotic Reaction
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michaelski
Label: Rhino (original label: Double Shot)
Year: 1966
Since this is an encore presentation of a song I played last week, I'm just going to re-present the comments on it as well: San Jose, California, had a vibrant teen music scene in the late 60s, despite the fact that the relatively small city was overshadowed by San Francisco at the other end of the bay (both cities are considered part of the same metropolitan market). One of the more popular bands in town was this group of five individuals who chose to dress up like Bela Lugosi's Dracula, capes and all. Musically, they idolized the Yardbirds (Jeff Beck era), and for slightly more than three minutes managed to sound more like their idols than the Yardbirds themselves (who by then had replaced Beck with Jimmy Page).
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Time Out (For a Daydream)
Source: CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Sundazed (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
Following the success of Talk Talk in 1966, Sean Bonniwell and the gang spent the next couple of years touring while grabbing any opportunity to get into a recording studio that presented itself. By 1968 the Music Machine was an entirely different band (except for Bonniwell himself). It was this new lineup that booked studio time somewhere in the midwest late at night after a gig and recorded this little ditty that ended up being released as the band's final single.
OK, I said I would make you listen to the show to figure out which artists/songs were requests. Now comes the exception: the act getting the most requests of the week. Who else but Jimi Hendrix?
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Purple Haze
Source: CD: Are You Experienced? (originally released in the UK as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original UK label: Track)(original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Purple Haze has one of the most convoluted release histories of any song ever recorded. Originally issued in the UK as a single, it scored high on the British charts. When Reprise got the rights to release the first Hendrix album, Are You Experienced?, they chose to replace the first track on the album with Purple Haze, moving the original opening track, Foxy Lady, to side two of the LP. The song next appeared on the Smash Hits album, which in Europe was on the Polydor label. This was the way things stayed until the early 1990s, when MCA acquired the rights to the Hendrix catalog and re-issued Are You Experienced? with the tracks restored to the UK ordering, but preceded by the six non-album sides (including Purple Haze) that had originally been released prior to the album. Most recently, the Hendrix Family Trust has again changed labels and the US version of Are You Experienced? is once again in print, this time on Sony's Legacy label. This means that the song has now been released by three of the four currently existing major record companies (the exception being the fourth-ranked EMI group).
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Come On (Pt. 1)
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Earl King
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
The Jimi Hendrix Experience had always mixed in a fair amount of blues covers into its live sets, but few were ever chosen for the recording studio. One notable exception is the early 60s Earl King tune Come On (part one), which was recorded for the Electric Ladyland album.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Third Stone From The Sun
Source: CD: Are You Experienced?
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Jimi Hendrix once stated that he was far more comfortable as a guitarist than as a vocalist, at least in the early days of the Experience. In that case, he was certainly in his element for this classic instrumental from the Are You Experienced? album. The entire train sequence at the end of the track was done entirely on guitar.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Burning of the Midnight Lamp
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Another song with a convoluted history, Burning of the Midnight Lamp was the fourth, and at the time most sophisticated single released by the Experience, coming out in mid-1967 between Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love. By this time, Reprise had changed its policy and ended up releasing the Axis album with the same song lineup as the UK original, which left Midnight Lamp a kind of orphan. Hendrix, though, having put a lot of work into the song, was not content to let the mono single release be the last word on the cut, and created a new stereo mix from the original tapes for inclusion on the third Experience album, Electric Ladyland, a year later.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Mother Nature's Son
Source: CD: The Beatles
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year: 1968
The Beatles (aka the White Album) was in many respects a collection of solo efforts by the band members as opposed to being a group effort. Most of the double LP's 30 tracks did not feature the entire band. This was especially notable among the many Lennon/McCartney compositions. Even though John Lennon and Paul McCartney were not writing as a team at this point (although they continued to share writing credits for the rest of the band's existence), they did tend to play on each other's songs, most of which had little or no input from either George Harrison or Ringo Starr. The only member featured on Mother Nature's Son, however, was McCartney. Stylistically the song links back to For No One from the Revolver album.
Artist: James Gang
Title: Take A Look Around
Source: CD: Yer Album
Writer: Joe Walsh
Label: MCA (original label: Bluesway)
Year: 1970
Like the Big Bands of the 30s and 40s, the James Gang went through several lineup changes over the years. The one common element of the band was drummer/founder Dale Peters, who teamed with bassist Tom Kriss and vocalist/guitarist Joe Walsh for the group's recording debut in 1969. Unlike most band leaders, Peters was content to let other members such as Walsh take center stage, both as performers and songwriters. The result was a band that was able to rock as hard as any of their contemporaries with tracks like The Bomber and Funk #49, but that could also showcase Walsh's more melodic side with songs such as Take A Look Around. For some unknown reason, ABC Records decided to issue Yer Album on it's Bluesway subsidiary; it was the only rock album ever released on that label (subsequent James Gang albums were on the parent ABC label).
Artist: Fever Tree
Title: San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native)
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Fever Tree)
Writer: Holtzman/Holtzman
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Uni)
Year: 1968
A minor trend in 1968 was for producer/songwriters to find a band to record their material exclusively. A prime example is Houston's Fever Tree, which featured the music of husband and wife team Scott and Vivian Holtzman. San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native) was the single from that album, peaking in the lower reaches of the Hot 100 charts.
Artist: Focus
Title: House of the King
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Jan Akkerman
Label: Sire
Year: 1970
Dutch band Focus released House of the King as a single in 1970, between their first and second albums. The song finally appeared on an LP when Focus 3 was released three years later. Contrary to popular belief, the song was not re-recorded for the 1973 album.
Artist: Yes
Title: America
Source: CD: Yesterdays (originally released on LP: The New Age of Atlantic)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1972
Following the success of the Fragile album and the hit single Roundabout, Yes went into the studio to cut this ten and a half minute track for a special Atlantic Records sampler album. The song was then edited down for single release as a follow-up to Roundabout. The original unedited track was re-released on the album Yesterdays, which also featured several tracks from the first two Yes albums that featured an earlier lineup. Paul Simon's America was, in fact, the only track on Yesterdays that featured the classic Yes lineup of Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squires, Bill Bruford and Rick Wakeman.
Artist: Seeds
Title: The Wind Blows Her Hair
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Saxon/Bigelow
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1967
I don't know for sure whether this non-album single from the original L.A. Flower Power band was intended to be the A side or the B side, as neither side made the charts. This is probably because the record came out at about the same time as the Mothers of Invention album We're Only In It For the Money, with its declaration that "Flower Power sucks" (in the song Absolutely Free), which was the hottest thing on the L.A. underground music scene in the summer of '67. In retrospect, The Wind Blows Her Hair was actually one of the Seeds best tunes.
Artist: Cream
Title: Mother's Lament
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Trad. Arr. Cream
Label: Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The shortest-ever Cream recording was this old English drinking song, led by drummer Ginger Baker, and chosen to close out the Disraeli Gears album. By one of those odd coincidences of the music industry, the album was issued in Europe on the Polydor label (as were many cutting-edge bands of the time, including the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Procol Harum and the Who), which at the time did not issue records in the US. By the late 1980s, however, Polydor was well established in the US and all the Cream albums on Compact Disc were released under the Polydor imprint.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: Baroque # 1
Source: LP: Ultimate Spinach (promotional mono pressing)
Writer: Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1967
Of the six major US record labels of the time, only two, Decca and M-G-M, failed to sign any San Francisco bands. Decca, which had been bought by MCA in the early 60s, was fast fading as a major force in the industry. M-G-M, on the other hand, had a strong presence on the Greenwich Village scene thanks to Tom Olson at the Verve Forecast label, who had signed such critically-acclaimed artists as Dave Van Ronk, Tim Hardin and the Blues Project. Taking this as an inspiration, the parent label decided to create interest in the Boston music scene, aggressively promoting (some would say hyping) the "Boss-Town Sound". One of the bands signed was Ultimate Spinach, which was led by keyboardist Ian Bruce-Douglas, who wrote all the band's material.
Artist: Who
Title: Disguises
Source: CD: A Quick One (originally released in UK on 45 RPM EP: Ready Steady Who)
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Reaction)
Year: 1966
After a successful appearance on the British TV show Ready Steady Go (the UK's answer to American Bandstand), the Who released an EP featuring mostly cover songs such as Bucket T and the Batman theme. Two tracks on the record, however, were Who originals: a new version of Circles (a song that originally appeared on the My Generation album) and Disguises, which made its debut as the lead track of the EP. When MCA issued a remastered version of A Quick One in the 1990s, the entire contents of the EP (except Circles) were included as bonus tracks on the CD.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Sing This All Together (See What Happens)
Source: CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1967
Following the critical and commercial success of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Stones responded with their most psychedelic album ever, Their Satanic Majesties Request, with its own cover parodying the Sgt. Pepper cover. As an added touch, the Stones album featured cover art done on special holographic paper (the same material used for holo rings purchased from bubble gum machines) to simulate a 3D effect. The first side wrapped up with the nearly eight-minute Sing This All Together (See What Happens), a sort of psychedelic jam track featuring an unusual array of instruments and effects.
Artist: Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys
Title: Track In 'A' (Nebraska Nights)
Source: LP: The Street Giveth…and the Street Taketh Away
Writer: Michaels/Smith/Equine/Chin/Packer
Label: Polydor
Year: 1968
When the Jimi Hendrix Experience toured promoting the Electric Ladyland album their opening act was Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys. Cat Mother was actually one of the earliest country-rock groups, with ties to Buffalo Springfield, Poco and the post-David Crosby Byrds, among others. Hendrix himself was so impressed with the band that he co-produced their first album, The Street Giveth…and the Street Taketh Away. The last track on the album is called, appropriately enough, Track In 'A' (subtitled Nebraska Nights), and is obviously a studio jam. This was also one of the first LPs to be released in the US on the Polydor label (see notes for Mother's Lament above for more on that).
Artist: B.B. King
Title: Losing Faith In You
Source: CD: Blues On Top Of Blues
Writer: unknown
Label: BGO
Year: 1968
Our final track for the first hour is a tune from the 1968 B.B. King album Blues On Top Of Blues, released on the Bluesway label. This was the first B.B. King album I ever bought. Unfortunately that copy disappeared from my collection many years ago; the CD I used for tonight's show is an import that is missing essential information such as songwriting credits and names of the musicians performing on the album.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: I'm A Man
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Winwood/Miller
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
The Spencer Davis Group, featuring Steve and Muff Winwood, was one of the UK's most successful white R&B bands of the sixties, cranking out a steady stream of hit singles. Two of them, the iconic Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man, were also major hits in the US, the latter being the last song to feature the Winwood brothers. Muff Winwood became a successful record producer. The group itself continued on for several years, but were never able to duplicate their earlier successes. As for Steve Winwood, he quickly faded off into obscurity, never to be heard from again. Except as the leader of Traffic. And a member of Blind Faith. And Traffic again. And some critically-acclaimed collaborations in the early 1980s with Asian musicians. Oh yeah, and a few major solo hits in the late 80s. Other than that, nothing.
Artist: Barry McGuire
Title: Eve of Destruction
Source: CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: P.F. Sloan
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1965
This week's longest progression through the years starts in 1965, with a song that represents the zenith of folk-rock's popularity. P.F. Sloan had already established a reputation for writing songs that captured the anger of youth by the time he wrote this tune, which Barry McGuire took into the top 10 in 1965.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Season of the Witch
Source: CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released on LP: Sunshine Superman)
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: Sony Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year: 1966
From 1966 we have an album track from Donovan's Sunshine Superman album. Due to a contract dispute with Pye Records UK, the album was not released in Donovan's home country until 1967, and then only as an LP combining tracks from both the Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums. Season of the Witch has since been covered by an impressive array of artists, including Al Kooper and Stephen Stills (on the Super Session album) and Vanilla Fudge.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: How Do You Feel
Source: LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer: Tom Mastlin
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
From 1967 we have the only song on Surrealistic Pillow not written by a current or former member of Jefferson Airplane. How Do You Feel was also issued as the B side of My Best Friend, the first single released from the album.
Artist: Electric Flag
Title: Over-Lovin' You
Source: LP: A Long Time Comin'
Writer: Goldberg/Bloomfield
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
We wrap up the set with a tune from the debut Electric Flag album. The Flag was an attempt to combine the quasi-Chicago blues style of the Butterfield Blues Band with an R&B style rhythm section. Guitarist Michael Bloomfield, who had just split with Butterfield, was the headliner for the band that also featured Barry Goldberg, Nick Gravenites and Buddy Miles, among others.
Artist: Count Five
Title: Psychotic Reaction
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michaelski
Label: Rhino (original label: Double Shot)
Year: 1966
Since this is an encore presentation of a song I played last week, I'm just going to re-present the comments on it as well: San Jose, California, had a vibrant teen music scene in the late 60s, despite the fact that the relatively small city was overshadowed by San Francisco at the other end of the bay (both cities are considered part of the same metropolitan market). One of the more popular bands in town was this group of five individuals who chose to dress up like Bela Lugosi's Dracula, capes and all. Musically, they idolized the Yardbirds (Jeff Beck era), and for slightly more than three minutes managed to sound more like their idols than the Yardbirds themselves (who by then had replaced Beck with Jimmy Page).
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Time Out (For a Daydream)
Source: CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Sundazed (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
Following the success of Talk Talk in 1966, Sean Bonniwell and the gang spent the next couple of years touring while grabbing any opportunity to get into a recording studio that presented itself. By 1968 the Music Machine was an entirely different band (except for Bonniwell himself). It was this new lineup that booked studio time somewhere in the midwest late at night after a gig and recorded this little ditty that ended up being released as the band's final single.
OK, I said I would make you listen to the show to figure out which artists/songs were requests. Now comes the exception: the act getting the most requests of the week. Who else but Jimi Hendrix?
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Purple Haze
Source: CD: Are You Experienced? (originally released in the UK as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original UK label: Track)(original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Purple Haze has one of the most convoluted release histories of any song ever recorded. Originally issued in the UK as a single, it scored high on the British charts. When Reprise got the rights to release the first Hendrix album, Are You Experienced?, they chose to replace the first track on the album with Purple Haze, moving the original opening track, Foxy Lady, to side two of the LP. The song next appeared on the Smash Hits album, which in Europe was on the Polydor label. This was the way things stayed until the early 1990s, when MCA acquired the rights to the Hendrix catalog and re-issued Are You Experienced? with the tracks restored to the UK ordering, but preceded by the six non-album sides (including Purple Haze) that had originally been released prior to the album. Most recently, the Hendrix Family Trust has again changed labels and the US version of Are You Experienced? is once again in print, this time on Sony's Legacy label. This means that the song has now been released by three of the four currently existing major record companies (the exception being the fourth-ranked EMI group).
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Come On (Pt. 1)
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Earl King
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
The Jimi Hendrix Experience had always mixed in a fair amount of blues covers into its live sets, but few were ever chosen for the recording studio. One notable exception is the early 60s Earl King tune Come On (part one), which was recorded for the Electric Ladyland album.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Third Stone From The Sun
Source: CD: Are You Experienced?
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Jimi Hendrix once stated that he was far more comfortable as a guitarist than as a vocalist, at least in the early days of the Experience. In that case, he was certainly in his element for this classic instrumental from the Are You Experienced? album. The entire train sequence at the end of the track was done entirely on guitar.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Burning of the Midnight Lamp
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Another song with a convoluted history, Burning of the Midnight Lamp was the fourth, and at the time most sophisticated single released by the Experience, coming out in mid-1967 between Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love. By this time, Reprise had changed its policy and ended up releasing the Axis album with the same song lineup as the UK original, which left Midnight Lamp a kind of orphan. Hendrix, though, having put a lot of work into the song, was not content to let the mono single release be the last word on the cut, and created a new stereo mix from the original tapes for inclusion on the third Experience album, Electric Ladyland, a year later.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Mother Nature's Son
Source: CD: The Beatles
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year: 1968
The Beatles (aka the White Album) was in many respects a collection of solo efforts by the band members as opposed to being a group effort. Most of the double LP's 30 tracks did not feature the entire band. This was especially notable among the many Lennon/McCartney compositions. Even though John Lennon and Paul McCartney were not writing as a team at this point (although they continued to share writing credits for the rest of the band's existence), they did tend to play on each other's songs, most of which had little or no input from either George Harrison or Ringo Starr. The only member featured on Mother Nature's Son, however, was McCartney. Stylistically the song links back to For No One from the Revolver album.
Artist: James Gang
Title: Take A Look Around
Source: CD: Yer Album
Writer: Joe Walsh
Label: MCA (original label: Bluesway)
Year: 1970
Like the Big Bands of the 30s and 40s, the James Gang went through several lineup changes over the years. The one common element of the band was drummer/founder Dale Peters, who teamed with bassist Tom Kriss and vocalist/guitarist Joe Walsh for the group's recording debut in 1969. Unlike most band leaders, Peters was content to let other members such as Walsh take center stage, both as performers and songwriters. The result was a band that was able to rock as hard as any of their contemporaries with tracks like The Bomber and Funk #49, but that could also showcase Walsh's more melodic side with songs such as Take A Look Around. For some unknown reason, ABC Records decided to issue Yer Album on it's Bluesway subsidiary; it was the only rock album ever released on that label (subsequent James Gang albums were on the parent ABC label).
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Show # 1102 playlist
This is one of those weeks where the show takes on a life of its own, despite my efforts to keep it nice and organized. I mean, what's with all these Texas bands, for instance? Take the first hour. It starts off with a nice progression through the years 1965-68. But then, something happens...
Artist: Beatles
Title: I've Just Seen A Face
Source: LP: Rubber Soul
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1965
Consider the case of Dave Dexter, Jr. Dexter was the guy at Capitol Records who decided in late 1962 that there was no profit in Capitol releasing records by the hot new British band known as the Beatles that had just been signed to their UK partner label, EMI. After he was finally persuaded to issue I Want To Hold Your Hand as a single in late 1963, he became the guy responsible for determining which songs got released in what format: LP or 45 RPM single. He also set the song lineups for all the Beatle albums released in the US up to and including Revolver in 1966. In 1965 he decided to change the entire tone of the Rubber Soul album by deleting the more soulful numbers and substituting a pair of more acoustical tunes that he had left off the US release of Help. This was a deliberate attempt to tie in the Beatles with the folk-rock movement, which at the time of Rubber Soul's release was at the peak of its popularity. Oddly enough, there are still people out there who prefer the US version of the album, from which this track (one of the two songs from the UK version of Help) was played.
Artist: Count Five
Title: Psychotic Reaction
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michaelski
Label: Rhino (original label: Double Shot)
Year: 1966
San Jose, California, had a vibrant teen music scene in the late 60s, despite the fact that the relatively small city was overshadowed by San Francisco at the other end of the bay (both cities are considered part of the same metropolitan market). One of the more popular bands in town was this group of five individuals who chose to dress up like Bela Lugosi's Dracula, capes and all. Musically, they idolized the Yardbirds (Jeff Beck era), and for slightly more than three minutes managed to sound more like their idols than the Yardbirds themselves (who by then had replaced Beck with Jimmy Page).
Artist: Sparkles
Title: No Friend of Mine
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Turnbow/Parks
Label: Rhino (original label: Hickory)
Year: 1967
It shouldn't be a surprise that the state of Texas would produce its share of garage/psychedelic bands. After all, the place used to be a medium-sized country. In fact, one of the first bands to actually use the word psychedelic in an album title was the 13th Floor Elevators out of Austin. The Sparkles hailed from a different part of the state, one known for its high school football teams as much as anything else: West Texas. Recorded in Big Spring, No Friend of Mine was one of a series of regional hits for the Sparkles that got significant airplay in places like Midland, Odessa and Monahans.
Artist: Doors
Title: Touch Me
Source: CD: Best of the Doors (originally released on LP: The Soft Parade and as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Robbie Kreiger
Label: Elektra
Year: 1968
The fourth Doors album was a departure from their previous work. No longer would the entire band be credited for all the tracks the band recorded. In addition, the group experimented with adding horns and other studio embellishments. Nowhere is this more evident than on Touch Me, the only hit single from the album.
Artist: Graham Nash
Title: Prison Song
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
Here's where the show started taking on a life of its own. I seriously doubt I could have planned a alternate year regression from 1973-1967, so it must be the show's fault. Prison Song itself is one of those songs that by all rights should have been a huge hit. It was by a name artist. It had a catchy opening harmonica riff and a haunting melody. I can only surmise that once again Bill Drake (the man who controlled top 40 radio in the 60s) decided that the lyrics were too controversial for AM radio and had the song blacklisted, much as he had done with the Byrds Eight Miles High a few years earlier. Those lyrics center on a subject that most Americans would rather pretend didn't exist: the utter absurdity of drug laws and the unequal sentences for violation of those laws in the US and its various states.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Medicated Goo
Source: LP: Welcome To The Canteen
Writer: Winwood/Miller
Label: United Artists
Year: 1971
Welcome To The Canteen was not originally meant to thought of as a Traffic album, even though it included all the members of that band (plus a couple more people). Instead, the album had a list of every musician performing on the album on the front cover. If this indeed had been an official Traffic album, it would mark the second time Dave Mason had quit and returned to the group.
Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Silver and Gold
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
Country Joe and the Fish were one of a handfull of acts to appear at both the Monterey and Woodstock festivals. Whereas at Monterey they were perhaps the quintessential psychedelic band, their Woodstock performance reflected the band's move to what they themselves described as "rock and soul" music. Silver and Gold was certainly one of the hardest rocking songs the band had ever performed, but was not released until 2009, when Rhino released its multi-disc Woodstock anniversary collection.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: Mean Old Southern
Source: LP: Live At Town Hall
Writer: public domain
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1967
The third Blues Project album was also the last to feature keyboardist Al Kooper, who would soon show up as a guest artist on Moby Grape's Grape Jam album and expand the jam band concept to a full-blown Super Session album a few months after that. Although the album title implied that it was made up of live performances, the reality was that half the tracks were actually studio recordings with audience sounds overdubbed to create the illusion of live performances.
Once again attempting to assert my control over the show, I decide to do a set from 1965. The show responds with four songs from all over the board.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Positively 4th Street
Source: 45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
Recorded during the same 1965 sessions that produced the classic Highway 61 Revisited album, Positively 4th Street was deliberately held back for release as a single later that year. It would not appear on an LP until the first Dylan Greatest Hits album.
Artist: Byrds
Title: The Times They Are A-Changin'
Source: CD: Turn! Turn! Turn!
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia Legacy
Year: 1965
In their early days the Byrds established themselves as the premier interpreters of Bob Dylan songs, helping to popularize the folk-rock movement in the process. Although not released as a single, The Times They Are A-Changin' was a staple of the band's live sets at Ciro's Le Disc on Sunset Strip and on the road.
Artist: Sir Douglas Quintet
Title: She's About A Mover
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Doug Sahm
Label: Rhino (original label: Tribe)
Year: 1965
Our second Texas band of the night is one of the original Tex-Mex bands, the Sir Douglas Quintet. Coming from the San Antonio area, Doug Sahm's outfit scored two big hits: She's About A Mover and (after relocating to San Francisco) Mendocino.
Artist: Bonzo Dog Band
Title: I'm The Urban Spaceman
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Neil Innes
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
The Bonzo Dog Dada Band (as they were originally called) was as much theatre (note the British spelling) as music, and were known for such antics as starting out their performances by doing calisthentics (after being introduced as the warm-up band) and having one of the members, "Legs" Larry Smith tapdance on stage (he was actually quite good). In 1967 they became the resident band on Do Not Adjust Your Set, a children's TV show that also featured sketch comedy by future Monty Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin and David Jason, the future voice of Mr. Toad and Danger Mouse. In 1968 they released their only hit single, I'm The Urban Spaceman, co-produced by Paul McCartney. Neil Innes would go on to hook up with Eric Idle for the Rutles projects, among others, and is often referred to as the Seventh Python.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Salt of the Earth
Source: CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
After scathing critical reviews and disappointing sales for their most psychedelic album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones took a few months off to regroup. They returned to the studio with a new producer (Jimmy Miller, who had previously worked with Traffic) and a back-to-basics approach that resulted in a new single, Jumpin' Jack Flash, followed by the release of the Beggar's Banquet album. The closing track of that album was Salt of the Earth, a song that started off sounding like a drinking song, gradually building up to a gospel-inflected fadeout.
Artist: King Crimson
Title: Cirkus
Source: LP: Lizard
Writer: Fripp/Sinfield
Label: Polydor
Year: 1970
By the release of the third King Crimson album, many key players had departed the band, including vocalist Greg Lake and keyboardist Ian McDonald. Still, such is the appeal of working with someone like bandleader Robert Fripp that he has never had any problem getting replacement personnel. In this case the new members would include Gordon Haskell on bass and vocals and Andy McCulloch on drums.
Artist: Turtles
Title: The Last Thing I Remember, The First Thing I Knew
Source: Turtles 1968 (12" 45 RPM Picture Disc)
Writer: The Turtles
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
In 1968 the Turtles rebelled against their record company. They did not attempt to break the contract or go on strike, though. Instead, they simply went into the studio and produced four songs that they themselves wrote and chose to record. The record company, however, chose not to issue any of the self-produced recordings (although one, Surfer Dan, did end up on their Battle of the Bands album a few months later). Finally, in the late 1970s a small independent label known for issuing oddball recordings by the likes of Barnes and Barnes (Fish Heads) and professional wrestler Fred Blassie (Pencil-Neck Geek) put out a 12-inch picture disc featuring the four tunes. That label also began reissuing old Turtles albums, starting it on a path that has since become the stock in trade for Rhino Records.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Ritual # 2
Source: LP: A Child's Guide To Good and Evil
Writer: Markley/Harris
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
The second hour starts off with a track from the third West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band album for Reprise, generally considered to be the best of the bunch. There's a reason music like theirs is sometimes called Acid Rock, and this track is as good an example as you'll find. Best listened to with headphones on.
At this point, the show is firmly in control of itself, so I decide just to go with the flow and see where it takes me.
Artist: Rising Sons
Title: If The River Was Whiskey (Divin' Duck Blues)
Source: CD: The Rising Sons
Writer: Sleepy John Estes
Label: Columbia Legacy
Year: 1965
Considering that by 1970 Columbia had established itself as one of the two dominant record companies when it came to the music of the left-leaning counter-culture (the other being Warner Brothers), it's odd to realize that a scant five years earlier they were known for their essential conservatism. Consider the case of the Rising Sons, a multi-racial band featuring such future stars as Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder and Jessie Kincaid. Although they had been signed by Columbia in 1965, nobody at the label had a clue on how to market or even properly produce the band's recordings. By mid-1966 the entire project was shelved and the tapes sat on a shelf in the vault until 1992, when someone at the label realized the historical significance of what they had.
Artist: Big Brother and the Holding Company
Title: Down On Me
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Joplin In Concert)
Writer: Trad. Arr. Joplin
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
Speaking of clueless record companies, we have a song originally recorded in 1967 at the studios of Mainstream Records, a medium-sized Chicago label known for its jazz recordings. At the time, Mainstream's engineers had no experience with a rock band, particularly a loud one like Big Brother, and vainly attempted to clean up the band's sound as best they could. The result was an album full of bland recordings sucked dry of the energy that made Big Brother and the Holding Company one of the top live attractions of its time. Luckily we have this live recording made in early 1968 and released in 1972 that captures the band at their peak, before powerful people with questionable motives convinced singer Janis Joplin that the rest of the group was holding her back.
Artist: Five Americans
Title: Western Union
Source: 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 from Southeastern State College in Durant Oklahoma, although they probably played at least as many gigs in neighboring Texas as in their home state. the Five Americans. Having already scored a minor hit with I See The Light the previous year, the group 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: Standells
Title: Why Pick On Me
Source: CD: Best of the Standells
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1966
Ed Cobb, who produced both the Standells and their Tower labelmates the Chocolate Watchband, was also a prolific songwriter who penned three charting singles for the former band in 1966. Why Pick On Me, while the least successful of the three, still manages to capture the zeitgeist of late 60s youth alienation.
When the show takes it on itself to segue from the Standells to Blind Faith, I realize I have to do something. Unfortunately, the show is not about to relinquish control without a fight. Thus we have a just-as-jarring jump to the Beach Boys before I can do anything about it.
Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Presence of the Lord
Source: LP: Blind Faith
Writer: Eric Clapton
Label: Polydor
Year: 1969
When the album Blind Faith first came out, several critics questioned why Steve Winwood sang lead on this track instead of songwriter Eric Clapton. Many went so far as to say Clapton should have sung the tune, but after countless recordings of Clapton singing Presence of the Lord in the ensuing years, it's kind of refreshing to go back and hear Winwood's interpretation [just not between the Standells and the Beach Boys!].
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Hang On To Your Ego
Source: CD: Good Vibrations-30 Years of the Beach Boys
Writer: Brian Wilson
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966
The Beatles Rubber Soul album is generally considered a turning point in rock music in that it represents the first time an album was conceived as a coherent whole, as opposed to a collection of unrelated songs. Despite the fact that the US version of the album was not entirely the album the Beatles intended it to be, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys took it as an inspiration to create Pet Sounds. Hang On To Your Ego is an early version of the song that became I Know There's An Answer from that album. Interestingly enough, Paul McCartney has said that Pet Sounds was the inspiration for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Artist: Oracle
Title: Don't Say No
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ruthann Friedmann
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
Our final Texas band of the night was not actually from Texas, although they were discovered there. Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, the Oracle relocated to L.A. in time to cut this single for Verve Forecast.
Finally, I manage to regain control of the show just in time to present an entire half hour segment of the Grateful Dead.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Dark Star
Source: LP: Live Dead
Writer: Hunter/Garcia
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1969
The most legendary of all the songs in the Grateful Dead performing repertoire was Dark Star. The extended jam often ran for a full hour or more. Thanks to the band's policy of allowing (even encouraging) fans to bring their own recording equipment to the band's concerts, there are literally hundreds of recordings of Dark Star being performed over the years, some of them taped directly from the band's own sound board. The version on Live Dead has the distinction of being the first sound board recording to be officially released on an album.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Truckin'
Source: CD: Skeletons From the Closet (originally released on LP: American Beauty)
Writer: Garcia/Weir/Hunter/Lesh
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
After two albums that mixed live and studio material and one double live LP, the Dead decided to make a serious effort to record an album entirely in the studio that was built around the songwriting rather than the performances. The result was American Beauty, the band's most commercially successful album up to that point. Along with the followup album, Workingman's Dead, American Beauty defined the Grateful Dead's sound for all but the most dedicated of concertgoers (the legendary Deadheads).
And that wraps up another week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. successful single (until the 1986 single Touch of Gray). Along with the followup album, Workingman's Dead, American Beauty defined the Grateful Dead's sound for all but the most dedicated of concertgoers (the legendary Deadheads) for many years.
And that wraps up another week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. Tune in next week to see if I can retain control over the show.
Artist: Beatles
Title: I've Just Seen A Face
Source: LP: Rubber Soul
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1965
Consider the case of Dave Dexter, Jr. Dexter was the guy at Capitol Records who decided in late 1962 that there was no profit in Capitol releasing records by the hot new British band known as the Beatles that had just been signed to their UK partner label, EMI. After he was finally persuaded to issue I Want To Hold Your Hand as a single in late 1963, he became the guy responsible for determining which songs got released in what format: LP or 45 RPM single. He also set the song lineups for all the Beatle albums released in the US up to and including Revolver in 1966. In 1965 he decided to change the entire tone of the Rubber Soul album by deleting the more soulful numbers and substituting a pair of more acoustical tunes that he had left off the US release of Help. This was a deliberate attempt to tie in the Beatles with the folk-rock movement, which at the time of Rubber Soul's release was at the peak of its popularity. Oddly enough, there are still people out there who prefer the US version of the album, from which this track (one of the two songs from the UK version of Help) was played.
Artist: Count Five
Title: Psychotic Reaction
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michaelski
Label: Rhino (original label: Double Shot)
Year: 1966
San Jose, California, had a vibrant teen music scene in the late 60s, despite the fact that the relatively small city was overshadowed by San Francisco at the other end of the bay (both cities are considered part of the same metropolitan market). One of the more popular bands in town was this group of five individuals who chose to dress up like Bela Lugosi's Dracula, capes and all. Musically, they idolized the Yardbirds (Jeff Beck era), and for slightly more than three minutes managed to sound more like their idols than the Yardbirds themselves (who by then had replaced Beck with Jimmy Page).
Artist: Sparkles
Title: No Friend of Mine
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Turnbow/Parks
Label: Rhino (original label: Hickory)
Year: 1967
It shouldn't be a surprise that the state of Texas would produce its share of garage/psychedelic bands. After all, the place used to be a medium-sized country. In fact, one of the first bands to actually use the word psychedelic in an album title was the 13th Floor Elevators out of Austin. The Sparkles hailed from a different part of the state, one known for its high school football teams as much as anything else: West Texas. Recorded in Big Spring, No Friend of Mine was one of a series of regional hits for the Sparkles that got significant airplay in places like Midland, Odessa and Monahans.
Artist: Doors
Title: Touch Me
Source: CD: Best of the Doors (originally released on LP: The Soft Parade and as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Robbie Kreiger
Label: Elektra
Year: 1968
The fourth Doors album was a departure from their previous work. No longer would the entire band be credited for all the tracks the band recorded. In addition, the group experimented with adding horns and other studio embellishments. Nowhere is this more evident than on Touch Me, the only hit single from the album.
Artist: Graham Nash
Title: Prison Song
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
Here's where the show started taking on a life of its own. I seriously doubt I could have planned a alternate year regression from 1973-1967, so it must be the show's fault. Prison Song itself is one of those songs that by all rights should have been a huge hit. It was by a name artist. It had a catchy opening harmonica riff and a haunting melody. I can only surmise that once again Bill Drake (the man who controlled top 40 radio in the 60s) decided that the lyrics were too controversial for AM radio and had the song blacklisted, much as he had done with the Byrds Eight Miles High a few years earlier. Those lyrics center on a subject that most Americans would rather pretend didn't exist: the utter absurdity of drug laws and the unequal sentences for violation of those laws in the US and its various states.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Medicated Goo
Source: LP: Welcome To The Canteen
Writer: Winwood/Miller
Label: United Artists
Year: 1971
Welcome To The Canteen was not originally meant to thought of as a Traffic album, even though it included all the members of that band (plus a couple more people). Instead, the album had a list of every musician performing on the album on the front cover. If this indeed had been an official Traffic album, it would mark the second time Dave Mason had quit and returned to the group.
Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Silver and Gold
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
Country Joe and the Fish were one of a handfull of acts to appear at both the Monterey and Woodstock festivals. Whereas at Monterey they were perhaps the quintessential psychedelic band, their Woodstock performance reflected the band's move to what they themselves described as "rock and soul" music. Silver and Gold was certainly one of the hardest rocking songs the band had ever performed, but was not released until 2009, when Rhino released its multi-disc Woodstock anniversary collection.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: Mean Old Southern
Source: LP: Live At Town Hall
Writer: public domain
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1967
The third Blues Project album was also the last to feature keyboardist Al Kooper, who would soon show up as a guest artist on Moby Grape's Grape Jam album and expand the jam band concept to a full-blown Super Session album a few months after that. Although the album title implied that it was made up of live performances, the reality was that half the tracks were actually studio recordings with audience sounds overdubbed to create the illusion of live performances.
Once again attempting to assert my control over the show, I decide to do a set from 1965. The show responds with four songs from all over the board.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Positively 4th Street
Source: 45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
Recorded during the same 1965 sessions that produced the classic Highway 61 Revisited album, Positively 4th Street was deliberately held back for release as a single later that year. It would not appear on an LP until the first Dylan Greatest Hits album.
Artist: Byrds
Title: The Times They Are A-Changin'
Source: CD: Turn! Turn! Turn!
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia Legacy
Year: 1965
In their early days the Byrds established themselves as the premier interpreters of Bob Dylan songs, helping to popularize the folk-rock movement in the process. Although not released as a single, The Times They Are A-Changin' was a staple of the band's live sets at Ciro's Le Disc on Sunset Strip and on the road.
Artist: Sir Douglas Quintet
Title: She's About A Mover
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Doug Sahm
Label: Rhino (original label: Tribe)
Year: 1965
Our second Texas band of the night is one of the original Tex-Mex bands, the Sir Douglas Quintet. Coming from the San Antonio area, Doug Sahm's outfit scored two big hits: She's About A Mover and (after relocating to San Francisco) Mendocino.
Artist: Bonzo Dog Band
Title: I'm The Urban Spaceman
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Neil Innes
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
The Bonzo Dog Dada Band (as they were originally called) was as much theatre (note the British spelling) as music, and were known for such antics as starting out their performances by doing calisthentics (after being introduced as the warm-up band) and having one of the members, "Legs" Larry Smith tapdance on stage (he was actually quite good). In 1967 they became the resident band on Do Not Adjust Your Set, a children's TV show that also featured sketch comedy by future Monty Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin and David Jason, the future voice of Mr. Toad and Danger Mouse. In 1968 they released their only hit single, I'm The Urban Spaceman, co-produced by Paul McCartney. Neil Innes would go on to hook up with Eric Idle for the Rutles projects, among others, and is often referred to as the Seventh Python.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Salt of the Earth
Source: CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
After scathing critical reviews and disappointing sales for their most psychedelic album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones took a few months off to regroup. They returned to the studio with a new producer (Jimmy Miller, who had previously worked with Traffic) and a back-to-basics approach that resulted in a new single, Jumpin' Jack Flash, followed by the release of the Beggar's Banquet album. The closing track of that album was Salt of the Earth, a song that started off sounding like a drinking song, gradually building up to a gospel-inflected fadeout.
Artist: King Crimson
Title: Cirkus
Source: LP: Lizard
Writer: Fripp/Sinfield
Label: Polydor
Year: 1970
By the release of the third King Crimson album, many key players had departed the band, including vocalist Greg Lake and keyboardist Ian McDonald. Still, such is the appeal of working with someone like bandleader Robert Fripp that he has never had any problem getting replacement personnel. In this case the new members would include Gordon Haskell on bass and vocals and Andy McCulloch on drums.
Artist: Turtles
Title: The Last Thing I Remember, The First Thing I Knew
Source: Turtles 1968 (12" 45 RPM Picture Disc)
Writer: The Turtles
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
In 1968 the Turtles rebelled against their record company. They did not attempt to break the contract or go on strike, though. Instead, they simply went into the studio and produced four songs that they themselves wrote and chose to record. The record company, however, chose not to issue any of the self-produced recordings (although one, Surfer Dan, did end up on their Battle of the Bands album a few months later). Finally, in the late 1970s a small independent label known for issuing oddball recordings by the likes of Barnes and Barnes (Fish Heads) and professional wrestler Fred Blassie (Pencil-Neck Geek) put out a 12-inch picture disc featuring the four tunes. That label also began reissuing old Turtles albums, starting it on a path that has since become the stock in trade for Rhino Records.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Ritual # 2
Source: LP: A Child's Guide To Good and Evil
Writer: Markley/Harris
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
The second hour starts off with a track from the third West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band album for Reprise, generally considered to be the best of the bunch. There's a reason music like theirs is sometimes called Acid Rock, and this track is as good an example as you'll find. Best listened to with headphones on.
At this point, the show is firmly in control of itself, so I decide just to go with the flow and see where it takes me.
Artist: Rising Sons
Title: If The River Was Whiskey (Divin' Duck Blues)
Source: CD: The Rising Sons
Writer: Sleepy John Estes
Label: Columbia Legacy
Year: 1965
Considering that by 1970 Columbia had established itself as one of the two dominant record companies when it came to the music of the left-leaning counter-culture (the other being Warner Brothers), it's odd to realize that a scant five years earlier they were known for their essential conservatism. Consider the case of the Rising Sons, a multi-racial band featuring such future stars as Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder and Jessie Kincaid. Although they had been signed by Columbia in 1965, nobody at the label had a clue on how to market or even properly produce the band's recordings. By mid-1966 the entire project was shelved and the tapes sat on a shelf in the vault until 1992, when someone at the label realized the historical significance of what they had.
Artist: Big Brother and the Holding Company
Title: Down On Me
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Joplin In Concert)
Writer: Trad. Arr. Joplin
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
Speaking of clueless record companies, we have a song originally recorded in 1967 at the studios of Mainstream Records, a medium-sized Chicago label known for its jazz recordings. At the time, Mainstream's engineers had no experience with a rock band, particularly a loud one like Big Brother, and vainly attempted to clean up the band's sound as best they could. The result was an album full of bland recordings sucked dry of the energy that made Big Brother and the Holding Company one of the top live attractions of its time. Luckily we have this live recording made in early 1968 and released in 1972 that captures the band at their peak, before powerful people with questionable motives convinced singer Janis Joplin that the rest of the group was holding her back.
Artist: Five Americans
Title: Western Union
Source: 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 from Southeastern State College in Durant Oklahoma, although they probably played at least as many gigs in neighboring Texas as in their home state. the Five Americans. Having already scored a minor hit with I See The Light the previous year, the group 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: Standells
Title: Why Pick On Me
Source: CD: Best of the Standells
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1966
Ed Cobb, who produced both the Standells and their Tower labelmates the Chocolate Watchband, was also a prolific songwriter who penned three charting singles for the former band in 1966. Why Pick On Me, while the least successful of the three, still manages to capture the zeitgeist of late 60s youth alienation.
When the show takes it on itself to segue from the Standells to Blind Faith, I realize I have to do something. Unfortunately, the show is not about to relinquish control without a fight. Thus we have a just-as-jarring jump to the Beach Boys before I can do anything about it.
Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Presence of the Lord
Source: LP: Blind Faith
Writer: Eric Clapton
Label: Polydor
Year: 1969
When the album Blind Faith first came out, several critics questioned why Steve Winwood sang lead on this track instead of songwriter Eric Clapton. Many went so far as to say Clapton should have sung the tune, but after countless recordings of Clapton singing Presence of the Lord in the ensuing years, it's kind of refreshing to go back and hear Winwood's interpretation [just not between the Standells and the Beach Boys!].
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Hang On To Your Ego
Source: CD: Good Vibrations-30 Years of the Beach Boys
Writer: Brian Wilson
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966
The Beatles Rubber Soul album is generally considered a turning point in rock music in that it represents the first time an album was conceived as a coherent whole, as opposed to a collection of unrelated songs. Despite the fact that the US version of the album was not entirely the album the Beatles intended it to be, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys took it as an inspiration to create Pet Sounds. Hang On To Your Ego is an early version of the song that became I Know There's An Answer from that album. Interestingly enough, Paul McCartney has said that Pet Sounds was the inspiration for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Artist: Oracle
Title: Don't Say No
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ruthann Friedmann
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
Our final Texas band of the night was not actually from Texas, although they were discovered there. Originally from Lake Charles, Louisiana, the Oracle relocated to L.A. in time to cut this single for Verve Forecast.
Finally, I manage to regain control of the show just in time to present an entire half hour segment of the Grateful Dead.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Dark Star
Source: LP: Live Dead
Writer: Hunter/Garcia
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1969
The most legendary of all the songs in the Grateful Dead performing repertoire was Dark Star. The extended jam often ran for a full hour or more. Thanks to the band's policy of allowing (even encouraging) fans to bring their own recording equipment to the band's concerts, there are literally hundreds of recordings of Dark Star being performed over the years, some of them taped directly from the band's own sound board. The version on Live Dead has the distinction of being the first sound board recording to be officially released on an album.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Truckin'
Source: CD: Skeletons From the Closet (originally released on LP: American Beauty)
Writer: Garcia/Weir/Hunter/Lesh
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
After two albums that mixed live and studio material and one double live LP, the Dead decided to make a serious effort to record an album entirely in the studio that was built around the songwriting rather than the performances. The result was American Beauty, the band's most commercially successful album up to that point. Along with the followup album, Workingman's Dead, American Beauty defined the Grateful Dead's sound for all but the most dedicated of concertgoers (the legendary Deadheads).
And that wraps up another week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. successful single (until the 1986 single Touch of Gray). Along with the followup album, Workingman's Dead, American Beauty defined the Grateful Dead's sound for all but the most dedicated of concertgoers (the legendary Deadheads) for many years.
And that wraps up another week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. Tune in next week to see if I can retain control over the show.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Show # 1101 Playlist
You may notice a bit more basic information on the songs this week. I figure if you're coming here to learn more about the music you hear on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era you might want to know who wrote the songs and what label they're on, in case you want to find your own copy. Call it an act of transparency, since that seems to be the byword of the current decade (as opposed to the byword of the previous one: hubris).
I'm making an effort to make the show more interractive this year, which basically means a greater emphasis on listener requests. This, of course, depends on you as much as it does me. Still, I thought I'd get things rolling with sets from the two most requested artists from the days when this show was still done live on a single station and I could actually take requests in real time over the phone. After this week, it's up to you.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Arnold Layne
Source: CD: Relics (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol (original single released in UK on EMI)
Year: 1967
The very first record released by Pink Floyd was Arnold Layne, released only in the UK by EMI Records. Like all early Floyd recordings, the song was written and sung by the mercurial Syd Barrett.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Astronomy Domine
Source: LP: Ummagumma
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Harvest
Year: 1969
By 1969, Barrett was no longer with Pink Floyd due to his rapidly deteriorating mental health. Still, the remaining band members (along with Barrett's replacement David Gilmour) continued to perform Barrett's compositions. The 1969 album Ummagumma was a double LP, with two sides of new studio recordings and two sides of live performances, such as Barrett's Astronomy Domine, which had originally appeared on the first Pink Floyd album The Piper At the Gates of Dawn.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Bike
Source: CD: Relics (originally released on LP: The Piper At the Gates of Dawn)
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol (originally released on EMI/Columbia in UK)
Year: 1967
Speaking of the first Pink Floyd album, we have the last track from that release, the Barrett tune Bike. Due to an inherent cheapness in Tower Records' approach to pretty much everything, the track (along with three other songs) was left off the US release of that album, with Arnold Layne being inserted into the lineup instead. All CD releases of Piper in the US have restored the original song lineup and running order.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Pilgrim's Progress
Source: LP: A Salty Dog
Writer: Fisher/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
Although Procol Harum has the reputation of being one of the first bands to incorporate classical music influences, only one of the original members had any classical training: organist Matthew Fisher. The bulk of Procol Harum's compositions, however, were by pianist Gary Brooker and lyricist (and non-performing band member) Keith Reid. Pilgrim's Progress, from A Salty Dog, is a rare exception that sees Reid teamed with Fisher. Ironically, this song, which appears as the last track on the album, would be the last from Fisher, who left Procol Harum after A Salty Dog was released in 1969.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: With You There To Help Me
Source: CD: Benefit
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol
Year: 1970
Jethro Tull's third album, Benefit, was the first to feature keyboardist John Evans, although he would not receive recognition as a full member of the band until the next album, Aqualung. By the time of Benefit, Jethro Tull was displaying the style (or rather variety of styles) that would characterize their most successful period.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Gypsy Eyes
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Among the many ways that Jimi Hendrix was an innovator was in his approach to studio recordings. Whereas previous artists had concentrated on their mono mixes, with the stereo versions often done almost as an afterthought, Hendrix instead saw stereo mixing as fertile ground for creative experimentation. By the time of Electric Ladyland he was doing only stereo mixes; the mono mix heard here is a simple recombining of the two channels rather than a seperate dedicated mix.
Artist: Human Beinz
Title: Nobody But Me
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ron Isley
Label: LP: Rhino (originally released on Capitol)
Year: 1968
The Human Beinz were a band that had been around since 1964 doing mostly club gigs in the Youngstown, Ohio area as the Premiers. In the late 60s they decided to update their image with a name more in tune with the times and came up with the Human Beingz. Unfortunately someone at Capitol misspelled their name on the label of Nobody But Me, and after the song became a national hit the band was stuck with the new spelling. The band split up in 1969, but after Nobody But Me was featured in the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Vol.1, original leader Ting Markulin reformed the band with a new lineup that has appeared in the Northeastern US in recent years.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Double Yellow Line
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (originally released on Original Sound 45 and Warner Brothers LP)
Year: 1967
The original Music Machine released a string of singles from late 1966 through early 1967, but due to a lack of competence on the part of both management and label, none of them were hits. Songs like Double Yellow Line were certainly as good if not better than most of what was hitting the charts at the time. It was not until the 21st century that Sean Bonniwell's music began to receive the recognition it deserved, a process that is still under way.
Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: Trouble Every Day
Source: CD: Freak Out
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Ryko (originally released on Verve)
Year: 1966
The first hour of this week's show ends with the other band that received the most requests during the pre-syndication years of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era: The Mothers of Invention. Trouble Every Day was clearly a personal favorite of Frank Zappa's, as he did not one, but two updated versions over the years and was still performing the song live well into the 1980s. The lyrics, while somewhat topical in that they were inspired by a specific event (the Watts riots), remain relevant today, perhaps in some ways even more than when they were originally written.
Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: Return of the Son of Monster Magnet
Source: LP: Freak Out
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Verve
Year: 1966
Thanks to the recent acquisition of the Freak Out CD, I can finally play these two tracks back to back (they were on opposite sides of the same disc on the original LP). Return of the Son of Monster Magnet was the most experimental piece on the album. Described in the liner notes (written by Frank Zappa) as the result of turning a bunch of freaks loose in the studio with $300 worth of rented percussion instruments at 3AM, the track took up the entire fourth side of the album and served as a harbinger of the direction Zappa's future compositions would take.
The second hour of this week's show returns us to what will generally be a typical hour of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era, including a couple progressions though the years and a set from San Francisco bay area bands. First, though, a couple tunes that indirectly illustrate the differences between the two major factions of British Invasion groups (blues and beat).
Artist: Deepest Blue
Title: Pretty Little Thing
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Shackleford/Johnson
Label: Rhino (originally released on Blue-Fin)
Year: 1966
Starting off the hour we have a track from a band never heard on the show before. Pomona, California was the hometown of the Doves, who actually recorded Pretty Little Thing before changing their name to Deepest Blue and releasing the tune on the small independent Blue-Fin label. Like most pre-flower power L.A. area bands, the Doves were strongly influenced by the Rolling Stones and other more blues-oriented British Invasion bands.
Artist: Family Tree
Title: Live Your Own Life
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Segarini/Dure
Label: Rhino (originally released on Mira)
Year: 1966
As a counterpoint of sorts to the previous track, we have an example of a fairly typical pre-Haight-Ashbury San Francisco band. The Family Tree was actually one of the first rock bands to play the Fillmore, but even then were seen as interlopers due to their propensity for dressing and sounding like the Beatles and other Mercybeat bands. Live Your Own Life was intended for release on San Francisco's premier local label, Autumn Records, but for some unknown reason ended up on Mira (the same label that released L.A. band the Leaves' first records). The song was described by some as sounding like the early Jefferson Airplane. As a way of checking that out we have the next track....
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Bringing Me Down
Source: LP: Takes Off
Writer: Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
Jefferson Airplane was not only the first San Francisco band signed to a major label, it was also one of the first US rock bands to develop a style that was independent of the British Invasion styles. Billed as a "jet age sound," the early Airplane was a reflection of the songwriting style of Marty Balin and to a slightly-lesser degree, Paul Kantner, neither of which sounded anything like either the Beatles or Stones.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: No Way Out
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: No Way Out and as a 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (originally released on Tower)
Year: 1967
The Chocolate Watchband, from the southern part of the Bay Area (specifically Foothills Junior College in Los Altos Hills), were fairly typical of the south bay music scene, centered in San Jose. Although they were generally known for lead vocalist Dave Aguilar's ability to channel Mick Jagger with uncanny accuracy, producer Ed Cobb gave them a more psychedelic sound in the studio with the use of studio effects and other enhancements (including adding tracks to their albums that were performed entire by studio musicians).
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Boogie Music
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Living the Blues)
Writer: L.T. Tatman III
Label: United Artists (originally released on Liberty)
Year: 1968
Canned Heat was formed in 1966 by a group of Bay Area blues purists. Although a favorite on the rock scene, the band continued to remain true to the blues throughout their existence. The band's most popular single was Going Up the Country from the album Living the Blues. An edited version of Boogie Music, also from Living the Blues, was issued as the B side of that single. This is the full-length version.
Title: Overdrive
Source: LP: Sailor
Writer: Boz Scaggs
Label: Capitol
Year: 1968
The Steve Miller Band, in its early years, was in a sense an American version of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, serving as a launching pad for the careers of Ben Sidran and Boz Scaggs, among others. This early Scaggs tune shows a harder-edged side to the Boz than most of his later solo hits.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Cosmic Charlie
Source: CD: Aoxomoxoa
Writer: Garcia/Hunter/Lesh
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1969
Finishing off this San Francisco set we have the group with the greatest longevity of all the Bay Area bands, continuing to perform almost continuously until the death of Jerry Garcia in the mid 1990s. Aoxomoxoa, the group's third LP, continued the band's experimentation with studio enhancement of live recordings started with the previous album, Anthem of the Sun. The next album would be a full-blown live double LP, appropriately titled Live Dead.
Artist: Paupers
Title: Simple Deed
Source: LP: Magic People
Writer: Mitchell/Prokop
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1967
The Paupers were a Canadian band that moved to New York in early 1966. At first, the future looked bright for the band, especially after an appearance later that year opening for the Airplane at the Cafe-Au-Go-Go that garnered an unprecedented call for an encore. Somehow, though, they were unable to generate the same kind of response with material recorded in the studio and after a pair of decent but unspectacular albums the members went their seperate ways. Skip Prokop in particular went on to become one of the most in-demand studio drummers in the business.
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: Yes, I'm Experienced
Source: CD: Winds Of Change
Writer: Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label: Repertoire (originally released in US on M-G-M)
Year: 1967
A grand tradition dating back to the early Rhythm and Blues recordings was something called the "answer song". Someone would record a song (Hound Dog, for example), that would become popular. In turn, another artist (often a friend of the original one), would then come up with a song that answered the original tune (Bear Cat, in our example earlier). This idea was picked up on by white artists in the late 50s (Hey Paula answered by Hey Paul). True to the tradition, Eric Burdon answered his friend Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced with this song, done in a style similar to another Hendrix tune, Manic Depression.
Artist: Them
Title: I Happen To Love You
Source: LP: Us And Them
Writer: Goffin/King
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
Continuing our progression through the years we have a song that was first recorded by the Electric Prunes for their 1967 album Underground. The band wanted to release this Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune as a single, but the shirts instead chose to issue To the Highest Bidder, a novelty track by the Tucker/Mantz team that had written I Had Too Much To Dream instead. Unlike the Prunes version, which emphasized the King melody line, Them's version was done in much the same style as their earlier recordings with Van Morrison. Kenny McDowell provided the lead vocal.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: Where Is Happiness
Source: LP: Near The Beginning
Writer: Carmine Appice
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
Our 1969 entry is a track from one of the last Vanilla Fudge albums and a rare Carmine Appice composition.
Artist: Leaves
Title: Hey Joe
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Hey Joe)
Writer: disputed
Label: Rhino (originally released on Mira)
Year: 1966
Our second progression through the years starts with this track from late 1966 that went national the following year. The origins of the song Hey Joe are surrounded in mystery. Various writers have been given credit for the tune, including Chet Powers, aka Dino Valenti, who wrote Get Together, but David Crosby claimed the song was actually an old folk tune dating back to the 19th century that he himself had popularized as a member of the Byrds before the Leaves got ahold of it. Regardless of where the song came from, the Leaves version was the first to be released as a single and is generally considered the definitive fast version of the song. In Britain it was the slower version favored by the Jimi Hendrix Experience that became a hit, using an arrangement pioneered by songwriter Tim Rose and the Music Machine's Sean Bonniwell.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: There's A Chance We Can Make It
Source: CD: Kaleidoscopic Compendium (originally released on LP: Electric Comic Book)
Writer: Gilbert/Scala
Label: Mercury
Year: 1967
Following the success of (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet, the Blues Magoos released There's A Chance We Can Make It, backed with Pipe Dream, both from the Electric Comic Book album. Or possibly it was the other way around; and therein lies the problem. Mercury failed to specify which side of the record was the A side, and radio stations were equally divided as to which song to play. As a result, neither song was able to make the upper reaches of the charts, despite both being hit material.
Artist: Doors
Title: Spanish Caravan
Source: CD: Waiting For The Sun
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1968
The third Doors album was somewhat of a departure from the first two, covering a greater variety of styles than their previous efforts. A prime example is Spanish Caravan, which starts with a flamenco solo from Robbie Kreiger and continues in a highly Spanish (not Mexican) flavored musical vein.
As a bonus, we have a second tune from 1968 to wrap up the show.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Feelin' Alright
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Traffic)
Writer: Dave Mason
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
Dave Mason left Traffic after the band's first album, Mr. Fantasy, but returned in time to contribute several songs to the band's eponymous second album. Among those was his most memorable song, Feelin' Alright, which would become one of the most covered songs in rock history.
I'm making an effort to make the show more interractive this year, which basically means a greater emphasis on listener requests. This, of course, depends on you as much as it does me. Still, I thought I'd get things rolling with sets from the two most requested artists from the days when this show was still done live on a single station and I could actually take requests in real time over the phone. After this week, it's up to you.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Arnold Layne
Source: CD: Relics (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol (original single released in UK on EMI)
Year: 1967
The very first record released by Pink Floyd was Arnold Layne, released only in the UK by EMI Records. Like all early Floyd recordings, the song was written and sung by the mercurial Syd Barrett.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Astronomy Domine
Source: LP: Ummagumma
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Harvest
Year: 1969
By 1969, Barrett was no longer with Pink Floyd due to his rapidly deteriorating mental health. Still, the remaining band members (along with Barrett's replacement David Gilmour) continued to perform Barrett's compositions. The 1969 album Ummagumma was a double LP, with two sides of new studio recordings and two sides of live performances, such as Barrett's Astronomy Domine, which had originally appeared on the first Pink Floyd album The Piper At the Gates of Dawn.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Bike
Source: CD: Relics (originally released on LP: The Piper At the Gates of Dawn)
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol (originally released on EMI/Columbia in UK)
Year: 1967
Speaking of the first Pink Floyd album, we have the last track from that release, the Barrett tune Bike. Due to an inherent cheapness in Tower Records' approach to pretty much everything, the track (along with three other songs) was left off the US release of that album, with Arnold Layne being inserted into the lineup instead. All CD releases of Piper in the US have restored the original song lineup and running order.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Pilgrim's Progress
Source: LP: A Salty Dog
Writer: Fisher/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
Although Procol Harum has the reputation of being one of the first bands to incorporate classical music influences, only one of the original members had any classical training: organist Matthew Fisher. The bulk of Procol Harum's compositions, however, were by pianist Gary Brooker and lyricist (and non-performing band member) Keith Reid. Pilgrim's Progress, from A Salty Dog, is a rare exception that sees Reid teamed with Fisher. Ironically, this song, which appears as the last track on the album, would be the last from Fisher, who left Procol Harum after A Salty Dog was released in 1969.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: With You There To Help Me
Source: CD: Benefit
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol
Year: 1970
Jethro Tull's third album, Benefit, was the first to feature keyboardist John Evans, although he would not receive recognition as a full member of the band until the next album, Aqualung. By the time of Benefit, Jethro Tull was displaying the style (or rather variety of styles) that would characterize their most successful period.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Gypsy Eyes
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Among the many ways that Jimi Hendrix was an innovator was in his approach to studio recordings. Whereas previous artists had concentrated on their mono mixes, with the stereo versions often done almost as an afterthought, Hendrix instead saw stereo mixing as fertile ground for creative experimentation. By the time of Electric Ladyland he was doing only stereo mixes; the mono mix heard here is a simple recombining of the two channels rather than a seperate dedicated mix.
Artist: Human Beinz
Title: Nobody But Me
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ron Isley
Label: LP: Rhino (originally released on Capitol)
Year: 1968
The Human Beinz were a band that had been around since 1964 doing mostly club gigs in the Youngstown, Ohio area as the Premiers. In the late 60s they decided to update their image with a name more in tune with the times and came up with the Human Beingz. Unfortunately someone at Capitol misspelled their name on the label of Nobody But Me, and after the song became a national hit the band was stuck with the new spelling. The band split up in 1969, but after Nobody But Me was featured in the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Vol.1, original leader Ting Markulin reformed the band with a new lineup that has appeared in the Northeastern US in recent years.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Double Yellow Line
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (originally released on Original Sound 45 and Warner Brothers LP)
Year: 1967
The original Music Machine released a string of singles from late 1966 through early 1967, but due to a lack of competence on the part of both management and label, none of them were hits. Songs like Double Yellow Line were certainly as good if not better than most of what was hitting the charts at the time. It was not until the 21st century that Sean Bonniwell's music began to receive the recognition it deserved, a process that is still under way.
Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: Trouble Every Day
Source: CD: Freak Out
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Ryko (originally released on Verve)
Year: 1966
The first hour of this week's show ends with the other band that received the most requests during the pre-syndication years of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era: The Mothers of Invention. Trouble Every Day was clearly a personal favorite of Frank Zappa's, as he did not one, but two updated versions over the years and was still performing the song live well into the 1980s. The lyrics, while somewhat topical in that they were inspired by a specific event (the Watts riots), remain relevant today, perhaps in some ways even more than when they were originally written.
Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: Return of the Son of Monster Magnet
Source: LP: Freak Out
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Verve
Year: 1966
Thanks to the recent acquisition of the Freak Out CD, I can finally play these two tracks back to back (they were on opposite sides of the same disc on the original LP). Return of the Son of Monster Magnet was the most experimental piece on the album. Described in the liner notes (written by Frank Zappa) as the result of turning a bunch of freaks loose in the studio with $300 worth of rented percussion instruments at 3AM, the track took up the entire fourth side of the album and served as a harbinger of the direction Zappa's future compositions would take.
The second hour of this week's show returns us to what will generally be a typical hour of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era, including a couple progressions though the years and a set from San Francisco bay area bands. First, though, a couple tunes that indirectly illustrate the differences between the two major factions of British Invasion groups (blues and beat).
Artist: Deepest Blue
Title: Pretty Little Thing
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Shackleford/Johnson
Label: Rhino (originally released on Blue-Fin)
Year: 1966
Starting off the hour we have a track from a band never heard on the show before. Pomona, California was the hometown of the Doves, who actually recorded Pretty Little Thing before changing their name to Deepest Blue and releasing the tune on the small independent Blue-Fin label. Like most pre-flower power L.A. area bands, the Doves were strongly influenced by the Rolling Stones and other more blues-oriented British Invasion bands.
Artist: Family Tree
Title: Live Your Own Life
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Segarini/Dure
Label: Rhino (originally released on Mira)
Year: 1966
As a counterpoint of sorts to the previous track, we have an example of a fairly typical pre-Haight-Ashbury San Francisco band. The Family Tree was actually one of the first rock bands to play the Fillmore, but even then were seen as interlopers due to their propensity for dressing and sounding like the Beatles and other Mercybeat bands. Live Your Own Life was intended for release on San Francisco's premier local label, Autumn Records, but for some unknown reason ended up on Mira (the same label that released L.A. band the Leaves' first records). The song was described by some as sounding like the early Jefferson Airplane. As a way of checking that out we have the next track....
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Bringing Me Down
Source: LP: Takes Off
Writer: Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
Jefferson Airplane was not only the first San Francisco band signed to a major label, it was also one of the first US rock bands to develop a style that was independent of the British Invasion styles. Billed as a "jet age sound," the early Airplane was a reflection of the songwriting style of Marty Balin and to a slightly-lesser degree, Paul Kantner, neither of which sounded anything like either the Beatles or Stones.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: No Way Out
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: No Way Out and as a 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (originally released on Tower)
Year: 1967
The Chocolate Watchband, from the southern part of the Bay Area (specifically Foothills Junior College in Los Altos Hills), were fairly typical of the south bay music scene, centered in San Jose. Although they were generally known for lead vocalist Dave Aguilar's ability to channel Mick Jagger with uncanny accuracy, producer Ed Cobb gave them a more psychedelic sound in the studio with the use of studio effects and other enhancements (including adding tracks to their albums that were performed entire by studio musicians).
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Boogie Music
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Living the Blues)
Writer: L.T. Tatman III
Label: United Artists (originally released on Liberty)
Year: 1968
Canned Heat was formed in 1966 by a group of Bay Area blues purists. Although a favorite on the rock scene, the band continued to remain true to the blues throughout their existence. The band's most popular single was Going Up the Country from the album Living the Blues. An edited version of Boogie Music, also from Living the Blues, was issued as the B side of that single. This is the full-length version.
Title: Overdrive
Source: LP: Sailor
Writer: Boz Scaggs
Label: Capitol
Year: 1968
The Steve Miller Band, in its early years, was in a sense an American version of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, serving as a launching pad for the careers of Ben Sidran and Boz Scaggs, among others. This early Scaggs tune shows a harder-edged side to the Boz than most of his later solo hits.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Cosmic Charlie
Source: CD: Aoxomoxoa
Writer: Garcia/Hunter/Lesh
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1969
Finishing off this San Francisco set we have the group with the greatest longevity of all the Bay Area bands, continuing to perform almost continuously until the death of Jerry Garcia in the mid 1990s. Aoxomoxoa, the group's third LP, continued the band's experimentation with studio enhancement of live recordings started with the previous album, Anthem of the Sun. The next album would be a full-blown live double LP, appropriately titled Live Dead.
Artist: Paupers
Title: Simple Deed
Source: LP: Magic People
Writer: Mitchell/Prokop
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1967
The Paupers were a Canadian band that moved to New York in early 1966. At first, the future looked bright for the band, especially after an appearance later that year opening for the Airplane at the Cafe-Au-Go-Go that garnered an unprecedented call for an encore. Somehow, though, they were unable to generate the same kind of response with material recorded in the studio and after a pair of decent but unspectacular albums the members went their seperate ways. Skip Prokop in particular went on to become one of the most in-demand studio drummers in the business.
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: Yes, I'm Experienced
Source: CD: Winds Of Change
Writer: Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label: Repertoire (originally released in US on M-G-M)
Year: 1967
A grand tradition dating back to the early Rhythm and Blues recordings was something called the "answer song". Someone would record a song (Hound Dog, for example), that would become popular. In turn, another artist (often a friend of the original one), would then come up with a song that answered the original tune (Bear Cat, in our example earlier). This idea was picked up on by white artists in the late 50s (Hey Paula answered by Hey Paul). True to the tradition, Eric Burdon answered his friend Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced with this song, done in a style similar to another Hendrix tune, Manic Depression.
Artist: Them
Title: I Happen To Love You
Source: LP: Us And Them
Writer: Goffin/King
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
Continuing our progression through the years we have a song that was first recorded by the Electric Prunes for their 1967 album Underground. The band wanted to release this Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune as a single, but the shirts instead chose to issue To the Highest Bidder, a novelty track by the Tucker/Mantz team that had written I Had Too Much To Dream instead. Unlike the Prunes version, which emphasized the King melody line, Them's version was done in much the same style as their earlier recordings with Van Morrison. Kenny McDowell provided the lead vocal.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: Where Is Happiness
Source: LP: Near The Beginning
Writer: Carmine Appice
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
Our 1969 entry is a track from one of the last Vanilla Fudge albums and a rare Carmine Appice composition.
Artist: Leaves
Title: Hey Joe
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Hey Joe)
Writer: disputed
Label: Rhino (originally released on Mira)
Year: 1966
Our second progression through the years starts with this track from late 1966 that went national the following year. The origins of the song Hey Joe are surrounded in mystery. Various writers have been given credit for the tune, including Chet Powers, aka Dino Valenti, who wrote Get Together, but David Crosby claimed the song was actually an old folk tune dating back to the 19th century that he himself had popularized as a member of the Byrds before the Leaves got ahold of it. Regardless of where the song came from, the Leaves version was the first to be released as a single and is generally considered the definitive fast version of the song. In Britain it was the slower version favored by the Jimi Hendrix Experience that became a hit, using an arrangement pioneered by songwriter Tim Rose and the Music Machine's Sean Bonniwell.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: There's A Chance We Can Make It
Source: CD: Kaleidoscopic Compendium (originally released on LP: Electric Comic Book)
Writer: Gilbert/Scala
Label: Mercury
Year: 1967
Following the success of (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet, the Blues Magoos released There's A Chance We Can Make It, backed with Pipe Dream, both from the Electric Comic Book album. Or possibly it was the other way around; and therein lies the problem. Mercury failed to specify which side of the record was the A side, and radio stations were equally divided as to which song to play. As a result, neither song was able to make the upper reaches of the charts, despite both being hit material.
Artist: Doors
Title: Spanish Caravan
Source: CD: Waiting For The Sun
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1968
The third Doors album was somewhat of a departure from the first two, covering a greater variety of styles than their previous efforts. A prime example is Spanish Caravan, which starts with a flamenco solo from Robbie Kreiger and continues in a highly Spanish (not Mexican) flavored musical vein.
As a bonus, we have a second tune from 1968 to wrap up the show.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Feelin' Alright
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Traffic)
Writer: Dave Mason
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
Dave Mason left Traffic after the band's first album, Mr. Fantasy, but returned in time to contribute several songs to the band's eponymous second album. Among those was his most memorable song, Feelin' Alright, which would become one of the most covered songs in rock history.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Best of 2010 playlist
It's New Year's weekend, and I thought it might be fun to emulate something that was quite common during the psychedelic era, particularly the early years: The top 20 countdown. Now obviously I can't count down the biggest hits of the year like they did back then, but I can do a survey based on how many times a song got played and/or requested, with side trips for the top five (actually six) groups and a few special numbers. So let's get going already.
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: Monterey
Source: CD: Best of Eric Burdon and the Animals (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl and featured on LP: The Twain Shall Meet).
Label: Polydor (originally released on M-G-M)
Year: 1968
The very first syndicated show on Memorial Day weekend featured the longest group set ever done on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. Clocking in at nearly 45 minutes, the set featured tracks from both the original and the "new" Animals, formed in 1967 by Eric Burdon after a one-shot solo album. This set, combined with another shorter set and several individual cuts throughout the year, puts the combined Animals bands tied for the fourth most played in 2010. This track, from the "new" Animals (known officially as Eric Burdon and the Animals), describes one of the seminal events of the psychedelic era: the Monterey International Pop Festival, where the band made its US debut.
And now, coming in at # 20 for the year....
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: A New Day Yesterday
Source: CD: Stand Up
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (originally released on Reprise)
Year: 1969
After the departure of guitarist Mick Abrahams, Jethro Tull was fully in the creative control of flautist/acoustic guitarist Ian Anderson. Stand Up was the first album to feature compositions exclusively by Anderson and established the musical direction that band would take in the future. A New Day Yesterday was the first track on Stand Up and thus was the first song featuring Abrahams' replacement Martin Barre that many record buyers would hear.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: Ego Trip
Source: LP: Ultimate Spinach
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1967
One of the most infamous trends of the psychedelic era is responsible for this year's # 19 track. By 1967, the six major labels (RCA Victor, Columbia, Capitol, Decca, Mercury and M-G-M) were just beginning to embrace US-made rock. Columbia had led the way almost by default when Bob Dylan, who had been signed with the label as a folk artist, began to experiment with rock instrumentation in 1965. The label soon signed other rock acts, notably the Byrds and Paul Revere and the Raiders. On the opposite end of the spectrum was M-G-M, which, with the exception of the Mothers of Invention on its subsidiary label Verve, had not signed any major US acts. Having missed the opportunity to sign any of the new San Francisco bands, the label turned to the most progressive city on the east coast, Boston. Signing no less than four local acts, M-G-M immediately launched a campaign promoting the "Boss-town sound". The strategy backfired, however, when the fledgling rock press decried the campaign as empty hyperbole, and none of the bands signed lasted more than a couple albums in their original incarnation. The best remembered of these bands was Ultimate Spinach, which was essentially a vehicle for the songwriting and arranging talents of Ian Bruce-Douglas. After two LPs for M-G-M, Bruce-Douglas called it quits. As a result, subsequent albums by Ultimate Spinach bore little resemblance to the original band.
Artist: Big Brother and the Holding Company
Title: Turtle Blues
Source: LP: Cheap Thrills
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
Our # 18 track is essentially a Janis Joplin solo piece from Big Brother's major label debut. Written by Joplin herself, the song captures her persona perhaps better than any other song she recorded.
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Incense and Peppermints
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Uni)
Year: 1967
At # 17 we have one of the iconic songs of the psychedelic era and a fascinating case study of the conflict between musicians and the music industry itself. Although the song was originally written by band members Mark Weitz and Ed King as an instrumental B side, the band's producer, Frank Slay, hired professional songwriters Tim Gilbert and John Carter to rework the song. The band members hated Carter's lyrics and refused to sing them. Slay responded by hiring 16-year-old Greg Munford, from a band called Shapes of Sound, to sing the song. When the record was issued, Incense and Peppermints was still considered the B side, but local L.A. radio stations, for reasons unknown, began playing it more than the intended A side, a semi-novelty track called The Birdman of Alkatrash. Ironically, Incense and Peppermints would be the band's biggest hit, and the only one anyone remembers.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Porpoise Song
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released in edited form on LP: Head)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Colgems)
Year: 1968
The Monkees were a phenomena in late 1966, controversial in 1967, and passe in 1968. In an attempt to remain relevant, the group made an art movie called Head, written by Jack Nicholson and featuring several cameos by hip people such as Frank Zappa. The problem was that the band's original fans had outgrown them, and those that did go to the movie did so with expectations of an expanded version of the TV show. They left confused. Meanwhile, the crowd that might have been inclined to appreciate the film were also the crowd that wouldn't be caught dead going to a Monkees movie. As a result, both the movie and the soundtrack album for Head tanked, despite having some fine tracks such as Porpoise Song, which comes in at the # 16 spot for the year.
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Title: 4+20
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Label: Rhino (originally released on Cotillion)
Year: 1970
One of the songs that got the most positive feedback was this Stephen Stills tune, heard here as performed at
Woodstock. I guess maybe I should play a bit more CSN (&Y) in 2011.
Artist: Mountain
Title: Blood of the Sun
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded in 1969, released in 2009
Several artists got their careers into high gear by appearing at Woodstock and in the subsequent film and soundtrack album. Others, such as Mountain, were left out of the movie and album, but through word of mouth hit it big anyway. Blood of the Sun was actually featured on the Woodstock 2 album, but that version was a re-recorded track made especially for that album. The actual Woodstock performance of the song did not come out until 2009, when Rhino released a five-disc set that put the emphasis on presenting what the audience actually heard, flaws and all. As it turns out, Mountain put in a solid performance, coming in at # 15 for the year.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Magic Carpet Ride
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Steppenwolf the Second)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Dunhill)
Year: 1968
Our # 14 song is another audience favorite: the iconic Magic Carpet Ride. 'Nuff said.
Artist: Fairport Convention
Title: Tam Lin
Source: LP: Fairport Chronicles (originally released on LP: Leige and Leaf)
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
Although Tam Lin did not make the top 20 list, it did get a strong positively response the only time it got played this year, prompting this encore appearance. Vocalist Sandy Denny has often been compared to Grace Slick, who (not so coincidentally) wrote the # 13 song on this year's list.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: White Rabbit
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (originally released on RCA Victor)
Year: 1967
The only group to get two songs on this year's top 20 is Jefferson Airplane. The lower of the two is White Rabbit, yet another iconic tune of the psychedelic era.
Artist: Who
Title: Pinball Wizard
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded in 1969, released in 2009
The second group tied at # 4 for the year is the only band to perform an entire opera at Woodstock: The Who. For this show we have a track that did not get played in 2010 (although the studio version from the rock-opera Tommy did).
Artist: Byrds
Title: Eight Miles High
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: 5D)
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (originally released on Columbia)
Year: 1966
At # 12 we have the Byrds most controversial song. According to the band, the song was about transcontinental air travel, an important subject to the Byrds due to Gene Clark's fear of flying (which had caused him to leave the band shortly before 5D was released). According to Bill Drake, the most powerful man in top 40 radio, it was a drug song and stations were advised to avoid it. Despite this, Eight Miles High, with its John Coltrane-inspired guitar riffs, managed to make it into the top 20 in late 1966.
Artist: Doors
Title: Strange Days
Source: CD: Best of the Doors (originally released on LP: Strange Days)
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Barely missing the top 10 we have the Doors with the title cut of their second album, one of many Doors tunes heard on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this year. In fact, when I did the compiling for this show I was surprised that the Doors did not make the top five groups played list (although they did come close).
And that wraps up the first hour. I do want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the instrumental track I've been using at the end of the first hour throughout the year. It is called All's Quiet on the Occluded Front and was recorded in 1987 by The Soft Corps of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The composer is guitarist Suzan Hagler, with bass provided by Stephen R Webb and drums by Jim Schwar. The recording was co-engineered by Webb and legendary New Mexico recording engineer Q (Quincy Adams), who passed away on December 31, 2008 from stomach cancer.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Talk Talk
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released on LP: Turn On the Music Machine)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Original Sound)
Year: 1966
Our # 10 song of the year comes from the darkest band on the L.A. underground club scene of the psychedelic era. The Music Machine, led by Sean Bonniwell, was known for playing entire sets without a break. According to Bonniwell, this was to discourage audience members from calling out requests for pop hits between songs. The band also had a distinctive look, with all the members dressed entirely in black, including dyed hair. Bonniwell himself cut an impressive image with his one black glove, at a time when Michael Jackson was still in elementary school. The band's entire stage repertoire was written by Bonniwell. Ironically, the Music Machine's debut album was marred by the presence of a handful of cover tunes that the band had recorded for use on a local TV show. Bonniwell was not aware of their inclusion on the album until it was too late to do anything about it. Talk Talk was a major hit in the L.A. area in 1966 that was moderately successful on a national level as well. Unfortunately, due to incompetence on the part of both the band's manager and Original Sound Records, the Music Machine was unable to equal Talk Talk's success, despite a series of outstanding tracks being released as singles (and later included on the Warner Brothers LP Bonniwell Music Machine).
Artist: Beatles
Title: Tomorrow Never Knows
Source: CD: Revolver
Label: Parlophone (originally released in US on Capitol)
Year: 1966
Oddly enough, the Beatles do not have a song in this year's top 10, despite being the 3rd most played group of the year. This is easily explained by the fact that the group had so many good songs that no one tune got more than its share of airplay. In that spirit we have a song that did not get played at all in 2010. It certainly deserves to be heard, however, so here it is.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Reprise)
Year: 1968
The fact that Kenny Rogers reportedly cringes every time this song gets played on the radio is enough to earn it the # 9 spot this year. It doesn't hurt that it is actually a pretty good tune, written by bandmate Mickey Newbury.
Artist: Cream
Title: White Room
Source: LP: Wheels of Fire
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
The final band tied for fourth most played (with the Animals and the Who) on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this year is also the band with the # 8 song of the year. Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce got together in 1966 to form the first British blues supergroup. Their third album, Wheels of Fire, was a double LP, with two sides of live tracks and two sides of new studio material. White Room, written by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown, was the first single released from the album as well as the opening track. It sounds as good today as it did in 1968.
Artist: Steve Miller Band
Title: Your Saving Grace
Source: LP: Anthology (originally released on LP: Your Saving Grace)
Label: Capitol
Year: 1969
It's no secret that the biggest drawback to Stuck in the Psychedelic Era becoming a syndicated radio show this year is that fact that I no longer get to take real-time phone requests. The existence of the web site you're reading this on is an attempt to make up for that by making making the show more interractive through the use of the contact link. One song that was not only requested, but that received positive feedback after being played was this tune from the Steve Miller Band.
Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source: LP: Electric Music For the Mind and Body
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
One of the defining bands of the Summer of Love was Country Joe and the Fish, who released their first album at exactly the right time: late spring 1967. An early progressive FM favorite from that album was Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine, which comes in at # 7 on the Stuck in the Psychedelic 2010 top 20 list.
Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Summertime Blues
Source: CD: Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Vincebus Eruptum)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Philips)
Year: 1968
Blue Cheer is considered by many to be the first heavy metal band. They were certainly one of the loudest bands of their time (along with the Grateful Dead), and were given to extended solos featuring lots of feedback. Their best known recording is their version of Eddie Cochrane's Summertime Blues, which managed to receive extensive airplay both on progressive FM and top 40 AM stations in 1968 and ends up in the # 6 spot on this year's top 20 list.
One hallmark of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is the occassional set from a particular year. For the last segment of this week's show we combine this idea with the countdown of the top five tracks of the year, starting with a set from 1966.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: The Flute Thing
Source: LP: Projections
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
The track receiving the most positive feedback of 2010 was Two Trains Running from the second Blues Project album. Unfortunately, there was not enough time this week to re-present the eleven minute track. Instead we have a slightly shorter extended jam from the world's first jam band, featuring bassist Andy Kuhlberg moving over to electric flute and solos from almost every other band member. It's not known whether the flute solo was an overdub or if second guitarist Steve Katz moved over to bass for this studio recording, as he did for the band's live performance on the group's next LP.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Pushin' Too Hard
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released on LP: The Seeds)
Label: Rhino (originally released on GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1966
In the # 5 spot we have the band that invented the term Flower Power, and subsequently took a nosedive in popularity when the local L.A. hipsters declared that "flower power sucks". Still, there is no doubt that Sky Saxon and company helped define the psychedelic era to a degree matched by few others. Pushin' Too Hard was first released to the Los Angeles radio market in 1966 and became a national bestseller in early 1967.
Artist: Standells
Title: Dirty Water
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Tower)
Year: 1966
Our # 4 song of the year was written by the music industry's answer to Ed Wood and performed by a group that started off as a clean-cut L.A. bar band fronted by a former Mousketeer and eventually morphed into the epitomy of first-wave punk rock. The Standells made a decent living covering the hits until coming under the guidance of Ed Cobb. Cobb decided that the time was right for America's answer to the Rolling Stones, and guided the band to a grittier place, providing them with their best known songs, the anthemic Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White and the song that has become a standard at Boston sporting events: Dirty Water. Oddly enough, none of the band members had ever been anywhere near the Bean City (although Cobb had, including some time spent in the Boston city jail).
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Paint It Black
Source: CD: Aftermath
Label: Abkco (originally released in the US on London)
Year: 1966
Speaking of the Stones, we have the group that got the second most songs played on the show this year. Like the Beatles, the Stones have such a huge catalog that no single song got a lot of airplay. One of the best known Stones hits of the era was Paint It Black from their 1966 album Aftermath.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Somebody To Love
Source: CD: Surrealistic Pillow
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
The band to get the most airplay on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this year is also the only band to get two songs on the top 20 list: White Rabbit at # 13 and Somebody To Love at # 3, both from the Surrealistic Pillow album. Between the two the Airplane completely changed the complexion of rock, showing that it was possible for a so-called underground band to sell a lot of records without selling out (at least until they changed methods of transportation from airplane to starship, but that's a discussion for another time).
Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: CD: De Capo
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Our # 2 song of the year comes from the band that replaced the Byrds as L.A.'s most popular club band in 1966 and 67. The band's leader, Arthur Lee, was something of an enigma. An acknowledged musical genius, he deliberately eschewed the touring needed to establish a national reputation in favor of keeping Love at the epicenter of the L.A. scene. Yet Lee himself was never seen on Sunset Strip except when Love was playing (which was pretty much every night) at the Whiskey a-Go-Go, located on Sunset between Clark and Hillsdale.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Little Wing
Source: CD: Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: Axis: Bold As Love)
Label: MCA (originally released on Reprise)
Year: 1967
There are many artists I don't think I played enough of this year. Topping that list is Jimi Hendrix. One of my New Years' resolutions is to play more of his stuff.
And finally, the song that got played more than any other on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this year:
Artist: Amboy Dukes
Title: Journey To the Center of the Mind
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s
Label: Rhino (originally released on Mainstream)
Year: 1968
The reasons for this song getting more airplay are varied. First off, it's a great tune. Second, it tends to show up on just about every psychedelically-oriented anthology collection ever issued. Finally, the Amboy Dukes were pretty much one-hit wonders, their only other notable track being their version of Baby Please Don't Go, which was also recorded by several of their contemporaries. That said, I do have a 1970 album by the Dukes that I'll probably play a track from sometime in 2011.
Which brings us to the future, specifically next year. Since Stuck in the Psychedelic Era went into syndication on Memorial Day weekend, there were 30 two-hour shows to compile for this week's special. Next year that number will be 50. Will the same songs end up on the 2011 list? Doubtful, but with this show you just never know. The only thing I can say for sure is that next week there will be 25-30 or so songs tied for first place for 2011. Beyond that, we'll just have to see.
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: Monterey
Source: CD: Best of Eric Burdon and the Animals (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl and featured on LP: The Twain Shall Meet).
Label: Polydor (originally released on M-G-M)
Year: 1968
The very first syndicated show on Memorial Day weekend featured the longest group set ever done on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. Clocking in at nearly 45 minutes, the set featured tracks from both the original and the "new" Animals, formed in 1967 by Eric Burdon after a one-shot solo album. This set, combined with another shorter set and several individual cuts throughout the year, puts the combined Animals bands tied for the fourth most played in 2010. This track, from the "new" Animals (known officially as Eric Burdon and the Animals), describes one of the seminal events of the psychedelic era: the Monterey International Pop Festival, where the band made its US debut.
And now, coming in at # 20 for the year....
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: A New Day Yesterday
Source: CD: Stand Up
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (originally released on Reprise)
Year: 1969
After the departure of guitarist Mick Abrahams, Jethro Tull was fully in the creative control of flautist/acoustic guitarist Ian Anderson. Stand Up was the first album to feature compositions exclusively by Anderson and established the musical direction that band would take in the future. A New Day Yesterday was the first track on Stand Up and thus was the first song featuring Abrahams' replacement Martin Barre that many record buyers would hear.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: Ego Trip
Source: LP: Ultimate Spinach
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1967
One of the most infamous trends of the psychedelic era is responsible for this year's # 19 track. By 1967, the six major labels (RCA Victor, Columbia, Capitol, Decca, Mercury and M-G-M) were just beginning to embrace US-made rock. Columbia had led the way almost by default when Bob Dylan, who had been signed with the label as a folk artist, began to experiment with rock instrumentation in 1965. The label soon signed other rock acts, notably the Byrds and Paul Revere and the Raiders. On the opposite end of the spectrum was M-G-M, which, with the exception of the Mothers of Invention on its subsidiary label Verve, had not signed any major US acts. Having missed the opportunity to sign any of the new San Francisco bands, the label turned to the most progressive city on the east coast, Boston. Signing no less than four local acts, M-G-M immediately launched a campaign promoting the "Boss-town sound". The strategy backfired, however, when the fledgling rock press decried the campaign as empty hyperbole, and none of the bands signed lasted more than a couple albums in their original incarnation. The best remembered of these bands was Ultimate Spinach, which was essentially a vehicle for the songwriting and arranging talents of Ian Bruce-Douglas. After two LPs for M-G-M, Bruce-Douglas called it quits. As a result, subsequent albums by Ultimate Spinach bore little resemblance to the original band.
Artist: Big Brother and the Holding Company
Title: Turtle Blues
Source: LP: Cheap Thrills
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
Our # 18 track is essentially a Janis Joplin solo piece from Big Brother's major label debut. Written by Joplin herself, the song captures her persona perhaps better than any other song she recorded.
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Incense and Peppermints
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Uni)
Year: 1967
At # 17 we have one of the iconic songs of the psychedelic era and a fascinating case study of the conflict between musicians and the music industry itself. Although the song was originally written by band members Mark Weitz and Ed King as an instrumental B side, the band's producer, Frank Slay, hired professional songwriters Tim Gilbert and John Carter to rework the song. The band members hated Carter's lyrics and refused to sing them. Slay responded by hiring 16-year-old Greg Munford, from a band called Shapes of Sound, to sing the song. When the record was issued, Incense and Peppermints was still considered the B side, but local L.A. radio stations, for reasons unknown, began playing it more than the intended A side, a semi-novelty track called The Birdman of Alkatrash. Ironically, Incense and Peppermints would be the band's biggest hit, and the only one anyone remembers.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Porpoise Song
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released in edited form on LP: Head)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Colgems)
Year: 1968
The Monkees were a phenomena in late 1966, controversial in 1967, and passe in 1968. In an attempt to remain relevant, the group made an art movie called Head, written by Jack Nicholson and featuring several cameos by hip people such as Frank Zappa. The problem was that the band's original fans had outgrown them, and those that did go to the movie did so with expectations of an expanded version of the TV show. They left confused. Meanwhile, the crowd that might have been inclined to appreciate the film were also the crowd that wouldn't be caught dead going to a Monkees movie. As a result, both the movie and the soundtrack album for Head tanked, despite having some fine tracks such as Porpoise Song, which comes in at the # 16 spot for the year.
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Title: 4+20
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Label: Rhino (originally released on Cotillion)
Year: 1970
One of the songs that got the most positive feedback was this Stephen Stills tune, heard here as performed at
Woodstock. I guess maybe I should play a bit more CSN (&Y) in 2011.
Artist: Mountain
Title: Blood of the Sun
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded in 1969, released in 2009
Several artists got their careers into high gear by appearing at Woodstock and in the subsequent film and soundtrack album. Others, such as Mountain, were left out of the movie and album, but through word of mouth hit it big anyway. Blood of the Sun was actually featured on the Woodstock 2 album, but that version was a re-recorded track made especially for that album. The actual Woodstock performance of the song did not come out until 2009, when Rhino released a five-disc set that put the emphasis on presenting what the audience actually heard, flaws and all. As it turns out, Mountain put in a solid performance, coming in at # 15 for the year.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Magic Carpet Ride
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Steppenwolf the Second)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Dunhill)
Year: 1968
Our # 14 song is another audience favorite: the iconic Magic Carpet Ride. 'Nuff said.
Artist: Fairport Convention
Title: Tam Lin
Source: LP: Fairport Chronicles (originally released on LP: Leige and Leaf)
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
Although Tam Lin did not make the top 20 list, it did get a strong positively response the only time it got played this year, prompting this encore appearance. Vocalist Sandy Denny has often been compared to Grace Slick, who (not so coincidentally) wrote the # 13 song on this year's list.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: White Rabbit
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (originally released on RCA Victor)
Year: 1967
The only group to get two songs on this year's top 20 is Jefferson Airplane. The lower of the two is White Rabbit, yet another iconic tune of the psychedelic era.
Artist: Who
Title: Pinball Wizard
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded in 1969, released in 2009
The second group tied at # 4 for the year is the only band to perform an entire opera at Woodstock: The Who. For this show we have a track that did not get played in 2010 (although the studio version from the rock-opera Tommy did).
Artist: Byrds
Title: Eight Miles High
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: 5D)
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (originally released on Columbia)
Year: 1966
At # 12 we have the Byrds most controversial song. According to the band, the song was about transcontinental air travel, an important subject to the Byrds due to Gene Clark's fear of flying (which had caused him to leave the band shortly before 5D was released). According to Bill Drake, the most powerful man in top 40 radio, it was a drug song and stations were advised to avoid it. Despite this, Eight Miles High, with its John Coltrane-inspired guitar riffs, managed to make it into the top 20 in late 1966.
Artist: Doors
Title: Strange Days
Source: CD: Best of the Doors (originally released on LP: Strange Days)
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Barely missing the top 10 we have the Doors with the title cut of their second album, one of many Doors tunes heard on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this year. In fact, when I did the compiling for this show I was surprised that the Doors did not make the top five groups played list (although they did come close).
And that wraps up the first hour. I do want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the instrumental track I've been using at the end of the first hour throughout the year. It is called All's Quiet on the Occluded Front and was recorded in 1987 by The Soft Corps of Albuquerque, New Mexico. The composer is guitarist Suzan Hagler, with bass provided by Stephen R Webb and drums by Jim Schwar. The recording was co-engineered by Webb and legendary New Mexico recording engineer Q (Quincy Adams), who passed away on December 31, 2008 from stomach cancer.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Talk Talk
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released on LP: Turn On the Music Machine)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Original Sound)
Year: 1966
Our # 10 song of the year comes from the darkest band on the L.A. underground club scene of the psychedelic era. The Music Machine, led by Sean Bonniwell, was known for playing entire sets without a break. According to Bonniwell, this was to discourage audience members from calling out requests for pop hits between songs. The band also had a distinctive look, with all the members dressed entirely in black, including dyed hair. Bonniwell himself cut an impressive image with his one black glove, at a time when Michael Jackson was still in elementary school. The band's entire stage repertoire was written by Bonniwell. Ironically, the Music Machine's debut album was marred by the presence of a handful of cover tunes that the band had recorded for use on a local TV show. Bonniwell was not aware of their inclusion on the album until it was too late to do anything about it. Talk Talk was a major hit in the L.A. area in 1966 that was moderately successful on a national level as well. Unfortunately, due to incompetence on the part of both the band's manager and Original Sound Records, the Music Machine was unable to equal Talk Talk's success, despite a series of outstanding tracks being released as singles (and later included on the Warner Brothers LP Bonniwell Music Machine).
Artist: Beatles
Title: Tomorrow Never Knows
Source: CD: Revolver
Label: Parlophone (originally released in US on Capitol)
Year: 1966
Oddly enough, the Beatles do not have a song in this year's top 10, despite being the 3rd most played group of the year. This is easily explained by the fact that the group had so many good songs that no one tune got more than its share of airplay. In that spirit we have a song that did not get played at all in 2010. It certainly deserves to be heard, however, so here it is.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Reprise)
Year: 1968
The fact that Kenny Rogers reportedly cringes every time this song gets played on the radio is enough to earn it the # 9 spot this year. It doesn't hurt that it is actually a pretty good tune, written by bandmate Mickey Newbury.
Artist: Cream
Title: White Room
Source: LP: Wheels of Fire
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
The final band tied for fourth most played (with the Animals and the Who) on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this year is also the band with the # 8 song of the year. Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce got together in 1966 to form the first British blues supergroup. Their third album, Wheels of Fire, was a double LP, with two sides of live tracks and two sides of new studio material. White Room, written by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown, was the first single released from the album as well as the opening track. It sounds as good today as it did in 1968.
Artist: Steve Miller Band
Title: Your Saving Grace
Source: LP: Anthology (originally released on LP: Your Saving Grace)
Label: Capitol
Year: 1969
It's no secret that the biggest drawback to Stuck in the Psychedelic Era becoming a syndicated radio show this year is that fact that I no longer get to take real-time phone requests. The existence of the web site you're reading this on is an attempt to make up for that by making making the show more interractive through the use of the contact link. One song that was not only requested, but that received positive feedback after being played was this tune from the Steve Miller Band.
Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source: LP: Electric Music For the Mind and Body
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
One of the defining bands of the Summer of Love was Country Joe and the Fish, who released their first album at exactly the right time: late spring 1967. An early progressive FM favorite from that album was Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine, which comes in at # 7 on the Stuck in the Psychedelic 2010 top 20 list.
Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Summertime Blues
Source: CD: Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Vincebus Eruptum)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Philips)
Year: 1968
Blue Cheer is considered by many to be the first heavy metal band. They were certainly one of the loudest bands of their time (along with the Grateful Dead), and were given to extended solos featuring lots of feedback. Their best known recording is their version of Eddie Cochrane's Summertime Blues, which managed to receive extensive airplay both on progressive FM and top 40 AM stations in 1968 and ends up in the # 6 spot on this year's top 20 list.
One hallmark of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is the occassional set from a particular year. For the last segment of this week's show we combine this idea with the countdown of the top five tracks of the year, starting with a set from 1966.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: The Flute Thing
Source: LP: Projections
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
The track receiving the most positive feedback of 2010 was Two Trains Running from the second Blues Project album. Unfortunately, there was not enough time this week to re-present the eleven minute track. Instead we have a slightly shorter extended jam from the world's first jam band, featuring bassist Andy Kuhlberg moving over to electric flute and solos from almost every other band member. It's not known whether the flute solo was an overdub or if second guitarist Steve Katz moved over to bass for this studio recording, as he did for the band's live performance on the group's next LP.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Pushin' Too Hard
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released on LP: The Seeds)
Label: Rhino (originally released on GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1966
In the # 5 spot we have the band that invented the term Flower Power, and subsequently took a nosedive in popularity when the local L.A. hipsters declared that "flower power sucks". Still, there is no doubt that Sky Saxon and company helped define the psychedelic era to a degree matched by few others. Pushin' Too Hard was first released to the Los Angeles radio market in 1966 and became a national bestseller in early 1967.
Artist: Standells
Title: Dirty Water
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Label: Rhino (originally released on Tower)
Year: 1966
Our # 4 song of the year was written by the music industry's answer to Ed Wood and performed by a group that started off as a clean-cut L.A. bar band fronted by a former Mousketeer and eventually morphed into the epitomy of first-wave punk rock. The Standells made a decent living covering the hits until coming under the guidance of Ed Cobb. Cobb decided that the time was right for America's answer to the Rolling Stones, and guided the band to a grittier place, providing them with their best known songs, the anthemic Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White and the song that has become a standard at Boston sporting events: Dirty Water. Oddly enough, none of the band members had ever been anywhere near the Bean City (although Cobb had, including some time spent in the Boston city jail).
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Paint It Black
Source: CD: Aftermath
Label: Abkco (originally released in the US on London)
Year: 1966
Speaking of the Stones, we have the group that got the second most songs played on the show this year. Like the Beatles, the Stones have such a huge catalog that no single song got a lot of airplay. One of the best known Stones hits of the era was Paint It Black from their 1966 album Aftermath.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Somebody To Love
Source: CD: Surrealistic Pillow
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
The band to get the most airplay on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this year is also the only band to get two songs on the top 20 list: White Rabbit at # 13 and Somebody To Love at # 3, both from the Surrealistic Pillow album. Between the two the Airplane completely changed the complexion of rock, showing that it was possible for a so-called underground band to sell a lot of records without selling out (at least until they changed methods of transportation from airplane to starship, but that's a discussion for another time).
Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: CD: De Capo
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Our # 2 song of the year comes from the band that replaced the Byrds as L.A.'s most popular club band in 1966 and 67. The band's leader, Arthur Lee, was something of an enigma. An acknowledged musical genius, he deliberately eschewed the touring needed to establish a national reputation in favor of keeping Love at the epicenter of the L.A. scene. Yet Lee himself was never seen on Sunset Strip except when Love was playing (which was pretty much every night) at the Whiskey a-Go-Go, located on Sunset between Clark and Hillsdale.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Little Wing
Source: CD: Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: Axis: Bold As Love)
Label: MCA (originally released on Reprise)
Year: 1967
There are many artists I don't think I played enough of this year. Topping that list is Jimi Hendrix. One of my New Years' resolutions is to play more of his stuff.
And finally, the song that got played more than any other on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this year:
Artist: Amboy Dukes
Title: Journey To the Center of the Mind
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s
Label: Rhino (originally released on Mainstream)
Year: 1968
The reasons for this song getting more airplay are varied. First off, it's a great tune. Second, it tends to show up on just about every psychedelically-oriented anthology collection ever issued. Finally, the Amboy Dukes were pretty much one-hit wonders, their only other notable track being their version of Baby Please Don't Go, which was also recorded by several of their contemporaries. That said, I do have a 1970 album by the Dukes that I'll probably play a track from sometime in 2011.
Which brings us to the future, specifically next year. Since Stuck in the Psychedelic Era went into syndication on Memorial Day weekend, there were 30 two-hour shows to compile for this week's special. Next year that number will be 50. Will the same songs end up on the 2011 list? Doubtful, but with this show you just never know. The only thing I can say for sure is that next week there will be 25-30 or so songs tied for first place for 2011. Beyond that, we'll just have to see.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Another Secret Playlist
Once again I am holding back on putting up a playlist for this week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. The reason? We're doing an old-fashioned top 20 countdown and it would be counter-productive to reveal the list ahead of time. Yeah, I know....a top 20 countdown of songs 100 years or so old. What's with that? Well, truth to tell the list is actually based on how often the songs got played, requested and/or commented on in 2010, so it's not quite as far-fetched as it sounds. Check out the show and see, and I'll be putting the list up sometime during the week. Happy New Year!
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