Friday, March 25, 2011

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1112 playlist (3/25+/11)

We have a lot of mini-themes this week, starting with a set of tracks from L.A. bands recorded in 1967. Can't get much more specific than that.

Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Rock and Roll Woman
Source: CD: Retrospective (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again)
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
I refer to Buffalo Springfield this week as being one of the most successful bands of their time. I guess I should clarify that statement. Buffalo Springfield did not sell huge numbers of records (except for the single For What It's Worth). Nor did they pack in the crowds. As a matter of fact, when they played the club across the street from where Love was playing, they barely had any audience at all. Artistically, though, it's a whole 'nother story. During their brief existence Buffalo Springfield launched the careers of no less than four major artists: Neil Young, Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Stephen Stills. They also recorded more than their share of tracks that have held up better than most of what else was being recorded at the time. Case in point: Rock and Roll Woman, a Stephen Stills tune that still sounds fresh well over 40 years after it was recorded.

Artist: Spirit
Title: Free Spirit
Source: CD: Spirit (bonus track)
Writer: John Locke
Label: Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year: 1967
When Spirit entered the recording studio to work on their first album they recorded more music than they could fit on an LP. One of the tracks that got cut from the final lineup was this gem from keyboardist John Locke. Like most of the early Spirit material, Free Spirit incorporates jazz into the band's sound to a much greater degree than on later recordings.

Artist: Merry-Go-Round
Title: Live
Source: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Emitt Rhodes
Label: Rhino (original label: A&M)
Year: 1967
While San Francisco was basking in the Summer of Love, radio listeners in L.A. were exhorted to Live by local favorites the Merry-Go-Round. 16-year-old drummer Emitt Rhodes had already established himself with the Palace Guard, but took center stage with the Merry-Go-Round. He would later go on to have a moderately successful solo career in the early 70s.

Next up we have a progression through the years. What makes this particular progression stand out is that it starts in 1969. Usually I start a few years earlier, often ending in 69.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Honky Tonk Women
Source: CD: The London Singles Collection (originally released as 45 RPM single) (duh)
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1969
After revitalizing their career with Jumpin' Jack Flash and Street Fighting Man in 1968, the Stones delivered the coup-de-grace with one of the biggest hits by anyone ever: the classic Honky Tonk Women. The song was the first single without Brian Jones, who had been found dead in his swimming pool shortly after being kicked out of the band. Jones's replacement, Mick Taylor (fresh from a stint with blues legend John Mayall), plays slide guitar on the track.

Artist: Allman Brothers Band
Title: Please Call Home
Source: Beginnings (originally released on LP: Idlewilde South)
Writer: Gregg Allman
Label: Polydor (original label: Capricorn)
Year: 1970
Gregg Allman had already cut a few demo tapes before hooking up with brother Duane to form the Allman Brothers band in 1969. Only a couple of Gregg's earlier songs were recorded by the band. This, I believe, is one of them.

Artist: David Bowie
Title: Andy Warhol
Source: single B side (originally released on LP: Hunky Dory)
Writer: David Bowie
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1971
Although the song Changes appeared on Bowie's third LP for RCA, the label went back to Bowie's first RCA album, Hunky Dory, for the B side. The pairing makes for an interesting contrast between Bowie's pre and post Ziggy Stardust styles.

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
Wrapping up the first segment of the show we have the unreleased (until 2009) live version of Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine from the Woodstock festival. Comparing this recording to the original 1967 studio version (or even the live version from the Monterey International Pop Festival), one can hear the "rock and soul" direction the band had been steadily moving in over the years.

Our second segment features songs recorded in 1966, from a rather eclectic mix of bands.

Artist: Monkees
Title: All The King's Horses
Source: CD: The Monkees (bonus track originally released on LP: Missing Links, vol. 2)
Writer: Michael Nesmith
Label: Rhino
Year: 1966
When the idea for the Monkees TV series was first pitched to NBC, the plan was for the band to perform two new songs on each episode. Once the series was given the green light, musical supervisor Don Kirschner (he of Rock Concert fame) brought in some of L.A.'s top studio talent to record a TON of material to use on the show. The actual band members were then brought in to record vocal tracks. The material being recorded came from a variety of sources. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who helped conceive the show in the first place, had considerable input, as did the professional songwriters such as Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Carole Bayer, Jeff Barri and others working for Kirschner out of the Brill building in New York. Finally, there was Michael Nesmith, who had already established himself as a professional songwriter with tunes such as Mary Mary (recorded by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band) and Different Drum (which would become Linda Ronstadt's first hit song) and thus couldn't be entirely ignored. One of Nesmith's early contributions was this song, which was not included on any of the original Monkees albums. The song finally saw the light of day on Rhino's second Missing Links volume, released in 1990.

Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: Psychedelic Lollipop)
Writer: Esposito/Gilbert/Scala
Label: Rhino (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1966
The Blues Magoos (original spelling: Bloos) were either the first or second band to use the word psychedelic in an album title. Both they and the 13th Floor Elevators released their debut albums in 1966 and it is unclear which one actually came out first. What's not in dispute is the fact that Psychedelic Lollipop far outsold The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. One major reason for this was the fact that (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet was a huge national hit in early 1967, which helped album sales considerably. Despite having a unique sound and a look to match (including electric suits), the Magoos were unable to duplicate the success of Nothin' Yet on subsequent releases, partially due to Mercury's pairing of two equally marketable songs on the band's next single without indicating to stations which one they were supposed to be playing.

Artist: Cream
Title: I'm So Glad
Source: CD: Fresh Cream
Writer: Skip James
Label: Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year: 1966
Unlike later albums, which featured psychedelic cover art and several Jack Bruce/Pete Brown collaborations that had a decidedly psychedelic sound, Fresh Cream was marketed as the first album by a British blues supergroup, and featured a greater number of blues standards than subsequent releases. One of those covers that became a concert staple for the band was the old Skip James tune I'm So Glad. The song has become so strongly associated with Cream that the group used it as the opening number for all three performances when they staged a series of reunion concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in 2004.

Moving forward in time we have a pair of songs recorded in 1970 and released posthumously the following year. The loss of both Hendrix and Joplin within a few weeks of each other was a blow the counter-culture never recovered from.

Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Cry Baby
Source: LP: Pearl
Writer: Ragovoy/Berns
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
Although the song was written for the Electric Flag, once Janis Joplin got ahold of Cry Baby it was all hers. The same can be said of almost every song she recorded or performed.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Title: Freedom
Source: CD: First Rays of the New Rising Sun (originally released on LP: Rainbow Bridge)
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1970
Jimi Hendrix was working on a new double album when he died, but nobody else seemed to be sure where he was going with it. As there were several tracks that were unfinished at the time, Reprise Records gathered what they could and put them together on an album called The Cry Of Love. Freedom, a nearly finished piece (the unfinished part being a short "placesetter" guitar solo that Hendrix never got around to replacing with a final take), is the opening track from the album. Soon after that, a new Hendrix concert film called Rainbow Bridge was released along with a soundtrack album containing most of the remaining tracks from the intended double album. Finally, in 1997 MCA (with the help of original engineer Eddie Kramer and drummer Mitch Mitchell) pieced together what was essentially an educated guess about what would have been that album and released it under the name First Rays of the New Rising Sun.

This has to be one of the most unusual mini-themes ever: songs written for particular bands by husband-and-wife songwriting teams. I mean, how many of these even exist? The two featured here could quite possibly be the only ones of the psychedelic era.

Artist: Them
Title: Black Widow Spider
Source: LP: Time Out! Time In! For Them
Writer: Lane/Pulley
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
After Van Morrison left Them for a solo career, the band headed back to Belfast, where they recruited vocalist Kenny McDowell. Them soon relocated permanently to the US west coast, where they landed a contract with Tower Records. After a first album that featured songs from a variety of sources, they hooked up with Sharon Pulley and Tom Lane, who wrote an album's worth of material for the band. That album was Time Out! Time In! For Them, an album that has stayed under the radar for over 40 years. I hope through this show to give this album the recognition it deserves as a classic of the psychedelic era.

Artist: Fever Tree
Title: San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native)
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Fever Tree)
Writer: Scott & Vivian Holtzman
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Uni)
Year: 1968
Fever Tree hailed from Houston, Texas and had a distinctive double lead guitar sound that predated groups like Wishbone Ash and the Allman Brothers Band. All the material on the band's first album was written by Scott and Vivian Holtzman, who also produced the album. The song San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native) was a big regional hit in east Texas and moderately successful elsewhere.

This week's second hour kicks off with a five song progression through the years starting in 1965.

Artist: Beatles
Title: Help!
Source: CD: Help!
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1965
There is really nothing I can say about this song that hasn't already been said about a million times.

Artist: Count Five
Title: Psychotic Reaction
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michaelski
Label: Rhino (original label: Double Shot)
Year: 1966
In late 1966 five guys from San Jose California managed to sound more like the Yardbirds that the Yardbirds themselves, especially considering that Jeff Beck was no longer a Yardbird in late 1966. One interesting note about this record is that as late as the mid-1980s the 45 RPM single on the original label was still available in record stores, complete with the original B side. Normally songs more than a year or two old were only available on anthology LPs or on reissue singles with "back-to-back hits" on them. The complete takeover of the record racks by CDs in the late 1980s changed all that.

Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: The Birdman of Alkatrash
Source: single B side
Writer: M. Weitz
Label: Uni
Year: 1967
The Birdman of Alkatrash was originally intended to be an A side. For some reason stations instead began playing the other side of the record and it became one of the biggest hits of 1967. That song? Incense and Peppermints.

Artist: Steve Miller Band
Title: Dear Mary
Source: CD: Sailor
Writer: Steve Miller
Label: Capitol
Year: 1968
When Steve Miller first arrived in San Francisco he was reportedly puzzled by the local music scene. After all, he had just left Chicago, where a long tradition of electric blues had created a highly competitive atmosphere for musicians. In comparison he found the local Bay Area bands sloppy, inconsistent and unprofessional. Yet they were drawing the crowds and creating quite the buzz nationally. Undeterred, Miller soon formed his own group and held them to Chicago standards of musicianship, securing a deal with Capitol in the process. Dear Mary, from the band's second album, certainly sounds more Chicago than San Francisco.

Artist: Chicago
Title: Listen
Source: LP: Chicago Transit Authority
Writer: Robert Lamm
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
Speaking of Chicago we have the band that actually had the temerity to name themselves after the Second City itself. Well, it wasn't quite as bad as it sounds. They only shortened the name after being threatened with lawsuits by the city transit system, which happened to have the same name as the band's original moniker: The Chicago Transit Authority. One thing that made CTA stand out (besides the presence of a horn section) was the fact that the band had three lead vocalists and four quality songwriters. Listen, from the first album, comes from keyboardist Robert Lamm, who also sings the song.

The next set has no particular theme, just four good songs played back to back to finish out the segment.

Artist: Animals
Title: Inside Looking Out
Source: LP: Animalization
Writer: Lomax/Lomax/Burdon/Chandler
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1966
One of the last songs recorded by the Animals before their first breakup, Inside Looking Out (a powerful song about life in prison) was covered a few years later by Grand Funk Railroad, who made it one of their concert staples. This has always been one of my all-time favorite rock songs.

Artist: Grass Roots
Title: Let's Live For Today
Source: CD: Battle of the Bands (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Julian/Mogull/Shapiro
Label: Era (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1967
This well-known 1967 hit by the Grass Roots started off as a song by the Italian band the Rokes, Piangi Con Mi, released in 1966. The Rokes themselves were originally from Manchester, England, but had relocated to Italy in 1963. Piangi Con Mi was their biggest hit to date, and it the band decided to re-record the tune in English for release in Britain (ironic, considering that the band originally specialized in translating popular US and UK hits into the Italian language). The original translation didn't sit right with the band's UK label, so a guy from the record company came up with new lyrics and the title Let's Live For Today. The song still didn't do much on the charts, but did get the attention of former Brill building songwriter Jeff Barri, whose current project was writing and producing a studio band known as the Grass Roots. The song became such a big hit that the Grass Roots became a real perfoming band and had several hits over the next couple of years.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: D.C.B.A.-25
Source: CD: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer: Paul Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
One of the first songs written by Paul Kantner without a collaborator was this highly listenable tune from Surrealistic Pillow. Kantner says the title simply refers to the basic chord structure of the song, which is built on a two chord verse (D and C) and a two chord bridge (B and A). That actually fits, but what about the 25 part? [insert enigmatic smile here]

Artist: E Types
Title: Put The Clock Back On The Wall
Source: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Bonner/Gordon
Label: Rhino
Year: 1967
On a related subject we have a song that is titled after a popular phase of the time. After a day or two of losing all awareness of time (and sometimes space) it was time to put the clock back on the wall, or get back to reality if you prefer. The "E" types were from Salinas, California, which at the time was known for it's sulfiric smell by travelers along US 101. As many people from Salinas apparently went to nearby San Jose as often as possible, the "E" Types became regulars on the local scene, eventually landing a contract with Tower Records and Ed Cobb, who also produced the Standells and the Chocolate Watch Band. The Bonner/Gordon songwriting team were just a couple months away from getting huge royalty checks from the Turtles' Happy Together when Put The Clock Back On The Wall was released in early 1967.

Our final segment of the week starts off with a set of tunes from 1969, including the two longest tracks of the night.

Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: Effigy
Source: LP: Willie and the Poor Boys
Writer: John Fogerty
Label: Fantasy
Year: 1969
Creedence Clearwater Revival, unlike most of their contemporaries, specialized in short, compact songs that usually went right to the top of the charts...almost. Actually, CCR holds the record for most #2 songs without ever hitting the top spot, but that just means they tried harder. Here, though, we have an exception: a Creedence album track that runs well over six minutes.

Artist: Country Weather
Title: Fly To New York
Source: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released only to radio stations)
Writer: Baron/Carter/Derr/Douglas
Label: Rhino
Year: recorded: 1969; released: 2005
Country Weather started off as a popular dance band in Contra Costa County, California. In 1968 they took the name Country Weather and began gigging on the San Francisco side of the bay. In 1969, still without a record contract, they recorded an album side's worth of material, made a few one-sided test copies and circulated them to local radio stations. Those tracks, including Fly To New York, were eventually released on CD in 2005 by the Swedish label RD Records.

Artist: Traffic
Title: Something's Got Hold of My Toe
Source: LP: Last Exit
Writer: Winwood/Capaldi/Miller
Label: Island
Year: 1969
Traffic only made two albums before splitting up in 1968 (they reformed in 1970). After the breakup, Island Records assembled a collection of singles, B sides, live recordings and one unreleased track for a third album, titled Last Exit. The unreleased track is called Something's Got Hold of My Toe, an instrumental that sounds like it was a warm-up jam that just happened to get recorded.

Artist: Love
Title: My Little Red Book
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Bacharach/David
Label: Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1966
My Little Red Book was a song originally composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the soundtrack of the movie What's New Pussycat and performed by Manfred Mann. It didn't sound anything like Love's version. A true punk classic.

Artist: Blues Project
Title: No Time Like The Right Time
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Al Kooper
Label: Rhino (original label: Verve Forecast)
Year: 1967
The Blues Project were ahead of their time. They were the first jam band. They virtually created the college circuit for touring rock bands. Unfortunately, they also existed at a time when having a hit single was the considered a necessity. The closest the Blues Project ever got to a hit single was No Time Like The Right Time, which peaked at # 97 and stayed on the charts for all of two weeks. Personally, I rate it among the top 5 best songs ever.

Artist: Donovan
Title: Young Girl Blues
Source: LP: Mellow Yellow
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: Epic
Year: 1967
We wrap up this week's show with a track from the Mellow Yellow album, an LP that, due to a contractual dispute with Pye records, was only released in the US. Although Donovan's music is generally upbeat, the songs on Mellow Yellow, including Young Girl Blues, reflect the negativity he was feeling due to the dispute.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Show # 1111 playlist (3/18-20/11)

I wrote a really long intro for this week's show. Unfortunately, it was way too long to use, so I put it in a separate post a few days ago. Scroll down if you prefer to read it before we get to the songs themselves.

Artist: Kinks
Title: Dead End Street
Source: CD: Face To Face (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Sanctuary (original labels: Pye [UK], Reprise [US])
Year: 1966
The Kinks were one of the first British Invasion bands to score big on the US charts, with songs like You Really Got Me, Set Me Free and Tired of Waiting For You. After their 1966 hit Sunny Afternoon the Davies brothers and company hit a dry spell in the US, although they continued to chart consistently in the UK. The first of these British-only hits was Dead End Street, a decidedly British take on living in poverty. The first time I heard it I thought it was a great song. I'm happy to say that after well over 40 years my opinion of the song hasn't changed.

Artist: Beatles
Title: I'm Only Sleeping
Source: LP: Yesterday…and Today
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966
This version of I'm Only Sleeping predates the official UK release of the song by about two months. The electronically rechanneled for stereo mix was created from a preliminary mono mix of the song obtained by Capitol Records. The Beatles and producer George Martin made a few changes (such as the placement of the backwards guitar tracks) before doing the final mono and stereo mixes heard on the British LP.

Artist: Limey and the Yanks
Title: Guaranteed Love
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Reed/Paxton
Label: Rhino (original label: Star Burst)
Year: 1966
Limey and the Yanks were an Orange County, California band that boasted an honest-to-dog British lead vocalist. Despite being kind of Zelig-like on the L.A. scene, they only recorded two singles. The first one, Guaranteed Love, was co-written by Gary Paxton, best known for his involvement in various novelty records, including the Hollywood Argyles' Alley Oop, which he co-wrote with Kim Fowley, and Bobby "Boris" Pickett's Monster Mash, which was released on Paxton's own Garpax label.

Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1966
If ever a song could be considered a garage-punk anthem, it's Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White, the follow-up single to the classic Dirty Water. Both songs were written by Standells' manager/producer Ed Cobb, the record industry's answer to Ed Wood.

Artist: Leaves
Title: Back On The Avenue
Source: CD: Hey Joe
Writer: unknown
Label: One Way (original label: Mira)
Year: 1966
The Leaves were one of the more popular local L.A. bands in the mid-sixties. Like fellow Sunset Strip band Love, they chose not to do extensive national touring, instead prefering to play to the home crowd and make cameo appearances in B movies. After two LPs, the Leaves fell apart, with drummer Jim Pons moving over to the Turtles in 1967. Back On The Avenue, from their first album, is typical of the occassional instrumental heard up and down the strip.

Artist: Love
Title: Alone Again Or
Source: CD: Forever Changes
Writer: Bryan McLean
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Speaking of Love, we have an alternate mix of the opening track for their Forever Changes album, generally considered to be their best studio work and a surprisingly popular album in England, despite Love never having played there. Bryan McLean once said that he was unhappy with the released mix of Alone Again Or, due to the producer's decision to give Arthur Lee's harmony line a greater prominence in the mix than McLean's lead vocal. This was probably done for consistency's sake, as Lee was the lead vocalist on an overwhelming majority of Love recordings. This mono alternate mix uses a different balance of vocals, although McLean's part is still not as prominent as McLean would have preferred.

Artist: Eire Apparent with Jimi Hendrix
Title: The Clown
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Belfast)
Writer: unknown
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label unknown)
Year: 1968
Eire Apparent was a band from Northern Ireland that got the attention of Chas Chandler, former bassist for the Animals in late 1967. Chandler had been managing Jimi Hendrix since he had discovered him playing in a club in New York a year before, bringing him back to England and introducing him to Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, who along with Hendrix would become the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Despite Eire Apparent having almost no recording experience, Chandler put them on the bill as the opening act for the touring Experience. This led to Hendrix producing the band's first and only album, Belfast, in 1968, playing on at least three tracks, including The Clown.

Artist: Graham Nash
Title: Prison Song
Source: single
Writer: Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
I got very positive response when I played this song a few weeks ago. If the song had come out a few years earlier than it did, it probably would have been a hit, but by 1973 the social consciousness of the 60s was giving way to the self-indulgence that would characterize the 70s.

Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Full Measure
Source: LP: Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful
Writer: Sebastian/Boone
Label: Kama Sutra
Year: 1966
The album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful was a deliberate attempt by the band to play in a variety of styles. It contained two of the band's best-known songs, Nashville Cats and Summer In The City, as well as several lesser-known songs featuring other band members on lead vocals. One of those tracks is Full Measure featuring bassist Steve Boone.

Artist: Mystery Trend
Title: Carl Street
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70
Writer: Ron Nagle
Label: Rhino (original label: Ace/Big Beat)
Year: recorded 1967, released 1999
Production notes for the final recording sessions of the Mystery Trend describe the band as neurotic and up-tight. Indeed, despite the band being one of the first and most talented bands on the San Francisco scene, they always seemed to be their own worst enemy. Still, they recorded some outstanding tracks, the last of which was Carl Street, which sat on a shelf for over 20 years before finally being released in 1999.

Artist: Gurus
Title: Shelly In Camp
Source: LP: Wild In The Streets soundtrack
Writer: Les Baxter
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
Les Baxter is one of those names that sounds vaguely familiar to anyone who was alive in the 50s and 60s, but doesn't seem to be associated with anything in particular. That might be because Baxter was the guy that movie producers went to when they needed something done at the last minute. I seem to recall seeing some Les Baxter albums at a small town radio station I worked at in the early 70s that alternated between country, soft pop and lounge lizard records; Baxter's were in the third pile.

Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Thank You
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin II
Writer: Page/Plant
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
Like most early Led Zeppelin tunes, Thank You bears a resemblance to an earlier song by another artist; in this case Traffic's Dear Mr. Fantasy. Not only do the two songs share the same basic three-chord structure made famous by Van Morrison's Gloria, but they also have similar enough tempos that you can actually sing the melody of one while listening to the other. The difference is in the bridges of the two tunes, which go in entirely different directions, as well as in the basic melody of each song.

Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: Who Will Stop The Rain
Source: CD: Chronicles
Writer: John Fogerty
Label: Fantasy
Year: 1970
By 1970, CCR's popularity was such that every single that got released was a double-sided hit. At that time Billboard was going purely by record sales and was no longer charting the sides of a single separately, so Who Will Stop The Rain was officially listed as a B side. The reality was that it was just as popular as Up Around The Bend (the official A side), if not more so.

Artist: Monkees
Title: What Am I Doing Hangin' Round
Source: LP: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer: Murphy/Castleman
Label: Colgems
Year: 1967
The writing credits on the album label show this song as being written by Lewis and Clarke. These were actually psuedonyms for Michael Martin Murphy and Owen Castleman. I have no idea what happened to Castleman, but Murphy scored a huge hit in the mid 70s with Wildfire and went on to have a successful career in country music.

Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock
Writer: Mickey Newbury
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
Speaking of people that went on to have a career in country music, we have the only hit record sung by Kenny Rogers that wasn't a country song. I'm sure he squirms uncomfortably every time this song gets played on the radio, so I will continue to play it often.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Volunteers
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Balin/Kantner
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
With five solid studio albums coming out from the years 1966-69, I don't often get the chance to play a live track from the Airplane. With just a few minutes left in the first hour it seemed like a good time to do so.

Artist: Guess Who
Title: American Woman
Source: American Woman
Writer: Bachman/Cummings/Peterson/Kale
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1970
We start out the second hour with the most political song ever recorded by the Guess Who, a generally non-political Canadian band. My dad had by then been transferred from Weisbaden to Ramstein AFB, which was and is a huge base with enough Canadian personnel stationed there to justify their own on-base school. I found myself hanging out with mostly Canadian kids when I lived there and I gotta tell you, they absolutely loved this song. They also loved to throw it in my face as often as possible.

Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: It Ain't Me Babe
Source: CD: Best of the Original Mono Recordings
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1964
In tonight's Rock Poetry title bout we have, from Minnesota by way of New York, the reigning heavyweight Rock Poet champion of the world, Bob Dylan, with the original mono mix of a song that would become the Turtles' first hit the following year.

Artist: Doors
Title: The Soft Parade
Source: CD: The Soft Parade
Writer: Jim Morrison
Label: Elektra
Year: 1969
And in the challenger's corner, the military brat who conquered Southern California, the Lizard King himself, Jim Morrison. You can not petition the Lord with prayer indeed!

Artist: Mouse and the Traps
Title: A Public Execution
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Henderson/Weiss
Label: Rhino (original label: Fraternity)
Year: 1966
Finally our dark horse candidate, from Tyler, Texas, sounding more like Dylan than Dylan himself, the Mouse with attitude, Ronnie Weiss. Come on and take a two-wheel pony ride.

Artist: Blues Project
Title: Two Trains Running
Source: LP: radio promo sampler (originally released on LP: Projections)
Writer: McKinley Morganfield
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
My first two years as a student at the University of New Mexico were spent living off-campus in a large house shared by five other people (a varying number of which were also students). One day while rummaging through the basement I ran across a couple boxes full of reel-to-reel tapes. As I was the only person living there with a reel-to-reel machine and nobody seemed to know where the tapes had come from, I appropriated them for my own use. Unfortunately, many of the tapes were unlabeled, so all I could do was make a guess as to artists and titles of the music on them. One of those unknown tracks was this 1966 recording by the Blues Project. A few years later I ran across a nearly pristine cut-out copy of the album Projections at a thrift shop. As I had remembered being intrigued by the cover back when I couldn't afford albums I immediately snapped it up and took it home for a listen. I still have that copy of Projections, as well as a promo sampler I got from the WEOS archives in 2009 that I used for tonight's show.

Artist: Renaissance
Title: Bullet
Source: LP: Renaissance
Writer: Relf/McCarty/Hawken/Cennamo
Label: Elektra
Year: 1969
One of the many bands of the mid-70s that incorporated classical and jazz influences, Renaissance is best known for songs such as Northern Lights and Mother Russia. What most people are not aware of, however, is that Renaissance was originally formed by former Yardbirds Keith Relf and Jim McCarty. Although Relf never played guitar onstage with the Yardbirds (understandable given the presence of the like of Clapton, Beck and Page), with Renaissance he showed that he had learned a thing or two from his talented former bandmates. Renaissance in its original incarnation also boasted the presence of an outstanding keyboardist, John Hawken (formerly of the Nashville Teens) and a virtuoso bassist (Louis Cennamo), whose skill on the instrument was on a par with Jefferson Airplane's Jack Cassidy.

Artist: Traffic
Title: Empty Pages
Source: CD: Smiling Phases (originally released on LP: John Barleycorn Must Die)
Writer: Winwood/Capaldi
Label: Island
Year: 1970
Traffic was formed in 1967 by Steve Winwood, after ending his association with the Spencer Davis Group. The original group, also featuring Dave Mason, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood, put out two and a half albums before disbanding in early 1969. A successful live album, Welcome to the Canteen, prompted the band to reform (without Mason), releasing the album John Barleycorn Must Die in 1970. Although Empty Pages was released as a single, it got most of its airplay on progressive FM stations, and as those stations were replaced by (or became) album rock stations, the song continued to get extensive airplay for many years.

Artist: MC5
Title: Let Me Try
Source: LP: Back In The USA
Writer: MC5
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
Probably the most political band of the psychedelic era was Detroit's MC5. Hailing from nearby Lincoln Park, the band was involved in various left-wing causes, and gained notoriety for being the only band to show up to play at the demonstrations at the park across the street from the 1968 Democratic convention, remaining onstage for several hours. Their second LP, Back In The USA, was their most slickly-produced of their three albums, and the band's own least favorite. Let Me Try reminds me of the kind of song you wait for at a high school sock hop when you're in the mood for a slow dance.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Prelude to a playlist 3/17/11

I got a bit carried away while working on an introduction to this week's show, so rather than to make you scroll down to get to the first song once it gets posted I'm putting up that lengthy intro here.

In the spring of 1967 my dad, a career military man, got the word that he was being transferred to a base in Weisbaden, Germany. After a relatively short time he was able to secure housing for the rest of the family, and that summer we took a long plane flight (in a military transport craft with no windows and seats that make a bus seem comfortable by comparison) to Europe.
At the time I thought it was the worst thing that could happen. After all, I was just about to enter high school and there was a lot of exciting stuff (including a new semi-underground FM rock radio station) just starting to happen in Denver, where we had spent the last seven years. Still, it wasn't like I had a choice in the matter, so I learned to adapt as best as I could to being in a country with no English speaking radio stations except AFN (American Forces Network) Frankfurt, which was a monstrously powerful AM station that was formatted much like a modern NPR station. The 150 Kw transmitter (three times the legal limit for stations in the US) could be heard throughout northern Europe.
As it was summer break and I was in a new "town" (actually a tiny housing area consisting of eight former Panzer troop barracks), I spent a lot of time with a Grundig portable AM/FM/shortwave receiver that my dad had bought at the Base Exchange when he first arrived. My first discovery was that FM (at that time and place) was useless. It seemed like every station I could get was either playing classical or beer hall music. Undeterred, I checked out AM radio and soon discovered AFN, which just happened to be playing its daily top 40 show the first time I tuned in. I soon learned, however, that the daily top 40 show on AFN only ran for one hour Monday through Friday, with a special edition of Casey Kasem's weekly countdown (custom made for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service) of the previous week's charts running on Saturday mornings.
Then I hit gold. Way over near the end of the dial there was something called Radio Luxembourg. At the time all I knew about Luxembourg was that it was a tiny country near the Netherlands, part of what was known as the Benelux region (yes, I actually paid attention in social studies class...sometimes). What I couldn't figure out was why such a small place had on obviously powerful AM radio station that (with some fading in and out) I could pick up easily in Mainz-Kastel (the village that our Panzer barracks was officially within). Even more astounding was the fact that the station was broadcasting in English! And they were playing US-style top 40 radio, complete with bumpers, jingles, drop-ins, commercials, and, most importantly, screaming top 40 DJs (AFN announcers at the time were expected to conform to standards set in the 1940s by NBC)! As I was to learn later, the reason for Radio Luxembourg being the way it was had a lot to do with British radio laws, with a little history thrown in.
Unlike in the US, where commercial radio had dominated the airwaves almost from the beginning of the age of broadcasting, radio in the UK was a government monopoly, with the BBC being the only licenced radio entity in the realm. In the wake of the first wave of US rock 'n' roll in the 1950s a new form of popular music had developed in Britain in the early 60s. Combining elements of rock 'n' roll with blues and R&B and something uniquely British known as "skiffle," this new British rock would fuel a record industry that was second only to the US in profits. The staunchly conservative BBC, however, was having nothing to do with anything as vulgar as rock music. To meet the obvious need for a radio service analagous to US top 40 radio a handful of underground radio stations began broadcasting from ships stationed off the coast of England, just outside the three mile limit. Unlike the "underground" FM stations in the US in the late 60s (which were legally licensed and thus were underground only in cultural and economic terms), these "pirate" radio stations did their best to emulate American top 40 radio, even to the point of hiring American DJs in some cases. The primary problem with these stations is that, since they were broadcasting from ships at sea, they did not have the wattage available to terrestrial based stations. During daytime operation this was not a major issue, as AM signals generally hold up well in daytime within a certain radius of the transmitter, even at low power. At night, however, there is a lot more interference from distant signals on the AM band and low power stations often get pushed back to within a few hundred yards of the transmitter. Since the pirate stations were all operating outside the three mile limit, this made operating after dark a waste of time. Enter Radio Luxembourg.
Radio Luxembourg had been around since the 1930s, but had been taken over first by Nazi Germany and then by the US military during World War II. Once again under civilian control after the war the powerful transmitter began broadcasting programs in English as an alternative to the BBC monopoly in the UK. When it became apparent that there was a market for a top 40 station that could reach the young English listeners at night, Radio Luxembourg rose to the occassion, crankin' out the hits from sunset to around 3AM nightly, becoming a dominant force in the British music industry in the process.
For the entire three years I spent in Germany, Radio Luxembourg was where I heard most of the hit records of the time first. They were not exactly the same hit records, however, that were being played on top 40 stations in the US (or on AFN for that matter). Although most of the big name bands of the 60s had hits on both sides of the ocean, there were some that found their success limited to their home territory. (For instance, I don't ever remember hearing anything by the Cowsills on Radio Luxembourg. On the other hand, has anyone in the US heard of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tish?) There were even cases of British bands doing better in the US than at home (Herman's Hermits, anyone?) and at least one example of an American band doing better on the British charts (Love). The first few times I heard Marrakesh Express I mistakenly thought it must be by a British act, since it shot right up to Radio Luxembourg's #1 spot in record time, yet was never heard on AFN. One of the oddest things for me was to hear a song that I had never heard before announced as a "golden oldie", which leads us to our first song of the night.

(To be continued...)

Well, OK, one small hint then. The first song of the night is a Kinks tune that did not get a lot of US airplay (peaking at #73) when it was released in 1966, but was in heavy rotation on Radio Luxembourg, where it went to the #5 spot.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Show # 1110 Playlist (3/11-3/13)

Due to the absence of tracks running over six minutes in length we have an unusually high number of songs this week. Just sayin'.

Artist: Them
Title: Walking In The Queen's Garden
Source: LP: Now and Them
Writer: Them
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
After recruiting new lead vocalist Kenny McDowell, Them moved out to California and recorded a couple LPs for Capitol's low-budget exploitation label Tower. Unlike the second of these Tower albums (Time Out! Time In! For Them), which featured mostly songs written by the husband and wife team of Tom Pulley and Vivian Lane, Now and Them had an eclectic mix of songs from a variety of sources. One of these songs, Walking In The Queen's Garden, was even credited to the band itself. Interestingly, it is also the post-Van Morrison Them song that sounds the most like it could have been penned by Morrison himself.

Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: A Child Of A Few Hours Is Burning To Death
Source: CD: A Child's Guide To Good and Evil
Writer: Markley/Morgan
Label: Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
A Child's Guide To Good and Evil is generally considered the best album from the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band as well as their most political one. A Child Of A Few Hours Is Burning To Death has a kind of creepy humor to it that makes it stand out from the many antiwar songs of the time.

Artist: Sly and the Family Stone
Title: Everyday People
Source: CD: Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single, hit #1 on both Top 40 and R&B charts)
Writer: Sylvester Stewart
Label: Epic
Year: 1968
I had a request for Sly and the Family Stone this week. The requester mentioned that the band was an "often overlooked" group that was an important part of the psychedelic era nonetheless. I completely agree, especially considering how important Sly Stone himself was as staff producer at Autumn Records in the years leading up to the formation of the Family Stone. In that capacity he had an influence on many of the upcoming San Francisco bands, and even produced the first recordings by a band called the Warlocks that would soon be known as the Grateful Dead.

Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Bad Luck And Trouble
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: The Progressive Blues Experiment)
Writer: Johnny Winter
Label: United Artists (original labels: Sonobeat/Imperial)
Year: 1968
Johnny Winters first started getting attention while playing the Texas blues circuit. His first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, originally appeared on the regional Sonobeat label and was subsequently reissued nationally on Imperial. Unlike his brother Edgar, who gravitated to rock music, Johnny has remained primarily a blues musician throughout his career.

Artist: Bobby Fuller Four
Title: Baby My Heart
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer: Sonny Curtis
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded 1966; released 2009.
The Bobby Fuller Four perfected their blend of rock and roll and Tex-Mex in their native El Paso before migrating out to L.A. After scoring a huge hit with I Fought The Law, Fuller was found dead in his hotel room of unnatural causes. This track, unreleased until 2009, is an indication of what might have been had Fuller lived long enough to establish himself further.

Artist: Cyrkle
Title: Cloudy
Source: LP: Red Rubber Ball
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
The Cyrkle were more than one-hit wonders. They were two-hit wonders, with both Red Rubber Ball (written by Paul Simon) and Turn Down Day making the top 5. Despite having a high-profile manager (Brian Epstein), being an opening act for the Beatles (on their last US tour) and being signed to a major label (Columbia), they were unable to follow-up on the success of their first two hits. Perhaps it was simply a bad case of timing: their clean-cut image (and sound) was perfectly suited to the years 1963-66, but was clearly becoming dated by 1967.

Artist: Other Half
Title: Mr. Pharmacist
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Jeff Nowlen
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP-Crescendo)
Year: 1966
One of these days I'll have to play this one back-to-back with the Stones' Mother's Little Helper.

Artist: Rotary Connection
Title: Memory Band
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Charles Stepney
Label: Cadet Concept
Year: 1970
Charles Stepney had one of the more visionary minds at Chicago's Chess Records. As one of the architects of Chess's Cadet Concept label he co-founded the psychedelic/funk/jazz band Rotary Connection and would later go on to produce Earth Wind and Fire. Memory Band originally appeared as an LP cut on the first Rotary Connection album in 1967. Minnie Riperton, who would have a huge hit with Loving You in the mid 70s, contributed the instrumentally-styled vocals on the track.

Artist: Neil Young
Title: Heart Of Gold
Source: CD: Decade (originally released on LP: Harvest)
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1972
Our first segment wraps up with Neil Young's biggest hit. Young would later say that the song put him in the middle of the road that soon became a rut, so he headed for the ditch.

Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Lime Street Blues
Source: LP: Best of Procol Harum (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Writer: Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1967
Anyone expecting more of the same when flipping over their new copy of A Whiter Shade Of Pale got a big surprise when they heard Lime Street Blues. The song, reminiscent of an early Ray Charles track, was strong enough to be included on their first greatest hits collection, no mean feat for a B side.

Artist: Beacon Street Union
Title: Green Destroys The Gold
Source: CD: The Eyes of the Beacon Street Union
Writer: Wayne Ulaky
Label: See For Miles (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1967
The Beacon Street Union found itself handicapped by being signed to M-G-M and being promoted as part of the "boss-town sound." The problem was that there was no "boss-town sound", any more than there was a San Francisco sound or an L.A sound (there is a Long Island Sound, but that has nothing to do with music). In fact, the only legitimate "sound" of the time was the "Motown Sound", and that was confined to a single record company that achieved a consistent sound through the use of the same studio musicians on virtually every recording. What made the situation even more ironic for the Union was that by the time their first LP came out they had relocated to New York City anyway. If there is a New York sound, it has more to do with traffic than music.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: Double Yellow Line
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1967
After the success of Talk Talk, the Music Machine issued a series of unsuccessful singles on the Original Sound label. Band leader Sean Bonniwell attributed this lack of success to mismanagement by record company people and the band's own manager. Eventually those singles would be re-issued on Warner Brothers under the name Bonniwell Music Machine, along with a handful of new songs using a different lineup. One of the best of these singles was Double Yellow Line, which Bonniwell says he wrote while driving to a gig.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Ballad Of You And Me And Pooniel
Source: CD: The Worst of Jefferson Airplane (originally released on LP: After Bathing At Baxter's)
Writer: Paul Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
The Ballad of You and Me and Pooniel (the title being a reference to Fred Neil) was never issued as a single. Nonetheless, the band decided to include it on their first anthology album, The Worst of Jefferson Airplane. This, in fact, was typical of the collection, which favored the songs the band considered their best over those that were considered the most commercial. Interesting enough, the original plan for After Bathing At Baxter's (the album the song first appeared on) was to use a nine minute live version of Ballad, but that idea was scrapped in favor of dividing the album into five suites, the first of which opened with the studio version of the tune.

Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1966
In the fall of 1966 my parents took by brother and me to a drive-in movie to see The Russians Are Coming and The 10th Victim (don't ask me why I remember that). In an effort to extend their season past the summer months, that particular drive-in was pioneering a new technology that used a low-power radio transmitter (on a locally-unused frequency) to broadcast the audio portion of the films so that people could keep their car windows rolled all the way up (and presumably stay warm) instead of having to roll the window partway down to accomodate the hanging speakers that were attached to posts next to where each car was parked. Before the first movie and between films music was pumped through the speakers (and over the transmitter). Of course, being fascinated by all things radio, I insisted that my dad use the car radio as soon as we got settled in. I was immediately blown away by a song that I had not heard on either of Denver's two top 40 radio stations. That song was Love's 7&7 Is, and it was my first inkling that there were some great songs on the charts that were being ignored by local stations. I finally heard the song again the following spring, when a local FM station that had been previously used to simulcast a full-service AM station began running a "top 100" format a few hours a day. That station also played the next two songs.

Artist: Seeds
Title: Pushin' Too Hard
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1966
Although the song was originally released in 1966, it wasn't until spring of 1967 that the Seed's classic Pushin' Too Hard took off nationally. The timing was perfect for me, as the new FM station I was listening to jumped right on it.

Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: Tobacco Road
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: J.D.Loudermilk
Label: Rhino (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1966
Our trio of hit singles from 1966 wraps up with a song originally recorded by a British group calling themselves the Nashville Teens (despite being neither teens or from Nashville). The Blues Magoos version was released as a single in late 1966, although it is generally associated with the album it appeared on, Psychedelic Lollipop, released in 1967.

Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Hushabye
Source: CD: Good Vibrations-30 Years of the Beach Boys
Writer: Pomus/Shuman
Label: Capitol
Year: 1964
We close out the first hour with a track originally recorded for the 1964 LP Beach Boys Concert, but unissued until the Beach Boys box set was released in the late 1990s.

Artist: George Harrison
Title: Thanks For The Pepperoni
Source: LP: All Things Must Pass
Writer: Gordon/Radle/Whitlock/Clapton/Mason/Harrison
Label: Capitol (also issued on Apple)
Year: 1970
The first major solo effort by a former Beatle was George Harrison's triple LP All Things Must Pass. The third album was made up entirely of jam sessions by musician's involved in the making of the album. One thing George Harrison has always been able to do is to attract quality talent to work on his solo material, and this particular jam features three well-known guitarists (Eric Clapton, Dave Mason and Harrison himself), as well as many of the musicians that would make up Clapton's next band, Derek and the Dominoes.

Artist: Front Line
Title: Got Love
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Lannigan/Phillipet
Label: Rhino (original label: York)
Year: 1965
Our first progression through the years tonight begins in Marin County, California. Although the area has since become famous for its yuppified trendiness, back in 1965 it was a slightly more affluent than average bastion of the middle class. As such, it had its share of teenagers and clubs catering to them, which meant bands making a living playing those clubs. The Front Line was somewhat typical of these bands, with a repertoire of mostly top 40 cover tunes with a couple originals to make them stand a bit (but not too much) apart from other top 40 cover bands.

Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Source: CD: More Nuggets
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1966
The Standells were probably the most successful band to record for the Tower label (not counting Pink Floyd, whose first LP was issued, in modified form, on the label after being recorded in England). Besides their big hit Dirty Water, they hit the charts with other tunes such as Why Pick On Me, Try It, and the punk classic Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White. Both Good Guys and Dirty Water were written by producer Ed Cobb, who has to be considered the most prolific punk-rock songwriter of the 60s, having also written some of the Chocolate Watch Band's best stuff as well.

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Bass Strings
Source: LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
One of the bands that defined psychedelic music was Country Joe and the Fish. Originally coming from a jug band tradition, the Fish were, by 1967, putting out some of the trippiest tracks ever recorded. A good example is Bass Strings from their debut album.

Artist: Randy Newman
Title: Last Night I Had A Dream
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Randy Newman
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Our 1968 entry is not your typical Randy Newman tune. In fact, Last Night I Had A Dream may just be the hardest-rocking track ever recorded by the prolific singer-songwriter who would become famous for songs covered by other artists such as Three Dog Night (Mama Told Me Not To Come) before breaking out as a solo artist with the controversial Short People in the mid-1970s.

Artist: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Title: Wooden Ships
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Crosby/Stills/Kantner
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
As is often the case, our progression through the years leads us to Woodstock, where Crosby, Stills and Nash became household words. At the beginning of 1969 vocal harmonies were out of vogue. Part of the reason for this was the emphasis on instrumental profiency that had come about in the wake of the success of guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. Another, less obvious reason was the association of vocal harmonies with such groups as the Beach Boys, who were seen as relics of an earlier, less socially and politically aware time. Somehow, though, Crosby, Stills and Nash managed to overcome this prejudice to become superstars in the early 70s. Performing a song such as Wooden Ships, which was also released in 1969 by Jefferson Airplane, certainly helped, as the song had an obvious anti-war message at a time where such messages were embraced by a large segment of the public, particularly young people of draftable age.

Artist: Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band
Title: Here I Am I Always Am
Source: LP: The Legendary A&M Sessions
Writer: Don Van Vliet
Label: A&M
Year: 1965
In 1965 Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, took his magic band into the studio for the first time. Beefheart's reputation at the time was as an outstanding interpreter of classic blues, electrified for a young white audience that had made stars out of the Yardbirds and other British blues artists. Van Vliet, though, already was beginning to show a taste for the bizarre, and the recordings were deemed commercially lacking by the shirts at A&M Records. It wasn't until Beefheart was well established as one of the world's foremost avant-garde rock artists that the label finally issued the recordings on an LP called The Legendary A&M Sessions. Compared to the content of albums such as Trout Mask Replica, the A&M tracks sound positively mainstream.

Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Sin's A Good Man's Brother
Source: CD: Closer To Home
Writer: Mark Farner
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
Flint, Michigan, in the mid-1960s was home to a popular local band called Terry Knight and the Pack. In 1969 pack guitarist Mark Farner and drummer Don Brewer hooked up with Mel Schacher, former bassist for ? and the Mysterians to form Grand Funk Railroad, with Terry Knight himself managing and producing the new band. With a raw, garage-like sound played at record high volume, Grand Funk immediately earned the condemnation of virtually every rock critic in existence. Undeterred by bad reviews, the band took their act to the road, foregoing the older venues such as ballrooms and concert halls and booking entire sports arenas for their concerts. In the process they almost single-handedly created a business model that continues to be the industry standard. Grand Funk Railroad consistently sold out all of their performances for the next two years, earning no less than three gold records in 1970 alone.

Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Rock 'N' Roll Soul
Source: single
Writer: Mark Farner
Label: Capitol
Year: 1972
By 1972 the performances were no longer all sellouts, and the band began to shift emphasis to their recorded work. Problems with Terry Knight's management practices were also becoming an issue, and their sixth studio LP, Phoenix, would be the last to be produced by Knight. Rock 'N' Roll Soul, a somewhat typical Mark Farner song, was the first and only single released from the album, and would have only minor success on the charts. The next record, We're An American Band, would signal a major change of direction for the band, with other members besides Farner taking a role in the songwriting and a much greater emphasis on hit singles than ever before.

Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: Any Way The Wind Blows
Source: LP: Freak Out
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Verve
Year: 1966
Our next set bounces around from 1966 to 1972 and back to 1965, starting with the first song ever recorded by the Mothers Of Invention. In the liner notes to Freak Out! Zappa claims to have written the song when he was contemplating divorce a few years before the album was recorded. Stylistically it is a far more conventional song than Zappa is generally known for.

Artist: Edgar Winter Group
Title: Undercover Man
Source: LP: They Only Come Out At Night
Writer: Edgar Winter
Label: Epic
Year: 1972
Just for a change of pace (and to illustrate the difference between the Winter brothers mentioned earlier) we have a track from the Edgar Winter Group's most successful LP, They Only Come Out At Night. The album, featuring guitarists Rick Derringer (formerly of the McCoys) and Ronnie Montrose, included the band's two best-known tracks, Free Ride and the iconic instrumental Frankenstein.

Artist: Animals
Title: Let The Good Times Roll
Source: LP: On Tour
Writer: Leonard Lee
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1965
The bands of the original British Invasion were all influenced to one degree or another by the American Rock and Roll and Rhythm and Blues artists of the 1950s. No band showed that influence (and respect) more than Newcastle's Animals. Orginally known as the Alan Price Combo, the Animals albums were full of songs originally recorded by people like Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker and others of the same genre. Among those tunes was their cover of the Shirley and Lee classic Let The Good Times Roll, included on their second US LP, The Animals On Tour. The album title does not imply live performances, but rather the result of the band's search for classic recordings while on tour in the US.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Ride On, Baby
Source: CD: Flowers
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: recorded: 1965; released: 1967
Even though the Rolling Stones sold a respectable number of records throughout the sixties, Mick and Keith weren't above hedging their bets by writing songs for other artists as well. Probably the best known of these was As Tears Go By, which, although written for Maryanne Faithful, has become known primarily for the Stones version of the song. Another one of these songs was Ride On, Baby, a minor hit for Chris Farlowe in 1966 that the Stones recorded around the time they were working on the Aftermath album. The Rolling Stones version sat on a shelf until 1967, when London put together a potpourri of songs left off the US versions of various LPs, stereo mixes of songs originally released in either mono or fake stereo versions previously and oddities such as Ride On, Baby. The resulting album was called Flowers, and was only released in the US. Brian Jones plays 12-string on the track, with Jack Nitzsche providing the harpshichord part.

Artist: Blues Project
Title: Love Will Endure
Source: CD: Anthology (originally released on LP: Live At Town Hall with ambient live audience overdubs)
Writer: Patrick Sky
Label: Polydor (original label: Verve Forecast)
Year: recorded: 1966; released: 1967
Steve Katz had more of a folk background than the other members of the Blues Project, as evidenced by this cover of a Patrick Sky tune. The song was actually recorded between the first and second Blues Project albums, but was not released until the third album, Live At Town Hall, which was a mixture of actual live recordings and studio tracks with the sounds of a live audience overdubbed onto them to make them sound like live recordings. Why anyone would want to do that is beyond me, but it probably has something to do with the fact that by the time the album was released Al Kooper was no longer a member and the producer wanted the album to include as much Kooper as possible.

Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Gimme Some Lovin'
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Winwood/Winwood/Capaldi
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
We finish the night with one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded. 'Nuff said.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Show # 1107 Playlist (a couple weeks ago)

Yes, you read the heading right. I somehow managed to forget to post the playlist a couple weeks ago so I'm putting it up now for completion's sake.

While I'm here I may as well mention that the upcoming weekend's list (3/11-13) will probably not get posted until early next week. I do plan on getting to it sometime, really.

Anyway, here is show 1107:

Artist: Them
Title: Baby, Please Don't Go
Source: 12" single
Writer: Joe Williams
Label: A&M
Year: 1964
Belfast, Northern Ireland was home to one of the first bands that could be legitimately described as punk rock. Led by Van Morrison, the band quickly got a reputation for being rude and obnoxious, particularly to members of the English press (although it was actually a fellow Irishman who labeled them as "boorish"). Their first single was what has come to be considered the definitive version of the 1923 Joe Williams tune Baby, Please Don't Go. Despite its UK success, the single was never issued in the US. Oddly enough, the song's B side ended up being the song most people associate with Them: the classic Gloria, which was released as Them's US debut single in 1965 but promptly found itself banned on most US radio stations due to suggestive lyrics.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: The Last Wall Of The Castle
Source: CD: After Bathing At Baxters
Writer: Jorma Kaukonen
Label: BMG Heritage/RCA (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1967
Following the massive success of the Surrealistic Pillow album with its two top 10 singles (Somebody To Love and White Rabbit) the members of Jefferson Airplane made a conscious choice to put artistic goals above commercial ones for their next LP, After Bathing At Baxter's. The result was an album that defines the term "acid rock" in more ways than one. One of the few songs on the album that does not cross-fade into or out of another song is this tune from Jorma Kaukonen, his first non-acoustic song to be recorded by the band.

Artist: Leigh Stephens
Title: Drifting
Source: Red Weather
Writer: Leigh Stephens
Label: Philips
Year: 1969
After two albums lead guitarist Leigh Stephens left Blue Cheer to work on solo projects. The resulting album, recorded in England and utilizing British studio musicians such as Nicky Hopkins, was a complete departure from the proto-metal sound of the Cheer. To my knowledge Red Weather has never been issued on CD (at least not in the US).

Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Circles
Source: CD: Cricklewood Green
Writer: Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
Cricklewood Green continued the development of Ten Years After away from its blues roots and toward a more progressive rock sound that would ultimately lead them to their only top 40 hit, I'd Love To Change The World. That song, however, was still a couple albums in the future when Cricklewood Green was released in 1970. The seldom-heard Circles is basically an acoustic solo number from Alvin Lee.

Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: You Turn Me On I'm A Radio
Source: LP: For The Roses
Writer: Joni Mitchell
Label: Asylum
Year: 1972
This early Joni Mitchell track was a staple of progressive FM radio in the early 70s. Is it in any way psychedelic? Nah! But once in a while it's kind of fun to do something different. Besides, it actually makes for a fairly smooth transition from Ten Years After to the Byrds.

Artist: Byrds
Title: What's Happening!?!
Source: LP: 5D
Writer: David Crosby
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
David Crosby was just beginning to emerge as a songwriter on the third Byrds album, 5D. Most of his contributions on the album were collaborations with Jim (Roger) McGuinn; What's Happening!?!, on the other hand, is pure Crosby.

Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Mickey Newbury
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
In 1968, former New Christy Mistrels members Kenny Rogers and Mickey Newbury decided to form a psychedelic rock band, the First Edition. Although Newbury wrote most of the songs on the first album, it was Rogers who would emerge as the star of the band, even to the point of eventually changing the band's name to Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. That change reflected a shift from psychedelic to country flavored pop that would eventually propel Rogers to superstar status.

Artist: Circus Maximus
Title: Wind
Source: LP: Circus Maximus
Writer: Bob Bruno
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
Circus Maximus was formed out of the chance meeting of multi-instrumentalist Bob Bruno and guitarist Jerry Jeff Walker in Greenwich Village in 1967. From the start the band was moving in different directions, with Bruno incorporating jazz elements into the band while Walker favored country-rock. Eventually the two would go their separate ways, but for the short time the band was together they made some of the best, if not best-known, psychedelic music on the East Coast.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: Some Other Drum
Source: CD: Turn On
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Sundazed (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
Unlike most of the L.A. bands playing the strip in the mid-60s, the Music Machine played an eclectic mix of original material, all composed by bandleader Sean Bonniwell. Whereas some songs, such as the energetic Talk Talk, were prototypical punk-rock, others, such as Some Other Drum, had a softer feel reminiscent of the Lovin' Spoonful without sounding at all derivative.

Artist: Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band
Title: Orange Claw Hammer
Source: CD: Trout Mask Replica
Writer: Don Van Vliet
Label: Reprise (original label: Straight)
Year: 1969
Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet), is one of the most controversial figures in modern music. Starting off covering blues standards such as Diddy Wah Diddy, the Captain quickly began taking on avant-garde qualities, which in turn led to frequent personnel changes in his Magic Band. Adding to the controversy is the question as to whether Beefheart actually composed the songs he took sole credit for, or whether, as claimed by some band members, he simply gave his musicians general guidelines and let them work out the details. Regardless, the third Beefheart album to be released was the first one in which he was given total artistic freedom, thanks to his old high school friend Frank Zappa being in charge of Straight Records. The result was Trout Mask Replica, a double album that is still considered an avant-garde rock classic. The opening track from side four is Orange Claw Hammer, an a cappela piece that has been slightly electronically altered. It is also the only request I'm playing this week.

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Rock and Soul Music (Reprise)
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
Country Joe and the Fish actually performed Rock and Soul Music twice at Woodstock. The first instance was a short intro that led directly into the next song. The second one, however, was the real deal: a twelve-minute jam that includes a section where the music comes to a complete stop while Joe explains, with tongue firmly in cheek, each instrument's role in creating rock and soul music. This recording was not released until Rhino's 45th anniversary edition of the concert, released in 2009.

Artist: Seeds
Title: I Tell Myself
Source: LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer: Marcus Tybalt
Label: GNP Crescendo
Year: 1966
To finish out the first hour we have a real rarity: a Seeds tune not written by Sky Saxon.

Artist: Troggs
Title: Wild Thing
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Chip Taylor
Label: Rhino (original label: Fontana)
Year: 1966
Is there anyone out there who has not heard this one? I have a copy of the promotional film for this track on DVD. Every time I watch it I imagine singer Reg Presley saying giggity-giggity as he bobs his head from side to side.

Artist: Blues Project
Title: I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes
Source: LP: Projections
Writer: Blind Willie Johnson
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
One lasting legacy of the British Invasion was the re-introduction to the US record-buying public to the songs of early Rhythm and Blues artists such as Blind Willie Johnson. This emphasis on classic blues in particular would lead to the formation of electric blues-based US bands such as the Butterfield Blues Band and the Blues Project. Unlike the Butterfields, who made a conscious effort to remain true to their Chicago-style blues roots, the Blues Project was always looking for new ground to cover, which ultimately led to them developing an improvisational style that would be emulated by west coast bands such as the Grateful Dead, and by Project member Al Kooper, who conceived and produced the first rock jam LP ever, Super Session, in 1968. As the opening track to their second (and generally considered best) LP Projections, I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes served notice that this was a new kind of blues, louder and brasher than what had come before, yet tempered with Kooper's melodic vocal style. An added twist was the use during the song's instrumental bridge of an experimental synthesizer known among band members as the "Kooperphone", probably the first use of any type of synthesizer in a blues record.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
We continue the first of back-to-back three-year progressions with the song that Lenny Kaye chose to open the very first Nuggets collection in 1972. It's hard to imagine a song better representative of the psychedelic era.

Artist: Fireballs
Title: Can't You See I'm Tryin'
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Campbell/Fuller
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs had previously had the number one song of the entire year 1963 with Sugar Shack, but had been completely derailed the following year by the British Invasion. After a nearly five-year drought they returned to the charts with Bottle of Wine in 1968. The song was backed with this tune co-written by Glen Campbell before he became a household word. The Fireballs have the distinction of being one of the only bands from New Mexico ever to hit it big on the charts, recording all their hits at the same Norman Petty studios in Clovis, NM that Buddy Holly had recorded at. After the Fireballs stopped recording, Petty moved into larger, more modern facilities that were used for the first record by country singer LeAnn Rimes in the 1990s. The original Norman Petty studios are now the Buddy Holly Museum.

Artist: Standells
Title: Dirty Water
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1966
Going back to 1966 for our second progression we have a song that still get played at many Boston area sporting events. The joke, of course, is that the Standells were an L.A. band fronted (so to speak) by drummer (and former Mouseketeer) Dicky Dodd.

Artist: Monkees
Title: Mr. Webster
Source: CD: Headquarters
Writer: Boyce/Hart
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1967
After scathing criticism from the rock press for not playing their own instruments, the Monkees were determined to show that they could do it themselves with their third LP, Headquarters. One of the better, yet often overlooked tracks is Mr. Webster, a folk-rock song about an underappreciated bank security guard who decides to determine his own retirement bonus. Although their musicianship was nowhere near being on a level with the studio musicians who had played on their first two albums, the Monkees, in the words of Peter Tork, finally felt like a "real band". Unfortunately the damage to their reputations was already past the point of redemption, and subsequent LPs all used studio musicians, albeit under the direct supervision of the Monkees themselves.

Artist: Guess Who
Title: I Found Her In A Star
Source: CD: Wheatfield Soul
Writer: Burton Cummings
Label: Iconoclassic (original labels: Canada: Nimbus; US: RCA Victor)
Year: 1968
After virtually disappearing from the US charts following Shakin' All Over in 1965, the Guess Who continued to crank out songs that made the Canadian charts while going through a series of personnel changes that saw Burton Cummings take over as front man for the band by 1968. The LP Wheatfield Soul was a breakout album for the band, thanks to the song These Eyes, which was a monster hit all over North America. I Found Her In A Star is more typical of the kind of song Cummings would record years later after leaving the band for a solo career.

Artist: Temptations
Title: Psychedelic Shack
Source: 45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer: Whitfield/Strong
Label: Motown Yesteryear (original label: Gordy)
Year: 1970
Starting in 1969 the songwriting/production team of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong began to carve out their own company within a company at Motown, producing a series of recordings with a far more psychedelic feel than anything else coming out of the Motor City's biggest label. The most blatantly obvious example of this is the Temptations tune Psychedelic Shack, which graced the charts in 1970. Whitfield would eventually form his own company, taking another Motown act, the Undisputed Truth, with him, but would not be able to equal the success of the songs he and Strong produced for the Temptations, such as 1972's Papa Was A Rolling Stone.

Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Boogie Music (originally released on LP: Boogie With Canned Heat and as 45 RPM B side)
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies
Writer: L.T. Tatman III
Label: United Artists (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1968
Canned Heat's second LP established the band's reputation for long extended jamming. It also was the first appearance of this tune that was re-issued as the B side of Canned Heat's biggest hit, Going Up The Country, in 1969.

Artist: Donovan
Title: Preachin' Love
Source: CD: Mellow Yellow (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: EMI (original US label: Epic)
Year: 1967
Due to a contract dispute with his UK record label, Pye Records, Mellow Yellow (the song), did not get released in Donovan's native country until early 1967, well after the song had already run its course on the US charts. Preachin' Love, a swing jazz tune recorded in late 1966, was chosen as the record's B side. Around the same time Donovan's next US single, Epistle To Dippy, was released, also with Preachin' Love as the B side. The song was not included on any albums, however, until re-issued on CD.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Up From The Skies
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA
Our second song of tonight's 1967 set is a tune that was actually released as a single in the US in 1967, at around the same time as Burning of the Midnight Lamp was having a successful run on the UK singles charts. Axis: Bold As Love, however, was one of the LPs that proved that having a top 40 hit was no longer necessary or even desirable for a rock band to be considered a success in the US.

Year: 1967
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Sit Down I Think I Love You
Source: LP: Buffalo Springfield
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Although Buffalo Springfield never released this song as a single, Stephen Stills did manage to collect some royalties when it was covered by the Mojo Men in 1968.

Artist: Kim Fowley
Title: Underground Lady
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Fowley/Geddes
Label: Rhino (original label: Living Legend)
Year: 1965
It's probably appropriate in a rather twisted way that this Kim Fowley tune was released on the Living Legend label. After all, Fowley was an almost bigger than life character in the L.A. record business throughout the sixties and beyond who seemed to always be on whatever scene was most happening at the time. In the early part of the decade he was the voice behind the faux group Hollywood Argyles, scoring a huge novelty hit with Alley Oop. Later, he became famous for the parties he threw, bringing big name acts such as the Yardbirds in to entertain his guests. In later decades he was the guy who introduced Lita Ford to Joan Jett, thereby fulfilling his dream of forming an all-girl rock band (though the Runaways quickly dispensed of his services as producer after their first album). Throughout all this he established a reputation as the ultimate Hollywood hustler; when you think of a guy in shades and a loud shirt that calls everyone baby or sweetheart, you're thinking of Fowley.

Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)
Source: LP: Shine On Brightly
Writer: Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1968
Procol Harum is not generally thought of as a novelty act. The closest they ever came was this track from the Shine On Brightly album that steals shamelessly from a classical piece I really should know the name of but don't.

Artist: Kinks
Title: Days
Source: 25 Years-The Ultimate Collection
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: PolyTel
Year: 1968
As the sixties wound down, the Kinks were busy proving that if a band could weather the bad times they would eventually re-emerge even stronger than before. The worst of those times for the band was 1968, when they had trouble scoring hits even on the UK charts where they had always had their greatest success. One of the singles released was Days, which shows a band still transitioning from the straight ahead rock of their early years to the sometimes biting satire that would characterize their later work.

Artist: 4 Seasons
Title: Idaho
Source: Genuine Imitation Life Gazette
Writer: unknown
Label: Philips
Year: 1969
One of the few US acts to prosper during the British Invasion was the 4 seasons, a vocal group from the east coast. Working closely with songwriters/producers Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe, the Seasons cranked out hit after hit, including Rag Doll, Walk Like A Man, Sherry and many more. By 1969, however, the record-buying public was looking for something different, and the group responded with an album packaged to look like a newspaper, the Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Although the album did little to halt the group's slide, it did set an album cover precedent that would be followed more successfully by Jefferson Airplane (Volunteers), John and Yoko (Sometime In New York City) and Jethro Tull (Thick As A Brick).

Artist: Knickerbockers
Title: High On Love
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer: Colley/Colley/Tucker
Label: Rhino
Year: 1966
I realize now why this list never got posted: I hadn't finished it. This song was co-written by Annette Tucker before she began teaming up with the likes of Nancy Mantz and Jill Jones on songs like Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) and Get Me To The World On Time, both recorded by the Electric Prunes.

Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Heart Full Of Soul
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Graham Gouldman
Label: Epic
Year: 1965
We finish the night with one of the first Yardbirds hits to feature Jeff Beck on lead guitar. Songwriter Graham Gouldman was at the time a member of Wayne Fontana's band the Mindbenders (writing The Game Of Love and Groovy Kind Of Love) and would later be a founding member of 10cc (writing I'm Not In Love).

Friday, March 4, 2011

Show # 1109 Playlist (3/4-3/6)

Artist: Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Source: CD: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
We start off the week with a request from the first Neil Young album to feature the band Crazy Horse. The title track is one of those songs that never got as much airplay as it deserved.

Artist: Cream
Title: As You Said
Source: LP: Wheels Of Fire
Writer: Bruce/Brown
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
Cream started off as a British blues supergroup, but soon found themselves putting out some of the finest psychedelic tunes east of the Atlantic. Much of the credit for this goes to the songwriting team of bassist Jack Bruce and Pete Brown. Brown was originally brought in as a songwriting partner for Ginger Baker, but soon found a better synergy with Bruce. The two went on to write some of Cream's most memorable songs, including Tales of Brave Ulysses, Deserted Cities of the Heart and White Room.

Artist: Who
Title: Underture
Source: CD: Tommy
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1969
One of the great rock instrumentals was the Underture from Tommy. Some of the musical themes used in the piece had appeared on the previous album, The Who Sell Out, as part of the song Rael. Here those themes are fleshed out considerably.

Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up
Source: LP: Zabriskie Point soundtrack
Writer: Gilmour/Waters/Wright/Mason
Label: 4 Men With Beards (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1970
Here we have something unusual: an album that is currently in print only on vinyl. A CD edition of the Zabriskie Point soundtrack (with an entire disc of bonus tracks) was issued several years ago, but was deleted due to lack of sales. The movie itself, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, was both a critical and box office flop; indeed, it often shows up on "worst movies ever made" lists due to its incomprehensible plot and unbelievable characters. Still, the soundtrack does have some outstanding tracks, including this remake of Be Careful With That Axe, Eugene, a tune that at that point had only appeared as a mono B side (it would be included on the next Pink Floyd album, however).

Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: We're Only In It For The Money (part two)
Source: CD: We're Only In It For The Money
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Ryko (original label: Verve)
Year: 1968
Following the release of Absolutely Free, Frank Zappa began working on an album that would feature music by the Mothers of Invention interspersed with Lenny Bruce comedy routines. However, the events of the Summer of Love, along with the chart dominance that summer of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band caused him to rethink the whole thing. Instead, he came up with an album that satirized Sgt.Pepper's, the San Francisco scene, and American culture in general (the latter being a theme that would characterize his entire career).

Artist: Jerry Garcia
Title: EEP Hour
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Garcia/Kreutzmann
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1972
In 1972 Warner Brothers Records encouraged the members of the Grateful Dead to make solo albums. Unlike Bob Weir's album, which used all the members of the band, the Jerry Garcia album featured only drummer Bill Kreutzmann from the Dead. All other instruments were played by Garcia himself, making it more literally a solo album. The single from the album, Sugaree, became a Grateful Dead standard at their live performances. On the other hand EEP Hour (pronounced E Power), the album track issued as the B side of Sugaree, was more of a musical study than an actual song. It has never to my knowledge been performed live.

Artist: Byrds
Title: C.T.A.-102
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer: McGuinn/Hippard
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
Roger McGuinn has always exhibited an interest in the subject of extra-terrestrial life. C.T.A.-102, from the Younger Than Yesterday album, addresses this subject from the angle of aliens tuning in to earth broadcasts to learn our language and culture and hearing rock and roll (and apparently liking it).

Artist: Iron Butterfly
Title: Soul Experience
Source: LP: Ball
Writer: Ingle/Bushy/Brann/Dorman
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
Following up on the success of the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album, Iron Butterfly released the Ball album in 1969. It was an immediate commercial success, despite none of its tracks getting extensive airplay on either top 40 AM or progressive FM stations. Subsequent LPs were not able to match the sales of either album and after several personnel changes the band called it quits.

Artist: Unrelated Segments
Title: Story Of My Life
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Mackavich/Stults
Label: Rhino (original label: Hanna-Barbera)
Year: 1967
The Unrelated Segments were a Detroit band that had most of its success regionally. Their nearest brush with national fame came when Story Of My Life was picked up for national distribution by Hanna-Barbera, the record label associated with such well-known TV stars as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and (later) Scooby-Doo. Hannah-Barbera not being known for its hit records, it's probably no surprise that the song did not climb too high on the charts.

Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Heart Full Of Soul
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Graham Gouldman
Label: Epic
Year: 1965
The follow-up single to For Your Love was a huge hit, making the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1965. The song, the first to feature guitarist Jeff Beck prominently, was written by Graham Gouldman, who was then a member of Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders and would later be a founding member of 10cc.

Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: Don't Look Now (It Ain't You Or Me)
Source: More Creedence Gold
Writer: John Fogerty
Label: Fantasy
Year: 1969
Our second hour starts off with one of the most country-flavored songs in the CCR catalog. Don't Look Now (It Ain't You Or Me) was never released as a single. Nor did it receive much FM airplay, yet the song was featured on the second volume of the original Creedence greatest hits series of albums.

Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Me And Bobby McGee
Source: CD: Pearl
Writer: Kristofferson/Foster
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Continuing in a country vein we have Janis Joplin's most successful single, the Kris Kristofferson-penned Me and Bobby McGee. Joplin died before the single was released, leading to a rather unusual situation: Me and Bobby McGee ended up being Kristofferson's signature song, both as a songwriter and a performer, despite his own recorded version never having charted.

Title: Carey
Source: Blue
Writer: Joni Mitchell
Label: Reprise
Year: 1971
Joni Mitchell's Blue album is probably the one that most people point to as the one that introduced them to the Canadian singer-songwriter, despite it being her third LP for Reprise. Carey is one of many songs on the album that received extensive airplay on progressive FM stations, which by 1971 were looking for ways to expand beyond their rock base without alienating their counter-culture core audience.

Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: (Ballad of the) Hip Death Goddess
Source: Ultimate Spinach
Writer: Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1967
Our next pair of songs share a lyrical theme. I don't do this often (being more musically than lyrically oriented myself), but I have to admit this is a cool pairing. From Boston we have Ultimate Spinach with a song that could be considered the quintessential east coast psychedelic recording, Ian Bruce-Douglas's (Ballad of the) Hip Death Goddess, with its raga backbeat overlaid with tremeloed guitar and trippy female vocals.

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
From Berkeley, California, we have the song that probably got the most airplay of any track on the first Country Joe and the Fish album during the Summer of Love. The idea of presenting a personification of Death as a young female entity (as opposed to the traditional Grim Reaper of indeterminate age and sex) would be revived decades later in the graphic arts medium by writer Neil Gaiman in his Sandman series.

Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original labeel: Tower)
Year: 1966
The Standells follow-up hit to Dirty Water is a 60s punk rock anthem, with the singer defiantly voicing his disdain for the upper class types (known at the time as "Socials") that had dominated high school and college culture in the early part of the decade. This was more than just a gender-reversed Patches or Rag Doll; this was the street kid asserting his right to be himself. The fact that it was all a put-on (singer Dicky Dodd being a somewhat priveledged type himself) didn't really matter. The song speaks for itself.

Artist: Kinks
Title: Love Me Till The Sun Shines
Source: CD: Something Else
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
The 1967 album Something Else By The Kinks featured an eclectic mix of tunes ranging from the soft pop of Waterloo Sunset to harder-edged songs like Love Me Till The Sun Shines, all from the pen of Ray Davies. Not a commercial success in the US upon release, the album has come to be appreciated more over the years.

Artist: Merry-Go-Round
Title: Listen
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Emmitt Rhodes
Label: Rhino (original label: A&M)
Year: 1968
In 1968, drummer/vocalist Emmit Rhodes was on the verge of branching out on a solo career. One of the last songs released under the Merry-Go-Round banner was this Beatle-influenced song.

Artist: Holy Modal Rounders
Title: If You Want To Be A Bird
Source: Easy Rider soundtrack
Writer: Antonia Duren
Label: Dunhill
Year: 1969
Our longest progression through the years in several weeks continues with this oddity from the Easy Rider soundtrack. The song originally appeared on an album called The Moray Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders. What more can I say after that?

Artist: Sugarloaf
Title: The Train Kept A-Rollin' (Stroll On)
Source: Sugarloaf
Writer: Relf/Page/Beck/Dreja
Label: Liberty
Year: 1970
We end up at the year 1970 with an instrumental version of one of the Yardbirds most famous tunes. The song was originally recorded as Train Kept A Rollin' in the band's early years. In 1966, with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page playing dueling lead guitars, the song was reworked with new lyrics for the Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow-Up (yeah, the same guy who directed Zabriskie Point). The Sugarloaf version closely resembles the 1966 version, even to the feedback-drenched intro that was Page's contribution to the song.

Title: The Great Banana Hoax
Source: Underground
Writer: Lowe/Tulin
Label: Collector's Choice
Year: 1967
Our 1967 set of the night starts off with the opening track for the second Electric Prunes album. Underground saw the band having greater creative control over the recording process that either previous or subsequent albums. The title of The Great Banana Hoax probably refers to the rumor circulating at the time that Donovan's Mellow Yellow was really about smoking banana peels to get high. The song itself is an indication of the musical direction the band itself wanted to go in before it got sidetracked (some would say derailed) by producer David Hassinger, who would assert control to the point of eventually replacing all the original members of the band by their fourth album.

Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70
Writer: Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir
Label: Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1967
Speaking of David Hassinger, here is another band he produced. In this case, however, it was the band that ultimately took control, causing Hassinger to give up in frustration after a couple of albums. The last straw was reportedly when, during sessions for the third Dead album, Aoxomoxa, Hassinger was unable to deal with Bob Weir's request for the sound of "thick air".

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Foxy Lady
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
Foxy Lady was not released as a single in the UK. Instead it was the leadoff track for the album Are You Experienced?. In the US, however, neither Hey Joe or The Wind Cries Mary were issued as singles, and both songs found their way to the US version of Are You Experienced?. As a result, the mono single mix of Foxy Lady was only issued in the US, as Hendrix's European albums were only released in Stereo.

Artist: Lighthouse
Title: Lonely Places
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: P. Hoffert/B. Hoffert
Label: Evolution (original label: GRT)
Year: 1972
The Canadian band Lighthouse was an attempt by drummer Skip Prokop (formerly of The Paupers) and others to incorporate both horns and strings into a rock band. This instrumental shows that the idea had potential but never really got off the ground.

Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Blind Eye
Source: LP: The Magician's Birthday
Writer: Ken Hensley
Label: Mercury
Year: 1972
Our final track of the night is from Uriah Heep. The single Easy Livin' from the album Demons and Wizards was a top 40 hit, giving the band some momentum for their follow up album, The Magician's Birthday. Both albums were certified gold. Blind Eye, the second single from The Magician's Birthday, barely made a dent in the charts, but by 1972 album sales were considered a more important measure of success anyway. Both albums were notable for their cover art by Roger Dean, who also did cover art for Yes during their most popular period.