Friday, April 29, 2011

Show # 1117 Playlist

I really did not expect to have this week's playlist ready for publishing until Saturday at the earliest, but somehow I managed to get it done in time for the WITT (Zionsville-Indianapolis) Friday night broadcast. That's still a day late for gulchradio.com though. Sorry about that. Anyway, here it is.

Artist: Blues Image
Title: Pay My Dues
Source: LP: Open
Writer: Blues Image
Label: Atco
Year: 1970
Originally from Tampa, Florida, the Blue Project migrated south to Miami and quickly established themselves as the house band at the legendary club Thee Image. Their first LP, Blues Image, was a critical success, although commercially it stalled out in the lower half of the Billboard 200 albums chart. The band's second album, Open, actually charted even lower, despite (or possibly because of) the inclusion of the hit single Ride Captain Ride. The B side of Ride was Pay My Dues, also from Open, which the band I was in at the time immediately learned.

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Section 43
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as an EP in issue # 2 of Rag Baby)
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Rhino (original label: Rag Baby)
Year: 1966
A live performance of Section 43 was one of the longest tracks featured on the D.R. Pennebaker telefilm documenting the Monterey International Pop Festival. That version was pretty much the same arrangement that was included on the first Country Joe and the Fish LP, Electric Music For The Mind and Body, released in 1967. The original version, however, was this recording issued the previous year on Rag Baby EP # 2.

Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: For Ladies Only
Source: LP: For Ladies Only
Writer: Edmonton/Henry/Kay/McJohn
Label: Dunhill
Year: 1971
One of the more controversial of Steppenwolf's albums was For Ladies Only from 1971. The songs themselves dealt mainly with feminist issues, yet the inside cover of the album was a photograph of the band with what can only be called a "weinermobile", a rather unusual automobile shaped and colored to look like a male sex organ. The nine-plus minute title track opens the album.

Artist: Derek and the Dominos
Title: Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad
Source: CD: Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
Writer: Clapton/Whitlock
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1970
Legend has it that this band featuring Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon was supposed to be called Eric and the Dynamos, but that a stage announcer mispronounced the name and his version stuck. As for the album itself, it initially did poorly on the charts, despite drawing rave reviews from the rock press. It wasn't until 1972, when the song Layla starting getting extensive FM airplay, that the album finally started to catch on, eventually going on to become one of Clapton's best selling LPs ever. Contrary to popular belief, Duane Allman was never an official member of Derek and the Dominos, although his presence as a guest guitarist on the album certainly helped to boost sales.

Artist: Turtles
Title: She's My Girl
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Bonner/Gordon
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1967
A favorite among the band members themselves, She's My Girl is full of hidden studio tricks that are barely (if at all) audible on the final recording. Written by the same team as Happy Together, the song is a worthy follow up to that monster hit.

This week's featured artist is the Music Machine, one of the most sophisticated and innovative bands on the 1966 L.A club scene. The band was led by Sean Bonniwell. Originally from San Jose, California, Bonniwell hooked up with a folk group called the Wayfarers who recorded three albums for RCA in the early 60s. The Wayfarers, in addition to being a performing group, also owned and operated a folk club in Charleston, South Carolina called 300 King Street. One of the groups that played there were called the Goldbriars. By the mid-60s, tiring of the restrictions of singing in a folk quartet, Bonniwell decided to form his own band, recruiting Goldbriars' drummer Ron Edgar when that band split up. Adding bass player Keith Olsen, the three began to rehearse in Bonniwell's San Pedro garage. Calling themselves the Ragamuffins, they got their first gig playing in a huge mausoleum of a place in Hermosa Beach known as the Insomniac. After adding keyboardist Doug Rhodes from the Association (he played the distinctive harpsichord on Along Comes Mary) and guitarist Mark Landon, the group changed its name to the Music Machine, playing its first gig at an L.A. bowling alley in the summer of '66. Unlike most bands of the time, the Music Machine played continuous one-hour sets, with musical bridges written by Bonniwell filling the space between songs. According to Bonniwell, this was done to prevent club managers from bothering the band with requests. Bonniwell dominated the group in other ways as well. All members were required to dress in black, even to the point of dying their hair black as well. In this sense they may well have been the first goth rock group. One final touch came when they booked their first national TV appearance (on Dick Clark's black and white daily show Where The Action Is). As the band was going to be lip-synching anyway, Bonniwell thought it would be cool to order black leather gloves to wear on the show. Guitarist Landon suggested that instead of wearing both gloves, the members would each wear just one (making it look a bit more like they were actually able to play their instruments). When the switchboard lit up immediately following the band's appearance on the show, Bonniwell decided to make the single glove look a regular thing. His rule was that the members, upon leaving the stage, would take off the glove and put the other one on.
In the fall of 1966 the single Talk Talk, recorded at the 10-track Original Sound studios (other L.A. studios of the time were 4-track), was released and immediately hit the US top 20 charts. Things were looking good for the band until their first LP, Turn On The Music Machine, came out. The band had recorded a set of cover tunes for exclusive use on local TV shows that would require bands to lip-synch everything rather than to perform live. Without the group's knowledge or consent, the Original Sound people added these songs to the LP, blunting the impact of Bonniwell's original material. Things only got worse from there, as the group's manager gave L.A.'s newest (and lowest rated) radio station exclusive rights to the follow-up single, The People In Me. This may not seem like such a big deal at first; at least not until you consider that at that time the majority of top 40 radio stations in the US were being programmed by the disciples of Bill Drake, whose base of operations was one of the L.A. stations that were being denied access to The People In Me. Without the support of Drake, the song bombed nationally, and the two subsequent singles on Original Sound (both included in tonight's set) fared little better. Meanwhile, the band toured extensively over the next two years, undergoing a complete change in personnel and record label before finally disbanding in 1968. Bonniwell himself ended up quitting the music business entirely in disgust within a few years, which is a shame, as his talent, even now, is not getting the recognition it deserves.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: Talk Me Down
Source: CD: Beyond The Garage
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Sundazed
Year: 1966
We start the set with Talk Me Down, one of four songs recorded on a demo at Original Sound when the band still called itself the Ragamuffins. According to Bonniwell this is quite possibly the first punk rock song ever conceived, although his CD liner notes are unclear on whether this version is one of those four original tracks or a later re-recording of the song.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: Double Yellow Line
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1967
One of the Original Sound singles that also appeared on the Warner Brothers LP Bonniwell Music Machine, Double Yellow Line features lyrics that were literally written by Bonniwell on the way to the recording studio. In fact, his inability to stay in his lane while driving with one hand and writing with the other resulted in a traffic ticket. The ever resourceful Bonniwell wrote the rest of the lyrics on the back of the ticket and even invited the officer in to watch the recording session. He declined.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: Astrologically Incompatible
Source: CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Sundazed (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1967
While touring extensively in 1967 the Music Machine continued to take every possible opportunity to record new material in the studio, while at the same time working to change record labels. The first single to be issued on the Warner Brothers label was Bottom Of The Soul, released in late 1967. The B side of that record was Astrologically Incompatible, one of the first rock songs to deal with astrological themes, albeit in a slightly tongue-in-cheek manner.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1967
The last single to be released on Original Sound was one of a pair of politically-oriented songs included on the Bonniwell Music Machine LP. It's basic message of the imbalance of power is even more true since the fall of the USSR, leaving the world with only one superpower.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: Me, Myself and I
Source: CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Sundazed (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
By 1968 all the original members of the Music Machine (except Bonniwell) had gone their separate ways. The new group, consisting of Guile Wilson on guitar, Jerry Harris on drums, Harry Garfield on organ and Eddie Jones on bass continued the general direction established by the original group, cutting three singles for Warner Brothers before finally disbanding. The first of these was Me, Myself and I, a song that manages to capture the essence of the disco generation half a decade before disco itself was invented (I just can't bring myself to use the word "created" when it comes to disco).

Artist: Byrds
Title: Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe
Source: LP: Mr. Tambourine Man
Writer: Jackie DeShannon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
One of the Byrds' first champions was Jackie DeShannon, the L.A-based singer/songwriter who scored a huge hit in 1965 with Put A Little Love In Your Heart. After using the Byrds as a backup band for an unsuccessful single, she gave them this tune to record on their first LP, Mr. Tambourine Man.

Artist: Chocolate Watch Band (recording as the Hoggs)
Title: Loose Lips Sync Ship
Source: CD: One Step Beyond (bonus track) (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Aguilar/Loomis
Label: Sundazed (original label: Hanna-Barbera)
Year: 1966
It's not entirely clear why the first Chocolate Watch Band single was credited to the fictional Hoggs. The song itself starts off sounding like a generic instrumental, but soon gets weird in a way that resembles both Frank Zappa and the Firesign Theatre.

Artist: Beatles
Title: Fixing A Hole
Source: CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1967
The first Beatle album to appear with the same tracks in the same order on both US and UK versions was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The only differences between the two were a lack of spaces in the vinyl (called "banding") on the UK version and a bit of gobbledygook heard at the end of the record (but only if you did not have a turntable that automatically lifted the needle out of the groove after the last track). Said gobbledygook is included after A Day In The Life on the CD as a hidden track if you really want to hear what it sounds like.

Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Shine On Brightly
Source: CD: Shine On Brightly
Writer: Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1968
Wrapping up our four song progression through the years we have the title cut from Procol Harum's Shine On Brightly album. It's a great song that should have been a hit.

Artist: Monkees
Title: Peter Perceival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky/Pleasant Valley Sunday
Source: CD: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer: Tork/Goffin/King
Label: Rhino
Year: 1967
The album version of Pleasant Valley Sunday differs from the single version in two ways. First, the mix is different, with the background vocals more prominent on the stereo album mix. Second, on the original LP Peter Tork's spoken piece Peter Perceival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky precedes the song on the album and is considered part of the same track (although the CD version assigns the two different track numbers). In honor of the original album I'm playing the entire combo. Besides, Tork's piece is fun to listen to and it only lasts 27 seconds.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: I Wanna Be Your Man
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: London
Year: 1963
This week's second hour starts off with a song written for the Stones by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It was their first song to hit the UK top 20 (peaking at # 12), and was included as the B side of their first US hit, Not Fade Away.

Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: Need Love
Source: LP: Rock and Roll
Writer: Stein/Bogart/Martell/Appice
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
Our 1969 set starts off with the opening track from the last original Vanilla Fudge album, Rock and Roll. By this point the band was doing more of their own material, although the album itself does have a couple covers on it. This is possibly the hardest rocking song the band ever recorded.

Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Going Up The Country
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm (originally released on LP: Woodstock)
Writer: Alan Wilson
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
Although the movie Woodstock uses the studio version of Going Up The Country, the soundtrack LP included the band's actual performance of their most popular song.

Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: The Gallery
Source: LP: Clouds
Writer: Joni Mitchell
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
Wrapping up our 1969 set we have an acoustic number from Joni Mitchell's second LP, Clouds. Back when Stuck in the Psychedelic Era was a live show running only on WEOS I got a phone call from a listener asking if I had a copy of this album. At the time I was still sorting through all the records I had rescued from the WEOS vinyl archives and wasn't sure if this was among them or not. Turns out it was.

Artist: 13th Floor Elevators
Title: Splash 1 (Now I'm Home)
Source: CD: The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
Writer: Hall/Erickson
Label: Collectables (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1966
The album generally acknowledged to be the first to use the word psychedelic in its title was not from California or even the East Coast. It was The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, released in 1966 by International Artists Records, a label based in Texas. Austin, Texas, has had a strong local music scene for a long time and the Elevators are an important part of that scene's history. Splash 1 (Now I'm Home) is an unusual track for the band, as it has a slower tempo than most of their other material. It also is notable for the lack of the electric jug used on most of their recordings.

Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Ain't No Use
Source: LP: Moby Grape
Writer: Miller/Stevenson
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Continuing yet another progression through the years we have a short country song from Moby Grape, a band not generally known for country songs.
Jerry Miller, often cited as being one of the top guitarists in the world, co-wrote the tune with drummer Don Stevenson.

Artist: Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title: Blues For Nothing
Source: CD: Super Session (bonus track)
Writer: Al Kooper
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
From 1968 we have a song left off the original Super Session LP, presumably due to lack of space. Basically it's a blues instrumental played by four outstanding musicians.

Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: A New Day Yesterday
Source: CD: Stand Up
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol
Year: 1969
Taking us to 1969 we have the opening track from the second Jethro Tull album, Stand Up. Although founding member Mick Abrahams (a guitarist with strong ties to the British blues scene) had just left the band, this track still shows a blues influence in it's tempo and basic riff. Even then, though, bandleader and composer Ian Anderson was not content to stick to the conventional blues progression. Over the years Tull would continue to move further away from its beginnings as a British blues band.

Artist: Big Brother and the Holding Company
Title: Turtle Blues
Source: CD: Cheap Thrills
Writer: Janis Joplin
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
I say it on the air and I'm repeating it here: sometimes I do play favorites. This is certainly one of them. Besides vocalist Janis Joplin, the only other band member heard on the track is guitarist Peter Albin. Legendary producer John Simon provides the piano playing.

Artist: Soul Survivors
Title: (Why Don't You) Go Out Walking
Source: LP: Take Another Look
Writer: Charles and Richard Ingui
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
We only have one band this week that has never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before. The Soul Survivors first came to fame in 1967 with their hit Expressway To Your Heart. The song did well on both top 40 and R&B charts, at least until word got out that the Ingui brothers were white. Their first album for Atco was a mix of songs produced by the Gamble and Huff team that would be at the heart of the Philadelphia soul sound in the 1970s and tracks recorded independently of Gamble/Huff at the legendary Fame recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Aretha Franklin had recorded several of her best-known songs.

Artist: Amboy Dukes
Title: Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Source: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Nugent/Farmer
Label: Rhino (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1968
You know, the Amboy Dukes actually did record more than just Journey To The Center Of The Mind, and sometime in the next few weeks I'm goona prove it. In the meantime, here is the song that got the most airplay of any song heard on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era last year.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Schizoforest Love Suite
Source: LP: After Bathing At Baxters
Writer: Slick/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
This week's show wraps up with a set from 1967, starting with the final half of the second side of the third Jefferson Airplane LP, After Bathing At Baxter's. Schizoforest Love Suite actually consists of two songs: Grace Slick's Two Heads and Paul Kantner's Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon. Both are among the strongest tunes on what is generally considered to be the Airplane's most psychedelic album.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Bangles
Source: CD: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: Collector's Choice (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Producer Dave Hassinger gave the Prunes a lot of songs to record by the songwriting team of Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, especially on their first LP,I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). This was probably to be expected, given the success of the Tucker/Mantz title track as a single. Bangles is notable for it's rather abrupt time changes and fuzz guitar opening.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Manic Depression
Source: CD: Are You Experienced?
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Again I play a favorite to finish out the show. My dad bought an Akai X-355D reel to reel tape deck when we moved to Ramstein, Germany in early 1968. It was pretty much the state of the art in home audio technology at the time. The problem was that we did not have a stereo system to hook it into, so he bought a set of Koss headphones to go with it. One of my first purchases was a pre-recorded reel to reel tape of Are You Experienced. The Akai had an auto-reverse system and I would lie on the couch with the headphones on to go to sleep every night listening to songs like Manic Depression. Is it any wonder I turned out like I did?

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