Show # 1120 (starts 5/19)

I managed to get all this stuff ready early this week, so those of you who listen on gulchradio.com Thursday nights can follow along for a change.

Artist: Cream
Title: Rollin' And Tumblin'
Source: LP: Live Cream
Writer: McKinley Morganfield
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
Cream was a band with a split personality. In the studio the group put out some of the best psychedelic tunes ever recorded, such as Strange Brew, Tales of Brave Ulysses and White Room. As a live band, however, Cream had a reputation for playing extended improvisational jams, many of them based on blues classics. Such is the case with their version of the Muddy Waters classic Rollin' And Tumblin, recorded in 1968 at San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium and released in 1970.

Artist: Zephyr
Title: Sail On
Source: CD: Zephyr
Writer: Bolin/Givens
Label: One Way (original label: ABC Probe)
Year: 1969
Boulder, Colorado was home to Zephyr, a blues-rock band originally centered around the powerful vocals of Candy Givens. As time went on, however, fellow member Tommy Bolin emerged as one of rock's top guitarists. Bolin would leave Zephyr after a couple albums to join the James Gang (replacing Dominick Troiano) and later take Richie Blackmore's place in Deep Purple as well as recording a pair of well-regarded solo albums. Unfortunately Bolin, like so many other talented young musicians, died in his mid 20s of a drug overdose, just as his career was kicking into high gear.

Artist: Emitt Rhodes
Title: Holly Park
Source: LP: The American Dream
Writer: Emitt Rhodes
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
Emitt Rhodes first got noticed in his mid-teens as the drummer for the Palace Guard, a beatle-influenced L.A. band that had a minor hit with the song Like Falling Sugar in 1966. Rhodes would soon leave the guard to front his own band, the Merry-Go-Round, scoring one of the most popular regional hits in L.A. history with the song Live. In 1969 Rhodes decided to try his hand as a solo artist. The problem was that he was, as a member of the Merry-Go-Round, contractually obligated to record one more album for A&M. The album itself, featuring a mixture of solo tunes and leftover Merry-Go-Round tracks, sat on the shelf for two years until Rhodes had released a pair of well-received LPs for his new label, at which time A&M finally issued The American Dream as an Emitt Rhodes album.

Artist: Turtles
Title: You Know What I Mean
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Bonner/Gordon
Label: White Whale
Year: 1967
1967 was a good year for the Turtles, mainly due to their discovery of the songwriting team Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon. Not only did the former members of the Magicians write the Turtles' biggest hit, Happy Together, they also provided two follow-up songs, She's My Girl and You Know What I Mean, both of which hit the top 20 later in the year.

Artist: Beatles
Title: The Word
Source: CD: Rubber Soul
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1965
The original concept for the album Rubber Soul was to show the group stretching out into R&B territory. The US version of the album, however, deleted several of the more soulful numbers in favor of folk-rock oriented songs. This was done by Capitol records mainly to cash in on the sudden popularity of the genre in 1965. Not all of the more R&B flavored songs were replaced, however. John Lennon's The Word appeared on both US and UK versions of Rubber Soul.

Artist: Ten Years After
Title: A Sad Song
Source: CD: Stonedhenge
Writer: Alvin Lee
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
After a pair of LPs that were almost pure rock and roll blues, Ten Years After decided to get more experimental with their third album, Stonedhenge. A Sad Song shows the influence of John Mayall, who had a huge impact on virtually all British blues musicians of the era.

Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Shapes Of Things
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: Samwell-Smith/Relf/McCarty
Label: Epic
Year: 1966
Unlike earlier Yardbirds hits, 1966's Shapes Of Things was written by members of the band. The song, featuring one of guitarist Jeff Beck's most distinctive solos, just barely missed the top 10 in the US, although it was a top 5 single in the UK.

Artist: Charlatans
Title: Alabama Bound
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on CD: The Amazing Charlatans in 1996)
Writer: Trad. Arr. Ferguson/Hicks/Hunter/Olsen/Wilhelm
Label: Rhino (original label: Big Beat)
Year: Recorded 1967
Despite being one of the most important bands on the San Francisco scene, the Charlatans did not have much luck in the recording studio. Their first sessions were aborted, the planned LP for Kama Sutra was shelved by the label itself, and the band was overruled in their choice of songs to be released on their first (and only) single issued from the Kama Sutra sessions. In 1967, however, they did manage to get some decent tracks recorded. Unfortunately, those tracks were not released until 1996, and then only in the UK. The centerpiece of the 1967 sessions was this six-minute recording of a traditional tune that is considered by many to be the Charlatans' signature song: Alabama Bound.

Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: Season of the Witch
Source: LP: Renaissance
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
The Vanilla Fudge are generally best remembered for their acid rock rearrangements of hit songs such as You Keep Me Hangin' On, Ticket To Ride and Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down). Their third album, Renaissance, while actually featuring more original material that their previous albums, still included a couple of these cover songs. The best-known of these was this rather spooky (and a little over-the-top) version of Donovan's Season Of The Witch, a song that was also covered by Al Kooper and Stephen Stills the same year on the first Super Session album.

Artist: Incredible String Band
Title: When You Find Out Who You Are
Source: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Robin Williamson
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
The Incredible String Band were the best-known practicioners of what has come to be called Psychedelic Folk music. By 1969 they had established themselves enough that when they refused to take the stage on the rainy first day of Woodstock, the promoters obliged them by rescheduling the group for the following night, immediately following Canned Heat. As a result the String Band was the only acoustic act that did not play on Friday, when technical problems made it impossible for the electric bands to play.

Artist: Monkees
Title: Gravy
Source: LP: Head
Writer: Davy Jones
Label: Colgems
Year: 1968
A one-liner from Davy Jones. If you blinked you missed it.

Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Girl From The City
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: P. Marshall
Label: Uni
Year: 1970
The Strawberry Alarm Clock have the distinction of being one of the most referred to bands of the psychedelic era, despite only having one real hit record. How this came to be is a bit of a mystery. I suspect it's probably because they had a cool name that people tend to remember. The fact that they appeared in at least one Hollywood movie probably didn't hurt, either. Regardless, they cranked out a series of singles from 1967 to 1970, but were unable to equal the success of their first hit, Incense and Peppermints. The last of these singles was 1970's Girl From The City, a song that sounds a bit like the Band could have recorded it.

Artist: Doors
Title: End Of The Night
Source: CD: The Doors
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Our extended set of 1967 tunes starts with this track from the first Doors album. End Of The Night is one of those songs that seems to define a band's sound, in this case dark and moody.

Artist: Byrds
Title: Thoughts And Words
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer: Chris Hillman
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
One of the more pleasant surprises of 1967 was the emergence of Byrds bassist Chris Hillman as a talented songwriter in his own right. Prior to the release of Younger Than Yesterday Hillman's byline had only appeared on a couple of collaborations. From that album on, however, Hillman's songs would be among the strongest material the band recorded.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Long Day's Flight
Source: CD: Underground
Writer: Weakly/Yorty
Label: Collector's Choice (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
We continue our visit to the year 1967 with a set of tunes from the Electric Prunes. Originally from the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, the Prunes were often mislabelled as a Pacific Northwest band (more on that in a minute). Long Day's Flight, an anthemic track from the band's second LP, was released as a single in the UK, but not in the US.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source: LP: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The Electric Prunes biggest hit was I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), released in early 1967. The record, initially released without much promotion from the record label, was championed by Seattle DJ Pat O'Day of KJR radio, and was already popular in that area when it hit the national charts (thus explaining why so many people assumed the band was from Seattle). I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) has come to be one of the defining songs of the psychedelic era and was the opening track on the original Lenny Kaye Nuggets compilation.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Capt. Glory
Source: CD: Underground
Writer: Lowe
Label: Collector's Choice (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Whereas the I Had Too Much To Dream album consisted mostly of songs from professional songwriters such as Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, the second Electric Prunes LP, Underground, had a greater percentage of original material. One example is Capt. Glory, written by lead vocalist Jim Lowe.

Artist: Spirit
Title: Topango Windows
Source: LP: Spirit
Writer: Jay Ferguson
Label: Epic (original label: Ode)
Year: 1968
Ed Cassidy had already made a name for himself on the L.A. jazz scene when he married the mother of guitarist Randy California. He soon started jamming with his teenage stepson's friends, leading to the formation of a band initially known as Spirits Rebellious (but soon shortened to Spirit), one of the first rock bands to heavily incorporate jazz elements in their music. The majority of the songs on the group's self-title first album were written by lead vocalist Jay Ferguson, who would eventually leave the group to co-found Jo Jo Gunne and in recent years has been a soundtrack composer for movies and TV shows, including the theme song of the US TV show The Office.

Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Boogie Music
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Living The Blues)
Writer: L.T. Tatman III
Label: United Artists (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1968
Unlike most American blues-rock bands that took their cues from British blues bands, Canned Heat were purists, preferring to base their style on the original US blues artists. They soon, however, developed a style that was uniquely their own. Boogie Music, from the album Living The Blues, is a good example of the Canned Heat style.

Artist: O'Jays
Title: Back Stabbers
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Huff/McFadden/Whitehead
Label: Philadelphia International
Year: 1972
The two hotspots of soul music in the late 60s were Detroit, Michigan (Motown Records) and Memphis, Tennessee (Stax Records). By the early 70s, however, Memphis was eclipsed by Philadelphia, thanks to Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, founders of and in-house producers for Philadelphia International Records. One of the first major hits for the label was Back Stabbers by the O'Jays, a Cleveland, Ohio vocal group that had been recording with only moderate success since the early 60s. Back Stabbers hit the top spot on the R&B charts in 1972 and crossed over to the top 40 as well, peaking at #3.

Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Source: Highway 61 Revisited
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1965
This week's final half hour is centered around some of the songwriter/performers who made the biggest impact on the psychedelic era. Although Bob Dylan is not usually thought of as a psychedelic artist, he was the first major folk artist to go electric and was instrumental in introducing several of his fellow musicians to mind-expanding substances. The Highway 61 Revisited album is generally regarded as being among the most influential of Dylan's albums.

Artist: Love
Title: You I'll Be Following
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Love)
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1966
Arthur Lee was the king of the underground L.A. music scene during its heyday of 1966-67. His band Love (originally called the Grass Roots: they had to change it when they discovered P.F Sloan and Steve Barri had beaten them to it) ruled the Sunset Strip. Although Love never did any extensive touring, preferring to stay close to their home turf, they nonetheless gained a following in the UK, where Lee's songwriting influenced an entire generation of British songwriters.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1967
Sean Bonniwell's songwriting ability was so far above and beyond the average garage rock writing that it seems almost unfair to call it garage rock at all. Nonetheless, Bonniwell himself has embraced the label; far be it from me to disabuse him of the notion.

Artist: Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title: Cowgirl In The Sand
Source: CD: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
It has been said that adverse conditions are conducive to good art. Certainly that truism applies to Neil Young's Cowgirl In The Sand, written while Young was running a 102 degree fever. Almost makes you wish you could be that sick sometime.

Artist: Donovan
Title: The Observation
Source: LP: Mellow Yellow
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: Epic
Year: 1967
Donovan was at first hailed as Britain's answer to Bob Dylan, but by 1967 he was proving that he was much more than that. The Observation is one of many innovative tunes that helped redefine Donovan from folk singer to singer/songwriter, transforming the entire genre in the process.

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
Randy Newman has, over the course of the past forty-plus years, established himself as a Great American Songwriter. His work includes dozens of hit singles (over half of which were performed by other artists), nearly two dozen movie scores and eleven albums as a solo artist. Newman has won five Grammys, as well as two Oscars and Three Emmys. To my knowledge, Last Night I Had A Dream could quite possibly be his first recorded work as a solo artist, as it came out the same year as his first album, which does not include the song.