It's Halloween weekend, and in the second hour we have quite a few songs for the occassion. The first hour, on the other hand, is made up almost entirely of tracks that have haven't played on Stuck In The Psychedelic Era since the show started being syndicated (the exceptions being the Byrds' Thoughts And Words and the first of the two songs that make up the Jefferson Airplane suite The War Is Over).
Artist: Them
Title: Mystic Eyes
Source: LP: Them
Writer: Van Morrison
Label: Parrot
Year: 1965
The opening track of the first Them album (2nd track on the US version) was a song that started off as an extended studio jam, with vocalist Van Morrison playing harmonica and ad-libbing vocals as the band played behind him. Luckily the tape recorder was on for the whole thing and, with a little editing the track became the group's second biggest US hit, Mystic Eyes.
Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: Help, I'm A Rock/It Can't Happen Here
Source: CD: Freak Out
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Verve
Year: 1966
Help, I'm A Rock and its follow up track It Can't Happen Here are among the best-known Frank Zappa compositions on the first Mothers Of Invention album, Freak Out. The phrase Help I'm A Rock itself comes across as a kind of mantra, with various verbal bits (including Zappa's own take on the Sunset Strip riot) going on around a repeating bass/drum/guitar riff. The song eventually leads into It Can't Happen Here, an avant-garde piece composed almost entirely of vocal tracks. The title is a play on a popular misconception in many American cities that the various kinds of civil unrest (and occasional violence) going on could only happen in someone else's town.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Thoughts And Words
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer: Chris Hillman
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
In addition to recording the most commercially successful Dylan cover songs, the Byrds had a wealth of original material over the course of several albums. On their first album, these came primarily from guitarists Gene Clark and Jim (now Roger) McGuinn, with David Crosby emerging as the group's third songwriter on the band's second album. After Clark's departure, bassist Chris Hillman began writing as well, and had three credits as solo songwriter on the group's fourth LP, Younger Than Yesterday. Hillman credits McGuinn, however, for coming up with the distinctive reverse-guitar break midway through the song.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Watch Yourself
Source: CD: Volume 3-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Writer: Robert Yeazel
Label: Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Although the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band usually wrote their own material, they occassionally drew from outside sources. One example is Watch Yourself, written by Robert Yeazel, who would go on to join Sugarloaf in time for their second LP, Spaceship Earth, writing much of the material on that album.
Artist: Flock
Title: Clown
Source: LP: The Flock
Writer: The Flock
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
The Flock's 1969 debut album featured liner notes by British blues guru John Mayall, who called them the best band in America. Despite this stellar recommendation, the Flock (one of two bands with horn sections from the city of Chicago making their recording debut on Columbia Records in 1969) was unable to attract a large audience and disbanded after only two LPs. Violinist Jerry Goodman would go on to be a founding member of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Morning Will Come (alternate mono mix)
Source: CD: Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus
Writer: Randy California
Label: Epic/Legacy
Year: 1970
When Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus was released, the band members told Rolling Stone magazine that if the album did sell significantly better than their previous couple of LPs, the group would probably disband. As it turned out, the album did reasonably well. Despite this vocalist Jay Ferguson and bassist Mark Andes left the band soon after to help form Jo Jo Gunne. In the years since, Twelve Dreams has come to be regarded as a landmark album, bridging the gap between the psychedelic era and the progressive rock movement of the early 1970s. Several tracks were considered for single release, including Morning Will Come. This alternate mono mix of the song puts a greater emphasis on the horns and vocals than the album version.
Artist: Hollies
Title: Look Through Any Window
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Gouldman/Silverman
Label: Imperial
Year: 1965
Although the Hollies were far more popular in their native England than in the US, they did have their fair share of North American hits. The first Hollies tune to crack the US top 40 was Look Through Any Window, released in December of 1965 and peaking at #33 in early 1966. The song did even better in Canada, going all the way to the #3 spot.
Artist: Association
Title: Along Comes Mary
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Almer
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1966
The Association are best known for a series of love ballads and light pop songs such as Cherish, Never My Love and Windy. Many of these records were a product of the L.A. studio scene and featured several members of the Wrecking Crew, the studio musicians who played on dozens of records in the late 60s and early 70s. The first major Association hit, however, featured the band members playing all the instruments themselves. Produced by Curt Boettcher, who would soon join Gary Usher's studio project Sagittarius, Along Comes Mary shows that the Association was quite capable of recording a classic without any help from studio musicians.
Artist: Mojo Men
Title: Sit Down, I Think I Love You
Source: LP: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The Mojo Men started off in Rochester, NY in the early 60s. After a stint in south Florida playing mostly frat houses, the band moved to San Francisco, where they scored a contract with Reprise Records and recorded the garage-rock classic She's My Baby. Around late 1966-early 1967 the Mojo Men picked up a new drummer. Jan Errico, formerly of the Vejtables, brought with her a softer, more folky kind of sound, as well as the high vocal harmonies that are evident in this recording of the Buffalo Springfield tune Sit Down I Think I Love You, a minor hit during the summer of love.
Artist: Cream
Title: Four Until Late
Source: LP: Fresh Cream
Writer: Robert Johnson
Label: Atco
Year: 1966
By the time Cream was formed, guitarist Eric Clapton had already established himself as one of the best guitarists in the world. He had not, however, done much singing, as the bands he had worked with all had strong vocalists: Keith Relf with the Yardbirds and John Mayall with the Bluesbreakers. With Cream, however, Clapton finally got a chance to do some vocals of his own. Most of these are duets with bassist Jack Bruce, who handled the bulk of Cream's lead vocals. Clapton did get to sing lead on a few Cream songs, however. One of the earliest ones was the band's updated version of Robert Johnson's Four Until Late, from the Fresh Cream album.
Artist: Derek and the Dominos
Title: Layla
Source: CD: Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
Writer: Clapton/Gordon
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1970
After the breakup of Blind Faith after one album, Eric Clapton set about forming a new band that would be more of a group effort than a collection of stars working together. To this end he found musicians that, although quite talented, were not particularly well-known outside of the British blues community. At first the group deliberately downplayed Clapton's presence in the band in order to stay focused on making music as a collective, although even in the beginning it was clear that Clapton would be the group's lead vocalist. The new group had trouble coming up with a name, however, and (half-jokingly) told one stage MC that their name was Del and the Dynamos. The MC misheard the name and introduced the new band as Derek and the Dominos. The name stuck. Meanwhile, Clapton had recently discovered a new band out of Atlanta, Georgia, calling itself the Allman Brothers band and was so impressed by guitarist Duane Allman that he asked him to join the Dominos. Allman, however, declined Clapton's offer, choosing to stick with the band he had co-founded with brother Gregg. Duane Allman did, however, sit in with Derek and the Dominos in the studio for several tracks on their upcoming double LP. One of the tracks where Allman's distinctive slide guitar stands out is the album's title song, Layla.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: The War Is Over
Source: LP: After Bathing At Baxters
Writer: Paul Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
The songs on the third Jefferson Airplane album, After Bathing At Baxter's, are grouped into suites of two or three songs apiece. Most of the suites mix songs by different songwriters; the sole exception is The War Is Over, which is made up of two Paul Kantner tunes, Martha and Wild Thyme. The War Is Over is also the shortest of the five suites on After Bathing At Baxter's, clocking in at about six and a half minutes.
Our second hour this week starts off with a set built around an All Hallow's Eve theme. Since this show is being heard just a few days before Halloween, I figured it would be an appropriate thing to do. Although the initial set is loosely based on a traditional druidic theme, we do get into some of the more Americanized concept of Halloween later in the hour, with songs like Disguises, Cauldron and of course, Frankenstein. In between we have sets made up mostly of old favorites from 1966 and 1967. First, though, let the witchery begin!
Artist: Sonics
Title: The Witch
Source: LP: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Gerald Roslie
Label: Rhino (original label: Etiquette)
Year: 1964
The #1 selling single in the history of the Pacific Northwest was this tune by one of the founding bands of the Seattle music scene. The Sonics were as raw as any punk rock band of the seventies, as The Witch proves beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: The Wizard
Source: LP: Demons And Wizards
Writer: Hensley/Clarke
Label: Mercury
Year: 1972
Although Uriah Heep had been around since 1969, they didn't get much attention in the US until their Demons And Wizards album in 1972, which included their biggest hit, Easy Livin'. The Wizard, which opens the album, was the first of two singles released from the album. The song itself is a semi-acoustic tune about a wizard whose name is never given, but is thought to be either Merlin or Gandalf.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Season Of The Witch
Source: CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released on LP: Sunshine Superman)
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: Sony (original label: Epic)
Year: 1966
From 1966 we have an album track from Donovan's Sunshine Superman album. Due to a contract dispute with Pye Records, the album was not released in the UK until 1967, and then only as an LP combining tracks from both the Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums. Season of the Witch has since been covered by an impressive array of artists, including Al Kooper and Stephen Stills (on the Super Session album) and Vanilla Fudge.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: The Wizard
Source: CD: Black Sabbath
Writer: Osborne/Iommi/Butler/Ward
Label: Creative Sounds (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1970
Often cited as the first true heavy metal album, Black Sabbath's debut LP features one of my all-time favorite album covers (check out the Stuck in the Psychedelic Era Facebook page) as well as several outstanding tracks. One of the best of these is The Wizard, which was reportedly inspired by the Gandalf character from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings trilogy.
Artist: October Country
Title: My Girlfriend Is A Witch
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Michael Lloyd
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1968
By 1968 the L.A. under-age club scene was winding down, and several now out of work bands were making last (and sometimes only) attempts at garnering hits in the studio. One such band was October Country, whose first release had gotten a fair amount of local airplay, but who had become bogged down trying to come up with a follow-up single. Enter Michael Lloyd, recently split from the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and looking to become a record producer. Lloyd not only produced and wrote My Girlfriend Is a Witch, he also ended up playing drums on the record when the band's regular drummer got a bad case of studio jitters.
Artist: Who
Title: Disguises
Source: LP: Magic Bus (originally released in UK on EP: Ready Steady Who)
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Reaction)
Year: 1966
After a successful appearance on the British TV show Ready Steady Go (the UK's answer to American Bandstand), the Who released an EP featuring mostly cover songs such as Bucket T and the Batman theme. Two tracks on the record, however, were Who originals: a new version of Circles (a song that originally appeared on the My Generation album) and Disguises, which made its debut as the lead track of the EP. The song did not appear in the US until the Magic Bus album, released in 1968. When MCA issued a remastered version of A Quick One in the 1990s, the entire contents of the EP (except Circles) were included as bonus tracks on the CD.
Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Da Capo)
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 on the outskirts of Aurora, Colorado 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.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released on LP: Psychedelic Lollipop)
Writer: Gilbert/Scala/Esposito
Label: Rhino (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1967
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: Spencer Davis Group
Title: I'm A Man
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Winwood/Miller
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
The Spencer Davis Group, featuring Steve and Muff Winwood, was one of the UK's most successful white R&B bands of the sixties, cranking out a steady stream of hit singles. Two of them, the iconic Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man, were also major hits in the US, the latter being the last song to feature the Winwood brothers. Muff Winwood became a successful record producer. The group itself continued on for several years, but were never able to duplicate their earlier successes. As for Steve Winwood, he quickly faded off into obscurity, never to be heard from again. Except as the leader of Traffic. And a member of Blind Faith. And Traffic again. And some critically-acclaimed collaborations in the early 1980s with Asian musicians. Oh yeah, and a few major solo hits like Higher Love and Roll With It in the late 80s. Other than that, nothing.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Waterloo Sunset
Source: CD: Something Else
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
One of the most beautiful tunes ever recorded by the Kinks is Waterloo Sunset, a song that was a hit single in the UK, but was totally ignored by US radio stations. The reason for this neglect of such a stong song is a mystery, however it may have been due to the fear that American audiences would not be able to relate to all the references to places in and around London in the song's lyrics.
Artist: 13th Floor Elevators
Title: (It's All Over Now) Baby Blue
Source: CD: Easter Everywhere
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Charly (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1967
When the 13th Floor Elevators left their native Texas to do a series of gigs on the West Coast, the local media's reaction was basically "good riddance". After the band's successful California appearances (and a hit record with You're Gonna Miss Me), they returned to a hero's welcome by that same media that had derided the Elevators as a bunch of degenerate drug addicts just weeks before. Buoyed by this new celebrity, the band set out to record its masterpiece, Easter Everywhere. Although much of the album featured original material, there were a couple of cover tunes. Most notable was the inclusion of (It's All Over Now) Baby Blue, a Bob Dylan tune that had been recently recorded by San Jose's Chocolate Watchband.
Artist: E-Types
Title: Put The Clock Back On The Wall
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Bonner/Gordon
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
Speaking of San Jose bands, we have the "E" types, originally 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. The song takes its title from a popular phrase 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.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Pleasant Valley Sunday
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released on LP: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.)
Writer: Goffin/King
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1967
After making it a point to play their own instruments on their third LP, Headquarters, the Monkees decided to once again use studio musicians for their next album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD. The difference was that this time the studio musicians would be recording under the supervision of the Monkees themselves rather than Don Kirschner and the array of producers he had lined up for the first two Monkees LPs. The result was an album that many critics consider the group's best effort. The only single released was Pleasant Valley Sunday, a song penned by the husband and wife team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and backed by the band's remake of the Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart song Words, which had been recorded the previous year by the Leaves. Although both songs ended up making the charts, it was Pleasant Valley Sunday that got the most airplay and is considered by many to be Monkees' greatest achievement.
Artist: Edgar Winter Group
Title: Frankenstein (edited version)
Source: LP: Vintage Rock (originally released on LP: They Only Come Out At Night. Edited version released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Edgar Winter
Label: K-Tel (original label: Epic)
Year: 1973
A real monster hit.
Artist: Fifty Foot Hose
Title: Cauldron
Source: LP: Cauldron
Writer: BlossoM/Marcheschi/Kimsey
Label: Limelight
Year: 1968
Although New York is generally considered the epicenter for avant-garde rock, there were things happening out on the West Coast as well, including the United States Of America (led by an expatriot Manhattanite) in Los Angeles and Fifty Foot Hose in San Francisco. Fifty Foot Hose featured Cork Marcheschi's homemade electronic instruments and the unique vocal style of Nancy Blossom. This week's show closes with the title track of Fifty Foot Hose's only LP, Cauldron. The group disbanded when all of the members except Marcheschi left to join the cast of the musical Hair. Nancy Blossom herself played the female lead, Sheila, in the San Francisco production of the rock musical.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
SITPE # 1142 Playlist (Starts 10/20/11)
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Alligator/Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)
Source: CD: Anthem Of The Sun
Writer: Lesh/McKernan/Hunter/Garcia/Kreutzmann/Weir
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1968
After a debut album that took about a week to record (and that the band was unanimously unhappy with) the Grateful Dead took their time on their second effort, Anthem Of The Sun. After spending a considerable amount of time in three different studios on two coasts and not getting the sound they wanted (and shedding their original producer along the way) the Dead came to the conclusion that the only way to make an album that sounded anywhere near what the band sounded like onstage was to use actual recordings of their performances and combine them with the studio tracks they had been working on. Side two of the album, which includes the classic Alligator and the more experimental Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks), is basically an enhanced live performance, with new vocal tracks added in the studio. Alligator itself is notable as the first Grateful Dead composition to feature the lyrics of Robert Hunter, who would become Jerry Garcia's main collaborator for many many years.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
Source: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released
Writer: Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir
Label: Rhino
Year: 1967
I once knew someone from San Jose who had an original copy of the single version of The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion), the opening track from the first Dead album. It was totally worn out from being played a few hundred times, though.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: That's It For The Other One
Source: CD: Anthem Of The Sun
Writer: Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir/Constanten
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1968
The second Grateful Dead album, Anthem Of The Sun, opens with a suite called That's It For The Other One. Although it plays as one continuous piece of music, the suite was banded on the LP into separate tracks in order to increase songwriting royalties. Unlike the better-known Alligator, which is a live performance with studio overdubs, That's It For The Other One is a studio creation supplemented by live recordings. The final section of the piece was provided by future member Tom Constanten, whose contributions to the Dead were always more prominent in the studio than onstage. Anthem Of The Sun itself was the first Grateful Dead album to feature drummer Mickey Hart, who would be an off-and-on member of the band throughout their existence.
Artist: Taos
Title: Putting My Faith In You
Source: LP: Taos
Writer: Taos
Label: Mercury
Year: 1969
When going through the WEOS vinyl archives a couple years ago I ran across an album called simply Taos. After doing a considerable amount of research I learned that the album came out in 1969. That's all I found out. Like many albums of the time, the LP was packaged in a gatefold sleeve. Unlike most LPs of the time, there were no songwriting credits given, either on the album cover or the label itself. In fact, other than the names of the songs themselves, there is no text at all. Instead, we are treated to several pictures of (presumably) the band members taken mostly at Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico. As there was a commune in the area that had been established by disgruntled hippys that had fled the fast-deteriorating Haight-Ashbury scene the previous year, it's a good possibility that the band was from that commune, although I have no documentation to that end. Musically, Taos certainly sounds like an extension of the San Francisco sound, as Putting My Faith In You demonstrates. If anyone has any information about this band, feel free to drop me a line, either through the comments button at www.hermitradio.com or on the Stuck In The Psychedelic Era Facebook page wall.
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Queen Of Torture
Source: 45 RPM single B side (originally released on LP: Wishbone Ash)
Writer: Upton/Turner/Turner/Powell
Label: Decca
Year: 1970
One of the first bands to use dual lead guitars was Wishbone Ash. When the band's original guitarist had to leave, auditions were held, but the remaining members couldn't come to a consensus between the two finalists so they kept both of them, or so the story goes. Queen Of Torture, from their 1969 debut album, shows just how well the two guitars meshed.
Artist: Leaves
Title: Hey Joe
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Billy Roberts
Label: Rhino (original label: Mira)
Year: 1966
The origins of the song Hey Joe are surrounded in mystery. Various writers have been given credit for the tune, including Chet Powers, aka Dino Valenti, who wrote Get Together, but David Crosby claimed the song was actually an old folk tune dating back to the 19th century that he himself had popularized as a member of the Byrds before the Leaves got ahold of it. Regardless of where the song came from, the Leaves version was the first to be released as a single and is generally considered the definitive fast version of the song. In Britain it was the slower version favored by the Jimi Hendrix Experience that became a hit, using an arrangement pioneered by songwriter Tim Rose and the Music Machine's Sean Bonniwell.
Artist: Mystery Trend
Title: Johnny Was A Good Boy
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Nagle/Cuff
Label: Rhino (original label: Verve)
Year: 1967
The Mystery Trend was a bit of an anomaly. Contemporaries of bands such as the Great! Society and the Charlatans, the Trend always stood a bit apart from the rest of the crowd, playing to an audience that was both a bit more affluent and a bit more "adult" (they were reportedly the house band at a Sausalito strip club). Although they played in the city itself as early as 1965, they did not release their first record until early 1967. The song, Johnny Was A Good Boy, tells the story of a seemingly normal middle-class kid who turns out to be a monster, surprising friends, family and neighbors. The same theme would be used by XTC in the early 1980s in the song No Thugs In Our House, one of the standout tracks from their landmark English Settlement album.
Artist: Harry Nilsson
Title: Let The Good Times Roll
Source: LP: Nilsson Schmilsson
Writer: Lee
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1971
By 1971, Harry Nilsson (usually known only by his last name) had established himself as both a singer (Everybody's Talkin', for the film Midnight Cowboy), and a songwriter (the Monkee's Cuddly Toy and Daddy's Song, among others). One of his most successful solo albums was Nilsson Schmilsson, which included the hits Without You and the psychedelic Jump Into The Fire. Despite his growing reputation as a singer/songwriter, Nilsson continued to record an occassion cover song, such as the 50s Shirley and Lee hit Let The Good Times Roll. It may have been this love of 50s music that led to him becoming close friends and drinking buddies with John Lennon, who recorded an entire album of 50s cover tunes in the early 70s.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Conquistador
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1972
Although Conquistador was originally recorded for the first Procol Harum album in 1967, it was the 1972 live version with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra that became one of the band's biggest hits, second only to A Whiter Shade Of Pale.
Artist: Pheremones
Title: N.G.R.I.
Source: unreleased
Writer: Ed Carlson
Label: n/a
Year: 1987
I usually don't say anything here about the instrumental tracks I use at the end of each hour, but I thought I'd make an exception, since this is only the second time I've used Ed Carlson's N.G.R.I. (which stands for No Good Rotten Instrumental). Ed was lead guitarist for the Pheremones, a band I sat in with on bass for a few months before starting on the Electric Dream Project (which is where most of the instrumentals I use on the show come from).
Artist: James Brown
Title: Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: James Brown
Label: Ripete
Year: 1965
Although he had been recording since the late 1950s, it wasn't until the release of Papa's Got A Brand New Bag in 1965 that James Brown achieved stardom. The song was recorded in less than an hour in a Charlotte, NC studio on the way to a performance. On the master tape Brown can be heard saying that they had a hit record on their hands. The record itself is actually a half-step higher in pitch than the master tape, which was deliberately sped up to give the song a bit of extra punch when the record was mastered.
Artist: Otis Redding
Title: The Glory Of Love
Source: LP: The Dock Of The Bay (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Billy Hill
Label: Volt
Year: Original single release: 1967; LP release: 1968
Otis Redding's dream was to fill the gap left by the untimely death of Sam Cooke in 1964. By the summer of 1967 it looked like that dream was about to become a reality. Following a landmark performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June, Redding released his new version of a song that had originally been recorded by Benny Goodman in 1936 and had been redone numerous times over the years, including a version by the Five Keys that had spent eight weeks in the number one spot on the R&B charts in 1951. Sadly, Redding's life would be cut short the following winter when the plane carrying the singer, along with several members of the Bar-Kays, went down in a snowstorm, killing all aboard. After Redding's death, several tracks that had not yet appeared on an album were collected on an LP called The Dock Of The Bay, released on the Volt label (part of the Stax Records group) in 1968.
Artist: Lemon Pipers
Title: Green Tambourine
Source: CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Leka/Pinz
Label: Priority (original label: Buddah)
Year: 1967
After a promising start signing respected artists like Johnny Winter and Captain Beefheart, Buddah Records quickly acquired a reputation as the "bubble gum" label, with a string of hits by groups like the 1910 Fruitgum Company and the Ohio Express. As a result, Green Tambourine is often dismissed as mere fluff, when in fact it is a legitimate piece of psychedelia, recorded at the end of 1967, before the advent of the bubble gum era (although the song is sometimes cited as the first bubble gum hit).
Artist: Cream
Title: Tales Of Brave Ulysses
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Clapton/Sharp
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
Cream was one of the first bands to break British tradition and release singles that were also available as album cuts. This tradition likely came about because 45 RPM records (both singles and extended play 45s) tended to stay in print indefinitely in the UK, unlike in the US, where a hit single usually had a shelf life of around 4-6 months then disappeared forever. When the Disraeli Gears album was released, however, the song Strange Brew, which leads off the LP, was released in Europe as a single. The B side of that single was Tales Of Brave Ulysses, which opens side two of the album.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: My Best Friend
Source: CD: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer: Skip Spence
Label: RCA
Year: 1967
Although drummer Skip Spence had left Jefferson Airplane after the group's first LP, he did leave a song behind. My Best Friend was actually released as a single before Somebody To Love, making it the first single released from the Surrealistic Pillow album. Spence, meanwhile, was about to make a big splash as a founding member of Moby Grape.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: As Kind As Summer
Source: LP: Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Writer: Markley/Harris/Bryant
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
The first time I heard this I jumped up to see what was wrong with my turntable. A real gotcha moment.
Artist: Them
Title: Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of Sixteen)
Source: LP: Now And Them
Writer: Tom Lane
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
After Van Morrison left Them to pursue a solo career, the band returned to Belfast, where they recruited Kenny McDowell to be the group's new lead vocalist. They then relocated to California, where they cut two albums for Tower Records. The second of the two albums featured songs written by the husband and wife team of Tom Pulley and Vivian Lane. The first LP, entitled Now And Them, featured songs from a variety of sources, including one song, Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of Sixteen), written by Lane himself.
Artist: Things To Come
Title: Come Alive
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Russ Ward
Label: Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
Come Alive is a solid piece of garage rock, written by drummer Russ Ward, who would go on to become one of L.A.'s most sought after studio drummers using the name Russ Kunkel.
Artist: Emerson, Lake And Palmer
Title: The Endless Enigma (part one)
Source: CD: Trilogy
Writer: Emerson/Lake
Label: Atlantic (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1972
Just for something completely different we have a track from the third Emerson, Lake and Palmer album, Trilogy.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: A Most Peculiar Man
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Sounds Of Silence)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
You would think that a high school on a US military facility would be inclined to use the most staunchly traditional teaching methods known to man. Surprisingly, though, this was not the case at General H. H. Arnold High School in Weisbaden, Germany. In fact, the English department was teaching some sort of new system that dispensed with terms such as verb and noun and replaced them with a more conceptual approach to language. What I best remember about my Freshman English class is the day that my rather Bohemian teacher (he wore sandals to class!), actually brought in a copy of the Sounds Of Silence and had us dissect two songs from the album, Richard Cory and A Most Peculiar Man. We spent several classes discussing the similarities (they both deal with a suicide by someone representing a particular archetype) and differences (the methods used and the archetypes themselves) between the songs. I have forgotten everything else about that class and its so-called revolutionary approach, but those two songs have stayed with me my entire life. I guess that teacher (whose name I have forgotten) was on to something.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Lady Jane
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1966
One of the best early Rolling Stones albums is 1966's Aftermath, which included such classics as Under My Thumb, Stupid Girl and the eleven-minute Goin' Home. Both the US and UK versions of the LP included the song Lady Jane, which was also released as the B side to Mother's Little Helper (which had been left off the US version of Aftermath to make room for Paint It, Black). The policy at the time was for B sides that got a significant amount of airplay to be rated seperately from the A side of the single, and Lady Jane managed to climb to the # 24 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 (Mother's Little Helper peaked at # 8).
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Shapes Of Things
Source: CD: Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame-Volume VII (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: McCarty/Relf/Samwell-Smith
Label: Legacy (original 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: Del-Vetts
Title: Last Time Around
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Dennis Dahlquist
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
Dunwich Records was a small independent label in Chicago that got national distribution through a deal with Atlantic Records. Their biggest act was the Shadows of Knight, who topped the charts with Gloria in 1966. One of the most successful other bands on the label was the Del-Vetts, from Chicago's affluent North Side (band members had matching white Corvettes, hence the name.) Last Time Around, sounding a lot like the Yardbirds, was their only nationally charted song, although they did get airplay in the midwest with other songs as well.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Dear Mr. Fantasy
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Mr. Fantasy)
Writer: Capaldi/Winwood/Wood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
Steve Winwood is one of those artists that has multiple signature songs, having a career that has spanned decades (so far). Still, if there is any one song that is most closely associated with the guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist, it's this one from the Mr. Fantasy album.
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: When I Was Young
Source: CD: The Best of Eric Burdon and the Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label: Polydor
Year: 1967
After the Animals disbanded in 1966, Eric Burdon set out to form a new band that would be far more psychedelic than the original group. The first release from these "New Animals" was When I Was Young. The song was credited to the entire band, a practice that would continue throughout the entire existence of the group that came to be called Eric Burdon And The Animals.
Artist: Velvet Underground
Title: Femme Fatale
Source: CD: The Velvet Underground And Nico
Writer: Lou Reed
Label: Polydor (original label: Verve)
Year: 1967
The debut Velvet Underground LP, released in 1967, was not a huge commercial success, despite the striking album cover designed by Andy Warhol, who also produced the album. In the years since it has come to be regarded as a true classic of both the psychedelic and punk genres. Despite all that the album has some serious flaws, not the least of which is the relative lack of talent of Nico, who sings lead on Lou Reed's Femme Fatale.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Can't Seem To Make You Mine
Source: LP: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: The Seeds)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
One of the first psychedelic singles to hit the L.A. market in late 1965 was Can't Seem To Make You Mine. The song was also chosen to lead off the first Seeds album, released in 1966. Indeed, it could be argued that this was the song that first defined the "flower power" sound, predating the Seeds' biggest hit, Pushin' Too Hard, by several months. After the national success of Pushin' Too Hard, Can't Seem To Make You Mine was re-released nationally, but did not make a huge impression.
Title: Alligator/Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)
Source: CD: Anthem Of The Sun
Writer: Lesh/McKernan/Hunter/Garcia/Kreutzmann/Weir
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1968
After a debut album that took about a week to record (and that the band was unanimously unhappy with) the Grateful Dead took their time on their second effort, Anthem Of The Sun. After spending a considerable amount of time in three different studios on two coasts and not getting the sound they wanted (and shedding their original producer along the way) the Dead came to the conclusion that the only way to make an album that sounded anywhere near what the band sounded like onstage was to use actual recordings of their performances and combine them with the studio tracks they had been working on. Side two of the album, which includes the classic Alligator and the more experimental Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks), is basically an enhanced live performance, with new vocal tracks added in the studio. Alligator itself is notable as the first Grateful Dead composition to feature the lyrics of Robert Hunter, who would become Jerry Garcia's main collaborator for many many years.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
Source: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released
Writer: Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir
Label: Rhino
Year: 1967
I once knew someone from San Jose who had an original copy of the single version of The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion), the opening track from the first Dead album. It was totally worn out from being played a few hundred times, though.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: That's It For The Other One
Source: CD: Anthem Of The Sun
Writer: Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir/Constanten
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1968
The second Grateful Dead album, Anthem Of The Sun, opens with a suite called That's It For The Other One. Although it plays as one continuous piece of music, the suite was banded on the LP into separate tracks in order to increase songwriting royalties. Unlike the better-known Alligator, which is a live performance with studio overdubs, That's It For The Other One is a studio creation supplemented by live recordings. The final section of the piece was provided by future member Tom Constanten, whose contributions to the Dead were always more prominent in the studio than onstage. Anthem Of The Sun itself was the first Grateful Dead album to feature drummer Mickey Hart, who would be an off-and-on member of the band throughout their existence.
Artist: Taos
Title: Putting My Faith In You
Source: LP: Taos
Writer: Taos
Label: Mercury
Year: 1969
When going through the WEOS vinyl archives a couple years ago I ran across an album called simply Taos. After doing a considerable amount of research I learned that the album came out in 1969. That's all I found out. Like many albums of the time, the LP was packaged in a gatefold sleeve. Unlike most LPs of the time, there were no songwriting credits given, either on the album cover or the label itself. In fact, other than the names of the songs themselves, there is no text at all. Instead, we are treated to several pictures of (presumably) the band members taken mostly at Taos Pueblo in northern New Mexico. As there was a commune in the area that had been established by disgruntled hippys that had fled the fast-deteriorating Haight-Ashbury scene the previous year, it's a good possibility that the band was from that commune, although I have no documentation to that end. Musically, Taos certainly sounds like an extension of the San Francisco sound, as Putting My Faith In You demonstrates. If anyone has any information about this band, feel free to drop me a line, either through the comments button at www.hermitradio.com or on the Stuck In The Psychedelic Era Facebook page wall.
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Queen Of Torture
Source: 45 RPM single B side (originally released on LP: Wishbone Ash)
Writer: Upton/Turner/Turner/Powell
Label: Decca
Year: 1970
One of the first bands to use dual lead guitars was Wishbone Ash. When the band's original guitarist had to leave, auditions were held, but the remaining members couldn't come to a consensus between the two finalists so they kept both of them, or so the story goes. Queen Of Torture, from their 1969 debut album, shows just how well the two guitars meshed.
Artist: Leaves
Title: Hey Joe
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Billy Roberts
Label: Rhino (original label: Mira)
Year: 1966
The origins of the song Hey Joe are surrounded in mystery. Various writers have been given credit for the tune, including Chet Powers, aka Dino Valenti, who wrote Get Together, but David Crosby claimed the song was actually an old folk tune dating back to the 19th century that he himself had popularized as a member of the Byrds before the Leaves got ahold of it. Regardless of where the song came from, the Leaves version was the first to be released as a single and is generally considered the definitive fast version of the song. In Britain it was the slower version favored by the Jimi Hendrix Experience that became a hit, using an arrangement pioneered by songwriter Tim Rose and the Music Machine's Sean Bonniwell.
Artist: Mystery Trend
Title: Johnny Was A Good Boy
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Nagle/Cuff
Label: Rhino (original label: Verve)
Year: 1967
The Mystery Trend was a bit of an anomaly. Contemporaries of bands such as the Great! Society and the Charlatans, the Trend always stood a bit apart from the rest of the crowd, playing to an audience that was both a bit more affluent and a bit more "adult" (they were reportedly the house band at a Sausalito strip club). Although they played in the city itself as early as 1965, they did not release their first record until early 1967. The song, Johnny Was A Good Boy, tells the story of a seemingly normal middle-class kid who turns out to be a monster, surprising friends, family and neighbors. The same theme would be used by XTC in the early 1980s in the song No Thugs In Our House, one of the standout tracks from their landmark English Settlement album.
Artist: Harry Nilsson
Title: Let The Good Times Roll
Source: LP: Nilsson Schmilsson
Writer: Lee
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1971
By 1971, Harry Nilsson (usually known only by his last name) had established himself as both a singer (Everybody's Talkin', for the film Midnight Cowboy), and a songwriter (the Monkee's Cuddly Toy and Daddy's Song, among others). One of his most successful solo albums was Nilsson Schmilsson, which included the hits Without You and the psychedelic Jump Into The Fire. Despite his growing reputation as a singer/songwriter, Nilsson continued to record an occassion cover song, such as the 50s Shirley and Lee hit Let The Good Times Roll. It may have been this love of 50s music that led to him becoming close friends and drinking buddies with John Lennon, who recorded an entire album of 50s cover tunes in the early 70s.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Conquistador
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1972
Although Conquistador was originally recorded for the first Procol Harum album in 1967, it was the 1972 live version with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra that became one of the band's biggest hits, second only to A Whiter Shade Of Pale.
Artist: Pheremones
Title: N.G.R.I.
Source: unreleased
Writer: Ed Carlson
Label: n/a
Year: 1987
I usually don't say anything here about the instrumental tracks I use at the end of each hour, but I thought I'd make an exception, since this is only the second time I've used Ed Carlson's N.G.R.I. (which stands for No Good Rotten Instrumental). Ed was lead guitarist for the Pheremones, a band I sat in with on bass for a few months before starting on the Electric Dream Project (which is where most of the instrumentals I use on the show come from).
Artist: James Brown
Title: Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: James Brown
Label: Ripete
Year: 1965
Although he had been recording since the late 1950s, it wasn't until the release of Papa's Got A Brand New Bag in 1965 that James Brown achieved stardom. The song was recorded in less than an hour in a Charlotte, NC studio on the way to a performance. On the master tape Brown can be heard saying that they had a hit record on their hands. The record itself is actually a half-step higher in pitch than the master tape, which was deliberately sped up to give the song a bit of extra punch when the record was mastered.
Artist: Otis Redding
Title: The Glory Of Love
Source: LP: The Dock Of The Bay (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Billy Hill
Label: Volt
Year: Original single release: 1967; LP release: 1968
Otis Redding's dream was to fill the gap left by the untimely death of Sam Cooke in 1964. By the summer of 1967 it looked like that dream was about to become a reality. Following a landmark performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June, Redding released his new version of a song that had originally been recorded by Benny Goodman in 1936 and had been redone numerous times over the years, including a version by the Five Keys that had spent eight weeks in the number one spot on the R&B charts in 1951. Sadly, Redding's life would be cut short the following winter when the plane carrying the singer, along with several members of the Bar-Kays, went down in a snowstorm, killing all aboard. After Redding's death, several tracks that had not yet appeared on an album were collected on an LP called The Dock Of The Bay, released on the Volt label (part of the Stax Records group) in 1968.
Artist: Lemon Pipers
Title: Green Tambourine
Source: CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Leka/Pinz
Label: Priority (original label: Buddah)
Year: 1967
After a promising start signing respected artists like Johnny Winter and Captain Beefheart, Buddah Records quickly acquired a reputation as the "bubble gum" label, with a string of hits by groups like the 1910 Fruitgum Company and the Ohio Express. As a result, Green Tambourine is often dismissed as mere fluff, when in fact it is a legitimate piece of psychedelia, recorded at the end of 1967, before the advent of the bubble gum era (although the song is sometimes cited as the first bubble gum hit).
Artist: Cream
Title: Tales Of Brave Ulysses
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Clapton/Sharp
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
Cream was one of the first bands to break British tradition and release singles that were also available as album cuts. This tradition likely came about because 45 RPM records (both singles and extended play 45s) tended to stay in print indefinitely in the UK, unlike in the US, where a hit single usually had a shelf life of around 4-6 months then disappeared forever. When the Disraeli Gears album was released, however, the song Strange Brew, which leads off the LP, was released in Europe as a single. The B side of that single was Tales Of Brave Ulysses, which opens side two of the album.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: My Best Friend
Source: CD: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer: Skip Spence
Label: RCA
Year: 1967
Although drummer Skip Spence had left Jefferson Airplane after the group's first LP, he did leave a song behind. My Best Friend was actually released as a single before Somebody To Love, making it the first single released from the Surrealistic Pillow album. Spence, meanwhile, was about to make a big splash as a founding member of Moby Grape.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: As Kind As Summer
Source: LP: Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Writer: Markley/Harris/Bryant
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
The first time I heard this I jumped up to see what was wrong with my turntable. A real gotcha moment.
Artist: Them
Title: Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of Sixteen)
Source: LP: Now And Them
Writer: Tom Lane
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
After Van Morrison left Them to pursue a solo career, the band returned to Belfast, where they recruited Kenny McDowell to be the group's new lead vocalist. They then relocated to California, where they cut two albums for Tower Records. The second of the two albums featured songs written by the husband and wife team of Tom Pulley and Vivian Lane. The first LP, entitled Now And Them, featured songs from a variety of sources, including one song, Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of Sixteen), written by Lane himself.
Artist: Things To Come
Title: Come Alive
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Russ Ward
Label: Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
Come Alive is a solid piece of garage rock, written by drummer Russ Ward, who would go on to become one of L.A.'s most sought after studio drummers using the name Russ Kunkel.
Artist: Emerson, Lake And Palmer
Title: The Endless Enigma (part one)
Source: CD: Trilogy
Writer: Emerson/Lake
Label: Atlantic (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1972
Just for something completely different we have a track from the third Emerson, Lake and Palmer album, Trilogy.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: A Most Peculiar Man
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Sounds Of Silence)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
You would think that a high school on a US military facility would be inclined to use the most staunchly traditional teaching methods known to man. Surprisingly, though, this was not the case at General H. H. Arnold High School in Weisbaden, Germany. In fact, the English department was teaching some sort of new system that dispensed with terms such as verb and noun and replaced them with a more conceptual approach to language. What I best remember about my Freshman English class is the day that my rather Bohemian teacher (he wore sandals to class!), actually brought in a copy of the Sounds Of Silence and had us dissect two songs from the album, Richard Cory and A Most Peculiar Man. We spent several classes discussing the similarities (they both deal with a suicide by someone representing a particular archetype) and differences (the methods used and the archetypes themselves) between the songs. I have forgotten everything else about that class and its so-called revolutionary approach, but those two songs have stayed with me my entire life. I guess that teacher (whose name I have forgotten) was on to something.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Lady Jane
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1966
One of the best early Rolling Stones albums is 1966's Aftermath, which included such classics as Under My Thumb, Stupid Girl and the eleven-minute Goin' Home. Both the US and UK versions of the LP included the song Lady Jane, which was also released as the B side to Mother's Little Helper (which had been left off the US version of Aftermath to make room for Paint It, Black). The policy at the time was for B sides that got a significant amount of airplay to be rated seperately from the A side of the single, and Lady Jane managed to climb to the # 24 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 (Mother's Little Helper peaked at # 8).
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Shapes Of Things
Source: CD: Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame-Volume VII (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: McCarty/Relf/Samwell-Smith
Label: Legacy (original 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: Del-Vetts
Title: Last Time Around
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Dennis Dahlquist
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
Dunwich Records was a small independent label in Chicago that got national distribution through a deal with Atlantic Records. Their biggest act was the Shadows of Knight, who topped the charts with Gloria in 1966. One of the most successful other bands on the label was the Del-Vetts, from Chicago's affluent North Side (band members had matching white Corvettes, hence the name.) Last Time Around, sounding a lot like the Yardbirds, was their only nationally charted song, although they did get airplay in the midwest with other songs as well.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Dear Mr. Fantasy
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Mr. Fantasy)
Writer: Capaldi/Winwood/Wood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
Steve Winwood is one of those artists that has multiple signature songs, having a career that has spanned decades (so far). Still, if there is any one song that is most closely associated with the guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist, it's this one from the Mr. Fantasy album.
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: When I Was Young
Source: CD: The Best of Eric Burdon and the Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label: Polydor
Year: 1967
After the Animals disbanded in 1966, Eric Burdon set out to form a new band that would be far more psychedelic than the original group. The first release from these "New Animals" was When I Was Young. The song was credited to the entire band, a practice that would continue throughout the entire existence of the group that came to be called Eric Burdon And The Animals.
Artist: Velvet Underground
Title: Femme Fatale
Source: CD: The Velvet Underground And Nico
Writer: Lou Reed
Label: Polydor (original label: Verve)
Year: 1967
The debut Velvet Underground LP, released in 1967, was not a huge commercial success, despite the striking album cover designed by Andy Warhol, who also produced the album. In the years since it has come to be regarded as a true classic of both the psychedelic and punk genres. Despite all that the album has some serious flaws, not the least of which is the relative lack of talent of Nico, who sings lead on Lou Reed's Femme Fatale.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Can't Seem To Make You Mine
Source: LP: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: The Seeds)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
One of the first psychedelic singles to hit the L.A. market in late 1965 was Can't Seem To Make You Mine. The song was also chosen to lead off the first Seeds album, released in 1966. Indeed, it could be argued that this was the song that first defined the "flower power" sound, predating the Seeds' biggest hit, Pushin' Too Hard, by several months. After the national success of Pushin' Too Hard, Can't Seem To Make You Mine was re-released nationally, but did not make a huge impression.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
SITPE # 1141 Playlist (Starts 10/13/11)
Out of the 25 tracks featured on this week's show, only seven have been heard on Stuck In The Psychedelic Era before this week. Even stranger, the first and last songs this week are among those seven repeats. Ironically, one of the remaining five is currently tied for the most-played song of 2011. One other notable fact is that, with one exception, every song in the first hour was written by a single songwriter who also performed the song.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Like A Rolling Stone
Source: CD: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Highway 61 Revisited)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
Bob Dylan incurred the wrath of folk purists when he decided to use electric instruments for his 1965 LP Highway 61 Revisited. The opening track on the album is the six-minute Like A Rolling Stone, a song that was also selected to be the first single released from the new album. After the single was pressed, the shirts at Columbia Records decided to cancel the release due to its length. An acetate copy of the record, however, made it to a local New York club, where, by audience request, the record was played over and over until it was worn out (acetate copies not being as durable as their vinyl counterparts). When Columbia started getting calls from local radio stations demanding copies of the song the next morning they decided to release the single after all. Like A Rolling Stone ended up going all the way to the number two spot on the US charts, doing quite well in several other countries as well.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Most Expensive Residence For Sale
Source: LP: Face To Face
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1966
By 1966, Ray Davies' songwriting had matured considerably from his power chord driven love songs You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night. Like many of the songs on the Kinks' 1966 and 1967 LPs, Most Exclusive Residence For Sale tells a story; in this case the story of a man who achieved great success, bought an expensive house and then found himself forced to sell it when his fortunes took a downward turn.
Artist: Love
Title: A House Is Not A Motel
Source: CD: Forever Changes
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Arthur Lee was a bit of a recluse, despite leading the most popular band on Sunset Strip in 1966-67. When the band was not playing at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go Lee was most likely to be found at his home up in the Hollywood Hills, often in the company of fellow band member Bryan McLean. The other members of the band, however, were known to hang out in the most popular clubs, chasing women and doing all kinds of substances. Sometimes they would show up at Lee's house unbidden. Sometimes they would crash there. Sometimes Lee would get annoyed, and probably used the phrase which became the title of the second track on Love's classic Forever Changes album, A House Is Not A Motel.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Love Story
Source: CD: This Was (bonus track-originally released in UK as 45 RPM single and in US on LP: Living In The Past)
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original UK label: Island; original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1968 (US: 1973)
Love Story was the last studio recording by the original Jethro Tull lineup of Ian Anderson, Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker and Glenn Cornish. The song was released as a single following the band's debut LP, This Was. Shortly after it's release Abrahams left the group, citing differences with Anderson over the band's musical direction. The song spent eight weeks on the UK singles chart, reaching the #29 spot. In the U.S., "Love Story" was released in March 1969, with A Song for Jeffrey (an album track from This Was) on the B-side, but did not chart. Like most songs released as singles in the UK, Love Story did not appear on an album until several years later; in this case on the 1973 anthology album Living In The Past.
Artist: Michael Nesmith and the Second National Band
Title: You Are My One
Source: LP: Tantamount To Treason
Writer: Michael Nesmith
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1972
Michael Nesmith has always been something of a renaissance man. Originally making his mark as a songwriter (his song Mary Mary was recorded by the Butterfield Blues Band), Nesmith gained international prominence in 1966 as a member of the Monkees. After leaving the group he formed the First National Band, which was one of the first country-rock bands. This was followed by the Second National Band, which utilized some of the state of the art production techniques that Nesmith would apply to some of his later projects such as Elephant Parts (a 60-minute production combining music videos with comedy bits). Nesmith would go on to become a movie producer (Repo Man, Time Rider) and is credited with conceiving the idea of a cable channel dedicated to playing music videos. He sold the idea to Warner Brothers, who decided to call it MTV.
Title: Prison Song
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
Graham Nash's Prison Song is one of those songs that by all rights should have been a huge hit. It was by a name artist. It had a catchy opening harmonica riff and a haunting melody. I can only surmise that once again Bill Drake (the man who controlled top 40 radio in the 60s and early 70s) decided that the lyrics were too controversial for AM radio and had the song blacklisted, much as he had done with the Byrds Eight Miles High a few years earlier. Those lyrics center on a subject that most Americans would rather pretend didn't exist: the utter absurdity of drug laws and the unequal sentences for violation of those laws in the US and its various states.
Artist: Mamas and the Papas
Title: Somebody Groovy (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer: John Phillips
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1965
The Mamas and the Papas were blessed with strong vocals and even stronger songwriting. Their debut single, California Dreamin', written by John Phillips, is one of the iconic songs of the sixties. The B side of that single, released in 1965, was another Phillips tune, Somebody Groovy.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Up In Her Room
Source: LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: GNP Crescendo
Year: 1966
One of the first extended jams released on a rock album, Up In Her Room, from the Seeds' second LP, A Web Of Sound, is a sort of sequel to Van Morrison's Gloria (but only the original Them version; the secret of the Shadows Of Knight's success with the song was to replace the line "she comes up to my room" with "she comes around here").
Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: I'm Not Satisfied
Source: LP: Absolutely Free
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Verve
Year: 1966
Frank Zappa, in his original liner notes for the Freak Out album, describes I'm Not Satisfied as "safe and harmless and designed that way on purpose". That is, until you realize that the lyrics are from the point of view of someone who has decided that life sucks and is contemplating suicide.
Artist: Joan Baez
Title: Joe Hill
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Robinson/Hayes
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
Joe Hill, written as a poem in the early part of the 20th century and set to music a few years later, was a highlight of Joan Baez's Woodstock performance. The song was inspired by the struggles of one of the martyrs of the labor movement of the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Can't Find My Way Home
Source: LP: Blind Faith
Writer: Steve Winwood
Label: Polydor
Year: 1969
Although an electric version of Can't Find My Way Home was recorded (and is now available on CD), it was Steve Winwood's acoustic version that was chosen for inclusion on Blind Faith's only LP.
Artist: Beau Brummels
Title: Just A Little
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Elliott/Durand
Label: Rhino (original label: Autumn)
Year: 1965
Often dismissed as an American imitation of British Invasion bands such as the Beatles, the Beau Brummels actually played a pivotal role in rock music history. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the Brummels were led by Ron Elliott, who co-wrote most of the band's material, including their two top 10 singles in 1965. The second of these, Just A Little, is often cited as the first folk-rock hit, as it was released a week before the Byrds' recording of Mr. Tambourine Man. According to Elliott, the band was not trying to invent folk-rock, however. Rather, it was their own limitations as musicians that forced them to work with what they had: solid vocal harmonies and a mixture of electric and acoustic guitars. Elliott also credits the contributions of producer Sly Stone for the song's success. Conversely, Just A Little was Stone's greatest success as a producer prior to forming his own band, the Family Stone, in 1967.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Dealer
Source: CD: Heaven Is In Your Mind (also released as LP: Mr. Fantasy)
Writer: Winwood/Capaldi
Label: Island (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1967
The first Traffic LP was released in the UK under the title Mr. Fantasy. In the US the album was initially released under the name Heaven Is In Your Mind to coincide with the single of the same name. The singled failed to chart and subsequent pressings of the LP bore the name Mr. Fantasy. More recently the album has been released under both names. Mr. Fantasy features the original mono mixes of the songs, while Heaven Is In Your Mind has the stereo versions.
Artist: Traffic
Title: (Roamin' Through The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies
Writer: Winwood/Capaldi
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
The second Traffic album saw the band taking in a broader set of influences, including traditional English folk music. (Roamin' Through The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen combines those influences with the Steve Winwood brand of British R&B.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Hole In My Shoe
Source: CD: Heaven Is In Your Mind (also released as LP: Mr. Fantasy)
Writer: Dave Mason
Label: Island (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1967
Since the 1970s Traffic has been known as Steve Winwood's (and to a lesser degree, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood's) band, but in the early days the group's most popular songs were written and sung by co-founder Dave Mason. Hole In My Shoe received considerable airplay in the UK, although, like all Traffic's 60s records, it failed to make an impression in the US.
Artist: New Colony Six
Title: At The River's Edge
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Walter Kemp
Label: Rhino (original label: Centaur)
Year: 1966
The New Colony Six are best known for their soft pop-rock song Things I Like To Say, released on the Mercury label in 1969. In their earlier years, however, the Six were a prime example of the blues-tinged garage rock coming out of the Chicago area in the mid-1960s. At The River's Edge, released in 1966 on the band's own Centaur (later Sentar) label, is a classic example of the Six's early sound.
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 Turtles co-leaders Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, 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.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: The Sky Cried/When I Was A Boy
Source: LP: Renaissance
Writer: Stein/Bogert
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
The first Vanilla Fudge, released in 1967, was filled with psychedelicized versions of established hits such as Cher's Bang Bang, the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby and of course, the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On. For their second LP the group went with a concept album built around Sonny and Cher's The Beat Goes On. The group's third LP, Renaissance, finally revealed the band members' abilities as songwriters (although there were still a pair of cover songs on the album). The opening track on the album, The Sky Cried/When I Was A Boy, was written by bassist Tim Bogert and organist/vocalist Mark Stein.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: Uncle Morris
Source: CD: One Step Beyond
Writer: Andrijasevich/Loomis
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1969
San Jose, California's Chocolate Watchband has one of the most confusing stories in the history of rock. Part of this can be attributed to the actions of producer Ed Cobb, who used studio musicians extensively, often to the total exclusion of the band members themselves (even the vocals in some cases). Also adding to the confusion was the fact that one of the founding members, Gary Andrijasevich, had already left the band by the time they got their first recording contract, but returned as co-leader of an almost entirely new lineup for the band's third and final LP, One Step Beyond. Unlike the first two albums, there were no studio musicians used on One Step Beyond (although Moby Grape guitarist Jerry Miller makes a guest appearance). The new lineup, however, did not sound anything like the Watchband of old, and in fact had more in common musically with the folk-rock bands from San Francisco than the garage-rock the south end of the bay was known for.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Flaming
Source: CD: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol
Year: 1967
Despite his legendary status there is actually very little recorded material that bears the mark of Pink Floyd's original leader, Syd Barrett. Most of that material is on the first Floyd album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, and on a handful of singles released by the group at a time when single releases in the UK seldom appeared on albums. Unlike Barrett's singles, which managed to be commercial without sacrificing their psychedelic qualities, album tracks such as Flaming (from Piper) show a willingness to go off into unexplored musical territory. It was these types of explorations that would set the direction the band would take once Barrett became unable to continue with the group.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Dandruff/Daddy's Song
Source: LP: Head soundtrack
Writer: Harry Nilsson
Label: Colgems
Year: 1968
After their TV show was cancelled in the spring of 1968, the Monkees set out to make a feature-length film. The movie, written by a young Jack Nicholson, was called Head, and was nothing like the TV show. The soundtrack album was nothing like any previous Monkees album either. For one thing, there were no songs written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. More importantly, there were clips from the movie itself, including Dandruff, which leads into the Harry Nillson tune Daddy's Song.
Artist: Richie Havens
Title: Handsome Johnny
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Gossett/Gossett/Havens
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
When it became obvious that the amplifiers needed by the various rock bands that were scheduled to perform on the opening Friday afternoon at Woodstock would not be ready in time, singer/songwriter Richie Havens came to the rescue, performing for several hours as the new opening act. Havens reportedly opened with Handsome Johnny, a song that he had co-written with Lou Gossett and Lou Gossett, Jr.
Artist: Frijid Pink
Title: End Of The Line
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Thompson/Beaudry
Label: Parrot
Year: 1970
Frijid Pink was extremely popular in their native Detroit. So popular, in fact, that in 1969 Led Zeppelin was their warm-up act. Unfortunately for the band, their first single to become a national hit, a feedback-drenched version of House Of The Rising Sun, became a bit too popular on top 40 radio, causing the new progressive FM stations to avoid them like the plague. The band was never able to get airplay for their later records such as End Of The Line, the B side of their follow-up single Sing A Song Of Freedom.
Artist: Flower Travelin' Band
Title: Satori (part two)
Source: CD: Satori
Writer: Flower Travelin' Band
Label: Phoenix
Year: 1971
Possibly the first Japanese heavy metal band and almost certainly the first Japanese psychedelic group, the Flower Travelin' Band recorded their first LP in 1969. The album was made up entirely of covers of bands like Cream and Led Zeppelin. It wasn't until 1971 that they recorded their first LP made up entirely of original material. The album was called Satori, as were all five tracks on the album. It was worth the wait.
Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Mercedes Benz
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Pearl)
Writer: Janis Joplin
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
To put it bluntly, Janis recorded this song, then went home and ODed on herion. End of story (and of Janis).
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Like A Rolling Stone
Source: CD: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Highway 61 Revisited)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
Bob Dylan incurred the wrath of folk purists when he decided to use electric instruments for his 1965 LP Highway 61 Revisited. The opening track on the album is the six-minute Like A Rolling Stone, a song that was also selected to be the first single released from the new album. After the single was pressed, the shirts at Columbia Records decided to cancel the release due to its length. An acetate copy of the record, however, made it to a local New York club, where, by audience request, the record was played over and over until it was worn out (acetate copies not being as durable as their vinyl counterparts). When Columbia started getting calls from local radio stations demanding copies of the song the next morning they decided to release the single after all. Like A Rolling Stone ended up going all the way to the number two spot on the US charts, doing quite well in several other countries as well.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Most Expensive Residence For Sale
Source: LP: Face To Face
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1966
By 1966, Ray Davies' songwriting had matured considerably from his power chord driven love songs You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night. Like many of the songs on the Kinks' 1966 and 1967 LPs, Most Exclusive Residence For Sale tells a story; in this case the story of a man who achieved great success, bought an expensive house and then found himself forced to sell it when his fortunes took a downward turn.
Artist: Love
Title: A House Is Not A Motel
Source: CD: Forever Changes
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Arthur Lee was a bit of a recluse, despite leading the most popular band on Sunset Strip in 1966-67. When the band was not playing at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go Lee was most likely to be found at his home up in the Hollywood Hills, often in the company of fellow band member Bryan McLean. The other members of the band, however, were known to hang out in the most popular clubs, chasing women and doing all kinds of substances. Sometimes they would show up at Lee's house unbidden. Sometimes they would crash there. Sometimes Lee would get annoyed, and probably used the phrase which became the title of the second track on Love's classic Forever Changes album, A House Is Not A Motel.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Love Story
Source: CD: This Was (bonus track-originally released in UK as 45 RPM single and in US on LP: Living In The Past)
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original UK label: Island; original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1968 (US: 1973)
Love Story was the last studio recording by the original Jethro Tull lineup of Ian Anderson, Mick Abrahams, Clive Bunker and Glenn Cornish. The song was released as a single following the band's debut LP, This Was. Shortly after it's release Abrahams left the group, citing differences with Anderson over the band's musical direction. The song spent eight weeks on the UK singles chart, reaching the #29 spot. In the U.S., "Love Story" was released in March 1969, with A Song for Jeffrey (an album track from This Was) on the B-side, but did not chart. Like most songs released as singles in the UK, Love Story did not appear on an album until several years later; in this case on the 1973 anthology album Living In The Past.
Artist: Michael Nesmith and the Second National Band
Title: You Are My One
Source: LP: Tantamount To Treason
Writer: Michael Nesmith
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1972
Michael Nesmith has always been something of a renaissance man. Originally making his mark as a songwriter (his song Mary Mary was recorded by the Butterfield Blues Band), Nesmith gained international prominence in 1966 as a member of the Monkees. After leaving the group he formed the First National Band, which was one of the first country-rock bands. This was followed by the Second National Band, which utilized some of the state of the art production techniques that Nesmith would apply to some of his later projects such as Elephant Parts (a 60-minute production combining music videos with comedy bits). Nesmith would go on to become a movie producer (Repo Man, Time Rider) and is credited with conceiving the idea of a cable channel dedicated to playing music videos. He sold the idea to Warner Brothers, who decided to call it MTV.
Title: Prison Song
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
Graham Nash's Prison Song is one of those songs that by all rights should have been a huge hit. It was by a name artist. It had a catchy opening harmonica riff and a haunting melody. I can only surmise that once again Bill Drake (the man who controlled top 40 radio in the 60s and early 70s) decided that the lyrics were too controversial for AM radio and had the song blacklisted, much as he had done with the Byrds Eight Miles High a few years earlier. Those lyrics center on a subject that most Americans would rather pretend didn't exist: the utter absurdity of drug laws and the unequal sentences for violation of those laws in the US and its various states.
Artist: Mamas and the Papas
Title: Somebody Groovy (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer: John Phillips
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1965
The Mamas and the Papas were blessed with strong vocals and even stronger songwriting. Their debut single, California Dreamin', written by John Phillips, is one of the iconic songs of the sixties. The B side of that single, released in 1965, was another Phillips tune, Somebody Groovy.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Up In Her Room
Source: LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: GNP Crescendo
Year: 1966
One of the first extended jams released on a rock album, Up In Her Room, from the Seeds' second LP, A Web Of Sound, is a sort of sequel to Van Morrison's Gloria (but only the original Them version; the secret of the Shadows Of Knight's success with the song was to replace the line "she comes up to my room" with "she comes around here").
Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: I'm Not Satisfied
Source: LP: Absolutely Free
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Verve
Year: 1966
Frank Zappa, in his original liner notes for the Freak Out album, describes I'm Not Satisfied as "safe and harmless and designed that way on purpose". That is, until you realize that the lyrics are from the point of view of someone who has decided that life sucks and is contemplating suicide.
Artist: Joan Baez
Title: Joe Hill
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Robinson/Hayes
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
Joe Hill, written as a poem in the early part of the 20th century and set to music a few years later, was a highlight of Joan Baez's Woodstock performance. The song was inspired by the struggles of one of the martyrs of the labor movement of the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Can't Find My Way Home
Source: LP: Blind Faith
Writer: Steve Winwood
Label: Polydor
Year: 1969
Although an electric version of Can't Find My Way Home was recorded (and is now available on CD), it was Steve Winwood's acoustic version that was chosen for inclusion on Blind Faith's only LP.
Artist: Beau Brummels
Title: Just A Little
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Elliott/Durand
Label: Rhino (original label: Autumn)
Year: 1965
Often dismissed as an American imitation of British Invasion bands such as the Beatles, the Beau Brummels actually played a pivotal role in rock music history. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the Brummels were led by Ron Elliott, who co-wrote most of the band's material, including their two top 10 singles in 1965. The second of these, Just A Little, is often cited as the first folk-rock hit, as it was released a week before the Byrds' recording of Mr. Tambourine Man. According to Elliott, the band was not trying to invent folk-rock, however. Rather, it was their own limitations as musicians that forced them to work with what they had: solid vocal harmonies and a mixture of electric and acoustic guitars. Elliott also credits the contributions of producer Sly Stone for the song's success. Conversely, Just A Little was Stone's greatest success as a producer prior to forming his own band, the Family Stone, in 1967.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Dealer
Source: CD: Heaven Is In Your Mind (also released as LP: Mr. Fantasy)
Writer: Winwood/Capaldi
Label: Island (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1967
The first Traffic LP was released in the UK under the title Mr. Fantasy. In the US the album was initially released under the name Heaven Is In Your Mind to coincide with the single of the same name. The singled failed to chart and subsequent pressings of the LP bore the name Mr. Fantasy. More recently the album has been released under both names. Mr. Fantasy features the original mono mixes of the songs, while Heaven Is In Your Mind has the stereo versions.
Artist: Traffic
Title: (Roamin' Through The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies
Writer: Winwood/Capaldi
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
The second Traffic album saw the band taking in a broader set of influences, including traditional English folk music. (Roamin' Through The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen combines those influences with the Steve Winwood brand of British R&B.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Hole In My Shoe
Source: CD: Heaven Is In Your Mind (also released as LP: Mr. Fantasy)
Writer: Dave Mason
Label: Island (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1967
Since the 1970s Traffic has been known as Steve Winwood's (and to a lesser degree, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood's) band, but in the early days the group's most popular songs were written and sung by co-founder Dave Mason. Hole In My Shoe received considerable airplay in the UK, although, like all Traffic's 60s records, it failed to make an impression in the US.
Artist: New Colony Six
Title: At The River's Edge
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Walter Kemp
Label: Rhino (original label: Centaur)
Year: 1966
The New Colony Six are best known for their soft pop-rock song Things I Like To Say, released on the Mercury label in 1969. In their earlier years, however, the Six were a prime example of the blues-tinged garage rock coming out of the Chicago area in the mid-1960s. At The River's Edge, released in 1966 on the band's own Centaur (later Sentar) label, is a classic example of the Six's early sound.
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 Turtles co-leaders Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan, 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.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: The Sky Cried/When I Was A Boy
Source: LP: Renaissance
Writer: Stein/Bogert
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
The first Vanilla Fudge, released in 1967, was filled with psychedelicized versions of established hits such as Cher's Bang Bang, the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby and of course, the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On. For their second LP the group went with a concept album built around Sonny and Cher's The Beat Goes On. The group's third LP, Renaissance, finally revealed the band members' abilities as songwriters (although there were still a pair of cover songs on the album). The opening track on the album, The Sky Cried/When I Was A Boy, was written by bassist Tim Bogert and organist/vocalist Mark Stein.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: Uncle Morris
Source: CD: One Step Beyond
Writer: Andrijasevich/Loomis
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1969
San Jose, California's Chocolate Watchband has one of the most confusing stories in the history of rock. Part of this can be attributed to the actions of producer Ed Cobb, who used studio musicians extensively, often to the total exclusion of the band members themselves (even the vocals in some cases). Also adding to the confusion was the fact that one of the founding members, Gary Andrijasevich, had already left the band by the time they got their first recording contract, but returned as co-leader of an almost entirely new lineup for the band's third and final LP, One Step Beyond. Unlike the first two albums, there were no studio musicians used on One Step Beyond (although Moby Grape guitarist Jerry Miller makes a guest appearance). The new lineup, however, did not sound anything like the Watchband of old, and in fact had more in common musically with the folk-rock bands from San Francisco than the garage-rock the south end of the bay was known for.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Flaming
Source: CD: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol
Year: 1967
Despite his legendary status there is actually very little recorded material that bears the mark of Pink Floyd's original leader, Syd Barrett. Most of that material is on the first Floyd album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, and on a handful of singles released by the group at a time when single releases in the UK seldom appeared on albums. Unlike Barrett's singles, which managed to be commercial without sacrificing their psychedelic qualities, album tracks such as Flaming (from Piper) show a willingness to go off into unexplored musical territory. It was these types of explorations that would set the direction the band would take once Barrett became unable to continue with the group.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Dandruff/Daddy's Song
Source: LP: Head soundtrack
Writer: Harry Nilsson
Label: Colgems
Year: 1968
After their TV show was cancelled in the spring of 1968, the Monkees set out to make a feature-length film. The movie, written by a young Jack Nicholson, was called Head, and was nothing like the TV show. The soundtrack album was nothing like any previous Monkees album either. For one thing, there were no songs written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. More importantly, there were clips from the movie itself, including Dandruff, which leads into the Harry Nillson tune Daddy's Song.
Artist: Richie Havens
Title: Handsome Johnny
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Gossett/Gossett/Havens
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
When it became obvious that the amplifiers needed by the various rock bands that were scheduled to perform on the opening Friday afternoon at Woodstock would not be ready in time, singer/songwriter Richie Havens came to the rescue, performing for several hours as the new opening act. Havens reportedly opened with Handsome Johnny, a song that he had co-written with Lou Gossett and Lou Gossett, Jr.
Artist: Frijid Pink
Title: End Of The Line
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Thompson/Beaudry
Label: Parrot
Year: 1970
Frijid Pink was extremely popular in their native Detroit. So popular, in fact, that in 1969 Led Zeppelin was their warm-up act. Unfortunately for the band, their first single to become a national hit, a feedback-drenched version of House Of The Rising Sun, became a bit too popular on top 40 radio, causing the new progressive FM stations to avoid them like the plague. The band was never able to get airplay for their later records such as End Of The Line, the B side of their follow-up single Sing A Song Of Freedom.
Artist: Flower Travelin' Band
Title: Satori (part two)
Source: CD: Satori
Writer: Flower Travelin' Band
Label: Phoenix
Year: 1971
Possibly the first Japanese heavy metal band and almost certainly the first Japanese psychedelic group, the Flower Travelin' Band recorded their first LP in 1969. The album was made up entirely of covers of bands like Cream and Led Zeppelin. It wasn't until 1971 that they recorded their first LP made up entirely of original material. The album was called Satori, as were all five tracks on the album. It was worth the wait.
Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Mercedes Benz
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Pearl)
Writer: Janis Joplin
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
To put it bluntly, Janis recorded this song, then went home and ODed on herion. End of story (and of Janis).
Thursday, October 6, 2011
SITPE # 1140 Playlist (starts 10/6/11)
Artist: Third Rail
Title: Run Run Run
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Resnick/Resnick/Levine
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1967
Run Run Run is actually a studio creation issied in 1967 from husband and wife team Artie and Kris Resnick collaborating with Joey Levine, who sings lead vocals on the track. They only performed the song live once (in Cincinatti, of all places) as the Third Rail. All three would find a home as part of the Kasenetz-Katz bubble gum machine that would make Buddah Records a major player in 1968, with Levine himself singing lead for one of the label's most successful groups, the Ohio Express.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: 2,000 Light Years From Home
Source: LP: More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies) (originally released on LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request)
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
Nowhere was the ripple effect of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band more noticable than on the Rolling Stones fall 1967 release Their Satanic Majesties Request. The cover featured the band members in various sorcerous regalia in a seven-inch picture on the kind of holographic paper used for "magic rings" found in bubble-gum machines and pasted over regular album-cover stock, which was a simple pattern of faded white circles on a blue background (it kind of looked like dark wallpaper). Musically it was the most psychedelic Stones album ever released. Interesting enough, different songs were released as singles in different countries. In the US the single was She's A Rainbow, while in Germany 2,000 Light Years From Home (the US B side of She's A Rainbow) got significant airplay.
Artist: Who
Title: Odorono
Source: LP: The Who Sell Out
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: Decca
Year: 1967
In early January of 1968 a bunch of us went over to our friend Bob's house to hang out and see what he got for Christmas. Bob's parents had a big Grundig console stereo that opened from the top. When we got there Bob's older brother was on the scene and told us to check out this new radio station that was coming in with some truly amazing sound quality. Sure enough, we heard all sorts of jingles and ads, along with some really tasty tunes none of us had heard before. One of those tunes was about a girl who blew an audition because she didn't use the right deodorant. It was called Odorono, and it wasn't until we heard I Can See For Miles a few minutes later that we realized it was all a put-on. The reality was that everything we had just heard was the new Who album that had been released around Christmastime, including the jingles and ads. As it turned out there really was a Radio London (who threatened the Who with a lawsuit over the unauthorized use of its jingles), but there was no way we could pick up it in Mainz, Germany, let alone sounding as good as it did on that Grundig.
Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: Big Leg Emma
Source: CD: Absolutely Free (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Ryko (original label: Verve)
Year: 1967
Sometime during the creation of the second Mothers Of Invention album, Absolutely Free, the band recorded a pair of stand alone tunes that were released as a 45 RPM single. The B side of that record was Big Leg Emma, a song that was written by Frank Zappa in 1962 and would eventually be added to his live show in the late 1970s.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Talk Talk
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Turn On The Music Machine)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
When it came time for Sean Bonniwell's band, the Music Machine, to go into the studio, the group decided to go for the best sound possible. This meant signing with tiny Original Sound Records, despite having offers from bigger labels, due to Original Sound having their own state-of-the-art eight-track studios. Unfortunately for the band, they soon discovered that having great equipment did not mean Original Sound made great decisions. One of the first, in fact, was to include a handful of cover songs on the Music Machine's first LP that were recorded for use on a local TV show. Bonniwell was livid when he found out, as he had envisioned an album made up entirely of his own compositions (although he reportedly did plan to use a slowed-down version of Hey Joe that he and Tim Rose had worked up together). From that point on it was only a matter of time until the Music Machine and Original Sound parted company, but not until after they scored a big national hit with Talk Talk in 1966.
Artist: Great! Society
Title: Free Advice
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Darby Slick
Label: Rhino (original label: Northbeach)
Year: 1966
It's not much of a stretch to characterize San Francisco's Great! Society as a garage band, despite the obvious talents of vocalist Grace Slick. Grace's role in the band was mostly as a backup/fill vocalist. Her strengths as a lead vocalist would not be evident until she hooked up with Jefferson Airplane in late 1966.
Artist: Shadows of Knight
Title: Gloria
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Gloria)
Writer: Van Morrison
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
The original Them version of Van Morrison's Gloria found itself banned on the majority of US radio stations due to controversial lyrics. By changing one line (substituting "around here" for "up to my room") the suburban Chicago punk-blues band Shadows of Knight turned it into a huge hit and a garage band standard.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Funky-Tunk
Source: LP: Wow
Writer: Spence/Miller
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
After nearly universal acclaim from the rock press for their 1967 debut album, Moby Grape decided to take their time in the studio for the follow, 1968's Wow. Unfortunately, the album itself ended up sounding over-produced as a result. Funky-Tunk, for instance, starts off sounding like a decent enough country rock tune but takes a bizarre turn on the second verse when the lead vocals are done in Chipmunk style.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Marmalade
Source: LP: Grape Jam
Writer: Bloomfield/Miller/Stevenson/Mosely
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
When Moby Grape's Wow album first hit the racks it included a second, free, disk with it's own cover entitled Grape Jam. Recorded between sessions in New York and featuring guest keyboardists Al Kooper and Michael Bloomfield, Grape Jam actually predates (and probably inspired) Kooper's own Super Session album by a few months. Marmalade, the longest track on the album, features Bloomfield, normally known for his guitar work, switching over to piano, while Jerry Miller shows why he has earned the reputation of being "the guitarist's guitarist" over the past 44 years.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Motorcycle Irene
Source: LP: Wow
Writer: Skip Spence
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
Another tune that would have benefited from less production was Skip Spence's Motorcycle Irene.
Artist: Santana
Title: Singing Winds, Crying Beasts/Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen/Oye Como Va
Source: CD: Abraxas
Writer: Carabello/Green/Szabo/Puente
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
To finish out the first hour we have one of the greatest opening sequences in the history of rock: the first fifteen minutes of Santana's second LP, Abraxas, presented uncut in its entirety.
Artist: Rising Sons
Title: Baby, What You Want Me To Do
Source: CD: The Rising Sons
Writer: Jimmy Reed
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1965
The Rising Sons and Love were the first interracial rock bands to play the clubs on L.A.'s Sunset Strip. Unlike Love, which performed a hybrid of garage and folk rock, the Rising Sons were firmly rooted in traditional blues. Although the Sons scored a contract with Columbia Records, it was clear from the start that the label had no idea what to do with them. After recording an album's worth of material, the label shelved the entire project. After the band's demise three of the members, vocalist Taj Mahal, slide guitarist Ry Cooder and guitarist/vocalist Jessie Kinkaid, went on to have successful solo careers, prompting Columbia to finally release the recordings in 1992.
Artist: Vagrants
Title: Respect
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Writer: Otis Redding
Label: Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
Didn't I just play this song last week? Feel free to check out last week's post to see.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: No Way Out
Source: CD: No Way Out
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
The Chocolate Watchband, from the southern part of the Bay Area (specifically Foothills Junior College in Los Altos Hills), were fairly typical of the south bay music scene, centered in San Jose. Although they were generally known for lead vocalist Dave Aguilar's ability to channel Mick Jagger with uncanny accuracy, producer Ed Cobb gave them a more psychedelic sound in the studio with the use of studio effects and other enhancements (including adding tracks to their albums that were performed entire by studio musicians). One example is the title track from their first LP, No Way Out. Although the song is credited to Cobb, there is an earlier recording of a jam credited to the band that is nearly identical to the tune's instrumental track.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Love Or Confusion
Source: LP: Are You Experienced
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
A little-known fact is that the original European version of Are You Experienced, in addition to having a different song lineup, consisted entirely of mono recordings. When Reprise got the rights to release the album in North America, its own engineers created new stereo mixes from the 4-track master tapes. As most of the instrumental tracks had already been mixed down to single tracks, the engineers found themselves doing things like putting the vocals all the way on one side of the mix, with reverb effects and guitar solos occupying the other side and all the instruments dead center. Such is the case with Love Or Confusion, with some really bizarre stereo panning thrown in at the end of the track. It's actually kind of fun to listen to with headphones on, as I did when I bought my first copy of the album on reel-to-reel tape (the tape deck was in the same room as the TV).
Artist: Monkees
Title: The Door Into Summer
Source: CD: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer: Douglas/Martin
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1967
Another one that I played last week. This time around, though, it's an alternate take, mixed in mono. Feel free to scroll down to last week's playlist for more info.
Artist: Cat Stevens
Title: Matthew And Son
Source: CD: The Very Best Of Cat Stevens (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Matthew And Son)
Writer: Cat Stevens
Label: A&M (original label: Deram)
Year: 1967
Although best known as one of the top singer-songwriters of the early to mid-1970s, Cat Stevens actually began recording in 1967, and charted several hits in the UK before achieving international fame. One of the earliest was the title track to his first LP, Matthew And Son. Although the song was released in the US on the Deram label, it failed to chart.
Artist: Iron Butterfly
Title: Termination
Source: CD: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Writer: Brann/Dorman
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
Although most Iron Butterfly songs were written by keyboardist/vocalist Doug Ingle, there were a few exceptions. One of those is Termination, from the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album, which was written by guitarist Erik Brann and bassist Lee Dorman.
Artist: Stevie Wonder
Title: I Don't Know Why I Love You
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Hunter/Hardaway/Wonder/Reiser
Label: Tamla
Year: 1969
The Rolling Stones had a minor but notable hit with their cover of Stevie Wonder's I Don't Know Why I Love You in the early 1970s. I thought I'd pull out a copy of the original version, which was intended as an A side but was eclipsed in popularity by the B side of the record, a tune called My Cherie Amour.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Nature's Way
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Randy California
Label: Epic
Year: 1970
Nature's Way is one of the best-known and best-loved songs in the Spirit catalog. Originally released on the 1970 LP The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, the song was finally issued as a single in 1973, long after lead vocalist Jay Ferguson and bassist Mark Andes had left the band. The single mix is a bit different from the album version, particularly at the end of the song, which originally ended with a tympani roll by drummer Ed Cassidy. The single version ends with the chord immediately preceding that roll.
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: Paxton/Reed
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: Tradewinds
Title: Mind Excursion
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Excursions)
Writer: Anders/Poncia
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Kama-Sutra)
Year: 1966
The Trade Winds were a semi-studio band from New York that first scored in 1965 with the song "New York is a Lonely Town (When You're the Only Surfer Boy Around). A year later, they had their second and last hit, "Mind Excursion," which holds up as one of the best examples of "flower power" pop ever recorded.
Artist: Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Title: Eventually
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer: Alan Brackett
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded 1966 (unreleased until 2005)
The PBC was one of the more psychedelic of the local L.A. bands playing the various clubs along L.A.'s Sunset Strip during its golden years of 1965-68. As was the case with so many bands of that time and place, they never really got the opportunity to strut their stuff, although they did leave some decent tapes behind, such as Eventually, recorded (but not released) in 1966.
Artist: New Breed
Title: Want Ad Reader
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Floegel/Hullin/Phillips/Schmidt
Label: Rhino (original label: World United)
Year: 1966
The New Breed was Sacramento's most popular local band in the mid-1960s. Although they did not score any national hits they did launch the career of Timothy B. Schmidt, who later went on to replace Randy Meisner in Poco (and even later replaced Meisner in the Eagles). The rest of the New Breed didn't do too badly, either. After changing their name to Glad and recording an album for Dunhill (with Schmidt still a member), the group eventually became known as Redwing, recording five country-rock albums in the 70s.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Buddha
Source: LP: Volume II
Writer: Markley/Harris
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
Although Bob Markley's lyrics will never win any literary achievement awards, they are memorable in a campy sort of way. A perfect example is Buddha, which comes across as a childlike impression of a statue of a Buddha, with some adolescent innuendo thrown in.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: White Rabbit
Source: CD: The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Writer: Grace Slick
Label: RCA
Year: 1967
A while back a co-worker was asking me about what kind of music I played on the show. When I told him the show was called Stuck in the Psychedelic Era he immediately said "Oh, I bet you play White Rabbit a lot, huh?" As a matter of fact, I do, although not as much as some songs (see the post from show # 1032, in which I run down the list of which songs got played the most in 2010).
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: Fakin' It
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bookends)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Fakin' It, originally released as a single in 1967, was a bit of a departure for Simon And Garfunkel, sounding more like British psychedelic music than American folk-rock. The track starts with an intro that is similar to the false ending to the Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever; midway through the record the tempo changes drastically for a short spoken word section that is reminiscent of the bridge in Traffic's Hole In My Shoe. The song was later included on the 1968 LP Bookends.
Artist: McKendree Spring
Title: For What Was Gained
Source: LP: Second Thoughts
Writer: Eric Andersen
Label: Decca
Year: 1970
McKendree Spring, from New York's Hudson Valley, was one of those groups that defied easy classification. Were they a folk-rock band? Sort of. A country band? Well, kinda. Using a mix of traditional acoustic instruments and electronic synthesizers, McKendree Spring was successful enough to issue several albums throughout the 1970s. I remember seeing them live in the early 1970s (on a bill with Jo Jo Gunne and Billy Preston) and performing an instrumental called How Can I Tell You I Love You When You're Sitting On My Face.
Title: Run Run Run
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Resnick/Resnick/Levine
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1967
Run Run Run is actually a studio creation issied in 1967 from husband and wife team Artie and Kris Resnick collaborating with Joey Levine, who sings lead vocals on the track. They only performed the song live once (in Cincinatti, of all places) as the Third Rail. All three would find a home as part of the Kasenetz-Katz bubble gum machine that would make Buddah Records a major player in 1968, with Levine himself singing lead for one of the label's most successful groups, the Ohio Express.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: 2,000 Light Years From Home
Source: LP: More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies) (originally released on LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request)
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
Nowhere was the ripple effect of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band more noticable than on the Rolling Stones fall 1967 release Their Satanic Majesties Request. The cover featured the band members in various sorcerous regalia in a seven-inch picture on the kind of holographic paper used for "magic rings" found in bubble-gum machines and pasted over regular album-cover stock, which was a simple pattern of faded white circles on a blue background (it kind of looked like dark wallpaper). Musically it was the most psychedelic Stones album ever released. Interesting enough, different songs were released as singles in different countries. In the US the single was She's A Rainbow, while in Germany 2,000 Light Years From Home (the US B side of She's A Rainbow) got significant airplay.
Artist: Who
Title: Odorono
Source: LP: The Who Sell Out
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: Decca
Year: 1967
In early January of 1968 a bunch of us went over to our friend Bob's house to hang out and see what he got for Christmas. Bob's parents had a big Grundig console stereo that opened from the top. When we got there Bob's older brother was on the scene and told us to check out this new radio station that was coming in with some truly amazing sound quality. Sure enough, we heard all sorts of jingles and ads, along with some really tasty tunes none of us had heard before. One of those tunes was about a girl who blew an audition because she didn't use the right deodorant. It was called Odorono, and it wasn't until we heard I Can See For Miles a few minutes later that we realized it was all a put-on. The reality was that everything we had just heard was the new Who album that had been released around Christmastime, including the jingles and ads. As it turned out there really was a Radio London (who threatened the Who with a lawsuit over the unauthorized use of its jingles), but there was no way we could pick up it in Mainz, Germany, let alone sounding as good as it did on that Grundig.
Artist: Mothers of Invention
Title: Big Leg Emma
Source: CD: Absolutely Free (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Frank Zappa
Label: Ryko (original label: Verve)
Year: 1967
Sometime during the creation of the second Mothers Of Invention album, Absolutely Free, the band recorded a pair of stand alone tunes that were released as a 45 RPM single. The B side of that record was Big Leg Emma, a song that was written by Frank Zappa in 1962 and would eventually be added to his live show in the late 1970s.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Talk Talk
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Turn On The Music Machine)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
When it came time for Sean Bonniwell's band, the Music Machine, to go into the studio, the group decided to go for the best sound possible. This meant signing with tiny Original Sound Records, despite having offers from bigger labels, due to Original Sound having their own state-of-the-art eight-track studios. Unfortunately for the band, they soon discovered that having great equipment did not mean Original Sound made great decisions. One of the first, in fact, was to include a handful of cover songs on the Music Machine's first LP that were recorded for use on a local TV show. Bonniwell was livid when he found out, as he had envisioned an album made up entirely of his own compositions (although he reportedly did plan to use a slowed-down version of Hey Joe that he and Tim Rose had worked up together). From that point on it was only a matter of time until the Music Machine and Original Sound parted company, but not until after they scored a big national hit with Talk Talk in 1966.
Artist: Great! Society
Title: Free Advice
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Darby Slick
Label: Rhino (original label: Northbeach)
Year: 1966
It's not much of a stretch to characterize San Francisco's Great! Society as a garage band, despite the obvious talents of vocalist Grace Slick. Grace's role in the band was mostly as a backup/fill vocalist. Her strengths as a lead vocalist would not be evident until she hooked up with Jefferson Airplane in late 1966.
Artist: Shadows of Knight
Title: Gloria
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Gloria)
Writer: Van Morrison
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
The original Them version of Van Morrison's Gloria found itself banned on the majority of US radio stations due to controversial lyrics. By changing one line (substituting "around here" for "up to my room") the suburban Chicago punk-blues band Shadows of Knight turned it into a huge hit and a garage band standard.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Funky-Tunk
Source: LP: Wow
Writer: Spence/Miller
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
After nearly universal acclaim from the rock press for their 1967 debut album, Moby Grape decided to take their time in the studio for the follow, 1968's Wow. Unfortunately, the album itself ended up sounding over-produced as a result. Funky-Tunk, for instance, starts off sounding like a decent enough country rock tune but takes a bizarre turn on the second verse when the lead vocals are done in Chipmunk style.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Marmalade
Source: LP: Grape Jam
Writer: Bloomfield/Miller/Stevenson/Mosely
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
When Moby Grape's Wow album first hit the racks it included a second, free, disk with it's own cover entitled Grape Jam. Recorded between sessions in New York and featuring guest keyboardists Al Kooper and Michael Bloomfield, Grape Jam actually predates (and probably inspired) Kooper's own Super Session album by a few months. Marmalade, the longest track on the album, features Bloomfield, normally known for his guitar work, switching over to piano, while Jerry Miller shows why he has earned the reputation of being "the guitarist's guitarist" over the past 44 years.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Motorcycle Irene
Source: LP: Wow
Writer: Skip Spence
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
Another tune that would have benefited from less production was Skip Spence's Motorcycle Irene.
Artist: Santana
Title: Singing Winds, Crying Beasts/Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen/Oye Como Va
Source: CD: Abraxas
Writer: Carabello/Green/Szabo/Puente
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
To finish out the first hour we have one of the greatest opening sequences in the history of rock: the first fifteen minutes of Santana's second LP, Abraxas, presented uncut in its entirety.
Artist: Rising Sons
Title: Baby, What You Want Me To Do
Source: CD: The Rising Sons
Writer: Jimmy Reed
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1965
The Rising Sons and Love were the first interracial rock bands to play the clubs on L.A.'s Sunset Strip. Unlike Love, which performed a hybrid of garage and folk rock, the Rising Sons were firmly rooted in traditional blues. Although the Sons scored a contract with Columbia Records, it was clear from the start that the label had no idea what to do with them. After recording an album's worth of material, the label shelved the entire project. After the band's demise three of the members, vocalist Taj Mahal, slide guitarist Ry Cooder and guitarist/vocalist Jessie Kinkaid, went on to have successful solo careers, prompting Columbia to finally release the recordings in 1992.
Artist: Vagrants
Title: Respect
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Writer: Otis Redding
Label: Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
Didn't I just play this song last week? Feel free to check out last week's post to see.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: No Way Out
Source: CD: No Way Out
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
The Chocolate Watchband, from the southern part of the Bay Area (specifically Foothills Junior College in Los Altos Hills), were fairly typical of the south bay music scene, centered in San Jose. Although they were generally known for lead vocalist Dave Aguilar's ability to channel Mick Jagger with uncanny accuracy, producer Ed Cobb gave them a more psychedelic sound in the studio with the use of studio effects and other enhancements (including adding tracks to their albums that were performed entire by studio musicians). One example is the title track from their first LP, No Way Out. Although the song is credited to Cobb, there is an earlier recording of a jam credited to the band that is nearly identical to the tune's instrumental track.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Love Or Confusion
Source: LP: Are You Experienced
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
A little-known fact is that the original European version of Are You Experienced, in addition to having a different song lineup, consisted entirely of mono recordings. When Reprise got the rights to release the album in North America, its own engineers created new stereo mixes from the 4-track master tapes. As most of the instrumental tracks had already been mixed down to single tracks, the engineers found themselves doing things like putting the vocals all the way on one side of the mix, with reverb effects and guitar solos occupying the other side and all the instruments dead center. Such is the case with Love Or Confusion, with some really bizarre stereo panning thrown in at the end of the track. It's actually kind of fun to listen to with headphones on, as I did when I bought my first copy of the album on reel-to-reel tape (the tape deck was in the same room as the TV).
Artist: Monkees
Title: The Door Into Summer
Source: CD: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer: Douglas/Martin
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1967
Another one that I played last week. This time around, though, it's an alternate take, mixed in mono. Feel free to scroll down to last week's playlist for more info.
Artist: Cat Stevens
Title: Matthew And Son
Source: CD: The Very Best Of Cat Stevens (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Matthew And Son)
Writer: Cat Stevens
Label: A&M (original label: Deram)
Year: 1967
Although best known as one of the top singer-songwriters of the early to mid-1970s, Cat Stevens actually began recording in 1967, and charted several hits in the UK before achieving international fame. One of the earliest was the title track to his first LP, Matthew And Son. Although the song was released in the US on the Deram label, it failed to chart.
Artist: Iron Butterfly
Title: Termination
Source: CD: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Writer: Brann/Dorman
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
Although most Iron Butterfly songs were written by keyboardist/vocalist Doug Ingle, there were a few exceptions. One of those is Termination, from the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album, which was written by guitarist Erik Brann and bassist Lee Dorman.
Artist: Stevie Wonder
Title: I Don't Know Why I Love You
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Hunter/Hardaway/Wonder/Reiser
Label: Tamla
Year: 1969
The Rolling Stones had a minor but notable hit with their cover of Stevie Wonder's I Don't Know Why I Love You in the early 1970s. I thought I'd pull out a copy of the original version, which was intended as an A side but was eclipsed in popularity by the B side of the record, a tune called My Cherie Amour.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Nature's Way
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Randy California
Label: Epic
Year: 1970
Nature's Way is one of the best-known and best-loved songs in the Spirit catalog. Originally released on the 1970 LP The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, the song was finally issued as a single in 1973, long after lead vocalist Jay Ferguson and bassist Mark Andes had left the band. The single mix is a bit different from the album version, particularly at the end of the song, which originally ended with a tympani roll by drummer Ed Cassidy. The single version ends with the chord immediately preceding that roll.
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: Paxton/Reed
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: Tradewinds
Title: Mind Excursion
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Excursions)
Writer: Anders/Poncia
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Kama-Sutra)
Year: 1966
The Trade Winds were a semi-studio band from New York that first scored in 1965 with the song "New York is a Lonely Town (When You're the Only Surfer Boy Around). A year later, they had their second and last hit, "Mind Excursion," which holds up as one of the best examples of "flower power" pop ever recorded.
Artist: Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Title: Eventually
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer: Alan Brackett
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded 1966 (unreleased until 2005)
The PBC was one of the more psychedelic of the local L.A. bands playing the various clubs along L.A.'s Sunset Strip during its golden years of 1965-68. As was the case with so many bands of that time and place, they never really got the opportunity to strut their stuff, although they did leave some decent tapes behind, such as Eventually, recorded (but not released) in 1966.
Artist: New Breed
Title: Want Ad Reader
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Floegel/Hullin/Phillips/Schmidt
Label: Rhino (original label: World United)
Year: 1966
The New Breed was Sacramento's most popular local band in the mid-1960s. Although they did not score any national hits they did launch the career of Timothy B. Schmidt, who later went on to replace Randy Meisner in Poco (and even later replaced Meisner in the Eagles). The rest of the New Breed didn't do too badly, either. After changing their name to Glad and recording an album for Dunhill (with Schmidt still a member), the group eventually became known as Redwing, recording five country-rock albums in the 70s.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Buddha
Source: LP: Volume II
Writer: Markley/Harris
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
Although Bob Markley's lyrics will never win any literary achievement awards, they are memorable in a campy sort of way. A perfect example is Buddha, which comes across as a childlike impression of a statue of a Buddha, with some adolescent innuendo thrown in.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: White Rabbit
Source: CD: The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Writer: Grace Slick
Label: RCA
Year: 1967
A while back a co-worker was asking me about what kind of music I played on the show. When I told him the show was called Stuck in the Psychedelic Era he immediately said "Oh, I bet you play White Rabbit a lot, huh?" As a matter of fact, I do, although not as much as some songs (see the post from show # 1032, in which I run down the list of which songs got played the most in 2010).
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: Fakin' It
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bookends)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Fakin' It, originally released as a single in 1967, was a bit of a departure for Simon And Garfunkel, sounding more like British psychedelic music than American folk-rock. The track starts with an intro that is similar to the false ending to the Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever; midway through the record the tempo changes drastically for a short spoken word section that is reminiscent of the bridge in Traffic's Hole In My Shoe. The song was later included on the 1968 LP Bookends.
Artist: McKendree Spring
Title: For What Was Gained
Source: LP: Second Thoughts
Writer: Eric Andersen
Label: Decca
Year: 1970
McKendree Spring, from New York's Hudson Valley, was one of those groups that defied easy classification. Were they a folk-rock band? Sort of. A country band? Well, kinda. Using a mix of traditional acoustic instruments and electronic synthesizers, McKendree Spring was successful enough to issue several albums throughout the 1970s. I remember seeing them live in the early 1970s (on a bill with Jo Jo Gunne and Billy Preston) and performing an instrumental called How Can I Tell You I Love You When You're Sitting On My Face.
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