Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1510 (starts 3/4/15)

Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    Black Currant Jam
Source:    LP: Grape Jam
Writer(s):    Kooper/Miller/Stevenson/Mosely
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    Moby Grape's second album, Wow, came with something extra: an entire second LP at no additional price. This second LP was a collection of impromptu jam sessions, a couple of which featured guest musicians. One of those tracks was Black Currant Jam, which features Al Kooper on piano, joining regular band members Jerry Miller (guitar), Don Stevenson (drums) and Bob Mosely (bass). The album, released in early 1968, garnered mixed reviews from the rock press, but inspired Kooper to produce a jam album of his own, the enormously successful Super Session, later the same year.

Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    Indifference
Source:    Mono LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s):    Skip Spence
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    Skip Spence only wrote two of the songs on Moby Grape's debut LP, but they were among the best tracks on the album. The first, Omaha, was the band's only charted single, while the second, Indifference, was, at over four minutes, the longest track on the album, and was chosen to close out side two of the LP. An edited version of the song was also issued as a B side of another single, but did not chart.

Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    Never
Source:    LP: Grape Jam
Writer(s):    Bob Mosley
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    For their second album, Moby Grape decided to do something different. In addition to the LP Wow, there was a second disc called Grape Jam included at no extra charge. For the most part Grape Jam is exactly what you'd expect: a collection of after-hours jam sessions with guest guitarist/keyboardist Michael Bloomfield. The opening track of Grape Jam, however, is actually a composition by Bob Mosley. The song features Mosley on bass and vocals, Jerry Miller and Skip Spence and guitars and Don Stevenson on drums, all of whom were actual members of Moby Grape.

Artist:    Leaves
Title:    Words
Source:    CD: Hey Joe
Writer(s):    Boyce/Hart
Label:    One Way (original label: Mira)
Year:    1966
    In 1965 the songwriting team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart recorded a demo of their song Words, in the hopes of either finding a band to record the tune or a getting a record contract for themselves. The following year a local Los Angeles band, the Leaves, included the song on their debut LP for the Mira label. For about a year the Leaves' recording was considered the definitive version of Words until the Monkees took the song into the top 40 as the B side of Pleasant Valley Sunday in the summer of '67.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Hello, Goodbye
Source:    LP: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1967
    1967 was unquestionably a good year for the Beatles. Their first release was a double A sided single, Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane, both sides of which were major hits. They followed that up with the #1 album of the year, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and another hit single, All You Need Is Love. To finish out the year they released yet another major hit single, Hello Goodbye. The only downside to the year was the cool reception that was afforded their December telefilm, Magical Mystery Tour, although the songs themselves were well-received when released in the UK as a double-EP set (complete with full color booklet containing stills from the film, as well as lyric sheets). As EPs were not considered a viable format in the US, Capitol Records put together an LP that included all six tracks from the telefilm on one side of the album and the five single sides (Hello Goodbye had used I Am The Walrus from Magical Mystery Tour as a B side) on the other. That album has since become the official version of Magical Mystery Tour, although the EP continued to be available in the UK for several years following its initial release.

Artist:    Fifty Foot Hose
Title:    God Bless The Child
Source:    LP: Cauldron
Writer(s):    Billie Holiday
Label:    Limelight
Year:    1968
    When Fifty Foot Hose released their first album, nobody really knew what to make of it. Although the group had the normal rock band elements (guitar, bass, drums), it had something extra, thanks to a guy named Cork Marcheschi. Marcheschi was as much an inventor as he was a musician, and supplied the band with all sorts of electronic effects, as can be heard on an otherwise straightforward rendition of the Billie Holiday classic God Bless The Child. The vocals were supplied by Nancy Blossom, who was soon to become quite visible in the San Francisco Bay area playing the female lead in the West Coast production of the musical Hair.
   
Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Tired Of Waiting For You
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Eric (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1965
    After a series of hard-rocking hits such as You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night, the Kinks surprised everyone with the highly melodic Tired Of Waiting For You in 1965. As it turns out the song was just one of many steps in the continually maturing songwriting of Ray Davies.

Artist:     Shadows of Knight
Title:     The Behemoth
Source:     Mono CD: Dark Sides (originally released on LP: Back Door Men and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer:     Pye
Label:     Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year:     1966
     When it comes to garage punk bands of the sixties there are two that are generally considered to be at the top of the heap. Unlike the Standells, who started off as a bar band and only embraced the punk ethic when they hooked up with writer/producer Ed Cobb, the Shadows of Knight were the real deal. Coming from the Chicago suburbs, they literally got their start practicing in the garage, slowly graduating to parties and high school dances, getting banned from at least one high school campus in the process (something having to do with a student getting knocked up, rumor has it). The Shadows (as they were originally known) cited the British blues bands as their main influence, with a dose of Chicago blues thrown in for good measure. The Behemoth, a track from their second album, Back Door Men, was chosen for a 1967 B side as well.

Artist:    West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:    Tracy Had A Hard Day Sunday
Source:    LP: Volume II
Writer(s):    Markley/Harris
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1967
    Once upon a time record producer Kim Fowley hired the Yardbirds to play a private Hollywood party. The Harris brothers, a pair of local art school students who had sent their homemade tapes to Fowley were impressed by the band's musical abilities. Bob Markley, an almost-30-year-old hipster with a law degree and an inheritance was impressed with the band's ability to attract teenage girls. Fowley introduced the Harris brothers to Markley, who expressed a willingness to finance them in return for letting him be their new lead vocalist, and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band was formed. Before it was all over the group had recorded five or six albums for at least three labels, churning out an eclectic mix of psychedelic tunes such as Tracy Had A Hard Day Sunday, which appeared on the second album for Reprise Records (their third LP overall), appropriately titled Volume II.

Artist:    Procol Harum
Title:    A Christmas Camel
Source:    Mono British import CD: Procol Harum (US album title: A Whiter Shade Of Pale)
Writer:    Brooker/Reid
Label:    Salvo (original label: Deram)
Year:    1967
    In 1966 Gary Brooker, former member of British cover band the Paramounts, formed a songwriting partnership with lyricist Keith Reid. By spring of 1967 the two had at least an album's worth of songs written but no band to play them. They solved the dilemma by placing an ad in Melody Maker and soon formed a group called the Pinewoods. Their very first record was A Whiter Shade Of Pale, which soon became the number one song on the British charts (after the Pinewoods changed their name to Procol Harum). The problem was that the group didn't know any other songs, a problem that was solved by firing the drummer and guitarist and replacing them with two of Brooker's former bandmates, B.J. Wilson and Robin Trower. This second version of the group soon recorded an LP, which included several strong tracks such as A Christmas Camel, making its Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut this week.

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

Artist:    Pentangle
Title:    A Maid That's Deep In Love
Source:    British import CD: Cruel Sister
Writer(s):    Trad., arr. Pentangle
Label:    Sanctuary (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1970
    By 1970 Pentangle had established itself as one of the world's most successful bands, with their own unique fusion of British folk, jazz and folk-rock. Most groups would have continued in the same vein that got them where they were, but such was the quality and integrity of the band's members that they instead chose to go with a far more traditional approach to their fourth album, Cruel Sister. The album opens with a ballad, A Maid That's Deep In Love, that showcases vocalist Jacqui McShee while showing a musical depth rarely heard in popular music at the time.

Artist:    Otis Redding
Title:    Shake
Source:    LP: Historic Performances Recorded At The Monterey International Pop Festival
Writer(s):    Sam Cooke
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1967
    One of the most electrifying performances at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival was given by Otis Redding, ably supported by Booker T. and the MGs with the Bar-Kays horn section. Redding's set was scheduled to close out the second night of the festival (Saturday), and due to delays caused by persistent rain, his performance was cut short. The opening song of Redding's set was an energetic version of Sam Cooke's Shake, an ironic choice considering that Redding, at the beginning of his recording career two years earlier, hold told friends that his primary goal was to fill the gap left by his idol, Cooke, who had been shot in his hotel room in late 1964. Redding's appearance at Monterey is generally considered a turning point in a career that, if it had not been cut short by a fatal plane crash less than a year later, could well have surpassed that of his idol (some say it did anyway).

Artist:     Santana
Title:     Mother's Daughter
Source:     CD: Abraxas
Writer:     Gregg Rolie
Label:     Columbia
Year:     1970
     Carlos Santana once said that his original lineup was the best of the many bands named Santana. With talented songwriters such as keyboardist Gregg Rolie in the band, it's hard to argue with that assessment. Rolie, of course, would go on to co-found Journey.

Artist:    Billy Preston
Title:    That's The Way God Planned It
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Billy Preston
Label:    Apple
Year:    1969
    Billy Preston became instantly famous as the guy who played keyboards on the 1969 Beatles single Get Back/Don't Let Me Down. At that time he also recorded That's The Way God Planned It and released the song as a single on the Beatles-owned Apple label. The song was not an instant success, however. In fact, it was not until 1972, when Preston had a monster hit with Outa-Space on the A&M label, that Apple re-released the earlier single, which became Preston's biggest non-instrumental hit.

Artist:    Beacon Street Union
Title:    Blue Avenue
Source:    LP: The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union
Writer(s):    Wayne Ulaky
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1968
    One of Boston's most popular bands, the Beacon Street Union, had already migrated to New York City by the time their first album, The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union (produced by the legendary Tom Wilson), made its debut in February of 1968. The band itself was made up of Boston University dropouts John Lincoln Wright (lead vocals), Paul Tartachny (guitar, vocals), Robert Rhodes (keyboards, brass), Richard Weisberg (drums), and Wayne Ulaky (bass). Ulaky wrote what was probably the band's best-known song, Blue Avenue. The tune was particular popular in the UK, where it was heard on the Top Gear program. The Beacon Street Union, however, fell victim to hype; in this case the ill-advised attempt on the part of M-G-M records to market several disparate bands as being part of the "boss-town sound". After a second LP, The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens (produced by future Partridge Family impressario Wes Farrell) failed to equal the somewhat limited success of their debut LP, the Beacon Street Union decided to call it quits.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Streetmasse
Source:    LP: After Bathing At Baxter's
Writer(s):    Kantner/Dryden/Blackman/Thompson/Balin
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1967
     After Bathing At Baxter's is generally considered the most pyschedelic of all the Jefferson Airplane albums. For one thing, the members were reportedly all on LSD through most of the creative process and were involved in the entire package, right down to the decision to divide the album up into five suites and press the vinyl in such a way that the spaces normally found between songs were only present between the suites themselves, making it almost impossible to set the needle down at the beginning of the second or third song of a suite (there is a slight overlap between most of the songs as well). The first suite on After Bathing At Baxter's is called Streetmasse. It consists of three compositions: Paul Kantner's The Ballad of You and Me and Pooniel; A Small Package of Value Will Come To You Shortly (a free-form jazz piece led by drummer Spencer Dryden); and the Paul Kantner/Marty Balin composition Young Girl Sunday Blues.

Artist:    We The People
Title:    You Burn Me Up And Down
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Thomas Talton
Label:    Rhino (original label: Challenge)
Year:    1966
    We The People was kind of a regional supergroup in the Orlando, Florida area, as it was made up of musicians from various local garage bands. The departure of lead guitarist Wayne Proctor in early 1967 and the band's other main songwriter Tommy Talton a year later led to the group's demise, despite having landed a contract with RCA Victor, at the time the world's largest record label. Before splitting up, however, they recorded a handful of garage-rock classics such as You Burn Me Up And Down, which was released as a B side in 1966.

Artist:    Front Line
Title:    Got Love
Source:    Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Lanigan/Philipet
Label:    Rhino (original label: York)
Year:    1965
    The Front Line was a band from San Rafael, California whose story in many ways was typical of their time. Marin County, being a fairly upscale place, had its share of clubs catering to the sons and daughters of its affluent residents. Of course, these teens wanted to hear live performances of their favorite top 40 tunes and bands like the Front Line made a decent enough living catering to their preferences. Like most bands of the time, the Front Line had one song that was of their own creation, albeit one that was somewhat derivative of the kinds of tunes they usually performed (not to mention unusually short in duration) so as not to scare off their audience. That song was Got Love, which was released on the York label in 1965.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Strange Brew
Source:    Mono Russian import: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s):    Clapton/Collins/Pappalardi
Label:    Lilith (original label: Atco)
Year:    1967
    Strange Brew, the opening track from Cream's Disraeli Gears album, was also released as a single in Europe and the UK (but not in the US) in early 1967. The song has proven popular enough over the years to be included on pretty much every Cream anthology album ever compiled, and even inspired a Hollywood Movie of the same name.

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Dear Mr. Fantasy
Source:    LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Heaven Is In Your Mind)
Writer(s):    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 the title track of Traffic's Mr. Fantasy album.

Artist:    Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title:    San Franciscan Nights
Source:    British import CD: Winds Of Change
Writer:    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label:    Big Beat (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1967
    In late 1966, after losing several original members over a period of about a year, the original Animals disbanded. Eric Burdon, after releasing one single as a solo artist (but using the Animals name), decided to form a "new" Animals. After releasing a moderately successful single, When I Was Young, the new band appeared at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June of 1967. While in the area, the band fell in love with the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, during what came to be called the Summer Of Love. The first single to be released from their debut album, Winds Of Change, was a tribute to the city by the bay called San Franciscan Nights. Because of the topicality of the song's subject matter, San Franciscan Nights was not released in the UK as a single. Instead, the song Good Times (which was the US B side of the record), became the new group's biggest UK hit to date (and one of the Animals' biggest UK hits overall). Eventually San Franciscan Nights was released as a single in the UK as well (with a different B side) and ended up doing quite well.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Out Of Time
Source:    LP: More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies) (originally released on LP: Flowers)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    London
Year:    1967
    The history of the Rolling Stones' Out Of Time is actually somewhat convoluted. Originally released only in the UK as a five and a half minute track on the Aftermath LP (the US version of the album having a different song lineup), the tune was soon covered by British singer Chris Farlowe, whose Mick Jagger-produced single went to the top of the UK charts in July of 1966. A shorter alternative mix of the Stones version was then released on the Flowers album, a US-only compilation of singles, B sides and unreleased tracks compiled by London Records. This version was re-released in 1972 on the More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies) album. Finally, in 1975 a third version of the song, using the backing tracks from the Farlowe version and Mick Jagger's vocals, appeared on an album called Metamorphosis, which was a compilation of unreleased tracks that were owned by record mogul Allen Klein.

Artist:    Beach Boys
Title:    Caroline No
Source:    Mono CD: Pet Sounds
Writer(s):    Wilson/Asher
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1966
    According to lyricist Peter Asher, Caroline No was written because Brian Wilson was "saddened to see how sweet little girls turned out to be kind of bitchy, hardened adults". Though the song was originally part of the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, it ended up being the only single ever released by Capitol credited to Brian Wilson as a solo artist.

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

Artist:    United States Of America
Title:    You Can Never Come Down
Source:    CD: The United States Of America
Writer(s):    Joseph Byrd
Label:    Sundazed/Sony
Year:    1968
    Joseph Byrd and Dorothy Moskowitz were, in Byrd's own words "tiny fish in the pond of avant-garde New York", learning what they could from John Cage while trying to find their own voices. The two of them relocated in 1963, when Byrd took a teaching assistanceship at UCLA. By 1965 they had established themselves as pioneers of experimental music on the West Coast. Moscowitz returned to the Big Apple in 1966, but returned to L.A. the following year to become the lead vocalist in Byrd's new rock band, The United States Of America. Byrd, however, was not really a rock musician, and after one self-titled LP had a falling out with the rest of the group's membership, including Moskowitz. Before leaving, however, Byrd wrote and produced one last track with the band he founded, a tune called You Can Never Come Down, recorded on May 9, 1968. It remained unreleased until Sundazed made it available as a bonus track on the 2004 reissue of the United States Of America album on CD.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix
Title:    Valleys Of Neptune
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Legacy
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 2010
    Even before the breakup of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1969, Hendrix was starting to work with other musicians, including keyboardist Steve Winwood and wind player Chris Wood from Traffic, bassist Jack Casidy from Jefferson Airplane and Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles among others. Still, he kept showing a tendency to return to the power trio configuration, first with Band of Gypsys, with Miles and bassist Billy Cox and, in 1970, a new trio that was sometimes referred to as the "new" Jimi Hendrix Experience. This trio, featuring Cox along with original Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, recorded extensively in the months leading up to Hendrix's death, leaving behind hours of tapes in various stages of completion. Among those recordings was a piece called Valleys Of Neptune that was finally released, both as a single and as the title track of a new CD, in 2010.