Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1848 (starts 11/26/18)

    No artists' sets this week, but we do have an Advanced Psych segment featuring McFadden's Parachute, the Dukes of Stratosphear and Liquid Scene, as well as three bands making their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut and a surprise track from a popular Motown act.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
Source:    Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1966
    By mid-1966 there was a population explosion of teenage rock bands popping up in garages and basements all across the US, the majority of which were doing their best to emulate the grungy sound of their heroes, the Rolling Stones. The Stones themselves responded by ramping up the grunge factor to a previously unheard of degree with their last single of the year, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? It was the most feedback-laden record ever to make the top 40 at that point in time, and it inspired America's garage bands to buy even more powerful amps and crank up the volume (driving their parents to drink in the process).

Artist:    Davie Allan And The Arrows
Title:    Blue's Theme
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released on LP: The Wild Ones-soundtrack and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Curb/Allan
Label:    Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year:    1966
    It is entirely possible that the Chocolate Watch Band (or more accurately, the unknown producers of their first single) were indirectly responsible for giving guitarist Davie Allan his biggest hit single. In 1966, movie producer Roger Corman hired Mike Curb to comeup with soundtrack music for his 1966 film The Wild Ones. Curb in turn contacted his longtime friend (and frequent collaborator) Allan to actually record the soundtrack with his band, the Arrows. The film was released in July of 1966, with the soundtrack album appearing soon after. The obvious high point of the album was the instrumental track Blue's Theme (which technically should have been Blues's Theme, since the film's main character, played by Peter Fonda, was named Heavenly Blues), but at first there were reportedly no plans to release the song as a single. However, late in the year the Chocolate Watch Band were making their very first visit to a recording studio, and were asked to knock out a quick cover of Blues Theme, which was released (sans apostrophe) on the HBR label, credited to The Hogs. Curb must have heard about this as it was being prepared for release, as he managed to put out a single release of the original Davie Allan version of Blue's Theme before the HBR single hit the racks. Either that, or (more likely) the HBR producers simply had bad info about Curb's intentions in the first place.

Artist:    Lost Souls
Title:    This Life Of Mine
Source:    Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Australia as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Gregory/Wilkins/Woff/Paul/Putt
Label:    Rhino (original label: Sunshine)
Year:    1966
    It was the American Dream made real. A bunch of school friends, inspired by the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, form a band in 1965 and win a battle of the bands sponsored by a local radio station the following year. The prize: the opportunity to cut a record of their own. The catch: this wasn't America, it was Australia. The Lost Souls  released This Life Of Mine in September of 1966, scoring a minor hit in their native Melbourne. Further success, however, eluded them, and the Lost Souls disbanded in early 1968.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Tangerine Puppet
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: The Pye History Of Pop Music Vol. 2-Donovan (originally released on LP: Catch The Wind)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Pye (original US label: Hickory)
Year:    1965
    Considering his later stature as an artist, it's hard to imagine Donovan as a strictly regional success, yet his earliest albums for Pye generated very little interest beyond his native Scotland. Athough his first LP, What's Bid Did And What's Bin Hid, was released in the US (on the second-tier Hickory label), it was retitled Catch The Wind, and did not sell particularly well. In fact, many of the tracks on the album, such as the instrumental Tangerine Puppet, got greater circulation several years later on anthology albums such as The Pye History Of Pop Music Vol. 2-Donovan, which was released in the early 1980s.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Wrong
Source:    CD: Turn On The Music Machine
Writer(s):    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year:    1966
    Sean Bonniwell was a member of the mainstream (i.e. lots of appearances on TV variety shows hosted by people like Perry Como and Bob Hope) folk group the Lamplighters in the early 60s. By 1966 he had morphed into one of the more mysterious figures on the LA music scene, leading a proto-punk band dressed entirely in black. Bonniwell himself wore a single black glove (Michael Jackson was about seven years old at the time), and was one of the most prolific songwriters of the time. His recordings, often featuring the distinctive Farfisa organ sound, were a primary influence on later LA bands such as Iron Butterfly and the Doors. A classic example of the Music Machine sound was the song Wrong, which was issued as the B side of the group's most successful single, Talk Talk.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Back Door Man
Source:    CD: The Doors
Writer(s):    Willie Dixon
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    In their early days as an L.A. club band, the Doors supplemented their growing body of original material with covers of classic blues tunes (rather than covers of top 40 hits like many of their contemporaries). Perhaps best of these was Willie Dixon's Back Door Man, which had been a mid-50s R&B hit for Howlin' Wolf. The Doors themselves certainly thought so, as it was one of only two cover songs on their debut LP.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Birthday
Source:    CD: The Beatles
Writer:    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year:    1968
    One of the great ironies of rock history was that the album entitled simply The Beatles was the one that had the fewest songs with all four of the band members playing on them. By 1968 the Beatles were experiencing internal conflicts, and nearly all of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's songs were played by just the two of them, while George Harrison's songs (and Ringo Starr's single contribution as a songwriter) featured an array of some of the UK's top musicians (including guitarist Eric Clapton). The opening track of side three of the album is typical of this approach, as Birthday is essentially a McCartney solo piece.

Artist:    Crow
Title:    Evil Woman (Don't Play Your Games With Me)
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Wagner/Weigand/Weigand
Label:    Amaret
Year:    1969
    Minneapolis has always had a more active local music scene than one might expect from a medium-sized city in the heart of the snow belt. Many of the city's artists have risen to national prominence, including a band called Crow, whose 1969 single Evil Woman (Don't Play Your Games With Me), hit close to the top of the charts in early 1970. The band had been formed in 1967 as South 40, changing its name to Crow right around the same time they signed to Amaret Records in 1969. Unfortunately, problems with their record label eventually led to the band's demise.

Artist:    MC5
Title:    Call Me Animal
Source:    LP: Back In The USA
Writer(s):    MC5
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1970
    Although it is considered a prototype for the punk rock movement of the late 1970s, the members of MC5 were not happy with their second LP, Back In The USA, when it appeared on the racks in 1970. Unlike their 1969 live debut LP, Kick Out The Jams, Back In The USA was a studio effort on which the band sounded somewhat sterile compared to their live performances. The band members themselves attribute this to their producer Jon Landau, who they found to be "overbearing and heavy-handed" in his production style, seemingly trying to make the band sound the way he wanted rather than let them play to their strengths. A listen to Call Me Animal lends credence to this assessment,  as it does sound a bit on the thin side. The album got lukewarm reviews and stalled out in the lower half of the Billboard album charts, staying around for only seven weeks. This, combined with an overall weariness, spelled the beginning of the end for what had once been a promising band. The MC5 disbanded in 1972.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix
Title:    Red House
Source:    CD: Live At Woodstock
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Legacy
Year:    1969
    Just about every time Jimi Hendrix made a live appearance he played his signature blues song, Red House. This is the version performed at Woodstock, using the band he was calling Gypsy, Sun And Rainbows at the time, although he also was heard to say "We're just a Band Of Gypsys" during his set. In addition to Hendrix himself, the band featured Mitch Mitchell on drums, Billy Cox on bass, Larry Lee on rhythm guitar and percussionists Jerry Velez and Juma Sultan, although only Hendrix, Cox and Mitchell are audible on the recording.

Artist:    Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title:    Born On The Bayou
Source:    LP: Bayou Country
Writer(s):    John Fogerty
Label:    Fantasy
Year:    1968
    If there is any single song that sums up what Creedence Clearwater Revival was all about, it could very well be Born On The Bayou, the opening track of CCR's second LP, Bayou Country. The song, which was written by John Fogerty late at night, became the opening for nearly every Creedence concert over the next few years, and is considered by many to be the band's signature song. Oddly enough, John Fogerty had never set foot on a bayou in his life when he wrote the song, but had always been a fan of the movie Swamp Fever, as well as having a fascination with "every other bit of southern bayou information that had entered my imagination from the time I was born."

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Everybody's Been Burned
Source:    CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s):    David Crosby
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    There is a common misconception that David Crosby's songwriting skills didn't fully develop until he began working with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. A listen to Everybody's Been Burned from the Byrds' 1967 album Younger Than Yesterday, however, puts the lie to that theory in a hurry. The track has all the hallmarks of a classic Crosby song: a strong melody, intelligent lyrics and an innovative chord structure. It's also my personal favorite tune from what is arguably the Byrds' best LP.

Artist:    Shadows Of Knight
Title:    Hey Joe
Source:    LP: Back Door Men
Writer(s):    Billy Roberts
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    Possibly the greatest garage-rock album of all is the second Shadows Of Knight LP, Back Door Men. Released in 1966, the album features virtually the same lineup as their debut LP, Gloria. Unlike many of their contemporaries, the Shadows were capable of varying their style somewhat, going from their trademark Chicago blues-influenced punk to what can only be described as early hard rock with ease. Like many bands of the time, they recorded a fast version of Billy Roberts' Hey Joe (although they credited it to Chet Powers on the label). The Shadows version, however, is a bit longer than the rest, featuring an extended guitar break by Joe Kelley, who had switched from bass to lead guitar midway through the recording of the Gloria album, replacing Warren Rogers, when it was discovered that Kelley was by far the more talented guitarist (Rogers was moved over to bass). Incidentally, despite the album's title and the Shadows' penchant for recording classic blues tunes, the band did not record a version of Howlin' Wolf's Back Door Man. The Blues Project and the Doors, however, did.

Artist:     Rising Sons
Title:     If The River Was Whiskey (Divin' Duck Blues)
Source:     CD: The Rising Sons featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder
Writer:     Sleepy John Estes
Label:     Columbia Legacy
Year:     1965
     Considering that by 1970 Columbia had established itself as one of the two dominant record companies when it came to the music of the left-leaning counter-culture (the other being Warner Brothers), it's odd to realize that a scant five years earlier they were known for their essential conservatism. Take the case of the Rising Sons, a multi-racial band featuring such future stars as Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder and Jessie Kincaid. Although they had been signed by Columbia in 1965, nobody at the label had a clue on how to market or even properly produce the band's recordings. By mid-1966 the entire project was shelved and the tapes sat on a shelf in the vault until 1992, when someone at the label realized the historical significance of what they had.
   
Artist:    Lovin' Spoonful
Title:    Almost Grown
Source:    Mono LP: What's Shakin'
Writer(s):    Chuck Berry
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1966
    The Lovin' Spoonful came close to being the first rock band signed by Elektra Records. It was this inexperience with the world of pop music (as it was then called) that ultimately led the Spoonful to instead sign with Kama Sutra, the direct forerunner of Buddah Records. According to bassist Steve Boone, the band, and their production team, "wanted the benefits of being on Dick Clark" and appearing in magazines like Teen Beat, something the people at Kama Sutra were better equipped to deliver. Still, the band genuinely liked Jac Holtzman and wanted to do something to make up for not signing with his label, so they gave him four tracks that never appeared on Kama Sutra. Those four tracks ended up appearing, along with tunes from Eric Clapton's Powerhouse, the Butterfield Blues Band, and others, on a one-off anthology album called What's Shakin' in 1966. Two of the Spoonful recordings were original John Sebastian tunes. The other two were covers of vintage rock and roll tunes, including Chuck Berry's Almost Grown. The tracks show a side of the Lovin' Spoonful that was seldom, if ever, heard on their Kama Sutra recordings.

Artist:    Count Five
Title:    Double Decker Bus
Source:    Mono LP: Psychotic Reaction
Writer(s):    John Byrne
Label:    Bicycle/Concord
Year:    1966
    With Count Five's single Psychotic Reaction rocketing up the charts in late 1966, Double Shot Records rushed the band into the studio to record a full-length LP, called (naturally) Psychotic Reaction. The key word here is "rushed", as band members later complained that they were not given the time to fully develop their original material, most of which was written by guitarist John "Sean" Byrne. Nonetheless, the album contains nine original tunes (along with two covers of Who songs tossed in as filler), all of which are classic examples of what has come to be called garage rock. Double Decker Bus, which opens the album, is a good example of Byrne's original material. Count Five was never able to duplicate the success of their hit single, however, and after the song's popularity had run its course the group, consisting of Kenn Ellner on lead vocals, tambourine and harmonica, John "Mouse" Michalski on lead guitar, John "Sean" Byrne on rhythm guitar and vocals, Craig "Butch" Atkinson on drums and Roy Chaney on bass guitar, disbanded so that its members could pursue college educations.

Artist:    Deep Feeling
Title:    Pretty Colours
Source:    Simulated stereo British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution
Writer(s):    Jackson/Palmer/Capaldi
Label:    Grapefruit
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 2013
    The word supergroup was coined to describe bands made up of members who were already well known as members of other bands. I'm not sure, however, what you would call a band made up of the same people, only before they became members of the bands they were famous for. Such a band was Deep Feeling. Originally called the Hellions, the band included Dave Mason and Jim Capaldi (Traffic), Joh "poli" Palmer (Family) and Luther Grosvenor (Spooky Tooth). In 1966 Deep Feeling made a handful of recordings for Giorgio Gomelsky with the intention of putting out an album. Among them was a tune called Pretty Colours. Before the album could be completed, however, Capaldi accepted an invitation from Mason (who had left Deep Feeling before the sessions started) to join him in a new band to be called Traffic. The Deep Feeling recordings were shelved, with Pretty Colours finally seeing the light of day in 2013, when it was included on a British anthology box set called Love, Poetry And Revolution.

Artist:    Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title:    Roadblock
Source:    CD: Cheap Thrills (bonus track)
Writer(s):    Joplin/Albin
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    Recorded 1968, released 1999
    Although producer John Simon was convinced that the best way to record Big Brother And The Holding Company was live, he did have the band cut a few tracks in the studio as well. Some of these, such as Summertime and Piece Of My Heart, ended up on the 1968 album Cheap Thrills. Others, like Roadblock, ended up on the shelf, where they stayed until 1999, when a newly remastered CD of the album included them as bonus tracks. Although it's not a bad song by any means, it's hard to imagine any of the tracks that were used for the original album being cut to make way for it.

Artist:    McFadden's Parachute
Title:    Stained Glass Iris
Source:    CD: Psolipsystic Psychedelic Pslyces Of McFadden's Parachute
Writer(s):    Darren Brennessel
Label:    PeterFonda
Year:    1996
    Although the psychedelic era itself officially covers only a few years in the late 1960s, for many the spirit of the era's music lives on. One such person is Darren Brennessel of Rochester, NY, who is the mastermind behind over two dozen McFadden's Parachute albums. Brennessel has been playing professionally since 1989, when he was the drummer for a band called the Purple Flashes, conceiving and recording the first McFadden's Parachute album as a side project. In the years since, in addition to playing multiple instruments on McFadden's Parachute albums, Brennessel has continued to play drums with a variety of bands, including Sky Saxon's Green Forests, which recorded an as-yet unreleased album in 2004. A ehilr back, Brennessel sent me a special sampler collection of McFadden's Parachute tracks recorded mostly in the 1990s. The 1996 tune Stained Glass Iris is one of those tracks.

Artist:    Dukes Of Stratosphear
Title:    The Mole From The Ministry
Source:    CD: Chips From The Chocolate Factory (originally released on EP: 25 O'Clock)
Writer(s):    Andy Partridge
Label:    Caroline (original label: Virgin)
Year:    1985
    In 1985, XTC decided to take a break and record an EP, 25 O'Clock, anonymously as the Dukes of Stratosphear. They circulated rumours that this was some previously undiscovered psych band from the late 1960s. Of course, everyone should have suspected that something was not quite as it seemed with the Dukes, as the EP (or "mini-album") was released on April Fool's Day of 1985 (and only in the UK at that). Still, the authentic recreation of mid to late 60s production techniques, as well as its Disraeli Gears-inspired album cover, were enough to keep people guessing, at least for a while. Ironically, 25 O'Clock actually outsold the then-current XTC album by a margin of about 2-to-1. Most of the tracks on 25 O'Clock are relatively short, however the final tune, The Mole From The Ministry, actually runs over five minutes in length, which is longer, incidentally, than the average XTC song.

Artist:    Liquid Scene
Title:    Leave Me Here
Source:    CD: Revolutions
Writer(s):    Becki diGregorio
Label:    Ziglain
Year:    2014
    Liquid Scene, based in the San Francisco area, is the brainchild of Bodhi (becki diGregorio), who, in addition to writing all the songs on the 2014 album Revolutions, plays sitar and is the group's vocalist. A truly talented woman, as can be heard on Leave Me Here, the most played song ever on our Advanced Psych segment.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    Star Collector
Source:    LP: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer(s):    Goffin/King
Label:    Colgems
Year:    1967
    The Monkees were one of the first bands to utilize the Moog synthesizer on a rock record. One of the two tracks that uses the device extensively is Star Collector, a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and sung by the late Davy Jones. Usually Jones was picked to sing the band's love ballads. Star Collector, on the other hand, is a wild, almost humorous look at rock groupies; the type of song that on earlier Monkees albums would have been given to Peter Tork to sing. The synthesizer in Star Collector was programmed and played by Paul Beaver (of Beaver and Krause). Tork later said that he didn't think much of Beaver's performance, saying "he played it like a flute or something" rather than exploit the unique sounds the Moog was capable of producing.

Artist:     Electric Prunes
Song:     Get Me To the World On Time
Source:     Mono CD: The complete Reprise singles (originally released on LP: The Electric Prunes and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Jones
Label:     Real Gone/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1967
     Songwriter Annette Tucker usually worked with Nancy Mantz, and the pair was responsible for the Electric Prunes biggest hit, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). On Get Me To The World On Time, which originally appeared on the band's first LP, she instead teamed up with Jill Jones and came up with a kind of psychedelic Bo Diddley song that ended up being the Prunes second biggest hit (and the first rock song that I ever heard first on an FM station rather than an AM one).

Artist:    Diana Ross And The Supremes
Title:    Love Child
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Holland/Dozier/Holland
Label:    Motown
Year:    1968
    After the departure of Flo Henderson, the Supremes' original lead vocalist who had been shoved into a supporting role in favor of Diana Ross early in the group's career and had developed a crippling drug dependency in the years following that move, Ross was officially given top billing of the group, which now included Cindy Birdsong as Henderson's replacement. By late summer of 1968, however, the Supremes were in a bit of a drought, with their latest singles charting significantly lower than their earlier hits. A meeting was held between the label's president, Berry Gordy, Jr., and a team of producers and songwriters that included  R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer, Deke Richards, and Henry Cosby. Berry basically gave the team, that nicknamed itself The Clan, an ultimatum: come up with a hit single, or else. They responded with Love child, one of the few Motown singles to address a social issue, teenage pregnancy, and ended up with the song that knocked the Beatles' Hey Jude out of the #1 spot late in the year. Like all the singles credited to Diana Ross And The Supremes, Love Child features Ross backed up by studio singers rather than the other two members of the Supremes. Still, the song's powerful message about a girl being pressured by her boyfriend to have sex, resonates even today.

Artist:    West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:    A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Source:    CD: Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Writer(s):    Markley/Harris
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    If there was ever a band that illustrated just how bizarre the late 60s could be, it was the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Formed at a party (hosted by Hollywood hustler Kim Fowley) by the Harris brothers, Shaun and Danny, sons of a noted orchestra conductor, and financed by lyricist Bob Markley, a borderline pedophile with lots of money to burn, the band also included a talented but troubled lead guitarist from Denver, Ron Morgan, and a multi-instrumentalist, Michael Lloyd, who would go on to become a highly successful record producer. As would be expected with such a disparate group, several members ended up quitting during the band's run; strangely enough, they all ended up returning to the band at one time or another. Their music was just as strange as their story, as the title track of their fourth album, Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil, illustrates vividly. Musically the song is powerful, almost anthemic, creating a mood that is immediately destroyed by a spoken bit (I hesitate to use the term "poetry") by the aforementioned borderline pedophile, against a backdrop of a more subdued musical bed with background vocals somewhat resembling Gregorian chant. And just what words of wisdom does Markley have to share with us? Let me give you a small sample: "a vampire bat will suck blood from our hands, a dog with rabies will bite us, rats will run up your legs, but nothing will matter." Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the whole thing is that the piece was created without benefit of drugs, as all the members of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (except for lead guitarist Ron Morgan) were notoriously drug-free, itself a bit of an oddity in late 60s Hollywood. Oddly enough, in spite of this (or maybe because of it), the track is actually quite fun to listen to. Besides, it only lasts two minutes and twenty seconds.

Artist:    Lollipop Shoppe
Title:    Mr. Madison Avenue
Source:    CD: The Weeds aka The Lollipop Shoppe (originally released on LP: Angels From Hell soundtrack)
Writer(s):    Stu Phillips
Label:    Way Back (original label: Tower)
Year:    1968
    When it comes to long strange trips, the Grateful Dead have nothing on Fred Cole, the legendary indy rock pioneer. Like many baby boomers, he got into his first band at age 14. From there the story gets a bit more unique. At age 15 he played bass in a band called the Lords that became the backup band for Frank Sinatra, Jr. That may have been success enough for an average 15-year-old, but for Cole it was only the beginning. After one unsuccessful single the Lords split up and Cole found himself being groomed as the "white Stevie Wonder" by Mike Tell, the owner of the record label that had issued the Lords' single, working with a group of studio musicians led by Larry Williams (of Dizzy Miss Lizzy fame). The group cut a pair of songs using the name Deep Soul Cole (with Cole on lead vocals and bass) and a few copies were made of a possible single, but the record failed to get the attention of top 40 radio and Cole found himself forming a new band, the Weeds, in early 1966. After recording a single for Teenbeat Records, the group got what it thought was its big break when their manager told them they were booked as an opening act for the Yardbirds at the Fillmore in San Francisco. On arrival, however, they soon discovered that nobody, from Bill Graham on down, had any idea who they were. Thus, nearly broke and without a gig, the Weeds decided to do what any band with members of draftable age in 1966 would do: move to Canada. Unfortunately for the band, they only had enough gas to get to Portland, Oregon. Still, being young and resilient, they soon got a steady gig as the house band at a local coffeehouse, with Cole meeting his soon-to-be wife Toody in the process. The Weeds soon became an important part of the Portland music scene, with a series of appearances at the Crystal Ballroom supplementing their regular gig at The Folk Singer throughout 1967. Late in the year the band decided to move on, first to Sausalito, California (for about six months, playing all over the Bay area), then to Los Angeles, where they brazenly showed up unannounced at Lord Tim Productions in Los Angeles with a demo tape. Lord Tim, then the manager of the Seeds and claiming to be the guy who coined the term "flower power", signed them on the spot. Soon, a new 45 RPM record appeared on MCA's Uni label: You Must Be A Witch. It came as a shock to the band, however, to see the name Lollipop Shoppe on the label rather than The Weeds. Apparently Lord Tim wanted to avoid any name confusion between the Seeds and the Weeds and arbitrarily decided to rename the band without consulting them first. Before long an entire album by the Lollipop Shoppe hit the shelves. Later in 1968 the band was invited to appear in the cheapie biker film Angels From Hell, although to avoid having to pay Cole for having a speaking (singing) role they only filmed him from the neck down. Two songs from the band, including Mr. Madison Avenue, appeared on the soundtrack album, released on the Tower label (big surprise there). After severing ties with Uni (and Lord Tim) in 1969, the band continued under various names for a few more years before finally giving way to one of the first, and most long-lived indy rock bands, Dead Moon, which was co-led by Fred and Toody Cole for over 20 years.

Artist:    Sixpentz
Title:    Please Come Home
Source:    Mono British import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released in US as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Roger Romano
Label:    Big Beat (original US label: Brent)
Year:    1966
    The Sixpentz (not to be confused with Thee Sixpence, which would soon become the Strawberry Alarm Clock), was a Houston-based band with ambitions to become the American Beatles. Led by Roger "Rock" Romano, the Sixpentz released two singles for Bob shad's Brent label before changing their name to the Fun & Games Commission and releasing their final record on Shad's Mainstream label. It is disputed whether Please Come Home, a Romano composition, was intended to be the A or the B side of the band's first single, but in the years since its release in December of 1966 it has gotten the lion's share of attention.

Artist:    Circus Maximus
Title:    You Know I've Got The Rest Of My Life To Go
Source:    CD: Circus Maximus
Writer(s):    Bob Bruno
Label:    Vanguard
Year:    1967
    Circus Maximus was formed in 1967 by guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Bob Bruno and guitarist/vocalist Jerry Jeff Walker in New York's Greenwich Village. The group, originally called the Lost Sea Dreamers (changed at the behest of the folks at Verve Records, who didn't like the initials), combined elements of folk, rock, jazz and country to create their own unique brand of psychedelic music. Their self-title debut album contained rock songs from both songwriters, with Walker's tunes leaning more toward folk and country while Bruno's contained elements of jazz, as can be heard on You Know I've Got The Rest Of My Life To Go. The band released a second album in early 1968 before splitting up, with Walker becoming a successful songwriter and Bruno hooking up with various jazz musicians over the next few years before turning his attention to more visual forms of art. Bassist Gary White also had some success as a songwriter, penning Linda Ronstadt's first solo hit, Long, Long Time.

Artist:    Move
Title:    (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Roy Wood
Label:    A&M
Year:    1967
    The most successful British band of the psychedelic era not to have a US hit was the Move, a band that featured Roy Wood and (later) Jeff Lynne, among other notables. The band was already well established in the UK by 1967, when their single Flowers In The Rain was picked to be the first record played on the new BBC Radio One. The B side of that record was the equally-catchy (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree. Both songs were written by Wood, although he only sang lead vocals on the B side.

Artist:    Animals
Title:    See See Rider
Source:    LP: The Best Of Eric Burdon And The Animals Vol. II (originally released on LP: Animalization)
Writer(s):    Ma Rainey
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1966
    One of the last singles released by the original incarnation of the Animals, See See Rider traces its roots back to the 1920s, when it was first recorded by Ma Rainey. The Animals version is considerably faster than most other recordings of the song, and includes a signature opening rift by organist Dave Rowberry (who had replaced founder Alan Price prior to the recording of the Animalization album that the song first appeared on) that is unique to the Animals' take on the tune. The record label itself credits Rowberry as the songwriter, rather than Rainey, perhaps because the Animals' arrangement was so radically different from various earlier recordings of the song, such as the #1 R&B hit by Chuck Willis and LaVerne Baker's early 60s version..

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends
Source:    CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone
Year:    1967
            One of the first tracks recorded for the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the title track itself, which opens up side one of the LP. The following song, With A Little Help From My Friends (tentatively titled Bad Finger Boogie at the time), was recorded nearly two months later, yet the two sound like one continuous performance. In fact, it was this painstaking attention to every facet of the recording and production process that made Sgt. Pepper's such a landmark album. Whereas the first Beatles album  took 585 minutes to record, Sgt. Pepper's took over 700 hours. At this point in the band's career, drummer Ringo Starr was generally given one song to sing (usually written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney) on each of the group's albums. Originally, these were throwaway songs such as I Wanna Be Your Man (which was actually written for the Rolling Stones), but on the previous album, Revolver, the biggest hit on the album ended up being the song Ringo sang, Yellow Submarine. Although no singles were released from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, With A Little Help From My Friends received considerable airplay on top 40 radio and is one of the most popular Beatle songs ever recorded.