Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2004 (starts 1/20/20)

    This week's show features a set of Turtles tracks that showcases their creative side, a set of Donovan album cuts and a set of Byrds tunes from their Fifth Dimension LP, as well as the usual mix of singles, B sides and album tracks. We start with a set of British hits and near hits...

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Day Tripper
Source:    CD: Past Masters-vol. 2 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/Parlophone
Year:    1965
    One of the few times that the US and British releases of Beatles records were in sync was in December of 1965, when the album Rubber Soul was released in both countries at the same time as a new single that had a pair of songs not on the album itself. Although there were some slight differences in the two versions of the album, the accompanying single was identical in both countries, with Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out sharing "A" side status. Of course, the synchronization ended there, as the two songs would both end up on a US-only LP (Yesterday...And Today) in mid-1966, but not be available as an album track in the UK until after the Beatles had split up five years later.

Artist:    Spencer Davis Group
Title:    Gimme Some Lovin'
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Best Of The Spencer Davis Group (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Steve Winwood
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1966
    The 1980s movie The Big Chill used Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group as the backdrop for a touch football game at an informal reunion of former college students from the 60s. From that point on, movie soundtracks became much more than just background music and soundtrack albums started becomming best-sellers. Not entirely coincidentally, 60s-oriented oldies radio stations began to appear in major markets as well. Most of them are now playing 80s and even 90s oldies, by the way.

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Coloured Rain
Source:    CD: Heaven Is In Your Mind
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi/Wood
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1967
    Traffic, in its early days, was a band with an almost schizophrenic identity. On the one hand there was Steve Winwood, who was equally adept at guitar, keyboards and vocals and was generally seen as the band's leader, despite being its youngest member. His opposite number in the band was Dave Mason, an early example of the type of singer/songwriter that would be a major force in popular music in the mid-1970s. The remaining members of the band, drummer/vocalist Jim Capaldi and flautist/saxophonist Chris Wood, tended to fall somewhere between the two, although they more often sided with Winwood in his frequent creative disputes with Mason. One of these disputes involved the choice of the band's second single. Mason wanted to follow up the successful Paper Sun with his own composition, Hole In My Shoe, while the rest of the band preferred the group composition, Coloured Rain. Mason won that battle, but would end up leaving the band before the release on the group's first LP, Mr. Fantasy. This in turn led to the album being revised considerably for its US release, which was issued under a completely different title, Heaven Is In Your Mind, with most of Mason's contributions being excised from the album (although, oddly enough, Hole In My Shoe, which was not on the original LP, was included on the US album). One final example of the band's schizophrenic nature was in the way the group was marketed. In the US, Traffic was, from the beginning, perceived as a serious rock band along the lines of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In their native land, however, they were, thanks in part to the top 40 success of both Paper Sun and Hole In My Shoe as well as Winwood's fame as lead vocalist for the Spencer Davis Group, dismissed as a mere pop group. Mason would rejoin and leave the group a couple more times before achieving solo success in the mid-70s with the hit We Just Disagree, while Traffic would go on to become a staple of progressive FM rock radio in the US.

Artist:    Manfred Mann
Title:    Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo)
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer:    Bob Dylan
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1968
    In 1965 there were a rash of bands doing cover versions of Bob Dylan songs. Almost all of these were protest songs of one sort or another. By 1968, however, things had changed, and the most popular Dylan cover of the year was the relatively harmless Mighty Quinn (Quinn The Eskimo), recorded by Manfred Mann. It turned out to be the third biggest US hit in Manfred Mann's long career, surpassed only by 1965's Do-Wah-Diddy-Diddy and 1974's Blinded By The Light.

Artist:    Simon and Garfunkel
Title:    Homeward Bound
Source:    CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    Following the success of Sounds Of Silence, Paul Simon And Art Garfunkel set about making an album of all new material (Sounds Of Silence had featured several re-recorded versions of tunes from the 1965 British album The Paul Simon Songbook). The result was Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, one of the finest folk-rock albums ever recorded. The album contained several successful singles, including Homeward Bound.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    Cuddly Toy/Words
Source:    CD: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer(s):    Nilsson/Boyce/Hart
Label:    Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year:    1967
    Although the Monkees had returned to allowing studio musicians to provide the bulk of the instrumental tracks for the album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD., those tracks were now being recorded under the direct supervision of the Monkees themselves. Additionally, the Monkees were only recording songs that the Monkees themselves picked out. One of those songs was a tune written by Harry Nilsson (who had not yet achieved fame as a singer, songwriter and John Lennon's drinking partner) called Cuddly Toy. Reportedly Mike Nesmith heard a demo of the song and immediately wanted to record it. The group did, and on the LP let it overlap the next track, A Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart tune called Words that the Leaves had recorded for their Hey Joe album the previous year. It was only after the album was on the charts that the shirts at Colgems Records, Columbia Pictures and RCA Victor realized that the subject matter of Cuddly Toy was a gang bang, having been based on a real life incident at a Hell's Angels party that Nilsson had attended.

Artist:    Steppenwolf
Title:    Born To Be Wild
Source:    CD: Born To Be Wild-A Retrospective (originally released on LP: Steppenwolf)
Writer(s):    Mars Bonfire
Label:    MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year:    1968
    Born To Be Wild's status as a counter-cultural anthem was cemented when it was chosen for the soundtrack of the movie Easy Rider. The popularity of both the song and the movie resulted in Steppenwolf becoming the all-time favorite band of bikers all over the world.
       
Artist:    Janis Joplin
Title:    Half Moon
Source:    CD: Pearl
Writer(s):    John & Johanna Hall
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1971
    Half Moon was the B side of Janis Joplin's biggest-selling single, Me And Bobby McGee. As such, it is one of Joplin's best known songs from the Pearl album. The song itself was written (with his wife Johanna) by John Hall, who later went on to form his own band, Orleans, which scored major hits in the late 1970s with Dance With Me and Still The One, both of which were written by Hall. In 1977 Hall left Orleans to pursue a solo career, becoming active in the anti-nuclear movement as well, co-founding Musicians United for Safe Energy with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Graham Nash. While living in Saugerties, NY, he co-founded two citizens' groups, which led to his election to the Saugerties Board of Education. Hall continued to write songs, both for himself and other artists, while simultaneously pursuing a political career that led to him serving two terms in the US House of Representatives.

Artist:    Gypsy
Title:    Gypsy Queen-Part Two
Source:    LP: Gypsy
Writer(s):    Enrico Rosembaum
Label:    Metromedia
Year:    1970
    Usually when an artist releases a single with a title that has the words "part one" in it, the B side contains part two of the same piece. If you lived in Germany, France or Malaysia, this was indeed the case with the song Gypsy Queen-Part One, released in 1970 by the band Gypsy. In most countries, including the US & UK however, an entirely different song from Gypsy's debut LP could be found on the B side of Gypsy Queen-Part One. What I can't figure out is why. I mean, Gypsy Queen-Part Two is about two and a half minutes long, which is a perfectly acceptable running time for a B side. Nonetheless, Metromedia Records instead included a shortened version of an eleven minute song from the same LP. Weird. Anyway, for those not in Germany, France or Malaysia, here is Gypsy Queen-Part Two, the second track from the album Gypsy.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Now I'm A Farmer
Source:    LP: Odds And Sods
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    Track
Year:    Recorded 1969, released 1974
    As a general rule, recording artists are not particularly fond of bootleg recordings. For one thing, the artist has no control over the quality of the recording. More importantly, the artist receives no royalties from a bootleg recording. In the early 1970s there were several bootleg recordings of Who songs in circulation, including one called Who's Zoo. In late 1973, while the rest of the band was busy working on the movie version of Tommy, bassist John Entwistle decided to compile a sort of "official" bootleg album made up of previously unreleased recordings dating back to 1964, when the band was briefly known as the High Numbers. Although Entwistle said at the time that there was enough available material for a double-LP, it was decided to make the album, known as Odds And Sods, standard length. Some of the songs, including Now I'm A Farmer, were originally intended for a 1969 EP (or maxi-single, if you prefer) that was never issued. Odds And Sods, despite being basically a collection of rejects, was a commercial success, going into the top 10 on both the US and UK album charts when it was released in 1974.

Artist:    Steve Miller Band
Title:    My Friend
Source:    CD: Sailor
Writer(s):    Davis/Scaggs
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1968
    Drummer Tim Davis takes center stage as lead vocalist on My Friend, from the second Steve Miller Band album, Sailor. The tune, co-written by fellow band member Boz Scaggs, was the first writing credit for Davis, who would remain with the band through their first five LPs before moving on to other things.

Artist:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    It's All Meat
Source:    British import CD: Winds Of Change/The Twain Shall Meet
Writer(s):    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label:    BGO (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1967
    More than just about any other British invasion band, the Animals identified strongly with US Rhythm and Blues artists like John Lee Hooker and Ray Charles; all of their albums were filled with R&B covers, even as late as 1966, when other British bands were recording almost nothing but songs they wrote themselves. After the original group disbanded in late 1966, lead vocalist Eric Burdon and drummer Barry Jenkins set about forming a new version of the Animals. This new band, which came to be known as Eric Burdon And The Animals, shifted the emphasis to original compositions. Much of their original material, however, still had a strong connection to black American culture, especially in Burdon's lyrics on songs such as It's All Meat from the 1967 Winds Of Change album. Burdon would continue to move in this direction, culminating with his collaborations with the Los Angeles band War in the early 1970s.

Artist:    Harbinger Complex
Title:    I Think I'm Down
Source:    British import CD: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Hockstaff/Hoyle
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Brent)
Year:    1966
    Most garage/club bands never made it beyond a single or two for a relatively small independent label. Freemont, California's Harbinger Complex is a good example. The group was one of many that were signed by Bob Shad, owner of Mainstream Records and its various subsidiaries such as Time and Brent. The band had already released one single on the independent Amber label and were recording at Golden State Recorders in San Francisco when they were discovered by Shad, who signed them to Brent. The band's first single for the label was the British-influenced I Think I'm Down, which came out in 1966. The stereo mix of the song was included on Mainstream's 1967 showcase album With Love-A Pot Of Flowers.

Artist:    Seeds
Title:    Can't Seem To Make You Mine
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Sky Saxon
Label:    Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year:    1965
    One of the first psychedelic singles to hit the L.A. airwaves was the Seeds' debut single, Can't Seem To Make You Mine, released in 1965. The song was also chosen to lead off the first Seeds album the following year. 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 about three months.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    House Of Jansch
Source:    Mono LP: Mellow Yellow
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Epic
Year:    1967
    One of the most respected names in British folk music during the 1960s was Bert Jansch. House Of Jansch, from the Mellow Yellow album, was Donovan's way of acknowledging Jansch's influence on his own music.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    The Enchanted Gypsy
Source:    LP: A Gift From A Flower To A Garden
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Epic
Year:    1967
    Scottish singer/songwriter Donovan Leitch began to move beyond his folk roots and into psychedelia with the 1966 album Sunshine Superman, which was followed in early 1967 by the similarly styled Mellow Yellow LP. The following December saw the release of Donovan's most ambitious project to date: a two record album box set entitled A Gift From A Flower To A Garden. Each record was also released as a separate album. The first disc, entitled Wear Your Love Like Heaven, was a pop-oriented collection of the same type of songs he had released as singles throughout the year. The second disc, For Little Ones, was a mostly acoustic album aimed toward what he called "the dawning generation". Personally I favor the second disc, with songs like The Enchanted Gypsy serving to spotlight Donovan's strengths as both a guitarist and vocalist.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Sunny South Kensington
Source:    Mono LP: Mellow Yellow (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Epic
Year:    1966
    Donovan followed up his 1966 hit single Sunshine Superman with an album of the same name. He then repeated himself with the song and album Mellow Yellow. The B side of the Mellow Yellow single was Sunny South Kensington, a tune done in much the same style as Sunshine Superman. The song was also included on the Mellow Yellow album.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Lover Man
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single B side (originally released on CD box set: The Jimi Hendrix Experience)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Experience Hendrix/Legacy/Sundazed
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 2000, single released 2016
    When the Jimi Hendrix Experience made their US debut at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June of 1967 they opened with a high-energy workup of the Muddy Waters classic Killing Floor. Hendrix' arrangement of the song was so radically different from the original that Hendrix eventually decided to write new lyrics for the song, calling it Lover Man. Several attempts were made to get the song recorded in the studio, with the most recent being in 1970 by a group consisting of Hendrix on guitar and vocals, Billy Cox on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. This version was included on the 2000 box set The Jimi Hendrix Experience, leading to speculation that, had Hendrix lived, he would have used that name for the new lineup (and in fact did for some live performances, including the 1970 Atlanta International Pop Festival). Accordingly, when Sundazed issued a new Hendrix single consisting of the same trio's 1969 recording of Stone Free, backed with the 1970 version of Lover Man in 2016, both songs were attributed to the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
   
Artist:    Turtles
Title:    The Owl
Source:    CD: The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands (bonus track originally released on 12" 45 RPM EP picture disc: The Turtles-1968)
Writer(s):    The Turtles
Label:    Manifesto/FloEdCo (original label: Rhino)
Year:    Recorded 1968, released 1978
    In 1968 the Turtles decided to make their first attempt at producing themselves. White Whale Records rejected all but one of the four tracks they recorded (the exception being Surfer Dan, which was included on the concept album Battle Of The Bands). Ten years later Rhino rectified that error in judgment by putting all four tunes on a 12" 45 RPM picture disc called The Turtles-1968. Even more recently the independent Manifesto Records label, in association with Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan's FloEdCo imprint, has included the song as a bonus track on the latest CD edition of Battle Of The Bands.

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Rugs Of Wood And Flowers
Source:    French import CD: Happy Together
Writer(s):    Kaylan/Nichols
Label:    White Whale
Year:    1967
    The Turtles were best known for their big hit records like Happy Together and She'd Rather Be With Me, both of which came from outside songwriters. The band had a weird side, however, that usually showed up on their self-penned B sides and an occasional album track. One example is Rugs Of Wood And Flowers, a track from the Happy Together album which also appeared as the B side of You Know What I Mean in 1967. The song, written by vocalist Howard Kaylan and guitarist Al Nichol, features Kaylan using a parody operatic style that he would revive for his legendary performances with the Mothers at the Fillmore East in 1971.

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Chicken Little Was Right
Source:    CD: The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer:    The Turtles
Label:    White Whale
Year:    1967
    Like many of the bands of the time, the Turtles usually recorded songs from professional songwriters for their A sides and provided their own material for the B sides. In the Turtles' case, however, these B sides were often psychedelic masterpieces that contrasted strongly with their hits. Chicken Little Was Right, the B side of She's My Girl, at first sounds like something you'd hear at a hootenanny, but then switches keys for a chorus featuring the Turtles' trademark harmonies, with a little bit of Peter And The Wolf thrown in for good measure. This capacity for self-parody would come to serve band members Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan well a few years later, first as members of the Mothers (performing Happy Together live at the Fillmore East) and then as the Phorescent Leach and Eddie (later shortened to Flo And Eddie). A new recording of Chicken Little Was Right was included on the 1968 LP The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands, credited to Fats Mallard and the Bluegrass Fireball. The stereo mix of the original 1967 recording was finally issued in 2016 as a bonus track on the Battle Of The Bands CD.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Bringing Me Down
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Balin/Kantner
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1966
    One of several singles released mainly to San Francisco Bay area radio stations and record stores, Bringing Me Down is an early collaboration between vocalist Marty Balin and guitarist/vocalist Paul Kantner. Balin had invited Kantner into the band without having heard him play a single note. It turned out to be one of many right-on-the-money decisions by the young bandleader.

Artist:     Shadows Of Knight
Title:     It Always Happens That Way
Source:     CD: Dark Sides (originally released on LP: Gloria)
Writer:     Rogers/Sohns
Label:     Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year:     1966
     The Shadows of Knight were the epitomy of what being a garage band was all about. Inspired by the Beatles and Rolling Stones, but also heavily influenced by the legendary blues artists in nearby Chicago, this group of suburban white kids were musically as raw as any of their contemporaries, and had a local reputation as bad boys (singer Jim Sohns being banned from several area high school campuses). The band originally called themselves the Shadows, but after signing with local label Dunwich they added the Knights part (after their high school sports teams' name) just in case there was another band of Shadows already recording. They scored a huge national hit when they recorded a cover of Van Morrison's Gloria (with the line "she comes up to my room" replaced with "she calls out my name") and got airplay on radio stations that were afraid to play the Them original. The Shadows of Knight recorded a pair of LPs in 1966, the first named for the hit Gloria, the second called Back Door Men (an obvious Chicago blues reference). Both albums had a generous dose of blues covers done up in a raunchy garage style, as well as a smattering of original tunes. It Always Happens That Way, from the Gloria album, is an example of the latter, written by Sohns and guitarist turned bassist Warren Rogers.

Artist:    Love
Title:    7&7 Is
Source:    CD: Da Capo
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1966
    The word "seven" does not appear anywhere in the song 7&7 Is. In fact, I have no idea where Arthur Lee got that title from. Nonetheless, the song is among the most intense tracks to ever make the top 40. 7&7 Is starts off with power chords played over a constant drum roll (possibly played by Lee himself), with cymbals crashing over equally manic semi-spoken lyrics. The song builds up to an explosive climax: an atomic bomb blast followed by a slow post-apocalyptic surf-styled instrumental that quickly fades away.

Artist:    Del-Vetts
Title:    Last Time Around
Source:    Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Dennis Dahlquist
Label:    Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    The Del-Vetts were from Chicago's affluent North Shore. Their gimmick was to show up at a high school dance by driving their matching corvettes onto the gymnasium dance floor. Musically, like most garage/punk bands, they were heavily influenced by the British invasion bands. Unlike most garage/punk bands, who favored the Rolling Stones, the Del-Vetts were more into the Jeff Beck incarnation of the Yardbirds. The 'Vetts had a few regional hits from 1965-67, the biggest being this single issued on the Dunwich label, home of fellow Chicago suburbanites the Shadows of Knight. In retrospect, considering the song's subject matter (and overall intensity), Last Time Around may well be the very first death metal rock song ever recorded.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Captain Soul
Source:    LP: Fifth Dimension
Writer(s):    Hillman/Clarke/McGuinn/Crosby
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    During recording sessions for their Fifth Dimension album, the Byrds decided to take a break and loosen up by jamming instrumentally on Lee Dorsey's Get Out Of My Life Woman (which had just been released by the Butterfield Blues Band on their East-West album as well). Bassist Chris Hillman suggested the title Captain Soul for the resulting recording, which won the approval of drummer Michael Clarke, who had been pushing the idea of recording something soul-oriented.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Eight Miles High
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Fifth Dimension)
Writer(s):    Clark/McGuinn/Crosby
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1966
    Gene Clark's final contribution to the Byrds was his collaboration with David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, Eight Miles High. Despite a newsletter from the influential Gavin Report advising stations not to play this "drug song", Eight Miles High managed to hit the top 20 in 1966. The band members themselves claimed that Eight Miles High was not a drug song at all, but was instead referring to the experience of travelling by air. In fact, it was Gene Clark's fear of flying, especially long intercontinental trips, that in part led to his leaving the Byrds.

Artist:     Byrds
Title:     2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song)
Source:     LP: Fifth Dimension
Writer:     Roger McGuinn
Label:     Columbia
Year:     1966
     1966 was the beginning of a time when rock musicians began to experiment in the recording studio. One early effort was Roger (then Jim) McGuinn's 2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song), which uses a recording of an actual jet plane throughout the track.

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Gates Of Eden
Source:    Mono LP: Bringing It All Back Home
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia/Sundazed
Year:    1965
    Considering how much time was spent recording the average album from about 1967 on, it may come as a surprise that Bob Dylan's landmark LP Bringing It All Back Home was recorded over a three day period in 1965. In fact, the entire second side of the LP was recorded on January 15th, including the song Gates Of Eden, which was recorded in one take. It would take someone with considerably more literary expertise than I have to analyze Dylan's lyrics, so I'll just leave them to whatever interpretation you might want to attach to them.

Artist:    Yardbirds
Title:    Heart Full Of Soul
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Great Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Graham Gouldman
Label:    Epic
Year:    1965
    Heart Full Of Soul, the Yardbirds' follow-up single to For Your Love was a huge hit, making the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1965. The song, the first to feature guitarist Jeff Beck prominently, was written by Graham Gouldman, who was then a member of Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders and would later be a founding member of 10cc.

Artist:    Grass Roots
Title:    You're A Lonely Girl
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Sloan/Barri
Label:    Dunhill
Year:    1966
    A few miles south of San Francisco (adjacent to the San Francisco International Airport, in fact), sits a small city named Milbrae with a population of around 20,000 or so. In 1964 Milbrae was home to several local garage bands, doing covers of the popular hits of the day. One of the more popular of these bands was the Bedouins, consisting of guitarists Willie Fulton and Denny Ellis, bassist Dave Stenson, and drummer Bill Schoppe. All the members except Fulton were still in high school, but graduated the following year. That summer (1965) they won a battle of the bands in San Mateo, which led to an audition with the head of Dunhill Records, Lou Adler, and his two in-house songwriters, Steve Barri and PF Sloan. Unknown to everyone present Adler had recently been rebuffed in his attempts to sign a local Los Angeles band calling themselves the Grass Roots. As they had not legally registered that name, Adler decided he wanted to use it himself, and was looking for a band to record and make live appearances as the Grass Roots. The Bedouins were more than happy to change their name in return for the chance to make records, and headed south to L.A. to record a cover of Bob Dylan's A Ballad Of A Thin Man (retitled Mr. Jones), backed with a Sloan/Barri composition called You're A Lonely Girl. The song was released in late 1965 and started getting airplay on several L.A. radio stations. When members of the original Grass Roots heard about the record, they were understandably unhappy, but soon realized that they had no legal ground to stand on, and ended up changing their name to Love. A second Grass Roots single, Where Were You When I Needed You, came out in April of 1966, but by this time constant clashes between Fulton (who was doing lead vocals for the band) and Adler, along with a general disenchantment with the Los Angeles scene, led the band to return to San Francisco, where they continued to perform as the Grass Roots until Adler got a court injunction ordering them to cease using the name. Adler, Sloan and Barri eventually found yet another band willing to change their name to the Grass Roots, and the rest is history. The Bedouins, however, never recorded again as a group.

Artist:    Sonics
Title:    The Witch
Source:    Mono CD: 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:    Strangeloves
Title:    Night Time
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Feldman/Goldstein/Gottehrer
Label:    Rhino (original label: Bang)
Year:    1965
    In the wake of the British Invasion, some American artists tried to sound as British as possible, often deliberately letting radio listeners think that they themselves might be a British band. A trio of New York songwriters, Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gottehrer, took such deceptions to a whole new level. Rather than try to pass themselves off as a British band, the three invented an elaborate backstory that portrayed them as sons of an Australian sheepherder who had invented a new shearing process and had used the profits from the venture to form a band called the Strangeloves, who were about to become the Next Big Thing. Although the story never really caught on, the group managed to record two of the all-time great party songs, I Want Candy and Night Time, as well as producing a single called Hang On Sloopy for a band they discovered on the road called the McCoys (although the instrumental tracks were actually from the Strangeloves' own first LP).

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Mother's Little Helper
Source:    Mono CD: Flowers
Writer:    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1966
    By 1966 the Rolling Stones had already had a few brushes with the law over their use of illegal drugs. Mother's Little Helper, released in Spring of '66, is a scathing criticism of the abuse of legal prescription drugs by the parents of the Stones' fans. Perhaps more than any other song of the time, Mother's Little Helper illustrates the increasingly hostile generation gap that had sprung up between the young baby boomers and the previous generation.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Absolutely Positively
Source:    CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released as 45 RPM single B side and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer:    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Original Sound)
Year:    1967
    I'm going to use Sean Bonniwell's own words to describe Absolutely Positively: "Demanding that you get what you don't have without knowing what you want is the same as wanting what you haven't got, then not wanting it after you get it." Heady stuff that describes a very American attitude that has only become even more prevalent in the years since the song was written.