https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/478983-pe-2325
A lot of old favorites this time around, including an all-1966 set and an artists' set from the Byrds. We also have an all-20th century Advanced Psych set. First, though, some tunes from 1967.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source: LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
While not as commercially successful as the Jefferson Airplane or as long-lived as the Grateful Dead (there's an oxymoron for ya), Country Joe and the Fish may well be the most accurate musical representation of what the whole Haight-Ashbury scene was about, which is itself ironic, since the band operated out of Berkeley on the other side of the bay. Of all the tracks on their first album, Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine probably got the most airplay on various underground radio stations that were popping up on the FM dial at the time (some of them even legally).
Artist: Turtles
Title: You Know What I Mean
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Bonner/Gordon
Label: White Whale
Year: 1967
1967 was a good year for the Turtles, mainly due to their discovery of the songwriting team of Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon. Not only did the former members of the Magicians write the Turtles' biggest hit, Happy Together, they also provided two follow-up songs, She's My Girl and You Know What I Mean, both of which hit the top 20 later in the year.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Castles Made Of Sand
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Although born in Seattle, Washington, James Marshall Hendrix was never associated with the local music scene that produced some of the loudest and raunchiest punk-rock of the mid 60s. Instead, he paid his professional dues backing R&B artists on the "chitlin circuit" of clubs playing to a mostly-black clientele, mainly in the southern US. After a short stint leading his own soul band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, Hendrix, at the behest of Chas Chandler (who had just left the Animals to try his hand at being a record producer), moved to London, where he recuited a pair of local musicians, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Although known for his innovative use of feedback, Hendrix was quite capable of knocking out some of the most complex "clean" riffs ever to be committed to vinyl. A prime example of this is Castles Made Of Sand. Hendrix's highly melodic guitar work combined with unusual tempo changes and haunting lyrics makes Castles Made Of Sand a classic that sounds as fresh today as it did when Axis: Bold As Love was released in 1967.
Artist: Byrds
Title: What's Happening?!?!
Source: CD: Fifth Dimension
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1966
David Crosby was just beginning to emerge as a songwriter on the third Byrds album, 5D. Most of his contributions on the album were collaborations with Jim (Roger) McGuinn; What's Happening!?!, on the other hand, was Crosby's first solo composition to be recorded by the group.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Thoughts And Words
Source: Mono LP: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Chris Hillman
Label: Columbia
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 Thoughts And Words.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Why (single version)
Source: CD: Fifth Dimension (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): McGuinn/Crosby
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1966
One of the highlights of the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday album, released in early 1967, was a song co-written by David Crosby and Jim (Roger) McGuinn called Why. Many of the band's fans already knew that a different version of the song had already been released as the B side of Eight Miles High the previous year. The stereo mix of that version remained unreleased for many years, but is now available as a bonus track on the remastered CD version of the Fifth Dimension album.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: I Know There's An Answer
Source: Mono LP: Pet Sounds
Writer(s): Wilson/Sachen
Label: Capitol/EMI
Year: 1966
One of the first songs recorded for the Pet Sounds album was Hang On To Your Ego, allegedly written by Brian Wilson on his second acid trip. Mike Love objected to some of the lyrics, particularly those of the chorus, and Wilson eventually decided to scrap them and write new ones, this time with the help of the group's road manager, Terry Sachen. The result was I Know There's An Answer.
Artist: Notes From The Underground
Title: Where I'm At Today
Source: Mono British import CD: The Berkeley Years
Writer(s): Mike O'Connor
Label: Big Beat
Year: Recorded 1967, released 1995
Prior to signing with Vanguard in late 1967, Berkeley, California's Notes From The Underground tried to follow in the footsteps of fellow Berkeleyites Country Joe And The Fish by recording and releasing a four-song EP of their own. They ended up recording seven songs in April of 1967. Among the three unused songs was the song that most sounded like their mentors, Where I'm At Today. The tune was re-recorded for the Notes' own debut LP the following year.
Artist: Them
Title: Time Out For Time In
Source: British import CD: Time Out! Time In! For Them
Writer(s): Lane/Pulley
Label: Rev-Ola (original US label:Tower)
Year: 1968
After Van Morrison left Them to embark on a successful solo career, the rest of the band continued to make records. The first effort was an offshoot group made up of former members of the band (who had left while Morrison was still fronting the group) calling themselves the Belfast Gypsys, who released one LP in 1967. The current band, meanwhile, had returned to their native Ireland and recruited Kenny McDowell as their new lead vocalist. They soon relocated to California, recording two LPs for Tower Records in 1968. The second of these was a collaborative effort between Them and the songwriting team of Tom Pulley and Vivian Lane. The opening track of the LP, Time Out For Time In, is a good example of the direction the band was moving in at that time.
Artist: Love Sculpture
Title: In The Land Of The Few
Source: CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released on LP: Forms And Feelings)
Writer(s): Edmunds/Findsilver/Ker
Label: Rhino (original label: Parrot)
Year: 1969
Dave Edmunds started off young. At age 10 the Cardiff, Wales native played in the Edmund Bros Duo (a piano duo) with his older brother Geoff. By the time Dave was 13 he and his brother had formed their own rock and roll band, with Dave on lead guitar and Geoff on rhythm. By the mid-1960s Dave Edmunds had switched to blues-rock, fronting a band called the Human Beans. It wasn't long before that group was pared down to a power trio consisting of Edmunds on guitar, John Williams on bass, and Congo Jones on drums calling itself Love Sculpture. The group released their first album, Blues Helping, in 1968, as well as a non-album single, Sabre Dance, that made the British top 10. The band's second, and final, album, Forms And Feelings, expanded beyond the electric blues of the first album to include harder to describe tracks like In The Land Of The Few. Not long after the album was released, Edmunds decided to go it as a solo artist, scoring a huge international hit with a remake of Smiley Lewis's I Hear You Knockin' in late 1970.
Artist: Doors
Title: The Crystal Ship
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
One of the most popular B sides ever released, The Crystal Ship is a slow moody piece with vivid lyrical images. The mono mix of the song sounds a bit different from the more commonly-heard stereo version. Not only is the mix itself a bit hotter, it is also a touch faster. This is due to an error in the mastering of the stereo version of the first Doors LP that resulted in the entire album running at a 3.5% slower speed than it was originally recorded. This discrepancy went unnoticed for over 40 years, until a college professor pointed out that every recorded live performance of Light My Fire was in a key that was about half a step higher than the stereo studio version.
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: Good Times
Source: CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Winds Of Change)
Writer: Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label: Polydor (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1967
By the end of the original Animals' run they were having greater chart success with their singles in the US than in their native UK. That trend continued with the formation of the "new" Animals in 1967 and their first single, When I Was Young. Shortly after the first LP by the band now known as Eric Burdon And The Animals came out, M-G-M decided to release the song San Franciscan Nights as a single to take advantage of the massive youth migration to the city that summer. Meanwhile the band's British label decided to instead issue Good Times (an autobiographical song which was released in the US as the B side to San Franciscan Nights) as a single, and the band ended up with one of their biggest UK hits ever. Riding the wave of success of Good Times, San Franciscan Nights eventually did get released in the UK and was a hit there as well.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Omaha
Source: Mono LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s): Skip Spence
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
As an ill-advised promotional gimmick, Columbia Records released five separate singles concurrently with the first Moby Grape album. Of the five singles, only one, Omaha, actually charted, and it only got to the #86 spot. Meanwhile, the heavy promotion by the label led to Moby Grape getting the reputation of being over-hyped, much to the detriment of the band's career.
Artist: Crescent Six
Title: And Then
Source: Mono CD: A Heavy Dose Of Lite Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Gregory Ferrera
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: Rust)
Year: 1965
One of the earliest psychedelic tracks was a single called And Then by New Jersey's Crescent Six. Virtually nothing else is known about the record, which was released on New York's Rust Records label.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Excuse, Excuse
Source: Mono British import CD: Singles As & Bs (originally released on LP: The Seeds and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Sky Saxon
Label: GNP Crescendo/Big Beat
Year: 1966
Although their management branded them as the original flower power band, the Seeds have a legitimate claim to being one of the first punk-rock bands as well. A prime example is Excuse, Excuse, from their 1966 debut LP, The Seeds. Whereas a more conventional song of the time might have been an angst-ridden tale of worry that perhaps the girl in question did not return the singer's feelings, Sky Saxon's lyrics (delivered with a sneer that would do Johnny Rotten proud) are instead a scathing condemnation of said girl for not being straight up honest about the whole thing.
Artist: Montells
Title: I'm Lonely
Source: Mono British import CD: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers (bonus track)
Writer(s): Dorenzo/Feia
Label: Big Beat
Year: Recorded 1965, released 2010
Perhaps the first band from San Francisco's East Bay area to be signed to a national label, the Montells were formed in 1963. It's members, guitarists Rick Dorenzo, Bob Mullong, and Bob Treverrow, bassist Alan Feia and drummer Dave Ditto hailed from Pleasant Hill and Danville, and were quite popular among the teen crowd in cities like Walnut Creek. The band recorded several songs for Bob Shad's Brent label in 1965, including I'm Lonely, but the Selective Service managed to break up the band before any of the songs could be released.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: The Flute Thing
Source: LP: Projections
Writer(s): Al Kooper
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
The Blues Project was one of the most influential bands in rock history, yet to this day remains one of the most obscure. Perhaps the first of the "underground" rock bands, the Project made their name by playing small colleges across the country (including Hobart and William Smith, where Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is produced). The Flute Thing, from the group's first studio LP, Projections, features bassist Andy Kuhlberg on flute, with rhythm guitarist Steve Katz taking over the bass playing, joining lead guitarist Danny Kalb and keyboardist Al Kooper for a tune that owes more to jazz artists like Roland Kirk than to anything top 40 rock had to offer at the time.
Artist: Hawkwind Zoo
Title: Hurry On Sundown (demo version)
Source: Mono British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution
Writer(s): Dave Brock
Label: Grapefruit
Year: Recorded 1969, released 2013
The first single by Hawkwind was a tune called Hurry On Sundown, which was also included on their first LP in 1970. The previous year the band had recorded a demo of the song while they were still calling themselves Hawkwind Zoo. That recording remained unreleased until 2013, when it appeared on the British compilation box set Love, Poetry And Revolution.
Artist: Psychedelic Furs
Title: Sister Europe
Source: LP: The Psychedelic Furs
Writer(s): Psychedelic Furs
Label: Columbia
Year: 1980
Initially consisting of Richard Butler (vocals), Tim Butler (bass guitar), Duncan Kilburn (saxophone), Paul Wilson (drums) and Roger Morris (guitars), the Psychedelic Furs were formed in 1977 under the name RKO. They soon began calling themselves Radio, then did gigs under two different names, the Europeans and the Psychedelic Furs. By 1979 they had settled on the latter name and expanded to a sextet, adding guitarist John Ashton and replacing Wilson with Vince Ely on drums. The Furs' self-titled debut album, released in 1980, was an immediate hit in Europe and the UK, but airplay in the US was limited mostly to college radio and "alternative" rock stations. The second single released from the album was Sister Europe, a tune that was also the band's concert opener in the early days of their existence. The Psychedelic Furs' greatest claim to fame, however, is probably the song Pretty In Pink. Originally released on their second album, Talk Talk Talk, in 1981, the song was re-recorded for the John Hughes film of the same name in 1986.
Artist: Mommyheads
Title: Time Just Freaks Me Out
Source: CD Swiss Army Knife
Writer(s): Mommyheads
Label: Mommyhead Music
Year: 1992
Recorded from 1986-88 on 4-track equipment and released on cassette tape in 1992, the Mommyheads' Swiss Army Knife was pretty much unavailable for 30 years before being re-released (with bonus tracks) on CD in 2022. In between, the band went from obscurity to successful indy band over a period of about five years, making their major label debut with The Mommyheads on Geffen Records in 1997. Unfortunately this coincided with a major shakeup at Geffen that saw several acts, including the Mommyheads being dropped from the label before the album was officially released. With no promotion and a reputation soiled by charges of "selling out", the Mommyheads disbanded in 1998. Ten years later, however, the Mommyheads reunited for a tribute concert following the death of their original drummer and soon decided to reform the group, releasing their first album of all-new material in 2011. Since then they have been steadily releasing new material along with remastered versions of their older material, including Swiss Army Knife in 2022. Among the more psychedelic tracks on that album is Time Just Freaks Me Out.
Artist: Gov't Mule
Title: Thorazine Shuffle
Source: CD: Dose
Writer(s): Haynes/Abt
Label: Volcano
Year: 1998
When the Allman Brothers Band reformed in 1989, it included new members Warren Haynes on guitar and Allen Woody on bass. The two were fans of late 60s power trios such as Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and, with drummer Matt Abts, formed Gov't Mule as a side project, releasing their first studio album in 1995. Following a well-received live album, the group split permanently from the Allmans in 1997, releasing their second studio album, Dose, in 1998. The most memorable track on the album was Thorazine Shuffle, a tune written by Haynes and Abt that has become a staple of the group's live performances.
Artist: Warm Sounds
Title: Nite Is A Comin'/Smeta Murgaty
Source: British import LP: Staircase To Nowhere (originally released as 45 RPM single A&B sides)
Writer(s): Gerrard/Younghusband
Label: Bam-Caruso (original label: Deram)
Year: 1968 (combined version 1986)
Presaging a trend that began to take off in the 1980s (and is even more prevalent today), Warm Sounds was a band that actually consisted of only two people, Britishers Denver Gerrard and Barry Younghusband. They only had one real hit, the 1967 tune Birds And Bees, but continued to make records through the following year, getting more experimental with each subsequent single. Among the most psychedelic of these singles was Nite Is A Comin'. The B side of the single, Smeta Murgaty, was created by simply mounting the single direction master tape on the tape machine backwards, playing the entire piece from end to beginning in reverse, adding a few tweaks here and there while recording the whole thing onto a second tape deck. In 1986, the British Bam-Caruso label combined the two sides into one continuous piece for a compilation album called Staircase To Nowhere (#12 in the Rubble series).
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Stupid Girl
Source: British import LP: Aftermath
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1966
By 1966 the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had hit its stride, turning out Rolling Stones classics like Mother's Little Helper and Paint It Black as a matter of course. Even B sides such as Stupid Girl were starting to get occasional airplay on top 40 stations, a trend that would continue to grow over the next year or so.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Let Me In
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
Marty Balin deserves recognition for his outstanding abilities as a leader. Most people don't even realize he was the founder of Jefferson Airplane, yet it was Balin who brought together the diverse talents of what would become San Francisco's most successful band of the 60s and managed to keep the band together through more than its share of controversies. One indication of his leadership abilities is that he encouraged Paul Kantner to sing lead on Let Me In, a song that the two of them had written together for the band's debut LP, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, despite the fact that Balin himself had no other onstage role than to sing lead vocals.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Work Song
Source: CD: East-West
Writer(s): Adderly/Brown
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
Although technically not a rock album, the Butterfield Blues Band's East-West was nonetheless a major influence on many up and coming rock musicians that desired to transcend the boundaries of top 40 radio. Both the title track and the band's reworking of Nat Adderly's Work Song feature extended solos from all the band members, with Work Song in particular showing Butterfield's prowess on harmonica, as well as helping cement Michael Bloomfield's reputation as the nation's top electric guitarist (before the emergence of Jimi Hendrix, at any rate). Elvin Bishop's guitar work on the song is not too shabby either.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Masculine Intuition
Source: 45 RPM single B side (promo copy)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Original Sound
Year: 1966
If you take out the cover songs that Original Sound Records added to the album without the band's knowledge or approval, Turn On The Music Machine has to be considered one of the best LPs of 1966. Not that the covers were badly done, but they were intended to be used for lip synching on a local TV show and were included without the knowledge or approval of the band, and that's never a good thing. Every one of the Sean Bonniwell originals on the other hand, combines strong musical structure and intelligent lyrics with musicianship far surpassing the average garage band. This is especially true in the case of Masculine Intuition, which was also issued as the B side of the band's second single.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
Source: LP: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: Blonde On Blonde)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
Some of the best rock and roll songs of 1966 were banned on a number of stations for being about either sex or drugs. Most artists that recorded those songs claimed they were about something else altogether. In the case of Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, "stoned" refers to a rather unpleasant form of execution (at least according to Dylan). On the other hand, Dylan himself was reportedly quite stoned while recording the song, having passed a few doobies around before starting the tape rolling. Sometimes I think ambiguities like this are why English has become the dominant language of commerce on the planet.
Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Nashville Cats
Source: LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released on LP: Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful)
Writer(s): John B. Sebastian
Label: Cotillion (original label: Kama Sutra)
Year: 1966
In late 1966, with two best-selling albums to their credit, The Lovin' Spoonful deliberately set out to make an album that sounded like it was recorded by several different bands, as a way of showcasing their versatility. With Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful, they did just that. Songs on the album ranged from the folky Darlin' Be Home Soon to the rockin' psychedelic classic Summer In The City, with a liberal dose of what would eventually come to be called country rock. The best example of the latter was Nashville Cats, a song that surprisingly went into the top 40 (but did not receive any airplay from country stations) and was (even more suprisingly) often heard on FM rock radio in the early 70s.
Artist: Association
Title: Along Comes Mary
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Tandyn Almer
Label: Valiant
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, and possibly co-written, 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.
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