Sunday, November 17, 2024

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2447 (starts 11/18/24)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/551300 


    For a change there are no artists' sets or battles of the bands this week; just 31 tunes from 31 artists, including half a dozen tracks that have never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before. The trip starts in 1965...

Artist:    Kim Fowley
Title:    The Trip
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Hardesty/Fowley/Geddes
Label:    Rhino (original label: Corby)
Year:    1965
    Kim Fowley was well-known among the movers and shakers of both the L.A. and London music scenes as an important promoter and record producer, as well as the guy who threw some of the best parties in town. To the general public, however, he remained largely unknown except maybe as the guy who initially brought together the members of the Runaways and produced their first several albums. A decade earlier, Fowley recorded possibly the first, and probably the only, psychedelic novelty record, The Trip, in 1965.

Artist:     Barry McGuire
Title:     Eve of Destruction
Source:     CD: Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll hits-1965 (originally released as 45 RPM single.
Writer:     P.F. Sloan
Label:     Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year:     1965
     P.F. Sloan had already established a reputation for writing songs that captured the anger of youth by the time he wrote Eve Of Destruction, which Barry McGuire took into the top 10 in 1965. It would be McGuire's only major hit, and represented folk-rock at the peak of its popularity. Sloan would go on to form a partnership with fellow songwriter Steve Barri, producing a long string of hits for a group they called the Grass Roots.

Artist:    Simon And Garfunkel
Title:    We've Got A Groovey Thing Goin'
Source:    CD: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM B side and included on LP: Sounds Of Silence)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1965
    In late 1965, a New York based Columbia Records staff producer, Tom Wilson, decided to perform an experiment. He had just put the finishing touches on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited album, and was high on the potential of integrating electric rock instruments into folk music. Around this same time, The Sound Of Silence, a song by the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel that Wilson had produced the previous year, had begun to get airplay on radio stations in Boston and throughout the state of Florida. Without the knowledge of the duo (who had by then split up) Wilson remixed the song, adding electric guitar, bass and drums, essentially creating a whole new version of the song and, for that matter, a whole new genre: folk-rock. The new electric version of The Sound of Silence, backed by We've Got a Groovey Thing Goin', was released in September of 1965, and it soon became obvious that it was going to be a hit. The only problem was that by the time all this happened, Simon and Garfunkel had gone their separate ways, briefly reuniting in April of 1965 to record We've Got a Groovey Thing Going, but not releasing it at the time. Simon had relocated to London and recorded a UK-only LP called the Paul Simon Songbook in June of 1965, releasing it two months later. By mid-November The Sound Of Silence was the #1 song in Boston, and had entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Simon returned to the states, got back together with Art Garfunkel and, on December 13, 1965 began recording tracks for a new album. On January 1, 1966 The Sound Of Silence hit the #1 spot on the Hot 100. Two weeks later the LP Sounds Of Silence, which included a new stereo mix of We've Got A Groovey Thing Going made from the original 4-track master tape, was released. By the way, this song is the only instance I know of of the word "groovy" being spelled "groovey".

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    I Want To Tell You
Source:    British import LP: Revolver
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Parlophone/EMI (original US label: Capitol)
Year:    1966
    The first pre-recorded reel-to-reel tape I ever bought was the Capitol version of the Beatles' Revolver album, which I picked up about a year after the LP was released. Although my Dad's tape recorder had small built-in speakers, his Koss headphones had far superior sound, which led to me sleeping on the couch in the living room with the headphones on. Hearing songs like I Want To Tell You on factory-recorded reel-to-reel tape through a decent pair of headphones gave me an appreciation for just how well-engineered Revolver was, and also inspired me to (eventually) learn my own way around a recording studio. The song itself, by the way, is one of three George Harrison songs on Revolver; the most on any Beatles album up to that point, and a major reason that, when pressed, I almost always end up citing Revolver as my favorite Beatles LP.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Old John Robertson (single version)
Source:    CD: Younger Than Yesterday (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    McGuinn/Hillman
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1967
    In late 1967 the Byrds released a non-album single of a new David Crosby song, Lady Friend. The B side of that single was a song written by Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman called Old John Robertson. The tune, about a man that Hillman knew growing up, was a strong indication of the band's ongoing transition from folk-rock to what would come to be known as country-rock. A newer mix of the song was included on the 1968 Byrds album, The Notorious Byrd Brothers.
        
Artist:    Mother Earth
Title:    The Kingdom Of Heaven (Is Within You)
Source:    LP: Living With The Animals
Writer(s):    Powell St. John
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1968
    The name Powell St. John is an unfamiliar one to most people, which is a shame, as he played an important role in the development of psychedelic rock and was later a founding member of Mother Earth. St. John, who grew up in Laredo, Texas, moved to Austin in the early 60s and was one of the city's more prominent beatniks, performing with a young Janis Joplin as a member of the Waller Brothers Band. In 1966 he was asked by Tommy Hall to come up with songs for Hall's band, the 13th Floor Elevators, to record, providing them with tunes that appeared on their first two LPs. Not long after that St. John relocated to San Francisco, where he formed Mother Earth with another newcomer to the area, Tracy Nelson. The two shared lead vocal duties on the first two Mother Earth albums, with St. John taking center stage for the title track of the band's first LP, Living With The Animals, as well as the album's closing song, The Kingdom Of Heaven (Is Within You). When Nelson decided to move the band's base of operations to a farm outside of Nashville, Tennessee, St. John elected to stay in the San Francisco area, where he has maintained a relatively low profile ever since.

Artist:    Tiffany Shade
Title:    An Older Man
Source:    Mono British import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released in US on LP: Tiffany Shade)
Writer(s):    Barnes/Leonard
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year:    1967
    From 1967 through 1970 Bob Shad's Mainstream label released over two dozen rock albums. Most of these albums were by bands that were known only to audiences in their own hometowns. Indeed, most of these albums were highly forgettable. This was due in large part to the fact that Shad would book the absolute minimum amount of studio time required to get an LP's worth of material recorded. This generally meant using the first take of every recording, even if the band felt they could do better if they had a little more time. As a result, most late 60s Mainstream LPs ended up on the budget rack not long after their release, and, at least in some cases, even the band members themselves considered the whole thing a waste of time and effort. Such is the case with Cleveland's Tiffany Shade, which consisted of guitarist/lead vocalist Mike Barnes, keyboardist Bob Leonard, drummer Tom Schuster and bassist Robb Murphy. The group's manager recommended the group to Shad, who booked two eight-hour sessions for the band at the Cleveland Recording Company. Fortunately, the band was better prepared than most of the Mainstream bands, and actually turned out a halfway decent album, thanks in large part to Barnes's talent as a songwriter, which can be heard on tunes like An Older Man, co-written by Leonard.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    51st Anniversary
Source:    Mono Dutch import LP: The Singles (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Polydor (original UK label: Track)
Year:    1967
    The first Jimi Hendrix Experience single of 1967 (and the first for Track Records) was the classic Purple Haze, released on March 17, 1967. For the B side, the band chose one of producer Chas Chandler's favorite tracks, 51st Anniversary. The song expressed Hendrix's views on marraige by looking at it first from 51 years after the wedding, and then working his way back through the years. The first half, in Hendrix's words, was "just saying the good things about marraige, or maybe the usual things about marraige. The second part of the record tells about the parts of marraige which I've seen." Hendrix's own parents got married when his mother was just 17, just like the girl in the song. Musically, 51st Anniversary is unique in that it is the only Hendrix song ever released that did not have a guitar solo, although the recording does feature five guitar overdubs linked together over the course of the track.

Artist:    Weeds
Title:    It's Your Time
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Bowen/Wynne
Label:    Behemoth (original label: Teenbeat Club)
Year:    1966
    The Weeds were formed in La Vegas in 1966 by Fred Cole (lead vocals), Eddie Bowen (guitar), Ron Buzzell (guitar), Bob Atkins (bass guitar), and Tim Rockson (drums). Cole had already established himself as a recording artist with other local bands that played at the Teenbeat Club (thought to be the first teens-only club in the US) in Paradise, a Las Vegas suburb, and it wasn't long before the Weeds released It's Your Time on the club's own record label. Not long after the single was released the band drove to San Francisco, where they had been promised a gig at the Fillmore Auditorium, but when they arrived they discovered that no one there knew anything about it. Rather than return to Las Vegas, the Weeds decided to head north for Canada to avoid the draft, but they ran out of gas in Portland, Oregon, and soon became part of that city's music scene. Cole would eventually become an indy rock legend with his band Dead Moon, co-founded by his wife Toody, herself a Portland native.
    
Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source:    Mono CD: The Complete Reprise Singles (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: The Electric Prunes)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Mantz
Label:    Real Gone Music/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1966
    The Electric Prunes biggest hit was I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), released in late 1966 and hitting the charts in early 1967. The record, initially released without much promotion from the record label, was championed by Seattle DJ Pat O'Day of KJR radio, and was already popular in that area when it hit the national charts (thus explaining why so many people assumed the band was from Seattle). I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) has come to be one of the defining songs of the psychedelic era and was the opening track on both the original Lenny Kaye Nuggets compilation and Rhino's first Nuggets LP.

Artist:     West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:     Smell of Incense
Source:     LP: Volume II
Writer:     Markley/Morgan
Label:     Reprise
Year:     1967
     One of the commercially strongest songs on the second West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band album for Reprise was Smell of Incense. The length of the track, however (over five minutes), meant it would never get airplay on AM radio, although Texas natives England Dan Seals and John Ford Coley took the song to the # 56 spot on the charts while still in high school in 1968 with their band Southwest F.O.B.

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Fresh Garbage
Source:    CD: Spirit
Writer(s):    Jay Ferguson
Label:    Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year:    1968
    Much of the material on the first Spirit album was composed by vocalist Jay Ferguson while the band was living in a big house in California's Topanga Canyon outside of Los Angeles. During their stay there was a garbage strike, which became the inspiration for the album's opening track, Fresh Garbage. The song starts off as a fairly hard rocker and suddenly breaks into a section that is pure jazz, showcasing the group's instrumental talents, before returning to the main theme to finish out the track.The group used a similar formula on about half the tracks on the LP, giving the album and the band a distinctive sound right out of the box.

Artist:    Johnny Winter
Title:    The Good Love
Source:    LP: Second Winter
Writer(s):    Dennis Collins
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1969
    The first thing you should know about Johnny Winter's 1969 album Second Winter is the fact that it was actually his THIRD album. It was, however, his second one recorded for a major label, as his debut LP, The Progressive Blues Experiment, had originally appeared on the local Texas label Sonobeat (although it was picked up for national release by Imperial a few months after its initial late 1968 appearance). The second notable thing about Second Winter is that the album only had three LP sides, with the fourth side being a blank disc with no grooves. The reason the band did this was that they had recorded more material for the album than they could fit on a standard LP without sacrificing sound quality, but did not want to leave any of the material unreleased. As was the case with both Winter's earlier albums, most of the material on the first two sides of Second Winter were cover songs, including The Good Love, written by Dennis "Crash" Collins.

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    Truckin'
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Hunter/Garcia/Lesh/Weir
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1970
    The nearest thing the Grateful Dead had to a hit single before 1986 was Truckin', a feelgood tune sung by Bob Weir from the American Beauty album. I actually have a video clip on DVD of the band doing the song live on some TV show.

Artist:    Move
Title:    Message From The Country
Source:    LP: Message From The Country
Writer(s):    Jeff Lynne
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1971
    The Move was one of those bands that was extremely popular in its native UK without having any success whatsoever in the US. Although primarily a singles band, they did manage to release four albums over a period of years, the last of which was Message From The Country. Even as the album was being recorded, several members, including Jeff Lynne, were already working on the first album by the Move's successor, the Electric Light Orchestra. A conscious effort was made, however, to keep the two projects separate, with the Move album getting the more psychedelic material (such as the title track), while ELO took a more prog-rock approach.

Artist:     Blues Project
Title:     Violets Of Dawn (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Source:     LP: The Best Of The Blues Project (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer:     Eric Anderson
Label:     Verve Forecast
Year:     1966
     Although Columbia decided not to sign the Blues Project, the songs they recorded for the label in late 1965 ended up being released as their first single for Verve in January of 1966. The B side of that single was Violets of Dawn, written by folk singer Eric Anderson. The recording was also included, with fake clapping overdubbed over the end of the song, on the band's debut LP, Live At Cafe Au Go Go, despite the fact that lead vocalist Tommy Flanders had quit the band before the album came out. Speaking of Flanders, he sounds just a bit out of his element here, as he, by all accounts, had a Mick Jagger-like quality about him that was better suited for the band's more energetic material.

Artist:    Jerry Howard
Title:    Wild In The Streets
Source:    CD: Shape Of Things To Come (originally released on LP: Wild In The Streets soundtrack)
Writer(s):    Hemric/Baxter
Label:    Captain High (original label: Tower)
Year:    1968
    If the song Wild In The Streets sounds to you like something you'd hear over the opening credits of a youth-oriented movie from the late 1960s, it's because that's exactly what it is. The film itself deals with a youth takeover of the United States led by rock star Max Frost, and features a mixture of songs played by "Max Frost And The Troopers" (in reality a group called the 13th Power that was under contract to the film's music director, Mike Curb, and various configurations of studio musicians. The title track itself was written by Guy Hemric and Les Baxter and sung by Jerry Howard.

Artist:    Psychedelic Furs
Title:    New Dream
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Butler/Astin/Butler
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1987
    By 1987 most of the music coming from the Psychedelic Furs sounded more 80s new wave than psychedelic, but there were exceptions. One of the more notable is New Dream, which appeared as the non-album B side of Heartbreak Beat in 1987.

Artist:    King Crimson
Title:    Discipline
Source:    LP: Discipline
Writer(s):    King Crimson
Label:    Warner Brothers/EG
Year:    1981
    In 1981, after a seven-year hiatus, Robert Fripp decided to reform his old band, the legendary King Crimson. Not content to rehash the past, however, Fripp assembled a new lineup, with only drummer Bill Bruford being retained from any of the band's previous incarnations. Filling out the new lineup were guitarist/vocalist Adrian Belew (who had played with Talking Heads and Frank Zappa's band) and bassist Tony Levin, who also played Chapman stick on the album. All the tunes on Discipline are credited to the entire band, although the instrumental title track that finishes out the album shows a stronger Fripp presence than some of the others.

Artist:    27 Devils Joking
Title:    Indian Joe
Source:    LP: Actual Toons
Writer(s):    Brian S. Curley
Label:    Live Wire
Year:    1986
    This seems like a good place to talk about Craig Ellis. Craig was a talented, if somewhat troubled songwriter/guitarist/vocalist whom I first heard of in the early 1980s when I ran across a single by a group called Cosmic Grackles at KUNM radio at the University of New Mexico. I finally met Craig in late1986, when both of us were recording at Bottomline Studios in southeast Albuquerque. I was working on something called Civilian Joe ("A Real American Zero"), while Craig was putting together a project called Uproar At The Zoo involving guitarist Larry Otis and drummer John Henry Smith, among others. Around that same time I interviewed a guy from Santa Fe named Brian S. Curley, who was appearing on my Rock Nouveaux radio show to promote his new group, 27 Devils Joking. During the interview Brian mentioned that he had until recently been working with Craig Ellis, and that 27 Devils Joking was actually a result of a falling out between the two. Which brings us to Indian Joe, a track from the first 27 Devils Joking LP, Actual Toons. You see, in early 1987 Craig gave me a cassette tape of some of his most recent work, including a song called Indian Joe. It's the same song, using an almost identical arrangement, yet on the LP the song is listed as being the sole work of Brian Curley. One of these days I'll find that old cassette tape Craig gave me and try to figure out once and for all whose song it really is.
        
Artist:    Shadows of Knight
Title:    Oh Yeah
Source:    LP: Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Elias McDaniel
Label:    Elektra (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    The original British blues bands like the Yardbirds made no secret of the fact that they had created their own version of a music that had come from Chicago. The Shadows Of Knight, on the other hand, were a Chicago band that created their own version of the British blues, bringing the whole thing full circle. After taking their version of Van Morrison's Gloria into the top 10 early in 1966, the Shadows (which had added "of Knight" to their name just prior to releasing Gloria) decided to follow it up with an updated version of Bo Diddley's Oh Yeah. Although the song did not have a lot of national top 40 success, it did help establish the Shadows' reputation as one of the premier garage-punk bands.

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Chicken Little Was Right
Source:    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).

Artist:    Notes From The Underground
Title:    Why Did You Put Me On
Source:    CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Notes From The Underground)
Writer(s):    Mark Mandell
Label:    Rhino (original label: Vanguard)
Year:    1968
    If you notice any resemblance between the band known as Notes From The Underground and the better known Country Joe And The Fish, it's probably intentional. After all, both bands were from Berkeley, California, and both could be heard playing regularly at a club called the Jabberwock. To take it one step further, both the Fish and the Notes recorded for Vanguard Records, the only San Francisco Bay area bands to do so. One notable difference is the cleaner production heard on songs like Why Did You Put Me On, from the 1968 LP Notes From The Underground, compared to either of the Fish's 1967 albums for the label.    
 
Artist:    Seeds
Title:    The Wind Blows Your Hair
Source:    Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Saxon/Bigelow
Label:    Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year:    1967
    The Wind Blows Your Hair is actually one of the Seeds' better tracks. Unfortunately, by the time it was released as a single in October of 1967 the whole idea of Flower Power (which the Seeds were intimately tied to) had become yesterday's news (at least in ultra-hip L.A.) and the single went nowhere.

Artist:    Chocolate Watch Band
Title:    Let's Talk About Girls
Source:    LP: Nuggets (originally released on LP: No Way Out)
Writer(s):    Manny Freiser
Label:    Elektra (original label: Tower)
Year:    1967
    I find it sadly ironic that the first cut on the first album released by San Jose, California's Chocolate Watchband had a vocal track by Don Bennett, a studio vocalist under contract to Tower Records, replacing the original track by Watchband vocalist Dave Aguilar. Aguilar's vocals were also replaced by Bennett's on the Watchband's cover of Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour on the same album. In addition, there are four instrumental tracks on the album that are played entirely by studio musicians. Worse yet, the entire first side of the Watchband's second LP was done by studio musicians and the third Watchband LP featured an entirely different lineup. The final insult was when Lenny Kaye, who assembled the original Nuggets collection in the early 1970s, elected to include this recording, rather than one of the several fine tracks that actually did feature Aguilar on vocals.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer(s):    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1967
     The Music Machine was by far the most advanced of all the bands playing the L.A. club scene in 1966. Not only did they feature tight sets (ensuring that audience members wouldn't get the chance to call out requests between songs), they also had their own visual look that set them apart from other groups. With all the band members dressed entirely in black (including dyed hair) and wearing one black glove, the Machine projected an image that would influence such diverse artists as the Ramones and Michael Jackson in later years. Musically, Bonniwell's songwriting showed a sophistication that was on a par with the best L.A. had to offer, demonstrated by a series of fine singles such as The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly, which was re-recorded in stereo for release on the album Bonniwell Music Machine a few months later. Unfortunately, problems on the business end prevented the Music Machine from achieving the success it deserved and Bonniwell, disheartened, dissillusioned and/or disgusted, quit the music business altogether in 1970.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    I Need You
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1965
    After a series of hard-rocking hits in 1964 such as You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night, the Kinks mellowed out a bit with songs like Set Me Free and Tired Of Waiting For You the following year. Lurking on the other side of Set Me Free, though, was a song that showed that the band still knew how to rock out: I Need You.

Artist:     Daily Flash
Title:     Jack Of Diamonds
Source:     Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Lalor/MacAllistor/Kelihor/Hastings
Label:     Rhino (original label: Parrot)
Year:     1966
     The practice of writing new lyrics to an old tune got turned around for the Seattle-based Daily Flash's feedback-drenched recording of Jack Of Diamonds, which pretty much preserves the lyrics to the old folk song, but is musically pure garage-rock, which is itself an anamoly, since the Daily Flash is generally known for NOT being a garage-rock band. Instead they are considered a forerunner of such San Francisco bands as Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service.

Artist:    Anthony And The Imperials
Title:    Don't Tie Me Down
Source:    LP: Also Dug-Its (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Adams/Pike/Randazzo
Label:    Elektra (original label: Veep)
Year:    1968
    No longer little, Anthony Gourdine and his vocal group, the Imperials, moved into slightly more psychedelic territory with their 1968 single Don't Tie Me Down. Like many of their hits, Don't Tie Me Down was co-written by their producer, Teddy Randazzo, who had been friends with the group members since childhood.

Artist:     Rascals
Title:     Easy Rollin'
Source:     CD: Time Peace-The Rascals' Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: Once Upon A Dream)
Writer(s):     Cavaliere/Brigati
Label:     Atlantic
Year:     1968
     The Rascals are pretty much universally acknowledged as the most popular blue-eyed soul band ever. When members of the Harmonica Rascals objected to them releasing records under the name Rascals the group lengthened their name to the Young Rascals in 1966. As of the Once Upon A Dream LP, they went back to their original name. At that time the band was concerned that they were starting to get stale and wanted to expand their musical horizons. The result was an album that was considered both their best (by critics) and worst (by fans). The song Easy Rollin' which opens the LP, is a good indication of the band's new direction.

Artist:    Led Zeppelin
Title:    How Many More Times
Source:    LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released on LP: Led Zeppelin)
Writer(s):    Page/Jones/Bonham
Label:    Cotillion (original label: Atlantic)
Year:    1969
    Like many early Led Zeppelin songs, How Many More Times was originally credited to the band members (except, for contractual reasons, singer Robert Plant). More recent releases of the song, however, list Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf) as a co-writer, despite the fact that he and the members of Led Zeppelin had never met. This is because of the similarity, especially in the lyrics, to a 1951 Howlin' Wolf record called How Many More Years. The band reportedly tried to trick radio programmers into playing the eight and a half minute song by listing it on the album cover as being three minutes and thirty seconds long. I doubt anyone was fooled.

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