https://exchange.prx.org/p/553751
Believe it or not, this is the last regular edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era for 2024, as next week is our Yule special and the following week...well, gotta save some surprises for the end of the year. In the meantime, enjoy the mixture of singles, B sides and album tracks this week, including a set from the Jimi Hendrix Experience and some rather tasty blues-rock tunes scattered throughout the show.
Artist: McCoys
Title: Fever
Source: Canadian import CD: Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame Volume VII (Originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Writer: John Davenport
Label: Legacy
Year: 1965
The McCoys were originally from Indiana, but are best remembered as being an Ohio band. In fact their biggest hit, Hang On Sloopy is considered the unofficial state song there. The follow-up single, a cover of the Peggy Lee classic Fever was done in much the same style as Hang On Sloopy. In the long run this similarity probably hurt the band more than it helped, as the McCoys are generally considered to be a one-hit wonder, despite eventually becoming the band known as Johnny Winter And.
Artist: Beatles
Title: For No One
Source: LP: Revolver
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Capitol/EMI
Year: 1966
With the predominance of the keyboards and french horn (played by Alan Civil) in the mix, For No One (essentially a Paul McCartney solo number) shows just how far the Beatles had moved away from their original image as a "guitar band" by the time they recorded the Revolver album in 1966. John Lennon considered For No One to be one of Paul's best songs.
Artist: Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band
Title: Sure 'Nuff 'N' Yes I Do
Source: CD: Safe As Milk
Writer(s): Van Vliet/Bermann
Label: Rev-Ola (original label: Buddah)
Year: 1967
In 1966 Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band found themselves without a record label, having been cut by A&M Records after releasing only one single. A change in the band's management, however, led to them hooking up with Bob Krasnow, whose association with Kama Sutra Records resulted in the Captain and his crew being the first act signed to Kama Sutra's new subsidiary label, Buddah. In fact, Safe As Milk was the first LP issued on the new label in 1967. By this point the band had undergone some lineup changes and now consisted of Jeff Handley on bass, Alex St. Clair on guitar, John French on drums and Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) on various other instruments. Ry Cooder, then a member of the legendary L.A band The Rising Sons, provided additional guitar tracks on the album. Eight of the songs on Safe As Milk, including Sure 'Nuff 'N' Yes I Do, credit Herb Bermann as co-writer with Van Vliet, which, given Van Vliet's reputation for not using collaborators, was a point of confusion for many years. Eventually, in 2003, Bermann was located and interviewed, and confirmed that 1) he was a real person, and 2) he did indeed co-write those eight songs on Safe As Milk.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Parachute Woman
Source: LP: Beggar's Banquet
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1968
The last Rolling Stones album to feature the band's original lineup was Beggar's Banquet, released in 1968. The album itself was a conscious effort on the part of the band to get back to their roots after the psychedelic excesses of Their Satanic Majesties Request. The band's founder, Brian Jones, was fast deteriorating at the time and his contributions to the album are minimal compared to the band's earlier efforts. As a result, Keith Richards was responsible for most of the guitar work on Beggar's Banquet, including both lead and rhythm parts on Parachute Woman.
Artist: Richie Havens
Title: Handsome Johnny
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Gossett/Gossett/Havens
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
When it became obvious that the amplifiers needed by the various rock bands that were scheduled to perform on the opening Friday afternoon at Woodstock would not be ready in time, singer/songwriter Richie Havens came to the rescue, performing for several hours as the new opening act. One of the highlights of Havens' performance was Handsome Johnny, a song that he had co-written with Lou Gossett and Lou Gossett, Jr. and released on his debut album.
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: Green River
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): John Fogerty
Label: Fantasy
Year: 1969
In 1969 I was living in Germany (on Ramstein AFB, where my father, a career NCO, was stationed), where the choices for radio listening consisted of Radio Luxembourg, which only came in after dark and faded in and out constantly, the American Forces Network (AFN), which had a limited amount of music programming, most of which was targeted to an older demographic, and an assortment of German language stations playing ethnic and classical music. As a result, I didn't listen much to the radio, instead relying on word of mouth from my fellow high school students and hearing songs played on the jukebox at the Ramstein teen club on base. Both Proud Mary and Bad Moon Rising had completely slipped under my radar, in fact, so Green River was the first Creedence Clearwater Revival song I was even aware of. I immediately went out and bought a copy of the single at the BX, and soon had my band covering the record's B side, Commotion. I'm afraid Green River itself was beyond our abilities, however. Nonetheless, I still think of that "garage" band I was in (actually, since we all lived in apartment buildings, we had to practice in the basement of one of them rather than an actual garage) whenever I hear Green River.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Everybody's Next One
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Kay/Mekler
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
We all knew someone in high school who had trouble differentiating between lovemaking and casual sex. We also knew people who would take advantage of that person, usually bragging about it to their friends afterward. Thus was the stage set for Everybody's Next One, the B side of Steppenwolf's 1968 hit single Born To Be Wild. The song, written by Steppenwolf's lead vocalist John Kay and producer Gabriel Mekler, originally appeared on the band's debut LP.
Artist: Love
Title: You Set The Scene
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Forever Changes)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1967
During the production of Forever Changes, vocalist/guitarist Arthur Lee became convinced that he was destined to die soon after the release of the album. Accordingly, he crafted lyrics that were meant to be his final words to the world. As the final track on the LP, You Set The Scene in particular reflected this viewpoint. As it turned out, Forever Changes was not Lee's swan song. It has, however, come to be seen by many as the final word on the Summer of Love. It was also the last album to feature the lineup that had been the most popular band on Sunset Strip for the past two years. Subsequent Love albums would feature a whole new group of musicians backing Lee, and would have an entirely different sound as well. Ironically, Lee was still around at the dawn of the 21st century over 30 years later (dying of acute myeloid leukemia in 2006), having outlived several of his former bandmates.
Artist: 13th Floor Elevators
Title: You're Gonna Miss Me
Source: CD: The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators
Writer: Roky Erickson
Label: Collectables (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1966
If anyplace outside of California has a legitimate claim to being the birthplace of the psychedelic era, it's Austin, Texas. That's mainly due to the presence of the 13th Floor Elevators, a local band led by Roky Erickson that had the audacity to use an electric jug onstage. Their debut album was the first to actually use the word psychedelic (predating the Blues Magoos' Psychedelic Lollipop by mere weeks). Musically, their leanings were more toward garage-rock than acid-rock, at least on their first album (they got more metaphysical with their follow-up album, Easter Everywhere).
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 over an ocean, that in part led to his leaving the Byrds.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Everybody's Wrong
Source: CD: Buffalo Springfield
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Atco/Elektra
Year: 1966
Buffalo Springfield is one of those rare cases of a band that actually sold more records after disbanding than while they were still an active group. This is due mostly to the fact that several members, including Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Richie Furay and Jim Messina, went on to greater success in the 1970s, either with new bands or as solo artists. In the early days of Buffalo Springfield Stephen Stills was the group's most successful songwriter. The band's only major hit, For What It's Worth, was a Stills composition that was originally released shortly after the group's debut LP, and was subsequently added to later pressings of the album. Another, earlier, Stills composition from that first album was Everybody's Wrong, a somewhat heavier piece of folk-rock.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes
Source: LP: Projections
Writer(s): Blind Willie Johnson
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
One lasting legacy of the British Invasion was the re-introduction to the US record-buying public to the songs of early Rhythm and Blues artists such as Blind Willie Johnson. This emphasis on classic blues in particular would lead to the formation of electric blues-based US bands such as the Butterfield Blues Band and the Blues Project. Unlike the Butterfields, who made a conscious effort to remain true to their Chicago-style blues roots, the Blues Project was always looking for new ground to cover, which ultimately led to them developing an improvisational style that would be emulated by west coast bands such as the Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service, and by Project member Al Kooper, who conceived and produced the first rock jam LP ever, Super Session, in 1968. As the opening track to their second (and generally considered best) LP Projections, I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes served notice that this was a new kind of blues, louder and brasher than what had come before, yet tempered with Kooper's melodic vocal style. An added twist was the use during the song's instrumental bridge of an experimental synthesizer known among band members as the "Kooperphone", probably the first use of any type of synthesizer on a blues record.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Section 43 (Original EP version)
Source: Mono British import CD: The Berkeley EPs (originally released on EP)
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Big Beat (original label: Rag Baby)
Year: 1966
Rag Baby was an underground journal published by Country Joe McDonald in mid-60s Berkeley, California. In 1965 McDonald decided to do a "talking issue" of the paper with an extended play (EP) record containing two songs by McDonald's band, Country Joe and the Fish and two by singer Peter Krug. In 1966 McDonald published a second Rag Baby EP, this time featuring three songs by Country Joe and the Fish. Among those was the original version of Section 43, a psychedelic instrumental that would appear in a re-recorded (and slightly rearranged) stereo form on the band's first LP, Electric Music For The Mind And Body, in early 1967.
Artist: Bloodrock
Title: Cheater
Source: CD: Bloodrock 2
Writer(s): Pickens/Gummett/Hill/Rutledge/Taylor/Cobb
Label: One Way (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1970
Although each of the six members of Bloodrock contributed to the band's songwriting, there is only one song that is credited to all six of them collectively. That song, Cheater, appears as the second track on the second Bloodrock album, and, with the exception of the eight and a half minute long D.O.A., is the longest track on the album as well.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: I May Be Wrong, But I Won't Be Wrong Always
Source: CD: Undead
Writer(s): Lee/Lyons/Churchill/Lee
Label: Deram
Year: Recorded 1968, released 2002
Although not a major hit in the US, the first Ten Years After album, released in 1967, was heard and liked by at least one highly influential person: Bill Graham, owner of the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Graham was so impressed, in fact, that he invited the band to come play at his soon-to-be-opened Fillmore East in New York. The problem was that the band wanted to have a new record to promote when they made their US debut, and there wasn't enough time to record a proper studio LP (although attempts were made). Finally, in order to meet the deadline, it was decided that the band's second LP would be a live album, opening with the ten-minute long showcase I May Be Wrong, But I Won't Be Wrong Always. As it turned out, Ten Years After would end up being known primarily for their live performances, particularly the one at Woodstock the following year.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Hey Joe
Source: LP: Smash Hits (originally released in US on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer(s): Billy Roberts
Label: Reprise
Year: 1966
The first track recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience was Hey Joe, a song that Hendrix had seen Tim Rose perform in Greenwich Village before relocating to London to form his new band. Hendrix's version, released as a single in the UK and Europe in late 1966, is a bit heavier than Rose's and leaves off the first verse ("where you going with that money in your hand") entirely. The song itself was copyrighted in 1962 by California folk singer Billy Roberts and a much faster version by the Leaves had hit the US charts in early 1966.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Long Hot Summer Night
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
With such classics as Voodoo Chile, Crosstown Traffic and Still Raining Still Dreaming on the third Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Electric Ladyland, it's easy to overlook a song like Long Hot Summer Night. Once you hear it, however, you realize just how strong Jimi Hendrix's songwriting had become by 1968. Keyboardist Al Kooper, himself in the process of making rock history with his Super Session album, makes a guest appearance on piano.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Fire
Source: CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: Are You Experienced)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Sometime in late 1966 Jimi Hendrix was visiting his girlfriend's mother's house in London for the first time. It was a cold rainy night and Jimi immediately noticed that there was a dog curled up in front of the fireplace. Jimi's first action was to scoot the dog out of the way so he himself could benefit from the fire's warmth, using the phrase "Move over Rover and let Jimi take over." The phrase got stuck in his head and eventually became the basis for one of his most popular songs. Although never released as a single (except in Australia, believe it or not) during Hendrix's lifetime, Fire was a highlight of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's live performances, often serving as a set opener.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Screamin'
Source: LP: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Writer(s): Mike Bloomfield
Label: Elektra
Year: 1965
Sometime in the early 1960s aspiring harmonicist (if that's not a real word, it should be) Paul Butterfield and guitarist Elvin Bishop, who had been performing together at "twist parties" (toga parties?) on various college campuses, were offered a regular gig at Big John's, a folk club in Chicago's Old Town district. They soon recruited two members of Howlin' Wolf's tour band, bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Sam Lay to form the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 1963. The following year Paul Rothchild, a house producer for the New York-based Elektra Records, saw the band perform while on a visit to Chicago. He also had the opportunity to see guitarist Michael Bloomfield play and suggested to Butterfield that he would make a good addition to the band. In December of 1964 Rothchild brought the band to Elektra's New York studios to record, but those sessions were abandoned in favor of a live set at Howard Solomon's Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village following the band's well-received live set at the Newport Folk Festival. Still not quite satisfied with the results, the band made their third attempt at recording an album in September of 1965, joined by keyboardist Mark Naftalin, who ended up staying with the group for their first five albums. Most of the songs recorded for that first album were covers of blues classics, but Bloomfield had one solo composition, Screamin', that was prominently placed as the LP's second side's opening track.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Chauffeur Blues (alternate version)
Source: CD: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (bonus track)
Writer(s): Lester Melrose (disputed, may have been Lizzie Douglas)
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Year: 1966
Jefferson Airplane's original female vocalist was Signe Toly Anderson. Unlike Grace Slick, who basically shared lead vocals with founder Marty Balin, Anderson mostly functioned as a backup singer. The only Airplane recording to feature Anderson as the sole lead vocalist was Chauffeur Blues, a cover of an old Memphis Minnie tune. The song was featured on the band's first LP, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. This alternate version is a touch longer and puts a bit more emphasis on Jorma Kaukonen's lead guitar work.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: Bookends Theme/Save The Life Of My Child/America
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Bookends)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
An early example of a concept album (or at least half an album) was Simon And Garfunkel's fourth LP, Bookends. The side starts and ends with the Bookends theme. In between they go through a sort of life cycle of tracks, from Save The Life Of My Child (featuring a synthesizer opening programmed by Robert Moog himself), into America, a song that is very much in the sprit of On The Road, the novel that had inspired many young Americans to travel beyond the boundaries of their own home towns.
Artist: Fairport Convention
Title: The Lobster
Source: British import CD: Fairport Convention
Writer(s): Painter/Hutchings/Thompson
Label: Polydor
Year: 1968
The recording history of the premier English folk-rock band, Fairport Convention, can be more than a little confusing. A large part of the problem was caused by A&M Records, who had the rights to release the band's material in the US, starting with the band's second LP. Rather than go with the original album title, What We Did On Our Holidays, A&M retitled the album Fairport Convention, releasing it in 1970. The problem is that the band's first album, released in the UK on Polydor in 1968, was also titled Fairport Convention. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the lineup on the 1968 Polydor LP differs from that of every other Fairport album, most notably in the absence of the band's most visible member, vocalist Sandy Denny. Fairport Convention (the band) was formed in 1967, and was consciously following in the footsteps of Jefferson Airplane, albeit from a British perspective. Like the Airplane, the original Fairport lineup had a wealth of talent, including Martin Lamble on violin, Simon Nicol on guitars, Judy Dibble on autoharp, recorder and piano, Richard Thompson on guitar and mandolin, Ashley Hutchings (then known as Tyger Hutchings) on bass and Ian MacDonald (who later changed his name to Iaan Matthews), who shared lead vocals with Dyble. Musically the band was far more rock-oriented than on later LPs, even dabbling with progressive rock on tracks like The Lobster. This can be attributed, at least in part, to a general disdain among the youth of Britain for the traditional English folk music that was taught to every schoolchild in the country (whether they wanted it or not). Later albums would find Fairport Convention doing more and more traditional folk, eventually becoming the world's most popular practicioners of the art, although they never entirely abandoned rock.
Artist: Traffic
Title: No Time To Live
Source: CD: Traffic
Writer(s): Winwood/Capaldi
Label: Island (original US label: United Artists)
Year: 1968
Although half of the songs on Traffic's self-titled second LP were written by Dave Mason, the guitarist/vocalist had very little to do with the remaining tracks. He did, however, play Hammond organ on the haunting No Time To Live. The song also features Steve Winwood on lead vocals, piano and bass, Chris Wood on soprano saxophone and Jim Capaldi on drums.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Big Black Smoke
Source: Mono CD: The Kink Kronikles (originallly released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
The Kinks had some of the best B sides of the 60s. Case in point: Big Black Smoke, which appeared as the flip of Dead End Street in early 1967. The song deals with a familiar phenomenon of the 20th century: the small town girl that gets a rude awakening after moving to the big city. And when it comes to cities they don't get much bigger than London, known colloquially as "the Smoke".
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Psychedelic Lollipop)
Writer(s): Gilbert/Scala/Esposito
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1966
The Blues Magoos (original spelling: Bloos) were either the first or second band to use the word psychedelic in an album title. Both they and the 13th Floor Elevators released their debut albums in 1966 and it is unclear which one actually came out first. What's not in dispute is the fact that Psychedelic Lollipop far outsold The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. One major reason for this was the fact that (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet was a huge national hit in early 1967, which helped album sales considerably. Despite having a unique sound and a look to match (including electric suits), the Magoos were unable to duplicate the success of Nothin' Yet on subsequent releases, partially due to Mercury's pairing of two equally marketable songs on the band's next single without indicating to stations which one they were supposed to be playing.
Artist: Sonics
Title: He's Waitin'
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 8-The Northwest (originally released on LP: Boom)
Writer(s): Gerald Roslie
Label: Rhino (original label: Etiquette)
Year: 1966
If you were to ask a punk rock musician about his or her influences, one name that would certainly be near the top of the list is the Sonics. Formed in Tacoma, Washington in 1960 by guitarist Larry Parypa, the group began to take off with the addition of keyboardist Gerry Roslie, who took over lead vocals in 1964. Their first single, The Witch, released in late 1964, became the biggest selling locally produced single in the history of the entire Northwestern US, despite a lack of airplay due to its controversial subject matter. An LP, Here Are The Sonics, soon followed, along with several more singles on the local Etiquette label. Throughout 1965 the band continued to record new material between gigs, releasing a second LP, Boom, in February on 1966. I highlight of the album was He's Waitin' a song written to an unfaithful girlfriend. The final lines of the song make it clear just who "he" is:
"You think you are happy, I got news for you
Well, Satan found out, little girl, you're through"
Artist: Jeff Simmons
Title: Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up
Source: LP: Zappéd (originally released on LP: Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up)
Writer(s): Frank Zappa
Label: Bizarre/Reprise
Year: 1969
Often when an artist establishes his or her own label, that label is exclusively used only for that artists' material. One example of this is Frank Zappa's Bizarre label. Originally established as a production company when Verve Records missed the deadline for renewing Zappa's contract following the release of the second Mothers Of Invention album, Absolutely Free, Bizarre became a full-fledged label in 1969, distributed by Warner Brothers Records. Zappa originally intended Bizarre to include albums by avante-garde artists such as Captain Beefheart, but somehow those artists instead ended up on Bizarre's sister label, Straight Records, with only Zappa and the Mothers appearing on Bizarre itself. One of the first artists to appear on the Straight label was Jeff Simmons, whose band, Easy Chair, had opened for the Mothers in their native Seattle in 1968, and accompanied Zappa to Los Angeles for a pair of gigs at the Shrine Auditorium. Easy Chair split up before doing any recording for Zappa, however, and Simmons ended up releasing a pair of albums in 1969 as a solo artist on the Straight label. The second of these, Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up, features a title track written by Zappa (using the pseudonym La Marr Bruister), who also played lead guitar on the tune. Simmons would end up becoming a member of the Mothers the following year.
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