https://exchange.prx.org/p/560425
This week we have several artists making their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut, including two on our Advanced Psych segment. We also have an artists' set from the Standells that includes one of their earliest recordings and a live version of their biggest hit. The show starts with a set of tunes from 1968 and ends with a set from 1966.
Artist: Doors
Title: Five To One
Source: CD: Waiting For The Sun
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1968
Despite the fact that it was the Doors' only album to hit the top of the charts, Waiting For The Sun was actually a disappointment for many of the band's fans, who felt that the material lacked the edginess of the first two Doors LPs. One notable exception was the album's closing track, Five To One, which features one of Jim Morrison's most famous lines: "No one here gets out alive".
Artist: July
Title: The Way
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Tom Newman
Label: Epic
Year: 1968
Although not a commercial success while together, July is now considered an important part of British rock history, due to the subsequent successful careers of several of its members. The band originated in Ealing, London, UK as the Tomcats, which itself was made up of members of an earlier Tomcats combined with members of another group named Second Thoughts. They relocated to Spain in 1966, where they became known as Los Tomcats. At that time they were a fairly typical British R&B outfit, playing cover songs from artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, but after returning to London began to take on a more psychedelic flavor. The band officially changed their name to July in 1968, signing with the Major Minor label and releasing two singles and one LP. The B side of the second of these singles was a tune called The Way. Written by guitarist/vocalist Tom Newman, the song has shown up on various compilation albums over the years. July disbanded in 1969, but Newman went on to record several solo LPs before becoming a producer. Among his credits as a producer are Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, used in the film The Exorcist. Two other members of July, Tony Duhig and Jon Field, went on to form Jade Warrior, recording several albums for various labels throughout the 1970s.
Artist: John Bryant
Title: I Bring The Sun
Source: Mono British import CD: Think I'm Going Weird (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): John Bryant
Label: Grapefruit (original label: MCA)
Year: 1968
Although it first entered the record business by buying the US Decca label in 1962, it wasn't until ten years later that the MCA label itself was officially launched...in the US. Until 1968, American recordings on the Decca label had been released in the UK on both the Brunswick and Coral labels, since their was already a British Decca label owned by an entirely different company. In February of 1968, however, MCA Records UK was officially launched, four years before the first US records were released under the MCA banner. One of the first British MCA releases was I Bring The Sun by singer-songwriter John Bryant. Bryant credits producer Mike Leander, who had arranged the strings on the Beatles' She's Leaving Home, with the song's more psychedelic touches. I Bring The Sun would be Bryant's only release on the MCA label, as he spent the early 1970s with Polydor, releasing one LP and several singles for the label.
Artist: Squires
Title: Going All The Way
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Michael Bouyea
Label: Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year: 1966
Originally known as the Rogues, the Bristol, Conn. group changed their name to the Squires for this 1966 recording. Apparently someone at Atco figured that a name like the Rogues was so good that somebody else must already be using it. As it turns out there have been dozens of bands calling themselves the Rogues over the years, so maybe they were on to something. Although Going All The Way never charted, it did help launch the career of Michael Bouyea, who, after being drafted and spending time in Vietnam (which ended the Squires) ended up releasing a few singles as a solo artist. He also spent time as an air personality (by the mid-1980s nobody called us disc jockeys anymore) on Toronto radio station CHUM and recorded the single We Got The Blue Jays under the pseudonym Home Run in 1985. The song made CHUM's top 20, but to my knowledge never got played anywhere else.
Artist: David McWilliams
Title: Days Of Pearly Spencer
Source: British import CD: Peace And Love-The Woodstock Generation (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): David McWilliams
Label: Warner Strategic Marketing (original label: Major Minor)
Year: 1967
Although it was recorded in Belfast, David McWilliams's Days Of Pearly Spencer did not chart in either Ireland or the UK. The main reason for this is that the single appeared on Major Minor Records, a company owned by Phil Solomon, an executive of pirate station Radio Caroline, and was thus boycotted by the BBC. Originally released as a B side, Days Of Pearly Spencer became a top 10 hit in several European countries, but was never released in the US. It did, however, appear in Canada on the Epic label.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: Baroque # 1
Source: LP: Ultimate Spinach
Writer(s): Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1967
Of the half dozen or so major US record labels of the time, only two, Decca and M-G-M, failed to sign any San Francisco bands in the late 1960s. Decca, which had been bought by MCA in the early 60s, was fast fading as a major force in the industry (ironic considering that Universal, the direct descendant of MCA, is now the world's largest record company). M-G-M, on the other hand, had a strong presence on the Greenwich Village scene thanks to Jerry Schoenbaum at the Verve Forecast label, who had signed such critically-acclaimed artists as Dave Van Ronk, Tim Hardin and the Blues Project. Taking this as an inspiration, the parent label decided to create interest in the Boston music scene, aggressively promoting (some would say hyping) the "Boss-Town Sound". One of the bands signed was Ultimate Spinach, which was led by keyboardist Ian Bruce-Douglas, who wrote all the band's material, including Baroque # 1, an instrumental that shows the influence of West Coast bands such as Country Joe And The Fish.
Artist: King Curtis
Title: Games People Plaay
Source: LP: Duane Allman-An Anthology
Writer(s):
Label:
Year:
After recording several tracks as a part-time member of his brother Gregg's band, Hour Glass, guitarist Duane Allman was hired as a full-time session musician by Rick Hall, owner of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. While there he played on a number of recordings by artists such as King Curtis, who had come to prominence a decade earlier playing on the Coasters Yakety Yak and had established himself as a solo artist in 1967 with the hit single Memphis Soul Stew. In 1969 Allman played on Curtis's cover of Joe South's Games People Play.
Artist: Daily Flash
Title: Violets Of Dawn
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets vol. 8-The Northwest
Writer: Eric Anderson
Label: Rhino (original label: Parrot)
Year: 1966
Fromed in Seattle in 1965, The Daily Flash are considered a forerunner of such San Francisco bands as Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service. 1966 was a busy year for the group, playing up and down the West Coast, including headlining a couple of shows at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom (with the Rising Sons, the Charlatans and an early version of Big Brother and the Holding Company supporting them) and playing the Vancouver Trips Festival (with Owsley Stanley providing an entirely different kind of support). The band was not as successful in the studio, however, only releasing two singles and recording several more tunes, such as Eric Anderson's Violets Of Dawn, that remained unreleased for decades.
Artist: Cream
Title: Outside Woman Blues
Source: LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Arthur Reynolds
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Although Cream's second album, Disraeli Gears, is best known for its psychedelic cover art and original songs such as Strange Brew, Sunshine Of Your Love and Tales of Brave Ulysses, the LP did have one notable blues cover on it. Outside Woman Blues was originally recorded by Blind Joe Reynolds in 1929 and has since been covered by a variety of artists including Van Halen, Johnny Winters, Jimi Hendrix and even the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: No Expectations
Source: Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released on LP: Beggar's Banquet and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
The first single to be released from Beggar's Banquet was Street Fighting Man, which was also the first Rolling Stones track to be produced by Jimmy Miller, who had already established a reputation working with Steve Winwood, both with the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. Brian Jones's slide guitar work on The B side of the single, No Expectations, is sometimes considered his last major contribution to the band he founded.
Artist: Guess Who
Title: Undun
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Randy Bachman
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1969
Following the release of the Wheatfield Soul album (and the hit single These Eyes), RCA tied the Guess Who down to a long-term contract. One of the stipulations of that contract was that the band would make subsequent recordings at RCA's own studios. After recording the tracks for their follow-up album, Canned Wheat, the band members felt that the sound at RCA was inferior to that of A&R studios, where they had recorded Wheatfield Soul, and secretly re-recorded a pair of tunes at A&R and submitted dubs of the tapes to RCA. The tunes, Laughing and Undun, were issued as a double-sided single in 1969, with both sides getting a decent amount of airplay. Once word got out that the songs had been recorded in a non-RCA studio, the label realized the error of their ways and relaxed the exclusivity policy, although not in time for the band to re-record the rest of the album.
Artist: Santana
Title: Soul Sacrifice (live at Woodstock)
Source: CD: Santana (bonus track)
Writer(s): Brown/Malone/Rolie/Santana
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1969
Although this is the original recording of Santana performing Soul Sacrifice at Woodstock, it does not sound quite the same as what you may have heard on the Woodstock original movie soundtrack album. That's because they doctored the recording a bit for the original soundtrack album, adding in audience sounds, including the crowd rain chant that seques into the piece on the original LP, and leaving out about five minutes' worth of the actual performance. More recent copies of the movie itself sound even more different because the people doing the remastering of the film decided to record new versions of some of the percussion tracks.
Artist: Wrongh Black Bag
Title: I Don't Know Why
Source: Mono British import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Wrongh Black Bag/Kirby
Label: Big Beat (original US label: Mainstream)
Year: 1968
Rock 'n' roll history is filled with stories of record companies that sold the contracts of popular artists to bigger labels for the kind of money it took to finance recording several new acts in the hopes of finding one on a level of the one they let get away. The first, and most famous of these is Sam Phillips's selling of Elvis Presley's contract to RCA Victor. Although he did end up signing several future stars such as Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins, none were in the same league as the King (although Johnny Cash did become a country music legend). Bob Shad, head of Mainstream Records, was even less successful. After selling the contract of Big Brother And The Holding Company and vocalist Janis Joplin to Columbia Records, Shad traveled from coast to coast looking for the next Janis. The nearest he got was Christine Bernardoni of the Cheshire, Connecticut based Wrongh Black Bag. After releasing one single on Mainstream, a cover of the Blues Project's Wake Me Shake Me, backed with their own original I Don't Know Why, the band got sidetracked on the way to the studio by a bad car accident. By the time everyone in Wrong Black Bag was ready to resume the band's career they found that Shad had lost interest in the group and they had been dropped from the label's roster. Christine Bernardoni's career, however, was far from over. Now known as the "Beehive Queen", Christine Ohlman, as she now goes by, has been the vocalist for the Saturday Night Live band since 1991 and has fronted her own band, Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez since the mid-1990s.
Artist: Chambers Brothers
Title: Time Has Come Today
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: The Time Has Come)
Writer(s): Joe and Willie Chambers
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1967
One of the quintessential songs of the psychedelic era is the Chambers Brothers' classic Time Has Come Today. The song was originally recorded and issued as a single in 1966. The more familiar version heard here, however, was recorded in 1967 for the album The Time Has Come. The LP version of the song runs about eleven minutes, way too long for a 45 RPM record, so before releasing the song as a single for the second time, engineers at Columbia cut the song down to around 3 minutes. The edits proved so jarring that the record was recalled and a re-edited version, clocking in at 4:57 became the third and final single version of the song, hitting the charts in 1968.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Introduction
Source: German import LP: Underground '70 (originally released in US on LP: Chicago Transit Authority)
Writer(s): Terry Kath
Label: CBS (original US label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
When living in Germany in 1969 I bought a copy of an album called Underground '70 in a local record store. The album itself was on purple vinyl that glowed under a black light and featured a variety of artists that had recently released albums in the US on the Columbia label (since the name Columbia was trademarked by EMI in Europe and the UK, US albums from the American Columbia label were released on the CBS label instead). The opening track of the album was appropriately called Introduction and was also the opening track of the first Chicago (Transit Authority) album. Written by guitarist Terry Kath, the piece effectively showcases the strengths of the band, both as an extremely tight ensemble and as individual soloists, with no one member dominating the song. Finally, in 2018, I couldn't resist the urge to track down a copy of Underground '70, purple vinyl and all. Thank you Internet.
Artist: Bobby Vega
Title: Run With You
Source: CD: Wha Cha Got
Writer(s): Bobby Vega
Label: Little Village
Year: 2023
Bassist Bobby Vega has been a fixture on the San Francisco music scene for dozens of years, sharing the stage with the likes of Sly Stone, Jerry Garcia, Santana and countless others over the years. He began playing professionally at age 15 with Bo Diddley and received national recognition for his distinctive playing on High On You, the title track of Sly Stone's first solo LP, in 1975. In late 2023 Vega released a mostly isntrumental solo album, backed by many of the musicians he has played with over the years, including drummer Prarie Prince of Tubes fame. I can't seem to track down who plays guitar on Run With You, an instrumental that Vega says "is about wanting to hang with someone, to be with someone you can’t be with.”
Artist: Midnight Oil
Title: The Dead Heat
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Midnight Oil
Label: Columbia
Year: 1986
Originally released in Australia in 1986, Midnight Oil's The Dead Heart was written in an effort to raise awareness of the forcible removal of Australian Aboriginal children from their families between 1909 and the 1970s, and specifically for the handing back ceremony of Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) to the Australian Aboriginal people. After being included on the 1987 album Diesel And Dust, The Dead Heat was released as a single in the US and UK in 1978.
Artist: Ty Segall/White Fence
Title: Tongues
Source: LP: Hair
Writer(s): Segall/Presley
Label: Drag City
Year: 2012
Ty Segall is a multi-instrumentalist who played in various underground bands in his native Orange County, California while still in high school. His grunge band, the Epsilons, is noted for a 2007 music video that parodied the MTV show Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, which he says ruined his hometown by popularizing the area and driving up the cost of living, making it too expensive for hippies, artists and surfers to live there anymore. In 2008 he embarked on a solo career which has so far resulted in over a dozen albums, singles, EPs and collaborations with other artists. One of those other artists is fellow Californian Tim Presley, who records under the name White Fence. Presley is a veteran of hardcore punk bands such as the Nerve Agents and in 2004 formed the neo-psychedelic band Darker My Love. He has been releasing material under the name White Fence since 2010, including multiple collaborations with Ty Segall, the first of which was Hair, released in 2012. My personal favorite tune from the album is the last track, Tongues, which was co-written by Segall and Presley.
Artist: Beatles
Title: All Together Now
Source: CD: Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Capitol
Year: 1969
Less than a month after completing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the Beatles found themselves in the position of being contractually obligated to provide songs for an animated film inspired by the song Yellow Submarine, which had appeared on the 1966 LP Revolver. The band was physically and emotionally exhausted at that point in time and ended up providing only four previously unreleased tunes for the project. One of those four was All Together Now, a tune written primarily by Paul McCartney, and meant to be in the same lighhearted vein as Yellow Submarine. McCartney later described the song as a "throwaway" (as if Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da wasn't?).
Artist: Donovan
Title: Atlantis
Source: British import CD: Acid Daze (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: Uncut (original US label: Epic)
Year: 1968
Although it was included on the 1969 album Barabajagal, Donovan's Atlantis was originally issued as a single in November of 1968. The tune went into the top 10 in several nations worldwide, including the US, but only managed to peak at #23 in the UK. At nearly five minutes in length, the song was considered by the shirts at Epic Records to be too long to get top 40 airplay in the US, and was thus relegated to B side status. They were proved wrong when DJs started flipping the record over and it went to the #7 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
Artist: Standells
Title: Dirty Water (live version)
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Sundazed
Year: Recorded 1966, released 2014
In October of 1966 the Standells were riding high on the strength of their hit single, Dirty Water, when they opened for the Beach Boys at the University of Michigan. Unbeknownst to the band at the time, the entire performance was being professionally recorded by people from Capitol Records, the parent company of Tower Records, the label that Standells records appeared on. The recordings remained unreleased for many years; in fact, even the band members themselves were unaware of their existence until around 2000. Finally, in 2014, Sundazed released the live recording of Dirty Water on clear 45 RPM vinyl as part of their Record Store Day promotion. Enjoy!
Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1966
If ever a song could be considered a garage-punk anthem, it's Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White, the follow-up single to the classic Dirty Water. Both songs were written by Standells' manager/producer Ed Cobb, who might be considered the record industry's answer to Ed Wood.
Artist: Standells
Title: Twitchin'
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Larry Tamblyn
Label: Sundazed
Year: 1963
One of the earliest Standells recordings was an instrumental called Twitchin'. The song, written by guitarist Larry Tamblyn, was recorded in 1963, but sat on the shelf until 2014, when it was selected to be released as the B side of a newly discovered live version of their greatest hit, Dirty Water.
Artist: Animals
Title: We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (US version)
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1965
In 1965 producer Mickey Most put out a call to Don Kirschner's Brill building songwriters for material that could be recorded by the Animals. He ended up selecting three songs, all of which are among the Animals' most popular singles. Possibly the best-known of the three is a song written by the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil called We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. The song (the first Animals recording to featuring Dave Rowberry, who had replaced founder Alan Price on organ) starts off with what is probably Chas Chandler's best known bass line, slowly adding drums, vocals, guitar and finally keyboards on its way to an explosive chorus. The song was not originally intended for the Animals, however; it was written for the Righteous Brothers as a follow up to (You've Got That) Lovin' Feelin', which Mann and Weil had also provided for the duo. Mann, however, decided to record the song himself, but the Animals managed to get their version out first, taking it to the top 20 in the US and the top 5 in the UK. As the Vietnam war escalated, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place became a sort of underground anthem for US servicemen stationed in South Vietnam, and has been associated with that war ever since. Incidentally, there were actually two versions of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place recorded during the same recording session, with an alternate take accidentally being sent to M-G-M and subsequently being released as the US version of the single. This version (which some collectors and fans maintain has a stronger vocal track) appeared on the US-only LP Animal Tracks in the fall of 1965 as well as the original M-G-M pressings of the 1966 album Best Of The Animals. The original UK version (titled We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place) did not appear on any albums, as was common for British singles in the 1960s. By the 1980s record mogul Allen Klein had control of the original Animals' entire catalog, and decreed that all CD reissues of the song would use the original British version of the song, including the updated (and expanded) CD version of The Best Of The Animals. This expanded version of the album first appeared on the ABKCO label in 1973, but with the American, rather than the British, version of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. With all this in mind, I looked for, and finally found, a copy of the original US single.
Artist: Del-Vetts
Title: Last Time Around
Source: CD: Oh Yeah! The Best Of Dunwich Records (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Dennis Dahlquist
Label: Sundazed (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 loudness), Last Time Around might be considered the very first death metal rock song ever recorded.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Mickey Newbury
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
Kenny Rogers has, on more than one occassion, tried to put as much distance between himself and the 1968 First Edition hit Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) as possible. I feel it's my duty to remind everyone that he was the lead vocalist on the recording, and that this song was the one that launched his career. So there.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Flying High
Source: LP: You Baby
Writer(s): Al Nichol
Label: White Whale
Year: 1966
Of the original five members of the Turtles, the two most overlooked are rhythm guitarist Jim Tucker and bassist Chuck Portz. This might because only one of them, Tucker, was still with the band when they recorded their most famous song, Happy Together, and he left soon after its release. More likely, though, it's because the two of them only had one shared writing credit during their time with the band, and that song, Flying High, is nowhere near one of the band's best tracks. Nevertheless, here it is.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Dead End Street
Source: Mono Canadian import CD: 25 Years-The Ultimate Collection (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Polygram/PolyTel (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The last major Kinks hit in the US was Sunny Afternoon in the summer of 1966. The follow-up Deadend Street, released in November, was in much the same style, but did not achieve the same kind of success in the US (although it was a top five hit in the UK). The Kinks would not have another major US hit until Lola was released in 1970.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Everybody's Wrong
Source: Mono 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: Byrds
Title: Mr. Spaceman
Source: CD: Fifth Dimension
Writer(s): Jim McGuinn
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1966
Both Jim (now Roger) McGuinn and David Crosby were science fiction fans, which became evident with the release of the Byrds' third album, Fifth Dimension. The third single released from that album, Mr. Spaceman, was in fact, a deliberate attempt to contact extra-terrestrials through the medium of AM radio. It was McGuinn's hope that ETs monitoring Earth's airwaves would hear the song and in some way respond to it, perhaps even contacting the band members themselves. Of course McGuinn didn't realize at the time that AM radio waves tend to disperse as they travel away from the Earth, making it unlikely that the signals would be picked up at all. Now if someone wants to upload this week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era to a satellite...
