https://exchange.prx.org/p/602033
This week we go Up In Her Room with the Seeds, and find a set of Byrds (none of which were written by Bob Dylan), along with an even longer set from Big Brother And The Holding Company. Also on the bill: our first taste of Art, and Rod Stewart sings an original blues tune, with Jeff Beck on guitar and Ronnie Wood on bass (move over Led Zeppelin). Oh yes, we have a Led Zeppelin song that's never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era thrown in as well. Plus lots of other goodies, starting with a Big Hit Single from the Monkees.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Pleasant Valley Sunday
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released on LP: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.)
Writer: Goffin/King
Label: Rhino
Year: 1967
After making it a point to play their own instruments on their third LP, Headquarters, the Monkees decided to once again use studio musicians for their next album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD. The difference was that this time the studio musicians would be recording under the supervision of the Monkees themselves rather than Don Kirschner and the array of producers he had lined up for the first two Monkees LPs. The result was an album that many critics consider the group's best effort. The only single released from the album was Pleasant Valley Sunday, a song penned by the husband and wife team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and backed by the band's remake of the Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart song Words, which had been recorded the previous year by the Leaves. Although both songs ended up making the charts, it was Pleasant Valley Sunday that got the most airplay and is considered by many to be Monkees' greatest achievement.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Foxy Lady (live in studio)
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Legacy
Year: Recorded 1967, released 2018
In November of 1967 the Jimi Hendrix Experience was still very much an underground phenomenon in the US. Their June appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival had introduced the band to an audience that numbered in the thousands, and their records were being played heavily on college radio, but for the most part mainstream America was still unaware of them. In Europe, however, it was an entirely different story. Jimi Hendrix was the hottest thing on the London scene by the time 1967 started; it wasn't long before the word spread to the continent about the outrageously talented guitarist with an equally outrageous stage presence. Most of that year was spent touring Europe, including stops at various TV and radio studios in several countries. One of these was in the Netherlands, where the Experience performed Foxy Lady live in the studio in November of 1967. The recording of this performance has surfaced as the non-album B side of the Lover Man single released (in limited quantity) for Record Store Day 2018.
Artist: Art
Title: I Think I'm Going Weird
Source: Mono British import CD: Think I'm Going Weird (box set) (originally released on LP: Supernatural Fairy Tales)
Writer(s): Ridley/Grosvenor/Harrison/Kellie
Label: Grapefruit (original label: Island)
Year: 1967
The V.I.P.'s were a popular British R&B band that, like many of their contemporaries, spent some time as the house band at the Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. Upon their return to England in fall of 1966 they participated in a jam session that also included a newly-arrived American guitarist named Jimi Hendrix. It wasn't until the following spring, however that, precipitated by the departure of their keyboardist Keith Emerson to form the Nice, the remaining members of the V.I.P.s decided to change musical direction and embrace psychedelia, changing their name to Art in the process. The band, consisting of Mike Harrison, Greg Ridley, Luther Grosvenor and Mike Kellie, recorded one album in 1967 called Supernatural Fairy Tales before disbanding. Although the only single from that album was a cover of Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth (retitled What's That Sound), the opening track, I Think I'm Going Weird, is probably more representative of Art's sound. Later that year the four members of Art would form Spooky Tooth with American keyboardist/vocalist Gary Wright.
Artist: Mike Stuart Span
Title: Second Production
Source: Mono British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution
Writer(s): Murphy/Bennett
Label: Grapefruit
Year: Recorded 1967, released 2013
Like many British psychedelic bands, the Mike Stuart Span started off as part of the Mod scene, cutting a couple of British R&B flavored singles before changing directions in 1967. In October of that year, they recorded a demo of a tune called Second Production for the British Decca label, but the song went unreleased until the next century, when it was included on a CD collection called Love, Poetry And Revolution. The group ended up releasing a couple more singles before changing their name to Leviathan.
Artist: Fun & Games Commission
Title: Someone Must Have Lied (To You)
Source: Mono British import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): DJ Greer
Label: Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1967
Apparently more than one person got the idea to call a band the Sixpence. In California there was one known as Thee Sixpence before changing their name to Strawberry Alarm Clock. The band I want to talk about, however, was from Houston, and originally called themselves the Six Pents, changing it to the Sixpentz in late 1966. When they discovered the existence of Thee Sixpence they made a name change of their own, to the Fun & Games Commission. They only released two singles before shortening their name to the Fun And Games; the first was a somewhat obscure record for a local Houston label, while the second was released on the larger Mainstream label in 1968. Someone Must Have Lied (To You) was the B side of the final Fun & Games Commission single. As Fun & Games they signed with the even larger Uni label in 1968 and had a somewhat unremarkable career as a bubble gum group.
Artist: Count Five
Title: Psychotic Reaction
Source: Simulated stereo LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michaelski
Label: Rhino (original label: Double Shot)
Year: 1965
San Jose, California, had a vibrant teen music scene in the late 60s, despite the fact that the relatively small (at the time) city was overshadowed by San Francisco at the other end of the bay (both cities were then, as now, considered part of the same metropolitan market). One of the more popular bands in town was Count Five, a group of five individuals who chose to dress up like Bela Lugosi's Dracula, capes and all. Musically, they idolized the Yardbirds (Jeff Beck era), and for slightly more than three minutes managed to sound more like their idols than the Yardbirds themselves (who by then had replaced Beck with Jimmy Page and had shifted musical gears).
Artist: Beatles
Title: I Am The Walrus
Source: CD: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1967
I once ranked over 5000 recordings from the 1920s through the 1990s based on how many times I could listen to each track without getting sick of hearing it. My original intention was to continue the project until I had ranked every recording in my collection, but after about ten years of near-continuous listening to 90-minute cassette tapes that I would update weekly I finally decided that I needed a break, and never went back to it. As a result, many of my favorite recordings (especially album tracks) never got ranked. Of those that did, every song on the top 10 was from the years 1966-69, with the top five all being from 1967. Although I never returned to the project itself, the results I did get convinced me that I was indeed stuck in the psychedelic era, and within five years I had created a radio show inspired by the project. Not surprisingly, the number one recording on my list was I Am The Walrus, a track from the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour that is often considered the apex of British psychedelia.
Artist: Traffic
Title: 40,000 Headmen
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM B side and on LP: Traffic)
Writer(s): Capaldi/Winwood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
The second Traffic album saw the band taking in a broader set of influences, including traditional English folk music. 40,000 Headmen, originally released in the UK as the B side to No Face, No Name, No Number, combines those influences with the Steve Winwood brand of soulful singing to create a timeless classic.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Eight Miles High
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Fifth Dimension)
Writer(s): Clark/McGuinn/Crosby
Label: Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1966
Gene Clark's final contribution to the Byrds was his collaboration with David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, Eight Miles High. Despite a newsletter from the influential Gavin Report advising stations not to play this "drug song", Eight Miles High managed to hit the top 20 in 1966. The band members themselves claimed that Eight Miles High was not a drug song at all, but was instead referring to the experience of travelling by air. In fact, it was Gene Clark's fear of flying, especially long intercontinental trips, that in part led to his leaving the Byrds.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Mind Gardens
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Younger Than Yesterday)
Writer: David Crosby
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Mind Gardens is a perfect example of what songwriter David Crosby refers to as "one of those weird David Crosby songs". The song is a deliberate attempt at abandoning Western concepts such as chord progressions in favor of a more modal approach favored in Eastern composing. Roger McGuinn's guitar perfectly compliments Crosby's esoteric lyrics and melody on this track from the Younger Than Yesterday album, the last LP to be completed with Crosby as a full member of the Byrds.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Have You Seen Her Face
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Chris Hillman
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
Perhaps the greatest surprise on the fourth Byrds album, Younger Than Yesterday, was the emergence of bassist Chris Hillman as a top-tier songwriter, already on a par with David Crosby and the recently departed Gene Clark, and even exceeding Roger McGuinn as a solo writer (most of McGuinn's contributions being as a collaborator rather than a solo songwriter). Although Hillman would eventually find his greatest success as a country artist (with the Desert Rose Band) it was the hard-rocking Have You Seen Her Face that was chosen to become his first track to be released as a single.
Artist: Animals
Title: Cheating
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Burdon/Chandler
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1966
As a general rule, the original Animals wrote very little of their own material, preferring to record covers of their favorite blues songs to supplement the songs from professional songwriters that producer Mickie Most picked for single release. One notable exception is Cheating, a strong effort from vocalist Eric Burdon and bassist Chas Chandler that appeared on the Animalization album. The hard-driving song was also chosen for release as a B side in 1966.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Rock And Roll Woman
Source: LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Cotillion (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
Buffalo Springfield did not sell huge numbers of records (except for the single For What It's Worth) while they were together. Nor did they pack in the crowds. As a matter of fact, when they played the club across the street from where Love was playing, they barely had any audience at all. Artistically, though, it's a whole 'nother story. During their brief existence Buffalo Springfield launched the careers of no less than four major artists: Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Stephen Stills and Neil Young. They also recorded more than their share of tracks that have held up better than most of what else was being recorded at the time. Case in point: Rock And Roll Woman, a Stephen Stills tune that still sounds fresh well over 50 years after it was recorded.
Artist: Jeff Beck
Title: Blues De Luxe
Source: LP: Truth
Writer(s): Beck/Stewart
Label: Epic
Year: 1968
Although credited to guitarist Jeff Beck and vocalist Rod Stewart, B.B. King fans will recognize Blues De Luxe as a reworking of King's best-known tunes, Rock Me Baby, which had originally been released in 1966. After recording the song, which also features Ronnie Wood on bass and Micky Waller on drums, Beck overdubbed applause and other audience sounds from a sound effects disc. He later said it had been a bad decision. Nonetheless, when the first Led Zeppelin album came out the following year, at least one British critic was heard to say that the two slow blues tunes on that album paled by comparison to tracks like Blues De Luxe.
Artist: Rainy Daze
Title: Fe Fi Fo Fum (also issued as Blood Of Oblivion)
Source: Mono LP: Highs In The Sixties Volume 18- Colorado (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Gilbert/Carter
Label: AIP (original label: Uni)
Year: 1967
Formed in Denver, Colorado in 1965, the Rainy Daze are best known for two things: the first was a single called That Acapulco Gold that stalled out at the #70 spot on the Hot 100 when certain influential people realized it was a pro-marijuana song; the second is for being the origin of the songwriting team of Tim Gilbert and John Carter, who co-wrote all but one of the band's original compositions (although Carter was not a member of the band itself) and then went on to write for other bands such as the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Fe Fi Fo Fum was sent out to radio stations as a promo in July of 1967 and almost immediately withdrawn and retitled Blood Of Oblivion, retaining the same catalog number. Nobody seems to know why this was done.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Bron Y-Aur Stomp
Source: German import LP: Led Zeppelin III
Writer: Page/Plant/Jones
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
Although often regarded as the fathers of Heavy Metal, Led Zeppelin was actually capable of playing in a variety of styles. Evolving out of the standard-bearing band of the London blues scene (the Yardbirds), Led Zeppelin soon moved into uncharted territory, recording music that incorporated elements of both American and British folk music as well as rock. Much of the group's third LP (Bron Y-Aur Stomp in particular) sounds like it could have been written and performed in the heart of Appalachia.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Up In Her Room
Source: LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: GNP Crescendo
Year: 1966
One of the first extended jams released on a rock album, Up In Her Room, from the Seeds' second LP, A Web Of Sound, is a sort of sequel to Van Morrison's Gloria (but only the original Them version; the secret of the Shadows Of Knight's success with the song was to replace the line "she comes up to my room" with "she comes around here").
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Mother's Little Helper
Source: Mono CD: Flowers
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1966
By 1966 the Rolling Stones had already had a few brushes with the law over their use of illegal drugs. Mother's Little Helper, released in Spring of '66, is a scathing criticism of the abuse of legal prescription drugs by the parents of the Stones' fans. Perhaps more than any other song of the time, Mother's Little Helper illustrates the increasingly hostile generation gap that had sprung up between the young baby boomers and the previous generation.
Artist: Small Faces
Title: My Mind's Eye
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Marriott/Lane
Label: Rhino (original label: Decca)
Year: 1965
One of the biggest British hits of 1965 was All Or Nothing, a tune by the Small Faces that topped the charts that fall. In an effort to keep the band's chart momentum going in time for the Christmas rush, the shirts at Decca decided to release a rough demo of a Steve Marriott/Ronnie Lane composition called My Mind's Eye as a follow up. It turns out the band's manager, Don Arden, had given the label to go-ahead to release the song without the band's knowledge or permission, leading to the band's decision to leave both Arden and the Decca label early in 1966 to sign with Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham's new Immediate label.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Come On In
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Original Sound
Year: 1966
It only cost a total of $150 for the Music Machine to record both sides of their debut single at RCA Studios in Los Angeles, thanks to the band having been performing the songs live for several months. The band then took the tapes to Original Sound, who issued Talk Talk and Come On In on their own label. It may seem odd now, but original promo copies of the record show Come On In, a song that in many ways anticipated bands like the Doors and Iron Butterfly, as the "plug side" of the record, rather than Talk Talk, which of course went on to become the Music Machine's only major hit.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: I Need A Man To Love
Source: LP: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s): Joplin/Andrew
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
Big Brother and the Holding Company recorded their first album at the Chicago studios of Mainstream records in 1967. Mainstream, however, was a jazz label and their engineers had no idea how to make a band like Big Brother sound the way they did when performing live. When the band signed to Columbia the following year it was decided that the best way to record the band was onstage. Unfortunately, none of the live recordings the band made were considered good enough to be released, so they ended up making studio versions of most of the songs, including I Need A Man To Love, and then added ambient audience noise to them to make them sound like live recordings. Apparently it worked, as the resulting album, Cheap Thrills, ended up being the most successful album of 1968.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Coo Coo
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Peter Albin
Label: Mainstream
Year: 1968
Like most of the bands in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s, Big Brother And The Holding Company had members who had already been part of the local folk music scene when they decided to go electric. Peter Albin, in particular, had established himself as a solo artist before joining the band, and, naturally, brought some of his repertoire with him. Perhaps the most popular of these tunes was a song called Coo Coo (aka The Cuckoo), an old British folk tune that had also been in circulation under the title Jack Of Diamonds. Although there are existing recordings of the song prior to the Big Brother version, Albin took full credit for the tune, possibly due to his providing almost all new lyrics for the track. Coo Coo, recorded in Chicago in 1966, was not included on the group's first LP for Mainstream, instead being issued as a single in early 1968, around the same time Columbia Records was negotiating a buyout of Big Brother's contract with Mainstream. A reworked version of the tune with yet another set of new lyrics and a new musical bridge appeared later the same year on the band's Columbia debut LP, Cheap Thrills, under the title Oh, Sweet Mary. Coo Coo itself was later included on Columbia's reissue of the band's Mainstream LP.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Ball And Chain
Source: LP: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s): Willie Mae Thornton
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
Big Brother And The Holding Company electrified the crowd at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 with their performance of Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton's Ball And Chain. The rest of the world, however, would have to wait until the following year to hear Janis Joplin's version of the old blues tune, when a live performance recorded at Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium was included on the LP Cheap Thrills.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Colors For Susan
Source: LP: I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
The second Country Joe And The Fish album, I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die, was, like the band's debut LP, made up of equal parts acid-rock, jug band and what would come to be known as "rock and soul" music. The most acid-rock sounding track on the album is the instrumental Colors For Susan, which is kind of like Bass Strings minus the lyrics. Like many of McDonald's songs from that period, Colors For Susan was inspired by someone he knew personally, in this case flautist Susan Graubard of Pat Kilroy's group The New Age.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Let Me In (original uncensored version)
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Year: 1966
Not long after the first copies of Jefferson Airplane Takes Off hit the streets of San Francisco, the Shirts at RCA Victor told the band to go back to the studio and change the lyrics on two of the album's songs. The biggest changes were made to Let Me In, the first song that featured Paul Kantner rather than Marty Balin on lead vocals. Arguing that the original lyrics were too sexually suggestive for a teen-oriented audience, Balin and Kantner changed the line " I gotta get in, you know where" to "You shut your door, now it ain't fair". In addition, the line "Don't tell me you want money" was changed to "Don't tell me it's so funny" because, according to the Shirts, the original version could be interpreted as a reference to prostitution. As an aside, I did a search for both sets of lyrics on the internet, but the only ones that showed up were billed as the "original uncensored" lyrics, yet in every case were actually the revised ones. Explain that one to me!
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