https://exchange.prx.org/p/537024
It's a real mixed bag this week, with trips up and down through the years, sets of tunes from a single year, artists' sets and even a request to start off the show. And if you listen closely you might spot a tune written and sung by a pre-ZZ Top Billy Gibbons.
Artist: Pretty Things
Title: Rosalyn
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Duncan/Farley
Label: Rhino (original label: Fontana)
Year: 1964
At a time when the length of one's hair was a defining characteristic of "hipness", London's Pretty Things were reputed to have the longest hair in the UK. Formed in 1962 by vocalist Phil May and original Rolling Stones bassist Dick Taylor on guitar, the Pretty Things were heavily influenced by American blues artists Bo Diddley and Jimmy Reed. In fact, their first single, Rosalyn, although written by their producers, Jimmy Duncan and Bill Farley, had a distinctive Bo Diddley sound to it, albeit even louder and more brash than any of Diddley's own records. The song was a modest hit in the UK, but did not chart at all in the States. Although the Pretty Things never caught on in the US, they had considerable success with their next two singles in their native Britain, as well as Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand. Numerous personnel changes over the years, however, led to the group being perceived as not having a distinctive sound, and they were never able to duplicate the success of their early years.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Let Me Be
Source: CD: 20 Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: It Ain't Me Babe and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): P.F. Sloan
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1965
The Turtles were nothing if not able to redefine themselves when the need arose. Originally a surf band known as the Crossfires, the band quickly adopted an "angry young men" stance with their first single, Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe, and the subsequent album of the same name. For the follow-up single the band chose a track from their album, Let Me Be, that, although written by a different writer, had the same general message as It Ain't Me Babe. The band would soon switch over to love songs like Happy Together and She'd Rather Be With Me before taking their whole chameleon bit to its logical extreme with an album called Battle Of The Bands on which each track was meant to sound like it was done by an entirely different group.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Tripmaker
Source: LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer(s): Tybalt/Hooper
Label: GNP Crescendo
Year: 1966
For some strange reason whenever I hear the song Tripmaker from the second Seeds album, A Web Of Sound, I am reminded of a track from the Smash Mouth album Astro Lounge. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which one came first.
Artist: Chocolate Watch Band
Title: No Way Out
Source: CD: No Way Out
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
The Chocolate Watch Band, from the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area (specifically Foothills Junior College in Los Altos Hills), was fairly typical of the South Bay music scene, centered in San Jose. Although they were generally known for lead vocalist Dave Aguilar's ability to channel Mick Jagger with uncanny accuracy, producer Ed Cobb gave them a more psychedelic sound in the studio with the use of studio effects and other enhancements (including additional songs on their albums that were performed entire by studio musicians). The title track of No Way Out, released as the band's debut LP in 1967, is credited to Cobb, but in reality is a fleshing out of a jam the band had previously recorded, but had not released. That original jam, known as Psychedelic Trip, is now available as a mono bonus track on the No Way Out CD and as a limited edition Record Store Day single B side.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Feelin' Alright
Source: CD: Traffic
Writer: Dave Mason
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
Dave Mason left Traffic after the band's first album, Mr. Fantasy, but returned in time to contribute several songs to the band's eponymous second album. Among those was his most memorable song, Feelin' Alright, which would become one of the most covered songs in rock history.
Artist: Cream
Title: Tales Of Brave Ulysses
Source: Mono European import LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Clapton/Sharp
Label: Lilith (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
In Europe Tales Of Brave Ulysses was released as the B side of Strange Brew. Both songs were taken from Cream's second LP, Disraeli Gears. Cream was one of the first bands to break tradition and release singles that were also available as album cuts. This tradition likely came about because hit singles tended to stay in print indefinitely overseas, unlike in the US, where a 45 RPM single usually had a shelf life of around 2-3 months and then disappeared forever.
Artist: Cream
Title: Politician
Source: CD: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Although the songwriting team of Jack Bruce and Pete Brown are best known for providing Cream with its more psychedelic songs such as White Room and Swlabr, they did occasionally come up with bluesier numbers such as Politician from the Wheels Of Fire album. The song quickly became a staple of Cream's live performances.
Artist: Cream
Title: Sunshine Of Your Love
Source: Mono European import LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown/Clapton
Label: Lilith (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
Although by mid-1967 Cream had already released a handful of singles in the UK, Sunshine Of Your Love, featuring one of the most recognizable guitar rifts in the history of rock, was their first song to make a splash in the US. Although only moderately successful in edited form on AM Top-40 radio, the full-length LP version of the song received extensive airplay on the more progressive FM stations, and turned Disraeli Gears into a perennial best-seller. Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce constantly trade off lead vocal lines throughout the song. The basic compatibility of their voices is such that it is sometimes difficult to tell exactly who is singing what line. Clapton's guitar solo (which was almost entirely edited out of the single version of the song) set a standard for instrumental breaks in terms of length and style that became a hallmark for what is now known as "classic rock". Yeah, I write this stuff myself.
Artist: B. B. King
Title: Heartbreaker
Source: British import CD: Blues On Top Of Blues
Writer(s): B.B. King
Label: BGO (original US label: Bluesway)
Year: 1968
Although not the best-known of B.B. King's many albums, 1968's Blues On Top Of Blues is one of the most polished, featuring, in addition to the traditional guitar, bass and drums, a horn section and an organist. The result is a surprisingly fresh sounding album, even well over forty years later. All the songs on the album, including opening track Heartbreaker, were written by King.
Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Summer In The City
Source: LP: Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful
Writer(s): Sebastian/Sebastian/Boone
Label: Sundazed/Kama Sutra
Year: 1966
The Lovin' Spoonful changed gears completely for what would become their biggest hit of 1966: Summer In The City. Inspired by a poem by John Sebastian's brother, the song was recorded for the album Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful. That album was an attempt by the band to deliberately record in a variety of styles; in the case of Summer In The City, it was a rare foray into psychedelic rock for the band. Not coincidentally, Summer In The City is also my favorite Lovin' Spoonful song.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: The Electric Prunes and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Tucker/Mantz
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1966
The Electric Prunes' biggest hit was I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), released in November of 1966. The record, initially released without much promotion from their 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 the original Lenny Kaye Nuggets compilation (and the second track on Rhino's first Nuggets LP).
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Hey Joe
Source: CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original UK label: Polydor)
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. It was released as a single in the UK in late 1966 and went all the way to the # 3 spot on the British top 40. Hendrix's version is a bit heavier than Rose's and leaves off the first verse ("where you going with that money in your hand") entirely. Although Rose always claimed that Hey Joe was a traditional folk song, the song was actually copyrighted in 1962 by California folk singer Billy Roberts. By the time Hendrix recorded Hey Joe several American bands had recorded a fast version of the song, with the Leaves hitting the US top 40 with it in early 1966.
Artist: Outsiders
Title: What Makes You So Bad You Weren't Brought Up That Way
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): King/Kelley
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966
The Starfires were a Cleveland band founded in 1958 by 15-year-old guitarist Tom King that played mostly instrumental cover versions of R&B hits. Over the next few years they released several singles on small independent labels such as Pama (owned by King's uncle), usually billed as Tom King And The Starfires. In 1964, in the wake of the British invasion, the band added vocalist Sonny Geraci. Around this time King entered a songwriting partnership with his brother in law, Chet Kelley, providing the Starfires with most of the original material. In late 1965 the Starfires recorded a King/Kelley composition called Time Won't Let Me, which led to the band signing with Capitol Records. For reasons that are not entirely clear the band changed its name to the Outsiders before releasing the song in February of 1966. The success of Time Won't Let Me led to the Outsiders recording an entire album that included five King/Kelley originals along with half a dozen cover songs, a typical mix for 1966. Drummer Ronnie Harkai, who had played on Time Won't Let Me, enlisted in the Air Force shortly after recording the song, so another drummer, Jimmy Fox, who had been a member of the Starfires a few years earlier, was brought in to play on the album before going on to form his own band, the James Gang. Among the original tunes recorded for the LP was the slow ballad Girl In Love, which became the band's second single. The B side of that record, also taken from the album, was a garage-rock styled track called What Makes You So Bad You Weren't Brought Up That Way, one of the more overlooked gems of the psychedelic era.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Watch Your Step
Source: Mono CD: I'm A Man (bonus track originally released in UK on LP: The Second Album & in US on LP: Heavies)
Writer(s): Bobby Parker
Label: Sundazed (original UK label: Fontana; original US label: United Artists)
Year: British release: 1966, US release 1969
Discrepancies between the UK and US catalogs of mid-1960s British bands are common, with similarly-named albums often having radically different song lineups. In the case of the Spencer Davis Group, the difference is even more pronounced, as the band had already released three studio albums by the time Gimme Some Lovin' became their first American hit in early 1967. All three of these early LPs had been made up primarily of R&B cover songs, with less than an album's worth of original material to be found on all three combined. Many of these covers were not included on either of the two Spencer Davis Group albums released in the US in 1967. In 1969, however, with vocalist Steve Winwood getting a lot of attention in the US as lead vocalist for Blind Faith, United Artists dug out several of these covers, including Watch Your Step (from The Second Album) and released them on an album called Heavies.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Heroes And Villains (alternate take)
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on CD: Smiley Smile/Wild Honey)
Writer(s): Wilson/Parks
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded 1967, released 1995
The last major Beach Boys hit of the 1960s was Heroes And Villains, released as a follow-up to Good Vibrations in early 1967. The song was intended to be part of the Smile album, but ended up being released as a single in an entirely different form than Brian Wilson originally intended. Eventually the entire Smile project was canned, and a considerably less sophisticated album called Smiley Smile was released in its place. Nearly 30 years later Smiley Smile and its follow-up album, Wild Honey, were released on compact disc as a set. One of the bonus tracks in that set was this alternate version of Heroes And Villains, which was also included in the box set Good Vibrations-Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys. Finally, in 2004, Brian Wilson's Smile, featuring all new stereo recordings, was released, with an arrangement of Heroes And Villains that was quite similar to the one heard here.
Artist: Playboys
Title: Sad
Source: CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Australia as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Brian Peacock
Label: Rhino (original label: International Sunshine)
Year: 1967
The Playboys were a band from Melbourne, Australia that found its initial success backing up singer Normie Rowe, as well as releasing several singles on their own on the Sunshine label. In 1966 Rowe and the Playboys relocated to London, but found little success there, returning to Australia the following year with a couple of new members. Before leaving London this combined British-Australian lineup released one single that appeared in Australia and New Zealand on the International Sunshine label and in the UK on the Immediate label before disbanding several months later. Sad, written by bassist/vocalist Brian Peacock, was the B side of that single.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: I Won't Hurt You
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Part One)
Writer: Harris/Lloyd/Markley
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Unlike more famous L.A. groups like Love and the Doors, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band was not a Sunset Strip club band. In fact, the WCPAEB really didn't play that many live performances in their career, although those they did tended to be at high profile venues such as the Hollywood Bowl. The band was formed when the Harris brothers, sons of an accomplished classical musician, decided to record their own album and release it on the small Fifa label. Only a few copies of that album, Volume One, were made and finding one now is next to impossible. That might have been the end of the story except for the fact that they were acquaintances of Kim Fowley, the Zelig-like record producer and all-around Hollywood (and sometimes London) hustler. Fowley invited them to a party where the Yardbirds were playing; a party also attended by one Bob Markley. Markley, who was nearly ten years older than the Harris brothers, was a former TV show host from the midwest who had moved out to the coast to try his luck in Hollywood. Impressed by the flock of young girls surrounding the Yardbirds, Markley expressed to Fowley his desire to be a rock and roll star and have the girls flock around him, too. Fowley, ever the deal-maker, responded by introducing Markley to the Harris Brothers and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band was born. With the addition of guitarist Michael Lloyd and the influence of Markley's not-inconsiderable family money, the group soon landed a contract with Reprise Records, where they proceeded to record the album Part One, which includes the tune I Won't Hurt You, which uses a simulated heartbeat to keep the...umm, beat.
Artist: Jelly Bean Bandits
Title: Tapestries
Source: British Import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released on LP: The Jelly Bean Bandits)
Writer(s): Buck/Donald/Dougherty/Raab/Scalfari
Label: Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1968
Of the various albums released on Bob Shad's Mainstream label from 1966-1969, one of the most fully realized was the first (and only) album by the Jelly Bean Bandits. Formed as the Mirror in 1966, the Bandits built up a following in the native Newburgh, NY and surrounding areas over a period on months. The particularly brash move of tearing pages out of the yellow pages and showing up unannounced at the offices of various record labels led them to a meeting with Shad at Mainstream's New York offices. After listening to the band's demos Shad offered the Jelly Bean Bandits a contract to record three albums, but, sadly, only one was released. One of the highlights of that album was Tapestries, sung by drummer Joe Scalfari. The Bandits immediately got to work on a second album, but a combination of internal and financial difficulties, coupled with lack of promotional support from their label, led to the group's early demise.
Artist: Arthur Conley
Title: Sweet Soul Music
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Redding/Conley
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Arthur Conley began performing professionally while still in his teens, but had his greatest success at the age of 21, when he and fellow Georgia native Otis Redding reworked Sam Cooke's Yeah Man (which had been released posthumously) into a song they called Sweet Soul Music. The upbeat tune, which became an instant staple of cover bands, namechecks several R&B stars of the time, including Lou Rawls, James Brown and Redding himself. Sweet Sould music was Conley's greatest success, going to the #2 spot on both the top 40 and Soul charts in the US and making the top 10 in the UK as well. In the 1980s Conley moved to the Netherlands and finished out his career as Lee Roberts. He died in 2003.
Artist: Byrds
Title: My Back Pages
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
One of the items of contention between David Crosby and Roger McGuinn was the latter's insistence on continuing to record covers of Bob Dylan songs when the band members themselves had a wealth of their own material available. Indeed, it was reportedly an argument over whether or not to include Crosby's Triad on the next album that resulted in Crosby being fired from the band in October of 1967 (although other factors certainly played into it as well). Nonetheless, the last Dylan cover with Crosby still in the band was perhaps their best as well. Although not as big a hit as Mr. Tambourine Man, My Back Pages from the Younger Than Yesterday album did respectably well on the charts, becoming one of the Byrds' last top 40 hits.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Renaissance Fair
Source: Mono LP: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Crosby/McGuinn
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Younger Than Yesterday was David Crosby's last official album with the Byrds (he was fired midway through the recording of The Notorious Byrd Brothers) and the last one containing any collaborations between Crosby and Jim (now Roger) McGuinn. Renaissance Fair is one of those collaborations. The song was inspired by a free concert given in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park by the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, among others.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Thoughts And Words
Source: Mono LP: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Chris Hillman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
In addition to recording the most commercially successful Dylan cover songs, the Byrds had a wealth of original material over the course of several albums. On their first album, these came primarily from guitarists Gene Clark and Jim (now Roger) McGuinn, with David Crosby emerging as the group's third songwriter on the band's second album. After Clark's departure, bassist Chris Hillman began writing as well, and had three credits as solo songwriter on the group's fourth LP, Younger Than Yesterday. Hillman credits McGuinn, however, for coming up with the distinctive reverse-guitar break midway through Thoughts And Words.
Artist: Love
Title: Signed D.C.
Source: German import CD: Love
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Elektra/Warner Strategic Marketing
Year: 1966
The only acoustic track on the first Love album was Signed D.C., a slow ballad in the tradition of House of the Rising Sun. The song takes the form of a letter penned by a heroin addict, and the imagery is both stark and disturbing. Although Lee was known to occasionally say otherwise, the song title probably refers to Love's original drummer Don Conka, who left the band before their first recording sessions due to (you guessed it) heroin addiction.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound, stereo LP version released on 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. 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: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: I Need A Man To Love
Source: CD: 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: Santana
Title: Evil Ways
Source: LP: Santana
Writer(s): Clarence Henry
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
Evil Ways was originally released in 1968 by jazz percussionist Willie Bobo on an album of the same name. When Carlos Santana took his new band into the studio to record their first LP, they made the song their own, taking it into the top 10 in 1969.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Serenade To A Cuckoo
Source: CD: This Was
Writer(s): Roland Kirk
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Jethro Tull did not, as a general rule, record cover tunes. The most notable exception is Roland Kirk's classic jazz piece Serenade To A Cuckoo, which was included on their first LP, This Was. For years, the Kirk version was out of print, making Jethro Tull's cover the only available version of this classic tune throughout the 1970s.
Artist: Beatles
Title: She's Leaving Home
Source: LP: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol/EMI
Year: 1967
One of the striking things about the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the sheer variety of songs on the album. Never before had a rock band gone so far beyond its roots in so many directions at once. One of Paul McCartney's most poignant songs on the album was She's Leaving Home. The song tells the story of a young girl who has decided that her stable homelife is just too unfulling to bear and heads for the big city. Giving the song added depth is the somewhat clueless response of her parents, who can't seem to understand what went wrong.
Artist: Association
Title: Round Again
Source: Mono LP: And Now…Along Comes The Association
Writer(s): Gary Alexander
Label: Valiant
Year: 1966
Although they are now best remembered for love ballads such as Cherish and Never My Love, the Association was, in their early days, one of the hottest and tightest acts on the Los Angeles club scene. Their first LP, for the Valiant label, reflects the sheer amount of raw talent in the band, including Gary Alexander, who wrote the offbeat Round Again.
Artist: Amboy Dukes
Title: Baby Please Don't Go
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released on LP: The Amboy Dukes)
Writer(s): Joe Williams
Label: Rhino (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1967
The Amboy Dukes were a garage supergroup formed by guitarist Ted Nugent, a Chicago native who had heard that Bob Shad, head of jazz-oriented Mainstream Records, was looking for rock bands to sign to the label. Nugent relocated to Detroit in 1967, where he recruited vocalist John Drake, guitarist Steve Farmer, organist Rick Lober, bassist Bill White and drummer Dave Palmer, all of whom had been members of various local bands. The Dukes' self-titled debut LP was released in November of 1967. In addition to seven original pieces, the album included a handful of cover songs, the best of which was their rocked out version of the old Joe Williams tune Baby Please Don't Go. The song was released as a single in January of 1968, where it got a decent amount of airplay in the Detroit area, and was ultimately chosen by Lenny Kaye for inclusion on the original Nuggets compilation album, although, unlike with the rest of the tracks on that first Nuggets collection, Kaye chose to use the longer album version of Baby Please Don't Go.
Artist: Cherry Slush
Title: I Cannot Stop You
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 2 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Dick Wagner
Label: Elektra (original labels: Coconut Grove/USA)
Year: 1967
I Cannot Stop You, released by the Cherry Slush in 1967, has the distinction of being one of the few garage-rock singles to show up on all three of the US charts: Billboard, Cashbox and Record World. Not that it charted particularly high on all of them (its highest position was #35 on the Cashbox chart), but it was successful enough to keep the band going for a couple more years. The group was originally formed in late 1964 as the Wayfarers by a group of eigth-graders at Saginaw's Arthur Hill High School. As one of the first garage bands to jump on the folk-rock bandwagon they changed their name to the Bells Of Rhymny in 1966. That year, the band recorded a few demos that they later played for Dick Wagner, a popular local guitarist who fronted his own band, the Bossmen. Wagner liked what he heard and agreed to produce their first single, a song he wrote himself called The Wicked Old Witch. The song was released on the local Dicto label. The band recorded Wagner's I Cannot Stop You as a followup single, but personnel changes and a search for a record deal delayed the song's release until late in the year, by which time the band had changed its name to the Cherry Slush. Once the single had been released, on the local Coconut Grove label, it quickly gained popularity on local top 40 radio, and the band was close to signing with Columbia Records when they found out their contract with Coconut Grove had been sold to the Chicago based USA label, which reissued the song nationally in early 1968. Unfortunately, USA itself went bankrupt just as the band was releasing their next single, dashing their hopes of breaking out nationally. After releasing one more single (as The Slush) on yet another small local label (Chivalry) the group decided to call it quits in 1969.
Artist: Moving Sidewalks
Title: 99th Floor
Source: Mono LP: Also Dug-Its (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Billy Gibbons
Label: Elektra (original label: Tantara)
Year: 1968
Formed in 1966 in Houston, Texas, the Moving Sidewalks quickly became one of the most popular bands on the local teen scene, often sharing the bill with the 13th Floor Elevators. Their first single, 99th Floor, was released on the local Tantara label, and led to the band being picked up by the national Wand label for a pair of singles before returning to Tantara for two more singles and a full-length LP. Much of the band's original material was either written or co-written by the band's vocalist and lead guitarist, Billy Gibbons. When half the band got drafted into the US Army in 1969, Gibbons formed a new group called ZZ Top.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: (Ballad Of The) Hip Death Goddess
Source: LP: Ultimate Spinach
Writer(s): Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1968
Ultimate Spinach was the brainchild of Ian Bruce-Douglas, who wrote and arranged all the band's material. Although the group had no hit singles, some tracks, such as (Ballad of the) Hip Death Goddess received a significant amount of airplay on progressive "underground" FM stations. The recording, featuring the vocals of Barbara Jean Hudson, has in more recent years been used by movie producers looking to invoke a late 60s atmosphere.
