Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2608 (starts 2/16/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/607601

    Got a busy one this week. We start with a 1967 UK set, then start trippin' through the years over and over until we find ourselves taking in some Pop Art (of the Experimental kind). From there we continue trippin' through the years, stopping off in 1967 for a while before finishing things out with an all-American set from 1966.

Artist:    Small Faces
Title:    Itchycoo Park
Source:    LP: History Of British Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Marriott/Lane
Label:    Sire (original labe: Immediate)
Year:    1967
    Led by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, the Small Faces got their name from the fact that all the members of the band were somewhat vertically challenged. The group was quite popular with the London mod crowd, and was sometimes referred to as the East End's answer to the Who. Although quite successful in the UK, the group only managed to score one hit in the US, the iconic Itchycoo Park, which was released in late 1967. Following the departure of Marriott the group shortened their name to Faces, and recruited a new lead vocalist named Rod Stewart. Needless to say, the new version of the band did much better in the US than their previous incarnation.
 
Artist:    Who
Title:    I Can't Reach You/Medac (aka Spotted Henry)/Relax
Source:    Mono LP: The Who Sell Out 
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    Decca
Year:    1967
    One day during my freshman year of high school my friend Bill invited a bunch of us over to his place to listen to the new console stereo his family had bought recently. Like most console stereos, this one had a wooden top that could be lifted up to operate the turntable and radio, then closed to make it look more like a piece of furniture. When we arrived there was already music playing on the stereo, and Bill soon had us convinced that this new stereo was somehow picking up the British pirate radio station Radio London. This was pretty amazing since we were in Mainz, Germany, several hundred miles from England or its coastal waters that Radio London broadcast from. Even more amazing was the fact that the broadcast itself seemed to be in stereo, and Radio London was an AM station. Yet there it was, coming in more clearly than the much closer Radio Luxembourg, the powerhouse station that we listened to every evening, when they broadcast in a British top 40 format. Although a couple of us were a bit suspicious about what was going on, even we skeptics were convinced when we heard jingles, stingers, and even commercials for stuff like the Charles Atlas bodybuilding course and Medac acne cream interspersed with songs we had never heard, like I Can't Reach You and Relax. Well, as it turned out, we were indeed being hoaxed by Bill and his older brother, who had put on his brand new copy of The Who Sell Out when he saw us approaching the apartment building they lived in. I eventually picked up a copy of the LP for myself, and still consider it my favorite Who album. 

Artist:    Bee Gees
Title:    New York Mining Disaster-1941
Source:    LP: History Of British Rock (originally released on LP: Bee Gees 1st)
Writer(s):    Barry & Robin Gibb
Label:    Sire (original label: Atco)
Year:    1967
    The very first Bee Gees song I ever heard was New York Mining Disaster-1941. It was nothing like the other songs being played on Denver's top 40 (technically top 60) station, KIMN, and I took an immediate liking to its unusual harmonies and sorrowful lyrics. For some reason, though, I never bought a copy of the single, or even the album that it was taken from until the 1990s, when I found a beat up used copy of Bee Gees 1st at a local music shop (that's since been replaced by a CD copy).

Artist:    Johnny Rivers
Title:    Whisky-a-Go-Go
Source:    LP: Johnny Rivers At Whisky-a-Go-Go
Writer(s):    arr. by Johnny Rivers
Label:    Imperial
Year:    1964
    Although not exactly a psychedelic album, Johnny Rivers At Whisky-A-Go-Go is nonetheless an important milestone in the history of psychedelic music in America. Released in 1964, it was the first album recorded at what was then a brand new venue on Los Angeles' Sunset Boulevard. In fact the group consisting of Rivers (guitar/vocals), Joe Osborne (bass), Joe Sample(piano) and Eddie Rubin (drums) was the club's house band for their first year of operation. Rivers, in the early part of his career, was a blues and rock and roll purist, reviving such notable songs as Chuck Berry's Memphis. For the final track on the first side of his debut album, Rivers chose to put together bits and pieces of several classic blues songs that were, for the most part, unknown to his young audience, naming the entire piece after the Whisky A-G-Go itself. Although Rivers himself would go on to become part of the music industry establishment (starting Soul City Records in 1966), the Whisky soon became the epicenter of L.A.'s own underground rock scene, with such notables as Gypsy, Love and the Doors serving as house band at various times. 

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1965
    Unlike Positively 4th Street, which used the same musicians that played on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited album, Bob Dylan's December 1965 single Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window features a backing track by the Hawks, who would go on to be Dylan's tour band and later become famous in their own right as...The Band. The mono non-album track was not made available in any other form until 1978, when it appeared on a compilation called Masterpieces. An extended stereo mix of Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window was finally released in 2015, on the limited Collector's Edition of The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966. Although most sources say the song was recorded on November 30, 1965, there is a problem with that date, since a Long Island band called the Vacels had released their own version of the song on the Kama Sutra label in October of that year; hardly possible with a song that Dylan had not yet recorded himself, unless they had somehow laid hands on a demo of the song that has never surfaced. 

Artist:    Yardbirds
Title:    Over Under Sideways Down
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer:    Dreja/Relf/Samwell-Smith/McCarty/Beck
Label:    Epic
Year:    1966
     The only Yardbirds album to feature primarily original material was released under different titles in different parts of the world. The original UK version was called simply The Yardbirds, while the US album bore the Over Under Sideways Down title. In addition, the UK album was unofficially known as Roger the Engineer because of band member Chris Dreja's drawing of the band's recording engineer on the cover. The title cut was the last single to feature Jeff Beck as the band's sole lead guitarist (the follow-up single, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, featured both Beck and new member Jimmy Page).

Artist:    Doors
Title:    My Eyes Have Seen You
Source:    LP: Strange Days
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    It's strange. Some reviewers seem to think that the album Strange Days is inferior to the first Doors album. They justify this view by citing the fact that almost all the songs on both albums were already in the band's repertoire when they signed their record contract with Elektra. The implication is that the band naturally selected the best material for the first album, making Strange Days a collection of sloppy seconds. There is one small problem with this theory however. Pick a song at random from Strange Days and listen to it and in all likelihood it will sound every bit as good as a song randomly picked from the first album (and probably better than one picked from either of the Doors' next two LPs). In fact, I'll pick one for you: My Eyes Have Seen You. See what I mean?

Artist:    Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title:    Local Color
Source:    LP: Anthology (originally released on LP: What About Me) 
Writer(s):    John Cippolina
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1970
    According to legend, Quicksilver Messenger Service was originally the brainchild of Dino Valenti and John Cipollina (and possibly Gary Duncan). The day after their first practice session Valenti got busted and spent the next few years in jail for marijuana possession. Meanwhile, Cipolina and Duncan decided to go ahead with the group and soon recruited bassist David Freiberg and guitarist Skip Spence. The group worked on material during off hours at the Matrix, a club created and managed by singer Marty Balin. Balin was in the process of putting together his own band and managed to convince Spence to switch to drums and join what would become Jefferson Airplane. To make up for stealing one their new bandmates, Balin introduced the remaining trio to drummer Greg Elmore and guitarist–singer Gary Duncan, whose band the Brogues had just called it quits. They still didn't have a name when they played their first gig in December of 1965, but Freiberg and new member Jim Murray figured out that all five members of the band had an astrological connection to the planet Mercury, which in turn led to them adopting  the name Quicksilver (another name for Mercury) Messenger (the assigned task of the Roman god Mercury) Service. Murray ended up leaving the band in 1967, leaving the remaining quartet to build up a solid following over the next few years. Duncan temporarily left the group following their second LP, Happy Trails, and was replaced by British keyboardist Nicky Hopkins for the album Shady Grove. The following year Valenti was released from San Quentin and he Duncan rejoined the band for the simultaneous recording of the band's next two albums in Hawaii. Most of the songwriting credits on these two albums went to Valenti, using the alias Jesse Orin Farrow, but for my money the best tracks are the few written by other band members, such as Cippolina's Local Color on the What About Me album.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Picture Book
Source:    LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook (originally released on LP: The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society)
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society was the last studio album to feature the original Kinks lineup of Ray Davies, Dave Davies, Pete Quaife and Mick Avory. Released in November of 1968 in the UK and early 1969 in the US, it was one of the first rock concept albums, and marked the end of the band's transition from pop stars to cult favorites. Picture Book, also released as the B side of the album's first single, is about looking though an old photo album and reflecting on its contents. Ray Davies later said that the track was not originally intended to be a Kinks song due to it being autobiographical in nature. Despite being lauded by the rock press The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society was not a commercial success, and was outsold by The Kinks Greatest Hits, a compilation of their pre-1967 singles that was released around the same time.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    It's All Over Now
Source:    CD: Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Bobby & Shirley Womack
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1964
    During a 1964 on-air interview with the Rolling Stones, New York DJ Murray the K played a copy of a song called It's All Over Now by Bobby Womack's band, the Valentinos. The song had been a minor hit earlier in the year, spending two weeks in the top 100, and the Stones were reportedly knocked out by the record, calling it "our kind of song." Less than two weeks later the Stones recorded their own version of the song, which became their first number one hit in the UK. At first, Womack was reportedly against the idea of a British band recording his song, but changed his mind when he saw his first royalty check from the Stones' recording. 

Artist:    Jimmy Page
Title:    She Just Satisfies
Source:    European import 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Page/Mason
Label:    Fontana
Year:    1965
    Already established as a studio guitarist and harmonica player, 21-year-old Jimmy Page cut his first single under his own name in 1965. The A side, She Just Satisfies, also featured vocals. It was his last release as a solo artist until 1988.

Artist:     Kinks
Title:     Dead End Street
Source:     Mono British import CD: Face To Face (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Ray Davies
Label:     Sanctuary (original US label: Reprise)
Year:     1966
     The last big US hit for the Kinks in the 60s was Sunny Afternoon in late 1966. The follow-up, Dead End Street, was in much the same style, but did not achieve the same kind of success (although it was a hit in the UK). The Kinks would not have another major US hit until the 1970 worldwide smash Lola.

Artist:     Moby Grape
Title:     Omaha
Source:     45 RPM single
Writer:     Skip Spence
Label:     Columbia
Year:     1967
     As an ill-advised promotional gimmick, Columbia Records released five separate singles concurrently with the first Moby Grape album. Of the five singles, only one, Omaha, actually charted, and it only got to the #86 spot. Meanwhile, the heavy promotion by the label led to Moby Grape getting the reputation of being over-hyped, much to the detriment of the band's career. 

Artist:     Beacon Street Union
Title:     Sadie Said No
Source:     British import CD: The Eyes of the Beacon Street Union/The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens
Writer(s):     Ulaky/Wright
Label:     See For Miles (original label: M-G-M)
Year:     1967
     By the time The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union LP was released the band had already relocated to New York. That didn't stop executives from M-G-M from including the Union as part of its ill-fated "Bosstown Sound" promotion. In the short term it may have generated some interest, but it was soon clear that the "Bosstown Sound" was empty hype, which in the long run hurt the band's credibility. This is a shame, since the music on The Eyes of the Beacon Street Union is actually quite listenable, as can be heard on the tongue-in-cheek Sadie Said No, which opens the LP's second side.

Artist:    Love
Title:    My Little Red Book
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released on LP: Love)
Writer(s):    Bacharach/David
Label:    Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1966
    The first rock record ever released by Elektra Records was a single by Love called My Little Red Book. The track itself (which also opens Love's debut LP), is a punked out version of a tune originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the What's New Pussycat movie soundtrack. Needless to say, Love's version was not exactly what composers Burt Bacharach and Hal David had in mind when they wrote the song.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    Star Collector
Source:    CD: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer(s):    Goffin/King
Label:    Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year:    1967
    The Monkees were one of the first bands to utilize the Moog synthesizer on a rock record. One of the two tracks that uses the device extensively is Star Collector, a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and sung by the late Davy Jones. Usually Jones was picked to sing the band's love ballads. Star Collector, on the other hand, is a wild, almost humorous look at rock groupies; the type of song that on earlier Monkees albums would have been given to Peter Tork to sing. The synthesizer in Star Collector was programmed and played by Paul Beaver (of Beaver and Krause). Tork later said that he didn't think much of Beaver's performance, saying "he played it like a flute or something" rather than exploit the unique sounds the Moog was capable of producing.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    I Will
Source:    CD: The Beatles
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year:    1968
    Once upon a time, as I walked home from the BX on Ramstein Air Force Base with my new unopened copy of The Beatles (aka the White Album) I wondered how they managed to fit 30 songs on a double LP set. After hearing I Will, a Paul McCartney tune that clocks in at one minute and fifty seconds, I had my answer.

Artist:    Tangerine Zoo
Title:    Nature's Children
Source:    CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released on LP: Tangerine Zoo)
Writer(s):    Medeiros/Smith
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year:    1968
    Many of the acts signed to Bob Shad's Mainstream label are considered by rock historians to be somewhat lacking in one or another categories, such as songwriting, virtuosity or just plain commercial viability. This has resulted in the reputations of the few quality bands appearing on the label to be somewhat unfairly tarnished by association. One of those bands that really deserves a second look is the Tangerine Zoo, from Swansea, Mass., a few miles south of Boston. The band, made up of Tony Taviera (bass), Wayne Gagnon (guitar), Ron Medieros (organ), Bob Benevides (lead vocals) and Donald Smith (drums), recorded two albums for the label, both of which were released in 1968. Tangerine Zoo had actually been approached by no less than two major labels (RCA Victor and Mercury) before deciding to go with Mainstream, the only label to offer them an album contract from the start. Unfortunately internal issues caused the Zoo to close down before they could record a third LP. 

Artist:    West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:    Ritual #1
Source:    CD: Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Writer(s):    Markley/Harris
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    Technically, Volume III is actually the fourth album by the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. The first one was an early example of a practice that would become almost mandatory for a new band in the 1990s. The LP, titled Volume 1, was recorded at a home studio and issued on the tiny Fifa label. Many of the songs on that LP ended up being re-recorded for their major label debut, which they called Part One. That album was followed by Volume II, released in late 1967. The following year they released their final album for Reprise, which in addition to being called Volume III was subtitled A Child's Guide To Good And Evil. Included on that album were Ritual #1 and Ritual #2, neither of which sounds anything like the other.

Artist:    West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:    As Kind As Summer
Source:    LP: Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Writer(s):    Markley/Harris
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1968
    The first time I heard As Kind As Summer from the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band album Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil I jumped up to see what was wrong with my turntable. A real gotcha moment.

Artist:     West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:     Shifting Sands (single mix)
Source:     Mono CD: A Child's Guide To Good and Evil (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Baker Knight
Label:     Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1967
    The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band had its beginnings around 1964 when guitarist Michael Lloyd, veteran of several Los Angeles based surf bands, formed a new group called Laughing Wind with Shaun and Danny Harris (bass and lead guitar respectively) and drummer John Ware. In 1965 they attended a party hosted by Bob Markley, the adopted son of an oil tycoon and former host of Oklahoma Bandstand who had relocated to L.A. a few years earlier. It turned out that Markley and the members of Laughing Wind had something in common: they both were connected to Kim Fowley, the Ultimate Hollywood Hipster, as was a British band known as the Yardbirds that played at Markley's party. After seeing how the teenage girls gathered around the members of the Yardbirds, Markley decided he wanted to be in a rock band too, and let it be known that he wanted to become a member of Laughing Wind. The members of Laughing Wind were at first a bit doubtful about the whole thing, given that Markley had no discernable musical talent, but in the end decided his access to almost unlimited funds qualified him to be a band member. Markley immediately used that same leverage to change the band's name to the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and it was not long before they had a contract with a major record label. Their first single for Reprise was an original composition called 1906, a song about the first San Francisco earthquake as seen from a dog's point of view. Seriously. The B side of that single was a cover of a song by Baker Knight, a local bandleader who had worked with Michael Lloyd in the early 1960s. In retrospect, Shifting Sands would probably have been a better choice for the A side, but even then Markley was making questionable judgment calls, and the single went nowhere.

Artist:    Moonrakers
Title:    I'm All Right
Source:    Mono LP: Highs In The Mid Sixties Vol. 18 (Colorado) (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Nanker Phelge
Label:    AIP (original label: Tower)
Year:    1965
    Once upon a time in Denver, Colorado, there was a band called the Surfin' Classics. Seeing as Denver is about a thousand miles from the nearest ocean, they soon dropped the surfin' part and became first the Classics and then the Moonrakers. Primarily a cover band, the group released four singles on the Tower label.The second of these, released in 1965, was a cover of the early Rolling Stones original I'm All Right. I believe this may be the only known cover of a song credited to Nanker Phelge, the fake name created to give equal royalty shares to all of the Rolling Stones' members, along with their manager Andrew Loog Oldham and keyboardist Ian Stewart.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Rollin' And Tumblin'
Source:    CD: Fresh Cream
Writer(s):    McKinley Morganfield
Label:    Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year:    1966
    Right from the beginning Cream demonstrated two distinct sides: the psychedelic-tinged studio side and the blues-based live performance side. In the case of the US version of the band's first LP, Fresh Cream, that was literally true, as side one consisted entirely of original songs (mostly written by bassist Jack Bruce) and side two was nearly all covers of blues classics such as Muddy Waters's Rollin' And Tumblin'. What makes this particular recording interesting is the instrumentation used: guitar, vocals, harmonica and drums, with no bass whatsoever. This could be due to the limited number of tracks available for overdubs. Just as likely, though, is the possibility that the band chose to make a recording that duplicated their live performance of the song.

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    Mr. Soul
Source:    LP: Retrospective-The Best Of Buffalo Springfield (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again)
Writer(s):    Neil Young
Label:    Atco
Year:    1967
    Executives at Atco Records originally considered Neil Young's voice "too weird" to be recorded. As a result many of Young's early tunes (including the band's debut single Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing), were sung by Richie Furay. By the time the band's second album, Buffalo Springfield Again, was released, the band had enough clout to make sure Young was allowed to sing his own songs. In fact, the album starts with a Young vocal on the classic Mr. Soul.

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    The Owl
Source:    CD: The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands (bonus track originally released on 12" 45 RPM EP picture disc: The Turtles-1968)
Writer(s):    The Turtles
Label:    FloEdCo (original label: Rhino)
Year:    Recorded 1968, released 1978
    In 1968 the Turtles decided to make their first attempt at producing themselves. White Whale Records rejected all but one of the four tracks they recorded (the exception being Surfer Dan, which was included on the concept album Battle Of The Bands). Ten years later Rhino rectified that error in judgment by putting all four tunes on a 12" 45 RPM picture disc called The Turtles-1968. Now all those songs, including The Owl, are available as bonus tracks on The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands, and they are among the best tracks on the entire CD.

Artist:    Spanky And Our Gang
Title:    Mecca Flat Blues
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Montgomery
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1969
    Spanky And Our Gang rose to prominence in 1967 with their hit singles Sunday Will Never Be The Same and Lazy Day, both taken from their first album. Their 1968 followup album included the song I'd Like To Get To Know You, which also made the top 20. But things went downhill quickly for the group when their lead guitarist and primary arranger, Malcolm Hale, was found dead (reportedly from bronchial pneumonia) in his home on October 31, 1968. The group continued on without him, but were never able to fully recover from the loss of their spiritual leader. A third album, Anything You Choose b/w Without Rhyme or Reason, which included the song Mecca Flat Blues was released in 1969, but was not a commercial success. The group disbanded shortly after its release.

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Animal Zoo
Source:    CD: The Best Of Spirit
Writer:    Jay Ferguson
Label:    Epic
Year:    1970 
    The last album by the original lineup of Spirit was The Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, released in 1970. The album was originally going to be produced by Neil Young, but due to other commitments Young had to bow out, recommending David Briggs, who had already produced Young's first album with Crazy Horse, as a replacement. The first song to be released as a single was Animal Zoo, but the tune barely cracked the top 100 charts. The album itself did better on progressive FM stations and has since come to be regarded as a classic. Shortly after the release of Twelve Dreams, Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes left Spirit to form Jo Jo Gunne.

Artist:    Grass Roots
Title:    Let's Live For Today
Source:    CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Julian/Mogull/Shapiro
Label:    Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year:    1967
    This well-known 1967 hit by the Grass Roots started off as a song by the Italian band the Rokes, Piangi Con Mi, released in 1966. The Rokes themselves were originally from Manchester, England, but had relocated to Italy in 1963. Piangi Con Mi was their biggest hit to date, and it the band decided to re-record the tune in English for release in Britain (ironic, considering that the band originally specialized in translating popular US and UK hits into the Italian language). The original translation didn't sit right with the band's UK label, so a guy from the record company came up with new lyrics and the title Let's Live For Today. The song still didn't do much on the charts, but did get the attention of former Brill building songwriter Jeff Barri, whose current project was writing and producing a studio band known as the Grass Roots with his partner P.F. Sloan. The song became such a big hit that Barri and Sloan were forced to find a local cover band willing to go on tour as the Grass Roots.  
    
Artist:    Moody Blues
Title:    Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)
Source:    CD: The Best Of 60s Supergroups (originally released on LP: Days Of Future Passed and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Justin Hayward
Label:    Priority (original label: Deram)
Year:    1967
    Tuesday Afternoon was the second single released from the Moody Blues' breakthrough 1967 LP Days Of Future Passed. At the insistence of producer Tony Clarke the album version of the song was retitled Forever Tuesday and was used as part one of a track called The Afternoon. When released as a single the following year, composer Justin Hayward's original title was restored to the piece, which was initially edited down to less than two and a half minutes for the 45 RPM pressing. The original album version of the song includes a separately recorded orchestral coda that segues directly into the next phase of the album, entitled The Evening. The version heard here is the LP version, but without the orchestral coda.

Artist:    Hearts And Flowers
Title:    Rock And Roll Gypsies
Source:    LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released on LP: Of Houses, Kids And Forgotten Women)
Writer(s):    Roger Tillison
Label:    Cotillion (original label: Capitol)
Year:    1968
    Led by singer/songwriters Larry Murray and Dave Dawson, Hearts And Flowers is best known for launching the career of guitarist/vocalist Bernie Leadon, who joined the group for their second LP and would later go on to co-found the Eagles. That second album, Of Houses, Kids And Forgotten Women, is generally considered the most accessible of the group's three albums, and included the song Rock And Roll Gypsies, which was included on the Homer movie soundtrack album in 1970.

Artist:    Fantastic Zoo
Title:    Light Show
Source:    Mono LP: Highs In The Sixties Volume Three-LA 1967 Mondo Hollywood A Go-Go (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Cameron/Karl
Label:    AIP (original label: Double Shot)
Year:    1967
    The Fantastic Zoo had its origins in Denver, Colorado, with a band called the Fogcutters. When the group disbanded in 1966, main members Don Cameron and Erik Karl relocated to Los Angeles and reformed the group with new members. After signing a deal with local label Double Shot (which had a major hit on the charts at the time with Count Five's Psychotic Reaction), the group rechristened itself Fantastic Zoo, releasing their first single that fall. Early in 1967 the band released their second and final single, Light Show. The song did not get much airplay at the time, but has since become somewhat of a cult favorite.

Artist:    Beach Boys
Title:    Let's Go Away For Awhile
Source:    Mono CD: Pet Sounds
Writer(s):    Brian Wilson
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1966
    After spending six months and a record amount of money making Good Vibrations, Brian Wilson and Capitol Records decided to use an existing track for the B side of the single rather than take the time to record something new. The chosen track was Let's Go Away For Awhile, a tune from the Pet Sounds album that Wilson described as the most satisfying instrumental piece he had ever written.

Artist:    Blues Project
Title:    The Flute Thing
Source:    Mono CD: Projections
Writer(s):    Al Kooper
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Verve Folkways)
Year:    1966
    The Blues Project was one of the most influential bands in rock history, yet one of the least known. Perhaps the first of the "underground" rock bands, the Project made their name by playing small colleges across the country (including Hobart and William Smith, where Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is produced). The Flute Thing, from the band's second album, Projections, features bassist Andy Kuhlberg on flute, with rhythm guitarist Steve Katz taking over the bass playing, joining lead guitarist Danny Kalb and keyboardist Al Kooper for a tune that owes more to jazz artists like Roland Kirk than to anything top 40 rock had to offer at the time.

Artist:    Cyrkle
Title:    Red Rubber Ball
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer:    Simon/Woodley
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    Paul Simon moved to London in early 1965, after his latest album with Art Garfunkel, Wednesday Morning 3 AM, had been deleted from the Columbia Records catalog after just a few weeks due to poor sales. While in the UK Simon found himself performing on the same bill as the Seekers, an Australian band that had achieved some international success with folky pop songs like A World Of Our Own. Needing cash, Simon wrote (with Seekers guitarist/vocalist Bruce Woodley) Red Rubber Ball, selling the song to the group for about 100 pounds. After returning to the US and reuniting with Garfunkel, Simon offered the song to the Cyrkle, who took the song all the way to the #4 spot on the charts. 
 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2608 (starts 2/16/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/607600

    We've got some serious rock from the early 1970s this week, particularly during the first half hour. Then things get a bit more progressive, as we finish out with a pair of long tracks from a bit later in the decade.

Artist:    Gun
Title:    Race With The Devil
Source:    European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Gun)
Writer(s):    Adrian Gurvitz
Label:    Repertoire (original UK label: Columbia)
Year:    1968
    One of the most popular songs on the jukebox at the teen club on Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany in 1969 was a song called Race With The Devil by a band called Gun. The song was so popular, in fact, that at least two local bands covered it (including the one I was in). Nobody seemed to know much about Gun at the time, but it turns out that the group was fronted by the Gurvitz brothers, Adrian and Paul (who at the time were using the last name Curtis); the two would later be members of the Baker-Gurvitz Army with drummer Ginger Baker. I've also learned recently that Gun spent much of its time touring in Europe, particularly in Germany, where Race With The Devil hit its peak in January of 1969 (it had made the top 10 in the UK in 1968, the year it was released).

Artist:    Ted Nugent
Title:    Just What The Doctor Ordered
Source:    LP: Ted Nugent
Writer(s):    Ted Nugent
Label:    Epic
Year:    1975
    Citing a lack of discipline among band members, Ted Nugent left the Amboy Dukes in 1975 and spent a few months away from the music business. Upon his return he formed a new band consisting of himself on lead guitar, Derek St. Holmes on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Rob Grange on bass and Cliff Davies on drums. Nugent's first solo LP was an instant hit, going into the top 30 on the album charts and eventually going triple platinum. With one exception, all of the songs on the album, including Just What The Doctor Ordered, are credited solely to Nugent, although St. Holmes later claimed that all the tracks were actually written by the entire band and that Nugent had taken solo credit to avoid paying the other band members royalties. St. Holmes would end up leaving the band the following year midway through the recording of Nugent's second solo LP, Free-For-All.

Artist:    Bryan Ferry
Title:    The "In" Crowd
Source:    LP: Another Time, Another Place
Writer(s):    Billy Page
Label:    Island
Year:    1974
    Bryan Ferry's first two solo albums, recorded while Ferry was also lead vocalist of Roxy Music, were made up almost entirely of cover songs, while Roxy's material was made up of original compositions by the band itself. The opening track for Ferry's second solo LP was a remake of Dobie Gray's 1964 hit The "In" Crowd. Needless to say, Ferry's version rocks out a bit harder than Gray's original.

Artist:    Black Sabbath
Title:    Sabbra Cadabra
Source:    LP: Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath
Writer(s):    Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1973
    The last great Black Sabbath album (according to vocalist Ozzy Osbourne), was Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath, released in December of 1973, when the band was at its peak as a functional unit before creative and personality issues began interfering with the quality of the music itself. The band, following an exhausting tour promoting their previous album that got cut short following a performance at the Hollywood Bowl that ended with guitarist Tony Iommi walking off stage and collapsing, began trying to come up with new material during the summer of '73, but soon decided to take a break and return to England, where they ended up renting Clearwell Castle in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The band found the atmosphere there inspiring, if somewhat sinister (they used a dungeon as rehearsal space) and soon were in the process of creating the music that became Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath. At this time the band members' fondness for playing practical jokes on each other, combined with rumors of the castle being haunted, began to get out of hand, leading to the band leaving the place before their alloted time there had expired. The band soon got to work recording their new material at Morgan Studios in London, where Yes was working on an album called Tales From Topographic Oceans in the next studio. Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman ended up sitting in on Sabbra Cadabra, which finishes out side one of the original LP.
     
Artist:    Stevie Wonder
Title:    Superstition
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Stevie Wonder
Label:    Tamla
Year:    1972
    Superstition was not originally meant to be a Stevie Wonder hit record. The song was actually written with the intention of giving it to guitarist Jeff Beck, in return for his participation of Wonder's Talking Book album. In fact, it was Beck that came up with the song's opening drum riff, creating, with Wonder, the first demo of the song. The plan was for Beck to release the song first as the lead single from the album Beck, Bogert & Appice. However, that album's release got delayed, and Motown CEO Barry Gordy Jr. insisted that Wonder go ahead and release his own version of the song first, as Barry saw the song as a potential #1 hit. It turned out Gordy was right, and Superstition ended up topping both the pop and soul charts in 1973, doing well in other countries as well. A 1986 live version of the song by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble continues to get a lot of airplay on classic rock radio.

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Jam (Footstompin' Music)
Source:    CD: Survival (bonus track)
Writer(s):    Mark Farner
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1971
    Recorded during sessions for the Survival album, Jam (Footstompin' Music) was an early version of a song that would not appear on vinyl until the following year, when it showed up as the lead single from the album E Pluribus Funk. The recording heard here served as the blueprint for live performances of the song and differs slightly from the later studio version of Footstompin' Music.

Artist:    unknown
Title:    Ace Guard Snails
Source:    LP: Rhino Royale (hidden track)
Writer(s):    unknown
Label:    Rhino
Year:    1978
    Once upon a time (1973) there was a record store in Los Angeles called Rhino Records. By the end of the decade Rhino had become first a record distributor and then, by 1978, a full-fledged record label specializing in novelty records and later, reissues of recordings that had not appeared on major labels. One of their first novelty compilations was Rhino Royale, which featured, among other things spoken word pieces by wrestler Fred Blassie (Pencil Neck Geek) and Wild Man Fischer. Hidden between two of the tracks on side two of Rhino Royale is this ad for Ace Guard Snails. As to who actually wrote and performed the piece, your guess is as good as mine (which is that the folks at Rhino came up with it themselves).

Artist:    David Bowie
Title:    The Width Of A Circle
Source:    CD: The Man Who Sold The World
Writer(s):    David Bowie
Label:    Parlophone (original label: Mercury)
Year:    1970
    David Bowie had a gift for reinventing himself pretty much right from the start. His earliest albums were largely acoustic in nature, with Space Oddity being about as close to rock as he got. Then came The Man Who Sold The World, which included songs like The Width Of A Circle, a progressive rock piece that borders on heavy metal. The piece had actually been part of Bowie's stage repertoire for several months before recording sessions for the album began, but in a shorter form. For the LP, the piece was expanded to eight minutes in length, with Mick Ronson's lead guitar taking a prominent place in the music. The second half of the piece had somewhat controversial lyrics, describing a sexual encounter with a supernatural being in the depths of Hell. For reasons that are not entirely clear, The Man Who Sold The World was released five months earlier in the US than in the UK. 

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    Inside And Out
Source:    Canadian import 12" 45 RPM blue vinyl EP: Spot The Pigeon
Writer(s):    Rutherford/Collins/Hackett/Banks
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1977
    After Genesis finished recording sessions for the Wind And Wuthering album the band members realized that they had more music than they could fit on a standard LP, and three tracks were left off the album. Those three tracks, including the five and a half minute long Inside And Out, were issued in May of 1977 on an EP called Spot The Pigeon. In North America the EP was only issued in Canada, on blue 12" vinyl that played at 45 RPM. Hey, whatever it takes to get it to sell, I guess.

Artist:    Carpe Diem
Title:    Réincarnation
Source:    French import LP: En Regardant Passer Le Temps (also released in Canada as Way Out-As Time Goes By)
Writer(s):    Yeu/Truchy
Label:    Crypto (original label: Arcane)
Year:    1976
    The mid-1970s saw the rise of several bands that combined elements of rock, jazz and classical music with the latest electronic technology to create something entirely new. In Germany it came to be called Kraut-rock, while in other countries it went by names like art-rock, prog-rock or space-rock. The French Riviera was home to Carpe Diem (originally called Deis Corpus), who released two LPs. The first, En Regardant Passer Le Temps, was also released in Canada under the title Way Out-As Time Goes By. The longest track on the album is Réincarnation, which runs nearly thirteen minutes. Although the album went largely unnoticed when originally released in 1976, it has since come to be regarded as one of the lost classics of progressive rock.
 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2607 (starts 2/9/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/606671 

    It's the middle of February, and although we don't have any Love songs this week, we do have plenty of ear candy, including a big box of Vanilla Fudge and lots of other tasty treats. 

Artist:    Tommy James And The Shondells
Title:    Hanky Panky
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Barry/Greenwich
Label:    Roulette (original label: Snap)
Year:    1964
    Once upon a time there was a girl group called the Summits who released a song called Hanky Panky as the B side of their only single in 1963. The song, which was also released as a B side by Brill building songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich's studio creation The Raindrops a few months later, started getting played by cover bands in the midwesterm US, including a South Bend, Indiana band called the Spinners. A Niles, Michigan high school kid named Tommy Jackson heard the Spinners play the song and taught it to his own band, the Shondells, getting some of the lyrics wrong in the process. In early 1964 the Shondells recorded their own version of Hanky Panky at the studios of WNIL radio, releasing it on their second single for the local Snap label later that year and pressing 2000 copies of the record. It's not entirely clear whether that recording of Hanky-Panky, credited to Jackson, was intended to be an A or B side, but it did get a decent amount of local airplay before fading off into obscurity. The original Shondells broke up in 1965 following graduation from high school, but a local teenager managed to get his hands on several copies of the record, trading them to Ernie's Record Mart in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for store credit. A local DJ, Bob Mack, picked up a copy of the record and began playing it as part of his "dance party". The song became a local hit, but by then Snap Records was out of business, prompting local Pittsburgh entrepeneurs to press new copies of the single on their own label. Meanwhile, a search for Tommy Jackson eventually prompted the singer, who by then was calling himself Tommy James, to show up in Pittsburgh...with no band. This led to Tommy hiring a local band called the Racounteurs to become the new Shondells, who soon signed with the New York based Roulette label, which reissued the original Shondells' recording of Hanky Panky in 1966. The song went all the way to the top of the national charts, prompting a series of successful followup singles for Tommy James And The Shondells over the next three years or so. And that, my friends, was just one way to become a rock star in the mid-1960s. For another, check out the Byrds song coming up in about half an hour.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Nowhere Man
Source:    CD: Yellow Submarine Songtrack (originally released in UK on LP: Rubber Soul)
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/CapitoI (original UK label: Parlophone)
Year:    1965
    Altough Nowhere Man had been included on the British version of the Beatles' 1965 Rubber Soul album, it was held back in the US and released as a single in 1966. Later that year the song was featured on the US-only LP Yesterday...And Today. It was remixed for the 2009 release of the Yellow Submarine Songtrack CD.

Artist:    Simon and Garfunkel
Title:    The Dangling Conversation
Source:    CD: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    The first Simon and Garfunkel album, Wednesday Morning 3AM, originally tanked on the charts, causing Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to temporarily pursue solo careers. Simon went to England, where he wrote and recorded an album's worth of material, while Garfunkel went back to school. Meanwhile, producer Tom Wilson, fresh from producing Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone, went into the studio with the original recording of the song Sound of Silence and added electric instruments to it. The result was a surprise hit that led Paul Simon to return to the US, reuniting with Art Garfunkel and re-recording several of the tunes he had recorded as a solo artist for a new album, Sounds of Silence. The success of that album prompted Columbia to re-release Wednesday Morning, 3AM, which in turn became a bestseller. Meanwhile, Simon and Garfunkel returned to the studio to record an album of all new material. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was yet another success that spawned several hit songs, including The Dangling Conversation, a song Simon described as similar to The Sound Of Silence, but more personal. The song was originally released as a single in fall of 1966, before the album itself came out.

Artist:     Lemon Pipers
Title:     Green Tambourine
Source:     CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Leka/Pinz
Label:     BMG/RCA/Buddah
Year:     1967 
     Oxford, Ohio's Lemon Pipers have the distinction of being the first band to score a number one hit for the Buddah label with Green Tambourine, released in November of 1967. Unfortunately for the band, the song's success led to them being typecast as a bubble-gum group, despite their roots as a bar band in a college town.

Artist:    West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:    Help, I'm A Rock (single mix)
Source:    Mono CD: Part One (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Frank Zappa
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    Ya gotta hand it to the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. It takes cojones to record a cover of a Frank Zappa tune, especially within a year of the original Mothers of Invention version coming out. To top it off, the W.C.P.A.E.B. even prepared a single edit of Help, I'm A Rock, although to my knowledge it was never released as such.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    The Girl I Knew Somewhere (single version)
Source:    CD: The Monkees' Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Michael Nesmith
Label:    Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year:    1967
    Although both Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork had participated in a few of the studio sessions for what became the first two Monkees albums (with Nesmith producing), the Monkees did not record as an actual band until January 16, 1967, when they taped the first version of Nesmith's The Girl I Knew Somewhere. Nesmith himself handled the lead vocals and guitar work, while Tork, the most accomplished musician in the group, played harpsichord. Mickey Dolenz played drums and Davy Jones added the tambourine part. The song was released less than two weeks after the same lineup re-recorded the song with Dolenz on lead vocals as the B side to A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You. Both sides made the top 40 in the spring of 1967.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Superlungs (My Supergirl)
Source:    CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released on LP: Barabajabal)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Sony Music Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year:    1969
    Donovan originally recorded a song called Supergirl for his 1966 album Sunshine Superman album, but ultimately chose not to use the track. Over two years later he recorded an entirely new version of the song, retitling it Superlungs (My Supergirl) for the 1969 Barabajagal album. Or was it really not entirely new? When you listen to it on headphones much of the track sounds like an "electronically rechanneled for stereo" recording (the Sunshine Superman sessions were originally mixed only in mono), with only the background vocals toward the end of the piece actually being mixed in true stereo. 

Artist:    Crystal Rain
Title:    You And Me
Source:    Mono CD: An Overdose Of Heavy Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Bill Moan
Label:    Arf! Arf! (original label: Dynamic Sound)
Year:    1969
    Crystal Rain was a band from Dayton, Ohio that released a pair of singles in 1969, the second of which was You And Me. If you know anything more about them, feel free to drop me a note at hermitradio.com (hit the envelope icon near the top of the page).

Artist:    Child
Title:    Little Light
Source:    LP: Child
Writer(s):    Mike Lewis
Label:    Jubilee
Year:    1969
    One of the more obscure bands from the psychedelic era, Child, based somewhere on the East Coast, released their self-titled LP in 1969. They are often compared to Vanilla Fudge, as they too specialized in heavy, slowed-down versions of popular songs. They also included some lesser known tunes on the album, such as Little Light. The song is credited to Mike Lewis, who may or may not be the same Mike Lewis who arranged and conducted the equally obscure Fountainhead in 1970.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star
Source:    LP: The Byrds' Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Younger Than Yesterday)
Writer(s):    Hillman/McGuinn
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    By early 1967 there was a building resentment among musicians and rock press alike concerning the instant (and in many eyes unearned) success of the Monkees. One notable expression of this resentment was the Byrds' So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star, which takes a somewhat snarky look at what it takes to succeed in the music business. Unfortunately, much of what they talk about in the song continues to apply today (although the guitar has been somewhat supplanted by the computer as the instrument of choice).
    
Artist:     Blues Magoos
Title:     Pipe Dream
Source:     Mono LP: Electric Comic Book
Writer:     Gilbert/Scala
Label:     Mercury
Year:     1967
     Pipe Dream, the Blues Magoos strong follow-up single to (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet was handicapped by having an equally strong track, There's A Chance We Can Make It, on the other side of the record. As it was not Mercury's policy to push one side of a single over the other, stations were confused about which song to play. The result was that each tune got about an equal amount of airplay. With each song getting airplay on only half the available stations, neither tune was able to make a strong showing in the charts. This had the ripple effect of slowing down album sales of Electric Comic Book, which in turn hurt the careers of the members of the Blues Magoos. Also, I'm sure the fact that they were treated like a novelty act on at least two TV variety shows hosted by famous comedians (Bob Hope and Jack Benny) did not exactly contribute to their longevity either.

Artist:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    Gratefully Dead
Source:    Mono British import CD: Winds Of Change (bonus track originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label:    Repertoire (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1967
    One of the most successful singles by Eric Burdon And The Animals was a tribute to the summer of Love called San Franciscan Nights taken from their 1967 debut LP, Winds Of Change. The B side of that single was Good Times, from the same album. At first the band's British label was reluctant to release San Francisco Nights as a single, but eventually decided to go for it. Since Good Times had already been released as a single in the UK (making the top 10), the group recorded a new B side for San Franciscan Nights's UK release, a tune written by the band called Gratefully Dead. To my knowledge, the track has never been issued in the US.

Artist:    Wyld
Title:    If I Had It
Source:    Mono German import LP: Sixties Rebellion Vol. 5-The Cave (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Huffman/Wyatt/Hammond
Label:    Way Back (original label: Charay)
Year:    1967
    The Wyld was a band from Greenville, South Carolina led by Rudy "Rude" Wyatt, who also recorded with a band called The Roots. Whether the two were actually the same band is debatable, since three of the four Wyld singles released on the Texas-based Charay label had the same B side as the only Roots single, released two years earlier on the Brownfield label (there is also reason to believe that the two labels were actually one and the same). Regardless, the fourth and final single to be released by the Wyld was If I Had It, which had the same catalog number as their other three and included one of those A sides as its B side. So to recap: The Wyld released five songs on four singles with the same catalog number, and one of those five was a recycled B side from a previous group that may have actually been an earlier incarnation of the Wyld itself.  My head hurts.

Artist:     Music Machine
Title:     Astrologically Incompatible
Source:     Mono British import CD: My Mind Goes High (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Sean Bonniwell
Label:     Warner Strategic Marketing (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:     1967
     While touring extensively in 1967 the Music Machine continued to take every possible opportunity to record new material in the studio, while at the same time working to change record labels. The first single to be issued on the Warner Brothers label was Bottom Of The Soul, released in late 1967. The B side of that record was Astrologically Incompatible, one of the first rock songs to deal with astrological themes, albeit in a slightly tongue-in-cheek manner.

Artist:    Mouse And The Traps (recording as Chris St. John)
Title:    I've Got Her Love
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Fraternity Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Barton/Brians
Label:    Big Beat 
Year:    1967
    Ronnie "Mouse" Weiss had already established a reputation locally in Tyler Texas as a session musician by the time he had his first regional hit record, the Dylanesque A Public Execution, in 1966. The success of A Public Execution led to the formation of a backing band, the Traps, made up mostly of the same studio musicians who had played on the single. The band didn't take long to build a following, thanks to relentless touring across the southern US from Texas to Virginia. Still, they couldn't seem to get the kind of breakout hit single that would put them on the national map. At the insistence of Fraternity Records the band even released a 1967 single, I've Got Her Love, under the name Chris St. John, but the record failed to chart. Mouse continued to release singles with varying degrees of success (even having the number one record in Nashville at one point), but the rigors of touring and a fluctuating lineup eventually led to the Traps being dismantled in 1970.

Artist:    H.P. Lovecraft
Title:    Anyway You Want Me
Source:    Two Classic Albums from H. P. Lovecraft: H. P. Lovecraft/H. P. Lovecraft II (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Chip Taylor
Label:    Collector's Choice/Universal Music Special Markets (original label: Philips)
Year:    1967
    Sometime in early 1967 Dunwich Records, the Chicago label that released the Shadows Of Knight version of Gloria the previous year, decided to stop being a record company and instead became a production house shopping master recordings to other labels. One of the first of these Dunwich Productions was a cover of the Troggs' Anway You Want Me by (appropriately) H.P. Lovecraft, which at this point was a duo made up of guitarist/vocalist George Edwards, who had been the second artist to release a record on the Dunwich label a year earlier, and keyboardist Dave Michaels. Over the next couple of months Edwards and Michaels put together a more or less permanent lineup to record the band's first self-titled LP. 

Artist:    People
Title:    I Love You
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Chris White
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1968
    By 1968 the major labels had signed just about every San Francisco band with any perceived potential. Capitol, having had some success with the Chocolate Watchband from San Jose on its Tower subsidiary, decided to sign another south bay band, People, to the parent label. The most successful single for the band was a new recording of an obscure Zombies B side. I Love You ended up hitting the top 20 nationally, despite the active efforts of two of the most powerful men in the music industry, who set out to squash the song as a way of punishing the record's producer for something having nothing to do with the song or the band itself.

Artist:    Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    You Don't Love Me
Source:    LP: Super Session
Writer(s):    Willie Cobb
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1968
    You Don't Love Me was originally recorded and released as a single by Willie Cobbs in 1960. Although the song is credited solely to Cobbs, it strongly resembles a 1955 Bo Diddley B side, She's Fine She's Mine, in its melody, lyrics and repeated guitar riff. The Cobbs single was a regional hit on the Mojo label in Memphis, but stalled out nationally after being reissued on Vee-Jay Records, due to the label pulling promotional support from the song due to copyright issues. A 1965 version by Junior Wells with Buddy Guy saw some minor changes in the lyrics to the song; it was this version that was covered by Al Kooper and Stephen Stills for the 1968 Super Session album. The recording extensively uses an effect called flanging, a type of phase-shifting that was first used in stereo on the Jimi Hendrix Experience track Bold As Love. 

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Who'll Be The Next In Line
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1965
    Once upon a time a band called the Kinks released a song called Tired Of Waiting For You. It was a huge international hit, going into the top 10 in several countries, including the UK, where it topped the charts. The followup single, Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy, didn't do as well, peaking at # 17 on the British charts. As a result, Reprise Records decided to cancel the single's US release, instead moving up the release date of a song called Set Me Free, which was stylistically much more in line with Tired Of Waiting For You. The Kinks' next single was to be a song called See My Friends, but Reprise decided to instead release Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy in July of 1965, but with a slight change, making the original UK B side, a song called Who'll Be The Next In Line, the A side of the US single. This time the strategy didn't work out so well, as the song barely made the US top 40. By this time, the American Federation of Musicians had imposed a performance ban on the Kinks (due mostly to their onstage rowdiness) that would last five years, and the band would not have another top 10 hit in the US until Lola was released in 1970.

Artist:     Vanilla Fudge
Title:     Bang Bang
Source:     LP: Vanilla Fudge
Writer:     Sonny Bono
Label:     Atco
Year:     1967
     Vanilla Fudge made their reputation by taking popular hit songs, such as the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On, and extensively re-arranging them, giving the songs an almost classical feel. In fact, some of their arrangements incorporated (uncredited) snippets of actual classical pieces. One glaring example is the Vanilla Fudge arrangement of Cher's biggest solo hit of the 60s, Bang Bang (written by her then-husband Sonny Bono). Unfortunately, although I recognize the classical piece the band uses for an intro to Bang Bang, I can't seem to remember what it's called or who wrote it. Anyone out there able to help? I think it may have been used in a 1950s movie like The King And I or Attack of the Killer Women from Planet X.

Artist:     Vanilla Fudge
Title:     Need Love
Source:     LP: Rock And Roll
Writer:     Stein/Bogart/Martell/Appice
Label:     Atco
Year:     1969
     By 1969 Vanilla Fudge was doing more of their own material, as can be heard on Need Love, the opening track of their fifth studio album, Rock And Roll. However, Vanilla Fudge would cease to exist in 1970, only to reform twelve years later in support of a Greatest Hits album. Since then, various versions of the band, featuring anywhere from one to all four of the original members, have popped up from time to time.

Artist:    Vanilla Fudge
Title:    Take Me For A Little While/Eleanor Rigby
Source:    LP: Vanilla Fudge
Writer(s):    Martin/Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Atco
Year:    1967
    Vanilla Fudge made their mark by doing slowed down rocked out versions of popular songs such as the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On. In fact, all of the tracks on their debut LP were songs of this nature, including two Beatles tunes. Side two of the original LP featured three tracks tied together by short psychedelic instrumental bridges known collectively as Illusions Of My Childhood. In addition to the aforementioned Supremes cover, the side features a Trade Martin composition called Take Me For A Little While that takes a diametrically opposed viewpoint to the first song, which leads directly into Eleanor Rigby, which sort of sums up both of the previous tracks lyrically. Although the Vanilla Fudge would stick around for a couple more years (and four more albums), they were never again able to match the commercial success of their 1967 debut LP.

Artist:    Love Sculpture
Title:    Summertime
Source:    CD: Blues Helping
Writer(s):    Gershwin/Hayward
Label:    EMI (original US label: Rare Earth)
Year:    1968
    Founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1966 by guitarist Dave Edmunds, bassist John David and drummer Rob "Congo" Jones, Love Sculpture, a power trio from South Wales, was one of the hottest bands on the British blues-rock scene. Their first album, Blues Helping, consisted mainly of cover tunes, including this version of Gershwin's Summertime, with Edmunds on vocals. Following the group's breakup in 1970, Edmunds went on to have a successful career, both as a solo artist and as co-founder of the band Rockpile.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Summertime Blues
Source:    LP: The Who Sell Out Super Deluxe Edition (bonus track originally released on CD: The Who Sell Out Deluxe Edition)
Writer(s):    Cochrane/Capehart
Label:    Track/Polydor/UMC
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 2009
    During their "maximum R&B" period the Who performed a lot of cover versions of US hits, including Eddie Cochrane's Summertime Blues. Around the time they were recording The Who Sell Out, they added the song back into their stage repertoire, recording a studio version of the tune for reference. This arrangement doesn't rock out quite as hard as the 1971 live version heard on the Live At Leeds album (or their 1969 Woodstock version, for that matter), but the basics are there.

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:    Red Squares
Title:    You Can Be My Baby
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Sweden as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Martin/Bell
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1967
    Originally formed in Boston, England, in 1964, the Red Squares relocated to Denmark in 1966 and soon became massively popular. For the most part the band's sound was similar to the Hollies, as can be heard on the original 1966 LP version of You Can Be My Baby. The re-recorded single version of the song however, released in 1967 in Sweden as a B side, cranks up the energy levels to something approaching the early Who records.

Artist:    Lovin' Spoonful
Title:    You Didn't Have To Be So Nice
Source:    LP: The John Sebastian Songbook (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Daydream)
Writer:    John Sebastian
Label:    Kama Sutra
Year:    1965
    The second single released by the Lovin' Spoonful proved to be just as popular as their first one and helped establish the band as one of the premier acts of the folk-rock movement. Unlike the West Coast folk rock artists such as the Byrds and Barry McGuire, who focused on the socio-political issues of the day, John Sebastian tended to write happy songs with catchy melodies such as You Didn't Have To Be So Nice. As a result, the Lovin' Spoonful for a while rivaled the Beatles in popularity while still managing to maintain some street cred due mainly to their Greenwich Village roots. 

Artist:    Cream
Title:    I Feel Free
Source:    LP: Fresh Cream
Writer(s):    Bruce/Brown
Label:    Atco
Year:    1966
    After an unsuccessful debut single (Wrapping Paper), Cream scored a bona-fide hit in the UK with their follow-up, I Feel Free. As was the case with nearly every British single at the time, the song was not included on Fresh Cream, the band's debut LP. In the US, however, hit singles were commonly given a prominent place on albums, and the US version of Fresh Cream actually opens with I Feel Free. To my knowledge the song, being purely a studio creation, was never performed live by the band.

Artist:    Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band
Title:    Zig Zag Wanderer
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Safe As Milk)
Writer(s):    Van Vliet/Bermann
Label:    Rhino (original label: Buddah)
Year:    1967
    Don Van Vliet made his first recordings as Captain Beefheart in 1965, covering artists like Bo Diddley in a style that could best be described as "punk blues." Upon hearing those recordings A&M Records, despite its growing reputation as a hot (fairly) new label, promptly cancelled the project. Flash forward a year or so. Another hot new label, Buddah Records, an offshoot of Kama Sutra Records that had somehow ended up being the parent rather than the subsidiary, was busy signing new acts, and ended up issuing Safe As Milk in 1967 as their very first LP. The good captain would eventually end up on his old high school acquaintance Frank Zappa's Bizarre Records, turning out classic albums like Trout Mask Replica, and the world would never be quite the same.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Jumpin' Jack Flash
Source:    CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco
Year:    1968
    After the late 1967 LP Their Satanic Majesties Request was savaged by the critics, the Rolling Stones decided to make a big change, severing ties with their longtime producer Andrew Loog Oldham and replacing him with Jimmy Miller, who had made a name for himself working with Steve Winwood on recordings by both the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. The collaboration resulted in a back-to-basics approach that produced the classic single Jumpin' Jack Flash. The song was actually the second Stones tune produced by MIller, although it was the first to be released. The song revitalized the band's commercial fortunes, and was soon followed by what is generally considered to be one of the Stones' greatest albums, the classic Beggar's Banquet (which included the first Miller-produced song, Street Fighting Man).

Artist:    Floating Bridge
Title:    Don't Mean A Thing
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 8-The Northwest (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Pat Gossan
Label:    Rhino (original label: Vault)
Year:    1969
    One of the forgotten bands from the late 1960s Seattle music scene was Floating Bridge. Formed in 1967, the band consisted of Rich Dangel, Joe Johansen and Denny MacLeod on guitars, Pat Gossan as vocals, Michael Jacobsen on electric Cello & saxophone, Joe Johnson on bass, Andrew Lang on trumpet and Michael Marinelli on the drums. In addition to a highly collectable self-titled LP, Floating Bridge only released two singles before disbanding in 1969. The second of these was a non-album track, Don't Mean A Thing, which was released on the independent Vault label in 1969.

Artist:    Penny Peeps
Title:    Model Village
Source:    Mono British import CD: Insane Times (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Alexander
Label:    Zonophone (original label: Liberty)
Year:    1968
    Although the British psychedelic era was considerably shorter (only about two years long) than its American counterpart, there are a surprisingly large number of British psych-pop singles that were never issued in the US. Among those was a somewhat forgettable song called Little Man With A Stick, released in 1967 by a band called the Penny Peeps. The band took its name from the risque coin-fed viewers at Brighton Beach (apparently London's version of Coney Island). Emulating his American counterparts, producer Les Reed (who wrote Little Man), allowed the band itself to come up with its own B side. The result was Model Village, a track that manages to convey a classic garage-rock energy while remaining uniquely British.
 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2607 (starts 2/9/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/606670

    If there is one word that applies to both the early 1970s and the mid 2020s, it would have to be "unsettled". This week's edition of Rockin' in the Days of Confusion starts off the same way, but quickly moves into more progressive territory with bands like Genesis, PFM and Yes.

Artist:    Chicago
Title:    Prologue, August 29, 1968/Someday (August 29, 1968)
Source:    LP: The Chicago Transit Authority
Writer(s):    Pankow/Lamm
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1969
    In the months leading up to the 1968 Democratic convention the phrase "come to Chicago" was often heard among members of the counter-culture that had grown up around various anti-establishment causes. As the summer wore on it became clear that something was going to happen at the Convention that August. Sure enough, on August 29, with the crowd chanting "the whole world's watching", police began pulling demonstraters into paddy wagons, with a full-blown riot erupting the following day. Around that same time a local Chicago band calling itself the Big Thing hooked up with producer James William Guercio, who convinced them to change their name to the Chicago Transit Authority (later shortened to Chicago). It's only natural then that the band would include a song referencing the events of August 29th on their debut LP. The tracks begin with an actual recording of the chant itself, which leads into a tune written by James Pankow and Robert Lamm called Someday (August 29, 1968). The chant itself makes a short reappearance midway through the song as well.

Artist:    David Bowie
Title:    Changes
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue originally released on LP: Hunky Dory)
Writer(s):    David Bowie
Label:    RCA
Year:    1971
    Sometimes a seemingly innocous little song will turn out to be something far more than it started out to be. Such is the case with Changes, one of the most recognizable songs of the 20th century. Originally appearing on the 1971 album Hunky Dory and released as a single in 1972, Changes, according to Bowie, started off as a parody of a nightclub song, "a kind of throwaway", that featured Bowie himself on saxophone, with strings provided by Mick Ronson. Rick Wakeman's keyboards also feature prominently in the recording. The song was Bowie's first North American release on the RCA Victor label (although Mercury had released The Man Who Sold The World two years previously, the record had gone nowhere at the time). Changes is often taken as a statement of artistic intent, as Bowie was constantly reinventing himself throughout his career. Surprisingly, Changes did not make the British charts until its re-release following Bowie's death in 2016. 

Artist:     Jimi Hendrix Experience (Mk II)
Title:     Stepping Stone
Source:     CD: First Rays of the New Rising Sun (originally released on LP: War Heroes) 
Writer:     Jimi Hendrix
Label:     MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1970
     The last single released by Jimi Hendrix (with bassist Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles as Hendrix Band Of Gypsys) during his lifetime was Stepping Stone, recorded in February of 1970 and released two months later. In June, Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell recorded new instrumental parts for inclusion on Hendrix's new double LP, tentatively titled First Rays Of The New Rising Sun. Hendrix's death on Sept 16, 1970 sidetracked the double LP until it was finally finished by Mitchell and engineer Eddie Kramer in 1997 and released on CD. Meanwhile the revised version of Stepping Stone was included on 1972's War Heroes LP, as well as on other collections over the years.  

Artist:    Premiata Forneria Marconi
Title:    Mr. 9 'Till 5
Source:    European import CD: Photos Of Ghosts
Writer(s):    Mussida/Premoli/Sinfield
Label:    RCA (original label: Manticore)
Year:    1973
    Premiata Forneria Marconi was already popular in their native Italy when Greg Lake, of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, got them signed to Manticore Records, a label created by ELP. Their first English language album was Photos Of Ghosts, which featured songs from their most recent LP, Per Un Amico, with new English lyrics. Mr. 9 'Till 5 was originally an instrumental called Generale that ended up being one of the most popular songs on Photos of Ghosts and a concert staple for the band.
            
Artist:    Yes
Title:    Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematuris)
Source:    CD: Fragile
Writer(s):    Anderson/Squire
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1971
    The fourth Yes album, Fragile, introduced the "classic" Yes lineup of John Anderson (vocals), Bill Bruford (drums), Steve Howe (guitar), Chris Squire (bass) and Rick Wakemen (keyboards), and features some of the band's best known songs. Among the most popular is Long Distance Runaround, which was also released as the B side of the hit single Roundabout. Anderson's lyrics express his disillusionment with "the craziness of religion" and intolerance of other viewpoints in general, including opposition to the war in Vietnam. On the album, the song segues directly into The Fish (Schindleria Praematuris), a mostly instrumental piece written by Squire, with a vocal refrain by Anderson repeating the name of a species of prehistoric fish toward the end of the track.

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    Minstrel In The Gallery
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Chrysalis
Year:    1975
    Following the back-to-back album-length works Thick As A Brick and A Passion Play, Jethro Tull returned to recording shorter tunes for the next couple of years' worth of albums. In late 1975, however, they recorded the eight minute long Mistrel In The Gallery for the album of the same name. The song (and album) was a return to the mix of electric and acoustic music that had characterized the band in its earlier years, particularly on the Aqualung and Benefit albums. A shorter version of Minstrel In The Gallery was released as a single and did reasonably well on the charts. 

Artist:     Traffic
Title:     Empty Pages
Source:     CD: Smiling Phases (originally released on LP: John Barleycorn Must Die)
Writer:     Winwood/Capaldi
Label:     Island
Year:     1970
     Traffic was formed in 1967 by Steve Winwood, after ending his association with the Spencer Davis Group. The original group, also featuring Dave Mason, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood, put out two and a half albums' worth of studio material before disbanding in early 1969. A successful live album, Welcome to the Canteen, prompted the band to reform (without Mason), releasing the album John Barleycorn Must Die in 1970. Although Empty Pages was released as a single, it got most of its airplay on progressive FM rock stations, and as those stations were replaced by (or became) album-oriented rock (AOR) stations, the song continued to get extensive airplay for many years. 
 
Artist:    George Carlin
Title:    The Hair Piece (excerpt)
Source:    LP: FM & AM
Writer(s):    George Carlin
Label:    Little David
Year:    1972
    A little bit of practical poetry.

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    Supper's Ready
Source:    CD: Foxtrot
Writer(s):    Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label:    Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year:    1972
    The longest track Genesis ever recorded is also one of their most celebrated. Supper's Ready, from the Foxtrot album, is almost 23 minutes long and takes up most of the second side of the original LP. At least one critic has proclaimed Supper's Ready to be the band's masterpiece. The song (or more accurately, song cycle) was originally released in October of 1972. The piece, with its supernatural imagery and overall theme of good vs. evil, was inspired by an incident at a British castle in which vocalist Peter Gabriel's wife Jill went into a trance state just as the windows of the room they were in suddenly blew open. Supper's Ready is divided into seven sections: Lover's Leap, The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man, Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men, How Dare I Be So Beautiful, Willow Farm, Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet), and the final section, As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet), which combines elements of some of the earlier parts. From 1972 on Supper's Ready was the centerpiece of the band's stage show throughout Gabriel's tenure as frontman for Genesis.
 

 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2606 (starts 2/2/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/605883 

    Except for a 1967 Monkees set it's business as usual on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this week, as we do our best to keep things cooking during the coldest part of the year. 

Artist:    Yardbirds
Title:    Heart Full Of Soul
Source:    Mono Australian import CD: Over, Under, Sideways, Down (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Graham Gouldman
Label:    Raven (original label: Epic)
Year:    1965
    The Yardbirds' follow-up single to For Your Love, Heart Full Of Soul, was a huge hit, making the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1965. The song, the first to feature guitarist Jeff Beck prominently, was written by Graham Gouldman, who also wrote For Your Love. For some odd reason Gouldman's own band, the Mockingbirds, was strangely unable to buy a hit on the charts, despite Gouldman's obvious talents as a songwriter. Gouldman would eventually go on to be a founding member of 10cc, who were quite successful in the 1970s. 

Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    Come In The Morning
Source:    LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s):    Bob Mosley
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    Moby Grape's 1967 debut album has been called " the ancestral link between psychedelia, country-rock, glam, power pop and punk." Come In The Morning, written and sung by bassist Bob Mosley, provides the country-rock part.
        
Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Red House
Source:    CD: Are You Experienced? (originally released on LP: Smash Hits)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 1969
    There were actually two different versions of Red House released by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, both of which came from the same December, 1966, sessions. The original version was included on the European pressing of the Are You Experienced album, which was issued in early 1967. The album was not originally available in stereo, and a true stereo mix of this version of Red House was never made, as the track was left off the remixed American version of the LP. In spring of 1967 the band attempted to get a better version of the song, but neither Hendrix or bassist Noel Redding (who had played the original bass part on a regular guitar with its tone controls set to mimic a bass guitar) were satisfied with the later versions. Only one portion of these new recordings was kept, and was combined with the original take to create a new stereo mix for the US version of the 1969 Smash Hits album. This newer mix was also used by MCA for both the 1993 CD reissue of Are You Experienced and the Ultimate Experience anthology.  

Artist:    Steppenwolf
Title:    Jaded Strumpet
Source:    LP: For Ladies Only
Writer(s):    Jerry Edmonton
Label:    Dunhill/ABC
Year:    1971
    The fifth Steppenwolf album, For Ladies Only, is probably best remembered for its gatefold cover, the center of which was a photo of a full-sized motor vehicle that looked like, well, a giant penis with European plates being pulled over by the cops on Hollywood Boulevard. The album itself features songwriting contributions from each of the band members, including drummer Jerry Edmonton, who sang lead vocals on Jaded Strumpet.

Artist:    Young Rascals
Title:    Groovin'
Source:    CD: Groovin'
Writer(s):    Cavaliere/Brigati
Label:    1967
Year:    Warner Special Products (original label: Atlantic)
    After establishing themselves as a high-energy blue-eyed soul band with songs like Good Lovin' and I've Been Lonely Too Long, the Young Rascals decided to expand their musical horizons in 1967, starting with the song Groovin', released in April of that year. The song was the brainchild of keyboardist/vocalist Felix Cavaliere, whose own musical influences included latin rhythms he had been exposed to while playing at resorts in the Catskill and Adirondack mountains. Lyrically, the song was inspired by a girlfriend that he could only see on Sundays, thanks to the Rascals' hectic touring schedule. Groovin' became the band's second #1 hit, and the first written by band members. In July they put out Spanish and Italian versions of the song, concurrent with the release of the Groovin' LP.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Unhappy Girl
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer:    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    After the success of their first album and the single Light My Fire in early 1967, the Doors quickly returned to the studio, releasing a second LP, Strange Days, later the same year. The first single released from the new album was People Are Strange. The B side of that single was Unhappy Girl, from the same album. Both sides got played on the jukebox at a place called the Woog in the village of Meisenbach near Ramstein Air Force Base (which is where I was spending most of my evenings that autumn). 

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Discrepancy
Source:    CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer:    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1967
    Discrepancy, one of Sean Bonniwell's most sophisticated recordings with his band the Music Machine, features two simultaneous vocal lines. The main one, sung by Bonniwell (in the left channel) as a single melody line, tells the story of a deteriorating relationship. In the opposite channel we hear a breathy multi-part vocal line that tells the same story from the perspective of the subconscious. The two come together lyrically from time to time to express key concepts such as the line "now I know I'm losing you", only to once again diverge onto their separate tracks. The bridge serves to further unite the two divergent lines with the repeating plea to "tell me what to do". Discrepancy is one of the tracks recorded by the original Music Machine lineup (Bonniwell on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Mark Landon on lead guitar, Ron Edgar on drums, Doug Rhodes on keyboards and Keith Olsen on bass) that was never released on Original Sound Records, either as an LP track or on a 45 RPM single. Instead, the song was included on the LP Bonniwell Music Machine, released by Warner Brothers in 1967.

Artist:    Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band
Title:    Autumn's Child
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 side two closer Autumn's Child, 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:    Donovan
Title:    Good Time
Source:    British import CD: Mellow Yellow (bonus track)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    EMI
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 2005
    Although a concert favorite at the time, Donovan's jazz-influenced Good Time, recorded in November of 1966, remained unreleased until 2005, when it was included as a bonus track on the remastered version of the Mellow Yellow album. Oddly enough, the songs included on the album itself were never mixed in stereo, but for some reason Good Time was. 

Artist:    Bobby Fuller Four
Title:    I Fought The Law
Source:    CD: I Fought The Law-The Best Of The Bobby Fuller Four (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Sonny Curtis
Label:    Rhino (original label: Mustang)
Year:    1965
    I Fought The Law is one of the truly iconic songs in rock history. Originally recorded by the Crickets in 1959 after Sonny Curtis, who wrote the song, had joined the band as lead guitarist and taken over lead vocals following the death of Buddy Holly, the song became a national hit when it was covered by the Bobby Fuller Four in late 1965. The song hit the #9 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1966, and has since been recorded by numerous artists from a variety of genres, including the Clash, Hank Williams, Jr., the Dead Kennedys and Bruce Springsteen, who has made it a staple of his live show over the years.
    
Artist:     Byrds
Title:     Chimes of Freedom
Source:      LP: Mr. Tambourine Man
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
Year:     1965
     Although not released as a single, the Byrds cover of Dylan's Chimes of Freedom was a staple of the band's stage repertoire and was one of three songs captured on film by D.R. Pennebacker for his Monterrey Pop Festival TV special. None of the tracks were actually used on the show, but all have been issued on an outtake disc that comes as part of the expanded DVD edition of Pennebacker's film. 

Artist:    Standells
Title:    Dirty Water
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Ed Cobb
Label:    Elektra (original label: Tower)
Year:    1965
    Dirty Water has long since been adopted by the city of Boston (and especially its sports teams), yet the band that originally recorded this Ed Cobb tune was purely an L.A. band, having started off playing cover tunes at frat parties in the early 60s. Drummer Dickie Dodd, who sings lead on Dirty Water, was a former Mouseketeer who had played on the surf-rock hit Mr. Moto as a member of the Bel-Airs.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    A Well Respected Man
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer:    Ray Davies
Label:    Eric (original label: Reprise)
Year:    Released 1965, charted 1966
    The Kinks were one of the original British Invasion bands, scoring huge R&B-influenced hits with You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night in 1964. The hits continued in 1965 with more melodic songs like Set Me Free and Tired Of Waiting For You. 1966 saw Ray Davies's songwriting take a satiric turn, as A Well Respected Man (actually released in late 1965) amply illustrates. Over the next few years the Kinks would continue to evolve, generally getting decent critical reviews but less than stellar record sales (in part because of a performance ban imposed on them by the American Federation of Musicians) for their albums until 1970, when the song Lola became a huge international hit, reviving the band's fortunes and reigniting interest in their earlier tunes. 
    
Artist:        Emitt Rhodes
Title:        Holly Park
Source:    LP: The American Dream
Writer:        Emitt Rhodes
Label:        A&M
Year:        1969
        Emitt Rhodes first got noticed in his mid-teens as the drummer for the Palace Guard, a Beatles-influenced L.A. band that had a minor hit with the song Like Falling Sugar in 1966. Rhodes would soon leave the guard to front his own band, the Merry-Go-Round, scoring one of the most popular regional hits in L.A. history with the song Live. In 1969 Rhodes decided to try his hand as a solo artist. The problem was that he was, as a member of the Merry-Go-Round, contractually obligated to record one more album for A&M. The album itself, featuring a mixture of solo tunes and leftover Merry-Go-Round tracks, sat on the shelf for two years until Rhodes had released a pair of well-received LPs for his new label, at which time A&M finally issued The American Dream as an Emitt Rhodes album.

Artist:    Love
Title:    Your Mind And We Belong Together
Source:    Australian import CD: Comes In Colours (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Raven (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1968
    The last record to be released by the classic Love lineup of Arthur Lee, Ken Forssi, Johnny Echols, Bryan MacLean and Michael Stuart was a single, Your Mind And We Belong Together. Although released in 1968, the song is very much the same style as the 1967 album Forever Changes. A bonus track on the Forever Changes CD shows Lee very much in command of the recording sessions, calling for over two dozen takes before getting an acceptable version of the song. The song serves as a fitting close to the story of one of the most influential, yet overlooked, bands in rock history...or would have, if Lee had not tried unsuccessfully to duplicate the band's success with new members several times in the ensuing years.

Artist:    Country Joe And The Fish
Title:    Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source:    CD: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s):    Joe McDonald
Label:    Vanguard
Year:    1967
    While not as commercially successful as the Jefferson Airplane or as long-lived as the Grateful Dead (there's an oxymoron for ya), Country Joe and the Fish may well be the most accurate musical representation of what the whole Haight-Ashbury scene was about, which is itself ironic, since the band operated out of Berkeley on the other side of the bay. Of all the tracks on their first album, Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine probably got the most airplay on various underground radio stations that were popping up on the FM dial at the time (some of them even legally).

Artist:    Del-Vetts
Title:    Every Time
Source:    Mono LP: The Dunwich Records Story (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Jim Lauer
Label:    Tutman (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    Chicago's Del-Vetts only released three singles before changing their name to Pride And Joy in 1967. The best of these was Last Time Around, written by Dennis Dahlquist, who also wrote the B side, a tune called Every Time. Although not an official band member, Dahlquist wrote nearly all the group's original material.

Artist:    Beau Brummels
Title:    Don't Talk To Strangers
Source:    Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Elliott/Durand
Label:    Rhino (original label: Autumn)
Year:    1965
    The Beau Brummels were one of the first bands to emerge from the San Francisco area following the British Invasion of 1964. Signed to Mike Donahue's Autumn Records in 1964, the band got off to a solid start with back-to-back hit singles (Laugh Laugh, and Just A Little), and were considered one of the originators of the folk-rock movement. Financial problems at Autumn, however, led to poor promotion of the band's subsequent releases, including the excellent Don't Talk To Strangers (produced by Sly Stone), and they were never able to regain their momentum, even after Autumn (and the Beau Brummels' contract) was bought out by Warner Brothers in 1967.

Artist:    Remains
Title:    Diddy Wah Diddy
Source:    Mono LP: The Exciting Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    McDaniel/Dixon
Label:    Columbia Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year:    1966
    One of the great mysteries of 60s rock is why the Remains, one of Boston's most popular bands, never made it big nationally. Formed by Barry Tashian (vocals, guitar), Bill Briggs (keyboards)  Chip Damiani (drums) and Vern Miller (bass) in 1964, the band played a mixture of rock 'n' roll and R&B covers at the Rathskeller, a tavern near the dorm they shared as freshmen students at Boston University. They quickly gained a following among fellow students and found themselves appearing across New England, eventually relocating, first to New York and then Califiornia. Despite appearing on the Ed Sullivan show and Hullabaloo, the band's closest thing to a national hit was a high-energy version of Bo Diddley's Diddy Wah Diddy, which stalled out on Billboard's Bubbling Under chart at # 129 in 1966. That same year they landed a three-week long engagement as the Beatles' opening act on their last US tour, but just before the gig began Damiani abruptly quit the band, and the group didn't have time to properly work in their new drummer, N.D. Smart. By the time the Remains' debut album came out in 1966, the group had disbanded.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    You Told Me
Source:    CD: Headquarters
Writer(s):    Michael Nesmith
Label:    Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year:    1967       
            After Don Kirschner got himself fired from Colgems for issuing the album More of the Monkees without the band's knowledge or permission (as well as a subsequent single that was sent out in promo form to radio stations and almost immediately rescinded), the band members insisted on having greater artistic control over what was being issued with their names on it. The end result was the Headquarters album, the only Monkees LP to feature the band members playing virtually all the instruments (with a few exceptions, notably producer Chip Douglas playing bass guitar). Although the Michael Nesmith composition You Told Me starts off side one of the LP, it was actually the third and final Nesmith track to be recorded for Headquarters. Peter Tork plays banjo on the song, which was sung by Nesmith himself.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    Love Is Only Sleeping
Source:    LP: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones, LTD.
Writer(s):    Mann/Weil
Label:    Colgems
Year:    1967
    Among the various professional songwriters hired by Don Kirschner in 1966 to write songs for the Monkees were the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who had hit it big with a pair of songs for Paul Revere And The Raiders (Kicks and Hungry) earlier that year. But when the Monkees rebelled against Kirschner's control over their recorded output in early 1967 it looked as though the band was done with Mann/Weil compositions altogether. Later that year, however, the Monkees themselves, now firmly in control of their own musical direction, chose to record a new Mann/Weil tune, Love Is Only Sleeping, as their fourth single. At the same time, the group was working on their fourth LP, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones, LTD. A last-minute change of plans resulted in a different song, Daydream Believer, being released as a single instead, with a tune from the album, Goin' Down, as the B side. Goin' Down was then deleted from the album lineup and Love Is Only Sleeping included in its place. It was the closest that Michael Nesmith would ever come to being the lead vocalist on a Monkees hit single.  

Artist:     Monkees
Title:     Mr. Webster
Source:     CD: Headquarters
Writer:     Boyce/Hart
Label:     Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year:     1967
     After scathing criticism from the rock press for not playing their own instruments, the Monkees were determined to show that they could do it themselves with their third LP, Headquarters. One of the better, yet often overlooked tracks is Mr. Webster, a folk-rock song about an underappreciated bank security guard who decides to determine his own retirement bonus. Although their musicianship was nowhere near being on a level with the studio musicians who had played on their first two albums, the Monkees, in the words of Peter Tork, finally felt like a "real band". Unfortunately the damage to their reputations was already past the point of redemption, and subsequent LPs all used studio musicians, albeit under the direct supervision of the Monkees themselves. 
    
Artist:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    Help Me Girl
Source:    LP: The Best Of Eric Burdon And The Animals-Vol. II (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Eric Is Here)
Writer(s):    English/Weiss
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1966
    Consider the following paradox: Animals vocalist Eric Burdon made no secret of his disdain for the songs provided to the Animals by producer Mickey Most, which by and large came from professional songwriters based in New York's Brill Building. Nonetheless, when the original Animals split up, the first new song to come from Eric Burdon was not only a product of professional songwriters, it was even lighter in tone than the songs that he had complained about. Even stranger, Help Me Girl was fully orchestrated and, with the exception of drummer Barry Jenkins, was performed entirely by studio musicians. 

Artist:    Tales Of Justine
Title:    Monday Morning
Source:    Mono British import CD: Psychedelia At Abbey Road (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    David Daltrey
Label:    EMI (original label: His Master's Voice)
Year:    1967
    Tales Of Justine started off in 1965 as the Court Jesters, an instrumental trio consisting of Paul Myerson on guitar, Chris Woodisse on bass, and Paul Hurford on drums. The lineup was completed with the addition of multi-instrumentalist David Daltrey, a cousin of the Who's Roger Daltrey, on lead vocals. Two years later the band signed with EMI, largely due to support from trainee producer Tim Rice and arranger Andrew Lloyd Webber, who helped the band with their debut single. Rice soon departed company with EMI and the band did not release any more records. Rice and Webber, however, went on to greater fame with their rock musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph And The AmazingTechnicolor Dreamcoat, the second of which starred Daltrey himself.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Not Guilty
Source:    CD: Anthology 3
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Capitol/Apple
Year:    Recorded 1968, released 1996
    One of the most legendary unreleased Beatles recordings, Not Guilty was written by George Harrison after returning from the band members' spiritual retreat in Rishikesh, India, where they studied Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The song addresses his growing dissatisfaction with his role in the band, while defending himself against accusations that he led the group "astray on the road to Mandalay". The recording process was a difficult one, taking over 100 takes to get right, and even then Harrison was unsatisfied with the final recording, which may explain why the song, originally slated for inclusion on the White Album, remained unreleased for nearly 30 years.

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Tombstone Blues
Source:    CD: Highway 61 Revisited
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1965
    One of the most influential albums in rock history was Bob Dylan's 1965 LP Highway 61 Revisited. Although he had experimented with adding electric guitar, bass and drums to some of the songs on his previous album, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited was his first LP to feature electric instruments on every track. Of these, the most notable was probably the guitar work of Michael Bloomfield, who would soon come to prominence as lead guitarist for the Butterfield Blues Band. Bloomfield's work is most prominent on blues-based tracks such as Tombstone Blues, which follows the classic Like A Rolling Stone on side one of the original LP.

Artist:    Shadows of Knight
Title:    Light Bulb Blues
Source:    CD: Oh Yeah! The Best Of Dunwich Records (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Kelley/Sohns/McGeorge
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    Following the national success of their cover of Van Morrison's Gloria, Chicago's Shadows Of Knight returned to the studio to cut a cover of a Bo Diddley tune, Oh Yeah. For the B side of that record the band was allowed to record one of their own compositions. Light Bulb Blues captures the essence of the Shadows' style: hard-driving garage/punk that follows a traditional 12-bar blues progression. The result is a track that sounds a bit like a twisted variation on Muddy Waters's classic Rollin' And Tumblin'.

Artist:     Butterfield Blues Band
Title:     Walkin' Blues
Source:     CD: East-West
Writer:     Robert Johnson
Label:     Elektra
Year:     1966
     Unlike The Blues Project, which mixed original material with improvisational arrangements of blues classics, the Butterfield Blues Band took pride in presenting an authentic Chicago blues sound. The opening track for their most celebrated album, East-West, was Robert Johnson's Walkin' Blues. 
    
Artist:    Cream
Title:    Toad
Source:    British import LP: Cream (originally released on LP: Fresh Cream)
Writer(s):    Ginger Baker
Label:    Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year:    1966
    By 1970, pretty much every rock band in the world featured a drum solo during live performances. Before 1966, however, the practice was unheard of; in fact, drum solos were considered solely the province of jazz musicians. The guy who changed all that was Ginger Baker of Cream, who, on the band's very first album provided the studio version of Toad. Due to the limitations of four-track recording, the entire drum solo, which takes up the bulk of the five-minute recording, is assigned to one single track, which on the stereo version of the song is mixed entirely to one channel/speaker. This makes for a rather odd listening experience under certain circumstances. A longer version of Toad recorded live at the Fillmore would appear on Cream's third album, Wheels Of Fire, in 1968 (this time with the drums mixed in full stereo). To cement his reputation as the king of rock drum solos, Baker included yet another lengthy one (in 5/4 time yet!) on Do What You Like, a song he wrote himself for the Blind Faith album, which he then repeated on the first album by Ginger Baker's Air Force.

Artist:    Monks
Title:    Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy
Source:    German import CD: Black Monk Time
Writer(s):    Burger/Spangler/Havlicek/Johnston/Shaw
Label:    Repertoire (original label: Polydor International)
Year:    1966
    The Monks were ahead of their time. In fact they were so far ahead of their time that only in the next century did people start to realize just how powerful the music on their first and only LP actually was. Released in West Germany in 1966, Black Monk Time both delighted and confused record buyers with songs like Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy, which sounds at first like a typical mid-60s dance tune, but soon displays a subversive edge that presages both the British punk-rock movement of the late 1970s and the hypnotic rhythmic patterns that would become the basis of kraut-rock as well. Not bad for a group of five American GIs (probably draftees) who, while stationed at Frankfurt, managed to come up with the idea of a rock band that looked and dressed like Monks (including the shaved patch on the top of each member's head) and sounded like nothing else in the world at that time. Of course, such a phenomenon can't sustain itself indefinitely, and the group disappeared in early 1967, never to be seen or heard from again. 

Artist:    Saturday's Children
Title:    Born On Saturday
Source:    Mono CD: If You're Ready! The Best Of Dunwich Records...Volume 2 (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Bryan/Holder
Label:    Sundazed/Here 'Tis (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    Despite being one of the most popular local bands in the Chicago area, Saturday's Children were never able to sell enough copies of their singles to be able to record an entire LP. Nonetheless, they did record some fine tunes such as Born On Saturday, which appeared as the B side of their first single for Dunwich Records. Bassist Jeff Bryan later went on to join H.P. Lovecraft, while guitarist Dave Carter ended up with the Cryan' Shames.

Artist:    Glass Family
Title:    Highway 1
Source:    LP: Electric Band
Writer(s):    The Glass Family
Label:    Maplewood 
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 2015
    Despite opening for several big name acts (and having a following of their own), L.A.'s Glass Family didn't release their debut LP until 1969. Not that they didn't try; in fact they, working with producer Richard Podolor, recorded an entire album in 1967, only to have their label send them back to the studio to come up with something a bit more "polished". Highway 1 is one of the tracks from the rejected first album.
  
Artist:    Blues Project
Title:    She Raised Her Hand
Source:    LP: Planned Obsolescence
Writer(s):    Kulberg/Roberts
Label:    Verve Forecast
Year:    1968
    By the end of 1967, the Blues Project no longer existed, although they never officially disbanded. Al Kooper had left the band earlier in the year to take a position as staff producer at Columbia's New York studios, while guitarists Danny Kalb and Steve Katz had both left the group after the band's disappointing performance at the Monterey Internation Pop Festival, leaving only drummer Roy Blumenfeld and flautist Andy Kulberg to provide Verve with a contractually-obligated fourth album. To do so they recruited guitarist John Gregory, bassist Don Kretmar and violinist Richard Greene to record the album Planned Obsolescence in 1968. Additionally, the band had a dedicated lyricist, Jim Roberts, who co-wrote (with Kuhlberg) She Raised Her Hand. Once Planned Obsolescence was released, the new band officially changed its name to Seatrain.

Artist:     Country Weather
Title:     Fly To New York
Source:     Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released only to radio stations, later included on Swiss CD:     Country Weather)
Writer:     Baron/Carter/Derr/Douglass
Label:     Rhino (original label: RD)
Year:     Recorded 1969, released 2005
     Country Weather started off as a popular dance band in Contra Costa County, California. In 1968 they took the name Country Weather and began gigging on the San Francisco side of the bay. In 1969, still without a record contract, they recorded an album side's worth of material, made a few one-sided test copies and circulated them to local radio stations. Those tracks, including Fly To New York, were eventually released on CD in 2005 by the Swedish label RD Records.