https://exchange.prx.org/p/628304
This week, among other things, we have a track from the second studio Super Session, a new Advanced Psych segment and the album side credited with inspiring the Rolling Stones to go full psychedelic in late 1967.
Artist: Brogues
Title: I Ain't No Miracle Worker
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: Rhino (original label: Challenge)
Year: 1965
Over a year before the Electric Prunes recorded I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), the songwriting team of Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz came up with a song that has come to be regarded as a garage-punk classic. I Ain't No Miracle Worker, recorded by the Merced, California band the Brogues, was a modest regional hit in 1965. Brogues vocalist/guitarist Gary Cole (using the name Gary Duncan) and drummer Greg Elmore would resurface a few months later in San Francisco as founding members of Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Artist: Animals
Title: See See Rider
Source: CD: The Best Of Eric Burdon And The Animals 1966-1968 (originally released on LP: Animalization and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Ma Rainey
Label: Polydor (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1966
One of the last singles released by the original incarnation of the Animals (and the first to use the name Eric Burdon And The Animals on the label), See See Rider traces its roots back to the 1920s, when it was first recorded by Ma Rainey. The Animals version is considerably faster than most other recordings of the song, and includes a signature opening rift by organist Dave Rowberry (who had replaced founder Alan Price prior to the recording of the Animalization album that the song first appeared on) that is unique to the Animals' take on the tune.
Artist: Tomorrow
Title: My White Bicycle
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Hopkins/Burgess
Label: Rhino (original label: Parlophone)
Year: 1967
One of the most popular bands with the mid-60s London Mods was a group called the In Crowd. In 1967 the band abandoned its R&B/Soul sound for a more psychedelic approach, changing its name to Tomorrow in the process. Their debut single, My White Bicycle, was inspired by the practice in Amsterdam of leaving white bicycles at various stategic points throughout the city for anyone to use (Ithaca, NY currently does the same thing, except theirs are yellow and green). The song sold well and got a lot of play at local discoteques, but did not chart. Soon after the record was released, however, lead vocalist Keith West had a hit of his own, Excerpt From A Teenage Opera, which did not sound at all like the music Tomorrow was making. After a second Tomorrow single failed to chart, the individual members drifted off in different directions, with West concentrating on his solo career, guitarist Steve Howe joining Bodast, and bassist Junior Wood and drummer Twink Alder forming a short-lived group called Aquarian Age. Twink would go on to greater fame as a member of the Pretty Things and a founder of the Pink Fairies, but it was Howe that became an international star in the 70s after replacing Peter Banks in Yes.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Rollin' And Tumblin'
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: The Progressive Blues Experiment)
Writer(s): McKinley Morganfield
Label: United Artists (original labels: Sonobeat/Imperial)
Year: 1968
Johnny Winter's first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, was originally released in 1968 on the Texas-based Sonobeat label. A ctitical success, it was picked up and reissued on the Imperial label a year later. Most of the songs on the album are covers of blues classics such as Muddy Waters's Rollin' And Tumblin'.
Artist: Al Kooper/Shuggie Otis/Wells Kelly/Stu Woods/Mark Klingman
Title: 12:15 Slow Goonbash Blues
Source: British import CD: Kooper Session
Writer(s): Kooper/Otis
Label: Acadia (original US label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
Following up on the unexpected commercial success of the Super Session album in 1968, keyboardist Al Kooper organized a series of six concerts over a three day period at the Fillmore West featuring Mike Bloomfield on guitar, John Kahn on bass and Skip Prokop on drums. The performances were recorded and released in January of 1969 as The Live Adventures Of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. He then invited 15-year-old Shuggie Otis, the son of legendary performer Johnny Otis (Willie And The Hand Jive) to make a new studio album, which was released under the title Kooper Session: Super Session Vol. II. The first side of the LP features a set of cover songs, while the second features original tunes by Kooper and Otis. The longest of these is 12:15 Goonbash Blues, which, at nine and a half minutes, gives all involved a chance to strut their stuff.
Artist: Sunshine Company
Title: Happy
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 11-Pop part 4 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Michaels/Gormann
Label: Rhino (original label: Imperial)
Year: 1967
Los Angeles' Sunshine Company may not have invented the term "sunshine pop" but they were certainly one of its most ardent practitioners. Originally formed as a duo by Mary Nance (vocals) and Maury Manseau (vocals, guitar), they added bassist Larry Sims and drummer Merel Bregante when the signed with Imperial Records, releasing the debut LP, Happy Is The Sunshine Company, in 1967. Their first single from the album, Up, Up And Away, was scheduled to be released in May of 1967 but was withdrawn when the Fifth Dimension beat them to the punch. Instead the group got to work on their first LP, Happy Is The Sunshine Company, with the song Happy released as their first official single. The song hit #50 on the charts, which was apparently good enough for Imperial Records, as by the time they disbanded in late 1968 they had recorded three LPs and released a half dozen singles.
Artist: Thunderclap Newman
Title: Something In The Air
Source: CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): John Keen
Label: Polydor (original label: Marmalade)
Year: 1969
Thunderclap Newman was actually the creation of the Who's Pete Townshend, who assembled a bunch of studio musicians to work with drummer (and former Who roadie) John "Speedy" Keen. Keen had written Armenia City In The Sky, the opening track on The Who Sell Out, and Townshend set up the studio project to return the favor. Joining Keen were 15-year-old guitarist Jimmy McCulloch (who would eventually join Paul McCartney's Wings before dying of a heroin overdose in 1979), studio engineer Andy "Thunderclap" Newman (who had worked with Pink Floyd, among others) on piano, and Townshend himself on bass. Following the success of Something In The Air, the group recorded an album, but sales were disappointing and the group soon disbanded.
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Going Up The Country
Source: British import CD: Living The Blues
Writer(s): Alan Wilson
Label: BGO (original US label: Liberty)
Year: 1968
Canned Heat built up a solid reputation as one of the best blues-rock bands in history, recording several critically-acclaimed albums over a period of years. What they did not have, however, was a top 10 single. The nearest they got was Going Up The Country from their late 1968 LP Living The Blues, which peaked in the #11 spot in early 1969.
Artist: Byrds
Title: My Back Pages
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
One of the items of contention between David Crosby and Roger McGuinn was the latter's insistence on continuing to record covers of Bob Dylan songs when the band members themselves had a wealth of their own material available. Indeed, it was reportedly an argument over whether or not to include Crosby's Triad on the next album that resulted in Crosby being fired from the band in October of 1967 (although other factors certainly played into it as well). Nonetheless, the last Dylan cover with Crosby still in the band was perhaps their best as well. Although not as big a hit as Mr. Tambourine Man, My Back Pages from the Younger Than Yesterday album did respectably well on the charts, becoming one of the Byrds' last top 40 hits.
Artist: Cyrkle
Title: Turn Down Day
Source: Mono LP: Red Rubber Ball
Writer(s): Keller/Blume
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
If there was ever a song that embodies the feel of late summer, it's the Cyrkle's Turn Down Day, from late summer of 1966. The song was the band's second consecutive top 20 hit, although it fell short of the nearly chart topping performace of the band's debut single, Red Rubber Ball. Subsequent singles by the band did progressively worse over the next year and a half and the Cyrkle disbanded in 1968, with two of its members going on to have successful careers as commercial jingle writers (remember Plop Plop Fizz Fizz?).
Artist: The Ban
Title: Place Of Sin
Source: Mono British import CD: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers (bonus track)
Writer(s): Tony McGuire
Label: Big Beat
Year: Recorded 1965, released 2010
The Ban was a garage band from Lompoc, California, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Tony McGuire, organist Oilver McKinney, bassist Frank Strait and drummer Randy Gordon. They made a handful of recordings for the Brent label in 1965, with the song Bye Bye being released as a single. Among the other McGuire compositions the Ban recorded was Place Of Sin, a song that was probably too far ahead of its time to be released in 1965. Unfortunately, before the Ban could generate interest in their single, McGuire was drafted, and the Ban moved to San Bernadino, adding a new member and changing their name to the Now. Later, they relocated to San Francisco, where they were snagged by the infamous manager Matthew Katz, who renamed them the Tripsichord Music Box.
Artist: Dillards
Title: Don't You Cry
Source: LP: Early L.A.
Writer: Bill Martin
Label: Rhino (original label: Capitol)
Year: Recorded 1964, released 1970
The Dillards are best known as the Darlings, the fictional bluegrass band that occassionally showed up on TV's Andy Griffith show. They were also quite infamous as the first bluegrass band to embrace electric instruments, as can be heard on Don't You Cry, a track recorded in 1964 by not released until 1970, when it appeared on a compilation album sponsored by Los Angeles radio station KFWB. If Don't You Cry had been released in 1964, it would now be known as the first folk-rock single.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: And She's Lonely
Source: CD: One Step Beyond
Writer(s): Loomis/Tolby
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1969
The Chocolate Watchband went through more than its share of personnel changes over its short life, with a different lineup in place pretty much every time they walked into a recording studio. Interestingly enough, the lineup for their third and final LP, One Step Beyond, included several members that had, at one time or another, left the band, only to return by 1968. These included two of the founding members, vocalist Danny Phay and guitarist Ned Tormey (who had left the group before it got off the ground) as well as the group's original leader, Mark Loomis, who, along with drummer Gary Andrijasevich, had left after the band's first LP was released. As frontman Dave Aguilar had also left the group, it looked like the Watchband was history. However, the band still had a month's worth of gigs lined up, and so the remaining two members, guitarist Sean Tolby and bassist Bill Flores, recruited three new members to carry on the Watchband name until the fall of 1967. A year later Tolby and Flores got the word that producer Ed Cobb and Tower Records wanted to release a third Chocolate Watchband album, so the two of them brought the above-mentioned former members (but not Aguilar) back to record a far different sounding album than what had gone before. One major difference is that, unlike on the first two albums, which included several filler tracks by studio musicians, all the songs on One Step Beyond were performed by the band members themselves. Also, the album was made up mostly of original material, such as And She's Lonely, written by Loomis and Tolby. The album did not sell well, however, and the Watchband disbanded for a third time in 1970.
Artist: Mops
Title: I'm Just A Mops
Source: CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Japan on LP: Psychedelic Sounds In Japan)
Writer(s): Suzuki/Hoshi
Label: Rhino (original label: Victor)
Year: 1968
Popular rock in the mid-60s UK was known collectively as beat music, which was basically inspired by the Beatles and other Merseybeat bands and taken to its greatest success by London bands such as the Rolling Stones. The rest of the world soon followed suit with their own British-inspired movements such as garage rock in the US and something called group sounds, or GS, in Japan. Among the more successful GS bands was a group called the Mops. Formed in 1966, the band followed in the footsteps of the Animals, who had taken a decidedly psychedelic turn in early 1967. By the time the Mops released their first single in November of 1967 they were being billed as the "First Psychedelic Band in Japan." Six months later they cemented this reputation with the release of their first LP, Psychedelic Sounds In Japan. Mixed in among their own arrangements of such standards as San Franciscan Nights and Somebody To Love were a handful of original tunes, the most notable of which was the grammatically weird I'm Just A Mops, which served as a kind of theme song. With the arrival of Led Zeppelin on the international music scene, the Mops took on a heavier sound, releasing eight more albums before disbanding in 1974.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Fire
Source: LP: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Sometime in late 1966 Jimi Hendrix was visiting his girlfriend's mother's house in London for the first time. It was a cold rainy night and Jimi immediately noticed that there was a dog curled up in front of the fireplace. Jimi's first action was to scoot the dog out of the way so he himself could benefit from the fire's warmth, using the phrase "Move over Rover and let Jimi take over." The phrase got stuck in his head and eventually became the basis for one of his most popular songs. Fire was a highlight of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's live performances, often serving as a set opener. In 1969, two years after its original UK appearance on the mono LP Are You Experienced, the stereo remix of Fire from the US version of the album (which had never been released outside of the US and Canada) was issued in the UK, along with a handful of European countries and New Zealand, as a single called Let Me Light Your Fire.
Artist: Fraternity Of Man
Title: Don't Bogart Me
Source: LP: Fraternity Of Man
Writer(s): Fraternity Of Man
Label: ABC
Year: 1968
In the late 60s there was a certain disconnect between rock musicians and their audience on the subject of country music. Whereas the youth culture of the time associated it with rednecks and conservative attitudes, their musical heroes often held the country music tradition in high regard. One of the first songs to bridge the gap was Don't Bogart Me from the Fraternity Of Man. The band itself was made up of former members of the Factory, a popular L.A. club band led by Lowell George, and the Mothers of Invention, led by Frank Zappa. Although the band's 1968 LP remains somewhat obscure, Don't Bogart Me itself was made famous by its inclusion in the 1969 movie Easy Rider.
Artist: Jean Jacques Burnel
Title: Do The European
Source: EP: The Stranglers (included as bonus disc with Stranglers LP: IV)
Writer(s): Jean Jacques Burnel
Label: IRS
Year: 1980
The fourth Stranglers album, The Raven, was not released in North America. Instead, an album called IV came out a year later in the US and Canada. Early pressings of the album included a free four-song EP; three of the songs had previously been issued, while the fourth, Do The European, was a live track by Stranglers bassist J.J. Burnel that was unavailable anywhere else until 1992, when it appeared on Burnel's first solo LP.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Hello Out There
Source: CD: Feedback
Writer(s): Lowe/Tulin
Label: PruneTwang
Year: 2006
The 2006 Electric Prunes album Feedback sounds like a group of talented musicians with nothing to prove having the time of their lives. Which, of course, is exactly what it is. The album opens with, appropriately, Hello Out There, which I gotta say sounds nothing like any previous Electric Prunes song.
Artist: Baby Charles & The Bedwetters
Title: Dick Swift & His Electric Power Ring
Source: CD: Message To The Youth Of America (bonus EP)
Writer(s): Kim Draheim
Label: self-released
Year: 2021
It was early 2020. The Infrared Radiation Orchestra had just completed recording tracks for the album Message To The Youth Of America, but wanted to add some bonus tracks that didn't quite fit on the album itself. Then COVID hit, disrupting everything. After the three original bonus tracks went missing bandleader Kim Draheim, with the original band members unavailable to re-record the songs, assembled a group of musicians consisting of bassist Jan Arliss, keyboardist/recording engineer Paul Nolan, guitarist Terry Quill, drummer Joe Sarofeen and accordionist/guitarist Theresa Walsh, calling them Baby Charles & The Bedwetters. The bonus tracks were included on a separate disc when Message To The Youth Of America was released in 2021. The first of the three tracks was a Draheim original called Dick Swift & His Electric Power Ring, which begins and ends with a parody of old science fiction matinee movie serials.
Artist: Derek And The Dominos
Title: Little Wing
Source: CD: Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1970
The Jimi Hendrix Experience often performed an instrumental jam based on Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love, so it seems only fair that Eric Clapton would someday return the favor. When he did, it was memorable. Little Wing is one of the standout tracks on an album full of standout tracks. As such, it is often overlooked in favor of other tunes from Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs. Still, it is a unique arrangement of the Hendrix classic, enhanced by the presence of Duane Allman on slide guitar.
Artist: Velvet Underground
Title: Candy Says
Source: British import CD: The Best Of Lou Reed And The Velvet Underground (originally released on LP: The Velvet Underground.
Writer: Lou Reed
Label: Global Television (original US label: M-G-M)
Year: 1969
Following the release of the 1968 album White Light/White Heat, multi-instrumentalist John Cale was kicked out of the Velvet Underground and replaced by bassist Doug Yule. Principal songwriter Lou Reed was adamant that the next album not be a repeat of the group's previous two albums, fearing that the band would end up being locked in to a particular style. Reed also wanted other band members to contribute vocals on the album. One example is Candy Says, the album's opening track, which is sung by Yule. In a later interview Reed called Candy Says "probably the best song I've written". The album, simply titled The Velvet Underground, was released in 1969.
Artist: Cream
Title: Politician
Source: LP: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: RSO (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Although the songwriting team of Jack Bruce and Pete Brown are best known for providing Cream with its more psychedelic songs such as White Room and Swlabr, they did occasionally come up with bluesier numbers such as Politician from the Wheels Of Fire album. The song quickly became a staple of Cream's live performances.
Artist: Grass Roots
Title: Mr. Jones (A Ballad Of A Thin Man)
Source: 45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Dunhill
Year: 1965
In late 1965 songwriters/producers P.F. Sloan (Eve of Destruction) and Steve Barri decided to create a series of records by a band called the Grass Roots. The problem was that there was already a band calling themselves the Grass Roots that was not interested in recording Sloan and Barri's songs, and whose members weren't particularly diplomatic when rejecting Sloan and Barri's offer. Unfortunately for that first band, they had never bothered to copyright the name, so Sloan and Barri decided to recruit another band and talk them into changing their name to the Grass Roots. The band they found was the Bedouins, one of the early San Francisco bands. As the rush to sign SF bands was still months away, the Bedouins were more than happy to come down to L.A. and record the songs Sloan and Barri picked out for them. The first single by the newly-named Grass Roots was a cover of Bob Dylan's A Ballad Of A Thin Man, released under the title Mr. Jones. The band soon got to work promoting the single to Southern California radio stations, but with both the Byrds and the Turtles already on the charts with Dylan covers it soon became obvious that the market was quickly getting saturated. After a period of months the band, who wanted more freedom to write and record their own material, had a falling out with Sloan and Barri and it wasn't long before they moved back to San Francisco, leaving drummer Joel Larson in L.A. The group, with another drummer, continued to perform as the Grass Roots until Dunhill Records ordered them to stop. Eventually Dunhill would hire a local L.A. band called the 13th Floor to be the final incarnation of the Grass Roots who would crank out a series of top 40 hits in the early 70s. Meanwhile the original lineup changed their name but never had the opportunity to make records again. Oh, and that band that hadn't copyrighted the name Grass Roots in the first place? They let their own fans choose a new name for them. That new name was Love.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
Source: CD: Retrospective (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Buffalo Springfield)
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Atco
Year: 1966
One of the most influential folk-rock bands to come out of the L.A. scene was Buffalo Springfield. The band had several quality songwriters, including Neil Young, whose voice was deemed "too weird" by certain record company people. Thus we have Richie Furay singing a Young tune on the band's first single, Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing.
Artist: Hapshash And The Coloured Coat
Title: Empires Of The Sun
Source: LP: Featuring The Human Host And The Heavy Metal Kids
Writer(s): English/Waymouth/Stevens
Label: Imperial
Year: 1967
Hapshash And The Coloured Coat was the collective name taken by Michael English and Nigel Waymouth for their graphic design partnership formed in 1966. Their first project was to design posters advertising London's UFO club. At first they called themselves Cosmic Colors, but soon changed it to Jacob and the Coloured Coat. In March of 1967 they settled on Hapshash And The Coloured Coat, setting up a small studio in London's Holland Park neighborhood and doing prodigious amounts of LSD, usually with the Who's Pete Townshend. In addition to making posters advertising rock bands and the venues they played at, Hapshash And The Coloured Coat recorded their own music, releasing two albums. The first of these, Featuring The Human Host And The Heavy Metal Kids, was released in 1967 and included musical contributions from members of a recently disbanded rock group called Art, including guitarist Luther Grosvenor, bassist Greg Ridley, drummer Mike Kellie and keyboardist Mike Harrison, all of whom would go on to form the band Spooky Tooth later that same year. The entire second side of the album consists of a single sixteen-minute long track called Empire Of The Sun, which is said to have inspired members of the Rolling Stones to include similar extended psychedelic passages on their late 1967 LP Their Satanic Majesties Request.
Artist: Paul Jones
Title: The Dog Presides
Source: British import CD: Insane Times (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Paul Jones
Label: Zonophone (original UK label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
Like many frontmen in the mid-60s Manfred Mann's Paul Jones decided to leave the group for a solo career right at the height of the band's success. Also like many former frontmen, Jones's solo career, beginning in 1966, was less than stellar. Most of Jones's records were done in an almost lounge lizard style. One notable exception is The Dog Presides, the B side of a forgettable 1968 single called And The Sun Will Shine. In addition to Jones on vocals and harmonica, The Dog Presides features former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck and bassist Paul-Samwell Smith and some guy named Paul McCartney on drums. This bit of psychedelic insanity was officially credited to Jones himself, but in all likelihood was a collaborative effort by the four of them.
