https://exchange.prx.org/p/637143
This week we have artists' sets from both the Fab Four and the Prefab Four. And for a bonus we have an entire side of Live Dead. First, though, a whole bunch of tunes from 1966 and 1967, including the third in our series of Jimi Hendrix Experience UK (and Europe) B sides that were not available in the US during Hendrix's lifetime.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Source: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
After the reunion of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel following the surprise success of an electrified remix of The Sound Of Silence, the two quickly recorded an album to support the hit single. Sounds Of Silence was, for the most part, a reworking of material that Simon had recorded for 1965 UK LP the Paul Simon Songbook. The pressure for a new album thus (temporarily) relieved, the duo got to work on their first album of all new material since their unsuccessful 1964 effort Wednesday Morning 3AM (which had in fact been re-released and was now doing well on the charts). In October the new album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, hit the stands. The title track was a new arrangement of an old English folk ballad, Scarborough Fair, combined with a reworking of a 1963 Simon tune (The Side Of A Hill,) with all-new lyrics and retitled Canticle. The two melodies and sets of lyrics are set in counterpoint to each other, creating one of the most sophisticated folk song arrangements ever recorded. After being featured in the film The Graduate, Scarborough Fair/Canticle was released as a single in early 1968, going on to become one of the duo's most celebrated songs.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Ferris Wheel
Source: Mono LP: Sunshine Superman
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: Epic/Sundazed
Year: 1966
In the fall of 1966 the career of Scottish folk singer Donovan Leitch took an odd turn. Up until that point in time he had a run of successful records in the UK but got very little airplay in the US. Two events, however, combined to turn the entire situation around 180 degrees. First, Donovan had just signed a contract with Epic Records in the US, a major step up from the poorly distributed and even more poorly promoted Hickory label. At the same time contract negotiations between the singer/songwriter and his British label, Pye, had come to an impasse. As a result Donovan's next LP, Sunshine Superman, was released only in the US, making songs like Ferris Wheel unavailable to his oldest fans. His popularity in the UK suffered greatly from lack of any new recordings over the next year, while it exploded in the US with consecutive top 10 singles Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow in 1966. From that point on Donovan would have his greatest success in North America, even after securing a new record contract in the UK in late 1967.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Come Up The Years
Source: CD: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer(s): Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Year: 1966
One of the most overused motifs in pop music is the "You're too young for me" song. This probably reflects, to a certain degree, a lifestyle that goes back to the beginnings of rock and roll (Chuck Berry did jail time for transporting a minor across state lines, Jerry Lee Lewis saw his career get derailed by his marraige to his 13-year-old cousin, etc.). Generally, the song's protagonist comes to a decision to put a stop to the relationship before it gets too serious. The Marty Balin/Paul Kantner tune Come Up The Years takes a more sophisticated look at the subject, although it still comes to the same conclusion (I can't do this because you're jailbait). In fact, the only rock songwriter I know of that came to any other conclusion on the matter was Bob Markley of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and that's what ultimately got him in trouble with the law. Oh, and it's been alleged that some of Kim Fowley's dealings with certain members of the Runaways was, let us say, less than professional, which may well have been the reason for them severing ties with him.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Too Much On My Mind
Source: Mono LP: Face To Face
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1966
Face To Face, released in 1966, was the first Kinks album to consist entirely of songs written by Ray Davies. The making of the album was not without difficulties; there were clashes between the band and Pye Records over the format of the album, with the band wanting to use sound effects to bridge the gaps between tracks and the label wanting a more standard banding of each track as a separate entity (the label won) and Davies himself suffered a nervous breakdown just as recording sessions for the album got under way. In addition, bassist Peter Quaife actually quit the band shortly before recording sessions for the album started, but returned in time to play on most of the tracks, including the gentle balled Too Much On My Mind.
Artist: Mothers Of Invention
Title: I Ain't Got No Heart
Source: CD: Freak Out!
Writer(s): Frank Zappa
Label: Ryko (original label: Verve)
Year: 1966
According to the Freak Out liner notes, I Ain't Got No Heart was a summation of Zappa's feelings about relationships in general. Maybe so, but I have to point out that his kids, Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa, grew up in a two-parent household. So there!
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: When I Was Young
Source: Mono CD: Retrospective (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label: Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1967
After the Animals disbanded in 1966, Eric Burdon set out to form a new band that would be far more psychedelic than the original group. The first release from these "New Animals" was When I Was Young. The song was credited to the entire band, a practice that would continue throughout the entire existence of the group that came to be called Eric Burdon And The Animals.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: 51st Anniversary
Source: Mono Dutch import LP: The Singles (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Polydor (original UK label: Track)
Year: 1967
The first Jimi Hendrix Experience single of 1967 (and the first for Track Records) was the classic Purple Haze, released on March 17, 1967. For the B side, the band chose one of producer Chas Chandler's favorite tracks, 51st Anniversary. The song expressed Hendrix's views on marraige by looking at it first from 51 years after the wedding, and then working his way back through the years. The first half, in Hendrix's words, was "just saying the good things about marraige, or maybe the usual things about marraige. The second part of the record tells about the parts of marraige which I've seen." Hendrix's own parents got married when his mother was just 17, just like the girl in the song. Musically, 51st Anniversary is somewhat unique for Hendrix in that it does not have a guitar solo, although the recording does feature five guitar overdubs linked together over the course of the track.
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: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Mr. Soul
Source: LP: Buffalo Springfield Again
Writer: 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: Beatles
Title: Only A Northern Song
Source: CD: Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Writer(s): George Harrison
Label: Apple/Capitol
Year: Recorded 1967, released 1969
Anyone who thinks that George Harrison was happily oblivious to how badly he was being screwed over as a songwriter during his years as a member of the Beatles need only listen to the lyrics of Only A Northern Song, one of four new tracks submitted by the band for use in the film Yellow Submarine. Although Harrison had actually formed his own publishing company, Harrisongs, in 1964, he was persuaded to stay with the band's own Northern Songs LTD. by his bandmates when the company went public in 1965 in order to get around British tax laws on international sales of Beatles' compositions. The problem was that, as the principle songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were also the principle stockholders, at 15% each, while Harrison and Ringo Starr each owned only 8%. This meant that Lennon and McCartney were actually making more in royalties on Harrison's compositions than Harrison himself. Harrison later said that the company's manager, Dick James, hadn't told him that he was giving up ownership of his own compositions by signing with Northern Songs. Following the formation of Apple Corp in 1968 Harrison's compositions were no longer published by Northern Songs.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Flying
Source: CD: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr
Label: Apple/Parlophone
Year: 1967
1967 was an odd year for the Beatles. They started it with one of their most successful double-sided singles, Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane, and followed it up with the iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album and participated in the first worldwide live television broadcast performing All You Need Is Love in June. From there, they embarked on a new film project. Unlike their previous movies, the Magical Mystery Tour was not made to be shown in theaters; rather, the film was aired as a television special shown exclusively in the UK. The airing of the film, in December of 1967, coincided with the release (again only in the UK and Europe) of a two-disc extended play 45 RPM set featuring the six songs from the special. As EPs were at that time considered a non-starter in the US, Capitol Records decided to release Magical Mystery Tour as a full-length album instead, with the songs from the telefilm on one side of the LP and all of the single sides they had released that year on the other. Among the songs from the film itself is Flying, an instrumental track that, unusually, was credited to the entire band.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Baby, You're A Rich Man
Source: LP: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1967
Baby, You're A Rich Man was one of the last actual collaborations between John Lennon and Paul McCartney and addresses the Beatles' longtime manager Brian Epstein, although not by name. Lennon came up with the basic question "how does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?" (a popular term for the young and hip in late 60s London), which became the basis for the song's verses, which were combined with an existing, but unfinished, Paul McCartney chorus (Baby, You're A Rich Man, too). The finished piece was issued as the B side of the Beatles' second single of 1967, All You Need Is Love, and later remixed in stereo and included on the US-only LP version of Magical Mystery Tour.
Artist: Pentangle
Title: Pentangling
Source: LP: Superecord Contemporary (originally released on LP: Pentangle)
Writer(s): Cos/Jansch/McShea/Renbourne/Thompson
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Once in a while an album comes along that is so consistently good that it's impossible to single out one specific track for airplay. Such is the case with the debut Pentangle album from 1968. The group, consisting of already well-established guitarists John Renbourne and Bert Jansch, vocalist Jacqui McShea, bassist Terry Cox, and drummer Danny Thompson, had more talent than nearly any band in history from any genre, yet never succumbed to the clash of egos that characterize most supergroups. That talent is abundantly evident on Pentangling, from their 1968 debut LP.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Homburg
Source: Mono British import 7" EP: Homburg (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: Esoteric/Cherry Red (original US label: A&M)
Year: 1967
Procol Harum's followup single to A Whiter Shade Of Pale was a now nearly forgotten song called Homburg. Although the song's lyrics were praised by critics and by fellow songwriters such as Elton John, the music itself was perceived as being too similar to the previous single to stand on its own. You can decide for yourself on that one.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: Cheryl's Going Home
Source: Mono CD: Projections
Writer: Bob Lind
Label: Sundazed/Verve Folkways
Year: 1966
One of the more unlikely songs to appear on an album by one of rock's first jam bands, Cheryl's Going Home was originally a B side released by Bob Lind in 1965. It's possible that the Blues Project recorded it as a possible single of their own but for some reason decided against it. Only the band members and producer Tom Wilson know for sure.
Artist: Oliver
Title: The Arrangement
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): William Oliver Swofford
Label: Crewe
Year: 1969
William Oliver Swofford first burst upon the scene with the hit version of Good Morning Starshine, a song from the Broadway musical Hair. He followed it up with Jean, a Rod McEuen composition from a film called The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie (no, I haven't seen it either). Both songs were huge hits, but neither one of them gave Oliver, as he was known, a chance to show his own individual creativity. The B side of Jean, however, more than makes up for it. The song is built around alternating major and minor versions of the same chord and includes instrumentation usually found only in middle eastern music. Add to this somewhat bizarre lyrics and you have a true psychedelic classic on your hands. And you heard it here first.
Artist: Steve Miller Band
Title: Little Girl
Source: LP: Your Saving Grace
Writer(s): Steve Miller
Label: Capitol
Year: 1969
The fourth Steve Miller Band album, Your Saving Grace, was the lowest charting of the band's first five albums (generally considered their "psychedelic" period). Despite this lack of chart success, Your Saving Grace managed to provide four solid tracks, including Little Girl, for the band's 1972 Anthology album, released while Miller was recovering from a broken neck suffered in a 1971 car accident. Miller would reboot the band with the 1973 album The Joker, which touched off a string of chart toppers for the group.
Artist: Doors
Title: Hyancinth House
Source: LP: L.A. Woman
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1969
The L.A. Woman album is universally considered the Doors' "back to basics" album, but not every track fits into that category. Hyacinth House, for example, was singled out by one critic as "one of the strangest Doors' songs ever recorded". The lyrics by Jim Morrison are filled with oblique references to his own personal situation, while the music draws on keyboardist Ray Manzanek's knowledge of classical music and even borrows a bit of Chopin during the organ solo.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Sweet Young Thing
Source: CD: The Monkees
Writer(s): Nesmith/Goffin/King
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1966
Michael Nesmith had already established himself as a songwriter by the time he was picked to be a member of the prefab four, aka the Monkees. Nonetheless, the show's music director, Don Kirschner, insisted that Nesmith work with the seasoned songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King on a song for the first Monkees LP. The result was a rather disjointed effort called Sweet Young Thing that nonetheless has a certain catchiness to it.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Salesman
Source: CD: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer(s): Craig Vincent Smith
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1967
The first song on the Monkees' fourth LP, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones, LTD. was also the most controversial. Michael Nesmith, as a side project, had been producing songs for a group led by Craig Vincent Smith called the Penny Arkade. One song in particular, Salesman, impressed Nesmith so much that he decided to produce a Monkees version of the song as well. The track was then used in a Monkees TV episode called The Devil And Peter Tork. NBC-TV at first refused to air the episode, claiming that the line "Salesman with your secret goods that you push while you talk" was a veiled drug reference (although producer Bert Schnieder was convinced the real reason was the liberal use of the word "hell" in the show's script).
Artist: Monkees
Title: Papa Gene's Blues
Source: CD: The Monkees
Writer(s): Michael Nesmith
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded 1966, released 2006
Despite the best efforts of Don Kirschner and others to exclude the four members of the Monkees from the actual process of making records (other than to provide vocal overdubs for the finished instrumental tracks), Michael Nesmith was able to use what little clout he had to insist on producing at least a couple tracks for use on the group's first LP. One of those tracks was Papa Gene's Blues, a Nesmith composition that stands as one of the earliest examples of what would come to be called country-rock. The original tracks were laid down on July 7, 1966, and featured an array of studio musicians, including band member Peter Tork on guitar. Nesmith handled the lead vocals, with all four of the Monkees providing backup vocals. The tracks were mixed on July 16th, but Kirschner insisted that the backup vocals be recut on July 31st, using only Mickey Dolenz.
Artist: Fairport Convention
Title: Who Knows Where The Time Goes
Source: LP: Fairport Chronicles (originally released on LP: Unhalfbricking)
Writer(s): Sandy Denny
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
Who Knows Where The Time Goes was one of the first songs ever written by Sandy Denny, as well as the last song she ever performed. Denny recorded her first demo of the song in 1966, following it up with a more refined version the following year. She re-recorded the song while a member of Strawbs in 1968, although she sang and played unaccompanied by the rest of the band. The recording remained unreleased until 1973, when it appeared on the Strawbs album All Our Own Work. That same year Judy Collins heard a tape of Denny's first demo of Who Knows Where The Time Goes and recorded her own version of the song, releasing it as the B side of Both Sides Now, making it the first version of the song to appear on vinyl. Meanwhile Denny had left Strawbs and joined Fairport Convention, replacing original vocalist Judy Dyble. Fairport recorded a new version of Who Knows Where The Time Goes for their 1969 LP Unhalfbricking. It soon became the most popular song on the album and a signature song for both Denny and Fairport Convention itself. The song has been covered by over a dozen other artists over the years, as well as being used for various film and television soundtracks.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Sell
Source: 45 RPM single (taken from LP: Just Good Rock And Roll)
Writer: M. Herron/J. Herron
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
After 1968's Mass In F Minor, which saw the members of the Electric Prunes being replaced by studio musicians, the group decided to call it quits. Producer David Hassinger, who had the legal rights to the band's name, had different ideas and put together a "new improved" Electric Prunes lineup to record the 1969 album Just Good Rock And Roll. The late Ron Morgan, lead guitarist for the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, was part of this new lineup, which may in fact have been an early version of Three Dog Night. The album had even less success than the three previous Prunes albums, and Hassinger finally retired the name. Various former members of the band reunited in the 21st century, making concert appearances and recording new material. None of the members of the "new improved" lineup, however, participated in the band's revival.
Artist: Derek and the Dominos
Title: Layla
Source: CD: The Best Of Eric Clapton (originally released on LP: Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs)
Writer: Clapton/Gordon
Label: Polydor/Chronicles (original label: Atco)
Year: 1970
After the breakup of Blind Faith after one album, Eric Clapton set about forming a new band that would be more of a group effort than a collection of stars working together. To this end he found musicians that, although quite talented, were not particularly well-known outside of the British blues community. At first the group deliberately downplayed Clapton's presence in the band in order to stay focused on making music as a collective, although even in the beginning it was clear that Clapton would be the group's lead vocalist. The new group had trouble coming up with a name, however, and (half-jokingly) told one stage MC that their name was Del and the Dynamos. The MC misheard the name and introduced the new band as Derek and the Dominos. The name stuck. Meanwhile, Clapton had recently discovered a new band out of Atlanta, Georgia, calling itself the Allman Brothers band and was so impressed by guitarist Duane Allman that he asked him to join the Dominos. Allman, however, declined Clapton's offer, choosing to stick with the band he had co-founded with brother Gregg. Duane Allman did, however, sit in with Derek and the Dominos in the studio for several tracks on their upcoming double LP. One of the tracks where Allman's distinctive slide guitar stands out is the album's title song, Layla. The first half of the song itself was written by Clapton, while the second part (where the piano comes in) is credited to drummer Jim Gordon, although there is reason to believe it was actually written by Rita Coolidge, who was Gordon's girlfriend at the time.
Artist: Clique
Title: Superman
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Zekley/Bottler
Label: White Whale
Year: 1969
The Clique was formed as the Roustabouts in Beaumont, Texas sometime in the mid 1960s, spending some time as the Sandpipers as well before finally settling down in Houston as the Clique in 1967. They were successful enough to get attention from the owners of White Whale Records in Los Angeles, who were desperately looking for someone other than the Turtles to make hit records for them. The band was assigned to producer/songwriter Gary Zekley, who co-wrote their first single for the label, Superman. The record, released in June of 1969, went nowhere, and a month later they released a cover version of a Tommy James album track, Sugar On Sunday, with Superman on the B side. The record made it as high as #22 on the Billboard chart, making it the Clique's biggest hit. In 1985, R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills heard a copy of Superman at a friend's house and brought it to the attention of his bandmates, who recorded their own version of the song for their 1986 album Life's Rich Pageant.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: St. Stephen/The Eleven
Source: LP: Live Dead
Writer: Hunter/Garcia/Lesh
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1969
In 1969, after going way over budget on the LP Aoxomoxoa, the Grateful Dead decided to release a double-LP live album, essentially giving Warner Brothers three albums for the price of one. Unlike the studio LP, which attempted to combine live material with studio overdubs, Live Dead was a documentation of two nights' worth of recent performances at the Fillmore West. At the time the band pretty much stuck to the same setlist for each performance and the songs were generally played as one continuous piece in concert. For the album, the best performance of each song was chosen and then arranged in the same order that they had been performed. Side two picks up the first nights' performance of St. Stephen (which had also appeared on Aoxomoxoa) and continues into the second night's version of The Eleven, a performance that rock critic Robert Christian called at the time "the finest rock improvisation ever recorded." Within a couple years St. Stephen would be dropped from the band's setlist and a performance of the piece in the band's later decades was considered by fans to be a special treat.
Artist: Mojo Men
Title: She's My Baby
Source: Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Stewart/Alaimo/Curcio
Label: Rhino (original labels: Autumn/Reprise)
Year: 1965/1966
Although generally considered to be one of the early San Francisco bands, the Mojo Men actually originated in Rochester, NY. After spending most of the early 60s in Florida playing to fraternities, the band moved out the West Coast in 1965, soon falling in with Autumn Records producer Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone), for a time becoming his backup band. Stewart produced several singles for the Mojo Men, including She's My Baby, a song that had originally been recorded in 1962 as a song to do the mashed potato (an early 60s dance) to by Steve Alaimo, brother of Mojo Men bassist/lead vocalist Jim Alaimo and co-host (with Paul Revere and the Raiders) of the nationally distributed dance show Where The Action Is. The Mojo Men version of She's My Baby has more of a blues/garage-rock sound than the Steve Alaimo original, prompting its inclusion on several compilation albums over the past forty years. The original single, released in 1965 on the Autumn label, had different vocals than the 1966 Reprise reissue heard here, although both use the same instrumental backing track.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Stupid Girl
Source: Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1966
By 1966 the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had hit its stride, turning out Rolling Stones classics like Mother's Little Helper and Paint It Black as a matter of course. Even B sides such as Stupid Girl were starting to get airplay on top 40 stations, a trend that would continue to grow over the next year or so.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Mr. Farmer
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: A Web Of Sound)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Rhino
Year: 1966
With two tracks (Can't Seem To Make You Mine and Pushin' Too Hard) from their first album getting a decent amount of airplay on L.A. radio stations in 1966 the Seeds headed back to the studio to record a second LP, A Web Of Sound. The first single released from the album was Mr. Farmer, a song that once again did well locally. The only national hit for the Seeds came when Pushin' Too Hard was re-released in December of 1966, hitting its peak the following spring.
