Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2616 (starts 4/13/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/614794

    This week we present almost the entire second side of the second Quicksilver Messenger Service LP, Happy Trails (ironically only leaving out the song Happy Trails). Also on tap: A set of tunes from the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday album, an all-British set that includes a Who cover of a Rolling Stones song and several all-American sets.

Artist:    ? And The Mysterians
Title:    96 Tears
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    The Mysterians
Label:    Abkco (original label: Cameo)
Year:    1966
    Although his birth certificate gives the name Rudy Martinez, the leader of the Mysterians had his name legally changed to "?" several years ago. He asserts that he is actually from the planet Mars and has lived among dinosaurs in a past life. Sometimes I feel like I'm living among dinosaurs in this life, so I guess I can relate a little. The band's only major hit, 96 Tears, has the distinction of being the last top 10 single on the Cameo label before Cameo-Parkway went bankrupt and was bought by Allen Klein, who now operates the company as Abkco. 

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Light My Fire (single version)
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    Once in a while a song comes along that totally blows you away the very first time you hear it. The Doors' Light My Fire was one of those songs. I liked it so much that I immediately went out and bought the 45 RPM single. Apparently I was not the only one, as the song spent three weeks at the top of the charts in July of 1967. Despite this success, the single version of the song, which runs less than three minutes, is all but forgotten by modern radio stations, which universally choose to play the full-length album version. Nonetheless, the single version, which was created by editing out most of the solo instrumental sections of the piece, is a historical artifact worth an occasional listen.

Artist:    Blue Cheer
Title:    Parchman Farm
Source:    Dutch import LP: Vincebus Eruptum
Writer(s):    Mose Allison
Label:    Philips
Year:    1968
    If the release of the first Black Sabbath album in early 1970 marks the birth of heavy metal, then the release of the first Blue Cheer album in 1968 may be considered the point of conception for the form. Certainly, in terms of pure volume, Cheer was unequalled in their live performances (although the Grateful Dead's sound system had more wattage, Owsley Stanley used it judiciously to get the best sound quality as opposed to the sheer quantity of decibels favored by Blue Cheer), and managed to preserve that sense of loudness in the studio. Like Black Sabbath, the members of Blue Cheer had more than a passing familiarity with the blues as well, as evidenced by their inclusion of an old Mose Allison tune, Parchman Farm, on their debut LP, Vincebus Eruptum (the album included a cover of B.B. King's Rock Me, Baby as well). Contrary to rumors, guitarist Leigh Stephens did not go deaf and kill himself (although he did leave Blue Cheer after the band's second LP, moving to England and releasing a somewhat distortion-free solo album in 1969).

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Those Were The Days
Source:    LP: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s):    Baker/Taylor
Label:    Atco
Year:    1968
    Drummer Ginger Baker only contributed a handful of songs to the Cream repertoire, but each was, in its own way, quite memorable. Those Are The Days, with its sudden changes of time and key, presages the progressive rock that would flourish in the mid-1970s. As was often the case with Baker-penned songs, bassist Jack Bruce provides the vocals from this Wheels Of Fire track that was also released as the B side of the single version of White Room.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Source:    CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year:    1967
    According to principal songwriter John Lennon, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite was inspired by a turn of the century circus poster that the Beatles ran across while working on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Most of the lyrics include references to items on the poster itself, such as the Hendersons and Henry the Horse. 

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Can I Get To Know You Better
Source:    Mono CD: All The Singles (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Sloan/Barri
Label:    Manifesto (original label: White Whale)
Year:    1966
    Although it started well for them, with the song You Baby hitting the top 20, 1966 was overall a disappointing year for the Turtles. Their next four singles stiffed, with only two of them reaching the lower reaches of the Hot 100. The last of these was Can I Get To Know You Better. Like You Baby, it was written by the songwriting team of Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan, who would have great success as the producers and primary songwriters of the Grass Roots just a few months later. For some reason, however, Can I Get To Know You Better, released in October of 1966, only managed to hit the #89 spot on the charts, despite being a catchy tune with a strong hook that was performed to perfection by the Turtles themselves. The record marked the debut of the band's new bass player, Chip Douglas, who would (under the name Douglas Farthing Hatelid) be brought in to produce the Monkees' Headquarters album after that group successfully got Don Kirschner fired and (temporarily) became a real band. 

Artist:     Kingsmen
Title:     Louie Louie
Source:     Mono LP: The Kingsmen (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Richard Berry
Label:     Wand
Year:     1963
     Although Paul Revere and the Raiders had recorded the song just a few days earlier, the version of Louie Louie that is remembered as the greatest party song of all time came from another Portland, Oregon band, the Kingsmen. With its basic three-chord structure and incomprehensible lyrics, the most popular song to ever come out of the Pacific Northwest was considered a must-learn song for garage bands everywhere. 

Artist:    Sonics
Title:    Boss Hoss
Source:    Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 8-The Northwest (originally released on LP: Here Are The Sonics)
Writer(s):    Gerald Roslie
Label:    Rhino (original label: Etiquette)
Year:    1965
    Surf music hit its peak of popularity in 1963, and by 1964 groups like the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean had shifted their focus from the surfboard to the means of getting that surfboard to the beach in the first place: the hot rod. But by 1965 the hot rod craze itself had run its course, and it took the Sonics, from Tacoma, Washington to put the final nail in the tires with Boss Hoss, a track from their debut LP that was also issued as a B side of a non-LP single called The Hustler. Like everything else they recorded, Boss Hoss was over the (rag) top, thanks to the songwriting talents of vocalist Gerald Roslie.

Artist:    Lidos
Title:    Since I Last Saw You
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Highs In The Mid Sixties Vol. 18-Colorado (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Nale/Fick/Silvis/Saunar
Label:    AIP (original label: Band Box)
Year:    1964
    The band known as the Lidos was formed in Aurora, Colorado by Aurora Central High School students Gary Nale (vocals, lead and rhythm guitar), Gary Flick (vocals,bass), Dwight Silvis (vocals, keyboards, lead and rhythm guitar) and Robert Sauner (drums). They recorded their only single in 1964 for Band Box Records, a label with its own recording studio. As can be heard on Since I Last Saw You, the sound quality of that studio left much to be desired. Then again, the total rawness of the song is its primary selling point.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star
Source:    CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s):    McGuinn/Hillman
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1967
    By early 1967 there was a building resentment among musicians and rock press alike concerning the instant (and in some 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 sarcastic 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:    Byrds
Title:    Everybody's Been Burned
Source:    CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s):    David Crosby
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    There is a common misconception that David Crosby's songwriting skills didn't fully develop until he began working with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. A listen to Everybody's Been Burned from the Byrds' 1967 LP Younger Than Yesterday, however, puts the lie to that theory in a hurry. The track has all the hallmarks of a classic Crosby song: a strong melody, intelligent lyrics and an innovative chord structure. It's also my personal favorite tune from what is arguably the Byrds' best album.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Have You Seen Her Face
Source:    CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s):    Chris Hillman
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1967
    Perhaps the greatest surprise on the fourth Byrds album, Younger Than Yesterday, was the emergence of bassist Chris Hillman as a top-tier songwriter, already on a par with David Crosby and the recently departed Gene Clark, and even exceeding Roger McGuinn as a solo writer (most of McGuinn's contributions being as a collaborator rather than a solo songwriter). Although Hillman would eventually find his greatest success as a country artist (with the Desert Rose Band) it was the hard-rocking Have You Seen Her Face that was chosen to become his first track to be released as a single.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Under My Thumb
Source:    Mono British import LP: Rarities
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Polydor (original label: Track)
Year:    1967
    One of the first major drug busts of rock stars happened on February 12, 1967, when police raided the home of Keith Richards during a party. Although there was relatively little contraband seized (and mostly from guests) Richards, as owner of the home, was charged with possession of what they did find. Of course, the establishment press made a big deal about it, so the members of the Who decided to make an even bigger noise in favor of their friends by releasing a pair of Stones cover songs as a single. Although not a huge hit, the Who's recording of The Last Time, backed with Under My Thumb, managed to hit the #44 spot on the British charts.

Artist:    Tintern Abbey
Title:    Vacuum Cleaner
Source:    Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969
Writer(s):    David MacTavish
Label:    Rhino
Year:    1967
    Although not a household name even in their native England, Tintern Alley managed to capture the essence of British psychedelia with Vacuum Cleaner, a B side released in 1967. It was the only known single from a band whose members went on to join various other equally obscure bands.

Artist:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    Good Times
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1967
    By the end of the original Animals' run they were having greater chart success with their singles in the US than in their native UK. That trend continued with the formation of the "new" Animals in 1967 and their first single, When I Was Young. Shortly after the first LP by the band now known as Eric Burdon And The Animals came out, M-G-M decided to release the song San Franciscan Nights as a single to take advantage of the massive youth migration to the city that summer. Meanwhile the band's British label decided to instead issue Good Times, (an autobiographical song which was released in the US as the B side to San Franciscan Nights) as a single, and the band ended up with one of their biggest UK hits ever. Riding the wave of success of Good Times, San Franciscan Nights eventually did get released in the UK and was a hit there as well. 

Artist:    Joni Mitchell
Title:    Nathan La Franeer
Source:    LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook (originally released on LP: Song To A Seagull)
Writer(s):    Joni Mitchell
Label:    Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    Producer David Crosby came up with the idea of using the architecture of a grand piano to help shape Joni Mitchell's voice on her debut LP, Song To A Seagull, using extra microphones to capture the sound of her voice reverberating off the piano strings. Unfortunately, this idea resulted in excessive tape hiss, which was equalized out during the mastering process, leaving the entire album with a somewhat muddy sound that Mitchell later described as sounding like it was recorded under a Jello bowl. Nonetheless, Warner/Reprise chose Nathan La Franeer from that album for inclusion on The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook, the first of a series of budget-priced albums known as "Loss Leaders" that were available directly from the record company itself and advertised on all their record sleeves.

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    You Never Had It Better
Source:    Mono CD: Underground (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Snagster/Schwartz/Poncher
Label:    Collector's Choice
Year:    1968
    Following the lack of a hit single from their second album, Underground, the Electric Prunes took one last shot at top 40 airplay with a song called Everybody Knows Your Not In Love. The band might have had better luck if they had pushed the flip side of the record, You Never Had It Better, which is a much stronger song. As it is, the record stiffed, and producer David Hassinger reacted by stripping the band of any creative freedom they might have had and made an album called Mass in F Minor using mostly studio musicians. The band, having signed away the rights to the name Electric Prunes to their manager before getting their record contract, could do nothing but watch helplessly as Hassinger, working with composer David Axelrod, created an album that had little in common with the original band other than their name. Because of this, the original members soon left, and Hassinger brought in a whole new group for two more albums before retiring the Prunes name for good. In recent years several members of the original band (including James Lowe and Mark Tulin, who were the actual songwriters of You Never Had It Better, despite what it says on the label) reformed the Electric Prunes. Whether or not they had to get permission to use the name is unknown.

Artist:    Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title:    Mona/Maiden Of The Cancer Moon/Calvary
Source:    LP: Happy Trails
Writer(s):    McDaniel/Duncan/Evans
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1969
    Most everyone familiar with Quicksilver Messenger Service agrees that the band's real strength was its live performances. Apparently the folks at Capitol Records realized this as well, since the band's second LP was recorded (mostly) live at Bill Graham's two Fillmore Auditoriums. The second side of the Happy Trails album starts with a Bo Diddly cover, Mona, which segues directly into a Gary Duncan composition, Maiden Of The Cancer Moon. The original performance segued directly into the more avant-garde Calvary (also credited to Duncan), but for the album a studio recreation of that performance was used (although the album sleeve makes it clear that it was recorded "live" at Golden State Recorders, indicating that it was done in a single take without any overdubs). 

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Like A Rolling Stone
Source:    CD: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Highway 61 Revisited)
Writer:    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1965
    Bob Dylan incurred the wrath of folk purists when he decided to use electric instruments for his 1965 LP Highway 61 Revisited. The opening track on the album is the six-minute Like A Rolling Stone, a song that was also selected to be the first single released from the new album. After the single was pressed, the shirts at Columbia Records decided to cancel the release due to its length. An acetate copy of the record, however, made it to a local New York club, where, by audience request, the record was played over and over until it was worn out (acetate copies not being as durable as their vinyl counterparts). When Columbia started getting calls from local radio stations demanding copies of the song the next morning they decided to release the single after all. Like A Rolling Stone ended up going all the way to the number two spot on the US charts, doing quite well in several other countries as well.

Artist:    Love
Title:    No Matter What You Do
Source:    Mono CD: Love Story (originally released on LP: Love)
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra/Rhino
Year:    1966
    Many of the songs on Love's first album show the heavy influence of the folk-rock movement that was particularly popular in Los Angeles in 1965. This influence is particularly noticable on songs like No Matter What You Do. Arthur Lee's songwriting skills would develop quickly, however, and by mid-1967 he would be busy creating what has come to be recognized as one of the greatest rock albums of all time, Forever Changes.

Artist:    Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title:    Hummin' Happy
Source:    LP: Incense And Peppermints
Writer(s):    King/Bunnell/Freeman/Weitz/Seol
Label:    Sundazed/Uni
Year:    1967
    As soon as it became apparent that the song Incense And Peppermints was going to be a bit hit, the Strawberry Alarm Clock got to work on their first LP, also titled Incense And Peppermints. Most of the songs on the LP were band originals, with some, including the harmony-laden Hummin' Happy, co-credited to two of the band members, bassist George Bunnell and drummer Randy Seol, in addition to a group credit. I have no idea why they did it that way, but the 2009 reissue of the album lists all five individual members as songwriters.

Artist:     Frumious Bandersnatch
Title:     Hearts To Cry
Source:     CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on self-titled EP)
Writer:     Jack King
Label:     Rhino (original label: Muggles Gramophone)
Year:     1968
     Rock music and the real estate business have something in common: location can make all the difference. Take the San Francisco Bay Area. You have one of the world's great Cosmopolitan cities at the north end of a peninsula. South of the city, along the peninsula itself you have mostly redwood forest land interspersed with fairly affluent communities along the way to Silicon Valley and the city of San Jose at the south end of the bay. The eastern side of the bay, on the other hand, spans a socio-economic range from blue collar to ghetto and is politically conservative; not exactly the most receptive environment for a hippy band calling itself Frumious Bandersnatch, which is a shame, since they had at least as much talent as any other band in the area. Unable to develop much of a following, they are one of the great "should have beens" of the psychedelic era, as evidenced by Hearts To Cry, the lead track of their 1968 untitled EP.

Artist:     Iron Butterfly
Title:     In The Time Of Our Lives
Source:     LP: Ball
Writer:     Ingle/Bushy
Label:     Atco
Year:     1969
     One of the most eagerly-awaited albums of 1969 was Iron Butterfly's followup to In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Although Ball was a strong seller, it overall left the listener feeling vaguely disappointed, and was the last album to feature Eric Brann on lead guitar. Subsequent albums did even worse, and Iron Butterfly is now mostly remembered as classic rock's first one-hit wonder. 

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix/Band Of Gypsys
Title:    Power Of Soul
Source:    CD: South Saturn Delta
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 1997
    1969 was a strange year for Jimi Hendrix. For one thing, he did not release any new recordings that year, yet he remained the top money maker in rock music. One reason for the lack of new material was an ongoing dispute with Capitol Records over a contract he had signed in 1965. By the end of the year an agreement was reached for Hendrix to provide Capitol with one album's worth of new material. At this point Hendrix had not released any live albums, so it was decided to tape his New Year's performances at the Fillmore East with his new Band Of Gypsys (with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox), playing songs that had never been released in studio form. As it turns out, however, studio versions of many of the songs on that album did indeed exist, but were not issued until after Hendrix's death, when producer Alan Douglas put out a pair of LPs (Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning), that had some of the original drum and bass tracks (and even some guitar tracks) re-recorded by musicians that had never actually worked with Hendrix. One of those songs is Power Of Soul, which has finally been released in its original Band Of Gypsys studio version, with background vocals provided by Cox and Miles. 

Artist:    Blues Magoos
Title:    Gotta Get Away
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Gordon/Adams
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1966
    As was common with most 1966 LPs, the Blues Magoos debut album, Psychedelic Lollipop, included a handful of cover songs, not all of which had been hits for other groups. One of the non-hits was Gotta Get Away, a fairly typical piece of garage rock that opens side two of the LP. The song was also selected as the B side for the group's second (and by far most successful) single, (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet. As the usual practice was to bring in outside songwriters for a new band's early singles and let the band write their own B side, it is possible that Gotta Get Away, which was co-written by Alan Gordon (co-writer of the Turtles' Happy Together and several other tunes) may have been the intended A side of the single. 
 

 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2616 (starts 4/13/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/614789

    This time around it's an even longer and stranger trip through the years than usual, going all the way from 1966 to 1976. No Grateful Dead tunes, though (but there is an entire album side from Frank Zappa).

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)
Source:    LP: Buffalo Springfield-Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Stephen Stills
Label:    Atco
Year:    1966
    Most people associate the name Buffalo Springfield with the song For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound). And for good reason. The song is one of the greatest protest songs ever recorded, and to this day is in regular rotation on both oldies and classic rock radio stations. The song was written and recorded in November of 1966 and rush released two days before Christmas. By then the first Buffalo Springfield LP was already on the racks, but until that point had not sold particularly well. When it became clear that For What It's Worth was turning into a major hit, Atco Records quickly recalled the album and added the song to it (as the opening track). All subsequent pressings of the LP (and later the CD) contain For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound), making earlier copies of the album somewhat of a rarity and quite collectable.

Artist:     Procol Harum
Title:     Lime Street Blues
Source:     Mono LP: Best of Procol Harum (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer:     Brooker/Reid
Label:     A&M (original label: Deram)
Year:     1967
     Anyone expecting more of the same when flipping over their new copy of A Whiter Shade Of Pale got a big surprise when they heard Lime Street Blues. The song, reminiscent of an early Ray Charles track, was strong enough to be included on their first greatest hits collection, no mean feat for a B side. 

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    I Got A Line On You
Source:    European import CD: Pure....Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: The Family That Plays Together)
Writer(s):    Randy California
Label:    Sony Music (original label: Ode)
Year:    1968
    Although not an instant hit by any measure, I Got A Line On You, from Spirit's second album, The Family That Plays Together, has proven to be the band's most popular song. Released in October of 1968, the song lingered below the top 100 for several weeks before college radio stations began playing it in late November. The tune finally peaked at #25 on March 15, 1969.

Artist:    Cheech & Chong
Title:    Sister Mary Elephant
Source:    CD: Big Bambu
Writer(s):    Marin/Chong
Label:    Warner Brothers (original label: Ode)
Year:    1972
    SHADDUP!!

Artist:    Savoy Brown
Title:    Poor Girl
Source:    CD: Looking In
Writer(s):    Kim Simmonds
Label:    Deram (original label: Parrot)
Year:    1970
     Poor Girl, from the 1970 album Looking In, is probably Savoy Brown's best known recording. Shortly after Looking In was released, the entire band except for leader Kim Simmonds left Savoy Brown to form a new band: Foghat.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
Source:    CD: Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine (originally released on LP: L.A. Woman)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra/Rhino
Year:    1971
    Following a downward slide starting in 1968, the Doors ended their original run on a high note in 1971 with the L.A. Woman album. Among the strong blues-based tracks on the album is The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat), an anthemic number that ranks up with other Doors album classics such as Five To One, When The Music's Over and The End. Big Beat indeed. 

Artist:    Mark Fry
Title:    The Witch
Source:    British Import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution (originally released in Italy on LP: Dreaming With Alice)
Writer(s):    Mark Fry
Label:    Grapefruit (original label: IT)
Year:    1972
    One of the most obscure albums ever released, Dreaming With Alice is sometimes considered the ultimate example of acid folk music. Recorded in 1971 by teenaged British art student Mark Fry and released only in Italy on RCA's IT subsidiary, the album includes a track called The Witch, which is described in the book Galactic Ramble as "one of the creepiest songs you'll ever hear". Personally I don't really find anything creepy about it at all, although the track itself is quite hypnotic and highly listenable.
        
Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    Woman From Tokyo
Source:    CD: The Very Best Of Deep Purple (originally released on LP: Who Do We Think We Are)
Writer(s):    Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice
Label:    Warner Archives/Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1973
    Deep Purple's most successful period came to an end with the band's seventh LP, Who Do We Think We Are. The album, released in 1973, was the last for vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, both of whom had joined the band three years earlier. Those three years saw the group go from semi-obscurity (especially in their home country) to one of the world's most popular rock bands. Songs like Smoke On The Water and Highway Star had become mainstays of FM rock radio worldwide, but tensions within the band itself were starting to tear it apart. Nonetheless, the final album by the classic lineup of Richie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice featured some of the band's best material, including the LP's opening track, My Woman From Tokyo, which is still heard with alarming regularity on classic rock radio stations.

Artist:    Frank Zappa
Title:    Don't Eat Yellow Snow/Nanook Rubs It/St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast/Father Oblivion
Source:    CD: Apostrophe (')
Writer(s):    Frank Zappa
Label:    Zappa (original label: Discreet)
Year:    1974
    Despite being one of the most prolific composer/performers of the 20th century, Frank Zappa only put three songs on the top 100 charts in his career. The first of these was an abbreviated version of Don't Eat Yellow Snow, the opening track on his 1974 LP Apostrophe ('). On the album itself the song segues directly into the next three tracks, Nanook Rubs It, St. Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast and the instrumental Father Oblivion to form a suite that is immediately followed by Cosmik Debris, the song that was released as the B side of Don't Eat Yellow Snow. Cosmik Debris was actually intended to be the A side of the single, but early airplay of the full-length version of Don't Eat Yellow Snow on FM rock radio prompted a change in plans.

Artist:    Led Zeppelin
Title:    Sick Again
Source:    LP: Physical Graffiti
Writer(s):    Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant/Stewart/Mrs. Valens
Label:    Swan Song
Year:    1975
    By the mid-1970s one of the most notorious aspects of rock stardom was the constant presence of groupies backstage after a concert. Although some musicians embraced the practice as being just one of the perks of being a star, some, including Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, were becoming uncomfortable with the whole thing. In particular, Plant found the fact that sometimes these girls were as young as twelve (particularly in the Los Angeles area) to be deeply disturbing, and so he wrote a song about it. Sick Again appears as the final track on the 1975 double LP Physical Graffitti.

Artist:    Heart
Title:    Sing Child
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Wilson/Wilson/Fossen/Fisher
Label:    Mushroom
Year:    1975
    I've always had a soft spot for Heart's first album, Dreamboat Annie. Maybe it's because the album's history parallels my entry into the world of college radio. Released in late 1975 in Canada, the album did not appear in the US until mid-1976. I had first started volunteering at KUNM in Albuquerque in late 1975. By the time Dreamboat Annie was released in the US, KUNM had moved into new facilities (with a significant power boost) and I had a regular daytime slot at the station. Having a musician's perspective, I focused on tracks like Sing Child, with its guitar solo, while the commercial FM rock stations were playing Magic Man and top 40 AM radio was playing Crazy On You. Such was the state of American radio in the mid-1970s. 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2615 (starts 4/6/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/613804

    This week we have mostly long sets, including a battle of the bands that takes up an entire half hour and most of side one of the legendary Hawkwind debut LP.

Artist:    Animals
Title:    House Of The Rising Sun
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    trad., arr. Price
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1964
    These days the edited version of the Animals' House Of The Rising Sun is virtually impossible to find, but in 1964 this three-minute version of the tune was the only one to get played on top 40 radio. 

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Source:    Mono LP: Bringing It All Back Home
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1965
    I recently saw a picture of Bob Dylan sitting alone in a theater with the caption "Bob Dylan sitting with everyone that's a better songwriter than he is". While I may not go quite that far, I have to admit that you would have to search far and wide to find any song with lyrics equal to It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding). The song was first performed in October of 1964 and recorded in January of 1965 for inclusion on his album Bringing It All Back Home. Famous lines from the song include "Money doesn't talk, it swears," and "He not busy being born is busy dying." Dylan himself has repeatedly cited the song as one of his songs that means the most to him, and he has continued to perform it throughout his career (an estimated 772 times as of 2015).

Artist:    13th Floor Elevators
Title:    Fire Engine
Source:    CD: The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators
Writer(s):    Hall/Sutherland/Erickson
Label:    Collectables (original label: International Artists)
Year:    1966
    In the summer of 1971 the band I was in, Sunn, did a cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs as part of our regular repertoire. For the siren effect at the beginning of the song we used our voices, which always elicited smiles from some of the more perceptive members of the audience. Listening to Fire Engine, from The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators, has the same effect on me, for pretty much the same reason. The main difference is that the Elevators actually did it with the tape rolling on one of their own original songs, something Sunn never got the opportunity to do. 

Artist:    Standells
Title:    Riot On Sunset Strip
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Riot On Sunset Strip soundtrack)
Writer(s):    Fleck/Valentino
Label:    Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year:    1967
    Anyone who doubts just how much influence bands like the Standells had on the punk-rock movement of the late 1970s need only listen to the 1967 title track from the movie Riot On Sunset Strip. The song, written by bandmembers Tony Valentino and John Fleck, sounds like it could have been an early Ramones recording. The song itself (and the movie) were based on a real life event. Local L.A. business owners had been complaining about the unruliness and rampant drug use among the teens hanging out in front of the various underage clubs that had been springing up on Sunset Strip in the wake of the success of the Whisky a Go Go, and in late 1966 the Los Angeles Police Department was called in to do something about the problem. What followed was a full-blown riot which ultimately led to local laws being passed that put many of the clubs out of business and severely curtailed the ability of the rest to make a profit. By 1968 the entire scene was a thing of the past, with the few remaining clubs converting to a more traditional over-21 approach. The unruliness and rampant drug use, meanwhile, seems to have migrated up the coast to San Francisco, where it managed to undo everything positive that had been previously accomplished in the Haight-Ashbury district.

Artist:    Electric Flag
Title:    Another Country
Source:    LP: The Best Of The Electric Flag (originally released on LP:  A Long Time Comin')
Writer(s):    Polte/Bloomfield
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    In 1967, after leaving the Butterfield Blue Band, guitarist Michael Bloomfield decided to form what he called "An American Music Band." The band would incorporate all of Bloomfield's favorite musical genres, including jazz, rock, soul, and of course blues. Like his friend Al Kooper, Bloomfield wanted to work in a horn section as well. The result was the Electric Flag. After one soundtrack album for a Peter Fonda cult film that was mostly a Bloomfield solo effort (although credited to the band), the Electric Flag made its official debut with the 1968 LP A Long Time Comin'. Perhaps the track that came closest to incorporating all the elements that Bloomfield wanted into a single piece was Another Country, which, along with a short Bloomfield instrumental that served as a coda, takes up the last nine and a half minutes of A Long Time Comin'. Bloomfield would leave the group following the release of the LP, although the remaining members, including Barry Goldberg, Nick Gravenites and Buddy Miles, would record a follow-up without him.

Artist:    Koobas
Title:    Barricades
Source:    British import CD: Psychedelia At Abbey Road (originally released on LP: Koobas)
Writer(s):    Ellis/Stratton-Smith/Leathwood
Label:    EMI (original UK label: Columbia)
Year:    1969
    The Koobas were a Merseybeat band that never managed to achieve the level of success enjoyed by bands such as the Beatles or Gerry and the Pacemakers, despite having the patronage of Beatles manager Brian Epstein and even appearing in the film Ferry Across The Mersey.  They did record several singles for both Pye and Columbia, but with little to show for it. Nonetheless, EMI, the parent company of Columbia, commissioned an entire album from the band in 1969. Among the standout tracks from that self-titled LP was the five-minute long Barricades, a track that starts with a Motown beat, but before long morphs into a chaotic portrait of riot and revolution, complete with anarchic sound effects.

Artist:    Easybeats
Title:        Friday On My Mind
Source:    Mono CD: Battle Of The Bands-Vol. Two (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Vanda/Young
Label:    Era (original label: United Artists)
Year:        1966
       Considered by many to be the "greatest Australian song" ever recorded, the Easybeats' Friday On My Mind, released in late 1966, certainly was the first (and for many years only) major international hit by a band from the island continent. Technically, however, Friday On My Mind is not an Australian song at all, since it was recorded after the band had relocated to London. The group continued to release records for the next year or two, but were never able to duplicate the success of Friday On My Mind. Ultimately vocalist Stevie Wright returned to Australia, where he had a successful solo career. Guitarists Harry Vanda and George Young, who had written Friday On My Mind, also returned home to form a band called Flash And The Pan in the early 1970s. Later in the decade Young would help launch the careers of his two younger brothers, Angus and Malcolm, in their own band, AC/DC. 

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:    Yardbirds
Title:    Shapes Of Things
Source:    Mono CD: The Best Of 60s Supergroups (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Samwell-Smith/Relf/McCarty
Label:    Priority (original label: Epic)
Year:    1966
    Unlike earlier Yardbirds hits, 1966's Shapes Of Things was written by members of the band. The song, featuring one of guitarist Jeff Beck's most distinctive solos, just barely missed making it to the top 10 in the US, although it was a top 5 single in the UK.

Artist:    Leaves
Title:    Too Many People
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Pons/Rinehart
Label:    Rhino (original label: Mira)
Year:    1965
    The Leaves are a bit unusual in that in Los Angeles, a city known for drawing wannabes from across the world, this local band's members were all native Ellayins. Formed by members of a fraternity at Cal State Northridge, the Leaves had their greatest success when they took over as house band at Ciro's after the Byrds vacated the slot to go on tour. Like many bands of the time, they were given a song (Bob Dylan's Love Minus Zero) to record as a single by their producer and allowed to write their own B side. In this case the intended B side was Too Many People, written by bassist Jim Pons and  guitarist Bill Rhinehart. Before the record was released, however, the producers decided that Too Many People was the stronger track and designated it the A side. The song ended up getting more airplay on local radio stations than Love Minus Zero, making it their first regional hit. The Leaves had their only national hit the following year with their third attempt at recording the fast version of Hey Joe, the success of which led to their first LP, which included a watered down version of Too Many People. The version heard here is the 1965 original. Eventually Pons would leave the Leaves, hooking up first with the Turtles, then Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention.

Artist:    Lost And Found
Title:    Don't Move Girl
Source:    Mono German import LP: Sixties Rebellion Vol. 5: The Cave (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Al Manfredi
Label:    Way Back (original US label: Plus)
Year:    1966
    Originally formed as the Nuts & Bolts in San Clemente, California, the Lost And Found relocated to Phoenix while still in their teens and cut their one and only single for the local Plus label in 1966 before returning to California in early 1967. The A side of that single, Don't Move Girl, was written by bassist Al Manfredi. Rounding out the band were lead guitarist Jim Jeffers, rhythm guitarist Mike Ingram and drummer Mike Ryer.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Purple Haze
Source:    CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single and in US on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA (original US label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    Following up on the success of their first UK single, Hey Joe, the Jimi Hendrix Experience released Purple Haze in early 1967. The popularity of the two singles (released only in Europe) led to a deal with Reprise Records to start issuing the band's material in the US. By then, however, the Experience had already released Are You Experienced without either of the two hit singles on it. Reprise, hedging their bets, included both singles (but not their B sides), as well as a third UK single, The Wind Cries Mary, deleting several tracks from the original version of Are You Experienced to make room for them.

Artist:    Art Of Lovin'
Title:    Paul's Circus
Source:    British import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released in US on LP: The Art Of Lovin')
Writer(s):    Paul Applebaum
Label:    Big Beat (original US label: Mainstream)
Year:    1968
    Although the so-called Boss-Town Sound was in reality mostly hype foisted on the public in 1968 by executives at M-G-M Records who were chafing at having missed out almost entirely on the whole San Francisco thing the previous year, there was at least one local band that fully embraced the concept. Ironically, the Art Of Lovin', from the Boston suburb of Newton, was not in any way connected to M-G-M. Powered by the vocals of Gail Winnick and the songwriting skills of guitarist Paul Applebaum, the band also included organist Barry Tatleman, bassist Johnny Lank and drummer Sandy Winslow. They made enough of an impression on Mainstream Records owner Bob Shad to be able to record an entire self-titled LP for the label, which included the somewhat whimsical piece Paul's Circus. Rather than pursue their musical careers further, however, the band members opted to disband the group and go to college shortly after the album was released.

Artist:    Steve Miller Band
Title:    Brave New World 
Source:    LP: Homer soundtrack (originally released on LP: Brave New World)
Writer(s):    Steve Miller
Label:    Cotillion (original label: Capitol)
Year:    1969
    It took the Steve Miller Band half a dozen albums (plus appearances on a couple of movie soundtracks) to achieve star status in the early 1970s. Along the way they developed a cult following that added new members with each successive album. The fourth Miller album was Brave New World, the title track of which was used in the film Homer, a 1970 film that is better remembered for its soundtrack than for the movie itself.

Artist:      Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Title:     4+20
Source:      CD: déjà vu
Writer(s):    Stephen Stills
Year:     1970
     Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were always more a collection of individuals than a true group. 4+20, from their second album, déjà vu, is a good illustration of this. The song features Stephen Stills on acoustic guitar and vocal, with no other voices or instruments on the recording. 

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Love You To
Source:    CD: Revolver
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year:    1966
    Following the release of Rubber Soul in December of 1965, the Beatles' George Harrison began to make a serious effort to learn to play the Sitar, studying under the master, Ravi Shankar. Along with the instrument itself, Harrison studied Eastern forms of music. His first song written in the modal form favored by Indian composers was Love You To. The recording, featured on the 1966 Revolver album, also features Indian percussion instruments and suitably spiritual lyrics. 

Artist:    Love
Title:    7&7 Is
Source:    Mono German import CD: Da Capo
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1966
    The word "seven" does not appear anywhere in the song 7&7 Is. Truth to tell, I have no idea where Arthur Lee got that title from. Nonetheless, the song is among the most intense tracks to ever make the top 40. 7&7 Is starts off with power chords played over a constant drum roll (possibly played by Lee himself), with cymbals crashing over equally manic semi-spoken lyrics. The song builds up to an explosive climax: an atomic bomb blast followed by a slow post-apocalyptic instrumental that quickly fades away.

Artist:    Them
Title:    I Happen To Love You
Source:    Mono LP: Now And Them
Writer(s):    Goffin/King
Label:    Tower
Year:    1968
    I Happen To Love You was first recorded by the Electric Prunes for their 1967 album Underground. The band wanted to release the Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune as a single, but producer David Hassinger instead chose to issue a novelty track, To The Highest Bidder. Unlike the Prunes version, which emphasized the King melody line, Them's version of I Happen To Love You was done in much the same style as their earlier recordings with Van Morrison. Kenny McDowell provided the lead vocal.

Artist:    Love
Title:    The Castle
Source:    German import CD: Da Capo
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1966
    Considering that both of their first two LPs had cover photos taken against the backdrop of Bela Lugosi's former residence in the Hollywood Hills (known as Dracula's Castle), it is perhaps inevitable that Love would have a track called The Castle on one of these albums. Sure enough, one can be found near the end of the first side of the late1966 album Da Capo. The song is an early indication of the direction that band was moving in, away from the straight folk/garage-rock of their first LP toward the more sophiscated sound of Forever Changes, which would be released a year later. 

Artist:    Them
Title:    Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
Source:    British import CD: Now And Them
Writer(s):    Jimmie Cox
Label:    Rev-Ola (original US label: Tower)
Year:    1968
    The artist that comes to mind when I see the title of this Jimmy Cox tune is, of course, Eric Clapton, who included it on the Derek and the Dominos Layla album. Them's version of Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out, from the album Now And Them featuring vocalist Kenny McDowell, actually predates Clapton's by a couple years.

Artist:    Love
Title:    Alone Again Or
Source:    CD: Forever Changes
Writer(s):    Bryan MacLean
Label:    Elektra/Rhino
Year:    1967
    The only song Love ever released as a single that was not written by Arthur Lee was Alone Again Or, issued in 1970. The song had originally appeared as the opening track from the Forever Changes album three years earlier. Bryan McLean would later say that he was not happy with the recording due to his own vocal being buried beneath that of Lee, since Lee's part was meant to be a harmony line to McLean's melody. McLean would later re-record the song for a solo album, but reportedly was not satisfied with that version either.

Artist:    Them
Title:    Square Room
Source:    Mono LP: Now And Them
Writer(s):    Them
Label:    Tower
Year:    1968
     The first album Them recorded after relocating to the US was called Now and Them.  Recorded in late 1967, the LP was released in January of '68. The standout track of the album is the nearly ten minute long Square Room, an acid rock piece that showcases the work of guitarist Jim Armstrong. An edit of the track had already appeared as the B side of a single before the album was released.

Artist:    Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come
Title:    Gypsy Escape
Source:    British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Galactic Zoo Dossier)
Writer(s):    Denis Taylor
Label:    Polydor
Year:    1971
    Arthur Brown became a household name in 1968 with the release of one of the great albums of British psychedelic music, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown and it's #1 hit single, Fire. To help promote the album the band set out on a US tour; by the time the tour was over the band had decided to break up. After a series of unsuccessful projects, Brown re-emerged in 1970 with a new band, Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come. Unlike the Crazy World, which was one of the most purely psychedelic bands in British rock history, Kingdom Come was a pioneer of the new progressive rock movement and was one of the first bands to use synthesizers extensively. In fact, about the only thing the two bands had in common was Brown's distinctive vocals. Gypsy Escape, from the album Galactic Zoo Dossier, couldn't even make that claim, being an instrumental written by the band's light show guy, Denis Taylor (who was the only non-performing member of the band pictured on the album cover).
 
Artist:    Hawkwind
Title:    The Reason Is?/Be Yourself/Paranoia-Part 1
Source:    LP: Hawkwind
Writer(s):    Brock/Hawkwind
Label:    4 Men With Beards (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1970
    The psychedelic era in the UK was short-lived compared to its US counterpart, and is generally considered to have started with the Beatles' Revolver album and ended with the Beatles' White Album. Among the many musicians who formed psychedelic bands was Alan Brock, who formed a band called the Famous Cure that spent most of its existence playing gigs in continental European countries such as the Netherlands. Brock became a professional busker in 1968, touring and even appearing on an album in that capacity for the next couple of years. In 1969 he reunited with former Famous Chef bandmate Mick Slattery and bassist John Harrison to form a band they initially called Group X, and then Hawkwind Zoo before finally settling on Hawkwind as a permanent name. Slattery left the group before their first LP, which, in addition to Brock and Harrison, included saxophonist Nik Turner, lead guitarist Huw Lloyd-Langton and drummer Terry Ollis. The album itself is considered one of the earliest examples of space-rock, with instrumental pieces like The Reason Is sequeing directly into tunes like Be Yourself, which in turn seques into the short instrumental Paranoia-Part 1. Hawkwind has since released dozens of albums, EPs and singles (sometimes under assumed names) over the years, with Brock being the only continuous member of the group.

Artist:    Sly And The Family Stone
Title:    I Want To Take You Higher
Source:    CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Stand and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Sly Stone
Label:    Priority (original label: Epic)
Year:    1969
    Sylvester Stewart was a major presence on the San Francisco music scene for several years, both as a producer for Autumn Records and as a popular local disc jockey. In 1967 he decided to take it to the next level, using his studio connections to put together Sly And The Family Stone. The band featured a solid lineup of musicians, including Larry Graham, whose growling bass line figures prominently in their 1969 recording of I Want To Take You Higher. The song was originally released as a B side, but after the group blew away the crowd at Woodstock the recording was re-released as a single the following year. 

Artist:    Max Frost And The Troopers aka The 13th Power
Title:    Shape Of Things To Come
Source:    CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released on LP: Wild In The Streets soundtrack)
Writer(s):    Mann/Weil
Label:    Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year:    1968
    Max Frost was a politically savvy rock star who rode the youth movement all the way to the White House, first through getting the support of a hip young Senator, then getting the age requirements for holding high political office lowered to 21, and finally lowering the voting age to 14. Everyone over 30 was locked away in internment camps, similar to those used during WWII by various governments to hold those of questionable loyalty to the current regime. What? You don't remember any of that? You say it sounds like the plot of a cheapie late 60s teen exploitation flick? Right on all counts. "Wild in the Streets", released in 1968, starred Christopher Jones as the rock star, Hal Holbrook as the hip young senator, and a Poseidon Adventure-sized Shelly Winter as the rock star's interred mom. Richard Pryor, in his film debut, played the band's drummer/political activist Stanley X. Shape Of Things To Come was a surprise hit single taken from the film, and was long thought to be the work of studio musicians under the supervision of Mike Curb, but is now known to have been recorded by an actual band called the 13th Power, led by vocalist/songwriter Paul Wibier, that had released a single called I See A Change Is Gonna Come for Curb's own Sidewalk label the previous year.
 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2615 (starts 4/6/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/613803

    We have quite a few tracks this time around that have been only played once before on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion, along with a few that haven't been played at all and, of course, a couple of old favorites as well.

Artist:    Edgar Winter Group
Title:    Frankenstein (edited version)
Source:    LP: They Only Come Out At Night
Writer:    Edgar Winter
Label:    Epic
Year:    1973
    A real monster hit (sorry, couldn't resist).

Artist:    Graham Nash/David Crosby
Title:    Immigration Man
Source:    45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s):    Graham Nash
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1972
    Graham Nash and David Crosby decided to make an album without Stephen Stills or Neil Young in 1972. The two songwriters' compositions alternated on the album, with the final track, Nash's Immigration Man (based on his own real life experience at customs), being released as a single.

Artist:    Allman Brothers Band
Title:    Done Somebody Wrong
Source:    LP: At Fillmore East
Writer(s):    Kirkland/James
Label:    Mercury (original label: Capricorn)
Year:    1971
    As a general rule, live albums by rock bands are made up mostly of tunes that the group had previously released on studio albums. The Allman Brothers Band, however, took a different path for their 1971 double LP At Fillmore East. Of the seven tracks spread across four album sides, only the last two had previously appeared on the band's two studio efforts. The first four tunes, in fact, were blues covers such as Done Somebody Wrong, a tune generally attributed to Elmore James, who recorded the song in 1960. James, however, had actually rearranged a song that Eddie Kirkland had released in 1959 called I Must Have Done Somebody Wrong. Kirkland had given James permission to record the song, but only if Kirkland was credited as the songwriter, however James's name appeared on the 1960 single as the sole songwriter. When the Allman Brothers Band performed the song at the Fillmore East they introduced it as "an old Elmore James" tune.

Artist:    Wishbone Ash
Title:    Phoenix
Source:    CD: Wishbone Ash
Writer(s):    Upton/Turner/Turner/Powell
Label:    MCA (original label: Decca)
Year:    1970
    The first Wishbone Ash album was characterized by the dual lead guitar work of Andy Powell and Ted Turner. This is particularly notable on the album's showcase piece, the ten and a half minute long Phoenix. Unfortunately, the lack of a powerful lead vocalist kept Wishbone Ash from becoming a first-tier band.

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    The Fountain Of Salmacis
Source:    Canadian import CD: Nursery Cryme
Writer(s):    Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label:    Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year:    1971
    Genesis' original guitarist, Anthony Phillips, left the group following their second LP, Trespass, in 1970. This almost caused the band to break up, but ultimately resulted in a revised lineup consisting of Peter Gabriel (vocals), Tony Banks (keyboards), and Mike Rutherford (bass), along with new members Steve Hackett (guitar) and Phil Collins (drums). Early in 1971 the five got to work on a new album, which eventually came to be called Nursery Cryme. Although the album was not a huge seller in their native England, it found enough of a following in European nations such as Belgium to allow the band to continue on. The Fountain Of Salmacis, the album's closing track, was inspired by the story of a water nymph who becomes a hermaphodite after bathing in cursed water (hey, blame the ancient Greeks for that story).

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Aimless Lady
Source:    CD: Closer To Home
Writer(s):    Mark Farner
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1970
    Despite being universally panned by the rock press, Grand Funk Railroad managed to achieve gold record status three times in the year 1970. The first two of these were actually released the previous year, but it was the massive success of their third LP, Closer To Home, that spurred sales of the band's albums overall. All of the songs on Closer To Home were written and sung by guitarist Mark Farner, including Aimless Lady, probably the best example on the album of a "typical" Grand Funk Railroad song.

Artist:    Enoch Smoky
Title:    It's Cruel
Source:    Mono LP: Brown Acid: The Sixth Trip (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Douglas/Gedz/Collignon
Label:    RidingEasy (original label: Pumpkin Seed)
Year:    1969
    Enoch Light was one of the pioneers of high-fidelity stereo recording techniques in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He developed the Command label for ABC records specifically to showcase those techniques, and his album covers were prominently displayed in various retail stores. In the latter part of the decade a hard-rocking band from Iowa City decided to call themselves Enoch Smoky. Although regionally popular, their entire recorded output consisted of one single, released on the local Pumpkin Seed label in 1969. It's Cruel is the A side of that single.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Roadhouse Blues
Source:    CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Morrison Hotel)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1970
    After getting less than favorable reviews for their fourth LP, The Soft Parade, the Doors decided to go back to their roots for 1970s Morrison Hotel. One of the many bluesier tunes on the album was Roadhouse Blues, a song that soon became a staple of the group's live performances.

Artist:    Mountain
Title:    Travellin' In The Dark (To E.M.P.)
Source:    LP: Nantucket Sleighride
Writer(s):    Pappalardi/Collins
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1971
    Mountain, formed in 1970, took its name from Leslie West's 1969 solo album, recorded after the guitarist shortened his name from Weinstein following the breakup of the Vagrants. Just as important to the band's sound, however, was Felix Pappalardi, sometimes known as the "fourth member" of Cream. Pappalardi had produced all but the first Cream album, and, along with his wife Janet Collins, helped write some of their best material, including Strange Brew, which opened the second Cream album, Disraeli Gears. As a member of Mountain, Pappalardi played keyboards and bass, as well as singing lead vocals on several of the band's most popular tunes, including Travellin' In The Dark from Mountain's second LP, Nantucket Sleighride. The song, which was subtitled To E.M.P. is somewhat autobiographical, E.M.P. being the initials of Pappalardi's mother.

Artist:    Hot Tuna
Title:    Half/Time Saturation
Source:    LP: Yellow Fever
Writer(s):    Kaukonen/Casady/Steeler
Label:    Grunt
Year:    1975
    Originally formed in 1969 as an offshoot of Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna started off as a mainly acoustic band doing mostly blues standards, and had performed as an opening act for the Airplane itself in 1970. In the early 1970s, with the Airplane winding down, Hot Tuna emerged as a fully electric band independent of the Airplane. In 1974 the band, which at that point consisted of guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, bassist Jack Casady and drummer Bob Steeler, decided that it would be "just fun to be loud" for a while, recording three albums in 1975-76 as a power trio. The second of these three was Yellow Fever. As can be heard on the track Half/Time Saturation, they certainly succeeded.

Artist:    Eric Clapton
Title:    Willie And The Hand Jive
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Johnny Otis
Label:    RSO
Year:    1974
    Bandleader Johnny Otis managed to outdo Bo Diddley at his own beat with the 1968 hit song Willie And The Hand Jive. Eric Clapton, always on the lookout for cover tunes, did his own version, somewhat de-emphasizing the Bo Diddley beat, in 1974.
 

 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2614 (starts 3/30/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/612976

    We quietly move into April this year with what basically comes down to being a typical edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. Familiar tunes? Check. Not-so-familiar tunes? Yep, got them too. Stuff never heard on the show before? Got a handful of 'em. And, yes, we have an artists' set, this time featuring the Doors.

Artist:     It's A Beautiful Day
Title:     White Bird
Source:     CD: It's A Beautiful Day
Writer:     David and Linda LaFlamme
Label:     San Francisco Sound (original label: Columbia)
Year:     1968
     It's A Beautiful Day is a good illustration of how a band can be a part of a trend without intending to be or even realizing that they are. In their case, they were actually tied to two different trends. The first one was a positive thing: it was now possible for a band to be considered successful without a top 40 hit, as long as their album sales were healthy. The second trend was not such a good thing; as was true for way too many bands, It's A Beautiful Day was sorely mistreated by its own management, in this case one Matthew Katz. Katz already represented both Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape when he signed up It's A Beautiful Day in 1967. What the members of It's A Beautiful Day did not know at the time was that both of the aforementioned bands were trying to get out of their contracts with Katz. The first thing Katz did after signing It's A Beautiful Day was to ship the band off to Seattle to become house band at a club Katz owned called the San Francisco Sound. Unfortunately for the band, Seattle already had a sound of its own and attendance at their gigs was sparse. Feeling downtrodden and caged (and having no means of transportation to boot) classically-trained 5-string violinist and lead vocalist David LaFlamme and his keyboardist wife Linda LaFlamme translated those feelings into a song that is at once sad and beautiful: the classic White Bird. As an aside, Linda LaFlamme was not the female vocalist heard on White Bird. Credit for those goes to one Pattie Santos, the other female band member. To this day Katz owns the rights to It's A Beautiful Day's recordings, which have been reissued on CD on Katz's own San Francisco Sound label. 

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    No Time To Live
Source:    CD: Traffic
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi
Label:    Island (original US label: United Artists)
Year:    1968
    Although half of the songs on Traffic's self-titled second LP were written by Dave Mason, the guitarist/vocalist had very little to do with the remaining tracks. He did, however, play Hammond organ on the haunting No Time To Live. The song also features Steve Winwood on lead vocals, piano and bass, Chris Wood on soprano saxophone and Jim Capaldi on drums.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    D.C.B.A.-25
Source:    CD: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s):    Paul Kantner
Label:    RCA/BMG Heritage
Year:    1967
    One of the first songs written by Paul Kantner without a collaborator was the highly listenable D.C.B.A.-25 from Surrealistic Pillow. Kantner said later that the title simply referred to the basic chord structure of the song, which is built on a two chord verse (D and C) and a two chord bridge (B and A). That actually fits, but what about the 25 part? Well, it was 1967 San Francisco. Figure it out.

Artist:    Syndicate Of Sound
Title:    Little Girl
Source:    LP: Little Girl 
Writer(s):    Baskin/Gonzalez
Label:    Bell
Year:    1966
    San Jose California, despite being a relatively small city in the pre-silicon valley days, was home to a thriving music scene in the mid 60s that produced more than its share of hit records from 1966-68. One of the earliest and biggest of these hits was the Syndicate Of Sound hit Little Girl, which has come to be recognized as one of the top garage-rock songs of all time. Little Girl was originally released regionally in mid 1966 on the Hush label, and reissued nationally by Bell Records a couple months later. 

Artist:    Dave Clark Five
Title:    Maybe It's You
Source:    Mono LP: I Like It Like That
Writer(s):    Clark/Davidson
Label:    Epic
Year:    1965
    It's a well-known fact that in the 1960s the British and American versions of albums by British Invasion bands often had different song lineups and sometimes even different album titles. In the case of the Dave Clark Five, however, their album catalogs in the two nations were mutually exclusive. In fact, the DC5 actually released twice as many LPs in the US between 1964 and 1967 as they did in their native UK. As a result, there are several DC5 songs that were never availble to British record buyers, unless they were willing to buy a US-only LP such as I Like It Like That, which came out in 1965. Although the band eschewed psychedelia as a general rule, some of their songs, such as Maybe It's You, have a definite garage-rock feel to them. The band's American popularity is underscored by one other interesting bit of trivia: they appeared on the Ed Sullivan show a total of 18 times, by far the most appearances by a British Invasion band.

Artist:    Keith
Title:    Ain't Gonna Lie
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 11-Pop, Part 4 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Powers/Fischoff
Label:    Rhino (original label: Mercury)
Year:    1966
    James Barry Keefer is best known for his hit single 98.6, which spent over a dozen weeks on the charts and made the top 10 in 1966. He is also known for being one of the first pop artists to go by a single name, Keith. What he is not known for is the song that preceded 98.6 by two months, Ain't Gonna Lie. His first album, however, included both Ain't Gonna Lie and 98.6. In fact, following what seems to be a pattern with Mercury Records in 1966, the album title itself is the two song titles separated by a slash. I guess they thought it might help album sales. They might even have been right, as it does seem that there were a lot of people who liked particular songs without having the slightest idea who the artist was. Come to think of it, there still are.

Artist:    Blues Magoos
Title:    (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet
Source:    LP: Psychedelic Lollipop
Writer(s):    Esposito/Gilbert/Scala
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1966
    The Blues Magoos (original spelling: Bloos) were either the first or second band to use the word psychedelic in an album title. Both they and the 13th Floor Elevators released their debut albums in 1966 and it is unclear which one actually came out first. What's not in dispute is the fact that Psychedelic Lollipop far outsold The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. One major reason for this was the fact that (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet was a huge national hit in early 1967, which helped album sales considerably. Despite having a unique sound and a look to match (including electric suits), the Magoos were unable to duplicate the success of Nothin' Yet on subsequent releases, partially due to Mercury's pairing of two equally marketable songs on the band's next single without indicating to stations which one they were supposed to be playing.

Artist:    Misunderstood
Title:    Children Of The Sun
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):    Hill/Brown
Label:    Rhino (original label: Fontana)
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 1969
    Formed in Riverside, California in 1965, the Misunderstood relocated to London in 1966, where they soon became one of the top bands on the local underground scene. Unfortunately, the band was plagued by issues involving draft eligibility, resulting in original rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter Greg Treadwell returning to the states soon after arriving in the UK. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as his replacement, Londoner Tony Hill, teamed up with vocalist Rick Brown to write even better songs, augmented by the talents of Glenn Ross Campbell, who played his leads on a pedal steel guitar.  The band soon signed with Fontana, releasing a single in December of 1966 before once again running into problems with the draft board, this time concerning Brown. With their frontman gone, the Misunderstood soon disbanded, with the remaining American members returning to California. Two years later Fontana released a second single by the Misunderstood, Children Of The Sun, which has since come to be regarded as a classic example of garage-flavored psychedelic music. 

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)
Source:    Mono LP: The Exciting Years (originally released on LP: Blonde On Blonde and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia Special Products
Year:    1966
     One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) was the first song recorded for the 1966 album Blonde On Blonde, and the only track from Dylan's initial New York sessions to actually make the album itself (the remainder of the tracks were recorded later in Nashville). The song features Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko from his stage band, the Hawks (later to be known as The Band), along with keyboardists Al Kooper and Paul Griffin and drummer Bobby Gregg. The song was completed during a nine-hour overnight session on January 25, 1966 and took 24 takes to master the nearly five minute long track. That evening Dylan showed up on a New York radio station and mentioned that he had just completed his "new single", comparing it to Like A Rolling Stone. Unfortunately, the song did not fare so well on the US charts; in fact, it didn't make the top 100 at all. In England, the song did a bit better, peaking at #33. 
    
Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    It's Not Easy
Source:    CD: Aftermath
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original US label: London)
Year:    1966
    The Rolling Stones' Aftermath, along with the Beatles' Rubber Soul, began a revolution in rock music that was felt for several decades. Prior to those two releases, albums were basically a mix of original and cover songs meant to provide a little supplemental income for popular artists who had hit singles. Aftermath, however, was full of songs that could stand on their own. Even songs like It's Not Easy, which could have been hit singles for lesser artists, were completely overlooked in favor of tracks like Under My Thumb, which is arguably the first true rock classic not to be released as a single. Within the short span of two years, rock would find itself in a place where an artist could be considered a success without having a hit single, something that was completely unheard of when Aftermath was released. This remained the norm throughout the remainder of the 20th century, until digital downloading made the entire concept of albums somewhat obsolete.

Artist:    Simon And Garfunkel
Title:    The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
Source:    LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1966
    After the surprise success of the Sound Of Silence single, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who had disbanded their partnership after the seeming failure of their Wednesday Morning 3 AM album in 1964, hastily reunited to record a new album of electrified versions of songs written by Simon, many of which had appeared on his 1965 solo LP the Paul Simon Songbook. With their newfound success, the duo set about recording an album's worth of new material. This time around, however, Simon had the time (and knowledge of what was working for the duo) to compose songs that would play to both the strengths of himself and Garfunkel as vocalists, as well as take advantage of the additional instrumentation available to him. The result was Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme, featuring tracks such as The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine, an energetic piece that effectively combines folk and rock with intelligent (if somewhat satirical) lyrics.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Birthday/Yer Blues
Source:    CD: The Beatles
Writer:    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year:    1968
    One of the great ironies of rock history was that the album entitled simply The Beatles was the one that had the fewest songs with all four of the band members playing on them. By 1968 the Beatles were experiencing internal conflicts, and nearly all of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's songs were played by just the two of them, while George Harrison's songs (and Ringo Starr's single contribution as a songwriter) featured an array of some of the UK's top musicians (including guitarist Eric Clapton). The opening tracks of side three of the album are typical of this approach, as Birthday is essentially a McCartney solo piece. Yer Blues, on the other hand, has Lennon singing and playing guitar, with probably McCartney on bass and drums. The first performance of Yer Blues in front of a live audience was in December of 1968 as part of the Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus. It was not the Beatles however, that performed the tune. Instead, Yer Blues was played by the Dirty Mac, a jam band consisting of Lennon, Clapton, drummer Mitch Mitchell (of the Jimi Hendrix Experience), and the Stones' Keith Richards on bass. That performance was never seen, other than by the studio audience, until the entire Circus was released on DVD a few years ago (Mick Jagger reportedly had the entire project shelved due to his dissatisfaction with the Stones' performance).

Artist:    Them
Title:    Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of 16) (original single version)
Source:    British Import CD: Time Out! Time In! For Them (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Tom Lane
Label:    Rev-Ola (original label: Sully)
Year:    1968
    Following the departure of original Them front man Van Morrison for a solo career in December of 1966, the remaining four members of the band, bassist Alan Henderson, guitarist Jim Armstrong, drummer Dave Harvey and multi-instrumentalist Ray Elliott, decided to continue using the Them name, recruiting new vocalist Kenny McDowell to take Morrison's place. They soon come to the attention of American producer Ray Ruff, who invited them to relocate to Amarillo, Texas, which they did in June of 1967. Their first single for Ruff was Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of 16), a tune done in the same style as their earlier Morrison recordings and released in August on the Texas-based Sully Label. Over the next year the band would become more psychedelicized, releasing two albums on the Tower label in 1968, the first of which, Now And Them, would include a newly recorded version of Dirty Old Man.

Artist:    Shadows Of Knight
Title:    Radio Spot
Source:    Mono LP: The Dunwich Records Story (originally heard on at least one midwestern radio station)
Writer(s):    unknown
Label:    Voxx/Tutman
Year:    Recorded 1966
    In 1966 the Chicago-based Shadows Of Knight recorded a short piece they called Potato Chip, to be distributed as a giveaway with selected bags of Kitty Clover potato chips, a popular midwestern brand out of Omaha, Nebraska (apparently there were no Omaha bands willing to record such a song). Sadly, like so many tasty treats of the past, the Kitty Clover brand no longer exists, having been bought out and subsequently shut down by the huge Borden conglomerate in 1987.

Artist:    Castaways
Title:    Liar Liar
Source:    CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Donna/Craswell
Label:    Rhino (original label: Soma)
Year:    1965
    The Castaways were a popular local band in the Minneapolis area led by keyboardist James Donna, who, for less than two minutes at a time, dominated the national airwaves with their song Liar Liar for a couple months in 1965 before fading off into obscurity.

Artist:    Bonzo Dog Band
Title:    I'm The Urban Spaceman 
Source:    LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Neil Innes
Label:    United Artists
Year:    1968
    The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (as they were originally called) was as much theatre (note the British spelling) as music, and were known for such antics as starting out their performances by doing calisthentics (after being introduced as the warm-up band) and having one of the members, "Legs" Larry Smith tapdance on stage (he was actually quite good). In 1967 they became the resident band on Do Not Adjust Your Set, a children's TV show that also featured sketch comedy by future Monty Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin along with David Jason, the future voice of Mr. Toad and Danger Mouse. Late in the year they appeared in the Beatles' telefilm Magical Mystery Tour, performing a song called Deathcab For Cutie. In 1968 the Bonzos released their only hit single, I'm The Urban Spaceman, co-produced by Paul McCartney. Frontman Neil Innes would go on to hook up with Eric Idle for the Rutles project, among other things, and is often referred to as the Seventh Python. 

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    Kahuna Sunset
Source:    CD: Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 (originally released on CD: Buffalo Springfield box set)
Writer(s):    Neil Young
Label:    Reprise (original label: Rhino)
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 2001
    In addition to the nearly two dozen songs released on the first two Buffalo Springfield albums, the group recorded a few other tunes, such as the instrumental Kahuna Sunset. Written by Neil Young and Stephen Stills, the track remained unreleased until 2001, when it appeared on Rhino's Buffalo Springfield Box Set. More recently the song has been released on volume one of the Neil Young Archives.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    The Crystal Ship
Source:    CD: The Very Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: The Doors)
Writer:    The Doors
Label:    Elektra/Rhino
Year:    1967
    Ever feel like you've discovered something really special that nobody else (among your circle of friends at any rate) knows about? At first you kind of want to keep it to yourself, but soon you find yourself compelled to share it with everyone you know. Such was the case when, in the early summer of 1967, I used my weekly allowance to buy copies of a couple of songs I had heard on the American Forces Network (AFN). As usual, it wasn't long before I was flipping the records over to hear what was on the B sides. I liked the first one well enough (a song by Buffalo Springfield called Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It, the B side of For What It's Worth), but it was the second one, the B side of the Doors' Light My Fire, that really got to me. To this day I consider The Crystal Ship to be one of the finest slow rock songs ever recorded.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Not To Touch The Earth
Source:    CD: The Very Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Waiting For The Sun)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra/Rhino
Year:    1968
    Waiting For the Sun was the first Doors album to feature a gatefold cover (imagine a 24"x12" greeting card with a record in it), and the Doors used half of the inside portion to print the entire text of "Celebration of the Lizard," which was a bit confusing, since no such track appeared on the album itself. They had made several attempts to record "Celebration", but were not entirely satisfied with any of them. They did, however, manage to salvage a short section from the middle of the piece called Not To Touch The Earth for inclusion on the album.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Five To One
Source:    CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Waiting For The Sun)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1968
    Despite the fact that it was the Doors' only album to hit the top of the charts, Waiting For The Sun was actually a disappointment for many of the band's fans, who felt that the material lacked the edginess of the first two Doors LPs. One notable exception was the album's closing track, Five To One, which features one of Jim Morrison's most famous lines: "No one here gets out alive".

Artist:    Mother Earth
Title:    Groovy Way
Source:    LP: Satisfied
Writer(s):    S Taylor
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1970
    Despite never being a major commercial success, the band Mother Earth, led by vocalist/guitarist Tracy Nelson, was highly regarded by musicians and progressive FM radio people alike, resulting in the band getting just enough airplay to keep recording albums throughout the late 60s and early 70s. Groovy Way, from the 1970 LP Satisfied, is fairly typical of the Mother Earth sound.

Artist:    Chocolate Watchband
Title:    Fireface
Source:    CD: One Step Beyond
Writer(s):    Sean Tolby
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year:    1969
    The third and final album the Chocolate Watchband released on Tower Records was both the most and least representative of the band's actual sound. On the plus side, all the tracks on 1969's One Step Beyond were played and sung by the band members themselves, a claim that nobody could make about either of the previous Watchband albums. However, the group heard on One Step Beyond sounded nothing like the Chocolate Watchband that audiences in the Bay Area had become familiar with from 1966-68. In fact, the lineup heard on One Step Beyond was a mixture of new and former Watchband members, some of whom had left the group prior to their first trip to the studio in 1966. The result was a more schizophrenic sounding band than the Watchband of old, with an odd mixture of folk and hard rock replacing the garage rock and studio psychedelia of the group's earlier efforts. The new lineup also wrote most of the tracks on the album, including Sean Tolby's Fireface. The group even went on tour to promote the new LP, but continued to go through frequent personnel changes even when on the road, finally disbanding in early 1970.

Artist:    Johnny Winter
Title:    Tribute To Muddy
Source:    LP: The Progressive Blues Experiment
Writer(s):    Johnny Winter
Label:    Imperial (original label: Sonobeat)
Year:    1968
    Originally released on the regional Texas label Sonobeat and then reissued nationally on the Imperial label, The Progressive Blues Experiment is a mixture of classic blues covers and original tunes penned by guitarist/vocalist Johnny Winter. Tribute To Muddy is one of the latter. Not long after the release of The Progressive Blues Experiment, Winter signed a contract with Columbia that made him rich and famous overnight.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Teen Angel
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Hurdy Gurdy Man (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    EMI (original label: Epic)
Year:    1968
    For the B side of Donovan's 1968 single, Hurdy Gurdy Man, the Scottish singer/songwriter recorded one of his older songs, Teen Angel. Unlike the A side, this track is a quiet, folky piece with minimal instrumentation.

Artist:    Ellen Margulies
Title:    The White Pony
Source:    Mono British import CD: My Mind Goes High (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Joyce/Steinberg/Secunda
Label:    Warner Strategic Marketing (original US label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    When it comes to obscurities, few records compare with The White Pony, released as a single on the Reprise label in September of 1968. Nobody seems to know who Ellen Margulies, the vocalist on the track, was. For that matter, all that is known about the producer, Roger Joyce, is that he once was a member of a New York group called New Order (not the one formerly known as Joy Division). Joyce co-wrote the song with two other people, whose last names were Steinberg and Secunda (appropriately, their first names are unknown).

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    Can You Dig It
Source:    LP: Head
Writer(s):    Peter Tork
Label:    Colgems
Year:    1968
    Peter Tork only received two solo writing credits for Monkees recordings in the 1960s (plus some co-writing credits on the Headquarters album). Both Tork originals were featured in the movie Head and included on the 1968 movie soundtrack album. After hearing Can You Dig It, you have to wonder why he never got the chance to write more tunes, as Can You Dig It is easily stronger than more than half of the material the group did record. Apparently Tork had similar feelings about it, since not long after Head was completed he left the group, not to return until the 1980s, when MTV ran a Monkees TV series marathon, introducing the band to a whole new generation and prompting a reunion tour and album. 

Artist:    Human Beinz
Title:    April 15th
Source:    British import CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released in US on LP: Evolutions)
Writer(s):    Belley/De Azevedo
Label:    Zonophone (original label: Capitol)
Year:    1968
    The Human Beinz started out in Youngstown, Ohio as the Premiers in 1964, but changed their name to the Human Beingz in 1966. After a few moderately successful singles on various regional labels (including a cover of Van Morrison's Gloria that predates the hit Shadows Of Knight version), the group signed to Capitol Records in 1967. In September of that year they released a cover of the Isley Brothers' Nobody But Me that became their only top 40 hit. Unfortunately, their name was misspelled on the label, and since the record was a hit, the band was stuck with the new spelling. By the time the group disbanded they had released several more singles (including two that hit the #1 spot in Japan), as well as two LPs, for Capitol. The second of these, Evolutions, was the more psychedelic of the two. Although the group was known mainly for its tight arrangements of cover songs, they did experiment a bit on Evolutions, particularly on April 15th, a seven minute free-form track co-written by guitarist/vocalist Dick Belley. 

Artist:    Blood, Sweat And Tears
Title:    God Bless The Child
Source:    LP: Heavy Sounds (originally released on LP: Blood, Sweat & Tears)
Writer(s):    Holiday/Herzog
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    Although it was never released as a single, Blood, Sweat And Tears' version of the Billy Holiday classic God Bless The Child has become one of their most popular recordings over time, even to the point of being included on the group's Greatest Hits collection. The track was also chosen as the band's contribution to Columbia's Heavy Sounds collection that was released around 1969. 

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Taurus
Source:    CD: Spirit
Writer(s):    Randy California
Label:    Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year:    1968
    After the release of Spirit's debut album they went on tour, with a new band, Led Zeppelin, opening for them. I mention this just in case you happen to notice any similarity between the opening acoustic guitar riff on this song and the one on Stairway To Heaven, which was released three or four years later. I bet you thought Jimmy Page only ripped off blues legends like Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon. 

Artist:    Velvet Illusions
Title:    Acid Head
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Weed/Radford
Label:    Rhino (original label: Tell, also released on Metromedia Records)
Year:    1967
    Showing an obvious influence by the Electric Prunes (a suburban L.A. band that was embraced by the Seattle crowd as one of their own) the Velvet Illusions backtracked the Prunes' steps, leaving their native Yakima, Washington and steady gigging for the supposedly greener pastures of the City of Angels. After a few months of frustration in which the band seldom found places to practice, let alone perform, they headed back to Seattle to cut Acid Head before calling it quits.