https://exchange.prx.org/p/642082
This week we feature not only two artists' sets (from the Kinks and the Electric Prunes), but an unprecedented three-way all British battle of the bands as well. You'd think that wouldn't leave much time for anything else, but we somehow managed to squeeze in over a dozen more tunes as well, including a fifteen minute long track to end the show.
Artist: Byrds
Title: It Won't Be Wrong
Source: LP: Turn! Turn! Turn!
Writer(s): McGuinn/Gerst
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
The Byrds' It Won't Be Wrong, by all rights, should have been a hit single, and it almost was, despite the failure of Columbia Records to properly promote the song. Written in 1964 by Jim (now Roger) McGuinn and his friend Harvey Gerst, the song was first released as the B side of a single by the Beefeaters, an early version of the Byrds, but was recut in late 1965 for inclusion on the Turn! Turn! Turn! album. Early in 1966, the song was also released as the B side of the single Set You Free This Time. That, as it turns out, was a mistake, as disc jockeys soon began playing It Won't Be Wrong instead. Columbia was slow to react to this move, however, and continued to promote Set You Free This Time, releasing it as a single on their CBS label in the UK. After finally noticing that It Won't Be Wrong was getting more airplay in the US, the label re-released the record in England with the sides officially flipped, but by then there was too much confusion associated with the single and neither side charted there. Meanwhile, despite the lack of promotion, It Won't Be Wrong managed to make it to the #63 spot in the US.
Artist: Mamas And The Papas
Title: Hey Girl
Source: LP: If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears
Writer(s): John and Michelle Phillips
Label: Dunhill
Year: 1966
It's a question that often vexed me as a teenager: Why do all the nice, attractive girls go for the sleazy guys instead of me? While Hey Girl, from the Mamas and the Papas' debut LP, If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears, doesn't exactly provide answers to that age old question, it certainly presents it in a unique way, with conflicting lines from the male and female members of the group being sung at the same time:
Don't try to put him down!
(Don't let him get you down)
He's the boy I want around
(You know I'll always be around.)
Of course, both points of view lead to the same concluding line:
And you—you shouldn't be so blue.
Overall, it's a clever bit of role-playing songwriting from John and Michelle Phillips, who would have their own issues within a few months of the album's release.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Somebody To Love
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Darby Slick
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
Over 40 years after the fact, it's hard to imagine just how big an impact Jefferson Airplane's fifth single had on the garage band scene. Whereas before Somebody To Love came out you could just dismiss hard-to-cover songs as being not worth learning, here was a tune that was undeniably cool, and yet virtually impossible for anyone but the Airplane to play well (and even they were unable to get it to sound quite the same when they performed it live). The mono single mix of the song heard here has noticeably less reverb than the more familiar stereo album version.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Try Me On For Size
Source: Mono LP: The Electric Prunes
Writer(s): Tucker/Jones
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
Songwriter Annette Tucker struck gold when producer David Hassinger selected I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), a song she had co-written with Nancie Mantz, to be the new single by the Electric Prunes. The song was so successful that Hassinger picked up half a dozen more Tucker songs to be included on the Prunes' debut LP for Reprise. Most of those were co-written by Mantz, but a couple, including the band's next single, Get Me To The World On Time, carried a Jill Jones co-writing credit. The other Tucker/Jones collaboration on the album was a song called Try Me On For Size, a track that could be interpreted as an invitation to the kinds of activities rock musicians would become famous for during backstage parties in the 70s and 80s.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Hideaway
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Underground)
Writer(s): Lowe/Tulin
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
After the moderately successful first Electric Prunes album, producer David Hassinger loosened the reigns a bit for the followup, Underground. Among the original tunes on Underground was Hideaway, a song written by vocalist James Lowe and bassist Mark Tulin that probably would have been a better choice as a single than what actually got released: a novelty tune called Dr. Feelgood written by Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz, who had also written the band's first hit, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night).
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Luvin'
Source: Mono LP: The Electric Prunes
Writer: Lowe/Tulin
Label: Reprise
Year: 1966
Perhaps as a bit of overcompensation for his lack of control over the Grateful Dead, producer David Hassinger kept a tight rein on L.A.'s Electric Prunes, providing them with most of the material they recorded (from professional songwriters). A rare exception is Luvin', from the first Prunes LP. The song was originally released in November of 1966 as the B side of I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night).
Artist: Tim Rose
Title: Hey Joe (You Shot Your Woman Down)
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Billy Roberts
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
The folk music revival of the late 50s and early 60s is generally thought of as an East Coast phenomena, centered in the coffee houses of cities such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia. California, though, had its share of folk music artists, especially San Francisco's North Shore area, where the beatniks espoused a Bohemian lifestyle that would pave the way for the Hippy movement centered in the city's Haight-Ashbury district. Among the California folkies were Billy Roberts, who copyrighted the song Hey Joe in 1962, and Tim Rose, who (along with the Music Machine's Sean Bonniwell) came up with a slower version of the song. Rose's version, released as a single in mid-1966, got considerable airplay on San Francisco radio stations and was the inspiration for the more famous Jimi Hendrix version of the song that made the British top 10 toward the end of the year. Rose's version was not widely available until 1967, when his debut LP for Columbia was released. By then, however, the Hendrix version was all over the progressive FM airwaves in the US, and the Rose version (now in stereo) remained for the most part unheard.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Third Stone From The Sun
Source: CD: Are You Experienced?
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Jimi Hendrix once stated that he was far more comfortable as a guitarist than as a vocalist, at least in the early days of the Experience. In that case, he was certainly in his element for his classic instrumental from the Are You Experienced album, Third Stone From The Sun. The train sequence at the end of the track, incidentally, was done entirely on guitar.
Artist: Amboy Dukes
Title: You Talk Sunshine, I Breath Fire
Source: German import simulated stereo CD: Journey To The Center Of The Mind (bonus track originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Nugent/Farmer
Label: Repertoire (original US label: Mainstream)
Year: 1968
Rather than pull another track from one of their LPs to follow up the hit single Journey To The Center Of The Mind, Ted Nugent's band, the Amboy Dukes, went back into the studio and recorded a brand new song called You Talk Sunshine, I Breath Fire. Released as a single in September of 1968, the song was unable to crack Billboard's Hot 100, stalling out at #118 on their "Bubbling Under" chart. The song was never included on any subsequent Amboy Dukes albums, making it difficult to find until it was released as a bonus track on a 1991 German reissue of the Journey To The Center Of The Mind album on CD.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Party Line
Source: Mono British import CD: Face To Face
Writer(s): Ray and Dave Davies
Label: Sanctuary (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1966
"Party line" is one of those terms that has undergone a total change in meaning over the past century or so. These days, it is generally used to describe adherence to a particular dogma, generally that of a political party. Years ago, however, a "party line" was actually a particular type of phone service, where several subscribers shared a land line for a discounted rate. This meant that when you picked up your phone you might not hear a dial tone; instead, you might hear one of your neighbors, or even someone you didn't know, chatting away, oblivious to the fact that you were listening to every word they said. As phone technology improved, party lines became increasingly rare, as most people opted for a private line when it was available. Although I never actually used a party line myself, I do remember my mother telling me about having one as a teen during World War II. Apparently they stayed in use in England for several years after the war, however, since the Davies brothers were inspired to write a song about it for the 1966 Kinks album Face To Face.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Nothing To Say
Source: Mono LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Record Show (originally released on LP: Arthur or The Decline & Fall Of The British Empire)
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
When Rosy Davies and her husband Arthur Anning left their native England to relocate to Australia in 1964 her brother Ray was devastated. Being a songwriter and leader of the Kinks, he responded by writing a song asking her to come back home. When that didn't work, he wrote an entire album called Arthur. Although the LP was subtitled The Decline & Fall Of The British Empire it was really an expression of his own feelings of alienation brought to the surface by his sister's departure five years before, as can be heard in the lyrics of Nothing To Say.
Artist: Kinks
Title: You're Lookin' Fine
Source: Mono British import CD: Face To Face
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Sanctuary (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1966
One of the earliest recordings included on the Kinks' 1966 album Face To Face, You're Lookin' Fine is also the least tied into the album's loose theme of sardonic looks at social issues. In fact, You're Lookin' Fine is actually a pretty straightforward rock song, which by late 1965 (when it was recorded) was becoming somewhat of a rarity for songwriter Ray Davies.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: Gotta Get Away
Source: LP: Psychedelic Lollipop
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 that single.
Artist: "E" Types
Title: Put The Clock Back On The Wall
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Bonner/Gordon
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
The E-Types were originally from Salinas, California, which at the time was known for it's sulfiric smell experienced by passing motorists travelling along US 101. As many people from Salinas apparently went to "nearby" San Jose (about 60 miles to the north) as often as possible, the E-Types became regulars on the local scene there, eventually landing a contract with Ed Cobb's Greengrass Productions, who also produced the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband. The Bonner/Gordon songwriting team were just a couple months away from getting huge royalty checks from the Turtles' Happy Together when Put The Clock Back On The Wall was released in early 1967. The song takes its title from a popular phrase of the time. After a day or two of losing all awareness of time (and sometimes space) it was time to put the clock back on the wall, or get back to reality if you prefer.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: The Pusher
Source: CD: Steppenwolf
Writer: Hoyt Axton
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
A kid in his mid teens often finds himself torn between his own upbringing and sometimes unbearable peer pressure, especially when it comes to trying new things. A growing awareness of the disconnect between what the older generation preaches and what its members themselves actually do leads to a general distrust of any advice they might dispense. Luckily, at certain points in time, something or someone comes along to serve as a guide. In 1968 that guide, for some teenagers at least, was Steppenwolf's recording of Hoyt Axton's The Pusher, which clearly defined the difference between pot smoking and the use of harder drugs, condemning the latter in the strongest possible language. For that, Hoyt Axton, John Kay and the rest of Steppenwolf, I thank you. Your song gave me the strength to say no when it counted (and to know when it was OK to say yes).
Artist: Who
Title: The Acid Queen
Source: CD: Tommy
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1969
Pete Townshend, the primary composer of the Who's rock opera Tommy, takes the lead vocals on The Acid Queen, a song that, while integral to the Tommy storyline, also stands as one of Townshend's strongest standalone compositions. The song is sung from the first person viewpoint of a gypsy who promises to cure Tommy's condition (blind, deaf and dumb) by using a combination of sex and drugs. Although her efforts are unsuccessful, the attempt itself has a profound effect on the youngster, who explores his inner self under the influence of LSD. Townshend himself has said that the song is "not just about acid: it's the whole drug thing, the drink thing, the sex thing wrapped into one big ball." In a reference to peer pressure, he adds that "society – people – force it on you. She represents this force." The song later became a hit single for, not surprisingly, Tina Turner, who played the part of the Acid Queen in the hit movie version of Tommy.
Artist: Eric Burdon And War
Title: Magic Mountain
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): War/Goldstein
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1970
The 1970 LP Eric Burdon Declares "War" was accompanied by the band's first single from the album, Spill The Wine. The B side of Spill The Wine was a non-album track called Magic Mountain. Written by the band, along with producer Jerry Goldstein, the song remained unavailable in any other form until 1976, when it appeared on a collection of unreleased tracks and B sides called Love Is All Around, credited to War featuring Eric Burdon. The following year Magic Mountain was released as an A side itself, but did not chart.
Artist: Animals
Title: I'm Crying
Source: Mono LP: The Best Of The Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Price/Burdon
Label: Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1964
Like most groups in the early 1960s, the Animals started their studio career by recording a mixture of songs provided to their producer by professional songwriters and covers of tunes previously recorded by other artists. Their first self-penned single was I'm Crying, a tune by vocalist Eric Burdon and organist Alan Price that was released in September of 1964. The song made the top 10 in Canada and the UK, but stalled out in the lower reaches of the top 40 in the US, falling far short of their previous international hit, House Of The Rising Sun. Producer Mickie Most decided from then on that songs written by the band itself would only be released as album tracks and B sides, a policy that stayed in effect until the Animals changed producers in 1966.
And now for our three-way all-British battle of the bands, starting with the most successful British band of all time.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Help!
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1965
Dave Dexter was the guy at Capitol Records who had a low opinion of rock music, calling it repititious and lacking in creativity. He was also the guy who chose not to issue the first four singles by the Beatles in 1963, saying that they wouldn't appeal to American audiences. As Beatlemania continued to grow into a worldwide phenomenon, the top people at Capitol decided to start releasing Beatles singles after all, starting with I Want To Hold Your Hand in late 1963. Dexter, however, wasn't done. He insisted on making changes to the Beatles material before issuing it in the US. In the case of albums that meant reducing the total number of songs per album from 14 to 11, including singles and EP tracks that had not been on the original British albums and creating entirely new albums from the leftover tracks. He was a bit more subtle with single releases, however, usually keeping the original B sides. Instead, he had his engineers "enhance" the records by changing the equalization of audio frequencies and adding reverb to make the songs sound brighter and thus more suited for airplay on US top 40 radio stations. This approach can be heard on the title song from the Beatles' second feature film, Help!
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Citadel
Source: LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
One of the most underrated songs in the Rolling Stones catalog, Citadel is the second track on Their Satanic Majesties Request, an album often dismissed as being an ill-fated attempt to keep up with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. However, nothing on Sgt. Pepper's sounds remotely like Citadel, which features power chords from Keith Richards and some Hendrix style backwards guitar work.
Artist: Cream
Title: Sweet Wine
Source: LP: Fresh Cream
Writer(s): Godfrey/Baker
Label: Atco
Year: 1966
When Cream was formed, both bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker had new music for the band to record (guitarist Eric Clapton having chosen to shut up and play his guitar for the most part). Most of these new songs, however, did not yet have words to go with the music. To remedy the situation, both musicians brought in outside lyricists. Baker chose poet Pete Brown, while Bruce chose to bring in his wife, Janet Godfrey. After a short time it became apparent that Bruce and Brown had a natural affinity for each other's material, and formed a partnership that would last years. Baker, meanwhile, tried working with Godfrey, but the two only came up with one song together, Sweet Wine, which was included on the band's debut LP, Fresh Cream.
Artist: Beatles
Title: I'm So Tired
Source: CD: The Beatles
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year: 1968
Somehow I can't help but thinking of the Firesign Theatre's Further Adventures of Nick Danger every time I hear this song. I guess that's better than thinking of Charles Manson's group, which some of the other songs on the "white album" make me do.
Artist: Cream
Title: Sitting On Top Of The World
Source: LP: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s): Chester Burnett
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
Throughout their existence British blues supergroup Cream recorded covers of blues classics. One of the best of these is Sitting On Top Of The World from the album Wheels Of Fire, which in its earliest form was written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon and recorded by the Mississippi Shieks in 1930. Cream's version uses the lyrics from the 1957 rewrite of the song by Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: What A Shame
Source: Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single B side and included on LP: The Rolling Stones Now)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1964
One of the earliest Mick Jagger/Keith Richards collaborations to get recorded by the Rolling Stones, What A Shame is basically a typical early Stones tune, released as the B side of Heart Of Stone in late 1964. It was included on the 1965 LP The Rolling Stones Now.
Artist: Beatles
Title: I'm Down
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1965
Paul McCartney does his best Little Richard impression while John Lennon contributes Jerry Lee Lewis style keyboards on I'm Down, a non-album track released in 1965 as the B side of the single Help! According to McCartney "I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing, it's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it. ... A lot of people were fans of Little Richard so I used to sing his stuff but there came a point when I wanted one of my own, so I wrote I'm Down". Once the original single had run its course it was difficult to find copies of I'm down, since it did not appear on an LP until 1976 in the US and 1978 in the UK. The mono mix heard here on the original US single is considerably brighter sounding than the 1978 stereo remix used on the Past Masters CD.
Artist: Cream
Title: Deserted Cities Of The Heart
Source: LP: Wheels Of Fire
Writer: Bruce/Brown
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
The most psychedelic of Cream's songs were penned by Jack Bruce and his songwriting partner Pete Brown. One of the best of these was chosen to close out the last studio side of the last Cream album released while the band was still in existence. Deserted Cities Of The Heart is a fitting epitaph to an unforgettable band.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: On With the Show
Source: LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
The Rolling Stones' psychedelic period came to an abrupt end with the release of Their Satanic Majesties Request in late 1967. Although it sold well at first, it was critically panned and soon dropped off the charts. Considering the ultimate longevity of the Stones, the title of the last track on the LP, On With The Show, seems positively prophetic today.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Dark White
Source: CD: Ignition
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Sundazed
Year: Recorded 1969, released 2003
One of the final recordings by Sean Bonniwell using the name Music Machine, Dark White is also one of the most sophisticated, both lyrically and musically. And since Bonniwell's music was by far the most sophisticated to get labeled "garage rock", that is really saying a lot. The song is best described as a cat and mouse love dance (but that really falls short of the mark as well). Best just to take a listen and decide for yourself. Although the liner notes for the Ignition CD (released in 2003) show the song as not being an unreleased track, I have not been able to find any evidence of the song ever appearing anywhere else.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: I Am Not Willing
Source: LP: Moby Grape '69
Writer(s): Peter Lewis
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
Hard core Moby Grape fans did not quite know what to make of the band's third LP, Moby Grape '69. For one thing, one of the group's most visible members, guitarist Skip Spence, had gone AWOL from the band and was only heard on the album's final track. For another, MG 69 had more than a dash of country-rock at a time when the term country-rock had not yet been invented. Finally, the entire album had a kind of unfinished feel to it. This may have been the result of a deliberate attempt to avoid the production excesses of their second LP, Wow. It's also possible that the Grape audience was not quite ready for the incorporation of 50s doo-wop vocals on the album's opening track, Ooh Mama Ooh. Whatever the reason, the album stalled out at # 113 on the Billboard charts, although in more recent years it has come to be seen as a precursor to the so-called California Sound of bands like Poco and the Eagles, thanks to songs like Peter Lewis's I Am Not Willing.
Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Do What You Like
Source: CD: Blind Faith
Writer: Ginger Baker
Label: Polydor
Year: 1969
Ginger Baker basically invented the rock drum solo, or at least was the first to record one in the studio, with the track Toad from the Fresh Cream album, released in 1966. A live version of the song was featured on the Wheels Of Fire album in 1968. The following year, recording technology had progressed to the point of allowing a true stereo mix of Baker's massive double bass drum setup for the track Do What You Like, a much more sophisticated composition than Toad. Featuring a vocal track from Steve Winwood as well as solos by all four band members, Do What You Like runs about 15 minutes in length.
