https://exchange.prx.org/p/630814
Sometimes you just gotta do something different, and this week we start off the show with an entire album side from the Gods. If that weren't enough, we also have the Turtles taking on Jefferson Airplane in a battle of the bands, plus several other treats, including the B side of the very first Moody Blues single, released in 1964.
Artist: Gods
Title: Genesis-side two
Source: Mono British import LP: Genesis
Writer(s): Sugarman/Robertson/Konas/Hensley/Kerslake
Label: Parlophone (original UK label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
The Juniors were a British pop band formed in 1962 made up entirely of adolescent boys who played their own instruments. The membership included 13-year-old rhythm guitarist Mick Taylor, 14-year old Brian Glascock on drums and his brother, 11-year-old John Glascock on bass. in 1965, the band underwent some changes, adding keyboardist Ken Hensley and lead vocalist/guitarist Lee Konas and changing their name to The Gods. They became part of the British blues scene, opening for Cream in 1966. The following year Taylor, who by this time had developed into a quality lead guitarist, accepted an offer to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers as Peter Green's replacement, and they were forced to regroup, replacing the remaining two former Juniors with drummer Lee Kerslake and bassist Paul Newton, who in turn was replaced by bassist Greg Lake. In 1968 Lake was invited to join Robert Fripp's new group, King Crimson, and John Glascock returned to the band. It was this lineup (Konas/Hensley/Glascock/Kerslake) that recorded the 1968 album Genesis. As was becoming more common that year, all the songs on each side Genesis ran together as a single track, and that is the way they are being presented here. Side two of the LP starts off with two songs, Radio Show and Plastic Horizon, written by British songwriters Harold Robertson and Paul Sugarman before moving into original territory for Konas's Farthing Man, followed by I Never Knew, a collaboration between Konas and Hensley that shows early signs of what Uriah Heep would sound like. The side finishes with Time And Eternity, co-written by Konas and Kerslake. After releasing a second album, the band officially disbanded, with a group called Toe Fat, featuring several of the same members, replacing it. The four ex-Gods who recorded Genesis reunited once more under the name Head Machine for an album called Orgasm in 1970 before moving on to other projects, including Uriah Heep (Hensley and Kerslake) and, eventually, Jethro Tull (John Glascock).
Artist: Public Nuisance
Title: America
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on CD: Gotta Survive)
Writer(s): David Houston
Label: Rhino (original label: Frantic)
Year: Recorded 1968, released 2003
Looking and sounding a lot like the Ramones would in the late 70s, Public Nuisance found itself the victim of unusual circumstances that led to the cancellation of their only LP in 1968. Producer Terry Melcher, who had risen to fame as producer of Paul Revere and the Raiders, had made the mistake of rejecting tapes sent to him by a wannabe rock star named Charles Manson. When Manson achieved the fame and notoriety that had eluded him as a musician (by killing a bunch of people), Melcher felt it prudent to go into hiding, shelving the Public Nuisance project in the process. The album was finally released 35 years later on the independent Frantic label.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Tangier
Source: British import CD: The Hurdy Gurdy Man
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: EMI (original US label: Epic)
Year: 1968
Although officially credited to Donovan Leitch, Tangier, from the 1968 LP The Hurdy Gurdy Man, was actually written by Donovan's close friend Gyp Mills (also known as Gypsy Dave). The song's original title was In Tangier Down A Windy Street. The piece is one of three songs on The Hurdy Gurdy Man that are built around a single note (known in Eastern music as a drone). Due to an ongoing contractual dispute between Donovan and Pye Records, The Hurdy Gurdy Man was originally released only in the US.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Blowin' In The Wind
Source: CD: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: CBS
Year: 1963
Generally acknowledged as Bob Dylan's first true classic, Blowin' In The Wind first appeared on the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The song was popularized the following year by Peter, Paul and Mary and soon was the single most played song around campfires from coast to coast. For all I know it still is. (Do young people still sing around campfires? Maybe they should.)
Artist: Moody Blues
Title: Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose Your Mind)
Source: Mono CD: Time Is On My Side (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Laine/Pinder
Label: Power Sound 2001
Year: 1964
Ever wonder how a progressive rock band known for their orchestral arrangements got a name like the Moody Blues? Take a listen to Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose Your Mind), the B side of their first record, and you'll wonder no more.
Artist: Who
Title: Disguises
Source: British import 45 RPM EP: Ready Steady Who
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: Reaction
Year: 1966
After several successful appearances on the British TV show Ready Steady Go (the UK's answer to American Bandstand), the Who took over the entire show for a week, and then released an EP called Ready Steady Who to capitalize on it. One side of the EP featured cover songs such as Bucket T and the Batman theme done for laughs. The two tracks on the first side of the record, however, were Who originals: a new version of Circles (a song that originally appeared on the My Generation album) and Disguises, which made its debut as the lead track of the EP. The song itself features an effect that always sounded to me like the noise you would pick up on an AM radio fading in and out as you were listening to a distant station at night. Since in 1966 the Who's British audience had only offshore pirate stations (while their European counterparts had only Radio Luxembourg) at night as a source for current rock and soul music, this could well have been the Who's first attempt at making a record that sounded like it was coming from a radio station, something they became famous for a year later when they released their third LP, The Who Sell Out.
Artist: Cuby + Blizzards
Title: L.S.D. (Got A Million Dollars)
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): T. McGuiness
Label: Universal (original Dutch label: Philips)
Year: 1966
In the Netherlands it was a given that if you wanted to hear some live blues you needed to check out Cuby + Blizzards. Led by vocalist Harry "Cuby" Muskee and lead guitarist Eelco Gelling, C+B, as they were known to their fans, had been in a couple of local bands as early as 1962, but had made a decision to abandon rock 'n' roll for a more blues/R&B approach in 1964. After cutting a single for the small CNR label in 1965, C+B signed a long-term contract with Philips the following year. Their first single, LSD (Got A Million Dollars) has a sound not dissimilar to many American garage bands of the time, especially those who favored the Yardbirds as their primary influence. Cuby + Blizzards hit the Dutch top 40 nine times between 1967 and 1971, and released several well-received albums as well.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Spoonful
Source: European import CD: Ten Years After
Writer(s): Willie Dixon
Label: Deram
Year: 1967
The late 1960s saw the rise of a British blues-rock scene that brought fame to Peter Green, Dave Edmunds and other talented guitarists. One of the first bands to release an album in this sub-genre was Ten Years After, led by Alvin Lee. Their debut LP, released in 1967, included several cover tunes, including Spoonful, which had been recorded the previous year by Cream (in studio form), and would gain popularity as a live track in 1968.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Prodigal Son
Source: CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer(s): Robert Wilkins
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
The Rolling Stones always had a fondness for American roots music, but by 1967 had largely abandoned the genre in favor of more modern sounds such as pychedelia. The 1968 album Beggar's Banquet, however, marked a return to the band's own roots and included such tunes as Prodigal Son, which at first was credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. In reality the song was written by the Reverend Robert Wilkins, and has since been acknowledged as such.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Tired Of Waiting For You
Source: Mono CD: The Best Of 60s Supergroups (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Priority (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1965
After a series of hard-rocking hits such as You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night, the Kinks surprised everyone with the highly melodic Tired Of Waiting For You in 1965. As it turns out the song was just one of many steps in the continually maturing songwriting of Ray Davies.
Artist: Love
Title: She Comes In Colors
Source: LP: Love Revisited (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
Arthur Lee's transition from angry punk (on songs like 7&7 Is and My Little Red Book) to a softer, more introspective kind of singer/songwriter was evident on Love's second LP, Da Capo. Although there were still some hard rockers, such as Stephanie Knows Who, the album also includes songs like She Comes In Colors, which was released ahead of the album as the band's third single in late 1966. The song was one of Lee's first to inspire critics to draw comparisons between Lee's vocal style and that of Johnny Mathis. Lee may indeed have been, as many assert, a musical genius, but his reference to "England town" shows his knowledge of geography to be somewhat lacking.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Time Between
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Chris Hillman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
The Byrds went from being the prototypical folk-rock band to being the seminal country-rock band over the space of about three years and six albums. The beginning of this transition can be heard on Time Between, from their fourth LP, Younger Than Yesterday. Time Between was bassist Chris Hillman's first attempt to write a song on his own, and features guest guitarist Clarence White, who would later replace David Crosby as a full-fledged member of the Byrds (ouch!).
Artist: Easybeats
Title: Friday On My Mind
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Vanda/Young
Label: Rhino (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: Turtles
Title: Let The Cold Winds Blow
Source: Mono LP: It Ain't Me Babe
Writer(s): Howard Kaylan
Label: White Whale
Year: 1965
Although still quite young (the band members had to get their parents' permission to record their first LP), the Turtles already had the makings of a successful group in 1965 when they recorded It Ain't Me Babe. In addition to the usual batch of cover songs that were expected from a "pop" band (the term "rock" having not come into common usage at that point in time) the album included a handful of original compositions from bandmembers. Lead vocalist Howard Kaylan, in particular, provided some decent tunes such as Let The Cold Winds Blow, which opens side two of the original LP.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Somebody To Love
Source: British import CD: Peace & Love-The Woodstock Generation (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Writer(s): Darby Slick
Label: Warner Strategic Marketing (original US 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).
Artist: Turtles
Title: Can't You Hear The Cows
Source: Mono CD: The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): The Turtles
Label: White Whale
Year: 1968
By late 1968 the Turtles already had their best times behind them. After a failed attempt at self-production (the record company refused to release all but one of the tracks they had recorded), the band went back into the studio to cut a Harry Nilsson tune, The Story of Rock and Roll. Can't You Hear the Cows, sort of a twisted throwback to their days as the surf music band known as the Crossfires and sounding oddly like the mid-80s Beach Boys, appeared on the B side of that single.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: J.P.P. McStep B Blues
Source: CD: Surrealistic Pillow (bonus track originally released on LP: Early Flight)
Writer(s): Skip Spence
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Year: Recorded 1966, released 1974
One of the first songs recorded for the Surrealistic Pillow album, J.P.P. McStep B. Blues ended up being shelved, possibly because drummer Skip Spence, who wrote the song, had left the band by the time the album came out.
Artist: Turtles
Title: A Walk In The Sun
Source: Mono LP: It Ain't Me Babe
Writer(s): Howard Kaylan
Label: White Whale
Year: 1965
Trivia fact: the members of the Turtles had to get their parents to sign permission slips before they could record their debut LP, It Ain't Me Babe. Yep, they were that young when they scored their first top 10 single in 1965. With that in mind, it might be come as a surprise that vocalist Howard Kaylan had already written a few songs, including A Walk In The Sun, that were included on the album itself. The band, formed when all the members were still in high school, had been known prior to 1965 as the Crossfires, playing mostly surf music. They were the first, and most successful, artists signed to the Los Angeles based White Whale label.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: White Rabbit
Source: CD: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer: Grace Slick
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Year: 1967
The first time I heard White Rabbit was on Denver's first FM rock station, KLZ-FM. The station branded itself as having a top 100 (as opposed to local ratings leader KIMN's top 60), and prided itself on being the first station in town to play new releases and album tracks. It wasn't long before White Rabbit was officially released as a single, and went on to become a top 10 hit, the last for the Airplane (not that they needed one).
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: A Hazy Shade Of Winter
Source: 45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
Originally released as a single in 1966, A Hazy Shade Of Winter was one of several songs intended for the film The Graduate. The only one of these actually used in the movie was Mrs. Robinson. The remaining songs eventually made up side two of the 1968 album Bookends, although several of them were also released as singles throughout 1967. A Hazy Shade Of Winter, being the first of these singles (and the only one released in 1966), was also the highest charting, peaking at # 13 just as the weather was turning cold.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: The Great Banana Hoax
Source: CD: Underground
Writer(s): Lowe/Tulin
Label: Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The second Electric Prunes LP, Underground, saw the band gaining greater creative control over the recording process than at any other time in their career (until their reformation over thirty years later). The album's opening track, The Great Banana Hoax, is notable for two reasons: first, it was composed by band members and second, it has nothing to do with bananas. The title probably refers to the rumor circulating at the time that Donovan's Mellow Yellow was really about smoking banana peels to get high. The song itself is an indication of the musical direction the band itself wanted to go in before it got sidetracked (some would say derailed) by producer David Hassinger, who would assert control to the point of eventually replacing all the original members of the band by their fourth album (yes, some producers had that kind of power in those days).
Artist: Them
Title: The Moth
Source: LP: Time Out! Time In! For Them
Writer(s): Lane/Pulley
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
After Van Morrison left Them to pursue a career as a solo artist, his old band decided to head back to Ireland and recruit Kenny McDowell for lead vocals. Them then moved out to Texas and hooked up with producer Ray Ruff, who got them a contract with Tower Records, Capitol's subsidiary label specializing in releasing already produced recordings from outside sources such as Ed Cobb's Green Grass Productions (Standells, Chocolate Watchband) and soundtrack albums for teen exploitation flicks such as Riot on Sunset Strip and Wild in the Streets from Mike Curb's Sidewalk Productions. The 1968 LP Time Out! Time In! For Them was the second of two psychedelic albums the group cut for Ruff and released onTower before moving into harder rock and another label.
Artist: David Peel and the Lower East Side
Title: The Lower East Side
Source: LP: The American Revolution
Writer: Billy Joe White
Label: Elektra
Year: 1970
If there was any one band that could be called a Yippie band, it was David Peel and the Lower East Side. As much street theater as rock and roll, the group consisted of three core members: David Peel (guitar, vocals), Billy Joe White (guitar, vocals), and Harold C. Black (tambourine, vocals), plus just about anyone who wanted to play and/or sing along. The group's first album was Have A Marijuana, recorded live at New York's Washington Square at a cost of around $4,000. The album was a surprise cult hit, netting Elektra nearly a million dollars. The band's priorities, however, were more about social issues than musical ones, and the group did not get around to recording another album until 1970. By then the Yippie movement had run its course, and the decision was made to abandon the street theater aspect of the group and concentrate instead on making a studio album. To do this, they enlisted several new semi-official members to record The American Revolution, arguably the first true punk-rock LP ever recorded. The songs covered a variety of topical issues, including sex (Girls, Girls, Girls), religion (God), and the still-raging Vietnam War (I Want To Kill You and Hey, Mr. Draft Board, a parody of Larry Verne's Mr. Custer). The opening track, written by White, serves to both introduce and (loosely) define the band itself.
Artist: Doors
Title: Touch Me
Source: CD: The Very Best Of The Doors (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: The Soft Parade)
Writer(s): Robby Kreiger
Label: Elektra/Rhino
Year: 1968
The fourth Doors album was a departure from their previous work. No longer would the entire band be credited for all the tracks the band recorded. In addition, the group experimented with adding horns and other studio embellishments. Nowhere is this more evident than on Touch Me, the only hit single from the album.
Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Summertime Blues
Source: CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Vincebus Eruptum)
Writer(s): Cochrane/Capehart
Label: Priority (original label: Philips)
Year: 1968
European electronics giant Philips had its own record label in the 1960s. In the US, the label was distributed by Mercury Records, and was known primarily for a long string of hits by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. In 1968 the label surprised everyone by signing the loudest band in San Francisco, Blue Cheer. Their cover of the 50s Eddie Cochrane hit Summertime Blues was all over both the AM and FM airwaves that summer.
Artist: Small Faces
Title: Itchycoo Park
Source: CD: British Beat (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Marriott/Lane
Label: K-Tel (original label: Immediate)
Year: 1967
Led by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, the Small Faces got their name from the fact that all the members of the band were somewhat vertically challenged. The group was quite popular with the London mod crowd, and was sometimes referred to as the East End's answer to the Who. Although quite successful in the UK, the group only managed to score one hit in the US, the iconic Itchycoo Park, which was released in late 1967. Following the departure of Marriott the group shortened their name to Faces, and recruited a new lead vocalist named Rod Stewart. Needless to say, the new version of the band did much better in the US than its previous incarnation before itself being destroyed by Stewart's solo career.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Good Vibrations
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Wilson/Love
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966
Although I had originally discovered top 40 radio in 1963 (when I received a small Sony transistor radio for my birthday), it wasn't until 1966 that I really got into it in a big way. This was due to a combination of a couple of things: first, my dad bought a console stereo, and second, my junior high school went onto split sessions, meaning that I was home by one o'clock every day. This gave me unprecedented access to Denver's two big top 40 AM stations, as well as an FM station that was experimenting with a Top 100 format for a few hours each day. At first I was content to just listen to the music, but soon realized that the DJs were making a point of mentioning each song's chart position just about every time that song would play. Naturally I began writing all this stuff down in my notebook (when I was supposed to be doing my homework), until I realized that both KIMN and KBTR actually published weekly charts, which I began to diligently hunt down at various local stores. In addition to the songs occupying numbered positions on the charts, both stations included songs at the bottom of the list that they called "pick hits". These were new releases that had not been around long enough to achieve a chart position. The one that most stands out in my memory was the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations, a song I liked so much that I went out to the nearest Woolco and bought it the afternoon I heard it. Within a few weeks Good Vibrations had gone all the way to the top of the charts on both stations, and I always felt that some of the credit should go to me for buying the record when it first came out (hey I was 13, OK?). Over the next couple of years I bought plenty more singles, but to this day Good Vibrations stands out as the most influential 45 RPM record purchase I ever made.
Artist: Santana
Title: Singing Winds, Crying Beasts
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Abraxas)
Writer(s): Mike Carabello
Label: Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
Mike Carabello, one of the three Santana percussionists, only had one solo songwriting credit on the three LPs he played on. It was a good one, though. Singing Winds, Crying Beasts is the opening track of the second Santana LP, Abraxas. The tune flows so naturally into the next track that it is sometimes considered a long intro to Black Magic Woman, despite the fact that Singing Winds, Crying Beasts is nearly five minutes long.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: New Speedway Boogie
Source: LP: Workingman's Dead
Writer(s): Hunter/Garcia
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
The first three Grateful Dead albums were all attempts to capture the energy and experimentation of the band's live sets. Finally, in 1969, the band decided just to release a double LP of live performances. Once this goal had been reached the band began to move into new territory, concentrating more on songwriting and studio techniques. The result was Workingman's Dead, the first Grateful Dead LP to include songs that would become staples of the emerging album rock radio format. Among the strongest tracks on the album was New Speedway Boogie, which would become a staple of the band's live shows.
