Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2530 (B39) (starts 7/14/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/580558

    This week the emphasis is on the mid to late years of the psychedelic era, with sets from each of the years 1967 through 1970. Also, a set of tunes from Cream taken from their first two albums.

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Like A Rolling Stone
Source:    CD: 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. Personnel on this historic recording included guitarist Michael Bloomfield, pianist Paul Griffin, drummer Bobby Gregg, bassist Joe Madho, guitarist Charlie McCoy and tambourinist Bruce Langhorne. In addition, guitarist Al Kooper, who was on the scene as a guest of producer Tom Wilson, sat in on organ, ad-libbing a part that so impressed Dylan that he insisted it be given a prominent place in the final mixdown. This in turn led to Kooper permanently switching over to keyboards for the remainder of his career.

Artist:     Kinks
Title:     Dead End Street
Source:     Mono Canadian import CD: 25 Years-The Ultimate Collection (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Ray Davies
Label:     Polygram/PolyTel (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1967
     The last major Kinks hit in the US was Sunny Afternoon in the summer of 1966. The follow-up Deadend Street, released in November, was in much the same style, but did not achieve the same kind of success in the US (although it was a top five hit in the UK). The Kinks would not have another major US hit until Lola was released in 1970.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Plastic Fantastic Lover
Source:    LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s):    Marty Balin
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1967
    Jefferson Airplane scored their first top 10 hit with Somebody To Love, the second single released from the Surrealistic Pillow album. Almost immediately, forward-thinking FM stations began playing other tracks from the album. One of those favored album tracks, Plastic Fantastic Lover, ended up being the B side of the band's follow-up single, White Rabbit. When the Airplane reunited in 1989 and issued their two-disc retrospective, 2400 Fulton Street, they issued a special stereo pressing of the single on white vinyl as a way of promoting the collection.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    2,000 Light Years From Home
Source:    Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released on LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request)
Writer:    Jagger/Richards
Label:    London
Year:    1967
    Nowhere was the ripple effect of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band more noticable than on the Rolling Stones fall 1967 release Their Satanic Majesties Request. The cover itself was a parody of Sgt. Pepper's, featuring the band members in various sorcerous regalia in a seven-inch picture on the kind of holographic paper used for "magic rings" found in bubble-gum machines and pasted over regular album-cover stock, which was a simple pattern of faded white circles on a blue background (it kind of looked like dark wallpaper). Musically it was the most psychedelic Stones album ever released. Interestingly enough, different songs were released as singles in different countries. In the US the single was She's A Rainbow, while in Germany 2,000 Light Years From Home (the US B side of She's A Rainbow) got significant airplay.

Artist:    Pink Floyd
Title:    See Emily Play
Source:    Mono CD: An Introduction To Syd Barrett (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Syd Barrett
Label:    Capitol (original label: Tower)
Year:    1967
    Following up on their first single, Arnold Layne, Pink Floyd found even greater chart success (at least in their native England) with See Emily Play. Released in June of 1967, the song went all the way to the #6 spot on the British charts. In the US the song failed to chart as a single, although it was included on the US version of Pink Floyd's debut LP, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. The "Emily" in question is reportedly the sculptor Emily Young, who in those days was known as the "psychedelic schoolgirl" at London's legendary UFO club.
 
Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Coloured Rain
Source:    CD: Heaven Is In Your Mind
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi/Wood
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1967
    Traffic, in its early days, was a band with an almost schizophrenic identity. On the one hand there was Steve Winwood, who was equally adept at guitar, keyboards and vocals and was generally seen as the band's leader, despite being its youngest member. His opposite number in the band was Dave Mason, an early example of the type of singer/songwriter that would be a major force in popular music in the mid-1970s. The remaining members of the band, drummer/vocalist Jim Capaldi and flautist/saxophonist Chris Wood, tended to fall somewhere between the two, although they more often sided with Winwood in his frequent creative disputes with Mason. One of these disputes involved the choice of the band's second single. Mason wanted to follow up the successful Paper Sun with his own composition, Hole In My Shoe, while the rest of the band preferred the group composition, Coloured Rain. Mason won that battle, but would end up leaving the band before the release on the group's first LP, Mr. Fantasy. This in turn led to the album being revised considerably for its US release, which was issued under a completely different title, Heaven Is In Your Mind, with most of Mason's contributions being excised from the album (although, oddly enough, Hole In My Shoe, which was not on the original LP, was included on the US album). One final example of the band's schizophrenic nature was in the way the group was marketed. In the US, Traffic was, from the beginning, perceived as a serious rock band along the lines of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In their native land, however, they were, thanks in part to the top 40 success of both Paper Sun and Hole In My Shoe as well as Winwood's fame as lead vocalist for the Spencer Davis Group, dismissed as a mere pop group. Mason would rejoin and leave the group a couple more times before achieving solo success in the mid-70s with the hit We Just Disagree, while Traffic would go on to become a staple of progressive FM rock radio in the US. 

Artist:    John Mayall
Title:    Brand New Start
Source:    LP: Blues Alone
Writer(s):    John Mayall
Label:    London
Year:    1967
    In between all the comings and goings among personnel in the Bluesbreakers, bandleader John Mayall found time to record a solo album. Unlike most "solo" albums of the time, which tended to use studio musicians to back the soloist, Blues Alone features Mayall playing every non-percussion instrument on the album (Keef Hartley played drums). The opening track, Brand New Start, is a classic example of Mayall's style of blues.

Artist:     Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title:     Yes, I Am Experienced
Source:     British import CD: Winds Of Change
Writer:     Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label:     Repertoire (original label: M-G-M)
Year:     1967
     A grand tradition dating back to the early Rhythm and Blues recordings was something called the "answer song". Someone would record a song (Hound Dog, for example), that would become popular. In turn, another artist (often a friend of the original one), would then come up with a song that answered the original tune (Bear Cat, in our example earlier). This idea was picked up on by white artists in the late 50s (Hey Paula answered by Hey Paul). True to the tradition, Eric Burdon answered his friend Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced with Yes, I Am Experienced from the Winds Of Change album in 1967. The song, credited to Eric Burdon And The Animals, was done in a style similar to another Hendrix tune, Manic Depression. 

Artist:    Waters
Title:    Mother Samwell
Source:    CD: A Deadly Dose Of Wild Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Barrickman/Burgard
Label:    Arf! Arf! (original labels: Delcrest & Hip)
Year:    1969
    Formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1967, the Waters released two singles on three labels before disbanding in 1969. The second of these, the Hendrix-inspired Mother Samwell, was first released on the Delcrest label in January of 1969 and then re-released by Hip in April of the same year. 

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience (mkII)
Title:    Stone Free
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single (originally released on CD: Valleys Of Neptune)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Experience Hendrix/Legacy/Sony Music/Sundazed
Year:    Recorded 1969, released 2010
    The 1969 version of Stone Free actually exists in many forms. The song was originally recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966 and issued as the B side of Hey Joe in Europe and the UK, but not in the Western hemisphere. As Hendrix always felt that this original version was rushed, due to financial restraints, he resolved to record a new version following the release of Electric Ladyland. The band went into the studio in April of 1969 and recorded a new, much cleaner sounding stereo version of Stone Free, which eventually appeared on the Jimi Hendrix box set. This was not the last version of the song to be recorded, however. In May of 1969 Hendrix, working with drummer Mitch Mitchell and his old friend Billy Cox on bass, created an entirely new arrangement of the song. These new tracks were then juxtaposed with the lead guitar and vocal tracks from the April recording to make the version heard on the 2010 CD Valleys Of Neptune. Six years later that same version was released as a Record Store Day single.

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:        Beatles
Title:        The Word
Source:    LP: Rubber Soul
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:        Apple/Capitol/EMI
Year:        1965
        The original concept for the album Rubber Soul was to show the group stretching out into R&B territory. The US version of the album, however, deleted several of the more soulful numbers in favor of folk-rock oriented songs. This was done by Capitol records mainly to cash in on the sudden popularity of the genre in 1965. Not all of the more R&B flavored songs were replaced, however. John Lennon's The Word appeared on both US and UK versions of Rubber Soul.

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    World Of Darkness
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Lowe/Tulin
Label:    Sundazed/Reprise
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 2015
    Electric Prunes vocalist James Lowe recalls that he and bassist Mark Tulin wrote World Of Darkness after seeing the Beatles on TV. The song was recorded in 1966 as a demo, but the band never returned to the recording to fix what he calls "timing" errors. The tune was released "as is" as a B side for Record Store Day 2015.

Artist:     Standells
Title:     Try It
Source:     LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Levine/Bellack
Label:     Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year:     1967
     After a series of singles written by producer Ed Cobb had resulted in diminishing returns, the Standells recorded Try It, a tune co-written by Joey Levine, who would rise to semi-anonymous notoriety as lead vocalist for the Ohio Express, a group that was essentially a vehicle for the Kazenetz/Katz production team, purveyors of what came to be called "bubble gum" music. The song itself was quickly banned on most radio stations under the assumption that the phrase "try it" was a call for teenage girls to abandon their virginity. The fact is that nowhere in the song does the word "teenage" appear, but nonetheless the song failed to make a dent in the charts, despite its catchy melody and danceable beat, which should have garnered it at least a 65 rating on American Bandstand.

Artist:    Next Exit
Title:    Break Away
Source:    Mono British import CD: My Mind Goes High (originally released in US as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Force/Kahan
Label:    Warner Strategic Marketing (original US label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1968
    The song Break Away is based on an unpublished poem from Paul Kahan, a longtime friend of the wife of the lead singer of the Tokens, who in 1968 were contract artists/producers for Warner Brothers Records. One of the Tokens' staff writers was Stephen Freidland, who, using the pen name Brute Force, came up with music for Kahan's poem. The result was Break Away, released in 1968 as the B side to a Tokens penned tune called I'm The Only One by a group called The Next Exit, who according to one source were (was?) actually a band form Missouri called the Fabulous Four.

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    China Cat Sunflower
Source:    LP: Aoxomoxoa (original 1968 mix)
Writer(s):    Hunter/Garcia/Lesh
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1969
    The third Grateful Dead album, Aoxomoxoa, was an experimental mixture of live audio and studio enhancements, much in the same vein as their previous effort, Anthem Of The Sun. One significant difference between the two is that, unlike Anthem, Aoxomoxoa was written entirely by the team of guitarist Jerry Garcia, bassist Phil Lesh and poet Robert Hunter, giving the album a more cohesive sound. One track on Aoxomoxoa, China Cat Sunflower, heard here in its original 1968 form, is almost entirely a studio creation, and as such has a bit cleaner sound than the rest of the LP.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Tell Me What Ya Got
Source:    Mono CD: Ignition
Writer(s):    Bonniwell/Garfield
Label:    Sundazed
Year:    Recorded 1968, released 2000
    The original Music Machine scored one huge hit with Talk Talk in late 1966, but due to a number of factors (nearly all of which can be attributed to bad management) was unable to repeat their success with subsequent singles. Finally, after a change of label failed to result in a change of fortunes, the original lineup disbanded. Undaunted, leader Sean Bonniwell assembled an entirely new lineup to complete the band's scheduled tours, stopping to record at various studios along the way whenever possible. Many of these recordings went unreleased for several years, such as the 1968 track Tell Me What You Got. The song is a rare instance of Bonniwell collaborating with another songwriter, in this case Harry Garfield. Although the song is not as sophisticated as Bonniwell's usual compositions, it does get points for attitude.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Strange Brew
Source:    LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s):    Clapton/Collins/Pappalardi
Label:    Atco
Year:    1967 
    During sessions for Cream's second album, Disraeli Gears, the trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker recorded an instrumental track for an old blues tune, Lawdy Mama. Producer Felix Pappalardi and his wife Janet Collins reworked the melody and lyrics to create an entirely new song, Strange Brew. Clapton provided the lead vocals for the song, which was issued as a single in Europe and the UK, as well as being chosen as the lead track for the album itself.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Spoonful
Source:    CD: Fresh Cream (released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Willie Dixon
Label:    Polydor/Polygram (original label: Atco)
Year:    1966
    When the album Fresh Cream was released by Atco in the US it was missing one track that was on the original UK version of the album: the original studio version of Willie Dixon's Spoonful. Instead the song was released on two sides of a single in 1967, with 90 seconds removed from the song between parts one and two. The single never charted and now is somewhat difficult to find a copy of (not that anybody would want to). A live version of Spoonful was included on the LP Wheels of Fire, but it wasn't until the 1969 compilation album Best Of Cream that the uncut studio version was finally released in the US.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Mother's Lament
Source:    LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s):    Trad., arr. Cream
Label:    Atco
Year:    1967
    The shortest-ever Cream recording was Mother's Lament, an old English drinking song that was tacked onto the end of the Disraeli Gears album. Other than the slightly off-key vocals (led by drummer Ginger Baker), the only instrument heard on the track is a piano (probably played by producer Felix Pappalardi). 

Artist:    McKendree Spring
Title:    For What Was Gained
Source:    LP: Second Thoughts
Writer:    Eric Andersen
Label:    Decca
Year:    1970 
    McKendree Spring, from New York's Hudson Valley, was one of those groups that defied easy classification. Were they a folk-rock band? Sort of. A country band? Well, kinda. Using a mix of traditional acoustic instruments and electronic synthesizers, McKendree Spring was successful enough to issue several albums throughout the 1970s. I remember seeing them live in the early 1970s (on a bill with Billy Preston) and performing an instrumental called How Can I Tell You I Love You When You're Sitting On My Face. 

Artist:    Flock
Title:    Lighthouse
Source:    British import CD: The Flock/Dinosaur Swamps (originally released in US on LP: Dinosaur Swamps)
Writer(s):    The Flock
Label:    BGO (original US label: Columbia)
Year:    1970
    The second Flock album was even more experimental than their first with tunes like Lighthouse being a sort of twisted hybrid of hard rock and even harder blues, with the band's horn section adding to the chaos.

Artist:    Them
Title:     Walking In The Queen's Garden
Source:     Mono LP: Now and Them (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Them
Label:     Tower
Year:     1967
     Not long after the release of their debut LP in 1965, Northern Ireland's most popular band split into two rival groups, each using the name Them. It wasn't until March of 1966 that Van Morrison's version of the band, which included bassist Alan Henderson, guitarist Jim Armstrong, multi-instrumentalist Ray Elliot, and a seemingly endless succession of drummers (shades of Spinal Tap!) won the legal rights to use the name Them. Not long after that Morrison left for a solo career. The remaining members (who still had the legal right to use the name Them), returned to Belfast, where they recruited new lead vocalist Kenny McDowell. At the invitation of producer Ray Ruff, Them relocated to Texas in 1967, cutting a pair of singles for local Texas labels before getting a contract with Capitol's Tower subsidiary in December of 1967 to record a pair of albums, both produced by Ruff. The second of these singles, Walking In The Queen's Garden, was also released on the Tower label, and all four single sides were included on the band's first Tower LP, Now And "Them".

Artist:    Love Sculpture
Title:    The Stumble
Source:    British import CD: Blues Helping
Writer(s):    King/Thompson
Label:    EMI (original US label: Rare Earth)
Year:    1968
    Most people associate the name Dave Edmunds with his hit version of I Hear You Knockin' from the early 1970s. What many don't know, however, is that Edmunds was first and foremost a smokin' hot blues guitarist, as can be heard on the opening track of the first of two albums he recorded with bassist John Williams and drummer Congo Jones as Love Sculpture. Like most of the songs on Blues Helping, The Stumble is a cover of a blues classic, in this case written and originally recorded by Freddie King in 1961 and released as a single the following year. 

Artist:     Johnny Winter
Title:     Bad Luck And Trouble
Source:     LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: The Progressive Blues Experiment)
Writer:     Johnny Winter
Label:     United Artists (original labels: Sonobeat/Imperial)
Year:     1968
     Johnny Winter first started getting attention while playing the Texas blues circuit. His first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, originally appeared on the regional Sonobeat label and was subsequently reissued nationally on Imperial. Unlike his brother Edgar, who got caught up in the whole glam rock thing, Johnny Winter remained a respected blues artist for his entire career.

Artist:    Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title:    Cowgirl In The Sand
Source:    LP: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Writer:    Neil Young
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1969
    It has been said that adverse conditions are conducive to good art. Certainly that truism applies to Neil Young's Cowgirl In The Sand, written while Young was running a 102 degree fever. Almost makes you want to get sick yourself, doesn't it?

Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    Hush
Source:    CD: British Beat (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Shades Of Deep Purple)
Writer:    Joe South
Label:    K-Tel (original label: Tetragrammaton)
Year:    1968
    British rockers Deep Purple scored a huge US hit in 1968 with their rocked out cover of Hush, a tune written by Joe South that had been an international hit for Billy Joe Royal the previous year. Oddly enough, the Deep Purple version of the tune was virtually ignored in their native England. The song was included on the album Shades Of Deep Purple, the first of three LPs to be released in the US on Tetragrammaton Records, a label partially owned by actor/comedian Bill Cosby. When Tetragrammaton folded shortly after the release of the third Deep Purple album, The Book Of Taleisyn, the band was left without a US label, and went through some personnel changes, including the addition of new lead vocalist Ian Gillian (who had sung the part of Jesus on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album), before signing to Warner Brothers and becoming a major force in 70s rock. Meanwhile, original vocalist Rod Evans hooked up with drummer Bobby Caldwell and two former members of Iron Butterfly to form Captain Beyond before fading from public view. 

Artist:     Status Quo
Title:     Pictures Of Matchstick Men
Source:     Simulated stereo LP: Harmony (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Francis Rossi
Label:     RCA Special Products (original label: Cadet Concept)
Year:     1968
     The band with the most charted singles in the UK is not the Beatles or even the Rolling Stones. It is, in fact, Status Quo, quite possibly the nearest thing to a real life version of Spinal Tap. Except for Pictures of Matchstick Men, the group has never had a hit in the US. On the other hand, they remain popular in Scandanavia, playing to sellout crowds on a regular basis (yes, they are still together). 
 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2529 (B39) (starts7/14/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/580557

    We're about due for a progression through the years so, following a 1976 Genesis piece, we have one running from 1968 to 1974, followed up by a pair of unlikely cover tunes.

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    Dance On A Volcano
Source:    LP: A Trick Of The Tail
Writer(s):    Rutherford/Banks/Hackett/Collins
Label:    Atco
Year:    1976
    Following Peter Gabriel's announcement that he would be leaving Genesis following the completion of their 1974 Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour, the remaining members of the band decided to show that they could still write and produce quality music even without their charismatic frontman. They immediately began working up new material for their next album, A Trick Of The Tail, starting with a song called Dance On A Volcano. Meanwhile, they took out an anonymous ad in the British music newspaper Melody Maker for a "Genesis type" vocalist and got over 400 responses. Phil Collins had already done a handful of lead vocals on previous Genesis albums, and reportedly would have preferred to remain the band's full time drummer, but after recording one song, Squonk, for the new album, was chosen by the rest of the band to be the new Genesis frontman, and ended up doing the lead vocals on the entire album. Although Collins remained the drummer on all the group's recordings, he did personally pick former Yes and King Crimson drummer Bill Bruford to appear on stage while Collins was singing (although Collins himself continued to play on the instrumental passages). 

Artist:    Savoy Brown
Title:    You Need Love
Source:    LP: Getting To The Point
Writer(s):    Willie Dixon
Label:    Parrot
Year:    1968
    Savoy Brown's first LP, Shake Down, consisted mostly of blues covers and was not released in the US. Not long after its release the band underwent a major personnel shakeup, with only founder/lead guitarist Kim Simmonds left from the band's original lineup appearing on the group's second LP, Getting To The Point. Joining Simmonds were keyboardist Bob Hall (who had played on three tracks on the band's debut LP), vocalist Chris Youlden, rhythm guitarist "Lonesome" Dave Peverett, bassist Rivers Jobe and drummer Roger Earl. Unlike Shake Down, Getting To The Point was made up mostly of original material, with only two cover tunes. The second of these was Willie Dixon's You Need Love, first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1962 and soon to become the inspiration for Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. Savoy Brown's version of You Need Love, at seven minutes and forty seconds, is the longest track on Getting To The Point.

Artist:           Blind Faith
Title:        Do What You Like
Source:      CD: Blind Faith
Writer:    Ginger Baker
Label:     Polydor (original US label: Atco)
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 as well as solos by all four band members, Do What You Like runs over 15 minutes in length.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Build Me A Woman
Source:    LP: Absolutely Live
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1970
    Although it's generally agreed that most of the songs on the 1970 Doors album Absolutely Live suffer when compared to their original studio versions, the double-LP did have a handful of never-before heard tunes that made the album worth buying. Among those new tracks is Build Me A Woman, a song originally conceived by vocalist Jim Morrison and fleshed out by the rest of the band.

Artist:    Steppenwolf
Title:    For Ladies Only
Source:    LP: For Ladies Only
Writer(s):    Edmonton/Henry/Day/McJohn
Label:    Dunhill
Year:    1971
    The fifth Steppenwolf album, For Ladies Only, is probably best remembered for its gatefold cover, the center of which was a photo of a full-sized motor vehicle that looked like, well, a giant penis with European plates being pulled over by the cops on a city street. The title track, which opens the album, is a long (over nine minutes) piece with a pro-feminist message. Mixed messages? Maybe, or possibly (from a 1971 perspective) two sides of the same coin.

Artist:    Steely Dan
Title:    Only A Fool Would Say That
Source:    CD: Can't Buy A Thrill
Writer(s):    Becker/Fagan
Label:    MCA (original label: ABC)
Year:    1972
    Steely Dan's first album, Can't Buy A Thrill, is best known for its two hit singles, Do It Again and Reeling In The Years. The LP, however, has plenty more good tracks, including Only A Fool Would Say That, which also appeared as a B side. 

Artist:    Paul Simon
Title:    Kodachrome
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1973
    Paul Simon's Kodachrome was actually banned on some stations, but not for copyright infringement (Kodachrome being a registered trademark of Kodak). Rather, it was banned for the first line of the song: "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all." Apparently "crap" offended some programmers, to the point that one station (New York's WABC) even edited the offending line to "When I think back it's a wonder I can think at all" when they played the song. Not only does that line not make any sense, I can only imagine how that must have sounded with almost four measures edited out (but with one beat left in, just to totally throw off the rhythm of the song). Apparently, though, this kind of stuff is what used to make America great, if current political thought is to be believed.

Artist:    National Lampoon
Title:    Mission: Impeachable
Source:    CD: Greatest Hits Of The National Lampoon (originally released on LP: The Missing White House Tapes)
Writer(s):    Chevy Chase, possibly others as well
Label:    Uproar (original label: Banana/Blue Thumb)
Year:    1974
    The missing White House Tapes was originally released as a single on the Blue Thumb label in 1973. It was then expanded into a full-length album, featuring an array of young talent that would soon be associated with a new TV show called NBC Saturday Night (later retitled Saturday Night Live). Among those new talents was a young man named Chevy Chase, who provided several comedy bits for the album, including Mission: Impeachable.

Artist:    Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title:     I Put A Spell On You
Source:     LP: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Writer:     Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Label:     Fantasy
Year:     1968
     Before getting major attention for its string of top five singles (including three consecutive # 2 songs), Creedence Clearwater Revival released a pair of cover tunes in 1968: Dale Hawkins' Suzy Q and this one from an entirely different Hawkins, Screamin' Jay. Although CCR is generally known for their shorter songs and tight arrangement, their version of I Put A Spell On You (which hit the #58 spot on the Billbaord charts) is dominated by John Fogerty's blistering guitar work.

Artist:    Led Zeppelin
Title:    Hats Off To (Roy) Harper
Source:    German import LP: Led Zeppelin III
Writer(s):    Trad., arr. Charles Obscure
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1970
    The final track on Led Zeppelin's third album at first sounds like a throwaway track featuring Jimmy Page noodling slide guitar and Robert Plant throwing out blues cliches. This impression is reinforced by the fact that the writing credits on the label read "Traditional, arr. Charles Obscure". The reality, though, is that Hats Off To (Roy) Harper is based on a 1937 recording of Shake 'Em On Down by delta bluesman Bukka White. The title of the Led Zeppelin version is a tribute to the band's friend Roy Harper, who would come to international prominence in 1975 as the guest lead vocalist on Pink Floyd's Have A Cigar, from their Wish You Were Here album. 
 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2528 (starts 7/7/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/579693

    This week we are featuring the entire first side of John Mayall's classic Blues From Laurel Canyon, an album written entirely while Mayall was on vacation in Southern California. From there, it's a set of long album tracks from Quicksilver Messenger Service, Spirit and (sort of) the Chocolate Watchband. But that's all in the second hour. To get things rolling we have a set of bonafide hit singles, followed by a mix of A & B sides (with a few LP tracks thrown in).

Artist:    Shadows Of Knight
Title:    Gloria
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Van Morrison
Label:    Dunwich
Year:    1966
    The original Them version of Van Morrison's Gloria found itself banned on the majority of US radio stations due to controversial lyrics. By changing one line (substituting "around here" for "up to my room") the suburban Chicago punk-blues band Shadows of Knight turned it into a huge hit and a garage band standard.

Artist:    Count Five
Title:    Psychotic Reaction
Source:    Mono CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michalski
Label:    Priority (original label: Double Shot)
Year:    1966
    San Jose, California, was home to one of the most vibrant local music scenes in the late 60s, despite its relatively  small, pre-silicon valley population. One of the most popular bands on that scene was Count Five, a group of five guys who dressed like Bela Lugosi's Dracula and sounded like the Jeff Beck-era Yardbirds. Fortunately for Count Five, Jeff Beck had just left the Yardbirds when Psychotic Reaction came out, leaving a hole that the boys from San Jose were more than happy to fill.

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)
Source:    LP: Retrospective (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:     Electric Prunes
Song:     Get Me To the World On Time
Source:     Mono CD: The complete Reprise singles (originally released on LP: The Electric Prunes and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Jones
Label:     Real Gone/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1967
     Songwriter Annette Tucker usually worked with Nancy Mantz, and the pair was responsible for the Electric Prunes biggest hit, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). On Get Me To The World On Time, which originally appeared on the band's first LP, she instead teamed up with Jill Jones and came up with a kind of psychedelic Bo Diddley song that ended up being the Prunes second biggest hit (and the first rock song that I ever heard first on an FM station). 

Artist:    Mystic Tide
Title:    Frustration
Source:    Mono LP: Nuggets, Vol. 2 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Joe Docko
Label:    Elektra (original label: Solid Sound)
Year:    1967
    Formed on Long Island in 1965, Mystic Tide released five singles over the next couple of years. Although none of the four charted, they are now considered psychedelic classics and are highly collectable. How collectable? Well, a copy of Frustration, the band's March 1967 single, sold for somewhere between $200 and $500 in 2018. Luckily, Lenny Kaye decided to include the song on Nuggets Vol. 2, released in 2023 as part of the 50th anniversary edition of the Nuggets album and in 2024 as a standalone double LP.

Artist:    Van Dyke Parks
Title:    The All Golden
Source:    LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook (originally released on LP: Song Cycle)
Writer(s):    Van Dyke Parks
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1967
    In late 1966 Brian Wilson began a collaboration with an unknown lyricist named Van Dyke Parks on an album that, although unreleased at the time, became one of the greatest legends in the history of rock. The album was called Smile, and it ultimately led to Parks signing a contract with Warner Brothers and being given total creative control and nearly unlimited funding by the label. The result was Song Cycle, at the time one of the most expensive albums ever produced (about three quarters of a million in today's dollars). The album, unfortunately, sold poorly, despite getting good reviews from music critics, and Warner Brothers responded by declaring the album a commercial flop and running an ad campaign with that as the theme. Among Parks' closest friends was Steve Young, an aspiring singer/singwriter who was later a key player in the Outlaw Country movement, but at the time was struggling financially. The All Golden references Young's situation.

rtist:    Creation
Title:    How Does It Feel To Feel
Source:    Mono British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Garner/Phillips
Label:    Polydor
Year:    1968
    Creation was one of a handful of British bands that were highly successful in Germany, but were unable to buy a hit in their own country. Evolving out of a band known as the Mark Four, Creation was officially formed in 1966 by vocalist Kenny Pickett, guitarist Eddie Phillips, bassist Bob Garner and drummer Jack Jones. Their first single stalled out at #49 on the British charts, but went to #5 in Germany. The gap was even wider for their second single, which topped the German charts but did not chart in Britain at all. Garner and Phillips both left the band just as How Does It Feel To Feel was issued in early 1968. The band, with a fluctuating lineup, continued on for a few months but finally threw in the towel in late 1968.

Artist:    Gun
Title:    Sunshine (single version)
Source:    Mono British import CD: Gun
Writer(s):    Adrian Gurvitz
Label:    Repertoire (original label: CBS)
Year:    1968
    When I was a junior in high school I switched from guitar to bass to form a three-piece band called Sunn. Mostly what we did was jam onstage, although we did learn a handfull of cover songs as well. One of those songs we actually learned by playing it on the jukebox at the local youth center over and over. A British band called Gun had released a tune called Race With The Devil that caught on quickly with the dependent kids at Ramstein AFB in Germany. None of us, however, actually had a copy of the record. A rival band had already started playing Race With The Devil, so we decided to instead go for the B side, Sunshine. Luckily, the song has few lyrics, and tends to repeat them a lot, so we didn't have to spend a whole lot of nickels to get them all down. Ditto for the musical part, as the song is basically just three chords over and over. Still, it turned out to be one of our most popular numbers, since it was about the only song in our repertoire you could slow dance to. Also, the simple structure allowed Dave, the guitarist, to extend the song as long as he felt like jamming, which was generally all night. So, here we have the mono single version of Sunshine, as heard on the Ramstein Air Base youth center jukebox all those years ago.
    
Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Little By Little
Source:    Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side and included on LP: The Rolling Stones)
Writer(s):    Phelge/Spector
Label:    Abkco (original UK label: Decca)
Year:    1964
    After deciding on a cover of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away for their first single of 1964, the Rolling Stones got together with Phil Spector and whipped up a B side for the record, recording it on February 4th. Three weeks later the single was released in the UK, and in April was included on the band's debut LP. A month and a half later Little By Little made its American debut as an album track on The Rolling Stones (subtitled England's Newest Hit Makers). 

Artist:    Who
Title:    A Legal Matter
Source:    Mono CD: The Who Sings My Generation
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    MCA (original label: Decca)
Year:    1966
    In early 1966 the Who parted company with their original UK record label, Brunswick, to hook up with the newly formed Reaction Records. This did not sit well with the people at Brunswick, who did their best to sabotage the band's Reaction releases. They did this by releasing single versions of songs from the band's only Brunswick album, My Generation, within days of each new Who single on Reaction. The first of these was The Kids Are Alright/A Legal Matter, which was released right after the first Who single on Reaction, Substitute. The strategy was for the most part unsuccessful, and all these songs ended up on the Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy album, released a couple years later. A Legal Matter was one of the first Who songs to feature Pete Townshend rather than Roger Daltry on lead vocals, possibly because Daltry was going through a divorce at the time and the song hit uncomfortably close to home. 

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Hey Joe
Source:    CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA (original UK label: Polydor)
Year:    1966
    The first track recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience was Hey Joe, a song that Hendrix had seen Tim Rose perform in Greenwich Village before relocating to London to form his new band. It was released as a single in the UK in late 1966 and went all the way to the # 3 spot on the British top 40. Hendrix's version is a bit heavier than Rose's and leaves off the first verse ("where you going with that money in your hand") entirely. Although Rose always claimed that Hey Joe was a traditional folk song, the song was actually copyrighted in 1962 by California folk singer Billy Roberts. By the time Hendrix recorded Hey Joe several American bands had recorded a fast version of the song, with the Leaves hitting the US top 40 with it in early 1966.
        
Artist:    First Edition
Title:    Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: The First Edition and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Mickey Newbury
Label:    Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    In 1968, former New Christy Mistrels members Kenny Rogers and Mike Settle decided to form a psychedelic folk-rock band, the First Edition. Although Settle was the official leader on the first album, it was Rogers who would emerge as the star of the band, even to the point of eventually changing the band's name to Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. That change reflected a shift to country flavored pop that would eventually propel Rogers to superstar status.

Artist:     Simon and Garfunkel
Title:     America
Source:     LP: Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: Bookends)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Year:     1968/1972
     Four years after the release of the album Bookends (and two years after the breakup of Simon and Garfunkel), Columbia decided to release the song For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her, from their final album Bridge Over Troubled Water, as a single, to coincide with the release of their Greatest Hits album. For the B side, they went even further back, pulling out the original tapes for the song America. The tracks on the Bookends album were deliberately overlapped to form a continuous audio montage, making this the first standalone version of America to be released by the duo.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Jersey Thursday
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: The Pye History Of Pop Music Vol. 2-Donovan (originally released on LP: Fairytale)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Pye (original label: Hickory)
Year:    1965
    Donovan's earliest albums were originally released in the US on the Hickory label, but did not sell particularly well. After the Scottish singer became more well-known his early material was reissued, first on the Janus label and later on the American wing of his original British label, Pye. Although neither of these labels had major label distribution, they did make songs like Jersey Thursday, from his second LP, Fairytale, available to a wider audience than when they were originally released.

Artist:      Beatles
Title:     And Your Bird Can Sing
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Yesterday...And Today
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Capitol/EMI
Year:     1966
     At the time the Revolver album was being made, the Beatles and their producer, George Martin, worked together on the mono mixes of the songs, which were always done before the stereo mixes. In fact, the stereo mixes were usually done without the participation of the band itself, and generally were less time consuming. This led to a rather odd situation in June of 1966. Mono mixes had been made for three of the songs on Revolver at this point, and the band's US label, Capitol, was ready to release a new Beatles album. The problem was that they did not have enough new material for an entire album. Their solution was to use their Duophonic fake stereo process on the mono mixes and include them on the album, which was titled Yesterday...And Today. As a result, when Revolver was released in the US in the fall of 1966, it had three fewer songs than the original British version of the album. One of those three songs was And Your Bird Can Sing, a John Lennon composition that he considered a "throwaway", yet one that contains of the earliest examples of harmony lead guitars (on the intro) in rock. The song's original working title was You Don't Get Me, which lends authenticity to the story told by Cynthia Lennon of John's reaction to her gift of a clockwork bird in a gilded cage.

Artist:    Janis Ian
Title:    Society's Child (Baby, I've Been Thinking)
Source:    Mono LP: Janis Ian
Writer(s):    Janis Ian
Label:    Verve Folkways
Year:    1966
    Janis Ian began writing Society's Child, using the title Baby I've Been Thinking, when she was 13 years old, finishing it shortly after her 14th birthday. She shopped it around to several record labels before finally finding one (Now Sounds) to take a chance on the controversial song about interracial dating. The record got picked up and re-issued in 1966 by M-G-M's experimental label Verve Folkways (soon to be renamed Verve Forecast), a label whose roster included Dave Van Ronk, Laura Nyro and the Blues Project, among others. Despite being banned on several radio stations the song became a major hit when re-released yet another time in early 1967. Ian had problems maintaining a balance between her performing career and being a student which ultimately led to her dropping out of high school. She would eventually get her career back on track in the mid-70s, scoring another major hit with At Seventeen, and becoming somewhat of a heroine to the feminist movement.
     
Artist:    Max Frost And The Troopers aka the 13th Power
Title:    A Change Is Gonna Come
Source:    CD: Shape Of Things To Come
Writer(s):    Wibier/Beckner
Label:    Captain High (original label: Tower)
Year:    1968
    The first thing you need to know about Max Frost And The Troopers is that they were a fictional rock band featured in the film Wild In The Streets. Sort of. You see, in the movie itself the band is never actually named, although Max (played by Christopher Jones) does refer to his followers as his "troops" throughout the film. The next thing you need to know is that Shape Of Things To Come was a song used in the film that became a hit record in 1968. The song itself was written by the Brill building songwriting team of Barry (Who Put The Bomp) Mann and Cynthia Weil, whose previous writing credits included Kicks and We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, among other tunes. Shape Of Things To Come, along with several other Barry/Weil tunes used in the film, was credited to the 13th Power on the film's soundtrack LP, which was released on Capitol's Tower subsidiary label, but to Max Frost And The Troopers on a single issued by the same label. After the single became a hit, producer Mike Curb commissioned an entire album by Max Frost And The Troopers called, naturally, Shape Of Things To Come. The band on this album actually was the 13th Power, which as it turns out was a real band fronted by vocalist Paul Wibier, who had previously recorded for Curb, both under their own name and as the Moms. This album was also released in 1968 on the Tower label, and featured mostly songs written (or co-written) by Wibier himself, such as  A Change Is Gonna Come. The name Max Frost And The Troopers popped up in a couple more 1968 film soundtracks before being permanently retired by the end of the year. What eventually happened to the 13th Power is not known.

Artist:    Phil Ochs
Title:    I Ain't Marching Anymore
Source:    CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Phil Ochs
Label:    Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1965
    Phil Ochs' I Ain't Marching Anymore didn't get a whole lot of airplay when it was released in 1965 (unless you count a handful of closed-circuit student-run stations on various college campuses that could only be picked up by plugging a radio into a wall socket in a dorm room). Ochs was aware of this, and even commented that "the fact that you won't be hearing this song on the radio is more than enough justification for the writing of it." He went on to say that the song "borders between pacifism and treason, combining the best qualities of both." The following year Ochs recorded this folk-rock version of the song (backed up by members of the Blues Project) that was released as a single in the UK. 

Artist:    John Mayall
Title:    Blues From Laurel Canyon-part one
Source:    European import CD: Blues From Laurel Canyon
Writer(s):    John Mayall
Label:    Decca
Year:    1968
    In July of 1968, in the middle of a concert tour of Germany, John Mayall made a decision to disband his group The Bluesbreakers, which at this point in time had seven members. After finishing out the band's live commitments, Mayall then got to work on assembling a new, smaller band consisting of himself on keyboards and vocals, Stephen Thompson on bass, Colin Allen on drums, and 17-year-old Mick Taylor on guitar. Once the new group was formed, Mayall promptly left London for a three-week stay in Southern California's Laurel Canyon, where he met several like-minded musicians, including Frank Zappa and the members of Canned Heat, as well as some of L.A.'s more famous groupies. While there he began chronicling his visit by way of a series of songs that would become his next album, Blues From Laurel Canyon. The first of these, Vacation, sets the stage for what is to follow and showcase's Taylor's guitar work. From there it's Walking On Sunset, a paeon to one of L.A.'s most famous boulevards. Laurel Canyon home describes his temporary abode, while 2401 describes a visit to the organized chaos of the Zappa household. The final three songs on side one, Ready To Ride, Medicine Man and Somebody's Acting Like A Child tell the tale of a romantic interlude, and are among Mayall's strongest material. Recorded in early August of 1968, the album was released in November, and helped cement Mayall's reputation as the godfather of British blues.

Artist:    Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title:    The Fool
Source:    LP: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Writer(s):    Duncan/Freiberg
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1968
    There are differing opinions on just how serious legendary San Francisco singer/songwriter and general iconoclast Dino Valenti was being when, at a jam session with guitarist John Cippolina one night, he suggested that the two of them form a band. Since Valenti was busted for drugs the very next day (and ended up spending the next two years in jail), we'll never know for sure. Cippolina, however, was motivated enough to begin finding members for the new band, including bassist David Freiberg (later to join Starship) and drummer Skip Spence. When Marty Balin stole Spence away to join his own new band (Jefferson Airplane), he tried to make up for it by introducing Cippolina to vocalist/guitarist Gary Duncan and drummer Greg Elmore, whose own band, the Brogues, had recently disbanded. Taking the name Quicksilver Messenger Service (so named for all the member's astrological connections with the planet Mercury), the new band soon became a fixture on the San Francisco scene. Inspired by the Blues Project, Cippolina and Duncan quickly established a reputation for their dual guitar improvisational abilities. Unlike other San Francisco bands such as the Airplane and the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service did not jump at their first offer from a major record label, preferring to hold out for the best deal. This meant their debut album did not come out until 1968, missing out on the initial buzz surrounding the summer of love. In one way this actually worked to the band's advantage, since by 1968 record companies were more willing to include lengthy improvisational tracks like The Fool, which took up the lion's share of the second side of the group's debut LP.  

Artist:    Chocolate Watchband (but not really)
Title:    Inner Mystique
Source:    CD: The Inner Mystique
Writer(s):    Ed Cobb
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year:    1968
    The Chocolate Watchband underwent a series of personnel changes starting in the late spring of 1967. By the end of that year the band no longer existed. This, apparently, was not considered a relevant fact by the people at Green Grass Productions, as they went ahead and released a new Chocolate Watchband album, The Inner Mystique, on the Tower label in February of 1968. Like the first Watchband album, The Inner Mystique had several tracks that were actually performed by studio musicians. In fact, the entire first side of the 8-song LP consisted of tracks put together by engineer Richie Podolor, and had nothing to do with the band itself. The third of these tracks, Inner Mystique, was written by the band's producer, Ed Cobb, who had also written the band's first official single, Sweet Young Thing, as well as several hits for the Standells, who were also signed to Green Grass. Somehow, the Chocolate Watchband managed to reform in time to record a third album, One Step Beyond, the following year, but that's a story for another time.

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Elijah (alternate take)
Source:    CD: Spirit
Writer:    John Locke
Label:    Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year:    1968
    Since the mid-1960s many bands have had one long piece that they play in concert that is specifically designed to allow individual band members to strut their stuff. In a few cases, such as Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida or Lynnard Skynnard's Freebird, it becomes their best-known song. In most cases, though, a studio version of the piece gets put on an early album and never gets heard on the radio. Such is the case with Spirit's show-stopper Elijah, which was reportedly never played the same way twice (in fact, this alternate take is evidence of that). Elijah, written by keyboardist John Locke, starts with a hard-rockin' main theme that is followed by a jazzier second theme that showcases one of the lead instruments (guitar, keyboards). The piece then comes to a dead stop while one of the members has a solo section of their own devising. This is followed by the main theme, repeating several times until every member has had their own solo section. The piece ends with a return to the main theme followed by a classic power rock ending. 

 

 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2528 (starts 7/7/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/579691

    We're once again in free-form mode with a whole passel of tunes, about a third of which have never been heard on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion before this week. 

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It)
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Rolling Stones
Year:    1974
    You'd think that after writing such legendary classics as (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Jumpin' Jack Flash and Honky Tonk Women, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would be pretty much tapped out for the rest of their lives. But, nope. They had to come up yet another iconic song in 1974, It's Only Rock 'N' Roll (But I Like It). Hell, the title alone probably should be inscribed over the entrance of the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame. The song itself was reportedly written in response to critics who seemed to think that the Stones, and Mick and Keith in particular, somehow had a responsibility to be role models, and were not living up to those critics' expectations of how they should be conducting themselves.

Artist:    ZZ Top
Title:    Arrested For Driving While Blind
Source:    LP: Tejas
Writer(s):    Gibbons/Hill/Beard
Label:    London
Year:    1976
    Only a band from Texas could get away with recording a song called Arrested For Driving While Blind. ZZ Top even released the song, from their 1976 LP Tejas, as a single. The song apparently confused people, however, prompting bassist Dusty Hill to say this in an interview: "That's not it at all. Billy introduces it: 'Don't get arrested for driving while blind.' We’re not saying, 'Don’t drink.' We're just doing a tune." I'm still confused.

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Can You Do It
Source:    45 RPM promo single
Writer(s):    Street/Gordy
Label:    MCA
Year:    1976
    By 1976 Grand Funk Railroad had pretty much been derailed. In the early 1970s they made a deliberate move away from their almost garage-rock sound in favor of tightly produced singles, but by the middle of the decade the singles market had moved toward a sound that was too light for a band like Grand Funk. In fact, the band had already broken up when they got a call from Frank Zappa expressing his desire to produce the band. The band reassembled for their 11th LP, Good Singin', Good Playin', which was released in 1976. The lead single from the album was an obscure Motown cover called Can You Do It that failed to chart. The album itself was, compared to the band's earlier albums, a commercial failure that peaked outside of the top 50 on the Billboard 200. Discouraged, the group once again disbanded, this time permanently.

Artist:    Moody Blues
Title:    The Story In Your Eyes
Source:    CD: The Best Of The Moody Blues (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Justin Hayward
Label:    Polydor/Chronicles (original label: Threshold)
Year:    1971
    The Moody Blues were riding high in 1971. The previous year they had formed their own record label, Threshold, to give them more artistic freedom than they had enjoyed with the Deram label (although both were considered subsidiaries of the British Decca label), and had successfully released a hit album, A Question Of Balance, with an even bigger hit single, Question. Their first release of 1971 was The Story In Your Eyes, a song by Justin Hayward that peaked at #23 in the US and hit the top 10 on the Canadian charts. It was subsequently included on the LP Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.

Artist:    Elton John
Title:    Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Source:    LP: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Writer(s):    John/Taupin
Label:    MCA
Year:    1973
    Although Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was the second single released from the album of the same name, it actually came out nearly a month before the album itself in the UK. The song, which lyricist Bernie Taupin later said was not so much about a desire to escape fame than to be able to take a break from it when needed, hit the top ten in over half a dozen countries worldwide.

Artist:    Mahogany Rush
Title:    Child Of The Novelty
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Frank Marino
Label:    20th Century
Year:    1974
    The second Mahogany Rush album, Child Of The Novelty, saw the addition of keyboardist Phil Bech (who had played on one track on the band's first LP) as an official member. Although they were not a top 40 kind of band, they did release a song from the album called A New Rock And Roll as a single, with the album's title track on the B side. Although the single was released commercially in stereo, promotional copies were monoraul on both sides.

Artist:    Allman Brothers Band
Title:    Midnight Rider
Source:    CD: Idlewild South 
Writer(s):    Gregg Allman
Label:    Mercury/UMe (original labels: Capricorn/Atco)
Year:    1970
    Gregg Allman said it only took him about an hour to come up with most of what would come to be known as his signature song, Midnight Rider. He had problems coming up with lyrics for the third verse, however, and finally turned to Kim Payne, one of the band's roadies, for help. The two of them broke into the Capricorn studios late at night to record a demo of the song, which was later re-recorded by the full Allman Brothers Band and released on their second LP, Idlewild South. The song was released as the second single from the album, but did not chart in its original form, even though that recording is far superior to the various cover versions (including one by Gregg Allman himself as a solo artist) that actually did chart over the years.

Artist:    Matthews' Southern Comfort
Title:    Woodstock
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Joni Mitchell
Label:    Decca
Year:    1971
    Some people prefer the original Joni Mitchell version of Woodstock, while others favor Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's harder rocking version. My own favorite is the one released by Matthews' Southern Comfort in March of 1970. The record almost didn't get released as a single at all. The band's British label, MCA, only agreed to do so when it became apparent that the CSN&Y version was going nowhere on the British charts. The Matthews's Southern Comfort version of Woodstock went to the top of the British charts, despite a lack of promotional support from the label. In November the song was released in the US, eventually making it to the #23 spot in early 1971. By that time, however, the band itself had split up, mainly due to bandleader Ian Matthews' inability to cope with the trappings of having a #1 hit single. Matthews had been a founding member of Fairport Convention, but had left the group in 1969 to concentrate on his songwriting and establishing himself as a solo artist. His first solo album was named Matthews' Southern Comfort, a name he used for the band he formed to record two more albums, Second Spring and Later That Same Year. Woodstock was originally slated to appear on Later That Same Year, but was instead issued separately as a single, a common practice in the UK.

Artist:    Ten Years After
Title:    Gonna Run
Source:    CD: Watt
Writer(s):    Alvin Lee
Label:    Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year:    1970
    The fifth Ten Years After album, Watt, was somewhat unfairly criticized by the rock press for being "more of the same" from the British blues-rock band. When "the same" refers to an album of the calibur of Cricklewood Green, however, that is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, some tracks, such as Gonna Run, are at least the equal of any song on the previous album, and show a growing awareness on the part of the band of how to use the recording studio creatively. 

Artist:    Ainsley Dunbar Retaliation
Title:    Roamin' And Ramblin'
Source:    LP: The Ainsley Dunbar Retaliation
Writer(s):    Victor Brox
Label:    Blue Thumb
Year:    1968
    Drummer Ainsley Dunbar is probably best known for being an integral part of several successful bands, including Journey, Jefferson Starship, Whitesnake and the Mothers Of Invention. His career didn't have such an illustrious start, however. In fact, he was actually fired from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in 1967 and replaced by Mick Fleetwood. After sitting in on a few early singles by the Jeff Beck Group, Dunbar decided to get even with Mayall by forming the Ainsley Dunbar Retaliation. Dunbar recruited multi-instrumentalist Victor Brox, cited by both Jimi Hendrix and Tina Turner as their favorite white blues singer, to be the band's lead vocalist. Brox, who would later become internationally known for his role as Caiaphas on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album, wrote the band's biggest hit, Warning, along with Roamin' And Ramblin', which closes out the first side of the band's debut LP, released in 1968.

Artist:    James Gang
Title:    Funk #49/Asshtonpark
Source:    CD:  James Gang Rides Again
Writer(s):    Fox/Peters/Walsh
Label:    MCA (original label: ABC)
Year:    1970
                Following the release of their first LP, Yer' Album, the James Gang toured extensively, giving them little time to work up material for their followup album. Nonetheless, they managed to turn out a classic with the 1970 release James Gang Rides Again. The album starts with the song that all three band members agree was already worked out by the time they hit the studio, Funk #49. The song (which is probably the band's best known tune) is followed immediately by Ashtonpark, a short instrumental that picks up where Funk #49 fades out (and back in). The track is essentially Joe Walsh, Dale Peters and Jim Fox jamming over an echo effect created by cycling the playback of Walsh's guitar back through the record head of the studio tape recorder.
           
Artist:     Guess Who
Title:     American Woman
Source:     European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: American Woman)
Writer:     Bachman/Cummings/Peterson/Kale
Label:     Sony Music (original US label: RCA Victor)
Year:     1970
     American Woman is undoubtably the most political song ever recorded by the Guess Who, a generally non-political Canadian band. My family was living on Ramstein AFB, which was and is a huge base in Germany with enough Canadian personnel stationed there to justify their own on-base school. From early 1969 until mid-1970 (when we moved back to the States) I found myself hanging out with the Canadian kids most of the time and I gotta tell you, they absolutely loved this song. They also loved to throw it in my face as often as possible. I guess that's what I got for being the "token American" member of my peer group. 
 
Artist:    Who
Title:    Drowned
Source:    CD: Quadrophenia
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    MCA
Year:    1973
    The oldest composition on the 1973 Who album Quadrophenia, Drowned was originally written as an ode to the Indian spiritual leader Maher Baba in 1970. The meaning of the song is open to interpretation, with the recorded version featuring the protagonist contemplating suicide. In the song's original form, according to songwriter Pete Townshend, Drowned is actually a love song, with "God's love being the ocean and our 'selves' being the drops of water that make it up".
        
Artist:    Jean-Luc Ponty
Title:    Waking Dream
Source:    LP: Aurora
Writer(s):    Jean-Luc Ponty
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1976
    Unlike most of the tracks on Jean-Luc Ponty's 1976 LP, Aurora, Waking Dream is a quiet, contemplative piece, designed to finish out the album's second side. As such, it's an appropriate way to end this week's show as well.
     

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2527 (starts 6/30/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/578912

    It's the first week of the second half of the year, which, in America, means it's the fourth of July, the anniversary of the official beginning of a rebellion that shook the world. This week on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era we celebrate the musical rebellion that helped define the 1960s in America, beginning with a brief history of protest songs. We start with a hit cover version of a Pete Seeger song...

Artist:    Kingston Trio
Title:    Where Have All The Flowers Gone
Source:    CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Pete Seeger
Label:    Rhino (original label: Capitol)
Year:    1961
    Protest songs did not start in the 1960s. Indeed, two of the genre's torchbearers, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, had been around since the 1930s. But McCarthyism in the early 1950s had squelched virtually all non-conformist voices in the US, and it wasn't until late 1961, when the clean-cut Kingston Trio recorded their own version of Seeger's Where Have All The Flowers Gone, that a protest song received enough national exposure to become a genuine hit, going to the #21 spot on the top 40 charts in early 1962. Peter, Paul And Mary included their own version of the song on their chart-topping (five weeks at #1) debut LP later that year.

Artist:    Peter, Paul And Mary
Title:    Blowin' In The Wind
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1963
    Just as knowing the chords for Van Morrison's Gloria was pretty much a prerequisite for being in a garage band, being able to play Bob Dylan's Blowing In The Wind was a must for anyone attempting to play folk music at a party in the mid-1960s. If there was more than one of you singing, you most likely used the Peter, Paul and Mary arrangement of the tune, with its three-part harmony. Their version was by far the most popular recording of the song, going all the way to the # 2 spot on the top 40 charts in the summer of '63.

Artist:    Joan Baez
Title:    There But For Fortune
Source:    45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer:    Phil Ochs
Label:    Vanguard
Year:    1965
    When I was a kid I used to occasionally pick up something called a grab bag at the local PX (my dad being in the military, I had access to such places). It was literally a sealed brown paper bag with anywhere from four to six 45 rpm records in it. Usually these were "cut-outs", leftover copies of records that hadn't sold as well as expected. Often they were five or six years old (albeit unplayed). Once in a while, though, there would be a real gem among them. My original copy of the Joan Baez recording of Phil Ochs's There But For Fortune was one such gem. I later found a promo copy while working at KUNM in Albuquerque, which is the one I use now, since my original is long since worn out. Not only was this record my first introduction to Joan Baez, it was also the first record I had ever seen on the Vanguard label and the first song written by Phil Ochs I had ever heard. Not bad for twelve and a half cents, especially when you consider that the flip side was Baez doing a Bob Dylan tune. 

Artist:    Country Joe And The Fish
Title:    I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag
Source:    Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as EP)
Writer(s):    Joe McDonald
Label:    Rhino (original label: Rag Baby)
Year:    1965
    A relatively new arrival on the highly politicized Berkeley folk music scene in 1965, Country Joe McDonald had already organized a loose group of musicians to play at "teach-ins" designed to educate the public about what was really going on in Vietnam. He was also attempting to put together a newspaper with a similar focus, but found himself short of usable copy. His solution was to create a "talking issue" by inserting a 7" 33 1/3 RPM record into the paper. His own contribution to the record was the first recorded version of a song that would later become one of the best-known antiwar tunes ever penned: the iconic I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag. The actual makeup of the band called Country Joe And The Fish on this recording is not quite clear, other than the fact that both McDonald and Barry Melton played on it. An early video made of the group performing the song shows several people I don't recognize alternating on the vocals.

Artist:    Mothers Of Invention
Title:    Help, I'm A Rock, 3rd Movement: It Can't Happen Here
Source:    45 RPM single B side (reissue)
Writer(s):    Frank Zappa
Label:    Barking Pumpkin (original label: Verve)
Year:    1966
    Help, I'm A Rock and its follow up track It Can't Happen Here are among the best-known Frank Zappa compositions on the first Mothers Of Invention album, Freak Out! What is not so well known is that the band's label, Verve, issued a single version of the track under the title Help, I'm A Rock, 3rd Movement: It Can't Happen Here, as the B side of the band's first single. This mono single version removes the avant-garde jazz piano and drum section from the piece, making the track slightly over three minutes in length. The result is one of the strangest a cappella performances ever committed to vinyl. 

Artist:    Phil Ochs
Title:    Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends (originally released on LP: Pleasures Of The Harbor)
Source:    CD: The Best Of Phil Ochs
Writer(s):    Phil Ochs
Label:    A&M
Year:    1967
    In 1964, less than a week after my 11th birthday, an event happened over 2000 miles from where I lived that would have a profound effect on my view of humanity, particularly the portion of it that lived in large cities. Late one night, a woman named Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death outside of her apartment in Queens, NY., in front of witnesses, none of whom came to her defense. One witness late told police that she "didn't want to get involved". After he was apprehended, the killer was asked why he had attacked her in front of witnesses. His chilling reply was that he knew no one would help, because "people never do". That did not ring true to my 11-year-old self. I had been raised by good-hearted people with small-town values. When someone was in trouble, you helped them out. That's just how it was. Yet, that had not happened when Kitty Genovese was attacked. Ever since then I've tried to find empathy for, not only the victims, but those who stand by and do nothing. I've tried to understand why. Although I've made some progress, I still haven't figured it out. Apparently I was not the only one affected by the story. Phil Ochs used it as the starting point for what would turn out to be his most popular song, Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends, from his 1967 LP Pleasures Of The Harbor. I didn't get to hear that song until the late 1970s. It was banned in most radio markets because of the line "smoking marijuana is more fun than drinking beer", and ended up stalling out a dozen or so spots short of the top 100 when it was released as a single in 1967. In fact, I only heard it after hearing the new that Ochs had committed suicide in 1976, and one of my fellow DJs at KUNM played the song as part of a Phil Ochs memorial segment. Apparently the Genovese story, as well as other events described in the song, affected Ochs profoundly as well. 

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Piggies
Source:    CD: The Beatles
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Parlophone
Year:    1968
    Beatle George Harrison had first revealed an anti-establishment side with his song Taxman, released in 1966 on the Revolver album. This particular viewpoint remained dormant until the song Piggies came out on the 1968 double LP The Beatles (aka the White Album). Although the song was intended to be satirical in tone, at least one Californian, Charles Manson, took it seriously enough to justify "whacking" a few "piggies" of his own. It was not pretty.
     
Artist:    Steppenwolf
Title:    Monster/Suicide/America
Source:    CD: Born To Be Wild-A Retrospective (originally released on LP: Monster)
Writer(s):    Kay/Edmonton/St. Nicholas/Byrom
Label:    MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year:    1969
    Although they are mostly remembered for hits like Born To Be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride, Steppenwolf always had a social/political side as well, as evidenced by songs like The Ostrich and Don't Step On the Grass, Sam, but when it comes to pure political songs, the Monster trilogy is usually the first one that comes to mind. Personally, I consider it to be Steppenwolf's masterpiece.  

Artist:    Crosby, Still, Nash & Young
Title:    Ohio
Source:    CD: Decade (Neil Young anthology)
Writer(s):    Neil Young
Label:    Reprise (original label: Atlantic)
Year:    1970
    One of the most powerful records to come out of the Nixon years, Ohio was written by Neil Young in response to the shooting deaths of four college students by National Guard troops at Kent State University on May 4, 1970. Young wrote the lyrics after seeing photos of the incident in Life magazine. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded the song with their new rhythm section of Calvin Samuels and Johnny Barbata on May 21st. The recording was rush released within a few week, becoming a counter-culture anthem and cementing the group's reputation as spokesmen for their generation. Young later referred to the Kent State shootings as "probably the biggest lesson ever learned at an American place of learning," adding that "David Crosby cried when we finished this take." Crosby can be heard ad-libbing "Four, why? Why did they die?" and "How many more?" during the song's fadeout. 

    From protest songs we move on to something there was no shortage of during the psychedelic era: youthful rebellion.

Artist:    Who
Title:    My Generation
Source:    Mono CD: The Who Sings My Generation
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    MCA (original label: Decca)
Year:    1965
    In late 1965 the Who released a song that quickly became the anthem of a generation. As a matter of fact it's My Generation. Some of us, including Who drummer Keith Moon, did indeed die before we got old. The rest of us weren't so lucky, but hey, that's life.

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Let Me Be
Source:    CD: 20 Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: It Ain't Me Babe and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    P.F. Sloan
Label:    Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year:    1965
    The Turtles were nothing if not able to redefine themselves when the need arose. Originally a surf band known as the Crossfires, the band quickly adopted an "angry young men" stance with their first single, Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe, and the subsequent album of the same name. For the follow-up single the band chose a track from their album, Let Me Be, that, although written by a different writer, had the same general message as It Ain't Me Babe. The band would soon switch over to love songs like Happy Together and She'd Rathr Be With Me before taking their whole chameleon bit to its logical extreme with an album called Battle Of The Bands on which each track was meant to sound like it was done by an entirely different group. 

Artist:    Seeds
Title:    Pushin' Too Hard
Source:    CD: Nuggets-Classics From The Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: The Seeds)
Writer(s):    Sky Saxon
Label:    Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year:    1965
    Pushin' Too Hard is generally included on every collection of psychedelic hits ever compiled. And for good reason. The song is an undisputed classic, although it took the better part of two years to catch on. Originally released in 1965 as Your Pushin' Too Hard, the song was virtually ignored by local Los Angeles radio stations until a second single, Can't Seem To Make You Mine, started getting some attention. After being included on the Seeds' debut LP in 1966, Pushin' Too Hard was rereleased and soon was being heard all over the L.A. airwaves. By the end of the year stations in other markets were starting to spin the record, and the song hit its peak of popularity in early 1967.

    If life was difficult for a typical middle-class teenager in the mid-1960s (as it is for teenagers everywhen), imagine what it must have been like for someone living on the poor side of town.

Artist:    Animals
Title:    We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
Source:    Mono CD: The Best Of The Animals (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Mann/Weil
Label:    Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1965
    In 1965 producer Mickey Most put out a call to Don Kirschner's Brill building songwriters for material that could be recorded by the Animals. He ended up selecting three songs, all of which are among the Animals' most popular singles. Possibly the best-known of the three is a song written by the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil called We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. The song (the first Animals recording to featuring Dave Rowberry, who had replaced founder Alan Price on organ) starts off with what is probably Chas Chandler's best known bass line, slowly adding drums, vocals, guitar and finally keyboards on its way to an explosive chorus. The song was not originally intended for the Animals, however; it was written for the Righteous Brothers as a follow up to (You've Got That) Lovin' Feelin', which Mann and Weil had also provided for the duo. Mann, however, decided to record the song himself, but the Animals managed to get their version out first, taking it to the top 20 in the US and the top 5 in the UK. As the Vietnam war escalated, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place became a sort of underground anthem for US servicemen stationed in South Vietnam, and has been associated with that war ever since. Incidentally, there were actually two versions of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place recorded during the same recording session, with an alternate take accidentally being sent to M-G-M and subsequently being released as the US version of the single. This version (which some collectors and fans maintain has a stronger vocal track) appeared on the US-only LP Animal Tracks in the fall of 1965 as well as the original M-G-M pressings of the 1966 album Best Of The Animals. The original UK version, on the other hand, did not appear on any albums, as was common for British singles in the 1960s. By the 1980s record mogul Allen Klein had control of the original Animals' entire catalog, and decreed that all CD reissues of the song would use the original British version of the song, including the updated (and expanded) CD version of The Best Of The Animals.

Artist:     Kinks
Title:     Dead End Street
Source:     Mono Canadian import CD: 25 Years-The Ultimate Collection (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Ray Davies
Label:     Polygram/PolyTel (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1967
     The last major Kinks hit in the US was Sunny Afternoon in the summer of 1966. The follow-up Deadend Street, released in November, was in much the same style, but did not achieve the same kind of success in the US (although it was a top five hit in the UK). The Kinks would not have another major US hit until Lola was released in 1970.

Artist:     Standells
Title:     Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White 
Source:     Mono CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Ed Cobb
Label:     Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year:     1966
     The Standells were probably the most successful band to record for the Tower label (not counting Pink Floyd, whose first LP was issued, in modified form, on the label after being recorded in England). Besides their big hit Dirty Water, they hit the charts with other tunes such as Why Pick On Me, Try It, and the punk classic Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White. All but Try It were written by producer Ed Cobb, who has to be considered the most prolific punk-rock songwriter of the 60s, having also written some of the Chocolate Watch Band's best stuff as well.

Artist:    Janis Ian
Title:    Society's Child
Source:    Mono CD: Songs Of protest (originally released as 45 RPM single) 
Writer(s):    Janis Ian
Label:    Rhino (original label: Verve Forecast)
Year:    1966
    Janis Ian began writing Society's Child, using the title Baby I've Been Thinking, when she was 13 years old, finishing it shortly after her 14th birthday. She shopped it around to several record labels before finally finding one (Now Sounds) to take a chance on the controversial song about interracial dating. The record got picked up and re-issued in 1966 by M-G-M's experimental label Verve Forecast, a label whose roster included Dave Van Ronk, Laura Nyro and the Blues Project, among others. Despite being banned on several radio stations the song became a major hit when re-released yet another time in early 1967. Ian had problems maintaining a balance between her performing career and being a student which ultimately led to her dropping out of high school. She would eventually get her career back on track in the mid-70s, scoring another major hit with At Seventeen, and becoming somewhat of a heroine to the feminist movement. Ironic, considering that Society's Child ends with the protagonist backing down and giving in to society's rules.

    Even in the psychedelic era, youthful rebellion would often give way to (or sometimes even lead to) War!

Artist:     Edwin Starr
Title:     War
Source:     CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Whitfield/Strong
Label:     Rhino (original label: Gordy)
Year:     1970
     It was 1970, and Motown Records staff producer Norman Whitfield was facing a bit of a dilemma. A track that he and co-producer Barrett Strong had included on the Temptations' LP Psychedelic Shack was starting to get a lot of airplay, and radio programmers were asking for the song to be released as a single. The problem was the song itself. War, co-written by Whitfield and Strong, had a powerful message that resonated with the anti-Vietnam War movement. This, of course, did not sit well with some of the more conservative radio station owners, a fact that Motown president Berry Gordy, Jr. was well aware of. At that particular moment in space and time, the Temptations were Motown's #1 cash cow (Diana Ross having left the Supremes earlier that year), and Berry did not want to take any chances with his top money makers. Eventually a compromise was reached. Whitfield re-recorded the track with second-string artist Edwin Starr, amping up the energy level of the song in the process, and ended up with one of the biggest hit singles of the year (and certainly the biggest of Starr's career). 

Artist:    Doors
Title:    The Unknown Soldier
Source:    CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Waiting For The Sun and as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1968
    One of the oddest recordings to get played on top 40 radio was the Door's 1968 release, The Unknown Soldier. The song is notable for having it's own promotional film made by keyboardist Ray Manzarek, who had been a film major at UCLA when the Doors were formed. It's not known whether the song was written with the film in mind (or vice versa), but the two have a much greater synergy than your average music video. As for the question of whether the Doors themselves were anti-war, let's just say that vocalist Jim Morrison, who wrote the lyrics to The Unknown Soldier, was pretty much anti-everything.

Artist:    Bob Seger System
Title:    2+2=?
Source:    LP: Ramblin' Gamblin' Man (originally released as 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Bob Seger
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1968
    Bob Seger had a series of regional hits in his native Detroit in the mid-1960s, leading to a deal with Capitol Records in 1968. His first single for Capitol was 2+2=?, one of the most powerful anti-war songs ever recorded. The track was included on Seger's first album, Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, the following year, with one minor difference. Near the end of the song everything stops for a couple of seconds before the song resumes at full speed. Capitol was afraid of how that might go over with top 40 radio programmers (who were notoriously paranoid about "dead air") and had the band add a tone-bending power chord to the single version to cover up the silence. The album version (heard here), has the original silence intact. 

Artist:    Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title:    Fortunate Son
Source:    LP: Willy And The Poor Boys
Writer(s):    John Fogerty
Label:    Fantasy
Year:    1969
    John Fogerty says it only took him 20 minutes to write what has become one of the iconic antiwar songs of the late 1960s. But Fortunate Son is not so much a condemnation of war as it is an indictment of the political elite who send the less fortunate off to die in wars without any risk to themselves. In addition to being a major hit single upon its release in late 1969 (peaking at #3 as half of a double-A sided single), Fortunate Son has made several "best of" lists over the years, including Rolling Stone magazine's all-time top 100. Additionally, in 2014 the song was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". 

Artist:    Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title:    Sky Pilot
Source:    CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: The Twain Shall Meet)
Writer:    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label:    Rhino (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1968
    After the original Animals lineup disbanded in late 1966, lead vocalist Eric Burdon quickly set out to form a "New Animals" group that would come to be called Eric Burdon and the Animals. The new band was much more rooted in the psychedelic era than its predecessor, with songs like A Girl Named Sandoz (Sandoz being the name of the lab that first developed LSD) appearing as the B side of their first single, and San Franciscan Nights, an invitation to Europeans to hook up with the hippie culture of Haight-Ashbury, making the charts in 1967. Their most memorable release, Sky Pilot, called the religious establishment to task for its tacit endorsement of warfare itself through the practice of including chaplains as part of the military heirarchy. The song, running over seven minutes in length, was spread out over two sides of a 45 RPM single, making it difficult for radio stations to play in its entirety (the album version cross fades into the next track). Nonetheless, Sky Pilot managed to hit a respectable #14 on the charts in 1968.

Artist:      Jethro Tull
Title:     Hymn 43
Source:      CD: Aqualung
Writer:    Ian Adnerson
Label:    Chrysalis (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1971
     Eric Burdon And The Animals proved in 1968, with the song Sky Pilot, that you could now take on the religious establishment in a rock song and end up with a hit record. Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull, soon followed with the release of Christmas Song later that same year. It turned out that Christmas Song was only a hint of what would come three years later. Most (if not all) of the second side of the 1971 LP Aqualung presented a scathing criticism of what Anderson perceived as rampant hypocrisy within the Anglican church. Aqualung still stands as Jethro Tull's best-selling album, with over seven million copies sold worldwide. Hymn 43, a song that focuses more on America's heavy-handed use of religion as a tool, was released as a single, going to the #91 spot on the Billboard charts, despite being effectively banned on AM radio. 

    You'd think that war would be the way it ends (and that may yet be the case), although some would argue that religion will get there first. Still, it's probably a good idea to take a step back and consider the state of the Union, both then and now, before coming to a final conclusion.

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)
Source:    CD: Buffalo Springfield
Writer(s):    Stephen Stills
Label:    Atco
Year:    1967
    By mid-1966 Hollywood's Sunset Strip was being taken over every night by local teenagers, with several underage clubs featuring live music being a major attraction. Many of the businesses in the area, citing traffic problems and rampant drug and alcohol abuse, began to put pressure on city officials to do something about the situation. The city responded by passing new loitering ordinances and imposing a 10PM curfew on the Strip. They also began putting pressure on the clubs, including condemning the popular Pandora's Box for demolition. On November 12, 1966 fliers appeared on the streets inviting people to a demonstration that evening to protest the closing of the club. The demostration continued over a period of days, exascerbated by the city's decision to revoke the permits of a dozen other clubs on the Strip, forcing them to bar anyone under the age of 21 from entering. Stephen Stills, a member of Buffalo Springfield, one of the many bands appearing regularly in these clubs, wrote a new song in response to the situation, and the band quickly booked studio time, recording the still-unnamed track on December 5th. The band had recently released their debut LP, but sales of the album were lackluster due to the lack of a hit single. Stills reportedly presented the new recording to label head Ahmet Ertegun with the words "I have this song here, for what it's worth, if you want it." Ertegun, sensing that he had a hit on his hands, got the song rush-released two days before Christmas, 1966, using For What It's Worth as the official song title, but sub-titling it Stop, Hey What's That Sound on the label as well. As predicted, For What It's Worth was an instant hit in the L.A. market, and soon went national, where it was taken by most record buyers to be about the general sense of unrest being felt across the nation over issues like racial equality and the Vietnam War (and oddly enough, by some people as being about the Kent State massacre, even though that happened nearly three years after the song was released). As the single moved up the charts, eventually peaking at #7, Atco recalled the Buffalo Springfield LP, reissuing it with a modified song selection that included For What It's Worth as the album's openng track. Needless to say, album sales picked up after that. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever even seen a copy of the Buffalo Springfield album without For What It's Worth on it, although I'm sure some of those early pressings must still exist.

Artist:    Temptations
Title:    Ball Of Confusion
Source:    CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Whitfield/Strong
Label:    Rhino (original label: Gordy)
Year:    1970
    By 1970 an interesting situation had developed at Motown Records. Various production teams had achieved a degree of autonomy not usually seen in the record industry, resulting in a variety of styles coming from the label, each of which was identified with a particular team. The psychedelic branch of the label was run by Norm Whitfield and Barrett Strong, whose work mostly appeared on the Gordy label. Their stable of artists included Edwin Starr, the Undisputed Truth and the Temptations, the latter of which had gone through several lineup changes that left them without original lead vocalist David Ruffin. Whitfield and Strong used this situation to their best advantage by splitting the lead vocals among several group members within each song. One of the first songs to take this approach was Ball Of Confusion, released in 1970. A longer version of the song, using a less edited version of the same Funk Brothers instrumental track, was released by the Undisputed Truth as a B side.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Season Of The Witch
Source:    CD: Donovan's Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: Sunshine Superman)
Writer:    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Sony (original label: Epic)
Year:    1966 (stereo version, 1969)
     Season Of The Witch has proved to be one of the most popular and enduring tracks on Donovan's Sunshine Superman album. Due to a contract dispute with Pye Records, the album was not released in the UK until late 1967, and then only as an LP combining tracks from both the Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums. Like all tracks from both Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, Season Of The Witch was only available in a mono mix until 1969, when a new stereo mix was created from the original multi-track masters for the singer/songwriter's first greatest hits compilation. Season of the Witch has since been covered by an impressive array of artists, including Al Kooper and Stephen Stills (on the Super Session album) and Vanilla Fudge.

Artist:     Barry McGuire
Title:     Eve of Destruction
Source:     CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     P.F. Sloan
Label:     Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year:     1965
     P.F. Sloan had already established a reputation for writing songs that captured the anger of youth by the time he wrote Eve Of Destruction, which Barry McGuire took into the top 10 in 1965. It would be McGuire's only major hit, and represented folk-rock at the peak of its popularity. 

    With the state of the Union being basically a state of confusion, there seemed to be only one appropriate response to it. But of course, there were consequences.

Artist:     Bob Dylan
Title:     Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
Source:     CD: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
Writer:     Bob Dylan
Label:     Columbia
Year:     1966
     Some of the best rock and roll songs of 1966 were banned on a number of stations for being about either sex or drugs. Most artists that recorded those songs claimed they were about something else altogether. In the case of Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, "stoned" refers to a rather unpleasant form of execution (at least according to Dylan). On the other hand, Dylan himself was reportedly quite stoned while recording the song, having passed a few doobies around before starting the tape rolling. Sometimes I think ambiguities like this are why English has become the dominant language of commerce on the planet. 

Artist:     Steppenwolf
Title:     Don't Step On The Grass, Sam
Source:     CD: Steppenwolf the Second
Writer:     John Kay
Label:     MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year:     1968
     Never afraid to make his social and political views known, Steppenwolf's John Kay wrote Don't Step On The Grass, Sam for the band's second LP, released in 1968. It's taken nearly 50 years, but it looks like Kay's finally starting to get his wish. 

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Mexico
Source:    CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single B side and included on LP: Early Flight)
Writer(s):    Grace Slick
Label:    Rhino (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:    1970
    The B side of the last Jefferson Airplane single to include founding member (and original leader) Marty Balin was Mexico, a scathing response by Grace Slick to President Richard Nixon's attempts to eradicate the marijuana trade between the US and Mexico. The song was slated to be included on the next Airplane album, Long John Silver, but Balin's departure necessitated a change in plans, and Mexico did not appear on an LP until Early Flight was released in 1974.

Artist:    Graham Nash
Title:    Prison Song
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Graham Nash
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1973
    Graham Nash's Prison Song is one of those songs that by all rights should have been a huge hit. It was by a name artist. It had a catchy opening harmonica riff and a haunting melody. I can only surmise that once again Bill Drake (the man who controlled top 40 radio in the 60s and early 70s) decided that the lyrics were too controversial for AM radio and had the song blacklisted, much as he had done with the Byrds Eight Miles High a few years earlier. Those lyrics center on a subject that is unfortunately still relevant today: the utter absurdity of drug laws and the unequal sentences for violation of those laws in the US and its various states.