Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2607 (starts 2/9/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/606671 

    It's the middle of February, and although we don't have any Love songs this week, we do have plenty of ear candy, including a big box of Vanilla Fudge and lots of other tasty treats. 

Artist:    Tommy James And The Shondells
Title:    Hanky Panky
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Barry/Greenwich
Label:    Roulette (original label: Snap)
Year:    1964
    Once upon a time there was a girl group called the Summits who released a song called Hanky Panky as the B side of their only single in 1963. The song, which was also released as a B side by Brill building songwriters Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich's studio creation The Raindrops a few months later, started getting played by cover bands in the midwesterm US, including a South Bend, Indiana band called the Spinners. A Niles, Michigan high school kid named Tommy Jackson heard the Spinners play the song and taught it to his own band, the Shondells, getting some of the lyrics wrong in the process. In early 1964 the Shondells recorded their own version of Hanky Panky at the studios of WNIL radio, releasing it on their second single for the local Snap label later that year and pressing 2000 copies of the record. It's not entirely clear whether that recording of Hanky-Panky, credited to Jackson, was intended to be an A or B side, but it did get a decent amount of local airplay before fading off into obscurity. The original Shondells broke up in 1965 following graduation from high school, but a local teenager managed to get his hands on several copies of the record, trading them to Ernie's Record Mart in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for store credit. A local DJ, Bob Mack, picked up a copy of the record and began playing it as part of his "dance party". The song became a local hit, but by then Snap Records was out of business, prompting local Pittsburgh entrepeneurs to press new copies of the single on their own label. Meanwhile, a search for Tommy Jackson eventually prompted the singer, who by then was calling himself Tommy James, to show up in Pittsburgh...with no band. This led to Tommy hiring a local band called the Racounteurs to become the new Shondells, who soon signed with the New York based Roulette label, which reissued the original Shondells' recording of Hanky Panky in 1966. The song went all the way to the top of the national charts, prompting a series of successful followup singles for Tommy James And The Shondells over the next three years or so. And that, my friends, was just one way to become a rock star in the mid-1960s. For another, check out the Byrds song coming up in about half an hour.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Nowhere Man
Source:    CD: Yellow Submarine Songtrack (originally released in UK on LP: Rubber Soul)
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/CapitoI (original UK label: Parlophone)
Year:    1965
    Altough Nowhere Man had been included on the British version of the Beatles' 1965 Rubber Soul album, it was held back in the US and released as a single in 1966. Later that year the song was featured on the US-only LP Yesterday...And Today. It was remixed for the 2009 release of the Yellow Submarine Songtrack CD.

Artist:    Simon and Garfunkel
Title:    The Dangling Conversation
Source:    CD: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    The first Simon and Garfunkel album, Wednesday Morning 3AM, originally tanked on the charts, causing Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to temporarily pursue solo careers. Simon went to England, where he wrote and recorded an album's worth of material, while Garfunkel went back to school. Meanwhile, producer Tom Wilson, fresh from producing Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone, went into the studio with the original recording of the song Sound of Silence and added electric instruments to it. The result was a surprise hit that led Paul Simon to return to the US, reuniting with Art Garfunkel and re-recording several of the tunes he had recorded as a solo artist for a new album, Sounds of Silence. The success of that album prompted Columbia to re-release Wednesday Morning, 3AM, which in turn became a bestseller. Meanwhile, Simon and Garfunkel returned to the studio to record an album of all new material. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme was yet another success that spawned several hit songs, including The Dangling Conversation, a song Simon described as similar to The Sound Of Silence, but more personal. The song was originally released as a single in fall of 1966, before the album itself came out.

Artist:     Lemon Pipers
Title:     Green Tambourine
Source:     CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Leka/Pinz
Label:     BMG/RCA/Buddah
Year:     1967 
     Oxford, Ohio's Lemon Pipers have the distinction of being the first band to score a number one hit for the Buddah label with Green Tambourine, released in November of 1967. Unfortunately for the band, the song's success led to them being typecast as a bubble-gum group, despite their roots as a bar band in a college town.

Artist:    West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:    Help, I'm A Rock (single mix)
Source:    Mono CD: Part One (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Frank Zappa
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    Ya gotta hand it to the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. It takes cojones to record a cover of a Frank Zappa tune, especially within a year of the original Mothers of Invention version coming out. To top it off, the W.C.P.A.E.B. even prepared a single edit of Help, I'm A Rock, although to my knowledge it was never released as such.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    The Girl I Knew Somewhere (single version)
Source:    CD: The Monkees' Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Michael Nesmith
Label:    Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year:    1967
    Although both Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork had participated in a few of the studio sessions for what became the first two Monkees albums (with Nesmith producing), the Monkees did not record as an actual band until January 16, 1967, when they taped the first version of Nesmith's The Girl I Knew Somewhere. Nesmith himself handled the lead vocals and guitar work, while Tork, the most accomplished musician in the group, played harpsichord. Mickey Dolenz played drums and Davy Jones added the tambourine part. The song was released less than two weeks after the same lineup re-recorded the song with Dolenz on lead vocals as the B side to A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You. Both sides made the top 40 in the spring of 1967.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Superlungs (My Supergirl)
Source:    CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released on LP: Barabajabal)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Sony Music Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year:    1969
    Donovan originally recorded a song called Supergirl for his 1966 album Sunshine Superman album, but ultimately chose not to use the track. Over two years later he recorded an entirely new version of the song, retitling it Superlungs (My Supergirl) for the 1969 Barabajagal album. Or was it really not entirely new? When you listen to it on headphones much of the track sounds like an "electronically rechanneled for stereo" recording (the Sunshine Superman sessions were originally mixed only in mono), with only the background vocals toward the end of the piece actually being mixed in true stereo. 

Artist:    Crystal Rain
Title:    You And Me
Source:    Mono CD: An Overdose Of Heavy Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Bill Moan
Label:    Arf! Arf! (original label: Dynamic Sound)
Year:    1969
    Crystal Rain was a band from Dayton, Ohio that released a pair of singles in 1969, the second of which was You And Me. If you know anything more about them, feel free to drop me a note at hermitradio.com (hit the envelope icon near the top of the page).

Artist:    Child
Title:    Little Light
Source:    LP: Child
Writer(s):    Mike Lewis
Label:    Jubilee
Year:    1969
    One of the more obscure bands from the psychedelic era, Child, based somewhere on the East Coast, released their self-titled LP in 1969. They are often compared to Vanilla Fudge, as they too specialized in heavy, slowed-down versions of popular songs. They also included some lesser known tunes on the album, such as Little Light. The song is credited to Mike Lewis, who may or may not be the same Mike Lewis who arranged and conducted the equally obscure Fountainhead in 1970.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star
Source:    LP: The Byrds' Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Younger Than Yesterday)
Writer(s):    Hillman/McGuinn
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    By early 1967 there was a building resentment among musicians and rock press alike concerning the instant (and in many eyes unearned) success of the Monkees. One notable expression of this resentment was the Byrds' So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star, which takes a somewhat snarky look at what it takes to succeed in the music business. Unfortunately, much of what they talk about in the song continues to apply today (although the guitar has been somewhat supplanted by the computer as the instrument of choice).
    
Artist:     Blues Magoos
Title:     Pipe Dream
Source:     Mono LP: Electric Comic Book
Writer:     Gilbert/Scala
Label:     Mercury
Year:     1967
     Pipe Dream, the Blues Magoos strong follow-up single to (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet was handicapped by having an equally strong track, There's A Chance We Can Make It, on the other side of the record. As it was not Mercury's policy to push one side of a single over the other, stations were confused about which song to play. The result was that each tune got about an equal amount of airplay. With each song getting airplay on only half the available stations, neither tune was able to make a strong showing in the charts. This had the ripple effect of slowing down album sales of Electric Comic Book, which in turn hurt the careers of the members of the Blues Magoos. Also, I'm sure the fact that they were treated like a novelty act on at least two TV variety shows hosted by famous comedians (Bob Hope and Jack Benny) did not exactly contribute to their longevity either.

Artist:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    Gratefully Dead
Source:    Mono British import CD: Winds Of Change (bonus track originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label:    Repertoire (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1967
    One of the most successful singles by Eric Burdon And The Animals was a tribute to the summer of Love called San Franciscan Nights taken from their 1967 debut LP, Winds Of Change. The B side of that single was Good Times, from the same album. At first the band's British label was reluctant to release San Francisco Nights as a single, but eventually decided to go for it. Since Good Times had already been released as a single in the UK (making the top 10), the group recorded a new B side for San Franciscan Nights's UK release, a tune written by the band called Gratefully Dead. To my knowledge, the track has never been issued in the US.

Artist:    Wyld
Title:    If I Had It
Source:    Mono German import LP: Sixties Rebellion Vol. 5-The Cave (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Huffman/Wyatt/Hammond
Label:    Way Back (original label: Charay)
Year:    1967
    The Wyld was a band from Greenville, South Carolina led by Rudy "Rude" Wyatt, who also recorded with a band called The Roots. Whether the two were actually the same band is debatable, since three of the four Wyld singles released on the Texas-based Charay label had the same B side as the only Roots single, released two years earlier on the Brownfield label (there is also reason to believe that the two labels were actually one and the same). Regardless, the fourth and final single to be released by the Wyld was If I Had It, which had the same catalog number as their other three and included one of those A sides as its B side. So to recap: The Wyld released five songs on four singles with the same catalog number, and one of those five was a recycled B side from a previous group that may have actually been an earlier incarnation of the Wyld itself.  My head hurts.

Artist:     Music Machine
Title:     Astrologically Incompatible
Source:     Mono British import CD: My Mind Goes High (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Sean Bonniwell
Label:     Warner Strategic Marketing (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:     1967
     While touring extensively in 1967 the Music Machine continued to take every possible opportunity to record new material in the studio, while at the same time working to change record labels. The first single to be issued on the Warner Brothers label was Bottom Of The Soul, released in late 1967. The B side of that record was Astrologically Incompatible, one of the first rock songs to deal with astrological themes, albeit in a slightly tongue-in-cheek manner.

Artist:    Mouse And The Traps (recording as Chris St. John)
Title:    I've Got Her Love
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Fraternity Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Barton/Brians
Label:    Big Beat 
Year:    1967
    Ronnie "Mouse" Weiss had already established a reputation locally in Tyler Texas as a session musician by the time he had his first regional hit record, the Dylanesque A Public Execution, in 1966. The success of A Public Execution led to the formation of a backing band, the Traps, made up mostly of the same studio musicians who had played on the single. The band didn't take long to build a following, thanks to relentless touring across the southern US from Texas to Virginia. Still, they couldn't seem to get the kind of breakout hit single that would put them on the national map. At the insistence of Fraternity Records the band even released a 1967 single, I've Got Her Love, under the name Chris St. John, but the record failed to chart. Mouse continued to release singles with varying degrees of success (even having the number one record in Nashville at one point), but the rigors of touring and a fluctuating lineup eventually led to the Traps being dismantled in 1970.

Artist:    H.P. Lovecraft
Title:    Anyway You Want Me
Source:    Two Classic Albums from H. P. Lovecraft: H. P. Lovecraft/H. P. Lovecraft II (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Chip Taylor
Label:    Collector's Choice/Universal Music Special Markets (original label: Philips)
Year:    1967
    Sometime in early 1967 Dunwich Records, the Chicago label that released the Shadows Of Knight version of Gloria the previous year, decided to stop being a record company and instead became a production house shopping master recordings to other labels. One of the first of these Dunwich Productions was a cover of the Troggs' Anway You Want Me by (appropriately) H.P. Lovecraft, which at this point was a duo made up of guitarist/vocalist George Edwards, who had been the second artist to release a record on the Dunwich label a year earlier, and keyboardist Dave Michaels. Over the next couple of months Edwards and Michaels put together a more or less permanent lineup to record the band's first self-titled LP. 

Artist:    People
Title:    I Love You
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Chris White
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1968
    By 1968 the major labels had signed just about every San Francisco band with any perceived potential. Capitol, having had some success with the Chocolate Watchband from San Jose on its Tower subsidiary, decided to sign another south bay band, People, to the parent label. The most successful single for the band was a new recording of an obscure Zombies B side. I Love You ended up hitting the top 20 nationally, despite the active efforts of two of the most powerful men in the music industry, who set out to squash the song as a way of punishing the record's producer for something having nothing to do with the song or the band itself.

Artist:    Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    You Don't Love Me
Source:    LP: Super Session
Writer(s):    Willie Cobb
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1968
    You Don't Love Me was originally recorded and released as a single by Willie Cobbs in 1960. Although the song is credited solely to Cobbs, it strongly resembles a 1955 Bo Diddley B side, She's Fine She's Mine, in its melody, lyrics and repeated guitar riff. The Cobbs single was a regional hit on the Mojo label in Memphis, but stalled out nationally after being reissued on Vee-Jay Records, due to the label pulling promotional support from the song due to copyright issues. A 1965 version by Junior Wells with Buddy Guy saw some minor changes in the lyrics to the song; it was this version that was covered by Al Kooper and Stephen Stills for the 1968 Super Session album. The recording extensively uses an effect called flanging, a type of phase-shifting that was first used in stereo on the Jimi Hendrix Experience track Bold As Love. 

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Who'll Be The Next In Line
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1965
    Once upon a time a band called the Kinks released a song called Tired Of Waiting For You. It was a huge international hit, going into the top 10 in several countries, including the UK, where it topped the charts. The followup single, Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy, didn't do as well, peaking at # 17 on the British charts. As a result, Reprise Records decided to cancel the single's US release, instead moving up the release date of a song called Set Me Free, which was stylistically much more in line with Tired Of Waiting For You. The Kinks' next single was to be a song called See My Friends, but Reprise decided to instead release Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy in July of 1965, but with a slight change, making the original UK B side, a song called Who'll Be The Next In Line, the A side of the US single. This time the strategy didn't work out so well, as the song barely made the US top 40. By this time, the American Federation of Musicians had imposed a performance ban on the Kinks (due mostly to their onstage rowdiness) that would last five years, and the band would not have another top 10 hit in the US until Lola was released in 1970.

Artist:     Vanilla Fudge
Title:     Bang Bang
Source:     LP: Vanilla Fudge
Writer:     Sonny Bono
Label:     Atco
Year:     1967
     Vanilla Fudge made their reputation by taking popular hit songs, such as the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On, and extensively re-arranging them, giving the songs an almost classical feel. In fact, some of their arrangements incorporated (uncredited) snippets of actual classical pieces. One glaring example is the Vanilla Fudge arrangement of Cher's biggest solo hit of the 60s, Bang Bang (written by her then-husband Sonny Bono). Unfortunately, although I recognize the classical piece the band uses for an intro to Bang Bang, I can't seem to remember what it's called or who wrote it. Anyone out there able to help? I think it may have been used in a 1950s movie like The King And I or Attack of the Killer Women from Planet X.

Artist:     Vanilla Fudge
Title:     Need Love
Source:     LP: Rock And Roll
Writer:     Stein/Bogart/Martell/Appice
Label:     Atco
Year:     1969
     By 1969 Vanilla Fudge was doing more of their own material, as can be heard on Need Love, the opening track of their fifth studio album, Rock And Roll. However, Vanilla Fudge would cease to exist in 1970, only to reform twelve years later in support of a Greatest Hits album. Since then, various versions of the band, featuring anywhere from one to all four of the original members, have popped up from time to time.

Artist:    Love Sculpture
Title:    Summertime
Source:    CD: Blues Helping
Writer(s):    Gershwin/Hayward
Label:    EMI (original US label: Rare Earth)
Year:    1968
    Founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1966 by guitarist Dave Edmunds, bassist John David and drummer Rob "Congo" Jones, Love Sculpture, a power trio from South Wales, was one of the hottest bands on the British blues-rock scene. Their first album, Blues Helping, consisted mainly of cover tunes, including this version of Gershwin's Summertime, with Edmunds on vocals. Following the group's breakup in 1970, Edmunds went on to have a successful career, both as a solo artist and as co-founder of the band Rockpile.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Summertime Blues
Source:    LP: The Who Sell Out Super Deluxe Edition (bonus track originally released on CD: The Who Sell Out Deluxe Edition)
Writer(s):    Cochrane/Capehart
Label:    Track/Polydor/UMC
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 2009
    During their "maximum R&B" period the Who performed a lot of cover versions of US hits, including Eddie Cochrane's Summertime Blues. Around the time they were recording The Who Sell Out, they added the song back into their stage repertoire, recording a studio version of the tune for reference. This arrangement doesn't rock out quite as hard as the 1971 live version heard on the Live At Leeds album (or their 1969 Woodstock version, for that matter), but the basics are there.

Artist:    Cherry Slush
Title:    I Cannot Stop You
Source:    Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 2 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Dick Wagner
Label:    Elektra (original labels: Coconut Grove/USA)
Year:    1967
    I Cannot Stop You, released by the Cherry Slush in 1967, has the distinction of being one of the few garage-rock singles to show up on all three of the US charts: Billboard, Cashbox and Record World. Not that it charted particularly high on all of them (its highest position was #35 on the Cashbox chart), but it was successful enough to keep the band going for a couple more years. The group was originally formed in late 1964 as the Wayfarers by a group of eigth-graders at Saginaw's Arthur Hill High School. As one of the first garage bands to jump on the folk-rock bandwagon they changed their name to the Bells Of Rhymny in 1966. That year, the band recorded a few demos that they later played for Dick Wagner, a popular local guitarist who fronted his own band, the Bossmen. Wagner liked what he heard and agreed to produce their first single, a song he wrote himself called The Wicked Old Witch. The song was released on the local Dicto label. The band recorded Wagner's I Cannot Stop You as a followup single, but personnel changes and a search for a record deal delayed the song's release until late in the year, by which time the band had changed its name to the Cherry Slush. Once the single had been released, on the local Coconut Grove label, it quickly gained popularity on local top 40 radio, and the band was close to signing with Columbia Records when they found out their contract with Coconut Grove had been sold to the Chicago based USA label, which reissued the song nationally in early 1968. Unfortunately, USA itself went bankrupt just as the band was releasing their next single, dashing their hopes of breaking out nationally. After releasing one more single (as The Slush) on yet another small local label (Chivalry) the group decided to call it quits in 1969.

Artist:    Red Squares
Title:    You Can Be My Baby
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Sweden as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Martin/Bell
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1967
    Originally formed in Boston, England, in 1964, the Red Squares relocated to Denmark in 1966 and soon became massively popular. For the most part the band's sound was similar to the Hollies, as can be heard on the original 1966 LP version of You Can Be My Baby. The re-recorded single version of the song however, released in 1967 in Sweden as a B side, cranks up the energy levels to something approaching the early Who records.

Artist:    Lovin' Spoonful
Title:    You Didn't Have To Be So Nice
Source:    LP: The John Sebastian Songbook (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Daydream)
Writer:    John Sebastian
Label:    Kama Sutra
Year:    1965
    The second single released by the Lovin' Spoonful proved to be just as popular as their first one and helped establish the band as one of the premier acts of the folk-rock movement. Unlike the West Coast folk rock artists such as the Byrds and Barry McGuire, who focused on the socio-political issues of the day, John Sebastian tended to write happy songs with catchy melodies such as You Didn't Have To Be So Nice. As a result, the Lovin' Spoonful for a while rivaled the Beatles in popularity while still managing to maintain some street cred due mainly to their Greenwich Village roots. 

Artist:    Cream
Title:    I Feel Free
Source:    LP: Fresh Cream
Writer(s):    Bruce/Brown
Label:    Atco
Year:    1966
    After an unsuccessful debut single (Wrapping Paper), Cream scored a bona-fide hit in the UK with their follow-up, I Feel Free. As was the case with nearly every British single at the time, the song was not included on Fresh Cream, the band's debut LP. In the US, however, hit singles were commonly given a prominent place on albums, and the US version of Fresh Cream actually opens with I Feel Free. To my knowledge the song, being purely a studio creation, was never performed live by the band.

Artist:    Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band
Title:    Zig Zag Wanderer
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Safe As Milk)
Writer(s):    Van Vliet/Bermann
Label:    Rhino (original label: Buddah)
Year:    1967
    Don Van Vliet made his first recordings as Captain Beefheart in 1965, covering artists like Bo Diddley in a style that could best be described as "punk blues." Upon hearing those recordings A&M Records, despite its growing reputation as a hot (fairly) new label, promptly cancelled the project. Flash forward a year or so. Another hot new label, Buddah Records, an offshoot of Kama Sutra Records that had somehow ended up being the parent rather than the subsidiary, was busy signing new acts, and ended up issuing Safe As Milk in 1967 as their very first LP. The good captain would eventually end up on his old high school acquaintance Frank Zappa's Bizarre Records, turning out classic albums like Trout Mask Replica, and the world would never be quite the same.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Jumpin' Jack Flash
Source:    CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco
Year:    1968
    After the late 1967 LP Their Satanic Majesties Request was savaged by the critics, the Rolling Stones decided to make a big change, severing ties with their longtime producer Andrew Loog Oldham and replacing him with Jimmy Miller, who had made a name for himself working with Steve Winwood on recordings by both the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. The collaboration resulted in a back-to-basics approach that produced the classic single Jumpin' Jack Flash. The song was actually the second Stones tune produced by MIller, although it was the first to be released. The song revitalized the band's commercial fortunes, and was soon followed by what is generally considered to be one of the Stones' greatest albums, the classic Beggar's Banquet (which included the first Miller-produced song, Street Fighting Man).

Artist:    Floating Bridge
Title:    Don't Mean A Thing
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 8-The Northwest (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Pat Gossan
Label:    Rhino (original label: Vault)
Year:    1969
    One of the forgotten bands from the late 1960s Seattle music scene was Floating Bridge. Formed in 1967, the band consisted of Rich Dangel, Joe Johansen and Denny MacLeod on guitars, Pat Gossan as vocals, Michael Jacobsen on electric Cello & saxophone, Joe Johnson on bass, Andrew Lang on trumpet and Michael Marinelli on the drums. In addition to a highly collectable self-titled LP, Floating Bridge only released two singles before disbanding in 1969. The second of these was a non-album track, Don't Mean A Thing, which was released on the independent Vault label in 1969.

Artist:    Penny Peeps
Title:    Model Village
Source:    Mono British import CD: Insane Times (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Alexander
Label:    Zonophone (original label: Liberty)
Year:    1968
    Although the British psychedelic era was considerably shorter (only about two years long) than its American counterpart, there are a surprisingly large number of British psych-pop singles that were never issued in the US. Among those was a somewhat forgettable song called Little Man With A Stick, released in 1967 by a band called the Penny Peeps. The band took its name from the risque coin-fed viewers at Brighton Beach (apparently London's version of Coney Island). Emulating his American counterparts, producer Les Reed (who wrote Little Man), allowed the band itself to come up with its own B side. The result was Model Village, a track that manages to convey a classic garage-rock energy while remaining uniquely British.
 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2607 (starts 2/9/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/606670

    If there is one word that applies to both the early 1970s and the mid 2020s, it would have to be "unsettled". This week's edition of Rockin' in the Days of Confusion starts off the same way, but quickly moves into more progressive territory with bands like Genesis, PFM and Yes.

Artist:    Chicago
Title:    Prologue, August 29, 1968/Someday (August 29, 1968)
Source:    LP: The Chicago Transit Authority
Writer(s):    Pankow/Lamm
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1969
    In the months leading up to the 1968 Democratic convention the phrase "come to Chicago" was often heard among members of the counter-culture that had grown up around various anti-establishment causes. As the summer wore on it became clear that something was going to happen at the Convention that August. Sure enough, on August 29, with the crowd chanting "the whole world's watching", police began pulling demonstraters into paddy wagons, with a full-blown riot erupting the following day. Around that same time a local Chicago band calling itself the Big Thing hooked up with producer James William Guercio, who convinced them to change their name to the Chicago Transit Authority (later shortened to Chicago). It's only natural then that the band would include a song referencing the events of August 29th on their debut LP. The tracks begin with an actual recording of the chant itself, which leads into a tune written by James Pankow and Robert Lamm called Someday (August 29, 1968). The chant itself makes a short reappearance midway through the song as well.

Artist:    David Bowie
Title:    Changes
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue originally released on LP: Hunky Dory)
Writer(s):    David Bowie
Label:    RCA
Year:    1971
    Sometimes a seemingly innocous little song will turn out to be something far more than it started out to be. Such is the case with Changes, one of the most recognizable songs of the 20th century. Originally appearing on the 1971 album Hunky Dory and released as a single in 1972, Changes, according to Bowie, started off as a parody of a nightclub song, "a kind of throwaway", that featured Bowie himself on saxophone, with strings provided by Mick Ronson. Rick Wakeman's keyboards also feature prominently in the recording. The song was Bowie's first North American release on the RCA Victor label (although Mercury had released The Man Who Sold The World two years previously, the record had gone nowhere at the time). Changes is often taken as a statement of artistic intent, as Bowie was constantly reinventing himself throughout his career. Surprisingly, Changes did not make the British charts until its re-release following Bowie's death in 2016. 

Artist:     Jimi Hendrix Experience (Mk II)
Title:     Stepping Stone
Source:     CD: First Rays of the New Rising Sun (originally released on LP: War Heroes) 
Writer:     Jimi Hendrix
Label:     MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1970
     The last single released by Jimi Hendrix (with bassist Billy Cox and drummer Buddy Miles as Hendrix Band Of Gypsys) during his lifetime was Stepping Stone, recorded in February of 1970 and released two months later. In June, Hendrix and drummer Mitch Mitchell recorded new instrumental parts for inclusion on Hendrix's new double LP, tentatively titled First Rays Of The New Rising Sun. Hendrix's death on Sept 16, 1970 sidetracked the double LP until it was finally finished by Mitchell and engineer Eddie Kramer in 1997 and released on CD. Meanwhile the revised version of Stepping Stone was included on 1972's War Heroes LP, as well as on other collections over the years.  

Artist:    Premiata Forneria Marconi
Title:    Mr. 9 'Till 5
Source:    European import CD: Photos Of Ghosts
Writer(s):    Mussida/Premoli/Sinfield
Label:    RCA (original label: Manticore)
Year:    1973
    Premiata Forneria Marconi was already popular in their native Italy when Greg Lake, of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, got them signed to Manticore Records, a label created by ELP. Their first English language album was Photos Of Ghosts, which featured songs from their most recent LP, Per Un Amico, with new English lyrics. Mr. 9 'Till 5 was originally an instrumental called Generale that ended up being one of the most popular songs on Photos of Ghosts and a concert staple for the band.
            
Artist:    Yes
Title:    Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praematuris)
Source:    CD: Fragile
Writer(s):    Anderson/Squire
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1971
    The fourth Yes album, Fragile, introduced the "classic" Yes lineup of John Anderson (vocals), Bill Bruford (drums), Steve Howe (guitar), Chris Squire (bass) and Rick Wakemen (keyboards), and features some of the band's best known songs. Among the most popular is Long Distance Runaround, which was also released as the B side of the hit single Roundabout. Anderson's lyrics express his disillusionment with "the craziness of religion" and intolerance of other viewpoints in general, including opposition to the war in Vietnam. On the album, the song segues directly into The Fish (Schindleria Praematuris), a mostly instrumental piece written by Squire, with a vocal refrain by Anderson repeating the name of a species of prehistoric fish toward the end of the track.

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    Minstrel In The Gallery
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Chrysalis
Year:    1975
    Following the back-to-back album-length works Thick As A Brick and A Passion Play, Jethro Tull returned to recording shorter tunes for the next couple of years' worth of albums. In late 1975, however, they recorded the eight minute long Mistrel In The Gallery for the album of the same name. The song (and album) was a return to the mix of electric and acoustic music that had characterized the band in its earlier years, particularly on the Aqualung and Benefit albums. A shorter version of Minstrel In The Gallery was released as a single and did reasonably well on the charts. 

Artist:     Traffic
Title:     Empty Pages
Source:     CD: Smiling Phases (originally released on LP: John Barleycorn Must Die)
Writer:     Winwood/Capaldi
Label:     Island
Year:     1970
     Traffic was formed in 1967 by Steve Winwood, after ending his association with the Spencer Davis Group. The original group, also featuring Dave Mason, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood, put out two and a half albums' worth of studio material before disbanding in early 1969. A successful live album, Welcome to the Canteen, prompted the band to reform (without Mason), releasing the album John Barleycorn Must Die in 1970. Although Empty Pages was released as a single, it got most of its airplay on progressive FM rock stations, and as those stations were replaced by (or became) album-oriented rock (AOR) stations, the song continued to get extensive airplay for many years. 
 
Artist:    George Carlin
Title:    The Hair Piece (excerpt)
Source:    LP: FM & AM
Writer(s):    George Carlin
Label:    Little David
Year:    1972
    A little bit of practical poetry.

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    Supper's Ready
Source:    CD: Foxtrot
Writer(s):    Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label:    Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year:    1972
    The longest track Genesis ever recorded is also one of their most celebrated. Supper's Ready, from the Foxtrot album, is almost 23 minutes long and takes up most of the second side of the original LP. At least one critic has proclaimed Supper's Ready to be the band's masterpiece. The song (or more accurately, song cycle) was originally released in October of 1972. The piece, with its supernatural imagery and overall theme of good vs. evil, was inspired by an incident at a British castle in which vocalist Peter Gabriel's wife Jill went into a trance state just as the windows of the room they were in suddenly blew open. Supper's Ready is divided into seven sections: Lover's Leap, The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man, Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men, How Dare I Be So Beautiful, Willow Farm, Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet), and the final section, As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet), which combines elements of some of the earlier parts. From 1972 on Supper's Ready was the centerpiece of the band's stage show throughout Gabriel's tenure as frontman for Genesis.
 

 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2606 (starts 2/2/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/605883 

    Except for a 1967 Monkees set it's business as usual on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this week, as we do our best to keep things cooking during the coldest part of the year. 

Artist:    Yardbirds
Title:    Heart Full Of Soul
Source:    Mono Australian import CD: Over, Under, Sideways, Down (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Graham Gouldman
Label:    Raven (original label: Epic)
Year:    1965
    The Yardbirds' follow-up single to For Your Love, Heart Full Of Soul, was a huge hit, making the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1965. The song, the first to feature guitarist Jeff Beck prominently, was written by Graham Gouldman, who also wrote For Your Love. For some odd reason Gouldman's own band, the Mockingbirds, was strangely unable to buy a hit on the charts, despite Gouldman's obvious talents as a songwriter. Gouldman would eventually go on to be a founding member of 10cc, who were quite successful in the 1970s. 

Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    Come In The Morning
Source:    LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s):    Bob Mosley
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    Moby Grape's 1967 debut album has been called " the ancestral link between psychedelia, country-rock, glam, power pop and punk." Come In The Morning, written and sung by bassist Bob Mosley, provides the country-rock part.
        
Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Red House
Source:    CD: Are You Experienced? (originally released on LP: Smash Hits)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 1969
    There were actually two different versions of Red House released by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, both of which came from the same December, 1966, sessions. The original version was included on the European pressing of the Are You Experienced album, which was issued in early 1967. The album was not originally available in stereo, and a true stereo mix of this version of Red House was never made, as the track was left off the remixed American version of the LP. In spring of 1967 the band attempted to get a better version of the song, but neither Hendrix or bassist Noel Redding (who had played the original bass part on a regular guitar with its tone controls set to mimic a bass guitar) were satisfied with the later versions. Only one portion of these new recordings was kept, and was combined with the original take to create a new stereo mix for the US version of the 1969 Smash Hits album. This newer mix was also used by MCA for both the 1993 CD reissue of Are You Experienced and the Ultimate Experience anthology.  

Artist:    Steppenwolf
Title:    Jaded Strumpet
Source:    LP: For Ladies Only
Writer(s):    Jerry Edmonton
Label:    Dunhill/ABC
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 Hollywood Boulevard. The album itself features songwriting contributions from each of the band members, including drummer Jerry Edmonton, who sang lead vocals on Jaded Strumpet.

Artist:    Young Rascals
Title:    Groovin'
Source:    CD: Groovin'
Writer(s):    Cavaliere/Brigati
Label:    1967
Year:    Warner Special Products (original label: Atlantic)
    After establishing themselves as a high-energy blue-eyed soul band with songs like Good Lovin' and I've Been Lonely Too Long, the Young Rascals decided to expand their musical horizons in 1967, starting with the song Groovin', released in April of that year. The song was the brainchild of keyboardist/vocalist Felix Cavaliere, whose own musical influences included latin rhythms he had been exposed to while playing at resorts in the Catskill and Adirondack mountains. Lyrically, the song was inspired by a girlfriend that he could only see on Sundays, thanks to the Rascals' hectic touring schedule. Groovin' became the band's second #1 hit, and the first written by band members. In July they put out Spanish and Italian versions of the song, concurrent with the release of the Groovin' LP.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Unhappy Girl
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer:    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    After the success of their first album and the single Light My Fire in early 1967, the Doors quickly returned to the studio, releasing a second LP, Strange Days, later the same year. The first single released from the new album was People Are Strange. The B side of that single was Unhappy Girl, from the same album. Both sides got played on the jukebox at a place called the Woog in the village of Meisenbach near Ramstein Air Force Base (which is where I was spending most of my evenings that autumn). 

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Discrepancy
Source:    CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer:    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1967
    Discrepancy, one of Sean Bonniwell's most sophisticated recordings with his band the Music Machine, features two simultaneous vocal lines. The main one, sung by Bonniwell (in the left channel) as a single melody line, tells the story of a deteriorating relationship. In the opposite channel we hear a breathy multi-part vocal line that tells the same story from the perspective of the subconscious. The two come together lyrically from time to time to express key concepts such as the line "now I know I'm losing you", only to once again diverge onto their separate tracks. The bridge serves to further unite the two divergent lines with the repeating plea to "tell me what to do". Discrepancy is one of the tracks recorded by the original Music Machine lineup (Bonniwell on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Mark Landon on lead guitar, Ron Edgar on drums, Doug Rhodes on keyboards and Keith Olsen on bass) that was never released on Original Sound Records, either as an LP track or on a 45 RPM single. Instead, the song was included on the LP Bonniwell Music Machine, released by Warner Brothers in 1967.

Artist:    Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band
Title:    Autumn's Child
Source:    CD: Safe As Milk
Writer(s):    Van Vliet/Bermann
Label:    Rev-Ola (original label: Buddah)
Year:    1967
    In 1966 Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band found themselves without a record label, having been cut by A&M Records after releasing only one single. A change in the band's management, however, led to them hooking up with Bob Krasnow, whose association with Kama Sutra Records resulted in the Captain and his crew being the first act signed to Kama Sutra's new subsidiary label, Buddah. In fact, Safe As Milk was the first LP issued on the new label in 1967. By this point the band had undergone some lineup changes and now consisted of Jeff Handley on bass, Alex St. Clair on guitar, John French on drums and Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) on various other instruments. Ry Cooder, then a member of the legendary L.A band The Rising Sons, provided additional guitar tracks on the album. Eight of the songs on Safe As Milk, including side two closer Autumn's Child, credit Herb Bermann as co-writer with Van Vliet, which, given Van Vliet's reputation for not using collaborators, was a point of confusion for many years. Eventually, in 2003, Bermann was located and interviewed, and confirmed that 1) he was a real person, and 2) he did indeed co-write those eight songs on Safe As Milk.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Good Time
Source:    British import CD: Mellow Yellow (bonus track)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    EMI
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 2005
    Although a concert favorite at the time, Donovan's jazz-influenced Good Time, recorded in November of 1966, remained unreleased until 2005, when it was included as a bonus track on the remastered version of the Mellow Yellow album. Oddly enough, the songs included on the album itself were never mixed in stereo, but for some reason Good Time was. 

Artist:    Bobby Fuller Four
Title:    I Fought The Law
Source:    CD: I Fought The Law-The Best Of The Bobby Fuller Four (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Sonny Curtis
Label:    Rhino (original label: Mustang)
Year:    1965
    I Fought The Law is one of the truly iconic songs in rock history. Originally recorded by the Crickets in 1959 after Sonny Curtis, who wrote the song, had joined the band as lead guitarist and taken over lead vocals following the death of Buddy Holly, the song became a national hit when it was covered by the Bobby Fuller Four in late 1965. The song hit the #9 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1966, and has since been recorded by numerous artists from a variety of genres, including the Clash, Hank Williams, Jr., the Dead Kennedys and Bruce Springsteen, who has made it a staple of his live show over the years.
    
Artist:     Byrds
Title:     Chimes of Freedom
Source:      LP: Mr. Tambourine Man
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
Year:     1965
     Although not released as a single, the Byrds cover of Dylan's Chimes of Freedom was a staple of the band's stage repertoire and was one of three songs captured on film by D.R. Pennebacker for his Monterrey Pop Festival TV special. None of the tracks were actually used on the show, but all have been issued on an outtake disc that comes as part of the expanded DVD edition of Pennebacker's film. 

Artist:    Standells
Title:    Dirty Water
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Ed Cobb
Label:    Elektra (original label: Tower)
Year:    1965
    Dirty Water has long since been adopted by the city of Boston (and especially its sports teams), yet the band that originally recorded this Ed Cobb tune was purely an L.A. band, having started off playing cover tunes at frat parties in the early 60s. Drummer Dickie Dodd, who sings lead on Dirty Water, was a former Mouseketeer who had played on the surf-rock hit Mr. Moto as a member of the Bel-Airs.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    A Well Respected Man
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer:    Ray Davies
Label:    Eric (original label: Reprise)
Year:    Released 1965, charted 1966
    The Kinks were one of the original British Invasion bands, scoring huge R&B-influenced hits with You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night in 1964. The hits continued in 1965 with more melodic songs like Set Me Free and Tired Of Waiting For You. 1966 saw Ray Davies's songwriting take a satiric turn, as A Well Respected Man (actually released in late 1965) amply illustrates. Over the next few years the Kinks would continue to evolve, generally getting decent critical reviews but less than stellar record sales (in part because of a performance ban imposed on them by the American Federation of Musicians) for their albums until 1970, when the song Lola became a huge international hit, reviving the band's fortunes and reigniting interest in their earlier tunes. 
    
Artist:        Emitt Rhodes
Title:        Holly Park
Source:    LP: The American Dream
Writer:        Emitt Rhodes
Label:        A&M
Year:        1969
        Emitt Rhodes first got noticed in his mid-teens as the drummer for the Palace Guard, a Beatles-influenced L.A. band that had a minor hit with the song Like Falling Sugar in 1966. Rhodes would soon leave the guard to front his own band, the Merry-Go-Round, scoring one of the most popular regional hits in L.A. history with the song Live. In 1969 Rhodes decided to try his hand as a solo artist. The problem was that he was, as a member of the Merry-Go-Round, contractually obligated to record one more album for A&M. The album itself, featuring a mixture of solo tunes and leftover Merry-Go-Round tracks, sat on the shelf for two years until Rhodes had released a pair of well-received LPs for his new label, at which time A&M finally issued The American Dream as an Emitt Rhodes album.

Artist:    Love
Title:    Your Mind And We Belong Together
Source:    Australian import CD: Comes In Colours (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Raven (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1968
    The last record to be released by the classic Love lineup of Arthur Lee, Ken Forssi, Johnny Echols, Bryan MacLean and Michael Stuart was a single, Your Mind And We Belong Together. Although released in 1968, the song is very much the same style as the 1967 album Forever Changes. A bonus track on the Forever Changes CD shows Lee very much in command of the recording sessions, calling for over two dozen takes before getting an acceptable version of the song. The song serves as a fitting close to the story of one of the most influential, yet overlooked, bands in rock history...or would have, if Lee had not tried unsuccessfully to duplicate the band's success with new members several times in the ensuing years.

Artist:    Country Joe And The Fish
Title:    Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source:    CD: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s):    Joe McDonald
Label:    Vanguard
Year:    1967
    While not as commercially successful as the Jefferson Airplane or as long-lived as the Grateful Dead (there's an oxymoron for ya), Country Joe and the Fish may well be the most accurate musical representation of what the whole Haight-Ashbury scene was about, which is itself ironic, since the band operated out of Berkeley on the other side of the bay. Of all the tracks on their first album, Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine probably got the most airplay on various underground radio stations that were popping up on the FM dial at the time (some of them even legally).

Artist:    Del-Vetts
Title:    Every Time
Source:    Mono LP: The Dunwich Records Story (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Jim Lauer
Label:    Tutman (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    Chicago's Del-Vetts only released three singles before changing their name to Pride And Joy in 1967. The best of these was Last Time Around, written by Dennis Dahlquist, who also wrote the B side, a tune called Every Time. Although not an official band member, Dahlquist wrote nearly all the group's original material.

Artist:    Beau Brummels
Title:    Don't Talk To Strangers
Source:    Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Elliott/Durand
Label:    Rhino (original label: Autumn)
Year:    1965
    The Beau Brummels were one of the first bands to emerge from the San Francisco area following the British Invasion of 1964. Signed to Mike Donahue's Autumn Records in 1964, the band got off to a solid start with back-to-back hit singles (Laugh Laugh, and Just A Little), and were considered one of the originators of the folk-rock movement. Financial problems at Autumn, however, led to poor promotion of the band's subsequent releases, including the excellent Don't Talk To Strangers (produced by Sly Stone), and they were never able to regain their momentum, even after Autumn (and the Beau Brummels' contract) was bought out by Warner Brothers in 1967.

Artist:    Remains
Title:    Diddy Wah Diddy
Source:    Mono LP: The Exciting Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    McDaniel/Dixon
Label:    Columbia Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year:    1966
    One of the great mysteries of 60s rock is why the Remains, one of Boston's most popular bands, never made it big nationally. Formed by Barry Tashian (vocals, guitar), Bill Briggs (keyboards)  Chip Damiani (drums) and Vern Miller (bass) in 1964, the band played a mixture of rock 'n' roll and R&B covers at the Rathskeller, a tavern near the dorm they shared as freshmen students at Boston University. They quickly gained a following among fellow students and found themselves appearing across New England, eventually relocating, first to New York and then Califiornia. Despite appearing on the Ed Sullivan show and Hullabaloo, the band's closest thing to a national hit was a high-energy version of Bo Diddley's Diddy Wah Diddy, which stalled out on Billboard's Bubbling Under chart at # 129 in 1966. That same year they landed a three-week long engagement as the Beatles' opening act on their last US tour, but just before the gig began Damiani abruptly quit the band, and the group didn't have time to properly work in their new drummer, N.D. Smart. By the time the Remains' debut album came out in 1966, the group had disbanded.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    You Told Me
Source:    CD: Headquarters
Writer(s):    Michael Nesmith
Label:    Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year:    1967       
            After Don Kirschner got himself fired from Colgems for issuing the album More of the Monkees without the band's knowledge or permission (as well as a subsequent single that was sent out in promo form to radio stations and almost immediately rescinded), the band members insisted on having greater artistic control over what was being issued with their names on it. The end result was the Headquarters album, the only Monkees LP to feature the band members playing virtually all the instruments (with a few exceptions, notably producer Chip Douglas playing bass guitar). Although the Michael Nesmith composition You Told Me starts off side one of the LP, it was actually the third and final Nesmith track to be recorded for Headquarters. Peter Tork plays banjo on the song, which was sung by Nesmith himself.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    Love Is Only Sleeping
Source:    LP: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones, LTD.
Writer(s):    Mann/Weil
Label:    Colgems
Year:    1967
    Among the various professional songwriters hired by Don Kirschner in 1966 to write songs for the Monkees were the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who had hit it big with a pair of songs for Paul Revere And The Raiders (Kicks and Hungry) earlier that year. But when the Monkees rebelled against Kirschner's control over their recorded output in early 1967 it looked as though the band was done with Mann/Weil compositions altogether. Later that year, however, the Monkees themselves, now firmly in control of their own musical direction, chose to record a new Mann/Weil tune, Love Is Only Sleeping, as their fourth single. At the same time, the group was working on their fourth LP, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones, LTD. A last-minute change of plans resulted in a different song, Daydream Believer, being released as a single instead, with a tune from the album, Goin' Down, as the B side. Goin' Down was then deleted from the album lineup and Love Is Only Sleeping included in its place. It was the closest that Michael Nesmith would ever come to being the lead vocalist on a Monkees hit single.  

Artist:     Monkees
Title:     Mr. Webster
Source:     CD: Headquarters
Writer:     Boyce/Hart
Label:     Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year:     1967
     After scathing criticism from the rock press for not playing their own instruments, the Monkees were determined to show that they could do it themselves with their third LP, Headquarters. One of the better, yet often overlooked tracks is Mr. Webster, a folk-rock song about an underappreciated bank security guard who decides to determine his own retirement bonus. Although their musicianship was nowhere near being on a level with the studio musicians who had played on their first two albums, the Monkees, in the words of Peter Tork, finally felt like a "real band". Unfortunately the damage to their reputations was already past the point of redemption, and subsequent LPs all used studio musicians, albeit under the direct supervision of the Monkees themselves. 
    
Artist:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    Help Me Girl
Source:    LP: The Best Of Eric Burdon And The Animals-Vol. II (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Eric Is Here)
Writer(s):    English/Weiss
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1966
    Consider the following paradox: Animals vocalist Eric Burdon made no secret of his disdain for the songs provided to the Animals by producer Mickey Most, which by and large came from professional songwriters based in New York's Brill Building. Nonetheless, when the original Animals split up, the first new song to come from Eric Burdon was not only a product of professional songwriters, it was even lighter in tone than the songs that he had complained about. Even stranger, Help Me Girl was fully orchestrated and, with the exception of drummer Barry Jenkins, was performed entirely by studio musicians. 

Artist:    Tales Of Justine
Title:    Monday Morning
Source:    Mono British import CD: Psychedelia At Abbey Road (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    David Daltrey
Label:    EMI (original label: His Master's Voice)
Year:    1967
    Tales Of Justine started off in 1965 as the Court Jesters, an instrumental trio consisting of Paul Myerson on guitar, Chris Woodisse on bass, and Paul Hurford on drums. The lineup was completed with the addition of multi-instrumentalist David Daltrey, a cousin of the Who's Roger Daltrey, on lead vocals. Two years later the band signed with EMI, largely due to support from trainee producer Tim Rice and arranger Andrew Lloyd Webber, who helped the band with their debut single. Rice soon departed company with EMI and the band did not release any more records. Rice and Webber, however, went on to greater fame with their rock musicals Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph And The AmazingTechnicolor Dreamcoat, the second of which starred Daltrey himself.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Not Guilty
Source:    CD: Anthology 3
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Capitol/Apple
Year:    Recorded 1968, released 1996
    One of the most legendary unreleased Beatles recordings, Not Guilty was written by George Harrison after returning from the band members' spiritual retreat in Rishikesh, India, where they studied Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The song addresses his growing dissatisfaction with his role in the band, while defending himself against accusations that he led the group "astray on the road to Mandalay". The recording process was a difficult one, taking over 100 takes to get right, and even then Harrison was unsatisfied with the final recording, which may explain why the song, originally slated for inclusion on the White Album, remained unreleased for nearly 30 years.

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Tombstone Blues
Source:    CD: Highway 61 Revisited
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1965
    One of the most influential albums in rock history was Bob Dylan's 1965 LP Highway 61 Revisited. Although he had experimented with adding electric guitar, bass and drums to some of the songs on his previous album, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited was his first LP to feature electric instruments on every track. Of these, the most notable was probably the guitar work of Michael Bloomfield, who would soon come to prominence as lead guitarist for the Butterfield Blues Band. Bloomfield's work is most prominent on blues-based tracks such as Tombstone Blues, which follows the classic Like A Rolling Stone on side one of the original LP.

Artist:    Shadows of Knight
Title:    Light Bulb Blues
Source:    CD: Oh Yeah! The Best Of Dunwich Records (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Kelley/Sohns/McGeorge
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    Following the national success of their cover of Van Morrison's Gloria, Chicago's Shadows Of Knight returned to the studio to cut a cover of a Bo Diddley tune, Oh Yeah. For the B side of that record the band was allowed to record one of their own compositions. Light Bulb Blues captures the essence of the Shadows' style: hard-driving garage/punk that follows a traditional 12-bar blues progression. The result is a track that sounds a bit like a twisted variation on Muddy Waters's classic Rollin' And Tumblin'.

Artist:     Butterfield Blues Band
Title:     Walkin' Blues
Source:     CD: East-West
Writer:     Robert Johnson
Label:     Elektra
Year:     1966
     Unlike The Blues Project, which mixed original material with improvisational arrangements of blues classics, the Butterfield Blues Band took pride in presenting an authentic Chicago blues sound. The opening track for their most celebrated album, East-West, was Robert Johnson's Walkin' Blues. 
    
Artist:    Cream
Title:    Toad
Source:    British import LP: Cream (originally released on LP: Fresh Cream)
Writer(s):    Ginger Baker
Label:    Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year:    1966
    By 1970, pretty much every rock band in the world featured a drum solo during live performances. Before 1966, however, the practice was unheard of; in fact, drum solos were considered solely the province of jazz musicians. The guy who changed all that was Ginger Baker of Cream, who, on the band's very first album provided the studio version of Toad. Due to the limitations of four-track recording, the entire drum solo, which takes up the bulk of the five-minute recording, is assigned to one single track, which on the stereo version of the song is mixed entirely to one channel/speaker. This makes for a rather odd listening experience under certain circumstances. A longer version of Toad recorded live at the Fillmore would appear on Cream's third album, Wheels Of Fire, in 1968 (this time with the drums mixed in full stereo). To cement his reputation as the king of rock drum solos, Baker included yet another lengthy one (in 5/4 time yet!) on Do What You Like, a song he wrote himself for the Blind Faith album, which he then repeated on the first album by Ginger Baker's Air Force.

Artist:    Monks
Title:    Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy
Source:    German import CD: Black Monk Time
Writer(s):    Burger/Spangler/Havlicek/Johnston/Shaw
Label:    Repertoire (original label: Polydor International)
Year:    1966
    The Monks were ahead of their time. In fact they were so far ahead of their time that only in the next century did people start to realize just how powerful the music on their first and only LP actually was. Released in West Germany in 1966, Black Monk Time both delighted and confused record buyers with songs like Higgle-Dy-Piggle-Dy, which sounds at first like a typical mid-60s dance tune, but soon displays a subversive edge that presages both the British punk-rock movement of the late 1970s and the hypnotic rhythmic patterns that would become the basis of kraut-rock as well. Not bad for a group of five American GIs (probably draftees) who, while stationed at Frankfurt, managed to come up with the idea of a rock band that looked and dressed like Monks (including the shaved patch on the top of each member's head) and sounded like nothing else in the world at that time. Of course, such a phenomenon can't sustain itself indefinitely, and the group disappeared in early 1967, never to be seen or heard from again. 

Artist:    Saturday's Children
Title:    Born On Saturday
Source:    Mono CD: If You're Ready! The Best Of Dunwich Records...Volume 2 (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Bryan/Holder
Label:    Sundazed/Here 'Tis (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    Despite being one of the most popular local bands in the Chicago area, Saturday's Children were never able to sell enough copies of their singles to be able to record an entire LP. Nonetheless, they did record some fine tunes such as Born On Saturday, which appeared as the B side of their first single for Dunwich Records. Bassist Jeff Bryan later went on to join H.P. Lovecraft, while guitarist Dave Carter ended up with the Cryan' Shames.

Artist:    Glass Family
Title:    Highway 1
Source:    LP: Electric Band
Writer(s):    The Glass Family
Label:    Maplewood 
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 2015
    Despite opening for several big name acts (and having a following of their own), L.A.'s Glass Family didn't release their debut LP until 1969. Not that they didn't try; in fact they, working with producer Richard Podolor, recorded an entire album in 1967, only to have their label send them back to the studio to come up with something a bit more "polished". Highway 1 is one of the tracks from the rejected first album.
  
Artist:    Blues Project
Title:    She Raised Her Hand
Source:    LP: Planned Obsolescence
Writer(s):    Kulberg/Roberts
Label:    Verve Forecast
Year:    1968
    By the end of 1967, the Blues Project no longer existed, although they never officially disbanded. Al Kooper had left the band earlier in the year to take a position as staff producer at Columbia's New York studios, while guitarists Danny Kalb and Steve Katz had both left the group after the band's disappointing performance at the Monterey Internation Pop Festival, leaving only drummer Roy Blumenfeld and flautist Andy Kulberg to provide Verve with a contractually-obligated fourth album. To do so they recruited guitarist John Gregory, bassist Don Kretmar and violinist Richard Greene to record the album Planned Obsolescence in 1968. Additionally, the band had a dedicated lyricist, Jim Roberts, who co-wrote (with Kuhlberg) She Raised Her Hand. Once Planned Obsolescence was released, the new band officially changed its name to Seatrain.

Artist:     Country Weather
Title:     Fly To New York
Source:     Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released only to radio stations, later included on Swiss CD:     Country Weather)
Writer:     Baron/Carter/Derr/Douglass
Label:     Rhino (original label: RD)
Year:     Recorded 1969, released 2005
     Country Weather started off as a popular dance band in Contra Costa County, California. In 1968 they took the name Country Weather and began gigging on the San Francisco side of the bay. In 1969, still without a record contract, they recorded an album side's worth of material, made a few one-sided test copies and circulated them to local radio stations. Those tracks, including Fly To New York, were eventually released on CD in 2005 by the Swedish label RD Records.

 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2606 (starts 2/2/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/605882

    It's once again free-form time on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion, as we present a dozen tracks ranging from 1969 to 1975, including an opening set that asks some penetrating questions..

Artist:        National Lampoon
Title:        Deteriorata
Source:    LP: Radio Dinner
Writer(s):    Hendra/Guest
Label:        MCA (original label: Blue Thumb)
Year:        1972
        National Lampoon was a product of its time. Originally a magazine, NatLamp (as it was often referred to) grew to include a weekly radio show, a series of albums, and eventually, a series of movies. Some of the best bits from the radio show were assembled in 1972 on an album called National Lampoon's Radio Dinner. The opening track of this album was a piece written by Tony Hendra (with music by guitarist Christopher Guest) that parodied a 1971 spoken word recording by Les Crane of an early 20th century poem by Max Ehrmann called Desirata. The Lampoon piece, Deteriorata, was narrated by Norman Rose, with Melissa Manchester singing and playing keyboards on the track.

Artist:    John Lennon
Title:    How Do You Sleep?
Source:    CD: Lennon (box set) (originally released on LP: Imagine)
Writer(s):    John Lennon
Label:    Capitol (original label: Apple)
Year:    1971
    When it comes to pure vitriol, few, if any, songs in the history of rock can compare with John Lennon's How Do You Sleep. Released in 1971 on the Imagine album, How do You Sleep is nothing short of a full-scale attack on Lennon's former bandmate, Paul McCartney, in response to what Lennon perceived as a series of personal attacks included on Paul and Linda McCartney's album Ram, released earlier the same year. Musically, it's one of Lennon's most powerful pieces as a solo artist, and was singled out as one of the three best tracks on Imagine by Rolling Stone magazine at the time the album was released.

Artist:    Golden Earring
Title:    Are You Receiving Me?
Source:    British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Moontan)
Writer(s):    Kooymans/Hay/Fenton
Label:    MCA/Track
Year:    1973
    Even though they are only known for a couple of songs (Radar Love, Twilight Zone) in the US, Golden Earring is actually one of the world's most successful rock bands. Formed in 1961 in The Hague, The Golden Earrings (as they were then known) released their first single in 1965, going all the way to the #2 spot on the Dutch charts. Over the next few years they released four albums and several singles on the Polydor label before switching over to Kit Lambert's Track label in 1970. Their 1973 album Moontan gave the band their first international success, thanks to the inclusion of the single Radar Love. By then the band was known for their improvisational abilities, as can be heard on another track from Moontan, the nine and a half minute long Are You Receiving Me. With more than fifty years of recording and performing under their belt, Golden Earring continues to enjoy massive popularity in their native Netherlands. 

Artist:    Steppenwolf
Title:    Who Needs Ya?
Source:    45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer(s):    Byrom/Kay
Label:    Dunhill
Year:    1970
    It's no secret that there are often clashes between members of talented bands. Sometimes these clashes turn pretty ugly, as was the case between Steppenwolf guitarist Michael Monarch and lead vocalist John Kay. On at least one occasion Monarch got so angry with Kay that he stopped playing in the middle of a performance. Finally it got to the point where one of them had to go. Since Steppenwolf was basically Kay's band, Monarch was the one to leave. He was replaced by Larry Byrom, who was a member of the Los Angeles band T.I.M.E. Byrom stayed with with the band for the next two years, co-writing the tune Who Needs Ya, which was released as a single in October of 1970 and appeared on the album Steppenwolf 7.

Artist:    Black Sheep
Title:    Encouraging Words
Source:    LP: Encouraging Words
Writer(s):    Mancuso/Turgan/Grammitico
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1975
    Next to raw talent, a rock band's most important asset is their equipment. It is also their greatest expense, and its loss can be devastating. Take the case of Black Sheep, an up-and-coming band from Rochester, NY. With two albums for Capitol Records under their belt, the group, featuring front man Louis Grammitico, seemed poised for major success when a traffic accident on an icy highway destroyed their equipment van and everything in it. Without the funds to replace the lost equipment, Black Sheep was forced to disband in early 1976. Not long after that Grammitico got a call from Mick Jones inviting him to join his new band, Foreigner. Grammitico accepted the offer, shortening his stage name to Lou Gramm.

Artist:    Lou Reed
Title:    Wild Child
Source:    European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Lou Reed and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Lou Reed
Label:    Sony Music (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:    1972
    Lou Reed's first album after leaving the Velvet Underground was made up mostly of new recordings of songs the VU had already recorded but not released, using British session musicians and members of other bands such as Yes. Familiar names on songs such as Wild Child include Steve Howe and Caleb Quaye on guitars and Rick Wakeman on piano.

Artist:    Blue Suede
Title:    Hooked On A Feeling
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Mark James
Label:    EMI
Year:    1973
    By 1974, the novelty record was almost dead. Then again, the Blue Suede version of the 1969 B.J. Thomas hit, Hooked On A Feeling, is almost a novelty record. The single, release in May of 1973 in the band's native Sweden, went all the way to the top of the charts when it was released in the US in early 1974. Not bad for a band that recorded nothing but cover songs (even the famous "ooka-chaka" intro was swiped from a 1971 Jonathan King version of the song). If you are one of the many who hoped never to hear this record again, you can blame Quentin Tarantino, who revived interest in the song when he included it in the soundtrack of his film Reservoir Dogs.

Artist:     Grateful Dead
Title:     Truckin'
Source:     CD: Skeletons From the Closet (originally released on LP: American Beauty)
Writer:     Garcia/Weir/Hunter/Lesh
Label:     Warner Brothers
Year:     1970 
     After two performance-oriented albums that mixed live and studio material and one double live LP, the Grateful Dead decided to shift their focus in the studio to their songwriting skills. The result was Workingman's Dead, the band's most commercially successful album up to that point. Five months later the followup album,  American Beauty defined the Grateful Dead's sound for all but the most dedicated of concertgoers (the legendary Deadheads), thanks to songs like Truckin', which would stand as the band's most successful single until the mid-1980s and probably the late Bob Weir's best known lead vocal performance.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Midnight Rambler
Source:    LP: Let It Bleed
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    London
Year:    1969
    1969 was, with a couple of rather significant exceptions, a good year for the Rolling Stones. Their Beggar's Banquet album, released late in 1968, had reestablished them as one of the world's premier rock bands, and their first single of 1969, Honky Tonk Women, was nothing short of a masterpiece. The song had introduced Stones fans to the band's newest member, Mick Taylor, who had replaced Brian Jones, who had left the band he founded just a few weeks before he was found dead in his swimming pool (the first of those exceptions) on the very night that Honky Tonk Women was recorded. The timing of it all gave fuel to all kinds of conspiracy theories, of course, but the band itself was already hard at work on what would be their final album for the British Decca label (and it's US counterpart, London) before starting their own label. One of the most enduring tracks on Let It Bleed was Midnight Rambler, which would become a staple of the band's live performances for years to come. The other previously mentioned huge exception, incidentally, was the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival, which Rolling Stone magazine later called  "rock and roll's all-time worst day, December 6th, a day when everything went perfectly wrong."

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Dark Eyed Woman
Source:    CD: The Best Of Spirit (originally released on LP: Clear)
Writer(s):    California/Ferguson
Label:    Epic (original label: Ode)
Year:    1969
    After a rather busy 1968 (two albums, a movie soundtrack and touring), the members of Spirit felt a bit rushed when working on their third LP, Clear. Nonetheless, the final product was one of their best, possibly because the lack of development time left them relying more on their considerable improvisational skills as musicians. Not all of the tracks were spontaneous creations, however. The opening track, Dark Eyed Woman, was a well-constructed piece that ended up being released as the first single from the album as well.

Artist:    Climax Blues Band
Title:    Shake Your Love
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM promo single
Writer(s):    Climax/Gottehrer
Label:    Sire
Year:    1972
    Although never a first-tier group, the Climax Blues Band (formed in 1967 as the Climax Chicago Blues Band) nonetheless had a decent career, releasing a total of 19 albums during their existence. Among those was the 1972 LP Rich Man, which included Shake Your Love, a song that was also released to radio stations in single form. The tune was co-written by the band and their producer, Richard Gottehrer. Gottehrer is probably best known for writing or co-writing several hit songs in the 1960s, including My Boyfriend's Back, Hang On Sloopy, and I Want Candy, the latter being credited to Gottehrer's own band, the Strangeloves.
Artist:    Climax Blues Band
Title:    Shake Your Love
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM promo single
Writer(s):    Climax/Gottehrer
Label:    Sire
Year:    1972
    Although never a first-tier group, the Climax Blues Band (formed in 1967 as the Climax Chicago Blues Band) nonetheless had a decent career, releasing a total of 19 albums during their existence. Among those was the 1972 LP Rich Man, which included Shake Your Love, a song that was also released to radio stations in single form. The tune was co-written by the band and their producer, Richard Gottehrer. Gottehrer is probably best known for writing or co-writing several hit songs in the 1960s, including My Boyfriend's Back, Hang On Sloopy, and I Want Candy, the latter being credited to Gottehrer's own band, the Strangeloves.

Artist:    Uriah Heep
Title:    Seven Stars
Source:    CD: Sweet Freedom
Writer(s):    Ken Hensley
Label:    Sequel (original US label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1973
    I'm not exactly sure what Uriah Heep's David Byron had in mind when he started singing the alphabet at the end of Seven Stars. It could have even been the way Ken Hensley wrote the song in the first place, although Hensley never did anything else quite as silly before or after the Sweet Freedom album. Musically, Seven Stars sounds like an attempt to recreate the excitement generated by Heep's biggest hit, Easy Livin', but it falls far short of the earlier tune. 

 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2605 (starts 1/26/26)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/604934

    After teasing you with news about NOT having a battle of the bands last week I figured I'd better do one this week. And it's a biggie, featuring Jefferson Airplane and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. We also have quite a few obscurities this week, as well as artists' sets from Quicksilver Messenger Service and, to start off the show, Paul Revere And The Raiders.

Artist:    Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title:    (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone
Source:    Mono LP: Midnight Ride
Writer(s):    Boyce/Hart
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    Before the Monkees, there was Paul Revere And The Raiders. Like the latter group, the Raiders found success on TV as well as vinyl, and scored several top 10 hits. Unlike the Monkees, however, Paul Revere And The Raiders had a long history as a performing group that predated their commercial success by several years. One more thing the two groups had in common, however, was a song by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart called (I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone. The Raiders recorded the song first (without the parenthesis), including it on their album Midnight Ride, released in May of 1966, and as the B side of their hit version of Kicks. The Monkees included the song on their debut LP later the same year, and released it as the B side of I'm A Believer as well. Although the original Raiders version was not originally included on the band's greatest hits album, it has been added to the CD reissue of Paul Revere And The Raiders' Greatest Hits as a bonus track.

Artist:    Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title:    Take A Look At Yourself
Source:    Mono LP: Midnight Ride
Writer(s):    Lindsay/Revere
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    One of the best kept secrets in rock history is the fact that, up until 1966, Paul Revere And The Raiders were the best rock and roll band in America. One only has to compare Midnight Ride with any other album released by an American band in 1966 to see the truth in that statement. Unfortunately, lead vocalist Mark Lindsay, wanted to be a major pop star as well, and was, with the full approval of bandleader Paul Revere, starting to move the band in a more commercial direction. It was a slow process, however, and not all of Lindsay and Revere's contributions to Midnight Ride were pop songs. Take A Look At Yourself, for instance, is a somewhat confrontational song that attempts to update the rockabilly sound for the 1960s, and features some jangly guitar work from Drake Levin. The band's next LP, Spirit of '67, would include substantial contributions from studio musicians known collectively as the Wrecking Crew, triggering a mass exodus of band members that left Lindsay and Revere with a whole new set of Raiders by 1967.

Artist:    Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title:    All I Really Need Is You
Source:    LP: Midnight Ride
Writer(s):    Lindsay/Revere
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    Paul Revere And The Raiders have gotten a bad rap over the years, mostly for dressing funny. During the mid-60s, however, with the British Invasion in full swing, an American band needed every gimmick it could think of, and the Raiders simply took advantage of their band leader's birth name and did the obvious. What's often overlooked, however, is the fact that Paul Revere And The Raiders, co-led by Revere and vocalist/saxophonist Mark Lindsay, were one of the best bands of their time, and the first  band from the Pacific Northwest to achieve continuous national chart success. The band members were prolific songwriters as well. In fact, of the twelve songs on their 1966 album Midnight Ride, ten were originals, including All I Really Need Is You, which leads off side two of the LP.

Artist:    The Word (aka War Babies)
Title:    Now It's Over
Source:    Mono British import CD: With Love- A Pot Of Flowers (bonus track originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Lincoln/Watt
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Brent)
Year:    1965
    Now it's Over was a one-off folk-rock single by multi-instrumentalists Wesley Watt and Bill Lincoln, recording as the Word, on Bob Shad's Brent label in 1965. The duo had originally recorded the song for the Highland label under the name War Babies, and would resurface in 1966 with a group called Euphoria. 

Artist:    Chris And Craig
Title:    Isha
Source:    Mono import CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Chris Ducey
Label:    Zonophone UK (original US label: Capitol)
Year:    1966
    Before the Monkees, there were the Happeners...almost. In 1965, college student Chris Ducey and singer/songwriter Craig Smith were chosen to play a folk-rock duo on a TV show. Although the show itself never made it past pre-production, the two did record a single for Capitol Records, the Ducey-penned Isha, before going their separate ways. Craig Smith auditioned for yet another TV show the following year, but was not one of the four young men chosen to become the Monkees. He did, however, strike up a friendship with fellow applicant Michael Nesmith, who would end up recording one of Smith's songs, Salesman, and later produce Smith's new band, Penny Arkade. Ducey, meanwhile, became a bizarre early victim of identity theft. Folk singer Bobby Jameson, for reasons unknown, recorded an entire album using not only Ducey's name, but his song titles as well. The real Ducey hasn't been heard from since.

Artist:    Merry-Go-Round
Title:    You're A Very Lovely Woman (originally released on LP: The Merry-Go-Round)
Source:    CD: More Nuggets
Writer:    Emmit Rhodes
Label:    Rhino (original label: A&M)
Year:    1967
    Emitt Rhodes first got noticed in his mid-teens as the drummer for the Palace Guard, a Beatles-influenced L.A. band that had a minor hit with the song Like Falling Sugar in 1966. Rhodes would soon leave the Guard to front his own band, the Merry-Go-Round, scoring one of the most popular regional hits in L.A. history with the song Live, the lead track from the Merry-Go-Round's 1967 self-titled LP. In 1969 Rhodes decided to try his hand as a solo artist. The problem was that he was, as a member of the Merry-Go-Round, contractually obligated to record one more album for A&M. The album itself, featuring a mixture of recycled Merry-Go-Round tracks such as You're A Very Lovely Woman, along with a few Rhodes solo tunes, sat on the shelf for two years until Rhodes had released a pair of well-received LPs for his new label, at which time A&M finally issued The American Dream as an Emitt Rhodes album. 

Artist:    Timebox
Title:    Gone Is The Sadman
Source:    CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    McCarthy/Halsall
Label:    Rhino (original label: Deram)
Year:    1968
    Timebox is one of those bands that by all rights should have had much more success than they were able to achieve. Why this should be is a mystery. They had plenty of talent, good press and were signed to a major label (Deram). Yet none of their singles were able to make a connection with the record buying public. Originally formed in Southport in 1965 as Take Five, the band relocated to London the following year, changing their name to Timebox at the same time. After releasing a pair of singles on the small Picadilly label, the band added a couple of new members, including future Rutles drummer John Halsey. Within a few months they were signed to the Deram label, and released several singles over the next few years. One of their best tunes, Gone Is The Sandman, was actually released as a B side in late 1968. 

Artist:    Alice Cooper
Title:    Fields Of Regret
Source:    CD: Pretties For You
Writer(s):    Cooper/Smith/Dunaway/Bruce/Buxton
Label:    Rhino/Bizarre/Straight
Year:    1969
    The first Alice Cooper LP, Pretties For You, was by far the most psychedelic album ever recorded by the group. The album was recorded in one day; in fact, according to the band's manager, the entire album was made up of rehearsals that were recorded by Frank Zappa's brother. Pretties For You, like just about everything on Zappa's Straight label, was rooted in the avant-garde, and was not a commercial success, although some tracks, such as Fields Of Regret, the longest track on Pretties For You, foreshadowed the hard rock the band would later become famous for. 

Artist:    Leaves
Title:    Lemmon Princess (mono single mix)
Source:    Mono British import CD: All The Good That's Happening
Writer(s):    Jim Pons
Label:    Grapefruit (original US label: Capitol)
Year:    1966
    The Leaves were formed in 1964 as the Rockwells by a group of fraternity brothers from San Fernando Valley College in Northridge, California. The group was financed by bassist/vocalist Jim Pons, who used money he had received from an insurance settlement to buy the band's original equipment. After a few personnel changes the band, which by 1965 had changed their name to the Leaves, successfully auditioned to replace the Byrds as the unofficial house band at Ciro's, a popular club on Sunset Strip. The Leaves released one LP and a handful of singles for the local Mira label, including a fast version of Billy Roberts's Hey Joe that became a national hit. This prompted a move to major label Capitol Records toward the end of 1966. Their first release for Capitol was Lemmon Princess, which came out in early December. The tune, written by Pons, was also included on the band's only Capitol LP, All The Good That's Happening. Stylistically the song was not typical of the Leaves at all; in fact, it would have been right at home on an album by fellow L.A.ins the Turtles. This may have been intentional, since by most accounts the Leaves were already disintegrating even as All The Good That's Happening was being made, and Pons would soon leave the band he founded to join...you guessed it: the Turtles. 

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Let Me Be
Source:    CD: Songs Of Protest (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 Rather 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:    Count Five
Title:    The World
Source:    Mono LP: Psychotic Reaction
Writer(s):    John Byrne
Label:    Bicycle/Concord
Year:    1966
    With Count Five's single Psychotic Reaction rocketing up the charts in late 1966, Double Shot Records rushed the band into the studio to record a full-length LP, called (naturally) Psychotic Reaction. The key word here is "rushed", as band members later complained that they were not given the time to fully develop their original material, most of which, including The World was written by guitarist John "Sean" Byrne. Nonetheless, the album contains nine original tunes (along with two covers of Who songs tossed in as filler), all of which are classic examples of what has come to be called garage rock. Count Five was never able to duplicate the success of their hit single, however, and after the song's popularity had run its course the group, consisting of Kenn Ellner on lead vocals, tambourine and harmonica, John "Mouse" Michalski on lead guitar, John "Sean" Byrne on rhythm guitar and vocals, Craig "Butch" Atkinson on drums and Roy Chaney on bass guitar, disbanded so that its members could pursue college educations and avoid being drafted. 

Artist:    Jake Holmes
Title:    Dazed And Confused
Source:    LP: Nuggets vol. 10-Folk Rock (originally released on LP: The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes)
Writer(s):    Jake Holmes
Label:    Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year:    1967
    On Auguest 5th, 1967 a little known singer/songwriter named Jake Holmes opened for the Yardbirds for a gig in New York City, performing songs from his debut LP The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes, including a rather creepy sounding tune called Dazed And Confused. Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty, who was in the audience for Holmes's set, went out and bought a copy of the album the next day. Soon after that the Yardbirds began performing their own modified version of Dazed And Confused. Tower Records, perhaps looking to take advantage of the Yardbirds popularization of the tune, released Holmes's version of Dazed And Confused as a single in January of 1968. Meanwhile, the Yardbirds split up, with guitarist Jimmy Page forming a new band called Led Zeppelin. One of the songs Led Zeppelin included on their 1969 debut LP was yet another new arrangement of Dazed And Confused, with new lyrics provided by Page and singer Robert Plant. This version was credited entirely to Page. Holmes himself, not being a fan of British blues-rock, was not aware of any of this at first, and then let things slide until 2010, when he finally filed a copyright infringement lawsuit. The matter was ultimately settled out of court, and all copies of the first Led Zeppelin album made from 2014 on include "inspired by Jake Holmes" in the credits.

Artist:     Rolling Stones
Title:     No Expectations
Source:     LP: More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies) (originally released on LP: Beggar's Banquet)
Writer:     Jagger/Richards
Label:     London
Year:     1968
     After the heavy dose of studio effects on Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Rolling Stones took a back-to-basics approach for their next album, Beggar's Banquet, the first to be produced by Jimmy Miller (who had previously worked with Steve Winwood in Traffic and the Spencer Davis Group). No Expectations, the second track on the album, uses minimal instrumentation and places a greater emphasis on Mick Jagger's vocals and Brian Jones's slide guitar work. Sadly, it was to be Jones's last album as a member of the Rolling Stones, as heavy drug use was already taking its toll (and would soon take his life as well).
 
Artist:    Johnny Winter
Title:    I'm Yours And I'm Hers
Source:    European import CD: Johnny Winter
Writer(s):    Johnny Winter
Label:    Repertoire (original US label: Columbia)
Year:    1969
    1969 was a big year for Johnny Winter. An article the previous year in Rolling Stone magazine referring to the "albino guitarist with long white hair causing a stir in the Southwest" had led to his album The Progressive Blues Experiment being picked up by Imperial Records for national distribution, which in turn led to Winters signing with Columbia, one of the world's largest and most influential record labels. His first album for Columbia, titled simply Johnny Winter, was a critical and commercial success, instantly putting him in the top tier of both blues and rock guitarists. The opening track of the LP was I'm Your And I'm Hers, a Johnny Winter original that utilized the talents of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer "Uncle" John Turner, both members of Johnny's band Winter at the time. This same lineup would record a second album for Columbia with Johnny's brother Edgar on keyboards and saxophone before being disbanded in favor of the group that was originally called the McCoys, but would soon come to be known as Johnny Winter And. Bassist Tommy Shannon would resurface several years later as a member of Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble. 

Artist:    Blues Image
Title:    La Bamba/Consuelate
Source:    CD: Open
Writer(s):    Traditional/Blues Image
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Atco)
Year:    1970
    The Blues Project evolved out of a Tampa, Florida band called Mike West And The Motions ("Mike West" being a stage name for guitarist Mike Pinera). Unlike other bands in the area, who tended to play covers of British Invasion bands, the Motions were into John Mayall, Muddy Waters, and especially the Blues Project. They also experimented with using two drummers, inspiring fellow Floridians Duane and Gregg Allman to do the same with their new band. After changing their name to Blues Image (inspired by Blues Project), the band opened their own club, Thee Image, hiring the Mothers Of Invention for opening night in 1968. It was Mothers leader Frank Zappa that told the members of Blues Image that their strength was in arranging rather than composing, an opinion given validity by such tracks as La Bamba, which leads directly into a track that is essentially an extension of La Bamba itself, although it bears the title Consuelate. A series of unrelated events saw the band move to L.A. by the end of the year, closing Thee Image in the process. After two LPs for Atco, Pinera left the band he helped found to join Iron Butterfly. After one more LP the group called it quits, with various members going on to become studio musicians supporting people like Stephen Stills.

Artist:     Third Rail
Title:     Run Run Run
Source:     LP: Nuggets Vol. 11-Pop, Part 4 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Resnick/Resnick/Levine
Label:     Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year:     1967
     Run Run Run is actually a studio creation issued in 1967 from husband and wife team Artie and Kris Resnick collaborating with Joey Levine, who sings lead vocals on the track. They only performed the song live once (in Cincinatti, of all places) as the Third Rail. All three would find a home as part of the Kasenetz-Katz bubble gum machine that would make Buddah Records a major player in 1968, with Levine himself singing lead for one of the label's most successful groups, the Ohio Express. 

Artist:    Ballroom
Title:    Baby, Please Don't Go
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Joe Williams
Label:    Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1967
    Producer/vocalist Curt Boettcher first came to national attention at age 22 as producer of the album Along Comes...The Association, including the hit singles Along Comes Mary and Cherish. While working on a studio project he called the Ballroom for Our Productions in 1966 Boettcher came to the attention of Brian Wilson and Gary Usher. Usher was so impressed with Boettcher's creativity in the studio that he convinced his own bosses at Columbia Records to buy out Boettcher's contract from Our Productions. As a result, much of Boettcher's Ballroom project became part of Usher's own Sagittarius project, with only one single, an unusual arrangement of Joe Williams's Baby, Please Don't Go, released under the Ballroom name. Boettcher turned out to be so prolific that it was sometimes said that the giant "CBS" logo on the side of the building stood for Curt Boettcher's Studios. 

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

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    White Rabbit
Source:    LP: The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Writer:    Grace Slick
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1967
    A few years back a co-worker asked me about what kind of music I played on the show. When I told him the show was called Stuck in the Psychedelic Era he immediately said "Oh, I bet you play White Rabbit a lot, huh?" As a matter of fact, I do, although not as much as some songs.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice
Source:    Mono British import LP: Smash Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Track
Year:    1967
    The fourth single released in Europe and the UK by the Jimi Hendrix Experience was 1967's Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, which appeared in stereo the following year on the album Electric Ladyland. The B side of that single was a strange bit of psychedelia called Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice, which is also known in some circles as STP With LSD. The piece features Hendrix on guitar and vocals, with background sounds provided by a cast of at least dozens. Hendrix's vocals are, throughout much of the track, spoken rather than sung, and resemble nothing more than a cosmic travelogue with Hendrix himself as the tour guide. The track was remixed in stereo by engineer Eddie Kramer for a posthumous album called Loose Ends that was only released in the UK. That version, which buries the vocal track in order to showcase Hendrix's guitar work, was included on the South Saturn Delta compilation CD, and until 2025 was the only version of the track available in the US. The original mono mix (along with a pair of alternate versions) has finally been released in the US as part of the five disc box set Axis: Bold As Love Sessions. This is the only version where Jimi's vocals dominate the mix, allowing his somewhat whimsical sense of humor to shine through. 

Artist:     Jefferson Airplane
Title:     How Do You Feel
Source:     Mono LP: Surrealistic Pillow (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer:     Tom Mastin
Label:     Sundazed (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:     1966
     How Do You Feel was the only song on Surrealistic Pillow not written by a current or former member of Jefferson Airplane, having been given to the band by Tom Mastin, a friend of Paul Kantner's. The song was first released in late 1966 as the B side of My Best Friend. 

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Little Wing
Source:    LP: Axis: Bold As Love 
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA/Experience Hendrix (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    Although it didn't have any hit singles on it, Axis: Bold As Love, the second album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was full of memorable tunes, including one of Hendrix's most covered songs, Little Wing. The album itself is a showcase for Hendrix's rapidly developing skills, both as a songwriter and in the studio. The actual production of the album was a true collaborative effort, combining Hendrix's creativity, engineer Eddie Kramer's expertise and producer Chas Chandler's strong sense of how a record should sound, acquired through years of recording experience as a member of the Animals.

Artist:     Jefferson Airplane
Title:     D.C.B.A.-25
Source:     Mono LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer:     Paul Kantner
Label:     Sundazed (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:     1967
     D.C.B.A.-25 was named for the chords used in the song. As for the "25"...it was 1967. In San Francisco. Paul Kantner wrote it. Figure it out. 

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Manic Depression
Source:    LP: Smash Hits (originally released on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1967
    After miraculously surviving being shot point blank in the head (and then bayoneted in the back for good measure) in the Korean War (and receiving a Silver Star), my dad became somewhat of a minor celebrity in the early 50s, appearing on a handful of TV and radio game shows as a kind of poster boy for the Air Force. One result of this series of events was that he was able to indulge his fascination with a new technology that had been developed by the Germans during WWII: magnetic recording tape. He used his prize winnings to buy a Webcor tape recorder, which in turn led to me becoming interested in recording technology at an early age (I distinctly remember being punished for playing with "Daddy's tape recorder" without permission on more than one occasion). He did not receive another overseas assignment until 1967, when he was transferred to Weisbaden, Germany. As was the usual practice at the time, he went there a month or so before the rest of the family, and during his alone time he (on a whim, apparently) went in on a Lotto ticket with a co-worker and won enough to buy an Akai X-355 stereo tape recorder from a fellow serviceman who was being transferred out and did not want to (or couldn't afford to) pay the shipping costs of the rather heavy machine.The Akai was pretty much the state of the art in home audio technology at the time. The problem was that we did not have a stereo system to hook it into, so he bought a set of Koss headphones to go with it. Of course all of his old tapes were in storage (along with the old Webcor) back in Denver, so I decided that this would be a good time to start spending my allowance money on pre-recorded reel-to-reel tapes, the first of which was Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Akai had an auto-reverse system and I would lie on the couch with the headphones on to go to sleep every night listening to songs like Manic Depression. Is it any wonder I turned out like I did?

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    Turn On Your Love Light
Source:    LP: The Big Ball (excerpt of track that was originally released on LP: Live Dead)
Writer(s):    Scott/Malone
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1969
    After two years' (and three albums) worth of trying to capture their live sound in the studio, the Grateful Dead decided just to cut to the chase and release a live album. The result was the double LP Live Dead, one of the most successful releases in Grateful Dead history. The album itself is one continuous concert, with each side fading out at the end, with a bit of overlap at the beginning of the next side. Most of the material on Live Dead was written by the band itself, the sole exception being a fifteen-minute long rendition of Bobby Bland's 1961 hit Turn On Your Love Light, featuring vocals by organist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. This six and a half minute long excerpt from the album first appeared on the Warner Brothers "Loss Leaders" album The Big Ball, a two-disc sampler album that could only be bought directly from the record company. The same excerpt was later included on the 1972 Grateful Dead compilation album Skeletons From The Closet.

Artist:    Sonics
Title:    Strychnine
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released on LP: Here Are The Sonics)
Writer(s):    Gerald Roslie
Label:    Rhino (original label: Etiquette)
Year:    1965
    From 1965 we have a band that maintains a cult following to this day: the legendary Sonics, generally considered one of the foundation stones of the Seattle music scene. Although the majority of songs on their albums were cover tunes, virtually all of their originals, such as Strychnine from their debut LP, are now considered punk classics; indeed, the Sonics, along with their labelmates the Wailers, are often cited as the first true punk rock bands.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Worry
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Ultimate Turn On
Writer(s):    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Big Beat
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 2006
    Following the release of the album Turn On, The Music Machine went on the road, returning to Los Angeles for what would be their final recording sessions in March and April of 1967. By then the band, for various reasons, was on the verge of splitting up, and the second Music Machine album remained unfinished. Meanwhile, bandleader Sean Bonniwell still had gigs lined up and was on the verge of signing a new contract with Warner Brothers Records, and quickly assembled a new version of the Music Machine. The new group recorded enough material to complete the album, which was released later that year as the Bonniwell Music Machine. As it turned out, the new group had recorded more new material than was needed, and Bonniwell, naturally favoring his newest material, left a few of the original band's recordings unreleased until 2006, when Britain's Ace Records released a double-CD called The Ultimate Turn On on their garage-rock oriented Big Beat label.

Artist:    Lemon Pipers
Title:    No Help From Me
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Lemon Pipers
Label:    Buddah
Year:    1967
    Buddah Records had its greatest success in 1968 as the chief purveyor of bubblegum pop music targeted to adolescents and their younger siblings. Their first major hit in this genre was a song called Green Tambourine, by the Lemon Pipers. It was also the only hit single the Lemon Pipers ever had. For the reason why, we have to go back a couple of years to a place called Oxford, Ohio. Oxford, with a population of around 25,000, is home to Miami University,  the second-oldest university in Ohio and the tenth-oldest public university in the United States. In short, it is the prototypical American college town, with a local music scene specifically geared to the college crowd. In 1966 four veterans of various local bands, drummer Bill Albaugh, guitarist Bill Bartlett, keyboardist Robert Nave and bassist Bob Dudek, formed the Lemon Pipers. Their repertoire was what you'd expect in a college town in the mid-1960s: folk-rock, blues-rock and covers of songs by the Who, the Kinks, and the Byrds, among others. In 1967 they went to Cleveland to compete in the Ohio Battle of the Bands, finishing second in the finals to a local band called the James Gang. After releasing a single on the local Dana label, the Lemon Pipers added lead vocalist Dale "Ivan" Browne and sought out the services of an Ohio music industry bigwig named Mark Barger, who put them in touch with Neil Bogart, head of Buddah Records, who signed them to a recording contract and music publishing deal. At first it seemed like a good thing for the group, as they got to go on tour and play larger venues, including Bill Graham's Fillmore West, where they shared a bill with Traffic, Moby Grape and Spirit. When their first, self-penned single for Buddah tanked, however, their producer, Paul Leka, pressured the group into recording Green Tambourine, a song that sounded nothing like the band's usual repertoire, which was more accurately represented by the record's B side, a group composition called No Help From Me. Of course Green Tambourine was a huge hit, an from that point on it was either do what Buddah told them (which meant recording more bubblegum pop songs) or lose their contract. Although the Lemon Pipers recorded two albums and released half a dozen more singles for Buddah, they were never happy with the relationship and in 1969 permanantly parted company with the label. The Lemon Pipers disbanded not long after that

Artist:    Del Shannon
Title:    I Think I Love You
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: The Further Adventures Of Charles Westover)
Writer(s):    Del Shannon
Label:    Rhino (original label: Liberty)
Year:    1968
    Del Shannon? The guy who did Runaway back in '62? Yep. Also the same Del Shannon who Tom Petty has acknowledged as his number one inspiration and who was on the verge of being asked to replace the late Roy Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys when he himself became the late Del Shannon. Unlike many of his early 60s contemporaries such as Bobby Vee or Fabian, Shannon was able to keep up with the times, as this piece of pure psychedelia (penned by Shannon himself) from the album The Further Adventures of Charles Westover demonstrates.

Artist:    Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title:    Acapulco Gold And Silver
Source:    CD: Quicksilver Messenger Service (bonus track)
Writer(s):    Duncan/Schuster
Label:    Rock Beat (original label: Capitol)
Year:    Recorded 1968, released 2011
    One of the highlights of the first Quicksilver Messenger Service album was Gold And Silver, a six minute long instrumental which has drawn comparisons with Dave Brubeck's Take Five. This shorter version of the tune, entitled Acapulco Gold And Silver, was included on the 2011 CD reissue of the album.

Artist:         Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title:        Light Your Windows
Source:    CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Quicksilver Messenger Service)
Writer:         Duncan/Freiberg
Label:         Rhino (original label: Capitol)
Year:         1968
         One of the last of the legendary San Francisco bands that played at the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival to get signed to a major label was Quicksilver Messenger Service. Inspired by a conversation between Dino Valenti and guitarist John Cippolina, there are differing opinions on just how serious Valenti was about forming a new band at that time. Since Valenti was busted for marijuana possession the very next day (and ended up spending the next two years in San Quentin), 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 and probably handicapping them in the long run.

Artist:    Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title:    I Don't Want To Spoil Your Party (alternate version of Dino's Song)
Source:    CD: Quicksilver Messenger Service (originally released on CD: Unreleased Quicksilver)
Writer(s):    Dino Valenti
Label:    RockBeat (original label: Capitol)
Year:    Recorded 1968, alternate version released 2000)
    A few years back I picked up the DVD collector's edition of the telefilm that DA Pennebacker made of the Monterey International Pop Festival. In addition to the film itself there were two discs of bonus material, including a song by Quicksilver Messenger Service that was listed under the title All I Ever Wanted To Do (Was Love You). I spent some time trying to figure out which album the song had originally appeared on, but came up empty until I got a copy of the first Quicksilver album and discovered it was actually called Dino's song. The album version has a definite garage sound to it, similar to the classic Van Morrison song Gloria. In 2000 Collector's Choice released a compilation of previously unheard Quicksilver tracks, including this alternate version of Dino's Song that uses yet another title: I Don't Want To Spoil Your Party. This version has a more country-rock sound to it than the original LP version. I suspect the confusion in song titles is connected to the origins of the band itself, which was the brainchild of Dino Valenti and John Cipollina (and possibly Gary Duncan). The day after their first practice session Valenti got busted and spent the next few years in jail for marijuana possession. My theory is that this was an untitled song that Valenti showed Cippolina at that first practice. Since it probably still didn't have a title when the group performed the song at Monterey, the filmmakers used the most repeated line from the song itself, All I Ever Wanted To Do (Was Love You). When the band recorded their first LP in 1968 they just called it Dino's Song. Presumably by the time this alternate version was released in 2000 Valenti had come up with an official title, I Don't Want To Spoil Your Party. If anyone knows of another explanation, please pass it along.

Artist:    Grass Roots
Title:    Feelings
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Feelings and as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Coonce/Entner/Fukomoto
Label:    Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year:    1968
    In 1968 the Grass Roots decided to assert themselves and take artistic control of their newest album, Feelings, writing most of the material for the album themselves. Unfortunately for the band, the album, as well as its title track single, fared poorly on the charts. From that point on the Grass Roots were firmly under the control of producers/songwriters Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan, cranking out a series of best-selling hits such as I'd Wait A Million Years and Midnight Confessions (neither of which get played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era, incidentally).

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.