Tuesday, August 30, 2011

SITPE # 1135 Playlist

This week it's mostly odds and ends, although we do have sets from 1967 and 1968 in the first hour. The second hour, on the other hand, is pure chaos (although I did manage to sneak in a British Rock set).

Artist: 13th Power
Title: I Want To Be Your Man
Source: LP: Wild In The Streets soundtrack
Writer: Mann/Weil
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
Critics and audiences alike were divided on how to interpret the movie Wild In The Streets. Was it speculative fiction about a distopian future or simply a teen exploitation flick? The film certainly had enough big Hollywood names in it (Christopher Jones, Hal Holbrook and Shelley Winters, among others) to be taken seriously, yet the basic premise, that teens, led by a popular rock band, would rise up and take power, putting anyone over 30 into concentration camps, was a bit over-the-top. Regardless of the creators' intentions, Wild In The Streets is now viewed as a cult film that helped launch the career of Richard Pryor (who played bassist Stanley X), and had some decent tunes written by the songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (writers of the Paul Revere and the Raiders hit Hungry). The hit single from the movie, Shape Of Things To Come, was attributed on the label to Max Frost and the Troopers, the fictional band that led the revolution, but on the soundtrack album the song was credited to the 13th Power. The reality was that all the songs on the album were the work of studio musicians, although they were credited to a variety of groups such as the Gurus and the Senators. The songs credited to the 13th Power, such as I Want To Be Your Man, were possibly the work of Davie Allen and the Arrows, with lead vocals by Paul Wibier, although that has never been substantiated. It is even possible that Jones himself sang on the soundtrack album.

Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Rock And Roll Woman (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again)
Source: LP: Homer soundtrack
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Cotillion (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
Buffalo Springfield did not sell huge numbers of records (except for the single For What It's Worth). Nor did they pack in the crowds. As a matter of fact, when they played the club across the street from where Love was playing, they barely had any audience at all. Artistically, though, it's a whole 'nother story. During their brief existence Buffalo Springfield launched the careers of no less than four major artists: Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Stephen Stills and Neil Young. They also recorded more than their share of tracks that have held up better than most of what else was being recorded at the time. Case in point: Rock and Roll Woman, a Stephen Stills tune that still sounds fresh well over 40 years after it was recorded.

Artist: Yardbirds
Title: A Certain Girl
Source: CD: Over, Under, Sideways, Down (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Naomi Neville
Label: Raven (original label: Epic)
Year: 1964
Despite being one of the most respected bands on the British Blues scene, the Yardbirds were never known for their original material. In fact, most of their recordings were either re-interpretations of blues/R&B classics or songs that were given to the band by professional songwriters such as Graham Gouldman. A Certain Girl, released as the B side of I Wish You Would, is a good example of the former, coming from the pen of Allen Toussaint (using the pseudonym Naomi Neville) and originally recorded by Ernie K-Doe (Mother-In-Law).

Artist: Beau Brummels
Title: Just A Little
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Elliott/Durand
Label: Rhino (original label: Autumn)
Year: 1965
Often dismissed as an American imitation of British Invasion bands such as the Beatles, the Beau Brummels actually played a pivotal role in rock music history. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the Brummels were led by Ron Elliott, who co-wrote most of the band's material, including their two top 10 singles in 1965. The second of these, Just A Little, is often cited as the first folk-rock hit, as it was released a week before the Byrds' recording of Mr. Tambourine Man. According to Elliott, the band was not trying to invent folk-rock, however. Rather, it was their own limitations as musicians that forced them to work with what they had: solid vocal harmonies and a mixture of electric and acoustic guitars. Elliott also credits the contributions of producer Sly Stone for the song's success. Conversely, Just A Little was Stone's greatest success as a producer prior to forming his own band, the Family Stone, in 1967.

Artist: Turtles
Title: She's My Girl
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Bonner/Gordon
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1967
After a moderate amount of success in 1965 with a series of singles starting with a cover of Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe, the Turtles found themselves running out of steam by the end of 1966. Rather than throw in the towel, they enlisted the services of the Bonner/Gordon songwriting team and recorded their most successful single, Happy Together, in 1967. They dipped into the same well for She's My Girl later the same year.

Artist: Byrds
Title: Why
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer: McGuinn/Crosby
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
The closing track for the Byrds' fourth LP, Younger Than Yesterday, was originally recorded in late 1965 at RCA studios and was released as the B side of Eight Miles High in 1966. The Younger Than Yesterday version of Why is actually a re-recording of the song.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: White Rabbit
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Writer: Grace Slick
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1967
It's been a few weeks since I played this classic. I figured it was about time to play it again.

Artist: Chambers Brothers
Title: Time Has Come Today
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets
Writer: J. Chambers/W. Chambers
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1967
One of the quintessential songs of the psychedelic era is the Chambers Brothers' classic Time Has Come Today. The song was originally recorded and issued as a single in 1966. The more familiar version heard here, however, was recorded in 1967 for the album The Time Has Come. The LP version of the song runs about eleven minutes, way too long for a 45 RPM record, so before releasing the song as a single for the second time, engineers at Columbia cut the song down to around 3 minutes. The edits proved so jarring that the record was recalled and a re-edited version, clocking in at 4:55 became the third and final single version of the song, hitting the charts in 1968.

Artist: Blood, Sweat and Tears
Title: My Days Are Numbered
Source: LP: Child Is Father To The Man
Writer: Al Kooper
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
The first artist spotlight I ever did on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era (back in 2002, long before the show went into syndication) was on Al Kooper. At the time I didn't realize just how important a figure he was in rock history. I knew that he had first appeared on the scene as the replacement for the original guitarist of the Royal Teens, but not that he had become friends with producer Tom Wilson as a result of that. It was as a guest of Wilson that Kooper was in attendance at the historic sessions that produced the classic Bob Dylan track Like A Rolling Stone and the subsequent Highway 61 Revisited album. I knew that Kooper had been the organist for those sessions, but not that he had intended to play guitar that day (when he saw that Michael Bloomfield was already there, he changed his mind) and only played the organ because nobody else was sitting at it. This led to other studio work from producers hoping to cash in on the "Dylan organ" sound. Kooper soon realized that he was being typecast and began looking for ways to expand and hone his abilities, not only as an organist, but on piano and other, more experimental keyboard instruments that were just hitting the market at the time. It was at yet another studio session as a guest of Tom Wilson that Kooper met the members of a new band called the Blues Project, who were (unsuccessfully) auditioning for Columbia Records at their New York studios. Kooper and the band members hit it off and Kooper soon became the band's regular keyboardist, playing on two LPs with the band (and appearing on a third that was released after his departure). In 1968 Kooper hooked up with his friend Michael Bloomfield (among others) to record the historic Super Session album. Feeling that some of the tracks were lacking something, Kooper arranged for horns to be overdubbed, which led to him forming a new band that featured a horn section as an integral part of the band. Calling the new group Blood, Sweat and Tears, he released one album, Child Is Father To The Man, with them before moving on to other things. The majority of songs on Child were written by Kooper, including My Days Are Numbered.

Artist: Big Brother and the Holding Company
Title: I Need A Man To Love
Source: CD: Cheap Thrills
Writer: Joplin/Andrew
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
Big Brother and the Holding Company's most successful album, Cheap Thrills, was a mixture of live and studio tracks. I Need A Man To Love, written by band members Janis Joplin and Sam Houston Andrew III, was recorded at the Fillmore West. Somehow I don't think they actually faded out at the end of the song when they played it, though.

Artist: Beacon Street Union
Title: Now I Taste The Tears
Source: LP: The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens
Writer: Clifford
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1968
The second LP from the Beacon Street Union, The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens, was a departure from the sound of the band's first album. If anything, it featured an even more eclectic mix of songs than The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union, including the humorous King of the Jungle and the spacy spoken word piece Can I Light Your Cigarette. The band took an R&B turn with Now I Taste The Tears, which features a horn section that was probably brought in at the insistence of producer Wes Farrell, who would go on to produce the Partridge Family a couple years later.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Kyrie Eleison/Mardi Gras
Source: Easy Rider soundtrack
Writer: David Axelrod
Label: MCA
Year: 1968
After the commercial disappointment of the Electric Prunes second LP, Underground, the powers that be at Reprise Records decided to use the band in an experiment. David Axelrod had written a rock-mass and was looking for a band to record it. It soon became apparent, however, that Axelrod's arrangements were beyond the technical skills of the Prunes, and studio musicians were brought in to complete the project. The result was Mass In F Minor, which with its royal purple cover stood out on the record racks but did not sell any better than the previous Prunes LP. Before fading off into obscurity the album was immortalized by having its opening track, Kyrie Eleison, featured in the film Easy Rider and subsequent soundtrack album.

Artist: Warlocks
Title: Can't Come Down
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70
Writer: Garcia/Kreutzmann/Lesh/McKernan/Weir
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded 1965
In 1965 Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters were travelling around conducting the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests, basically an excuse to turn on people to LSD. Part of Kesey's entourage was a group of young musicians calling themselves the Warlocks. Toward the end of the year, producer Sylvester Stewart (aka Sly Stone) brought the Warlocks into the studio to cut some songs. The songs themselves did not get released until 1999, when the Warlocks (now calling themselves the Grateful Dead) decided to include them on an anthology album. The lead vocals are by guitarist Jerry Garcia, although they don't sound much like his later Grateful Dead recordings.

Artist: PF Sloan
Title: Halloween Mary
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: PF Sloan
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1966
Since I just played this song last week I'm going to refer you to the previous post (SITPE # 1134 Playlist).

Artist: Music Machine
Title: The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1967
The Music Machine was by far the most sophisticated of all the bands playing on L.A.'s Sunset Strip in 1966-67. Not only did they feature tight sets (so that audience members wouldn't get the chance to call out requests between songs), they also had their own visual look that set them apart from other bands. Dressed entirely in black (including dyed hair), and with leader Sean Bonniwell wearing one black glove, the Machine projected an image that would influence such diverse artists as the Ramones and Michael Jackson in later years. Musically, Bonniwell's songwriting showed a sophistication that was on a par with the best L.A. had to offer, demonstrated by a series of fine singles such as The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly. Unfortunately, problems on the business end prevented the Music Machine from achieving the success it deserved and Bonniwell eventually quit the music business altogether in disgust.

Artist: Who
Title: Boris The Spider
Source: LP: Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy
Writer: John Entwhistle
Label: MCA
Year: 1966
For many years, "Boris the Spider" was bassist John Entwhistle's signature song. Eventually Entwhistle got sick of singing it and wrote another one. Truth is, he wrote a lot of songs, but like the Beatles's George Harrison, did not always get the recognition as a songwriter that more prolific bandmate Pete Townshend got. This was one of the first album tracks I ever heard played on an FM station (KLZ-FM in Denver, the first FM in the area to play something besides classical, jazz or elevator music).

Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: The Sound Of Silence
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Sounds of Silence)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
The Sound Of Silence was originally an acoustic piece that was included on Simon and Garfunkel's 1964 debut album, Wednesday Morning 3AM. The album went nowhere and was soon deleted from the Columbia Records catalog. Simon and Garfunkel themselves went their separate ways, with Simon moving to London and recording a solo LP, the Paul Simon Songbook. While Simon was in the UK, producer John Simon, who had been working with Bob Dylan on Highway 61 Revisited, pulled out the master tape of The Sound Of Silence and got Dylan's band to add electric instruments to the existing recording. The song was released to local radio stations, where it garnered enough interest to get the modified recording released as a single. It turned out to be a huge hit and prompted Paul Simon to move back to the US and reunite with Art Garfunkel.

Artist: Charlatans
Title: Alabama Bound
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on CD: The Amazing Charlatans)
Writer: Trad. Arr. Ferguson/Hicks/Hunter/Olsen/Wilhelm
Label: Rhino (original label: Big Beat)
Year: Recorded 1967, released 1996)
Despite being one of the most important bands on the San Francisco scene, the Charlatans did not have much luck in the recording studio. Their first sessions were aborted, the planned LP for Kama Sutra was shelved by the label itself, and the band was overruled in their choice of songs to be released on their first (and only) single issued from the Kama Sutra sessions. In 1967, however, they did manage to get some decent tracks recorded. Unfortunately, those tracks were not released until 1996, and then only in the UK. The centerpiece of the 1967 sessions was this six-minute recording of a traditional tune that is considered by many to be the Charlatans' signature song: Alabama Bound.

Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Boogie Music
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Living The Blues)
Writer: L.T. Tatman III
Label: United Artists (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1968
Canned Heat was formed in 1966 by a group of Bay Area blues purists. Although a favorite on the rock scene, the band continued to remain true to the blues throughout their existence. The band's most popular single was Going Up the Country from the album Living the Blues. An edited version of Boogie Music, also from Living the Blues, was issued as the B side of that single. This is the full-length version.

Artist: Dan Hicks And His Hot Licks
Title: How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70
Writer: Dan Hicks
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1969
As one of the founders of the legendary San Francisco band the Charlatans, Dan Hicks has a special place in rock history. One song recorded (but not released) by the Charlatans was How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away, which became sort of a signature tune for Hick's new band, the Hot Licks.

Artist: Beatles
Title: Fixing A Hole
Source: CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1967
The first Beatle album to appear with the same tracks in the same order on both US and UK versions was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The only differences between the two were a lack of spaces in the vinyl (called "banding") on the UK version and a bit of gobbledygook heard at the end of the record (but only if you did not have a turntable that automatically lifted the needle out of the groove after the last track). Said gobbledygook is included after A Day In The Life on the CD as a hidden track if you really want to hear what it sounds like.

Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Bouree
Source: CD: Stand Up
Writer: Bach, arr. Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
The second Jethro Tull album, Stand Up, saw the band moving a considerable distance from its blues-rock roots, as flautist Ian Anderson asserted himself as leader and sole songwriter for the group. Nowhere is that more evident than on the last track of the first side of Stand Up, the instrumental Bouree, which successfully melds jazz and classical influences into the Jethro Tull sound.

Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Simple Sister
Source: LP: Best of Procol Harum (originally released on LP: Broken Barricades)
Writer: Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1971
By 1971 serious creative differences had developed between keyboardist/vocalist Gary Brooker and lead guitarist Robin Trower. At issue was the direction the band was moving in. While Brooker wanted to continue in the progressive/classical direction the band had become known for, Trower wanted a harder-edged sound. Trower's final album as a member of Procol Harum shows the two directions often at odds with each other. One track, though, Simple Sister, managed to merge elements of both Brooker's and Trower's styles, and received a significant amount of airplay on album-oriented FM radio throughout the 1970s.

Artist: Blues Project
Title: Back Door Man
Source: LP: special DJ sampler (originally released on LP: Live At Cafe-Au-Go-Go)
Writer: Dixon/Burnett
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
Original Blues Project vocalist Tommy Flanders only stayed with the group long enough to record one album. At the release party in L.A. for Live At Cafe-Au-Go-Go, however, in a scene right out of Spinal Tap, Flanders's girl friend had an all-out blowup with the rest of the band members that resulted in her announcing that Flanders was quitting the band to go Hollywood.
As a result by the time the album actually became available in record stores Flanders was no longer with the group. The Blues Project's cover of the classic Back Door Man is a good example of Flanders performing in his element.

Artist: Sagittarius
Title: My World Fell Down
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Shakespeare/Stephens
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1967
The Beach Boys' 1966 masterpiece Good Vibrations sent shock waves reverberating throughout the L.A. studio scene. Among those inspired by Brian Wilson's achievement were Wilson's former collaborator Gary Usher, who formed the studio band Sagittarius to record My World Fell Down in 1967. Among those participating in the project were Glen Campbell, who was the first person to take Wilson's place onstage when Wilson retired from performing to concentrate on his songwriting and record producing; Bruce Johnston, who succeeded Campbell and remains the group's bassist to this day; and Terry Melcher, best known as the producer who helped make Paul Revere and the Raiders a household name in 1965 (he was sometimes referred to as the "fifth Raider"). The rhythm section consisted of two of the top studio musicians in pop music history: bassist Carol Kaye and drummer Hal Blaine. With Campbell on lead vocals, Sagittarius was a critical and commercial success that nonetheless did not last past their first LP (possibly due to the sheer amount of ego in the group).

Artist: Harry Nilsson
Title: Sister Marie
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Writer: D. Morrow
Label: Rhino (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1968
Harry Nilsson is best known for his songwriting and for his albums Nilsson Schmilsson and Son of Schmilsson in the early 70s, as well as his celebrated drinking binges with friend and cohort John Lennon later in the decade. In the early days of his career, however, he occassionally recorded a cover tune, such as Sister Marie, probably the most psychedelic sounding song he ever put on tape.

Artist: Chicago
Title: Poem 58
Source: LP: Chicago Transit Authority
Writer: Robert Lamm
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
Although best known as one of the core bands of adult contemporary radio in the 70s and 80s, Chicago started off as a hard-working touring band in 1968. Their debut album, released in 1969, featured several extended tracks highlighted by the guitar work of Terry Kath, whom Jimi Hendrix himself singled out as one of his favorite contemporary guitarists. Poem 58, written by keyboardist Robert Lamm, is a solid example of Kath's virtuosity on the instrument.

Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Title: Teach Your Children
Source: déjà vu
Writer: Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
Teach Your Children, written by Graham Nash, has an audio anomaly that has perplexed engineers for years. Using an X/Y setting (X for left channel audio, Y for right) on an oscilloscope indicates that the last verse of the song (the "you of tender years" verse) is out of phase with the rest of the recording (the left and right channel are not precisely synchronized). This makes the verse sound a bit "spacy" when listened to on a mono source such as an AM radio. A close listen to the stereo mix with headphones on reveals that Stephen Stills's vocals move a touch to the left for that verse and have a slightly different tonal quality, as do David Crosby and Graham Nash's harmonies.The likely reason for this is that the verse was probably recorded at a different time than the rest of the track, using a different reel of tape, then physically spliced into the original tape. This could have been done for any number of reasons, such as a last minute change in the harmonies or to replace a possibly defective performance that was not noticed until the tape had already been mixed down (or the master could have been damaged somehow).

Thursday, August 25, 2011

SITPE # 1134 Playlist

This week we have a rather large number of songs that have never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. Appropriately, we start off with a song that hasn't been played since the 2010 End Of Year special counting down the most played songs of the year. Porpoise Song came in 16th. Somehow I don't think it will make this year's list (unless I play it a LOT of times over the next three months).

Artist: Monkees
Title: Porpoise Song
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on the soundtrack album to the movie Head)
Year: 1968
In 1968 the Monkees, trying desperately to shed a teeny-bopper image, enlisted Jack Nicholson to co-write a feature film that was a 180-degree departure from their recently-cancelled TV show. This made sense, since the original fans of the show were by then already outgrowing the group. Unfortunately, by 1968 the Monkees brand was irrevocably tainted by the fact that the Monkees had not been allowed to play their own instruments on their first two albums. The movie Head itself was the type of film that was best suited to being shown in theaters that specialized in "art" films, but that audience was among the most hostile to the Monkees and the movie bombed. It is now considered a cult classic.

Artist: Neil Young/Graham Nash
Title: War Song
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1972
Around the same time that Neil Young was working on his Harvest LP he recorded this track with Graham Nash and the Stray Gators. It was never released on an LP, although it did appear on CD many years later on one of the various anthologies that have been issued over the years.

To round out the first set we have a track that made its Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut just a few weeks ago.

Artist: P.F. Sloan
Title: Halloween Mary
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: P.F. Sloan
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1965
If there is any one songwriter associated specifically with folk-rock (as opposed to folk music), it would be the LA-based P.F. Sloan, writer of Barry McGuire's signature song, Eve Of Destruction. Sloan also penned hits for the Turtles in their early days as one of the harder-edged folk-rock bands, including their second hit, Let Me Be. In fact, Sloan had almost 400 songs to his credit by the time he and Steve Barri teamed up to write and produce a series of major hits released by various bands under the name Grass Roots. Sloan himself, however, only released two singles as a singer, although (as can be heard on the second of them, the slightly off-kilter Halloween Mary) he had a voice as good as many of the recording stars of the time.

As I write these notes I find myself somewhat shocked to discover that two of the next three songs (an all-British set from 1967) have never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. And they are all three outstanding tracks, too. Just goes to show how much great music was recorded over such a short time.

Artist: Beatles
Title: Strawberry Fields Forever
Source: CD: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone
Year: 1967
The only reason I can think of for never having played Strawberry Fields Forever on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is that there are just so many quality Beatles recordings that it's easy to overlook a few. A poor excuse for not playing one of the greatest psychedelic songs ever recorded, I know.

Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: I'm A Man
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Miller/Winwood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
The Spencer Davis Group, featuring Steve and Muff Winwood, was one of the UK's most successful white R&B bands of the sixties, cranking out a steady stream of hit singles. Two of them, the iconic Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man, were also major hits in the US, the latter being the last song to feature the Winwood brothers. Muff Winwood became a successful record producer. The group itself continued on for several years, but were never able to duplicate their earlier successes. As for Steve Winwood, he quickly faded off into obscurity, never to be heard from again. Except as the leader of Traffic. And a member of Blind Faith. And Traffic again. And some critically-acclaimed collaborations in the early 1980s with various Asian musicians. Oh yeah, and a few obscure solo hits (While You See A Chance, Roll With It, Higher Love, etc.) in the late 80s. Other than that, nothing.

Artist: Cream
Title: We're Going Wrong
Source: LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Jack Bruce
Label: RSO (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
On Fresh Cream the slowest-paced tracks were bluesy numbers like Sleepy Time Time. For the group's second LP, bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce came up with We're Going Wrong, a song with a haunting melody supplemented by some of Eric Clapton's best guitar fills. Ginger Baker put away his drumsticks in favor of mallets, giving the song an otherworldly feel.

Artist: Otherside
Title: Streetcar
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Battey/Graham
Label: Rhino (original label: Brent)
Year: 1966
Although not as popular as the Chocolate Watchband or Count Five, the Otherside had its share of fans in the San Jose, California area. Enough, in fact, to land a deal with Brent Records. Their single, Streetcar, got some airplay on local radio stations, but failed to match the success of other area bands.

Artist: Paul Revere and the Raiders
Title: Hungry
Source: LP: Spirit of '67
Writer: Mann/Weil
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
1966 was an incredibly successful year for Paul Revere and the Raiders. In addition to starting a gig as the host band for Dick Clark's new afternoon TV show, Where The Action Is, the band managed to crank out three consecutive top 10 singles. The second of these was Hungry, written by Brill building regulars Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

Artist: Circus Maximus
Title: Short-Haired Fathers
Source: LP: Circus Maximus
Writer: Bob Bruno
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
Circus Maximus was formed in Greenwich Village by guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Bob Bruno and guitarist Jerry Jeff Walker in 1967. The group originally wanted to call itself the Lost Sea Dreamers, but changed it after the Vanguard Records expressed reservations about signing a group with the initials LSD. Of the eleven tracks on the band's debut LP, only four were written by Walker, and those were in more of a folk-rock vein. Bruno's seven tracks, on the other hand, are true gems of psychedelia, ranging from the jazz-influenced Wind to the proto-punk rocker Short-Haired Fathers. The group fell apart after only two albums, mostly due to the growing musical differences between Walker and Bruno. Walker, of course, went on to become one of the most successful songwriters of the country-rock genre. As for Bruno, not much is known of his life after Circus Maximus, although as far as I can tell he still lives in New York City.

Artist: Doors
Title: When The Music's Over
Source: CD: Strange Days
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
I remember the first time I heard this track. My girlfriend's older brother had it on the stereo in his room and told us to get real close to the speakers so we could hear the sound of a butterfly while he turned the volume way up. What we got, of course, was a blast of "...we want the world and we want it now." Good times.

Our first artist set of the night (there are three of 'em) is from a group that has been called the greatest rock and roll band ever: The Rolling Stones.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Yesterday's Papers
Source: LP: Between The Buttons
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
Between The Buttons was the Rolling Stones first album of 1967 and included their first forays into psychedelic music, a trend that would dominate their next LP, Their Satanic Majesties Request. The opening track of Between The Buttons was Yesterday's Papers, a song written in the wake of Mick Jagger's breakup with his girlfriend Chrissie Shrimpton (who, after the album was released, tried to commit suicide). The impact of the somewhat cynical song was considerably less in the US, where it was moved to the # 2 slot on side one to make room for Let's Spend The Night Together, a song that had only been released as a single in their native UK.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Mother's Little Helper
Source: CD: Flowers
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1966
By 1966 the Rolling Stones had already had a few brushes with the law over their use of illegal drugs. Mother's Little Helper, released in Spring of '66, is a scathing criticism of the abuse of legal prescription drugs by the parents of the Stones' fans. Perhaps more than any other song of the time, Mother's Little Helper illustrates the increasingly hostile generation gap that had sprung up between the young baby boomers and the previous generation.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Cool, Calm and Collected
Source: LP: Between The Buttons
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
Closing out the Rolling Stones set we have Cool, Calm and Collected. An appropriate choice, since the song also closes out side one of Between The Buttons.

Artist: Mad River
Title: Amphetamine Gazelle
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Mad River)
Writer: Lawrence Hammond
Label: Rhino (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1968
By 1968 acid was no longer the drug of choice on the streets of San Francisco. In its place, crystal meth was beginning to dominate the scene, with a corresponding increase in ripoffs and burns. The local musicians often reflected this change, with some, such as Canned Heat, declaring that Speed Kills and moving south to Laurel Canyon. Others, such as Mad River (originally from Yellow Springs, Ohio, but Bay Area residents since early 1967), attempted to use ridicule to combat the problem, but with no appreciable success (speed freaks not being known for their sense of humor, or any other kind of sense for that matter).

Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
Source: CD: The Grateful Dead
Writer: McGannahan Skjellyfetti
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1967
The Grateful Dead's debut single actually sold pretty well in the bay area, where it got airplay on top 40 stations from San Francisco to San Jose. Around the rest of the country, not so much, but the Dead would soon prove that there was more to survival than having a hit record. Writing credits on The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) were given to McGannahan Skjellyfetti, which like the Rolling Stones' Nanker Phelge was a name used for songs written by the entire band (it took up less space on the label).

The Chocolate Watchband are unique in that they managed to attain legendary status in spite of their record label or even their own management. The band started off well enough; a group of guys enrolled at Foothills Junior College in what would become Silicon Valley forming a band to play mostly covers by such hard-edged British bands as the Kinks and the Rolling Stones. The problems started when they signed a management contract with Ed Cobb, who also managed and produced the Standells and other garage-punk bands. Cobb, at that point, was looking to make inroads with the crowd that was buying records by the Seeds and other flower power groups, and tried his best to reshape the Watchband into a more psychedelic sound. Unfortunately, the band was really not suited to what Cobb wanted, so Cobb brought in studio musicians to present his musical vision. The result was a pair of albums that both sounded like they had been recorded by two entirely different groups...because they had (some tracks even had a studio lead vocalist on them).

This week's set, though, features songs that were performed by the actual Chocolate Watchband, and are among the best examples of the group's true sound.

Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: I Ain't No Miracle Worker
Source: CD: The Inner Mystique
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
Originally recorded by the Merced California band the Brogues, I Ain't No Miracle Worker was penned by the same songwriting team of Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz that had written the Electric Prunes' biggest hit, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). The Watchband version is actually a touch slower and (unexpectedly) more melodic than the 1965 Brogues original.

Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: Are You Gonna Be There (At The Love-In)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: The Love-In soundtrack)
Writer: McElroy/Bennett
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
The Love-In was a cheapo teensploitation flick from American International that included a clip of the Chocolate Watchband performing this tune. As both the Watchband and AIP's soundtracks were on Tower Records it was a perfect fit.

Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: I'm Not Like Everybody Else
Source: CD: The Inner Mystique
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
The first Chocolate Watchband album, No Way Out, sold well enough to warrant a follow-up LP, The Inner Mystique. The only problem was that by the end of 1967 there was no Chocolate Watchband left to record it, although there were a few unreleased recordings in the vaults. Unfazed, producer Ed Cobb once again turned to studio musicians to fill out the album. One of the few actual Watchband recordings on The Inner Mystique was this cover of the Kinks' I'm Not Like Everybody Else, which had appeared as a B side a couple years earlier. This song, along with their cover of I Ain't No Miracle Worker, almost made the album worth buying. In fact, enough people did indeed buy The Inner Mystique to warrant a third and final Watchband album, but by then the group had reformed with almost entirely different personnel and the resulting album, One Step Beyond, actually sounds less like the original group than all those studio musicians did.

Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Quite Rightly So
Source: CD: Shine On Brightly
Writer: Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1968
In 1969, while living on Ramstein AFB in Germany, my dad managed to get use of one of the basement storage rooms in building 913, the 18-unit apartment building we resided in. For a few months (until getting in trouble for having overnight guests and making too much noise...hey I was 16, whaddaya expect?) I got to use that room as a bedroom. I had a small record player that shut itself off when it got to the end of the record, which meant I got to go to sleep every night to the album of my choice. As often as not that album was Shine On Brightly, a copy of which I had gotten in trade for another album (the Best of the Beach Boys I think) from a guy who was expecting A Whiter Shade of Pale and was disappointed to discover it was not on this album. I always thought I got the better end of that deal, despite the fact that there was a skip during the fade of Quite Rightly So, causing the words "one was me" to repeat over and over until I scooted the needle over a bit. Luckily Quite Rightly So is the first song on the album, so I was usually still awake to do that.

Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Teacher
Source: LP: Benefit
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1970
LPs released by British Groups often had different song lineups in the US and the UK. One of the reasons for this is that British labels generally did not include songs that had been released as singles on LPs. In the US, however, running times were 5-10 minutes shorter per LP, and songs that had been included on British LPs would end up being dropped in favor of the latest hit single by the same artist. Jethro Tull, however, was generally an exception to this practice. Both of their first two LPs had exactly the same song lineup on both sides of the Atlantic. In fact, the only notable exception was the song Teacher, which was released as a single before the UK version of the group's third LP, Benefit. The US version of Benefit has Teacher on it, replacing Just Trying To Be, which would not be issued in the US until the Living In The Past album.

Artist: Nashville Teens
Title: Tobacco Road
Source: CD: British Beat
Writer: John D. Loudermilk
Label: KTel
Year: 1964
The Nashville Teens were neither teens nor from Nashville. In fact, they were one of the original British Invasion bands. Their version of John D. Loudermilk's Tobacco Road was a huge international hit in the summer of 1964. The lead guitar parts on the recording are the work of studio musician Jimmy Page.

Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Younger Girl
Source: LP: Do You Believe In Magic
Writer: John Sebastian
Label: Kama Sutra
Year: 1965
The Critters followed up their hit song Mr. Dieingly Sad with a cover of John Sebastian's Younger Girl in the fall of 1966. The original version heard here was recorded for the Lovin' Spoonful's debut album, Do You Believe In Magic in 1965.

Artist: Janis Ian
Title: I'll Give You A Stone If You Throw It (Changing Tymes)
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue) (originally released on LP: Janis Ian)
Writer: Janis Ian
Label: Polydor (original label: Now Sounds)
Year: 1967
Janis Ian got her first poem published in a national magazine at age 12. Not content with mere literary pursuits, the talented Ms. Ian turned to music. After being turned down by several major labels, Ian finally got a contract with the tiny New Sounds label and scored her first major hit with Society's Child, a song about interracial dating that was banned on several stations in the southern US. This led to her self-titled debut album at age 15, and a contract with M-G-M subsidiary Verve Forecast. I'll Give You A Stone If You Throw It (Changing Tymes) is taken from that first LP.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Comin' Back To Me
Source: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer: Marty Balin
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
Uncredited guest guitarist Jerry Garcia adds a simple, but memorable recurring fill riff to this Marty Balin tune. Balin, in his 2003 liner notes to the remastered release of Surrealistic Pillow, claims that Comin' Back To Me was written in one sitting under the influence of some primo stuff given to him by Paul Butterfield. Other players on the recording include Paul Kantner and Balin himself on guitars, Jack Casady on bass and Grace Slick on recorder.

Artist: Love
Title: She Comes In Colors
Source: Da Capo
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Arthur Lee was a bit of an enigma. His band, Love, was generally accepted as the top band on the Strip in L.A., yet Lee himself was a bit of a recluse living up on the hill overlooking the scene. With one notable exception, his songs were not hits, yet he was critically acknowledged as a musical genius on a par with his friend Jimi Hendrix. Stylistically, his songs varied from intensely hard rock (Stephanie Knows Who, 7&7 Is), to softer, almost jazzy tunes such as this one from the same album.

And now for a bit of a turnaround. A few months ago I played a set of tracks from the Jimi Hendrix Experience album Electric Ladyland, all taken from CD reissues. This time around we have the same three tracks in reverse order, using vinyl for the first and last ones.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Burning of the Midnight Lamp
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Burning of the Midnight Lamp was the fourth, and at the time most sophisticated single released by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, coming out in mid-1967 between Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold As Love. By this time, Reprise had changed its policy and ended up releasing the Axis album with the same song lineup as the UK original, which left Midnight Lamp a kind of orphan. Hendrix, though, having put a lot of work into the song, was not content to let the mono single release be the last word on the cut, and created a new stereo mix from the original tapes for inclusion on Electric Ladyland the following year.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Come On (Part 1)
Source: CD: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Earl King
Label: Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Despite being rated by many as the number one rock guitarist of all time, Jimi Hendrix's roots were in the blues. One of his most performed songs was Red House (a track that was left off the US release of Are You Experienced?), and the Experience's debut US performance at Monterey featured a amped-up version of the B.B. King classic Rock Me Baby. For the Electric Ladyland album Hendrix chose a relatively obscure tune from Earl King, originally recorded in 1960. Come On (Pt. 1) was one of only two cover songs on Electric Ladyland (the other being Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower).

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: …And The Gods Made Love/Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Although listed as separate tracks on the album cover, And The Gods Made Love and Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland) actually ran together as a continuing track on the album itself. In fact, the entire first and third sides of Electric Ladyland were pressed without the traditional spaces between songs on the vinyl (which is the source used here).

Artist: Seeds
Title: Pushin' Too Hard
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: The Seeds)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1966
Pushin' Too Hard is generally included on every collection of psychedelic hits ever compiled. And for good reason. The song is an undisputed classic.

Artist: Kinks
Title: You Really Got Me
Source: CD: 25 Years-The Ultimate Collection
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: PolyTel (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1964
You Really Got Me has been described as the first hard rock song and the track that invented heavy metal. You'll get no argument from me on either of those.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

SITPE # 1133 Playlist (starts 8/18)

We start this week's show with a pair of tracks that came from opposite ends of the pop music spectrum in early 1967. On the one hand we have the Cowsills, presenting about as wholesome an All-American family image as could be found that year. On the other we have a band that took its name from "Country Joe" Stalin and the writings of Mao Tse Tung.

Artist: Cowsills
Title: The Rain, The Park And Other Things
Source: LP: The Cowsills
Writer: Kornfeld/Duboff
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1967
The Cowsills started off as a trio of singing brothers who accompanied themselves on guitar, bass and drums. As they got older they began to add their younger siblings and eventually their mother to the band. Unusual among "family" bands in that in addition to singing they played all their own instruments, the Cowsills were the direct inspiration for TV's Partridge Family in the early 1970s. The Cowsills' first major hit was The Rain, The Park And Other Things, the opening track from their 1967 debut album.

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Bass Strings
Source: LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
One of the bands that defined psychedelic music was Country Joe and the Fish. Originally coming from a jug band tradition, the Fish were, by 1967, putting out some of the trippiest tracks ever recorded. A good example is Bass Strings from their debut album, which literally defines "acid rock".

Following up on that rather bizarre opening set we have three Beatle songs released on December 3rd 1965 in the UK and December 6th in the US.

Artist: Beatles
Title: Think For Yourself
Source: CD: Rubber Soul
Writer: George Harrison
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1965
By the end of 1965 George Harrison was writing two songs per Beatle album. On Rubber Soul, however, one of his two songs was deleted from the US version of the album and appeared on 1966's Yesterday...And Today LP instead. The remaining Harrison song on Rubber Soul was Think For Yourself. Harrison later said that he was still developing his songwriting at this point and that bandmate John Lennon had helped write Think For Yourself.

Artist: Beatles
Title: We Can Work It Out
Source: LP: Yesterday...And Today (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966 (single released 1965)
Such was the stature of the Beatles in December of 1965 that they were able to simultaneously release a 14-track (12 in the US) LP (Rubber Soul) and a double-A sided single (We Can Work It Out/Day Tripper, neither song being on the LP) on the same day and take them all to the top of the charts worldwide by Christmas. That feat has never been duplicated.

Artist: Beatles
Title: Run For Your Life
Source: CD: Rubber Soul
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1965
Compared to some of John Lennon's later songs, Run For Your Life comes across as a sexist, even violent expression of jealous posessiveness. However, in 1965 such a viewpoint was quite common; in fact it was pretty much the acceptable norm for the times. Scary, huh?

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Try A Little Harder
Source: CD: Singles Collection-The London Years
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1964
By the mid-1970s Rolling Stones records had been around close to five years, and all the new Stones recordings were being released on that label, which was distributed by Atlantic Records. There were still a few unreleased tracks in the vaults at London Records (which had carried the Stones throughout the 60s) however, including Try A Little Harder, which finally saw the light of day as a B side and on the LP Metamorphosis in 1975 after having been kept in a box since 1964.

Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Mean Town Blues
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Johnny Winter
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded: 1969; released: 2009
1969 was a breakthrough year for Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter, driven primarily by live performances at large venues such as the Dallas International Pop Festival and of course the Woodstock Performing Arts Festival, where this ten-plus minute track was recorded.

This week's second segment gets underway with three tracks released in 1967 from bands based in the the Los Angeles, California area.

Artist: Human Expression
Title: Optical Sound
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Quarles/Foster
Label: Rhino (original label: Accent)
Year: 1967
One thing Los Angeles had become known for by the mid-1960s was its urban sprawl. Made possible by one of the world's most extensive regional freeway systems, the city had become surrounded by suburbs on all sides (except for the oceanfront). Many of these suburbs were (and are) in Orange County, home to Anaheim stadium, Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. The O.C. was also home to the Human Expression, a band that recorded a trio of well-regarded singles for the Accent label. The second of these was Optical Sound. True to its name, the song utilized the latest technology available to achieve a decidedly psychedelic sound.

Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Incense And Peppermints
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released regionally as 45 RPM B side, reissued nationally as A side)
Writer: Carter/Gilbert/Weitz/King
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah
Year: 1967 (original label: All-American; reissued nationally on Uni Records)
Incense and Peppermints is one of the iconic songs of the psychedelic era, yet when it was originally released to Los Angeles area radio stations it was intended to be the B side of The Birdman of Alkatrash. Somewhere along the line a DJ flipped the record over and started playing Incense And Peppermints instead. The song caught on and Uni Records (short for Universal, which is now the world's largest record company) picked up the Strawberry Alarm Clock's contract and reissued the record nationally with Incense An Peppermints as the A side.

Artist: Byrds
Title: Change Is Now
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: McGuinn/Hillman
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1967
1967 saw the departure of two of the Byrds' founders and most prolific songwriters: Gene Clark and David Crosby. The loss of Clark coincided with the emergence of Chris Hillman as a first-rate songwriter in his own right; the loss of Crosby later in the year, however, created an extra burden for Hillman and Roger McGuinn, who from that point on were the band's primary composers. "Change Is Now" was the band's first post-Crosby single, released in late 1967 and later included (in a stereo version) on their 1968 LP The Notorious Byrd Brothers.

Leaving L.A. for a moment, we have a pair of tracks from 1971.

Artist: Blues Image
Title: Visions Of Flowers (originally released on LP: Lazarus)
Source: CD: Anthology
Writer: Danny Kalb
Label: Polydor (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1971
The Blues Project was originally the name of an anthology album by various artists that included a solo piece by guitarist Danny Kalb. Kalb later appropriated the name Blues Project for his new band. Bringing it all full circle is Visions Of Flowers, a Kalb solo piece released on the Blues Project LP Lazarus in 1971.

Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Me And Bobby McGee
Source: LP: Pearl
Writer: Kristofferson/Foster
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Janis Joplin's most successful single was the Kris Kristofferson-penned Me and Bobby McGee. Joplin died before the single was released, leading to a rather unusual situation: Me and Bobby McGee ended up being Kristofferson's signature song, both as a songwriter and a performer, despite his own recorded version never having charted.

To finish out the first hour we return once again to the L.A. club scene, circa 1966.

Artist: Other Half
Title: Mr. Pharmacist
Source: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single
Writer: Jeff Nowlen
Label: Rhino
Year: 1966
I really should be ashamed of myself, following up a song by an artist who died of a drug overdose with a song like Mr. Pharmacist. But I'm not. The Other Half was one of the many bands that could be found playing the local L.A. clubs when the infamous Riot On Sunset Strip happened in 1966. They are also the only other band I know of besides the Seeds that recorded for the GNP Crescendo label.

Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: CD: Comes In Colours (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Da Capo)
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: Raven (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1966 (stereo version: 1967)
The first rock band signed to Elektra Records was Love, a popular L.A. club band that boasted two talented songwriters, Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean. On the heels of their first album, which included the single "My Little Red Book" and one of the first recordings of the fast version of "Hey Joe", came their most successful single, released in July of 1966. This stereo mix is taken from the album Da Capo.

We get this week's second hour underway with a set of tracks from 1967.

Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: Ain't That So
Source: CD: Winds Of Change (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Writer: Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label: Repertoire (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1967
After recording this week's show I made an interesting discovery about Ain't That So. I knew the song had been released in the UK as the B side to Good Times (which was itself a B side in the US), but I was under the impression that it had not been released at all in the US. Well, it turns out I was wrong, as I discovered when I ran across a photo of the original label of the B side of the Animals 1968 single Monterey on the internet (yes, there are people who take pictures of stuff like that and post them on the internet). As I once spent seven years living with someone who had a copy of that single, I really should have remembered that.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Schizoforest Love Suite
Source: LP: After Bathing At Baxters
Writer: Slick/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
Jefferson Airplane's Schizoforest Love Suite, from the album After Bathing At Baxter's, actually consists of two songs: Grace Slick's Two Heads and Paul Kantner's Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon. Both are among the strongest tunes on what is generally considered to be the Airplane's most psychedelic album.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Spanish Castle Magic
Source: LP: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
As part of my ongoing 2011 New Year's Resolution to play more Hendrix, I recently splurged on the new 180 gram vinyl reissue of Axis: Bold As Love (yes, I know I already had a copy on CD, but I figure the more copies I have, the more likely I am to run across one and decide to play something from it. Sort of an negative corrolary to "out of sight, out of mind"). Of course I had to listen to Spanish Castle Magic on headphones, as that was the way I used to listen to the album when my only copy was on pre-recorded reel-to-reel tape. I'm happy to say the new copy sounds just as good as I remember the tape sounding back then. Even better, I finally am able to enjoy one of the coolest album covers ever issued in its full 12" wide by 24" tall glory.

We return to the year 1966, this time for a proper three-song set starting in (once again) L.A.

Artist: Sons Of Adam
Title: Saturday's Son
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Lou T. Josie
Label: Rhino (original label: Decca)
Year: 1966
I got to thinking I was about due to play something from a band I had never played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before, so I pulled out this track by the L.A. club band Sons Of Adam. Then I realized I had already done that with the first song on the night from the Cowsills (and that one was by request, even). But I decided to play Saturday's Son anyway, just on general principles. Hope you like it.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: Talk Talk
Source: CD: Turn On The Music Machine
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
When it came time for Sean Bonniwell's band, the Music Machine, to go into the studio, the group decided to go for the best sound possible. This meant signing with tiny Original Sound Records, despite having offers from bigger labels, due to Original Sound having their own state-of-the-art eight-track studios. Unfortunately for the band, they soon discovered that having great equipment did not mean Original Sound made great decisions. One of the first, in fact, was to include a handful of cover songs on the Music Machine's first LP that were recorded for use on a local TV show. Bonniwell was livid when he found out, as he had envisioned an album made up entirely of his own compositions (although he reportedly did plan to use a slowed-down version of Hey Joe that he and Tim Rose had worked up together). From that point on it was only a matter of time until the Music Machine and Original Sound parted company, but not until after they scored a big national hit with Talk Talk in 1966.

Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Gilbert/Scala/Esposito
Label: Rhino (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1966
The Blues Magoos (original spelling: Bloos) were either the first or second band to use the word psychedelic in an album title. Both they and the 13th Floor Elevators released their debut albums in 1966 and it is unclear which one actually came out first. What's not in dispute is the fact that Psychedelic Lollipop far outsold The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. One major reason for this was the fact that (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet was a huge national hit in early 1967, which helped album sales considerably. Despite having a unique sound and a look to match (including electric suits), the Magoos were unable to duplicate the success of Nothin' Yet on subsequent releases, partially due to Mercury's pairing of two equally marketable songs on the band's next single without indicating to stations which one they were supposed to be playing.

In 1969, while living on Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, I co-founded a band called Sunn with guitarist David Mason and drummer Mike Carter, which was primarily a jam band with a serious lack of equipment. The band split up in the summer of 1970 when both Dave's father and my own dad got transferred back to the states, but was reformed by Dave briefly (with new members) later that year in Mangum Oklahoma. In early 1971 Dave moved out to Alamogordo, New Mexico, where I had ended up, and with me, guitarist Doug Phillips and drummer Bobby Martin, started a third incarnation of Sunn. After Dave decided to return to Oklahoma, Doug and I headed up there ourselves to form the fourth and final version of the band with guitarist DeWayne Davis and drummer Michael Higgins. It is this version of Sunn that has a connection in my mind to the next two songs.

Artist: Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title: Cinnamon Girl
Source: LP: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
My favorite Neil Young song has always been Cinnamon Girl. I suspect this is because the band I was in the summer after I graduated from high school used a re-arranged version of the song as our show opener (imagine Cinnamon Girl played like I Can See For Miles and you get a general idea of how it sounded). If we had ever recorded an album, we probably would have used that arrangement as our first single. I finally got to see Neil Young perform the song live (from the 16th row even) with Booker T. and the MGs as his stage band in the mid-1990s. It was worth the wait.

Artist: Rare Earth
Title: I Just Want To Celebrate
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Zesses/Faharis
Label: Rare Earth
Year: 1971
So it's mid-September of 1971 and Sunn has just regrouped after losing our lead guitarist/backup drummer (and primary chick magnet) Dave to the US Air Force (he wanted to get married and needed the money). Luckily, we had three guitarists in the band, which had come in handy when Mike the drummer went to Nebraska to make some college start up money working the harvest and Dave had taken over on the drums (he was no Mike but at least he could keep a beat). But now Mike was back, Dave was gone, and after a month hiatus we had just scored our first gig: a one-shot at a little club in Weatherford, Oklahoma, where DeWayne (the rhythm guitarist) and Mike were enrolled as freshmen at a small liberal-arts college (Southwestern State). We had not practiced at all since losing Dave (and Mike hadn't played with us in almost two months) and were a bit rusty for the first set, but by the end of the third set we were cookin'. During the break the club manager asks us if we would be interested in becoming the house band, to play every Friday night. About that time, the jukebox plays the current Rare Earth hit, I Just Want To Celebrate, and we take to the stage and begin jamming along to the song. The jukebox gets unplugged and we just keep on jamming, a rather impromptu way to start the final set of the night. It was a seminal moment in the history of rock and roll.

Well, it could have been, if not for one small detail. A few days earlier, broke and seemingly out of options, I had made arrangements for my dad to drive up to Weatherford from Alamogordo, NM, and transport me and Doug (the other lead guitarist) back to the Land of Enchantment (a drive of several hundred miles that took about 10 hours each way). So we knew, even before we hit the stage that night, that it would be Sunn's final performance. Someday I'll write a novel based on what would have happened if I hadn't made that phone call. It'll become a bestseller and get picked up by a major Hollywood studio and become the definitive rock and roll movie. I'll use the money to locate and reunite the members of Sunn and we'll cut a million-selling album (available only on vinyl) and make history as the founders of the geezer-rock movement. We might even release an amped-up version of Cinnamon Girl as a single.

This week's final segment starts with one of the most influential pieces in rock history (despite the fact that the Butterfield Blues Band was not even considered a rock group when East-West was recorded in 1966).

Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: East-West
Source: CD: East-West
Writer: Bloomfield/Gravenites
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
Along with the Blues Project, the Butterfield Blues Band (and guitarist Michael Bloomfield in particular) are credited with starting the movement toward improvisation in rock music. Both are cited as influences on the new bands that were cropping up in San Francisco in late 1966m including Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead. The first Butterfield album did not have much in the way of improvisation, however, as Butterfield himself was a Chicago blues traditionalist who, like many of his idols, held the reins of the band tightly and did not tolerate deviation. By the time of the band's second LP, however, the group was becoming more of a democracy, especially after their successful live shows brought rave reviews for the musicianship of the individual members, especially Bloomfield (who in some polls was rated the number one guitarist in the country). Bloomfield used this new clout to push for more improvisation, and the result was the classic album East-West. The title track itself is a modal piece; that is, it (in jazz terms) stays on the One rather than following a traditional blues progression. Within that framework Bloomfield's solo uses scales found in eastern music (Indian in particular); hence the title of the piece: East-West. Another difference between East-West and the first Butterfield album was that second guitarist Elvin Bishop, who had played strictly rhythm guitar on the debut, got a chance to do some solo work of his own on East-West. Bishop would soon find himself the band's lead guitarist when Bloomfield left to form the Electric Flag in 1967.

This week's show finishes up with the week's only progression through the years, starting with a pair of B sides.

Artist: Standells
Title: Why Did You Hurt Me
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Dodd/Valentine
Label: Tower
Year: 1966
This Standells B side is a bit of a musical oddity. It starts off as a growling three-chord bit of classic garage rock, but then goes into a bridge that sounds more like flower pop, with flowing melodic harmonies. This leads into a short transitional section that has little in common with what had come before and finally (somewhat awkwardly) segues back into the three chord main section to finish the song. The important thing, however, is that the piece was written by band members Dick Dodd and Tony Valentine, and as such stands as a fairly typical example of a garage-rock B side.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less)
Source: CD: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: Collector's Choice (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
For a follow-up to the hit single I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), producer Dave Hassinger chose another Annette Tucker song (co-written by Jill Jones) called Get Me To The World On Time. This was probably the best choice from the album tracks available, but Hassinger may have made a mistake by choosing Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less) as the B side. That song, written by the same Tucker/Mantz team that wrote I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) could quite possibly been a hit single in its own right if it had been issued as an A side. I guess we'll never know for sure.

Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: A Child Of A Few Hours Is Burning To Death
Source: LP: Volume 3-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Writer: Markley/Morgan
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Bob Markley was a somewhat unique character on the LA scene. An heir from the Midwest and a moderately successful TV personality in Oklahoma, Markley had not been able to make a dent in tinsel town until he offered to finance the Harris brothers and become their tambourine player and (eventually) lead singer and lyricist. Although he is often accused of buying his way into rock and roll, he did have a certain gift for irony in his lyrics, as evidenced by A Child Of A Few Hours Is Burning To Death. The song itself (lyrics aside), was the work of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band's most underrated member, guitarist Ron Morgan. By the time Volume 3 was being recorded, Morgan's enthusiam for the band was almost non-existent (apparently working with a guy like Markley could have that effect on some people). Nonetheless, he managed to write some of the group's most memorable tunes, including this one.

Artist: Traffic
Title: Something's Got Hold of My Toe
Source: LP: Last Exit
Writer: Winwood/Mason/Miller
Label: Island (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1969
Traffic only made two albums before splitting up in 1968 (they reformed in 1970). After the breakup, Island Records assembled a collection of singles, B sides, live recordings and one unreleased track for a third album, titled Last Exit. The unreleased track is called Something's Got Hold of My Toe, an instrumental that sounds like it was a warm-up jam that just happened to get recorded. Somehow producer Jimmy Miller is listed as a co-writer. Generally, Miller's contributions were on the lyrical side, making this particular credit a bit puzzling.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

SITPE # 1132 Playlist (starts 8/11)

OK, here is the entire playlist for show # 1132. Enjoy!

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The Electric Prunes biggest hit was I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), released in early 1967. The record, initially released without much promotion from the record label, was championed by Seattle DJ Pat O'Day of KJR radio, and was already popular in that area when it hit the national charts (thus explaining why so many people assumed the band was from Seattle). I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) has come to be one of the defining songs of the psychedelic era and was the opening track on both the original Lenny Kaye Nuggets compilation and Rhino's first Nuggets LP.

Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: 1906
Source: CD: Part One
Writer: Markley/Morgan
Label: Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
I have recently been in contact with Robert Morgan, brother of the late Ron Morgan, guitarist for the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. I asked him if his brother had ever received royalties from songs like 1906, which was essentially a Morgan composition with spoken lyrics tacked on by bandleader/vocalist Bob Markley. He replied that Ron had received a check for something like eight dollars shortly before his death, but that he had always felt that Markley had paid him fairly for his services. He then went on to say that Ron Morgan was more interested in making his mark than in getting any financial compensation. Attitudes like that are why I do this show. It's hard to imagine many of today's pop stars making a statement like that and meaning it.

Artist: Young Rascals
Title: It's Wonderful
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Cavaliere/Brigati
Label: Rhino (original label: Atlantic)
Year: 1967
Psychedelic rock is generally considered to have begun on the West Coast (although Austin, Texas has a legitimate claim as well). By the time of the Summer of Love, however, psychedelic rock was a national trend. New York had always been one of the major centers of the music industry, so it's not surprising that on the East Coast 1967 was the year of the psychedelic single. One of the most popular New York bands of the time was the Young Rascals, generally considered to be the greatest blue-eyed soul band of the era, if not of all time. Still, the times being what they were, the Rascals departed from their usual style more than once in '67, first with the smash hit "How Can I Be Sure," and then with this tune, released in November of the same year.

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

Artist: Cream
Title: N.S.U.
Source: CD: Fresh Cream
Writer: Jack Bruce
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1966
Although most of Jack Bruce's Cream songs were co-written with lyricist Pete Brown, there were some exceptions. One of the most notable of these is N.S.U. from Cream's debut LP. The song has proven popular enough to be included in the band's repertoire when they reunited for a three-day stint at the Royal Albert Hall in 2005.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: The Lantern
Source: CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1967
The Rolling Stones hit a bit of a commercial slump in 1967. It seemed at the time that the old Beatles vs. Stones rivalry (a rivalry mostly created by US fans of the bands rather than the bands themselves) had been finally decided in favor of the Beatles with the chart dominance of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that summer. The Stones answer to Sgt. Pepper's came late in the year, and was, by all accounts, their most psychedelic album ever. Sporting a cover that included a 5X5" hologram of the band dressed in wizard's robes, the album was percieved as a bit of a Sgt. Pepper's ripoff, possibly due to the similarity of the band members' poses in the holo. Musically Majesties was the most adventurous album the group ever made in their long history, amply demonstrated by songs like The Lantern. The Stones' next LP, Beggar's Banquet, was celebrated as a return to the band's roots.

Artist: Turtles
Title: Surfer Dan
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: The Turtles
Label: White Whale
Year: 1968
In 1968 the Turtles decided to self-produce four recordings without the knowledge of their record label, White Whale. When company executives heard the tapes they rejected all but one of the recordings. That lone exception was Surfer Dan, which was included on the band's 1968 concept album Battle of the Bands. The idea was that each track (or band, as the divisions on LPs were sometimes called) would sound like it was recorded by a different group. As the Turtles had originally evolved out of a surf band called the Crossfires, that name was the obvious choice for the Surfer Dan track. The song was also chosen to be the B side of She's My Girl, the Turtles biggest hit of 1968.

Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Revelation: Revolution 69
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Butler/Finiz
Label: Kama Sutra
Year: 1969
After the departure of John Sebastian, the Lovin' Spoonful attempted to continue on as a band, with drummer Joe Butler taking over as lead vocalist. The decision to do so may well have been influenced by the people at Kama Sutra, who really had no other stars on their label and were dependedent on sales of Lovin' Spoonful records for the livlihood. Whatever the reason, it didn't work out, and after Revelation: Revolution 69 failed to chart, the band called it quits. Kama Sutra Records became a subsidiary of Buddah Records, but never had the success they had enjoyed when the Spoonful was at its commercial peak.

Artist: Kinks
Title: Set Me Free
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1965
After scoring international success with a series of R&B influenced rockers in 1964, the Kinks started to mellow a bit in 1965, releasing more melodic songs such as Set Me Free. The band would continue to evolve throughout the decade, eventually becoming one of the first groups to release a concept album, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), in 1969.

Artist: Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs
Title: Little Red Riding Hood
Source: LP: The Best Of Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: R. Blackwell
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1966
From the mid-50s to the mid-70s, the top 40 carts were home to songs that just didn't fit into any particular category. These "novelty" songs were often humorous and sometimes ended up being big hits. 1966 was a particularly good year for the novelty song, with the New Vaudeville Band's Winchester Cathedral and Napoleon XIV's They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Ha both hitting the top 10. Even more novel was the comeback hit of the year from the band that had looked like one-hit wonders the previous year with Wooly Bully: Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Little Red Riding Hood featured Sam (real name Domingo Samudio) fronting a new lineup for what has come to be recognized as one of the original Tex-Mex bands.

Artist: Full Treatment
Title: Just Can't Wait
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Buzz Clifford
Label: Rhino
Year: 1967
In the fall of 1966 Brian Wilson produced the classic Beach Boys single Good Vibrations, which sent vibrations of its own throughout the L.A. studio scene. Suddenly producers were stumbling all over themselves to follow in Wilson's footsteps with mini-symphonies of their own. Buzz Clifford and Dan Moore, calling themselves the Full Treatment, created Just Can't Wait in 1967 and quickly sold the master tape to A&M Records. Despite enthusiam for the recording at the label, the song was mostly ignored by radio stations and the Full Treatment was never heard from again.

Artist: Traffic
Title: Feelin' Alright
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Traffic)
Writer: Dave Mason
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
Although Traffic is generally known as an early staple of progressive FM radio, the band had its share of hit singles in its native England as well. Many of these early hits were written by guitarist/vocalist Dave Mason, who would leave the band in 1968, only to return for the live Welcome To The Canteen album before leaving again, this time for good. One of Mason's most memorable songs was Feelin' Alright, from Traffic's self-titled second LP. The song very quickly became a rock standard when Joe Cocker sped it up and made it his own signature song. Grand Funk Railroad slowed it back down and scored a hit with their version in 1971, and Mason himself got some airplay with a new solo recording of the song later in the decade. Even comedian John Belushi got into the act with his dead-on cover of Cocker's version of the song on the Saturday Night Live TV show.

Artist: Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Title: Eventually
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer: Alan Brackett
Label: Rhino
Year: recorded 1966
I had a request for the Peanut Butter Conspiracy recently. The PBC was one of the more psychedelic of the local L.A. bands playing the various clubs along L.A.'s Sunset Strip during its golden years of 1965-68. As was the case with so many bands of that time and place, they never really got the opportunity to strut their stuff, although they did leave some decent tapes behind, such as Eventually, recorded (but not released) in 1966.

Artist: Shadows of Knight
Title: Gloria
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk
Writer: Van Morrison
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
Although most oldies stations now tend to favor the 1965 Them B side version of Gloria, it was Chicago's Shadows Of Knight that made it one of the most popular garage-rock songs in history.

Artist: Monkees
Title: I'm A Believer (early version)
Source: CD: More Of The Monkees
Writer: Neil Diamond
Label: Rhino
Year: recorded 1966
This early version of Neil Diamond's I'm A Believer has a less-polished sound than the song that became the number one hit of 1967.

Artist: Beatles
Title: Tomorrow Never Knows
Source: CD: Revolver
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1966
A few years ago I started to compile an (admittedly subjective) list of the top psychedelic songs ever recorded. Although I never finished ranking the songs, one of the top contenders for the number one spot was Tomorrow Never Knows. The song is one of the first to use studio techniques such as backwards masking and has been hailed as a studio masterpiece.

Artist: Beatles
Title: I'm So Tired
Source: CD: The Beatles
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year: 1968
Somehow I can't help but thinking of the Firesign Theatre's Further Adventures of Nick Danger every time I hear this song. I guess that's better than thinking of Charles Manson's group, which some of the other songs on the "white album" make me do.

Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: I Can Move A Mountain
Source: CD: Kaleidoscopic Compendium (originally released on LP: Basic Blues Magoos)
Writer: Theilhelm/Kelley
Label: Mercury
Year: 1968
After parting with an increasingly bubble-gum oriented management team, the Blues Magoos set out to reinvent themselves as a more progressive rock band in 1968. The resulting LP, Basic Blues Magoos, was self-produced and self-recorded, and showed a side of the band that had not been heard before. The group was unable to shed their baggage in the eyes of the record-buying public, however, and the album sold poorly.

Artist: Steve Cropper
Title: Funky Broadway
Source: LP: With A Little Help From My Friends
Writer: L. Christian
Label: Volt
Year: 1970
One of the most important figures in the formation of the Memphis sound was guitarist Steve Cropper. One of the founding members and defacto co-leader of Booker T. and the MGs, Cropper's guitar work is prominent on recordings by Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, Sam and Dave and other top artists that recorded for the Stax label in the mid to late 60s. In addition to providing guitar parts Cropper co-wrote several hit songs, including Otis Redding's Dock Of The Bay. Preferring to stay out of the spotlight, Cropper only recorded one solo LP for Stax, the appropriately-titled With A Little Help From My Friends, released in 1970 on the Volt label. After Stax faded away Cropper stayed active, appearing as part of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi's Blues Brothers Band (and the subsequent Elwood Blues Band) and earning the distinction of being the only guitarist to occupy the stage for the entire Bob Dylan tribute concert in the early 1990s. Following that, he and the MGs toured as Neil Young's stage band, and continues to make appearances at various venues, usually in a supporting role.

Artist: Who
Title: Rael 1
Source: CD: The Who Sell Out
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1967
The Who Sell Out, released in December 1967, was the last album by the group before their 1969 rock-opera Tommy. The last track on the LP, Rael, is itself a mini-opera that tells the story of a wealthy man who has taken on the role of a crusader, out to free his ancestral homeland from its current occupiers. He tells the captain of his ship to come back for him on Christmas Day to see if he is ready to return. If not, he tells the captain, the boat is yours. Of course the captain has no intention of returning, as he declares soon after putting back out to sea. The piece then goes into an instrumental passage that would be copied pretty much note for note on the Tommy album as part of the Underture. The track ends with a repeat of the owner's instructions to the captain.
The events surrounding the recording of Rael have become the stuff of legend. The band spent an entire day recording and mixing the song, and were apparently so exhausted at the end of the session that they left without securing the multi-track master in a safe place. The cleaning woman came in the next morning and tossed the tape into the waste basket. She then emptied the ashtrays and other trash into the same waste basket. When the band came in around noon the recording engineer who had found the tape had the unenviable task of telling them what had happened. Pete Townsend was in a rage, and the engineer tried to placate him by saying "these things happen". Townshend then proceeded to smash things in the studio, informing the engineer that "these things happen".

Artist: Who
Title: Eyesight To The Blind
Source: CD: Tommy
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1969
By 1969 the Who had pretty much stopped recording cover songs in the studio, although they continued to perform songs such as Summertime Blues live. One notable exception was the Sonny Boy Williamson tune Eyesight To The Blind, which was included as part of the rock opera Tommy. It was the only section of Tommy that was not written by a member of the Who.

Artist: Who
Title: Mary-Anne With The Shaky Hand
Source: CD: The Who Sell Out
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: MCA
Year: 1967
There are at least three versions of Mary-Anne With The Shaky Hand. A faster, electric version of the song was released only in the US as the B side to I Can See For Miles, while this semi-latin flavored acoustic version was included on The Who Sell Out. Yet another version is featured as a bonus track on the 1993 CD release of Sell Out.

Artist: Them
Title: Come To Me
Source: LP: Now and Them
Writer: Them
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
After returning to Ireland and recruiting new lead vocalist Kenny McDowell, Them relocated to California and recorded two albums for Tower in 1968. On the first of the two albums, Now And Them, the band tried to continue in the same style they had developed with original vocalist Van Morrison. The last track on the LP was a piece written by the entire band called Come To Me. The second album would feature tunes by the songwriting team of Tom Lane and Sharon Pulley and would see the band moving in a more psychedelic direction.

Artist: Bubble Puppy
Title: Hot Smoke and Sassafras
Source: CD: Best of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Bubble Puppy
Label: Priority (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1969
From Houston we have an oft-requested song from a band that was a couple years ahead of its time, displaying musical dexterity on a par with later groups such as Flash and Yes. Soon after recording Hot Smoke and Sassafras the Bubble Puppy would relocate to California and change their name to Demian, at least in part to disassociate themselves with the then-popular "bubble gum" style (but also because of problems with the International Artists label).

Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Broken Barricades
Source: LP: Broken Barricades
Writer: Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1971
One of the last Procol Harum albums to feature guitarist Robin Trower was 1971's Broken Barricades. As this title track illustrates, Trower wasn't being given much to do with the band at this point, as the music was becoming more and more keyboard and vocal oriented.

Artist: Otis Redding
Title: Mr. Pitiful
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: Redding/Cropper
Label: Atlantic (original label: Volt)
Year: 1965
Since we started this segment with a Steve Cropper instrumental I thought it might be nice to end it with a tune that Cropper co-wrote with Otis Redding. Mr. Pitiful is a classic example of the Memphis Soul sound that Cropper was such an integral part of.

Artist: Animals
Title: Don't Bring Me Down
Source: CD: The Best of Eric Burdon and the Animals
Writer: Goffin/King
Label: Polydor (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1966
I originally bought this album in early 1967 and immediately fell in love with the first song, Don't Bring Me Down. Written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, Don't Bring Me Down is one of the few songs written for the Animals by professional songwriters that Eric Burdon actually liked.

Artist: Animals
Title: What Am I Living For
Source: LP: Animalization
Writer: Jay/Harris
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1966
Throughout their existence the original Animals were known for their love of American Blues and R&B music. In fact, hit singles aside, almost everything they recorded was a cover of an R&B hit. Among the covers on their 1966 LP Animalism (released in the US as Animalization) was What Am I Living For, originally recorded by the legendary Chuck Willis. The original version was released shortly after Willis's death from cancer in 1958, and is considered a classic. The Animals, thanks in large part to their obvious respect and admiration for the song, actually managed to improve on the original (as was often the case with their cover songs).

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

Artist: Billy Stewart
Title: Summertime
Source: 45 RPM single reissue
Writer: Gershwin/Gershwin
Label: Chess
Year: 1966
By 1966 Chess Records was pretty much known as a blues-oriented specialty label that carried mostly Chicago-based artists. One of their last national hits was this hard-to-classify version of Summertime from Billy Stewart, which gave the Gershwin classic a treatment unlike any other. Stewart was unable to duplicate his success with his follow-up release, a similarly-treated version of Doris Day's 50s hit Secret Heart, and was not heard from on the national charts again.

Artist: Nancy Sinatra
Title: These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
Source: CD: Billboard Top Rock & Roll Hits-1966 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Lee Hazlewood
Label: Rhino
Year: 1966
Nancy Sinatra may not have had a great voice, but it was the right voice with the right song at the right time. To this day These Boots Are Made For Walkin', written by Lee Hazlewood, is one of the most recognizable songs ever recorded. Of course it didn't hurt that Nancy was the daughter of Frank Sinatra, or for that matter that she looked good in a miniskirt and boots.

Artist: Spats
Title: She Done Moved
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Dick and Bud Johnson
Label: Rhino (original label: ABC Paramount)
Year: 1966
ABC Paramount was a record label specifically formed to release records by artists who appeared on the ABC TV network (which was owned by the Paramount theater chain, which in turn had originally been owned by Paramount Pictures, who had divested themselves of the theater chain as a result of an anti-trust action). By the 60s the label had expanded into a major player in the industry with artists ranging from teen-idol Steve Alaimo to R&B favorites like the Impressions and the Tams. In 1966 they dropped the Paramount from their name and became simply ABC records (using the TV network logo). One of the last singles released before the change was She Done Moved, a middle-class teenager's lament from Orange County, California's Spats, led by brothers Dick and Bud Johnson. The song describes the heartbreak of having one's girlfriend suddenly relocate to another town, in this case Kansas City. As a military brat myself, I can relate.

Artist: Tikis
Title: Bye Bye Bye
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Templeton/Scoppetone
Label: Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1966
The Tikis were another one of those early San Francisco bands that drew their inspiration more from the Beatles than from the emerging counter-culture. Led by Ted Templeton and Dick Scoppetone (both of whom would end up with careers in the business), the group featured tight harmonies and catchy melodies. They found greater success in 1967 as Harper's Bizarre with their cover of Simon And Garfunkel's 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy).

Artist: 13th Floor Elevators
Title: You're Gonna Miss Me
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators)
Writer: Roky Erickson
Label: Rhino (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1966
If anyplace outside of California has a legitimate claim to being the birthplace of the psychedelic era, it's Austin, Texas. That's mainly due to the presence of the 13th Floor Elevators, a local band led by Roky Erickson that had the audacity to use an electric jug onstage. Their debut album was the first to actually use the word psychedelic (predating the Blues Magoos' Psychedelic Lollipop by mere weeks). Musically, their leanings were more toward garage-rock than acid-rock, at least on their first album (they got more adventurous with their follow-up album, Easter Everywhere).