Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1148 (starts 12/1/11)

This week Stuck in the Psychedelic Era goes deep, with a lot of album tracks and forgotten singles. Fewer than half a dozen tunes on this week's show would qualify as familiar even to a regular listener of the show. The final half hour, in fact, is dominated by an entire album side (by request) from the San Francisco band It's A Beautiful Day (and it's not the side with White Bird on it either).

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

Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Da Capo)
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1966
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 (heard on last week's show), came Love's most successful single, 7&7 Is, released in July of 1966. This stereo mix is taken from Love's second album, Da Capo, released in 1967.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Come Up The Years
Source: LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer: Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
One of the most overused motifs in pop music is the "You're too young for me" song. This probably reflects, to a certain degree, a lifestyle that goes back to the beginnings of rock and roll (Chuck Berry did jail time for transporting a minor across state lines, Jerry Lee Lewis saw his career get derailed by his marraige to his 13-year-old cousin, etc.). The Marty Balin/Paul Kantner tune Come Up The Years takes a more sophisticated look at the subject, although it still comes to the same conclusion (I can't do this because you're jailbait). In fact, the only rock songwriter I know of that came to any other conclusion on the matter was Bob Markley, and that's what ultimately got him in trouble with the law.

Artist: Golliwogs
Title: Fight Fire
Source: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: J. Fogerty/T. Fogerty
Label: Rhino (original label: Scorpio)
Year: 1966
A quick look at the songwriting credits provides a clue to who these guys were. In fact, the Golliwogs, with their pink cotton candy colored wigs, boasted the exact same lineup as one of the most popular bands in rock history. The primary difference is that the Golliwogs were led by Tom Fogerty; by 1968 the band had changed its name to Creedence Clearwater Revival and younger brother John was clearly in charge.

Artist: Shadows of Knight
Title: Gloria
Source: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Van Morrison
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
The primary prerequisite to being in a garage band was to know the chords to Gloria. All three of them. If you knew all the words (or could make up titilatingly suggestive alternate lyrics) you got to be the lead singer. If you could play the 2-string-3-note sequence at the end of each verse, you became the lead guitarist. This worked fine until Somebody To Love came out.

Artist: Immediate Family
Title: Rubiyat
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on CD: What A Way To Come Down)
Writer: Kovacs/Khayyam
Label: Rhino (original label: Big Beat)
Year: Recorded 1967; released 1997
The members of the Immediate Family hailed from the city of Concord, a conservative suburb east of San Francisco bay. They didn't actually make music in their hometown, however. Instead they practiced at the home of organist Kriss Kovacs's mother Judy Davis (the vocal coach to the stars who numbered such diverse talents as Grace Slick, Barbra Streisand and even Frank Sinatra among her pupils). The band was able to get the backing to lay down some tracks at Golden State Recorders (the top studio in the area at the time), but reportedly lost their record deal due to emotional instability on the part of Kovacs. The song Rubiyat is an adaptation of the Rubiyat Of Omar Khayyam. Ambitious to be sure, but done well enough to make one wonder what it could have led to.

Artist: Kaleidoscope
Title: Pulsating Dream
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Side Trips)
Writer: Chris Darrow
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1967
From Los Angeles we have the Kaleidoscope, a band that had more in common with the folk-rock bands up in San Francisco than its contemporaries on the L.A. club scene. Pulsating Dream is a somewhat typical example of what the group sounded like on its only album for Epic, Side Trips, released in 1967.

Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Title: Drifting
Source: LP: The Original Fleetwood Mac
Writer: Peter Green
Label: Sire
Year: 1967
Fleetwood Mac must hold some kind of record for going through the most drastic changes over the years. In its most popular incarnation, the group fronted by Stevie Nicks, Lindsay Buckingham and Christine McVie was known for its smooth sound; indeed, that version of Fleetwood Mac pretty much defined the sound of 80s album rock radio. Originally, though, Fleetwood Mac was an offshoot of one of the UKs most respected bands: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Following the departure of Eric Clapton in 1966 (to form Cream), Mayall recruited Peter Green to take over lead guitar duties for the band. By 1967 the group included both Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass. Mayall gave Green some free studio time, which Green used to record several tracks with his current bandmates, along with guitarist Jeremy Spencer. Those recordings got so much positive feedback that Green decided to form his own band with Fleetwood and Spencer. At first McVie was reluctant to leave Mayall's band, which was gigging steadily at the time. As a ploy to get McVie to change his mind, Green named his new band Fleetwood Mac. With a temporary bass player the new band began to play live gigs to rave reviews and sellout crowds, which led to McVie joining the band soon after. It was around this time that the band, then consisting of Green, Spencer, Fleetwood and McVie, went back into the studio and recorded an album's worth of tracks, including the instrumental Drifting. Those tracks did not get released until 1977, on an album called The Original Fleetwood Mac.

Artist: Cyrkle
Title: We Had A Good Thing Goin'
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Sedaka/Greenfield
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
The Cyrkle released ten singles from 1966 to 1968. With one exception (the song Camaro, which was released exclusively to Chevrolet dealerships), each of those singles did worse than the one before it. Their debut single, Red Rubber Ball, made the top 5. The follow-up, Turn Down Day, peaked within the top 20. We Had A Good Thing Goin', released in early 1967, only managed to make it to the # 51 spot, despite being written by Neil Sedaka and Ellie Greenfield.

Artist: Tiny Tim
Title: Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips With Me
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Dubin/Burke
Label: Reprise
I don't even know where to begin with this one. I think I'll just mention that we have a set from the Rolling Stones next.

Year: 1968
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Sympathy For The Devil
Source: CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
Beggar's Banquet was a turning point for the Rolling Stones. They had just ended their association with Andrew Loog Oldham, who had produced all of their mid-60s records, and instead were working with Jimmy Miller, who was known for his association with Steve Winwood, both in his current band Traffic and the earlier Spencer Davis Group. Right from the opening bongo beats of Sympathy For The Devil, it was evident that this was the beginning of a new era for bad boys of rock and roll. The song itself has gone on to be one of the defining tunes of album rock radio.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Citadel
Source: CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1967
One of the most underrated songs in the Rolling Stones catalog, Citadel is the second track on Their Satanic Majesties Request, an album often dismissed as being an ill-fated attempt to keep up with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. As the song is preceeded on the album by the overture-like Sing This All Together with no break between the two, Citadel was almost impossible to play as a separate track from the original vinyl. It's a little easier to play from the CD, but due to sloppiness on the part of whoever mastered the 80s Abkco discs, the start of the song does not quite match up with the start of the CD track. Maybe one of these days I'll get a copy of the remastered version that came out more recently and see if they did a better job with it. In the meantime sit back and enjoy this hard-rockin' piece of psychedelia.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Dear Doctor
Source: CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco
Year: 1968
In late 1968 four new albums by four different bands were competing for space on the record racks: The Beatles (white album), Cream's Wheels Of Fire, the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Electric Ladyland and the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet. I can't imagine four albums that influential (or even that good) ever being released at the same time again. Just to further illustrate the point we have the song Dear Doctor. Compared to most of the songs on these four albums, the country-styled Dear Doctor is, at best, a novelty number. Yet taken on its own merits the song compares favorably with probably 90% of what's been recorded by any rock band (and a lot of country artists as well) in the years since.

Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (originally released on LP: A Saucerful Of Secrets)
Source: CD: Works
Writer: Roger Waters
Label: Capitol (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
With mental illness pretty much taking Sid Barrett out of the Pink Floyd equation by 1968, other members stepped up their own songwriting for the band's second LP, A Saucerful Of Secrets. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, a Roger Waters composition, is the only Pink Floyd recording to have both Barrett and his replacement, David Gilmour, playing guitar parts and was considered strong enough to be included on the Works compilation album in the early 80s. A Saucerful Of Secrets is the only Pink Floyd album that failed to chart in the US, due in part to it being released on Capitol's Tower subsidiary, which was generally regarded as a second-rate label.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Sell
Source: 45 RPM single (taken from LP: Just Good Rock And Roll)
Writer: M. Herron/J. Herron
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
After 1968's Mass In F Minor, which saw the members of the Electric Prunes being replaced by studio musicians, the group decided to call it quits. Producer David Hassinger, who had the legal rights to the band's name, had different ideas and put together a "new improved" Electric Prunes lineup to record the 1969 album Just Good Rock And Roll. Ron Morgan, lead guitarist for the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, was part of this new lineup. The album had even less success than the three previous Prunes albums, and Hassinger finally retired the name. Various former members of the band reunited in the 21st century, making concert appearances and recording new material. None of the members of the "new improved" lineup, however, have performed with the current group.

Artist: Bloodrock
Title: Gimme Your Head
Source: CD: Bloodrock
Writer: Bloodrock
Label: One Way (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1970
Bloodrock was a hard rock band out of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area that is best known for recording the song D.O.A., a minor (but memorable) hit in 1971. The group was discovered by Grand Funk Railroad producer Terry Knight, who got the band a contract with Capitol Records and produced their eponymous first album, released in 1970. Additionally, Knight booked Bloodrock as Grand Funk's opening act for their 1970 national tour, assuring the album plenty of promotion. Lead vocalist Jim Rutledge played drums on the album, which featured tunes like Gimme Your Head, but did not yield a hit single.

Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Do You Believe In Magic
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: John Sebastian
Label: Buddah (original label: Kama Sutra)
Year: 1965
Do You Believe In Magic, the debut single by the Lovin' Spoonful, was instrumental in establishing not only the band itself, but the Kama Sutra label as well. Within the next five years, the Spoonful (and later John Sebastian as a solo artist) would crank out a string of hits. Not to be outdone, Kama Sutra would itself morph into a company called Buddah Records and come to dominate the "bubble gum" genre of top 40 music throughout 1968 and well into 1969.

Artist: Yardbirds
Title: For Your Love
Source: LP: Great Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Graham Gouldman
Label: Epic
Year: 1965
The last Yardbirds song to feature guitarist Eric Clapton, For Your Love was the group's fist US hit, peaking at the # 6 slot. The song did even better in the UK, peaking at # 3. Following its release, Clapton left the Yardbirds, citing the band's move toward a more commercial sound and this song in particular as reasons for his departure. (Ironic when you consider songs like his mid-90s hit Change the World or his slowed down lounge lizard version of Layla). Incidentally, For Your Love was written by Graham Gouldman, who would end up as a member of Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders and later 10cc with Kevin Godley and Lol Creme.

Artist: Knickerbockers
Title: One Track Mind
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: L. Colley/K. Colley
Label: Rhino (original label: Challenge)
Year: 1966
After successfully fooling many people into thinking that they were the Beatles recording under a different name with their 1965 hit Lies, the Knickerbockers (originally from Bergenfield, New Jersey) went with a more R&B flavored rocker for their follow up single. Unfortunately their label, the Los Angeles-based Challenge Records, did not have the resources and/or skills to properly promote the single.

Artist: Doors
Title: Take It As It Comes
Source: CD: The Doors
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
L.A.'s Whisky-A-Go-Go was the place to be in 1966. Not only were some of the city's hottest bands playing there, but for a while the house band was none other than the Doors, playing songs like Take It As It Comes. One evening Jack Holtzman of Elektra Records was among those attending the club, having been invited there to hear the Doors by Arthur Lee (who with his band Love was already recording for Elektra). After hearing two sets Holtzman signed the group to a contract with the label, making the Doors only the second rock band on the Elektra label (although the Butterfield Blues Band is considered by some to be the first, predating Love by several months).

Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Doctor Please
Source: LP: Vincebus Eruptum
Writer: Dick Peterson
Label: Philips
Year: 1968
With it's raw feedback-drenched guitar and bass and heavily distorted drums, Blue Cheer is often cited as the first heavy metal band. If any one song most demonstrates their right to the title it's Doctor Please from the Vincebus Eruptum album. Written by bassist Dick Peterson, the song is exactly what your parents meant by "that noise". Contrary to the rumor going around in 1970, guitarist Leigh Stephens did not go deaf after recording two albums with Blue Cheer. In fact, he went to England and recorded the critically-acclaimed (but seldom heard) Red Weather album with some of the UK's top studio musicians.

Artist: Iron Butterfly
Title: It Must Be Love
Source: LP: Ball
Writer: Doug Ingle
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
Although it did not contain anything like the monster hit In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, the third Iron Butterfly LP, Ball, was probably a better album overall. The first single released from the album was In The Time Of Our Lives, backed with It Must Be Love, a tune that features some nice guitar work from Eric Brann, who would soon be leaving the band for an unsuccessful solo career.

Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Bad Luck And Trouble
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: The Progressive Blues Experiment)
Writer: Johnny Winter
Label: United Artists (original label: Sonobeat/Imperial)
Year: 1968
Although Johnny Winter had been around since the early 60s, recording in a variety of genres for various regional Texas labels, he really only started getting national attention when he started focusing on the blues exclusively. His first blues album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, originally appeared on the Sonobeat label and was subsequently reissued nationally on Imperial. Unlike his brother Edgar, who gravitated to rock music, Johnny has remained primarily a blues musician throughout his career.

Artist: It's A Beautiful Day
Title: Bombay Calling/Bulgaria/Time Is
Source: CD: It's A Beautiful Day
Writer: LaFlamme/Wallace
Label: San Francisco Sound (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
The story of It's A Beautiful Day shows a dark side of late 60s San Francisco. In mid 1967 It's A Beautiful Day, formed by former Utah Symphony violinist David LaFlamme and his wife, keyboardist Linda LaFlamme, caught the attention of Matthew Katz, who was managing both Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape. The LaFlammes were not aware of the fact that both of the other bands were trying desperately to get out of their contracts with Katz, and were more than happy to sign a contract with him. Katz immediately shipped It's A Beautiful Day off to Seattle, where they became the house band at a club called the San Francisco Sound that was owned by Katz himself. The band lived upstairs from the club and had no transportation; their only money was a meager food allowance provided by Katz. It was in this environment, during the rainy Seattle winter, that the band composed the music that would become their first LP. Side one was highlighted by the songs White Bird and Hot Summer Day, while the second side was a continuous piece of music that was banded as three separate tracks (probably to increase royalties). This week, by request, we are hearing the second side of It's A Beautiful Day.

Artist: Monkees
Title: P.O. Box 9847
Source: LP: The Birds, The Bees, And The Monkees
Writer: Boyce/Hart
Label: Colgems
Year: 1968
After four consecutive number one albums, the Monkees streak was broken in 1968 with the Birds, The Bees, And The Monkees, which still managed to peak in the number three spot. The album included two hit singles, Daydream Believer and Valleri, as well as several tracks that had appeared on the Monkees TV show, which had ceased production (at the request of the Monkees themselves) at the end of its second season. One of the tunes on that album came from the same writing team of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart that had provided the bulk of the group's material for their first two albums, including their first hit, Last Train To Clarksville (in fact, as originally conceived, the Monkees would have Boyce and Hart as its Lennon and McCartney analogs). As it turns out, P.O. Box 9847 is one of the Monkee's most psychedelic songs.

Artist: Who
Title: Dr. Jeckyl And Mr. Hyde
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: John Entwistle
Label: Decca
Year: 1968
The Who were blessed with not one, but two top-notch songwriters: Pete Townshend and John Entwhistle. Whereas Townsend's songs ranged from tight pop songs to more serious works such as Tommy, Entwistle's tunes had a slightly twisted outlook, dealing with such topics as crawly critters (Boris the Spider), imaginary friends (Whiskey Man) and even outright perversion (Fiddle About). Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde was originally released in the US as the B side to Call Me Lightning. Both songs were included on the Magic Bus album.

Artist: Steve Miller Band
Title: Roll With It
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Children Of The Future)
Writer: Steve Miller
Label: Rhino (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1968
Right from the beginning, the Steve Miller band stood out stylistically from other San Francisco area bands. This was in part because Miller was only recently arrived from Chicago, which had a music tradition of its own. But a lot of the credit has to go to Miller himself, who had the sense to give his bandmates (such as his college buddy Boz Scaggs) the freedom to provide songs for the band in addition to his own material. One example of the latter is Roll With It from the group's 1968 debut LP, Children Of The Future.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

SITPE # 1147 (Starts 11/24/11)

Artist: Otis Redding
Title: Respect
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Otis Redding
Label: Volt
Year: 1965
Released well over a year before Aretha Franklin's version, Otis Redding's Respect was a hit on the R&B charts and managed to crack the lower reaches of the mainstream charts as well. Although not as well known as Franklin's version, the Redding track has its own unique energy and is a classic in its own right. The track, like most of Redding's recordings, features the Memphis Group rhythm section and the Bar-Kays on horns.

Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Work Song
Source: CD: East-West
Writer: Adderly/Brown
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
Although technically not a rock album, the Butterfield Blues Band's East-West was nonetheless a major influence on many up and coming rock musicians that desired to transcend the boundaries of top 40 radio. Both the title track and the band's reworking of Nat Adderly's Work Song feature extended solos from all the band members, with Work Song in particular showing Butterfield's prowess on harmonica, as well as helping cement Michael Bloomfield's reputation as the nation's number one guitarist (before the emergence of Jimi Hendrix, at any rate).

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Bass Strings
Source: LP: The Life And Times Of Country Joe And The Fish (originally released on Rag Baby EP #2)
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1966
One of the more original ways to get one's music heard is to publish an underground arts-oriented newspaper and include a pullout flexi-disc in it. Country Joe and the Fish did just that; not once, but twice. The first one was split with another band and featured the original recording of the I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag. The second Rag Baby EP, released in 1966, was all Fish, and featured two tracks that would be re-recorded for their debut LP the following year. In addition to the instrumental Section 43, the EP included a four-minute version of Bass Strings, with decidedly psychedelic lyrics.

Artist: Kinks
Title: Days
Source: CD: 25 Years-The Ultimate Collection (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Polygram (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
As the sixties wound down, the Kinks were busy proving that if a band could weather the bad times they would eventually re-emerge even stronger than before. The worst of those times for the band was 1968, when they had trouble scoring hits even on the UK charts where they had always had their greatest success. One of the singles released was Days, which shows a band still transitioning from the straight ahead rock of their early years to the sometimes biting satire that would characterize their later work.

Artist: Them
Title: Mystic Eyes
Source: LP: Them
Writer: Van Morrison
Label: Parrot
Year: 1965
The opening track of the first Them album (2nd track on the US version) was a song that started off as an extended studio jam, with vocalist Van Morrison playing harmonica and ad-libbing vocals as the band played behind him. Luckily the tape recorder was on for the whole thing and, with a little editing the track became the group's second biggest US hit, Mystic Eyes. This particular copy is from the US-only electronically rechanneled stereo version of the album.

Artist: Blues Image
Title: Clean Love
Source: CD: Open
Writer: Blues Image
Label: Sundazed (original label: Atco)
Year: 1970
The story of the Blues Image is tied closely with the legendary south Florida nightclub Thee Image. They were the house band (and had helped set up the club itself) and were already well known and respected in musicians' circles by the time they released their first LP in 1969. Although the LP sold moderately, it failed to generate any airplay on either top 40 or progressive FM radio. The group came up with a genuine hit single, Ride Captain Ride, in 1970, but their second LP, Open, charted even lower than their first one, despite having some outstanding tracks, including Ride Captain Ride and one of the best blues-rock tracks ever recorded, the eight-minute long Clean Love. Frustrated by the lack of success, guitarist Mike Pinera left the band to replace Eric Brann in Iron Butterfly, and after an even less successful third LP the Blues Image called it quits.

Artist: Tommy Flanders
Title: Friday Night City
Source: CD: Blues Project Anthology (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Tommy Flanders
Label: Polydor (original label: Verve Forecast)
Year: 1967
When the Blues Project was first signed to M-G-M Records, the label saw them as America's answer to the Rolling Stones. They had pretty good reasons for seeing things that way too. The band had one of Greenwich Village's rising stars, Danny Kalb, on guitar, the already well-known Al Kooper, who had played on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisted album on organ, and the charismatic Tommy Flanders on lead vocals. The label was so high on the band, in fact, that they flew them out to L.A. and set them up in the Hilton for a big release party. It was then that things got weird. Flanders's girlfriend, who had accompanied the band to the West Coast, got it in her head that Flanders was the star of the band and was as such deserved special treatment. This did not sit well with the rest of the band members, and an argument ensued, culminating in the girlfriend announcing that her Tommy didn't need any of those guys and would stay in Hollywood to become a star in his own right. The Blues Project continued without Flanders and went on to become one of the most influential bands in rock history (albeit without a lot of commercial success). Flanders, on the other hand, recorded an album's worth of material (produced by Wilson), but only Friday Night City was actually released, and even then it was held back until 1967, by which time audience tastes had changed signficantly and the song went nowhere. Flanders did have a short solo career in the early 1970s, but never achieved the level of success his girlfriend had imagined for him (or even the level of success the rest of the Blues Project had without him, for that matter).

Artist: Gary Lee Yoder
Title: When Love Comes In
Source: CD: Kak-Ola
Writer: Gary Lee Yoder
Label: Big Beat
Year: Recorded:1967; released:1999
After the breakup of Gary Lee Yoder's original band, the Oxford Circle, the singer/songwriter/guitarist cut some demos before forming a new band, Kak. Originally those songs were intended for the new band, but it soon became obvious that Kak was moving in an entirely different direction, and the demos sat on the shelf until being released in the UK in 1999. One of those demos was When Love Comes In. Besides Yoder himself, it is not known who else played on the recording.

Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Hymn 43
Source: LP: Living In The Past (originally released on LP: Aqualung)
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1971
This week we have a 1971 set from Jethro tull, and to start it off we have Ian Anderson taking on the religious establishment. He had already fired the first shot a couple years before with Christmas Song, but this time he had an entire album side (side two of Aqualung) to work with, and he did not pull any punches with his scathing criticism of what he perceived as rampant hypocrisy within the Anglican church.

Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Cross-Eyed Mary
Source: CD: Aqualung
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1971
The fortunes of Jethro Tull improved drastically with the release of the Aqualung album in 1971. The group had done well in their native UK but were still considered a second-tier band in the US. Aqualung, however, propelled the group to star status, with several tracks, such as Cross-Eyed Mary, getting heavy airplay on progressive rock radio.

Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Life Is A Long Song
Source: LP: Living In The Past (originally released in the UK as an EP track)
Writer: Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1971
By 1971 Jethro Tull had already released four albums, as well as several non-album singles and EP tracks that were only released in the UK. One of those EP tracks was Life Is A Long Song, which did not get released in the US until the 1973 anthology album Living In The Past.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Foxy Lady
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
The US and UK versions of the Are You Experienced differed considerably. For one thing, three songs that had been previously released as singles in the UK (where single tracks and albums were mutually exclusive) were added to the US version of the album, replacing UK album tracks. Another rather significant difference is that the UK version of the album was issued only in mono. When the 4-track master tapes arrived in the US, engineers at Reprise Records created new stereo mixes of all the songs, including Foxy Lady, which had led off the UK version of Are You Experience but had been moved to a spot near the end of side two on the US album. The original mono single mix of Foxy Lady, meanwhile, was issued as a single in the US, despite the song being only available as an album track in the UK.

Artist: Zephyr
Title: Cross The River
Source: CD: Zephyr
Writer: C. Givens/D. Givens
Label: One Way (original label: ABC Probe)
Year: 1969
The Boulder, Colorado band Zephyr featured the vocal talents of Candy Givens, who had an octave range that would not be equalled until Mariah Carey hit the scene years later. Also in the band was lead guitarist Tommy Bolin, who would go on to take over lead guitar duties with first the James Gang and then Deep Purple before embarking on a solo career. Unfortunately that career (and Bolin's life) was permanently derailed by a heroin overdose at age 28. The rest of this talented band consisted of Robbie Chamerlin on drums, John Faris on keyboards and David Givens (who co-wrote Cross The River with his wife Candy) on bass.

Artist: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Title: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Source: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
After the demise of Buffalo Springfield, Stephen Stills headed for New York, where he worked with Al Kooper on the Super Session album and recorded several demo tapes of his own, including a new song called Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (reportedly written for his then-girlfriend Judy Collins). After his stint in New York he returned to California, where he started hanging out in the Laurel Canyon home of David Crosby, who had been fired from the Byrds in 1967. Crosby's house at that time was generally filled with a variety of people coming and going, and Crosby and Stills soon found themselves doing improvised harmonies on each other's material in front of a friendly, if somewhat stoned, audience. It was not long before they invited Graham Nash, whom they heard had been having problems of his own with his bandmates in the Hollies, to come join them in Laurel Canyon. The three soon began recording together, and in 1969 released the album Crosby, Stills and Nash. They had yet to actually perform the new songs onstage, however, and by the time of the Woodstock Performing Arts Festival had only logged one gig in front of a live audience. Nonetheless, the trio (joined for their electric set by Neil Young), made quite an impression at Woodstock, and soon found themselves among the most popular groups in the world.

Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
Source: CD: Pet Sounds
Writer: Wilson/Asher
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966
Brian Wilson's songwriting reached its full maturity with the Pet Sounds album, released in 1966. In addition to the hits Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B and God Only Knows, the album featured several album tracks that redefined where a pop song could go. One such tune is Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder), a slow, moody song with a chord structure that goes in unexpected directions and soaring vocals by Wilson.

Artist: Music Machine
Title: Masculine Intuition
Source: CD: Turn On The Music Machine
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
If you take out the cover songs that Original Sound Records insisted be added to the album, Turn On The Music Machine has to be considered one of the best LPs of 1966. Not that the covers were badly done, but they were intended to be used for lip synching on a local TV show and were included without the knowledge or approval of the band, and that's never a good thing. Every one of the Sean Bonniwell originals on the album is worthy of airplay, which in part might explain how Masculine Intuition is only now making its Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut.

Artist: Who
Title: Whiskey Man
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: John Entwhistle
Label: Decca
Year: 1966
Although the Who had previously issued a pair of singles in the US, the first one to make any kind of waves was Happy Jack, released in late 1966 and hitting its peak the following year. The B side of that record was the song Whiskey Man. Like all the Who songs penned by bassist John Entwhistle, this one has an unusual subject; in this case, psychotic alcohol-induced hallucinations.

Artist: Count Five
Title: Psychotic Reaction
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michalski
Label: Rhino (original label: Double Shot)
Year: 1966
San Jose, California, was home to one of the most vibrant local music scenes in the late 60s, despite its relatively low pre-silicon valley population. One of the most popular bands on that scene was Count Five, a group of five guys who dressed like Bela Lugosi's Dracula and sounded like the Jeff Beck-era Yardbirds. Fortunately for Count Five, Jeff Beck had just left the Yardbirds when Psychotic Reaction came out, leaving a hole that the boys from the South Bay were more than happy to fill.

Artist: We The People
Title: Mirror Of Your Mind
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Thomas Talton
Label: Rhino (original label: Challenge)
Year: 1966
We The People were formed when an Orlando, Florida newspaper reporter talked members of two local bands to combine into a garage/punk supergroup. The result was one of the most successful regional bands in Florida history. After their first recording got airplay on a local station, they were signed to record in Nashville for Challenge Records (a label actually based in Los Angeles) and cranked out several regional hits over the next few years. The first of these was Mirror Of Your Mind. Written by lead vocalist Tom Talton, the song is an in-your-face rocker that got played on a number of local stations and has been covered by several bands since.

Artist: Magic Mushrooms
Title: It's-A-Happening
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Casella/Rice
Label: Rhino (original label: A&M)
Year: 1966
It's not known whether or not the Magic Mushrooms heard any of the tracks from the Mothers Of Invention album Freak Out when they recorded It's-A-Happening. Still, it's hard to imagine this bit of inspired weirdness being created in a vacuum. Besides this one single, nobody seems to have any knowledge whatsoever of the group known as the Magic Mushrooms, other than the fact that they hailed from Philadelphia, Pa.

Artist: Arlo Guthrie
Title: Alice's Restaurant Massacre
Source: LP: Alice's Restaurant
Writer: Arlo Guthrie
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
Beginning this year we are reviving a tradition that was a mainstay of progressive rock radio stations for many years: the airing, in its entirety, of the original Alice's Restaurant Massacre, recorded in 1967. The record tells the true story of Guthrie's 1965 Thanksgiving adventures in a small town in Massachusetts, and of his subsequent adventures with the draft board a few months later. The story became the basis for a movie and over the years Guthrie has performed the piece hundreds of times, never the same way twice (some performances have reportedly lasted nearly an hour).

Artist: Edwin Starr
Title: War
Source: CD: Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits-1970 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Whitfield/Strong
Label: Rhino (original label: Gordy)
Year: 1970
I was trying to figure out a way to work this song in when it occurred to me that the last half of Alice's Restaurant Massacre is about Arlo Guthries misadventures with the draft board and that Edwin Starr's War was really a perfect coda to the piece. After all, it is the highest charting antiwar song in history, as well as Starr's biggest hit, going all the way to the top of both the top 40 and R&B charts in 1970. It is also a solid example of Norman Whitfield/Barrett Strong productions, which, although part of Motown, was a semi-autonomous entity (as was Holland-Dozier-Holland productions, which had brought Motown its greatest commercial success in the 60s, cranking out hit after hit by the Supremes and other acts). In fact, when Motown first signed the Jackson 5ive, the company took steps to avoid yet another independent company-within-a-company by forming a collective called The Corporation to write and produce all the new group's records.

Artist: Paul Revere and the Raiders
Title: Ups And Downs (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Source: CD: Greatest Hits
Writer: Lindsay/Melcher
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
At the beginning of 1967 Paul Revere and the Raiders were still flying high, with singles that consistently hit the upper reaches of the charts and a solid promotional platform in the daily afternoon TV show Action. Their first hit of the year was Ups And Downs, a collaboration between lead vocalist Mark Lindsay and producer Terry Melcher. Things would soon turn sour for the band, however, as a volatile market soon turned against the group. In part it was because their revolutionary war costumes were becoming a bit camp. Also, Action left the airwaves in 1967, and its Saturday Morning replacement, Happening, was seen as more of a kid's show than a legitimate rock and roll venue. Most importantly, however, Melcher and the Raiders parted company, and the band realized too late just how important a role Melcher had played in the group's success.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (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 the original Lenny Kaye Nuggets compilation. The song is also currently in a three-way tie for most played song on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era this year.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

SITPE # 1146 (Starts 11/17/11)

Artist: Love
Title: Hey Joe
Source: CD: Comes In Colours
Writer: Billy Roberts
Label: Raven
Year: 1966
There are contradictory stories of the origins of the song Hey Joe. Some say it's a traditional folk song, while others have attributed it to various songwriters, including Tim Rose and Dino Valenti (under his birth name Chet Powers). As near as I've been able to determine the song was actually written by an obscure California folk singer named Billy Roberts, who reportedly was performing the song as early as 1958. The song circulated among West Coast musicians over the years and eventually caught the attention of the Byrds' David Crosby. Crosby was unable to convince his bandmates to record the song, although they did include it in their live sets at Ciro's on L.A.'s Sunset Strip. One of the Byrds' roadies, Bryan Maclean, joined up with Arthur Lee's new band, Love, and brought Crosby's version of the song (which had slightly different lyrics than other, more popular versions) with him. In 1966 Love included Hey Joe on their debut album, with Maclean doing the vocals. Meanwhile another L.A. band, the Leaves, recorded their own version of Hey Joe in 1965, but had little success with it. In 1966 they recorded a new version of the song, adding screaming fuzz-drenched lead guitar parts by Bobby Arlin, and Hey Joe finally became a national hit. With two other L.A. bands (and Chicago's Shadows Of Knight) having recorded a song that David Crosby had come to regard as his own, the Byrds finally committed their own version of Hey Joe to vinyl in late 1966 on the Fifth Dimension album, but even Crosby eventually admitted that recording the song was a mistake. Up to this point the song had always been recorded at a fast tempo, but two L.A. songwriters, Sean Bonniwell (of the Music Machine) and folk singer Tim Rose, came up with the idea of slowing the song down. Both the Music Machine and Tim Rose versions of the songs were released on albums in 1966. Jimi Hendrix heard the Rose recording and used it as the basis for his own embellished version of the song, which was released as a single in the UK in late 1966 (although it did not come out in the US until the release of the Are You Experienced album in 1967).

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: And I Like It
Source: LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer: Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
Jorma Kaukonen was giving guitar lessons when he was approached by Marty Balin about joining a new band that Balin was forming. Kaukonen said yes and became a founding member of Jefferson Airplane. The two seldom collaborated on songwriting, though. One of the few examples of a Balin/Kaukonen composition is And I Like It from the band's first album. The song sounds to me like what Hot Tuna would sound like but with Balin's vocals instead of Kaukonen's.

Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: She's Coming Home
Source: CD: Kaleidoscopic Compendium (originally released on LP: Psychedelic Lollipop)
Writer: Atkins/Miller
Label: Mercury
Year: 1966
Generally speaking, cheatin' songs in 1966 were considered the province of country music. The few exceptions, such as Paul Revere and the Raiders' Steppin' Out, were all told from the victim's point of view. The Blues Magoos, however, turned the entire thing upside down with She's Coming Home, a song about having to break up with one's new girlfriend in the face of the old one returning from...(prison, military duty? The lyrics never make that clear). The unusual nature of the song is in keeping with the cutting edge image of a band that was among the first to use the word psychedelic in an album title and had to have been the first to wear electric suits onstage.

Artist: Cream
Title: Dance The Night Away
Source: LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Bruce/Brown
Label: RSO (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The album Fresh Cream was perhaps the first LP from a rock supergroup, although at the time a more accurate description would have been British blues supergroup. Much of the album was reworking of blues standards by the trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, all of whom had established their credentials with various British blues bands. With Disraeli Gears, however, Cream showed a psychedelic side as well as their original blues orientation. Most of the more psychedelic material, such as Dance the Night Away, was from the songwriting team of Bruce and lyricist Pete Brown.

Artist: Doors
Title: End Of The Night
Source: LP: The Doors
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Many professional-grade reel-to-reel tape decks featured a variable speed control. Most of these only varied the speed by a small percentage; for instance a tape normally running at 15 inches per second could be played back (or recorded) anywhere between 14.5 ips and 15.5 ips simply by twisting a knob. This feature was usually used to correct small variances that would creep up between equipment made by different manufacturers. Sometimes, though, a knob would get turned for some reason or another and then completely forgotten. This was likely what happened with the original stereo master tapes of the Doors first album. A comparison between the stereo and mono versions of the LP shows that the stereo version is pitched about 3.5% lower than the mono version; in musical terms about a half step. As the mono version of the LP was discontinued soon after release, the lower-pitched versions of the songs are all that the public has been hearing for the past 44 years (except for the edited mono version of Light My Fire used by most AM radio stations), despite the fact that the mono version is the actual speed at which the songs were recorded. Recently I came into possession of a slightly scratchy copy of the original mono LP, so we can finally hear End Of The Night as it was originally intended to sound.

Artist: Doors
Title: Horse Lattitudes/Moonlight Ride
Source: LP: Strange Days
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Much of the second Doors album consisted of songs that were already in the band's repertoire when they signed with Elektra Records but for various reasons did not record for their debut LP. One of the earliest was Jim Morrison's Moonlight Ride. As was the case with all the Doors songs on their first three albums, the tune was credited to the entire band. Horse Latitudes, which leads into Moonlight Ride, was also an obvious Morrison composition, as it is essentially a piece of Morrison poetry with a soundtrack provided by the rest of the band.

Artist: Doors
Title: Soul Kitchen
Source: LP: The Doors
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Soul Kitchen was one of the more popular tracks from the Doors' first LP and has been included on at least one Greatest Hits collection. The Greatest Hits version, however, is the slightly slowed down stereo mix, which was the only version in print for nearly 40 years. This week we have the original mono mix, played at the actual speed at which it was recorded.

Artist: Circus Maximus
Title: Travelin' Around
Source: LP: Circus Maximus
Writer: Bob Bruno
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
Circus Maximus was formed in Greenwich Village in 1967 by lead guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Bob Bruno (who wrote most of the band's material) and guitarist/vocalist Jerry Jeff Walker, who went on to much greater success as a songwriter after he left the group for a solo career (he wrote the classic Mr. Bojangles, among other things). The lead vocals on the first Circus Maximus LP were split between the two, with one exception: guitarist Peter Troutner shares lead vocal duties with Bruno on the album's opening track, the high-energy Travelin' Around.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: We Love You
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
After the less than stellar chart performance of the LP Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones decided to pull out all the stops with a double 'A' sided single. We Love You was their most expensive production ever (as well as the last Rolling Stones record produced by Andrew Loog Oldham), and included a promotional film that is considered a forerunner of the modern music video. We Love You did well in the UK, reaching the # 8 spot on the charts, but it was the other side of the record, Dandelion, that ended up being a hit in the US.

Artist: Charlatans
Title: Alabama Bound
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70
Writer: trad., arr. The Charlatans
Label: Rhino (original label: Ace/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-and-a-half minute recording of a traditional tune that is considered by many to be the Charlatans' signature song: Alabama Bound.

Artist: Knickerbockers
Title: Lies
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Randall/Charles
Label: Rhino (original label: Challenge)
Year: 1965
A lot of people thought this was the Beatles recording under a pseudonym when it came out. It wasn't, and I can't help but wonder why anyone would have thought the Beatles had any need to record under a different name and release a song on a second-rate label in the first place. Is it a Richard Bachman kind of thing?

Artist: Music Machine
Title: Talk Talk
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
The Music Machine was one of the most sophisticated bands to appear on the L.A. club scene in 1966, yet their only major hit, Talk Talk, was deceptively simple and straightforward punk-rock, and still holds up as two of the most intense minutes of rock music ever to crack the top 40 charts.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Luvin'
Source: CD: I Had Too Much Too Dream (Last Night)
Writer: Lowe/Tulin
Label: Collector's Choice (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Perhaps as a bit of overcompensation for his lack of control over the Grateful Dead, producer David Hassinger kept a tight rein on L.A.'s Electric Prunes, providing them with most of the material they recorded (from professional songwriters). A rare exception is Luvin', from the first Prunes LP, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night).

Artist: October Country
Title: My Girlfriend Is A Witch
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: October Country)
Writer: Michael Lloyd
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1968
By 1968 the L.A. under-age club scene was winding down, and several now out of work bands were making last (and sometimes only) attempts at garnering hits in the studio. One such band was October Country, whose first release had gotten a fair amount of local airplay, but who had become bogged down trying to come up with a follow-up single. Enter Michael Lloyd, recently split from the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and looking to become a record producer. Lloyd not only produced and wrote My Girlfriend Is a Witch, he also ended up playing drums on the record when the band's regular drummer got a bad case of studio jitters.

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: Otis Redding
Title: The Happy Song (Dum-Dum)
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Redding/Cropper
Label: Volt
Year: 1968
One of the great tragedies in the history of American music was the plane crash that took the lives of Otis Redding and most of the Bar-Kays in early 1968. In the months following the crash, several "new" Otis Redding singles were released, including The Happy Song (Dum-Dum), co-written by guitarist Steve Cropper.

Artist: Mouse and the Traps
Title: A Public Execution
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Henderson/Weiss
Label: Rhino (original label: Fraternity)
Year: 1965
It's easy to imagine some kid somewhere in Texas inviting his friends over to hear the new Dylan record, only to reveal afterwards that it wasn't Dylan at all, but this band he heard while visiting his cousins down in Tyler. Mouse and the Traps, in fact, got quite a bit of airplay in that part of the state with a series of singles issued in the mid-60s. A Public Execution is unique in that the artist on the label was listed simply as Mouse.

Artist: ? And The Mysterians
Title: Can't Get Enough Of You Baby
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: Randle/Linzer
Label: Abkco (original label: Cameo)
Year: 1967
? And The Mysterians' 1966 hit 96 Tears was the last song on the legendary Cameo label to hit the top 10 before the label went bankrupt in 1967 (and was bought by Allan Klein, who still reissues old Cameo-Parkway recordings on his Abkco label). Shortly before that bankruptcy was declared, however, the group released Can't Get Enough Of You Baby, which stalled out in the lower reaches of the charts. The song itself, however, finally achieved massive popularity at the end of the century, when a new version of the tune by Smash Mouth went to the top of the charts.

Artist: Mystery Trend
Title: Johnny Was A Good Boy
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Nagle/Cuff
Label: Rhino (original label: Verve)
Year: 1967
The Mystery Trend was a bit of an anomaly. Contemporaries of bands such as the Great! Society and the Charlatans, the Trend always stood a bit apart from the rest of the crowd, playing to an audience that was both a bit more affluent and a bit more "adult" (they were reportedly the house band at a Sausalito strip club). Although they played in the city itself as early as 1965, they did not release their first record until early 1967. The song, Johnny Was A Good Boy, tells the story of a seemingly normal middle-class kid who turns out to be a monster, surprising friends, family and neighbors. The same theme would be used by XTC in the early 1980s in the song No Thugs In Our House, one of the standout tracks from their landmark English Settlement album.

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
A favorite among the Turtles' members themselves, She's My Girl is full of hidden studio tricks that are barely (if at all) audible on the final recording. Written by the same team as Happy Together, the song is a worthy follow up to that monster hit.

Artist: Beatles
Title: Fool On The Hill
Source: CD: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone
Year: 1967
Once again we have a pretty well known Beatle song that has never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. I could probably do this every week for a year and still have songs left over. Fool On The Hill was never issued as a single, but a cover version by Sergio Mendez and Brasil '67 got airplay on what was then called "middle of the road" radio (e.g. the station your parents listened to in the car when you had to go along with them because you had done something that made them not want to leave you home alone and being in trouble already you knew you didn't have a chance of getting them to change stations).

Artist: Blues Project
Title: You Can't Catch Me
Source: LP: Special Disc Jockey Record
Writer: Chuck Berry
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
One of the reasons for Chuck Berry's enduring popularity throughout the 1960s (despite a lack of major hits during the decade) was the fact that so many bands covered his 50s hits, often updating them for a 60s audience. Although not as well-known as Roll Over Beethoven or Johnny B. Goode, You Can't Catch Me nonetheless got its fair share of coverage, including versions by the Rolling Stones and the Blues Project (as well as providing John Lennon an opening line for the song Come Together).

Artist: Deepest Blue
Title: Pretty Little Thing
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Shackelford/Johnson
Label: Rhino (original label: Blue Fin)
Year: 1966
Los Angeles, California has long been known for its urban sprawl, and in the mid-1960s it seemed like every one of its dozens of suburbs had at least one semi-professional garage band playing at various parties, bowling alleys, teen clubs and of course, high school gymnasiums. One such band was Deepest Blue, from Pomona, a suburb on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County best known for its race car track. Led by vocalist Earl Shackleford and guitarist Russell Johnson, the group performed locally as the Doves, but for reasons now forgotten recorded first under the name Egyptian Candy and then as Deepest Blue. Both records were released on labels that are considered obscure even by garage-rock standards, and by the end of the decade, the Doves/Egyptian Candy/Deepest Blue were naught but a footnote in L.A. music history.

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: No Way Out)
Writer: McElroy/Bennett
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
It took me several years to sort out the convoluted truth behind the recorded works of San Jose, California's most popular local band, the Chocolate Watchband. While it's true that much of what was released under their name was in truth the work of studio musicians, there are a few tracks that are indeed the product of Dave Aguilar and company. Are You Gonna Be There, a song used in the cheapie teenspliotation flick the Love-In and included on the Watchband's first album, is one of those few. Even more ironic is the fact that the song was co-written by Don Bennett, the studio vocalist whose voice was substituted for Aguilar's on a couple of other songs from the same album.

This week we feature a set of early tracks from a Canadian band that got its fifteen minutes of fame in the early 70s with a pair of top 40 singles, One Fine Morning and Sunny Days. Lighthouse was formed in Toronto in 1968 by vocalist/drummer Skip Prokop (formerly of the Paupers) and keyboardist/arranger Paul Hoffert. The idea was to combine a rock rhythm section with R&B-style horns and classical-style strings. The first move they made was to recruit guitarist Ralph Cole, whom the Paupers had shared a bill with in New York. The three of them then went about recruiting an assortment of friends, studio musicians and members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, making a demo tape and submitting it to M-G-M records, who immediately offered Lighthouse a contract. The band's manager, however, was able to get a better contract from RCA, and the group set about recording their first album, making their stage debut in Toronto in May of 1969. Among the original 13 members of the band were lead vocalist Vic "Pinky" Davin and saxophonist Howard Shore (who would become the leader of the house band for NBC's Saturday Night Live when that TV show made its debut in 1975). The group managed to record two albums that year, their eponymous debut album and the follow-up Suite Feeling. Both albums were recorded at Toronto's Eastern Sound Studio and released on the RCA Victor label in 1969. Although the group scored a couple of minor hits in their native Canada, they were not able to achieve commercial success in the US, and, after a third LP for RCA, changed labels to GRT, where (after several personnel changes, including lead vocals) they managed to chart two top 40 singles in 1971 and 1972. Tonight we have a set of tunes from the two 1969 Lighthouse albums, featuring the group's original lineup.

Artist: Lighthouse
Title: Follow The Stars
Source: LP: Lighthouse
Writer: Skip Prokop
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1969

Artist: Lighthouse
Title: Could You Be Concerned
Source: LP: Suite Feeling
Writer: Prokop/Hoffert
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1969

Artist: Lighthouse
Title: Never Say Goodbye
Source: LP: Lighthouse
Writer: P. Hoffert/B. Hoffert
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1969

Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Skoobly-Oobly-Doobob
Source: CD: Stonedhenge
Writer: Alvin Lee
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
The BX (base exchange) at Ramstein AFB in Germany used to feature an "album of the month." These were, by and large, LPs by top artists (usually rock bands), that were priced at $1.50, a dollar less than the normal $2.50 album price. As they were generally good albums by bands I had heard of (the Rolling Stones Beggar's Banquet and Through The Past Darkly, for instance), I bought a lot of albums that way. In late 1969 I decided to take a chance on one by a band I had never heard of. Maybe it was the cover art: England's mysterious Stonehenge monument done up in dark red hues. Whatever the reason, I took a chance and plunked down my buck and a half for my first taste of Ten Years After. It was an investment I never regretted. As it turns out, Stonedhenge (note the odd spelling) was actually the band's third LP for Deram, and was somewhat experimental in that it included four short solo tracks, one by each of the band members, placed between songs by the entire group. Guitarist/vocalist/bandleader Alvin Lee's contribution was a short bit of doo-wop played on the guitar with skat vocals in unison with the guitar part. It was appropriately titled Skoobly-Oobly-Doobob.

Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: You Shook Me/Dazed And Confused
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin
Writer: Dixon/Page
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
I've heard it said that Willie Dixon sued Zeppelin over the use of You Shook Me, which is puzzling to me since Dixon is clearly credited as the songwriter on the label. Still, I don't know enough about copyright laws to say for sure whether this could have happened or not. Dazed & Confused, on the other hand, is a Jimmy Page composition that was performed by the Yardbirds (with different lyrics) as early as 1966.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

SITPE # 1145 (starts 11/10/11)

Artist: Kinks
Title: A Well Respected Man
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1966
The Kinks were one of the original British Invasion bands, scoring huge R&B-influenced hits with You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night in 1964. The hits continued in 1965 with more melodic songs like Set Me Free and Tired Of Waiting For You. 1966 saw Ray Davies's songwriting take a satiric turn, as A Well Respected Man amply illustrates. Over the next few years the Kinks would continue to evolve, generally getting decent critical reviews and moderate record sales for their albums. The title of one of those later albums, Muswell Hillbillies, refers to the Davies brothers hometown of Muswell Hill, North London.

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

Artist: Hearts And Flowers
Title: Tin Angel (Will You Ever Come Down)
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Larry Murray
Label: Rhino (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1968
Hearts and Flowers (featuring a pre-Eagles Bernie Leadon on lead guitar) is known as one of the pioneering country-rock bands, but in 1968 they recorded what could well be regarded as a lost psychedelic masterpiece. Producer Steve Venet reportedly had Sgt. Pepper in mind as he crafted out Larry Murray's Tin Angel over a period of weeks, paying attention to the minutest details of the recording process. The result speaks for itself.

Artist: Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels
Title: One Grain Of Sand
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Crewe/Brown/Bloodworth
Label: Dyna Voice
Year: 1967
Like most Detroit rock bands, Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels was known for it's high-energy rock and roll, cranking out hits like Devil With A Blue Dress On and Sock It To Me! Baby. The band recorded for Bob Crewe's Dyna Voice label. A hard-rockin' band like Ryder's was a bit of a departure for Crewe, who was best known for his work with the Four Seasons and his own instrumental hit Music To Watch Girls By. One Grain Of Sand, released as the B side of Too Many Fish In The Sea, is more in line with the type of song usually associated with Crewe (who co-wrote the tune).

Artist: Doors
Title: You're Lost Little Girl
Source: CD: Strange Days
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
The Doors second LP, Strange Days, was stylistically similar to the first, and served notice to the world that this band was going to be around for awhile. Songwriting credit for You're Lost Little Girl (a personal favorite of mine) was given to the entire band, a practice that would continue until the release of The Soft Parade in 1969.

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Section 43
Source: CD: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
A few years back I picked up the DVD of the Ed Pennebacker telefilm documenting the Monterey International Pop Festival, held in June of 1967. One of the highlights of this early concert film was the Country Joe And The Fish performance of Section 43, an instrumental that they had originally recorded for a 1966 EP and had just re-recorded in stereo for their debut LP, Electric Music For The Mind And Body. The film (like Pennebacker's later film Woodstock), does not follow the actual performance sequence, instead using Section 43 as a backdrop for footage of various people who had slept on the festival grounds going about their morning business.

Artist: Beatles
Title: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Source: CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1967
The problem with the Beatles is that they made so many outstanding recordings it's easy to overlook one or two. Such is the case with Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, finally making its Stuck In The Psychedelic Era debut this week.

Artist: Turtles
Title: Grim Reaper Of Love
Source: CD: Happy Together (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Portz/Nichol
Label: Magic (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1966
The Turtles had some early success in 1965 as a folk-rock band, recording the hit version of Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe and PF Sloan's Let Me Be. By 1966, however, it was getting harder and harder for the group to get a hit record. One attempt was Grim Reaper Of Love, co-written by Turtles lead guitarist Al Nichol. Personally I think it's a pretty cool tune, but was probably a bit too weird to appeal to the average top 40 radio listener in 1966. Grim Reaper Of Love did manage to make it to the # 81 spot on the charts, unlike the band's next two singles that failed to chart at all. It wasn't until the following year, when the Turtles recorded Happy Together, that the band would make it back onto the charts.

Artist: Who
Title: I Can See For Miles
Source: CD: The Who Sell Out
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1967
I Can See For Miles continued a string of top 10 singles in the UK and was their biggest US hit ever. Pete Townshend, however, was disappointed with the song's performance on the UK charts. He said that the song was the ultimate Who song and as such it should have charted even higher than it did. It certainly was one of the heaviest songs of its time and there is some evidence that it prompted Paul McCartney to come up with Helter Skelter in an effort to take the heaviest song ever title back for the Beatles. What makes the story even more bizarre is that at the time McCartney reportedly had never actually heard I Can See For Miles and was going purely by what he read in a record review. The song is preceeded by a series of jingles produced for Radio London, a pirate radio station operating off the coast with offices in London. One of those (Roto Sound Strings) was actually performed by the Who. The others were made by the same Texas company (now known as TM) that supplied jingles to most US top 40 stations.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Still Raining, Still Dreaming
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Still Raining, Still Dreaming, from the third Jimi Hendrix Experience album Electric Ladyland, is the second half of a live studio recording featuring guest drummer Buddy Miles, who would later join Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox to form Band Of Gypsys. The recording also features Mike Finnegan on organ, Freddie Smith on tenor sax and Larry Faucett on congas, as well as Experience member Noel Redding on bass.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Honky Tonk Women
Source: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1969
After revitalizing their career with Jumpin' Jack Flash and Street Fighting Man in 1968, the Stones delivered the coup-de-grace with one of the biggest hits by anyone ever: the classic Honky Tonk Women. The song was the first single without Brian Jones, who had been found dead in his swimming pool shortly after being kicked out of the band. Jones's replacement, Mick Taylor (fresh from a stint with blues legend John Mayall), plays slide guitar on the track.

Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: July Morning
Source: LP: Look At Yourself
Writer: Hensley/Byron
Label: Mercury
Year: 1971
Fans of the British rock group Uriah Heep have an ongoing argument over which is the best Heep album; Demons And Wizards, which we heard the Wizard from a couple weeks ago, or its immediate predecessor, Look At Yourself, which features the 10+ minute July Morning. Both albums feature strong vocals by David Byron and songwriting by keyboardist Ken Hensley, as well as tasty guitar licks from Mick Box.

Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Trampoline (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Source: LP:Gimme Some Lovin'
Writer: Steve Winwood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1966
The Spencer Davis Group had a series of R&B flavored hit singles in the UK during the mid-1960s, but did not break in the US until 1967, the year that both keyboardist Steve Winwood and his brother, bassist Muff Winwood, left the band. Most of the band's first US LP, Gimme Some Lovin' was made up of those British singles, including Trampoline, which was originally issued as a B side in 1966.

Artist: Traffic
Title: Smiling Phases
Source: CD: Smiling Phases (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Writer: Winwood/Capaldi/Wood
Label: Island
Year: 1967
The standard practice in the UK during the 60s was to not include songs that had been released as singles on LPs. This left several songs, such as the 1967 B side Smiling Phases, only available on 45 RPM vinyl until the group's first greatist hits anthology was released. The song has since come to be recognized as one of Traffic's most iconic tunes, and has been covered by such bands as Blood, Sweat and Tears.

Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Dark Star (single version)
Source: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Hunter/Garcia
Label: Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
Studio recording. Single version. Shortest Dark Star ever (two minutes and 41 seconds long).

Artist: Spirit
Title: Ice
Source: Clear
Writer: John Locke
Label: Epic
Year: 1969
The third Spirit album found other members of the band writing a greater share of the songs than on the first two LPs, which were written primarily by vocalist Jay Ferguson. One example of this is the instrumental Ice, which opens side two of Clear. The song was written by keyboardist John Locke.

Artist: Great! Society
Title: Free Advice
Source: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Darby Slick
Label: Rhino (original label: North Beach)
Year: 1966
One of the most legendary of San Francisco bands was the Great! Society, which featured a young model named Grace Slick on backup vocals. The group was never really much more than a garage band, and after recording an album's worth of material disbanded when Grace Slick left to replace Signe Anderson in Jefferson Airplane. Although the album was not issued until long after the band had split up (and even then was regarded more for its historical significance than for any musical value it might have), a pair of the recordings were issued as a single in 1966. Free Advice, a song written by Grace Slick's brother-in-law Darby (who also wrote the iconic Somebody To Love), was the A side of that single.

Artist: Move
Title: Flowers In The Rain
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Roy Wood
Label: A&M
Year: 1967
The Move was one of Britain's most popular acts in the mid to late 1960s. That popularity, however, did not extend to North America, where the band failed to chart even a single hit. The closest they came was Flowers In The Rain, a song that made it to the # 2 spot in England and was the very first record played on BBC Radio One (the first legal top 40 station in the UK). Eventually Roy Wood would depart to form his own band, Roy Wood's Wizzard, and the remaining members would evolve into the Electric Light Orchestra.

Artist: Beacon Street Union
Title: A Not Very August Afternoon
Source: CD: The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens
Writer: Wright/Tartachny/Weisberg/Rhodes
Label: See For Miles (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1968
Although Ultimate Spinach is the usually the band most cited as being part of the infamous "Boss-Town Sound" promoted heavily by M-G-M Records, the Beacon Street Union were the actual architects of the style itself. Already well-established in Boston, the band had actually relocated to New York when they became the first psychedelic band to sign with M-G-M. It was their signing which led to Ultimate Spinach, Orpheus and Earth Opera also getting contracts with one of the stodgiest of the major labels of the era. A Not Very August Afternoon, from the band's second LP, The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens, shows the band already moving beyond their original psychedelic style.

Artist: Knickerbockers
Title: One Track Mind
Source: LP: Nuggets vol. 4-Pop (part two) (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: unknown
Label: Rhino (original label: Challenge)
Year: 1966
After successfully fooling many people into thinking that they were the Beatles recording under a different name with their 1965 hit Lies, the Knickerbockers went with a more R&B flavored rocker for their follow up single. Unfortunately their label, the Los Angeles-based Challenge Records, did not have the resources and/or skills to properly promote the single.

Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: I Am A Rock
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Sounds Of Silence)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
The success of I Am A Rock, when released as a single in 1966, showed that the first Simon And Garfunkel hit, The Sound Of Silence, was no fluke. The two songs served as bookends to a very successful LP, Sounds Of Silence, and would lead to several more hit records before the two singers went their separate ways in 1970.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: D.C.B.A.-25
Source: LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer: Paul Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
One of the first songs written by Paul Kantner without a collaborator was this highly listenable tune from Surrealistic Pillow. Kantner says the title simply refers to the basic chord structure of the song, which is built on a two chord verse (D and C) and a two chord bridge (B and A). That actually fits, but what about the 25 part? [insert enigmatic smile here]

Artist: Sagittarius
Title: The Truth Is Not Real
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Present Tense)
Writer: Gary Usher
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
After the success of the first Sagittarius single, My World Fell Down, Gary Usher enlisted the aid of Curt Boettcher, who had been working on a studio project of his own called the Ballroom for another production company. Using many of the same studio musicians they created a follow-up single, The Truth Is Not Real. It's interesting to compare Usher's lyrics with those of In My Room, a Brian Wilson tune that Usher had provided lyrics for in 1965.

Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1966
If ever a song could be considered a garage-punk anthem, it's Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White, the follow-up single to the classic Dirty Water. Both songs were written by Standells' manager/producer Ed Cobb, the record industry's answer to Ed Wood.

Artist: Leaves
Title: Let's Get Together
Source: CD: All The Good That's Happening
Writer: Jimmy Reed
Label: One Way (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1967
Despite never having been a major hit, Jimmy Reed's Let's Get Together (not to be confused with the Youngbloods song) was covered by several garage/psychedelic bands, including the Blue Magoos, the Shadows of Knight, and L.A. band the Leaves, appearing on their second LP (their only one for major label Capitol Records).

Artist: Cream
Title: Crossroads
Source: CD: Best of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Wheels Of Fire)
Writer: Robert Johnson
Label: Priority (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Robert Johnson's Crossroads has come to be regarded as a signature song for Eric Clapton, who's live version (recorded at the Fillmore East) was first released on the Cream album Wheels Of Fire.

Artist: Donovan
Title: Sunny South Kensington
Source: LP: Mellow Yellow
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: Epic
Year: 1967
Donovan followed up his 1966 hit single Sunshine Superman with an album of the same name. He then repeated himself with the song and album Mellow Yellow. Although there were no other singles released from either album, the song Sunny South Kensington, which was done in much the same style as Superman, was a highlight of the Mellow Yellow album.
Due to a contractual dispute in the UK between Donovan and Pye Records, neither LP was issued in its original form in Britain.

Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: Rhino
Year: 1967
One of our top contenders for most-played song of 2011 is the Electric Prunes classic I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). Lenny Kaye also rated the song high on his list, as he used it as the opening track on his original Nuggets compilation in 1972.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

SITPE # 1144 Playlist (starts 11/3/11)

Artist: Five Americans
Title: I See The Light
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Durrill/Ezell/Rabon
Label: Rhino (original label: Abnak)
Year: 1965
For years I was under the impression that the Five Americans were a Texas band, mainly due to Abnak Records having a Texas address. It turns out, though, that the band was actually from Durant, Oklahoma, although by the time they had their biggest hit, Western Union, they were operating out of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. I See The Light is an earlier single built around a repeating Farfisa organ riff that leads into a song that can only be described as in your face.

Artist: 13th Floor Elevators
Title: You're Gonna Miss Me
Source: CD: The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators
Writer: Roky Erickson
Label: Collectables (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).

Artist: Love
Title: Stephanie Knows Who
Source: CD: Da Capo
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Following up on a strong, if not spectacular debut LP followed by a national hit record (7&7 Is), Love went into the studio with two new members to record their second album, Da Capo. By this point the band had established themselves as the most popular band on the Sunset Strip, and the music on Da Capo is a fair representation of what the group was doing onstage (including the 17 minute Revelation, which takes up the entire second side of the LP). The opening track, Stephanie Knows Who, is hard proto-punk, showcasing the band's tightness with abrupt changes in tempo throughout the song. The tune also features the harpsichord playing of "Snoopy" Pfisterer, who switched over from drums to keyboards for the LP.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Ice Cream Phoenix
Source: LP: Crown Of Creation
Writer: Kaukonen/Cockery
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1968
By 1968, the various songwriting members of Jefferson Airplane were developing divergent styles, although still keeping their songs within the band's established sound. This is evident throughout the band's fourth LP, Crown Of Creation, with songs like Jorma Kaukonen's Ice Cream Phoenix. Parts of the song, such as the opening verse, almost sound like they could be on a Hot Tuna album, yet others, such as the bridge section, are pure Airplane.

Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Summertime Blues
Source: CD: Best of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Vincebus Eruptum)
Writer: Cochrane/Capehart
Label: Priority (original label: Philips)
Year: 1968
If 1967 was the summer of love, then 1968 was the summer of violence. Framed by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, both major anti-establishment movements of the time (civil rights and anti-war) became increasing radicalized and more violent. The hippies gave way to the Yippies, LSD gave way to crystal meth, and there were riots in the streets of several US cities. Against this backdrop Blue Cheer released one of the loudest and angriest recordings ever to grace the top 40: the proto-metal arrangement of Eddie Cochrane's 1958 classic Summertime Blues. It was the perfect soundtrack of its time.

Artist: Blood, Sweat And Tears
Title: Smiling Phases
Source: CD: Blood, Sweat And Tears
Writer: Winwood/Capaldi/Wood
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
After recording just one album with his new band, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Al Kooper quit to concentrate on his work as staff producer at Columbia Records and to work on solo projects. This left B,S & T looking for a new lead vocalist. They found one of the best: David Clayton Thomas, who helped propel the group to major star status. The first album with Thomas produced no fewer than three top 10 hits: Spinning Wheel, And When I Die, and You Made Me So Very Happy. Additionally, the LP had several outstanding album tracks, such as this cover of Traffic's Smiling Phases.

Artist: Jose Feliciano
Title: You're Takin' Hold Of Me
Source: LP: A Bag Full Of Soul
Writer: Chip Taylor
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
Jose Feliciano appeared seemingly out of nowhere in 1969 with his latin-tinged acoustic cover version of the Doors' Light My Fire. The truth is that Feliciano had been recording for RCA since 1965. His success in the early days, however, was mostly with the latino population in Southern California. I recently ran across this copy of Feliciano's second LP for RCA, A Bag Full Of Soul. A friend of mine that grew up in 60s L.A. remembers this album as being in her mother's collection. You're Takin' Hold Of Me, the second track on the album, was written by Chip Taylor, who also wrote the classic Wild Thing.

Artist: Young Rascals
Title: In The Midnight Hour
Source: CD: Time Peace-The Rascals' Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: The Young Rascals)
Writer: Pickett/Cropper
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1966
The Rascals were the premier blue-eyed soul band of the 1960s (in fact, the term blue-eyed soul was coined specifically to describe the Rascals). Originally from New Jersey, the group changed its name to the Young Rascals at the behest of Atlantic Records for reasons that are lost to history before releasing their debut LP. In addition to the hit single Good Lovin', the album boasted several R&B cover songs. The best-known of these was Wilson Pickett's In The Midnight Hour, which was popular enough to be included on the Rascal's Greatest Hits album.

Artist: Corporation
Title: India
Source: CD: The Corporation
Writer: John Coltrane
Label: Repertoire (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1969
A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from a listener who works at WITT-FM near Indianapolis, which runs Stuck In The Psychedelic Era on Friday nights. He mentioned a band he had heard on midwestern progressive radio stations in the late 60s called the Corporation, adding that he had recently found a copy of their only album for Capitol on CD. He offered to make me a copy, but, as I am somewhat of a stickler for using legitimate sources for everything I play (i.e. no MP3s or burned copies), I decided to get my local music store (yes, such things do still exist) to order me a copy of the CD instead. The track he mentioned in particular was called India, notable for taking up an entire side of the album. I've since learned that they track was also quite popular in discoteques, particularly those in Germany. The song itself was written by jazz legend John Coltrane, and as far as I know has never been attempted by any other rock band.

Artist: Temptations
Title: Psychedelic Shack
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: Whitfield/Strong
Label: Motown
Year: 1970
Starting in 1969 the songwriting/production team of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong began to carve out their own company within a company at Motown, producing a series of recordings with a far more psychedelic feel than anything else coming out of the Motor City's biggest label. The most blatantly obvious example of this is the Temptations tune Psychedelic Shack, which graced the charts in 1970. Whitfield would eventually form his own company, taking another Motown act, the Undisputed Truth, with him, but would not be able to equal the success of the songs he and Strong produced for the Temptations, such as 1972's Papa Was A Rolling Stone.

Artist: Nightcrawlers
Title: My Little Black Egg
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Stone/Conlon
Label: Rhino (original label: Lee; re-released by Kapp in 1966)
Year: 1965
The Nightcrawlers, from Daytona Beach, Florida, had a series of regional hits in the mid-60s. The only one to hit the national charts was The Little Black Egg, after Kapp Records (a division of MCA) bought the rights to the song and gave it widespread distribution.

Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: San Franciscan Nights
Source: CD: Winds Of Change
Writer: Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label: Repertoire (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1967
In late 1966, after losing several original members over a period of about a year, the original Animals disbanded. Eric Burdon, after releasing one single as a solo artist (but using the Animals name), decided to form a "new" Animals. After releasing a moderately successful single, When I Was Young, the new band appeared at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June of 1967. While in the area, the band fell in love with the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, during what came to be called the Summer Of Love. The first single to be released from their debut album, Winds Of Change, was a tribute to the city by the bay called San Franciscan Nights. Because of the topicality of the song's subject matter, San Franciscan Nights was not released in the UK as a single. Instead, the song Good Times (which was the US B side of the record), became the new group's biggest UK hit to date (and one of the Animals' biggest UK hits overall). Eventually San Franciscan Nights was released as a single in the UK as well (with a different B side) and ended up doing quite well.

Artist: Country Joe and the Fish
Title: Section 43
Source: LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer: Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
In 1966 Country Joe and the Fish released their original mono version of an instrumental called Section 43. The song was issued on something called a flexi-disc; a thin sheet of flexible plastic that was inserted in an underground newspaper called Rag Baby. In 1967 the group recorded an expanded stereo version of Section 43 and included it on their debut LP for Vanguard Records, Electric Music For The Mind And Body. It was this arrangement of the piece that the group performed live at the Monterey International Pop Festival that June. While working on this week's playlist I was somewhat surprised to realize that this is the first time I've played the longer stereo version of Section 43 on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era (at least since the show went into syndication).

Artist: Seeds
Title: Can't Seem To Make You Mine
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1965
One of the first psychedelic singles to hit the L.A. airwaves was the Seeds' debut single, Can't Seem To Make You Mine, released in 1965. The song was also chosen to lead off the first Seeds album the following year. Indeed, it could be argued that this was the song that first defined the "flower power" sound, predating the Seeds' biggest hit, Pushin' Too Hard, by almost a year.

Artist: Seeds
Title: The Wind Blows Her Hair
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Saxon/Bigelow
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1967
The Wind Blows Her Hair is actually one of the Seeds' better tracks. Unfortunately, by the time it was released the whole concept of Flower Power (which the Seeds were intimately tied to) had become yesterday's news and the single went nowhere.

Artist: Seeds
Title: Pushin' Too Hard
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released on LP: The Seeds)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Rhino
Year: 1966
Although the song was originally released in 1966, it wasn't until spring of 1967 that the Seeds' best-known song, Pushin' Too Hard, took off nationally. The timing was perfect for me, as the new FM station I was listening to jumped right on it. Pushin' Too Hard is included on practically every collection of psychedelic hits ever compiled. And for good reason. The song is an undisputed classic.

Artist: Flock
Title: Hornschmeyer's Island
Source: CD: Dinosaur Swamps
Writer: The Flock
Label: BGO (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
The second Flock album was a bit too experimental to be commercially successful, as Hornschmeyer's Island (with it's sped up vocal chorus and abrupt changes) demonstrates. One interesting feature of the album was its packaging. Instead of the standard 12" X 12" cover artwork, Dinosaur Swamps featured a gatefold cover that was two feet high and one foot wide, with large pterodactyls dominating the upper (front) portion and tiny figures representing the band members standing on a beach at the bottom. In addition, every song title on the album referenced something visual appearing on either the cover itself or in the center spread, which was an interior of a ship captain's cabin, with a map spread out on a table. Hornschmeyer's Island is one of the locations shown on that map.

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
At the beginning of the year you may remember I made a resolution to play more Hendrix. Unlike most New Year's resolutions, this one was actually pretty easy to keep. In fact, I have so far kept the resolution so well that Hendrix is in the running for most played artist of 2011 on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era (and is virtually guaranteed to make the top 5 list on the New Year's show). This week Hendrix gets three more points with an artist set taken entirely from the Electric Ladyland album, released in 1968. Although listed as separate tracks on the cover, the first two songs on the album, And The Gods Made Love and Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland), actually run together without a break 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). Like many of the songs on Electric Ladyland, Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland) features Hendrix playing the bass parts himself, a move that did not go over well with Experience bassist Noel Redding.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Still Raining, Still Dreaming
Source: CD: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
During the height of their popularity, reel to reel tapes could be formatted in one of two ways: half-track or quarter-track (well, technically there was also full-track, but that format was pretty much abandoned with the advent of stereo recording in the 1950s). The quarter-track format was used for most home systems, as a stereo recording would use two of the tracks, allowing the tape to be recorded in the opposite direction on the remaining two tracks. Editing was virtually impossible with quarter-track recordings, as any physical manipulation of the tape would have an adverse effect on whatever was recorded on the other side of the the tape. All professional uses of reel-to-reel tape, on the other hand, used the half-track format. Not only was the sound quality better (due to wider tracks), but the single-directional nature of the tape made editing a simple matter of cutting and splicing sections of tape together. In the mid-70s I did just that to two tracks on Electric Ladyland to recreate the original live studio performance of Rainy Day Dream Away/Still Raining, Still Dreaming. Unfortunately I have no idea where that tape is now, and even if I did I doubt that I can find a working half-track machine to play it on anyway (although I suppose I could do the same thing on a computer if I was so inclined). Instead, we have the second part of the divided performance, which includes several guest musicians, including Mike Finnegan on organ, Freddie Smith on tenor sax and Larry Faucett on congas. Although Noel Redding plays bass on the track, drummer Mitch Mitchell is not heard on the recording. Instead, Buddy Miles, who would join up with Hendrix for his Band of Gypsys the following year, plays drums on the track. (Oh, and you should hear the Beatles' Revolution 9 played backwards on half-track tape).

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)/Moon Turn The Tides (Gently, Gently Away)
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)/Moon Turn The Tides (Gently, Gently Away) from the Electric Ladyland album is the longest work created purely in the studio by Jimi Hendrix, with a running time of over 16 minutes. The piece starts with tape effects that lead into the song's main guitar rift. The vocals and drums join in to tell a science fiction story set in a future world where the human race has had to move underwater in order to survive some unspecified catastrophe. After a couple verses, the piece goes into a long unstructured section made up mostly of guitar effects before returning to the main theme and closing out with more effects that combine volume control and stereo panning to create a circular effect. As is the case with several tracks on Electric Ladyland, 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)/Moon Turn The Tides (Gently, Gently Away) features Hendrix on both guitar and bass, with Mitch Mitchell on drums and special guest Chris Wood (from Traffic) on flute.

Artist: Kinks
Title: Sunny Afternoon
Source: CD: Face To Face
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Sanctuary (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1966
My family got its first real stereo just in time for me to catch this song at the peak of its popularity. My school had just gone into split sessions and all my classes were over by one o'clock, which gave me the chance to explore the world of top 40 radio for a couple hours every day without the rest of the family telling me to turn it down (or off).