Thursday, March 15, 2012

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1211 (starts 3/15/12)

Artist: Shadows of Knight
Title: Gloria
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Van Morrison
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
The original Them version of Van Morrison's Gloria found itself banned on the majority of US radio stations due to controversial lyrics. By changing one line (essentially substituting "around here" for "up to my room") the suburban Chicago punk-blues band Shadows of Knight turned it into a huge hit and a garage band standard.

Artist: Donovan
Title: The Observation
Source: CD: Mellow Yellow
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: EMI (original label: Epic)
Year: 1967
Donovan was at first hailed as Britain's answer to Bob Dylan, but by 1967 he was proving that he was much more than that. The Observation is one of many innovative tunes that helped redefine Donovan from folk singer to singer/songwriter, transforming the entire genre in the process.

Artist: Bonzo Dog Band
Title: I'm The Urban Spaceman
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Neil Innes
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
The Bonzo Dog Dada Band (as they were originally called) was as much theatre (note the British spelling) as music, and were known for such antics as starting out their performances by doing calisthentics (after being introduced as the warm-up band) and having one of the members, "Legs" Larry Smith tapdance on stage (he was actually quite good). In 1967 they became the resident band on Do Not Adjust Your Set, a children's TV show that also featured sketch comedy by future Monty Python members Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin and David Jason, the future voice of Mr. Toad and Danger Mouse. In 1968 they released their only hit single, I'm The Urban Spaceman, co-produced by Paul McCartney. Neil Innes would go on to hook up with Eric Idle for the Rutles projects, among others, and is often referred to as the Seventh Python.

Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Call On Me
Source: CD: Live At The Carousel Ballroom-1968
Writer(s): Sam Andrew
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
In early 1968 a consortium of three local San Francisco bands (Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead) set out to create a venue that would be an alternative to those controlled by professional promoters such as Bill Graham. They rented a disused place called the Carousel Ballroom and set about fixing the place up. The sound system at the Carousel was set up and run by Owsley Stanley, the legendary Grateful Dead sound man also known as Bear. Bear, as a rule, made recordings of every gig he ran sound for, using his own unique two channel system (one channel for the vocals, the other for guitars, bass and keyboards, with the drums being picked up by both sets of microphones). Bear called these recordings "sonic journals", as their primary purpose was similar to that of training films that sports coaches made during games. After a gig Bear and the band members would listen to these tapes and try to figure out what could be done to improve future performances. On March 12, 2012 (the first anniversary of Bear's death in an automobile accident), Columbia/Legacy released Big Brother And The Holding Company Live At The Carousel Ballroom, recorded on Sunday June 23, 1968, just two weeks before the Carousel experiment came to an end. It was the second of two consecutive nights that Big Brother played at the Carousel, their only gigs at the ballroom. In addition to the full set from June 23rd, the disc contains one bonus track from the previous night's performance: an alternate version of Call On Me, a song that first appeared in studio form on the band's 1967 debut LP on Chicago's Mainstream label.

Artist: Them
Title: Waltz Of The Flies
Source: LP: Time Out! Time In! For Them
Writer(s): Tom Lane
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
Once you get past the facts that 1) this a band best known as the starting place of a singer (Van Morrison) who was no longer with the group by the time this album was recorded, and 2) this album came out on Tower Records, the audio equilivant of AIP movie studios, you can appreciate the fact that Time Out! Time In! For Them is actually a pretty decent album.

Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Born To Be Wild
Source: CD: Steppenwolf
Writer(s): Mars Bonfire
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
Born To Be Wild's status as a counter-cultural anthem was cemented when it was chosen for the soundtrack of the movie Easy Rider. The popularity of both the song and the movie resulted in Steppenwolf becoming the all-time favorite band of bikers all over the world.

Artist: Who
Title: Magic Bus
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Decca
Year: 1968
While working on their landmark Tommy album, the Who continued to crank out singles throughout 1968. One of the most popular was Magic Bus, a song that remained in the band's live repertoire for many years.

Artist: Bloodrock
Title: D.O.A.
Source: CD: Bloodrock 2
Writer(s): Cobb/Grundy/Hill/Pickens/Rutledge
Label: One Way (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1970
Bloodrock gained infamy in 1970 with the inclusion of D.O.A. on their second LP, a song reputed to be the cause of more bad acid trips than any other track ever recorded. Although the origins of the song are popularly attributed to a plane crash that killed several student atheletes in October of 1970, the fact that the album was already in the hands of record reviewers within a week of that event makes it unlikely that the two are related. The more likely story is that it was inspired by band member Lee Pickens's witnessing of a friend crashing his light plane a couple years before. Regardless of the song's origins, D.O.A. has to be considered one of the creepiest recordings ever made.

Artist: Santana
Title: No One To Depend On
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Carabella/Escobida/Rolie
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Santana's third LP (which like their debut LP was called simply Santana), was the last by the band's original lineup. Among the better-known tracks on the LP was No One To Depend On, featuring a guitar solo by teen phenom Neal Schon (who would go on to co-found Journey). The version here is a rare mono pressing issued as a single in 1972.

Artist: Animals
Title: Dimples
Source: LP: On Tour
Writer(s): Hooker/Bracken
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1965
Of all the bands to come out of England as part of the British invasion of the mid-1960s, none were bigger fans of US blues and R&B artists than the Animals, from Newcastle. The group reportedly spent all of their spare time checking out independent record stores looking for obscure old records while on the first US tour, and upon returning to the UK set about recording their own versions of several of these songs. Among the tracks recorded was Dimples, a John Lee Hooker tune that was included on the Animals second US LP, On Tour. A different version of Dimples was included on the album The Animals.

Artist: Uniques
Title: You Ain't Tuff
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era
Writer(s): Henderson/Puckett
Label: Rhino
Year: 1965
The Uniques were a band operating out of Western Louisiana that recorded several singles in Tyler Texas for the Paula label. You Ain't Tuff, released in 1965, is a classic example of mid-60s garage rock, an ironic fact considering that lead vocalist Joe Stampley went on to become on of the top Country stars of the 1980s.

Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Title: Searching For Madge
Source: LP: Then Play On
Writer(s): John McVie
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
The original classic Fleetwood Mac lineup featuring Peter Green and Danny Kirwan on guitars hit its peak with the album Then Play On, released in 1969. Two of the tracks on the album are actually sections of a long jam session, both containing the word Madge in their official title. The longer of these is Searching For Madge, which runs nearly seven minutes.

Artist: James Brown
Title: Super Bad-Parts 1&2
Source: CD: 20 All-Time Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): James Brown
Label: Polydor (original label: King)
Year: 1970
A bit of slang that started in the 70s and persists today is using the word "bad" to describe something that, well, kicks ass. The originator of this usage was none other than the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, who used the term in his 1970 recording Super Bad. The original recording was in three parts, with the single version putting parts one and two on the A side and part three on the B side of the record. Brown did this with a lot of his recordings, and often used the tunes as stepping off points for extended studio jams on his albums. (The LP version of Cold Sweat, for instance, takes up an entire album side.)

Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: It's A Deal
Source: CD: Live At The Carousel Ballroom-1968
Writer(s): Albin/Andrew/Getz/Gurley/Joplin
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
There are very few recorded songs attributed to the entire lineup of Big Brother And The Holding Company. It's A Deal, from their new Live At The Carousel Ballroom-1968 CD, is one of them.

Artist: Merry-Go-Round
Title: Listen Listen
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Emitt Rhodes
Label: Rhino (original label: A&M)
Year: 1968
In 1968, drummer/vocalist Emmit Rhodes was on the verge of branching out on a solo career. One of the last songs released under the Merry-Go-Round banner was Listen Listen, a song very obviously influenced by the Beatles.

Artist: Fever Tree
Title: Filigree And Shadow
Source: LP: Fever Tree
Writer(s): Scott & Vivian Holtzmann
Label: Uni
Year: 1968
1968 was the year of husband and wife songwriting/producing teams such as Scott and Vivian Holtzmann, who provided the music for Houston-based Fever Tree's first LP. Side One of that album, which ends with the song Filigree And Shadow, is probably the stronger of the album's two sides.

Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: EXP/Up From The Skies
Source: LP: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The second Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Axis: Bold As Love, is very much a studio creation. Hendrix had been taking a growing interest in what could be done with multiple tracks to work with, and came up with a masterpiece. What makes the achievement even more remarkable is the fact that he actually only had four tracks to work with (compared to the virtually unlimited number available with modern digital equipment). EXP, which opens the album, is an exercise in creative feedback bouncing from speaker to speaker. The intro to the piece is a faux interview of a slowed-down Hendrix (posing as his friend Paul Caruso) by bassist Noel Redding. The track leads directly into Up From The Skies, the only song on the album to be issued as a single in the US. Up From The Skies features Hendrix's extensive use of a wah-wah pedal, with vocals and guitar panning back and forth from speaker to speaker over the jazz-styled brushes of drummer Mitch Mitchell.

Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Sing This All Together (See What Happens)
Source: CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1967
Following the critical and commercial success of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Stones responded with their most psychedelic album ever, Their Satanic Majesties Request, with its own cover parodying the Sgt. Pepper cover. As an added touch, the Stones album featured cover art done on special holographic paper (the same material used for holo rings purchased from bubble gum machines) to simulate a 3D effect. The first side wrapped up with the nearly eight-minute Sing This All Together (See What Happens), a sort of psychedelic jam track featuring an unusual array of instruments and effects.

Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Blues From An Airplane
Source: The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane
Writer(s): Balin/Spence
Label: BMG/RCA
Year: 1966
Blues From An Airplane was the opening song on the first Jefferson Airplane album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. Although never released as a single, it was picked by the group to open their first anthology album, The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane, as well.

Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: A Hazy Shade Of Winter
Source: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bookends)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
Originally released as a single in 1966, A Hazy Shade Of Winter was one of several songs slated to be used in the film The Graduate. The only one of these actually used was Mrs. Robinson. The remaining songs eventually made up side two of the 1968 album Bookends, although several of them were also released as singles throughout 1967. A Hazy Shade Of Winter, being the first of these singles (and the only one released in 1966), was also the highest charting, peaking at # 13 just as the weather was turning cold.

Artist: Clefs Of Lavender Hill
Title: Stop-Get A Ticket
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Travis & Coventry Fairchild
Label: Rhino (original label: Thames)
Year: 1966
The Clefs Of Lavender Hill were a band from North Miami that featured not one, but two sets of siblings: the brother and sister team of Travis and Coventry Fairchild (both of which sang and played guitar) and the Moss brothers, Bill (bass) and Fred (drums). The first single from the band was a song called First Tell Me Why, but it was the B side of the record, a Beatlesque tune called Stop-Get A Ticket that became a hit on Miami radio stations. The song was picked up by Date Records and peaked nationally at #80. Subsequent releases by the Clefs failed to crack the Hot 100 and the group (after several personnel changes) finally called it quits in 1968.

Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: Greenwood Creek
Source: LP: The Doobie Brothers
Writer(s): Tom Johnston
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
The Doobie Brothers built a reputation by playing to a tough crowd: the Hell's Angels. By all accounts they were a hard-rockin' band in the mold of Steppenwolf when playing the clubs around the San Francisco Bay area. Their first LP, however, showed an entirely different side of the band, with a greater emphasis on acoustic instruments, giving the band a sort of country-rock sound.

Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Title: Helpless
Source: CD: déjà vu
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
Many of the songs on the second Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album, Deja Vu, sound as if they could have been on solo albums by the various band members, particularly Neil Young, whose style really didn't mesh well with the others. A prime example of this is Helpless. Despite this (or maybe because of it) Helpless got more radio airplay than most of the other songs on the album.

Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Sad And Lonely Times
Source: LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
Although most Country Joe and the Fish tunes were written and sung by Joe McDonald, guitarist Barry Melton did get a chance to do an occasional vocal as well. One such case is Sad And Lonely Times from the group's first LP.

Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: No Way Out
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: No Way Out and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino
Year: 1967
The Chocolate Watchband, from the southern part of the Bay Area (specifically Foothills Junior College in Los Altos Hills), were fairly typical of the south bay music scene, centered in San Jose. Although they were generally known for lead vocalist Dave Aguilar's ability to channel Mick Jagger with uncanny accuracy, producer Ed Cobb gave them a more psychedelic sound in the studio with the use of studio effects and other enhancements (including adding tracks to their albums that were performed entire by studio musicians). The title track of No Way Out is credited to Cobb, but in reality is a fleshing out of a jam the band had previously recorded, but never released.

Artist: Doors
Title: Take It As It Comes
Source: CD: The Doors
Writer(s): 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 most popular 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 to record for Elektra.

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