This week we have a fairly high percentage of tracks that are making their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut, including our opening 1967 set (the 1965 Rolling Stones tune being a standalone) and most of the second hour. In between there are plenty of favorites, including the # 1 most-played song of 2011.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: The Last Time
Source: LP: Out Of Our Heads
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1965
Released in late winter of 1965, The Last Time was the first single to hit the top 10 in both the US and the UK (being their third consecutive #1 hit in England) and the first one written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Despite that, it would be overshadowed by their next release: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, which went to the top of the charts everywhere and ended up being the #1 song of 1965.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Museum
Source: LP: Mellow Yellow
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: Epic
Year: 1967
Museum is a song from one of Donovan's early albums that he re-recorded for his Mellow Yellow LP in 1967. The new arrangement, like many of the tracks on Mellow Yellow, uses electric guitar, violin and hand percussion (bongos, etc.) to supplement Donovan's acoustic guitar.
Artist: Dave Davies
Title: Suzannah's Still Alive
Source: CD: Kinks-25 Years-The Ultimate Collection (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Dave Davies
Label: Polytel (original UK label: Pye)
Year: 1967
In July of 1967 Dave Davies of the Kinks released his first solo track, Death Of A Clown. The song was a huge hit in the UK, going all the way to the # 3 spot on the British charts. In November he released a follow-up, Suzannah's Still Alive. Although not as big a hit as Death Of A Clown, the song still spent seven weeks on the UK charts, peaking in the # 20 spot. To my knowledge neither record was released in the US.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: Summer Is The Man
Source: CD: Kaleidoscopic Compendium (originally released on LP: Electric Comic Book)
Writer(s): Gilbert/Esposito
Label: Mercury
Year: 1967
Following up on their successful debut LP, Psychedelic Lollipop, the Blues Magoos released Electric Comic Book in March of 1967. Unfortunately the first single from the album had two equally strong songs, one of which was favored by the producers and the other by the band. Radio stations were unsure which song to push, and as a result, neither made the top 40, which in turn hurt album sales. It's a shame, too, since by and large the album was one of the best of the psychedelic era, with most of the songs written by the band members, including Summer Is The Man, a tune with an interesting chord structure, a catchy melody and somewhat existential lyrics.
Artist: Left Banke
Title: Barterers And Their Wives
Source: LP: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
Writer(s): Brown/Feher
Label: Smash/Sundazed
Year: 1967
The Left Banke made a huge impact with their debut single, Walk Away Renee, in late 1966. All of a sudden the rock press (such as it was in 1966) was all abuzz with talk of "baroque rock" and how it was the latest, greatest thing. The band soon released a follow-up single, Pretty Ballerina, which made the top 10 as well, which led to an album entitled (naturally enough) Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina. The album featured several more songs in the same vein, such as Barterers And Their Wives, which was also released as a B side later that year. An unfortunate misstep by keyboardist Michael Brown, however, killed the band's momentum, and baroque rock soon went the way of other sixties fads.
Artist: Tim Buckley
Title: Once Upon A Time
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer(s): Buckley/Beckett
Label: Rhino
Year: recorded 1967, released 2009
Tim Buckley was one of those people whose style it is almost impossible to define. His first album, consisting of songs he and his friend Larry Beckett had written while still attending high school, was released in 1966 on Elektra Records, and was considered folk music. Before recording a follow-up, Buckley switched gears, recording Once Upon A Time in an effort to achieve commercial success. Elektra Records declined to released the song, however, and Buckley soon eased into a more psychedelic vein, writing songs that incorporated elements of several genres, including folk, rock and even jazz.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Eight Miles High
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Fifth Dimension and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Clark/McGuinn/Crosby
Label: Rhino
Year: 1966
By all rights, the Byrds' Eight Miles High should have been a huge hit. Unfortunately, Bill Drake, the most influential man in the history of Top 40 radio, got it into his head that this was a drug song, despite the band's insistence that it was about a transatlantic plane trip. The band's version actually makes sense, as Gene Clark had just quit the group due to his fear of flying (he is listed as a co-writer of the song), and the subject was probably a hot topic of discussion among the remaining members.
Artist: Trade Winds
Title: Mind Excursion
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Excursions)
Writer(s): Anders/Poncia
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Kama Sutra)
Year: 1966
The Trade Winds were a semi-studio band from New York that first scored in 1965 with the song New York is a Lonely Town (When You're the Only Surfer Boy Around). A year later, they had their second and last hit, Mind Excursion, which holds up as one of the best examples of "flower power" pop ever recorded.
Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Tower
Year: 1966
The Standells were probably the most successful band to record for the Tower label (not counting Pink Floyd, whose first LP was issued, in modified form, on the label after being recorded in England). Besides their big hit Dirty Water, they hit the charts with other tunes such as Why Pick On Me, Try It, and the punk classic Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White. Both Good Guys and Dirty Water were written by producer Ed Cobb, who has to be considered the most prolific punk-rock songwriter of the 60s, having also written songs for the "E" Types and Chocolate Watchband (both of which he also produced).
Artist: Limey And The Yanks
Title: Guaranteed Love
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Reed/Paxton
Label: Rhino (original label: Star-Burst)
Year: 1966
Limey and the Yanks were an Orange County, California band that boasted an honest-to-dog British lead vocalist. Despite being kind of Zelig-like on the L.A. scene, they only recorded two singles. The first one, Guaranteed Love, was co-written by Gary Paxton, best known for his involvement in various novelty records, including the Hollywood Argyles' Alley Oop, which he co-wrote with Kim Fowley, and Bobby "Boris" Pickett's Monster Mash, which was released on Paxton's own Garpax label.
Artist: Doors
Title: People Are Strange
Source: CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Strange Days and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
The first single from the second Doors album was People Are Strange. The song quickly dispelled any notion that the Doors might be one-hit wonders and helped establish the band as an international act as opposed to just another band from L.A. The album itself, Strange Days, was a turning point for Elektra Records as well, as it shifted the label's promotional efforts away from their original rock band, Love, to the Doors, who ironically had been recommended to the label by Love's leader, Arthur Lee.
Artist: 13th Power
Title: Fifty-Two Percent
Source: LP: Wild In The Streets soundtrack
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
Critics and audiences alike were divided on how to interpret the movie Wild In The Streets. Was it speculative fiction about a distopian future or simply a teen exploitation flick? The film certainly had enough big Hollywood names in it (Christopher Jones, Hal Holbrook and Shelley Winters, among others) to be taken seriously, yet the basic premise, that teens, led by a popular rock band, would rise up and take power, putting anyone over 30 into concentration camps, was a bit over-the-top. Regardless of the creators' intentions, Wild In The Streets is now viewed as a cult film that helped launch the career of Richard Pryor (who played bassist Stanley X), and had some decent tunes written by the songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (writers of the Paul Revere and the Raiders hit Hungry). The hit single from the movie, Shape Of Things To Come, was attributed on the label to Max Frost and the Troopers, the fictional band that led the revolution, but on the soundtrack album the song was credited to the 13th Power. The reality was that all the songs on the album were the work of studio musicians, although they were credited to a variety of groups such as the Gurus and the Senators. The songs credited to the 13th Power, such as Fifty-Two Percent (the percentage of US citizens under the age of 30 at the time), were possibly the work of Davie Allen and the Arrows, with lead vocals by Paul Wibier, although that has never been substantiated. It is even possible that Jones himself sang on the soundtrack album.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Someday The Sun Won't Shine For You
Source: LP: This Was
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Ian Anderson has often said that he disagreed with record company executives who characterized Jethro Tull as a blues band when the band's first LP, This Was, was released. Yet one of the most traditional sounding blues tunes on that LP was written by Anderson himself. Some Day The Sun Won't Shine For You sounds like it could easily have come from the pen of Jimmy Reed. Speaking of record labels, This Was, like all the early Tull albums, was originally released in the US on the Reprise label. Reprise had a policy (instituted by its founder and original owner, Frank Sinatra) of allowing its artists to retain ownership of the recordings released on the label, which is why most of the material released on Reprise in the late 60s has been reissued on other labels.
Artist: Notes From The Underground
Title: Why Did You Put Me On
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Notes From The Underground)
Writer(s): Mark Mandell
Label: Rhino (original label: Vanguard)
Year: 1968
Pinch-hitting for Country Joe and the Fish we have Notes From the Underground, fellow Berkleyites who played at the same club (the Jabberwock) when the Fish were busy elsewhere and even got a contract with the same record label (Vanguard). Unfortunately, like most pinch-hitters, the Notes were strictly second-string (as we are now well into baseball season I thought the analogy might work. So sue me).
Artist: Nazz
Title: Open My Eyes
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From The Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: The Nazz)
Writer(s): Todd Rundgren
Label: Rhino (original label: SGC)
Year: 1968
The Nazz was a band from Philadelphia who were basically the victims of their own bad timing. 1968 was the year that progressive FM radio began to get recognition as a viable format while top 40 radio was being dominated by bubble gum pop bands such as the 1910 Fruitgum Company and the Ohio Express. The Nazz, on the other hand, sounded more like British bands such as the Move and Brian Augur's Trinity that were performing well on the UK charts but were unable to buy a hit in the US. The band had plenty of talent, most notably guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Todd Rundgren, who would go on to establish a successful career, both as an artist (he played all the instruments on his Something/Anything LP and led the band Utopia) and a producer (Grand Funk's We're An American Band, among others). Open My Eyes was originally issued as the A side of a single, but ended up being eclipsed in popularity by its flip side, a song called Hello It's Me, that ended up getting airplay in Boston and other cities, eventually hitting the Canadian charts (a new solo version would become Rundgren's first major hit five years later).
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Subterranean Homesick Blues
Source: CD: Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Bringing It All Back Home)
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
1965 was the year Bob Dylan went electric, and got his first top 40 hit, Subterranean Homesick Blues, in the process. Although the song, which also led off his Bringing It All Back Home album, stalled out in the lower 30s, it did pave the way for electrified cover versions of Dylan songs by the Byrds and Turtles and Dylan's own Like A Rolling Stone, which would revolutionize top 40 radio itself. A line from the song itself, "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows", became the inspiration for a radical offshoot of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) that called itself the Weathermen (later the Weather Underground).
Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: LP: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: De Capo)
Writer(s): 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: Human Expression
Title: Optical Sound
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Quarles/Foster
Label: Rhino (original label: Accent)
Year: 1967
One thing Los Angeles had become known for by the mid-1960s was its urban sprawl. Made possible by one of the world's most extensive regional freeway systems, the city had become surrounded by suburbs on all sides (except for the oceanfront). Many of these suburbs were (and are) in Orange County, home to Anaheim stadium, Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. The O.C. was also home to the Human Expression, a band that recorded a trio of well-regarded singles for the Accent label. The last of these was Optical Sound. True to its name, the song utilized the latest technology available to achieve a decidedly psychedelic sound.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Conquistador
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1972
Although Conquistador was originally recorded for the first Procol Harum album in 1967, it was the 1972 live version with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra that became one of the band's biggest hits, second only to A Whiter Shade Of Pale.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Two Heads
Source: CD: After Bathing At Baxter's
Writer(s): Grace Slick
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Year: 1967
The third Jefferson Airplane album, After Bathing At Baxter's, saw the group moving in increasingly experimental directions, as Grace Slick's two contributions to the LP attest. The more accessible of the two was Two Heads, which was the first part of the fifth and final "suite" on the album.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Section 43
Source: CD: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): 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: Chocolate Watchband
Title: Let's Talk About Girls
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released on LP: No Way Out)
Writer(s): Manny Freiser
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
I find it sadly ironic that the first cut on the first album released by San Jose, California's Chocolate Watchband had a vocal track by Don Bennett, a studio vocalist under contract to Tower Records, replacing the original track by Watchband vocalist Dave Aguilar. Aguilar's vocals were also replaced by Bennett's on the Watchband's cover of Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour" on the same album. In addition, there are four instrumental tracks on the album that are played entirely by studio musicians. Worse yet, the entire first side of the Watchband's second LP was done by studio musicians and the third Watchband LP featured an entirely different lineup. The final insult was when Lenny Kaye, who assembled the original Nuggets collection in the early 1970s, elected to include this recording, rather than one of the several fine tracks that actually did feature Aguilar on vocals.
Artist: Family Tree
Title: Live Your Own Life
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Segarini/Dure
Label: Rhino (original label: Mira)
Year: 1966
The Family Tree, formed in 1965 by vocalist/guitarist Bob Segarini, spent time bouncing around from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe before finally invading the San Francisco scene in 1966. They recorded Live Your Own Life in Lake Tahoe, but did not release anything else until 1968, when the album Miss Butters appeared on the RCA label. Segarini eventually moved to Canada when his next band, Roxy and the Wackers, became popular there in the early 70s.
Artist: Grass Roots
Title: Let's Live For Today
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Julian/Mogull/Shapiro
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1967
This well-known 1967 hit by the Grass Roots started off as a song by the Italian band the Rokes, Piangi Con Mi, released in 1966. The Rokes themselves were originally from Manchester, England, but had relocated to Italy in 1963. Piangi Con Mi was their biggest hit to date, and it the band decided to re-record the tune in English for release in Britain (ironic, considering that the band originally specialized in translating popular US and UK hits into the Italian language). The original translation didn't sit right with the band's UK label, so a guy from the record company came up with new lyrics and the title Let's Live For Today. The song still didn't do much on the charts, but did get the attention of former Brill building songwriter Jeff Barri, whose current project was writing and producing a studio band known as the Grass Roots with his partner P.F. Sloan. The song became such a big hit that the Grass Roots became a real perfoming band and had several hits over the next couple of years.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Stoned Woman/Good Morning Little Schoolgirl
Source: LP: Ssssh!
Writer(s): Lee/Williamson
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
Alvin Lee's band Ten Years After already had three albums out by the time they made a huge splash at Woodstock in 1969. Their fourth LP, Ssssh! was released that same year, and was soon climbing the album charts, despite getting little airplay on US radio stations. The best known track was a hard rocking version of the Sonny Boy Williamson (one of them, anyway) blues classic Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, which had already been covered by several rock bands, most notably the Grateful Dead on their debut LP. Unlike previous versions, the TYA Schoolgirl was built around a driving repeated bass line and featured an extended instrumental section that stayed on the main chord rather than following the song's regular progression. The track was preceeded on the LP by a Lee composition, Stoned Woman, which leads into Schoolgirl without a break between songs.
Artist: Bob Seger System
Title: Black Eyed Girl
Source: LP: Ramblin' Gamblin' Man
Writer(s): Bob Seger
Label: Capitol
Year: 1969
The Bob Seger System was one of the top local bands on the Detroit rock scene in the late 60s. As was typical of that scene, the System played a hard-edged brand of rock that played well with the sons and daughters of the city's mostly blue-collar workforce. Following a series of regional hit singles, the System hit the big time after signing with Capitol Records in 1968. After releasing one of the most intense antiwar songs ever recorded (2+2=?), the band began work on their debut LP, tentatively entitled Tales Of Lucy Blue. Before the album was finished Capitol released a second single by the band, Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, which was such a huge hit they decided to rename the album after the song (although the original Lucy Blue cover art remained). The LP itself had some fine rockers, such as Black Eyed Girl, which at six and a half minutes was the longest cut on the album. The LP was not a major success, however, and for years it looked like Bob Seger would be remembered only as a one-hit wonder. Instead Seger resurfaced in the late 1970s with a new group, the Silver Bullet Band, and went on to become a major rock star.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Communication Breakdown
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin
Writer(s): Page/Jones/Bonham
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
By 1968 the Yardbirds were fast disintegrating, and guitarist Jimmy Page secured permission from the other remaining members (chiefly vocalist Keith Relf) to use the name for a new group he was touring with. It wasn't long before the New Yardbirds got a recording contract, changing their name to Led Zeppelin (a play on the idea that the band would probably go over like a lead balloon) in the process. The first single by the band was Good Times, Bad Times, backed with Communication Breakdown. I first heard both songs on a jukebox at the teen club I was hanging out at toward the end of 1969. One of my friends immediately went out and bought a copy of the Led Zeppelin LP and I borrowed and taped it at the first available opportunity (ah, the advantages of having a dad who was an audiophile and owned an Akai X-355 reel to reel tape recorder and a Dual turntable).
Artist: Corporation
Title: Highway
Source: CD: The Corporation
Writer(s): Kondos/Smith
Label: Repertoire (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1969
Although the Corporation is best known for their nineteen minute long adaptation of John Coltrane's India, they did have (literally) an entire other side on the debut LP. One of the tracks from that side is Highway, yet another example of the Detroit brand of rock in the late 60s.
Artist: John Hammond
Title: Travelling Riverside
Source: LP: Mirrors
Writer(s): Robert Johnson
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
John Hammond (sometimes known as John Hammond, Jr., despite having a different middle name) was the son of producer John Hammond, who was known for his recordings of what would these days be called "authentic Americana." Hammond the younger was one of the many white musicians involved in the blues revival centered in New York's Greenwich Village in the 60s; the same scene that included the Blues Project, Lovin' Spoonful and Dave Van Ronk, among others. Hammond recorded mostly acoustic blues, although one side of his Mirrors LP, including Travelling Riverside, was done with a backup band that included Charlie Musselwhite on blues harp and Mike Bloomfield on electric guitar.
Artist: John Mayall
Title: Me And My Woman
Source: LP: Crusade
Writer(s): Barge/Blue
Label: London
Year: 1967
The most respected bandleader on the British blues scene, John Mayall was instrumental in launching and/or furthering the careers of several future stars, including Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Mick Taylor. It was during McVie and Taylor's memberships in the Bluesbreakers that Mayall released his 1967 album Crusade, featuring an array of excellent tunes such as Me And My Woman. British blues doesn't get much better than this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment