Starting this week I'm adding in one small bit of information to the songs on the playlist. In the "source" category I'm adding in the word "mono" for non-stereo recordings. In addition, in the rare case where I pull out one of those "electronically rechanelled for stereo" or "Duophonic" records I'll be making a note of that as well. All other tracks are stereo mixes unless otherwise noted.
Artist: Cream
Title: Four Until Late
Source: LP: Fresh Cream
Writer(s): Robert Johnson
Label: Atco
Year: 1966
By the time Cream was formed, guitarist Eric Clapton had already established himself as one of the best guitarists in the world. He had not, however, done much singing, as the bands he had worked with all had strong vocalists: Keith Relf with the Yardbirds and John Mayall with the Bluesbreakers. With Cream, however, Clapton finally got a chance to do some vocals of his own. Most of these are duets with bassist Jack Bruce, who handled the bulk of Cream's lead vocals. Clapton did get to sing lead on a few Cream songs, however. One of the earliest ones was the band's updated version of Robert Johnson's Four Until Late, from the Fresh Cream album.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: 2000 Light Years From Home
Source: LP: More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies) (originally released on LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
Nowhere was the ripple effect of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band more noticable than on the Rolling Stones fall 1967 release Their Satanic Majesties Request. The cover featured the band members in various sorcerous regalia in a seven-inch picture on the kind of holographic paper used for "magic rings" found in bubble-gum machines and pasted over regular album-cover stock, which was a simple pattern of faded white circles on a blue background (it kind of looked like dark wallpaper). Musically it was the most psychedelic Stones album ever released. Interesting enough, different songs were released as singles in different countries. In the US the single was She's A Rainbow, while in Germany 2,000 Light Years From Home (the US B side of She's A Rainbow) got significant airplay.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Savoy Truffle
Source: CD: The Beatles
Writer(s): George Harrison
Label: Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year: 1968
George Harrison's skills as a songwriter continued to develop in 1968. The double-LP The Beatles (aka the White Album) contained four Harrison compositions, including Savoy Truffle, a tongue-in-cheek song about Harrison's friend Eric Clapton's fondness for chocolate. John Lennon did not participate in the recording of Savoy Truffle. The keyboards were probably played by Chris Thomas, who, in addition to playing on all four Harrison songs on the album, served as de facto producer when George Martin decided to take a vacation in the middle of the album's recording sessions.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: No Way Out
Source: CD: No Way Out
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
The Chocolate Watchband, from the southern part of the San Francisco 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: Chocolate Watchband
Title: Let's Talk About Girls
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released on LP: No Way Out)
Writer(s): E. 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: Chocolate Watchband
Title: Dark Side Of The Mushroom
Source: CD: No Way Out
Writer(s): Cooper/Podolor
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
Just who played on Dark Side Of The Moushroom is lost to history. What is certain, however, is that it is not the Chocolate Watchband, despite its inclusion on that band's debut LP. Producer Ed Cobb apparently had his own agenda when it came to the Watchband, which included making them sound much more psychedelic on vinyl than when they performed onstage (in fact it is doubtful that Cobb ever actually attended any of the band's live gigs). To accomplish his goal, Cobb enlisted the help of songwriter/musician Richie Podolor, who would later go on to produce Three Dog Night's records. Podolor put together the group of anonymous studio musicians that recorded Dark Side Of The Mushroom, which, despite its shady history, is a decent slice of instrumental psychedelia.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Just Can't Go To Sleep
Source: Mono LP: You Really Got Me
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1964
Even on their first LP, You Really Got Me, Kinks songwriter Ray Davies demonstrated that he was capable of writing more than just three-chord rockers (as good as they were). Although Just Can't Go To Sleep does not have the sophistication of later Kinks songs, it is a fairly well crafted pop song on a par with much of what was making the charts in 1964.
Artist: Barbarians
Title: Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Doug and Ron Morris
Label: Rhino (original label: Laurie)
Year: 1965
From Boston we have the Barbarians, best known for having a one-handed drummer named Moulty who wore a hook on his other arm (and was probably the inspiration for the hook-handed bass player in the cult film Wild In The Streets a few years later). In addition to Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl, which was their biggest hit, the group recorded an inspirational tune (inspirational in the 80s self-help sense, not the religious one) called Moulty that got some airplay in 1966.
Artist: Love
Title: Signed D.C.
Source: CD: Comes In Colours (originally released on LP: Love)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Raven (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1966
One of the most striking tunes on the first Love album is Signed D.C., a slow ballad in the tradition of House of the Rising Sun. The song takes the form of a letter penned by a heroin addict, and the imagery is both stark and disturbing. Although Lee was known to occasionally say otherwise, the song title probably refers to Love's original drummer Don Conka, who left the band before their first recording sessions.
Artist: Amboy Dukes
Title: Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: Journey To The Center Of The Mind)
Writer(s): Nugent/Farmer
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
The title track of the second Amboy Dukes album, Journey To The Center Of The Mind, is by far their best known recording, going all the way to the #16 spot on the top 40 in 1968. The song features the lead guitar work of Ted Nugent, who co-wrote the song with guitarist/vocalist Steve Farmer. Journey To The Center Of The Mind would be the last album to feature lead vocalist John Drake, who left the band for creative reasons shortly after the album's release.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: That's What Makes A Man
Source: LP: Renaissance
Writer(s): Mark Stein
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
The first Vanilla Fudge album was made up entirely of slowed-down/rocked-out versions of songs that had been made popular by other artists. The group then created one of the first concept albums, The Beat Goes On, a highly experimental work that addresses the passage of time in various ways (such as a medley of popular tunes that runs from the Baroque era through the Beatles, including Beethoven and Scott Joplin along the way). For their third LP, the band went with mostly original material (although there were still two covers done in a style similar to the first album), with each of the band members contributing at least one song. Lead vocalist/keyboardist Mark Stein provided That's What Makes A Man, which closes side one of the LP.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Watch Yourself
Source: LP: Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil
Writer(s): Robert Yeazel
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Although the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band usually wrote their own material, they occassionally drew from outside sources. One example is Watch Yourself, written by Robert Yeazel, who would go on to join Sugarloaf in time for their second LP, Spaceship Earth, writing many of the songs on that album.
Artist: Lollipop Shoppe
Title: You Must Be A Witch
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Fred Cole
Label: Rhino (original label: Uni)
Year: 1968
Originally known as the Weads (sometimes spelled Weeds), the Lollipop Shoppe hailed from Portland, Oregon. The band was originally formed in Las Vegas by vocalist Fred Cole and showed up at the Fillmore to open for the Yardbirds in 1966 only to find out that their manager had lied to them about being on the playbill (in fact Bill Graham had never even heard of them). Disenchanted with management and fearing the Draft, the entire band decided to head for Canada, but ran out of gas in Portland. They soon landed a regular gig at a club called the Folk Singer and in 1968 attracted the attention of MCA Records (now Universal). Changing their name (at the insistence of their new manager) to the Lollipop Shoppe, they recorded one album for MCA's Uni label, which included the single You Must Be A Witch. Fred Cole has since become an icon of indy rock, leading the band Dead Moon from 1987-2006.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Magic Carpet Ride
Source: CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Steppenwolf The Second)
Writer(s): Moreve/Kay
Label: Priority (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
Occassionally I play something so well-known that I find myself with nothing to say about it. Such is the case with Magic Carpet Ride, the second best known song from the most successful L.A. band ever to come from Canada.
Artist: Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
Title: Time/Confusion
Source: Mono CD: The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
Writer(s): Brown/Crane
Label: Polydor (original label: Atlantic)
Year: 1968
One of the most unique albums of the psychedelic era, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown is best known for the hit single Fire, which nearly made it to the top of the charts in 1968. Such was the popularity of the song that Brown himself became known as the "god of fire". The CD version of the album inexplicably includes the mono mix of the entire first side of the album as bonus tracks, so of course I had to play one of those tracks, in this case Time/Confusion, which finishes the side (and the first hour of this week's show).
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Gimme Some Lovin'
Source: Mono LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Winwood/Winwood/Davis
Label: United Artists
Year: 1966
The movie The Big Chill used Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group as the backdrop for a touch football game at an informal reunion of former college students from the 60s. From that point on, movie soundtracks became much more than just background music and soundtrack albums started becoming best-sellers. Not entirely coincidentally, 60s-oriented oldies radio stations began to appear in major markets as well. Most of them are now playing 80s oldies, by the way.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Bert's Blues
Source: Mono CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released on LP: Sunshine Superman)
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: Sony (original label: Epic)
Year: 1966
In 1966 Scottish singer/songwriter Donovan Leitch got into a contractual dispute with his record label, Pye Records UK. Up to that point his records had appeared in the US on the independent Hickory label. Now, however, he was about to make his US major label debut (on Epic), and the dispute with Pye led to his newest album, Sunshine Superman, being released only in North America. Like Bob Dylan, Donovan was beginning to expand beyond his folk roots, but in addition to the usual rock instruments (guitar, bass, drums, organ) Donovan used older acoustic instruments such as strings and harpsichord as well as experimenting with modern jazz arrangements and instrumentation. Somehow he managed to combine all of these elements in one track, Bert's Blues. Surprisingly, it worked.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Bringing Me Down
Source: Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
One of several singles released mainly to San Francisco Bay area radio stations and record stores, Bringing Me Down is an early collaboration between vocalist Marty Balin and guitarist/vocalist Paul Kantner. Balin had invited Kantner into the band without having heard him play a single note. It turned out to be one of many right-on-the-money decisions by the young bandleader.
Artist: Shadows Of Knight
Title: Gloria
Source: CD: Gloria
Writer(s): Van Morrison
Label: Sundazed (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
Although most oldies stations now tend to favor the 1965 Them B side version of Gloria, it was Chicago's Shadows Of Knight that made it one of the most popular garage-rock songs in history.
Artist: Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title: Kicks
Source: Rechanneled Stereo CD: The Best Of 60s Supergroups (originally released on 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: Priority (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1966
Kicks was not the first pop song with a strong anti-drug message, but it was the first one to be a certified hit song, making it to the number four spot on the US charts and hitting number one in Canada. It was also the biggest hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders until Indian Reservation went all the way to the top
five years later.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Circle Sky
Source: LP: Head
Writer(s): Michael Nesmith
Label: Colgems
Year: 1968
A total departure from anything the Monkees had done before, Head, the group's first and only movie, was a commercial flop. The soundtrack album was equally ignored, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that it featured some of the group's most innovative and experimental recordings, such as Michael Nesmith's Circle Sky, a song that defies easy categorization.
Artist: Rainbow Ffolly
Title: Sun Sing
Source: CD: Insane Times (originally released on LP: Sallies Fforth)
Writer(s): Dunsterville
Label: Zonophone (original label: Parlophone)
Year: 1968
Some records can only be described as "magical". Such is the case with Sun Sing, from the only Rainbow Ffolly album Sallies Fforth. The album itself is essentially a bunch of demo tapes made by a group of High Wycombe (a city of about 100,000 about 30 miles from London) art students led by the Dunsterville brothers, Jonathan and Richard. The tapes were made at a local studio in Rickmansworth during off hours and are characterized by the unorthodox approach to record-making used by the group. At the suggestion of the studio owners, the group added various jingles and sound effects between the songs (similar to the approach used on The Who Sell Out) and sold the project as a "sound package" to EMI, which issued it on it's Parlophone label in 1968.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Dharma For One
Source: CD: This Was
Writer(s): Anderson/Bunker
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
By 1968 it was almost considered mandatory that a rock band would include a drum solo on at least one album, thanks to Ginger Baker's Toad (on Cream's Wheels Of Fire) and Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Jethro Tull's contribution to the trend was Dharma For One, the only Tull song to give a writing credit to drummer Clive Bunker. Compared to most drum solos, Bunker's is fairly short (less than two minutes) and somewhat quirky, almost resembling a Spike Jones recording in places.
Artist: Del Shannon
Title: I Think I Love You
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: The Further Adventures Of Charles Westover)
Writer(s): Del Shannon
Label: Rhino (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1968
Del Shannon? The guy who did Runaway back in '62? Yep. Also the same Del Shannon who Tom Petty has acknowledged as his number one inspiration and who was on the verge of being asked to replace the late Roy Orbison in the Traveling Wilburys when he himself became the late Del Shannon. Unlike many of his early 60s contemporaries such as Bobby Vee or Fabian, Shannon was able to keep up with the times, as this piece of pure psychedelia (penned by Shannon himself) from the album The Further Adventures of Charles Westover demonstrates.
Artist: Chambers Brothers
Title: Time Has Come Today
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: The Time Has Come)
Writer(s): Joe and Willie Chambers
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1967
One of the quintessential songs of the psychedelic era is the Chambers Brothers' classic Time Has Come Today. The song was originally recorded and issued as a single in 1966. The more familiar version heard here, however, was recorded in 1967 for the album The Time Has Come. The LP version of the song runs about eleven minutes, way too long for a 45 RPM record, so before releasing the song as a single for the second time, engineers at Columbia cut the song down to around 3 minutes. The edits proved so jarring that the record was recalled and a re-edited version, clocking in at 4:55 became the third and final single version of the song, hitting the charts in 1968.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source: CD: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
From Berkeley, California, we have the song that probably got the most airplay of any track on the first Country Joe and the Fish album during the Summer of Love. The idea of presenting a personification of Death as a young female entity (as opposed to the traditional Grim Reaper of indeterminate age and sex) would be revived decades later in the graphic arts medium by writer Neil Gaiman in his Sandman series.
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Incense And Peppermints
Source: Mono CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Carter/Gilbert/Weitz/King
Label: Rhino (original label: Uni)
Year: 1967
Incense and Peppermints is one of the iconic songs of the psychedelic era, yet when it was originally released to Los Angeles area radio stations it was intended to be the B side of The Birdman of Alkatrash. Somewhere along the line a DJ flipped the record over and started playing Incense And Peppermints instead. The song caught on and Uni Records (short for Universal, which is now the world's largest record company) picked up the Strawberry Alarm Clock's contract and reissued the record nationally with Incense And Peppermints as the A side.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound; stereo version originally released on Warner Brothers LP)
Year: 1967The Music Machine was by far the most sophisticated of all the bands playing on L.A.'s Sunset Strip in 1966. Not only did they feature tight sets (so that audience members wouldn't get the chance to call out requests between songs), they also had their own visual look that set them apart from other bands. Dressed entirely in black (including dyed hair), and with leader Sean Bonniwell wearing one black glove, the Machine projected an image that would influence such diverse artists as the Ramones and Michael Jackson in later years. Musically, Bonniwell's songwriting showed a sophistication that was on a par with the best L.A. had to offer, demonstrated by a series of fine singles such as The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly. Unfortunately, problems on the business end prevented the Music Machine from achieving the success it deserved and Bonniwell eventually quit the music business altogether in disgust.
Artist: 13th Floor Elevators
Title: Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)
Source: CD: Easter Everywhere
Writer(s): Hall/Erickson
Label: Charly (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1967
There was so much going on with the 13th Floor Elevators in the months leading up to the release of their second LP, Easter Everywhere, that a book could easily be written about it all. The group returned to Texas following a successful California tour in late 1966 and were hailed as returning heroes, largely thanks to the success of their first single, You're Gonna Miss Me. Soon, however, things started to go wrong. The band was under considerable pressure to begin sessions for a new album, but the band members themselves were divided on whether to stay in Texas and work on studio projects or return to California, where the population was much more receptive to the psychedelic sounds the Elevators themselves had helped pioneer. The issue was finally decided when lead guitarist Stacy Sutherland, the one undecided member, got his probation revoked and was not allowed to leave the state. The band's rhythm section, Ronnie Leatherman and John Walton, went to California anyway, leaving Sutherland, guitarist/vocalist Roky Erickson and electric jug player Tommy Hall looking for replacements. Easter Anywhere was conceived as a major spiritual statement, meant to tie together elements of eastern and western religion with mind-expansion elements of LSD; an ambitious project, to be sure. Unfortunately, by the time the new bassist and drummer, Danny Galindo and Danny Thomas, arrived at the rural hunting cabin the rest of the band was hiding out in, Hall and Erickson were so deeply into the project (and LSD), that they were unable to effectively communicate their ideas to the new guys. As a result the group spent an excessive amount of time in the studio with little to show for it. Eventually, when time and money ran out the album was declared finished and Easter Anywhere was released in November of 1967.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Little Wing
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The last time I played Little Wing from the 1967 Jimi Hendrix Experience album Axis: Bold As Love it was at the very end of the show back in November of 2010. This week the track appears...at the very end of the show. Weird coincidence, that.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1230 (starts 7/26/12)
Artist: Great! Society
Title: Somebody To Love
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Conspicuous Only In Its Absence)
Writer(s): Darby Slick
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: Recorded 1966, released 1968
One of the iconic songs of the psychedelic era (and of the so-called San Francisco sound) is Somebody To Love, released by Jefferson Airplane in 1967 on their Surrealistic Pillow album. Somebody To Love was written by Darby Slick, guitarist for another San Francisco band, Great! Society. The Society had released the song, featuring Slick's sister-in-law Grace on lead vocals, as a single in early 1966 but was unable to get any local airplay for the record. In June the group played the Matrix, a club managed by Marty Balin, leader of Jefferson Airplane. The entire performance was recorded (possibly by legendary Grateful Dead soundman Owsley Stanley) and eventually released on an album called Conspicuous Only In Its Absence two years after Great! Society disbanded. Within a few weeks of this performance Grace Slick would leave the group to join Jefferson Airplane, taking the song with her. This whole set of circumstances can't help but raise the question of whether Balin was using the Society's gig at the Matrix as a kind of audition for Slick.
Artist: Seeds
Title: I Tell Myself
Source: LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer(s): Marcus Tybalt
Label: GNP Crescendo
Year: 1966
Sky Saxon was unquestionably responsible for the success of the Seeds, who hit the national charts in early 1967 with the classic Pushin' Too Hard. The song had actually first appeared on the Seeds' debut LP in spring of 1966. By the time the song became a hit the band had already released a second album, A Web Of Sound. Nearly every Seeds song was either written or co-written by Saxon himself. The only exception I know of is I Tell Myself, a tune written by Hollywood songster Marcus Tybalt, which appears on the second LP, and the Seeds version almost sounds like a parody of a pop tune (which may well have been their intention for all I know).
Artist: Who
Title: Run Run Run
Source: CD: Magic Bus-The Who On Tour (originally released on LP: A Quick One, re-titled Happy Jack in US)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1966
After the release of their first LP, My Generation, the Who terminated their contract with the UK Brunswick label and signed with a new company, Reaction. The first Reaction release was a single, Substitute, which made the British top 5. In late 1966 the band released their first album for Reaction, A Quick One. The album was markedly different from My Generation, as the group had moved beyond their so-called maximum R&B phase and were exploring new directions. A Quick One was also the first Who album to be mixed in stereo, as can be heard on the opening track of the LP, Run Run Run. Although not released as a single, the song proved popular enough to include on the 1968 LP Magic Bus, along with several of their singles and B sides (and a couple more album tracks).
Artist: Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck
Title: One Ring Jane
Source: CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released on LP: Home Grown Stuff)
Writer(s): McDougall/Ivanuck
Label: Zonophone (original label: Capitol Canada)
Year: 1969
Sometimes called Canada's most psychedelic band, Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck was formed in British Columbia in 1967. After recording one unsuccessful single for London, the Duck switched to Capitol Records Canada and scored nationally with the album Home Grown Stuff. After a couple more years spent opening for big name bands such as Alice Cooper and Deep Purple and a couple more albums (on the Capitol-owned Duck Records) the group disbanded, with vocalist/guitarist Donny McDougall joining the Guess Who in 1972.
Artist: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title: Fresh Air
Source: CD: Just For Love
Writer(s): Dino Valenti
Label: BGO (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1970
Although Dino Valenti helped form Quicksilver Messenger Service, he found himself a guest of the California Criminal Justice System literally the day after the band was conceived. In fact, Valenti was not on the scene at all when the original lineup of the band made their official debut. It was only after the group had recorded three moderately successful LPs for Capitol that Valenti, now released from prison, rejoined the band he had never actually been a member of. His presence, however, was immediately felt. Quicksilver's fourth LP was a complete departure from the improvisational jams of the band's first three efforts. In fact, all but one of the songs on Just For Love were written by Valenti (although most were under the pseudonym Jesse Oris Farrow). Valenti also took over the lead vocals for the album on songs like Fresh Air, which was also released as a single and was the nearest thing to a top 40 hit (hitting the # 49 spot) that Quicksilver Messenger Service would ever have. Just For Love is also notable for the fact that the band included prolific session pianist Nicky Hopkins as a full member.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Dead Flowers
Source: LP: Sticky Fingers
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Rolling Stones
Year: 1971
One of the most popular albums of 1971 was the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers album. Featuring a cover with an actual pants zipper built into it, the LP immediately stood out from everything else on the record racks. The album was musically strong as well, with songs such as Dead Flowers, an example of the band's continuing flirtation with country music.
Artist: Beatles
Title: She's Leaving Home
Source: LP: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1967
One of the striking things about the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the sheer variety of songs on the album. Never before had a rock band gone so far beyond its roots in so many directions at once. One of Paul McCartney's most poignant songs on the album was She's Leaving Home. The song tells the story of a young girl who has decided that her stable homelife is just too unfulling to bear and heads for the big city. Giving the song added depth is the somewhat clueless response of her parents, who can't seem to understand what went wrong.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Heaven Is In Your Mind
Source: CD: Mr. Fantasy
Writer(s): Winwood/Capaldi/Wood
Label: Island (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1967
For a time in the mid-1960s recording artists would actually make two mixes of each song on their albums, one in monoraul and one in stereo. Often the monoraul mix would have a brighter sound, as those mixes were usually made with AM radio's technical limitations in mind. In rare cases, the differences would be even more pronounced. Such is the case with Traffic's first LP, Mr. Fantasy. The two versions of the first track on the album, Heaven Is In Your Mind, differ not only in their mix but in the actual recording, as the mono mix features an entirely different guitar solo than the stereo one.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Intruder
Source: CD: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Writer(s): Janis Joplin
Label: Columbia/Legacy (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1967
Although the 1967 debut album by Big Brother and the Holding Company is generally considered to be inferior to their 1968 Columbia LP Cheap Thrills, there are a few gems on the disc that can't be found anywhere else. One of these is a Janis Joplin composition, Intruder. The engineers at Mainstream Records were mostly used to recording jazz musicians and tended to give Big Brother a somewhat sterile sound, but on Intruder they managed to pretty much get it right.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Ferris Wheel
Source: LP: Sunshine Superman
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: Epic/Sundazed
Year: 1966
In the fall of 1966 the career of Scottish folk singer Donovan Leitch took an odd turn. Up until that point in time he had a run of successful records in the UK but got very little airplay in the US. Two events, however, combined to turn the entire situation around 180 degrees. First, Donovan had just signed a contract with Epic Records in the US, a major step up from the poorly distributed and even more poorly promoted Hickory label. At the same time contract negotiations between the singer/songwriter and his British label, Pye, had come to an impasse. As a result Donovan's next LP, Sunshine Superman, was released only in the US, making songs like Ferris Wheel unavailable to his oldest fans. His popularity in the UK suffered greatly from lack of any new recordings over the next year, while it exploded in the US with consecutive top 10 singles Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow in 1966. From that point on Donovan would have his greatest success in North America, even after securing a new record contract in the UK in late 1967.
Artist: Them
Title: I Happen To Love You
Source: LP: Now And Them
Writer(s): Goffin/King
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
I Happen To Love You was first recorded by the Electric Prunes for their 1967 album Underground. The band wanted to release the Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune as a single, but producer David Hassinger instead chose to issue a novelty track, To The Highest Bidder. Unlike the Prunes version, which emphasized the King melody line, Them's version of I Happen To Love You was done in much the same style as their earlier recordings with Van Morrison. Kenny McDowell provided the lead vocal.
Artist: Merry-Go-Round
Title: Listen
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Emmitt 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 this Beatle-influenced song.
Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: LP: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
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, came their most successful single, released in July of 1966.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: May This Be Love
Source: LP: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
The original UK version of Are You Experienced? featured May This Be Love as the opening track of side two of the album. In the US, the UK single The Wind Cries Mary was substituted for it, with May This Be Love buried deep on side one.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Highway 61 Revisited
Source: CD: Highway 61 Revisited
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
US Highway 61 is part of the old Federal highway system that was developed in the 1920s and 30s and has since been largely supplanted by the Interstate highway system. It was at a crossroads along this route that legendary bluesman Robert Johnson is said to sold his soul to the devil in exchange for a successful career. In 1965 Bob Dylan decided to revisit the legend and add to it for his landmark album on which he invented an electrified version of the folk music he had become famous for. His backup musicians included some of the top talent in the New York area, including guitarist Michael Bloomfied of the Butterfield Blues Band and organist Al Kooper, who, incidentally, plays the police whistle heard throughout the title track of Highway 61 Revisited.
Artist: Simon And Garfunkel
Title: Mrs. Robinson
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Bookends and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
A few weeks ago we featured the entire first side of Simon And Garfunkel's Bookends album. This time around we have a set of individual tunes from the same album. A shortened version of Mrs. Robinson first appeared on the soundtrack for the film The Graduate in 1967, but it wasn't until the Bookends album came out in 1968 that the full four minute version was released.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: America
Source: 45 RPM single B side (song originally released on LP: Bookends)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Year: 1968/1972
Four years after the release of Bookends (and two years after the breakup of Simon and Garfunkel), Columbia decided to release the song For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her, from their final album Bridge Over Troubled Water, as a single, to coincide with the release of their Greatest Hits album. For the B side, they went even further back, pulling out the original tapes for the song America. The tracks on the Bookends album were deliberately overlapped to form a continuous audio montage, making this the first standalone version of America to be released.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: At The Zoo
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bookends)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Simon and Garfunkel did not release any new albums in 1967, instead concentrating on their live performances. They did, however, issue several singles over the course of the year, most of which ended up being included on 1968's Bookends LP. At The Zoo was one of the first of those 1967 singles. It's B side ended up being a hit as well, but by Harper's Bizarre, which took The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) to the top 10 early in the year.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: 1906 (mono single mix)
Source: CD: Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Markley/Morgan
Label: Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
A while back I was in contact with Robert Morgan, brother of the late Ron Morgan, guitarist for the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. I asked him if his brother had ever received royalties from songs like 1906, which was essentially a Morgan composition with spoken lyrics tacked on by bandleader/vocalist Bob Markley. He replied that Ron had received a check for something like eight dollars shortly before his death, but that he had always felt that Markley had paid him fairly for his services. He then went on to say that Ron Morgan was more interested in making his mark than in getting any financial compensation. Attitudes like that are why I do this show. It's hard to imagine many of today's pop stars making a statement like that and meaning it.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: You Keep Me Hangin' On
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Holland/Dozier/Holland
Label: Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The LP version of the Vanilla Fudge's cover of the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On ran something like 6-7 minutes. For single release the song was cut down considerably, clocking in at around three minutes. It was also available only in mono, which is how Rhino chose to present it when they released thier first Nuggets series (not to be confused with Lenny Kaye's original collection from 1972) in the early 1980s.
Artist: Youngbloods
Title: Get Together
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: The Youngbloods)
Writer(s): Chet Powers
Label: Rhino (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1967
The Youngbloods were the second San Francisco band signed to industry leader RCA Victor Records. Their first album was released in 1967 but was overshadowed by the vinyl debuts of the Grateful Dead and Moby Grape, among others. In fact, the Youngbloods toiled in relative obscurity until 1969, when their own version of Dino Valenti's Let's Get Together (from the 1967 LP) was used in a TV ad promoting world peace. The song was subsequently released (with the title slightly shortened) as a single and ended up being the group's only hit record (as well as Valenti's most famous composition).
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: I'm A Man
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Miller/Winwood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
he Spencer Davis Group, featuring Steve and Muff Winwood, was one of the UK's most successful white R&B bands of the sixties, cranking out a steady stream of hit singles. Two of them, the iconic Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man, were also major hits in the US, the latter being the last song to feature the Winwood brothers. Muff Winwood became a successful record producer. The group itself continued on for several years, but were never able to duplicate their earlier successes. As for Steve Winwood, he quickly faded off into obscurity, never to be heard from again. Except as the leader of Traffic. And a member of Blind Faith. And Traffic again. And some critically-acclaimed collaborations in the early 1980s with Asian musicians. Oh yeah, and a few major solo hits like Higher Love and Roll With It in the late 80s. Other than that, nothing.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Come On In
Source: CD: Turn On (also released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
The B side of the Music Machine's big hit record.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Talk Talk
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Turn On The Music Machine)
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
The A side of the Music Machine's big hit record.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Trouble
Source: CD: Turn On The Music Machine
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
Sean Bonniwell had definite plans for the Music Machine's first album. His primary goal was to have all original material, with the exception of a slowed-down version of Hey Joe that he and fellow songwriter Tim Rose had been working on (and before you ask, both Rose and the Music Machine recorded it before Jimi Hendrix did). Unfortunately, the shirts at Original Sound Records did not take their own company name seriously and inserted four cover songs that the band had recorded for a local TV show. This was just the first in a series of bad decisions by the aforementioned shirts that led to a great band not getting the success it deserved. To hear Turn On The Music Machine the way Bonniwell intended it to be heard program your CD player to skip all the extra cover songs. Listened to that way, Trouble is restored to its rightful place as the second song on the disc (following Talk Talk) and a fairly decent album is transformed into a work that is equal to the best albums of 1966.
Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): 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: Sound Barrier
Title: (My) Baby's Gone
Source: Pebbles Vol. 8 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Paul Hess (?)
Label: BFD (original label: Zounds)
Year: 1967
Not much is known about the Salem, Ohio band known as Sound Barrier other than the fact that they were led by guitarist/vocalist Paul Hess, who most likely is the writer of (My) Baby's Gone, a single that appeared on the Zounds label in 1967. The band resurfaced two years later with a somewhat inferior cover of the Who's I Can't Explain on a different label, and were never heard from again.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Hey Grandma
Source: LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s): Miller/Stevenson
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
One of the most talked-about albums to come from the San Francisco music scene in 1967 was Moby Grape's debut album. Unfortunately a lot of that talk was from Columbia Records itself, which resulted in the band getting a reputation for being overly hyped, much to the detriment of the band's future efforts. Still, that first album did have some outstanding tracks, including Hey Grandma, which opens the album.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Water Woman
Source: CD: Spirit
Writer(s): Jay Ferguson
Label: Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year: 1968
The first Spirit album was the most eclectic album the band ever recorded, featuring a healthy dose of jazz stylings (thanks to drummer Ed Cassidy) mixed with progressive rock and odd (but nice) tunes such Water Woman, written by lead vocalist Jay Ferguson.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Willie
Source: LP: Ladies Of The Canyon
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Reprise
Year: 1970
Joni Mitchell's third album, Ladies Of The Canyon, was full of references to her friends David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young. One of the more obscure ones is Willy, which was reportedly written about Nash.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Witch's Promise
Source: CD: Benefit
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1970
The remastered version of Jethro Tull's third album, Benefit, includes several songs that were released as singles in the UK, but did not appear in the US until the 1973 anthology album Living In The Past. Among those is Witch's Promise, recorded just weeks before the sessions for Benefit began.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Wake Up Sunshine
Source: CD: Chicago II
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Rhino (Columbia)
Year: 1970
After the release of their first album the Chicago Transit Authority toured extensively, grabbing up studio time whenever and wherever they could. As a result, much of the material on their second LP was written on the road, such as Robert Lamm's Wake Up Sunshine, which finishes out side one of the double LP, entitled simply Chicago, after the band shortened its name in response to threatened lawsuits by the city of Chicago's local transit system.
Title: Somebody To Love
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Conspicuous Only In Its Absence)
Writer(s): Darby Slick
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: Recorded 1966, released 1968
One of the iconic songs of the psychedelic era (and of the so-called San Francisco sound) is Somebody To Love, released by Jefferson Airplane in 1967 on their Surrealistic Pillow album. Somebody To Love was written by Darby Slick, guitarist for another San Francisco band, Great! Society. The Society had released the song, featuring Slick's sister-in-law Grace on lead vocals, as a single in early 1966 but was unable to get any local airplay for the record. In June the group played the Matrix, a club managed by Marty Balin, leader of Jefferson Airplane. The entire performance was recorded (possibly by legendary Grateful Dead soundman Owsley Stanley) and eventually released on an album called Conspicuous Only In Its Absence two years after Great! Society disbanded. Within a few weeks of this performance Grace Slick would leave the group to join Jefferson Airplane, taking the song with her. This whole set of circumstances can't help but raise the question of whether Balin was using the Society's gig at the Matrix as a kind of audition for Slick.
Artist: Seeds
Title: I Tell Myself
Source: LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer(s): Marcus Tybalt
Label: GNP Crescendo
Year: 1966
Sky Saxon was unquestionably responsible for the success of the Seeds, who hit the national charts in early 1967 with the classic Pushin' Too Hard. The song had actually first appeared on the Seeds' debut LP in spring of 1966. By the time the song became a hit the band had already released a second album, A Web Of Sound. Nearly every Seeds song was either written or co-written by Saxon himself. The only exception I know of is I Tell Myself, a tune written by Hollywood songster Marcus Tybalt, which appears on the second LP, and the Seeds version almost sounds like a parody of a pop tune (which may well have been their intention for all I know).
Artist: Who
Title: Run Run Run
Source: CD: Magic Bus-The Who On Tour (originally released on LP: A Quick One, re-titled Happy Jack in US)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1966
After the release of their first LP, My Generation, the Who terminated their contract with the UK Brunswick label and signed with a new company, Reaction. The first Reaction release was a single, Substitute, which made the British top 5. In late 1966 the band released their first album for Reaction, A Quick One. The album was markedly different from My Generation, as the group had moved beyond their so-called maximum R&B phase and were exploring new directions. A Quick One was also the first Who album to be mixed in stereo, as can be heard on the opening track of the LP, Run Run Run. Although not released as a single, the song proved popular enough to include on the 1968 LP Magic Bus, along with several of their singles and B sides (and a couple more album tracks).
Artist: Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck
Title: One Ring Jane
Source: CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released on LP: Home Grown Stuff)
Writer(s): McDougall/Ivanuck
Label: Zonophone (original label: Capitol Canada)
Year: 1969
Sometimes called Canada's most psychedelic band, Mother Tucker's Yellow Duck was formed in British Columbia in 1967. After recording one unsuccessful single for London, the Duck switched to Capitol Records Canada and scored nationally with the album Home Grown Stuff. After a couple more years spent opening for big name bands such as Alice Cooper and Deep Purple and a couple more albums (on the Capitol-owned Duck Records) the group disbanded, with vocalist/guitarist Donny McDougall joining the Guess Who in 1972.
Artist: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title: Fresh Air
Source: CD: Just For Love
Writer(s): Dino Valenti
Label: BGO (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1970
Although Dino Valenti helped form Quicksilver Messenger Service, he found himself a guest of the California Criminal Justice System literally the day after the band was conceived. In fact, Valenti was not on the scene at all when the original lineup of the band made their official debut. It was only after the group had recorded three moderately successful LPs for Capitol that Valenti, now released from prison, rejoined the band he had never actually been a member of. His presence, however, was immediately felt. Quicksilver's fourth LP was a complete departure from the improvisational jams of the band's first three efforts. In fact, all but one of the songs on Just For Love were written by Valenti (although most were under the pseudonym Jesse Oris Farrow). Valenti also took over the lead vocals for the album on songs like Fresh Air, which was also released as a single and was the nearest thing to a top 40 hit (hitting the # 49 spot) that Quicksilver Messenger Service would ever have. Just For Love is also notable for the fact that the band included prolific session pianist Nicky Hopkins as a full member.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Dead Flowers
Source: LP: Sticky Fingers
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Rolling Stones
Year: 1971
One of the most popular albums of 1971 was the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers album. Featuring a cover with an actual pants zipper built into it, the LP immediately stood out from everything else on the record racks. The album was musically strong as well, with songs such as Dead Flowers, an example of the band's continuing flirtation with country music.
Artist: Beatles
Title: She's Leaving Home
Source: LP: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1967
One of the striking things about the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the sheer variety of songs on the album. Never before had a rock band gone so far beyond its roots in so many directions at once. One of Paul McCartney's most poignant songs on the album was She's Leaving Home. The song tells the story of a young girl who has decided that her stable homelife is just too unfulling to bear and heads for the big city. Giving the song added depth is the somewhat clueless response of her parents, who can't seem to understand what went wrong.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Heaven Is In Your Mind
Source: CD: Mr. Fantasy
Writer(s): Winwood/Capaldi/Wood
Label: Island (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1967
For a time in the mid-1960s recording artists would actually make two mixes of each song on their albums, one in monoraul and one in stereo. Often the monoraul mix would have a brighter sound, as those mixes were usually made with AM radio's technical limitations in mind. In rare cases, the differences would be even more pronounced. Such is the case with Traffic's first LP, Mr. Fantasy. The two versions of the first track on the album, Heaven Is In Your Mind, differ not only in their mix but in the actual recording, as the mono mix features an entirely different guitar solo than the stereo one.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Intruder
Source: CD: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Writer(s): Janis Joplin
Label: Columbia/Legacy (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1967
Although the 1967 debut album by Big Brother and the Holding Company is generally considered to be inferior to their 1968 Columbia LP Cheap Thrills, there are a few gems on the disc that can't be found anywhere else. One of these is a Janis Joplin composition, Intruder. The engineers at Mainstream Records were mostly used to recording jazz musicians and tended to give Big Brother a somewhat sterile sound, but on Intruder they managed to pretty much get it right.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Ferris Wheel
Source: LP: Sunshine Superman
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: Epic/Sundazed
Year: 1966
In the fall of 1966 the career of Scottish folk singer Donovan Leitch took an odd turn. Up until that point in time he had a run of successful records in the UK but got very little airplay in the US. Two events, however, combined to turn the entire situation around 180 degrees. First, Donovan had just signed a contract with Epic Records in the US, a major step up from the poorly distributed and even more poorly promoted Hickory label. At the same time contract negotiations between the singer/songwriter and his British label, Pye, had come to an impasse. As a result Donovan's next LP, Sunshine Superman, was released only in the US, making songs like Ferris Wheel unavailable to his oldest fans. His popularity in the UK suffered greatly from lack of any new recordings over the next year, while it exploded in the US with consecutive top 10 singles Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow in 1966. From that point on Donovan would have his greatest success in North America, even after securing a new record contract in the UK in late 1967.
Artist: Them
Title: I Happen To Love You
Source: LP: Now And Them
Writer(s): Goffin/King
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
I Happen To Love You was first recorded by the Electric Prunes for their 1967 album Underground. The band wanted to release the Gerry Goffin/Carole King tune as a single, but producer David Hassinger instead chose to issue a novelty track, To The Highest Bidder. Unlike the Prunes version, which emphasized the King melody line, Them's version of I Happen To Love You was done in much the same style as their earlier recordings with Van Morrison. Kenny McDowell provided the lead vocal.
Artist: Merry-Go-Round
Title: Listen
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Emmitt 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 this Beatle-influenced song.
Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: LP: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
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, came their most successful single, released in July of 1966.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: May This Be Love
Source: LP: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
The original UK version of Are You Experienced? featured May This Be Love as the opening track of side two of the album. In the US, the UK single The Wind Cries Mary was substituted for it, with May This Be Love buried deep on side one.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Highway 61 Revisited
Source: CD: Highway 61 Revisited
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
US Highway 61 is part of the old Federal highway system that was developed in the 1920s and 30s and has since been largely supplanted by the Interstate highway system. It was at a crossroads along this route that legendary bluesman Robert Johnson is said to sold his soul to the devil in exchange for a successful career. In 1965 Bob Dylan decided to revisit the legend and add to it for his landmark album on which he invented an electrified version of the folk music he had become famous for. His backup musicians included some of the top talent in the New York area, including guitarist Michael Bloomfied of the Butterfield Blues Band and organist Al Kooper, who, incidentally, plays the police whistle heard throughout the title track of Highway 61 Revisited.
Artist: Simon And Garfunkel
Title: Mrs. Robinson
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Bookends and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
A few weeks ago we featured the entire first side of Simon And Garfunkel's Bookends album. This time around we have a set of individual tunes from the same album. A shortened version of Mrs. Robinson first appeared on the soundtrack for the film The Graduate in 1967, but it wasn't until the Bookends album came out in 1968 that the full four minute version was released.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: America
Source: 45 RPM single B side (song originally released on LP: Bookends)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Year: 1968/1972
Four years after the release of Bookends (and two years after the breakup of Simon and Garfunkel), Columbia decided to release the song For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her, from their final album Bridge Over Troubled Water, as a single, to coincide with the release of their Greatest Hits album. For the B side, they went even further back, pulling out the original tapes for the song America. The tracks on the Bookends album were deliberately overlapped to form a continuous audio montage, making this the first standalone version of America to be released.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: At The Zoo
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bookends)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Simon and Garfunkel did not release any new albums in 1967, instead concentrating on their live performances. They did, however, issue several singles over the course of the year, most of which ended up being included on 1968's Bookends LP. At The Zoo was one of the first of those 1967 singles. It's B side ended up being a hit as well, but by Harper's Bizarre, which took The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) to the top 10 early in the year.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: 1906 (mono single mix)
Source: CD: Volume III-A Child's Guide To Good And Evil (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Markley/Morgan
Label: Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
A while back I was in contact with Robert Morgan, brother of the late Ron Morgan, guitarist for the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. I asked him if his brother had ever received royalties from songs like 1906, which was essentially a Morgan composition with spoken lyrics tacked on by bandleader/vocalist Bob Markley. He replied that Ron had received a check for something like eight dollars shortly before his death, but that he had always felt that Markley had paid him fairly for his services. He then went on to say that Ron Morgan was more interested in making his mark than in getting any financial compensation. Attitudes like that are why I do this show. It's hard to imagine many of today's pop stars making a statement like that and meaning it.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: You Keep Me Hangin' On
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Holland/Dozier/Holland
Label: Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The LP version of the Vanilla Fudge's cover of the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On ran something like 6-7 minutes. For single release the song was cut down considerably, clocking in at around three minutes. It was also available only in mono, which is how Rhino chose to present it when they released thier first Nuggets series (not to be confused with Lenny Kaye's original collection from 1972) in the early 1980s.
Artist: Youngbloods
Title: Get Together
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: The Youngbloods)
Writer(s): Chet Powers
Label: Rhino (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1967
The Youngbloods were the second San Francisco band signed to industry leader RCA Victor Records. Their first album was released in 1967 but was overshadowed by the vinyl debuts of the Grateful Dead and Moby Grape, among others. In fact, the Youngbloods toiled in relative obscurity until 1969, when their own version of Dino Valenti's Let's Get Together (from the 1967 LP) was used in a TV ad promoting world peace. The song was subsequently released (with the title slightly shortened) as a single and ended up being the group's only hit record (as well as Valenti's most famous composition).
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: I'm A Man
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Miller/Winwood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
he Spencer Davis Group, featuring Steve and Muff Winwood, was one of the UK's most successful white R&B bands of the sixties, cranking out a steady stream of hit singles. Two of them, the iconic Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man, were also major hits in the US, the latter being the last song to feature the Winwood brothers. Muff Winwood became a successful record producer. The group itself continued on for several years, but were never able to duplicate their earlier successes. As for Steve Winwood, he quickly faded off into obscurity, never to be heard from again. Except as the leader of Traffic. And a member of Blind Faith. And Traffic again. And some critically-acclaimed collaborations in the early 1980s with Asian musicians. Oh yeah, and a few major solo hits like Higher Love and Roll With It in the late 80s. Other than that, nothing.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Come On In
Source: CD: Turn On (also released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
The B side of the Music Machine's big hit record.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Talk Talk
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Turn On The Music Machine)
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
The A side of the Music Machine's big hit record.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Trouble
Source: CD: Turn On The Music Machine
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
Sean Bonniwell had definite plans for the Music Machine's first album. His primary goal was to have all original material, with the exception of a slowed-down version of Hey Joe that he and fellow songwriter Tim Rose had been working on (and before you ask, both Rose and the Music Machine recorded it before Jimi Hendrix did). Unfortunately, the shirts at Original Sound Records did not take their own company name seriously and inserted four cover songs that the band had recorded for a local TV show. This was just the first in a series of bad decisions by the aforementioned shirts that led to a great band not getting the success it deserved. To hear Turn On The Music Machine the way Bonniwell intended it to be heard program your CD player to skip all the extra cover songs. Listened to that way, Trouble is restored to its rightful place as the second song on the disc (following Talk Talk) and a fairly decent album is transformed into a work that is equal to the best albums of 1966.
Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): 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: Sound Barrier
Title: (My) Baby's Gone
Source: Pebbles Vol. 8 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Paul Hess (?)
Label: BFD (original label: Zounds)
Year: 1967
Not much is known about the Salem, Ohio band known as Sound Barrier other than the fact that they were led by guitarist/vocalist Paul Hess, who most likely is the writer of (My) Baby's Gone, a single that appeared on the Zounds label in 1967. The band resurfaced two years later with a somewhat inferior cover of the Who's I Can't Explain on a different label, and were never heard from again.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Hey Grandma
Source: LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s): Miller/Stevenson
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
One of the most talked-about albums to come from the San Francisco music scene in 1967 was Moby Grape's debut album. Unfortunately a lot of that talk was from Columbia Records itself, which resulted in the band getting a reputation for being overly hyped, much to the detriment of the band's future efforts. Still, that first album did have some outstanding tracks, including Hey Grandma, which opens the album.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Water Woman
Source: CD: Spirit
Writer(s): Jay Ferguson
Label: Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year: 1968
The first Spirit album was the most eclectic album the band ever recorded, featuring a healthy dose of jazz stylings (thanks to drummer Ed Cassidy) mixed with progressive rock and odd (but nice) tunes such Water Woman, written by lead vocalist Jay Ferguson.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Willie
Source: LP: Ladies Of The Canyon
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Reprise
Year: 1970
Joni Mitchell's third album, Ladies Of The Canyon, was full of references to her friends David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young. One of the more obscure ones is Willy, which was reportedly written about Nash.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Witch's Promise
Source: CD: Benefit
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1970
The remastered version of Jethro Tull's third album, Benefit, includes several songs that were released as singles in the UK, but did not appear in the US until the 1973 anthology album Living In The Past. Among those is Witch's Promise, recorded just weeks before the sessions for Benefit began.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Wake Up Sunshine
Source: CD: Chicago II
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Rhino (Columbia)
Year: 1970
After the release of their first album the Chicago Transit Authority toured extensively, grabbing up studio time whenever and wherever they could. As a result, much of the material on their second LP was written on the road, such as Robert Lamm's Wake Up Sunshine, which finishes out side one of the double LP, entitled simply Chicago, after the band shortened its name in response to threatened lawsuits by the city of Chicago's local transit system.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1229 (starts 7/19/12)
Artist: Stephen Stills and Richie Furay
Title: Sit Down I Think I Love You
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded 1966, released 2009
Stephen Stills and Richie Furay were still in the process of forming their new band when they cut this demo of Sit Down I Think I Love You, a song that would appear later in the year on the first Buffalo Springfield album and be covered the following year by the San Francisco flower pop band the Mojo Men. This version is basically just the two of them singing harmony with Stills on acoustic guitar.
Artist: Los Bravos
Title: Black Is Black
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): Grainger/Hayes/Wadey
Label: London
Year: 1966
The first band from Spain to have a major pop hit was Los Bravos, who took Black Is Black to the top 10 in several countries, including the US, in late 1966. Interestingly, the band's lead vocalist, Michael Kogel, was actually a German national.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: I'll Go Crazy
Source: LP: Psychedelic Lollipop
Writer(s): James Brown
Label: Mercury
Year: 1966
You don't often hear the name James Brown and the word psychedelic in the same sentence, but sure enough, there is a Brown cover on the first (or maybe second) album to use the word psychedelic in its title. The album in question is the Blues Magoos' Psychedelic Lollipop. The song I'll Go Crazy finishes out the first side of the album. Although it is a credible rendition of the tune, the recording does not fit comfortably with the likes of (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet and the psychedelicized Tobacco Road. Apparently the band agreed, as they never recorded another James Brown cover song.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Work Song
Source: CD: East-West
Writer(s): 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 electric guitarist (before the emergence of Jimi Hendrix, at any rate). Elvin Bishop's guitar work on the song is not too shabby either.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Eight Miles High
Source: CD: Fifth Dimension
Writer(s): McGuinn/Crosby/Clark
Label: Columbia/Legacy
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. Despite all this Eight Miles High still managed to crack the top 20 in late 1966.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Dialogue (part 1&2)
Source: 45 RPM single edit (original version on LP: Chicago V)
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
In their early days Chicago was one of the more politically-oriented rock bands around. One of the more notable tracks on their first album (Someday) was built around the crowds in Lincoln Park chanting outside the 1968 Democratic convention. The group continued to make political statements for the next few years, although by the time they released their landmark four-disc live album they were firmly in the camp of advocating working within the system as opposed to overthrowing everything and starting over (sort of an evolution over revolution approach). One of the more interesting songs of this type is Dialogue, a condemnation of socio-political apathy from the album Chicago V. The structure of the first half of the record is based on Plato's philosophical dialogues, with one vocalist, Robert Lamm, asking disturbing questions and the other, Peter Cetera, giving answers that are on the surface reassuring but in reality bespeak an attitude of burying one's head in the sand and hoping everything will turn out OK. This shifts into a call for everyone to work together to effect needed changes in the world, with the repeated line "We can make it happen" dominating the second half of the record.
Artist: Cream
Title: Outside Woman Blues
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Arthur Reynolds
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
Although Cream's second album, Disraeli Gears, is best known for its psychedelic cover art and original songs such as Strange Brew, Sunshine Of Your Love and Tales of Brave Ulysses, the LP did have one notable blues cover on it. Outside Woman Blues was originally recorded by Blind Joe Reynolds in 1929 and has since been covered by a variety of artists including Van Halen, Johnny Winters, Jimi Hendrix and even the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Never
Source: LP: Grape Jam
Writer(s): Bob Mosley
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
For their second album, Moby Grape decided to do something different. In addition to the LP Wow, there was a second disc called Grape Jam included at no extra charge. For the most part Grape Jam is exactly what you'd expect: a collection of after-hours jam sessions with guest guitarist/keyboardist Michael Bloomfield. The opening track of Grape Jam, however, is actually a composition by Bob Mosley. The song features Mosley on bass and vocals, Jerry Miller and Skip Spence and guitars and Don Stevenson on drums, all of whom were actual members of Moby Grape.
Artist: Albert King/Steve Cropper/Pop Staples
Title: Baby, What You Trying To Do
Source: LP: Jammed Together
Writer(s): Jimmy Reed
Label: Stax
Year: 1969
Although Stax records was best known for its Memphis soul recordings by such artists as Otis Redding, Sam and Dave and Booker T. and the MGs, the label also was home to one of the most popular blues guitarists of the late 60s: Albert King. Among King's many recordings for the label is this collection of studio jams with MG guitarist Steve Cropper and the legendary Pop Staples. The closing track of side one is a rather tasty version of Jimmy Reed's Baby, What You Trying To Do.
Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Summertime Blues
Source: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock
Writer(s): Cochrane/Capehart
Label: Priority
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, culminating with the massive protest in Chicago's Lincoln Park outside the Democratic National Convention in August and the brutal response by Mayor John Daley's Chicago Police Department. 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: Monkees
Title: Valleri
Source: CD: Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: The Birds, The Bees And The Monkees and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Boyce/Hart
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
The last Monkees top 10 single was also Michael Nesmith's least favorite Monkees song. Valleri was a Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart composition that the group had first recorded for the first season of their TV show in 1966. Apparently nobody was happy with the recording, however, and the song was never issued on vinyl. Two years later the song was re-recorded for the album The Birds, The Bees And The Monkees and subsequently released as a single. The flamenco-style guitar on the intro (and repeated throughout the song) was played by studio guitarist Louie Shelton, after Nesmith refused to participate in the recording.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Oh, Sweet Mary
Source: CD: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s): Albin/Andrew/Getz/Gurley/Joplin
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
The only song credited to the entire membership of Big Brother And The Holding Company on their Cheap Thrills album was Oh, Sweet Mary. The tune bears a strong resemblance to a song on their first album called The Cuckoo, an adaptation of a traditional ballad. Oh, Sweet Mary, however, has new lyrics and an entirely new bridge section played at a slower tempo than the rest of the tune.
Artist: Graham Nash
Title: Prison Song
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
Graham Nash's Prison Song is one of those songs that by all rights should have been a huge hit. It was by a name artist. It had a catchy opening harmonica riff and a haunting melody. I can only surmise that once again Bill Drake (the man who controlled top 40 radio in the 60s and early 70s) decided that the lyrics were too controversial for AM radio and had the song blacklisted, much as he had done with the Byrds Eight Miles High a few years earlier. Those lyrics center on a subject that is unfortunately still relevant today: the utter absurdity of drug laws and the unequal sentences for violation of those laws in the US and its various states.
Artist: Castaways
Title: Liar Liar
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Donna/Croswell
Label: Rhino (original label: Soma)
Year: 1965
The Castaways were a popular local band in the Minneapolis area led by keyboardist James Donna, who, for less than two minutes at a time, dominated the national airwaves with their song Liar Liar for a couple months before fading off into obscurity.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: The Wind Cries Mary
Source: The Ultimate Experience (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single and in US on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original labels: Track (UK), Reprise (US))
Year: 1967
The US version of the first Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Are You Experienced, was significantly different than its UK counterpart. For one thing, the original UK album was only available in mono. For the US version, engineers at Reprise Records, working from the original multi-track masters, created all new stereo mixes of about two-thirds of the album, along with all three of the singles that the Jimi Hendrix Experience had released in the UK. The third of these singles was The Wind Cries Mary, which had hit the British charts in February of 1967.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Foxy Lady
Source: LP: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The first track on the original UK release of Are You Experienced was Foxy Lady. The British custom of the time was to not include any songs on albums that had been previously released as singles. When Reprise Records got the rights to release the album in the US, it was decided to include three songs that had all been top 40 hits in the UK. One of those songs, Purple Haze, took over the opening spot on the album, and Foxy Lady was moved to the middle of side 2.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Manic Depression
Source: CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
My dad bought an Akai X-355D reel to reel tape deck when we moved to Ramstein, Germany in early 1968. It was pretty much the state of the art in home audio technology at the time. The problem was that we did not have a stereo system to hook it into, so he bought a set of Koss headphones to go with it. One of my first purchases was a pre-recorded reel to reel tape of Are You Experienced. The Akai had an auto-reverse system and I would lie on the couch with the headphones on to go to sleep every night listening to songs like Manic Depression. Is it any wonder I turned out like I did?
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Go To Her
Source: LP: Early Flight
Writer(s): Kantner/Estes
Label: Grunt
Year: Recorded 1966, released 1974
Nearly every major artist acquires a backlog of unreleased songs over a period of time, usually due to lack of space on their official albums. Eventually many of these tracks get released on compilation albums or (more recently) as bonus tracks on CD versions of the original albums. One of the first of these compilation albums was Jefferson Airplane's Early Flight LP, released in 1974. Of the nine tracks on Early Flight, five were recorded during sessions for the band's first two LPs, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off and Surrealistic Pillow. One song originally intended for Surrealistic Pillow was Go To Her, an early Paul Kantner collaboration. At four minutes, the recording was longer than any of the songs that actually appeared on the album, which is probably the reason it didn't make the final cut, as it would have meant that two other songs would have to have been deleted instead.
Artist: Doors
Title: My Eyes Have Seen You
Source: CD: Strange Days
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
It's strange. Some reviewers seem to think that the album Strange Days is inferior to the first Doors album. They justify this view by citing the fact that almost all the songs on both albums were already in the band's repertoire when they signed their record contract with Elektra. The implication is that the band naturally selected the best material for the first album, making Strange Days a collection of sloppy seconds. There is one small problem with this theory however. Pick a song at random from Strange Days and listen to it and in all likelihood it will sound every bit as good as a song randomly picked from the first album (and probably better than one picked from either of the Doors' next two LPs). In fact, I'll pick one for you: My Eyes Have Seen You. See what I mean?
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Boogie Music
Source: CD: Living The Blues
Writer(s): L T Tatman III
Label: BGO (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1968
Canned Heat was formed in 1966 by a group of Bay Area blues purists. Although a favorite on the rock scene, the band continued to remain true to the blues throughout their existence. The band's most popular single was Going Up the Country from the album Living the Blues. The B side of Going Up The Country was a tune called Boogie Music. The song is credited to L T Tatman III, which may be a pseudonym for the entire band, much as Nanker Phelge was for the Rolling Stones. Unusually, the single version of the song is actually longer than the album version heard here, thanks to a short coda made to sound like an archive recording from the 1920s.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Come Together
Source: CD: Abbey Road
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Parlophone
Year: 1969
Do I really need to say anything about this song?
Artist: Temptations
Title: You Make Your Own Heaven And Hell Right Here On Earth
Source: LP: Psychedelic Shack
Writer(s): Whitfield/Strong
Label: Gordy
Year: 1970
The company culture at Motown in the late 60s was such that each production unit had considerable autonomy, and often a sound all its own, such as the catchy Holland-Dozier-Holland sound of the Supremes and the Four Tops or the softer, sexier sound of a Smokey Robinson production. The most psychedelic team was that of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, who took over producing the Temptations after the departure of original lead vocalist David Ruffin. The Whitfield-Strong sound was characterized by fuzz tones, wah-wahs and quick tradeoffs between vocalists, all of which are evident on You Make Your Own Heaven And Hell Right Here On Earth, a track from the Temptations' Psychedelic Soul album. The song was re-recorded a couple of years later, with a greater emphasis on strings, by another Whitfield-Strong group, the Undisputed Truth, as a follow-up to their big hit Smiling Faces Sometimes.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: I Just Wan't To Make Love To You
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Willie Dixon
Label: London
Year: 1964
Like most British bands in the early 60s, the Rolling Stones recorded a lot of blues cover songs, including most of their early UK singles. The first original tune from the band to chart was Tell Me (Your Coming Back Again), which was also their first release to crack the US top 40. The Stones weren't quite done with blues covers however. The flip side of Tell Me was an old Willie Dixon classic, I Just Want To Make Love To You.
Artist: Mouse And The Traps
Title: A Public Execution
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): 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 among those singles in that the artist on the label was listed simply as Mouse.
Artist: Love
Title: My Little Red Book
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Love)
Writer(s): Bacharach/David
Label: Rhino
Year: 1966
The first rock record ever released by Elektra Records was a single by Love called My Little Red Book. The track itself (which also opens Love's debut LP), is a punked out version of tune originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the What's New Pussycat movie soundtrack. Needless to say, Love's version was not exactly what Burt Bacharach and Hal David had in mind.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: I Won't Hurt You
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Part One)
Writer: Harris/Lloyd/Markley
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Unlike more famous L.A. groups like Love and the Doors, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band was not a Sunset Strip club band. In fact, the WCPAEB really didn't play that many live performances in their career, although those they did play tended to be at high profile venues such as the Hollywood Bowl. The band was formed when the Harris brothers, sons of an accomplished classical musician, decided to record their own album and release it on a small local label. Only a few copies of that album, Volume One, were made and finding one now is next to impossible. That might have been the end of the story except for the fact that they were acquaintances of Kim Fowley, record producer and all-around Hollywood hustler. Fowley invited them to a party where the Yardbirds were playing; a party also attended by one Bob Markley. Markley, who was nearly ten years older than the Harris brothers, was a former TV show host from the midwest who had moved out to the coast to try his luck. Impressed by the flock of young girls surrounding the Yardbirds, Markley expressed to Fowley his desire to be a rock and roll star and have the girls flock around him, too. Fowley, ever the deal-maker, responded by introducing Markley to the Harris Brothers and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band was born. With the addition of guitarist Michael Lloyd and the influence of Markley's not-inconsiderable family money, the group soon landed a contract with Reprise Records, where they proceeded to record the album Part One, which includes the turn I Won't Hurt You, which uses a simulated heartbeat to keep the...umm, beat.
Artist: October Country
Title: My Girlfriend Is A Witch
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
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 lyrics for 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 the lyrics for My Girlfriend Is a Witch, he also ended up playing drums on the record as well.
Artist: Earth Disciples
Title: Native Planet
Source: LP: Getaway Train
Writer(s): Reggie Harris
Label: Solid State
Year: 1969
One great thing about the year 1969 was that there was a lot of room for originality in music. Take the Earth Disciples. Were they jazz? Rock? Soul? Native Planet, from their only LP, Getaway Train, certainly has elements of all three. One person who perhaps can shed some light on this Chicago by way of L.A band is drummer Reggie Harris. Here's a short quote from Reggie, courtesy of soundsfromthefunkygoat.blogspot.com: “The story of The Earth Disciples is a long one, starting in Chicago, Illinois. The bass player (Reggie Austin), guitar player (Jimmy Holloway), and myself, met in high school, and played in Reggie Austin's brother's band (Johnny Robinson, piano). We played high school dances and local events. Oscar Brown Jr., a well-known jazz artist from Chicago, came to our school to do a show, including local talent from school and [the] surrounding area. The show was called Opportunity Knocks. At the end of the show Oscar took us on the road to New York, and on to Los Angeles. After the tour, some band members returned home. I stayed in Los Angeles. Oscar was looking for a pianist, and that’s when I met Rudy Reid. I moved in with Rudy and called Jimmy to come and play. After Jimmy moved in, we wanted to be reunited with Reggie Austin. We sent for him in Chicago; The Earth Disciples were formed."
Artist: Orange Bicycle
Title: Last Cloud Home (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Source: CD: Insane Times
Writer(s): Dove
Label: Zonophone (original label: Parlophone)
Year: 1969
The Orange Bicycle were a somewhat obscure British group led by drummer/vocalist Will Malone. The band had one successful single, Hyacinth Threads, which topped the French charts in the summer of 1967. The group continued to record without any great success for the next couple of years. One of their last and best recordings was Last Cloud Home, a B side from 1969.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Going To Try
Source: CD: Stonedhenge
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
Although Ten Years After is known mostly for straight ahead blues rock and roll numbers like I'm Going Home, Alvin Lee and company did have a more experimental side, as evidenced by their third LP, Stonedhenge. The album consists of a half dozen tracks written by Lee and performed by the entire band interspersed with solo tracks from each of the four band members. The opening track, Going To Try, is possibly the most psychedelic song in the TYA catalog, being basically a series of variations on a common theme in different time and key signatures.
Title: Sit Down I Think I Love You
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded 1966, released 2009
Stephen Stills and Richie Furay were still in the process of forming their new band when they cut this demo of Sit Down I Think I Love You, a song that would appear later in the year on the first Buffalo Springfield album and be covered the following year by the San Francisco flower pop band the Mojo Men. This version is basically just the two of them singing harmony with Stills on acoustic guitar.
Artist: Los Bravos
Title: Black Is Black
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): Grainger/Hayes/Wadey
Label: London
Year: 1966
The first band from Spain to have a major pop hit was Los Bravos, who took Black Is Black to the top 10 in several countries, including the US, in late 1966. Interestingly, the band's lead vocalist, Michael Kogel, was actually a German national.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: I'll Go Crazy
Source: LP: Psychedelic Lollipop
Writer(s): James Brown
Label: Mercury
Year: 1966
You don't often hear the name James Brown and the word psychedelic in the same sentence, but sure enough, there is a Brown cover on the first (or maybe second) album to use the word psychedelic in its title. The album in question is the Blues Magoos' Psychedelic Lollipop. The song I'll Go Crazy finishes out the first side of the album. Although it is a credible rendition of the tune, the recording does not fit comfortably with the likes of (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet and the psychedelicized Tobacco Road. Apparently the band agreed, as they never recorded another James Brown cover song.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Work Song
Source: CD: East-West
Writer(s): 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 electric guitarist (before the emergence of Jimi Hendrix, at any rate). Elvin Bishop's guitar work on the song is not too shabby either.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Eight Miles High
Source: CD: Fifth Dimension
Writer(s): McGuinn/Crosby/Clark
Label: Columbia/Legacy
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. Despite all this Eight Miles High still managed to crack the top 20 in late 1966.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Dialogue (part 1&2)
Source: 45 RPM single edit (original version on LP: Chicago V)
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
In their early days Chicago was one of the more politically-oriented rock bands around. One of the more notable tracks on their first album (Someday) was built around the crowds in Lincoln Park chanting outside the 1968 Democratic convention. The group continued to make political statements for the next few years, although by the time they released their landmark four-disc live album they were firmly in the camp of advocating working within the system as opposed to overthrowing everything and starting over (sort of an evolution over revolution approach). One of the more interesting songs of this type is Dialogue, a condemnation of socio-political apathy from the album Chicago V. The structure of the first half of the record is based on Plato's philosophical dialogues, with one vocalist, Robert Lamm, asking disturbing questions and the other, Peter Cetera, giving answers that are on the surface reassuring but in reality bespeak an attitude of burying one's head in the sand and hoping everything will turn out OK. This shifts into a call for everyone to work together to effect needed changes in the world, with the repeated line "We can make it happen" dominating the second half of the record.
Artist: Cream
Title: Outside Woman Blues
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Arthur Reynolds
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
Although Cream's second album, Disraeli Gears, is best known for its psychedelic cover art and original songs such as Strange Brew, Sunshine Of Your Love and Tales of Brave Ulysses, the LP did have one notable blues cover on it. Outside Woman Blues was originally recorded by Blind Joe Reynolds in 1929 and has since been covered by a variety of artists including Van Halen, Johnny Winters, Jimi Hendrix and even the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Never
Source: LP: Grape Jam
Writer(s): Bob Mosley
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
For their second album, Moby Grape decided to do something different. In addition to the LP Wow, there was a second disc called Grape Jam included at no extra charge. For the most part Grape Jam is exactly what you'd expect: a collection of after-hours jam sessions with guest guitarist/keyboardist Michael Bloomfield. The opening track of Grape Jam, however, is actually a composition by Bob Mosley. The song features Mosley on bass and vocals, Jerry Miller and Skip Spence and guitars and Don Stevenson on drums, all of whom were actual members of Moby Grape.
Artist: Albert King/Steve Cropper/Pop Staples
Title: Baby, What You Trying To Do
Source: LP: Jammed Together
Writer(s): Jimmy Reed
Label: Stax
Year: 1969
Although Stax records was best known for its Memphis soul recordings by such artists as Otis Redding, Sam and Dave and Booker T. and the MGs, the label also was home to one of the most popular blues guitarists of the late 60s: Albert King. Among King's many recordings for the label is this collection of studio jams with MG guitarist Steve Cropper and the legendary Pop Staples. The closing track of side one is a rather tasty version of Jimmy Reed's Baby, What You Trying To Do.
Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Summertime Blues
Source: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock
Writer(s): Cochrane/Capehart
Label: Priority
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, culminating with the massive protest in Chicago's Lincoln Park outside the Democratic National Convention in August and the brutal response by Mayor John Daley's Chicago Police Department. 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: Monkees
Title: Valleri
Source: CD: Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: The Birds, The Bees And The Monkees and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Boyce/Hart
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
The last Monkees top 10 single was also Michael Nesmith's least favorite Monkees song. Valleri was a Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart composition that the group had first recorded for the first season of their TV show in 1966. Apparently nobody was happy with the recording, however, and the song was never issued on vinyl. Two years later the song was re-recorded for the album The Birds, The Bees And The Monkees and subsequently released as a single. The flamenco-style guitar on the intro (and repeated throughout the song) was played by studio guitarist Louie Shelton, after Nesmith refused to participate in the recording.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Oh, Sweet Mary
Source: CD: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s): Albin/Andrew/Getz/Gurley/Joplin
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
The only song credited to the entire membership of Big Brother And The Holding Company on their Cheap Thrills album was Oh, Sweet Mary. The tune bears a strong resemblance to a song on their first album called The Cuckoo, an adaptation of a traditional ballad. Oh, Sweet Mary, however, has new lyrics and an entirely new bridge section played at a slower tempo than the rest of the tune.
Artist: Graham Nash
Title: Prison Song
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Graham Nash
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1973
Graham Nash's Prison Song is one of those songs that by all rights should have been a huge hit. It was by a name artist. It had a catchy opening harmonica riff and a haunting melody. I can only surmise that once again Bill Drake (the man who controlled top 40 radio in the 60s and early 70s) decided that the lyrics were too controversial for AM radio and had the song blacklisted, much as he had done with the Byrds Eight Miles High a few years earlier. Those lyrics center on a subject that is unfortunately still relevant today: the utter absurdity of drug laws and the unequal sentences for violation of those laws in the US and its various states.
Artist: Castaways
Title: Liar Liar
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Donna/Croswell
Label: Rhino (original label: Soma)
Year: 1965
The Castaways were a popular local band in the Minneapolis area led by keyboardist James Donna, who, for less than two minutes at a time, dominated the national airwaves with their song Liar Liar for a couple months before fading off into obscurity.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: The Wind Cries Mary
Source: The Ultimate Experience (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single and in US on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original labels: Track (UK), Reprise (US))
Year: 1967
The US version of the first Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Are You Experienced, was significantly different than its UK counterpart. For one thing, the original UK album was only available in mono. For the US version, engineers at Reprise Records, working from the original multi-track masters, created all new stereo mixes of about two-thirds of the album, along with all three of the singles that the Jimi Hendrix Experience had released in the UK. The third of these singles was The Wind Cries Mary, which had hit the British charts in February of 1967.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Foxy Lady
Source: LP: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The first track on the original UK release of Are You Experienced was Foxy Lady. The British custom of the time was to not include any songs on albums that had been previously released as singles. When Reprise Records got the rights to release the album in the US, it was decided to include three songs that had all been top 40 hits in the UK. One of those songs, Purple Haze, took over the opening spot on the album, and Foxy Lady was moved to the middle of side 2.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Manic Depression
Source: CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
My dad bought an Akai X-355D reel to reel tape deck when we moved to Ramstein, Germany in early 1968. It was pretty much the state of the art in home audio technology at the time. The problem was that we did not have a stereo system to hook it into, so he bought a set of Koss headphones to go with it. One of my first purchases was a pre-recorded reel to reel tape of Are You Experienced. The Akai had an auto-reverse system and I would lie on the couch with the headphones on to go to sleep every night listening to songs like Manic Depression. Is it any wonder I turned out like I did?
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Go To Her
Source: LP: Early Flight
Writer(s): Kantner/Estes
Label: Grunt
Year: Recorded 1966, released 1974
Nearly every major artist acquires a backlog of unreleased songs over a period of time, usually due to lack of space on their official albums. Eventually many of these tracks get released on compilation albums or (more recently) as bonus tracks on CD versions of the original albums. One of the first of these compilation albums was Jefferson Airplane's Early Flight LP, released in 1974. Of the nine tracks on Early Flight, five were recorded during sessions for the band's first two LPs, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off and Surrealistic Pillow. One song originally intended for Surrealistic Pillow was Go To Her, an early Paul Kantner collaboration. At four minutes, the recording was longer than any of the songs that actually appeared on the album, which is probably the reason it didn't make the final cut, as it would have meant that two other songs would have to have been deleted instead.
Artist: Doors
Title: My Eyes Have Seen You
Source: CD: Strange Days
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
It's strange. Some reviewers seem to think that the album Strange Days is inferior to the first Doors album. They justify this view by citing the fact that almost all the songs on both albums were already in the band's repertoire when they signed their record contract with Elektra. The implication is that the band naturally selected the best material for the first album, making Strange Days a collection of sloppy seconds. There is one small problem with this theory however. Pick a song at random from Strange Days and listen to it and in all likelihood it will sound every bit as good as a song randomly picked from the first album (and probably better than one picked from either of the Doors' next two LPs). In fact, I'll pick one for you: My Eyes Have Seen You. See what I mean?
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Boogie Music
Source: CD: Living The Blues
Writer(s): L T Tatman III
Label: BGO (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1968
Canned Heat was formed in 1966 by a group of Bay Area blues purists. Although a favorite on the rock scene, the band continued to remain true to the blues throughout their existence. The band's most popular single was Going Up the Country from the album Living the Blues. The B side of Going Up The Country was a tune called Boogie Music. The song is credited to L T Tatman III, which may be a pseudonym for the entire band, much as Nanker Phelge was for the Rolling Stones. Unusually, the single version of the song is actually longer than the album version heard here, thanks to a short coda made to sound like an archive recording from the 1920s.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Come Together
Source: CD: Abbey Road
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Parlophone
Year: 1969
Do I really need to say anything about this song?
Artist: Temptations
Title: You Make Your Own Heaven And Hell Right Here On Earth
Source: LP: Psychedelic Shack
Writer(s): Whitfield/Strong
Label: Gordy
Year: 1970
The company culture at Motown in the late 60s was such that each production unit had considerable autonomy, and often a sound all its own, such as the catchy Holland-Dozier-Holland sound of the Supremes and the Four Tops or the softer, sexier sound of a Smokey Robinson production. The most psychedelic team was that of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, who took over producing the Temptations after the departure of original lead vocalist David Ruffin. The Whitfield-Strong sound was characterized by fuzz tones, wah-wahs and quick tradeoffs between vocalists, all of which are evident on You Make Your Own Heaven And Hell Right Here On Earth, a track from the Temptations' Psychedelic Soul album. The song was re-recorded a couple of years later, with a greater emphasis on strings, by another Whitfield-Strong group, the Undisputed Truth, as a follow-up to their big hit Smiling Faces Sometimes.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: I Just Wan't To Make Love To You
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Willie Dixon
Label: London
Year: 1964
Like most British bands in the early 60s, the Rolling Stones recorded a lot of blues cover songs, including most of their early UK singles. The first original tune from the band to chart was Tell Me (Your Coming Back Again), which was also their first release to crack the US top 40. The Stones weren't quite done with blues covers however. The flip side of Tell Me was an old Willie Dixon classic, I Just Want To Make Love To You.
Artist: Mouse And The Traps
Title: A Public Execution
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): 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 among those singles in that the artist on the label was listed simply as Mouse.
Artist: Love
Title: My Little Red Book
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Love)
Writer(s): Bacharach/David
Label: Rhino
Year: 1966
The first rock record ever released by Elektra Records was a single by Love called My Little Red Book. The track itself (which also opens Love's debut LP), is a punked out version of tune originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the What's New Pussycat movie soundtrack. Needless to say, Love's version was not exactly what Burt Bacharach and Hal David had in mind.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: I Won't Hurt You
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Part One)
Writer: Harris/Lloyd/Markley
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Unlike more famous L.A. groups like Love and the Doors, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band was not a Sunset Strip club band. In fact, the WCPAEB really didn't play that many live performances in their career, although those they did play tended to be at high profile venues such as the Hollywood Bowl. The band was formed when the Harris brothers, sons of an accomplished classical musician, decided to record their own album and release it on a small local label. Only a few copies of that album, Volume One, were made and finding one now is next to impossible. That might have been the end of the story except for the fact that they were acquaintances of Kim Fowley, record producer and all-around Hollywood hustler. Fowley invited them to a party where the Yardbirds were playing; a party also attended by one Bob Markley. Markley, who was nearly ten years older than the Harris brothers, was a former TV show host from the midwest who had moved out to the coast to try his luck. Impressed by the flock of young girls surrounding the Yardbirds, Markley expressed to Fowley his desire to be a rock and roll star and have the girls flock around him, too. Fowley, ever the deal-maker, responded by introducing Markley to the Harris Brothers and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band was born. With the addition of guitarist Michael Lloyd and the influence of Markley's not-inconsiderable family money, the group soon landed a contract with Reprise Records, where they proceeded to record the album Part One, which includes the turn I Won't Hurt You, which uses a simulated heartbeat to keep the...umm, beat.
Artist: October Country
Title: My Girlfriend Is A Witch
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
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 lyrics for 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 the lyrics for My Girlfriend Is a Witch, he also ended up playing drums on the record as well.
Artist: Earth Disciples
Title: Native Planet
Source: LP: Getaway Train
Writer(s): Reggie Harris
Label: Solid State
Year: 1969
One great thing about the year 1969 was that there was a lot of room for originality in music. Take the Earth Disciples. Were they jazz? Rock? Soul? Native Planet, from their only LP, Getaway Train, certainly has elements of all three. One person who perhaps can shed some light on this Chicago by way of L.A band is drummer Reggie Harris. Here's a short quote from Reggie, courtesy of soundsfromthefunkygoat.blogspot.com: “The story of The Earth Disciples is a long one, starting in Chicago, Illinois. The bass player (Reggie Austin), guitar player (Jimmy Holloway), and myself, met in high school, and played in Reggie Austin's brother's band (Johnny Robinson, piano). We played high school dances and local events. Oscar Brown Jr., a well-known jazz artist from Chicago, came to our school to do a show, including local talent from school and [the] surrounding area. The show was called Opportunity Knocks. At the end of the show Oscar took us on the road to New York, and on to Los Angeles. After the tour, some band members returned home. I stayed in Los Angeles. Oscar was looking for a pianist, and that’s when I met Rudy Reid. I moved in with Rudy and called Jimmy to come and play. After Jimmy moved in, we wanted to be reunited with Reggie Austin. We sent for him in Chicago; The Earth Disciples were formed."
Artist: Orange Bicycle
Title: Last Cloud Home (originally released as 45 RPM B side)
Source: CD: Insane Times
Writer(s): Dove
Label: Zonophone (original label: Parlophone)
Year: 1969
The Orange Bicycle were a somewhat obscure British group led by drummer/vocalist Will Malone. The band had one successful single, Hyacinth Threads, which topped the French charts in the summer of 1967. The group continued to record without any great success for the next couple of years. One of their last and best recordings was Last Cloud Home, a B side from 1969.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Going To Try
Source: CD: Stonedhenge
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
Although Ten Years After is known mostly for straight ahead blues rock and roll numbers like I'm Going Home, Alvin Lee and company did have a more experimental side, as evidenced by their third LP, Stonedhenge. The album consists of a half dozen tracks written by Lee and performed by the entire band interspersed with solo tracks from each of the four band members. The opening track, Going To Try, is possibly the most psychedelic song in the TYA catalog, being basically a series of variations on a common theme in different time and key signatures.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Got a couple of announcements here. First off, a welcome to the latest stations to add Stuck in the Psychedelic Era to their weekly lineup. These include KVRZ 88.9 FM in Libby, Montana, Thursday afternoons from 3-5 (Mountain time), KSVU 90.1 FM in the Upper Skagit Valley of Washington State, Thursday nights from 10-Midnight Pacific and the WOUB network of FM stations at Ohio University campuses at Athens, Cambridge, Chillicoth, Ironton and Zanesville, Saturdays from 2-4 AM Eastern. Glad to have you all aboard.
Also, WHWS 105.7 FM in Geneva, NY, is now running classic episodes of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era from our first year of syndication Thursdays from Noon-2PM Eastern, for those of you who might have missed it the first time around. We've set it up so that the episodes are running at about the same time of year as they originally ran so that we don't get stuff like me talking about an upcoming Halloween show in April or complaining about how cold it is while you're suffering through a heat wave. You can catch it at
http://www.whws.fm/p/listen-live.html
For a complete list of stations and airtimes for Stuck in the Psychedelic Era go here:
http://www.hermitradio.com/stations.php
Also, WHWS 105.7 FM in Geneva, NY, is now running classic episodes of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era from our first year of syndication Thursdays from Noon-2PM Eastern, for those of you who might have missed it the first time around. We've set it up so that the episodes are running at about the same time of year as they originally ran so that we don't get stuff like me talking about an upcoming Halloween show in April or complaining about how cold it is while you're suffering through a heat wave. You can catch it at
http://www.whws.fm/p/listen-live.html
For a complete list of stations and airtimes for Stuck in the Psychedelic Era go here:
http://www.hermitradio.com/stations.php
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1228 (starts 7/10/12)
Artist: Cream
Title: Outside Woman Blues
Source: LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Arthur Reynolds
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Although Cream's second album, Disraeli Gears, is best known for its psychedelic cover art and original songs such as Strange Brew, Sunshine Of Your Love and Tales of Brave Ulysses, the LP did have one notable blues cover on it. Outside Woman Blues was originally recorded by Blind Joe Reynolds in 1929 and has since been covered by a variety of artists including Van Halen, Johnny Winters, Jimi Hendrix and even the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Lime Street Blues
Source: 45 RPM single B side (reissue)
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M (original label: Deram)
Year: 1967
Anyone expecting more of the same when flipping over their new copy of A Whiter Shade Of Pale in 1967 got a big surprise when they heard Lime Street Blues. The song, reminiscent of an early Ray Charles track, was strong enough to be included on their first greatest hits collection, no mean feat for a B side.
Artist: Firesign Theatre
Title: Brickbreaking
Source: LP: Dear Friends
Writer(s): Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
The Firesign Theatre consisted of four funny guys, Phil Proctor, Peter Bergman, Phil Austin and David Ossman, who, starting in 1967, did improvisational humor for a series of radio stations in California. Their shows became so popular that they landed a record contract with Columbia and recorded a series of albums, each built around a particular theme or two, such as a guy watching TV or a 30s-style crime drama. Throughout the late 60s and into the early 70s they continued to do radio as well. Eventually Columbia released a two-LP collection of bits from their syndicated radio show called Dear Friends. You can expect to hear some of these bits from time to time on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era starting this week with Brickbreaking, taken from a live broadcast on KPFK, Los Angeles on 1/24/71.
Artist: Full Treatment
Title: Just Can't Wait
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Buzz Clifford
Label: Rhino (original label: A&M)
Year: 1967
In the fall of 1966 Brian Wilson produced the classic Beach Boys single Good Vibrations, which sent vibrations of its own throughout the L.A. studio scene. Suddenly producers were stumbling all over themselves to follow in Wilson's footsteps with mini-symphonies of their own. Buzz Clifford and Dan Moore, calling themselves the Full Treatment, created Just Can't Wait in 1967 and quickly sold the master tape to A&M Records. Despite enthusiam for the recording at the label, the song was mostly ignored by radio stations and the Full Treatment was never heard from again.
Artist: Kenny And The Kasuals
Title: Journey To Tyme
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Smith/Lee
Label: Rhino (original labels: Mark Ltd. and United Artists)
Year: 1966
One of the most popular Dallas area bands in the mid-1960s was Kenny and the Kasuals. Formed in 1962, the band was best known for playing high school dances and such. They got their shot at stardom in 1966 when they recorded Journey To Tyme for Mark Ltd. Productions. The song was picked up later in the year for national distribution by United Artists and made it all the way to the # 1 spot in Buffalo, NY and Pittsburgh, Pa. Despite this success the band was unable to get a long-term contract with United Artists (thanks in part to problems with their own manager) and soon disbanded.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Gimme Some Lovin'
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Winwood/Winwood/Davis
Label: United Artists
Year: 1966
The 1980s movie The Big Chill used Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group as the backdrop for a touch football game at an informal reunion of former college students from the 60s. From that point on, movie soundtracks became much more than just background music and soundtrack albums started becoming best-sellers. Not entirely coincidentally, 60s-oriented oldies radio stations began to appear in major markets as well. Most of them are now playing 80s oldies, by the way.
Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): 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 Standells' follow-up single to their classic Dirty Water. Both songs were written by Standells' manager/producer Ed Cobb, the record industry's answer to Ed Wood.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source: LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
While not as commercially successful as the Jefferson Airplane or as long-lived as the Grateful Dead (there's an oxymoron for ya), Country Joe and the Fish may well be the most accurate musical representation of what the whole Haight-Ashbury scene was about, despite the fact that they were actually across the bay in Berkeley. Of all the tracks on their first album, Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine probably got the most airplay.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Lady Friend
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
One of the least-known Byrds recordings is David Crosby's Lady Friend. The song was released as a non-album single in 1967, after Younger Than Yesterday was on the racks but before Crosby's falling out with the other members of the band during the recording of The Notorious Byrd Brothers. The single did not chart, and with Crosby no longer a member of the Byrds by 1968, it is not surprising that Lady Friend was not included on any subsequent Byrds albums or greatest hits anthologies. The song is now available as a bonus track on the remastered version of Younger Than Yesterday.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: St. Stephen
Source: CD: Aoxomoxoa
Writer(s): Hunter/Garcia/Lesh
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1969
One of the Grateful Dead's most recognizable tunes is St. Stephen. The song first appeared on the 1969 album Aoxomoxoa, and remained in the Grateful Dead stage repertoire for pretty much their entire existence.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is
Source: LP: Chicago Transit Authority
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
There are actually three versions of the Chicago song Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is, all taken from the same original recording on the band's debut LP. The most well-known is the second edited version that has appeared on all the band's anthology albums. That version starts with a horn intro section in a staggered rhythm followed by a short Robert Lamm's piano section in 5/8 time that leads directly into the main body of the song. An earlier single edit leaves out the entire intro of the song, starting in rather abruptly with the familiar two-chord pattern and trumpet riff that leads into the first verse of the song. The orginal album version heard here, however, has a long free-form piano section that sets the stage for the entire song, transforming it in the process.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: All Along The Watchtower
Source: CD: The Best Of The Original Mono Recordings (originally released on LP: John Wesley Harding)
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
One of the best known songs by the Jimi Hendrix Experience is their cover of Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower from the Electric Ladyland album. That version of the song has proved so enduring that Dylan himself now uses the Hendrix arrangement when he performs the piece live. The original recording of the song was on Dylan's 1967 LP John Wesley Harding, the last Dylan album to be mixed in both stereo and mono. This week we have the mono version of the song.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Pushin' Too Hard
Source: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: The Seeds and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Sky Saxon
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1966
Pushin' Too Hard was originally released in spring of 1966 as the closing track on side one of the first Seeds album. After being released to the L.A. market as a single the song did well enough to go national in early 1967, hitting its peak in February of that year.
Artist: Penny Arkade
Title: Swim
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer(s): Craig Vincent Smith
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded: 1967; released 2009
In 1967 Michael Nesmith, realizing that the Monkees had a limited shelf life, decided to produce a local L.A. band, Penny Arkade, led by singer/songwriter Craig Vincent Smith. Nesmith already had several production credits to his name with the Monkees, including a recording of Smith's Salesman on their 4th LP. Swim, like Salesman, has a touch of country about it; indeed, Nesmith himself was one of the earliest proponents of what would come to be called country-rock. In 1967, however, country-rock was still at least a year away from being a viable concept and Nesmith was unable to find a label willing to release the record.
Artist: Mandala
Title: Love-Itis
Source: CD: Soul Crusade
Writer: Scales/Vance
Label: Wounded Bird (original label: Atlantic)
Year: 1968
When it comes to blue-eyed soul, the first place that comes to mind is New York, home of the Vagrants and the (Young) Rascals. One might also be inclined to think of Detroit, with bands such as Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels leading the pack. One place that does not immediately come to mind is Toronto, Canada, yet Mandala was certainly firmly placed within the genre. Two members of Mandala, vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Dominic Troiano, went on to replace Joe Walsh in the James Gang, with Troiano eventually replacing Randy Bachman in another Canadian band, the Guess Who.
Artist: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Title: Guinnevere
Source: CD: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
By 1969 David Crosby had developed into a first-class songwriter. Nowhere is that more evident than on Guinnevere, from the first Crosby, Still and Nash album. Instrumentally the song is essentially a solo guitar piece. It is the layered harmonies from Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash that make the song truly stand out as one of the best releases of 1969.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Love March
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm (originally released on LP: Woodstock soundtrack)
Writer(s): Gene Dinwiddie
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
The Butterfield Blues band that appeared at Woodstock was a far cry from the group that recorded the classic East-West album in 1966. Both Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop had moved on to other things, and the new lineup was much more jazz/R&B oriented than previous incarnations of the band. Tenor saxophonist Gene Dinwiddie provided the melody for Love March, a tune that also appeared as a studio track that year.
Artist: Barry McGuire
Title: Child Of Our Times
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): P F Sloan
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1965
Barry McGuire is almost as well-known for being mentioned in the last big Mamas and Papas hit, Creeque Alley, as for his own recordings. Indeed, his status as a recording artist is best described as "one-hit wonder." That one hit was a monster, though, and is often cited as the zenith of the folk-rock movement. Eve Of Destruction went all the way to the top of the charts in 1965, but McGuire's follow-up single, Child Of Our Times, stalled out in the # 72 spot. The writer of both songs was P F Sloan, who also had some success writing songs like Let Me Be for the Turtles before embarking on a successful partnership with fellow songwriter Steve Barri, writing and producing several hits for the Grass Roots in the 1970s.
Artist: Syndicate Of Sound
Title: Little Girl
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From The Psychedelic 60s
Writer(s): Baskin/Gonzalez
Label: Rhino (original labels: Hush & Bell)
Year: 1966
San Jose California, despite being a relatively small city in the pre-silicon valley days, was home to a thriving music scene in the mid 60s that produced more than its share of hit records from 1966-68. One of the earliest and biggest of these hits was the Syndicate Of Sound hit Little Girl, which has come to be recognized as one of the best garage-rock songs of all time.
Artist: Who
Title: Tattoo
Source: LP: The Who Sell Out
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Decca
Year: 1967
Starting in 1966, the Who wrote songs about things no other rock group had even considered writing songs about. Happy Jack, for instance, was about a guy who would hang out on the beach and let the local kinds tease (but not faze) him. I'm A Boy was about a guy whose mother insisted on dressing him the same as his sisters. And I'm not even getting into the subject matter of Pictures Of Lily. The Who Sell Out, released in December of 1967, continued this trend with songs like Tattoo, about an adolescent and his brother who go out and get (without their parents' permission) their first tattoos. The song is accompanied by a jingle for Radio London, the most successful of the British pirate radio stations that operated from studios in London but utilized illegal transmitters floating on platforms off the coast (the BBC having a monopoly on broadcasting at the time).
Artist: Chambers Brothers
Title: Fallin' In Love
Source: CD: The Time Has Come (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Willie Chambers
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
The Chambers Brothers were an eclectic band with a gospel music background that dated back to the mid-50s, when oldest brother George finished his tour of duty with the US Army and settled down in the L.A. area. His three brothers soon followed him out to the coast from their native Mississippi, and began playing the Southern California gospel circuit before going after a more secular audience in the early 60s. After signing to Columbia in 1966 the group got to work recording several singles for the label, including an early version of the song that would eventually make them famous, Time Has Come Today. Columbia refused to release the song, however, and instead went with a more conventional tune written by Willie Chambers called Fallin' In Love. The record was released in early 1967 but failed to make a splash.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: Baroque # 1
Source: LP: Ultimate Spinach
Writer(s): Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1967
Making an encore appearance from last week's show we have Ultimate Spinach with their instrumental Baroque # 1 from the album Ultimate Spinach. Go ahead, scroll down to last week's playlist for more information.
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Woodstock Boogie
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm (originally released on LP: Woodstock 2)
Writer(s): Canned Heat
Label: Rhino (original label: Atlantic)
Year: 1969
One of the highlights of any Canned Heat performance was Refried Boogie, an extended jam piece often lasting up to an hour. For the Woodstock festival the band shortened it to just under 30 minutes, including solos from every band member. The song was originally issued on the album Woodstock 2 in slightly altered form (the guitar solo at the beginning of the piece was edited out). This restored version was released in 2009 as part of Rhino's six-disc Woodstock anniversary box set.
Title: Outside Woman Blues
Source: LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Arthur Reynolds
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Although Cream's second album, Disraeli Gears, is best known for its psychedelic cover art and original songs such as Strange Brew, Sunshine Of Your Love and Tales of Brave Ulysses, the LP did have one notable blues cover on it. Outside Woman Blues was originally recorded by Blind Joe Reynolds in 1929 and has since been covered by a variety of artists including Van Halen, Johnny Winters, Jimi Hendrix and even the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Lime Street Blues
Source: 45 RPM single B side (reissue)
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M (original label: Deram)
Year: 1967
Anyone expecting more of the same when flipping over their new copy of A Whiter Shade Of Pale in 1967 got a big surprise when they heard Lime Street Blues. The song, reminiscent of an early Ray Charles track, was strong enough to be included on their first greatest hits collection, no mean feat for a B side.
Artist: Firesign Theatre
Title: Brickbreaking
Source: LP: Dear Friends
Writer(s): Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
The Firesign Theatre consisted of four funny guys, Phil Proctor, Peter Bergman, Phil Austin and David Ossman, who, starting in 1967, did improvisational humor for a series of radio stations in California. Their shows became so popular that they landed a record contract with Columbia and recorded a series of albums, each built around a particular theme or two, such as a guy watching TV or a 30s-style crime drama. Throughout the late 60s and into the early 70s they continued to do radio as well. Eventually Columbia released a two-LP collection of bits from their syndicated radio show called Dear Friends. You can expect to hear some of these bits from time to time on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era starting this week with Brickbreaking, taken from a live broadcast on KPFK, Los Angeles on 1/24/71.
Artist: Full Treatment
Title: Just Can't Wait
Source: CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Buzz Clifford
Label: Rhino (original label: A&M)
Year: 1967
In the fall of 1966 Brian Wilson produced the classic Beach Boys single Good Vibrations, which sent vibrations of its own throughout the L.A. studio scene. Suddenly producers were stumbling all over themselves to follow in Wilson's footsteps with mini-symphonies of their own. Buzz Clifford and Dan Moore, calling themselves the Full Treatment, created Just Can't Wait in 1967 and quickly sold the master tape to A&M Records. Despite enthusiam for the recording at the label, the song was mostly ignored by radio stations and the Full Treatment was never heard from again.
Artist: Kenny And The Kasuals
Title: Journey To Tyme
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Smith/Lee
Label: Rhino (original labels: Mark Ltd. and United Artists)
Year: 1966
One of the most popular Dallas area bands in the mid-1960s was Kenny and the Kasuals. Formed in 1962, the band was best known for playing high school dances and such. They got their shot at stardom in 1966 when they recorded Journey To Tyme for Mark Ltd. Productions. The song was picked up later in the year for national distribution by United Artists and made it all the way to the # 1 spot in Buffalo, NY and Pittsburgh, Pa. Despite this success the band was unable to get a long-term contract with United Artists (thanks in part to problems with their own manager) and soon disbanded.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Gimme Some Lovin'
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Winwood/Winwood/Davis
Label: United Artists
Year: 1966
The 1980s movie The Big Chill used Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group as the backdrop for a touch football game at an informal reunion of former college students from the 60s. From that point on, movie soundtracks became much more than just background music and soundtrack albums started becoming best-sellers. Not entirely coincidentally, 60s-oriented oldies radio stations began to appear in major markets as well. Most of them are now playing 80s oldies, by the way.
Artist: Standells
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): 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 Standells' follow-up single to their classic Dirty Water. Both songs were written by Standells' manager/producer Ed Cobb, the record industry's answer to Ed Wood.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source: LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
While not as commercially successful as the Jefferson Airplane or as long-lived as the Grateful Dead (there's an oxymoron for ya), Country Joe and the Fish may well be the most accurate musical representation of what the whole Haight-Ashbury scene was about, despite the fact that they were actually across the bay in Berkeley. Of all the tracks on their first album, Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine probably got the most airplay.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Lady Friend
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
One of the least-known Byrds recordings is David Crosby's Lady Friend. The song was released as a non-album single in 1967, after Younger Than Yesterday was on the racks but before Crosby's falling out with the other members of the band during the recording of The Notorious Byrd Brothers. The single did not chart, and with Crosby no longer a member of the Byrds by 1968, it is not surprising that Lady Friend was not included on any subsequent Byrds albums or greatest hits anthologies. The song is now available as a bonus track on the remastered version of Younger Than Yesterday.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: St. Stephen
Source: CD: Aoxomoxoa
Writer(s): Hunter/Garcia/Lesh
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1969
One of the Grateful Dead's most recognizable tunes is St. Stephen. The song first appeared on the 1969 album Aoxomoxoa, and remained in the Grateful Dead stage repertoire for pretty much their entire existence.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is
Source: LP: Chicago Transit Authority
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
There are actually three versions of the Chicago song Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is, all taken from the same original recording on the band's debut LP. The most well-known is the second edited version that has appeared on all the band's anthology albums. That version starts with a horn intro section in a staggered rhythm followed by a short Robert Lamm's piano section in 5/8 time that leads directly into the main body of the song. An earlier single edit leaves out the entire intro of the song, starting in rather abruptly with the familiar two-chord pattern and trumpet riff that leads into the first verse of the song. The orginal album version heard here, however, has a long free-form piano section that sets the stage for the entire song, transforming it in the process.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: All Along The Watchtower
Source: CD: The Best Of The Original Mono Recordings (originally released on LP: John Wesley Harding)
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
One of the best known songs by the Jimi Hendrix Experience is their cover of Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower from the Electric Ladyland album. That version of the song has proved so enduring that Dylan himself now uses the Hendrix arrangement when he performs the piece live. The original recording of the song was on Dylan's 1967 LP John Wesley Harding, the last Dylan album to be mixed in both stereo and mono. This week we have the mono version of the song.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Pushin' Too Hard
Source: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: The Seeds and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Sky Saxon
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1966
Pushin' Too Hard was originally released in spring of 1966 as the closing track on side one of the first Seeds album. After being released to the L.A. market as a single the song did well enough to go national in early 1967, hitting its peak in February of that year.
Artist: Penny Arkade
Title: Swim
Source: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer(s): Craig Vincent Smith
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded: 1967; released 2009
In 1967 Michael Nesmith, realizing that the Monkees had a limited shelf life, decided to produce a local L.A. band, Penny Arkade, led by singer/songwriter Craig Vincent Smith. Nesmith already had several production credits to his name with the Monkees, including a recording of Smith's Salesman on their 4th LP. Swim, like Salesman, has a touch of country about it; indeed, Nesmith himself was one of the earliest proponents of what would come to be called country-rock. In 1967, however, country-rock was still at least a year away from being a viable concept and Nesmith was unable to find a label willing to release the record.
Artist: Mandala
Title: Love-Itis
Source: CD: Soul Crusade
Writer: Scales/Vance
Label: Wounded Bird (original label: Atlantic)
Year: 1968
When it comes to blue-eyed soul, the first place that comes to mind is New York, home of the Vagrants and the (Young) Rascals. One might also be inclined to think of Detroit, with bands such as Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels leading the pack. One place that does not immediately come to mind is Toronto, Canada, yet Mandala was certainly firmly placed within the genre. Two members of Mandala, vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Dominic Troiano, went on to replace Joe Walsh in the James Gang, with Troiano eventually replacing Randy Bachman in another Canadian band, the Guess Who.
Artist: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Title: Guinnevere
Source: CD: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
By 1969 David Crosby had developed into a first-class songwriter. Nowhere is that more evident than on Guinnevere, from the first Crosby, Still and Nash album. Instrumentally the song is essentially a solo guitar piece. It is the layered harmonies from Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash that make the song truly stand out as one of the best releases of 1969.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Love March
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm (originally released on LP: Woodstock soundtrack)
Writer(s): Gene Dinwiddie
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
The Butterfield Blues band that appeared at Woodstock was a far cry from the group that recorded the classic East-West album in 1966. Both Michael Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop had moved on to other things, and the new lineup was much more jazz/R&B oriented than previous incarnations of the band. Tenor saxophonist Gene Dinwiddie provided the melody for Love March, a tune that also appeared as a studio track that year.
Artist: Barry McGuire
Title: Child Of Our Times
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): P F Sloan
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1965
Barry McGuire is almost as well-known for being mentioned in the last big Mamas and Papas hit, Creeque Alley, as for his own recordings. Indeed, his status as a recording artist is best described as "one-hit wonder." That one hit was a monster, though, and is often cited as the zenith of the folk-rock movement. Eve Of Destruction went all the way to the top of the charts in 1965, but McGuire's follow-up single, Child Of Our Times, stalled out in the # 72 spot. The writer of both songs was P F Sloan, who also had some success writing songs like Let Me Be for the Turtles before embarking on a successful partnership with fellow songwriter Steve Barri, writing and producing several hits for the Grass Roots in the 1970s.
Artist: Syndicate Of Sound
Title: Little Girl
Source: CD: Nuggets-Classics From The Psychedelic 60s
Writer(s): Baskin/Gonzalez
Label: Rhino (original labels: Hush & Bell)
Year: 1966
San Jose California, despite being a relatively small city in the pre-silicon valley days, was home to a thriving music scene in the mid 60s that produced more than its share of hit records from 1966-68. One of the earliest and biggest of these hits was the Syndicate Of Sound hit Little Girl, which has come to be recognized as one of the best garage-rock songs of all time.
Artist: Who
Title: Tattoo
Source: LP: The Who Sell Out
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Decca
Year: 1967
Starting in 1966, the Who wrote songs about things no other rock group had even considered writing songs about. Happy Jack, for instance, was about a guy who would hang out on the beach and let the local kinds tease (but not faze) him. I'm A Boy was about a guy whose mother insisted on dressing him the same as his sisters. And I'm not even getting into the subject matter of Pictures Of Lily. The Who Sell Out, released in December of 1967, continued this trend with songs like Tattoo, about an adolescent and his brother who go out and get (without their parents' permission) their first tattoos. The song is accompanied by a jingle for Radio London, the most successful of the British pirate radio stations that operated from studios in London but utilized illegal transmitters floating on platforms off the coast (the BBC having a monopoly on broadcasting at the time).
Artist: Chambers Brothers
Title: Fallin' In Love
Source: CD: The Time Has Come (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Willie Chambers
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
The Chambers Brothers were an eclectic band with a gospel music background that dated back to the mid-50s, when oldest brother George finished his tour of duty with the US Army and settled down in the L.A. area. His three brothers soon followed him out to the coast from their native Mississippi, and began playing the Southern California gospel circuit before going after a more secular audience in the early 60s. After signing to Columbia in 1966 the group got to work recording several singles for the label, including an early version of the song that would eventually make them famous, Time Has Come Today. Columbia refused to release the song, however, and instead went with a more conventional tune written by Willie Chambers called Fallin' In Love. The record was released in early 1967 but failed to make a splash.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: Baroque # 1
Source: LP: Ultimate Spinach
Writer(s): Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1967
Making an encore appearance from last week's show we have Ultimate Spinach with their instrumental Baroque # 1 from the album Ultimate Spinach. Go ahead, scroll down to last week's playlist for more information.
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Woodstock Boogie
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm (originally released on LP: Woodstock 2)
Writer(s): Canned Heat
Label: Rhino (original label: Atlantic)
Year: 1969
One of the highlights of any Canned Heat performance was Refried Boogie, an extended jam piece often lasting up to an hour. For the Woodstock festival the band shortened it to just under 30 minutes, including solos from every band member. The song was originally issued on the album Woodstock 2 in slightly altered form (the guitar solo at the beginning of the piece was edited out). This restored version was released in 2009 as part of Rhino's six-disc Woodstock anniversary box set.
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