Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1233 (starts 8/16/12)

This week we have an, er, record number of artists sets, including, for the first time ever, back-to-back artist sets (in the third segment). The show even starts off with an artist set, by the band that popularized folk-rock, the Byrds.

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

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    She Don't Care About Time (version 1)
Source:    CD: Turn! Turn! Turn!
Writer(s):    Gene Clark
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1965
    The Byrds scored two # 1 hits in 1965, Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn! Turn! Turn!. Both songs came from outside sources (Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger), despite the fact that they Byrds had a wealth of songwriting talent of their own. Gene Clark in particular was writing quality originals such as She Don't Care About Time, which was recorded in August of 1965 and issued as the B side to Turn! Turn! Turn! but was inexplicably left off the LP. An earlier version of the song, recorded in June, was mixed in stereo but sat on the shelf for many years before being included as a bonus track on the remastered CD version of the Turn! Turn! Turn! album.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star
Source:    CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s):    Hillman/McGuinn
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    By early 1967 there was a building resentment among musicians and rock press alike concerning the instant (and in some eyes unearned) success of the Monkees. One notable expression of this resentment was the Byrds' So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star, which takes a somewhat sarcastic look at what it takes to succeed in the music business. Unfortunately, much of what they talk about in the song continues to apply today (although the guitar has been somewhat supplanted by the computer as the instrument of choice).

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    The Ballad Of Geraldine
Source:    Electronically rechannelled stereo LP: The Pye History Of Pop Music Vol. 2-Donovan (originally released on LP: Fairytale)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Pye (original label: Hickory)
Year:    1965
    Donovan's earliest albums were originally released in the US on the Hickory label, but did not sell particularly well. After the Scottish singer became more well-known his early material was reissued, first on the Janus label and later on the American wing of his original British label, Pye. Although neither of these labels had major label distribution, they did make songs like The Ballad Of Geraldine, from his second LP, Fairytale, available to a wider audience than when they were originally released.

Artist:    Who
Title:    A Legal Matter
Source:    Mono CD: The Who Sings My Generation
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    MCA (original label: Decca)
Year:    1966
    In early 1966 the Who parted company with their original UK record label, Brunswick, to hook up with the newly formed Reaction Records. This did not sit well with the people at Brunswick, who did their best to sabotage the band's Reaction releases. They did this by releasing single versions of songs from the band's only Brunswick album, My Generation, within days of each new Who single on Reaction. The first of these was The Kids Are Alright/A Legal Matter, which was released right after the first Who single on Reaction, Substitute. The strategy was for the most part unsuccessful, and all these songs ended up on the Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy album, released a couple years later. A Legal Matter was one of the first Who songs to feature Pete Townshend rather than Roger Daltry on lead vocals, possibly because Daltry was going through a divorce at the time and the song hit uncomfortably close to home.

AArtist:    Mike Proctor
Title:    Mr. Commuter
Source:    Mono CD: Insane Times (originally released as 45 PM single)
Writer(s):    Roker/Littlewood
Label:    EMI (original UK label: Columbia)
Year:    1967
    In the US, the psychedelic era is generally considered to cover the years 1965 through 1969, more or less, and includes the garage/punk movement as well as early forms of hard rock, heavy metal and progressive rock. In the UK, on the other hand, the psychedelic era covers a much shorter time period, 1966-68, and is defined by two Beatle albums: Revolver at the beginning and the White album at the end. In between there were a variety of artists, many of whom made only one album (or even one single). Among these is classically-trained pianist Mike Proctor, whose Mr. Commuter was released in mid 1967 on EMI's Columbia label. Proctor hooked up with a couple bands after releasing the single, but never again recorded for a major label.

Artist:    Blue Cheer
Title:    Summertime Blues
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: Vincebus Eruptum)
Writer(s):    Cochrane/Capehart
Label:    Rhino (original label: Philips)
Year:    1968
    If 1967 was the summer of love, then 1968 was the summer of violence. Framed by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, both major anti-establishment movements of the time (civil rights and anti-war) became increasing radicalized and more violent. The hippies gave way to the Yippies, LSD gave way to crystal meth, and there were riots in the streets of several US cities. Against this backdrop Blue Cheer released one of the loudest and angriest recordings ever to grace the top 40: the proto-metal arrangement of Eddie Cochrane's 1958 classic Summertime Blues. It was the perfect soundtrack of its time.

Artist:    James Gang
Title:    Take A Look Around
Source:    LP: The Best Of The James Gang (originally released on LP: James Gang Live In Concert)
Writer(s):    Joe Walsh
Label:    ABC
Year:    1971
    Joe Walsh was on the verge of striking out as a solo artist when the James Gang recorded their only live album in 1971. When the inevitable Walsh/James Gang anthology was released the following year the record company (ABC) chose to include the shorter live version of Take A Look Around rather than the nearly seven minute studio version from their 1969 debut LP. As the studio version was heavily overdubbed (Walsh played both guitar and organ on the track), the live version is considerably different than the Yer' Album version heard on last week's show.

Artist:    Santana
Title:    Black Magic Woman
Source:    CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Peter Green
Label:    Priority (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1970
    A common practice among San Francisco bands was to record their first album in a matter of days then spend months on the follow up. Such was the case with Carlos Santana's band, who resisted pressure from their label to crank out a new album following their successful appearance at Woodstock. The result was Abraxas, released in spring of 1970, still considered to be one of the best rock albums ever made. The album opened with a medley that included their own version of the 1968 Fleetwood Mac song Black Magic Woman. An edited version of the song was released as a single and became the group's biggest hit.

    Our second artist set is from the first British blues supergroup, Cream, featuring Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. The band took its name from the rock press who, upon hearing of the formation of the band, referred to them as the "cream of the crop" of the British blues scene.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    I Feel Free
Source:    CD: Fresh Cream
Writer(s):    Bruce/Brown
Label:    Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year:    1966
    The first single released by Cream was I Feel Free. As was the case with nearly every British single at the time, the song was not included on Fresh Cream, the band's debut LP. In the US, however, singles were commonly given a prominent place on albums, and the US version of Fresh Cream actually opens with I Feel Free. To my knowledge the song, being basically a studio creation, was never performed live.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Politician
Source:    LP: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s):    Bruce/Brown
Label:    Atco
Year:    1968
    Although the songwriting team of Jack Bruce and Pete Brown are best known for providing Cream with its more psychedelic songs such as White Room and Swlabr, they did occasionally come up with bluesier numbers such as Politician from the Wheels Of Fire album. Seeing as we are moving into the home stretch of the 2012 US presidential elections I thought it was high time this track made its Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    I'm So Glad
Source:    Mono CD: Fresh Cream
Writer(s):    Skip James
Label:    Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year:    1966
    Unlike later Cream albums, which featured psychedelic cover art and several Jack Bruce/Pete Brown collaborations that had a decidedly psychedelic sound, Fresh Cream was marketed as the first album by a British blues supergroup, and featured a greater number of blues standards than subsequent releases. One of those covers that became a concert staple for the band was the old Skip James tune I'm So Glad. The song has become so strongly associated with Cream that the group used it as the opening number for all three performances when they staged a series of reunion concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in 2004. Oddly enough, the CD release of Fresh Cream features a mono mix of I'm So Glad, unlike the other songs on the album.

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
    While not as commercially successful as the Airplane or as long-lived as the 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, which is itself ironic, since the band operated out of Berkeley on the other side of the bay. Of all the tracks on their first album, Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine probably got the most airplay on various underground radio stations that were popping up on the FM dial at the time (some of them even legally).

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    Get Me To The World On Time
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Jones
Label:    Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    With I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) climbing the charts in early 1967, the Electric Prunes' producer Dave Hassinger turned to songwriter Annette Tucker for two more tracks to include on the band's debut LP. One of those, Get Me To The World On Time (co-written by lyricist Jill Jones) was selected to be the follow up single to Dream. Although not as big a hit, the record still performed respectably on the charts (and was actually the first Electric Prunes song I ever heard on FM radio).

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Morning Will Come
Source:    CD: The Best Of Spirit (originally released on LP: Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus)
Writer(s):    Randy California
Label:    Epic
Year:    1970
    When Lou Adler switched distribution of Ode Records from Columbia to A&M, part of the deal was to sell Spirit's recordings to Columbia's parent company, CBS. CBS then assigned the band to its Epic label, while strongly hinting that if the next album didn't show an improvement in sales over their previous efforts their contract would be terminated. Spirit responded with the 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, widely regarded as their best album. One of the better known songs from Sardonicus is Morning Will Come, a Randy California tune with a strong R&B flavor (including a horn section).
   
Artist:    West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:    My Dog Back Home
Source:    LP: Where's My Daddy
Writer(s):    Markley/Harris
Label:    Amos
Year:    1969
    After recording three albums for Reprise (none of which had spectacular sales), the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band found itself dropped from the label's roster. The band had already lost one of its key member, guitarist Michael Lloyd, early on due to conflicts with the band's least talented but most monetarily endowed member, Bob Markley. Another guitarist, Ron Morgan, had been distancing himself from the band as well, although he did play on all three Reprise albums, co-writing some of the group's best material. By 1969 Morgan had moved on to become part of a new incarnation of the Electric Prunes, but Lloyd returned to the WCPAEB for a new album on the Amos label, Where's My Daddy. Although the album went nowhere, it did have a couple of notable tunes on it such as My Dog Back Home, a song with lyrics that could easily be adapted for a country song.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    In Time
Source:    CD: Crown Of Creation
Writer(s):    Kantner/Balin
Label:    BMG/RCA
Year:    1968
    1968 was one of the most strife-ridden years in modern history. First civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, then presidential candidate Robert Kennedy were struck down by assassins bullets. Riots rocked the streets of several US cities. The youth of America had seemingly declared war on its elders and the nation was becoming increasingly polarized over the Vietnam War. It was against this backdrop that Jefferson Airplane released their fourth LP, Crown Of Creation. The cover itself showed distorted images of the band members superimposed on a photograph of a mushroom cloud. The songs, such as the Paul Kantner/Marty Balin collaboration In Time, were darker than those on the band's preceding albums, yet not quite as confrontational as those on their next LP, Volunteers. It was perhaps the perfect album for its time.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Somebody To Love
Source:    CD: The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Writer(s):    Darby Slick
Label:    BMG/RCA
Year:    1967
    The monster hit that put the San Francisco Bay area on the musical map in early 1967. Somebody To Love was actually the second single released from Surrealistic Pillow, the first being the Skip Spence tune My Best Friend.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    If You Feel
Source:    CD: Crown Of Creation
Writer(s):    Blackman/Balin
Label:    BMG/RCA
Year:    1968
    Although Marty Balin's contributions as a songwriter to Jefferson Airplane's third album, After Bathing At Baxter's, were minimal (he co-wrote one song), he was back in full force on the band's next LP, Crown Of Creation. One of his lesser-known songs on the album is If You Feel, co-written with non-member Gary Blackman, which opened side two of the LP.

Artist:    Beacon Street Union
Title:    Blue Avenue
Source:    LP: The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union
Writer(s):    Wayne Ulaky
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1968
    One of Boston's most popular bands, the Beacon Street Union, had already migrated to New York City by the time their first album, The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union (produced by the legendary Tom Wilson), made its debut in February of 1968. The band itself was made up of Boston University dropouts John Lincoln Wright (lead vocals), Paul Tartachny (guitar, vocals), Robert Rhodes (keyboards, brass), Richard Weisberg (drums), and Wayne Ulaky (bass). Ulaky wrote what was probably the band's best-known song, Blue Avenue. The tune was particular popular in the UK, where it was heard on the Top Gear program. The Beacon Street Union, however, fell victim to hype; in this case the ill-advised attempt on the part of M-G-M records to market several disparate bands as being part of the "boss-town sound". After a second LP, The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens (produced by future Partridge Family impressario Wes Farrell) failed to equal the somewhat limited success of their debut LP, the Beacon Street Union decided to call it quits.

Artist:    Beacon Street Union
Title:    Now I Taste The Tears
Source:    Mono CD: The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens
Writer(s):    Clifford
Label:    See For Miles (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1968
    The second LP from the Beacon Street Union, The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens, was a departure from the sound of the band's first album. If anything, it featured an even more eclectic mix of songs than The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union, including the humorous King of the Jungle and the spacy spoken word piece Can I Light Your Cigarette. The band took an R&B turn with Now I Taste The Tears, which features a horn section led by band member Robert Rhodes.

Artist:    Beacon Street Union
Title:    Mystic Mourning
Source:    LP: The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union
Writer(s):    Ulaky/Weisberg/Rhodes
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1968
    If I had to choose one single recording that captures the essence of the psychedelic era, my choice would be Mystic Mourning, from the album The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union. Everything about the tune screams psychedelic, starting with a short spacy intro of electric piano over cymbals, leading into a raga beat with a solo bass line that builds up to a repeating riff that ends up getting played at various times by guitar, bass, and/or piano. The lyrics are appropriately existential, and both guitarist Paul Tartachny and keyboardist Robert Rhodes (playing, appropriately, a Fender Rhodes electric piano) get a chance to show their stuff over the course of the nearly six-minute track.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    She's A Rainbow
Source:    LP: Through The Past, Darkly (originally released on LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    London
Year:    1967
    The Stones had their own brand of psychedelia, which was showcased on their 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties Request. The album itself didn't really connect with either critics or public, although She's A Rainbow was a hit single in the US.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    I'm All Right
Source:    Mono CD: Out Of Our Heads
Writer(s):    Nanker Phelge
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1965
    Right from the beginning the Rolling Stones seemed to know that the key to their future was success in the US market. Many of their most memorable recordings were made in US studios (including the legendary Chess studios in Chicago). They sometimes even released records that seemed to be geared more toward an American audience. One such album was Out Of Our Heads, which included a pair of hit singles, Satisfaction and The Last Time, as well as songs like The West Coast Under Assistant Promotion Man, a rather topical song that didn't make a whole lot of sense to anyone not living in the United States. One of the songs on the album was I'm All Right, a track that had originally appeared on a British 45 RPM Extended Play record called Got Live If You Want It. I'm All Right is credited to Nanker Phelge, a pseudonym used for songs that were written (often as the result of spontaneous jams) by the entire band.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Honky Tonk Woman
Source:    LP: Through The Past, Darkly
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    London
Year:    1969
    After revitalizing their career with Jumpin' Jack Flash and Street Fighting Man in 1968, the Stones delivered the coup-de-grace in 1969 with one of the most iconic songs in rock history: the classic Honky Tonk Women. The song was the band's first single without Brian Jones, who had been found dead in his swimming pool shortly after leaving the group. Jones's replacement, Mick Taylor (fresh from a stint with blues legend John Mayall), plays slide guitar on the track.

Artist:    Romancers (aka the Smoke Rings)
Title:    Love's The Thing
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Max & Bob Uballez
Label:    Rhino (original label: Linda)
Year:    1965
    This recording of Love's The Thing was released three times on three labels under two different band names. Such was the studio scene in East L.A. in the mid-60s. Max Uballez, leader of the Romancers and East L.A.'s answer to Phil Spector, was the driving force behind this 1965 track.

Artist:    Syndicate Of Sound
Title:    Little Girl
Source:    CD: Nuggets-Classics From The Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
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 top garage-rock songs of all time. Little Girl was originally released regionally in mid 1966 on the Hush label, and reissued nationally by Bell Records a couple months later.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Astrologically Incompatible
Source:    CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer:    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1967
    Astrologically Incompatible, in addition to being one of the first known rock songs to make references to the signs of the zodiac (which would become fashionable in the following decade), marks a transition point in the history of the Music Machine. One of the last tracks recorded by the original lineup, it was also the B side of the first single released under the name Bonniwell Music Machine on Warner Brothers. The horn overdubs were played by Bonniwell himself and organist Doug Rhodes, using then state-of-the-art 8-track technology.

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

Artist:     Music Machine
Title:     Time Out (For a Daydream)
Source:     Mono CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Sean Bonniwell
Label:     Sundazed (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:     1968
 Following the success of Talk Talk in 1966, Sean Bonniwell and the gang spent the next couple of years touring while grabbing any opportunity to get into a recording studio that presented itself. By 1968 the Music Machine was an entirely different band (except for Bonniwell himself). It was this new lineup that booked studio time somewhere in the midwest late at night after a gig and recorded this little ditty that ended up being released as the band's final single.

Artist:    Crow
Title:    Cottage Cheese
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Weigand/Waggoner
Label:    Amaret
Year:    1970
    In late 1970 I found myself living in Alamogordo, NM, which was at the time one of those places that still didn't have an FM station (in fact, the only FM station we could receive was a classical station in Las Cruces, 70 miles away). To make it worse, there were only two AM stations in town, and the only one that played current songs went off the air at sunset. As a result the only way to hear current music at night (besides buying albums without hearing them first) was to "DX" distant AM radio stations. Of these, the one that came in most clearly and consistently was KOMA in Oklahoma City. My friends and I spent many a night driving around with KOMA cranked up, fading in and out as long-distance AM stations always do. One of those nights we were all blown away by this track, which, due to the conservative nature of the local daytime-only station, was not getting any local airplay. Years later I was lucky enough to find a copy in a thrift store in Albuquerque. Here it is.