Artist: Santana
Title: Everybody's Everything
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Santana/Moss/Brown
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
Santana's third album, released in 1971, was called simply Santana. The problem is, their first album was also called Santana. The guitar solo on Everybody's Everything, by the way, is not by Carlos Santana. Rather it was performed by the then 17-year-old Neal Schon, who, along with keyboardist Greg Rolie would leave the band the following year to form Journey.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Today
Source: LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s): Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
Uncredited guest guitarist Jerry Garcia adds a simple, but memorable recurring fill riff to Today, an early collaboration between rhythm guitarist Paul Kantner and bandleader Marty Balin on Jefferson Airplane's second LP, Surrealistic Pillow.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Utterly Simple
Source: CD: Heaven Is In Your Mind (originally released in UK only on LP: Mr. Fantasy)
Writer(s): Dave Mason
Label: Island
Year: 1967
Several tracks from Traffic's 1967 debut LP, Mr. Fantasy, were not included on the album's US counterpart, Heaven Is In Your Mind, which was released in early 1968. Among the missing tracks was Utterly Simple, a Dave Mason tune that features the sitar more prominently than any other Traffic recording. In fact, Mason himself was missing from the US album's cover photo, even after the album was retitled Mr. Fantasy with its second printing. Utterly Simple was finally made available in the US when both versions of the album were released on CD.
Artist: Pasternak Progress
Title: Flower Eyes
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Pasternak/Branca
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1967
In 1967 Jeff Pasternak became one of thousands of young people to catch the Doors at L.A.'s famous Whisky-A-Go-Go club on the Sunset Strip. Like many others, Pasternak was inspired to make music himself. Unlike most, Pasternak was son of a famous Hollywood movie producer/director (Joe Pasternak, whose credits included Please Don't Eat The Daisies and Where The Boys Are), and was able to take advantage of his father's connections to get a record made. That record was Flower Eyes, released later the same year on the Original Sound label.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Universal Soldier
Source: CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released in UK as 45 RPM EP and in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Buffy Sainte-Marie
Label: Rhino (original labels: UK: Pye, US: Hickory)
Year: 1965
Before Sunshine Superman became a huge hit in the US, Scottish folk singer Donovan Leitch was making a name for himself in the UK as the "British Dylan." One of his most popular early tunes was Universal Soldier, an antiwar piece that was originally released in the UK on a four-song EP. The EP charted well, but Hickory Records, which had the US rights to Donovan's records, was reluctant to release the song in a format (EP) that had long since run its course in the US and was, by 1965, only used by off-brand labels to crank out soundalike hits performed by anonymous studio musicians. Eventually Hickory decided to release Universal Soldier as a single, but the record failed to make the US charts.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Eight Miles High
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Fifth Dimension)
Writer(s): Clark/McGuinn/Crosby
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1966
After two albums dominated by cover tunes such as Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man and Pete Seeger's Turn! Turn! Turn!, the Byrds surprised everyone with an album consisting of almost all original material. Eight Miles High, co-written by Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Gene Clark, was to be the first hit single composed by group members, but got derailed when Top 40 radio czar Bill Drake branded it a drug song. Despite the song being banned on several key radio stations, it still managed to crack the top 20.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Tucker/Mantz
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The Electric Prunes biggest hit was I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), released in early 1967. The record, initially released without much promotion from the record label, was championed by Seattle DJ Pat O'Day of KJR radio, and was already popular in that area when it hit the national charts (thus explaining why so many people assumed the band was from Seattle). I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) has come to be one of the defining songs of the psychedelic era and was the opening track on both the original Lenny Kaye Nuggets compilation and Rhino's first Nuggets LP.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Remember A Day
Source: CD: Relics (originally released on LP: A Saucerful Of Secrets)
Writer(s): Rick Wright
Label: Capitol (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
Trivia question: Which Pink Floyd album never made the US album charts? The answer, of course, is A Saucerful Of Secrets, the band's second LP. Like the band's debut LP, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, A Saucerful Of Secrets was released on Capitol's low-budget Tower subsidiary and received virtually no promotion from the label. By 1968 it was becoming increasingly clear that Syd Barrett was going off the deep end due to ongoing mental health issues exacerbated by heavy use of hallucinogenics and it's reasonable to assume the label expected to band to soon dissolve. After one performance where Barrett did nothing but stand and strum a single chord for the entire set the rest of the band made a decision to bring in Barrett's childhood friend David Gilmour as their new guitarist. In all likelihood this decision saved the band itself, as A Saucerful Of Secrets ended up being the only Pink Floyd album to include both Barrett and Gilmour. Meanwhile, other band members were stepping up their contributions as well, Rick Wright's Remember A Day being a prime example.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound, stereo LP version released on Warner Brothers)
Year: 1967
The Music Machine was by far the most advanced of all the bands playing on Sunset Strip in 1966-67. 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: Music Machine
Title: The People In Me
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Turn On The Music Machine and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1967
After Talk Talk soared into the upper reaches of the US charts the Music Machine's management made a tactical error. Instead of promoting the follow-up single, The People In Me, to the largest possible audience, the band's manager gave exclusive air rights to a new station at the far end of the Los Angeles AM radio dial. As local bands like the Music Machine depended on airplay in L.A. as a necessary step to getting national exposure, the move proved disastrous. Without any airplay on influential stations such as KFI, The People In Me was unable to get any higher than the # 66 spot on the national charts. Even worse for the band, the big stations remembered the slight when subsequent singles by the Music Machine were released, and by mid-1967 the original lineup had disbanded.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Double Yellow Line
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound, stereo LP version released on Warner Brothers)
Year: 1967
One of the Original Sound singles that also appeared on the Warner Brothers LP Bonniwell Music Machine, Double Yellow Line features lyrics that were literally written by Bonniwell on the way to the recording studio. In fact, his inability to stay in his lane while driving with one hand and writing with the other resulted in a traffic ticket. The ever resourceful Bonniwell wrote the rest of the lyrics on the back of the ticket and even invited the officer in to watch the recording session. He declined.
Artist: 13th Floor Elevators
Title: You're Gonna Miss Me
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators)
Writer(s): Roky Erickson
Label: Rhino (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1966
If anyplace outside of California has a legitimate claim to being the birthplace of the psychedelic era, it's Austin, Texas. That's mainly due to the presence of the 13th Floor Elevators, a local band led by Roky Erickson that had the audacity to use an electric jug (played by Tommy Hall) onstage. Their debut album was the first to use the word psychedelic in the title (predating the Blues Magoos' Psychedelic Lollipop by mere weeks). Musically, their leanings were more toward garage-rock than acid-rock, at least on their first album (they got rather metaphysical on their follow-up album, Easter Everywhere).
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Super Bird
Source: CD: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
Country Joe and the Fish, from Berkeley, California, were one of the first rock bands to incorporate political satire into their music. Their I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag is one of the most famous protest songs ever written. Superbird is even heavier on the satire than the Rag. The song, from the band's debut LP, puts president Lyndon Johnson, whose wife was known as "Ladybird", in the role of a comic book superhero.
Artist: Farquahr
Title: Poor Bluebird
Source: LP: The Fabulous Farquahr
Writer(s): Farquahr
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1968
Speaking of birds, we have Farquahr, a hippy band from Branford, Connecticut who were quite popular among the locals in the mid to late 60s. According to the back cover of this album, all four members (Barnswallow, Hummingbird, Flamingo and Condor) were British nobility, the Farquahr family, which somehow had been mysteriously left off the official peerage list. The band's visual image was similar to San Francisco's Charlatans, and indeed, they seemed to have a similar fondness for the jug band style of music as well as quieter songs such as Poor Bluebird. As it turns out, Hummingbird, Flamingo and Condor Farquahr were in reality Bobby, Frank and Dennis McGowan, while leader Barnswallow was actually Doug Lapham. The group also occassionally performed Celtic music as the McGowan Brothers.
Artist: Doors
Title: The Soft Parade
Source: LP: The Soft Parade
Writer(s): Jim Morrison
Label: Elektra
Year: 1969
The Doors caught a lot of flack from their fans for their departure from the style that made them popular when they released their fourth LP, The Soft Parade. Ironically, the track that most resembles their previous efforts was the nearly nine minute title track, which starts with one of Jim Morrison's best-known monologues. You cannot petition the Lord with prayer, indeed!
Artist: It's A Beautiful Day
Title: Hoedown
Source: LP: Marrying Maiden
Writer(s): David LaFlamme
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
In what was probably a case of rampant speculative buying, It's A Beautiful Day's second album sold more copies than the first on the strength of the song White Bird, which was on the first album. Marrying Maiden itself did not have any songs that got significant airplay, despite the presence of Jerry Garcia on a couple of tracks (including Hoedown, on which he plays banjo) and the band's fortunes went downhill from there.
Artist: Tim Buckley
Title: Once Upon A Time
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68
Writer(s): Buckley/Beckett
Label: Rhino
Year: recorded 1967, released 2009
Tim Buckley was one of those people whose style it is almost impossible to define. His first album, consisting of songs he and his friend Bob Beckett had written while still attending high school, was released in 1966 on Elektra Records, and was considered folk music. Before recording a follow-up, Buckley switched gears, recording Once Upon A Time in an effort to achieve commercial success. Elektra Records declined to released the song, however, and Buckley soon eased into a more eclectic vein, writing songs that incorporated elements of several genres, including folk, rock and even jazz.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Grammophone Man
Source: LP: Spirit
Writer(s): Ferguson/Locke/California/Andes/Cassidy
Label: Epic
Year: 1968
Like most of the tracks on Spirit's 1968 debut LP, Grammophone Man combines rock and jazz in a way that has yet to be duplicated. Rather than create a jazz/rock fusion the group chose to switch gears mid-song. After a couple of minutes of a section that can best described as light rock, the song suddenly shifts into a fast-paced bop instrumental featuring Wes Montgomery style guitar work by Randy California and a short Ed Cassidy drum solo that eventually drops the tempo for a short reprise of the piece's main section.
Artist: Cream
Title: White Room
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Wheels Of Fire)
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: United Artists (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
In order to get songs played on top 40 radio, record companies made it a practice to shorten album cuts by cutting out extended instrumental breaks and extra verses. This version of White Room, clocking in at just over three minutes, is a typical example.
Artist: Fever Tree
Title: San Francisco Girls (Return Of The Native) (originally released on LP: Fever Tree)
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop
Writer(s): Scott and Vivian Holtzman
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Uni)
Year: 1968
A minor trend in 1968 was for producer/songwriters to find a band to record their material exclusively. A prime example is Houston's Fever Tree, which featured the music of husband and wife team Scott and Vivian Holtzman. San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native) was the single from that album, peaking in the lower reaches of the Hot 100 charts.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: I Can Move A Mountain
Source: Kaleidoscopic Compendium (originally released on LP: Basic Blues Magoos)
Writer(s): Theilhelm/Kelly
Label: Mercury
Year: 1968
After parting with an increasingly bubble-gum oriented management team, the Blues Magoos set out to reinvent themselves as a more progressive rock band in 1968. The resulting LP, Basic Blues Magoos, was self-produced and self-recorded, and showed a side of the band that had not been heard before. The group was unable to shed their baggage in the eyes of the record-buying public, however, and the album sold poorly.
Artist: United States Of America
Title: I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You Sugar
Source: CD: The United States Of America
Writer(s): Byrd/Moskowitz
Label: Sundazed (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
The United States Of America has its origins in early 60s New York, where a young Jospeh Byrd came to study with avant-garde composer John Cage. Somewhere along the line Byrd met up with Dorothy Moskowitz and the two of them left the big apple for the more wide-open spaces of Los Angeles in 1963. After co-founding the New Music Worshop at UCLA the two found themselves at the center of an infant experimental scene in southern California. This led to a series of concerts/events known as the "Steamed Spring Vegetable Pie". The success of this series led Byrd and Moskowitz to form the west coast's first avant-garde rock band, the United States Of America, with Gordon Marron, Craig Woodson and Rand Forbes. The group only recorded one album, and even then was suffering from internal conflicts. One of the highlights of that lone LP was the satirical I Won't Leave My Wooden Wife For You Sugar, sung by Moskowitz.
Artist: Tommy James And The Shondells
Title: Bloody Waters
Source: LP: Travelin'
Writer(s): James/King
Label: Roulette
Year: 1970
By any measure Tommy James and the Shondells had a successful run. Starting with Hanky Panky in 1966, James cranked out a string of hits, many of which he wrote himself, including I Think We're Alone Now, Crimson And Clover, Mony Mony and many others. That run finally came to an end in 1970 when the band recorded its final LP, Travelin'. The album itself displays a greater variety of styles than one would expect, starting with the blues-rocking opening track, Bloody Waters.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Positively 4th Street
Source: Mono CD: The Best Of The Original Mono Recordings (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1965
Recorded during the same 1965 sessions that produced the classic Highway 61 Revisited album, Positively 4th Street was deliberately held back for release as a single later that year. It would not appear on an LP until the first Dylan Greatest Hits album.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: From A Buick 6
Source: Mono 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
Although there were several unissued recordings made during the Highway 61 Revisited sessions, Dylan and his producer, Tom Wilson, chose to instead use one of the already released album tracks as the B side for Positively 4th Street in September of 1965. The chosen track was From A Buick 6, a song that is vintage Dylan through and through.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Like A Rolling Stone
Source: Mono CD: The Best Of The Original Mono Recordings (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Highway 61 Revisited)
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1965
Bob Dylan incurred the wrath of folk purists when he decided to use electric instruments for his 1965 LP Highway 61 Revisited. The opening track on the album is the six-minute Like A Rolling Stone, a song that was also selected to be the first single released from the new album. After the single was pressed, the shirts at Columbia Records decided to cancel the release due to its length. An acetate copy of the record, however, made it to a local New York club, where, by audience request, the record was played over and over until it was worn out (acetate copies not being as durable as their vinyl counterparts). When Columbia started getting calls from local radio stations demanding copies of the song the next morning they decided to release the single after all. Like A Rolling Stone ended up going all the way to the number two spot on the US charts, doing quite well in several other countries as well.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Heart Full Of Soul
Source: Mono CD: Over, Under, Sideways, Down (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Graham Gouldman
Label: Raven (original label: Epic)
Year: 1965
The Yardbirds' follow-up single to For Your Love was a huge hit, making the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1965. The song, the first to feature guitarist Jeff Beck prominently, was written by Graham Gouldman, who had also written For Your Love. Gouldman was then a member of Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders and would later become a founding member of 10cc.
Artist: Animals
Title: Inside Looking Out
Source: Mono CD: The Best Of Eric Burdon And The Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Animalization)
Writer(s): Lomax/Lomax/Burdon/Chandler
Label: Polydor (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1966
One of the last songs recorded by the Animals before their first breakup, Inside Looking Out (a powerful song about life in prison) was covered a few years later by Grand Funk Railroad, who made it one of their concert staples. This has always been one of my all-time favorite rock songs.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: In Another Land
Source: LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s): Bill Wyman
Label: London
Year: 1967
In Another Land was the first Rolling Stones song written and sung by bassist Bill Wyman, and was even released in the UK as a Wyman single. The song originally appeared on the Stones' most psychedelic album, Their Satanic Majesties Request, in late 1967.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Sound Asleep
Source: CD: 20 Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): The Turtles
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1968
If the key to success in the real estate business is location location location, then the key to success in top 40 radio is timing timing timing. Even the best of songs can have a difficult time finding an audience if that audience is into something entirely different at the time. Take the Turtles' Sound Asleep. Taken out of context it is a well-crafted pop song with a good beat and a strong melody. Unfortunately it was released in 1968, when top 40 radio was being dominated by mindless bubble gum hits and FM was developing an identity of its own centered on progressive rock. Thus Sound Asleep, despite its obvious quality, went quietly into the cutout bin rather quickly after its release as a single. It wasn't too long after that that the Turtles themselves called it quits.
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