Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: The Other Side To This Life
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer(s): Fred Neil
Label: Rhino
Year: Recorded 1969, released 2009
For years I was under the impression, thanks to both the movie and soundtrack album, that the first song Jefferson Airplane performed at Woodstock was Volunteers. The 2009 Rhino box set Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm finally set the record straight, putting Fred Neil's The Other Side To This Life in its proper place as the song that got their 8AM performance under way.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Mexico
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Early Flight)
Writer(s): Grace Slick
Label: Rhino (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1970
The last Jefferson Airplane single to include founding member (and original leader) Marty Balin was Mexico, a scathing response by Grace Slick to President Richard Nixon's attempts to eradicate the marijuana trade between the US and Mexico. The song was slated to be included on the next Airplane album, Long John Silver, but Balin's departure necessitated a change in plans, and Mexico did not appear on an LP until Early Flight was released in 1974.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Comin' Back To Me
Source: CD: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s): Marty Balin
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Year: 1967
Uncredited guest guitarist Jerry Garcia adds a simple, but memorable recurring fill riff to this Marty Balin tune. Balin, in his 2003 liner notes to the remastered release of Surrealistic Pillow, claims that Comin' Back To Me was written in one sitting under the influence of some primo stuff given to him by Paul Butterfield. Other players on the recording include Paul Kantner, Jack Casady and Balin himself on guitars and Grace Slick on recorder.
Artist: Them
Title: One More Time
Source: Simulated stereo LP: Them (also released in the UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Van Morrison
Label: Parrot
Year: 1965
After the success of Baby Please Don't Go on the UK charts Them's British record label, Decca UK, decided to follow it up with, One More Time, a song from the band's first LP that lead vocalist Van Morrison had written himself. After the song failed to sell well everyone agreed that it was a poor choice for a single. Nonetheless, One More Time is fairly representative of Morrison's early songwriting.
Artist: Shadows Of Knight
Title: I'm Gonna Make You Mine
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released on 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Bayer/Carr/D'errico
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
Possibly the loudest rockin' recordings of 1966 came from the Shadows of Knight. A product of the Chicago suburbs, the Shadows (as they were originally known) quickly established a reputation as the region's resident bad boy rockers (lead vocalist Jim Sohns was reportedly banned from more than one high school campus for his attempts at increasing the local teen pregnancy rate). After signing a record deal with the local Dunwich label, the band learned that there was already a band called the Shadows and added the Knight part (after their own high school sports teams' name). Their first single was a cover of Van Morrison's Gloria that changed one line ("around here" in place of "up to my room") and thus avoided the mass radio bannings that had derailed the original Them version. I'm Gonna Make You Mine was the follow up to Gloria, but its lack of commercial success consigned the Shadows to one-hit wonder status until years after the band's breakup, when they finally got the recognition they deserved as one of the founding bands of garage/punk, and perhaps its greatest practicioner.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: Albert Common Is Dead
Source: Mono LP: Electric Comic Book
Writer(s): Gilbert/Scala
Label: Mercury
Year: 1967
The second Blues Magoos LP, Electric Comic Book, was much in the same vein as their 1966 debut album, Psychedelic Lollipop, with a mix of fast and slow originals and a couple of cover songs, one of which was done in an extended rave-up style. The second side opener, Albert Common Is Dead, is a fast rocker (with a slowed down final chorus) about an average guy's decision to take to the road, leaving his former life behind. As many young people were doing exactly that during the summer of 1967, you might expect such a song to become somewhat of a soundtrack of its times, but with so many other songs filling that role, Albert Common Is Dead was largely overlooked by the listening public.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Quite Rightly So
Source: CD: Shine On Brightly
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1968
In 1969, while living on Ramstein AFB in Germany, my dad managed to get use of one of the basement storage rooms in building 913, the 18-unit apartment building we resided in. For a few months (until getting in trouble for having overnight guests and making too much noise...hey I was 16, whaddaya expect?) I got to use that room as a bedroom. I had a small record player that shut itself off when it got to the end of the record, which meant I got to go to sleep every night to the album of my choice. As often as not that album was Shine On Brightly, a copy of which I had gotten in trade for another album (the Best of the Beach Boys I think) from a guy who was expecting A Whiter Shade of Pale and was disappointed to discover it was not on this album. I always thought I got the better end of that deal, despite the fact that there was a skip during the fade of Quite Rightly So, causing the words "one was me" to repeat over and over until I scooted the needle over a bit. Luckily Quite Rightly So is the first song on the album, so I was usually still awake to do that.
Artist: Cream
Title: Dance The Night Away
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The album Fresh Cream was perhaps the first LP from a rock supergroup, although at the time a more accurate description would have been British blues supergroup. Much of the album was reworking of blues standards by the trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, all of whom had established their credentials with various British blues bands. With Disraeli Gears, however, Cream showed a psychedelic side as well as their original blues orientation. Most of the more psychedelic material, such as Dance the Night Away, was from the songwriting team of Bruce and lyricist Pete Brown.
Artist: Left Banke
Title: Desiree
Source: Mono CD: More Nuggets
Writer(s): Brown/Feher
Label: Rhino (original label: Smash)
Year: 1967
For a while it looked as if the Left Banke would emerge as one of the most important bands of the late 60s. They certainly got off to a good start, with back-to-back top 10 singles Walk Away Renee and Pretty Ballerina. But then bandleader Michael Brown and Smash Records made a serious misstep, issuing a Brown solo effort called utilizing studio musicians and trying to pass it off as a Left Banke record. The other band members refused to go along with the charade and sent out letters to their fan club membership denouncing the single. The outraged fans, in turn, threatened to boycott any radio stations that played the single. Brown and the rest of the band, meanwhile, managed to patch things up enough to record a new single, Desiree, and released the song in late 1967. By then, however, radio stations were leary of playing anything with the words Left Banke on the label, and the song failed to chart, despite being an outstanding single. Brown left the Left Banke soon after.
Artist: Book Of Changes
Title: I Stole The Goodyear Blimp
Source: Mono CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Frank Smith
Label: Zonophone (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
San Francisco's Vejtables underwent several personnel changes (a total of 14 members!) over a period of about three years, ultimately changing their name to Book Of Changes for their final single, I Stole The Goodyear Blimp, released in 1967 on the Tower label. The only member to last the entire span of the group was bandleader Bob Bailey, although Frank Smith, who was the Vejtables bassist from 1965-66, returned as guitarist for the Book Of Changes single.
Artist: Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band
Title: Zig Zag Wanderer
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Safe As Milk)
Writer(s): Don Van Vliet
Label: Rhino (original label: Buddah)
Year: 1967
Don Van Vliet made his first recordings as Captain Beefheart in 1965, covering artists like Bo Diddley in a style that could best be described as "punk blues." Upon hearing those recordings A&M Records, despite its growing reputation as a hot (fairly) new label, promptly cancelled the project. Flash forward a year or so. Another hot new label, Buddah Records, an offshoot of Kama Sutra Records that had somehow ended up being the parent rather than the subsidiary, was busy signing new acts like Johnny Winter, and ended up releasing the LP Safe As Milk in 1967. The good captain would next appear on his old high school acquaintance Frank Zappa's Bizarre Records, turning out classic albums like Trout Mask Replica, and the world would never be quite the same.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: If 6 Was 9
Source: LP: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Before 1967 stereo was little more than an excuse to charge a dollar more for an LP. That all changed in a hurry, as artists such as Jimi Hendrix began to explore the possibilities of the technology, in essence treating stereophonic sound as a multi-dimensional sonic palette. The result can be heard on songs such as If 6 Were 9 from the Axis: Bold As Love album, which is best listened to at high volume, preferably with headphones on.
Artist: Al Kooper/Michael Bloomfield/Eddie Hoh/Harvey Brooks
Title: Albert's Shuffle
Source: LP: Heavy Sounds
Writer(s): Bloomfield/Kooper
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
There is no doubt that one of the most important and influential albums of the late 1960s was the Super Session album. Released in 1968, the album was conceived in part because keyboardist/producer Al Kooper felt that Michael Bloomfield had never been recorded in the right context to truly showcase his prowess as a guitarist. Taking advantage of his position as staff producer for Columbia Records, Kooper enlisted drummer Eddie Hoh and bassist Harvey Brooks (who had played with Bloomfield in the Butterfield Blues Band) for a series of taped jam sessions. Although Bloomfield himself went AWOL midway through the sessions, the quartet managed to get several outstanding tracks recorded, including Albert's Shuffle, which opens the LP.
Artist: Mountain
Title: Never In My Life
Source: LP: Climbing
Writer(s): West/Pappalardi/Collins/Laing
Label: Windfall
Year: 1970
Leslie West started his career as lead guitarist for the Vagrants, releasing a cover of Otis Redding's Respect nearly simultaneously with Aretha Franklin's version. His first solo LP, entitled Mountain, included former Cream producer Felix Pappalardi on bass and keyboards and led directly to the formation of the band Mountain, which gained instant popularity at the Woodstock festival in 1969. The first "official" Mountain album by the power trio of West, Pappalardi and drummer Corky Laing starts off with three outstanding songs, the third of which is Never In My Life.
Artist: Syd Barrett
Title: Effervescing Elephant
Source: CD: An Introduction To Syd Barrett (originally released on LP: Barrett)
Writer(s): Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
In 2010, following the death of Pink Floyd co-founder (and original leader) Syd Barrett, David Gilmour collected some of Barrett's best recordings on a CD called An Introduction To Syd Barrett. Included on the CD are songs that were released as singles in Pink Floyd's early days as well as a good number of tunes from Barrett's two solo LPs. Among those is Effervescing Elephant, a song from his second solo LP, Barrett, that could have passed for a children's tune if it were written at the same time as the original versions of the Grimm brothers' tales.
Title: Everybody Knows You're Not In Love
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Lowe/Tulin
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
The Electric Prunes had greater creative control over their second album than their first. That control continued into early 1968, when Everybody Knows You're Not In Love, a single penned by band members Mark Tulin and James Lowe, was released. Unfortunately, the record didn't sell well and the next album, David Axelrod's Mass In F Minor, was played almost entirely by studio musicians. The original group broke up during the recording of Mass and did not play together again until the 21st century.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Wild Honey Pie/The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
Source: CD: The Beatles
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year: 1968
By early 1968 the Beatles were beginning to show signs that they would not be together as a band much longer. The group had just experienced their first commercial & critical failure, the Magical Mystery Tour telefilm (although the soundtrack did quite well). Additionally, each member (except maybe Ringo) was starting to move off in his own direction as a songwriter. Nonetheless they went ahead with plans to form Apple, a company designed to market not only their music, but other products as well. The first album released on the new label was titled simply The Beatles and had a plain white cover, resulting in it soon becoming known as the White Album. It was the Beatles' first double-LP set, and the only one to feature all-original material. The music covered a wide variety of styles, some of which are even now hard to describe. As an example we have Paul McCartney's Wild Honey Pie, which segues into John Lennon's The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill. I defy anyone to define exactly what genre these two tracks are representative of.
Artist: Traffic
Title: (Roamin' Thro' The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen (originally released on LP: Traffic)
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies
Writer(s): Capaldi/Winwood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
The second Traffic album saw the band moving beyond pure psychedelia, taking in a broader set of influences such as traditional English folk music. (Roamin' Through The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen combines those influences with the Steve Winwood brand of British R&B.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Porpoise Mouth
Source: LP: The Life And Times Of Country Joe And The Fish (originally released on LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body)
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
The songs on the first Country Joe And The Fish album ranged from silly satire (Super Bird) to downright spacey. One of the spaciest tracks on the album is Porpoise Mouth, both lyrically and musically.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: You Keep Me Hangin' On
Source: Mono CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Holland/Dozier/Holland
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The Vanilla Fudge version of You Keep Me Hangin' On was originally recorded and released in 1967, not too long after the Supremes version of the song finished its own run on the charts. It wasn't until the following year, however, the the Vanilla Fudge recording caught on with radio listeners, turning it into the band's only top 40 hit.
Artist: West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title: Scuse Me, Miss Rose
Source: CD: Part One
Writer(s): Bob Johnston
Label: Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The major label debut of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Part One, was a curious mixture of soft pop and high-energy rockers, all filtered through the questionable artistic sensibilities of Bob Markley, who was at once prime benefactor and albatross to the rest of the members. It was Markley's money and connections that got them the equipment needed for live performances, as well as their contract with Reprise Records. According to the rest of the band, however, Markley had no musical talent whatsoever and was only in the band to meet teenage girls. As Markley himself was about 30 years old at the time, this was a problem in and of itself. But that's another story. The album itself included a handful of cover songs, one of the more energetic ones being Scuse Me, Miss Rose. The song was credited to Joy Beyers, but in reality was written by Bob Dylan's producer, Bob Johnston (whom I somehow got confused with Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys when I was back announcing the set; sorry about that, Bob).
Artist: Troggs
Title: I'll Buy You An Island
Source: CD: Greatest Hits
Writer(s): Presley/Britton
Label: Spectrum
Year: 1976
Although the Troggs will always be remembered for their recording of Wild Thing in 1966, the reality is that they actually enjoyed a string of hits in their native UK that extended well into the 1970s. One of the more popular of these later recordings was I'll Buy You An Island, released in 1976. As mentioned on this week's show I was not aware of just how new this song was until I had already promised to play it as a request.
Artist: Lothar And The Hand People
Title: This Is It
Source: CD: Presenting…Lothar And The Hand People
Writer(s): Conly/Emelin/Ford/Flye/King
Label: Microwerks (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1968
Lothar and the Hand People was a band formed in Denver, Colorado in 1965 that relocated, not to California as would be expected, but to the wilds of Manhattan, where they quickly became favorites of the avant-barde crowd. One of the reasons was Lothar itself. Yes, I did say "it" self. You see, Lothar was a theremin, one of those weird sounding things heard in vintage science fiction movies and on the Beach Boys hit Good Vibrations. It resembled nothing more than a box with a pair of antennae sticking out of the top. Lothar made just one sound, a tone created by an oscillator. That tone was varied by someone waving their hands around in the general vicinity of the antennae, thus the "hand people". Unfortunately for the band, the very thing that made them popular in New York was the one thing that could not be translated into an audio medium, and neither of the groups two albums sold particularly well. One of their more commercial tunes was This Is It, from their debut LP. Try to imagine someone flailing their arms wildly above a box as you listen to it.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Let's Go Away For Awhile
Source: Mono CD: Pet Sounds
Writer(s): Brian Wilson
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966
One of my favorite tracks from the Pet Sounds album is Let's Go Away For Awhile, which could be described as a space-jazz instrumental of such a term actually existed. I first heard the song when I bought a copy of Good Vibrations off the 45 RPM racks (it was #1 at the time) and after a half dozen listens flipped the record over. It sounds even better to me now.
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: The Black Plague
Source: CD: Winds Of Change
Writer(s): Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label: Repertoire (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1967
One of the most interesting recordings of 1967 was Eric Burdon And The Animals' The Black Plague, which appeared on the Winds Of Change album. The Black Plague is a spoken word piece dealing with life and death in a medieval village during the time of the Black Plague (natch), set to a somewhat gothic piece of music that includes Gregorian style chanting and an occasional voice calling out the words "bring out your dead" in the background. The album itself had a rather distinctive cover, consisting of a stylized album title accompanied by a rather lengthy text piece on a black background, something that has never been done before or since on an album cover.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: The First Edition)
Writer(s): Mickey Newbury
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Kenny Rogers has, on more than one occassion, tried to put as much distance between himself and the 1968 First Edition hit Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) as possible. I feel it's my civic duty to remind everyone that he was the lead vocalist on the recording, and that this song was the one that launched his career. So there.
Artist: Iron Butterfly
Title: Filled With Fear
Source: LP: Ball
Writer(s): Doug Ingle
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
After the delayed success of their second LP, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Iron Butterfly went back to the studio to record their follow-up album, Ball. Although Ball did not have a monster hit on it, it is generally considered a better album overall, with a depth and breadth of songwriting not found on their previous efforts. One of the most memorable tracks on the album is Filled With Fear, a song about paranoia with music that matches the lyrics perfectly.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: As The Sun Still Burns Away
Source: CD: Cricklewood Green
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
Generally considered to be Ten Years After's best album, Cricklewood Green featured such FM radio staples as Me And My Baby, 50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain and Love Like A Man. Another song to get airplay was As The Sun Still Burns Away, the final track on the album. Like Love Like A Man and other popular TYA tunes, As The Sun Still Burns Away is built on a repeating bass riff that is paralleled and sometimes embellished by Alvin Lee's guitar and Chick Churchill's keyboards.
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