Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1538 (starts 9/16/15)

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    Get Me To The World On Time
Source:    CD: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Jones
Label:    Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    With I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) climbing the charts in early 1967, the Electric Prunes turned to songwriter Annette Tucker for two more tracks to include on their 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 song still did respectably on the charts (and was actually the first Electric Prunes song I ever heard on FM radio).

Artist:    Kaleidoscope
Title:    Keep Your Mind Open
Source:    CD: Side Trips
Writer(s):    Chris Darrow
Label:    Epic
Year:    1967
    Formed in 1966 by David Lindley (b. March 21, 1944, Los Angeles, California), Solomon Feldthouse (b. January 20, 1940, Pingree, Idaho), Chris Darrow (b. July 30, 1944, Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Chester Crill (a.k.a. Max Budda, Max Buda, Fenrus Epp, Templeton Parcely) (b. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) and John Vidican (b. Los Angeles, California), Kaleidoscope grew out of the jug band revival movement of the early 60s that also brought us such diverse talents as John Sebastian, Joe McDonald and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The group was deliberately leaderless, and rose quickly in popularity playing various clubs in the Los Angeles area, signing a contract with Epic within a year of the band's inception. Their first single was released in December of 1966, with an album, Side Trips, following in June of 1967. By then the group had taken on a decidedly psychedelic flavor, as can be heard on tracks like Keep Your Mind Open.
       
Artist:    Liberation News Service
Title:    Mid-Winter's Afternoon
Source:    Mono CD: A Deadly Dose Of Wild Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Ed Esko
Label:    Arf! Arf! (original label: Esko)
Year:    1967
    Liberation News Service was a Philadelphia band founded in 1965 by the Esko brothers, Ed and Jeff. Their first release was Mid-Winter's Afternoon, released on the band's own Esko label in 1967. Not long after its release the band added a new lead vocalist and changed their name to the Esko Affair, eventually getting a contract with Mercury Records and releasing singles in 1968 and 1969.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Blues From An Airplane
Source:    LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer(s):    Balin/Spence
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1966
    Blues From An Airplane was the opening song on the first Jefferson Airplane album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. Although never released as a single, it was picked by the group to open their first anthology album, The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane, as well. The song is one of two tunes on the LP co-written by lead vocalist and drummer Skip Spence.

Artist:    Paul Revere and the Raiders
Title:    Hungry
Source:    LP: All-Time Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Spirit of '67)
Writer:    Mann/Weil
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    1966 was an incredibly successful year for Paul Revere and the Raiders. In addition to starting a gig as the host band for Dick Clark's new afternoon TV show, Where The Action Is, the band managed to crank out three consecutive top 10 singles. The second of these was Hungry, written by Brill building regulars Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

Artist:    We The People
Title:    You Burn Me Up And Down
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Thomas Talton
Label:    Rhino (original label: Challenge)
Year:    1966
    We The People was kind of a regional supergroup in the Orlando, Florida area, as it was made up of musicians from various local garage bands. The departure of lead guitarist Wayne Proctor in early 1967 and the band's other main songwriter Tommy Talton a year later led to the group's demise, despite having landed a contract with RCA Victor, at the time the world's largest record label. Before splitting up, however, they recorded a handful of garage-rock classics such as You Burn Me Up And Down, which was released as a B side in 1966.

Artist:    Mojo Men
Title:    She's My Baby
Source:    Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Stewart/Alaimo/Curcio
Label:    Rhino (original label: Autumn)
Year:    1966
    Although generally considered to be one of the early San Francisco bands, the Mojo Men actually originated in Rochester, NY. After spending most of the early 60s in Florida playing to fraternities, the band moved out the West Coast in 1965, soon falling in with Autumn Records producer Sylvester Stewart (Sly Stone), for a time becoming his backup band. Stewart produced several singles for the Mojo Men, including She's My Baby, a song that had originally been recorded in 1962 as a song to do the mashed potato (an early 60s dance) to by Steve Alaimo, brother of Mojo Men bassist/lead vocalist Jim Alaimo and co-host (with Paul Revere and the Raiders) of the nationally distributed dance show Where The Action Is. The Mojo Men version of She's My Baby has more of a blues/garage-rock sound than the Steve Alaimo original, prompting its inclusion on several compilation albums over the past forty years.

Artist:    Chocolate Watchband
Title:    Baby Blue
Source:    Mono CD: The Inner Mystique (bonus track)
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Uptown)
Year:    1967
    Many artists have covered Bob Dylan songs over the years, but few managed to do it with as much attitude as the Chocolate Watchband on their version of It's All Over Now Baby Blue. The song appeared in early 1967 as the B side of the Watchband's first "official" single, Sweet Young Thing. As good a track as Sweet Young Thing was (and it is indeed a good one), Baby Blue, being a bit more recognizable, may have been a better choice for a potential hit single. We'll never know.
       
Artist:    Billy Stewart
Title:    Summertime
Source:    45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer:    Gershwin/Heyward
Label:    Chess
Year:    1966
    By 1966 Chess Records was pretty much known as a blues-oriented specialty label that carried mostly Chicago-based artists. One of their last national hits was this hard-to-classify version of Summertime from Billy Stewart, which gave the Gershwin classic a treatment unlike any other. Stewart was unable to duplicate his success with his follow-up release, a similarly-treated version of Doris Day's 50s hit Secret Heart, and was not heard from on the national charts again.

Artist:    Euphoria
Title:    Hungry Women
Source:    British import CD: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Wesley Watt
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year:    1966
            Euphoria was the brainchild of multi-instrumentalists Wesley Watt and Bill Lincoln. The band existed in various incarnations, starting in 1966. Originally based in San Francisco, the group, minus Lincoln, relocated to Houston in early summer of 1966, only to return a couple months later with a pair of new members pirated from a band called the Misfits that had gotten in trouble with local law enforcement officials. Around this time they were discovered by Bob Shad, who was out on the west coast looking for acts to sign to his Chicago-based Mainstream label. The band recorded four songs at United studios, two of which, Hungry Women and No Me Tomorrow, were issued as a single in late 1966. The following year both songs appeared in stereo on Shad's Mainstream showcase LP With Love-A Pot Of Flowers, along with tunes from several other Bay Area acts that Shad had signed in 1966.
       
Artist:    Cream
Title:    Sitting On Top Of The World
Source:    LP: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s):    Chester Burnett
Label:    Atco
Year:    1968
    Throughout their existence British blues supergroup Cream recorded covers of blues classics. One of the best of these is Sitting On Top Of The World from the album Wheels Of Fire, which in its earliest form was written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon and recorded by the Mississippi Shieks in 1930. Cream's version uses the lyrics from the 1957 rewrite of the song by Chester Burnett, better know as Howlin' Wolf.

Artist:    Paraphernalia
Title:    Watch Out
Source:    CD: An Overdose Of Heavy Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Zanniel/Sirio
Label:    Arf! Arf! (original label: St. George International)
Year:    1968
    Virtually nothing is known about the band called Paraphernalia other than the fact that they released a single called Watch Out on the St. George International label in 1968. The song itself features some killer guitar work from the band that is rumored to be from somewhere in New England.

Artist:    Sagittarius
Title:    The Truth Is Not Real
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Present Tense)
Writer:    Gary Usher
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1968
    After the success of the first Sagittarius single, My World Fell Down, Gary Usher enlisted the aid of Curt Boettcher, who had been working on a studio project of his own called the Ballroom for another production company. Using many of the same studio musicians they created a follow-up single, The Truth Is Not Real. It's interesting to compare Usher's lyrics with those of In My Room, a Brian Wilson tune that Usher had provided lyrics for in 1965.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Burning of the Midnight Lamp
Source:    LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer:    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1967
    For the first few months of their existence as a band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience were an entirely British phenomena, despite being led by an American guitarist/vocalist. By mid-1967 the group had released three singles that made the UK charts, as well as an album that was only kept out of the # 1 spot by an album called Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The band's next project was Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, the most complex piece of production yet attempted by the band, and their first using state of the art eight-track recording equipment. The song had two notable firsts: it was the first song to feature Hendrix playing a keyboard instrument (a harpsichord) in addition to his usual guitar, and it was his first recording to use the new "wah-wah" effect. Burning of the Midnight Lamp was not released as a single in the US however, and Hendrix revisited the master tapes the following year, creating a new stereo mix for his album Electric Ladyland.

Artist:     Jimi Hendrix
Title:     Star-Spangled Banner/Purple Haze/Woodstock Improvisation
Source:     LP: Woodstock
Writer(s):    Trad./Hendrix
Year:     1969
     The most famous Woodstock moment was actually witnessed by a relatively small portion of the crowd, as most of the festival goers had left by early Monday morning, when Jimi Hendrix took the stage with a group of musicians he had been jamming with following the disbanding of the Jimi Hendrix Experience earlier in the year. Following a short warmup jam, Hendrix broke into his feedback drenched interpretation of the Star-Spangled Banner, which led into Purple Haze, featuring a blistering guitar solo at the end of the song which abruptly transitions to a quiet instrumental piece to close out the entire Woodstock festival.

Artist:     Lee Morgan
Title:     The Sidewinder-Part 1
Source:     45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer:     Lee Morgan
Label:     Silver Spotlight (original label: Blue Note)
Year:     1964
     Lee Morgan was a hard-bop trumpeter who had been recording since the 1950s when he recorded his best-known piece, the Sidewinder, in late 1963. The full-length version of the song served as the title cut for Morgan's first album of 1964, while an edited version graced the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 that summer. What really got the song (which is considered one of the best examples of "soul jazz") noticed, however, was Chrysler's use of the song in its commercials during the 1964 World Series. At that time, World Series commercials were used for the unveiling of the upcoming model year's cars, and were considered as important as Super Bowl commercials are today.

Artist:    Animals
Title:    We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
Source:    Mono CD: The Best Of The Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Mann/Weil
Label:    Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1965
    In 1965 producer Mickey Most put out a call to Don Kirschner's Brill building songwriters for material that could be recorded by the Animals. He ended up selecting three songs, all of which are among the Animals' most popular singles. Possibly the best-known of the three is a song written by the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil called We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. The song (the first Animals recording to featuring Dave Rowberry, who had replaced founder Alan Price on organ) starts off with what is probably Chas Chandler's best known bass lines, slowly adding drums, vocals, guitar and finally keyboards on its way to an explosive chorus. The song was not originally intended for the Animals, however; it was written for the Righteous Brothers as a follow up to (You've Got That) Lovin' Feelin', which Mann and Weil had also provided for the duo. Mann, however, decided to record the song himself, but the Animals managed to get their version out first, taking it to the top 20 in the US and the top 5 in the UK. As the Vietnam war escalated, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place became a sort of underground anthem for US servicemen stationed in South Vietnam, and has been associated with that war ever since. Incidentally, there were actually two versions of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place recorded during the same recording session, with an alternate take accidentally being sent to M-G-M and subsequently being released as the US version of the single. This version (which some collectors and fans maintain has a stronger vocal track) appeared on the US-only LP Animal Tracks in the fall of 1965 as well as the original M-G-M pressings of the 1966 album Best Of The Animals. The original UK version, on the other hand, did not appear on any albums, as was common for British singles in the 1960s. By the 1980s record mogul Allen Klein had control of the original Animals' entire catalog, and decreed that all CD reissues of the song would use the original British version of the song, including the updated (and expanded) CD version of The Best Of The Animals. I'll try to dig up a copy of the US version one of these days.
      
Artist:    Kinks
Title:    What's In Store For Me
Source:    Mono LP: The Kink Kontroversy
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1965
    The Kinks began their transition from a high energy singles band to a more mature sounding album-oriented group with the 1965 LP The Kink Kontroversy. It was the group's third British album, and in addition to rockers like Till The End Of The Day and Milk Cow Blues, the LP included quieter, more introspective pieces like What's In Store For Me as well.
       
Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Like A Rolling Stone
Source:    CD: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Highway 61 Revisited)
Writer:    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
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:     Human Beinz
Title:     Nobody But Me
Source:     Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Ron, Rudy and O'Kelley Isley
Label:     LP: Rhino (originally released on Capitol)
Year:     1968
    The Human Beingz were a band that had been around since 1964 doing mostly club gigs in the Youngstown, Ohio area as the Premiers. In the late 60s they decided to update their image with a name more in tune with the times and came up with the Human Beingz. Unfortunately someone at Capitol Records misspelled their name (leaving out the "g") on the label of Nobody But Me, and after the song became a national hit the band was stuck with the new spelling. The band split up in 1969, but after Nobody But Me was featured in the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Vol.1, original leader Ting Markulin reformed the band with a new lineup that has appeared in the Northeastern US in recent years.

Artist:     Blues Magoos
Title:     Life Is Just A Cher O'Bowlies
Source:     CD: Kaleidoscopic Compendium (originally released on LP: Electric Comic Book)
Writer:     Gilbert/Scala/Theilhelm
Label:     Mercury
Year:     1967
     Although not as big a seller as their first LP (probably due to a lack of a major hit single), Electric Comic Book is nonetheless one of the great psychedelic albums. Life Is Just a Cher-O'-Bowlies, with its tongue in cheek approach, is about as typical a Blues Magoos song as anything this New York band ever recorded.

Artist:     Vanilla Fudge
Title:     Vanilla Fudge-side two (You Keep Me Hangin' On, Take Me For a Little While and Eleanor Rigby interspersed with short instrumental segments known as Illusions of my Childhood)
Source:     LP: Vanilla Fudge
Writer(s):    Holland/Dozier/Holland/Martin/Lennon/McCartney
Label:     Atco
Year:     1967
     Although not exactly a concept album, the first Vanilla Fudge LP did attempt to tie the songs on side two of the album together through the use of something called Illusions of My Childhood, short instrumental versions of children's songs such as The Farmer In The Dell overlaid with sound effects that would fade in at the end of each track and fade out into the next one. The songs themselves make for an interesting lyrical collage, going from one that demands a commitment to a relationship into a song that says almost the exact opposite, followed by Paul McCartney's famous observations of people without relationships at all.

Artist:    Merrell And The Exiles (aka Fapardokly)
Title:    Tomorrow's Girl
Source:    Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl and included on LP: Fapardokly)
Writer(s):    Merrell Fankhauser
Label:    Rhino (original label: Glenn; LP issued on UIP)
Year:    1967
    Merrell Fankhauser was a fixture on the L.A. music scene, fronting several bands throughout the 60s ranging in styles from surf to psychedelic, depending on what was in vogue at the time. For most of 1966 and 67 he led a group called Merrell and the Exiles (or Xiles), while holding down a somewhat more mundane day job between gigs. The last single by the Exiles was Tomorrow's Girl, originally released in 1967 on the tiny Glenn label and included on Fankhauser's Fapardokly album on UIP records later that same year.

Artist:    Guess Who
Title:    Friends Of Mine
Source:    CD: Wheatfield Soul
Writer:    Bachman/Cummings
Label:    Iconoclassic (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:    1968
    On first listen, Friends Of Mine may appear to be a Doors ripoff, but the band members themselves claim it was inspired more by the Who's first mini-opera, A Quick One While He's Away. Regardless of the source of inspiration, this was certainly the most pyschedelic track ever released by a band known more for catchy pop ballads like These Eyes and No Sugar Tonight. Interestingly enough, RCA released a 45 RPM stereo promo of the song to radio stations, with the 10+ minute track split across the two sides of the record. I first heard this cut on the American Forces Network (AFN) in Germany on a weekly show called Underground that ran at midnight on Saturday nights. I doubt any Generals were listening.