Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1549 (starts 12/2/15)

Artist:     Electric Prunes
Song:     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
Year: 1967
     Songwriter Annette Tucker usually worked with Nancy Mantz, and the pair was responsible for the Electric Prunes biggest hit, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). For the follow-up single, Get Me To the World On Time, she instead teamed up with Jill Jones and came up with a kind of psychedelic Bo Diddley song that ended up being the Prunes second biggest hit (and the first rock song that I ever heard first on an FM station rather than an AM one).

Artist:     Doors
Title:     You're Lost Little Girl
Source:     LP: 13 (originally released on LP: Strange Days)
Writer:     The Doors
Label:     Elektra
Year:     1967
     The Doors second LP, Strange Days, was stylistically similar to the first, and served notice to the world that this band was going to be around for awhile. Songwriting credit for You're Lost Little Girl (a personal favorite of mine) was given to the entire band, a practice that would continue until the release of The Soft Parade in 1969.

Artist:     Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:     The Wind Cries Mary
Source:     LP: Smash Hits (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single and in US on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer:     Jimi Hendrix
Label:     Reprise
Year:     1967
     The US version of 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:    Young Rascals
Title:    Come On Up
Source:    LP: Collections
Writer(s):    Felix Cavaliere
Label:    Rhino (original label: Atlantic)
Year:    1966
    In the fall of 1966 my junior high school went to split sessions, with the kids from my neighborhood assigned the morning hours. This meant getting up early in the morning and catching the school bus at around 6:20 AM. The upside (at least for me) was the fact that I got to listen to the radio all afternoon on the new console stereo that my dad had recently bought (said console being right next to the family TV set, listening in the evening was not an option). I had gotten a small transistor radio for my birthday three years earlier, but by 1966 it was no longer working, and I had not had the chance to hear my favorite stations for quite a while. As a result, Come On Up was actually the first Young Rascals song I ever heard, even though it had been preceded by bigger hits like Good Lovin'. The following summer my dad got transferred to Weisbaden, Germany, and I ended up attending a four-year high school for US military dependents. During my freshman year in I became a fan of a local band called the Collections, who took their name from the second Young Rascals album. The Collections were the "go to" band for local high school dances, including the Sadie Hawkins Day dance in October. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept, Sadie Hawkins day was the creation of cartoonist Al Capp, in his Li'l Abner newspaper comic strip. The idea was that once a year gender roles would get reversed, and the girls got to ask the guys to dance instead of vice versa. A bunch of us guys had gone to the dance (mostly because we had just formed a band of our own and wanted to check out the competition), and just as the Collections broke into Come On Up I was invited out onto the dance floor by a total stranger who also happened to be a cute brunette. It was the first time I had ever danced to a rock and roll band, but somehow I managed not to make a total fool of myself and even found myself being dragged into the "kissin' booth" (yes, they actually had such a thing at a high school dance back in those days) by the aforementioned cute brunette. I later found out the whole scenario was a ploy by the cute brunette to make her boyfriend jealous (which could have been hazardous to my health), but it left me with positive feelings for the Young Rascals, the Collections and Come On Up in particular that last to this day.
       
Artist:    Jury
Title:    Who Dat?
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Canada as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Bill Ivaniuk
Label:    Rhino (original label: Quality)
Year:    1966
    Formed by members of two Winnipeg bands, the Chord-U-Roys and the Phantoms, in 1964, the Jury released three Beatles-inspired singles on the Canadian London label in 1965 before switching to the locally-owned Quality label the following year. Their only single for Quality was Who Dat?, a savage piece of garage rock that got enough regional airplay to pique the interest of a small US label, Port. Nonetheless, the group disbanded before 1966 was over.

Artist:    Love
Title:    7&7 Is
Source:    CD: Da Capo
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1966
    The word "seven" does not appear anywhere in the song 7&7 Is. In fact, I have no idea where Arthur Lee got that title from. Nonetheless, the song is among the most intense tracks to ever make the top 40. 7&7 Is starts off with power chords played over a constant drum roll (possibly played by Lee himself), with cymbals crashing over equally manic semi-spoken lyrics. The song builds up to an explosive climax: an atomic bomb blast followed by a slow post-apocalyptic instrumental that quickly fades away.

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    Rock And Roll Woman
Source:    LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Stephen Stills
Label:    Cotillion (original label: Atco)
Year:    1967
    Buffalo Springfield did not sell huge numbers of records (except for the single For What It's Worth). Nor did they pack in the crowds. As a matter of fact, when they played the club across the street from where Love was playing, they barely had any audience at all. Artistically, though, it's a whole 'nother story. During their brief existence Buffalo Springfield launched the careers of no less than four major artists: Neil Young, Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Stephen Stills. They also recorded more than their share of tracks that have held up better than most of what else was being recorded at the time. Case in point: Rock and Roll Woman, a Stephen Stills tune that still sounds fresh well over 40 years after it was recorded.

Artist:    Growing Concern
Title:    All I Really Want
Source:    British import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released on LP: The Growing Concern)
Writer(s):    Dan Passalaglia
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year:    1968
    The Ravens were a Chicago-based band formed in 1966 that had already spent time in the studio cutting a single for the local Big O label when they decided to add a couple of female vocalists and rename themselves the Growing Concern in 1967. They were discovered by Mainstream Records owner Bob Shad, who had just received an influx of cash when he sold the contract of Big Brother and the Holding Company to Columbia for a reported $200K. Shad reasoned that female fronted rock bands were hot at the time, and the Growing Concern went to work on their debut LP for Mainstream. The album was completed in May of 1968 and released a couple weeks later. Peter Guerin, the band's male vocalist, described the group's sound as "the Airplane meets the Mormon Tabernacle Choir." This actually describes All I Really Want fairly accurately.
       
Artist:    Kim Fowley
Title:    Bubblegum
Source:    Import CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released on LP: Outrageous)
Writer(s):    Cert/Fowley
Label:    Zonophone UK (original label: Imperial)
Year:    1969
    Like a hip Hollywood Forrest Gump, Kim Fowley kept popping up in various capacities throughout the 60s and 70s on records like Alley Oop (co-producer), Nut Rocker (writer, arranger) and the first three Runaways albums (producer and guy who introduced the band members to each other), working with such diverse talents as Gene Vincent, Helen Reddy and Kiss. He also managed to rack up an impressive catalog as a solo artist, with over two dozen albums to his credit. The most successful of these was his 1968 LP Outrageous, which includes the song Bubblegum (also called Bubble Gum). Despite the title, the track has nothing in common with bands like the 1910 Fruitgum Company. In fact, the song is sometimes cited as one of the first glam-rock recordings.

Artist:    Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title:    Ball And Chain
Source:    LP: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s):    Willie Mae Thornton
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    Big Brother And The Holding Company electrified the crowd at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 with their performance of Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton's Ball And Chain. The rest of the world, however, would have to wait until the following year to hear Janis Joplin's version of the old blues tune, when a live performance recorded at Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium was included on the LP Cheap Thrills.

Artist:    Iron Butterfly
Title:    In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Source:    CD: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Writer(s):    Doug Ingle
Label:    Atco
Year:    1969
    I think there is a law on the books somewhere that says I need to play the full version of Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida every so often, so here it is. Again.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Factory Girl
Source:    CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1968
    One of the more overlooked tunes in the Rolling Stones catalog, Factory Girl features an odd assortment of instruments (including Tabla, Violin, Congo and Mellotron) on what is essentially an Appalachian kind of song. Guest musicians include Rick Grech on violin and Dave Mason on either guitar or mellotron (simulating a mandolin).

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    Cream Puff War
Source:    LP: The Grateful Dead
Writer(s):    Jerry Garcia
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1967
    The first Grateful Dead album was recorded in a matter of days, and was mostly made up of cover tunes that the band was currently performing. The two exceptions were The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion), which was credited to the entire band, and Cream Puff War, a song written by guitarist Jerry Garcia. The two tracks were paired up on the band's first single as well. Cream Puff War, as recorded, ran nearly three and a half minutes, but was edited down to 2:28 at the insistence of the corporate shirts at Warner Brothers Records.

Artist:    John Mayall
Title:    Blues From Laurel Canyon (part two)
Source:    British import LP: Blues From Laurel Canyon
Writer(s):    John Mayall
Label:    Deram (original label: London)
Year:    1968
    The first release following the breakup of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Blues From Laurel Canyon featured a 19-year-old Mick Taylor on guitar, with an even younger Stephen Thompson on bass along with drummer Colin Allen. The album itself is autobiographical, documenting Mayall's L.A. vacation in the summer of '68. The second side of the album starts with a track called The Bear, which describes Mayall's stay with Canned Heat, who by then had relocated from their native San Francisco to Laurel Canyon. The bear that was "rolling in the shade" in the song was of course the legendary Robert Hite, lead vocalist and harmonica player for Canned Heat. This segues into a tune about Mayall's efforts to track down the "strange, elusive" Miss James (reportedly the famous groupie Catherine James). Eventually he finds her quite by accident, leading into an intimate First Time Alone. All good things must come to an end, however, as the lyrics to Long Gone Midnight point out. Just as well, as Mayall has to Fly Tomorrow to get back to London and put together a band to record an album called Blues From Laurel Canyon. Eventually Mayall would return to Laurel Canyon, this time as a resident.
       
Artist:    Moody Blues
Title:    In Search Of The Lost Chord (part two)
Source:    CD: In Search Of The Lost Chord
Writer:    Hayward/Pinder/Thomas/Edge
Label:    Deram
Year:    1968
    After using the London Symphony Orchestra extensively on their second LP, Days Of Future Passed, the Moody Blues played every instrument themselves on the next album, In Search Of The Lost Chord. There were reportedly 33 (or possibly more) different instruments played on the album. Among those was something called a mellotron, which used tape loops of recorded instruments played on a keyboard. Each side was one continuous piece of music, making In Search Of The Lost Chord, released in 1968, one of the first rock concept albums. Side two of the album features the following tracks: Voices in the Sky, The Best Way to Travel, Visions of Paradise, The Actor, The Word, Om.

Artist:    Lovin' Spoonful
Title:    Night Owl Blues
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Butler/Boone/Yanovsky/Sebastian
Label:    Kama Sutra/Sundazed
Year:    1965/2011
    Night Owl Blues was first released on the Lovin Spoonful's first album, Do You Believe In Magic, making an encore appearance as the B side of their 1966 hit Daydream. The original recording was edited down to less than three minutes on both releases. In 2011 Sundazed issued a previously unreleased recording of the Spoonful's high energy cover of the Hollywood Argyles hit Alley Oop on 45 RPM vinyl, backed with a longer, less edited version of Night Owl Blues made from the same original 1965 recording as the earlier release. The track features blues harp from John Sebastian and a rare electric guitar solo from Zal Yanovsky.