Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1617 (starts 4/20/16)

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Off The Hook
Source:    Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original label: Decca)
Year:    1964
    The last Rolling Stones blues cover released as a single was Little Red Rooster, which topped the British charts toward the end of 1964. The ultra-rare B side of that record was Off The Hook, one of the earliest Mick Jagger/Keith Richards collaborations. Neither song was released in the US until many years later.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Turn! Turn! Turn!
Source:    LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Turn! Turn! Turn!)
Writer(s):    Pete Seeger
Label:    Cotillion (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1965
    After their success covering Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man, the band turned to an even more revered songwriter: the legendary Pete Seeger. Turn! Turn! Turn!, with lyrics taken directly from the book of Ecclesiastes, was first recorded by Seeger in the early 60s, nearly three years after he wrote the song.

Artist:    Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title:    Good Thing
Source:    CD: Greatest Hits
Writer(s):    Lindsay/Melcher
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1966
    From 1965 to 1967 Paul Revere And The Raiders were on a roll, with a string of six consecutive top 20 singles, four of which made the top 5. Among these was Good Thing, a tune written by lead vocalist Mark Lindsay and producer Terry Melcher (sometimes referred to as the "fifth Raider"). The song first appeared on the Spirit Of  '67 LP in 1966, and was released as a single late that year. The song ended up being the Raiders' second biggest hit, peaking at # 4 in early 1967.

Artist:    Haunted
Title:    125
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Canada on LP: The Haunted)
Writer(s):    Burgess/Peter
Label:    Rhino (original label: Trans World)
Year:    1967
    Formed in Montreal in 1964, the Haunted was one of the most popular bands in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as Southern Ontario. In January of 1966 the band won an eight-hour long battle of the bands, resulting in a contract with Quality Records. The Haunted's first single was a song called 125, which the label refused to release due to the song's subject matter (a liason with a prostitute). Undaunted, the band changed a few lyrics, substituting lines like "a roomful of clowns" and "a line of executives" for the original references to working girls and re-recorded the song. The label, being somewhat clueless, released the song in its new form, but messed up the band's name on the label, calling them the Hunted. Finally, the band changed labels, issuing the song as an album track in 1967.

Artist:     Rose Garden
Title:     Here's Today
Source:     Mono CD: Where the Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as a 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Noreen/Vickery
Label:     Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year:     1968
     One of many new groups signed to Atco in the late 60s, the Rose Garden was generally disposed to recording light pop tunes with radio airplay in mind. Here's Today was an attempt to move the group in a slightly different direction.

Artist:    Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title:    Round And Round (It Won't Be Long)
Source:    LP: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Writer(s):    Neil Young
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1969
    Round And Round, from Neil Young's 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, was actually written while Young was still a member of Buffalo Springfield. The song features guest vocalist Robin Lane, as well as the members of Crazy Horse.

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Means To An End
Source:    CD: Traffic
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1968
    The final track on the self-titled second Traffic album is not truly a Traffic song at all. Means To An End only features two members of the band: Chris Wood (on drums and percussion) and Steve Winwood (everything else). Somehow I can't picture the band performing this one in concert.


Artist:    Who
Title:    Girl's Eyes
Source:    CD: The Who Sell Out (originally unreleased, later included in 30 Years Of Maximum R&B box set)
Writer(s):    Keith Moon
Label:    MCA
Year:    1967
    Most of the songs that Keith Moon wrote for the Who were, for lack of a better word, bizarre. The examples that come to mind include Heinz Baked Beans, Tommy's Holiday Camp and Cobwebs And Strange, all of which sound like something you might hear at the circus. Girl's Eyes, on the other hand, is a relatively straightforward, if not particularly spectacular, rock song that remained unreleased for many years, finally appearing on the 30 Years Of Maximum R&B box set.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Big Black Smoke
Source:    Mono CD: Face To Face (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Sanctuary (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1966
    The Kinks had some of the best non-album sides of the 60s. Case in point: Big Black Smoke, which appeared as the B side of Dead End Street in November of 1966. The song deals with a familiar phenomenon of the 20th century: the small town girl that gets a rude awakening after moving to the big city. In this case the city was London, known colloquially as "the Smoke".

Artist:     Kinks
Title:     Dead End Street
Source:     45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Year:     1967
     The last major Kinks hit in the US was Sunny Afternoon in the summer of 1966. The November follow-up, Dead End Street, was in much the same style, but did not achieve the same kind of success in the US (although it was a top five hit in the UK). The Kinks would not have another major US hit until Lola in 1970.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Sunny Afternoon
Source:    Mono British import CD: Face To Face
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Sanctuary (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1966
    My family got its first real stereo (a GE AM/FM console with a reel-to-reel recorder instead a turntable that is still sitting in the living room at my mother's house nearly 50 years later) just in time for me to catch the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon at the peak of its popularity. My school had just gone into split sessions and all my classes were over by one o'clock, which gave me the chance to explore the world of top 40 radio for a couple hours every day without the rest of the family telling me to turn it down (or off).

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)
Source:    Mono LP: The Doors
Writer(s):    Weill/Brecht
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    1967 was a breakthrough year for Elektra Records, which had only signed its first full-fledged rock band (Love) the previous year. Between Love's second and third albums and the first two Doors LPs, Elektra had by the end of the year established itself as a player. Although never released as a single, Alabama Song managed to make it onto the Best of the Doors album and has been a classic rock staple for years.

Artist:    Albert King
Title:    Born Under A Bad Sign
Source:    LP: Born Under A Bad Sign
Writer(s):    Jones/Bell
Label:    Stax
Year:    1967
    Born Under A Bad Sign is one of the most well-known blues songs in the world. The song was conceived by Booker T. Jones (of the MGs) and R&B singer William Bell, who later said "We needed a blues song for Albert King ... I had this idea in the back of my mind that I was gonna do myself. Astrology and all that stuff was pretty big then. I got this idea that [it] might work." The song's famous signature riff came from Bell, who claimed he came up with it "while fooling around on the guitar". King's version was released as the title track for his first album for Stax, and remains his most popular song. Backing up King on the track are Booker T. and the MGs along with the Memphis Horns.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Lovely Rita
Source:    CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone (original label: Capitol)
Year:    1967
    By 1967 John Lennon and Paul McCartney were a songwriting team in name only, with nearly all their compositions being the work of one or the other, but not both. Lovely Rita, from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, was pure McCartney. The song features McCartney on both piano and overdubbed bass, with Lennon and George Harrison on guitars and Ringo Starr on drums. Pink Floyd, who were recording their debut LP, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn at the same Abbey Road studios the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's at, ended up borrowing some of the effects heard toward the end of Lovely Rita for their own Pow R Toc H.

Artist:     Canned Heat
Title:     Catfish Blues
Source:     LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Canned Heat)
Writer:     Robert Petway
Label:     United Artists (original label: Liberty)
Year     1967
     Like many other US cities in the 1960s, San Francisco had a small but enthusiastic community of collectors of blues records. A group of them got together in 1966 to form Canned Heat, and made quite an impression when they played the Monterey International Pop Festival in June of 1967. This led to a contract with Liberty Records and an album consisting entirely of cover versions of blues standards. One standout track from that album is Robert Petway's Catfish Blues, expanded to over six minutes by the Heat.

Artist:    Mouse And The Traps
Title:    You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Fraternity Years
Writer(s):    Willie Cobbs
Label:    Big Beat
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 1997
    Mouse And The Traps recorded a lot of songs over a three year period from 1966-68, not all of which found their way onto vinyl. One of the best of those that didn't was their 1967 cover of Willie Cobbs's You Don't Love Me. The best-known version of the song was recorded the following year by Al Kooper and Stephen Stills for the Super Session album.

Artist:    Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title:    Oh, Sweet Mary
Source:    LP: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s):    Albin/Andrew/Getz/Gurley/Joplin
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    The only song credited to the entire membership of Big Brother And The Holding Company on their Cheap Thrills album was Oh, Sweet Mary (although the original label credits Janis Joplin as sole writer and the album cover itself gives only Joplin and Peter Albin credit). The tune bears a strong resemblance to Coo Coo, a non-album single the band had released on the Mainstream label before signing to Columbia. Oh, Sweet Mary, however, has new lyrics and a "dreamy" bridge section played at a slower tempo than the rest of the tune.

Artist:    Dukes Of Stratosphear (XTC)
Title:    What In The World?
Source:    CD: Chips From The Chocolate Fireball (originally released in UK on mini-LP: 25 O'Clock)
Writer(s):    Colin Moulding
Label:    Caroline (original label: Virgin)
Year:    1985
    Originally released on April Fool's Day, 1985, the mini-LP 25 O'Clock  was purportedly a lost classic from the late 1960s by the previously unknown Dukes Of Stratosphear. In reality, the record was a side project by members of XTC, who wanted a break from their more serious commercial efforts. Two years later the group released a full-length album as the Dukes Of Stratosphear, and have since contemplated further projects under the name. Many people, myself included, consider both Dukes Of Stratosphear efforts more listenable than the 1986 XTC album Oranges and Lemons, which came out between the two Dukes recordings.

Artist:    Jigsaw Seen
Title:    Let There Be Reverb
Source:    CD: Old Man Reverb
Writer(s):    Dennis Davison
Label:    Vibro-Phonic
Year:    2014
    The Jigsaw Seen is an indy band based in Los Angeles that has been around since the 1980s. Their latest album, Old Man Reverb, starts off appropriately with a track called Let There Be Reverb. The album itself was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studios in London.
       
Artist:    Love
Title:    7&7 Is
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single. Stereo version released on LP: Da Capo)
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1967
    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:    Chocolate Watchband (recording as The Hogs)
Title:    Blues Theme
Source:    Mono CD: One Step Beyond (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Curb/Allen
Label:    Sundazed (original label: HBR)
Year:    1966
    The Chocolate Watchband's first experience in a recording studio came in October of 1966. The band had set up and was getting their sound levels checked when a friend of the producer burst into the studio with the news that the latest "hot thing" was a new movie called the Wild Ones. Davie Allen and the Arrows had cut something called Blues Theme for the soundtrack, and the word was that there were no plans to release the song as a single. Sensing an opportunity, the producer asked the band if they could record their own version of Blues Theme. The Watchband, even at that early point, had a knack for doing convincing covers on a moment's notice, and by the time the session was over they had cut a credible version of Blues Theme. The record was quickly released on the Hanna Barbera (yes, the cartoon people) label, but as by the Hogs rather than the Chocolate Watchband. Although I don't know why this was done, I do have a couple theories. It's entirely possible that the band signed their contract with Tower Records before Blues Theme was released, in which case Tower would naturally forbid the use of the name Chocolate Watchband by another label. Or it could simply be that the unknown producers at HBR felt that a name like the Hogs was more appropriate for a song used in a biker flick. We may never know for sure.

Artist:    Blues Project
Title:    I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes
Source:    Mono CD: Projections
Writer(s):    Blind Willie Johnson
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Verve Forecast)
Year:    1966
    One lasting legacy of the British Invasion was the re-introduction to the US record-buying public to the songs of early Rhythm and Blues artists such as Blind Willie Johnson. This emphasis on classic blues in particular would lead to the formation of electric blues-based US bands such as the Butterfield Blues Band and the Blues Project. Unlike the Butterfields, who made a conscious effort to remain true to their Chicago-style blues roots, the Blues Project was always looking for new ground to cover, which ultimately led to them developing an improvisational style that would be emulated by west coast bands such as the Grateful Dead, and by Project member Al Kooper, who conceived and produced the first rock jam LP ever, Super Session, in 1968. As the opening track to their second (and generally considered best) LP Projections, I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes served notice that this was a new kind of blues, louder and brasher than what had come before, yet tempered with Kooper's melodic vocal style. An added twist was the use during the song's instrumental bridge of an experimental synthesizer known among band members as the "Kooperphone", probably the first use of any type of synthesizer in a blues record.

Artist:    John Mayall with Eric Clapton
Title:    Parchman Farm
Source:    Mono LP: Blues Breakers
Writer(s):    Mose Allison
Label:    Sundazed/London
Year:    1966
    Parchman Farm is possibly Mose Allison's best-known tune. The song was inspired by a 1940 recording by legendary bluesman Bukka White called Parchman Farm Blues. Allison's version first appeared on his Local Color album in 1957 and was re-recorded in 1964 for an LP called The Word From Mose. Two years later John Mayall and Eric Clapton recorded the tune for the album Blues Breakers. The song has been covered by over a dozen artists since then, including Blues Image, the Blues Project, Cactus and even the Charlie Daniels Band.

Artist:     Yardbirds
Title:     Over Under Sideways Down
Source:     Simulated stereo Australian import CD: Over, Under, Sideways, Down (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Dreja/McCarty/Beck/Relf/Samwell-Smith
Label:     Raven (original US label: Epic)
Year:     1966
     The only Yardbirds album to feature primarily original material was released under different titles in different parts of the world. The original UK version was called simply The Yardbirds, while the US album bore the title Over, Under, Sideways, Down. In addition, the UK album was unofficially known as Roger the Engineer because of band member Chris Dreja's drawing of the band's recording engineer on the cover. The title cut was the last single to feature Jeff Beck as the band's sole lead guitarist (the follow-up single, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, featured both Beck and Jimmy Page).

Artist:    Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    His Holy Modal Majesty
Source:    LP: Super Session
Writer(s):    Bloomfield/Kooper
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1968
    One of the earliest electronic keyboard instruments was a device that came to be known as the Kooperphone, thanks to its use by Al Kooper as early as 1966, when he was a member of the Blues Project. The instrument could not play chords, only single notes, and Kooper used it extensively on tracks like His Holy Modal Majesty on the 1968 album Super Session. If that were all there was to the track it might be remembered as little more than a curiosity piece. Thanks to the outstanding improvisational abilities of Kooper, guitarist Michael Bloomfield, bassist Harvey Brooks and drummer Eddie Hoh however, the piece soars, changing style and tempo with a fluidity rarely found outside of jazz circles.

Artist:    Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    Season Of The Witch (2002 remix w/o horns)
Source:    CD: Super Session
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1968
            In 1968 Al Kooper, formerly of the Blues Project, formed a new group he called Blood, Sweat and Tears. Then, after recording one album with the new group, he promptly quit the band. He then booked studio time and called in his friend Michael Bloomfield (who had just left own his new band the Electric Flag) for a recorded jam session. Due to his chronic insomnia and inclination to use heroin to deal with said insomnia, Bloomfield was unable to record an entire album's worth of material, and Kooper called in another friend, Stephen Stills (who had recently left the Buffalo Springfield) to complete the project. The result was the Super Session album, which surprisingly (considering that it was the first album of its kind), made the top 10 album chart. One of the most popular tracks on Super Session was an extended version of Donovan's "Season of the Witch." Kooper initially felt that the basic tracks needed some sweetening, so he brought in a horn section to record additional overdubs. In 2003, Kooper revisited the original multi-track master tapes and created a new mix that restored the original performance. This is that mix.

Artist:    Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    Man's Temptation
Source:    LP: Super Session
Writer(s):    Curtis Mayfield
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1968
    The shortest track on the Mike Bloomfield side of the Super Session LP is also the nearest thing to a conventional pop song on the album. Man's Temptation is a Curtis Mayfield tune originally recorded by the Impressions that here sounds like it could have been taken directly from an Electric Flag (Bloomfield's former group) session. Al Kooper's vocals are more in line with his later solo work than on the Blues Project's albums, giving the the piece an early Blood, Sweat And Tears feel to it.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Off The Hook
Source:    Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original label: Decca)
Year:    1964
    The last Rolling Stones blues cover released as a single was Little Red Rooster, which topped the British charts toward the end of 1964. The ultra-rare B side of that record was Off The Hook, one of the earliest Mick Jagger/Keith Richards collaborations. Neither song was released in the US until many years later.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Turn! Turn! Turn!
Source:    LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Turn! Turn! Turn!)
Writer(s):    Pete Seeger
Label:    Cotillion (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1965
    After their success covering Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man, the band turned to an even more revered songwriter: the legendary Pete Seeger. Turn! Turn! Turn!, with lyrics taken directly from the book of Ecclesiastes, was first recorded by Seeger in the early 60s, nearly three years after he wrote the song.

Artist:    Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title:    Good Thing
Source:    CD: Greatest Hits
Writer(s):    Lindsay/Melcher
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1966
    From 1965 to 1967 Paul Revere And The Raiders were on a roll, with a string of six consecutive top 20 singles, four of which made the top 5. Among these was Good Thing, a tune written by lead vocalist Mark Lindsay and producer Terry Melcher (sometimes referred to as the "fifth Raider"). The song first appeared on the Spirit Of  '67 LP in 1966, and was released as a single late that year. The song ended up being the Raiders' second biggest hit, peaking at # 4 in early 1967.

Artist:    Haunted
Title:    125
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Canada on LP: The Haunted)
Writer(s):    Burgess/Peter
Label:    Rhino (original label: Trans World)
Year:    1967
    Formed in Montreal in 1964, the Haunted was one of the most popular bands in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as Southern Ontario. In January of 1966 the band won an eight-hour long battle of the bands, resulting in a contract with Quality Records. The Haunted's first single was a song called 125, which the label refused to release due to the song's subject matter (a liason with a prostitute). Undaunted, the band changed a few lyrics, substituting lines like "a roomful of clowns" and "a line of executives" for the original references to working girls and re-recorded the song. The label, being somewhat clueless, released the song in its new form, but messed up the band's name on the label, calling them the Hunted. Finally, the band changed labels, issuing the song as an album track in 1967.

Artist:     Rose Garden
Title:     Here's Today
Source:     Mono CD: Where the Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as a 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Noreen/Vickery
Label:     Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year:     1968
     One of many new groups signed to Atco in the late 60s, the Rose Garden was generally disposed to recording light pop tunes with radio airplay in mind. Here's Today was an attempt to move the group in a slightly different direction.

Artist:    Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title:    Round And Round (It Won't Be Long)
Source:    LP: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Writer(s):    Neil Young
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1969
    Round And Round, from Neil Young's 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, was actually written while Young was still a member of Buffalo Springfield. The song features guest vocalist Robin Lane, as well as the members of Crazy Horse.

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Means To An End
Source:    CD: Traffic
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1968
    The final track on the self-titled second Traffic album is not truly a Traffic song at all. Means To An End only features two members of the band: Chris Wood (on drums and percussion) and Steve Winwood (everything else). Somehow I can't picture the band performing this one in concert.


Artist:    Who
Title:    Girl's Eyes
Source:    CD: The Who Sell Out (originally unreleased, later included in 30 Years Of Maximum R&B box set)
Writer(s):    Keith Moon
Label:    MCA
Year:    1967
    Most of the songs that Keith Moon wrote for the Who were, for lack of a better word, bizarre. The examples that come to mind include Heinz Baked Beans, Tommy's Holiday Camp and Cobwebs And Strange, all of which sound like something you might hear at the circus. Girl's Eyes, on the other hand, is a relatively straightforward, if not particularly spectacular, rock song that remained unreleased for many years, finally appearing on the 30 Years Of Maximum R&B box set.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Big Black Smoke
Source:    Mono CD: Face To Face (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Sanctuary (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1966
    The Kinks had some of the best non-album sides of the 60s. Case in point: Big Black Smoke, which appeared as the B side of Dead End Street in November of 1966. The song deals with a familiar phenomenon of the 20th century: the small town girl that gets a rude awakening after moving to the big city. In this case the city was London, known colloquially as "the Smoke".

Artist:     Kinks
Title:     Dead End Street
Source:     45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Year:     1967
     The last major Kinks hit in the US was Sunny Afternoon in the summer of 1966. The November follow-up, Dead End Street, was in much the same style, but did not achieve the same kind of success in the US (although it was a top five hit in the UK). The Kinks would not have another major US hit until Lola in 1970.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Sunny Afternoon
Source:    Mono British import CD: Face To Face
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Sanctuary (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1966
    My family got its first real stereo (a GE AM/FM console with a reel-to-reel recorder instead a turntable that is still sitting in the living room at my mother's house nearly 50 years later) just in time for me to catch the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon at the peak of its popularity. My school had just gone into split sessions and all my classes were over by one o'clock, which gave me the chance to explore the world of top 40 radio for a couple hours every day without the rest of the family telling me to turn it down (or off).

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)
Source:    Mono LP: The Doors
Writer(s):    Weill/Brecht
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    1967 was a breakthrough year for Elektra Records, which had only signed its first full-fledged rock band (Love) the previous year. Between Love's second and third albums and the first two Doors LPs, Elektra had by the end of the year established itself as a player. Although never released as a single, Alabama Song managed to make it onto the Best of the Doors album and has been a classic rock staple for years.

Artist:    Albert King
Title:    Born Under A Bad Sign
Source:    LP: Born Under A Bad Sign
Writer(s):    Jones/Bell
Label:    Stax
Year:    1967
    Born Under A Bad Sign is one of the most well-known blues songs in the world. The song was conceived by Booker T. Jones (of the MGs) and R&B singer William Bell, who later said "We needed a blues song for Albert King ... I had this idea in the back of my mind that I was gonna do myself. Astrology and all that stuff was pretty big then. I got this idea that [it] might work." The song's famous signature riff came from Bell, who claimed he came up with it "while fooling around on the guitar". King's version was released as the title track for his first album for Stax, and remains his most popular song. Backing up King on the track are Booker T. and the MGs along with the Memphis Horns.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Lovely Rita
Source:    CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone (original label: Capitol)
Year:    1967
    By 1967 John Lennon and Paul McCartney were a songwriting team in name only, with nearly all their compositions being the work of one or the other, but not both. Lovely Rita, from the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, was pure McCartney. The song features McCartney on both piano and overdubbed bass, with Lennon and George Harrison on guitars and Ringo Starr on drums. Pink Floyd, who were recording their debut LP, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn at the same Abbey Road studios the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's at, ended up borrowing some of the effects heard toward the end of Lovely Rita for their own Pow R Toc H.

Artist:     Canned Heat
Title:     Catfish Blues
Source:     LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Canned Heat)
Writer:     Robert Petway
Label:     United Artists (original label: Liberty)
Year     1967
     Like many other US cities in the 1960s, San Francisco had a small but enthusiastic community of collectors of blues records. A group of them got together in 1966 to form Canned Heat, and made quite an impression when they played the Monterey International Pop Festival in June of 1967. This led to a contract with Liberty Records and an album consisting entirely of cover versions of blues standards. One standout track from that album is Robert Petway's Catfish Blues, expanded to over six minutes by the Heat.

Artist:    Mouse And The Traps
Title:    You Don't Love Me (You Don't Care)
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Fraternity Years
Writer(s):    Willie Cobbs
Label:    Big Beat
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 1997
    Mouse And The Traps recorded a lot of songs over a three year period from 1966-68, not all of which found their way onto vinyl. One of the best of those that didn't was their 1967 cover of Willie Cobbs's You Don't Love Me. The best-known version of the song was recorded the following year by Al Kooper and Stephen Stills for the Super Session album.

Artist:    Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title:    Oh, Sweet Mary
Source:    LP: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s):    Albin/Andrew/Getz/Gurley/Joplin
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    The only song credited to the entire membership of Big Brother And The Holding Company on their Cheap Thrills album was Oh, Sweet Mary (although the original label credits Janis Joplin as sole writer and the album cover itself gives only Joplin and Peter Albin credit). The tune bears a strong resemblance to Coo Coo, a non-album single the band had released on the Mainstream label before signing to Columbia. Oh, Sweet Mary, however, has new lyrics and a "dreamy" bridge section played at a slower tempo than the rest of the tune.

Artist:    Dukes Of Stratosphear (XTC)
Title:    What In The World?
Source:    CD: Chips From The Chocolate Fireball (originally released in UK on mini-LP: 25 O'Clock)
Writer(s):    Colin Moulding
Label:    Caroline (original label: Virgin)
Year:    1985
    Originally released on April Fool's Day, 1985, the mini-LP 25 O'Clock  was purportedly a lost classic from the late 1960s by the previously unknown Dukes Of Stratosphear. In reality, the record was a side project by members of XTC, who wanted a break from their more serious commercial efforts. Two years later the group released a full-length album as the Dukes Of Stratosphear, and have since contemplated further projects under the name. Many people, myself included, consider both Dukes Of Stratosphear efforts more listenable than the 1986 XTC album Oranges and Lemons, which came out between the two Dukes recordings.

Artist:    Jigsaw Seen
Title:    Let There Be Reverb
Source:    CD: Old Man Reverb
Writer(s):    Dennis Davison
Label:    Vibro-Phonic
Year:    2014
    The Jigsaw Seen is an indy band based in Los Angeles that has been around since the 1980s. Their latest album, Old Man Reverb, starts off appropriately with a track called Let There Be Reverb. The album itself was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studios in London.
       
Artist:    Love
Title:    7&7 Is
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single. Stereo version released on LP: Da Capo)
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1967
    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:    Chocolate Watchband (recording as The Hogs)
Title:    Blues Theme
Source:    Mono CD: One Step Beyond (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Curb/Allen
Label:    Sundazed (original label: HBR)
Year:    1966
    The Chocolate Watchband's first experience in a recording studio came in October of 1966. The band had set up and was getting their sound levels checked when a friend of the producer burst into the studio with the news that the latest "hot thing" was a new movie called the Wild Ones. Davie Allen and the Arrows had cut something called Blues Theme for the soundtrack, and the word was that there were no plans to release the song as a single. Sensing an opportunity, the producer asked the band if they could record their own version of Blues Theme. The Watchband, even at that early point, had a knack for doing convincing covers on a moment's notice, and by the time the session was over they had cut a credible version of Blues Theme. The record was quickly released on the Hanna Barbera (yes, the cartoon people) label, but as by the Hogs rather than the Chocolate Watchband. Although I don't know why this was done, I do have a couple theories. It's entirely possible that the band signed their contract with Tower Records before Blues Theme was released, in which case Tower would naturally forbid the use of the name Chocolate Watchband by another label. Or it could simply be that the unknown producers at HBR felt that a name like the Hogs was more appropriate for a song used in a biker flick. We may never know for sure.

Artist:    Blues Project
Title:    I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes
Source:    Mono CD: Projections
Writer(s):    Blind Willie Johnson
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Verve Forecast)
Year:    1966
    One lasting legacy of the British Invasion was the re-introduction to the US record-buying public to the songs of early Rhythm and Blues artists such as Blind Willie Johnson. This emphasis on classic blues in particular would lead to the formation of electric blues-based US bands such as the Butterfield Blues Band and the Blues Project. Unlike the Butterfields, who made a conscious effort to remain true to their Chicago-style blues roots, the Blues Project was always looking for new ground to cover, which ultimately led to them developing an improvisational style that would be emulated by west coast bands such as the Grateful Dead, and by Project member Al Kooper, who conceived and produced the first rock jam LP ever, Super Session, in 1968. As the opening track to their second (and generally considered best) LP Projections, I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes served notice that this was a new kind of blues, louder and brasher than what had come before, yet tempered with Kooper's melodic vocal style. An added twist was the use during the song's instrumental bridge of an experimental synthesizer known among band members as the "Kooperphone", probably the first use of any type of synthesizer in a blues record.

Artist:    John Mayall with Eric Clapton
Title:    Parchman Farm
Source:    Mono LP: Blues Breakers
Writer(s):    Mose Allison
Label:    Sundazed/London
Year:    1966
    Parchman Farm is possibly Mose Allison's best-known tune. The song was inspired by a 1940 recording by legendary bluesman Bukka White called Parchman Farm Blues. Allison's version first appeared on his Local Color album in 1957 and was re-recorded in 1964 for an LP called The Word From Mose. Two years later John Mayall and Eric Clapton recorded the tune for the album Blues Breakers. The song has been covered by over a dozen artists since then, including Blues Image, the Blues Project, Cactus and even the Charlie Daniels Band.

Artist:     Yardbirds
Title:     Over Under Sideways Down
Source:     Simulated stereo Australian import CD: Over, Under, Sideways, Down (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Dreja/McCarty/Beck/Relf/Samwell-Smith
Label:     Raven (original US label: Epic)
Year:     1966
     The only Yardbirds album to feature primarily original material was released under different titles in different parts of the world. The original UK version was called simply The Yardbirds, while the US album bore the title Over, Under, Sideways, Down. In addition, the UK album was unofficially known as Roger the Engineer because of band member Chris Dreja's drawing of the band's recording engineer on the cover. The title cut was the last single to feature Jeff Beck as the band's sole lead guitarist (the follow-up single, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, featured both Beck and Jimmy Page).

Artist:    Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    His Holy Modal Majesty
Source:    LP: Super Session
Writer(s):    Bloomfield/Kooper
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1968
    One of the earliest electronic keyboard instruments was a device that came to be known as the Kooperphone, thanks to its use by Al Kooper as early as 1966, when he was a member of the Blues Project. The instrument could not play chords, only single notes, and Kooper used it extensively on tracks like His Holy Modal Majesty on the 1968 album Super Session. If that were all there was to the track it might be remembered as little more than a curiosity piece. Thanks to the outstanding improvisational abilities of Kooper, guitarist Michael Bloomfield, bassist Harvey Brooks and drummer Eddie Hoh however, the piece soars, changing style and tempo with a fluidity rarely found outside of jazz circles.

Artist:    Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    Season Of The Witch (2002 remix w/o horns)
Source:    CD: Super Session
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1968
            In 1968 Al Kooper, formerly of the Blues Project, formed a new group he called Blood, Sweat and Tears. Then, after recording one album with the new group, he promptly quit the band. He then booked studio time and called in his friend Michael Bloomfield (who had just left own his new band the Electric Flag) for a recorded jam session. Due to his chronic insomnia and inclination to use heroin to deal with said insomnia, Bloomfield was unable to record an entire album's worth of material, and Kooper called in another friend, Stephen Stills (who had recently left the Buffalo Springfield) to complete the project. The result was the Super Session album, which surprisingly (considering that it was the first album of its kind), made the top 10 album chart. One of the most popular tracks on Super Session was an extended version of Donovan's "Season of the Witch." Kooper initially felt that the basic tracks needed some sweetening, so he brought in a horn section to record additional overdubs. In 2003, Kooper revisited the original multi-track master tapes and created a new mix that restored the original performance. This is that mix.

Artist:    Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    Man's Temptation
Source:    LP: Super Session
Writer(s):    Curtis Mayfield
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1968
    The shortest track on the Mike Bloomfield side of the Super Session LP is also the nearest thing to a conventional pop song on the album. Man's Temptation is a Curtis Mayfield tune originally recorded by the Impressions that here sounds like it could have been taken directly from an Electric Flag (Bloomfield's former group) session. Al Kooper's vocals are more in line with his later solo work than on the Blues Project's albums, giving the the piece an early Blood, Sweat And Tears feel to it.