https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/372310-pe-2124
This week we take a break from the battles of the bands to present three artists' sets, including our first to feature L.A.'s Glass Family and an all Goerge Harrison Beatles set. Also of note: a track from Al Kooper's second Super Session studio album featuring a 15-year-old Shuggy Otis on guitar.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience (II)
Title: Drifting
Source: CD: Voodoo Soup (originally released on LP: The Cry Of Love)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA
Year: 1970
There have been several attempts made to piece together what would have been Jimi Hendrix's first post-Experience studio LP since his death in 1970. The first of these was The Cry Of Love, released as a single LP in 1971. With the advent of CD technology attempts were made to make it a double-length album. The first of these, Voodoo Soup, was released in 1995. At this point Alan Douglas was still in control of the Hendrix catalog, and Voodoo Soup included a couple of tracks that had been modified by replacing the original drum tracks with new ones from Bruce Gary of the Knack, recorded in the late 1970s. Two years later the Hendrix family gained control of the guitarists' recordings and a new CD called First Rays Of The New Rising Sun was released, replacing Voodoo Soup. One song that remained unchanged through all three iterations of the album is Drifting, recorded on July 23rd of 1970 with Mitch Mitchell on drums, Billy Cox on bass and guest Buzzy Linhart on vibes.
Artist: Illinois Speed Press
Title: Hard Luck Story
Source: German import LP: Underground '70 (originally released on LP: Illinois Speed Press)
Writer(s): Kal David
Label: CBS (original US label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
In 1967 someone coined the phrase "San Francisco sound" to describe the wave of bands coming out of the Bay Area that year, despite the fact that there really was no specific San Francisco sound. The following year, someone at M-G-M Records (which had missed out entirely on the whole San Francisco thing, with the exception of the Eric Burdon And The Animals single San Franciscan Nights) decided to sign a bunch of Boston bands and market them as the "Boss-Town Sound." This campaign went over like a lead balloon, actually hurting the chances of the bands to make a name for themselves. Undeterred, Columbia Records tried the same thing in Chicago in 1969, signing the Chicago Transit Authority, the Flock, Aorta and Illinois Speed Press and marketing them as the "Chicago Sound". Producer James William Guercio, who had previously worked with the Buckinghams and Blood, Sweat & Tears, was brought in to produce the first Illinois Speed Press album, which included the song Hard Luck Story, a somewhat atypical piece of blues-rock written by Kal David, who along with Paul Cotton formed the core of the band. David and Cotton soon wearied of being lumped in with other Chicago bands, and relocated to California, essentially becoming a duo in the process and helping pioneer the country-rock sound that would emerge from Southern California in the mid-1970s.
Artist: Cream
Title: Born Under A Bad Sign
Source: CD: Wheels Of Fire
Writer: Jones/Bell
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were pretty much considered the cream of the crop of the British blues scene in the mid 1960s, so it came as no surprise when they decided to call their new band Cream. Although the trio would go on to record several memorable non-blues tunes such as I Feel Free and White Room, they never completely abandoned the blues. Born Under A Bad Sign, originally recorded by Albert King for the Stax label and written by labelmates William Bell and Booker T. Jones, is one of the better known tracks from Cream's double-LP Wheels Of Fire, the last album released while the band was still together.
Artist: Kinks
Title: A Well Respected Man
Source: Simulated stereo LP: Golden Days Of British Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Sire (original label: Reprise)
Year: Released 1965, charted 1966
The Kinks were one of the original British Invasion bands, scoring huge R&B-influenced hits with You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night in 1964. The hits continued in 1965 with more melodic songs like Set Me Free and Tired Of Waiting For You. 1966 saw Ray Davies's songwriting take a satiric turn, as A Well Respected Man (actually released in late 1965) amply illustrates. Over the next few years the Kinks would continue to evolve, generally getting decent critical reviews and moderate record sales for their albums until 1970, when the song Lola became a huge international hit, reviving the band's fortunes.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Love Me Till The Sun Shines
Source: CD: Something Else
Writer: Dave Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
The 1967 album Something Else By The Kinks was a turning point for the band in more ways than one. It was the first Kinks album produced entirely by Ray Davies, as well as the first Kinks album to be released in stereo. Something Else also saw the emergence of the younger Davies brother, Dave, as a songwriter in his own right on songs like Love Me Till The Sun Shines. I'm not sure, but it sounds to me like Dave Davies is the singer on the track as well.
Artist: Kinks
Title: You Really Got Me
Source: Simulated stereo LP: Golden Days Of British Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Sire (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1964
Although the Beatles touched off the British Invasion, it was the sheer in-your-face simplicity of You Really Got Me, recorded by an "upstart band of teenagers" from London's Muswell Hill district named the Kinks and released in August of 1964 that made the goal of forming your own band and recording a hit single seem to be a viable one. And sure enough, within a year garages and basements all across America were filled with guitars, amps, drums and aspiring high-school age musicians, some of whom would indeed get their own records played on the radio.
Artist: Troggs
Title: Wild Thing
Source: Mono CD: Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits-1968 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Chip Taylor
Label: Rhino (original label: Fontana)
Year: 1966
I have a DVD copy of a music video (although back then they were called promotional films) for the Troggs' Wild Thing in which the members of the band are walking through what looks like a train station while being mobbed by girls at every turn. Every time I watch it I imagine singer Reg Presley saying giggity-giggity as he bobs his head from side to side.
Artist: Superfine Dandelion
Title: Crazy Town (Move On Little Children)
Source: Mono British import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Collins/Musel
Label: Big Beat (original US label: Mainstream)
Year: 1967
The Mile Ends were a Phoenix, Arizona band that were regulars at a local teen club called the Fifth Estate, which was run by a guy named Jim Musil. Musil became the group's manager, booking studio time to record a drinking song called Bottle Up And Go in 1966. Not long after that the group, now consisting of guitarists Mike McFadden and Ed Black, along with drummer Mike Collins, began calling themselves the Superfine Dandelion for a studio project sponsored by Musil. The group recorded an album's worth of songs that came to the attention of Bob Shad, who was looking for material to issue on his Mainstream label. Shad bought the tapes, releasing the album in November of 1967. Shad chose Crazy Town (Move On Little Children) as a single, but a lack of interest by both radio and the record buying public brought the story of the Superfine Dandelion to a close by mid-1968.
Artist: Doors
Title: We Could Be So Good Together
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1968
Released in advance of the third Doors album, We Could Be So Good Together was the B side of one of the most unusual songs to ever make the top 40 charts: The Unknown Soldier. Unconfirmed rumors about We Could Be So Good Together say that the song was actually written in the band's early days before their signing with Elektra Records, but was left off the first two Doors albums. Lyrically it does seem to share an optimism with earlier Jim Morrison lyrics that was largely replaced by cynicism in his later years. The single version contains a short Thelonius Monk riff about a minute and a half into the song that is missing from the LP version heard on Waiting For The Sun.
Artist: James Rado/Gerome Ragni and company
Title: Hair
Source: Canadian import LP: Hair-The Original Broadway Cast Recording
Writer(s): MacDermott/Ragni/Rado
Label: RCA Viictor
Year: 1968
As a general rule, Broadway musicals and rock music are approximately a universe apart, but in 1968, a musical appeared on the scene that spawned no less than four hit singles (five counting the British hit version of Ain't Got No/I Got Life by Nina Simone). All of these hits were actually covers recorded by a mixture of new (Oliver, Three Dog Night) and established (Fifth Dimension, Cowsills) artists. Of the four songs that charted in the US, only one actually sounds better in its original soundtrack version (sorry, Cowsills, but that's my opinion and I'll stand by it): the title track of the musical itself. Unlike most of the soundtrack recordings, Hair, sung by co-lyricists James Rado and Gerome Ragni, features a professionally recorded backup band that includes pianist Galt McDermott, who wrote all the music heard on the soundtrack album.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: Funny Freak Parade
Source: LP: Ultimate Spinach
Writer(s): Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1968
1967 was also the year of the "Boss-Town Sound", a gimmick used to promote several Boston-based bands signed to the M-G-M label (M-G-M having been asleep at the wheel during the recent band-signing frenzy in San Francisco). Derided in the music press as a crass attempt to manipulate record buyers, the ultimate victims of this fraud were the bands themselves, many of which were actually quite talented. One of the best remembered of these bands was Ultimate Spinach, the brainchild of keyboardist Ian Bruce-Douglas, who wrote all the material for the group's first two LPs. Although much of the Spinach material sounds like it could have been written by Country Joe McDonald, there are a few tracks, such as Funny Freak Parade, that have a totally original sound to them. The recording uses a wah-wah effect in a rather unique way (at least I don't recall it being used quite like this elsewhere).
Artist: Penny Peeps
Title: Model Village
Source: Mono British import CD: Insane Times (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Alexander
Label: Zonophone (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1967
Although the British psychedelic era was considerably shorter (only about two years long) than its American counterpart, there are a surprisingly large number of British psych-pop singles that were never issued in the US. Among those was a somewhat forgettable song called Little Man With A Stick, released in 1967 by a band called the Penny Peeps. The band took its name from the risque coin-fed viewers at Brighton Beach (apparently London's version of Coney Island). Emulating his American counterparts, producer Les Reed (who wrote Little Man), allowed the band itself to come up with its own B side. The result was Model Village, a track that manages to convey a classic garage-rock energy while remaining uniquely British.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Hey Joe
Source: British import CD: The Ultimate Turn On (originally released on LP: Turn On The Music Machine)
Writer(s): Billy Roberts
Label: Big Beat (original US label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
There were actually three slow versions of Hey Joe released in 1966. The first was a summer single by folk singer Tim Rose, who reportedly brainstormed the idea of slowing down the popular garage-rock tune with his friend Sean Bonniwell, leader of the Music Machine. Although Rose's version was the first released, it did not appear on an LP until 1967. The first stereo version of the song was on the Music Machine's first LP, released in the fall. In December a third slow version of Hey Joe was released, but only in the UK and Europe. That version was by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Like Rose's single, the Hendrix version of Hey Joe was originally released only in a mono version, which was remixed in stereo by engineers at Reprise Records for inclusion on the US version of the debut Hendrix LP in 1967. Like the Rose version, the Music Machine arrangement of Hey Joe focuses squarely on the vocals, with the instrumental track serving purely to set the mood for the piece. Unlike with other recordings of Hey Joe released in 1966, the label on the album Turn On The Music Machine correctly credited Billy Roberts as the song's writer.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Lady Jane
Source: Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single B side and on LP: Aftermath)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1966
One of the best early Rolling Stones albums is 1966's Aftermath, which included such classics as Under My Thumb, Stupid Girl and the eleven-minute Goin' Home. Both the US and UK versions of the LP included the song Lady Jane, which was also released as the B side to Mother's Little Helper (which had been left off the US version of Aftermath to make room for Paint It Black). The policy at the time was for B sides that got a significant amount of airplay to be rated separately from the A side of the single, and Lady Jane managed to climb to the # 24 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 (Mother's Little Helper peaked at # 8).
Artist: Jose Feliciano
Title: Work Song
Source: LP: A Bag Full Of Soul
Writer(s): Brown/Adderly
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
While still in his teens singer/songwriter Jose Feliciano was becoming known in folk circles, particularly in Vancouver, BC and New York's Greenwich Village, where he was discovered and signed by RCA Victor's Jack Somer in 1963. His first single, Do The Click, went to the #2 spot in the Philippines, although it did not chart in the US. He released four albums in 1966, the first of which was A Bag Full Of Soul, which showcased his ability to perform music from a variety of genres. Work Song was originally released as an instrumental by Nat "Cannonball" Adderly in 1960, with lyrics added the following year by Oscar Brown Jr.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released on LP: The First Edition and as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Mickey Newbury
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
In 1968, former New Christy Minstrels members Kenny Rogers and Mike Settle decided to form a psychedelic rock band, the First Edition. Although Settle wrote (and sang lead on) most of the songs on the first album, it was Rogers who would emerge as the star of the group, thanks to the fact that one of the two songs he sang lead on, Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), became a huge top 40 hit. It wasn't long before the official name of the band was changed to Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. That change reflected a shift from psychedelic to country flavored pop that would eventually propel Rogers to superstar status, leaving the First Edition far behind.
Artist: Beach Boys
Title: Heroes And Villains
Source: Mono CD: Good Vibrations-Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Wilson/Parks
Label: Capitol (original label: Brother)
Year: 1967
The last major Beach Boys hit of the 1960s was Heroes And Villains, released as a follow-up to Good Vibrations in early 1967. The song was intended to be part of the Smile album, but ended up being released as a single in an entirely different form than Brian Wilson originally intended.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: A Hazy Shade Of Winter
Source: 45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
Originally released as a single in 1966, A Hazy Shade Of Winter was one of several songs intended for the film The Graduate. The only one of these actually used in the movie was Mrs. Robinson. The remaining songs eventually made up side two of the 1968 album Bookends, although several of them were also released as singles throughout 1967. A Hazy Shade Of Winter, being the first of these singles (and the only one released in 1966), was also the highest charting, peaking at # 13 just as the weather was turning cold.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Love You To
Source: CD: Yellow Submarine Soundtrack (originally released on LP: Revolver)
Writer(s): George Harrison
Label: Parlophone (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1966
Following the release of Rubber Soul in December of 1965, the Beatles' George Harrison began to make a serious effort to learn to play the Sitar, studying under the master, Ravi Shankar. Along with the instrument itself, Harrison studied Eastern forms of music. His first song written in the modal form favored by Indian composers was Love You To, from the Revolver album. The recording also features Indian percussion instruments and suitably spiritual lyrics.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Within You Without You
Source: CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s): George Harrison
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1967
George Harrison began to take an interest in the Sitar as early as 1965. By 1966 he had become proficient enough on the Indian instrument to compose and record Love You To for the Revolver album. He followed that up with perhaps his most popular sitar-based track, Within You Without You, which opens side two of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Harrison would record one more similarly-styled song, The Inner Light, in 1968, before deciding that he was never going to be in the same league as Ravi Shankar, whom Harrison had become friends with by that time. For the remainder of his time with the Beatles Harrison would concentrate on his guitar work and songwriting skills, resulting in classic songs such as While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something and Here Comes The Sun.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Blue Jay Way
Source: LP: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s): George Harrison
Label: Capitol
Year: 1967
The Beatles' psychedelic period hit its peak with the late 1967 release of the Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack. As originally conceived there were only six songs on the album, too few for a standard LP. The British solution was to present Magical Mystery Tour as two Extended Play (EP) 45 RPM records in a gatefold sleeve with a 23 page booklet featuring lyrics and scenes from the telefilm of the same name (as well as the general storyline in prose form). As EPs were out of vogue in the US, Capitol Records, against the band's wishes, added five songs that had been issued as single A or B sides in 1967 to create a standard LP. The actual Magical Mystery Tour material made up side one of the LP, while the single sides were on side two. The lone George Harrison contribution to the project was Blue Jay Way, named for a street in the Hollywood Hills that Harrison had rented that summer. As all five of the extra tracks were credited to the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team, this meant that each of the band's 1967 albums had only one Harrison composition on them. This became a point of contention within the band, and on the Beatles' next album (the white album), Harrison's share of the songwriting had doubled.
Artist: Glass Family
Title: Funny Feeling
Source: Mono LP: Electric Band (bonus track)
Writer(s): Glass Family
Label: Maplewood
Year: Recorded 1967, released 2015
In early 60s West Los Angeles, a young man named Jim Callon and his friends David Capilouto and Gary Green decided to form a band to play surf music at parties and maybe make a little money in the process. They couldn't come up with a permanent band name, and would end up using whatever name suited them at the time. Several years later, while attending grad school at Cal State L.A., they finally decided on the Glass Family, and established a local reputation as the "perpetual opening band" for groups like the Doors, Vanilla Fudge, and the Grateful Dead. They signed a contract with Warner Brothers in 1967 to record an album with producer Richard Podolor, who had previously worked with bands like Steppenwolf and the Chocolate Watchband, among others. They presented the album to the shirts at Warner Brothers, who promptly rejected it and told them to go back into the studio and come up with something more commercially viable. The result was an album called Electric Band that was released in early 1969. In 2015, a new lable called Maplewood Records decided to reissue Electric Band as a double LP that included both the previously released LP and the rejected original album. Nightwrap For Dee, from the unreleased original album, is a classic example of instrumental psychedelia.
Artist: Glass Family
Title: Agorn (Elements Of Complex Variables)
Source: LP: Electric Band
Writer(s): Glass Family
Label: Maplewood (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1969
The final track on the released version of Glass Family's Electric Band album is a track called Agorn (Elements Of Complex Variables). The song, credited to keyboardist/bassist David Capilouto and percussionist Gary Green, the track features a drum solo by Green.
Artist: Glass Family
Title: House Of Glass
Source: British import CD: My Mind Goes High (originally released in US on LP: The Glass Family Electric Band)
Writer(s): Ralph Parrett
Label: Warner Strategic Marketing (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
The Glass Family (Ralph Parrett, David Capilouto and Gary Green) first surfaced in 1967 with a single called Teenage Rebellion on Mike Curb's Sidewalk label. The following year they signed with Warner Brothers, releasing their only LP, The Glass Family Electric Band, in 1969. The opening track from the album, House Of Glass, is, in the words of Capilouto, self-explanatory, which is a good thing, as it saves me the trouble of trying to figure out what it's about.
Artist: Al Kooper
Title: Bury My Body
Source: LP: Al's Big Deal (originally released on LP: Kooper Session)
Writer(s): Trad., arr. Al Kooper
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
Following up on the success of the 1968 Super Session album, Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield released a two-LP live album entitled The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper in February of 1969. But Kooper wasn't quite done with the jam album format. Later that same year he released Kooper Session: Super Session Vol. 2 with 15-year-old guitar phenom Shuggie Otis, the son of the legendary Johnny Otis (Willie And The Hand Jive). The album starts off with the nine-minute Bury My Body, a rock adaptation of an old spiritual that showcases both Otis's and Kooper's virtuosity. Shuggie Otis went on to have a successful career, both as a solo artist and as a sideman. Both his sons are also musicians.
Artist: Traffic
Title: (Roamin' Thro' the Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen
Source: CD: Traffic
Writer(s): Winwood/Capaldi
Label: Island (original US label: United Artists)
Year: 1968
In its original run, Traffic only released two full albums (and a third that consisted of non-LP singles, studio outtakes and live tracks). The second of these, simply titled Traffic, featured several memorable tunes, including (Roamin' Through the Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen, a Steve Winwood/Jim Capaldi collaboration.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: You Keep Me Hangin' On (includes Illusions Of My Childhood part one and two)
Source: LP: Vanilla Fudge
Writer(s): Holland/Dozier/Holland
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. The original album version was considerably longer than the single, however, due in part to the inclusion of something called Illusions Of My Childhood, which was basically a series of short psychedelic instrumental pieces incorporating themes from familiar nursery rhymes such as Farmer In The Dell and Ring Around The Rosie.
Artist: Paul Revere and the Raiders
Title: There's Always Tomorrow
Source: LP: Midnight Ride
Writer: Levin/Smith
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
We move now to sunny Los Angeles, circa 1966, where we find a band from Boise, Idaho starring in Dick Clark's daily national dance show, Where The Action Is. Paul Revere and the Raiders were one of the many bands of the early 1960s that helped lay the groundwork for the temporary democratization of American popular music later in the decade (for more on that head over to hermitradio.com). After honing their craft for years in the clubs of the Pacific Northwest the Raiders caught the attention of Clark, who called them the most versatile rock band he had ever seen. Clark introduced the band to Terry Melcher, which in turn led to Paul Revere and the Raiders being the first rock band ever signed to industry giant Columbia Records, at that time the second largest record company in the country. In addition to organist Revere the band featured Mark Lindsay on lead vocals and saxophone, Phil "Fang" Volker on bass, Drake Levin on lead guitar and Mike "Smitty" Smith on drums. Occassional someone other than Lindsay would get the opportunity to sing a lead vocal part, as Smitty does on There's Always Tomorrow, a song he co-wrote with Levin shortly before the guitarist quit to join the National Guard. Seriously, the guy who played the double-tracked lead guitars on Just Like Me quit the hottest band in the US at the peak of their popularity to voluntarily join the military. I'd say there was a good chance he was not one of the guys burning their draft cards that year.
Artist: Mouse And The Traps
Title: Maid Of Sugar-Maid Of Spice
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Henderson/Weiss
Label: Rhino (original label: Fraternity)
Year: 1966
Mouse (Ronnie Weiss) was, for a time, the most popular guy in Tyler, Texas, at least among the local youth. His band, Mouse and the traps, had a series of regional hits that garnered airplay at stations all across the state (and a rather large state at that). Although Mouse's first big hit, A Public Execution, had a strong Dylan feel to it, subsequent releases covered a wide range of styles, such as the garage-rock of his 1966 single Maid Of Sugar-Maid Of Spice.
Artist: Love
Title: My Little Red Book
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released on LP: Love)
Writer(s): Bacharach/David
Label: Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1966
The first rock record ever released by Elektra Records was a single by Love called My Little Red Book. The track itself (which also opens Love's debut LP), is a punked out version of a tune originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the What's New Pussycat movie soundtrack. Needless to say, Love's version was not exactly what Burt Bacharach and Hal David had in mind.
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