https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/410717-dc-2211
This week, bookended by a pair of tunes from 1972, we have one long set of tracks from 1969. As to why '69 and why this week, that's a personal matter, having everything to do with the fact that the producer of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era was born in March of 1953. Besides, '69 was a pretty good year for music, as you are about to discover.
Artist: Argent
Title: Hold Your Head Up
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: All Together Now)
Writer(s): Argent/White
Label: Sony Music (original US label: Epic)
Year: 1972
Following the dissolution of the Zombies, keyboardist Rod Argent went about forming a new band called, appropriately enough, Argent. The new group had its greatest success in 1972 with the song Hold Your Head Up, which went to the #5 spot on the charts in both the US and UK. The song originally appeared on the album All Together Now, with a running time of over six minutes. The first single version of the tune ran less than three minutes, but was quickly replaced with a longer edit that made the song three minutes and fifteen seconds long. In the years since, the longer LP version has come to be the most familiar one to most radio listeners.
Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Do What You Like
Source: LP: Blind Faith
Writer: Ginger Baker
Label: Polydor
Year: 1969
Ginger Baker basically invented the rock drum solo, or at least was the first to record one in the studio, with the track Toad from the Fresh Cream album, released in 1966. A live version of the song was featured on the Wheels Of Fire album in 1968. The following year, recording technology had progressed to the point of allowing a true stereo mix of Baker's massive double bass drum setup for the track Do What You Like, a much more sophisticated composition than Toad. Featuring a vocal track as well as solos by all four band members, Do What You Like runs over 15 minutes in length.
Artist: David Bowie
Title: Space Oddity
Source: CD: Nothing Has Changed (originally released on LP: David Bowie)
Writer: David Bowie
Label: Columbia/Legacy (original US label: Mercury)
Year: 1969
When David Jones first started his recording career he was a fairly conventional folk singer. With his second self-titled album (later retitled Space Oddity) he truly became the David Bowie we all know, and the rock world was never quite the same. Although originally released in 1969, the song didn't become popular in the US until 1973, when it was released as a single with the title track of the 1970 album The Man Who Sold The World as a B side.
Artist: Crosby, Stills And Nash
Title: Helplessly Hoping
Source: LP: So Far (originally released on LP: Crosby, Stills and Nash)
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
By 1969 there was a significant portion of the record-buying public that was more interested in buying albums than in picking up the latest hit single. This in turn was leading to the emergence of album-oriented FM radio stations as players in the music industry. Crosby, Stills and Nash took full advantage of this trend. Although they did release a pair of singles from the debut LP (Marrakesh Express and Suite: Judy Blue Eyes), it was their album tracks like Helplessly Hoping that got major airplay on FM radio and helped usher in the age of the singer/songwriter, making the trio superstars in the process.
Artist: Canned Heat
Title: Poor Moon
Source: CD: The Very Best Of Canned Heat (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Al Wilson
Label: Capitol (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1969
Poor Moon is a Canned Heat tune bemoaning the eventual colonization/exploitation of our nearest celestial neighbor. Written by guitarist Al "Blind Owl" Wilson, the song was released as a single in 1969, but only made it to the # 113 spot on the charts. As Poor Moon was not included on any albums at the time, it qualifies as perhaps the most obscure song in the entire Canned Heat catalog.
Artist: Allman Brothers Band
Title: Whipping Post
Source: CD: Beginnings (originally released on LP: The Allman Brothers Band)
Writer(s): Gregg Allman
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1969
It's hard to believe now, but when it was released in 1969, the first Allman Brothers Band LP did not sell all that well. Even stranger, the critics were at best lukewarm in their reviews of the album. It wasn't until the band released a live album in 1971 that had been recorded during the final days of the Fillmore East that the Allman Brothers became a major force in rock. Not long after that Atco Records re-released both the Allman Brothers Band and its followup, Idlewild South, as a double-LP entitled Beginnings. One of the high points of the Fillmore East album was the band's rendition of Whipping Post, heard here in its original studio form.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Title: Isabella
Source: CD: Woodstock Two
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Atlantic (original label: Cotillion)
Year: Recorded 1969, released 1972
After disbanding the Experience in June of 1969, Jimi Hendrix retreated to the eight-bedroom 'Ashokan House' in the hamlet of Boiceville near Woodstock in upstate New York, where he found himself jamming with a larger group of musicians (including a rhythm guitarist, Jerry Lee) than he had previously had the opportunity to work with. He took this group (which he referred to onstage as Gypsy Sun and Rainbows) with him to the Woodstock Festival in June, where they performed several new numbers Hendrix was working on, including a song called Isabella. A studio version of the song was recorded the following year, and is now considered to be part of a double LP Hendrix planned to release in 1971. Meanwhile the live recording of Isabella, which was not included on the Woodstock soundtrack album, ended up being released on the album Woodstock Two in 1972.
Artist: James Gang
Title: Introduction/Take A Look Around
Source: CD: Yer' Album
Writer(s): Joe Walsh
Label: MCA (original label: Bluesway)
Year: 1969
Like the Big Bands of the 1930s and '40s, the James Gang went through several lineup changes over the years. The one common element of the band was drummer/founder Dale Peters, who teamed with bassist Tom Kriss and vocalist/guitarist Joe Walsh for the group's recording debut in 1969. Unlike most band leaders, Peters was content to let other members such as Walsh take center stage, both as performers and songwriters. The result was a band that was able to rock as hard as any of their contemporaries with tracks like The Bomber and Funk #49, but that could also showcase Walsh's more melodic side with songs such as Take A Look Around. For some unknown reason, ABC Records decided to issue Yer Album on it's Bluesway subsidiary; it was the only rock album ever released on that label (subsequent James Gang albums were on the parent ABC label).
Artist: Neil Young
Title: Words (Between The Lines Of Age)
Source: CD: Harvest
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1972
The closing track of Neil Young's Harvest LP is also the longest song on the album. Words (Between The Lines Of Age), featuring an extended guitar break in the tradition of Cowgirl In The Sand, was recorded in a barn on Young's ranch in California, with PA speakers set up for the band rather than the usual headphones. This resulted in some bleed through between microphones, which Young felt actually enhanced the "live" feel of the recording. Besides Young, the track features drummer Kenny Buttrey, bassist Tim Drummond, and steel-guitarist Ben Keith, who would collectively come to be known as Stray Gators. Jack Nitzsche also appears on the track playing piano and lap steel guitar.
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