https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/426988-pe-2226
This time around we have progressions and regressions through the years, artists sets, and finally, a whole bunch of tunes from 1967 to finish out the week.
Artist: Animals
Title: Dimples
Source: Mono LP: The Best Of The Animals (originally released on LP: The Animals On Tour)
Writer(s): Hooker/Bracken
Label: Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1965
Of all the bands to come out of England as part of the British invasion of the mid-1960s, none were bigger fans of US blues and R&B artists than the Animals, from the city of Newcastle uponTyne. The group reportedly spent all of their spare time checking out independent record stores looking for obscure old records while on their first US tour, and upon returning to the UK set about recording their own versions of several of these songs. Among the tracks recorded was Dimples, a John Lee Hooker tune that was included on the Animals second US LP, On Tour. A different recording of Dimples was included on the band's first UK album.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes
Source: CD: The Blues Project Anthology (originally released on LP: Projections)
Writer(s): Blind Willie Johnson
Label: Polydor (original label: Verve Folkways)
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 successful rock jam LP, 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 on a blues record.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: I'm A Man
Source: Mono LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Winwood/Miller
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
The Spencer Davis Group, featuring Steve and Muff Winwood, was one of the UK's most successful white R&B bands of the sixties, cranking out a steady stream of hit singles. Two of them, the iconic Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man, were also major hits in the US, the latter being the last song to feature the Winwood brothers. Muff Winwood became a successful record producer, while his brother Steve went on to form the band Traffic. Then Blind Faith. Then Traffic again. And then a successful solo career. Meanwhile, the Spencer Davis Group continued on for several years with a series of replacement vocalists, but were never able to duplicate their earlier successes with the Winwoods.
Artist: Warm Sounds
Title: Nite Is A Comin'/Smeta Murgaty
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Gerrard/Younghusband
Label: Deram
Year: 1968
Presaging a trend that began to take off in the 1980s (and is even more prevalent today), Warm Sounds was a band that actually consisted of only two people, Britishers Denver Gerrard and Barry Younghusband. They only had one real hit, the 1967 tune Birds And Bees, but continued to make records through the following year, getting more experimental with each subsequent single. Among the most psychedelic of these singles was Nite Is A Comin', which here is segued into its own B side, Smeta Murgaty. Astute listeners will realize that the first portion of Smeta Murgaty is actually the last portion of Nite Is A Comin' played backwards. Experimental indeed!
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Miss Attraction
Source: LP: The Best Of The Strawberry Alarm Clock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Weitz/Pitman/King/Freeman/Gunnels
Label: Sundazed/Uni
Year: 1969
The Strawberry Alarm Clock had always had a bit of a fluid lineup, having been formed in the first place by the merger of two local Los Angeles bands, Waterfyrd Traene and Thee Sixpence. Their biggest hit, Incense and Peppermints, featured lead vocals from a member of yet another local band, and one of their main songwriters on the first album (who also played flute on several tracks) was not credited as a band member at all. Such confusion continued to plague the band throughout its existence. In 1968, for instance, their former manager recruited two ex-members to form a second Strawberry Alarm Clock to tour and play the band's songs while the current group was working on their fourth and final LP, Good Morning Starshine. A court injunction stopped the new group from using the name, but by the time it took effect the damage had already been done. Promoters refused to book the band, not knowing who would actually show up. The group's sound had changed a bit by then as well, as can be heard on Miss Attraction, the first single released from Good Morning Starshine. Founding member and co-leader Ed King, the band's lead guitarist, had already been playing many of the bass lines on the group's studio recordings. For Good Morning Starshine he officially switched to bass, although he also provided some of the guitar tracks on the album as well. Following the breakup of the Strawberry Alarm Clock King would take a similar role in his new group, Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Artist: 13th Floor Elevators
Title: Roller Coaster
Source: CD:The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators
Writer(s): Hall/Erickson
Label: Collectables (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1966
A favorite trick of dance club bands in the late 60s was to start a song off slow, then slowly build up to a frenzy, all the while sneaking looks at the teenage girls gyrating on the dance floor. As most of the band members were still in their teens themselves, this isn't as creepy as it sounds. A good example of this type of song is Roller Coaster, a tune that Austin's 13th Floor Elevators included on their first LP.
Artist: Shadows of Knight
Title: Oh Yeah
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Elias McDaniel
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
The original British blues bands like the Yardbirds made no secret of the fact that they had created their own version of a music that had come from Chicago. The Shadows Of Knight, on the other hand, were a Chicago band that created their own version of the British blues, bringing the whole thing full circle. After taking their version of Van Morrison's Gloria into the top 10 early in 1966, the Shadows (which had added "of Knight" to their name just prior to releasing Gloria) decided to follow it up with an updated version of Bo Diddley's Oh Yeah. Although the song did not have a lot of national top 40 success, it did help establish the Shadows' reputation as one of the premier garage-punk bands.
Artist: Love
Title: No. Fourteen
Source: Mono CD: Love Story (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Raven (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1967
With a title that is an obvious joke, No. Fourteen is among the most obscure of the original Love's recordings, having appeared on vinyl only as a B side to the 1966 single 7&7 Is and on a 1973 compilation album that was only released in Europe. At less than two minutes long, it would seem that the track's main objective was to make sure that disc jockeys didn't accidentally play the wrong side of the record.
Artist: Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title: Cinnamon Girl
Source: LP: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
My favorite Neil Young song has always been Cinnamon Girl. I suspect this is because the band I was in the summer after I graduated from high school used an amped-up version of the song as our show opener (imagine Cinnamon Girl played like I Can See For Miles and you get a general idea of how it sounded). If we had ever recorded an album, we probably would have used that arrangement as our first single. I finally got to see Neil Young perform the song live (from the 16th row even) with Booker T. and the MGs as his stage band in the mid-1990s. It was worth the wait.
Artist: Them
Title: I'm Your Witch Doctor
Source: LP: Now and Them
Writer: John Mayall
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
Here's an oddity for you: a pyschedelicized version of a John Mayall song by Van Morrison's old band with a new vocalist (Kenny McDowell). Just to make it even odder we have sound effects at the beginning of the song that were obviously added after the fact by the producer (and not done particularly well at that). But then, what else would you expect from the label that put out an LP by a band that didn't even participate in the recording of half the tracks on the album (Chocolate Watchband's No Way Out), a song about a city that none of the band members had ever been to (the Standells' Dirty Water), and soundtrack albums to teensploitation films like Wild In the Streets, Riot On Sunset Strip and The Love In? Let's hear it for Tower Records!
Artist: Circus Maximus
Title: Short-Haired Fathers
Source: LP: Circus Maximus
Writer(s): Bob Bruno
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
Circus Maximus was formed in Greenwich Village by guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Bob Bruno and guitarist Jerry Jeff Walker in 1967. The group originally wanted to call itself the Lost Sea Dreamers, but changed it after the Vanguard Records expressed reservations about signing a group with the initials LSD. Of the eleven tracks on the band's debut LP, only four were written by Walker, and those were in more of a folk-rock vein. Bruno's seven tracks, on the other hand, are true gems of psychedelia, ranging from the jazz-influenced Wind to the proto-punk rocker Short-Haired Fathers. The group fell apart after only two albums, mostly due to the growing musical differences between Walker and Bruno. Walker, of course, went on to become one of the most successful songwriters of the country-rock genre. As for Bruno, he's still in New York City, concentrating more on the visual arts in recent years.
Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Summer In The City
Source: LP: Harmony (originally released on LP: Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful)
Writer(s): Sebastian/Sebastian/Boone
Label: RCA Special Products (original label: Kama Sutra)
Year: 1966
The Lovin' Spoonful changed gears completely for what would become their biggest hit of 1966: Summer In The City. Inspired by a poem by John Sebastian's brother, the song was recorded for the album Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful. That album was an attempt by the band to deliberately record in a variety of styles; in the case of Summer In The City, it was a rare foray into psychedelic rock for the band. Not coincidentally, Summer In The City is also my favorite Lovin' Spoonful song.
Artist: Standells
Title: Dirty Water
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Dirty Water has long since been adopted by the city of Boston (and especially its sports teams), yet the band that originally recorded this Ed Cobb tune was purely an L.A. band, having started off playing cover tunes for frat parties in the early 60s. Drummer Dickie Dodd, who sings lead on Dirty Water, was a former Mouseketeer who had played on the surf-rock hit Mr. Moto as a member of the Bel-Airs.
Artist: Who
Title: I Can't Explain
Source: Mono CD: Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original US label: Decca)
Year: 1964
Here's a little known fact: The Who's first single, I Can't Explain, came out in the US several weeks before it did in England. As to how this came about, producer Shel Talmy had this to say: "The Who was funny, because I brought them to Decca America, who were a very nice bunch of guys, older men who had no idea what rock'n'roll was. They didn't understand what the hell I was doing, but they said if that's what's supposedly selling, then we'll go out and try to sell it, which of course they did." I Can't Explain was released in the second week of December, 1964 in the US. Since there was a completely separate Decca label in the UK (the two had split prior to WWII), records made for the US Decca label appeared in Britain on the Brunswick label, which was owned by US Decca. I Can't Explain was released in the UK on January 15, 1965, over a month after it had appeared in the US. Subsequent Who releases on Brunswick came out before their American counterparts, however. As an aside, when the Who jumped labels from Brunswick to Reaction in 1966, their contract with US Decca temporarily lapsed, allowing the single version of Substitute (with the line "I look all white but my dad was black" deleted) to come out on the Atco label in the US. Apparently new contracts were signed shortly thereafter that saw subsequent Who singles back on the Decca label in the US from that point on.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: Richard Cory
Source: LP: Sounds Of Silence
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
My ultra-cool 9th-grade English teacher brought in a copy of Simon And Garfunkel's Sounds Of Silence album one day. As a class, we deconstructed the lyrics of two of the songs on that album: A Most Peculiar Man and Richard Cory. Both songs deal with suicide, but under vastly different circumstances. Whereas A Most Peculiar Man is about a lonely man who lives an isolated existence as an anonymous resident of a boarding house, Richard Cory deals with a character who is a pillar of society, known and envied by many. Too bad most high school English classes weren't that interesting.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Double Yellow Line
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Rhino (original label: Original Sound, stereo LP version released on Warner Brothers)
Year: 1967
One of the Original Sound singles that also appeared on the Warner Brothers LP Bonniwell Music Machine, Double Yellow Line features lyrics that were literally written by Bonniwell on the way to the recording studio. In fact, his inability to stay in his lane while driving with one hand and writing with the other resulted in a traffic ticket. The ever resourceful Bonniwell wrote the rest of the lyrics on the back of the ticket and even invited the officer in to watch the recording session. The officer declined the invitation.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Move On Alone
Source: LP: This Was
Writer(s): Mick Abrahams
Label: Chrysalis (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Original lead guitarist Mick Abrahams was already on his way out of Jethro Tull when the liner notes for the band's debut LP were written by vocalist/flautist Ian Anderson. In fact, it is probable that the album's title itself, This Was, refers to the band having already divested itself of the heavy blues influence that Abrahams had brought to the group. Oddly enough, the one song on the album that was composed entirely by Abrahams, Move On Alone (an appropriate title, as it turns out), has more of a dance hall feel to it, complete with horn section. Abrahams would go on to found Blodwyn Pig, while Jethro Tull became, essentially, a vehicle for Anderson's songwriting.
Artist: Aerovons
Title: World Of You
Source: CD: Insane Times (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Hartman
Label: Zonophone (original label: Parlophone)
Year: 1969
Originally from St. Louis, Mo., the Aerovons were such big fans of the Beatles that they moved to England in hopes of meeting their idols. They had enough talent in their own right to get a contract with EMI, recording an album's worth of material at Abbey Road in 1969. Although only two singles from those sessions were originally released (on Parlophone, the same label that the Beatles' records were on), the Aerovons finally got some recognition many years later when an acetate of their unreleased album was discovered and remastered for release on the RPM label. Perhaps more important for the band members, they got to meet the Beatles while recording at Abbey Road!
Artist: Mouse
Title: Promises Promises
Source: Mono British import CD: The Fraternity Years (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Brians/Payne
Label: Big Beat (original label: Fraternity)
Year: 1967
Although they never released any LPs, the Tyler-based Mouse And The Traps were one of the most prolific recording bands in Texas, releasing over a dozen singles on the Fraternity label from 1966 through 1968. Many of these records were regional hits as far east as Nashville, Tennessee, but due to the nature of small label distribution and promotion, they would have already peaked in one locality while just starting to break in another. As a result, despite each one being quite popular overall, they were never able to make the national charts. The band toured extensively, playing bars and small auditoriums all over the southeastern US, returning to the studio to cut a song or two whenever their schedule allowed. Most of their material came from either band members Ronnie "Mouse" Weiss and Knox Henderson or their producer, Robin Hood Brians. It was Brians who co-wrote Promises Promises, a 1967 B side that sounds like a cross between folk-rock and early southern rock.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: 3rd Stone From The Sun
Source: Mono LP: Are You Experienced
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
One of the great rock instrumentals, 3rd Stone From The Sun (from the Jimi Hendrix Experience album Are You Experienced) is one of the first tracks to use a recording technique known as backwards masking (where the tape is deliberately put on the machine backwards and new material is added to the reversed recording). In this particular case the masked material (Hendrix speaking) was added at a faster speed than the original recording, with a lot of reverb added, creating an almost otherworldly effect when played forward at normal speed.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Wait Until Tomorrow
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Jimi Hendrix shows his sense of humor on Wait Until Tomorrow, a track from his second Jimi Hendrix Experience LP, Axis: Bold As Love. The song tells a story of a young man standing outside his girlfriend's window trying to convince her to run away from him. He gets continually rebuffed by the girl, who keeps telling him to Wait Until Tomorrow. Ultimately the girl's father resolves the issue by shooting the young man. The entire story is punctuated by outstanding distortion-free guitar work that showcases just how gifted Hendrix was on his chosen instrument.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: All Along The Watchtower
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Although there have been countless covers of Bob Dylan songs recorded by a variety of artists, very few of them are considered improvements over Dylan's original versions. Probably the most celebrated of these is the Jimi Hendrix Experience version of All Along The Watchtower on the Electric Ladyland album. Hendrix's arrangement of the song has been adopted by several other musicians over the years, including Neil Young (at the massive Bob Dylan tribute concert) and even Dylan himself.
Artist: Cream
Title: White Room
Source: CD: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Musically almost a rewriting of Eric Clapton's Tales of Brave Ulysses (from Cream's Disraeli Gears album), White Room, a Jack Bruce/Pete Brown composition from the Wheels Of Fire album, is arguably the most popular song ever to feature the use of a wah-wah pedal prominently.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Page/McCarty
Label: Epic
Year: 1967
By 1967 the Yardbirds had moved far away from their blues roots and were on their fourth lead guitarist, studio whiz Jimmy Page. The band had recently picked up a new producer, Mickey Most, known mostly for his work with Herman's Hermits and the original Animals. Most had a tendency to focus on the band's single A sides, leaving Page an opportunity to develop his own songwriting and production skills on songs such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, a track that also shows signs of Page's innovative guitar style (including an instrumental break played with a violin bow) that would help define 70s rock.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Eight Miles High
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Fifth Dimension)
Writer(s): Clark/McGuinn/Crosby
Label: Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1966
Gene Clark's final contribution to the Byrds was his collaboration with David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, Eight Miles High. Despite a newsletter from the influential Gavin Report advising stations not to play this "drug song", Eight Miles High managed to hit the top 20 in 1966. The band members themselves claimed that Eight Miles High was not a drug song at all, but was instead referring to the experience of travelling by air. In fact, it was Gene Clark's fear of flying, especially long intercontinental trips, that in part led to his leaving the Byrds.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: How Do You Feel
Source: LP: Surrealistic Pillow (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Tom Mastlin
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
How Do You Feel was the only song on Surrealistic Pillow not written by a current or former member of Jefferson Airplane, having been given to the band by Tom Maslin, a friend of Paul Kantner's. The song was first released in late 1966 as the B side of My Best Friend.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Chauffeur Blues
Source: LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer(s): Lester Melrose (disputed, may have been Lizzie Douglas)
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
The Jefferson Airplane's original female vocalist was Signe Toly Anderson. Unlike Grace Slick, who basically shared lead vocals with founder Marty Balin, Anderson mostly functioned as a backup singer. The only Airplane recording to feature Anderson as a lead vocalist was Chauffeur Blues, a cover of an old Memphis Minnie tune that was included on the 1966 LP Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. The song was credited on the album's label to Lester Melrose, who produced the original Memphis Minnie version of the song. However, the original 1941 78 RPM label gives the songwriting credit to "Lawler", which is thought to be a misspelled reference to Minnie's husband, Ernest "Little Son Joe" Lawlars. It is now believed that Memphis Minnie, whose given name was Lizzie Douglas, was the actual writer of Chaffeur Blues, but that it was easier to get the song published under her husband's name.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Somebody To Love
Source: LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s): Darby Slick
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1967
Jefferson Airplane's Somebody To Love is, of course, the monster hit that put the San Francisco Bay area on the musical map in early 1967, touching off an exodus of young hippie wannabees from all over the country that converged on the city's Haight-Ashbury district that summer. Interestingly enough, Somebody To Love was not the first single released from the band's Surrealistic Pillow album. That honor goes to My Best Friend, a song written by the band's former drummer Skip Spence.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: The First Edition and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Mickey Newbury
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
In 1968, former New Christy Mistrels members Kenny Rogers and Mike Settle decided to form a psychedelic rock band, the First Edition. Although Settle was the official leader on the first album, it was Rogers who would emerge as the star of the band, even to the point of eventually changing the band's name to Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. That change reflected a shift from psychedelic folk-rock to country flavored pop that would eventually propel Rogers to superstar status.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Flying
Source: CD: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr
Label: Apple/Parlophone
Year: 1967
1967 was an odd year for the Beatles. They started it with one of their most successful double-sided singles, Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane, and followed it up with the iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. From there, they embarked on a new film project. Unlike their previous movies, the Magical Mystery Tour was not made to be shown in theaters. Rather, the film was aired as a television special shown exclusively in the UK. The airing of the film, in December of 1967, coincided with the release (again only in the UK and Europe) of a two-disc extended play 45 RPM set featuring the six songs from the special. As EPs were at that time considered a non-starter in the US, Capitol Records decided to release Magical Mystery Tour as a full-length album instead, with the songs from the telefilm on one side of the LP and all of the single sides they had released that year on the other. Among the songs from the film itself is Flying, an instrumental track that, unusually, was credited to the entire band.
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) while they were together. 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: Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Stephen Stills and Neil Young. 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 50 years after it was recorded.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: She's A Rainbow
Source: Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
The Stones had their own brand of psychedelia, which was showcased on their 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties Request. The album itself, after zooming to the top of the charts, lost its momentum quickly, despite the fact that She's A Rainbow, which was released as a single, was a solid top 40 hit.
Artist: Doors
Title: You're Lost Little Girl
Source: 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 haunting number that's always been 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: Traffic
Title: Smiling Phases
Source: CD: Smiling Phases (originally released in UK as 45 RPM B side and in US on LP: Heaven Is In Your Mind, aka Mr. Fantasy)
Writer(s): Capaldi/Wood/Winwood
Label: Island (original US label: United Artists)
Year: 1967
The standard practice in the UK during the 60s was to not include songs that had been released as singles on LPs. This left several songs, such as the 1967 B side Smiling Phases, only available on 45 RPM vinyl until the group's first greatest hits anthology was released. In the US the song was more widely circulated, having been included on the American version of Traffic's debut LP. Smiling Phases has since come to be recognized as one of Traffic's most iconic tunes, and has been covered by such bands as Blood, Sweat and Tears.
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