https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/469863-pe-2316
It's once again time for artists' sets, and this time around we have four of 'em, including another Doors set taken from the vinyl L.A. Woman Sessions box set. Speaking of which, copies are already on their way (and may have arrived by the time you read this) to Lou in Estes Park, CO., Gregory in Marana, AZ., and Chris in Rochester, NY. Thanks to all who entered by answering the question "What is you favorite Doors song" (The Crystal Ship got the most votes, with L.A. Woman and The End not far behind). We'll let you know next time we have something cool to give away.
Artist: Left Banke
Title: Walk Away Renee
Source: LP: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
Writer(s): Brown/Calilli/Sansune
Label: Smash/Sundazed
Year: 1966
The Left Banke's Walk Away Renee is one of the most covered songs in rock history, starting with a version by the Four Tops less than two years after the original recording had graced the top 5. The original Left Banke version kicked off what was thought at the time to be the latest trend: Baroque Pop. The trend died an early death when the band members themselves made some tactical errors resulting in radio stations being hesitant to play their records.
Artist: Cuby + Blizzards
Title: LSD (Got A Million Dollars)
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Muskee/Gelling
Label: Universal (original Dutch label: Philips)
Year: 1966
In the Netherlands it was a given that if you wanted to hear some live blues you needed to check out Cuby + Blizzards. Led by vocalist Harry "Cuby" Muskee and lead guitarist Eelco Gelling, C+B, as they were known to their fans, had been in a couple of local bands as early as 1962, but had made a decision to abandon rock 'n' roll for a more blues/R&B approach in 1964. After cutting a single for the small CNR label in 1965, C+B signed a long-term contract with Philips the following year. Their first single, LSD (Got A Million Dollars) has a sound not dissimilar to many American garage bands of the time, especially those who favored the Yardbirds as their primary influence. Cuby + Blizzards hit the Dutch top 40 nine times between 1967 and 1971, and released several well-received albums as well.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Go To Her
Source: LP: Early Flight
Writer(s): Kantner/Estes
Label: Grunt
Year: Recorded 1966, released 1974
Nearly every major artist acquires a backlog of unreleased songs over a period of time, usually due to lack of space on their official albums. Eventually many of these tracks get released on compilation albums or (more recently) as bonus tracks on CD versions of the original albums. One of the first of these compilation albums was Jefferson Airplane's Early Flight LP, released in 1974. Of the nine tracks on Early Flight, five were recorded during sessions for the band's first two LPs, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off and Surrealistic Pillow. One song originally intended for Surrealistic Pillow was Go To Her, an early Paul Kantner collaboration with his friend Irving Estes. At four minutes, the recording was longer than any of the songs that actually appeared on the album, which is probably the reason it didn't make the final cut, as it would have meant that two other songs would have to have been deleted instead.
Artist: Beatles
Title: In My Life
Source: CD: Rubber Soul
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone
Year: 1965
Rubber Soul was the first Beatles album to be made up entirely of songs written by the band members themselves, with most of them penned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lennon's contributions in particular were starting to move away from the typical "young love" songs the band had become famous for. One of the best examples is In My Life, which is a nostalgic look back at Lennon's own past (although put in such a way that it could be universally applied). Despite never being released as a single, In My Life remains one of the most popular songs in the Beatles catalog.
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: Beatles
Title: The Word
Source: CD: Rubber Soul
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1965
The original concept for the album Rubber Soul was to show the group stretching out into 60s Rhythm and Blues (known at the time as "soul" music) territory. The US version of the album, however, deleted several of the more soulful numbers in favor of more folk-rock sounding songs (including a pair held over from the band's previous British LP, Help). This was done by Capitol records mainly to cash in on the sudden popularity of the genre in 1965. Not all of the more R&B flavored songs were deleted, however. John Lennon's The Word appeared on both US and UK versions of Rubber Soul.
Artist: American Dream
Title: Raspberries
Source: LP: The American Dream
Writer(s): Van Winkle/Jameson
Label: Ampex
Year: 1970
OK, I have to admit that I know very little about the album and band called The American Dream, which was one of many LPs rescued from the trash heap when WEOS/WHWS got kicked out of the big old house they had been occupying for several years and moved into much smaller digs with virtually no storage space. Here's what I do know. The American Dream was from Philadelphia. The album was produced by Todd Rundgren. In fact, it was his first time producing a group that he himself was not a member of (not to mention the first album ever released on the Ampex label). Finally, these guys were actually pretty good. How good? Well, take a listen to the album's final (and longest) track, Raspberries, and decide for yourself.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix/Band of Gypsys
Title: Message To Love
Source: LP: Band Of Gypsys
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
In the mid-1960s Jimi Hendrix sat in on some recording sessions with his friend Curtis Knight, signing what he thought was a standard release contract at the time. It wasn't until Hendrix was an international star that the signing came back to haunt him in the form of a lawsuit by Capitol Records accusing him of breach of contract. The end result was that Hendrix ended up owing the label two albums, the first being an album called Get That Feeling that was made up of the material Hendrix had recorded with Knight. The second album was to be all new material, but at the time of the settlement in mid-1969 Hendrix had just disbanded the Experience and was experimenting around with different combinations of musicians before getting to work on his next studio project. Hendrix appeared at Woodstock with a number of these musicians, including his old Army buddy Billy Cox on bass. The two of them soon began to work up a live set with drummer Buddy Miles, who had made a guest appearance on the last Experience album, Electric Ladyland. The new three-piece group, calling itself Band Of Gypsys, played a two-night engagement at New York's Madison Square Garden over the New Year's holiday, using the best performances from both nights to compile a live album that was released by Capitol the following spring. Among the new songs that made their debut on Band Of Gypsys was Message To Love. The song is a fair indication of the direction that Hendrix's music was beginning to take.
Artist: Simon And Garfunkel
Title: Homeward Bound
Source: LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Sundazed/Columbia
Year: 1966
Following the success of Sounds Of Silence, Paul Simon And Art Garfunkel set about making an album of all new material (Sounds Of Silence had featured several re-recorded versions of tunes from the 1965 British album The Paul Simon Songbook). The result was Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, one of the finest folk-rock albums ever recorded. The album contained several successful singles, including Homeward Bound.
Artist: Simon And Garfunkel
Title: Mrs. Robinson
Source: LP: Bookends
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Sundazed/Columbia
Year: 1968
A shortened version of Mrs. Robinson first appeared on the soundtrack for the film The Graduate in 1967, but it wasn't until the Bookends album came out in 1968 that the full four minute version was released. Although the Graduate was one of the most successful films of the decade, I suspect that many more people have heard the song than have seen the film. Take that, movie lovers!
Artist: Simon And Garfunkel
Title: The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine
Source: LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Sundazed/Columbia
Year: 1966
After the surprise success of the Sound Of Silence single, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who had disbanded their partnership after the seeming failure of their Wednesday Morning 3 AM album in 1964, hastily reunited to record a new album of electrified versions of songs written by Simon, many of which had appeared on his 1965 solo LP the Paul Simon Songbook. With their newfound success, the duo set about recording an album's worth of new material. This time around, however, Simon had the time (and knowledge of what was working for the duo) to compose songs that would play to both the strengths of himself and Garfunkel as vocalists, as well as take advantage of the additional instrumentation available to him. The result was Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme, featuring tracks such as The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine, an energetic piece that effectively combines folk and rock with intelligent (if somewhat satirical) lyrics.
Artist: Who
Title: Someone's Coming
Source: Mono CD: The Who Sell Out Super Deluxe Edition (box set) (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): John Entwhistle
Label: Polydor/UMC (original US label: Decca)
Year: 1967
Some songs just get no respect. First released in 1967 in the UK as the B side of I Can See For Miles, John Alec Entwistle's Someone's Coming got left off the US release entirely. It wasn't until the release of the Magic Bus single (and subsequent LP) in 1968 that the tune appeared on US vinyl, and then, once again as a B side. The Magic Bus album, however, was never issued on CD in the US, although it has been available as a Canadian import for several years. Finally, in 1995 the song found a home on a US CD as a bonus track on The Who Sell Out.
Artist: Who
Title: Our Love Was
Source: LP: Magic Bus (originally released on LP: The Who Sell Out)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1967
The Who's late-1967 album, The Who Sell Out, is best known for its faux commercials and actual jingles lifted from the British pirate station Radio London. Hidden in plain sight among all the commercial hype, however, are some of the band's best tunes, including Our Love Was, a song that was one of the few LP tracks to be included on the Who's Magic Bus compilation album.
Artist: Who
Title: Tattoo (early mono mix)
Source: Mono CD: The Who Sell Out Super Deluxe Edition (box set)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Polydor/UMC
Year: 1967
Starting in 1966, the Who wrote songs about things no other rock group had even considered writing songs about. Happy Jack, for instance, was about a guy who would hang out on the beach and let the local kids tease (but not faze) him. I'm A Boy was about a guy whose mother insisted on dressing him the same as his sisters. And I'm not even getting into the subject matter of Pictures Of Lily. The Who Sell Out, released in December of 1967, continued this trend with songs like Tattoo, about an adolescent and his brother who go out and get (without their parents' permission) their first tattoos. The version heard here is an early mono mix that is preceded by one of the longer Radio London jingles that was not included on the original Who Sell Out LP.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Heart Full Of Soul
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Graham Gouldman
Label: Epic
Year: 1965
Heart Full Of Soul, the Yardbirds' follow-up single to For Your Love was a huge hit, making the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1965. The song, the first to feature guitarist Jeff Beck prominently, was written by Graham Gouldman, who was then a member of Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders and would later be a founding member of 10cc.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Gimme Some Lovin'
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Winwood/Winwood/Davis
Label: United Artists
Year: 1966
By mid-1966 the Spencer Davis Group had already racked up an impressive number of British hit singles, but had yet to crack the US top 40. This changed when the band released Gimme Some Lovin', an original composition that had taken the band about an hour to develop in the studio. The single, released on Oct 28, went to the #2 spot on the British charts. Although producer Jimmy Miller knew he had a hit on his hands, he decided to do a complete remix of the song, including a brand new lead vocal track, added backup vocals and percussion and plenty of reverb, for the song's US release. His strategy was successful; Gimme Some Lovin', released in December of 1966, hit the US charts in early 1967, eventually reaching the #7 spot. The US remix has since become the standard version of the song, and has appeared on countless compilations over the years.
Artist: Kinks
Title: All Day And All Of The Night
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Eric (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1964
Following up on their worldwide hit You Really Got Me, the Kinks proved that lightning could indeed strike twice with All Day And All Of The Night. Although there have been rumors over the years that the guitar solo on the track may have been played by studio guitarist Jimmy Page, reliable sources insist that it was solely the work of Dave Davies, who reportedly slashed his speakers to achieve the desired sound.
Next up we have three more tracks from the Doors L.A. Woman vinyl box set, all of which are among the earliest known versions of their respective pieces (and in the second case, "piece" is indeed an appropriate term).
Artist: Doors
Title: Hyancinth House (demo version)
Source: German import LP: L.A. Woman Sessions
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra/Rhino
Year: 1969
Recorded at Robby Krieger's home studio before actual recording sessions for the L.A. Woman album began.
Artist: Doors
Title: Mr. Mojo Risin'
Source: German import LP: L.A. Woman Sessions
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra/Rhino
Year: 1970
Interesting that they developed this short break in the middle of L.A. Woman separate from the song itself.
Artist: Doors
Title: Riders On The Storm (Sunset Sound version)
Source: German import LP: L.A. Woman Sessions
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra/Rhino
Year: 1970
This is the actual recording of what the Doors were playing at Sunset Sound Recorders when producer Paul Rothchild declared that it was "cocktail jazz" and that he wanted no part of it.
Artist: Gypsy
Title: Tomorrow Is The Last To Be Heard
Source: LP: Gypsy
Writer(s): Enrico Rosenbaum
Label: Metromedia
Year: 1971
Formed in Minneapolis by members of a band called the Underbeats, Gypsy came to national prominence when they became the house band at Los Angeles's famed Whisky-A-Go-Go club from September 1969 to April 1971. During that period they released their debut album, a two-LP set for the price of a single disc on the Metromedia label in 1970. The album did reasonably well on the charts, going to the #44 spot on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. Most of the songs on the album, including the final track, Tomorrow Is The Last To Be Heard, were written by guitarist Enrico Rosenbaum, who also provided lead vocals on the piece.
Artist: Santana
Title: Soul Sacrifice
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Santana)
Writer(s): Brown/Malone/Rolie/Santana
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
Of all the bands formed in the late 1960s, very few achieved any degree of popularity outside of their local community. Fewer still could be considered an influence on future stars. Most rare of all are those who managed to be both popular and influential while maintaining a degree of artistic integrity. One name that comes immediately to mind is Santana (both the band and the man). It might be surprising, then, to hear that the first Santana album, released in 1969, was savaged by the rock press, particularly the San Francisco based Rolling Stone magazine, who called it boring and repetitious. It wasn't until the band performed Soul Sacrifice (heard here in its original studio version) at Woodstock that Santana became major players on the rock scene.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Grammophone Man
Source: CD: Spirit
Writer(s): Ferguson/Locke/California/Andes/Cassidy
Label: Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year: 1968
Like most of the tracks on Spirit's 1968 debut LP, Grammophone Man combines rock and jazz in a way that has yet to be duplicated. Rather than create a jazz/rock fusion the group chose to switch gears mid-song. After a couple of minutes of a section that can best described as light rock, the song suddenly shifts into a fast-paced bop instrumental featuring Wes Montgomery style guitar work by Randy California and a short Ed Cassidy drum solo that eventually drops the tempo for a short reprise of the piece's main section.
Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Title: Jewel Eyed Judy
Source: LP: Kiln House
Writer(s): Kirwan/Fleetwood/McVie
Label: Reprise
Year: 1970
Kiln House was the first Fleetwood Mac album following the departure of the group's founder, guitarist Peter Green. At this point the band was a quartet, featuring guitarist/vocalists Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer (both of whom sang on their own material) along with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. Whereas Spencer's material reflects his own interest in 50s rock 'n' roll, Kirwan's tunes, including Jewel Eyed Judy, were much more in line with the direction the band would take over the next few years. One factor that influenced this change in direction was the presence of McVie's wife Christine, who, although still not officially a member of Fleetwood Mac, made significant contributions to the album as a keyboardist and backup vocalist. She also provided the artwork for the album's cover.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: Good Good Lovin'
Source: Mono CD: The Complete Atco Singles (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Stein/Bogert/Martell/Appice
Label: Real Gone/Rhino
Year: 1969
Originally recorded for the album Near The Beginning, the Vanilla Fudge original Good Good Lovin' instead appeared as the B side of the band's hard-driving cover of Jr. Walker's Shotgun. As a general rule, the Fudge were better at arranging other people's material than in composing their own, but Good Good Lovin' is actually a pretty powerful piece musically, with some antiwar lyrics thrown in for good measure.
Artist: Them
Title: I'm Your Witch Doctor
Source: Mono 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: Steppenwolf
Title: The Ostrich
Source: Canadian CD: Steppenwolf
Writer(s): John Kay
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill/ABC)
Year: 1968
Although John Kay's songwriting skills were still a work in progress on the first Steppenwolf album, there were some outstanding Kay songs on that LP, such as The Ostrich, a song that helped define Steppenwolf as one of the most politically savvy rock bands in history.
Artist: Raik's Progress
Title: Baby, Please Don't Go
Source: Mono LP: Sewer Rat Love Chant
Writer(s): Joe Williams
Label: Sundazed
Year: 1966
In 1966 Fresno, California's Raik's Progress recorded a slew of demos for the Liberty label. Only two of those songs, however, were released in 1966. The rest, including this cover of Joe Williams's best known song, Baby, Please Don't Go. Finally, in 2003, Sundazed Records released the LP Sewer Rat Love Chant, collecting all the band's 1966 recordings.
Artist: Animals
Title: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Benjamin/Marcus/Caldwell
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1965
1965 was a huge year for the Animals. Coming off the success of their 1964 smash House Of The Rising Sun, the Newcastle group racked up three major hits in 1965, including Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, a song originally recorded by jazz singer Nina Simone. The Animals version speeded up the tempo and used a signature riff that had been taken from Simone's outro. The Animals version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood made the top 20 in the US and the top five in both the UK and Canada.
Artist: David Bowie
Title: Space Oddity (original version)
Source: Mono CD: The Deram Anthology 1966-1968 (originally released on LP: Love You Till Tuesday)
Writer: David Bowie
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
When David Jones first started his recording career he was a fairly conventional pop singer, even after changing his name to David Bowie (to avoid being confused with Davy Jones of the Monkees). After several singles and a 1967 self-title debut LP failed to make a dent in the charts, Bowie decided to take a more experimental approach, starting a group called Feathers with dancer Hermione Farthingale (with whom he was in a relationship with at the time) and guitarist John Hutchinson. Bowie also acquired a new manager, Kenneth Pitt, who authorized the production of a promotion film called Love You Till Tuesday in an attempt to make Bowie known to a larger audience. With nothing but previously released material on hand, Pitt asked Bowie to come up with something new to be the focus of the film. Bowie obliged him by coming up with Space Oddity, an attempt to humanize the idea of being alone in a space capsule. After recording a demo of the song with Hutchinson in January of 1969, Bowie recorded his first studio version of Space Oddity on Feb. 2 at London's Morgan Studios. Joining Bowie and Hutchinson (who shared lead vocals) were Colin Wood on keyboards and flute, Dave Clague on bass and Tat Meager on drums. The odd flute-sounding instrument in the mix was an Ocarina played by Bowie himself.
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