https://exchange.prx.org/p/537815
More Music was a popular catchphrase among top 40 radio stations in the mid-1960s, even to the point of being the focus of a popular "stinger" used by many of them. This week we take a different approach to the idea of more music by presenting some rather lengthy uninterrupted progressions through the years, along with a couple of shorter ones at the beginning and end of the show. In between we have sets from specific years and an artists' set that starts with two songs that beg to be played back to back.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Tired Of Waiting For You
Source: Mono CD: The Best Of 60s Supergroups (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Priority (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1965
After a series of hard-rocking hits such as You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night, the Kinks surprised everyone with the highly melodic Tired Of Waiting For You in 1965. As it turns out the song was just one of many steps in the continually maturing songwriting of Ray Davies.
Artist: Monkees
Title: This Just Doesn't Seem To Be My Day
Source: Mono LP: The Monkees
Writer(s): Boyce/Hart
Label: Colgems
Year: 1966
I was one of those kids lucky enough to have one relative that was epitome of cool in the 1960s. In my case it was my aunt Peggy (a name she detested so much she ended up changing it legally). Peg was my dad's nine-years-younger half-sister who escaped the New York foster care system and came to live with us in Denver while still in her teens. By 1966 she was a newlywed living in Boulder in a big old Victorian house in one of the hillier parts of town. That Christmas she and her husband Phil gave me a mono copy of the first Monkees album. I was already a fan of the TV show, and that album was by far my favorite Christmas present that year. Even then, my least favorite Monkee was Davy Jones, who always seemed to get the sappiest songs handed to him by music director Don Kirschner. One exception, however, was This Just Doesn't Seem To Be My Day. As an adolescent I found the song, written by Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart, to be a fairly accurate description of a typical day in my own life. Within six months my interest in the Monkees had waned somewhat, as (thanks to the new FCC rule that required FM stations that were co-owned with AM stations to provide several hours of separate programming each week) I was beginning to discover bands like the Electric Prunes and Jefferson Airplane, that were, in my opinion, much cooler than the Monkees. Still, I have fond memories of that mono copy of the Monkees given to me all those years ago.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice
Source: CD: South Saturn Delta (originally released in Europe and the UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA/Experience Hendrix
Year: 1967
The fourth single released in Europe and the UK by the Jimi Hendrix Experience was 1967's Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, which appeared in stereo the following year on the album Electric Ladyland. The B side of that single was a strange bit of psychedelia called The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice, which is also known in some circles as STP With LSD. The piece features Hendrix on guitar and vocals, with background sounds provided by a cast of dozens informally known as the Milky Way Express. Starting about halfway through the record Hendrix's vocals are spoken rather than sung, and resemble nothing more than a cosmic travelogue with Hendrix himself as the tour guide. For the US release, engineer Eddie Kramer created a new stereo mix that favors Hendrix's guitar work in the last half of the song, somewhat burying his vocal track off to one side in the mix.
Artist: Deep Purple
Title: Prelude: Happiness/I'm So Glad
Source: LP: Shades Of Deep Purple
Writer(s): Evans/Lord/Paice/Blackmore/Simper/James
Label: Tetragrammaton
Year: 1968
Deep Purple was originally the brainchild of vocalist Chris Curtis, whose idea was to have a band called Roundabout that utilized a rotating cast of musicians onstage, with only Curtis himself being up there for the entire gig. The first two musicians recruited were organist Jon Lord and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, both of whom came aboard in late 1967. Curtis soon lost interest in the project, and Lord and Blackmore decided to stay together and form what would become Deep Purple. After a few false starts the lineup stabilized with the addition of bassist Nicky Simper, drummer Ian Paice and vocalist Rod Evans. The group worked up a songlist and used their various connections to get a record deal with a new American record label, Tetragrammaton, which was partially owned by actor/comedian Bill Cosby. This in turn led to a deal to release the band's recordings in England on EMI's Parlophone label as well, although Tetragrammaton had first rights to all the band's material, including the classically-influenced Prelude: Happiness, which leads directly into a cover of the Skip James classic I'm So Glad. The band's first LP, Shades Of Deep Purple, was released in the US in July of 1968 and in the UK in September of the same year. The album was a major success in the US, where the single Hush made it into the top five. In the UK, however, it was panned by the rock press and failed to make the charts. This would prove to be the pattern the band would follow throughout its early years; it was only after Evans and Simper were replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover that the band would find success in their native land. Both editions of Deep Purple can be heard regularly on our companion show, Rockin' in the Days of Confusion.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Blue Jay Way
Source: CD: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s): George Harrison
Label: Apple/Parlophone (original US 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 band's 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 a house on 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: Easybeats
Title: Who'll Be The One
Source: Mono LP: Friday On My Mind
Writer(s): Vanda/Young
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
Following up on their international hit Friday On My Mind, the Easybeats released their first album under their new contract with United Artists in early 1967. The album came out in Europe first under the title Good Friday, then appeared later the same month in North America, retitled Friday On My Mind and sporting a different cover. Although there were a couple of cover songs on the LP, the bulk of the album's material, including Who'll Be The One, was written by band members Harry Vanda and George Young, who had emerged the previous year as the band's primary songwriting team.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Cool, Calm And Collected
Source: LP: Between The Buttons
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
The Rolling Stones were beginning to experiment with psychedelia on their first album of 1967, Between The Buttons. Cool, Calm and Collected, which closes side one of the LP, features pianist Nicky Hopkins prominently. Hopkins, one of the most respected British session players (and the inspiration for the Kinks song Session Man) would soon start showing up on albums by American artists, and even became a member of one of them (Quicksilver Messenger Service) for a time. Probably the most memorable thing about Cool, Calm And Collected, however, is the fact that, about where you would expect a fadeout you instead get a slow increase in tempo which builds up to a truly manic train wreck of an ending. Fun stuff indeed.
Artist: Creation
Title: Biff, Bang, Pow
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Pickett/Phillips
Label: Rhino (original label: Planet)
Year: 1966
The Creation is generally acknowledged as the first major British psychedelic band, predating Pink Floyd by several months. Oddly enough, they are also considered a Mod band in the mold of the Who, thanks in large part to the B side of their second single, released in 1966. Biff, Bang, Pow had the same sort of driving beat and power chords as many of the songs on the Who's My Generation album, and even included piano work by Nicky Hopkins, whose session work can be heard on several early Who recordings.
Artist: Trolls
Title: Every Day And Every Night
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Jordan/Clark
Label: ABC
Year: 1966
The Trolls were a garage rock band from Chicago consisting of Richard Clark (organ), Ken Cortese (drums), Rick Gallagher (guitar), and Max Jordan (bass). Like many Chicago area groups, they showed a stronger Beatles influence that most American garage bands, who tended to favor the rougher Rolling Stones approach. Their first single, Every Day And Every Night, was one of the last to be released on the ABC Paramount label, but was recalled and re-released as one of the first on the ABC label when it was discovered that the original label had the name of the song wrong. It's probably a good thing that Every Day And Every Night never made the big time, as it would have drawn considerable flack from the then-new women's liberation movement no doubt. Then again, the band did call themselves the Trolls.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Go To Her
Source: CD: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (bonus track originally released on LP: Early Flight)
Writer(s): Kantner/Estes
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage (original 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. 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: Yardbirds
Title: Steeled Blues
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer: Beck/Relf
Label: Epic
Year: 1965
The first Yardbirds record with Jeff Beck on lead guitar (replacing Eric Clapton) was a single written by Graham Gouldman called Heart Full Of Soul. The song featured Beck playing riffs originally designed for sitar, as well as his own solo in the song's instrumental break. The B side of that single was an instrumental blues jam called Steeled Blues that was basically a showcase for Beck and harmonicist Keith Relf, who trade off licks throughout the track.
Artist: Love
Title: Signed D.C.
Source: Australian import CD: Comes In Colours (originally released on LP: Love)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Raven (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1966
One of the most striking tunes on the first Love album is Signed D.C., a slow ballad in the tradition of House of the Rising Sun. The song takes the form of a letter penned by a heroin addict, and the imagery is both stark and disturbing. Although Lee was known to occasionally say otherwise, the song title probably refers to Love's original drummer Don Conka, who left the band before their first recording sessions.
Artist: Doors
Title: Twentieth Century Fox
Source: LP: The Doors
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
There's no getting around it: there are no bad songs on the first two Doors albums. Pick one at random, say Twentieth Century Fox. Great song. They all are.
Artist: Max Frost And The Troopers aka The 13th Power
Title: Shape Of Things To Come
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released on LP: Wild In The Streets soundtrack)
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
Max Frost was a politically savvy rock star who rode the youth movement all the way to the White House, first through getting the support of a hip young Senator, then getting the age requirements for holding high political office lowered to 21, and finally lowering the voting age to 14. Everyone over 30 was locked away in internment camps, similar to those used during WWII by various governments to hold those of questionable loyalty to the current regime. What? You don't remember any of that? You say it sounds like the plot of a cheapie late 60s teen exploitation flick? Right on all counts. "Wild in the Streets", released in 1968, starred Christopher Jones as the rock star, Hal Holbrook as the hip young senator, and a Poseidon Adventure-sized Shelly Winter as the rock star's interred mom. Richard Pryor, in his film debut, played the band's drummer/political activist Stanley X. Shape Of Things To Come was a surprise hit single taken from the film, and was long thought to be the work of studio musicians under the supervision of Mike Curb, but is now known to have been recorded by an actual band called the 13th Power, led by vocalist/songwriter Paul Wibier, that had released a single called I See A Change Is Gonna Come for Curb's own Sidewalk label the previous year.
Artist: Kaleidoscope (UK band)
Title: Do It Again For Jeffrey
Source: British import CD: Further Reflections (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Daltrey/Pumer
Label: Grapefruit (original label: Fontana)
Year: 1969
The differences between American and British psychedelic rock are reflected in the music of two bands with the same name: Kaleidoscope. While the US band with that name was a combination of acid and folk rock with jug band roots and socially conscious lyrics, the London-based Kaleidoscope was much more whimsical, with roots in the folk music and fairy tales that are an integral part of growing up English. Led by vocalist/lyricist Peter Daltrey (cousin of the Who's Roger Daltrey) and guitarist Eddie Pumer, Kaleidoscope recorded five singles and two LPs for the Fontana label over a period of about two years (1967-69) before changing their name to Fairfield Parlour and switching to the more progressive Vertigo label in 1970. Their fourth single was a tune called Do It Again For Jeffrey. Recording during sessions for their second LP, Faintly Blowing, the song was not included on the album itself. As far as I know, it has nothing to do with Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond of Jethro Tull fame.
Artist: Mammoth
Title: Mammoth
Source: Mono CD: A Lethal Dose Of Hard Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Denney/Paul
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: United World)
Year: 1970
Although they are believed to be from San Antonio, Texas, Mammoth's only known record was actually recorded in Los Angeles and released on the United World label in 1970. Other than that, not much is known about the group that named the B side of their only record after themselves (or possibly the other way around).
Artist: Sugarloaf
Title: Green-Eyed Lady
Source: LP: Sugarloaf
Writer(s): Corbetta/Phillips/Riordan
Label: Liberty
Year: 1970
The unwritten rules of radio, particularly those concerning song length, were in transition in 1970. Take Sugarloaf's Green-Eyed Lady, for example. When first released as a single the 45 was virtually identical to the album version except that it faded out just short of the six-minute mark. This was about twice the allowed length under the old rules and it was soon replaced with an edited version that left out all the instrumental solos, coming in at just under three minutes. The label soon realized, however, that part of the original song's appeal (as heard on FM rock radio) was its organ solo, and a third single edit with that solo restored became the final, and most popular, version of Green-Eyed Lady. Meanwhile, though all of this, FM rock jocks continued to play the original album version heard here. Smart move on their part.
Artist: Cream
Title: Tales Of Brave Ulysses
Source: LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Clapton/Sharp
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Cream was one of the first bands to break British tradition and release singles that were also available as album cuts. This tradition likely came about because 45 RPM records (both singles and extended play 45s) tended to stay in print indefinitely in the UK, unlike in the US, where a hit single usually had a shelf life of around 2-3 months then disappeared forever. When the Disraeli Gears album was released, however, the song Strange Brew, which leads off the LP, was released in Europe as a single. The B side of that single was Tales Of Brave Ulysses, which opens side two of the album.
Artist: Cream
Title: White Room (single version)
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Wheels Of Fire)
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: United Artists (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
In order to get songs played on top 40 radio, record companies made it a practice to shorten album cuts by cutting out extended instrumental breaks and extra verses. This version of the Cream classic White Room, clocking in at just over three minutes, is a typical example.
Artist: Cream
Title: Sunshine Of Your Love
Source: LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Clapton/Bruce/Brown
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Only a handful of songs can truly be described as "iconic". Sunshine Of Your Love, with its often-imitated signature riff, the line-by-line trading off of lead vocals by Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton and one of the best-known lead guitar solos in rock history, certainly qualifies.
Artist: Castaways
Title: Liar Liar
Source: CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Donna/Craswell
Label: Rhino (original label: Soma)
Year: 1965
The Castaways were a popular local band in the Minneapolis area led by keyboardist James Donna, who, for less than two minutes at a time, dominated the national airwaves with their song Liar Liar for a couple months in 1965 before fading off into obscurity.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Wrong
Source: CD: The Very Best Of The Music Machine-Turn On
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
Sean Bonniwell was a member of the mainstream (i.e. lots of appearances on TV variety shows hosted by people like Perry Como and Bob Hope) folk group the Lamplighters in the early 60s. By 1966 he had morphed into one of the more mysterious figures on the LA music scene, leading a proto-punk band dressed entirely in black. Bonniwell himself wore a single black glove (Michael Jackson was about seven years old at the time), and was one of the most prolific songwriters of the day. His recordings, often featuring the distinctive Farfisa organ sound, were a primary influence on later L.A. bands such as Iron Butterfly and the Doors. A classic example of the Music Machine sound was the song Wrong, which was issued as the B side of the group's most successful single, Talk Talk.
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: I.R.A.
Title: Dooley Vs. The Ferris Wheel
Source: Mono CD: An Overdose Of Heavy Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Buzz Clifford
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: Dot)
Year: 1968
When trying to dig up information on the 1968 single Dooley Vs. The Ferris Wheel the first thing I learned was that the band name was not IRA, as indicated on the CD, but I.R.A., which actually makes more sense. The second thing I noticed was that the song was written and co-produced by Buzz Clifford, a one-hit wonder from the early 1960s. Clifford, at the time, was a member of a group called Hamilton Streetcar, and may have produced this single as a side project. The identity of the band members (if it was even an actual band) is unknown. Perhaps they were Irish rebels looking to drum up some extra cash for the Cause?
Artist: Iron Butterfly
Title: In The Time Of Our Lives
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Ingle/Bushy
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
The lead track on Ball, Iron Butterfly's highly-anticipated 1969 follow-up LP to In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, was In The Time Of Our Lives. It was also chosen to be released as a single. Although some labels were starting to issue stereo 45s, Atco was not one of them, and In The Time Of Our Lives became one of only two songs from Ball with an alternate monoraul mix (the other being the B side of the single, It Must Be Love).
Artist: Wet Paint
Title: Glass Road
Source: CD: A Deadly Dose Of Wild Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Wet Paint
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: Onyx)
Year: 1968
Although most of the bands recording in the state of Massachusetts used studios in Boston, there were some exceptions. One such case was a band called Wet Paint, who recorded at Eastern Sounds Recordings in Metheun. Eastern even had its own in-house record label, Onyx, which is where Glass Road was released in 1968.
Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Trust Me
Source: LP: Pearl
Writer(s): Bobby Womack
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
By far the most polished of Janis Joplin's albums was Pearl, recorded in 1970 and released in January of 1971. Much of the credit for the album's sound has to go to Paul Rothchild, who had already made his reputation producing the Doors. Another factor was the choice of material to record. In addition to some of Joplin's originals such as Mercedes Benz and Move Over, the LP featured several cover songs such as Bobby Womack's Trust Me, which the singer had released as a B side in 1967.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: One Of These Days
Source: CD: Meddle
Writer(s): Waters/Wright/Gilmour/Mason
Label: Pink Floyd Records (original label: Harvest)
Year: 1971
In their early years Pink Floyd was a band that was talked about more than heard, at least in the US. That began to change with the release of their 1971 LP Meddle and its opening track, One Of These Days, which got a significant amount of airplay on progressive FM radio stations.
Artist: Move
Title: Message From The Country
Source: LP: Message From The Country
Writer(s): Jeff Lynne
Label: Capitol
Year: 1971
The Move was one of those bands that was extremely popular in its native UK without having any success whatsoever in the US. Although primarily a singles band, they did manage to release four albums over a period of years, the last of which was Message From The Country. Even as the album was being recorded, several members, including Jeff Lynne, were already working on the first album by the Move's successor, the Electric Light Orchestra. A conscious effort was made, however, to keep the two projects separate, with the Move album getting the more psychedelic material (such as the title track), while ELO took a more prog-rock approach.
Artist: Cortinas
Title: In The Park
Source: Mono British import CD: Think I'm Going Weird
Writer(s): Mike Swain
Label: Grapefruit
Year: Recorded 1966, released 2021
The Cortinas hailed from the English town of Hatfield. One of them, at least, is near a slightly bigger town called Hitchen. Led by brothers Paul & Nigel Griggs, the Cortinas caught the attention of Mike Swain, who had set up a recording studio in the basement of a musical instruments shop in Hitchen. Swain had written a song called In The Park that he was looking for a band to record, and the newly-formed Cortinas were more than willing to give it a shop, especially when they realized they would have access to a variety of instruments from the shop upstairs. Swain took the finished recording to several record labels, but was never able to get the single pressed. It sat on the shelf for 55 years before being discovered by the people at Grapefruit, a British label specializing in psychedelic era reissues. It was released in 2021 on the five-CD set Think I'm Going Weird. Nigel Griggs, incidentally, would go on to join Split Enz in 1977, playing bass for that group throughout their most popular years.
Artist: Love Exchange
Title: Swallow The Sun
Source: LP: Nuggets vol. 10-Folk Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): John Merrill
Label: Rhino (original label: Uptown)
Year: 1967
Comparisons have been made between the Love Exchange and another Los Angeles band, the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. It only makes sense, after all, since both groups were best described as "psychedelic folk-rock" and both were fronted by a female vocalist. In the case of the Love Exchange, this was 16-year-old Bonnie Blunt. What really invites the comparison, however, is the fact that the Love Exchange's best-known song (and only single) Swallow The Sun was written by John Merrill, leader of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy. Despite their lack of recording success, the Love Exchange lasted until 1969, with their last appearance being at the Newport '69 Pop Festival.
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