https://exchange.prx.org/p/546259
This week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is dedicated to the Libra who would be listening if she could.
Artist: Cream
Title: I Feel Free
Source: CD: Fresh Cream
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor/Polygram (original label: Atco)
Year: 1966
The first single released by Cream was I Feel Free. As was the case with nearly every British single at the time, the song was not included on Fresh Cream, the band's debut LP. In the US, however, singles were commonly given a prominent place on albums, and the US version of Fresh Cream actually opens with I Feel Free. To my knowledge the song, being basically a studio creation, was never performed live.
Artist: Leaves
Title: Hey Joe
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Billy Roberts
Label: Rhino (original label: Mira)
Year: 1966
In 1966 there were certain songs you had to know how to play if you had any aspirations of being in a band. Among those were Louie Louie, Gloria and Hey Joe. The Byrds' David Crosby claims to have discovered Hey Joe, but was not able to convince his bandmates to record it before their third album. In the meantime, several other bands had recorded the song, including Love (on their first album) and the Leaves. The version of Hey Joe heard here is actually the third recording the Leaves made of the tune. After the first two versions tanked, guitarist Bobby Arlin, who had recently replaced founding member Bill Rinehart on lead guitar, came up with the idea of adding fuzz guitar to the song. It was the missing element that transformed a rather bland song into a hit record (the only national hit the Leaves would have). As a side note, the Leaves credited Chet Powers (aka Dino Valenti) as the writer of Hey Joe, but California-based folk singer Billy Roberts had copyrighted the song in 1962 and had reportedly been heard playing the tune as early as 1958.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet
Source: LP: Psychedelic Lollipop
Writer(s): Esposito/Gilbert/Scala
Label: Mercury
Year: 1966
The Blues Magoos (original spelling: Bloos) were either the first or second band to use the word psychedelic in an album title. Both they and the 13th Floor Elevators released their debut albums in 1966 and it is unclear which one actually came out first. What's not in dispute is the fact that Psychedelic Lollipop far outsold The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. One major reason for this was the fact that (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet was a huge national hit in early 1967, which helped album sales considerably. Despite having a unique sound and a look to match (including electric suits), the Magoos were unable to duplicate the success of Nothin' Yet on subsequent releases, partially due to Mercury's pairing of two equally marketable songs on the band's next single without indicating to stations which one they were supposed to be playing.
Artist: Daily Flash
Title: Jack Of Diamonds
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Lalor/MacAllistor/Kelihor/Hastings
Label: Rhino (original label: Parrot)
Year: 1966
The practice of writing new lyrics to an old tune got turned around for the Seattle-based Daily Flash's feedback-drenched recording of Jack Of Diamonds, which pretty much preserves the lyrics to the old folk song, but is musically pure garage-rock, which is itself an anamoly, since the Daily Flash is generally known for NOT being a garage-rock band. Instead they are considered a forerunner of such San Francisco bands as Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Artist: Grass Roots
Title: Mr. Jones (A Ballad Of A Thin Man)
Source: 45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Dunhill
Year: 1965
In late 1965 songwriters/producers P.F. Sloan (Eve of Destruction) and Steve Barri decided to create a series of records by a band called the Grass Roots. The problem was that there was already a band calling themselves the Grass Roots that was not interested in recording Sloan and Barri's songs, and whose members weren't particularly diplomatic when rejecting Sloan and Barri's offer. Unfortunately for that first band, they had never bothered to copyright the name, so Sloan and Barri decided to recruit another band and talk them into changing their name to the Grass Roots. The band they found was the Bedouins, one of the early San Francisco bands. As the rush to sign SF bands was still months away, the Bedouins were more than happy to come down to L.A. and record the songs Sloan and Barri picked out for them. The first single by the newly-named Grass Roots was a cover of Bob Dylan's A Ballad Of A Thin Man, released under the title Mr. Jones. The band soon got to work promoting the single to Southern California radio stations, but with both the Byrds and the Turtles already on the charts with Dylan covers it soon became obvious that the market was quickly getting saturated. After a period of months the band, who wanted more freedom to write and record their own material, had a falling out with Sloan and Barri and it wasn't long before they moved back to San Francisco, leaving drummer Joel Larson in L.A. The group, with another drummer, continued to perform as the Grass Roots until Dunhill Records ordered them to stop. Eventually Dunhill would hire a local L.A. band called the 13th Floor to be the final incarnation of the Grass Roots who would crank out a series of top 40 hits in the early 70s. Meanwhile the original lineup changed their name but never had the opportunity to make records again. Oh, and that band that hadn't copyrighted the name Grass Roots in the first place? They let their own fans choose a new name for them. That new name was Love.
Artist: Clefs Of Lavender Hill
Title: Stop-Get A Ticket
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Travis & Coventry Fairchild
Label: Rhino (original label: Thames)
Year: 1966
The Clefs Of Lavender Hill were a band from North Miami that featured not one, but two sets of siblings: the brother and sister team of Travis and Coventry Fairchild (both of which sang and played guitar) and the Moss brothers, Bill (bass) and Fred (drums). The first single from the band was a song called First Tell Me Why, but it was the B side of the record, a Beatlesque tune called Stop-Get A Ticket that became a hit on Miami radio stations. The song was picked up by Date Records and peaked nationally at # 80. Subsequent releases by the Clefs failed to crack the Hot 100 and the group (after several personnel changes) finally called it quits in 1968.
Artist: Gants
Title: I Wonder
Source: Mono LP: Pebbles Vol. 8 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Sid Herring
Label: BFD (original label: Liberty)
Year: 1967
The Gants hailed from Greenwood, Mississippi, and had a string of regional hits that led to their signing with Liberty Records in 1965. The group, however, was handicapped by having half the members still in high school and the other half in college (and unwilling to drop out due to their being of draftable age during the height of the Viet Nam war). The band's most successful single for the label was I Wonder, which, like all of the Gants' recordings, shows a strong Beatle influence.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Swami-Plus Strings, etc. (alternate stereo mix)
Source: CD: Head soundtrack
Writer(s): Dolenz/Jones/Nesmith/Tork/Thorne, compiled by Jack Nicholson
Label: Rhino
Year: 1968
Head was the first and only feature-length film from the Monkees, released in 1968 after the group's weekly TV show left the air. Unlike the TV show, Head was aimed at a more sophisticated audience, but ended up being a commerical failure. In more recent years the movie has taken on more of a cult classic status, thanks in part to the script by a then-unknown Jack Nicholson. The soundtrack album, compiled by Nicholson, features several new songs by the band, with bits of dialogue and sound effects from the film, as well as incidental music from Ken Thorne. All of these can be heard on the final track of the album, Swami-Plus Strings, etc. Not long after Head was released, Peter Tork became the first ex-Monkee, wanting to pursue projects that might be taken a bit more seriously than the "prefab four".
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Turn On Your Love Light
Source: LP: The Big Ball (excerpt of track that was originally released on LP: Live Dead)
Writer(s): Scott/Malone
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1969
After two years' (and three albums) worth of trying to capture their live sound in the studio, the Grateful Dead decided just to cut to the chase and release a live album. The result was the double LP Live Dead, one of the most successful releases in Grateful Dead history. The album itself is one continuous concert, with each side fading out at the end, with a bit of overlap at the beginning of the next side. Most of the material on Live Dead was written by the band itself, the sole exception being a fifteen-minute long rendition of Bobby Bland's 1961 hit Turn On Your Love Light, featuring vocals by organist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. This six and a half minute long excerpt from the album first appeared on the Warner Brothers "Loss Leaders" album The Big Ball, a two-disc sampler album that could only be bought directly from the record company. The same excerpt was later included on the 1972 Grateful Dead compilation album Skeletons From The Closet.
Artist: Beatles
Title: You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
Source: CD: Anthology 2 (mon version originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Parlophone
Year: 1970
Basically a studio concoction assembled by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) was originally intended to be released as a 1969 single by the Plastic Ono Band. The track was the result of four separate recording sessions dating back to 1967 and originally ran over six minutes long. The instrumental tracks were recorded around the same time the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in Spring of 1967. Brian Jones added a saxophone part on June 8th of that year. In April of 1969 Lennon and McCartney added vocals, while Lennon edited the entire track down from a monoraul mixdown to slightly over four minutes. The single was readied for a November release, but at the last minute was withdrawn. The recording was instead released as the B side of the Beatles' Let It Be single the following year. In 1996 the original tapes were re-edited to create a new stereo mix that runs a little over five and a half minutes in length. The new mix was included on the Anthology 2 CD.
Artist: Beatles
Title: I Am The Walrus
Source: Stereo British import 45 RPM EP: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone
Year: 1967
Common practice in the UK in the 1960s was to avoid duplication between single releases and album tracks. This led to a unique situation for the Beatles and their British label, EMI/Parlophone, in December of 1967. The band had self-produced a new telefilm to be shown on BBC-TV called Magical Mystery Tour and wanted to make the songs from the film available to the record-buying public in time for Christmas. The problem was that there were only six songs in the one-hour telefilm, not nearly enough to fill an entire album. The solution was to release the songs on a pair of Extended Play 45 RPM records, along with several pages of song lyrics, illustrations and stills from the film itself. My own introduction to Magical Mystery Tour was a friend's German copy of the EPs, and when years later I had the opportunity to pick up a copy of the original UK version, I of course couldn't resist. That copy got totalled in a flood a few years back, but in 2012 I was finally able to locate another copy of the EP set, which is the source of this week's airing of the ultimate British psychedelic recording, I Am The Walrus. This British EP version has a slightly longer intro than the more familiar US LP/CD release.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Not Guilty
Source: CD: Anthology 3
Writer(s): George Harrison
Label: Capitol/Apple
Year: Recorded 1968, released 1996
One of the most legendary unreleased Beatles recordings, Not Guilty was written by George Harrison after returning from the band members' spiritual retreat in Rishikesh, India, where they studied Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The song addresses his growing dissatisfaction with his role in the band, while defending himself against accusations that he led the group "astray on the road to Mandalay". The recording process was a difficult one, taking over 100 takes to get right, and even then Harrison was unsatisfied with the final recording, which may explain why the song, originally slated for inclusion on the White Album, remained unreleased for nearly 30 years.
Artist: Animals
Title: Outcast
Source: British import 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Campbell/Johnson
Label: Decca
Year: 1966
Like many mid-60s British groups, the Animals had a fondness for American R&B music, and would often feature covers versions of songs originally released by people like Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker. In 1966, for the B side of Inside Looking Out, the Animals recorded Outcast, a song that had been released the previous year by Eddie Campbell and Ernie "Sweetwater" Johnson of Phoenix, Arizona, who recorded as Eddie And Ernie. A different song was used for the US B side of Inside Looking Out, and Outcast was not released in North America until late 1966, when it appeared, in a shorter form, on the LP Animalisms. To my knowledge the longer single version of Outcast has never been released in the US.
Artist: Chocolate Watch Band
Title: Are You Gonna Be There (At The Love-In) (originally released on LP: No Way Out and as 45 RPM single)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk
Writer: McElroy/Bennett
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
It took me several years to sort out the convoluted truth behind the recorded works of San Jose, California's most popular local band, the Chocolate Watch Band. While it's true that much of what was released under their name was in fact the work of studio musicians, there are a few tracks that are indeed the product of Dave Aguilar and company. Are You Gonna Be There (At The Love-In), a song used in the cheapie teenspliotation flick the Love-In and included on the Watch Band's first album, is one of those few. Ironically, the song was co-written by Don Bennett, the studio vocalist whose voice was substituted for Aguilar's on a couple of other songs from the same album. According to legend, the band actually showed up at the movie studio without any songs prepared for the film, and learned to play and sing Are You Gonna Be There (At The Love-In) right there on the set. This, combined with the story of their first visit to a recording studio the previous year (a story for another time) shows one of the Watch Band's greatest strengths: the ability to pick up and perfect new material faster than anyone else. It also shows their overall disinterest in the recording process. This was a band that wanted nothing more than to play live, often outperforming the big name bands they opened for.
Artist: Turtles
Title: The Last Thing I Remember, The First Thing I Knew
Source: CD: The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands (bonus track originally released on 12" 45 RPM Picture Disc: Turtles 1968)
Writer: The Turtles
Label: FloEdCo (original label: Rhino)
Year: Recorded 1968, released 1978
In 1968 the Turtles rebelled against their record company. They did not attempt to break the contract or go on strike, though. Instead, they simply went into the studio and produced four songs that they themselves wrote and chose to record. The record company, in turn, chose not to issue any of the self-produced recordings (although one, Surfer Dan, did end up on their Battle of the Bands album a few months later). Finally, in the late 1970s a small independent label known for issuing oddball recordings by the likes of Barnes and Barnes (Fish Heads) and professional wrestler Fred Blassie (Pencil-Neck Geek) put out a 12-inch picture disc featuring the four tunes. That label also began reissuing old Turtles albums, starting it on a path that has since become the stock in trade for Rhino Records. More recently, Turtles front men Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman (aka Flo & Eddie) have reissued all four songs as bonus tracks on the expanded CD version of The Turtles Present The Battle Of The Bands on their own FloEdCo label.
Artist: Free
Title: All Right Now
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Fraser/Rodgers
Label: A&M
Year: 1970
Led by Andy Fraser and Paul Rodgers, Free was one of the first "70s" rock bands. They made their biggest splash with All Right Now, a huge hit in 1970.
Artist: Who
Title: Bargain (live)
Source: LP: Who's Missing
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA
Year: Recorded 1972, released 1985
Although the Who did not release any albums in 1972, they were considered by many to be the best live rock band in the world that year. Lots of their live stuff got bootlegged over the years, but the official release of the live version of Bargain, a tune from the 1971 album Who's Next, had to wait until 1985, when it was included on a compilation album called Who's Missing.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Sympathy For The Devil
Source: CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released on LP: Beggars Banquet)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
Beggar's Banquet was a turning point for the Rolling Stones. They had just ended their association with Andrew Loog Oldham, who had produced all of their mid-60s records, and instead were working with Jimmy Miller, who was known for his association with Steve Winwood, both in his current band Traffic and the earlier Spencer Davis Group. Right from the opening bongo beats of Sympathy For The Devil, it was evident that this was the beginning of a new era for the bad boys of rock and roll. The song itself has gone on to be one of the defining tunes of album rock radio, and occupies the #32 spot on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: 2000 Man
Source: CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1967
Setting any work of art in the relatively near future is always risky business (remember 1984?), but then again 33 years seems like forever when you yourself are still in your twenties. I mean who, including the Rolling Stones themselves, could have imagined that Mick, Keith, Charlie and company would still be performing well into the 21st century when they recorded 2000 Man for their 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties Request? It's actually kind of interesting to listen to the lyrics now and see just how much of the song turned out to be an accurate prediction of what was to come.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Wild Horses
Source: CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: Rolling Stones)
Year: 1971
Although it was recorded in 1969, the release of Wild Horses was held up for over a year because of ongoing litigation between the Rolling Stones, who were in the process of forming their own record label, and Allen Klein, who had managed to legally steal the rights to all of the band's recordings for the British Decca label (most of which had appeared in the US on the London label). Eventually both Wild Horses and Brown Sugar (recorded at the same sessions) became the joint property of the Rolling Stones and Klein and were released as singles on the new Rolling Stones label in 1971.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Subterranean Homesick Blues
Source: CD: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Bringing It All Back Home)
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
1965 was the year Bob Dylan went electric, and got his first top 40 hit, Subterranean Homesick Blues, in the process. Although the song, which also led off his Bringing It All Back Home album, stalled out in the lower 30s, it did pave the way for electrified cover versions of Dylan songs by the Byrds and Turtles and Dylan's own Like A Rolling Stone, which would revolutionize top 40 radio. A line from the song itself, "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows", became the inspiration for a radical offshoot of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) that called itself the Weathermen (later the Weather Underground).
Artist: Kinks
Title: Sunny Afternoon
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1966
My family got our first real stereo in late summer of 1966, just in time for me to catch the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon at the peak of its popularity. My school had just gone into split sessions and all my classes were over by one o'clock, which gave me the chance to explore the world of top 40 radio through decent speakers for a couple hours every day without the rest of the family telling me to turn it down (or off). Unfortunately, the debut of Denver's first FM rock station was still a few months off, so the decent speakers were handicapped by being fed an AM radio signal.
Artist: Moody Blues
Title: Fly Me High
Source: CD: Days Of Future Passed (bonus track)
Writer(s): Justin Hayward
Label: Deram/Polydor
Year: 1967
By 1967, original Moody Blues members Denny Laine and Clint Warwick had left the group and been replaced by guitarist Justin Hayward and bassist John Lodge. At the same time, the band (as were nearly all British groups at the time) was in the process of redefining itself in the wake of the Beatles' release of the Revolver album in the fall of 1966. That redefinition would ultimately result in the landmark album Days Of Future Passed, released in November of 1967, but before that happened the band released a pair of non-album singles that have since fallen into obscurity. The first of these, Hayward's Fly Me High, was released in May of 1967 and contains elements of both the earlier and later Moody Blues styles.
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: Koobas
Title: First Cut Is The Deepest
Source: Mono LP: Also Dug-Its (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Cat Stevens
Label: Elektra (original UK label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
Formed in Liverpool in 1962, the Koobas (after an obligatory stay in Hamburg) landed their first record contract after filming a segment for a movie called Ferry Cross The Mersey that ended up on the cutting room floor. They released several singles from 1965-1968, but none of them were successful in their native land, although their final single, a psychedelicized (think Vanilla Fudge) version of Cat Stevens's First Cut Is The Deepest, did fairly well in Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Artist: Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Title: Wonderment
Source: CD: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading/The Great Conspiracy (originally released on LP: The Great Conspiracy)
Writer(s): John Merrill
Label: Collectables (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1967
Like many bands of the psychedelic era, the Peanut Butter Conspiracy was known for its onstage improvisational skills. Unfortunately, when they were signed to Columbia they were paired up with Gary Usher, who is best known for his work with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, as well as his various studio creations such as the Hondells and, later, Sagittarius. Usher insisted on supplementing the band's sound with studio musicians on their first LP, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading. The second PBC album, The Great Conspiracy, is a better representation of what the band was truly about, although even then they weren't able to cut loose the way they did onstage. Probably the closest they did come to capturing their live sound was on Wonderment, the last track on The Great Conspiracy. Sales were not good enough for the band to continue with a major label, however, and PBC co-founder John Merrill left the group not long after The Great Conspiracy's release.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Bringing Me Down
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
One of several singles released mainly to San Francisco Bay area radio stations and record stores, Bringing Me Down is an early collaboration between vocalist Marty Balin and guitarist/vocalist Paul Kantner. Balin had invited Kantner into the band without having heard him play a single note. It turned out to be one of many right-on-the-money decisions by the Jefferson Airplane founder.
rtist: 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: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Bluebird
Source: LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again)
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Cotillion (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
When it comes right down to it Buffalo Springfield has one of the highest ratios of songs recorded to songs played on the radio of any band in history, especially if you only count the two albums worth of material that was released while the band was still active. This is probably because Buffalo Springfield had more raw songwriting talent than just about any two other bands. Although Neil Young was just starting to hit his stride as a songwriter, bandmate Stephen Stills was already at an early peak, as songs like Bluebird clearly demonstrate.
Artist: Electric Flag
Title: Gettin' Hard
Source: LP: The Trip (movie soundtrack)
Writer(s): Michael Bloomfield
Label: Sidewalk
Year: 1967
The first official Electric Flag LP was A Long Time Comin', released on Columbia Records in 1968. The group had actually made their recording debut the previous year on Mike Curb's Sidewalk label with the soundtrack for a movie called The Trip. Produced by Roger Corman and written by Jack Nicholson, the Trip was basically a film about a young man (played by Peter Fonda) taking his first acid trip and might easily be described as the first Hollywood film about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, with the latter provided by the Electric Flag. Unlike the Columbia releases, the movie soundtrack was essentially a Mike Bloomfield solo project, with the other members of the band relegated to a purely supporting role. Most of the tracks on side one, in particular, are short instrumental pieces with names that describe what was happening in the film itself, such as Joint Passing, which runs almost exactly one minute. I leave it to your imagination which scene the four minute long instrumental Gettin' Hard accompanied.
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