https://exchange.prx.org/p/547848
This week's edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era features an all Rochester, NY Advanced Psych segment spanning 40 years, along with an all San Francisco final segment spanning a few months (if that). The first hour, of course, features an assortment of singles, B sides and album tracks from 1965-1969.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Subterranean Homesick Blues
Source: Mono LP: Bringing It All Back Home
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Sundazed/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). My own favorite line from the song is "Don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters". Words to live by.
Artist: Simon And Garfunkel
Title: Blessed
Source: LP: Sounds Of Silence
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
Possibly the most psychedelic track on Simon And Garfunkel's Sounds Of Silence album, Blessed is a classic example of structured chaos, combining a wall of sound approach with tight harmonies and lyrics that more closely reflect Jesus's teachings than does modern Christian doctrine. One of the duo's most overlooked recordings.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Getting Better
Source: CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1967
Following their 1966 North American tour, the Beatles announced that they were giving up live performing to concentrate on their songwriting and studio work. Freed of the responsibilities of the road (and under the influence of mind-expanding substances), the band members found themselves discovering new sonic possibilities as never before (or since), hitting a creative peak with their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, often cited as the greatest album ever recorded. The individual Beatles were about to move in separate musical directions, but as of Sgt. Pepper's were still functioning mostly as a single unit, as is heard on the chorus of Getting Better, in which Paul McCartney's opening line, "I have to admit it's getting better", is immediately answered by John Lennon's playfully cynical "can't get no worse". The members continued to experiment with new instrumental styles as well, such as George Harrison's use of sitar on the song's bridge, accompanied by Ringo Starr's bongos.
Artist: Grass Roots
Title: Feelings
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Feelings and as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Coonce/Entner/Fukomoto
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
In 1968 the Grass Roots decided to assert themselves and take artistic control of their newest album, Feelings, writing most of the material for the album themselves. Unfortunately for the band, the album, as well as its title track single, fared poorly on the charts. From that point on the Grass Roots were firmly under the control of producers/songwriters Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan, cranking out a series of best-selling hits such as I'd Wait A Million Years and Midnight Confessions (neither of which get played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era, incidentally).
Artist: Fargo
Title: Sunny Day Blue
Source: British import CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Marty Cooper
Label: Zonophone (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1968
Salt Lake City was home to Dean Wilden and Tony Decker, who recorded Sunny Day Blue as a single for Capitol in 1968 before moving over to RCA Victor for a 1969 LP called I See It Now. Both were produced by Marty Cooper, who also wrote Sunny Day Blue.
Artist: Moody Blues
Title: Ride My See-Saw
Source: CD: The Best Of The Moody Blues (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): John Lodge
Label: Polydor (original label: Deram)
Year: 1968
Although it was only a minor hit when originally released in 1968, Ride My See-Saw has gone on to become one of the most popular songs in the Moody Blues catalog, and is considered to among the ten best Moody Blues songs by critics on both sides of the Atlantic.
Artist: Iron Butterfly
Title: Unconscious Power
Source: CD: Heavy
Writer(s): Ingle/Weis/Bushy
Label: Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Formed in San Diego, California, in 1966, Iron Butterfly quickly relocated to L.A. and became part of the underground club scene there. In 1967 they signed with the Atco label, recording their first album, Heavy. Before the LP could be released, however, the band split up, prompting Atco to cancel the project, since there was no longer a band called Iron Butterfly to promote the album. Undaunted, keyboardist/vocalist Doug Ingle and drummer Ron Bushy recruited two new members to fill out the lineup, and in 1968 Heavy was finally released. The lead single from the album was a song called Possession, written by Ingle. The B side of that single, Unconscious Power, was based on a riff by original guitarist Danny Weis, with Ingle fleshing out the tune and arranging the piece. The somewhat metaphysical lyrics were provided by Bushy and sung by Ingle.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Sing This All Together/Citadel
Source: LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s): Jagger/Richard
Label: London
Year: 1967
From the opening piano chord of the first song, Sing This All Together (played by Nicky Hopkins), it is obvious that the late-1967 LP Their Satanic Majesties Request is unlike any Rolling Stones album made before or since. For one thing, the Stones produced the album themselves at a time when their personal and professional lives were spinning out of control. There was also a perceived need to somehow outdo the Beatles, who were, at the time, riding high with their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. In fact, there are several parallels between the two albums, including similar styled covers, an opening theme song that is repeated later on the album, and a general feel of psychedelic excess. Brian Jones, in particular, plays several instruments on Sing This All Together alone, including brass, saxophone and mellotron (a keyboard instrument that utilized tape loops to produce the desired sounds). In contrast, Citadel, which, like With A Little Help From My Friends, flows directly out of its predecessor, is built around a series of power chords from Keith Richards, and conceivably could have been released as a single in its own right. Although it immediately shot up the album charts, Their Satanic Majesties Request quickly wore out its welcome and has since been all but disavowed by the surviving members of the band.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Wrong
Source: British import CD: The Ultimate Turn On (originally released as 45 RPM single B side and included on LP: Turn On The Music Machine)
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Big Beat (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1967
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 called the Music Machine. 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 time. His recordings, often featuring the distinctive Farfisa organ sound, were a primary influence on later LA bands such as Iron Butterfly and the Doors. One of the first Music Machine tracks to appear on vinyl was Wrong, which was released as the B side of the band's first single and included on their debut LP.
Artist: Who
Title: Rael 1
Source: CD: The Who Sell Out
Writer: Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1967
The Who Sell Out, released in December 1967, was the last album by the group before their 1969 rock-opera Tommy. The last track on the LP, Rael, is itself a mini-opera that tells the story of a wealthy man who has taken on the role of a crusader, out to free his ancestral homeland from its current occupiers. He tells the captain of his ship to come back for him on Christmas Day to see if he is ready to return. If not, he tells the captain, the boat is yours. Of course the captain has no intention of returning, as he declares soon after putting back out to sea. The piece then goes into an instrumental passage that would be copied pretty much note for note on the Tommy album as part of the Underture. The track ends with a repeat of the owner's instructions to the captain. The events surrounding the recording of Rael have become the stuff of legend. The band spent an entire day recording and mixing the song, and were apparently so exhausted at the end of the session that they left without securing the multi-track master in a safe place. The cleaning woman came in the next morning and tossed the tape into the waste basket. She then emptied the ashtrays and other trash into the same waste basket. When the band came in around noon the recording engineer who had found the tape had the unenviable task of telling them what had happened. Pete Townsend was in a rage, and the engineer tried to placate him by saying "these things happen". Townshend then proceeded to throw a chair through the glass wall separating the studio from the control room, informing the engineer that "these things happen".
Artist: Cream
Title: Those Were The Days
Source: LP: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s): Baker/Taylor
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
Drummer Ginger Baker only contributed a handful of songs to the Cream repertoire, but each was, in its own way, quite memorable. Those Are The Days, with its sudden changes of time and key, presages the progressive rock that would flourish in the mid-1970s. As was often the case with Baker-penned songs, bassist Jack Bruce provides the vocals from this Wheels Of Fire track that was also released as the B side of the single version of White Room.
Artist: Deep Purple
Title: Faultline/The Painter
Source: LP: Deep Purple
Writer(s): Lord/Blackmore/Evans/Paice/Simper
Label: Tetragrammaton
Year: 1969
The third and final album by the original Deep Purple lineup was plagued with bad luck, the worst being that the band's US label, Tetragrammaton Records, ran into financial trouble right after the album was released and was unable to promote either the album or the band itself. The music was also a departure from the band's previous style, which could be described as England's answer to Vanilla Fudge. Deep Purple (the album) was almost entirely made up of original material, including the final track on side one which combines the instrumental Faultline with The Painter. Following the release of the album singer Rod Evans left the band to form Captain Beyond, and Deep Purple (the band) would move in a harder rock direction with new lead vocalist Ian Gillan.
Artist: Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels
Title: Devil With A Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): Stevenson/Long/Marascalco/Blackwell
Label: Eric (original label: DynaVoice)
Year: 1966
When it came down to old-fashioned get-out-on-the-dance-floor blue-collar rock 'n' roll, there was no local scene that could match the Detroit scene, and the unquestioned kings of Detroit rock 'n' roll in 1966 were Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Ryder's boys cranked out hit after hit, many of which made the national charts, including Little Latin Lupe Lu, Sock It To Me-Baby!, and their biggest hit of all: Devil With A Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly. Rock on!
Artist: Zodiac
Title: Cancer-The Moon Child
Source: CD: Cosmic Sounds
Writer(s): Wilson/Garson
Label: Water (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1967
Not long after the release of the first Doors album, Jac Holzman, head of Elektra Records, came up with the idea of doing an entire album based on the signs of the Zodiac. He hired the Limeliters' Alex Hassilev to produce the album, who in turned hired Mort Garson to write the music. Garson then brought in synthesizer pioneer Paul Beaver, along with several members of the Wrecking Crew, to record the twelve instrumental pieces that make up the album Cosmic Sounds, officially credited to The Zodiac. Each piece, including Cancer-The Moon Child, is prefaced by a spoken introduction, written by Jacques Wilson and voiced by Cyrus Faryar. On the back cover of the LP, in large purple letters, are written the words "MUST BE PLAYED IN THE DARK". Do otherwise at your own risk.
Artist: Johnny Winter
Title: Rollin' And Tumblin'
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: The Progressive Blues Experiment)
Writer(s): McKinley Morganfield
Label: United Artists (original labels: Sonobeat/Imperial)
Year: 1968
Johnny Winter's first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, was originally released in 1968 on the Texas-based Sonobeat label. A ctitical success, it was picked up and reissued on the Imperial label a year later. Most of the songs on the album are covers of blues classics such as Muddy Waters's Rollin' And Tumblin'.
Artist: Doors
Title: Love Me Two Times
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Although the second Doors album is sometimes dismissed as being chock full of tracks that didn't make the cut on the debut LP, the fact is that Strange Days contains some of the Doors best-known tunes. One of those is Love Me Two Times, which was the second single released from the album. The song continues to get heavy airplay on classic rock stations.
Artist: Armand Schaubroeck Steals
Title: Pretty Pretty Baby
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): unknown
Label: Mirror
Year: 1978
Armand Schaubroeck is a busy guy. In addition to co-founding (with his brothers) the House Of Guitars (billed as the Largest Guitar Store in the World) in 1964, he headlined his own band Armand Schaubroeck Steals in the 1970s, releasing LPs with names like A Lot of People Would Like to See Armand Schaubroeck ... DEAD (1975) and I Came to Visit; But Decided to Stay (1977). More recently he has been hosting his own syndicated radio show, Armand Schaubroeck Spins Vinyl, originating in Rochester, NY. One of the highlights of his musical career is the song Pretty Pretty Baby, which came out as the B side of a single in 1978. OK, Armand, you got a plug; do I get some free records now?
Artist: Chesterfield Kings
Title: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White
Source: Spanish import LP: Tripin' Out
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Impossible
Year: 1997
In the late 1980s there was an underground movement reviving the sound of mid-60s garage bands. Most of the participating bands had given it up after a few years, but the Rochester, NY-based Chesterfield Kings proved to have more staying power than the rest. In 1997 the toured Spain, where a local label released a six-song 10" vinyl EP of the Kings doing cover versions of classic 60s garage-rock tunes, among them Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White, originally released in 1966 as the Standell's followup single to Dirty Water.
Artist: McFadden's Parachute
Title: Scream Loud
Source: CD: Fuzzy Organs
Writer(s): Darren Brennessel
Label: PeterFonda
Year: 2018
Rochester NY's Darren Brennessel has been keeping the garage rock (psych-punk?) spirit alive for decades, as can be heard on Scream Loud, from the 2018 McFadden's Parachute album Fuzzy Organs. Listening to the track for the first time you'd swear the lyrics were written by an angry teenager.
Artist: Sugarloaf
Title: Green-Eyed Lady
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): Corbetta/Phillips/Riordan
Label: Silver Spotlight (original 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. The song went into the top 5 nationally (#1 on some charts) and ended up being the band's biggest hit.
Artist: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Title: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
Source: LP: Crosby, Stills and Nash
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
After the demise of Buffalo Springfield, Stephen Stills headed for New York, where he worked with Al Kooper on the Super Session album and recorded several demo tapes of his own, including a new song called Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (reportedly written for his then-girlfriend Judy Collins). After his stint in New York he returned to California, where he started hanging out in the Laurel Canyon home of David Crosby, who had been fired from the Byrds in 1967. Crosby's house at that time was generally filled with a variety of people coming and going, and Crosby and Stills soon found themselves doing improvised harmonies on each other's material in front of a friendly, if somewhat stoned, audience. It was not long before they invited Graham Nash, whom they heard had been having problems of his own with his bandmates in the Hollies, to come join them in Laurel Canyon. The three soon began recording together, and in 1969 released the album Crosby, Stills and Nash. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes was chosen as the opening track for the new album and was later released (in edited form) as a single.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: In The Wee Small Hours Of Sixpence
Source: Mono British import 45 RPM EP: Homburg (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: Esoteric/Cherry Red (original US label: A&M)
Year: 1968
For their third single, Procol Harum released Quite Rightly So, from their Shine On Brightly LP, with a non-album track, In The Wee Small Hours Of Sixpence, as the B side. In the US, however, neither side was designated by A&M Records as the A side, and In The Wee Small Hours Of Sixpence ended up getting minor airplay in at least six US markets, while Quite Rightly So only made the chartbound list on one station in the entire country.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: Misty Lane
Source: Mono British import CD: Melts In Your Brain, Not On Your Wrist (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Martin Siegel
Label: Big Beat (original US label: Uptown)
Year: 1967
The third Chocolate Watchband single, Misty Lane, was made, according to rock historian Alec Paleo, "under duress". Reportedly, the band hated the single so much that they took turns tossing copies in the air and using them for target practice. Written by British songwriter Martin Siegel, the song sounds nothing like the garage-punk club band that lived to outstage the big name acts they often opened for. The song was provided to the band by producer Ed Cobb, who later admitted that he didn't really know what to do with them in the studio.
Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Rock Me Baby
Source: Dutch import LP: Vincebus Eruptum
Writer(s): King/Josea
Label: Philips
Year: 1968
The first Blue Cheer LP, Vincebus Eruptum, is cited by some as the first heavy metal album, while others refer to it as proto metal. However you want to look at it, the album is dominated by the feedback-laden guitar of Leigh Stephens, as can be plainly heard on their version of B.B. King's classic Rock Me Baby. Although there seem to be very few people still around who actually heard Blue Cheer perform live, the power trio has the reputation of being one of the loudest bands in the history of rock music.
Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Summertime Blues
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: Vincebus Eruptum)
Writer(s): Cochrane/Capehart
Label: Rhino (original label: Philips)
Year: 1968
If 1967 was the summer of love, then 1968 was the summer of violence. Framed by the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, both major anti-establishment movements of the time (civil rights and anti-war) became increasing radicalized and more violent. The hippies gave way to the Yippies, LSD gave way to crystal meth, and there were riots in the streets of several US cities. Against this backdrop Blue Cheer released one of the loudest and angriest recordings ever to grace the top 40: the proto-metal arrangement of Eddie Cochrane's 1958 classic Summertime Blues. It was the perfect soundtrack song for its time.
Artist: Blue Cheer
Title: Parchman Farm
Source: Dutch import LP: Vincebus Eruptum
Writer(s): Mose Allison
Label: Philips
Year: 1968
If the release of the first Black Sabbath album in early 1970 marks the birth of heavy metal, then the release of the first Blue Cheer album in 1968 may be considered the point of conception for the form. Certainly, in terms of pure volume, Cheer was unequalled in their live performances (although the Grateful Dead's sound system had more wattage, Owsley Stanley used it judiciously to get the best sound quality as opposed to the sheer quantity of decibels favored by Blue Cheer), and managed to preserve that sense of loudness in the studio. Like Black Sabbath, the members of Blue Cheer had more than a passing familiarity with the blues as well, as evidenced by their inclusion of an old Mose Allison tune, Parchman Farm, on their debut LP, Vincebus Eruptum (the album included a cover of B.B. King's Rock Me, Baby as well). Contrary to rumors, guitarist Leigh Stephens did not go deaf and kill himself (although he did leave Blue Cheer after the band's second LP, moving to England and releasing a somewhat distortion-free solo album in 1969).
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Ball And Chain
Source: CD: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s): Willie Mae Thornton
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
Big Brother And The Holding Company electrified the crowd at the Monterey International Pop Festival in 1967 with their performance of Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton's Ball And Chain. The rest of the world, however, would have to wait until the following year to hear Janis Joplin's version of the old blues tune, when a live performance recorded at Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium was included on the LP Cheap Thrills.
No comments:
Post a Comment