Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2549 (starts 12/1/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/597800

    This week we have artists' sets from Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles, a new Advanced Psych set featurning artists from Berkeley, Seattle and Milwaukee, and in our last set a couple of real obscurities.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Let's Spend The Night Together
Source:    LP: Through The Past, Darkly (originally released on LP: Between The Buttons and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    London
Year:    1967
    When Let's Spend The Night Together was climbing the charts, the Rolling Stones made one of their many appearances on the Ed Sullivan show. The show's producers (or maybe Ed himself) asked Mick Jagger to change the words to "Let's Spend Some Time Together", and he actually complied! I can't imagine anyone doing that to the Stones now (nor can I imagine the band agreeing to it). 

Artist:    Cyrkle
Title:    We Had A Good Thing Goin'
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer:    Sedaka/Greenfield
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    The Cyrkle released ten singles from 1966 to 1968. With one exception (the song Camaro, which was released exclusively to Chevrolet dealerships), each of those singles did worse on the charts than the one before it. Their debut single, Red Rubber Ball, made the top 5. The follow-up, Turn Down Day, peaked within the top 20. We Had A Good Thing Goin', released in early 1967, only managed to make it to the # 51 spot, despite being written by Neil Sedaka and Ellie Greenfield. 

Artist:     Cream
Title:     Dance The Night Away
Source:     LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s):    Bruce/Brown
Label:     Atco
Year:     1967
     With their 1967 album Disraeli Gears, Cream established itself as having a psychedelic side as well as their original blues orientation. Most of the more psychedelic material was from the team of Jack Bruce and Pete Brown, including Dance the Night Away.

Artist:    Love
Title:    She Comes In Colors
Source:    CD: Da Capo (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1966
    Arthur Lee's transition from angry punk (on songs like 7&7 Is and My Little Red Book) to a softer, more introspective kind of singer/songwriter was evident on Love's second LP, Da Capo. Although there were still some hard rockers, such as Stephanie Knows Who, the album also includes songs like She Comes In Colors, which was released ahead of the album as the band's third single in late 1966. The song was one of Lee's first to inspire critics to draw comparisons between Lee's vocal style and that of Johnny Mathis. 

Artist:    Pasternak Progress
Title:    Flower Eyes
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Pasternak/Branca
Label:    Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year:    1967
    In 1967 Jeff Pasternak became one of thousands of young people to catch the Doors at L.A.'s famous Whisky-A-Go-Go club on the Sunset Strip. Like many others, Pasternak was inspired to make music himself. Unlike most, Pasternak was son of a famous Hollywood movie producer/director (Joe Pasternak, whose credits included Please Don't Eat The Daisies and Where The Boys Are), and was able to take advantage of his father's connections to get a record made. That record was Flower Eyes, released later the same year on the Original Sound label, which was trying to duplicate its success with the Music Machine's Talk Talk the year before.

Artist:    Neil Young
Title:    The Loner
Source:    LP: The Big Ball (originally released on LP: Neil Young)
Writer(s):    Neil Young
Label:    Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    The Loner could easily have been passed off as a Buffalo Springfield song. In addition to singer/songwriter/guitarist Neil Young, the tune features Springfield members Jim Messina on bass and George Grantham on drums. Since Buffalo Springfield was functionally defunct by the time the song was ready for release, however, it instead became Young's first single as a solo artist. The song first appeared, in a longer form, on Young's first solo album in late 1968, with the single being released three months later. The subject of The Loner has long been rumored to be Young's bandmate Stephen Stills, or possibly Young himself. As usual, Neil Young ain't sayin'.
    
Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Somewhere Friday Night
Source:    German import CD: Turtle Soup
Writer(s):    The Turtles
Label:    Repertoire (original US label: White Whale)
Year:    1969
    One generally does not think of the Kinks and the Turtles in the same context, yet the two bands actually have more in common then one would think. Both started off with hit singles (the Kinks with You Really Got Me and the Turtles with It Ain't Me Babe) that established very quickly where they fell on the rock spectrum (hard rock for the Kinks, jangly folk-rock for the Turtles). Yet, both the Kinks and the Turtles ended up straying far from the musical beginnings over the years. In the case of the Turtles it was a constant struggle between the band, who wanted more creative freedom, and their record label, who depended on them as their primary source of income. Things finally came to a head in 1969 when the Turtles, in defiance of their label, brought in Ray Davies of the Kinks to produce what would be their final album (although White Whale would continue to issue Turtles records after the group disbanded until the label's own demise in the early 1970s). Turtle Soup provided no major hits for the band, although a couple of singles did make the lower reaches of the Hot 100. After the album was released the band issued one final single, a cover of a song called Lady-O. The B side of that record was a Turtles original called Somewhere Friday Night that was taken from the Turtle Soup album. The next album project was abandoned midway, and Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman briefly hooked up with the Mothers of Invention before going it as a duo known as the Pholorescent Leech (later Flo) and Eddie. 

Artist:    Human Beingz
Title:    Evil Hearted You
Source:    Mono LP: Highs In The Mid Sixties-Vol.9-Ohio (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    AIP (original label: Elysian)
Year:    1966
    Regular listeners of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era are probably familiar with a song called Nobody But Me by the Human Beinz (it holds the record for the most iterations of the word no on a top 40 hit song). What most people aren't aware of, however, is the fact that the band had actually been spelling its name Human Beingz for over a year before signing with Capitol Records, who accidently left the 'g' out on the label of Nobody But Me in 1968. One of the earliest regional hits for the Youngstown, Ohio based Human Beingz was a cover of the Who's I Can't Explain, released on the local Elysian label in 1966. The B side of that single was another cover, this time of the Yardbirds' Evil Hearted You, which had been released as a single in the UK, but only as an album track in the US.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Foxy Lady
Source:    Mono LP: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original UK label: Track)
Year:    1967
    The first track on the original UK release of Are You Experienced was Foxy Lady. The British custom of the time was to not include any songs on albums that had been previously released as singles. When Reprise Records got the rights to release the album in the US, it was decided to include three songs that had all been top 40 hits in the UK. One of those songs, Purple Haze, took over the opening spot on the album, and Foxy Lady was buried near the end of side 2. This particular recording is a recreation of the original UK mono mix of the song by original engineer Eddie Kramer using vintage equipment.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience mkII
Title:    Angel
Source:    CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: The Cry Of Love)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1971
    Shortly after the untimely death of Jimi Hendrix in September of 1970, Reprise released the first of many posthumous Hendrix albums, The Cry Of Love. Like millions of other Hendrix fans, I immediately went out and bought a copy. I have to say that there are very few songs that have ever brought tears to my eyes, and even fewer that did so on my very first time hearing them. Of these, Angel tops the list. The song features the second Jimi Hendrix Experience lineup with Billy Cox on bass and Mitch Mitchell on drums. Mitchell and engineer Eddie Kramer mixed the song posthumously.
        
Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Third Stone From The Sun
Source:    Mono LP: Are You Experienced
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original UK label: Track)
Year:    1967
    One of the great rock instrumentals, Third Stone From The Sun (from the Jimi Hendrix Experience album Are You Experienced) is one of the first tracks to use a recording technique known as backwards masking (where the tape is deliberately put on the machine backwards and new material is added to the reversed recording). In this particular case  the masked material (Hendrix speaking) was added at a faster speed than the original recording, with a lot of reverb added, creating an almost otherworldly effect when played forward at normal speed. Astute listeners will notice several differences between this Eddie Kramer engineered mono mix and the stereo mix used on the US version of the album, making this a new (ahem) experience for most American listeners.

Artist:    Focus
Title:    Hocus Pocus
Source:    Import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Moving Waves)
Writer(s):    van Leer/Akkerman
Label:    Polydor UK (original US label: Sire)
Year:    1971
    Although it was not a hit until 1973, Hocus Pocus by the Dutch progressive rock band Focus has the type of simple structure coupled with high energy that was characteristic of many of the garage bands of the mid to late 60s. The song was originally released on the band's second LP, known alternately as Focus II and Moving Waves, in 1971. Both guitarist Jan Akkerman and keyboardist/vocalist/flautist Thijs Van Leer have gone on to have successful careers, with Van Leer continuing to use to Focus name as recently as 2006.

Artist:    Chicago
Title:    25 Or 6 To 4
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Robert Lamm
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1970
    For their second LP, Chicago (which had justdropped the words "Transit Authority" from their name in response to a threatened lawsuit) tried out all three of their vocalists on each new song to hear who sounded the best for that particular song. In the case of Robert Lamm's 25 Or 6 To 4, bassist Peter Cetera did the honors. The song became a top 10 single both in the US and UK. Despite rumors to the contrary, Lamm says 25 Or 6 To 4 is not a drug song. Instead, he says, the title refers to the time of the morning that he was awake and writing the tune. The lyrics actually bear this out.

Artist:     Eire Apparent
Title:     The Clown
Source:     CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Sunrise)
Writer:     Chris Stewart
Label:     BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Buddah)
Year:     1969
     Eire Apparent was a band from Northern Ireland that got the attention of Chas Chandler, former bassist for the Animals in late 1967. Chandler had been managing Jimi Hendrix since he had discovered him playing in a club in New York a year before, bringing him back to England and introducing him to Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, who along with Hendrix would become the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Despite Eire Apparent having almost no recording experience, Chandler put them on the bill as the opening act for the touring Experience. This led to Hendrix producing the band's first and only album, Sunrise, in 1968, playing on at least three tracks, including, most obviously, The Clown.

Artist:     Kingsmen
Title:     Louie Louie
Source:     Mono LP: Nuggets vol. 8- The Northwest (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Richard Berry
Label:     Rhino (original label: Wand)
Year:     1963
     Although Paul Revere and the Raiders had recorded the song just a few days earlier, the version of Louie Louie that is remembered as the greatest party song of all time came from another Portland, Oregon band, the Kingsmen. With its basic three-chord structure and incomprehensible lyrics, the most popular song to ever come out of the Pacific Northwest was considered a must-learn song for garage bands everywhere. 

Artist:    Country Joe McDonald
Title:    Round And Round
Source:    CD: 50
Writer(s):    Joe McDonald
Label:    Rag Baby
Year:    2017
    One of the most haunting tracks on the 2017 Country Joe McDonald album, 50, Round And Round is about nothing less than life itself. Well, our lives, at least. I kind of doubt that the various non-sentient species on our planet think much about this stuff. Regardless, it's a beautiful tune, well worth listening to.

Artist:    Red Stars Theory
Title:    Getting Taken
Source:    10" 45 RPM Extended Play: El Paraguas
Writer(s):    Red Stars Theory
Label:    Deluxe
Year:    1995
    Red Stars Theory was formed in Seattle, Washington in early 1995 by James Bertram (guitar/vocals) Tonie Palmasani (guitar/vocals), Jeremiah Green (drums/percussion/vocals) and Jason Talley (bass guitar/vocals). By the end of the year they had released a self-titled EP (sometimes known as El Paraguas), a single and an album. The band has only recorded sporadically since then, due to all of the members also being involved in other projects. All four songs on the EP are similarly structured, starting off quietly with just a single guitar and vocals, but getting harder and louder as the song progresses, as can be heard on Getting Taken.

Artist:    Petals
Title:    Eight Swords
Source:    CD: Parahelion
Writer(s):    Cary Wolf
Label:    Novermber Rain
Year:    1992
    The Milwaukee-based Petals, consisting of guitarist/vocalist Cary Wolf, multi-instrumentalist Laurie Kern, sitar and bouzouki player John C. Frankovic, bassist Tim Kern and drummer/guitarist James D. Tessier, released their first full-length LP, Parahelion, in 1992. One of the outstanding tracks on Parahelion is Eight Swords, written by Wolf.

Artist:    Iron Butterfly with Pinera And Rhino
Title:    Best Years Of Our Life
Source:    LP: Metamorphosis)
Writer(s):    Iron Butterfly
Label:    Atco
Year:    1970
    Following the departure of guitarist Erik Brann the remaining members of Iron Butterfly got to work on the band's fourth LP, Metamorphosis, using four studio guitarists. Two of them, Mike Pinera (formerly of Blues Image) and Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt, would go on to join the band shortly after the album was released. The album was moderately successful, reaching the # 16 spot of the Billboard top 200 album charts, but the writing was already on the wall, and two of the band members, Reinhardt and Dorman, were already making plans to hook up with original Deep Purple vocalist Rod Evans and drummer Bobby Caldwell to form Captain Beyond. 

Artist:    Mothers Of Invention
Title:    Electric Aunt Jemima
Source:    LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Record Show (originally released on LP: Uncle Meat)
Writer(s):    Frank Zappa
Label:    Warner Brothers (original labels: Bizarre/Reprise)
Year:    1969
    Following the release of Absolutely Free in 1967, Frank Zappa began work on a project he called No Commercial Potential, which consisted of four albums with a common theme. The first of these was We're Only In It For The Money, released as a Mothers Of Invention album in March of 1968, followed by Zappa's first official solo album, Lumpy Gravy two months later. The third album, Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, was credited to the Mothers Of Invention and appeared on the racks in December of 1968. Not long after the release of Ruben, Zappa parted company with M-G-M's Verve label, prompting the company to release an unauthorized (yet compiled by Zappa himself) retrospective album called Mothermania. In 1969 Zappa's Bizarre Productions became an actual record label distributed by Warner Brothers as a partner to Reprise Records. One of the earliest releases on Bizarre was Uncle Meat, the fourth and final portion of No Commercial Potential. The double LP, including several short pieces such as Electric Aunt Jemima, would eventually become the basis for the 1987 film Uncle Meat.

Artist:    Easybeats
Title:    Good Times
Source:    CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Vanda/Young
Label:    Rhino (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1968
    The Easybeats were Australia's most popular band in the sixties. Formed in 1964 at a migrant hostel in Sidney (all the members came from immigrant families), the band's earliest British Invasion styled hits were written by rhythm guitarist George Young (older brother of AC/DC's Angus and Malcolm Young) and lead vocalist "Little" Stevie Wright. By 1966, however, lead guitarist Harry Vanda (originally from the Netherlands) had become fluent in English and with the song Friday On My Mind replaced Wright as Young's writing partner (although Wright stayed on as the band's frontman). Around that same time the Easybeats relocated to England, although they continued to chart hits on a regular basis in Australia. One of their most memorable songs was Good Times from the 1968 album Vigil, featuring guest backup vocalist Steve Marriott of the Small Faces. Originally released in Australia as a B side, the song was later retitled Gonna Have A Good Time for its international release as an A side in 1969. Young and Vanda later moved back to Australia and recorded a series of records under the name Flash and the Pan that were very successful in Australia and Europe. Stevie Wright went on to become Australia's first international pop star. The song Good Times became a hit for another Australian band, INXS, in the 1980s when it was used in the film The Lost Boys.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Relax
Source:    Mono CD: The Who Sell Out
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    Polydor/UMC/Track (original US label: Decca)
Year:    1967
    The Who Sell Out stands apart from other Who albums in a number of ways. First off, the cover features individual photographs of each of the band members in ridiculous ad parodies. The front cover is split between Pete Townshend using a gigantic can of Odorono deodorant and Roger Daltry sitting cross-legged covered in Heinz Baked Beans. In the back cover, John Entwhistle is using an oversized tube of Medac on a blemish that covers half his face, while Keith Moon strikes a muscleman pose with a beautiful model in a bikini (advertising for the Charles Atlas fitness course). Each of the photos is accompanied by tongue-in-cheek ad text. The album itself contains several excellent songs (in fact, many critics consider it the Who's best album of their career) interspersed with faux radio commercials and actual jingles from pirate station Radio London (the jingles having been produced by PAMS Productions of Dallas, Texas, the company that provided jingles for many US top 40 stations as well). Most of these songs were never performed live. One exception was Relax, which was part of the band's stage repertoire for a short time in 1968. This lack of promotion (and the growing sense of rock music being SERIOUS ART), hampered the album's commercial success, although it still managed to climb to the #13 spot in the UK and #48 in the US. The Who themselves would turn SERIOUS with their next new studio work, a double-LP called Tommy.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Good Day Sunshine
Source:    CD: Revolver
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year:    1966
    When the Beatles' Revolver album came out, radio stations all over the US began playing various non-single album tracks almost immediately. Among the most popular of those was Paul McCartney's Good Day Sunshine. It was in many ways an indication of the direction McCartney's songwriting would continue to take for several years. 

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Within You Without You
Source:    LP: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Capitol/EMI
Year:    1967
    George Harrison began to take an interest in the Sitar as early as 1965. By 1966 he had become proficient enough on the Indian instrument to compose and record Love You To for the Revolver album. He followed that up with perhaps his most popular sitar-based track, Within You Without You, which opens side two of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Harrison would record one more similarly-styled song, The Inner Light, in 1968, before deciding that he was never going to be in the same league as Ravi Shankar, whom Harrison had become friends with by that time. For the remainder of his time with the Beatles Harrison would concentrate on his guitar work and songwriting skills, resulting in classic songs such as While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something and Here Comes The Sun.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Eleanor Rigby
Source:    CD: Revolver
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone
Year:    1966
    The Beatles' Revolver album is usually cited as the beginning of the British psychedelic era, and with good reason. Although the band still had one last tour in them in 1966, they were already far more focused on their studio work than on their live performances, and thus turned out an album full of short masterpieces such as Paul McCartney's Eleanor Rigby. As always, the song was credited to both McCartney and John Lennon, but in reality the only Beatle to appear on the recording was McCartney himself, and then only in a vocal capacity. The instrumentation consisted of simply a string quartet, arranged and conducted by producer George Martin. Released as a double-A-sided single, along with Yellow Submarine, the song shot to the upper echelons of the charts in nearly every country in the western world and remains one of the band's most popular and recognizable tunes.

Artist:    Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady with Joey Covington
Title:    Come Back Baby
Source:    CD: Before We Were Them: June 28,1969
Writer(s):    Walter Davis
Label:    Bear's Sonic Journals
Year:    Recorded 1969, released 2018
    "We had it all going on, what musicians and artists throughout time have hoped to have-places to play and experiment and audiences that were with you as you explored and developed" These words by Jack Casady from the liner notes of the third release in the Bear's Sonic Journals series are perhaps the best description of the psychedelic era that I have ever run across. By mid-1969 Jefferson Airplane had already hit their creative peak as a band and the band members were starting to move in different musical directions. One of these directions, taken by guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady, would result in the creation of a new band, Hot Tuna, that would make its official debut later in the year. In June, however, it was simply Jorma and Jack, along with Joey Covington, who would eventually become Jefferson Airplane's drummer. The trio did a series of gigs from June 27-29, including a show at the Vets Memorial Building in Santa Rosa, Ca. that was recorded by the legendary Owsley Stanley. The shows featured a mix of Kaukonen-penned Airplane songs, improvised jams and traditional blues tunes such as Come Back Baby, a song originally recorded in 1940 by Walter Davis and later included on the first Hot Tuna album. 

Artist:    Lyrics
Title:    Wake Up To My Voice
Source:    Mono LP: Highs In The Mid Sixties-Vol.3-L.A. '67 Mondo Hollywood A-Go-Go (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Craig Carll
Label:    Rhino (original label: Feather)
Year:    1968
    In some ways the story of the Lyrics is fairly typical for the mid-1960s. The Carlsbad, California group had already established itself as a competent if somewhat bland cover band when in 1964 they recruited the local cool kid, Chris Gaylord (who was so cool that he had his own beat up old limo, plastered on the inside with Rolling Stones memorabilia, of course), to be their frontman. Gaylord provided the band with a healthy dose of attitude, as demonstrated by their 1965 single So What!! The song was written by Gaylord after he had a brief fling with a local rich girl. Gaylord's tenure lasted until mid-1966. Apparently the band continued on without him with new lead vocalist Craig Carll, who also took over primary songwriting duties for the group. As can be heard on Wake Up To My Voice, Carll's material lacked the cocky attitude of Gaylord's, and after releasing four singles (with a re-release of So What as the B side of the fourth one), the Lyrics ceased to exist.

Artist:    Procol Harum
Title:    Good Captain Clack
Source:    Mono British import CD: Procol Harum
Writer(s):    Brooker/Reid
Label:    Salvo/Fly (original label: Deram)
Year:    1968
    Gary Brooker and Keith Reid tried their hand at vaudeville-styled songwriting with Good Captain Clack, a tune that originally appeared as the B side of Procol Harum's second single, Homburg. The less elaborately produced version of the song heard here was included on the British version of the first Procol Harum album, but was replaced with A Whiter Shade Of Pale on the US version. 

Artist:     Beach Boys
Title:     Let's Go Away For Awhile
Source:     45 RPM single B side (originally released on LP: Pet Sounds)
Writer:     Brian Wilson
Label:     Capitol
Year:     1966
     Although the Beach Boys are known primarily as a vocal group, their catalog is sprinkled with occassional instrumental pieces, usually featuring the youngest Wilson brother, Carl, on lead guitar. By 1966, however, the band was using studio musicians extensively on their recordings. This was taken to its extreme on the Pet Sounds album with the tune Let's Go Away For Awhile, which was made without the participation of any of the actual band members (except composer/producer Brian Wilson, who said at the time that the track was the most satisfying piece of music he had ever made). To give the song even greater exposure, Wilson used the track as the B side of the band's next single, Good Vibrations.

 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2549 (starts 12/1/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/597799

    Quite a few tracks making the Rockin' in the Days of Confusion debut this week, including a pair of singles from artists that have never appeared on the show before. 

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    The Battle Of Epping Forest
Source:    CD: Selling England By The Pound
Writer(s):    Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label:    Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year:    1973
    Although sometimes criticized for making their music overly complicated at times (such as on The Battle Of Epping Forest), there is no doubting the thought and effort (not to mention outstanding musicianship) put forth by Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, Steve Hackett and Phil Collins on the album Selling England By The Pound. Released in 1973, the LP focuses on the loss of traditional English culture and the increasing "Americanization" of the United Kingdom in the last half of the 20th century. The Battle Of Epping Forest was actually inspired by a newspaper article about gang violence in London's East end that Gabriel had read several years earlier. When Gabriel was unable to locate a copy of the article he created new characters to populate the song (and of course the band's legendary stage show).

Artist:    Gary Wright
Title:    Love Is Alive
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Gary Wright
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1975
    Gary Wright first came to prominence as lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the British band Spooky Tooth in the late 1960s. He left the band in early 1970 to begin a solo career, releasing the album Extraction. Bassist Klaus Voorman, who played on the Extraction album, introduced him to George Harrison, who invited him to play piano on his All Things Must Pass album. Wright would later refer to Harrison as his "spiritual mentor", and the two remained close friends until Harrison's death in 2001, with Wright playing on all of Harrison's solo albums in the 1970s. Wright's biggest success as a solo artist came with the release of The Dream Weaver in 1975. One of the first rock albums to built around synthesizer technology, The Dream Weaver got off to a slow start, but eventually ended up in the top 10 following the release of the title track as a single in early 1976. Wright's followup single, Love Is Alive, did almost as well, peaking at #2 on the Hot 100. Starting in the 1980s Wright concentrated on film soundtracks and world music, as well as reuniting with his Spooky Tooth bandmates from time to time for new albums. Wright died in 2023 at age 80 after having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease several years earlier.

Artist:    Tommy Bolin
Title:    Homeward Strut
Source:    Japanese import CD: Teaser
Writer(s):    Bolin/Cook/Sheldon/Tesar
Label:    Sony (original US label: Nemperor)
Year:    1975
    Although Tommy Bolin, as a new member of Deep Purple in 1975, did not have the opportunity to properly promote his new album, Teaser, the album itself contains many fine tracks such as the instrumental Homeward Strut. Unfortunately, my copy of Teaser is a Japanese import, with liner notes entirely in Japanese, which of course I don't read or speak. So, even though I'm sure there's some interesting stuff in there, I can't share it with you. 

Artist:    Mothers
Title:    Montana
Source:    CD: Over-Nite Sensation
Writer(s):    Frank Zappa
Label:    Zappa (original label: Discreet)
Year:    1973
    Montana is quite possibly the most recognizable song Frank Zappa ever wrote. The track first appeared on the Mothers album Over-Nite Sensation and quickly became a concert staple. On the original album version Zappa's guitar solo is followed by a series of vocal gymnastics performed by none other than Tina Turner and the Ikettes, who were recording with Turner's husband Ike in an adjacent studio. According to Zappa it took the singers two days to master the complex melody and timing of the section. Reportedly Tina was so pleased with the result that she invited her husband into the control room to hear the finished section, only to have Ike say "What is this shit?" and walk back out. 

Artist:      Bloodrock
Title:     Fatback
Source:      CD: Bloodrock
Writer(s):    Grundy/Rutledge
Label:     One Way/Cema Special Markets (original label: Capitol)
Year:     1970
     Bloodrock had the mixed blessing of putting out one of the most notorious songs of the year 1970 when they recorded D.O.A.. The song was a huge hit, making them a household name overnight, but soon became an albatross after the novelty wore off. Bloodrock was a discovery of Terry Knight, who took them under his wing, booking them as the opening act for another band he managed, Grand Funk Railroad, on their 1970 tour. The band's first two LPs both were released in 1970. Although Bloodrock 2 was the better seller of the two, thanks to the inclusion of D.O.A., the first LP was a solid debut for the Dallas band. Lead vocalist Jim Rutledge, who had decided to take center stage on Bloodrock 2, was still behind the drum kit on the first LP, singing and playing on songs like Fatback.

Artist:    Black Sabbath
Title:    Rat Salad
Source:    CD: Paranoid
Writer(s):    Iommi/Osborne/Butler/Ward
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1970
    Rat Salad, the only instrumental on Black Sabbath's second album, Paranoid, has to be, with one exception, the rock track with the shortest drum solo on record. Ironically, the song was written specifically for drummer Bill Ward to do a 45 minute long solo when the band was playing eight and three-quarter hour long gigs in Europe in their early days. Nobody knows for sure where the title Rat Salad came from, but it may have been in reference to the state of Ward's hair at the end of one of those solos. 

Artist:    Pearls Before Swine
Title:    Rocket Man
Source:    CD: Constructive Melancholy-30 Years Of Pearls Before Swine (originally released on LP: The Use Of Ashes)
Writer(s):    Tom Rapp
Label:    Birdman (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1970
    Although officially still a band, Pearls Before Swine was, by 1970, a solo project by singer/songwriter Tom Rapp, aided by his wife Elizabeth and various studio musicians. Completing the 1969 album These Things Too had been a particularly difficult process, and the couple had moved to the Netherlands after its release to give Rapp the time to come up with new material without distractions. On their return they discovered that their producer had set up studio time in Nashville with several of the city's top studio musicians. Despite Rapp's misgivings the sessions went well, as several of those musicians had been playing together since working on Bob Dylan's 1966 album Blonde On Blonde and knew how to work with an independent minded singer/songwriter. Among the notable tunes recorded for the the album The Use Of Ashes was Rocket Man, a song based on Ray Bradbury's short story of the same name. Bernie Taupin would cite Rapp's song as the inspiration for his own Rocket Man a few years later.

    And speaking of Bernie Taupin...

Artist:    Elton John
Title:    Have Mercy On The Criminal
Source:    LP: Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player
Writer(s):    John/Taupin
Label:    MCA
Year:    1973
    Elton John kept it simple for his sixth studio LP, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player, by using only his stage band consisting of Davey Johnstone on guitars, Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums for most tracks. One of the exceptions was Have Mercy On The Criminal, which features orchestration by Paul Buckmaster. The song has long been part of John's live setlist, being performed most recently as part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

Artist:    Supertramp
Title:    Bloody Well Right
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Hodgeson/Davies
Label:    A&M
Year:    1974
    I have to admit I've never been able to warm up to Paul Hodgson's vocals, which is why I always preferred Bloody Well Right, which was sung by Rick Davies, to its A side, Dreamer. Apparently I'm not alone, as Bloody Well Right ended up being the more popular one in the US, although Dreamer was a bigger British hit. Both songs were featured on the 1974 album Crime Of The Century.

Artist:    Firesign Theatre
Title:    Squeeze The Wheeze
Source:    LP: I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus
Writer(s):    Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1971
    I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus is the fourth Firesign Theatre album, released in 1971. Like it's predecessor, Don't Touch That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers, Bozos is one continuous narrative covering both sides of an LP. It tells the story of a visit to a Future Fair that somewhat resembles Disney's Tomorrowland, with various interractive educational exhibits such as the Wall Of Science. The piece was actually made up of shorter bits that the Firesign Theatre had used previously on their weekly radio show, but reworked and re-recorded for the new album. One of those bits, arbitrarily titled (by me) Squeeze The Wheeze, includes the album title itself.

Artist:    Allman Brothers Band
Title:    Statesboro Blues
Source:    CD: Idlewild South
Writer(s):    Willie McTell
Label:    Mercury (original labels: Atco/Capricorn)
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 2015
    One of the first songs recorded for the second Allman Brothers Band album, Idlewild South, was a hard-driving version of Willie McTell's Statesboro Blues. The band worked on tune during their initial sessions at Capricorn Studios in Macon and continued to tweak the song when they moved down to Criterion Studios in Miami. For some reason, though, the song did not make the album's final cut. They made up for it, however, by making Statesboro Blues the opening track on their 1971 live album At Fillmore East.

Artist:    War
Title:    The Cisco Kid
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    War
Label:    United Artists
Year:    1973
    The Cisco Kid, released as a single in 1973, was War's biggest hit. In fact, it only missed the top spot on the charts because of the immense popularity of Tony Orlando and Dawn's Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree. Guess which of the two songs is more fpopular 50 years later (and which one is best described as "cringeworthy")?
 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2548 (starts 11/24/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/597019

    Quite a few "new" tracks this week, including a couple by artists making their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut (plus one whose only other appearance was over fifteen years ago).
    
Artist:     Troggs
Title:     Wild Thing
Source:     Simulated stereo LP: Golden Days Of British Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Chip Taylor
Label:     Sire (original label: Fontana)
Year:     1966
    I have a DVD copy of a music video (although back then they were called promotional films) for the Troggs' Wild Thing in which the members of the band are lip-synching the song as they walk through what looks like a train station while being mobbed by girls at every turn. Every time I watch it I imagine singer Reg Presley saying giggity-giggity as he bobs his head. 

Artist:    Butterfield Blues Band
Title:    One More Mile
Source:    Mono LP: What's Shakin'
Writer(s):    James Cotton
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1966
    The path to the first Butterfield Blues Band album was anything but an easy one. The band made its first attempt at recording in the studio in 1964, but nobody was happy with the results and the tapes were shelved. The band then tried recording a live performance at a local New York City club, but, although the gig did wonders for the band's reputation the band was still not satisfied with the recording, and that, too, was scrapped. Finally, in early 1965, the group went back into the studio to record what became the album called The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Meanwhile, Elektra Records president Jac Holzman had released an anthology album called Folk Song '65 that included one of the songs from the first Butterfield studio sessions. The success of Folk Song '65 (due in large part to the inclusion of the Butterfield track) prompted Holzman to create a follow-up LP, What's Shakin', that was more blues oriented than the first anthology. What's Shakin' included five more Butterfield tracks from the 1964 sessions, including James Cotton's One More Mile, a song that is still unavailable elsewhere.

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Grim Reaper Of Love
Source:    French import CD: Happy Together (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Portz/Nichol
Label:    Magic (original label: White Whale)
Year:    1966
    The Turtles had some early success in 1965 as a folk-rock band, recording the hit version of Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe and PF Sloan's Let Me Be. By 1966, however, it was getting harder and harder for the group to get a hit record. One attempt was Grim Reaper Of Love, co-written by Turtles lead guitarist Al Nichol. Personally I think it's a pretty cool tune, but was probably a bit too weird to appeal to the average top 40 radio listener in 1966. Grim Reaper Of Love did manage to make it to the #81 spot on the charts, unlike the band's next two singles that failed to chart at all. It wasn't until the following year, when the Turtles recorded Happy Together, that the band would return to the top 40 charts, making it all the way to the top.

Artist:    Zombies
Title:    Tell Her No
Source:    45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer(s):    Rod Argent
Label:    London (original label: Parrot)
Year:    1965
    Rod Argent was responsible for writing four well-known hit songs, which were spread out over a period of eight years (and two bands). The second, and probably least known of these was the Zombies' Tell Her No, released in 1965. The song got mixed reviews from critics, all of which measured the tune against Beatles songs of the same period.

Artist:    Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title:    Good Thing
Source:    Mono LP: The Spirit Of '67
Writer(s):    Lindsay/Melcher
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    From 1965 to 1967 Paul Revere And The Raiders were on a roll, with a string of six consecutive top 20 singles, four of which made the top 5. Among these was Good Thing, a tune written by lead vocalist Mark Lindsay and producer Terry Melcher (sometimes referred to as the "fifth Raider"). The song first appeared on the Spirit Of  '67 LP in 1966, and was released as a single late that year. The song ended up being the Raiders' second biggest hit, peaking at # 4 in early 1967. 
 
Artist:    Love
Title:    Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hillsdale
Source:    CD: Forever Changes
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    I've always had more of an ear for musical structure and tone than I do for language (in fact I learned to read music before I learned to read and write English), so perhaps I'll be forgiven when I say it was not until I had heard Love's Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hillsdale a dozen (or more) times that I noticed the clever lyrical trick Arthur Lee built into the song from the Forever Changes album. Lee sings all but the last word of each line during the verses of the song, starting the next line with the word that would have finished the previous one. This creates an effect of stop/start anticipation that is only accented by the music on this song about life on L.A.'s Sunset Strip, particularly at the Whisky a Go Go, which is located between Clark and Hillsdale on the famous boulevard.

Artist:    Millennium
Title:    Prelude/To Claudia On Thursday
Source:    LP: Begin
Writer(s):    Edgar/Rhodes/Fennely/Stec
Label:    Columbia/Sundazed
Year:    1968
    Curt Boettcher, despite looking about 15 years old, was already at 24 an experienced record producer by early 1968, having worked with the Association on their first album, as well as co-producing Sagittarius with Gary Usher and producing his own group, the Ballroom, in 1967. Among the many people he had worked with were multi-instrumentalist Keith Olsen, drummer Ron Edgar and bassist Doug Rhodes, all of whom had been members of Sean Bonniwell's Music Machine in 1966-67. Following the release of the debut Eternity's Children album, which Olsen and Boettcher co-produced, the two formed a new group called the Millennium. In addition to the aforementioned Music Machine members, the Millennium included /guitarist/singer/songwriters Lee Mallory, Sandy Salisbury, and Michael Fennelly, all of who Boettcher had worked with on various studio projects, and Joey Spec who would go on to form his own Sonic Past Music label many years later. Working on state-of-the-art 16 track equipment at Columbia's Los Angeles studios, they produced the album Begin, which, at that point in time, was the most expensive album ever made and only the second (after Simon & Garfunkel's Bookends) to use 16-track technology. The only problem was that by the time the album was released in mid-1968, public tastes had changed radically from just a year before, with top 40 listeners going for the simple bubble-gum tunes coming from the Buddah label and album fans getting into louder, heavier groups like Blue Cheer and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. There was no market for the lavishly produced Begin album, which failed to chart despite getting rave reviews from the press. A second Millennium album was shelved, and the members went their separate ways. In more recent years the album has attained legendary status as, in the words of one critic, "probably the single greatest 60s pop record produced in L.A. outside of the Beach Boys".
    
Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience (II)
Title:    Valleys Of Neptune
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Legacy
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 2010
    Even before the breakup of the original Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1969, Hendrix was starting to work with other musicians, including keyboardist Steve Winwood and flautist/saxophonist Chris Wood from Traffic, bassist Jack Casidy from Jefferson Airplane and Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles. Still, he kept showing a tendency to return to the power trio configuration, first with Band of Gypsys, with Miles and bassist Billy Cox and, in 1970, a new trio that was sometimes billed as the Jimi Hendrix Experience. This trio, featuring Cox along with original Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell (with additional percussion added by Jumo Sultan), recorded extensively in the months leading up to Hendrix's death on September 18th, leaving behind hours of tapes in various stages of completion. Among those recordings was a piece called Valleys Of Neptune that was finally released, both as a single and as the title track of a new CD, in 2010.

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
Source:    European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Blonde On Blonde)
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Sony Music (original US label: Columbia)
Year:    1966
    Some of the best rock and roll songs of 1966 were banned on a number of stations for being about either sex or drugs. Most artists that recorded those songs claimed they were about something else altogether. In the case of Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, "stoned" refers to a rather unpleasant form of execution (at least according to Dylan). On the other hand, Dylan himself was reportedly quite stoned while recording the song, having passed a few doobies around before starting the tape rolling. Sometimes I think ambiguities like this are why English has become the dominant language of commerce on the planet.

Artist:    Seeds
Title:    Try To Understand
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 6-Punk, Part Two (originally released on LP: The Seeds)
Writer(s):    Sky Saxon
Label:    GNP Crescendo
Year:    1966
    The Seeds' first recording session of 1966 resulted in the band's third single, Try To Understand. By this point in the band's career lead vocalist Sky Saxon was no longer playing bass in the studio, although he continued to play the instrument onstage. At Saxon's request, Harvey Sharpe of the Beau-Jives, a popular Los Angeles band that occasionally appeared at Gene Norman's Crescendo Club (Norman also being the owner of the GNP Crescendo record label that the Seeds recorded for) joined the group in the studio, along with guitarist Vinnie Fanelli. The song was not able to get much airplay when released as an A side in February of 1966, and subsequently was chosen as the B side of the re-released version of Pushin' Too Hard later the same year, which ended up being the group's biggest hit. The song also appeared as the opening track of side two of the Seeds' debut LP.

Artist:        Incredible String Band
Title:        The Mad Hatter's Song
Source:    British import CD: Think I'm Going Weird (originally released on LP: The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion)
Writer:        Robin Williamson
Label:        Grapefruit (original label: Elektra)
Year:        1967
        The original lineup of Scotland's Incredible String Band, Clive Palmer, Robin Williamson, and Mike Heron, split up immediately following the release of their debut album in 1966, with Palmer and Williamson leaving the country for Africa and the Middle East. Several months later, upon Williamson's return, the band reformed, but without Palmer, who was still in Afghanistan at the time. Williamson had picked up several new instruments in Morocco, and the duo set about finding ways of incorporating them into their next album, The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion. This resulted in a much more avant-garde brand of psychedelic folk than was heard on their first LP, as can be heard on tracks like The Mad Hatter's Song.

Artist:     Monkees
Title:     Randy Scouse Git
Source:     LP: Headquarters 
Writer:     Mickey Dolenz
Label:     Colgems
Year:     1967
     The original concept for the Monkees TV series was that the band would be shown performing two new songs on each weekly episodes. This meant that, even for an initial 13-week order, 26 songs would have to be recorded in a very short amount of time. The only way to meet that deadline was for several teams of producers, songwriters and studio musicians to work independently of each other at the same time. The instrumental tracks were then submitted to musical director Don Kirschner, who brought in Mickey Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith to record vocal tracks. Although some of the instrumental tracks, such as those produced by Nesmith, had Nesmith and Tork playing on them, many did not. Some backing tracks were even recorded in New York at the same time as the TV show was being taped in L.A. In a few cases, the Monkees themselves did not hear the songs until they were in the studio to record their vocal tracks. A dozen of these recordings were chosen for release on the first Monkees LP in 1966, including the hit single Last Train To Clarksville. When it became clear that the show was a hit and a full season's worth of episodes would be needed, Kirschner commissioned even more new songs (although by then Clarksville was being featured in nearly every episode, mitigating the need for new songs somewhat). Without the band's knowledge Kirschner issued a second album, More Of The Monkees, in early 1967, using several of the songs recorded specifically for the TV show. The band members were furious, and the subsequent firestorm resulted in the removal of Kirschner from the entire Monkees project. The group then hired Turtles bassist Chip Douglas to work with the band to produce an album of songs that the Monkees themselves would both sing and play on. The album, Headquarters, spent one week at the top of the charts before giving way to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There were, however, no singles released from the album; at least not in the US. It turns out that the seemingly nonsensical title of the album's final track, Randy Scouse Git, was actually British slang for "horny guy from Liverpool", or something along those lines. The song was released everywhere but the continental US under the name Alternate Title and was a surprise worldwide hit. 

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Source:    CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year:    1967
    According to principal songwriter John Lennon, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite was inspired by a turn of the century circus poster that the Beatles ran across while working on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Most of the lyrics include references to items on the poster itself, such as the Hendersons and Henry the Horse. 

Artist:    Third Bardo
Title:    I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time
Source:    Mono British import CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Evans/Pike
Label:    Zonophone (original label: Roulette)
Year:    1967
    The Third Bardo (the name coming from the Tibetan Book of the Dead) only released one single, but I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time has become, over a period of time, one of the most sought-after records of the psychedelic era. Not much is known of this New York band made up of Jeffrey Moon (vocals), Bruce Ginsberg (drums), Ricky Goldclang (lead guitar), Damian Kelly (bass) and Richy Seslowe (guitar).

Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    Lazy Me
Source:    Mono LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s):    Bob Mosley
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    Such is the quality of the first Moby Grape LP that there are many outstanding tracks that have gotten virtually no airplay in the years since the album was released. Lazy Me, written by bassist Bob Mosley, is one of those tracks, probably because of its length, a mere one minute and 43 seconds.

Artist:    Mystery Trend
Title:    Johnny Was A Good Boy
Source:    Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Nagle/Cuff
Label:    Rhino (original label: Verve)
Year:    1967
    The Mystery Trend was a bit of an anomaly. Contemporaries of bands such as the Great! Society and the Charlatans, the Trend always stood apart from the rest of the crowd, playing to an audience that was both a bit more affluent and a bit more "adult" (they were reportedly the house band at a Sausalito strip club). Although they played in the city itself as early as 1965, they did not release their first record until early 1967. The song, Johnny Was A Good Boy, tells the story of a seemingly normal middle-class kid who turns out to be a monster (without actually specifying what he did), surprising friends, family and neighbors. Despite being an excellent tune, the song's lyrics were way too dark for top 40 radio in 1967, and the record sank like a stone.

Artist:    Searchers
Title:    Tricky Dicky
Source:    LP: Meet The Searchers
Writer(s):    Lieber/Stoller
Label:    Kapp
Year:    1963
    Liverpool had a thriving local music scene long before the Beatles brought worldwide attention to the Merseyside city. One of the most popular local groups was the Searchers. Formed in 1959 as a skiffle group by guitarist John McNally and guitarist/singer Mike Pender, they were, by 1961, one of the most popular of the Merseybeat bands, playing as many as three gigs at three different clubs all in the same night. Although they even rivalled the Beatles in popularity at times they lacked one key element that the Fab Four had an excess of: songwriting talent. In fact, every song on their debut LP, Meet The Searchers, came from outside songwriters, including Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller's Tricky Dicky. It wasn't until their 1965 LP Sounds Like Searchers that their first original composition was included on an album, and by then their popularity had waned considerably.

Artist:    Tol-Puddle Martyrs
Title:    Anybody Else
Source:    CD: A Celebrated Man
Writer(s):    Peter Rechter
Label:    Secret Deals
Year:    2009
    The original Tolpuddle Martyrs were a group of farmers in the English village of Tolpuddle who had the temerity to try organizing what amounts to a union in the 19th century. For their efforts they found themselves deported to the penal colony now known as Australia. But that doesn't really concern us. What I wanted to talk about was the original Tol-Puddle Martyrs (note the hyphen), the legendary Australian band that evolved from a group called Peter And The Silhouettes. Well, not exactly. What I really wanted to talk about is the current incarnation of the Tol-Puddle Martyrs. Still led by Peter Rechter, the Martyrs have released a series of CDs since 2007 (including a collection of recordings made by the 60s incarnation of the band). Among those CDs is the 2009 album A Celebrated Man, which contains several excellent tunes such as Anybody Else. 
 
Artist:    Snakefinger
Title:    I Come From An Island
Source:    LP: Greener Postures
Writer(s):    Snakefinger/The Residents(?)
Label:    Ralph
Year:    1980
    South London born Philip Charles Lithman got the name Snakefinger from members of the Residents after they saw a photograph of the guitarist playing the violin and observed that his finger looked like a snake about to attack the instrument. He first met the mysterious San Francisco group in 1969, appearing with the group onstage for their first public performance in 1971 before returning to his native England in 1972 to form his own band, Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers. He eventually ended up back in San Francisco, appearing as a guest musician on several Residents releases as well as releasing his first solo albums on the Residents' own Ralph Records label. His second solo LP, Greener Pastures, included a mixture of solo compositions and songs co-written by the Residents. In keeping with the Residents' policy of deliberate obscurity, however, It is not known which category I Come From An Island falls into.

Artist:    R.E.M.
Title:    Can't Get There From Here
Source:    LP: Fables Of The Reconstruction
Writer(s):    Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe
Label:    I.R.S.
Year:    1985
    Can't Get There From Here is the first single released from the third R.E.M. album, Fables Of The Reconstruction. Although it didn't make the top 100, it did get appear on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, peaking at #14.

Artist:    Jimmy Gilbert
Title:    Believe What I Say
Source:    Mono LP: Highs In The Mid Sixties, Vol. 6-Michigan Part Two (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Jimmy Gilbert
Label:    Darn-L
Year:    1966
    Sometimes you have to wonder if a record was made for the express purpose of getting even with an ex-girlfriend. Believe What I Say, the only single released by Jimmy Gilbert, is just such a record.

Artist:    Things To Come (Illinois band)
Title:    I'm Not Talkin'
Source:    Mono CD: If You're Ready! The Best Of Dunwich Records...Volume 2 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Mose Allison
Label:    Sundazed/Here 'Tis (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    Not to be confused with the California band Things To Come, this Illinois group released one single on the Dunwich label in 1966, a cover of the Yardbirds cover version of an old Mose Allison tune called I'm Not Talkin'. Other than that, absolutely nothing is known about this band, so if you have some info you'd like to pass along, you know where to send it, right?

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Talk Talk
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Rhino (original label: Original Sound)
Year:    1966
    When it came time for Sean Bonniwell's band, the Music Machine, to go into the studio, the group decided to go for the best sound possible. This meant signing with tiny Original Sound Records, despite having offers from bigger labels, due to Original Sound having their own state-of-the-art eight-track studios. Unfortunately for the band, they soon discovered that having great equipment did not mean Original Sound made great decisions. One of the first, in fact, was to include a handful of cover songs on the Music Machine's first LP that were recorded for use on a local TV show. Bonniwell was livid when he found out, as he had envisioned an album made up entirely of his own compositions (although he reportedly did plan to use a slowed-down version of Hey Joe that he and Tim Rose had worked up together). From that point on it was only a matter of time until the Music Machine and Original Sound parted company, but not until after they scored a big national hit with Talk Talk in 1966.

Artist:    Yardbirds
Title:    For Your Love
Source:    Mono CD: British Beat (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Graham Gouldman
Label:    K-Tel (original label: Epic)
Year:    1965
    The last Yardbirds song to feature guitarist Eric Clapton, For Your Love was the group's first US hit, peaking in the #6 slot. The song did even better in the UK, peaking at #3. Following its release, Clapton left the Yardbirds, citing the band's move toward a more commercial sound and this song in particular as reasons for his departure (ironic when you consider songs like his mid-90s hit Change the World or his slowed down lounge lizard version of Layla). For Your Love was written by Graham Gouldman, who would end up as a member of Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders and later 10cc with Kevin Godley and Lol Creme.

Artist:    Country Joe And The Fish
Title:    Thing Called Love
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Berkeley EPs (originally released on EP)
Writer(s):    McDonald/Melton/Cohen/Barthol/Gunning/Hirsch
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Rag Baby)
Year:    1966
    One of the more original ways to get one's music heard is to publish an underground arts-oriented newspaper and include a record in it. Country Joe and the Fish did just that; not once, but twice. The first one was split with another artist and featured the original recording of the I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag. The second Rag Baby EP, released in 1966, was all Fish, and featured tunes that would be re-recorded for their debut LP the following year. One of those was a group composition called Thing Called Love featuring lead vocals by Barry Melton. Retitled Love, the song was still part of the band's setlist as late as 1969, when they performed it at Woodstock.

Artist:    Procol Harum
Title:    Conquistador 
Source:    LP: A Salty Dog (originally released on LP: Procol Harum)
Writer(s):    Brooker/Reid
Label:    MFP (original label: Deram)
Year:    1967
    For reasons that are lost to history, the first Procol Harum album was released five months earlier in the US than it was in the UK. It also was released with a slightly different song lineup, a practice that was fairly common earlier in the decade but that had been (thanks to the Beatles) pretty much abandoned by mid-1967. One notable difference is the inclusion of A Whiter Shade Of Pale on the US version (the British practice being to not include songs on LPs that had been already issued on 45 RPM records). The opening track of the UK version was Conquistador, a song that would not become well-known until 1972, when a live version with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra backing up the band became a hit single. 

Artist:    Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title:    Summertime
Source:    CD: Live At The Carousel Ballroom 1968
Writer(s):    Gershwin/Heyward
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1968
    Janis Joplin, on the 1968 Big Brother And The Holding Company album Cheap Thrills, sounds like she was born to sing Gershwin's Summertime. Maybe she was. Guitarist Sam Andrew later said that Summertime, as it appears on Cheap Thrills, was one of the hardest songs to duplicate in front of a live audience. On June 23rd, 1968 they actually exceeded the studio version live at the Carousel Ballroom, and Owsley "Bear" Stanley was there to record it for posterity, using his own technique of assigning each microphone to either an A or a B channel rather than using the standard stereo setup with vocals centered in a "sweet spot". Bear himself said the best way to listen to this recording is to put both speakers right next to each other and turn them up loud.

Artist:    Steve Miller Band
Title:    Key To The Highway
Source:    Czech Republic import LP: Children Of The Future
Writer(s):    Bronsky/Segar
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1968
    Key To The Highway is one of those blues standards that seems to have been performed and/or recorded by just about everybody and his brother at some time or another. One version that is not as well known as, say, Eric Clapton's various versions is the extremely slowed-down take on the tune by the Steve Miller Band on their first LP, Children Of The Future. Miller's approach turns the song into a mood piece in the vein of Gershwin's Summertime while retaining a definite blues flavor throughout. 

Artist:    Brass Buttons
Title:    Hell Will Take Care Of Her
Source:    Mono CD: My Mind Goes High (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Jay Copozzi
Label:    Warner Strategic Marketing (original label: Cotillion)
Year:    1968
    Rochester, New York, was home to both guitarist Gene Cornish and a band called the Brass Buttons. Cornish, who had been born in Ottawa, Canada, left Rochester for New York City in the early 1960s, eventually co-founding the most successful blue-eyed soul band in history, the (Young) Rascals. By 1968 the Rascals had formed their own production company, Peace, and Cornish invited his friends from the Brass Buttons to record a pair of songs for Peace. The recordings, including a scathing breakup song called Hell Will Take Care Of Her, were released on Atlantic's Cotillion subsidiary in 1968. 

Artist:     Rising Sons
Title:     : 44 Blues
Source:     CD: The Rising Sons featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder
Writer:     Willie Dixon
Label:     Columbia/Legacy
Year:     1965
     Considering that by 1970 Columbia had established itself as one of the two dominant record companies when it came to the music of the left-leaning counter-culture (the other being Warner Brothers), it's odd to realize that a scant five years earlier they were known for their essential conservatism. Take the case of the Rising Sons, a multi-racial band featuring such future stars as Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder and Jessie Kincaid. Although they had been signed by Columbia in 1965, nobody at the label had a clue on how to market or even properly produce the band's recordings. By mid-1966 the entire project was shelved and the tapes sat on a shelf in the vault until 1992, when someone at the label realized the historical significance of what they had. 
    
Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    J.P.P. McStep B Blues
Source:    CD: Surrealistic Pillow (bonus track originally released on LP: Early Flight)
Writer(s):    Skip Spence
Label:    RCA/BMG Heritage
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 1974
    One of the first songs recorded for the Surrealistic Pillow album, J.P.P. McStep B. Blues ended up being shelved, possibly because drummer Skip Spence, who wrote the song, had left the band by the time the album came out.

Artist:    Them
Title:    I Happen To Love You
Source:    Simulated stereo British import CD: Now And Them (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Goffin/King
Label:    Rev-Ola (original US label: Ruff)
Year:    1967
    Following the departure of frontman Van Morrison in June of 1966, the remaining members of Them returned to Belfast, where they recruited Kenny McDowell, formerly of a band called the Mad Lads, who had in fact opened for Them on several occasions. With no record deal, however, the band was at a loss as to what to do next; the solution came in the form of a recommendation from Carol Deck, editor of the California-based magazine The Beat, which led to the band relocating to Amarillo, Texas, where they cut a single for the local Scully label. The follow up single, released on Ruff Records, was a tune called Walking In The Queen's Garden that came to the attention of the people at Capitol Records, who reissued the single on their Tower subsidiary. Within a month the record company had issued a promo version of the single that shifting the emphasis to the original B side, a Gerry Goffin/Carole King collaboration called I Happen To Love You that had been previously recorded by the Electric Prunes, but not issued as a single. This led to Now And Them, the first of two albums that the band, now living in California, released on the Tower label in 1968. A fake stereo mix of the original recording of I Happen To Love You was created specifically for the LP.

Artist:    Them
Title:    Here Comes The Night
Source:    Mono LP: Them
Writer(s):    Bert Berns
Label:    Parrot
Year:    1965
    Them's first album was originally released in the UK as The Angry Young Them, and did not include their first US hit single, Here Comes The Night. Originally recorded by Lulu (of To Sir With Love"fame) and the Luvvers, this track was not only added to the US version of the LP (entitled simply Them), it was given the coveted opening slot. The guitar leads on Here Comes The Night were provided by a young studio guitarist named Jimmy Page.

Artist:    Blues Project
Title:    Hoochie Coochie Man
Source:    CD: The Blues Project Anthology
Writer(s):    Willie Dixon
Label:    Polydor 
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 1997
    Featuring the most recognizable riff in blues history, Hoochie Coochie man was first recorded in 1954 by Muddy Waters, becoming his biggest hit. It was also the turning point for songwriter Willie Dixon, who was able to leverage the song's success into a position with Chess Records as the label's chief songwriter. The song has been recorded by dozens of artists over the years, including several rock bands. One of the most unusual versions of Hoochie Coochie Man was recorded by the Blues Project for the 1966 debut LP, Live At The Cafe Au Go Go. The Project's version speeds up the tempo to a frantic pace, pretty much obscuring the song's signature riff in the process. It was one of several tracks that was intended for the LP, but cut when lead vocalist Tommy Flanders abruptly left the group before the album's release. 
 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2548 (starts 11/24/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/597018

    It's Thanksgiving week, and you have our solemn promise to NOT play Alice's Restaurant this year (you might, however, hear the original live version of the Motorcycle Song before the year's end). 

Artist:    Blues Image
Title:    Reality Does Not Inspire
Source:    LP: Blues Image
Writer(s):    Blues Image
Label:    Atco
Year:    1969
    Formed in 1967, Blues Image cited Greenwich Village's Blues Project as their primary inspiration, and is generally acknowledged to be Florida's first jam band. They were also one of the few bands to open their own club, the legendary Thee Image, and played host to many big name acts during the club's short run. Among the Blues Images fans was Jimi Hendrix, who once told them they did great arrangements of other people's material, but their own stuff was relatively weak. The band responded by temporarily putting their original material on the shelf, pulling it out later and giving it the same treatment they would any other cover song. This approach seemed to work well, as Reality Does Not Inspire, the nine minute "showcase" track for their debut LP demonstrates.

Artist:    Elton John
Title:    Madman Across The Water (original version)
Source:    CD: Tumbleweed Connection (bonus track)
Writer(s):    John/Taupin
Label:    Rocket
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 1995
    Madman Across The Water was originally recorded in 1970 and intended for the album Tumbleweed Connection. For reasons that are not entirely clear (although it's nearly nine minute length may have been a factor) the recording was shelved and the song re-recorded with a different guitarist as the title song of Elton John's next LP instead. The original version, featuring Mick Ronson on lead guitar, remained unreleased until 1995, when it was included as a bonus track on the remastered CD version of Tumbleweed Connection. 

Artist:    Led Zeppelin
Title:    When The Levee Breaks
Source:    CD: Led Zeppelin IV
Writer(s):    Page/Plant/Bonham/Jones/Douglas
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1971
    Although it sounds like it could have been written about Hurricane Katrina, When The Levee Breaks, the last song on the fourth Led Zeppelin LP, was actually inspired by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, that saw levees along the river break in over 145 places, leaving over 700,000 people homeless. 29-year-old Lizzie Douglas was living with her family near Walls, Mississippi, when the levee there broke, and two years later, using her stage name of Memphis Minnie recorded the original version of When The Levee Breaks with her then-partner Kansas Joe McCoy. In 1971 Led Zeppelin used Douglas's lyrics as the basis for their own, musically different version of When The Levee Breaks. The track is instantly identifiable by John Bonham's distinctive opening drum beat, which has been heavily sampled by various hip-hop artists over the years.

Artist:    Free
Title:    Wishing Well
Source:    45 RPM promo single (from LP: Heartbreaker)
Writer(s):    Rodgers/Kirke/Yamauchi/Bundrick/Kossoff
Label:    Island
Year:    1972
    The final album from Free featured a somewhat altered lineup from their previous albums. Bassist (and one of the band's primary songwriters) Andy Fraser had already left the band, while guitarist/keyboardist Paul Kossoff was often incapacitated due to his Quaalude addiction. As a result, several guest musicians, as well as a couple of more permanent replacement members, make an appearance on Heartbreaker. With Fraser gone, lead vocalist Paul Rodgers took on the bulk of the band's songwriting duties, although the official writing credit on several tracks, including the single Wishing Well, went to the entire band membership. Following a US tour (without Kossoff), the band finally called it quits, with Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke remaining together to form a new band, Bad Company. 

Artist:    Monty Python
Title:    Bring Out Your Dead
Source:    LP: Monty Python's Instant Record Collection (originally released on LP: The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Writer(s):    Monty Python
Label:    Arista
Year:    1975
    Building on the success of the Monty Python's Flying Circus television show, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin released their first feature film, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, in 1975. They also released The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail containing several excerpts from the film itself, including Bring Out Your Dead, a scene that occurs early in the film as King Arthur passes through a village where a plague has struck. The entire scene was inspired by a skit on the television show called The Death Of Mary Queen Of Scots. 

Artist:    Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come
Title:    Spirit Of Joy
Source:    British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Journey)
Writer(s):    Kingdom Come
Label:    Polydor
Year:    1973
    One of the great innovators in British rock history, Arthur Brown is best known for his 1968 hit Fire, which topped the charts in several countries. After his original band, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown disbanded in 1969, Brown formed a new group, Kingdom Come, which released three albums in the early 1970s. The third of these, Journey, is notable for being the first rock album to use a drum machine exclusively for its percussion parts. In fact, the entire album is now considered to be an early classic of the electronic rock genre, as can be plainly heard on the track Spirit Of Joy.

Artist:    Stray Dog
Title:    Worldwinds
Source:    LP: While You're Down There
Writer(s):    Snuffy Walden
Label:    Manticore
Year:    1974
    William Garrett "Snuffy" Walden is best known for the music he has composed over the past thirty years for various TV shows, including Thirtysomething, The Wonder Years, Roseanne, Friday Night Lights and The West Wing (for which he won an Emmy award). Before that, however, he was an accomplished guitarist, working with such notables as Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and Eric Burdon and filling in for an ailing Paul Kossoff on Free's final album, Heartbreaker. For me his most impressive work, however, was with Stray Dog, a Denver-based band that Walden had started in his native Texas. Stray Dog recorded two albums for Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Manticore label, the second of which was While You're Down There. Walden wrote the final track on While You're Down There, an instrumental called Worldwinds that showscases Walden's considerable talent, both as a guitarist and as a composer.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Tightrope Ride
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Manzarek/Krieger
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1971
    Following the death of lead vocalist Jim Morrison in 1971, the remaining members of the Doors decided to carry on without him, releasing the album Other Voices later that year. Many of the tracks had actually been started before Morrison's death, with the hope being that he would return from Paris to complete the album. When that didn't happen, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger ended up doing the vocals themselves. One single, Tightrope Ride, was released from the album. The tune features Manzarek on lead vocal.

Artist:    James Gang
Title:    The Bomber
Source:    CD: James Gang Rides Again
Writer(s):    Fox/Peters/Walsh/Ravel/Guarldi)
Label:    MCA (original label: ABC)
Year:    1970
    The second James Gang album saw the addition of a new bass player, Dale Peters, who replaced founding member Tom Kriss. Unlike the group's debut LP, James Gang Rides Again consisted almost entirely of material written by the band members themselves. The only exceptions were adaptations of Ravel's Bolero and Vince Guaraldi's Cast Your Fate To The Wind that guitarist Joe Walsh incorporated into the instrumental section of The Bomber, which at seven minutes was the longest track on the album. The beginning and end of The Bomber consist of a piece called Closet Queen, which was composed by the entire band. Shortly after the album's release the Ravel estate initiated legal proceedings against the band for using Bolero without permission. In response the record was recalled and a new version with Bolero edited out of the track was released in its place. By the time the album The Best Of The James Gang came out (in 1973) the track had been restored to its original length (although the shorter time appears in the credits) and that is the version used on subsequent CD releases of James Gang Rides Again as well.

Artist:    Redbone
Title:    The Witch Queen Of New Orleans
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single (originally released on LP: Message From A Drum)
Writer(s):    Pat and Lolly Vegas
Label:    Epic
Year:    1971
    Citing part-Cherokee Jimi Hendrix as an inspiration, brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas, already veteran performers who had appeared several times on ABC-TV's Shindig, among other venues, decided to form an all Native American band in 1969. Their first hit single was The Witch Queen Of New Orleans, from the 1971 LP Message From A Drum. Redbone recorded a total of six albums for the Epic label in the early 1970s, and are known for being the opening act at the first Earth Day event.     

Artist:    Uriah Heep
Title:    Spider Woman
Source:    European import CD: The Magician's Birthday
Writer(s):    Box/Byron/Kerslake/Thain
Label:    Sanctuary (original US label: Mercury)
Year:    1972
    Although Uriah Heep was known as an album-oriented band in the US and their native UK, they did have some top 40 success in Scandanavia and Northern Europe, especially in Germany, where they scored three top 20 hits from 1970-72. The last of these was Spider Woman, from the Magician's Birthday album, which went to the #14 spot on the German charts. 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2547 (starts 11/17/25)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/596098

    We start the week with an international set that begins in the UK and ends in New Zealand. From there it's an all-British set followed by an all-American one. After an artists' set from Donovan we have sets from 1968 and 1965 before finishing up with another international set.

    Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Come Together
Source:    LP: Abbey Road
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple
Year:    1969
    After the Beatles released their 1968 double LP (the so-called White Album), they went to work on their final film project, a documentary about the band making an album. Unfortunately, what the cameras captured was a group on the verge of disintegration, and both the album and the film itself were shelved indefinitely. Instead, the band went to work recording an entirely new group of compositions. Somehow, despite the internal difficulties the band was going through, they managed to turn out a masterpiece: Abbey Road. Before the album itself came out, a single was released. The official A side was George Harrison's Something, the first Harrison song ever to be released as a Beatles A side. The other side was the song that opened the album itself, John Lennon's Come Together. In later years Come Together came to be Lennon's signature song and was a staple of his live performances.
    
Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Uncle Jack
Source:    CD: Spirit
Writer(s):    Jay Ferguson
Label:    Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year:    1968
    Despite nearly universal positive reviews by the rock press, the first Spirit album never really caught the imagination of the record buying public. Why this is the case is still a bit of a mystery, as the album is full of outstanding tracks such as Uncle Jack. Perhaps the album, and indeed the band itself, was just a bit ahead of its time.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooniel (live long version)
Source:    CD: After Bathing At Baxter's (bonus track)
Writer(s):    Paul Kantner
Label:    RCA/BMG Heritage
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 2003
    Jefferson Airplane's original plan for their third album, After Bathing At Baxter's, was to open the LP with a live, eleven-minute version of The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooniel. Plans changed, and a shorter studio version of the track was instead included as part of the first of six suites that made up the final album. This is the original live recording of the song, included as a bonus track on the remastered CD version of After Bathing At Baxter's.

Artist:    Chants R&B
Title:    I'm Your Witch Doctor
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in New Zealand as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    John Mayall
Label:    Rhino (original label: Action)
Year:    1966
    The Chants R&B were formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1964 and were heavily influenced by such punkish UK bands as the Pretty Things and Them. Shortly after the released of their first single in mid-1966, the group got a new guitarist, Max Kelly, whose efforts helped make their second single, a wild cover of John Mayall's I'm Your Witch Doctor, a national hit. Before they could return to the studio however, it was discovered that Kelly, whose real name was Matt Croke, was actually a deserter from the Australian Air Force, and was soon deported. The rest of the band followed him to Sydney, but things didn't work out and the band split up in early 1967.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    It's Not Easy
Source:    British import LP: Aftermath
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original US label: London)
Year:    1966
    The Rolling Stones' Aftermath, along with the Beatles' Rubber Soul, began a revolution in rock music that was felt for several decades. Prior to those two releases, albums were basically a mix of original and cover songs meant to provide a little supplemental income for popular artists who had hit singles. Aftermath, however, was full of songs that could stand on their own. Even songs like It's Not Easy, which could have been hit singles for lesser artists, were completely overlooked in favor of tracks like Under My Thumb, which is arguably the first true rock classic not to be released as a single. Within the short span of two years, rock would find itself in a place where an artist could be considered a success without having a hit single, something that was completely unheard of when Aftermath was released. 

Artist:    Hollies
Title:    King Midas In Reverse
Source:    British import CD: Acid Daze (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Clarke/Hicks/Nash
Label:    Uncut (original label: Parlophone)
Year:    1967
    One of the last Hollies singles to include original member Graham Nash, King Midas In Reverse combines pop and psychedelia in a purely British way. The problem was that, with the exception of Nash, the Hollies had no desire to embrace psychedelia, and Nash soon found himself banding with David Crosby and Stephen Stills instead.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Crossroads
Source:    LP: Wheels Of Fire
Writer(s):    Robert Johnson
Label:    RSO (original label: Atco)
Year:    1968
    Robert Johnson's Crossroads has come to be regarded as a signature song for Eric Clapton, who's live version (recorded at the Fillmore East) was first released on the Cream album Wheels Of Fire.  

Artist:    Fleetwood Mac
Title:    Watch Out
Source:    European import CD: The Essential Fleetwood Mac (originally released in UK on LP: Blues Jam At Chess)
Writer(s):    Peter Green
Label:    Columbia/Sony Music (original label: Blue Horizon)
Year:    1969
     On January 4, 1969 Fleetwood Mac, along with several blues legends, recorded an entire double-LP in one marathon session organized by Willie Dixon. The band was in Chicago to open for Muddy Waters when their producer, Mike Vernon, got word that the Chess Record Studio at 2120 S Michigan Avenue was on the verge of permanently closing. Vernon immediately contacted Marshall Chess and booked time at the legendary studio. As it turned out, it was Chess Records itself that was being sold, and the new owners continued to operate the studio until 1972. Thirty years later guitarist Peter Green, who wrote and sang on the album's opening track, Watch Out, was dismissive of the album , saying "the rest of the band wasn’t into it, and we did not play well". He was also unhappy that Blue Horizon, the label they recorded the album for, chose to release Blues Jam At Chess just two months after Then Play On, the band's first studio LP for Reprise. 

Artist:    Beau Brummels
Title:    Just A Little
Source:    CD: Nuggets-Classics From The Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Elliott/Durand
Label:    Rhino (original label: Autumn)
Year:    1965
    Often dismissed as an American imitation of British Invasion bands such as the Beatles, the Beau Brummels actually played a pivotal role in rock music history. Formed in San Francisco in 1964, the Brummels were led by Ron Elliott, who co-wrote most of the band's material, including their two top 10 singles in 1965. The second of these, Just A Little, is often cited as the first folk-rock hit, as it was released a week before the Byrds' recording of Mr. Tambourine Man. According to Elliott, the band was not trying to invent folk-rock, however. Rather, it was their own limitations as musicians that forced them to work with what they had: solid vocal harmonies and a mixture of electric and acoustic guitars. Elliott also credits the contributions of producer Sylvester Stewart for the song's success. Conversely, Just A Little was Stewart's greatest success as a producer prior to forming his own band, Sly and the Family Stone, in 1967.

Artist:    Simon And Garfunkel
Title:    I Am A Rock
Source:    LP: Sounds Of Silence
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    The success of I Am A Rock, when released as a single in 1966, showed that the first Simon And Garfunkel hit, The Sound Of Silence, was no fluke. The two songs served as bookends to a very successful LP, Sounds Of Silence, and would lead to several more hit records before the two singers went their separate ways in 1970. This was actually the second time I Am A Rock had been issued as a single. An earlier version, from the Paul Simon Songbook, had been released in 1965. Both the single and the LP were only available for a short time and only in the UK, and were deleted at Simon's request.

Artist:    Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band
Title:    Zig Zag Wanderer
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Safe As Milk)
Writer(s):    Don Van Vliet
Label:    Rhino (original label: Buddah)
Year:    1967
    Don Van Vliet made his first recordings as Captain Beefheart in 1965, covering artists like Bo Diddley in a style that could best be described as "punk blues." Upon hearing those recordings A&M Records, despite its growing reputation as a hot (fairly) new label, promptly cancelled the project. Flash forward a year or so. Another hot new label, Buddah Records, an offshoot of Kama Sutra Records that had somehow ended up being the parent rather than the subsidiary, was busy signing new acts, and ended up issuing Safe As Milk in 1967 as their very first LP. The good captain would eventually end up on his old high school acquaintance Frank Zappa's Bizarre Records, turning out classic albums like Trout Mask Replica, and the world would never be quite the same.

Artist:    Max Frost And The Troopers aka the 13th Power
Title:    A Change Is Gonna Come
Source:    CD: Shape Of Things To Come
Writer(s):    Wibier/Beckner
Label:    Captain High (original label: Tower)
Year:    1968
    The first thing you need to know about Max Frost And The Troopers is that they were a fictional rock band featured in the film Wild In The Streets. Sort of. You see, in the movie itself the band is never actually named, although Max (played by Christopher Jones) does refer to his followers as his "troops" throughout the film. The next thing you need to know is that Shape Of Things To Come was a song used in the film that became a hit record in 1968. The song itself was written by the Brill building songwriting team of Barry (Who Put The Bomp) Mann and Cynthia Weil, whose previous writing credits included Kicks and We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, among other tunes. Shape Of Things To Come, along with several other Barry/Weil tunes used in the film, was credited to the 13th Power on the film's soundtrack LP, which was released on Capitol's Tower subsidiary label, but to Max Frost And The Troopers on a single issued by the same label. After the single became a hit, producer Mike Curb commissioned an entire album by Max Frost And The Troopers called, naturally, Shape Of Things To Come. The band on this album actually was the 13th Power, which as it turns out was a real band fronted by vocalist Paul Wibier, who had previously recorded for Curb, both under their own name and as the Moms. This album was also released in 1968 on the Tower label, and featured mostly songs written (or co-written) by Wibier himself, such as  A Change Is Gonna Come. The name Max Frost And The Troopers popped up in a couple more 1968 film soundtracks before being permanently retired by the end of the year. What eventually happened to the 13th Power is not known.
 
Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    Looper
Source:    German import LP: Underground '70 (originally released on LP: Truly Fine Citizen)
Writer(s):    Peter Lewis
Label:    CBS (original US label: Columbia)
Year:    1969
    Moby Grape's fourth LP, Truly Fine Citizen, is a classic example of a "contractual obligation" album. Released in 1969, the album was neither commercially or critically successful, and the group soon disbanded. The album was not without its highlights, however, such as Peter Lewis's Looper, which was considered good enough to be included on a CBS sampler album called Underground '70 that appeared in Germany on purple vinyl that glowed under a black light (don't ask how I know this).

Artist:    Janis Joplin
Title:    Mercedes Benz
Source:    CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Pearl)
Writer(s):    Joplin/Neuwirth/McClure
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 1971
    Mercedes Benz was the last song recorded by Janis Joplin. After laying down this vocal track on October 3, 1970 she went home and OD'd on heroin. The song appeared exactly as recorded on the 1971 album Pearl.

Artist:    Information
Title:    Oh Strange Man
Source:    Mono British import CD: Love, Poetry & Revolution (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Myer/Stewart
Label:    Grapefruit (original label: Beacon)
Year:    1969
    Vocalist Dave Moir, lead guitarist Albie Harrup, rhythm guitarist John Stewart, bassis Clive Yeats and drummer Dave Ramsey were actually better known for their onstage behavior than they are for their meager recorded output. Their stage show included films, slides and a light show, as well as such acts as setting off smoke bombs and starting a fire with a parrafin heater and performing in their swimming gear, all in an effort to, in the words of Harrup "hit an acceptable underground vein". Whether they succeeded or not can be heard on Oh Strange Man, the B side of their first of two singles.

Artist:    Move
Title:    Blackberry Way
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Roy Wood
Label:    A&M
Year:    1968
    Although they never had a hit single in the US, the Move, led by guitarist Roy Wood, was quite successful in their native UK. Their most successful single was Blackberry Way, released as a non-LP single in 1968, which went all the way to the top of the British charts, also hitting the top 20 in several European nations as well as Australia and New Zealand. Blackberry Way was the only Move single produced by Jimmy Miller, who was asked to take over production on the track by Denny Cordell, who had accidentally overbooked himself. The band's regular vocalist, Carl Wayne, reportedly refused to sing the song, leaving Wood to provide his own lead vocals for the recording.

Artist:    La De Das
Title:    How Is The Air Up There
Source:    Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in New Zealand as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Kornfeld/Duboff
Label:    Rhino (original labels: Zodiac/Philips)
Year:    1966
    New Zealand had a surprisingly active music scene in the late 1960s, with bands like the La De Das at the center of the action. Formed in Auckland in 1964, the group started off as the Mergers, changing their name at around the same time they signed with the local Zodiac label. Their first single, How Is The Air Up There?, was a huge hit in New Zealand, leading a string of hit singles and three albums for the band, which eventually called in quits in the 1970s. 

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Atlantis
Source:    British import CD: Acid Daze (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Uncut (original US label: Epic)
Year:    1968
    Although it was included on the 1969 album Barabajagal, Donovan's Atlantis was originally issued as a single in November of 1968. The tune went into the top 10 in several nations worldwide, including the US, but only managed to peak at #23 in the UK. At nearly five minutes in length, the song was considered by the shirts at Epic Records to be too long to get top 40 airplay in the US, and was thus relegated to B side status. They were proved wrong when DJs started flipping the record over and it went to the #7 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Season Of The Witch
Source:    CD: Donovan's Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: Sunshine Superman)
Writer:    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Sony (original label: Epic)
Year:    1966 (stereo version, 1969)
     Season Of The Witch has proved to be one of the most popular and enduring tracks on Donovan's Sunshine Superman album. Due to a contract dispute with Pye Records, the album was not released in the UK until late 1967, and then only as an LP combining tracks from both the Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums. Like all tracks from both Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, Season Of The Witch was only available in a mono mix until 1969, when a new stereo mix was created from the original multi-track masters for the singer/songwriter's first greatest hits compilation. Season of the Witch has since been covered by an impressive array of artists, including Al Kooper and Stephen Stills (on the Super Session album) and Vanilla Fudge.

Artist:     Donovan
Title:     Sunshine Superman
Source:     CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released in edited form as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Donovan Leitch
Label:     Sony Music Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year:     1966 (stereo version, 1969)
     Donovan's hugely successful Sunshine Superman is sometimes credited as being the tsunami that launched the wave of psychedelic music that washed over the shores of pop musicland in 1967. OK, I made that up, but the song really did change the direction of American pop as well as Donovan's own career. Originally released as a three and a quarter minute long single, the full unedited four and a half minute long stereo mix of the song heard here did not appear on vinyl until Donovan's 1969 Greatest Hits album. 

Artist:    Fairport Convention
Title:    Decameron
Source:    British import CD: Fairport Convention
Writer(s):    Ghosh/Horvitz/Thompson
Label:    Polydor
Year:    1968
    The recording history of the premier English folk-rock band, Fairport Convention, can be more than a little confusing. A large part of the problem was caused by A&M Records, who had the rights to release the band's material in the US, starting with the band's second LP. Rather than go with the original album title, What We Did On Our Holidays, A&M retitled the album Fairport Convention, releasing it in 1970. The problem is that the band's first album, released in the UK on Polydor in 1968, was also titled Fairport Convention. Adding to the confusion is the fact that the lineup on the 1968 Polydor LP differs from that of every other Fairport album, most notably in the absence of the band's most visible member, vocalist Sandy Denny. Fairport Convention (the band) was formed in 1967, and was consciously following in the footsteps of Jefferson Airplane, albeit from a British perspective. Like the Airplane, the original Fairport lineup had a wealth of talent, including Martin Lamble on percussion and violin, Simon Nicol on guitars, Judy Dibble on autoharp, recorder and piano, Richard Thompson on guitar and mandolin, Ashley Hutchings (then known as Tyger Hutchings) on bass and Ian MacDonald (who later changed his name to Ian Matthews), who shared lead vocals with Dyble. Musically the band was far more rock-oriented than on later LPs, although, as can be heard on Decameron, they also had a more melancholy side. Later albums would find Fairport Convention doing more and more traditional folk, eventually becoming the world's most popular practicioners of the art, although they never entirely abandoned rock. 

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Source:    LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer:    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1968
    Although not released in the US as a single, Voodoo Child (Slight Return), has become a staple of classic rock radio over the years. The song was originally an outgrowth of a jam session at New York's Record Plant, which itself takes up most of side one of the Electric Ladyland LP. This more familiar studio reworking of the piece has been covered by a variety of artists over the years, most notably Stevie Ray Vaughan. 

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    You've Never Had It Better
Source:    Mono CD: The Complete Reprise Singles (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer:    Lowe/Tulin
Label:    Collector's Choice (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    Following the lack of a hit single from their second album, Underground, the Electric Prunes took one last shot at top 40 airplay with a song called Everybody Knows Your Not In Love. The band might have had better luck if they had pushed the flip side of the record, You Never Had It Better, which is a much stronger song. As it is, the record stiffed, and producer David Hassinger reacted by stripping the band of any creative freedom they might have had and made an album called Mass in F Minor using mostly studio musicians. The band, having signed away the rights to the name Electric Prunes to their manager early on, could do nothing but watch helplessly as Hassinger created an album that had little in common with the original band other than their name. Because of this, the original members soon left, and Hassinger brought in a whole new group for two more albums before retiring the Prunes name for good. In the early 2000s several members of the original band, including their two main songwriters, vocalist James Lowe and bassist Mark Tulin, reformed the Electric Prunes. Whether they had to get permission to use their own name is unknown.

Artist:    Spencer Davis Group
Title:    This Hammer 
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Best Of The Spencer Davis Group (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side and on LP: The Second Album)
Writer(s):    Winwood/Winwood/York/Davis
Label:    Island (original label: Fontana)
Year:    1965
    I could swear I've heard This Hammer before. I didn't know it was written by the members of the Spencer Davis Group, though (yes, I'm being facetious).

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Let Me Be
Source:    Mono LP: You Baby (originally released on LP: It Ain't Me Babe and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    P.F. Sloan
Label:    White Whale
Year:    1965
    The Turtles were nothing if not able to redefine themselves when the need arose. Originally a surf band known as the Crossfires, the band quickly adopted an "angry young men" stance with their first single, Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe, and the subsequent album of the same name. For the follow-up single the band chose a track from their album, Let Me Be, that, although written by a different writer, had the same general message as It Ain't Me Babe. The band would soon switch over to love songs like Happy Together and She'd Rather Be With Me before taking their whole chameleon bit to its logical extreme with an album called Battle Of The Bands on which each track was meant to sound like it was done by an entirely different group. 

Artist:    Motions
Title:    For Another Man
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in the Netherlands as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Rob Van Leeuwen
Label:    Rhino (original label: Havoc)
Year:    1965
    By 1965 the popularity of British beat music had spread to continental Europe, with local bands springing up in every major urban center. Most of these bands made their living playing covers of British hits, but many, especially in places like the Hague, Netherlands, were able to land recording contracts of their own, either with international branches of major labels or, in the case of the Motions, with smaller local labels such as Havoc Records. The third single by the Motions, For Another Man, was very much in the British beat vein, with jangly guitar and catchy vocal harmonies. Like all the Motions' singles, For Another Man was written by guitarist Rob Van Leeuwen, who eventually left the Motions to form Shocking Blue, scoring a huge international hit with Venus.

Artist:    Janis Ian
Title:    I'll Give You A Stone If You Throw It (Changing Tymes)
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue) (originally released on LP: Janis Ian)
Writer:    Janis Ian
Label:    Polydor (original label: Now Sounds, reissued nationally on Verve Forecast)
Year:    1967
    Janis Ian got her first poem published in a national magazine at age 12. Not content with mere literary pursuits, the talented Ms. Ian turned to music. After being turned down by several major labels, Ian finally got a contract with the tiny New Sounds label and scored her first major hit with Society's Child, a song about interracial dating that was banned on several stations in the southern US. This led to her self-titled debut album at age 15, and a contract with M-G-M subsidiary Verve Forecast. I'll Give You A Stone If You Throw It (Changing Tymes) is taken from that first LP. 

Artist:      Traffic
Title:     Forty Thousand Headmen
Source:      CD: Traffic
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi
Label:    Island (original US label: United Artists)
Year:     1968
     In its original run, Traffic only released two full albums (and a third that consisted of non-LP singles, studio outtakes and live tracks). The second of these, simply titled Traffic, featured several memorable tunes, including Forty Thousand Headmen, a  Steve Winwood/Jim Capaldi collaboration. 

Artist:    Mandrake Paddle Steamer
Title:    Strange Walking Man
Source:    Mono British import  45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Briley/Engle
Label:    Bam-Caruso (original UK label: Columbia)
Year:    1969
    Mandrake Paddle Steamer was the brainchild of art school students Martin Briley and Brian Engle, who, with producer Robert Finnis, were among the first to take advantage of EMI's new 8-track recording equipment at their Abbey Road studios. The result was Strange Walking Man, a single released in 1969. The track includes an uncredited coda created by Finnis by splicing a tape of studio musicians playing a cover version of an Incredible String Band tune, Maybe Someday.

Artist:    Zoser
Title:    Dark Of The Morning
Source:    CD: A Lethal Dose Of Hard Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Daniel Sleen
Label:    Arf! Arf! (original label: Hexagon)
Year:    1970
    Zoser was a project band with a lot of talent but not a whole lot of cash. Warren Kendrick was a producer and studio owner who needed some renovations done on his Audio City Recording Studio in Minneapolis. So, in exchange for the labor needed to get the renovations done within budget Kendrick recorded Zoser's only single, Together, backed with Dark Of The Morning, and pressed 500 copies of the record. In stereo.

Artist:    Country Joe And The Fish
Title:    Flying High
Source:    CD: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s):    Joe McDonald
Label:    Vanguard
Year:    1967
    Any guesses to what a song called Flying High from an album called Electric Music For The Mind And Body by Country Joe And The Fish released in 1967 might be about? I thought not.

Artist:    Amboy Dukes
Title:    Colors
Source:    German import CD: The Amboy Dukes
Writer(s):    Nugent/Farmer/Lober/White
Label:    Repertoire (original label: Mainstream)
Year:    1967
    Ted Nugent made his stage debut as a guitarist at the age of ten and was, in his own words, "a sensation". In the mid-1960s Nugent's family moved to Chicago, where he formed the Amboy Dukes. After moving the band to his native Detroit, Nugent signed with Bob Shad's Mainstream label, releasing the first Amboy Dukes album in 1967. Nugent and fellow guitarist Steve Farmer wrote most of the band's material, both as collaborators and as individual composers, with Nugent providing the harder rocking songs while Farmer came up with the more psychedelic stuff. One track on the album, Colors, was co-written by not only the two of them, but also keyboardist Rick Lober and bassist Bill White. It would be the only Amboy Dukes songwriting credits for Lober and White, as both musicians had been replaced by the time the group returned to the recording studio.