https://exchange.prx.org/p/589860
The songs tend to be on the longer side this week (no entire album sides, though), so we only have nine of 'em for you this time around.
Artist: Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title: Season Of The Witch (2002 remix w/o horns)
Source: CD: Super Session
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
In 1968 Al Kooper, formerly of the Blues Project, formed a new group he called Blood, Sweat and Tears. Then, after recording one album with the new group, he was asked to leave the band. He then booked studio time and called in his friend Michael Bloomfield (who had just left his own band, the Electric Flag) for a recorded jam session. Due to his chronic insomnia and inclination to use heroin to deal with said insomnia, Bloomfield was unable to record an entire album's worth of material, and Kooper called in another friend, Stephen Stills (who had recently left the Buffalo Springfield; notice a pattern here?) to complete the project. The result was the Super Session album, which surprisingly (considering that it was the first album of its kind), made the top 10 on the Billboard album chart. One of the most popular tracks on Super Session was an extended version of Donovan's Season of the Witch. Kooper initially felt that the basic tracks needed some sweetening, so he brought in a horn section to record additional overdubs. In 2003, Kooper revisited the original multi-track master tapes and created a new mix that restored the original performance. This is that mix.
Artist: Doors
Title: Light My Fire
Source: LP: The Doors
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Once in a while a song comes along that totally blows you away the very first time you hear it. The Doors' Light My Fire was one of those songs. I liked it so much that I immediately went out and bought the 45 RPM single. Not long after that I heard the full-length version of the song from the first Doors album and was blown away all over again.
Artist: Blind Faith
Title: Sea Of Joy
Source: CD: Blind Faith
Writer(s): Steve Winwood
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1969
At the time Blind Faith was formed there is no question that the biggest names in the band were guitarist Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, having just come off a successful three-year run with Cream. Yet the true architect of the Blind Faith sound was actually Steve Winwood, formerly of the Spencer Davis Group and, more recently, Traffic. Not only did Winwood handle most of the lead vocals for the group, he also wrote more songs on the band's only album than any other member. Among the Winwood tunes on that album is Sea Of Joy, which opens side two of the original LP.
Artist: Sugarloaf
Title: Bach Doors Man/Chest Fever
Source: LP: Sugarloaf
Writer(s): Corbetta/Webber/Raymond/Pollock/Robertson
Label: Liberty
Year: 1970
The Moonrakers were Denver, Colorado's most popular local band in the mid-1960s, releasing four singles on the Tower label from 1965 to 1966. In 1968 two of the band members, keyboardist/vocalist Jerry Corbetta (who had been playing drums with the Moonrakers) and guitarist Bob Webber, decided to form a new band called Chocolate Hair with bassist Bob Raymond and drummer Myron Pollock. They began recording demo tapes in 1969. The people at Liberty Records were so impressed with the demos, including an organ solo called Bach Doors Man that turned into a cover of Robbie Robertson's Chest Fever over the course of nine minutes, that they ended up using the demos themselves for the first Sugarloaf LP. As a result, even though Pollock had been replaced by Bob McVittie by the time the LP was released, Pollock was the actual drummer on all but one song on the album.
Artist: Raiders
Title: Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian)
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): J. D. Loudermilk
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
For years I have been hearing about the controversy over whose version of Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian) is better: the hit single heard here by Paul Revere And The Raiders (who had shortened their name to the Raiders, temporarily as it turned out, at that point) or the "original" version by British vocalist Don Fardon. What people fail to take into account, however, is the fact that both of these are actually cover versions of a song originally released in 1959 by country singer Marvin Rainwater under the title The Pale Faced Indian. Rainwater, who claimed to be one quarter Cherokee, often performed wearing native American outfits. The song, however, contains several inaccuracies, the most glaring of which is the fact that Cherokee communities are not called "reservations" at all, nor do they live in teepees or call their young "papooses". J.D. Loudermilk, who wrote the song, once explained that it was written after he was picked up by a group of Cherokees when his car was stuck in a blizzard, who then asked him to write a song about the plight of the Cherokee people and even revealed that his great-great grandparents had been members of the tribe. Loudermilk, however, was a self-admitted spinner of tall tales, and the entire story was probably a fabrication.
Artist: James Gang
Title: Getting Old
Source: LP: Straight Shooter
Writer(s): Dominic Troiano
Label: ABC
Year: 1972
The name Dominic Troiano may not be a familiar one to a lot of people, but those that do recognize it know that it belonged to a talented Canadian electric guitarist and songwriter who was a member of several popular bands throughout the 1970s. Troiano's first notable gig came at the age of 19, when he became a member of Robbie Lane and the Disciples, who were hired to replace Levon and the Hawks as Ronnie Hawkins's stage band in 1965. Later that same year he joined the Rogues, who became Mandala the following year, releasing the LP Soul Crusade in 1968. When Mandala split up, Troiano, along with three other members of the band, including lead vocalist Roy Kenner, reformed as Bush, releasing a self-titled LP in 1970. Bush fell apart at around the same time that Joe Walsh left the James Gang for a solo career. As both bands had been recording for the same label, it seemed a good idea at the time for Troiano and Kenner to replace Walsh. After two albums, including Straight Shooter, Troiano accepted an offer to replace fellow Canadian Randy Bachman as the Guess Who's lead guitarist, eventually starting his own band in the late 1970s. From around 1980 until his death in 2005, Troiano worked mostly behind the scenes as a producer and studio musician. Although his roots were in Canadian blue-eyed soul, Troiano did a credible job of channeling Walsh's style on Getting Old, the last track on side one of Straight Shooter.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: I Can Feel Him In The Morning
Source: CD: Survival
Writer: Farner/Brewer
Label: Capitol
Year: 1971
In the late 1980s I met a woman from L.A who had been in high school the year Grand Funk Railroad's fourth studio LP came out. When she discovered that I still had my original copy of Survival she told me how an 8-track copy of that album got her through the summer of '71 when she was living with her mother in an apartment overlooking one of the hookers' corners on Hollywood Blvd. She said that whenever she was feeling overwhelmed by life she would draw inspiration from the song I Can Feel Him In The Morning. The tune, with its flowing beat and spiritual lyrics, was a departure from the loud, raw sound the band from Flint, Michigan was known for.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Moonlight Mile
Source: LP: Sticky Fingers
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Rolling Stones
Year: 1971
Mick Jagger learned from Allen Klein well. Moonlight Mile, the last song recorded for the album Sticky Fingers, was the result of an all-night session between Jagger and the Rolling Stones' new guitarist, 21-year-old Mick Taylor. Taylor had reworked a guitar piece by Jagger for the session and later said that Jagger had promised him a songwriting credit for the finished piece. Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts were also present for the session. Keith Richards, who was not there, later said that Moonlight Mile was "all Mick's. As far as I can remember, Mick came in with the whole idea of that, and the band just figured out how to play it." I'm inclined to go with Taylor's version of the story myself.
And now for something completely different...
Artist: Mason Williams
Title: Jose's Piece
Source: LP: Superecord Contemporary (originally released on LP: Hand Made)
Writer(s): Mason Williams
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
Those familiar with an instrumental piece called Classical Gas will immediately recognize the acoustic guitar stylings of Mason Williams, whose recording career dates back to 1960. Jose's Piece is a track from his 1970 album Hand Made. The LP takes its name seriously, as both the front and back cover feature text that is completely handwritten, as is the actual label on the record itself (except for the Warner Brothers logo and fine print at the bottom).
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