https://exchange.prx.org/p/598647
This week we feature a set from the King of the surf guitar, along with a Doors set and the usual mix of singles, B sides and album tracks from the late 1960s. The show concludes with a pair of Neil Young songs that were not sung by Neil Young, even though he was a member of the band recording them.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Good Day Sunshine
Source: LP: Revolver
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Capitol/EMI
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: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: Yes, I Am Experienced
Source: British import CD: Winds Of Change/The Twain Shall Meet (originally released on LP: Winds Of Change)
Writer: Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label: BGO (originally released in US on M-G-M)
Year: 1967
A grand tradition dating back to the early Rhythm and Blues recordings was something called the "answer song". Someone would record a song (Hound Dog, for example), that would become popular. In turn, another artist (often a friend of the original one), would then come up with a song that answered the original tune (Bear Cat, in our example earlier). This idea was picked up on by white artists in the late 50s (Hey Paula answered by Hey Paul). True to the tradition, Eric Burdon answered his friend Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced with Yes, I Am Experienced, done in a style similar to another Hendrix tune, Manic Depression.
Artist: Ultimate Spinach
Title: Dove In Hawk's Clothing
Source: Mono LP: Ultimate Spinach (promo copy)
Writer(s): Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1968
One of the criticisms of Ultimate Spinach (and the whole overly-hyped "Boss-Town Sound") was that the band tried too hard to sound like West Coast psychedelic bands such as Country Joe And The Fish. A listen to Dove In Hawk's Clothing, an anti-draft piece that played on the popular hawk and dove stereotypes of the time, shows that such criticism did indeed have some validity to it. Still, it is one of the few protest songs that takes the point of view of the unwilling draftee forced to fight in a war rather than that of someone protesting that war.
Artist: Santana
Title: You Just Don't Care
Source: LP: Santana
Writer(s): Santana (band)
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
Santana started off as a jam band, with little formal song structure. When it came time to record their first album, however, the group realized that they would have to have actual songs, and began coming up with the various pieces that would make up the 1969 LP Santana. Among those more structured pieces is You Just Don't Care. Although credited to the entire band, I can't help but think it was mostly the work of keyboardist/vocalist Gregg Rolie.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: The Sounds Of Silence
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
The Sound Of Silence was originally an acoustic piece that was included on Simon and Garfunkel's 1964 debut album, Wednesday Morning 3AM. The album went nowhere and was soon deleted from the Columbia Records catalog. Simon and Garfunkel themselves went their separate ways, with Simon moving to London and recording a solo LP, the Paul Simon Songbook, and Art Garfunkel going back to college in New York. While Simon was in the UK, something unexpected happened. Radio stations along the east coast began playing the song, getting a strong positive response from college students, particularly those on spring break in Florida. On June 15, 1965 producer Tom Wilson, who had been working with Bob Dylan on Like A Rolling Stone earlier in the day, pulled out the master tape of The Sound Of Silence and, utilizing some of the same studio musicians, did a major remix of the song, adding electric instruments and extensive reverb, giving the entire recording a punchier sound. The electrified version of the song was released to local radio stations, where it garnered enough interest to get the modified recording released as a single nationally. Despite the song title being misnamed Sounds rather than Sound on the label, It turned out to be a huge hit, prompting Paul Simon to move back to the US and reunite with Art Garfunkel.
Artist: Euphoria
Title: No Me Tomorrow
Source: British import CD: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Lincoln/Watt
Label: Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1966
No Me Tomorrow, the B side of the only single issued on the Mainstream label by the Los Angeles based Euphoria, can best be described as the dark side of folk rock. Most of the song is in a minor key, with the lyrics taking the point of view of someone contemplating suicide. About 3/4 of the way through, though, it becomes a high energy instrumental that sounds like a cross between Dick Dale and Ginger Baker. Euphoria itself was the creation of multi-instrumentalists Wesley Watt and Bill Lincoln, who wrote No Me Tomorrow. At the time Ne Me Tomorrow was recorded, Euphoria also included drummer David Potter (who had been with the group right from the start) and Texans James Harrell (guitar) and Peter Black (bass), both of which had been members of the Houston-based Misfits. Lincoln had already left the group (temporarily it turns out) to get married and move to England. A Euphoria LP appeared in 1969 on the Capitol label that included both Watt and Lincoln, along with several studio musicians. As far as I know none of the musicians involved in the recording ended up committing suicide.
Artist: Cream
Title: Tales Of Brave Ulysses
Source: Mono European import LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Clapton/Sharp
Label: Lilith (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
In Europe Tales Of Brave Ulysses was released as the B side of Strange Brew. Both songs were taken from Cream's second LP, Disraeli Gears. Cream was one of the first bands to break tradition and release singles that were also available as album cuts. This tradition likely came about because hit singles tended to stay in print indefinitely overseas, unlike in the US, where a 45 RPM single usually had a shelf life of around 2-3 months and then disappeared forever.
Artist: (Not the) Chocolate Watchband
Title: Inner Mystique
Source: CD: The Inner Mystique
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
The Chocolate Watchband underwent a series of personnel changes starting in the late spring of 1967. By the end of that year the band no longer existed. This, apparently, was not considered a relevant fact by the people at Green Grass Productions, as they went ahead and released a new Chocolate Watchband album, The Inner Mystique, on the Tower label in February of 1968. Like the first Watchband album, The Inner Mystique had several tracks that were actually performed by studio musicians. In fact, the entire first side of the 8-song LP consisted of tracks put together by engineer Richie Podolor, and had nothing to do with the band itself. The third of these tracks, Inner Mystique, was written by the band's producer, Ed Cobb, who had also written the band's first official single, Sweet Young Thing, as well as several hits for the Standells, who were also signed to Green Grass. Somehow, the actual Chocolate Watchband managed to reform in time to record a third album, One Step Beyond, the following year, but that's a story for another time.
Artist: Stained Glass
Title: My Buddy Sin
Source: Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing-San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jim McPherson
Label: Rhino (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1966
The Trolls, based in San Jose, California, were popular and/or well connected and/or rich enough to put out a self-financed single called Walkin' Shoes in 1965 that was also issued with a red Peatlore label pasted over the blue original. The following year they signed with RCA Victor, changing their name to Stained Glass in the process. Their second single for RCA was My Buddy Sin, one of the first rock songs to include a harpsichord. Despite being from the Bay Area and having a sound that was somewhat similar to the Association, the Stained Glass never caught on nationally, although they remained one of San Jose's top local bands through the end of the decade.
Artist: 101 Strings
Title: Karma Sitar
Source: LP: Sounds Of Today
Writer(s): M. Kelly
Label: Alshire
Year: 1967
The only turntable in our house during my youngest years was an RCA Victor 45 RPM changer from the early 1950s. As a result we had no LPs in the house until I was about ten years old, when my parents bought me a small portable record player. Even though the record player was technically mine, my mother did buy one album for herself, an LP called Fire And Romance of South America (or something like that) by 101 Strings. As I recall, she got it at the local Woolworth's store, which had entire racks dedicated to discount-priced LPs, usually for under a dollar. It turns out the name 101 Strings (actually there were 124) had been in use since 1957, when record mogul David L. Miller came up with the idea of using German orchestras to cover popular songs (although not rock and roll) and would continue to be used until the early 1980s. Many 101 Strings LPs were genre-based, including albums featuring Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Asian and South American standards, as well as Broadway show tunes and orchestral covers of pop hits. In 1964 the franchise was sold to Al Sherman, who moved its base of operations to London, changing the name of the record label the group appeared on from Somerset to Alshire. Under Sherman the group attempted to shift its appeal to a younger audience, as evidenced by tracks like Karma Sitar, from the Sounds Of Today album. These efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and the last 101 Strings album (a collection of early Beatles covers) was released in January of 1981.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Magic Carpet Ride
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Steppenwolf The Second)
Writer(s): Moreve/Kay
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
Steppenwolf's second top 10 single was Magic Carpet Ride, a song that combines feedback, prominent organ work by Goldy McJohn and an updated Bo Diddly beat with psychedelic lyrics. Along with Born To Be Wild, Magic Carpet Ride (co-written by vocalist John Kay and bassist Rushton Moreve) has become one of the defining songs of both Steppenwolf and the psychedelic era itself.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: The Grateful Dead
Writer(s): McGannahan Skjellyfetti
Label: Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1967
The Grateful Dead's major label debut single actually sold pretty well in the San Francisco Bay area, where it got airplay on top 40 stations from San Francisco to San Jose. Around the rest of the country, not so much, but the Dead would soon prove that there was more to survival than having a hit record. Writing credits on The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) were given to McGannahan Skjellyfetti, which like the Rolling Stones' Nanker Phelge was a name used for songs written by the entire band (there was probably some royalties-related reason for doing so).
Artist: Third Bardo
Title: I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Evans/Pike
Label: Rhino (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: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Super Bird
Source: LP: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
Country Joe and the Fish, from Berkeley, California, were one of the first rock bands to incorporate political satire into their music. Their I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag is one of the most famous protest songs ever written. Super Bird is even heavier on the satire than the Rag. The song, from the band's debut LP, puts president Lyndon Johnson, whose wife and daughter were known as "Lady-bird" and "Linda-bird", in the role of a comic book superhero.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: The Great Banana Hoax
Source: CD: Underground
Writer(s): Lowe/Tulin
Label: Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The second Electric Prunes LP, Underground, saw the band gaining greater creative control over the recording process than at any other time in their career (until their reformation in the late 1990s). The album's opening track, The Great Banana Hoax, is notable for two reasons: first, it was composed by band members and second, it has nothing to do with bananas. The title probably refers to the rumor circulating at the time that Donovan's Mellow Yellow was really about smoking banana peels to get high. The song itself is an indication of the musical direction the band itself wanted to go in before it got sidetracked (some would say derailed) by producer David Hassinger, who would assert control to the point of eventually replacing all the original members of the band by their fourth album (yes, some producers had that kind of power in those days).
Artist: Turtles
Title: Almost There
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Howard Kaylan
Label: White Whale
Year: 1965
In the mid-1960s it was a common practice for a producer to let a band record its own material for the B side of a single, particularly if it was the band's first record. For one thing, it was cheaper than paying an outside songwriter for the rights to make a record that may end up stiffing, thus leaving the producer with a net loss on the deal. It also meant that at least one band member would receive royalty money if the record did sell, since royalties were distributed equally between the two sides of a single, regardless of which side was actually generating revenue. A textbook example of this practice is Almost There, issued as the B side of It Ain't Me Babe, the first Turtles single. Written by teenaged lead vocalist Howard Kaylan, the song was not considered strong enough to be included on the band's debut LP, although it did appear on their 1966 followup album.
Artist: Jury
Title: Who Dat?
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Canada as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Bill Ivaniuk
Label: Rhino (original label: Quality)
Year: 1966
Formed by members of two Winnipeg bands, the Chord-U-Roys and the Phantoms, in 1964, the Jury released three Beatles-inspired singles on the Canadian London label in 1965 before switching to the locally-owned Quality label the following year. Their only single for Quality was Who Dat?, a savage piece of garage rock that got enough regional airplay to pique the interest of a small American label, Port, which promptly reissued the single in the US. Nonetheless, the group disbanded before 1966 was over.
Artist: Marketts
Title: Out Of Limits (originally titled Outer Limits)
Source: CD: Surfin' Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Michael Z Gordon
Label: Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1963
It's disputed whether the Marketts were a real band or just an assortment of studio musicians at the beck and call of producer Joe Saraceno. A listen to their catalog leaves one with the impression of hearing an anthology by several different bands rather than one single musical entity. Probably the best-known song to bear the Marketts name on the label was this quasi-surf instrumental that hit the charts in late 1963. The title is taken from the TV show The Outer Limits, which had made its debut that fall, although the recurring guitar riff sounds more like vintage Twilight Zone. So much so, in fact, that they had to change the song title to Out Of Limits after being threatened with a lawsuit by none other than Rod Serling (which really doesn't make sense when you think about it, but then it's litigation law, which doesn't always make sense anyway).
Artist: Dick Dale And The Del-Tones
Title: Let's Go Trippin'
Source: Mono CD: The Best Of Dick Dale And His Del-Tones (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Dick Dale
Label: Rhino (original label: Del-Tone)
Year: 1961
Although Richard Anthony Monsour was born in Boston and raised in Quincy, Mass., he quickly took to the sport of surfing when his family moved to southern California when he was 14. As a guitarist he started off in country music, where a guy named Texas Tiny started calling him Dick Dale because he thought it was a good name for a country singer. Even as a country musician, Dale used the kind of non-Western scales he had heard growing up among the Lebanese population of Quincy, and by the early 1960s he had developed what came to be known as surf music. As Dale himself later explained "There was a tremendous amount of power I felt while surfing and that feeling of power was simply transferred into my guitar." A left-handed player who used a right-handed guitar without restringing it, Dale had an unorthodox style that made him the perfect partner for Leo Fender, who was looking for a guitarist to help road test his new Fender Reverb amplifier. As Fender put it: "When it can withstand the barrage of punishment from Dick Dale, then it is fit for the human consumption." Dale had already released several singles on his own Del-Tone label by 1961, when he recorded what is generally acknowledged to be the first surf record, Let's Go Trippin'. The song was included on his first LP, Surfer's Choice, the following year.
Artist: Dick Dale And His Del-Tones
Title: Miserlou
Source: Mono CD: Surfin' Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Nick Rubanis
Label: Rhino (original label: Del-Tone)
Year: 1962
When the term "surf music" comes up, most people think of vocal groups such as the Beach Boys or Jan & Dean. Some even mention the Ventures, who released well over a hundred instrumental LPs in their existence, most of which are considered surf records. Those truly in the know, however, will tell you that Dick Dale, the man who was asked by Fender Instruments to road test their new Reverb guitar amplifiers in the early 60s, was the true King Of The Surf Guitar. Although he did record a few vocal singles, Dale is mostly known for his high-energy instrumental tracks such as Miserlou, a 1962 recording that released locally on Dale's own Del-tone label then picked up for national distribution by Capitol Records. The song was given new life in 1994 when Quentin Tarantino included it in the film Pulp Fiction, leading to a new generation's interest in Dale's music.
Artist: Dick Dale/Stevie Ray Vaughan
Title: Pipeline
Source: CD: The Best Of Dick Dale And His Del-Tones (from the soundtrack of the movie Back To The Beach)
Writer(s): Spickard/Carmen
Label: Rhino
Year: 1987
Although surf music itself was somewhat sidetracked by the British Invasion of 1964, Dick Dale continued to play live gigs until forced into retirement by rectal cancer in the latter part of the decade. He was able to beat the cancer, thanks to the support of many friends (including Jimi Hendrix, whose famous line "never hear surf music again" was actually meant as words of encouragement), but did not become musically active again until the 1980s. In 1987 he teamed up with Stevie Ray Vaughan to record and perform a cover of the Chantay's Pipeline in the movie Back To The Beach, and in the years since began to receive the recognition for his contribution to rock music that he so richly deserved until his death in 2019.
Artist: Doors
Title: The Crystal Ship
Source: CD: The Doors
Writer: The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Ever feel like you've discovered something really special that nobody else (among your circle of friends at any rate) knows about? At first you kind of want to keep it to yourself, but soon you find yourself compelled to share it with everyone you know. Such was the case when, in the early summer of 1967, I used my weekly allowance to buy copies of a couple of songs I had heard on the American Forces Network (AFN). As usual, it wasn't long before I was flipping the records over to hear what was on the B sides. I liked the first one well enough (a song by Buffalo Springfield called Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It, the B side of For What It's Worth), but it was the second one, the B side of the Doors' Light My Fire, that really got to me. To this day I consider The Crystal Ship to be one of the finest slow rock songs ever recorded.
Artist: Doors
Title: Strange Days
Source: CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Strange Days)
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
One of the first rock albums to not picture the band members on the front cover was the Doors' second LP, Strange Days. Instead, the cover featured several circus performers doing various tricks on a city street, with the band's logo appearing on a poster on the wall of a building. The album itself contains some of the Doors' most memorable tracks, including the title song, which also appears on their greatest hits album (which has Jim Morrison's picture on the cover) despite never being released as a single.
Artist: Doors
Title: The End
Source: CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: The Doors)
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Prior to recording their first album the Doors' honed their craft at various Sunset Strip clubs, working up live versions of the songs they would soon record, including their show-stopper, The End. Originally written as a breakup song by singer/lyricist Jim Morrison, The End runs nearly twelve minutes and includes a controversial spoken "Oedipus section". My own take on the famous "blue bus" line is that Morrison, being a military brat, was probably familiar with the blue shuttle buses used on military bases for a variety of purposes, including taking kids to school, and simply incorporated his experiences with them into his lyrics. The End got its greatest exposure in 1979, when Oliver Stone used it in his film Apocalypse Now.
Artist: Sugarloaf
Title: Woman
Source: LP: Spaceship Earth
Writer(s): Raymond/Corbetta/Yeazel/Webber
Label: Liberty
Year: 1970
The second Sugarloaf album saw the addition of Robert Yeazel on 2nd lead guitar to the band's lineup, adding considerably to the band's depth. Spaceship Earth, however, despite being a better album overall than their debut LP, did not have the benefit of a # 1 hit single (Green-Eyed Lady) and only made it to the # 111 spot on the Billboard albums chart. Nonetheless, the album contains many fine tracks, such as Woman, which was written by most of the band's then-current members.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Empty Pages
Source: 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): Winwood/Capaldi
Label: Silver Spotlight (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1970
Traffic was formed in 1967 by Steve Winwood, after ending his association with the Spencer Davis Group. The original group, also featuring Dave Mason, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood, put out two and a half albums before disbanding in early 1969. Shortly thereafter, following a successful live reunion album, Welcome to the Canteen, Winwood got to work on what was intended to be his first solo LP. For support Winwood called in Capaldi and Wood to back him up on the project. It soon became apparent, however, that what they were working on was actually a new Traffic album, John Barleycorn Must Die. Although Empty Pages was released as a single (with a mono mix heard here), it got most of its airplay on progressive FM stations, and as those stations were replaced by (or became) AOR (album oriented rock) stations, the song continued to get extensive airplay for many years.
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: Bad Moon Rising
Source: Mono CD: Chronicle
Writer: John Fogerty
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
First they were known as the Blue Velvets. Then the Golliwogs (a name chosen for them by Fantasy Records co-owner Max Weiss, who also made them wear red Ronald McDonald wigs. Apparently the band members did not take this period (1964-1967) too seriously, as original bandleader/vocalist Tom Fogerty used the stage name Rann Wild while his younger brother John became Toby Green. The Golliwog years saw band members' roles change, as keyboardist Stu Cook switched to bass guitar, lead vocalist Tom Fogerty moved to rhythm guitar and lead guitarist John Fogerty took over the lead vocals. The only one not to change roles was drummer Doug Clifford. John Fogerty was also developing his songwriting skills and was in all ways but name producing the band's records as well. In 1967 Fantasy Records was sold to Saul Zaentz, and the band was finally able to shed the Golliwogs name and image and set their own path, choosing to call themselves Creedence Clearwater Revival. In 1968 they made their debut under their new name playing in various San Francisco venues such as the Avalon Ballroom and Fillmore West. Their self-titled debut album came out later that year, with their second single, a cover of Dale Hawkins's Susie Q, getting a decent amount of airplay on both AM top 40 and the more underground FM stations that were starting to pop up across the country (which tended to play the full-length album version of the song. The band's real breakthrough, however, came with their second LP, Bayou Country, and the hit single Proud Mary, which topped out at the #2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. The second single from Bayou Country, Bad Moon Rising, equalled that success, and also went to the top spot on the British charts, their only song to do so. That summer, Creedence Clearwater Revival played at Woodstock early in the morning, following the Grateful Dead's set. Most of the audience was asleep at that point, and there were problems with equipment and lighting, resulting in John Fogerty refusing to allow their set to be included in either the film or soundtrack album of the festival. This, in restrospect, may have been the beginning of dissension within the band, as at least one other member, Stu Cook, later expressed the opinion that Fogerty's decision actually hurt the band, saying "The performances are classic CCR and I'm still amazed by the number of people who don't even know we were one of the headliners at Woodstock."
Artist: Human Beinz
Title: Nobody But Me
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Ron, Rudy and O'Kelley Isley
Label: Capitol
Year: 1968
The Human Beingz were a band that had been around since 1964 doing mostly club gigs in the Youngstown, Ohio area as the Premiers. In the late 60s they decided to update their image with a name more in tune with the times and came up with the Human Beingz. Unfortunately someone at Capitol Records misspelled their name (leaving out the "g") on the label of Nobody But Me, and after the song became a national hit the band was stuck with the new spelling. The band split up in 1969, but after Nobody But Me was featured in the Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill: Vol.1, original leader Ting Markulin reformed the band with a new lineup that has appeared in the Northeastern US in recent years.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: My Obsession
Source: LP: Between The Buttons
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
My Obsession, from the 1967 album Between The Buttons, is the kind of song that garage bands loved: easy to learn, easy to sing, easy to dance to. The Rolling Stones, of course, were the kings of this type of song, which is why so many US garage bands sounded like the Stones.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Have You Seen Her Face
Source: Mono LP: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Chris Hillman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Perhaps the greatest surprise on the fourth Byrds album, Younger Than Yesterday, was the emergence of bassist Chris Hillman as a quality songwriter, already on a par with David Crosby and the recently-departed Gene Clark, and even exceeding Roger McGuinn as a solo writer (most of McGuinn's contributions being as a collaborator rather than a solo songwriter). One of the many strong Hillman tracks on Younger Than Yesterday was Have You Seen Her Face, which eventually became the third single from the album.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing
Source: CD: Retrospective (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Buffalo Springfield)
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Atco
Year: 1966
One of the most influential folk-rock bands to come out of the L.A. scene was Buffalo Springfield. The band had several quality songwriters, including Neil Young, whose voice was deemed "too weird" by certain record company people. Thus we have Richie Furay singing a Young tune on the band's first single, Nowadays Clancy Can't Even Sing.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Atco
Year: 1966
The first Neil Young song I ever heard was Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It, which was issued as the B side of For What It's Worth in 1967. I had bought the single and, as always, after my first listen flipped the record over to hear what was on the other side. (Years later I was shocked to learn that there were actually people who never listened to the B side of records they bought. I've never been able to understand that.) Anyway, at the time I didn't know who Neil Young was, or the fact that although Young was a member of Buffalo Springfield it was actually Richie Furay singing the song on the record. Now I realize that may seem a bit naive on my part, but I was 14 at the time, so what do you expect? At least I had the good taste to buy a copy of For What It's Worth in the first place (along with the Doors' Light My Fire and the Spencer Davis Group's I'm A Man if I remember correctly). Where I got the money to buy three current records at the same time is beyond me, though. Maybe it was right after my birthday or something.
