https://exchange.prx.org/p/640890
This week we bring back some old favorites, including a set dedicated to veterans of the war in Viet Nam, a set from the Jimi Hendrix Experience and a set of tunes that might well have been included in last week's Halloween show if there had been time for them.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: For Your Love
Source: Mono CD: Something's Burning-Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame-Vol. 1 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Graham Gouldman
Label: Legacy (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: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: A Hazy Shade Of Winter
Source: LP: Bookends
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Sundazed/Columbia
Year: 1966
Originally released as a single in 1966, A Hazy Shade Of Winter was one of several songs intended for the film The Graduate. The only one of these actually used in the film was Mrs. Robinson. The remaining songs eventually made up side two of the 1968 album Bookends, although several of them were also released as singles throughout 1967. A Hazy Shade Of Winter, being the first of these singles (and the only one released in 1966), was also the highest charting, peaking at # 13 just as the weather was turning cold.
Artist: Janis Ian
Title: Lover Be Kindly
Source: LP: Janis Ian
Writer(s): Janis Ian
Label: Polydor (original label: Verve Folkways)
Year: 1967
Thirty years before young female singer/songwriters such as Jewel and Alanis Morissette took the music world by storm there was a 15-year-old Janis Ian making music that was largely overlooked at the time, but has come to be regarded as groundbreaking in the years since the release of Ian's first LP in 1967. The album itself was commissioned by Atlantic Records, but after hearing some of Ian's controversial lyrics the shirts at the label decided not to release it. After several more labels rejected the album M-G-M subsidiary Verve decided to release one song from the album, Society's Child, as a single on its experimental Verve Folkways label. Famed conductor Leonard Bernstein featured the song on his prime-time TV special called Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, which led to the song hitting the top 40 charts, eventually peaking at #14 (although it went all the way to the top of the charts in many key cities). This in turn led to the album being released in early 1967. Among the many outstanding tracks on the LP (as far as I'm concerned EVERY track on the album is outstanding) is a tune called Lover Be Kindly. Showing a mix of influences ranging from folk music to the Beatles, the song has a catchy melody and strong lyrics, quite an accomplishment for a virtually unkown artist who was 14 years old at the time the record was produced.
Artist: Next Exit
Title: Break Away
Source: Mono British import CD: My Mind Goes High (originally released in US as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Force/Kahan
Label: Warner Strategic Marketing (original US label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
The song Break Away is based on an unpublished poem from Paul Kahan, a longtime friend of the wife of the lead singer of the Tokens, who in 1968 were contract artists/producers for Warner Brothers Records. One of the Tokens' staff writers was Stephen Freidland, who, using the pen name Brute Force, came up with music for Kahan's poem. The result was Break Away, released in 1968 as the B side to a Tokens penned tune called I'm The Only One by a group called The Next Exit, who according to one source were (was?) actually a band form Missouri called the Fabulous Four.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Gypsy
Source: LP: Uriah Heep
Writer(s): Byron/Box
Label: Mercury
Year: 1970
Gypsy, the first track on the first Uriah Heep album was also the first Heep song I ever heard. Apparently the rock press hated the song, the album, and the band itself, but it turns out that 1970 was a good year to be hated by the rock press. Just look at how things turned out for Grand Funk Railroad. For that matter, Uriah Heep didn't do too badly over the next few years, either. Maybe that's why Rolling Stone magazine turned more to politics as time went on: it's much easier to get away with being totally wrong about something, and when you're right everybody praises you for your journalistic integrity.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Sunny Afternoon
Source: Mono Canadian import CD: 25 Years-The Ultimate Collection (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Face To Face)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Polygram/PolyTel (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1966
1966 was the year that Ray Davies's songwriting began to take a sardonic turn. Sunny Afternoon, using a first person perspective, manages to lampoon the idle rich through mock sympathy. Good stuff, and the Kinks' last song to make US top 40 charts until 1970, when the international hit Lola gave the boys from Muswell Hill a much needed career boost.
Artist: Harbinger Complex
Title: I Think I'm Down
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Writer: Hockstaff/Hoyle
Label: Rhino (original label: Brent)
Year: 1966
Most garage/club bands never made it beyond a single or two for a relatively small independent label. The Harbinger Complex, from Freemont, California, however, benefitted from a talent search conducted by Bob Shad, owner of Mainstream Records. The band was one of about half a dozen acts from the Bay Area to be signed by Shad in July of 1966, with the single I Think I'm Down appearing on the Brent label later that year. The song was also included on Shad's Mainstream sampler LP, With Love-A Pot Of Flowers, in 1967.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Up In Her Room
Source: Mono British import CD: Singles As & Bs 1965-1970 (originally released on LP: A Web Of Sound and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Big Beat (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1966
One of the first extended jams released on a rock album, the fourteen and a half-minute Up In Her Room, from the Seeds' second LP, A Web Of Sound, is a sort of sequel to Van Morrison's Gloria (but only the original Them version; the secret of the Shadows Of Knight's success with the song was to replace the line "she comes up to my room" with "she comes around here"). The much shorter mono edit of the song (about three and a half minutes) heard here was released as the B side of the second issue of Mr. Farmer in January of 1967.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: Queen of My Nights
Source: CD: Kaleidoscopic Compendium (originally released on LP: Psychedelic Lollipop)
Writer(s): David Blue
Label: Mercury
Year: 1967
When I moved to a new town (actually a converted Panzer barracks being used as a housing complex for US military dependents in Mainz-Kastel, Germany) in the summer of '67 I was given a crash course in what was cool and what wasn't. For those living off-post (known as living "on the economy") 45 RPM records were the cool thing (albums still being something of a rarity in German stores at the time), especially anything by the Who. As far as albums went, the Blues Magoos' Psychedelic Lollipop (featuring songs like Queen Of My Nights), along with the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, topped the cool list. Unfortunately, I arrived on the scene with more albums by the Monkees than any other group (I had two), which pretty much marked me as uncool, at least until I learned to play guitar myself.
Artist: Left Banke
Title: Shadows Breaking Over My Head
Source: LP: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
Writer(s): Brown/Martin
Label: Smash/Sundazed
Year: 1967
Shadows Breaking Over My Head is one of many examples of what has come to be called Baroque Pop as defined by the Left Banke on their 1967 album Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina. Written by lead vocalist Steve Martin and keyboardist Michael Brown, the track utilizes studio musicians extensively, with Brown's keyboard work featured prominently.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: The Pusher
Source: LP: Steppenwolf Gold (originally released on LP: Steppenwolf)
Writer(s): Hoyt Axton
Label: Dunhill/ABC
Year: 1968
While AM radio was all over Born To Be Wild in 1968 (taking the song all the way to the # 2 spot on the top 40 charts), the edgier FM stations were playing heavier tunes from the debut Steppenwolf album. The most controversial (and thus most popular) of these heavier tunes was Hoyt Axton's The Pusher, with it's repeated use of the line "God damn the Pusher." Axton himself did not record the song until 1971, by which time the song was already burned indelibly in the public consciousness as a Steppenwolf tune.
Artist: Aerovons
Title: Resurrection/Say Georgia/With Her
Source: British import CD: Resurrection
Writer(s): Tom Hartman
Label: RPM
Year: Recorded 1969, released 2003
It's probably safe to say that at least some of the members of the St. Louis band, the Aerovons, loved the Beatles. After all, when pianist/guitarist Tom Hartman, guitarist Bob "Ferd" Frank, drummer Mike Lombardo and bassist Bill Lombardo received an offer from Capitol Records to record for the label in 1967, their response was to inform the label they wanted to do it at London's EMI Studios on Abbey Road. After a pair of trips to the UK in 1968, they got their wish (although Frank left the group prior to recording) and, utilizing the same production facilities and personnel as their idols, the Aerovons set about recording over an album's worth of material. As was the common practice at the time in the UK, the Aerovons released a non-album single ahead of the album in July of 1969. But before the album itself could be released, personal problems involving the family of one of the band members resulted in the dissolution of the Aerovons and only two of the songs on the projected LP ended up being released, as a single in September of 1969. The rest of the album, including the three-song sequence of Resurrection, Say Georgia and With Her remained unreleased until 2003, when the British RPM label released all of the band's material (including the non-album single) on CD under the title Resurrection.
Artist: King Crimson
Title: Cirkus
Source: LP: Lizard
Writer: Fripp/Sinfield
Label: Polydor
Year: 1970
By the release of the third King Crimson album, Lizard, many key players had departed the band, including vocalist Greg Lake and keyboardist Ian McDonald. Still, such is the appeal of working with someone like bandleader Robert Fripp that he has never had any problem getting replacement personnel. In this case the new members would include Gordon Haskell on bass and vocals and Andy McCulloch on drums. The album's opening track, Cirkus, is still one of the most recognizable King Crimson recordings.
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: The Birdman Of Alkatrash
Source: 45 RPM single B side (originally released as A side)
Writer(s): Mark Weitz
Label: Uni (original label: All-American)
Year: 1967
Thee Sixpence was a Los Angeles band that consisted of Ed King (lead guitar, vocals), Michael Luciano (vocals), Lee Freeman (rhythm guitar, harmonica, vocals), Gary Lovetro (bass), Steve Rabe (guitar, vocals), and Gene Gunnels (drums). The band released four singles on the local All-American label in 1966. In early 1967 Gunnels, Rabe, and Luciano all left the band, to be replaced by keyboardist Mark Weitz and drummer Randy Seol. At the same time, they decided to change their name to Strawberry Alarm Clock. Their first single under their new name was a Weitz composition called The Birdman Of Alkatrash. For some reason local radio stations instead began playing the other side of the record and, after being re-released on MCA's Uni label, it became one of the biggest hits of 1967, going all the way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. That other side? Incense and Peppermints.
Artist: Vigilantes Of Love
Title: Vet
Source: CD single (taken from CD: Welcome To Struggleville)
Writer(s): Bill Mallonee
Label: Capricorn
Year: 1994
In the late 1960s most teenage guys didn't get much mail. The bills were all addressed to their parents and their friends were all people that they saw on a regular basis. In fact, aside from an occasional letter from Grandma, the only piece of mail a teenage male was likely to get was a draft notice from Uncle Sam. If you got one of those you had to make a choice. You could up and leave the country, along with all your friends and family, without knowing if and when you might see them again. Or you could refuse to register for the draft and risk going to jail. You could attempt to get conscientious objector status (there were two types; one was difficult to obtain but would keep you from having to serve at all; the other was much easier, but you'd still be in the Army, but you'd be wearing a red cross on your helmet, singifying that you were medical personnel and thus not a target; often, however, the opposite was true). Finally, you could just suck it up, register, get drafted, go through basic training and hope like hell you survived the next three years (there was actually one more option: you could voluntarily join a different branch of the military, but only if you could talk a recruiter into taking you, something they were discouraged from doing with draftees). As a result of all of this, the US Army at that point in time was made up of officers, most of which were academy trained, and enlisted men, most of which were draftees (although there were a few volunteers among their ranks as well). These draftees, despite the fact that they really didn't have much choice in the matter, were nonetheless treated shabbily upon their return to the US, often spit upon and called "baby killers" and things even worse than that. The song Vet, written and sung by Bill Mallonee, was recorded in 1994 by Mallonee's band, the Vigilantes Of Love and included on the album Welcome To Struggleville. I personally think it's the best song of its type ever recorded, surpassing even John Prine's classic Sam Stone.
Artist: Animals
Title: We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (US version)
Source: Mono CD: The Very Best Of The Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1965
In 1965 producer Mickey Most put out a call to Don Kirschner's Brill building songwriters for material that could be recorded by the Animals. He ended up selecting three songs, all of which are among the Animals' most popular singles. Possibly the most familiar of the three is a song written by the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil called We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. The song (the first Animals recording to featuring Dave Rowberry, who had replaced founder Alan Price on organ) starts off with what is probably Chas Chandler's best known bass line, slowly adding drums, vocals, guitar and finally keyboards on its way to an explosive chorus. The song was not originally intended for the Animals, however; it was written for the Righteous Brothers as a follow up to (You've Got That) Lovin' Feelin', which Mann and Weil had also provided for the duo. Mann, however, decided to record the song himself, but the Animals managed to get their version out first, taking it to the top 20 in the US and the top 5 in the UK. As the Vietnam war escalated, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place became a sort of underground anthem for US servicemen stationed in South Vietnam, and has been associated with that war ever since. Incidentally, there were actually two versions of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place recorded during the same recording session, with an alternate take accidentally being sent to M-G-M and subsequently being released as the US version of the single. This version (which some collectors and fans maintain has a stronger vocal track) appeared on the US-only LP Animal Tracks in the fall of 1965 as well as the original M-G-M pressings of the 1966 album Best Of The Animals. The original UK version, on the other hand, did not appear on any albums, as was common for British singles in the 1960s. By the 1980s record mogul Allen Klein had control of the original Animals' entire catalog, and decreed that all CD reissues of the song would use the original British version of the song, including the updated (and expanded) CD version of The Best Of The Animals. Abkco has continued to release various Animals compilation discs over the years, including some, such as The Very Best Of The Animals, that use the US version of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.
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: Beatles
Title: Here Comes The Sun
Source: CD: Abbey Road
Writer: George Harrison
Label: Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year: 1969
In a way, George Harrison's career as a songwriter parallels the Beatles' recording career as a band. His first song to get any attention was If I Needed Someone on the Rubber Soul album, the LP that marked the beginning of the group's transition from performers to studio artists. As the Beatles' skills in the studio increased, so did Harrison's writing skills, reaching a peak with the Abbey Road album. As usual, Harrison wrote two songs for the LP, but this time one of them (Something) became the first single released from the album and the first Harrison song to hit the #1 spot on the charts. The other Harrison composition on Abbey Road was Here Comes The Sun. Although never released as a single, the song has gone on to become Harrison's most enduring masterpiece.
Artist: Fat Mattress
Title: Iridescent Butterfly
Source: CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Neil Landon
Label: Grapefruit (original label: Polydor)
Year: 1969
Fat Mattress was, in a sense, a sort of second (or maybe third) tier supergroup formed by Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist Noel Redding, first as a side project and then as his primary band. Other members included vocalist Neil Landon (Flower Pot Men) and bassist Jim Leverton (Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens), with Redding on guitar. Iridescent Butterfly was a song written by Landon that was recorded at the same time as the band's debut LP but was not released until 1969, when it appeared as a B side.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: One Rainy Wish
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
In the summer of 1967 my dad (who was a Sergeant in the Air Force), got transferred to Lindsay Air Station in Weisbaden, Germany. The housing situation there being what it was, it was several weeks before the rest of us could join him, and during that time he went out and bought an Akai X-355 reel to reel tape recorder that a fellow GI had picked up in Japan. The Akai had small speakers built into it, but the best way to listen to it was through headphones. It would be another year before he would pick up a turntable, so I started buying pre-recorded reel to reel tapes. Two of the first three tapes I bought were Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold As Love, both by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. As I was forced to share a bedroom with my little brother I made it a habit to sleep on the couch in the living room instead, usually with the headphones on listening to Axis: Bold As Love. I was blown away by the stereo effects on the album, which I attributed (somewhat correctly) to Hendrix, although I would find out years later that much of the credit belongs to engineer Eddie Kramer as well. One Rainy Wish, for example, starts off with all the instruments in the center channel (essentially a mono mix). After a few seconds of slow spacy intro the song gets into gear with vocals isolated all the way over to the left, with a guitar overdub on the opposite side to balance it out. As the song continues, things move back and forth from side to side, fading in and out at the same time. It was a hell of a way to drift off to sleep every night.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Little Wing
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendris/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Although it didn't have any hit singles on it, Axis: Bold As Love, the second album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was full of memorable tunes, including one of Hendrix's most covered songs, Little Wing. The album itself is a showcase for Hendrix's rapidly developing skills, both as a songwriter and in the studio. The actual production of the album was a true collaborative effort, combining Hendrix's creativity, engineer Eddie Kramer's expertise and producer Chas Chandler's strong sense of how a record should sound, acquired through years of recording experience as a member of the Animals. The result was nothing short of a masterpiece.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Up From The Skies
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Up From The Skies, from the second Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Axis: Bold As Love, was released as a single in the US, at around the same time as Burning of the Midnight Lamp was having a successful run on the UK singles charts. Axis: Bold As Love, however, was one of the LPs that proved that having a top 40 hit was no longer necessary or even desirable for a rock band to be considered a success in the US, and Up From The Skies was seldom, if ever, heard on top 40 AM radio stations.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Iron Man
Source: CD: Paranoid
Writer(s): Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
Black Sabbath tended to write songs as a group, with Tony Iommi coming up with a guitar riff, Ozzy Osbourne figuring out a melody, Geezer Butler writing lyrics and Bill Ward adding the finishing touches with his drum set. One of their most famous tracks, Iron Man, started off exactly that way. When Ozzy Osbourne heard Tony Iommi's riff he remarked that it sounded "like a big iron bloke walking about". Butler took the idea and ran with it, coming up with a song about a man who travels to the future, sees the devastation and returns to his own time to try to change things. Unfortunately he gets caught in a magnetic field that turns him into living steel, mute and unable to verbally express himself. His efforts to communicate are met with indifference and even mockery, angering him to the point that he himself becomes the cause of the destruction he had witnessed. The song is considered one of foundation stones of what came to be called heavy metal. It's continued popularity is evidenced by the fact that it was used in the Iron Man movies, despite having no real connection to the film, other than being the title character's favorite song.
Artist: Fairport Convention
Title: Tam Lin
Source: LP: Leige and Leaf
Writer(s): Trad. arr. Swarbuck
Label: A&M
Year: 1969
Fairport Convention was hailed as England's answer to Jefferson Airplane when they first appeared. Just a year later they were considered the leading voice of the British folk music revival.
Sandy Denny, who joined the group following the release of their debut LP, replacing Judy Dyble, is probably best known to American audiences for her backup vocals on Led Zeppelin's The Battle of Evermore and as the writer of the Judy Collins hit Who Knows Where The Time Goes. On the 1969 album Liege And Lief she sings lead on several of the group's most popular recordings, including Tam Lin, a tune about carnal relations twixt human and elf and its consequences when the queen of Faerie gets involved.
Artist: October Country
Title: My Girlfriend Is A Witch
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Michael Lloyd
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1968
By 1968 the L.A. under-age club scene was winding down, and several now out of work bands were making last (and sometimes only) attempts at garnering hits in the studio. One such band was October Country, whose first release had gotten a fair amount of local airplay, but who had become bogged down trying to come up with lyrics for a follow-up single. Enter Michael Lloyd, recently split from the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band and looking to become a record producer. Lloyd not only produced and wrote the lyrics for My Girlfriend Is A Witch, he also ended up playing drums on the record as well. Since then Lloyd has gone on to be one of the most successful record producers in L.A. (the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, for instance).
