https://exchange.prx.org/p/632556
This week we feature our first (and probably last) battle of the years, as we bounce back and forth between tunes from 1968 and 1969 for the better part of a half hour. Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Also in the show, a set of tunes from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, none of which were written by Jimi himself. We also have some hidden gems, like the very first Rolling Stones single and a track from the first album by Strawbs.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Omaha
Source: LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s): Skip Spence
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
As an ill-advised promotional gimmick, Columbia Records released five separate singles concurrently with the first Moby Grape album. Of the five singles, only one, Omaha, actually charted, and it only got to the #86 spot. Meanwhile, the heavy promotion by the label led to Moby Grape getting the reputation of being over-hyped, much to the detriment of the band's career.
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: "E" Types
Title: Put The Clock Back On The Wall
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Bonner/Gordon
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
The E-Types were originally from Salinas, California, which at the time was known for it's sulfiric smell experienced by passing motorists travelling along US 101. As many people from Salinas apparently went to "nearby" San Jose (about 60 miles to the north) as often as possible, the E-Types became regulars on the local scene there, eventually landing a contract with Tower Records and Ed Cobb, who also produced the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband. The Bonner/Gordon songwriting team were just a couple months away from getting huge royalty checks from the Turtles' Happy Together when Put The Clock Back On The Wall was released in early 1967. The song takes its title from a popular phrase of the time. After a day or two of losing all awareness of time (and sometimes space) it was time to put the clock back on the wall, or get back to reality if you prefer.
Artist: The Poor
Title: She's Got The Time (She's Got The Changes)
Source: Mono LP: Highs In The Mid 60s Volume 18- Colorado
Writer(s): Tom Shipley
Label: AIP (original label: York)
Year: 1967
Despite certain liner notes to the contrary, there is no actual evidence that singer/songwriter Tom Shipley, an Ohio native, was ever a member of The Poor. Nebraskan Randy Meisner, however, was. The Poor was formed in Denver in 1966 by former members of the Soul Survivors, a popular local club band. They moved to Los Angeles and added Meisner to the group, recording a series of singles before disbanding in 1968. Meisner went on to join Poco and later co-founded the Eagles, while the rest of the group eventually became the Stone Canyon Band, backing up Rick Nelson. The Poor's most successful single was She's Got The Time (She's Got The Changes), written by Tom Shipley shortly before he became half of Brewer And Shipley.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: Rush Hour
Source: Mono LP: Electric Comic Book
Writer(s): Gilbert/Scala/Daking/Theilhelm/Esposito
Label: Mercury
Year: 1967
One of the best examples of music and subject matter supporting each other ever recorded is the Blues Magoos' Rush Hour from their Electric Comic Book album. From the overdriven opening chord through the crash and burn ending, the track maintains a frantic pace that resembles nothing more than a musical traffic jam, especially in its mono mix heard here. Rush Hour is also the only Blues Magoos track I know of to include writing credits for the entire band, including drummer Geoff Daking's only official songwriting credit.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Lola
Source: CD: The Kink Kronikles (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1970
By 1970 the Kinks were all but forgotten in the US and not doing all that much better in their native UK. Then came Lola. I guess I could stop right there. Or I could mention that the song was based on a true story involving the band's manager. I could even say something about Dave Davies' claim that, although his brother Ray is credited as the sole songwriter of Lola, Dave actually came up with the music and Ray added the lyrics. But you've probably heard it all before. This is Lola, the most famous song about cross-dressing in rock history we're talking about, after all.
Artist: David Bowie
Title: Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud
Source: CD: David Bowie (originally released in US as Man Of Words, Man Of Music and reissued as Space Oddity)
Writer(s): David Bowie
Label: Parlophone (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1969
The version of Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud heard on his 1969 LP David Bowie (aka Man Of Words, Man Of Music aka Space Oddity) is not the original version of the song. Originally the tune was minimally instrumentated (is that a real word?), with only an acoustic guitar and bass accompanying Bowie's vocals. The re-recorded album version heard here, however, features full orchestration by producer Tony Visconti, along with the uncredited debut of Mick Ronson on lead guitar. As for the subject matter of the song itself, Bowie had this to say: "It was about the disassociated, the ones who feel as though they're left outside, which was how I felt about me. I always felt I was on the edge of events, the fringe of things, and left out. A lot of my characters in those early years seem to revolve around that feeling. It must have come from my own interior puzzlement at where I was".
Artist: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title: Codine
Source: LP: Revolution soundtrack
Writer(s): Buffy St. Marie
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
Buffy St. Marie's Codine was a popular favorite among the club crowd in mid-60s California. In 1967, L.A. band The Leaves included it on their second LP. Around the same time, up the coast in San Francisco, the Charlatans selected it to be their debut single. The suits at Kama-Sutra Records, however, balked at the choice, and instead sold the band's master tapes to Kapp Records, who then released the group's cover of the Coasters' The Shadow Knows (and sped up the master tape in the mastering process). The novelty-flavored record bombed so bad that the label decided not to release any more Charlatans tracks, thus leaving their version of Codine gathering dust in the vaults until the mid 1990s, when the entire Kama-Sutra sessions were released on CD. Meanwhile, back in 1968, fellow San Francisco band Quicksilver Messenger Service was still without a record contract, despite pulling decent crowds at various Bay Area venues, including a credible appearance at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June of 1967. Quicksilver did find their way onto vinyl, however, when the producers of the quasi-documentary film Revolution decided to include footage of the band playing Codine, and commissioned this studio recording of the song for the soundtrack album.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Sound Asleep
Source: CD: 20 Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): The Turtles
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1968
If the key to success in the real estate business is location location location, then the key to success in top 40 radio is timing timing timing. Even the best of songs can have a difficult time finding an audience if that audience is into something entirely different at the time. Take the Turtles' Sound Asleep. Taken out of context it is a well-crafted pop song with a good beat and a strong melody. Unfortunately it was released in 1968, when top 40 radio was being dominated by mindless bubble gum hits and FM was developing an identity of its own centered on progressive rock. Thus Sound Asleep, despite its obvious quality, went quietly into the cutout bin rather quickly after its release as a single. It wasn't too long after that that the Turtles themselves called it quits.
Artist: Savoy Brown
Title: Made Up My Mind
Source: British import CD: A Step Further
Writer: Chris Youlden
Label: Polygram/Deram (original US label: Parrot)
Year: 1969
To coincide with a US tour, the fourth Savoy Brown album, A Step Further, was actually released in North America several months before it was in the UK, with Made Up My Mind being simultaneously released as a single. Luckily for the band, 1969 was a year that continued the industry-wide trend away from hit singles and toward successful albums instead, at least among the more progressive groups, as the single itself tanked. Aided by a decent amount of airplay on progressive FM radio, however, the album (the last to feature lead vocalist Chris Youlden) peaked comfortably within the top 100.
Artist: Doors
Title: Love Me Two Times
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Although the second Doors album is sometimes dismissed as being chock full of tracks that didn't make the cut on the debut LP, the fact is that Strange Days contains some of the Doors best-known tunes. One of those is Love Me Two Times, which was the second single released from the album. The song continues to get heavy airplay on classic rock stations.
Artist: Santana
Title: Soul Sacrifice
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Santana)
Writer(s): Brown/Malone/Rolie/Santana
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
Of all the bands formed in the late 1960s, very few achieved any degree of popularity outside of their local community. Fewer still could be considered an influence on future stars. Most rare of all are those who managed to be both popular and influential while maintaining a degree of artistic integrity. One name that comes immediately to mind is Santana (both the band and the man). It might be surprising, then, to hear that the first Santana album, released in 1969, was savaged by the rock press, particularly the San Francisco based Rolling Stone magazine, who called it boring and repetitious. It wasn't until the band performed Soul Sacrifice (heard here in its original studio version) at Woodstock that Santana became major players on the rock scene.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Magic Carpet Ride
Source: CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Steppenwolf The Second)
Writer(s): Moreve/Kay
Label: Priority (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 late 60s.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Only A Northern Song (alternate version)
Source: Mono CD: Yellow Submarine (soundtrack)
Writer(s): George Harrison
Label: Apple/Capitol
Year: Recorded 1967, released 1969
Anyone who thinks that George Harrison was happily oblivious to how badly he was being screwed over as a songwriter during his years as a member of the Beatles need only listen to the lyrics of Only A Northern Song, one of four new tracks submitted by the band for use in the film Yellow Submarine. Although Harrison had actually formed his own publishing company, Harrisongs, in 1964, he was persuaded to stay with the band's own Northern Songs LTD. by his bandmates when the company went public in 1965 in order to get around British tax laws on international sales of Beatles' compositions. The problem was that, as the principle songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were also the principle stockholders, at 15% each, while Harrison and Ringo Starr each owned only 8%. This meant that Lennon and McCartney were actually making more in royalties on Harrison's compositions than Harrison himself. Harrison later said that the company's manager, Dick James, hadn't told him that he was giving up ownership of his own compositions by signing with Northern Songs. Following the formation of Apple Corp in 1968 Harrison's compositions were no longer published by Northern Songs.
Artist: Moody Blues
Title: Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose Your Mind)
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Laine/Pinder
Label: London
Year: 1964
Ever wonder how a progressive rock band known for their orchestral arrangements got a name like the Moody Blues? Take a listen to Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose Your Mind), the B side of their first record, (in the US and Canada) and you'll wonder no more.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Here Right Now
Source: LP: Gimme Some Lovin' (originally released in UK on LP: Their First LP)
Writer(s): Steve Winwood
Label: United Artists (original UK label: Fontana)
Year: 1965
The Spencer Davis Group was formed in 1963 by Welsh guitarist Spencer Davis, who recruited the Winwood brothers, Muff (on bass) and Steve (on organ and lead vocals), along with drummer Pete York for his new band. Originally known as the Rhythm And Blues Quartette, the band changed its name in 1964 when they signed with Chris Blackwell's Island Records. Muff Winwood came up with the band's new name, saying "Spencer was the only one who enjoyed doing interviews, so I pointed out that if we called it the Spencer Davis Group, the rest of us could stay in bed and let him do them." The group released their first LP, entitled Their First LP, in 1965. One of the standout tracks on that album was a Steve Winwood tune called Here Right Now that was later chosen for inclusion of their first American LP, Gimme Some Lovin', in 1967.
Artist: Buckinghams
Title: Kind Of A Drag
Source: Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits-1967 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Holvay
Label: Rhino (original label: USA)
Year: 1967
The Buckinghams were one of the first rock bands with a horn section to come out of the Chicago area in the late 1960s. The song Kind Of A Drag, released in late 1966 on the local USA label, went national in early 1967, hitting the number one spot in February and finishing among the year's top 10 songs. The Buckinghams soon came to the attention of producer James William Guercio, who got them a contract with Columbia that resulted in several more hit singles, although no more number ones. Guercio's interest in Chicago bands with horn sections would eventually lead him to produce both Blood, Sweat & Tears and the Chicago Transit Authority, who soon shortened their name to Chicago.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Hey Joe (original UK single mix)
Source: Mono British import LP: Smash Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Track (original UK label: Polydor)
Year: 1966
The first track recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience was Hey Joe, a song that Hendrix had seen Tim Rose perform in Greenwich Village before relocating to London to form his new band. It was released as a single in the UK in late 1966 and went all the way to the # 3 spot on the British top 40. Hendrix's version is a bit heavier than Rose's and leaves off the first verse ("where you going with that money in your hand") entirely. Although Rose always claimed that Hey Joe was a traditional folk song, the song was actually copyrighted in 1962 by California folk singer Billy Roberts. By the time Hendrix recorded Hey Joe several American bands had recorded a fast version of the song, with the Leaves hitting the US top 40 with it in early 1966.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: She's So Fine
Source: Mono LP: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s): Noel Redding
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy
Year: 1967
When Jimi Hendrix met Noel Redding at a jam session, the latter was playing guitar. Hendrix, however, convinced him to switch to bass when he invited him to become part of his new band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Although Redding thrived in his new role, he always retained ambitions of writing and playing his own songs, which he would eventually get the chance to do with a band called Fat Mattress. In the meantime, however, he did manage to get a pair of his own songs recorded by the Experience. The first of these was She's So Fine, which was included on the Axis: Bold As Love album. Hendrix of course provided the lead guitar parts on the song, which was sung by Redding. Hendrix also co-produced the song, giving him his first taste of producing a song not written by himself. Hendrix would eventually expand on this concept, producing or co-producing the debut albums of two bands that toured with the Experience in 1969, Eire Apparent and Cat Mother And The All Night Newsboys (and providing some guitar work for the former).
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: All Along The Watchtower
Source: LP: Smash Hits (originally released on LP: Electric Ladyland)
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
Although there have been countless covers of Bob Dylan songs recorded by a variety of artists, very few of them have become better known than the original Dylan versions. Probably the most notable exception is the Jimi Hendrix Experience version of All Along The Watchtower on the Electric Ladyland album. Hendrix's arrangement of the song has been adopted by several other musicians over the years, including Neil Young (at the massive Bob Dylan tribute concert) and even Dylan himself.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Come On
Source: Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Chuck Berry
Label: Abkco (original UK label: Decca)
Year: 1963
Like many British bands in the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones built up their original fanbase by playing cover versions of popular songs, often by black American artists. In fact, the first Stones single, released in 1963 was Chuck Berry's Come On. They would not release any of their own compositions as A sides in the UK until 1965.
Artist: Bobby Fuller Four
Title: Little Annie Lou
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): B&R Fuller
Label: Mustang
Year: 1965
Formed in El Paso, Texas in 1962, the Bobby Fuller Four first released their cover of Buddy Holly's I Fought The Law in 1964 on the local Exeter label. Although it was a popular regional hit, the band, consisting of Bobby Fuller on guitar and vocals, his brother Randy on bass, Jim Reese on guitar and Dalton Powell on drums, decided to move to Los Angeles and try to get a deal with a major label. Powell, however, was unable to make the move and was replaced by DeWayne Quirico. They ended up signing with Bob Keane's Del-Fi label. The group, however, had never been able to come up with a permanent name, having recorded as Bobby Fuller and the Fanatics and just Bobby Fuller. It was Keane that suggested the Bobby Fuller Four, although at one point he temporarily tried renaming them the Shindigs to cash in on the popularity of the ABC TV show Shindig. In late 1965, following the release of their first album, KRLA King Of The Wheels (produced under the auspices of a local radio station), the Bobby Fuller Four decided to re-record I Fought The Law. The song became a national top 10 hit in early 1966, with a track from the album called Little Annie Lou on the B side. Less that a year later, Bobby Fuller was found dead in his car outside his Hollywood home, consigning the Bobby Fuller Four to permanent one-hit wonder status.
Artist: Tomorrow
Title: My White Bicycle
Source: Poorly done fake stereo CD: Acid Daze (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Hopkins/Burgess
Label: Uncut (original label: Parlophone)
Year: 1967
One of the most popular bands with the mid-60s London Mods was a group called the In Crowd. In 1967 the band abandoned its R&B/Soul sound for a more psychedelic approach, changing its name to Tomorrow in the process. Their debut single, My White Bicycle, was inspired by the practice in Amsterdam of leaving white bicycles at various stategic points throughout the city for anyone to use (Ithaca, NY currently does the same thing, except theirs are yellow and green). The song sold well and got a lot of play at local discoteques, but did not chart. Soon after the record was released, however, lead vocalist Keith West had a hit of his own, Excerpt From A Teenage Opera, which did not sound at all like the music Tomorrow was making. After a second Tomorrow single failed to chart, the individual members drifted off in different directions, with West concentrating on his solo career, guitarist Steve Howe joining Bodast, and bassist Junior Wood and drummer Twink Alder forming a short-lived group called Aquarian Age. Twink would go on to greater fame as a member of the Pretty Things and a founder of the Pink Fairies, but it was Howe that became an international star in the 70s after replacing Peter Banks in Yes.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Hey Frederick
Source: LP: Volunteers
Writer(s): Grace Slick
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1969
Grace Slick's songwriting continued to move in an avant-garde direction with Hey Frederick, the longest track on the Volunteers album. The song opens with an ominous chord sequence and an exhortation to "either go away or go all the way". From there the lyrics are somewhat free-form, and soon give way to a long improvisational section that showcases the talents of guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady in particular, as well as guest pianist Nicky Hopkins, who would join the band on stage at the Woodstock festival that year.
Artist: Eric Burdon And War
Title: They Can't Take Away Our Music
Source: CD: The Black Man's Burdon
Writer(s): Goldstein/War
Label: UMe (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1970
A common feature of record stores in the 1970s was something called the cut-out bin. It was basically a place where unsold records ended up after being deleted from the official catalogs of the record labels. Since they would not accept returns of such records, the store owners themselves would sell them at a reduced rate after finding a way to permanently mark each record as being a cut-out. Thi usually involved a hole or a notch in the cover (for LPs) or a small hole through the label of the record itself, in the case of 45 RPM singles. I would occasionally look through these piles of cut-outs to see if there was anything that might be of interest to me. On one of those occasions, around 1973 or so, I ran across a single by Eric Burdon and War called They Can't Take Away Our Music. I, like many others, had lost track of Eric Burdon's career after the Animals disbanded, and was only vaguely aware of the fact that he had made a couple of albums with a band called War. By this time War was becoming pretty popular for hits like All Day Music and Cisco Kid, so I was curious to hear what a collaboration between Eric Burdon and War might sound like. They Can't Take Away Our Music is an inspirational tune, with lead vocals being traded off between Burdon and various members of War leading up to a litany of influential jazz, blues and R&B artists of the previous fifty years, from Bessie Smith to Jimi Hendrix (who was still alive when the song was recorded), all against a backdrop of the song's title being repeatedly sung in a style reminiscent of a gospel choir. I wore that single out rather quickly (M-G-M having switched to notoriously cheap materials for their singles around the time the record had been released), and went without a copy of the song for almost fifty years before finding a copy of the album it was taken from, The Black Man's Burdon. The double-length album was the last collaboration between Eric Burdon and War, with They Can't Take Away Our Music finishing out the album's final side. It was an appropriate way for Burdon to end that chapter in his long career, paving the way for War to come into its own as one of the more popular bands of the 1970s.
Artist: Strawbs
Title: Tell Me What You See In Me (alternate version)
Source: CD Think I'm Going Weird
Writer(s): Dave Cousins
Label: A&M
Year: Recorded 1968, released 2021
One of the hardest bands to wrap one's head around was the British group Strawbs. Formed in 1963 by Dave Cousins (vocals, guitar, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer) and Tony Hooper (vocals, guitar), the duo was originally known as the Strawberry Hill Boys and played, believe it or not, bluegrass music. Their early sets were made up of cover versions of songs from people like Flatt & Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers, but over time Cousins began writing original material for them to perform. In their early years they did a lot of work for the BBC as well as live performances, appearing at the same venues as such big name acts as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. After adding bassist Ron Chesterman in 1966 they began gravitating more toward folk and pop music, shortening their name to Strawbs for a 1967 gig where they wanted to display their name on stage. That same year they added vocalist Sandy Denny and recorded several demos with her. This led to an album called All Our Own Work that included the first recorded version of what would become Denny's best known song, Who Knows Where The Time Goes. The band was unable to find a record label to release the album, and Denny left Strawbs to replace Judy Dyble in Fairport Convention (All Our Own Work was eventually released in 1973 on a budget label specializing in re-releasing deleted albums). Strawbs soon got the attention of Dave Hubert, owner of Horizons Records in the US, who convinced his distributor, A&M Records to sign the group. Then things started getting strange. Strawbs went into the studio to record tracks produced by Gus Dudgeon and Tony Visconti, who would soon become closely associated with Elton John and David Bowie, respectively. Among those tracks was Tell Me What You See In Me. The five-minute long piece included a 32-piece orchestra and a group of musicians from London's Omar Khayaam Restaurant, billed as Nosrati And His Arab Friends. The entire album was reported the most expensive British production since Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the people at A&M were not happy with the result. In fact, the band was told to go back into the studio, recording new material as well as a new version of Tell Me What You See In Me. This is the original recording, which remained unreleased until 2021.
Artist: H.P. Lovecraft
Title: Electrollentando
Source: CD: Two Classic Albums from H. P. Lovecraft (originally released on LP: H.P. Lovecraft II)
Writer(s): George Edwards
Label: Collector's Choice (original label: Philips)
Year: 1968
The second album by H.P. Lovecraft (the band, not the author) is sometimes referred to as the ultimate acid rock album. In fact, it has been rumoured to be the first album made entirely under the influence of LSD (although the same has been said of the 1967 Jefferson Airplane LP After Bathing At Baxter's and both albums by the 13th Floor Elevators as well). This may in part because the band had relocated from their native Chicago to Marin County, California, where they shared billing with established Bay Area bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company and the aforementioned Jefferson Airplane. The album also featured more original material than the band's debut LP, including the easier to listen to than pronounce the title of Electrollentando.
Artist: Van Dyke Parks
Title: The All Golden
Source: LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook (originally released on LP: Song Cycle)
Writer(s): Van Dyke Parks
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1967
In late 1966 Brian Wilson began a collaboration with an unknown lyricist named Van Dyke Parks on an album that, although unreleased at the time, became one of the greatest legends in the history of rock. The album was called Smile, and it ultimately led to Parks signing a contract with Warner Brothers and being given total creative control and nearly unlimited funding by the label. The result was Song Cycle, at the time one of the most expensive albums ever produced (about three quarters of a million in today's dollars). The album, unfortunately, sold poorly, despite getting good reviews from music critics, and Warner Brothers responded by declaring the album a commercial flop and running an ad campaign with that as the theme. Among Parks' closest friends was Steve Young, an aspiring singer/singwriter who was later a key player in the Outlaw Country movement, but at the time was struggling financially. The All Golden references Young's situation.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Turtle Blues
Source: CD: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s): Janis Joplin
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
Sometimes I do play favorites. Turtle Blues, from the Big Brother And The Holding Company album Cheap Thrills, is certainly one of them. Besides vocalist Janis Joplin, who wrote the tune, the only other band member heard on the track is guitarist Peter Albin. Legendary producer John Simon provided the piano playing.
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