https://exchange.prx.org/p/633451
This week we have two artists' sets from British bands and an entire album side from a musical genius from L.A. Lots of other good stuff too, of course.
Artist: Shadows Of Knight
Title: Gloria
Source: CD: Dark Sides (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Gloria)
Writer(s): Van Morrison
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
For some reason I don't quite understand, I never paid much attention to current trends in popular entertainment other than as an outside observer. For example, when everyone else in my generation was tuned into the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show, I was happily watching Car 54 Where Are You on a rival network. The same applies to the radio stations I listened to. KIMN was, by far, Denver's most popular top 40 station, yet I always managed to find myself listening to their rivals: first KDAB (until a flood took them off the air permanently), and then KBTR. For a short time in late 1966, however, KIMN had no rivals (KBTR had switched to an all-news format and KLZ-FM was still spending most of its broadcast day simulcasting the programming of its middle-of-the-road AM station). As a result, I found myself following KIMN's New Year's countdown of the year's top songs, which included a handful of tunes that I had never heard before. The highest ranked of these unfamiliar songs was one that immediately grabbed me: Gloria, as recorded by a Chicago area band called the Shadows Of Knight. It would be years before I even knew that this was actually a cover version of a song that had been released by Van Morrison's band, Them, but that had been banned in most US markets the previous year. All I knew is that it was a cool tune that would be one of the first songs I learned to play when I switched from violin to guitar the following summer.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Arnold Layne
Source: CD: Relics (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl)
Writer: Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol (original single released in UK on EMI)
Year: 1967
The very first record released by Pink Floyd was Arnold Layne, a single written by Syd Barrett. The record got no promotion from the band's US label, the Capitol-ownedTower Records,This could be because of the song's unusual subject matter (based on a true story) about a man who steals women's underwear off a clothesline. The song was not included on the band's first LP but has been featured on several collections since its initial release, including the early 70s anthology Relics.
Artist: Jeff Beck Group
Title: Beck's Bolero
Source: Simulated stereo CD: Truth
Writer(s): Jimmy Page
Label: Epic/Legacy
Year: 1968
The number of recordings made by Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page when they were both members of the Yardbirds can be counted on one hand, and one of those songs wasn't even released as a Yardbirds record! Bolero (later to be known as Beck's Bolero) was recorded in mid-1966, and featured, in addition to Beck and Page, Nicky Hopkins on piano, John Paul Jones on bass and an incognito Keith Moon on drums. It was first released (and credited to Beck as the songwriter) as the B side of Beck's first single as a solo artist in early 1967. The following year the same recording was electronically rechanneled for stereo and included on the album Truth, with the backwards guitar at the end of the song removed altogether. Beck's own liner notes on the album state that "we couldn't improve on" the original recording. Yeah, but rechanneling it into fake stereo tends to have the opposite effect, especially when you're listening to the recombined channels through a single speaker (like a phone).
Artist: Glass Family
Title: Born In The USA
Source: LP: Electric Band
Writer(s): Ralph Parrett
Label: Maplewood (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1969
Founded by guitarist/vocalist Jim Callon (aka Ralph Parrett) in the mid-1960s to raise money for "beer and surfboard wax", the Glass Family soon became known as the "perpetual opening act", sharing a playbill with such groups as the Grateful Dead, Vanilla Fudge and the Doors. They finally scored a contract with Warner Brothers in 1967, but after recording an entire album's worth of material with producer Richie Podolor that was rejected by the label, the Glass Family returned to the studio to cut a whole new batch of tracks, including Born In The USA (nothing to do with either the Bruce Springsteen or Cheech & Chong song). The reworked LP was released in 1969, but by then psychedelic music was on the way out, and the album did not get a whole lot of airplay.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Let It Be
Source: CD: Past Masters (original released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Parlophone
Year: 1970
Just when you thought you knew what to expect, he comes an unfamiliar guitar break from George Harrison. What gives here? Well, to put it bluntly, different producers coming up with different mixes from the same source tape. By 1970 EMI (Abbey Road) Studios had 8-track recording equipment, allowing Harrison to record two separate and completely different guitar solos. Phil Spector, producing the Let It Be album, chose one, while George Martin, producing the single, chose the other. Personally I prefer this one, but then I always thought George Martin had a better ear for music than Phil Spector ever did.
Artist: Doors
Title: Changeling
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1971
Originally chosen by the band to be the first single released from the L.A. Woman album, Changeling (listed on the album cover as The Changeling) was withdrawn in favor of Love Her Madly at the behest of Jan Holtzman, president of Elektra Records. Changeling later appeared as the B side of the album's next single, Riders On The Storm.
Artist: Cream
Title: N.S.U.
Source: LP: Fresh Cream
Writer: Jack Bruce
Label: Atco
Year: 1966
The US version of Fresh Cream starts off the with powerful one-two punch of I Feel Free and N.S.U. Although I Feel Free was a purely studio creation that never got performed live, N.S.U. became a staple of the band's concert performances, and was even performed by various other bands that bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce was a member of over the years.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Tripmaker
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: A Web Of Sound)
Writer(s): Tybalt/Hooper
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1966
Although the second Seeds album, A Web Of Sound, came out in both stereo and mono versions, there are very few copies of the mono version in existence, let alone in playable condition. Apparently Rhino Records has access to one of them, allowing them to use this mono mix of Tripmaker, showing the advantages of being a record label that started off as a record store.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Leave
Source: LP: Buffalo Springfield
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Atco
Year: 1966
Although Buffalo Springfield are generally acknowldeged to be among the pioneers of a softer rock sound that would gain popularity in the 70s with bands like the Eagles, Poco and Crosby, Stills and Nash, they did occasionally rock out a bit harder. Of particular note is lead guitarist Neil Young doing blues licks on Leave, a Stephen Stills tune from the first Buffalo Springfield album, released in 1966.
Artist: The Blues Inc.
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: Mono CD: A Deadly Dose Of Wylde Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: United Audio)
Year: 1968
It's hard to imagine anyone doing an even heavier version of Arthur Lee's 7&7 Is than Love's original, but a band from Warren, Pennsylvania, a small (pop. 1000) city located about fifteen miles south of Jamestown, NY, certainly gave it their best effort on a B side issued on Youngstown, Ohio's United Audio label in 1968. Unlike the 1966 Love version, The Blues Inc.'s rendition of 7&7 Is features organ prominently.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: The Look Of Love
Source: Mono CD: The Complete Atco Singles (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Bacharach/David
Label: Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
For a group known as one of the original album-rock bands, Vanilla Fudge had an inordinately high number of tracks that were only released on 45 RPM vinyl. Among these was a Fudged up version of Bert Bacharach and Hal David's The Look Of Love. Dusty Springfield had already made the song famous, and the group decided to put it on the B side of a song they wrote themselves called Where Is My Mind as their second single, released in early 1968.
Artist: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title: Acapulco Gold And Silver
Source: CD: Quicksilver Messenger Service (bonus track)
Writer(s): Duncan/Schuster
Label: Rock Beat (original label: Capitol)
Year: Recorded 1968, released 2011
One of the highlights of the first Quicksilver Messenger Service album was Gold And Silver, a six minute long instrumental which has drawn comparisons with Dave Brubeck's Take Five. This shorter version of the tune, entitled Acapulco Gold And Silver, was included on the 2011 CD reissue of the album.
Artist: Sir Douglas Quintet
Title: She's About A Mover
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Doug Sahm
Label: Rhino (original label: Tribe)
Year: 1965
Doug Sahm, of The Sir Douglas Quintet, is considered one of the founders of what come to be called Tex-Mex music. Coming from the San Antonio area, Doug Sahm's outfit scored two big hits in the mid to late 1960s: She's About A Mover and (after relocating to San Francisco) Mendocino.
Artist: Count Five
Title: The Morning After
Source: Mono LP: Psychotic Reaction
Writer(s): John Byrne
Label: Bicycle/Concord (original label: Double Shot)
Year: 1966
Following the success of the single Psychotic Reaction, San Jose, Calfornia's Count Five headed for Los Angeles to record an entire album's worth of material. With the exception of two Who covers, all the songs on the album (also called Psychotic Reaction) were written or co-written by John Byrne, the Irish-born rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist for the band. They were also quite short. The Morning After, for instance, runs less than two minutes total.
Artist: Tol-Puddle Martyrs
Title: Time Will Come
Source: Mono CD: Tol-Pubble Martyrs (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Peter Rechter
Label: Secret Deals (original labels: Pacific/Spiral)
Year: 1967
The Tol-Puddle Martyrs' Time Will Come was originally released in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia on the Pacific label, until the owner of the Pacific label was informed that there was already a Pacific label operating in Melbourne. At that time the label was hastily changed to Spiral, with the record having the same catalogue number. Although not a popular release at the time, both Time Will Come and its B side, Social Cell, are now considered classic examples of garage-rock, Australian style.
Artist: Big Brother And The Holding Company
Title: Oh, Sweet Mary
Source: LP: Cheap Thrills
Writer(s): Albin/Andrew/Getz/Gurley/Joplin
Label: Columbia
Year: 1968
The only song credited to the entire membership of Big Brother And The Holding Company on their Cheap Thrills album was Oh, Sweet Mary (although the original label credits Janis Joplin as sole writer and the album cover itself gives only Joplin and Peter Albin credit). The tune bears a strong resemblance to Coo Coo, a non-album single the band had released on the Mainstream label before signing to Columbia. Oh, Sweet Mary, however, has new lyrics and, for a breath of fresh air, a bridge section played at a slower tempo than the rest of the tune.
Artist: Things To Come
Title: Come Alive
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Russ Ward
Label: Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
Long Beach, California was home to a band known as Things To Come, which featured drummer Russ Ward, who, as Russ Kunkel, would go on to become one of L.A.'s most in-demand studio drummers. Come Alive is a solid piece of garage rock written by Ward/Kunkel.
Artist: Clear Light
Title: Street Singer
Source: LP: Clear Light
Writer(s): Noonan/Copeland
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
It's pretty well-known (among Stuck in the Psychedelic Era listeners, at any rate) that the first L.A. rock band signed to Elektra Records was Love, followed a few months later by the Doors. But do you know the name of the THIRD band signed to Elektra? Until a couple years ago I had no idea, but then a package arrived from a listener (and record collector) in Bakersfield, California containing a copy of an album called Clear Light. It turns out they were part of the same club scene that included bands like the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the two previous Elektra signings. In fact, one of the members of Clear Light, drummer Dallas Greene, had been a member of Lowell George's legendary band, the Factory (he would go on to greater fame playing with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, among others). The album itself is a rather psychedelic mix of folk, rock, and even classical. I'm not exactly sure which, if any, of those best describes Street Singer, however. Clear Light's vocalist, Cliff DeYoung, went on to become a successful actor.
Artist: Fugs
Title: Boobs A Lot
Source: CD: The Fugs First Album (originally released as LP: The Village Fugs Sing Ballads Of Contempory Protest, Point Of Views, And General Dissatisfaction)
Writer(s): Steve Weber
Label: Fantasy (original label: Broadside)
Year: 1965
The Fugs were probably the first underground rock band in existence. The group was formed in 1964 (or 1963; my sources contradict each other on that one) by two self-published beat poets, Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, who, after writing over 50 songs together, decided to form a band with Ken Weaver. Since none of them actually played an instrument (although Weaver would eventually become the group's drummer), they decided to recruit two guys from the Holy Modal Rounders, guitarist Steve Weber and fiddler Peter Stampfel, for the opening of Sanders' Peace Eye Bookstore in Greenwich Village. Apparently the performance was a success, and the bunch of them (including a couple other poets who dropped out when they realized that they were actually expected to show up for gigs) decided to start rehearsing on a regular basis at the store. By early 1965, the Fugs were officially a band, playing a handful of gigs around the Village and coming to the attention of Moe Asch, owner of Folkways Records. Asch signed the Fugs to his Broadside label, releasing their first album, The Village Fugs Sing Ballads Of Contempory Protest, Point Of Views, And General Dissatisfaction, in 1965. Among the more memorable tunes on that first album was a rather cute song by Weber called Boobs A Lot, that in all likelihood was already in the Holy Modal Rounders' repertoire before Weber hooked up with the Fugs.
Artist: Who
Title: Rael (London version)
Source: European import LP: The Who Sell Out- Super Deluxe Edition (originally released on CD: The Who Sell Out Deluxe Edition)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Track/Polydor
Year: Recorded 1967, released 2009
The Who Sell Out, released in December 1967, was the last album by the group before their 1969 rock-opera Tommy. The last track on the LP, Rael, is itself a mini-opera that tells the story of a wealthy man who has taken on the role of a crusader, out to free his ancestral homeland from its current occupiers. He tells the captain of his ship to come back for him on Christmas Day to see if he is ready to return. If not, he tells the captain, the boat is yours. Of course the captain has no intention of returning, as he declares soon after putting back out to sea. The piece then goes into an instrumental passage that would be copied pretty much note for note on the Tommy album as part of the Underture. The track ends with a repeat of the owner's instructions to the captain. The events surrounding the recording of Rael have become the stuff of legend. The Who originally recorded Rael in New York, but were not entirely happy with the way it came out, so upon their return to London they started from scratch on a new recording of the piece. They were even less satisfied with this second version, however, and ended up using the original version on The Who Sell Out. The second version went into storage until 2009, when it was included as a bonus track on the two-CD Deluxe Edition of the album and has most recently been included on the 2021 Super Deluxe Edition on both vinyl and CD.
Artist: Who
Title: Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
Source: Mono CD: Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Townshend/Daltry
Label: MCA (original label: Brunswick)
Year: 1965
One of the earliest singles from the Who, Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, [Wow! That's a lot of commas] is the only known songwriting collaboration between guitarist Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey. According to Townshend, he wrote the first verse himself and Daltrey helped with the rest. The song was released on Britain's Brunswick label in 1965.
Artist: Who
Title: Girl's Eyes
Source: European import LP: The Who Sell Out- Super Deluxe Edition (originally released in CD box set: 30 Years Of Maximum R&B)
Writer(s): Keith Moon
Label: Track/Polydor (original label: MCA)
Year: Recorded 1967, released 1994
Most of the songs that Keith Moon wrote for the Who were, for lack of a better word, bizarre. The examples that come to mind include Heinz Baked Beans, Tommy's Holiday Camp and Cobwebs And Strange, all of which sound like something you might hear at the circus. Girl's Eyes, on the other hand, is a relatively straightforward, if not particularly spectacular, rock song about a female fan that remained unreleased for many years, finally appearing on the 30 Years Of Maximum R&B box set.
Artist: Remains
Title: Why Do I Cry
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Barry Tashian
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1965
Predating the "Boss-Town Sound" by nearly three years (and the band Boston by over 10 years), we have the 1965 single Why Do I Cry from Boston garage band the Remains.
Artist: Standells
Title: Dirty Water
Source: Mono CD: Dirty Water (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Sundazed/Tower
Year: 1965
The Standells were not from Boston (they were a Los Angeles club band). Ed Cobb, who wrote and produced Dirty Water, was. The rest is history.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Let Me Be
Source: CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released on LP: It Ain't Me Babe and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): P.F. Sloan
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1965
The Turtles were nothing if not able to redefine themselves when the need arose. Originally a surf band known as the Crossfires, the band quickly adopted an "angry young men" stance with their first single, Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe, and the subsequent album of the same name. For the follow-up single the band chose a track from their album, Let Me Be, that, although written by a different writer, had the same general message as It Ain't Me Babe. The band would soon switch over to love songs like Happy Together and She'd Rather Be With Me before taking their whole chameleon bit to its logical extreme with an album called Battle Of The Bands on which each track was meant to sound like it was done by an entirely different group.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: I Can't Be Satisfied
Source: Mono LP: More Hot Rocks (Big Hits And Fazed Cookies) (originally released in UK on LP: Rolling Stones No. 2)
Writer(s): McKinley Morganfield
Label: London (original UK label: Decca)
Year: 1965
The Rolling Stones were in the studio sporadically from June through November of 1964 recording songs for their second LP, including a cover of Muddy Waters' I Can't Be Satisfied. In May of 1965 they recorded a new Mick Jagger/Keith Richards song called (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. Do the math.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Let It Bleed
Source: LP: More Hot Rocks (Big Hits and Fazed Cookies) (originally released on LP: Let It Bleed)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1969
Probably more than any other British Invasion band, the Rolling Stones incorporated elements of American country music into their sound, going all the way back to one of their first releases, a cover of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away. Although this country sound was for the most part abandoned during their psychedelic period, it returned with a vengeance with their 1968 album Beggar's Banquet with songs like Dear Doctor and No Expectations. Their next album, Let It Bleed, was even more country sounding, from a countrified version of Honky Tonk Women called Country Honk to the title track of the album itself. In most respects, however, the song Let It Bleed was pure Stones, right down to the suggestive lyrics.
Artist: Frank Zappa
Title: Lumpy Gravy- Part I
Source: CD: Lumpy Gravy
Writer(s): Frank Zappa
Label: Ryko (original label: Verve)
Year: 1968
I remember seeing the third Mothers of Invention album, We're Only It In For The Money, on the record racks in 1968, and wondering about the word balloon on the back cover with the words "Is this phase one of Lumpy Gravy?" meant. Although the Base Exchange at Ramstein Air Base had a pretty decent record and tape section, there was no sign of anything called Lumpy Gravy anywhere in the store. It wasn't until years later that I actually saw my first copy of Zappa's official solo album (although actually credited to Francis Vincent Zappa on the cover) and even longer until I actually got to hear the album itself. Unlike We're Only In It For The Money, which is a series of short musical pieces performed by the Mothers of Invention, Lumpy Gravy is an audio collage made up of spoken word segments interspersed with orchestral music that had originally been released the previous year on 4-track cartridge (aka Muntz Stereo Pack) by Capitol Records, and also named Lumpy Gravy. Although the original album listed the two sides as simply Part I and Part II, the 1995 Rykodisc CD includes ten subtitles per side that use the CD index system (that never really caught on). The subtitles for Part I are:
1. "The Way I See It, Barry" 0:06
2. "Duodenum" 1:32
3. "Oh No" 2:03
4. "Bit of Nostalgia" 1:35
5. "It's from Kansas" 0:30
6. "Bored Out 90 Over" 0:31
7. "Almost Chinese" 0:25
8. "Switching Girls / Oh No Again / At the Gas Station" 4:23
9. "Another Pickup" 0:54
10. "I Don't Know If I Can Go Through This Again" 3:49
Artist: Manfred Mann Chapter Three
Title: Ain't It Sad
Source: LP: Manfred Mann Chapter Three
Writer(s): Mike Hugg
Label: Polydor
Year: 1969
After a successful run as a British pop group with a handful of international hits, the original Manfred Mann group disbanded in 1968. Mann himself was far from done, however, and soon had a new band Manfred Mann Chapter Three, centered around Mann's organ playing and longtime collaborator Mike Hugg's piano work. Hugg's playing dominates the album's shortest track, Ain't It Sad, which clocks in at less than two minutes.
