Sunday, September 9, 2018
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1837 (starts 9/10/18)
This week's show is actually a series of progressions through the years, broken up by artists' sets (from Cream, Love and the Byrds) and an Advanced Psych segment in which I sneak one of my own tunes in.
Artist: Paul Revere and the Raiders
Title: Steppin' Out
Source: Simulated stereo LP: Just Like Us
Writer(s): Revere/Lindsay
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
1965 was the year that Paul Revere and the Raiders hit the big time. The Portland, Oregon band had already been performing together for several years, and had been the first rock band to record Louie Louie in the spring of 1963, getting airplay on the West Coast and Hawaii but losing out nationally to another Portland band, the Kingsmen, whose version was recorded the same month as the Raiders'. While playing in Hawaii the band came to the attention of Dick Clark, who was looking for a band to appear on his new afternoon TV program, Where The Action Is. Clark introduced the band to Terry Melcher, a successful producer at Columbia Records, which led to the Raiders being the first rock band signed by the label, predating the Byrds by about a year. Appearing on Action turned out to be a major turning point for the band, who soon became the show's defacto hosts as well as house band. The Raiders' first national hit in their new role was Steppin' Out, a song written by Revere and vocalist Mark Lindsay about a guy returning from military service (as Revere himself had done in the early 60s, reforming the band upon his return) and finding out his girl had been unfaithful. Working with Melcher the Raiders enjoyed a run of hits from 1965-67 unequalled by any other Amercian rock band of the time.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Leave
Source: CD: 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 on tracks like Leave. 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: Doors
Title: End Of The Night
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
End Of The Night is one of those songs that seems to define a band's sound. In the case of the Doors, that sound was dark and menacing. No wonder, then, that End Of The Night was chosen to be the B side of the band's first single in early 1967.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Hoochie Coochie Man
Source: CD: Steppenwolf
Writer(s): Willie Dixon
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
A major driving force behind the renewed interest in the blues in the 1960s was the updating and re-recording of classic blues tunes by contempory rock musicians. This trend started in England, with bands like the Yardbirds and the Animals in the early part of the decade. By the end of the 60s a growing number of US bands were playing songs such as Hoochie Coochie Man, a tune originally recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954. Like Cream's Spoonful and Led Zeppelin's You Shook Me, Hoochie Coochie Man was written by Willie Dixon. The 1968 Steppenwolf version of the song slows the tempo down a touch from the original version and features exquisite sustained guitar work from Michael Monarch.
Artist: Alice Cooper
Title: 10 Minutes Before The Worm
Source: European import CD: Pretties For You
Writer(s): Cooper/Smith/Dunaway/Bruce/Buxton
Label: Rhino/Bizarre/Straight
Year: 1969
The band known as Alice Cooper was still in its pre-commercial underground phase as part of Frank Zappa's collection of misfits recording for Bizarre Productions when they released the album Pretties For You on Zappa's Straight label in 1969. Like the rest of the album, 10 Minutes Before The Worm is a somewhat experimental piece from the band that had formed a few years earlier in Phoenix, Arizona. Zappa would eventually sell Straight to Warner Brothers, and Alice Cooper would become the world's first major shock-rock band in the early 1970s.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Hey Joe
Source: CD: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Billy Roberts
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
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: Sly And The Family Stone
Title: Underdog
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: A Whole New Thing)
Writer(s): Sylvester Stewart
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1967
Sly and the Family Stone were a showstopper at the Woodstock festival in 1969, but their story starts years before that historic performance. Sylvester Stewart was a popular DJ and record producer in mid-60s San Francisco, responsible for the first recordings of the Warlocks (later the Grateful Dead) and the Great! Society, among others. During that time he became acquainted with a wealth of talent, including bassist Larry Graham. In 1967, with Autumn Records having been sold to and closed down by Warner Brothers, he decided to form his own band. Anchored by Graham, Sly and the Family Stone's first LP, A Whole New Thing, was possibly the very first pure funk album ever released.
Artist: Max Frost And The Troopers
Title: Shape Of Things To Come
Source: CD: Shape Of Things To Come (originally released on LP: Wild In The Streets soundtrack)
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: Captain High (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
Max Frost was a politically savvy rock star who rode the youth movement all the way to the White House, first through getting the support of a hip young Senator, then getting the age requirements for holding high political office lowered to 21, and finally lowering the voting age to 14. Everyone over 30 was locked away in internment camps, similar to those used during WWII by various governments to hold those of questionable loyalty to the current regime. What? You don't remember any of that? You say it sounds like the plot of a cheapie late 60s teen exploitation flick? Right on all counts except for the "cheapie" part. Wild in the Streets starred Christopher Jones as the rock star, Hal Holbrook as the hip young senator, and a Poseidon Adventure-sized Shelly Winter as the rock star's interred mom. Richard Pryor, in his film debut, played the band's drummer/political activist Stanley X. The most prominent song from the film was Shape Of Things To Come, writen by the Brill Building husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who had written several hit songs over the years, including Kicks and Hungry for Paul Revere And The Raiders. Shape Of Things To Come ended up being a hit as well, leading to an entire album being released by the fictional Max Frost And The Troopers. Although who the musicians who actually played on the song is not known for sure, most people who know anything about it believe it to be the work of Davie Allan and the Arrows, who were doing a lot of movie soundtracks for Mike Curb in the mid to late 1960s.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Cymbaline
Source: British import LP: Soundtrack From The Film "More"
Writer(s): Roger Waters
Label: Columbia/EMI
Year: 1969
Following the release of their second LP, A Saucerful Of Secrets, Pink Floyd, now completely without founding member Syd Barrett, got to work on Soundtrack From The Film "More". The album saw the group moving more into the avant-garde experimentalism that would characterize the band for the next several years, with tracks like Cymbaline taking on a more somber quality than Pink Floyd's earlier work. More was also the first Pink Floyd album to feature David Gilmour as the only lead vocalist on the LP. This would not happen again until 1989.
Artist: Cream
Title: Dance The Night Away
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The album Fresh Cream was perhaps the first LP from a rock supergroup, although at the time a more accurate description would have been British blues supergroup. Much of the album was reworking of blues standards by the trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, all of whom had established their credentials with various British blues bands. With their second album, Disraeli Gears, Cream showed a psychedelic side as well as their original blues orientation. Most of the more psychedelic material, such as Dance the Night Away, was from the songwriting team of Bruce and lyricist Pete Brown.
Artist: Cream
Title: SWLABR
Source: Mono Russian import LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Lilith (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
I distinctly remember this song getting played on the local jukebox just as much as the single's A side, Sunshine Of Your Love (maybe even more). Like most of Cream's more psychedelic material, SWLABR (the title being an anagram for She Was Like A Bearded Rainbow) was written by the songwriting team of Jack Bruce and poet Pete Brown. Brown had originally been brought in as a co-writer for Ginger Baker, but soon realized that he and Bruce had better songwriting chemistry.
Artist: Cream
Title: Take It Back
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
After seven years of serving in the Air Force liason office at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, my dad got transferred to Weisbaden Air Force Base in Germany. Standard practice at the time was for the married GI to go on ahead of the rest of the family and find a place to live "on the economy." My dad, already having quite a bit of time in the service, was able to instead get a spot in a place called Kastel, which was a group of WWII Panzer barracks that had been adapted for use by American military with families. When the rest of us arrived in August I was happily surprised to find that my dad, in addition to finding us a place to live, had bought a state-of-the-art Akai X-355 Tape Recorder using money he had won at Lotto, along with a pair of Koss headphones. I of course had to go to the Base Exchange to look for pre-recorded tapes. Already having experience with reel to reel machines, I knew that tapes recorded at 3 3/4 ips had more tape hiss than those recorded at 7 1/2 ips, so I was resolved to only buy tapes recorded at the faster speed. Unfortunately several albums I wanted were only available at the slower speed. The problem was resolved a year later when my dad finally got a Dual turntable to hook up to the tape recorder. I immediately went out and bought a reel of blank tape; the first album I made a copy of was Cream's Disraeli Gears. I would often fall asleep listening to that tape, which meant I ended up sleeping through the last songs on the album, including Take It Back. I must have done some kind of sleep learning, though, since to this day I can quote the lyrics of the entire song.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: As Tears Go By
Source: Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards/Oldham
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1965
As Tears Go By is sometimes referred to as the Rolling Stones' answer to the Beatles' Yesterday. The problem with this theory, however, is that As Tears Go By was written a year before Yesterday was released, and in fact was a top 10 UK single for Marianne Faithful in 1964. The story of the song's genesis is that producer/manager Andrew Oldham locked Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the kitchen until they came up with an original song. The original title was As Time Goes By, but, not wanting anyone to confuse it with the famous song used in the film Casablanca, Oldham changed Time to Tears, and got a writing credit for his trouble. Since the Stones were not at that time known for soft ballads, Oldham gave the song to Marianne Faithful, launching a successful recording career for the singer in 1964. The following year the Stones included their own version of the song on the album December's Children (And Everybody's), using a string arrangement that may indeed have been inspired by the Beatles' Yesterday, which was holding down the # 1 spot on the charts at the time the Rolling Stones were recording As Tears Go By. After American disc jockeys began playing As Tears Go By as an album track, London Records released the song as a US-only single, which ended up making the top 10 in 1965.
Artist: Phil Ochs
Title: Love Me, I'm A Liberal
Source: CD: There But For Fortune (originally released on LP: Phil Ochs In Concert)
Writer(s): Phil Ochs
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
Phil Ochs could have been a big star on the folk scene of the 1960s, except for on small flaw: he was too honest, even with himself. By 1966 Ochs was already well-established on the scene, both as a songwriter and a folk singer with a hit single (I Ain't Marching Anymore) to his credit. Ochs, though, thought of himself as more of a musical journalist chronicling a tumultuous decade, and he wasn't afraid to step on toes, even those of his fans. The left-leaning folk movement of the early 1960s had been enthusiastically supported by the more liberal members of mainstream society, but Ochs couldn't resist pointing out their hypocrisy with Love Me, I'm A Liberal, a song included on his 1966 LP Phil Ochs In Concert. Not long after the album was released, Ochs left the Greenwich Village area for California, switching from the New York based folk-oriented Elektra Records to the hip Hollywood label A&M (co-owned by trumpeter Herb Alpert, whose Tijuana Brass was one of the hottest acts on the coast at the time). Ochs's music became more introspective and less accessible over the next few years. Ochs eventually returned to New York, where he made an appearance at the 1975 War Is Over rally in Central Park, an event that marked the end of the movement that had brought Ochs to prominence so many years before. Always the observer, Ochs finally decided that he could no longer be a part of the world around him and took his own life on April 9, 1976.
Artist: Left Banke
Title: Barterers And Their Wives
Source: LP: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
Writer(s): Brown/Feher
Label: Smash/Sundazed
Year: 1967
The Left Banke made a huge impact with their debut single, Walk Away Renee, in late 1966. All of a sudden the rock press (such as it was in 1966) was all abuzz with talk of "baroque pop" and how it was the latest, greatest thing. The band soon released a follow-up single, Pretty Ballerina, which made the top 10 as well, which led to an album entitled (naturally enough) Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina, which featured several more songs in the same vein, such as Barterers And Their Wives, which was also released as a B side later that year. An unfortunate misstep by keyboardist Michael Brown, however, led to the Left Banke's early demise, and baroque pop soon went the way of other sixties fads.
Artist: Amboy Dukes
Title: Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Journey To The Center Of The Mind)
Writer(s): Nugent/Farmer
Label: Rhino (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1968
The title track of the second Amboy Dukes album, Journey To The Center Of The Mind, is by far their best known recording, going all the way to the #16 spot on the top 40 in 1968. The song features the lead guitar work of Ted Nugent, who co-wrote the song with guitarist/vocalist Steve Farmer. Journey To The Center Of The Mind would be the last album to feature lead vocalist John Drake, who left the band for creative reasons shortly after the album's release.
Artist: Joan Baez
Title: Joe Hill
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm (originally released on LP: Woodstock)
Writer: Robinson/Hayes
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
Joe Hill, written as a poem in the early part of the 20th century and set to music a few years later, was a highlight of Joan Baez's Woodstock performance. The song was inspired by the struggles of one of the martyrs of the labor movement of the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Jeff's Boogie
Source: Mono CD: Roger The Engineer
Writer: Dreja/Relf/Samwell-Smith/McCarty/Beck
Label: Great American Music (original US label: Epic)
Year: 1966
We start off our second hour this week with one of the hottest B sides ever issued: the instrumental Jeff's Boogie, which appeared as the flip side of Over, Under, Sideways Down in 1966 and was included on an LP with the same name (that LP, with a different track lineup and cover, was issued in the UK under the name Yardbirds, although it has since come to be known as Roger The Engineer due to its cover art, sketched by rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja). Although credited to the entire band, the song is actually based on Chuck Berry's guitar boogie, and features some outstanding lead guitar work by Jeff Beck.
Artist: McKendree Spring
Title: Down By The River
Source: LP: McKendree Spring 3
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Decca
Year: 1972
Decca Records was considered one of the "big six" record companies of the 50s-60s, and one of the three based in New York. Unlike RCA Victor and Columbia, which had offices and studios on both coasts, Decca remained primarily an East Coast label, with a generous helping of imports supplementing the local talent, until it was folded into MCA in the early 1970s. One of the last acts signed by the label was McKendree Spring, from Glens Falls, NY. Best described as a progressive folk-rock band, the group supplemented its basic rock instrumentation with violin, viola and synthesizers, all provided by Dr. Michael Dreyfuss. Their third album, released in 1972, starts off with a powerful version of the Neil Young classic Down By The River.
Artist: Stephen R Webb
Title: Jeremy Johnson
Source: CD: The Electric Dream Project
Writer(s): Stephen R Webb
Label: WayWard
Year: 1987
Ever lay awake at night, trying not to think of things that scare the crap out of you, but of course thinking of nothing else? When that happens to a songwriter it can result in something like Jeremy Johnson. The scary thought in this instance was actually a question: what if some Jimmy Jones type got hold of a thermonuclear device and decided that if mass suicide was good enough for his own followers it would be even better for massive numbers of people, like the population of a large American city? I then started thinking about the followers of Charles Manson and came up with the idea of Sarah Lee Winston, a girl from a moderately wealthy, but emotionally lacking, family that is so devoted to Jeremy Johnson that she will commit any act, no matter how horrific, to please him. The ominous, slightly discordant music flowed naturally from the concept of the lyrics, and the song was first performed by the band Civilian Joe in 1986. The studio version of Jeremy Johnson, featuring Civilian Joe's Suzan Hagler on rhythm guitar and me on everything else, was recorded at Bottom Line as part of the Electric Dream Project in 1987. I hope it scares the crap out of you, too.
Artist: Romeo Void
Title: I Mean It
Source: LP: Itsacondition
Writer(s): Iyall/Zincavage/Woods/Bossi
Label: 415
Year: 1981
Formed in 1979 at the San Francisco Art Institute by vocalist Deborah Iyall and bassist Frank Zincavage, Romeo Void also included saxophonist Benjamin Bossi, guitarist Peter Woods, and a (shades of Spinal Tap!) succession of drummers. Their first LP, Itsacondition (sometimes referred to as It's A Condition) was released in 1981. I first ran across this album while doing a contemporary alternative rock show called Rock Nouveaux on KUNM in Albuquerque in the early 1980s. Although most of the album was fast-paced and punkish in nature, it was I Mean It, the haunting closing track from side one, that stood out from just about everything else that was happening musically at the time.
Artist: Love
Title: Old Man
Source: CD: Love Story (originally released on LP: Forever Changes)
Writer(s): Bryan MacLean
Label: Elektra/Rhino
Year: 1967
An often overlooked fact about the L.A. band Love is that they had not one, but two quality singer/songwriters in the band. Although Arthur Lee wrote the bulk of the band's material, it was Bryan McLean who wrote and sang one of the group's best-known songs, the haunting Alone Again Or, which opens their classic Forever Changes album. A second McLean song, Old Man, was actually one of the first tracks recorded for Forever Changes. At the time, the band's rhythm section was more into sex and drugs than rock and roll, and McLean and Lee arranged to have studio musicians play on Old Man, as well as on one of Lee's songs. The rest of the group was so stunned by this development that they were able to temporarily get their act together long enough to complete the album. Nonetheless, the two tunes with studio musicians were left as is, although reportedly Ken Forssi did step in to show Carol Kaye how the bass part should be played (ironic, since Kaye is estimated to have played on over 10,000 recordings in her long career as a studio musician).
Artist: Love
Title: Que Vida!
Source: CD: Da Capo
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
The first Love album was pretty much garage rock with a touch of folk-rock thrown in. Their second effort, however, showed off the rapidly maturing songwriting skills of both Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean. Que Vida! (yes, I know that technically there should be an upside down exclamation point at the beginning of the song title, but my keyboard doesn't speak Spanish) is a good example of Lee moving into territory usually associated with middle-of-the-road singers such as Johnny Mathis. Lee would continue to defy convention throughout his career, leading to a noticable lack of commercial success even as he won the respect of his musical peers.
Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: Mono CD: Love Story (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: ElektraRhino
Year: 1966
In the fall of 1966 my parents took by brother and me to a drive-in movie to see The Russians Are Coming and The 10th Victim (don't ask me why I remember that). In an effort to extend their season past the summer months, that particular drive-in was pioneering a new technology that used a low-power radio transmitter (on a locally-unused frequency) to broadcast the audio portion of the films so that people could keep their car windows rolled all the way up (and presumably stay warm) instead of having to roll the window partway down to accomodate the hanging speakers that were attached to posts next to where each car was parked. Before the first movie and between films music was pumped through the speakers (and over the transmitter). Of course, being fascinated by all things radio, I insisted that my dad use the car radio as soon as we got settled in. I was immediately blown away by a song that I had not heard on either of Denver's two top 40 radio stations. That song was Love's 7&7 Is, and it was my first inkling that there were some great songs on the charts that were being ignored by local stations. I finally heard the song again the following spring, when a local FM station (that had been previously used to simulcast a full-service AM station) began running a "top 100" format a few hours a day.
Artist: Association
Title: Enter The Young
Source: LP: And Then Along Comes...The Association
Writer(s): Terry Kirkman
Label: Valiant
Year: 1966
The Association started off the same way as many Los Angeles club bands in the mid-1960s, playing various venues and trying to get a record deal. Their first few singles, first on the Jubilee label and then the Valiant label, were not commercially successful, although they did allow the group to get a feel for the recording studio. The Association's version of Bob Dylan's One Too Many Mornings got the attention of producer Curt Boettcher, who gave them their first real hit, Along Comes Mary. This in turn led to the group's first LP, And Then Along Comes...The Association, which Boettcher produced. The opening track on the LP, Enter The Young, was at the time an appropriate way to introduce the group to album buyers, although it does sound a bit dated today. The tune was written by band member Terry Kirkman, who also wrote their next major hit, Cherish.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released on LP: The First Edition and as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Mickey Newbury
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
In 1968, former New Christy Minstrels members Kenny Rogers and Mike Settle decided to form a psychedelic rock band, the First Edition. Although Settle wrote (and sang lead on) most of the songs on the first album, it was Rogers who would emerge as the star of the group, thanks to the fact that one of the two songs he sang lead on, Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), became a huge top 40 hit. It wasn't long before the official name of the band was changed to Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. That change reflected a shift from psychedelic to country flavored pop that would eventually propel Rogers to superstar status, leaving the First Edition far behind.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Can You Dig It
Source: LP: Head
Writer(s): Peter Tork
Label: Colgems
Year: 1968
Peter Tork only received two solo writing credits for Monkees recordings. The first, and most familiar, was For Pete's Sake, which was released on the Headquarters album in 1967 and used as the closing theme for the second season of their TV series. The second Tork solo piece was the more experimental Can You Dig It used in the movie Head and included on the 1968 movie soundtrack album. Not long after Head was completed, Tork left the group, not to return until the 1980s, when MTV ran a Monkees TV series marathon, introducing the band to a whole new generation and prompting a reunion tour and album.
Artist: Beatles
Title: All Together Now
Source: CD: Yellow Submarine (soundtrack)
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Capitol
Year: 1969
Less than a month after completing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the Beatles found themselves in the position of being contractually obligated to provide songs for an animated film inspired by the song Yellow Submarine, which had appeared on the 1966 LP Revolver. The band was physically and emotionally exhausted at that point in time and ended up providing only four previously unreleased tunes for the project. One of those four was All Together Now, a tune written primarily by Paul McCartney, and meant to be in the same lighhearted vein as Yellow Submarine. McCartney later described the song as a "throwaway".
Artist: Byrds
Title: Tribal Gathering
Source: The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Writer(s): Crosby/Hillman/McGuinn
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
In January of 1967 David Crosby attended something called "The Gathering of the Tribes: The Human Be-In" at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Crosby was so impressed by the event and those attending it that he wrote a song about the experience. Tribal Gathering was recorded by the Byrds on August 16, 1967, and included on the 1968 LP The Notorious Byrd Brothers, despite the fact that by the time the album was released Crosby had been fired by fellow band members Chris Hillman and Reoger McGuinn. Even more remarkable is the fact that the next track on the album, Dolphin's Smile, was also a Crosby composition. Both tracks have shared songwriting credits between Crosby and Hillman, with McGuinn's name appearing on Dolphin's Smile as well. Since both tracks were recorded on the same day, two months before Crosby left the group, it is possible that the co-writing credits were tacked on during overdub sessions later in the year. It wouldn't be the first time (according to Crosby) that the others took credit for his work.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Everybody's Been Burned
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
There is a common misconception that David Crosby's songwriting skills didn't fully develop until he began working with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. A listen to Everybody's Been Burned from the Byrds' 1967 album Younger Than Yesterday, however, puts the lie to that theory in a hurry. The track has all the hallmarks of a classic Crosby song: a strong melody, intelligent lyrics and an innovative chord structure. It's also my personal favorite tune from what is arguably the Byrds' best LP.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Draft Morning (alt. ending)
Source: The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Writer: Crosby/Hillman/McGuinn
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: Recorded 1967; alternate version released 1997
Draft Morning is one of the most controversial recordings in the Byrds catalog. The song was originally composed by David Crosby, who was kicked out of the band shortly after they had recorded the instrumental tracks for the tune. Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman then proceded to write new lyrics for the song, and included it on The Notorious Byrd Brothers, released on Jan 3, 1968. This version of the song, first released on the expanded CD edition of The Notorious Byrd Brothers in 1997, was recorded in 1967 and has a different ending (although the same lyrics) as the LP version.
This week's show is actually a series of progressions through the years, broken up by artists' sets (from Cream, Love and the Byrds) and an Advanced Psych segment in which I sneak one of my own tunes in.
Artist: Paul Revere and the Raiders
Title: Steppin' Out
Source: Simulated stereo LP: Just Like Us
Writer(s): Revere/Lindsay
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
1965 was the year that Paul Revere and the Raiders hit the big time. The Portland, Oregon band had already been performing together for several years, and had been the first rock band to record Louie Louie in the spring of 1963, getting airplay on the West Coast and Hawaii but losing out nationally to another Portland band, the Kingsmen, whose version was recorded the same month as the Raiders'. While playing in Hawaii the band came to the attention of Dick Clark, who was looking for a band to appear on his new afternoon TV program, Where The Action Is. Clark introduced the band to Terry Melcher, a successful producer at Columbia Records, which led to the Raiders being the first rock band signed by the label, predating the Byrds by about a year. Appearing on Action turned out to be a major turning point for the band, who soon became the show's defacto hosts as well as house band. The Raiders' first national hit in their new role was Steppin' Out, a song written by Revere and vocalist Mark Lindsay about a guy returning from military service (as Revere himself had done in the early 60s, reforming the band upon his return) and finding out his girl had been unfaithful. Working with Melcher the Raiders enjoyed a run of hits from 1965-67 unequalled by any other Amercian rock band of the time.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Leave
Source: CD: 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 on tracks like Leave. 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: Doors
Title: End Of The Night
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
End Of The Night is one of those songs that seems to define a band's sound. In the case of the Doors, that sound was dark and menacing. No wonder, then, that End Of The Night was chosen to be the B side of the band's first single in early 1967.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Hoochie Coochie Man
Source: CD: Steppenwolf
Writer(s): Willie Dixon
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
A major driving force behind the renewed interest in the blues in the 1960s was the updating and re-recording of classic blues tunes by contempory rock musicians. This trend started in England, with bands like the Yardbirds and the Animals in the early part of the decade. By the end of the 60s a growing number of US bands were playing songs such as Hoochie Coochie Man, a tune originally recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954. Like Cream's Spoonful and Led Zeppelin's You Shook Me, Hoochie Coochie Man was written by Willie Dixon. The 1968 Steppenwolf version of the song slows the tempo down a touch from the original version and features exquisite sustained guitar work from Michael Monarch.
Artist: Alice Cooper
Title: 10 Minutes Before The Worm
Source: European import CD: Pretties For You
Writer(s): Cooper/Smith/Dunaway/Bruce/Buxton
Label: Rhino/Bizarre/Straight
Year: 1969
The band known as Alice Cooper was still in its pre-commercial underground phase as part of Frank Zappa's collection of misfits recording for Bizarre Productions when they released the album Pretties For You on Zappa's Straight label in 1969. Like the rest of the album, 10 Minutes Before The Worm is a somewhat experimental piece from the band that had formed a few years earlier in Phoenix, Arizona. Zappa would eventually sell Straight to Warner Brothers, and Alice Cooper would become the world's first major shock-rock band in the early 1970s.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Hey Joe
Source: CD: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Billy Roberts
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
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: Sly And The Family Stone
Title: Underdog
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: A Whole New Thing)
Writer(s): Sylvester Stewart
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1967
Sly and the Family Stone were a showstopper at the Woodstock festival in 1969, but their story starts years before that historic performance. Sylvester Stewart was a popular DJ and record producer in mid-60s San Francisco, responsible for the first recordings of the Warlocks (later the Grateful Dead) and the Great! Society, among others. During that time he became acquainted with a wealth of talent, including bassist Larry Graham. In 1967, with Autumn Records having been sold to and closed down by Warner Brothers, he decided to form his own band. Anchored by Graham, Sly and the Family Stone's first LP, A Whole New Thing, was possibly the very first pure funk album ever released.
Artist: Max Frost And The Troopers
Title: Shape Of Things To Come
Source: CD: Shape Of Things To Come (originally released on LP: Wild In The Streets soundtrack)
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: Captain High (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
Max Frost was a politically savvy rock star who rode the youth movement all the way to the White House, first through getting the support of a hip young Senator, then getting the age requirements for holding high political office lowered to 21, and finally lowering the voting age to 14. Everyone over 30 was locked away in internment camps, similar to those used during WWII by various governments to hold those of questionable loyalty to the current regime. What? You don't remember any of that? You say it sounds like the plot of a cheapie late 60s teen exploitation flick? Right on all counts except for the "cheapie" part. Wild in the Streets starred Christopher Jones as the rock star, Hal Holbrook as the hip young senator, and a Poseidon Adventure-sized Shelly Winter as the rock star's interred mom. Richard Pryor, in his film debut, played the band's drummer/political activist Stanley X. The most prominent song from the film was Shape Of Things To Come, writen by the Brill Building husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who had written several hit songs over the years, including Kicks and Hungry for Paul Revere And The Raiders. Shape Of Things To Come ended up being a hit as well, leading to an entire album being released by the fictional Max Frost And The Troopers. Although who the musicians who actually played on the song is not known for sure, most people who know anything about it believe it to be the work of Davie Allan and the Arrows, who were doing a lot of movie soundtracks for Mike Curb in the mid to late 1960s.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Cymbaline
Source: British import LP: Soundtrack From The Film "More"
Writer(s): Roger Waters
Label: Columbia/EMI
Year: 1969
Following the release of their second LP, A Saucerful Of Secrets, Pink Floyd, now completely without founding member Syd Barrett, got to work on Soundtrack From The Film "More". The album saw the group moving more into the avant-garde experimentalism that would characterize the band for the next several years, with tracks like Cymbaline taking on a more somber quality than Pink Floyd's earlier work. More was also the first Pink Floyd album to feature David Gilmour as the only lead vocalist on the LP. This would not happen again until 1989.
Artist: Cream
Title: Dance The Night Away
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The album Fresh Cream was perhaps the first LP from a rock supergroup, although at the time a more accurate description would have been British blues supergroup. Much of the album was reworking of blues standards by the trio of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, all of whom had established their credentials with various British blues bands. With their second album, Disraeli Gears, Cream showed a psychedelic side as well as their original blues orientation. Most of the more psychedelic material, such as Dance the Night Away, was from the songwriting team of Bruce and lyricist Pete Brown.
Artist: Cream
Title: SWLABR
Source: Mono Russian import LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Lilith (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
I distinctly remember this song getting played on the local jukebox just as much as the single's A side, Sunshine Of Your Love (maybe even more). Like most of Cream's more psychedelic material, SWLABR (the title being an anagram for She Was Like A Bearded Rainbow) was written by the songwriting team of Jack Bruce and poet Pete Brown. Brown had originally been brought in as a co-writer for Ginger Baker, but soon realized that he and Bruce had better songwriting chemistry.
Artist: Cream
Title: Take It Back
Source: CD: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
After seven years of serving in the Air Force liason office at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Aurora, Colorado, my dad got transferred to Weisbaden Air Force Base in Germany. Standard practice at the time was for the married GI to go on ahead of the rest of the family and find a place to live "on the economy." My dad, already having quite a bit of time in the service, was able to instead get a spot in a place called Kastel, which was a group of WWII Panzer barracks that had been adapted for use by American military with families. When the rest of us arrived in August I was happily surprised to find that my dad, in addition to finding us a place to live, had bought a state-of-the-art Akai X-355 Tape Recorder using money he had won at Lotto, along with a pair of Koss headphones. I of course had to go to the Base Exchange to look for pre-recorded tapes. Already having experience with reel to reel machines, I knew that tapes recorded at 3 3/4 ips had more tape hiss than those recorded at 7 1/2 ips, so I was resolved to only buy tapes recorded at the faster speed. Unfortunately several albums I wanted were only available at the slower speed. The problem was resolved a year later when my dad finally got a Dual turntable to hook up to the tape recorder. I immediately went out and bought a reel of blank tape; the first album I made a copy of was Cream's Disraeli Gears. I would often fall asleep listening to that tape, which meant I ended up sleeping through the last songs on the album, including Take It Back. I must have done some kind of sleep learning, though, since to this day I can quote the lyrics of the entire song.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: As Tears Go By
Source: Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards/Oldham
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1965
As Tears Go By is sometimes referred to as the Rolling Stones' answer to the Beatles' Yesterday. The problem with this theory, however, is that As Tears Go By was written a year before Yesterday was released, and in fact was a top 10 UK single for Marianne Faithful in 1964. The story of the song's genesis is that producer/manager Andrew Oldham locked Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in the kitchen until they came up with an original song. The original title was As Time Goes By, but, not wanting anyone to confuse it with the famous song used in the film Casablanca, Oldham changed Time to Tears, and got a writing credit for his trouble. Since the Stones were not at that time known for soft ballads, Oldham gave the song to Marianne Faithful, launching a successful recording career for the singer in 1964. The following year the Stones included their own version of the song on the album December's Children (And Everybody's), using a string arrangement that may indeed have been inspired by the Beatles' Yesterday, which was holding down the # 1 spot on the charts at the time the Rolling Stones were recording As Tears Go By. After American disc jockeys began playing As Tears Go By as an album track, London Records released the song as a US-only single, which ended up making the top 10 in 1965.
Artist: Phil Ochs
Title: Love Me, I'm A Liberal
Source: CD: There But For Fortune (originally released on LP: Phil Ochs In Concert)
Writer(s): Phil Ochs
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
Phil Ochs could have been a big star on the folk scene of the 1960s, except for on small flaw: he was too honest, even with himself. By 1966 Ochs was already well-established on the scene, both as a songwriter and a folk singer with a hit single (I Ain't Marching Anymore) to his credit. Ochs, though, thought of himself as more of a musical journalist chronicling a tumultuous decade, and he wasn't afraid to step on toes, even those of his fans. The left-leaning folk movement of the early 1960s had been enthusiastically supported by the more liberal members of mainstream society, but Ochs couldn't resist pointing out their hypocrisy with Love Me, I'm A Liberal, a song included on his 1966 LP Phil Ochs In Concert. Not long after the album was released, Ochs left the Greenwich Village area for California, switching from the New York based folk-oriented Elektra Records to the hip Hollywood label A&M (co-owned by trumpeter Herb Alpert, whose Tijuana Brass was one of the hottest acts on the coast at the time). Ochs's music became more introspective and less accessible over the next few years. Ochs eventually returned to New York, where he made an appearance at the 1975 War Is Over rally in Central Park, an event that marked the end of the movement that had brought Ochs to prominence so many years before. Always the observer, Ochs finally decided that he could no longer be a part of the world around him and took his own life on April 9, 1976.
Artist: Left Banke
Title: Barterers And Their Wives
Source: LP: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
Writer(s): Brown/Feher
Label: Smash/Sundazed
Year: 1967
The Left Banke made a huge impact with their debut single, Walk Away Renee, in late 1966. All of a sudden the rock press (such as it was in 1966) was all abuzz with talk of "baroque pop" and how it was the latest, greatest thing. The band soon released a follow-up single, Pretty Ballerina, which made the top 10 as well, which led to an album entitled (naturally enough) Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina, which featured several more songs in the same vein, such as Barterers And Their Wives, which was also released as a B side later that year. An unfortunate misstep by keyboardist Michael Brown, however, led to the Left Banke's early demise, and baroque pop soon went the way of other sixties fads.
Artist: Amboy Dukes
Title: Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Journey To The Center Of The Mind)
Writer(s): Nugent/Farmer
Label: Rhino (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1968
The title track of the second Amboy Dukes album, Journey To The Center Of The Mind, is by far their best known recording, going all the way to the #16 spot on the top 40 in 1968. The song features the lead guitar work of Ted Nugent, who co-wrote the song with guitarist/vocalist Steve Farmer. Journey To The Center Of The Mind would be the last album to feature lead vocalist John Drake, who left the band for creative reasons shortly after the album's release.
Artist: Joan Baez
Title: Joe Hill
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm (originally released on LP: Woodstock)
Writer: Robinson/Hayes
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1969
Joe Hill, written as a poem in the early part of the 20th century and set to music a few years later, was a highlight of Joan Baez's Woodstock performance. The song was inspired by the struggles of one of the martyrs of the labor movement of the late 19th/early 20th centuries.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Jeff's Boogie
Source: Mono CD: Roger The Engineer
Writer: Dreja/Relf/Samwell-Smith/McCarty/Beck
Label: Great American Music (original US label: Epic)
Year: 1966
We start off our second hour this week with one of the hottest B sides ever issued: the instrumental Jeff's Boogie, which appeared as the flip side of Over, Under, Sideways Down in 1966 and was included on an LP with the same name (that LP, with a different track lineup and cover, was issued in the UK under the name Yardbirds, although it has since come to be known as Roger The Engineer due to its cover art, sketched by rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja). Although credited to the entire band, the song is actually based on Chuck Berry's guitar boogie, and features some outstanding lead guitar work by Jeff Beck.
Artist: McKendree Spring
Title: Down By The River
Source: LP: McKendree Spring 3
Writer: Neil Young
Label: Decca
Year: 1972
Decca Records was considered one of the "big six" record companies of the 50s-60s, and one of the three based in New York. Unlike RCA Victor and Columbia, which had offices and studios on both coasts, Decca remained primarily an East Coast label, with a generous helping of imports supplementing the local talent, until it was folded into MCA in the early 1970s. One of the last acts signed by the label was McKendree Spring, from Glens Falls, NY. Best described as a progressive folk-rock band, the group supplemented its basic rock instrumentation with violin, viola and synthesizers, all provided by Dr. Michael Dreyfuss. Their third album, released in 1972, starts off with a powerful version of the Neil Young classic Down By The River.
Artist: Stephen R Webb
Title: Jeremy Johnson
Source: CD: The Electric Dream Project
Writer(s): Stephen R Webb
Label: WayWard
Year: 1987
Ever lay awake at night, trying not to think of things that scare the crap out of you, but of course thinking of nothing else? When that happens to a songwriter it can result in something like Jeremy Johnson. The scary thought in this instance was actually a question: what if some Jimmy Jones type got hold of a thermonuclear device and decided that if mass suicide was good enough for his own followers it would be even better for massive numbers of people, like the population of a large American city? I then started thinking about the followers of Charles Manson and came up with the idea of Sarah Lee Winston, a girl from a moderately wealthy, but emotionally lacking, family that is so devoted to Jeremy Johnson that she will commit any act, no matter how horrific, to please him. The ominous, slightly discordant music flowed naturally from the concept of the lyrics, and the song was first performed by the band Civilian Joe in 1986. The studio version of Jeremy Johnson, featuring Civilian Joe's Suzan Hagler on rhythm guitar and me on everything else, was recorded at Bottom Line as part of the Electric Dream Project in 1987. I hope it scares the crap out of you, too.
Artist: Romeo Void
Title: I Mean It
Source: LP: Itsacondition
Writer(s): Iyall/Zincavage/Woods/Bossi
Label: 415
Year: 1981
Formed in 1979 at the San Francisco Art Institute by vocalist Deborah Iyall and bassist Frank Zincavage, Romeo Void also included saxophonist Benjamin Bossi, guitarist Peter Woods, and a (shades of Spinal Tap!) succession of drummers. Their first LP, Itsacondition (sometimes referred to as It's A Condition) was released in 1981. I first ran across this album while doing a contemporary alternative rock show called Rock Nouveaux on KUNM in Albuquerque in the early 1980s. Although most of the album was fast-paced and punkish in nature, it was I Mean It, the haunting closing track from side one, that stood out from just about everything else that was happening musically at the time.
Artist: Love
Title: Old Man
Source: CD: Love Story (originally released on LP: Forever Changes)
Writer(s): Bryan MacLean
Label: Elektra/Rhino
Year: 1967
An often overlooked fact about the L.A. band Love is that they had not one, but two quality singer/songwriters in the band. Although Arthur Lee wrote the bulk of the band's material, it was Bryan McLean who wrote and sang one of the group's best-known songs, the haunting Alone Again Or, which opens their classic Forever Changes album. A second McLean song, Old Man, was actually one of the first tracks recorded for Forever Changes. At the time, the band's rhythm section was more into sex and drugs than rock and roll, and McLean and Lee arranged to have studio musicians play on Old Man, as well as on one of Lee's songs. The rest of the group was so stunned by this development that they were able to temporarily get their act together long enough to complete the album. Nonetheless, the two tunes with studio musicians were left as is, although reportedly Ken Forssi did step in to show Carol Kaye how the bass part should be played (ironic, since Kaye is estimated to have played on over 10,000 recordings in her long career as a studio musician).
Artist: Love
Title: Que Vida!
Source: CD: Da Capo
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
The first Love album was pretty much garage rock with a touch of folk-rock thrown in. Their second effort, however, showed off the rapidly maturing songwriting skills of both Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean. Que Vida! (yes, I know that technically there should be an upside down exclamation point at the beginning of the song title, but my keyboard doesn't speak Spanish) is a good example of Lee moving into territory usually associated with middle-of-the-road singers such as Johnny Mathis. Lee would continue to defy convention throughout his career, leading to a noticable lack of commercial success even as he won the respect of his musical peers.
Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: Mono CD: Love Story (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Arthur Lee
Label: ElektraRhino
Year: 1966
In the fall of 1966 my parents took by brother and me to a drive-in movie to see The Russians Are Coming and The 10th Victim (don't ask me why I remember that). In an effort to extend their season past the summer months, that particular drive-in was pioneering a new technology that used a low-power radio transmitter (on a locally-unused frequency) to broadcast the audio portion of the films so that people could keep their car windows rolled all the way up (and presumably stay warm) instead of having to roll the window partway down to accomodate the hanging speakers that were attached to posts next to where each car was parked. Before the first movie and between films music was pumped through the speakers (and over the transmitter). Of course, being fascinated by all things radio, I insisted that my dad use the car radio as soon as we got settled in. I was immediately blown away by a song that I had not heard on either of Denver's two top 40 radio stations. That song was Love's 7&7 Is, and it was my first inkling that there were some great songs on the charts that were being ignored by local stations. I finally heard the song again the following spring, when a local FM station (that had been previously used to simulcast a full-service AM station) began running a "top 100" format a few hours a day.
Artist: Association
Title: Enter The Young
Source: LP: And Then Along Comes...The Association
Writer(s): Terry Kirkman
Label: Valiant
Year: 1966
The Association started off the same way as many Los Angeles club bands in the mid-1960s, playing various venues and trying to get a record deal. Their first few singles, first on the Jubilee label and then the Valiant label, were not commercially successful, although they did allow the group to get a feel for the recording studio. The Association's version of Bob Dylan's One Too Many Mornings got the attention of producer Curt Boettcher, who gave them their first real hit, Along Comes Mary. This in turn led to the group's first LP, And Then Along Comes...The Association, which Boettcher produced. The opening track on the LP, Enter The Young, was at the time an appropriate way to introduce the group to album buyers, although it does sound a bit dated today. The tune was written by band member Terry Kirkman, who also wrote their next major hit, Cherish.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: CD: Even More Nuggets (originally released on LP: The First Edition and as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Mickey Newbury
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
In 1968, former New Christy Minstrels members Kenny Rogers and Mike Settle decided to form a psychedelic rock band, the First Edition. Although Settle wrote (and sang lead on) most of the songs on the first album, it was Rogers who would emerge as the star of the group, thanks to the fact that one of the two songs he sang lead on, Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In), became a huge top 40 hit. It wasn't long before the official name of the band was changed to Kenny Rogers and the First Edition. That change reflected a shift from psychedelic to country flavored pop that would eventually propel Rogers to superstar status, leaving the First Edition far behind.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Can You Dig It
Source: LP: Head
Writer(s): Peter Tork
Label: Colgems
Year: 1968
Peter Tork only received two solo writing credits for Monkees recordings. The first, and most familiar, was For Pete's Sake, which was released on the Headquarters album in 1967 and used as the closing theme for the second season of their TV series. The second Tork solo piece was the more experimental Can You Dig It used in the movie Head and included on the 1968 movie soundtrack album. Not long after Head was completed, Tork left the group, not to return until the 1980s, when MTV ran a Monkees TV series marathon, introducing the band to a whole new generation and prompting a reunion tour and album.
Artist: Beatles
Title: All Together Now
Source: CD: Yellow Submarine (soundtrack)
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Capitol
Year: 1969
Less than a month after completing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the Beatles found themselves in the position of being contractually obligated to provide songs for an animated film inspired by the song Yellow Submarine, which had appeared on the 1966 LP Revolver. The band was physically and emotionally exhausted at that point in time and ended up providing only four previously unreleased tunes for the project. One of those four was All Together Now, a tune written primarily by Paul McCartney, and meant to be in the same lighhearted vein as Yellow Submarine. McCartney later described the song as a "throwaway".
Artist: Byrds
Title: Tribal Gathering
Source: The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Writer(s): Crosby/Hillman/McGuinn
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1968
In January of 1967 David Crosby attended something called "The Gathering of the Tribes: The Human Be-In" at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Crosby was so impressed by the event and those attending it that he wrote a song about the experience. Tribal Gathering was recorded by the Byrds on August 16, 1967, and included on the 1968 LP The Notorious Byrd Brothers, despite the fact that by the time the album was released Crosby had been fired by fellow band members Chris Hillman and Reoger McGuinn. Even more remarkable is the fact that the next track on the album, Dolphin's Smile, was also a Crosby composition. Both tracks have shared songwriting credits between Crosby and Hillman, with McGuinn's name appearing on Dolphin's Smile as well. Since both tracks were recorded on the same day, two months before Crosby left the group, it is possible that the co-writing credits were tacked on during overdub sessions later in the year. It wouldn't be the first time (according to Crosby) that the others took credit for his work.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Everybody's Been Burned
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
There is a common misconception that David Crosby's songwriting skills didn't fully develop until he began working with Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. A listen to Everybody's Been Burned from the Byrds' 1967 album Younger Than Yesterday, however, puts the lie to that theory in a hurry. The track has all the hallmarks of a classic Crosby song: a strong melody, intelligent lyrics and an innovative chord structure. It's also my personal favorite tune from what is arguably the Byrds' best LP.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Draft Morning (alt. ending)
Source: The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Writer: Crosby/Hillman/McGuinn
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: Recorded 1967; alternate version released 1997
Draft Morning is one of the most controversial recordings in the Byrds catalog. The song was originally composed by David Crosby, who was kicked out of the band shortly after they had recorded the instrumental tracks for the tune. Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman then proceded to write new lyrics for the song, and included it on The Notorious Byrd Brothers, released on Jan 3, 1968. This version of the song, first released on the expanded CD edition of The Notorious Byrd Brothers in 1997, was recorded in 1967 and has a different ending (although the same lyrics) as the LP version.
Rockin'in the Days of Confusion # 1837 (starts 9/10/18)
Although we don't have quite as many songs as we did last week, we are still in shorter song mode, as we feature a dozen tracks from a dozen artists. It starts with a track from a band that gets played on our sister show, Stuck in the Psychedelic Era, more than any other group, yet is making its Rockin' in the Days of Confusion debut this week:
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Law Man
Source: LP: Bark
Writer(s): Grace Slick
Label: Grunt
Year: 1971
Jefferson Airplane founder Marty Balin left the band in 1970, shortly after sessions for their sixth studio album had begun. Although Balin's songwriting output had dropped considerably from the band's early days, his departure was a huge blow to the group. In fact, I would argue that prior to 1970 the Airplane was indisputably one of the most influential bands in the world of rock, but following Balin's departure it quickly was reduced to being a second-tier band with little impact at best. Nonetheless, work continued on the new album, but with all of Balin's contributions excised from the final LP. The result, 1971's Bark, was an inconsistent album that lacked cohesiveness. Grace Slick's Law Man, which opens the LP, sounds as if it could have been a solo track rather than an Airplane cut, although it does continue down the political path that the band had been taking on their prior two albums, Crown of Creation and Volunteers.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: After Forever
Source: LP: Black Sabbath
Writer(s): Butler/Iommi
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
Anyone attempting to portray Black Sabbath as a bunch of Satanists had only to listen once to After Forever, from the Master Of Reality album, to be abused of the notion. The lyrics, written by bassist Geezer Butler (an avowed Catholic) are actually about as un-subtle as can be imagined. The song was released as the first single from the album, but failed to chart.
Artist: Chicago
Title: A Hit By Varese
Source: LP: Chicago V
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
After three double-length studio albums and a four disc box set live effort, Chicago finally released their first single-disc LP, Chicago V, in 1972. Most of the songs on the LP were written by keyboardist Robert Lamm, who shows his versatility on the opening track, A Hit By Varese. The song itself is hard to classify, containing elements of jazz, rock and avant-garde experimentalism. I like it.
Artist: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title: Gone Again
Source: British import CD: Just For Love
Writer(s): Chet Powers
Label: BGO (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1970
Chet Powers, aka Dino Valenti, was a legendary figure on the San Francisco scene long before that scene became a national phenomena. He recorded a demo of his most famous song, Get Together, in 1964, and was, by some accounts, the guy who came up with the idea of forming Quicksilver Messenger Service a couple of years later. Powers, however, was on the police radar by then, and before the band was even officially a band, he found himself serving time at San Quentin, missing out on the Haight-Ashbury summer of love thing altogether. When he got out of prison he quickly hooked up with Quicksilver Messenger Service, providing nearly all the material for their 1970 LP Just For Love as both songwriter and lead vocalist. This resulted in an album that had little in common with the band's earlier efforts, but did provide the group with their only hit single, Fresh Air. Other tracks written by Powers (using the alias Jesse Oris Farrow) include the seven-minute long Gone Again, a low energy piece that, quite frankly, sounds like it was written by a San Quentin inmate.
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Title: Moribund The Burgermeister
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single B side (taken from LP: Peter Gabriel)
Writer(s): Peter Gabriel
Label: Atco
Year: 1977
After leaving Genesis, vocalist Peter Gabriel enlisted producer Bob Ezrin, who had previously worked with Alice Cooper, to co-produce his self-titled debut. Ezrin assembled a talented group of musicians for the LP, including guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson, bass player Tony Levin (who would eventually be a member of the 1980s version of King Crimson), drummer Allan Schwartzberg, percussionist Jimmy Maelen, guitarist Steve Hunter, keyboardist Jozef Chirowski and Larry Fast on synthesizers and programming. Gabriel relied heavily on Ezrin to handle the harder rocking aspects of the music (in Gabriel's words "the American" parts), while Gabriel handled the softer passages, much as he had done as a member of Genesis. Both aspects can be heard on Moribund The Burgermeister, a highly theatrical song that was chosen to be the B side of the album's lead single, Solisbury Hill.
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Warrior/Throw Down The Sword
Source: CD: Argus
Writer(s): Wishbone Ash
Label: MCA/Decca
Year: 1972
One of the first bands ever to feature two lead guitarists was Wishbone Ash. The story goes that following the departure of their original guitar player, bassist Martin Turner and drummer Steve Upton auditioned several lead guitarists and got it down to two finalists, Andy Powell and Ted Turner (no relation to either Martin Turner or Jane Fonda), but could not decide between the two. At that point they decided just to keep both of them, and a heavy metal tradition was born. Whether the story is true or not, the two definitely traded off leads for the next three years and five albums, including their third and most successful LP, Argus. The final two tracks from Argus are thematically linked, as Warrior segues directly into Throw Down The Sword. Both songs are built around classical Greek literary themes and feature shared lead vocals from Andy Powell and Martin Turner, as well as simultaneous lead guitar tracks from Powell and the other Turner.
Artist: Styx
Title: You Need Love
Source: LP: Styx II
Writer(s): Dennis DeYoung
Label: Wooden Nickel
Year: 1973
The Chicago-based Styx can trace its roots all the way back to the early 1960s, but their classic 1970s lineup didn't come together until guitarist James Young joined the band, then known as TW4, in 1970. In 1972 the band signed with the local Wooden Nickel label, changing their name to Styx in the process. The group recorded four albums for the label from 1972 to 1974, but were unable to break nationally until a power balled called Lady, from their second album, began to get airplay, first on Chicago's WLS, and then nationally. The song eventually peaked in the top 10, prompting the group to leave Wooden Nickel for the much larger A&M label, in late 1974. Meanwhile, Wooden Nickel, now distrubuted by RCA, released the opening track of Styx II, You Need Love, as a followup single to Lady in early 1975.
Artist: Chevy Chase
Title: Mission: Improbable
Source: CD: Greatest Hits Of The National Lampoon (originally released on LP: The Missing White House Tapes)
Writer(s): Chevy Chase, possibly others as well
Label: Uproar (original label: Banana/Blue Thumb)
Year: 1974
The missing White House Tapes was originally released as a single on the Blue Thumb label in 1973. It was then expanded into a full-length album, featuring an array of young talent that would soon be associated with a new TV show called NBC Saturday Night. Among those new talents was a young man named Chevy Chase, who provided several comedy bits for the album, including Mission: Improbable.
Artist: Pavlov's Dog
Title: Julia
Source: European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Pampered Menial)
Writer(s): Davic Surkamp
Label: Sony Music (original label: ABC)
Year: 1975
During my first couple of years living in Albuquerque, NM, I met quite an assortment of strange and unusual people. Among them were a guy who would eventually come to be known as Carlos the Ragman and his roommate, Clint. Clint was, as near as I can tell, possessed of a genius IQ, enhanced by far too many acid trips. He seemed to be in possession of some sort of telepathic powers as well, as was made apparent on more than one occasion. In addition to (or maybe because of) all these things, Clint had somewhat unusual tastes in music. I remember him showing up one evening with an album he had just bought called Pampered Menial, by a band from St. Louis, Mo. called Pavlov's Dog. The opening track, Julia, was truly like nothing I had ever heard before, probably due to the unique vocals of David Surkamp, the writer of Julia. In addition to Surkamp, the band included Steve Scorfina, Mike Safron, Rick Stockton, David Hamilton, Doug Rayburn and Siegfried Carver.
Artist: James Gang
Title: Alexis
Source: LP: Bang
Writer(s): Bolin/Cook
Label: Atco
Year: 1973
When Joe Walsh left the James Gang, many people thought it was all over for the Cleveland, Ohio band formed by drummer Jim Fox. The group recovered, though, adding two Canadians, guitarist Dominic Troiano and vocalist Roy Kenner. The group recorded two more albums for ABC before Troiano left to replace Randy Bachman in the Guess Who. With their ABC Records contract now expired, the group was once again expected to ride off into the sunset, but instead added guitarist Tommy Bolin, formerly of the Boulder, Colorado band Zephyr, and signed a new contract with Atlantic's Atco label. The first album from the new lineup was 1973's Bang, considered the strongest James Gang album since Walsh's departure. Bolin, in particular, strutted his stuff, both as a guitarist and a songwriter, on several of Bang's tracks. He even took the lead vocals on Alexis, a standout tune that foreshadows his work as a solo artist later in the decade.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Dreamer
Source: LP: Sweet Freedom
Writer(s): Thain/Box
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1973
Even though Uriah Heep was known for their high energy rock, there always seemed to be one song on each album that managed to rock out even harder than the rest of them. On the band's sixth LP, Sweet Freedom, that song was Dreamer, the album's opening track. Co-written by guitarist Mick Box and bassist Gary Thain (the only known collaboration between the two), Dreamer has an energy level that approaches frenetic, especially on the song's fadeout ending. Wild stuff!
Artist: David Bowie
Title: Hang Onto Yourself
Source: CD: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
Writer(s): David Bowie
Label: Ryko (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1972
David Bowie proves that he is quite capable of writing a straight up power pop tune with Hang Onto Yourself from The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. The album itself, as the title implies, documents the short career of pop star Ziggy Stardust against a backdrop of the imminent destruction of the world. While most of the songs on the album are about Ziggy Stardust, I've always imagined Hang Onto Yourself as being one of Ziggy's own songs, a hit single along the same lines as Grand Funk Railroad's We're An American Band or Mountain's Mississippi Queen. Interestingly enough, Bowie had released an earlier version of Hang Onto Yourself as a 1971 single under the name Arnold Corns. Was "Arnold Corns" an early version of Ziggy Stardust?
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1836 (starts 9/5/18)
This week it's mostly artists' sets and progressions though the years until our final segment, where we change things up a bit. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Artist: Beatles
Title: Got To Get You Into My Life
Source: European import LP: Revolver
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone
Year: 1966
One of the best known songs on the Beatles' 1966 album Revolver is Paul McCartney's Got To Get You Into My Life. The song was not released as a single until 1976, when it became the last original Beatles song to hit the top 10 (Free As A Bird, a fleshing out of a John Lennon demo recording by the three living members of the band, made the top 10 nearly 20 years later). McCartney later revealed that the song was an ode to pot, saying "'Got to Get You into My Life' was one I wrote when I had first been introduced to pot ... So [it's] really a song about that, it's not to a person." John Lennon called Got to Get You into My Life one of Paul's best songs.
Artist: Doors
Title: Strange Days
Source: CD: 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 despite never being released as a single.
Artist: Cream
Title: Sitting On Top Of The World
Source: CD: Wheels Of Fire
Writer: Vinson/Chatmon (original) Chester Burnett (modern version)
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Throughout their existence British blues supergroup Cream recorded covers of blues classics. One of the best of these is Sitting On Top Of The World from the album Wheels Of Fire, which in its earliest form was written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon and recorded by the Mississippi Shieks in 1930. Cream's version uses the lyrics from the 1957 rewrite of the song by Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf.
Artist: Kak
Title: Electric Sailor
Source: British import CD: Kak-Ola (originally released on LP: Kak)
Writer(s): Yoder/Damrell/Patten/Lockheed
Label: Big Beat (original US label: Epic)
Year: 1969
Lead guitarist Dehner Patten takes center stage on Electric Sailor, from the album Kak, both as lead vocalist and as the song's primary songwriter, although he insisted that the entire band get credit for their contributions to the tune. Members of Paul Revere and the Raiders, who happened to be in the studio when the members of Kak were listening to the playback of Electric Sailor, expressed an interest in covering the song, but to my knowledge never actually recorded it themselves.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Sympathy For The Devil
Source: CD: Beggars Banquet
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
Beggar's Banquet was a turning point for the Rolling Stones. They had just ended their association with Andrew Loog Oldham, who had produced all of their mid-60s records, and instead were working with Jimmy Miller, who was known for his association with Steve Winwood, both in his current band Traffic and the earlier Spencer Davis Group. Right from the opening bongo beats of Sympathy For The Devil, it was evident that this was the beginning of a new era for the bad boys of rock and roll. The song itself has gone on to be one of the defining tunes of album rock radio.
Artist: Rolling Stones (Bill Wyman)
Title: In Another Land
Source: LP: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s): Bill Wyman
Label: London
Year: 1967
During recording sessions for the late 1967 Rolling Stones album Their Satanic Majesties Request bassist Bill Wyman made a forty-five minute drive to the studio one evening only to find out that the session had been cancelled. The band's manager and producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, managed to salvage the moment by asking Wyman if he had any song ideas he'd like to work on while he was there. As it turned out, Wyman had just come up with a song called In Another Land, about waking up from a dream only to discover you are actually still dreaming. Utilizing the talents of various people on hand, including Steve Marriott, Brian Jones, Charlie Watts and Nicky Hopkins, Wyman recorded a rough demo of his new tune. When Mick Jagger and Keith Richards heard the song they liked it so much that they added background vocals and insisted the track be used on the album and released as a single by Bill Wyman (with another track from the LP on the B side credited to the entire band). They even went so far as to give Wyman solo artist credit on the label of the LP itself (the label reads: Their Satanic Majesties Request by the Rolling Stones*, with the next line reading *by Bill Wyman), with an asterisk preceeding the song title in the track listing. Wyman reportedly hated the sound of his own voice on the song, and insisted that a tremelo effect be added to it in the final mix. The snoring at the end of the track is Wyman himself, as captured in the studio by Mick and Keith.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: No Expectations
Source: CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
After the heavy dose of studio effects on Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Rolling Stones took a back-to-basics approach for their next album, Beggar's Banquet, the first to be produced by Jimmy Miller (who had previously worked with Steve Winwood in Traffic and the Spencer Davis Group). No Expectations, the second track on the album, uses minimal instrumentation and places a greater emphasis on Mick Jagger's vocals and Brian Jones's slide guitar work. Sadly, it was to be Jones's last album as a member of the Rolling Stones, as heavy drug use was already taking its toll (and would soon take his life as well).
Artist: Who
Title: Pictures Of Lily
Source: Mono CD: Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1967
Pictures of Lily was the first single released by the Who in 1967. It hit the #4 spot on the British charts, but only made it to #51 in the US. This was nothing new for the Who, as several of their early singles, including Substitute, I Can't Explain and even My Generation hit the British top 10 without getting any US airplay (or chart action) at all.
Artist: Who
Title: Armenia City In The Sky
Source: CD: The Who Sell Out
Writer(s): John Keene
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1967
Pete Townshend has always been a prolific songwriter. John Entwistle, while not as prolific as Townshend, has nonetheless written a number of quality tunes. It is a bit surprising, then, that the opening track of The Who Sell Out did not come from the pens of either of the band's songwriters. Instead, Armenia City In The Sky was written by one of the band's roadies, John "Speedy" Keene. Although not a household name, Keene was the lead vocalist for Thunderclap Newman (named for the band's recording engineer), who had a huge hit in 1969 with Keene's Something In The Air, which was produced by Townshend.
Artist: Who
Title: Substitute
Source: CD: Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Atco)
Year: 1966
In the spring of 1967 my dad, a career military man, got word that he was being transferred from Denver, Colorado to Weisbaden, Germany. By the end of summer, our entire family had relocated to a converted WWII Panzer barracks called Kastel that was serving as a housing area for married US military personnel and their families. It was probably the smallest housing area in all of Europe, consisting of only eight buildings. Needless to say, there were not many other American kids my age living there, which actually ended up working to my advantage. You see, in Denver I had been playing first chair violin in the Smiley Junior High School orchestra; a position that looked good to the adults in the room but was the kiss of death to a 14-year-old trying desperately to fit in with his peers. So, naturally, as one of only half a dozen or so teenaged boys in the Kastel Housing Area, I jumped at the chance to learn how to play the guitar (a much cooler instrument than the violin to a 14-year-old). There were two guys at Kastel who a) had a guitar and b) were willing to put up with an obnoxious Freshman long enough to teach him a few chords. The first was was a Sophomore named Darrell Combs, who went by the nickname Butch (his older sister Darlene being responsible for that one). The other was a Junior named Mike Davenport, who had been in Germany longer than the rest of us and had his own amp. Mike also had a collection of records that had been popular on Radio Luxembourg, the US-styled top 40 station that was aimed at a British audience and played mostly songs from the UK charts. Among those records were several singles by the Who, including their chart-topping 1966 UK hit Substitute. Mike and Butch had been trying to figure out the chords to Substitute, but had not been able to get beyond the intro of the song. After listening to the record once or twice (yes, I'm bragging) I was able to figure out the rest of the song. Not long after that I was able to talk my parents into buying me a guitar and a small amp as an early Christmas present (that ended up doubling as my 15th birthday present as well). With three guitarists, two amps, and a drummer named Zachary Long in our arsenal, we formed a band called The Abundance Of Love (hey, it was 1967, OK?), which soon got changed to the Haze And Shades Of Yesterday and finally just The Shades. One of the first songs we learned to play was (you guessed it), Substitute by the Who. The Shades ended up lasting until the summer of 1968, at which time my dad got transferred again, this time to Ramstein AFB, Germany.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Glitter And Gold
Source: Mono LP: It Ain't Me Babe
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: White Whale
Year: 1965
The Turtles' 1965 debut LP, It Ain't Me Babe, was very much a cross section of what was popular among Southern California teenagers in mid-1965. This was to be expected, since the Turtles were themselves Southern California teenagers at the time they recorded the album (in fact, being underage, they had to get their parents to sign permission slips to be able to record the LP). The songs were taken from a variety of songwriters, including Bob Dylan (including the hit single title track), P.F. Sloan (still in his political phase before teaming up with Steve Barri) and even Turtles lead vocalist Howard Kaylan. One selection that frankly puzzles me is Glitter And Gold. From what I can tell, the Turtles were the first band to record the Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil tune, but the song did not appear as a single until 1966, wne several artists released the song (the most successful being Keith Allison). Stylistically, Glitter And Gold doesn't really fit in with the rest of the album, either, which is generally a bit more in the "angry young men" vein.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Come On In
Source: CD: Turn On (also released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: Sean Bonniwell
Label: Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
It only cost a total of $150 for the Music Machine to record both sides of their debut single at RCA Studios in Los Angeles, thanks to the band having been performing the songs live for several months. The band then took the tapes to Original Sound, who issued Talk Talk and Come On In on their own label. Although Talk Talk was the obvious hit, Come On In had perhaps a greater influence on later bands such as the Doors and Iron Butterfly.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine
Source: CD: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
While not as commercially successful as the Jefferson Airplane or as long-lived as the Grateful Dead (there's an oxymoron for ya), Country Joe and the Fish may well be the most accurate musical representation of what the whole Haight-Ashbury scene was about, which is itself ironic, since the band operated out of Berkeley on the other side of the bay. Of all the tracks on their first album, Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine probably got the most airplay on various underground radio stations that were popping up on the FM dial at the time (some of them even legally).
Artist: Deep Purple
Title: Prelude: Happiness/I'm So Glad
Source: LP: Shades Of Deep Purple
Writer(s): Evans/Lord/Paice/Blackmore/Simper/James
Label: Tetragrammaton
Year: 1968
Deep Purple was originally the brainchild of vocalist Chris Curtis, whose idea was to have a band called Roundabout that utilized a rotating cast of musicians onstage, with only Curtis himself being up there for the entire gig. The first two musicians recruited were organist Jon Lord and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, both of whom came aboard in late 1967. Curtis soon lost interest in the project, and Lord and Blackmore decided to stay together and form what would become Deep Purple. After a few false starts the lineup stabilized with the addition of bassist Nicky Simper, drummer Ian Paice and vocalist Rod Evans. The group worked up a songlist and used their various connections to get a record deal with a new American record label, Tetragrammaton, which was partially owned by actor/comedian Bill Cosby. This in turn led to a deal to release the band's recordings in England on EMI's Parlophone label as well, although Tetragrammaton had first rights to all the band's material, including the classically-influenced Prelude: Happiness, which leads directly into a cover of the Skip James classic I'm So Glad. The band's first LP, Shades Of Deep Purple, was released in the US in July of 1968 and in the UK in September of the same year. The album was a major success in the US, where the single Hush made it into the top five. In the UK, however, it was panned by the rock press and failed to make the charts. This would prove to be the pattern the band would follow throughout its early years; it was only after Evans and Simper were replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover that the band would find success in their native land. Both editions of Deep Purple can be heard regularly on our sister show, Rockin' in the Days of Confusion.
Artist: Boots
Title: Gaby
Source: CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in West Germany as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Krabbe/Bresser
Label: Rhino (original label: Telefunken)
Year: 1966
Formed in Berlin in 1965, the Boots were one of the more adventurous bands operating on the European mainland. While most bands in Germany tended to emulate the Beatles, the Boots took a more underground approach, growing their hair out just a bit longer than their contemporaries and appealing to a more Bohemian type of crowd. Lead guitarist Jurg "Jockel" Schulte-Eckle was known for doing strange things to his guitar onstage using screwdrivers, beer bottles and the like to create previously unheard of sounds. On vinyl the band comes off as being just a bit ahead of its time, as can be heard clearly on the original group's final single, Gaby, a song written by singer Werner Krabbe and bassist Bob Bresser. Not long after Gaby's release, Krabbe left the band. Although the Boots continued on with various configurations until 1969, they were never able to recapture the magic generated by the original lineup.
Artist: Brian Wilson
Title: Good Vibrations
Source: CD: Brian Wilson Presents Smile
Writer(s): Wilson/Love/Asher
Label: Nonesuch
Year: 2004
Rock history is full of stories about albums that were started with the best of intentions, but for one reason or another ended up on the shelf, sometimes indefinitely. Perhaps the most famous of these was the Beach Boys' follow up album to their critically acclaimed Pet Sounds LP. The album was to be called Smile, and the priviledged few who had heard the work in progress all agreed it was to be Brian Wilson's masterpiece, both as writer and producer. However, a series of problems, including internal disputes among the band members and Wilson's own mental state, kept pushing back the album's completion date. Finally the whole thing was scrapped, and a far less ambitious LP called Smiley Smile was hastily recorded in its place. The legend of the original Smile continued to grow over the years, however, with occasional fragments of the original tapes (which had first thought to have been destroyed) surfacing from time to time. Finally, in the early 2000s, Wilson decided to start the entire project over from scratch, working purely from his own creative vision and memory of what he originally had in mind. The result was Brian Wilson Presents Smile, released in 2004. Unlike the original Smile tapes, the new recording was done entirely in stereo (no small feat considering Wilson is deaf in one ear). There were other, more significant changes as well, such as new lyrics for one of Wilson's best known songs, Good Vibrations. Personally I find it a bit jarring to hear unexpected words on a familiar tune, but I leave it up to you to decide whether the new lyrics enhance or detract from the beauty of the song.
Artist: Liquid Scene
Title: In My Water Room
Source: CD: Revolutions
Writer(s): Becki diGregorio
Label: Ziglain
Year: 2014
As the final track on the Liquid Scene's 2014 debut album, Revolutions, In My Water Room is an elaborate production that showcases the talents of vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Bodhi (becki digregorio), guitarist Tom Ayers, bassist/keyboardist Endre Tarczy and drummer/percussionist Trey Sabatelli.
Artist: Dukes Of Stratosphear (aka XTC)
Title: The Affiliated
Source: CD: Chips From The Chocolate Fireball (originally released on LP: Psionic Psunspot)
Writer(s): Colin Moulding
Label: Caroline
Year: 1987
Formed in 1984 by Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, Dave Gregory and Ian Gregory, the Dukes Of Stratosphear were an offshoot of 80s pop-rock band XTC, although at first they purported to be a "mysterious new act". Ironically, at least in their native UK, the Dukes releases actually outsold the current XTC albums of the time. The first of those releases was a mini-album called 25 O'Clock that came out in 1985. Two years later the Dukes released a full-length album, Psionic Psunspot. About half of the material on each album was composed by Moulding, including the shortest track on Psionic Psunspot, a tune called The Affiliated. Since then there have been several individual tracks credited to the Dukes, most of which are available on the CD Chips From The Chocolate Factory.
Artist: Del-Vetts
Title: Last Time Around
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Dennis Dahlquist
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
The Del-Vetts were from Chicago's affluent North Shore. Their gimmick was to show up at a high school dance by driving their matching corvettes onto the gymnasium dance floor. Musically, like most garage/punk bands, they were heavily influenced by the British invasion bands. Unlike most garage/punk bands, who favored the Rolling Stones, the Del-Vetts were more into the Jeff Beck incarnation of the Yardbirds. The 'Vetts had a few regional hits from 1965-67, the biggest being this single issued on the Dunwich label, home of fellow Chicago suburbanites the Shadows of Knight. In retrospect, considering the song's subject matter, Last Time Around may well be the very first death metal rock song ever recorded.
Artist: Nice
Title: Flower King Of Flies
Source: CD: The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack
Writer(s): Jackson/Emerson
Label: Fuel 2000 (original label: Immediate
Year: 1967
The Nice, the first band to fuse rock, jazz and classical music, creating a totally new genre in the process, had rather unique origins. In 1966 Ike and Tina Turner did a tour of England, with their backup vocal group, the Ikettes, in tow. One of the Ikettes, P.P. Arnold, made such a strong impression on both Mick Jagger and his manager/producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, that they convinced her to stay in London and embark on a solo career. Starting in April of 1967, Oldham, who was in the process of setting up his own record label, set about putting together a band to back her up. Oldham's first recruit was bassist Lee Jackson of the local R&B group Gary Farr and the T-Bones. Jackson soon brought in former fellow T-Bone Keith Emerson, who was already getting a reputation as the London club circuit's hottest Hammond organ player. The two of them soon recruited guitarist Davy O'List and drummer Brian Davison to complete the new band, which Oldham had already decided would be called the Nice. To save money, Oldham, instead of hiring an opening act, let the Nice do a short warmup set before being joined by Arnold onstage. Since Arnold herself performed a fairly standard mix of R&B and soul songs, the Nice were encouraged to create something different for their own set. That "something different" ended up being a mix of jazz, classical and psychedelic rock that had never been heard before. It wasn't long before the Nice, with their new "progressive rock" sound, became a bigger attraction than Arnold herself, and by the end of the year the Nice had signed with Oldham's new label, Immediate Records. In December of 1967 The Thoughts Of Everlist Davjack (the title being an amalgamation of the members' last names) was released. Early releases of the album gave shared songwriting credits to the entire band. The CD reissue of The Thoughts Of Everlist Davjack, however, is more specific, with Emerson and Jackson sharing writing credit on tracks like Flower King Of Flies, which opens the album.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Beggar's Farm
Source: LP: This Was
Writer(s): Abrahams/Anderson
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1968
Although Jethro Tull would eventually come to be considered almost a backup band for flautist/vocalist/songwriter Ian Anderson, in the early days the group was much more democratically inclined, at least until the departure of guitarist and co-founder Mick Abrahams. In addition to providing a more blues-based orientation for the band, Abrahams shared songwriting duties with Anderson as well, including collaborations such as Beggar's Farm from the band's 1968 debut LP, This Was.
Artist: Iron Butterfly
Title: It Must Be Love
Source: LP: Ball
Writer(s): Doug Ingle
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
Although it did not contain anything like the monster hit In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, the third Iron Butterfly LP, Ball, was probably a better album overall. The first single released from the album was In The Time Of Our Lives, backed with It Must Be Love, a tune that features some nice guitar work from Eric Brann, who would soon be leaving the band for an unsuccessful solo career.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: On The Way Home
Source: CD: Retrospective (originally released on LP: Last Time Around)
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
Things fell apart for Buffalo Springfield following the drug bust and deportation of bassist Bruce Palmer in January of 1968. Neil Young stopped showing up for gigs, forcing Stephen Stills to carry all lead guitar duties for the band. By March, the band was defunct in everything but name. However, the group was still contractually obligated to provide Atco Records with one more album, so Richie Furay, along with replacement bassist Jim Messina, set about compiling a final Buffalo Springfield album from various studio tapes that the band members had made. None of these tapes featured the entire lineup of the band, although Neil Young's On The Way Home, which was chosen to open the album, came close, as it featured Furay on lead vocals, Stills on guitar and backup vocals, and Palmer on bass as well as Young himself on lead guitar and backup vocals.
Artist: Love
Title: Revelation (conclusion)
Source: CD: Da Capo
Writer: Lee/MacLean/Echols/Forsi
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
The undisputed kings of the Sunset Strip in the mid-1960s were the members of Love. Led by Arthur Lee, the band held down the position of house band at the Strip's most famous club, the Whiskey A-Go-Go, throughout 1966 and much of 1967, even as the club scene itself was being squeezed out of existence by restrictive new city ordinances. Love liked being the top dog in L.A., so much so that they decided to forego touring to promote their records in favor of maintaining their presence at the Whiskey. In the long run this cost them, as many of their contemporaries (including one band that Love itself had discovered and introduced to Elektra producer Paul Rothchild: the Doors) went on to greater fame while Love remained a cult band throughout their existence. One of the highlights of their stage performances was a 19-minute jam called Revelation, a piece originally called John Hooker that served to give each band member a chance to show off with a solo. Although the band had been playing Revelation throughout 1966 (inspiring the Rolling Stones to do a similar number on one of their own albums), they did not get around to recording a studio version of Revelation until 1967, prompting some critics to assume that Love had ripped off the Stones rather than the reverse. By that point they had added two new members, Tjay Cantrelli (sax) and Michael Stuart (drums), whose solos take up the last six minutes or so of the recorded version of the tune. The Harpsichord solo at the end of Revelation is played by "Snoopy" Pfisterer, who had switched from drums to keyboards when Stuart joined the group, and would soon leave the band completely.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Blues From An Airplane
Source: LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer(s): Balin/Spence
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
Blues From An Airplane was the opening song on the first Jefferson Airplane album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off. Although never released as a single, it was picked by the group to open their first anthology album, The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane, as well. The song is one of two tunes on Takes Off co-written by lead vocalist Marty Balin and drummer Skip Spence.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: You're A Better Man Than I
Source: Mono Canadian import LP: Shapes Of Things (originally released on LP: Having A Rave Up With The Yardbirds)
Writer(s): Mike & Brian Hugg
Label: Bomb (original label: Epic)
Year: 1965
Perhaps more than any other British Invasion band, the Yardbirds' US and UK catalogs varied considerably. This is because the band only released a pair of LPs in the UK, one of which was a live album, with the bulk of their studio output appearing on 45 RPM singles and EPs. In the US, on the other hand, the group released four (mostly) studio LPs, compiled from the various UK releases. One song, You're A Better Man Than I, actually came out on a US album four months before it was issued as a single B side in February of 1966 in the UK.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
Source: LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Sundazed/Columbia
Year: 1966
One of Simon And Garfunkel's most popular songs, The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) originally appeared on their 1966 LP Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme. The recording was never, however, released as a single by the duo (although it did appear as a 1967 B side). When Columbia released a greatest hits compilation album (after the duo had split up), a live acoustic version of the song was included on the album. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) did make the top 40 in 1967, when it was recorded by Harper's Bizarre, a group featuring future Doobie Brothers and Van Halen producer Ted Templeman on lead vocals.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Sunny Afternoon
Source: Mono British import CD: Face To Face
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Sanctuary (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1966
My family got its first real stereo (a GE AM/FM console with a reel-to-reel recorder instead a turntable that is still sitting in the living room at my mother's house nearly 50 years later) just in time for me to catch the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon at the peak of its popularity. My school had just gone into split sessions and all my classes were over by one o'clock, which gave me the chance to explore the world of top 40 radio for a couple hours every day without the rest of the family telling me to turn it down (or off).
Artist: Monkees
Title: I'm A Believer
Source: CD: The Monkees' Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: More Of The Monkees)
Writer(s): Neil Diamond
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1966
If there was ever any such thing as a guaranteed hit record, it was I'm A Believer, a Neil Diamond tune recorded by the Monkees in 1966. Released in November as the Monkees' second single, I'm A Believer hit the #1 spot on the Billboard charts on December 31st, and remained at the top of the charts for all of January and most of February of 1967. It was also included on the album More Of The Monkees, released in January of 1967, as well as being featured on four consecutive episodes of the TV series The Monkees.
Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1836 (starts 9/5/18)
This week we have 15 songs for you, a new record for Rockin' in the Days of Confusion. Of course, they're all relatively short, with only one track exceding the five minute mark. I doubt you'll ever see that happen again!
Artist: Neil Young
Title: The Loner
Source: LP: The Big Ball (originally released on LP: Neil Young)
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
The Loner could easily have been passed off as a Buffalo Springfield song. In addition to singer/songwriter/guitarist Neil Young, the tune features Springfield members Jim Messina on bass and George Grantham on drums. Since Buffalo Springfield was functionally defunct by the time the song was ready for release, however, it instead became Young's first single as a solo artist. The song first appeared, in a longer form, on Young's first solo album in late 1968, with the single appearing three months later. The subject of The Loner has long been rumored to be Young's bandmate Stephen Stills, or possibly Young himself. As usual, Neil Young ain't sayin'.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Ramble On
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin II
Writer(s): Page/Plant
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
Some songs grab you the first time you hear them, but soon wear out their welcome. Others take a while to catch on, but tend to stay with you for a lifetime. Then there are those rare classics that manage to hook you from the start and yet never get old. One such song is Led Zeppelin's Ramble On, from their second LP. The song starts with a Jimmy Page acoustic guitar riff played high up on the neck with what sounds almost like footsteps keeping time (but turns out to be John Bonham playing bongo style on a guitar case). John Paul Jones soon adds one of the most melodic bass lines ever to appear in a rock song, followed closely by Robert Plant's Tolkien-influenced lyrics. For the chorus the band gets into electric mode, with guitar, bass and drums each contributing to a unique staggered rhythmic pattern. The song also contains one of Page's most memorable solos, that shares tonal qualities with Eric Clapton's work on Cream's Disraeli Gears album. Although I usually don't pay much attention to lyrics, one set of lines from Ramble On has stuck with me for a good many years:
"'Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her."
Fun stuff, that!
Artist: Steve Miller Band
Title: Good Morning
Source: LP: Number 5
Writer(s): Bobby Winkleman
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
In 1970 bassist Lonnie Turner, who had been with the Steve Miller Band since its founding in 1966 (and would return in 1973), left the band for reasons unknown. His replacement, Bobby Winkleman, immediately made his presence felt by penning the opening track of the band's next LP, a tune called Good Morning that was based on a children's song. Winkleman had been a member of the legendary San Francisco East Bay band Frumious Bandersnatch, and several of his former bandmates would appear on the following album, Rock Love. Winkleman himself has remained active in the music business, producing (among other things) a CD called Nuggets From The Golden State: The Berkeley EPs, A British anthology album on the Big Beat label that collected rare recordings from legendary Bay Area bands such as Country Joe and the Fish, Mad River and of course Frumious Bandersnatch.
Artist: Yes
Title: We Are Heaven/South Side Of The Sky
Source: CD: Fragile
Writer(s): Anderson/Squire
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1971
The fourth Yes album, Fragile, introduced the "classic" Yes lineup of John Anderson (vocals), Bill Bruford (drums), Steve Howe (guitar), Chris Squire (bass) and Rick Wakemen (keyboards), and features some of the band's best known songs. Four of the album's songs, including South Side Of The Sky, feature the entire band, while the remaining five tracks were contributed by the individual members. We Have Heaven, a multi-tracked Anderson solo piece, leads directly into South Side Of The Sky, and has a lyrical connection to the longer piece, as both songs address matters of mortality. South Side, according to new liner notes, is about a polar expedition that ends with the death of the entire party, with somewhat metaphorical references to mountain climbing as well. Anderson says the inspiration for the song's lyrics came from an article he read in which sleep was referred to as Death's little sister. Although the song is credited to Anderson and Squire, the basic guitar riff actually came from a composition played by Howe's previous band, Bodast, while the repeating piano arpeggio in the middle of the piece was provided by Wakeman.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Horizons
Source: CD: Foxtrot
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1972
Although credited to the entire band, Horizons is a short acoustic guitar instrumental written by Steve Hackett, who is the only member of Genesis to actually play on the track. The tune, based on a piece by J.S. Bach, opens side two of the 1972 LP Foxtrot.
Artist: Arlo Guthrie
Title: Week On The Rag
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single B side (promo)
Writer(s): Arlo Guthrie
Label: Reprise
Year: 1973
One of the most popular films of 1973 (second only to The Exorcist) was The Sting, a caper flick set in the 1930s that used songs written earlier in the century by ragtime composer Scott Joplin. The film's popularity set off a ragtime craze that influenced artists such as Arlo Guthrie to write ragtime pieces of their own. Guthrie's Week On The Rag was included on his 1973 Last Of The Brooklyn Cowboys and released as the B side of the album's single, a reworking of Woody Guthrie's Gypsy Davy.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Preservation
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1974
The Kinks' Preservation was a song that served as a summation of the band's 1974 concept album, Preservation-Act 1. Oddly enough, the song itself was not included on either that album or its followup, Preservation-Act 2, instead being released as a non-album single in 1974. There were two versions of the song, the longer of which is heard here. My copy is a bit on the scratchy side, but given the fact that the single failed to chart, I consider myself lucky to have a copy of it at all.
Artist: Tommy Bolin
Title: Lotus
Source: Japanese import CD: Teaser
Writer(s): Tesar/Bolin
Label: Sony (original label: Nemperor)
Year: 1975
Tommy Bolin's debut solo LP, Teaser, was released at around the same time as his first album as a member of Deep Purple, Come Taste The Band. Because of touring commitments with Deep Purple, Bolin was unable to effectively promote Teaser, and sales suffered. The album did get good reviews, with critics praising Bolin's versatility on tracks like Lotus, which closes out the LP.
Artist: Jean-Luc Ponty
Title: Tarantula
Source: LP: Imaginary Voyage
Writer(s): Jean-Luc Ponty
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1976
Touted by jazz critics as being "the first jazz violinist to be as exciting as a saxophonist', Jean-Luc Ponty released his first solo album in 1964 at the age of 22. He remained virtually unknown outside of his native France, however, until the early 1970s, when he emigrated to the United States to become a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention. This in turn led to Ponty gaining a crossover audience just as the jazz-rock fusion movement was gaining ground in the US. His 1976 LP, Imaginary Voyage, is considered one of the defining works of the genre, thanks to tracks like Tarantula, which closes out the first side of the original LP.
Artist: Bill Murray & Christopher Guest
Title: Mr. Roberts
Source: CD: Greatest Hits Of The National Lampoon (originally released on LP: That's Not Funny, That's Sick)
Writer(s): Murray/Guest
Label: Uproar (original label: Label 21)
Year: 1977
There are actually two Mr. Roberts tracks on the 1977 National Lampoon LP That's Not Funny, That's Sick. The more famous one depicts the children's show host (a parody of Mister Rogers) being accosted by the father of one of the neighborhood kids for spending too much time alone with his son. For my money, though, the far funnier one involves Mr. Roberts interviewing a jazz bassist, culminating in a trip to the "magic kingdom". Bill Murray and Christopher Guest (if you don't know who they are, look 'em up) provided the voices for the two characters as well as writing the piece.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Julia Dream
Source: CD: Relics (reissue of original album) (song orginally released in UK on 45 RPM vinyl)
Writer: Roger Waters
Label: Capitol (original label: Harvest)
Year: 1968
With Sid Barrett becoming increasingly unreliable, the other members of Pink Floyd decided to invite Barrett's childhood friend, guitarist David Gilmour, into the band. One of the earliest recordings with Gilmour was Julia Dream, a B side released in 1968 and included on the Relics LP in the early 1970s.
Artist: Moody Blues
Title: In The Beginning/Lovely To See You
Source: CD: On The Threshold Of A Dream
Writer(s): Edge/Hayward
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
If there is any one band known for their concept albums, it's the Moody Blues. Starting with the 1967 LP Days Of Future Past, every Moody Blues album has been a concept album (except for their live albums, of course). 1969 saw two of these albums being released by the group. The first was On The Threshold Of A Dream, which explores dreams and the inner psyche. The opening track, In The Beginning, consists of a dialogue between Justin Hayward (as a man attempting to define himself as a human being), Graeham Edge (as the voice of technology attempting to usurp the role of humanity) and Michael Pinder (as the inner voice of the original speaker), set against a background of electronic effects created by Edge. Heady stuff, but that' pretty much what the Moody Blues were about in 1969.
Artist: Stephen Stills
Title: Church (Part Of Someone)
Source: LP: Stephen Stills
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
Not every song Stephen Stills wrote was hit single material. For example, Church (Part Of Someone), from Stills's 1970 solo debut, is one of those massive productions that seems to go on forever without really going anywhere.
Artist: Doobie Brothers
Title: Slippery St. Paul
Source: LP: The Doobie Brothers
Writer(s): Simmons/Johnston
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
The first Doobie Brothers album failed to make the Billboard album charts when it was originally released in 1971, despite having a number of decent tunes, including Slippery St. Paul. The song itself is a rare collaboration between the band's two main songwriters, Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons, who generally worked separately.
Artist: Steeleye Span
Title: Gaudete
Source: LP: Below The Salt
Writer(s): Trad., arr. Steeleye Span
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1972
Once in a while a recording comes along that is totally outside of every popular genre, yet ends up being a hit single. You know the kind I mean. Songs like Winchester Cathedral, Don't Worry Be Happy or They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Ha! Gaudete, a very old Christmas carol from Steeleye Span's Below The Salt album, is one of these. It is also the first British top 20 hit to be sung entirely in Latin. Since nobody I know speaks Latin I figured I could get away with playing it in early September. Unlike the single, the LP version heard here starts off softly and slowly increases in volume until about half way through the piece before beginning a slow fade. The idea was to simulate the movement of carolers past the listener as they sang the tune.
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