Sunday, July 21, 2019
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1930 (starts 7/22/19)
This week we have a unique Advanced Psych segment featuring a 21st century recording of an iconic late 60s Southern California psychedelic era band covering an equally iconic tune from another late 60s Southern California psychedelic era band, a popular British band from the 1980s recording under an assumed name and outselling themselves in the process, and one of the giants of the 60s music scene re-recording his most cherished classic nearly 40 years later. Oh, and we also close out the show with three tracks never played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before.
Artist: Simon And Garfunkel
Title: Bookends Theme/Save The Life Of My Child/America
Source: LP: Bookends
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia/Sundazed
Year: 1967
An early example of a concept album (or at least half an album) was Simon And Garfunkel's fourth LP, Bookends. The side starts and ends with the Bookends theme. In between they go through a sort of life cycle of tracks, from Save The Life Of My Child (featuring a synthesizer opening programmed by Robert Moog himself), into America, a song that is very much in the sprit of Jack Kerouak's On The Road. One of these days I'll play the rest of the side, which takes us right into the age that many of us who bought the original LP are now approaching.
Artist: Truth
Title: P.S. (Prognosis Stegnoisis)
Source: Mono CD: A Heavy Dose Of Lyte Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jose Sanchez
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year: 1968
The truth about Truth is that nobody seems to know the truth about Truth. What is known is: 1)Truth recorded a single for Warner Brothers and released it in 1968. 2)The A side of that single was a song written by Jose Sanchez called P.S. (Prognosis Stegnoisis). 3)The record was produced by Dave Hassinger, engineer of the Rolling Stones' recordings made at RCA studios in Hollywood and producer of the first couple of Grateful Dead albums as well as the Electric Prunes. 4) The song P.S. (Prognosis Stegnoisis) is a nice example of acid rock. Enjoy!
Artist: Iron Butterfly
Title: Gentle As It May Seem
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Heavy)
Writer(s): DeLoach/Weis
Label: Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year: 1968
Personnel changes were pretty much a regular occurrence with Iron Butterfly. After the first album, Heavy, everyone except keyboardist Doug Ingle and drummer Ron Bushy left the band. This was accompanied by a drastic change in style as well, as Ingle, who had already been carrying the lion's share of lead vocals, became the group's primary songwriter as well. Gentle As It Seems, written by Daryl DeLoach and lead guitarist Danny Weis, is a good example of the band's original sound, back when they were scrounging for gigs in a rapidly shrinking L.A. all-ages club scene.
Artist: Ace Of Cups
Title: Glue
Source: Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on CD: It's Bad For You But Buy It)
Writer(s): Denise Kaufman
Label: Rhino (original label: Ace/Big Beat)
Year: Recorded 1968, released 2003
The Ace Of Cups were a pioneering all-female rock band from San Francisco that included Denise Kaufman, immortalized by Ken Kesey as Mary Microgram in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Koolaid Acid Test. As one of the major Merry Pranksters, Kaufman's irreverent attitude is in full evidence on the track Glue, which features a bit of guerilla theater parodying the standard TV commercials of the time. Lead vocals are by Mary Gannon, who came up with the idea of a rock band made up entirely of women in the first place.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Heart Full Of Soul
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Graham Gouldman
Label: Epic
Year: 1965
Heart Full Of Soul, the Yardbirds' follow-up single to For Your Love was a huge hit, making the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1965. The song, the first to feature guitarist Jeff Beck prominently, was written by Graham Gouldman, who was then a member of Wayne Fontana's Mindbenders and would later be a founding member of 10cc.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: Wrong
Source: CD: Turn On The Music Machine
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Collectables (original label: Original Sound)
Year: 1966
Sean Bonniwell was a member of the mainstream (i.e. lots of appearances on TV variety shows hosted by people like Perry Como and Bob Hope) folk group the Lamplighters in the early 60s. By 1966 he had morphed into one of the more mysterious figures on the LA music scene, leading a proto-punk band dressed entirely in black. Bonniwell himself wore a single black glove (Michael Jackson was about seven years old at the time), and was one of the most prolific songwriters of the day. His recordings, often featuring the distinctive Farfisa organ sound, were a primary influence on later L.A. bands such as Iron Butterfly and the Doors. A classic example of the Music Machine sound was the song Wrong, which was issued as the B side of the group's most successful single, Talk Talk.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Thoughts And Words
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Chris Hillman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
In addition to recording the most commercially successful Dylan cover songs, the Byrds had a wealth of original material over the course of several albums. On their first album, these came primarily from guitarists Gene Clark and Jim (now Roger) McGuinn, with David Crosby emerging as the group's third songwriter on the band's second album. After Clark's departure, bassist Chris Hillman began writing as well, and had three credits as solo songwriter on the group's fourth LP, Younger Than Yesterday. Hillman credits McGuinn, however, for coming up with the distinctive reverse-guitar break midway through Thoughts And Words.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Good Morning Good Morning/Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)/A Day In The Life
Source: CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1967
One of the great accidents of record production was the splice that turned the chicken at the end of Good Morning Good Morning into a guitar, starting off Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) and ultimately leading into A Day In The Life, with it's slowly dissolving orchestral chord that brings the number one album of 1967 to a close.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooniel (live long version)
Source: CD: After Bathing At Baxter's (bonus track)
Writer(s): Paul Kantner
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Year: 1967
Jefferson Airplane's original plan for their third album, After Bathing At Baxter's, was to open the LP with a live, eleven-minute version of The Ballad Of You & Me & Pooniel. Plans changed, and a shorter studio version of the track was instead included as part of the first of six suites that made up the final album. This is the original live recording of the song, included as a bonus track on the remastered CD version of After Bathing At Baxter's.
Artist: Shadows Of Knight
Title: Someone Like Me
Source: Mono CD: Gloria (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Novak/McDowell
Label: Sundazed (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1967
The last single released by the Shadows Of Knight on the Dunwich label (possibly the last single released on the Dunwich label by anyone) was a power punk song called Someone Like Me that foreshadows the direction the band (or at least vocalist Jim Sohns) would take over the next year or two, as they fell under the influence of bubble gum oriented Kavenitz/Katz Productions. Unlike previous releases, Someone Like Me features a horn section, and probably other studio musicians as well. Honestly, I don't know if, besides Sohns, any actual band members appear on this track at all.
Artist: Cream
Title: Sunshine Of Your Love
Source: LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer: Clapton/Bruce/Brown
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Only a handful of songs can truly be described as "iconic". Sunshine Of Your Love, with its often-imitated signature riff, the line-by-line trading off of lead vocals by Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton and one of the best-known lead guitar solos in rock history, certainly qualifies.
Artist: Wildflower
Title: Coffee Cup
Source: Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers)
Writer(s): Ehret/Ellis
Label: Rhino (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1967
The Wildflower was somewhat typical of the San Francisco brand of folk-rock; less political in the lyrics and less jangly on the instrumental side. Although Coffee Cup was recorded in 1965, it did not get released until the summer of love two years later, on a collection of recordings by a variety of artists on Bob Shad's Mainstream label.
Artist: Astronauts
Title: Razzamatazz
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Venet/Boyce/Allison
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1965
Landlocked Boulder, Colorado would seem an unlikely place for a surf music band. Nonetheless, the Astonauts were just that, and a pretty successful one at that. That success, however, came from an equally unlikely place. After being together for about three years and having only one charted single in the US (Baja, which spent one week on the chart in 1963, peaking in the #94 spot), the band discovered that their records were doing quite well in Japan, where the mostly-instrumental Astronauts were actually outselling the Beach Boys. The group soon began touring extensively in the Far East and when all was said and done had released nine albums and a dozen singles over a period of less than 10 years. Razzamatazz is the instrumental B side to the Astronauts' 1965 recording of Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day, a US-only single that sought to tie the Astronauts to the wave of self-contained American bands that were popping up in response to the previous year's British Invasion. Razzamatazz itself is basically the instrumental track for Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day with some harmonica added.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: British import LP: Artifact
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Heartbeat
Year: 2001
When the Electric Prunes reunited to record their first album of the 21st century they decided to stick mostly to original compositions. There were a couple exceptions, however, including an inventive cover of Arthur Lee's 7&7 Is. Although slower in tempo than Love's 1966 original recording, the Prunes' version of the tune is no less intense, albeit in a more subtle fashion.
Artist: Dukes Of Stratosphear (aka XTC)
Title: Vanishing Girl
Source: CD: Chips From The Chocolate Factory (originally released in UK on LP: Psionic Psunspot)
Writer(s): Colin Moulding
Label: Caroline (original label: Virgin)
Year: 1987
Andy Partridge of XTC had always been a fan of psychedelic era music, but for various reasons had kept that pretty much to himself. That began to change, however, in 1979, when guitarist Dick Gregory joined the band. It turned out that Gregory shared a fondness for psychedelic music, and the two began to discuss the possibility of sometime recording their own psychedelically-oriented tunes. Schedules were too full to accomodate additional projects at the time, however, and the idea went on the back burner for several years. Finally, in November of 1984, a month after the release of XTC's The Big Express, Partridge found himself with some unexpected free time and invited Gregory and XTC bassist Colin Moulding, along with Gregory's brother Ian (a drummer) to a small English recording studio to record what would become 25 O'Clock, an EP from a group called the Dukes Of Stratosphear. The EP was released on April 1, 1985 exclusively in the UK, where it outsold The Big Express by a 2-to-1 margin, even before word got out that the Dukes of Stratosphear were acually XTC in disguise. The liner notes of XTC's next LP, Skylarking, mention the Dukes of Stratosphear, thanking them for the use of their guitars. In August 1987, after a bit of hemming and hawing on Partridge's part, the Dukes released their first and only full-length LP, Psionic Psunspot. Once again, the Dukes outsold the current XTC album (Skylarking). At the suggestion of the people at Virgin Records, the original planned running order of Psionic Psunspot was modified to make Colin Moulding's Vanishing Girl the album's opening track.
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: Love
Title: Your Mind And We Belong Together
Source: Australian import CD: Comes In Colours (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Raven (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1968
The last record to be released by the classic Love lineup of Arthur Lee, Ken Forssi, Johnny Echols, Bryan MacLean and Michael Stuart was a single, Your Mind And We Belong Together. Although released in 1968, the song is very much the same style as the 1967 album Forever Changes. A bonus track on the Forever Changes CD shows Lee very much in command of the recording sessions, calling for over two dozen takes before getting an acceptable version of the song. The song serves as a fitting close to the story of one of the most influential, yet overlooked, bands in rock history...or would have, if Lee had not tried unsuccessfully to duplicate the band's success with new members several times in the ensuing years.
Artist: Legend
Title: Enjoy Yourself
Source: CD: A Lethal Dose of Hard Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Davis/Russ
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: Megaphone)
Year: 1968
Dragonfly was an album that came out on Los Angeles' Megaphone label in 1970. It's not entirely clear, however, if Dragonfly was actually the name of the band itself, or just the album, since no other credits are given. The reason for this confusion is that a couple of years earlier the exact same lineup of musicians had recorded a trio of singles for Megaphone as the Legend, including an early version of Enjoy Yourself, a song that is considered one of the highlights of the Dragonfly album. Now if only someone would send me a copy of the Dragonfly LP...
Artist: Fairport Convention
Title: It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft
Source: CD: Spirit of Joy (originally released on LP: Fairport Convention)
Writer(s): Hutchings/Thompson
Label: Polydor (original US label: Cotillion)
Year: 1968
Fairport Convention has long been known for being an important part of the British folk music revival that came to prominence in the early 70s. Originally, however, the band was modeled after the folk-rock bands that had risen to prominence on the US West Coast from 1965-66. Their first LP was released in early 1968, and drew favorable reviews from the UK rock press, which saw them at Britain's answer to Jefferson Airplane. One of the LP's highlights is It's Alright, It's Only Witchcraft, which features electric guitar work by Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol that rivals that of Jorma Kaukonen. The album was not initially released in the US. Two years later, following the success of Fairport Convention's later albums with vocalist Sandy Denny on the A&M label, the band's first LP (with Judy Dyble) was given a limited release on Atlantic's Cotillion subsidiary.
Artist: Doors
Title: Love Me Two Times
Source: LP: 13 (originally released on LP: Strange Days and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Although the second Doors album is sometimes dismissed as being full of tracks that didn't make the cut on the debut LP, the fact is that Strange Days contains some of the Doors best-known tunes. One of those is Love Me Two Times, which was the second single released from the album. The song continues to get heavy airplay on classic rock stations.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Me About You
Source: CD: 20 Greatest Hits (originally released on LP: Happy Together)
Writer(s): Bonner/Gordon
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1967
Despite being, in the words of the Turtles' co-leader Mark Volman, one of the band's best recordings, Me About You was not chosen to be released as a single in 1967. Instead, two other bands, the Mojo Men and the Lovin' Spoonful, took a shot at the song, but neither version charted. Eventually, after the Turtles had split up, White Whale Records did release the song as the group's last single, but by then nobody was interested in hearing the Turtles on the radio and the song stalled out in the 105 spot. Described by Volman as "progressive pop with a pulse beat", Me About You features strings and horns by Jerry Yester, a member of the Modern Folk Quintet who would eventually join the Lovin' Spoonful.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Bluebird
Source: LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again)
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Cotillion (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
When it comes right down to it Buffalo Springfield has one of the highest ratios of songs recorded to songs played on the radio of any band in history, especially if you only count the two albums worth of material that was released while the band was still active. This is probably because Buffalo Springfield had more raw songwriting talent than just about any two other bands. Although Neil Young was just starting to hit his stride as a songwriter, bandmate Stephen Stills was already at an early peak, as songs like Bluebird clearly demonstrate.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix/Band Of Gypsys
Title: Who Knows
Source: LP: Band Of Gypsys
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
The first song you hear on an album may not always be the best song on the album, but it is usually the first one that comes to mind whenever that album is mentioned. Such is the case with Who Knows, which opens the Hendrix/Band Of Gypsys album. The thing is, it really isn't much of a song at all, just a sequence of ten notes repeated over and over with occasional vocals and guitar solos on top. It was, however, a fun song to jam on, as it only took a few seconds to learn the sequence.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Shorty Blackwell
Source: LP: Instant Replay
Writer(s): Mickey Dolenz
Label: Colgems
Year: 1969
The longest track ever released by the Monkees was also the last track on their last original LP, Instant Replay. The Monkees' TV show had finished its original run in March of 1968. Not long after that Peter Tork, no longer obligated as an actor to continue his role, announced his departure from the group. Even before any of that happened, however, Mickey Dolenz had begun work on Shorty Blackwell, a piece that is impossible to categorize. Descriptions from various reviewers include words like "weird", "over-wrought" and "Broadway on acid". Like nearly all the tracks on Instant Replay, the song is essentially a solo piece performed entirely (except for the vocals) by studio musicians, with no participation whatsoever from the other two Monkees.
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Sit With The Guru
Source: LP: The Best Of The Strawberry Alarm Clock (originally released on LP: Wake Up...It's Tomorrow and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Weitz/King/Freeman
Label: Sundazed/Uni
Year: 1968
Sit With The Guru is the second single from the second Strawberry Alarm Clock album, Wake Up...It's Tomorrow. The song addresses the subject of polytheism, which might explain the fact that it only peaked at #65 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1930 (starts 7/22/19)
Once again we have an hour of free-form rock, with a definite emphasis on the progressive side of things (hey, if it ain't broke...)
Artist: Doors
Title: People Are Strange
Source: CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Strange Days and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
The first single from the second Doors album was People Are Strange. The song quickly dispelled any notion that the Doors might be one-hit wonders and helped establish the band as an international act as opposed to just another band from L.A. The album itself, Strange Days, was a turning point for Elektra Records as well, as it shifted the label's promotional efforts away from their original rock band, Love, to the Doors, whom ironically had been recommended to the label by Love's leader, Arthur Lee.
Artist: Todd Rundgren
Title: Good Vibrations
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Wilson/Love
Label: Bearsville
Year: 1976
Todd Rundgren has stated that his musical career began in 1966, the year he formed Nazz. Ten years later he released the album Faithful. The first side of that album was made up entirely of near-perfect replicas of some of Rundgren's favorite songs from 1966 (and one from early 1967). One of these, Good Vibrations, was also released as a single. Although Rundgren's voice isn't quite up to the level of the mid-60s Beach Boys in the harmony department, the arrangement of the song is dead on, and is actually less jarring to listen to than Brian Wilson's own remake of the song from 2004.
Artist: Deep Purple
Title: Our Lady
Source: Japanese import CD: Who Do We Think We Are
Writer(s): Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1973
Deep Purple was the top selling artist of 1973, thanks in large part to the release of their seventh studio album, Who Do We Think We Are. It was also the final year for the band's classic MK2 lineup, with both Ian Gillan and Roger Glover leaving the band that summer. According to Gillan, the band had just finished 18 months of touring and every member had had some sort of major illness over that same period, yet their managers insisted that they immediately get to work on the new album, even though the band members desperately needed a break. Nonetheless the album itself is one of their strongest, in spite of the fact that, for the most part the band members weren't even on speaking terms and much of the album was recorded piecemeal, with each member adding his part at a different time. The final track on the album, Our Lady, was a return to the band's psychedelic roots, with a definite Hendrix vibe to the entire piece.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Watcher Of The Skies
Source: CD: Foxtrot
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1972
The opening song for most of Genesis's live performances throughout the mid-1970s was also the opening track of their 1972 album Foxtrot. Watcher Of The Skies was inspired by the works of science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood's End) and legendary comic book writer Stan Lee (the Watcher series), although the title itself reportedly was taken from an 1817 poem by John Keats. The two alternating chords at the beginning of the piece were actually the result of the limitations of a Mellotron MKII that keyboardist Tony Banks had just bought from King Crimson. According to Banks "There were these two chords that sounded really good on that instrument. There are some chords you can't play on that instrument because they'd be so out of tune. These chords created an incredible atmosphere. That's why it's just an incredible intro number. It never sounded so good on the later Mellotron."
Artist: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Title: Knife-Edge
Source: CD: Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Writer(s): Janocek, arr. Emerson/Lake/Palmer
Label: Rhino (original label: Cotillion)
Year: 1970
Starting with the release of their first self-titled LP, Emerson, Lake & Palmer were known for incorporating classical music into rock compositions. One of the earliest examples of this is Knife-Edge, an adaptation of the first movement of Leoš Janácek's Sinfonietta that incorporates a section of Johann Sebastian Bach's first French Suite in D minor as well. All this on a piece that rocks out as hard, if not harder, than anything else released in 1970.
Artist: Nektar
Title: A Tab In The Ocean
Source: LP: A Tab In The Ocean
Writer(s): Nektar
Label: Passport (original German label: Bellaphon)
Year: 1972 (US release: 1976)
On the surface it seems like a story you've heard before: a group of young British musicians go to Hamburg, Germany to hone their craft, building up a cult following in the process. But this story is not about the Beatles. It is about Nektar, formed in 1969 by Roye Albrighton on guitars and vocals, Allan "Taff" Freeman on keyboards, Derek "Mo" Moore on bass, Ron Howden on drums, and Mick Brockett and Keith Walters on lights and special effects. Nektar's early style is well represented on the title track of their second LP, A Tab In The Ocean, which takes up the entire first side of the album. The LP was originally released in Germany in 1972 on the Bellaphon label. Nektar would eventually become closely associated with the progressive rock movement of the early to mid 1970s, thanks in large part to A Tab In The Ocean finally being released in the US in 1976. Like fellow prog-rockers Genesis and Gentle Giant, Nektar began to commercialize their sound with shorter songs containing fewer time and key changes as the decade wore on; unlike those other bands, however, Nektar did not become more popular because of the changes. Indeed, by 1978, the band had decided to call it quits, although two of the members reformed the band briefly the following year, releasing one album in 1980 before disbanding again in 1982.
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: Breathe/Speak To Me/On The Run
Source: CD: The Dark Side Of The Moon
Writer(s): Mason/Waters/Gilmour/Wright
Label: Capitol (original label: Harvest)
Year: 1973
Is there really anything I can say about Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon that hasn't been said a hundred times already? Probably not, so let's just kick back and enjoy the album's opening tracks, Breathe/Speak To Me and On The Run.
Artist: Steeleye Span
Title: The Wife Of Ushers Well
Source: LP: All Around My Hat
Writer(s): Trad., arr. Hart/Prior/Knight/Johnson/Kemp
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1975
Steeleye Span hit the peak of their popularity in 1975 with the album All Around My Hat, which spent six months on the British album charts, peaking at #5. It was also their first album to chart in the US, peaking at #143. Although all the songs on the album were credited to the band members, many of the tunes, such as The Wife Of Ushers Well, were actually traditional English folk ballads that had been given electric rock arrangements by the band.
Artist: Faces
Title: Ooh-La-La
Source: 45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer(s): Wood/Lane
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1973
Rod Stewart does not perform on the song Ooh-La-La (that's Ronnie Wood on lead vocals). In fact, he is entirely missing from three of the ten tracks on the 1973 album Ooh La La. This is because by 1973 Rod Stewart was a Big Solo Rock Star who apparently had little interest in honoring his commitments to his bandmates. He missed the first two weeks of sessions for the album entirely and appeared to be distracted when he did bother to show up. After the album was released he went out of his way to tell anyone that would listen how bad the album was. Now do you understand why I have zero respect for Rod Stewart?
Artist: Traffic
Title: Stranger To Himself
Source: LP: John Barleycorn Must Die
Writer(s): Winwood/Capaldi
Label: Island (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1970
Stranger To Himself is one of two songs that Steve Winwood had completed for his first solo album when he decided to instead make a new Traffic album. Rather than recut the song, Winwood included the recording, on which he plays all the instruments himself, as the first track of side two of the fourth Traffic LP, John Barleycorn Must Die.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1929 (starts 7/15/19)
This one is all over the place folks!
Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Summer In The City
Source: LP: Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful
Writer(s): Sebastian/Sebastian/Boone
Label: Sundazed/Kama Sutra
Year: 1966
The Lovin' Spoonful changed gears completely for what would become their biggest hit of 1966: Summer In The City. Inspired by a poem by John Sebastian's brother, the song was recorded for the album Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful. That album was an attempt by the band to deliberately record in a variety of styles; in the case of Summer In The City, it was a rare foray into psychedelic rock for the band. Not coincidentally, Summer In The City is also my favorite Lovin' Spoonful song.
Artist: Harbinger Complex
Title: I Think I'm Down
Source: Mono British import CD: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Hockstaff/Hoyle
Label: Big Beat (original label: Brent)
Year: 1966
Most garage/club bands never made it beyond a single or two for a relatively small independent label. Freemont, California's Harbinger Complex is a good example. The group was one of many that were signed by Bob Shad, owner of Mainstream Records and its various subsidiaries such as Time and Brent. The band had already released one single on the independent Amber label and were recording at Golden State Recorders in San Francisco when they were discovered by Shad, who signed them to Brent. The band's first single for the label was the British-influenced I Think I'm Down, which came out in 1966 and was included on Mainstream's 1967 showcase album With Love-A Pot Of Flowers.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Gimme Some Lovin'
Source: Mono LP: Gimme Some Lovin' (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Steve Winwood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1966
The 1980s movie The Big Chill used Gimme Some Lovin' by the Spencer Davis Group as the backdrop for a touch football game at an informal reunion of former college students from the 60s. From that point on, movie soundtracks became much more than just background music and soundtrack albums started becomming best-sellers. Not entirely coincidentally, 60s-oriented oldies radio stations began to appear in major markets as well. Most of them are now playing 80s oldies, by the way.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Plastic Fantastic Lover (live version)
Source: LP: Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Writer(s): Marty Balin
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1969
Marty Balin's Plastic Fantastic Lover first appeared on the 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow and was issued as the B side of White Rabbit. For Jefferson Airplane's 1969 live album, Bless Its Pointed Little Head, the band, including new drummer Joey Covington, upped the tempo considerably, transforming a good song for potheads to dance to into one more suited to an audience on speed, reflecting the changes on the streets of San Francisco itself.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Mexico
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single B side and included on LP: Early Flight)
Writer(s): Grace Slick
Label: Rhino (original label: RCA Victor)
Year: 1970
The B side of the last Jefferson Airplane single to include founding member (and original leader) Marty Balin was Mexico, a scathing response by Grace Slick to President Richard Nixon's attempts to eradicate the marijuana trade between the US and Mexico. The song was slated to be included on the next Airplane album, Long John Silver, but Balin's departure necessitated a change in plans, and Mexico did not appear on an LP until Early Flight was released in 1974.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Rock Me Baby
Source: LP: Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Writer(s): B.B. King
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1969
Rock Me Baby became B.B. King's first top 40 hit when it was released in 1964. There have been several covers of the song recorded since that time, most of which credit King as the song's writer. As is the case with many blues songs, however, the tune's lyrics can actually be traced much further back, to a 1950 recording by Lil' Son Jackson called Rockin' And Rollin', although musically the songs are completely different. As you would expect, Jackson's Rockin' And Rollin' itself borrowed extensively from various recordings as far back as the 1920s. This probably explains why, on the label of the Jefferson Airplane's 1969 live album Bless Its Pointed Little Head, the songwriting credits read "traditional". Regardless of the song's origins, the Jefferson Airplane version of Rock Me Baby, sung by lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, follows King's version closely, although it does include an extended instrumental section that stretches the song out to nearly eight minutes long.
Artist: Zombies
Title: Beechwood Park
Source: CD: Odessey And Oracle (originally released in UK as 45 RPM B side)
Writer(s): Chris White
Label: Varese Sarabande (original label: CBS)
Year: 1967
In 1967 the Zombies signed a contract with CBS records that gave them total artistic control over their recordings. The band immediately got to work on what would become Odessey And Oracle. Midway through the project they decided to release a couple tracks from the upcoming album as a single, available only in the UK. The B side of that single was Chris White's Beechwood Park. The hope was to whet the public's appetite for the upcoming album, but, when first released, Odessey and Oracle did not sell well at all, prompting the Zombies to disband. Right around that time, someone discovered another track on the album, Time Of The Season, and began playing it on the radio. It ended up being one of their biggest hits, despite the fact that there was now no band to promote the song.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Omaha
Source: Mono European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Moby Grape)
Writer: Skip Spence
Label: Sony Music (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1967
As an ill-advised promotional gimmick, Columbia Records released five separate singles concurrently with the first Moby Grape album. Of the five singles, only one, Omaha, actually charted, and it only got to the #86 spot. Meanwhile, the heavy promotion by the label led to Moby Grape getting the reputation of being over-hyped, much to the detriment of the band's career.
Artist: Amboy Dukes
Title: Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: Journey To The Center Of The Mind and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Nugent/Farmer
Label: Rhino (original label: Mainstream)
Year: 1968
Detroit was one of the major centers of pop music in the late 60s. In addition to the myriad Motown acts, the area boasted the popular retro-rock&roll band Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, the harder rocking Bob Seger System, the non-Motown R&B band the Capitols, and Ted Nugent's outfit, the Amboy Dukes, who scored big in 1968 with Journey To The Center Of The Mind.
Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Title: Underway
Source: LP: Then Play On (original promo copy)
Writer(s): Peter Green
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
Fleetwood Mac's third album, Then Play On, included three tracks that were compiled by guitarist Peter Green from several hours of studio jam sessions made by the band. Underway, which originally closed out side one of the US version of the album (before Oh Well was inserted into the lineup in a revised edition of the LP), is the mellowest of the three tracks.
Artist: Seatrain
Title: Out Where The Hills
Source: British import CD: Seatrain/Marblehead Messenger (originally released on LP: Seatrain)
Writer(s): Kuhlberg/Roberts
Label: BGO (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1970
The addition of guitarist Peter Rowan to the Seatrain lineup for their self-titled second LP saw the group suddenly at the forefront of the country-rock movement, which can plainly be heard on songs like Out Where The Hills. Being more of an East Coast band, however, Seatrain was unable to build the same kind of audience as groups like Poco and the Flying Burrito Brothers, and after just two more albums the group disbanded.
Artist: Kinks
Title: The World Keeps Going Round
Source: Mono LP: The Kink Kontroversy
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1965
By 1965 Ray Davies of the Kinks had come to realize that writing recording nothing but hard rocking songs like You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night would make for a fairly short, albeit successful career. Thus he began writing more introspective and melodic songs such as The World Keeps Going Round, which opens side two of the LP The Kinks Kontroversy. The basic message of the song is actually pretty simple: no matter how big your problems seem to be, the Earth keeps on spinning its way through space, with or without you.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: Gotta Get Away
Source: LP: Psychedelic Lollipop
Writer(s): Gordon/Adams
Label: Mercury
Year: 1966
As was common with most 1966 LPs, the Blues Magoos debut album, Psychedelic Lollipop, included a handful of cover songs, not all of which had been hits for other groups. One of the non-hits was Gotta Get Away, a fairly typical piece of garage rock that opens side two of the LP. The song was also selected as the B side for the group's second (and by far most successful) single, (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet. As the usual practice was to bring in outside songwriters for a new band's early singles and let the band write their own B side, it is possible that Gotta Get Away, which was co-written by Alan Gordon (co-writer of the Turtles' Happy Together and several other tunes) may have been the intended A side of the single.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Gomper
Source: CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco
Year: 1967
Probably the most overtly psychedelic track ever recorded by the Rolling Stones, Gomper might best be described as a hippy love song with its references to nature, innocence and, of course, pyschedelic substances. Brian Jones makes one of his last significant contributions as a member of the band he founded, playing the dulcimer, as well as tablas, organ, pan flutes and various percussion instruments on the song.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Quite Rightly So
Source: Mono European import 45 RPM EP: Homburg (originally released on LP: Shine On Brightly)
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: Esoteric (original US label: A&M)
Year: 1968
In 1969, while living on Ramstein AFB in Germany, my dad managed to get use of one of the basement storage rooms in building 913, the 18-unit apartment building we resided in. For a few months (until getting in trouble for having overnight guests and making too much noise...hey I was 16, whaddaya expect?) I got to use that room as a bedroom. I had a small record player that shut itself off when it got to the end of the record, which meant I got to go to sleep every night to the album of my choice. As often as not that album was Shine On Brightly, a copy of which I had gotten in trade for another album (the Best of the Beach Boys I think) from a guy who was expecting A Whiter Shade of Pale and was disappointed to discover it was not on this album. I always thought I got the better end of that deal, despite the fact that there was a skip during the fade of Quite Rightly So, causing the words "one was me" to repeat over and over until I scooted the needle over a bit. Luckily Quite Rightly So is the first song on the album, so I was usually awake enough to do that.
Artist: Dave Clark Five
Title: Glad All Over
Source: LP: The Dave Clark Five (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Clark/Smith
Label: Epic
Year: 1963
The Dave Clark Five were originally formed as a way of raising money for Clark's football (soccer) team. Toward the end of 1963 they scored a number one hit in England with Glad All Over, which was released to an enthusiastic US audience a few months later. For a while they even rivaled the Beatles in popularity.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: EXP/Up From The Skies
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
The second Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Axis: Bold As Love, is very much a studio creation. Hendrix had been taking a growing interest in what could be done with multiple tracks to work with, and came up with a masterpiece. What makes the achievement even more remarkable is the fact that he actually only had four tracks to work with (compared to the virtually unlimited number available with modern digital equipment). EXP, which opens the album, is an exercise in creative feedback, using volume and panning to create the illusion of circular motion. The intro to the piece is a faux interview of a slowed-down Hendrix (posing as his friend Paul Caruso) by bassist Noel Redding. The track leads directly into Up From The Skies, the only song on the album to be issued as a single in the US. Up From The Skies features Hendrix's extensive use of a wah-wah pedal, with vocals and guitar panning back and forth from speaker to speaker over the jazz-styled brushes of drummer Mitch Mitchell.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Hey Joe
Source: LP: Smash Hits (originally released on LP: Are You Experienced?)
Writer(s): Billy Roberts
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. 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. The song itself was copyrighted in 1962 by California folk singer Billy Roberts and a much faster version by the Leaves had hit the US charts in early 1966.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Little Wing
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Although it didn't have any hit singles on it, Axis: Bold As Love, the second album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was full of memorable tunes, including one of Hendrix's most covered songs, Little Wing. The album itself is a showcase for Hendrix's rapidly developing skills, both as a songwriter and in the studio. The actual production of the album was a true collaborative effort, combining Hendrix's creativity, engineer Eddie Kramer's expertise and producer Chas Chandler's strong sense of how a record should sound, acquired through years of recording experience as a member of the Animals. The result was nothing short of a masterpiece.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
Source: 45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
"Everybody must get stoned." 'Nuff said.
Artist: Doors
Title: Take It As It Comes
Source: CD: The Doors
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
L.A.'s Whisky-A-Go-Go was the place to be in 1966. Not only were some of the city's hottest bands playing there, but for a while the house band was none other than the Doors, playing songs like Take It As It Comes. One evening in early August Jack Holzman, president of Elektra Records, and producer Paul Rothchild were among those attending the club, having been invited there to hear the Doors by Arthur Lee (who with his band Love was already recording for Elektra). After hearing two sets Holzman signed the group to a contract with the label, making the Doors only the second rock band on the Elektra label (although the Butterfield Blues Band is considered by some to be the first, predating Love by several months). By the end of the month the Doors were in the studio recording songs like Take It As It Comes for their debut LP, which was released in January of 1967.
Artist: Mass Temper
Title: Gravedigger
Source: Mono CD: A Deadly Dose Of Wylde Psych (originally released on 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Cassidy/Pittman
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: Kix)
Year: 1968
Bailey, NC, may seem an unlikely place to find a proto-metal band, but that's exactly where Mass Temper hailed from. Gravedigger, the A side of a single on the Kix label, is almost impossible to find in its original form, mainly because there were only 100 copies of the record ever pressed. Not much else is known about the record, other than the sad fact that the lead guitarist (presumably either Cassidy or Pittman) died a year after the single was released.
Artist: Taste
Title: Dual Carraigeway Pain
Source: British import CD: Taste
Writer(s): Rory Gallagher
Label: Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year: 1969
Guitarist Rory Gallagher cuts loose on Dual Carraigeway Pain, from the first Taste album. One thing, though. What exactly is a "dual carraigeway? Some sort of divided highway?
Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Kozmic Blues
Source: LP: I Got Dem 'Ol Kozmic Blues Again Mama
Writer(s): Joplin/Mekler
Label: Columbia
Year: 1969
After she parted company with Big Brother and the Holding Company following the Cheap Thrills album, Janis Joplin got to work forming a new band that would come to be known as the Kozmic Blues Band. Unlike Big Brother, this new band included a horn section, and leaned more toward R&B than the earlier band's hard rocking sound. Joplin released only one studio album with the Kozmic Blues Band, 1969's I Got Dem 'Ol Kozmic Blues Again Mama. Although the album sold well, it was savaged by the rock press. Still, there were some standout tracks on the album, including the title tune (of sorts), Kozmic Blues. Joplin made several live appearances with this group, including the Woodstock performing arts festival, before disbanding the unit in favor of a smaller group, the Full-Tilt Boogie Band.
Artist: Savoy Brown
Title: Flood In Houston
Source: LP: Getting To The Point
Writer(s): Youlden/Simmonds
Label: Parrot
Year: 1968
Savoy Brown's second LP, Getting To The Point, was the first to feature lead vocalist Chris Youlden. It was also the first Savoy Brown album to have more original material than cover songs on it. These new originals included the album's opening track, Flood In Houston, written by Youlden, along with bandleader/guitarist Kim Simmonds. Youlden would be gone by 1970, one of many to leave Savoy Brown over the years. In fact, Simmonds is the only member to appear on every Savoy Brown album.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: The First Edition and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Mickey Newbury
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
In 1968, former New Christy Mistrels members Kenny Rogers and Mike Settle decided to form a psychedelic rock band, the First Edition. Although Settle was the official leader on the first album, it was Rogers who would emerge as the star of the band, even to the point of eventually changing the band's name 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.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: Two Trains Running
Source: LP: Projections
Writer(s): McKinley Morganfield
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
Possibly the most influential (yet least known outside of musicians' circles) band of the Psychedelic Era was the Blues Project. Formed in 1965 in Greenwich Village, the band worked its way from coast to coast playing mostly college campuses, in the process blazing a path that continues to be followed by underground/progressive/alternative artists. As if founding the whole college circuit wasn't enough, they were arguably the very first jam band, as their version of the Muddy Waters classic Two Trains Running demonstrates. Among those drawing their inspiration from the Blues Project were a group of young musicians who were participating in Ken Kesey's Electric Cool-Aid Acid Tests. Like several other San Francisco residents they caught the Blues Project at the Fillmore Auditorium in April of 1966, and soon began to incorporate long improvisational sections into their own performances.
Artist: Eric Burdon and the Animals
Title: The Black Plague
Source: British import CD: Winds Of Change
Writer(s): Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label: Repertoire (original US label: M-G-M)
Year: 1967
One of the most interesting recordings of 1967 was Eric Burdon And The Animals' The Black Plague, which appeared on the Winds Of Change album. The Black Plague is a spoken word piece dealing with life and death in a medieval village during the time of the Black Plague (natch), set to a somewhat gothic piece of music that includes Gregorian style chanting and an occasional voice calling out the words "bring out your dead" in the background. The album itself had a rather distinctive cover, consisting of a stylized album title accompanied by a rather lengthy text piece on a scroll against a black background, something that has never been done before or since on an album cover.
Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1929 (starts 7/15/19)
This week's show is definitely a musical journey, going from 1968 to 1975 one year at a time. But first, a word from the late Dr. John...
Artist: Dr. John
Title: Right Place Wrong Time
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Mac Rebenack
Label: Atco
Year: 1973
Mac Rebenack was a fixture on the New Orleans music scene for over 50 years. He first started performing publicly in his teens, lying about his age to able to play in some of the city's more infamous clubs. At age 13 he was expelled from Jesuit school and soon found work as a staff songwriter and guitarist for the legendary Aladdin label. In 1957, at age 16, he joined the musicians' union, officially beginning his professional career. In the early 1960s he got into trouble with the law and spent two years in federal prison. Upon his release he relocated to Los Angeles, due to an ongoing cleanup campaign in New Orleans that had resulted in most of the clubs he had previously played in being permanently shut down. While in L.A., Rebenack developed his Dr. John, the Night Tripper personna, based on a real-life New Orleans voodoo priest with psychedelic elements thrown in (it was 1968 after all). By the early 1970s Dr. John had developed a cult following, but was getting tired of the self-imposed limitations of his Night Tripper image. In 1972 he recorded an album of New Orleans cover songs, following it up with his most successful album, In The Right Place, in 1973. Produced by the legendary Allen Toussaint, In The Right Place provided Dr. John his most successful hit single, Right Place Wrong Time, which went into the top 10 in both the US and Canada and has remained one of the most recognizable tunes of the early 70s thanks to its use in various films over the years. Around this time he returned to New Orleans, but continued to record at some of the top studios in the country, both as a solo artist and as a session player, appearing on literally thousands of recordings over the years. Dr. John continued to perform until shortly before his death on June 6, 2019.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Memo From Turner
Source: LP: Metamorphosis
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco
Year: Recorded 1968, released 1975
There are two distinct versions of the song Memo From Turner. The more famous recording was released in 1970 as a Mick Jagger solo single, and features Ry Cooder on slide guitar. The other version was recorded in 1968, with Al Kooper playing guitar on the track. This version was held back for several years, finally surfacing on an album called Metamorphosis in 1975. The album itself was a collection of outtakes and alternate versions of songs released on Allen Klein's Abkco label, Klein having acquired rights to the Stones' London era recordings.
Artist: King Crimson
Title: 21st Century Schizoid Man
Source: CD: In The Court Of The Crimson King
Writer: Fripp/McDonald/Lake/Giles/Sinfield
Label: Discipline Global Mobile (original US label: Atlantic)
Year: 1969
There are several bands with a legitimate claim to starting the art-rock movement of the mid-70s. The one most other musicians cite as the one that started it all, however, is King Crimson. Led by Robert Fripp, the band went through several personnel changes over the years. Many of the members went on to greater commercial success as members of other bands, including guitarist/keyboardist Ian McDonald (Foreigner), and lead vocalist/bassist Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) from the original lineup heard on In The Court Of The Crimson King. Additionally, poet Peter Sinfield, who wrote all King Crimson's early lyrics, would go on to perform a similar function for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, including their magnum opus Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends. Other original members included Michael Giles on drums and Fripp himself on guitar. 21st Century Schizoid Man, as the first song on the first album by King Crimson, can quite literally be cited as the song that got the whole thing started. Enjoy!
Artist: Chicago
Title: 25 Or 6 To 4
Source: CD: Chicago
Writer(s): Robert Lamm
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1970
For their second LP, Chicago (which had just dropped the words "Transit Authority" from their name in response to a threatened lawsuit) tried out all three of their vocalists on each new song to hear who sounded the best for that particular song. In the case of Robert Lamm's 25 Or 6 To 4, bassist Peter Cetera did the honors. The song became a top 10 single both in the US and UK. Despite rumors to the contrary, Lamm says 25 Or 6 To 4 is not a drug song. Instead, he says, the title refers to the time of the morning that he was awake and writing the tune.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Four Sticks
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin IV
Writer(s): Page/Plant
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1971
One of the most difficult songs to record in the Led Zeppelin catalog, Four Sticks, from the fourth Zeppelin album, did not have a name until John Bonham's final drum track was recorded. He reportedly was having such a hard time with the song that he ended up using four drumsticks, rather than the usual two (don't ask me how he held the extra pair) and beat on his drums as hard as he could, recording what he considered the perfect take in the process.
Artist: Santana
Title: Caravanserai (opening sequence)
Source: LP: Caravanserai
Writer(s): Shrieve/Schon/Rutley/Rauch/Rolie/Santana
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
The fourth Santana album, Caravanserai, was an abrupt departure from the formula that had made Abraxas and the band's 1971 self-titled album both critical and commercial successes. For one thing, all but three of the albums 10 tracks were instrumentals, something that didn't sit particularly well with keyboardist/vocalist Greg Rolie, who, along with second guitarist Neil Schon, would soon leave the group to form their own band, Journey. The music itself was not as easily accessible as the band's earlier material, either, which can be heard on the album's opening sequence, which features five separate pieces that run continuously without a break between them. Those pieces are, in order, Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation, Waves Within, Look Up (To See What's Coming Down), Just In Time To See The Sun and Song of the Wind, with Just In Time To See The Sun being the only one of the five pieces with vocals. Carlos Santana would continue to move toward jazz with his next album, a collaboration with John McLaughlin called Love Devotion Surrender.
Artist: Jo Jo Gunne
Title: Roll Over Me
Source: European import CD: Jo Jo Gunne/Bite Down Hard/Jumpin' The Gun/So...Where's The Show (originally released on LP: Bite Down Hard)
Writer(s): Jay Ferguson
Label: Rhino/Edsel (original label: Asylum)
Year: 1973
Jo Jo Gunne was a classic example of a band that got diminishing returns with each successive release. The second act (after Jackson Browne) signed to David Geffen's Asylum label, Jo Jo Gunne scored a top 40 hit right out of the box with Run Run Run in 1972. All subsequent singles, however, went nowhere, making Jo Jo Gunne officially a one-hit wonder despite releasing four LPs. The second of those LPs, Bite Down Hard, was a moderate success at best, peaking at #75 on the Billboard album charts. Nearly every track on the album, including Roll Over Me, was written by vocalist Jay Ferguson, who, unlike in his days with Spirit, was also providing keyboards for the band. Jo Jo Gunne's third LP, Jumpin' The Gun, never went higher than #169 on the charts and their fourth and final effort, So...Where's The Show, failed to chart at all.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: People's Parties/The Same Situation
Source: LP: Court And Spark
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Asylum
Year: 1974
Released in January of 1974, Court And Spark was singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell's most successful album, going to #2 on the Billboard album charts (#1 in Canada) and eventually achieving double platinum status. It was her first album since For The Roses, released in November of 1972, and reflected her growing interest in jazz, combined with her own brand of folk-rock to create something that went beyond both genres. This new style is well represented on the final two tracks of side one, People's Parties and The Same Situation, which blend so seamlessly that it's difficult to tell exactly when one song ends and the next one begins.
Artist: Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso
Title: L'Albero Del Pane (The Bread Tree)
Source: LP: Banco
Writer(s): DiGiacomo/Nocenzi
Label: Manticore
Year: 1975
The brand of progressive rock favored by bands such as Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and early Genesis (often referred to as art-rock) was particularly popular in Italy, the traditional home of opera. In fact, the country produced progressive rock bands of its own as well, including Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso (Bank of Mutual Support), which is still in existence. The band originally consisted of:
• Pierluigi Calderoni - drums and percussion
• Vittorio Nocenzi - organ, synthesizers, electronic strings
• Renato D'Angelo - bass guitar, acoustic guitar
• Rodolfo Maltese - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, trumpet, backing vocals
• Gianni Nocenzi - grand piano, clarinet and synthesizer
• Francesco Di Giacomo - lead vocals
It was this lineup that released the 1975 album Banco in the US. Di Giacomo's opera-styled vocals were a key component of the band's sound, as can be heard on L'Albero Del Pane (The Bread Tree).
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Facebook link
One thing I should probably do more often is post the link to the hermitradio Facebook page, so here it is:
https://www.facebook.com/hermitradioshows/
https://www.facebook.com/hermitradioshows/
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1928 (starts 7/8/19)
This week Advanced Psych returns with the opening tracks from the first actual Ace Of Cups album (released in 2018) and the first 21st century effort by the reconstituted Electric Prunes (and the longest single song entry ever made on this blog). And just for good measure, there's a hot Country Joe McDonald track from his 2017 album 50 in the segment as well. We also have an all-mono Bob Dylan set (from his electric period) and a set of early Cream tunes (including their hard to find debut single Wrapping Paper), as well as lots of other tasty nuggets from the hermit cave.
Artist: Kinks
Title: I Need You
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1965
After a series of hard-rocking hits in 1964 such as You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night, the Kinks mellowed out a bit with songs like Set Me Free and Tired Of Waiting For You the following year. Lurking on the other side of Set Me Free, though, was a song that showed that the band still knew how to rock out: I Need You.
Artist: Butterfield Blues Band
Title: Get Out Of My Life Woman
Source: CD: East-West
Writer(s): Alan Toussaint
Label: Elektra
Year: 1966
The second Butterfield Blues Band album, East-West, released in 1966, is best known for the outstanding guitar work of Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop. One often overlooked member of the group was keyboardist Mark Naftalin, who, along with Butterfield and Bishop, was a founding member of the band. Naftalin's keyboard work is the highlight of the band's cover of Alan Toussaint's Get Out Of My Life Woman, which was a hit for Lee Dorsey the same year.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Complicated
Source: LP: Between The Buttons
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
The Rolling Stones' 1967 album Between The Buttons was made amidst growing problems for the band, both with their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, and guitarist Brian Jones, whose heavy drug use was beginning to take its toll. Exascerbating the problem was the band's increasing frustration with the limitations of four-track technology, which often necessitated bouncing tracks from one machine to another to make room for more tracks, resulting in a loss of overall quality. In fact, Mick Jagger has called the entire album "garbage" (with the exception of one song that was only included on the British version of the LP), due to the poor audio quality of the finished product. Still, some of the songs, like Complicated, are good representations of where the band was musically at the time the album was recorded.
Artist: Rainbow Ffolly
Title: Sun Sing
Source: CD: Insane Times (originally released on LP: Sallies Fforth)
Writer(s): Dunsterville
Label: Zonophone (original label: Parlophone)
Year: 1968
Some records can only be described as "magical". Such is the case with Sun Sing, from the only Rainbow Ffolly album, Sallies Fforth. The album itself is essentially a bunch of demo tapes made by a group of High Wycombe (a city of about 100,000 about 30 miles from London) art students led by the Dunsterville brothers, Jonathan and Richard. The tapes were made at a local studio in Rickmansworth during off hours and are characterized by the unorthodox approach to record-making used by the group. At the suggestion of the studio owners, the group added various jingles and sound effects between the songs (similar to the approach used on The Who Sell Out) and sold the project as a "sound package" to EMI, which issued it on its Parlophone label in 1968.
Artist: Cream
Title: Wrapping Paper
Source: CD: Fresh Cream (bonus track originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Bruce/Brown
Label: Polydor
Year: 1966
Wrapping Paper is the nearly forgotten debut single from Cream, released two months before the Fresh Cream album in 1966. The song only made it to the #34 spot in the UK, and was not released in the US at all until several years later, when it appeared on an album called The Very Best Of Cream. Drummer Ginger Baker made no secret of his dislike of the song, calling it " the most appalling piece of shit I've ever heard in my life", adding that Eric Clapton didn't like the song either. Nonetheless, here it is, for the curious among you.
Artist: Cream
Title: Four Until Late
Source: LP: Fresh Cream
Writer(s): Robert Johnson
Label: Atco
Year: 1966
By the time Cream was formed, Eric Clapton had already established himself as one of the world's premier blues-rock guitarists. He had not, however, done much singing, as the bands he had worked with all had strong vocalists: Keith Relf with the Yardbirds and John Mayall with the Bluesbreakers. With Cream, however, Clapton finally got a chance to do some vocals of his own. Most of these are duets with bassist Jack Bruce, who handled the bulk of Cream's lead vocals. Clapton did get to sing lead on a few Cream songs, however. One of the earliest ones was the band's updated version of Robert Johnson's Four Until Late, from the Fresh Cream album.
Artist: Cream
Title: N.S.U.
Source: CD: Fresh Cream
Writer(s): Jack Bruce
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1966
Although most of Jack Bruce's Cream songs were co-written with lyricist Pete Brown, there were some exceptions. Among the most notable of these is N.S.U. from Cream's debut LP. The song has proven popular enough to be included in the band's repertoire when they reunited for a three-day stint at the Royal Albert Hall in 2005.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: The Sound Of Silence
Source: LP: Sounds of Silence
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
The Sound Of Silence was originally an acoustic piece that was included on Simon and Garfunkel's 1964 debut album, Wednesday Morning 3AM. The album went nowhere and was soon deleted from the Columbia Records catalog. Simon and Garfunkel themselves went their separate ways, with Simon moving to London and recording a solo LP, the Paul Simon Songbook. While Simon was in the UK, producer John Simon, who had been working with Bob Dylan on his Highway 61 Revisited album, pulled out the master tape of The Sound Of Silence and got several of the musicians who had been working on the Dylan LP to add electric instruments to the Simon And Garfunkel track. The song was released to local radio stations, where it garnered enough interest to get the modified recording released as a single. It turned out to be a huge hit and prompted Paul Simon to move back to the US and reunite with Art Garfunkel. The rest, as they say, is history.
Artist: Modern Folk Quintet
Title: Night Time Girl
Source: Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Kooper/Levine
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1966
The Modern Folk Quintet can be seen two ways: either as a group that constantly strived to be on the cutting edge or simply as fad followers. Starting off in the early 60s, the MFQ found themselves working with Phil Spector in the middle of the decade, complete with Spector's trademark "wall of sound" production techniques. When that didn't work out they signed with Lou Adler's Dunhill Records, cutting Night Time Girl, a tune that sounds like a psychedelicized version of the Mamas and the Papas.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Why (RCA Studios version)
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): McGuinn/Crosby
Label: Sundazed/Columbia
Year: 1965
One of the highlights of the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday album, released in early 1967, was a song co-written by David Crosby and Jim (Roger) McGuinn called Why. Many of the band's fans already knew that a different version of the song had already been released as the B side of Eight Miles High the previous year. What was not as well-known, however, was that both songs had been first recorded at the RCA Studios in Burbank in December of 1965, but rejected by Columbia due to their being produced at studios owned by a hated competitor. Crosby has since said that he prefers the RCA recording to the later ones made at Columbia's own studios, calling it "stronger...with a lot more flow to it".
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: And I Like It
Source: LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer: Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
Jorma Kaukonen was giving guitar lessons when he was approached by Marty Balin about joining a new band that Balin was forming. Kaukonen said yes and became a founding member of Jefferson Airplane. The two seldom collaborated on songwriting, though. One of the few examples of a Balin/Kaukonen composition is And I Like It from the band's first album. The song sounds to me like early Hot Tuna, but with Balin's vocals instead of Kaukonen's.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: The Wind Cries Mary
Source: CD: Live At Monterey
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/UMe
Year: 1967
The art of recording live rock bands was still in its infancy when the Jimi Hendrix Experience made their US debut at the Monterey International Pop Festival in June of 1967. For that matter, most live performances were marred by equipment problems, especially when it came to the public address (PA) system, which was the only way to make vocals heard over increasingly loud instruments. Monterey, however, raised the bar for both its sound system and the quality of the recordings made at the festival. In some cases, however, the improved sound system only made other equipment problems more noticable. One such problem was the annoying crackling sound coming from Jimi Hendrix's speakers during the Experience's performance of The Wind Cries Mary. Although it sounds at first like it might be a blown speaker, my own experience with Marshall amplifiers tells me that the problem was with Hendrix's amp, which was being pushed to its limits throughout the entire performance.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Birthday
Source: CD: The Beatles
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year: 1968
One of the great ironies of rock history was that the album entitled simply The Beatles was the one that had the fewest songs with all four of the band members playing on them. By 1968 the Beatles were experiencing internal conflicts, and nearly all of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's songs were played by just the two of them, while George Harrison's songs (and Ringo Starr's single contribution as a songwriter) featured an array of some of the UK's top musicians (including guitarist Eric Clapton). The opening track of side three of the album is typical of this approach, as Birthday is essentially a McCartney solo piece.
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 being released 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: Doors
Title: Love Street
Source: CD: Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine (originally released on LP: Waiting For The Sun)
Writer(s): Jim Morrison
Label: Elektra/Rhino
Year: 1968
Like many of Jim Morrison's songs, Love Street started off as a poem. "Love Street" was actually the nickname given to Rothdale Trail, the street he and Pamela Courson lived on in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon. Morrison and Courson spent a lot of time sitting on their balcony, watching the local hippies going to and from the Canyon Country Store, which was across the street from their house. Morrison turned the poem into a song in time to get it recorded for the third Doors album, Waiting For The Sun. The track was also released as the B side of the Doors' second #1 single, Hello I Love You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Mr. Blues
Source: LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s): Bob Mosley
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Bassist Bob Mosley wrote and sang on Mr. Blues, one of ten songs released simultaneously on 45 RPM vinyl from the first Moby Grape album. It was a marketing disaster that forever tarnished a talented band.
Artist: Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Title: Wonderment
Source: CD: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading/The Great Conspiracy (originally released on LP: The Great Conspiracy)
Writer(s): John Merrill
Label: Collectables (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1967
Like many bands of the psychedelic era, the Peanut Butter Conspiracy was known for its onstage improvisational skills. Unfortunately, when they were signed to Columbia they were paired up with Gary Usher, who is best known for his work with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, as well as his various studio creations such as the Hondells and, later, Sagittarius. Usher insisted on supplementing the band's sound with studio musicians on their first LP, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading. The second PBC album, The Great Conspiracy, is a better representation of what the band was truly about, although even then they weren't able to cut loose the way they did onstage. Probably the closest they did come to capturing their live sound was on Wonderment,the last track on The Great Conspiracy. Sales were not good enough for the band to continue with a major label, however, and PBC co-founder John Merrill left the group not long after The Great Conspiracy's release.
Artist: Kingsmen
Title: Louie Louie
Source: CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the Psychedelic Era (originally released as a 45 RPM single)
Writer: Richard Berry
Label: Rhino (original label: Wand)
Year: 1963
Although Paul Revere and the Raiders had recorded the song just a few days earlier, the version of Louie Louie that is remembered as the greatest party song of all time came from another Portland, Oregon band, the Kingsmen. With its basic three-chord structure and incomprehensible lyrics, the most popular song to ever come out of the Pacific Northwest was considered a must-learn song for garage bands everywhere.
Artist: Ace Of Cups
Title: Introduction: There's A Record Being Made/Feel Good
Source: LP: Ace Of Cups
Writer(s): Kaufman/Shae
Label: High Moon
Year: 2018
Not every important band in late 60s San Francisco ended up being signed to a major record label. One of the most notable of these was Ace Of Cups, one of the first rock bands to have an all-female lineup. Like Quicksilver Messenger Service, whom they shared management with, Ace Of Cups had offers from labels as early as 1967, but wanted to hold out for the best deal. By 1968, however, they had decided that the touring schedule associated with a major record deal would be too disruptive of their personal lives, and one by one the original five members left the group to raise families. Now, over 50 years later, four of the members of Ace Of Cups have reunited to record their first studio album, a self-titled two disc set on the High Moon label. The opening track (and lead single) from the album is Feel Good, a song that had been in the band's repertoire as early as 1969, when they opened for Jefferson Airplane at the Seattle Civic Center. Written and sung by former Merry Prankster Denise Kaufman (known to the Pranksters as Mary Microgram), the tune also features lead guitar work from Mary Simpson, and drums by Diane Vitalich, with backup vocals by all the group members. Although Kaufman is the band's regular bassist, Feel Good features a guest appearance by the Airplane's Jack Casady, as well as organ work by Pete Sears.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Lost Dream
Source: British import LP: Artifact
Writer(s): Lowe/Tulin
Label: Heartbeat
Year: 2001
The story of the Electric Prunes begins in Los Angeles in 1965 with a group called the Sanctions. Like most Southern California bands of the time, the Sanctions' repertoire was mostly covers of popular (and danceable) tunes like Money (That's What I Want), Love Potion # 9 and of course Louie Louie, all of which the band recorded at a home studio owned by Russ Bottomly in March of 1965. At that point in time, the Sanctions were a quartet consisting of James Lowe (vocals), Mark Tulin (bass), Ken Williams (guitar) and Michael "Quint" Weakley (drums). Early in 1966 they came to the attention of Dave Hassinger, who had just finished working with the Rolling Stones, putting the finishing touches on the Aftermath album, and was eager to try his hand at being a producer. He convinced the band that they needed a new name, and eventually the group came up with the name Electric Prunes, which they felt was so far out of the ordinary that people were bound to remember it.
Even though their first single (a cover of the Gypsy Trips' Ain't It Hard) stiffed, the people at Reprise Records signed the Prunes to a rather onerous contract that left Hassinger firmly in control of virtually everything to come out of a recording studio with the name Electric Prunes on it. At first this was fine with the band (who had just replaced Weakley with Preston Ritter and added James "Weasel" Spagnola as a second guitarist), as they and Hassinger worked well together on the hit single I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). But it soon became obvious that Hassinger and the band itself had different priorities. Lowe and Tulin had been busy writing songs, yet only two of their compositions ended up on the band's 1967 debut LP. The majority of the songs on the album came from outside songwriters, with Annette Tucker's name in particular appearing on more tracks than anyone else's.
The album provided the band with a second top 40 single, Get Me To The World On Time (like I Had Too Much To Dream, penned by Tucker), which in turn became a factor in the band being given a little more creative freedom for their second LP, Underground (although the fact that Hassinger's attention was divided between the Electric Prunes and a second band he was producing that summer, a San Francisco group called the Grateful Dead, was probably an even greater factor). This greater freedom resulted in an album that included seven original tunes among the twelve tracks, including the European hit single Long Day's Flight, which was co-written by Weakley, who had returned to the group in time to appear on five songs on the LP.
The lack of a solid hit single on the album, however, led to Hassinger becoming rather heavy-handed with the group in 1968, possibly due to his frustration with the Grateful Dead that led to his resigning as that band's producer midway through their second LP, Anthem Of The Sun. The Electric Prunes did manage to record one final single, Lowe and Tulin's Everybody Knows You're Not In Love, before Hassinger came up with the idea of the band recording a concept album written by David Axelrod called Mass In F Minor. The band played on three tracks on the Mass, but Hassinger, frustrated by the members' slow pace in learning the material, brought in a Canadian band called the Collectors to finish the project. Although Lowe, Tulin and Weakley did end up making contributions to every track on the album, it had become clear that the Electric Prunes were no longer in control of their own destiny, and after a disastrous attempt to perform the Mass with a full orchestra at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, both Lowe and Weakley left the group. Tulin and Williams stayed around long enough to complete the band's current tour with a patched together lineup that included Kenny Loggins and Jeremy Stuart (of Chad & Jeremy), but by mid-1968 all the original Electric Prunes members were gone.
Two more LPs and an assortment of singles later, the group Hassinger was still calling the Electric Prunes officially disbanded in 1970. Hardly anyone noticed. That wasn't the end of the story, however. Thanks in part to Lenny Kaye, who included I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) on the 1972 Nuggets compilation album that collected some of the best tracks of the psychedelic era on a double LP, interest in the music of the original Electric Prunes began to take root, eventually leading to both of the original band's albums being reissued in Europe in the 1980s. In the late 1990s rumors began circulating that the original group had begun to work on new material. Then, in Y2K, both original albums were issued in the US on compact disc, with the two non-album singles included as bonus tracks (it was these reissues, in fact, that helped convince me that creating a show called Stuck in the Psychedelic Era was a viable idea).
Finally, in 2001, the album Artifact appeared on the band's own PruneTwang label in the US, with a truncated version appearing in the UK on vinyl (on the Heartbeat label) the following year. The core members of the band, James Lowe, Mark Tulin and Ken Williams, were joined by guitarist Mark Moulin, keyboardist Cameron Lowe and drummer Joe Dooley for the album, supplemented by guest appearances from former Moby Grape guitarist Peter Lewis, dotarist Jim Gripps, drummer Mike Vasquez and a special guest appearance by original drummer Michael "Quint" Weakley. The opening track on the album, Lost Dream, shows that the band was by no means going the nostalgia route; rather, they referred to Artifact as "the real third album that we never got to make." They have since released three more studio albums, as well as one live album (recorded in 2007) and a kind of hybrid CD called California '66 made to promote a 2009 East Coast tour that never happened, that would have featured the Electric Prunes, Sky Saxon (whose death prompted the tour's cancellation) and Arthur Lee's 21st century version of Love.
Artist: Country Joe McDonald
Title: Silent Rage
Source: CD: 50
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Rag Baby
Year: 2017
Although it was originally intended to be released in 2015, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Country Joe McDonald's first recording, the album 50 ended up taking over two years to complete. As can be heard on tracks like Silent Rage, it was worth taking the extra time on. Like many of the tracks on 50, Silent Rage features the talents of the legendary Tubes drummer Prarie Prince, along with guitarist James DePrato, vocalist Diana Mangano and bassist Blair Hardman (who accompanied McDonald on his first recording, The Goodbye Blues, of which only a dozen or so copies were originally pressed).
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: From A Buick 6
Source: 45 RPM single B side (promo copy)
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
Although there were several unissued recordings made during the Highway 61 Revisited sessions, Bob Dylan and his producer, Tom Wilson, chose to instead use one of the already released album tracks as the B side for Positively 4th Street in September of 1965. The chosen track was From A Buick 6, a song that is vintage Dylan through and through.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
Source: Mono LP: Blonde On Blonde
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Sundazed/Columbia
Year: 1966
Lightnin' Hopkins' Automobile Blues (originally released between 1946 and 1950 and found on the 1965 LP Early Recordings) served as the template for Bob Dylan's Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat on his 1966 album Blonde On Blonde. The Pill-Box hat had been made fashionable by Jacqueline Kennedy just a few years before (although I always associate it with Lois Lane for some reason). On the other hand, even in the mid-1960s the use of a leopard skin pattern was considered tacky by many people. Dylan merged the two concepts into a tune satirizing faddish fashion following, much as Ray Davies of the Kinks had done with his Dedicated Follower Of Fashion earlier the same year. In addition to Dylan, (who makes a rare appearance as a lead guitarist in the song's intro as well as playing rhythm guitar throughout the tune) the final take of Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat, completed in Nashville early in the morning on Mar 10, 1966, includes Kenny Buttrey on drums, Henry Strzelecki on bass, and Robbie Robertson on lead guitar.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Positively 4th Street
Source: 45 RPM single (promo copy)
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1965
Recorded during the same 1965 sessions that produced the classic Highway 61 Revisited album, Positively 4th Street was deliberately held back for release as a single later that year. It would not appear on an LP until Dylan's first Greatest Hits album.
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow
Source: LP: Incense And Peppermints
Writer(s): Bunnell/Bartek
Label: Sundazed/Uni
Year: 1967
The song Incense And Peppermints was originally a B side released in 1967 on the regional All-American label in southern California. DJs began flipping the record over, however, and the song soon attracted the interest of the people at MCA, who reissued the record on their Uni label. The song was such a huge national hit that Uni gave the band the go ahead to record an entire album. That album, also titled Incense And Peppermints, contained several fine songs, including Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow. This unsung psychedelic classic opens with a flute solo from Steve Bartek, who co-wrote Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow. Strange as it may seem, Bartek was not considered a member of the Strawberry Alarm Clock, although he co-wrote (with bass player George Bunnell) four of the album's 12 tracks and plays on most of them.
Artist: Them
Title: I Happen To Love You (mono single version)
Source: Mono British import CD: Now And Them (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Goffin/King
Label: Rev-Ola (original US label: Ruff)
Year: 1967
Following the departure of frontman Van Morrison in June of 1966, the remaining members of Them returned to Belfast, where they recruited Kenny McDowell, formerly of a band called the Mad Lads, who had in fact opened for Them on several occasions. With no record deal, however, the band was at a loss as to what to do next; the solution came in the form of a recommendation from Carol Deck, editor of the California-based magazine The Beat, which led to the band relocating to Amarillo, Texas, where they cut a single for the local Scully label. The follow up single, released on Ruff Records, was a tune called Walking In The Queen's Garden that came to the attention of the people at Capitol Records, who reissued the single on their Tower subsidiary. Within a month the record company had issued a promo version of the single that shifted the emphasis to the original B side, a Gerry Goffin/Carole King collaboration called I Happen To Love You that had been previously recorded as an album track by the Electric Prunes. This led to the band relocating to California and recording Now And Them, the first of two albums the band released on the Tower label in 1968.
Artist: First Edition
Title: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: The First Edition and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Mickey Newbury
Label: Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
In 1968, former New Christy Mistrels members Kenny Rogers and Mike Settle decided to form a psychedelic rock band, the First Edition. Although Settle was the official leader on the first album, it was Rogers who would emerge as the star of the band, even to the point of eventually changing the band's name 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.
Artist: Leaves
Title: Too Many People
Source: Simulated stereo LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Pons/Rinehart
Label: Rhino (original label: Mira)
Year: 1965
The Leaves are a bit unusual in that in a city known for drawing wannabes from across the world, this local band's members were all native L.A.ins. Formed by members of a fraternity at Cal State Northridge, the Leaves had their greatest success when they took over as house band at Ciro's after the Byrds vacated the slot to go on tour. Like many bands of the time, they were given a song (Love Minus Zero) to record as a single by their producer and allowed to write their own B side. In this case that B side was Too Many People, written by bassist Jim Pons and guitarist Bill Rhinehart. The song ended up getting more airplay on local radio stations than Love Minus Zero, making it their first regional hit. The Leaves had their only national hit the following year with their third attempt at recording the fast version of Hey Joe, the success of which led to their first LP, which included a watered down version of Too Many People. The version heard here is the 1965 original. Eventually Pons would leave the Leaves, hooking up first with the Turtles, then Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Over Under Sideways Down
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Dreja/Relf/Samwell-Smith/McCarty/Beck
Label: Epic
Year: 1966
The only Yardbirds album to feature primarily original material was released under different titles in different parts of the world. The original UK version was called simply The Yardbirds, while the US album bore the Over Under Sideways Down title. In addition, the UK album was unofficially known as Roger the Engineer because of band member Chris Dreja's drawing of the band's recording engineer on the cover. The title cut was the last single to feature Jeff Beck as the band's sole lead guitarist (the follow-up single, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, featured both Beck and new member Jimmy Page).
Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: See Emily Play
Source: Mono CD: Relics (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Syd Barrett
Label: Capitol (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
Following up on their first single, Arnold Layne, Pink Floyd found even greater chart success (at least in their native England) with See Emily Play. Released in June of 1967, the song went all the way to the #6 spot on the British charts. In the US the song failed to chart as a single, although it was included on the US version of Pink Floyd's debut LP, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. The "Emily" in question is reportedly the sculptor Emily Young, who in those days was nicknamed the "psychedelic schoolgirl" at London's legendary UFO club.
Artist: Chocolate Watch Band
Title: I Ain't No Miracle Worker
Source: CD: The Inner Mystique
Writer: Tucker/Mantz
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1968
Originally recorded by the Merced California band the Brogues, I Ain't No Miracle Worker was penned by the same songwriting team of Annette Tucker and Nancie Mantz that had written the Electric Prunes' biggest hit, I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). The Chocolate Watch Band version is actually a touch slower and (unexpectedly) more melodic than the 1965 Brogues original.
Artist: Chicago
Title: Prologue, August 29, 1968/Someday (August 29, 1968)
Source: CD: The Chicago Transit Authority
Writer(s): Pankow/Lamm
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
In the months leading up to the 1968 Democratic Convention the phrase "come to Chicago" was often heard among members of the counter-culture that had grown up around various anti-establishment causes. As the summer wore on it became clear that something was going to happen at the Convention that August. Sure enough, on August 28, with the crowd chanting "the whole world's watching", police began pulling demonstraters into paddy wagons, with a full-blown riot erupting the following day. Around that same time a local Chicago band calling itself the Big Thing hooked up with producer James William Guercio, who convinced them to change their name to the Chicago Transit Authority (later shortened to Chicago). It's only natural then that the band would include a song referencing the events of August 29th on their debut LP. The tracks begins with an actual recording of the chant itself, which leads into a tune written by James Pankow and Robert Lamm called Someday (August 29, 1968). The chant itself makes a short reappearance midway through the song as well.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Immigrant Song
Source: CD: Led Zeppelin III
Writer(s): Page/Plant
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
Although the third Led Zeppelin album is known mostly for its surprising turn toward a more acoustic sound than its predecessors, the first single from that album actually rocked out as hard, if not harder, than any previous Zeppelin track. In fact, it could be argued that Immigrant Song rocks out harder than anything on top 40 radio before or since. Starting with a tape echo deliberately feeding on itself the song breaks into a basic riff built on two notes an octave apart, with Robert Plant's wailing vocals sounding almost like a siren call. Guitarist Jimmy Page soon breaks into a series of power chords that continue to build in intensity for the next two minutes, until the song abruptly stops cold. The lyrics of Immigrant Song were inspired by the band's trip to Iceland in 1970.
Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1928 (starts 7/8/19)
This week we hear a train comin' across the river to see a ritual fire dance. And that's just for starters. By the end of the hour you'll realize that it truly is a Strange Universe.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix/Band Of Gypsys
Title: Hear My Train A Comin'
Source: LP: People, Hell And Angels
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy
Year: Recorded 1969, released 2013
It was June of 1969. Jimi Hendrix had just disbanded the Experience and was anxious to try out new ideas with new people. To this end he invited drummer Buddy Miles (who had made a couple guest appearances on the third Experience album, Electric Ladyland) and his old friend, bassist Billy Cox, whom he had worked with when both were sidemen on the "chitlin' circuit" in the early to mid 1960s. One of the first songs they recorded was Hear My Train A Comin', a blues number that Hendrix had recently begun work on, and that would end up as part of his set at Woodstock a couple months later. Following the Woodstock performance, Hendrix, Cox and Miles reunited as Band Of Gypsys, recording a live album at Madison Square Garden at the end of the year.
Artist: Zephyr
Title: Cross The River
Source: CD: Zephyr
Writer: Candie and David Givens
Label: One Way (original label: ABC Probe)
Year: 1969
The Boulder, Colorado band Zephyr featured the vocal talents of Candie Givens, who had a multi-octave range that would not be equalled until Mariah Carey hit the scene years later. Also in the band was lead guitarist Tommy Bolin, who would go on to take over lead guitar duties with first the James Gang and then Deep Purple before embarking on a solo career. Unfortunately that career (and Bolin's life) was permanently derailed by a heroin overdose at age 28. The rest of this talented band consisted of Robbie Chamerlin on drums, John Faris on keyboards and David Givens (who co-wrote Cross The River with his wife Candie) on bass.
Artist: Czar
Title: Ritual Fire Dance
Source: Mono British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution
Writer(s): de Falla/arr. Hodges
Label: Grapefruit
Year: Recorded 1970, released 2013
After a series of unsuccessful singles for various labels from 1965-1969, Tuesday's Children decided to abandon light pop for a more progressive sound, changing their name to Czar in the process. Czar's debut LP came out in May of 1970, but it was missing one track due to difficulties over publishing rights: an adaptation of Spanish composer Manuel de Falla's Ritual Fire Dance that the group had recorded in February of that year, about a month after their first gig using their new name. The track was finally released in demo form on Grapefruit Records' 2013 anthology Love, Poetry And Revolution.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Why
Source: British import CD: Look At Yourself (bonus track)
Writer(s): Box/Byron/Hensley/Newton
Label: Sanctuary/BMG
Year: Recorded 1971, released 2003
One of Uriah Heep's great "lost" recordings, Why was one of those tunes that lent itself to extended jamming, often running over 14 minutes in length when the band played it in concert. This eleven-minute version recorded in 1971 as the band was working on their third LP, Look At Yourself, showed up on one of many outtake reels that were discovered in 2003. According to bassist Paul Newton, producer Gerry Bron was not fond of the piece, which may explain why it remained unavailable for so many years.
Artist: Steely Dan
Title: Reeling In The Years
Source: 45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer(s): Becker/Fagen
Label: MCA (original label: ABC)
Year: 1972
My first radio gig (sort of), was volunteering at the Voice Of Holloman, a closed-circuit station that served a handful of locations on Holloman AFB, about 10 miles from Alamogordo, NM. I had been taking broadcasting courses through a community college program that was taught by Sgt. Tim Daniels, who was the NCO in charge of the base Information Office. As such he ran the station, as well as a free weekly newspaper that was distributed on base. After completing the classes, Tim gave me the opportunity to do a daily two-hour show on the VOH, using records that had been sent to the station by various record labels. We got excellent singles service from some labels (Warner Brothers and Capitol in particular), but virtually nothing from others, such as ABC. This was unfortunate, as one of the best songs out at the time was Steely Dan's Reeling In The Years, from their 1972 Can't Buy A Thrill album. Tim, whose previous gig was with the Armed Forces Vietnam Network, was a big rock fan, however, and went out and bought his own copy of the album, making a copy of Reeling In The Years on reel to reel tape, which we then played extensively until the song had run its course on the charts. Thus the Voice Of Holloman, with its audience consisting mostly of guys working out at the base gym, was playing the longer album version of a song that was also getting airplay on Alamogordo's daytime-only top 40 AM station, KINN, in its edited single form. It was just about the nearest the Voice Of Holloman ever got to being an underground rock station (although I did manage to sneak in some Procol Harum, Little Feat and Deep Purple from time to time from the aformentioned Warner Brothers singles).
Artist: Fleetwood Mac
Title: My Dream
Source: LP: Then Play On (first US version)
Writer(s): Danny Kirwan
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
Danny Kirwan was only 17 and fronting his own band, Boilerhouse, when he came to the attention of Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green. Green invited the band to play a few opening gigs for Fleetwood Mac and before long the two guitarists were participating in after hours jams together. Drummer Mick Fleetwood invited Kirwan to join the band, and Kirwan became the group's fifth official member (Christine McVie still having guest artist status at that point). After making his debut sharing lead guitar duties with Green on an instrumental single, Albatross, Kirwan settled in as a songwriting member of the band in time for their 1969 LP Then Play On, contributing as many songs to the album as Green himself (although the US version left two of those songs off the LP). Shortly after Then Play On's release, the group had a huge international hit with Oh, Well (part one), which led to the band's US label, Reprise, recalling the album and reissuing it with Oh Well (parts one and two) added to it. To make way for the nearly nine-minute track, two more of Kirwan's songs were deleted from the lineup. One of those two songs was the instrumental My Dream, which has been reinserted into the lineup on recent CD releases.
Artist: Who
Title: The Acid Queen
Source: LP: Tommy
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Decca
Year: 1969
Pete Townshend, the primary composer of the Who's rock opera Tommy, takes the lead vocals on The Acid Queen, a song that, while integral to the Tommy storyline, also stands as one of Townshend's strongest standalone compositions. The song is sung from the first person viewpoint of a gypsy who promises to cure Tommy's condition (blind, deaf and dumb) by using a combination of sex and drugs. Although her efforts are unsuccessful, the attempt itself has a profound effect on the youngster, who explores his inner self under the influence of LSD. Townshend himself has said that the song is "not just about acid: it's the whole drug thing, the drink thing, the sex thing wrapped into one big ball." In a reference to peer pressure, he adds that "society – people – force it on you. She represents this force." The song later became a hit single for, not surprisingly, Tina Turner, who played the part of the Acid Queen in the hit movie version of Tommy.
Artist: Wishbone Ash
Title: Leaf And Stream
Source: LP: Argus
Writer: Wishbone Ash
Label: 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 guitarist 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 Martin), 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, even on relatively quiet songs such as Leaf And Stream from their third LP, Argus. Like the majority of Wishbone Ash tunes from that time period, Leaf And Stream is sung by Martin Turner.
Artist: Cheech And Chong
Title: Streets of New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco or...
Source: LP: Big Bambu
Writer(s): Marin/Chong
Label: Ode
Year: 1971
Cheech And Chong's second LP, Big Bambu, is best remembered for its inclusion of a huge (about 10" by 20") rolling paper graced with the watermarked image of Cheech Marin and Thomas Chong. The album, released in late 1971, also contained some of their best bits including Streets of New York or Los Angeles or San Francisco or... in which a panhandler discovers a way to increase his productivity thanks to a chance encounter with...well, that would be giving away the punch line.
Artist: Mahogany Rush
Title: Strange Universe
Source: Canadian import CD: Strange Universe
Writer(s): Frank Marino
Label: Just A Minute (original label: 20th Century)
Year: 1975
Although there are countless guitarists that have been influenced by Jimi Hendrix in various ways, only one has been able to capture his entire sound from a production as well as performance standpoint. That one is Frank Marino, whose band, Mahogany Rush, has been recording since 1972. A listen to the title track of the 1975 album Strange Universe pretty much proves my point.
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