Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2012 (starts 3/16/20)

   
    Pretty much by accident we have what is probably the most tightly-formatted edition of Stuck in the Psychedelic Era that we'll ever see. Every set after the first one is exactly three songs long. And, with the exception of our Advanced Psych segment, every set (including our two artists' sets) is made up of songs from a particular year. Don't expect something like this to ever happen again.

Artist:    Cyrkle
Title:    Red Rubber Ball (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Red Rubber Ball)
Source:    CD: Even More Nuggets
Writer:    Simon/Woodley
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1966
    Paul Simon moved to London in early 1965, after his latest album with Art Garfunkel, Wednesday Morning 3 AM, had been deleted from the Columbia Records catalog after just a few weeks due to poor sales. While in the UK Simon found himself performing on the same bill as the Seekers, an Australian band that had achieved some international success with folky pop songs like A World Of Our Own. Needing cash, Simon wrote (with Seekers guitarist/vocalist Bruce Woodley) Red Rubber Ball, selling the song to the group for about 100 pounds. After returning to the US and reuniting with Garfunkel, Simon offered the song to the Cyrkle, who took the song all the way to the #4 spot on the charts.

Artist:    Left Banke
Title:    I Haven't Got The Nerve
Source:    LP: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Cameron/Martin
Label:    Smash/Sundazed
Year:    1966
    The first thought I had when seeing the title of Left Banke's 1967 debut LP, Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina, was "if they had to name the album after the band's two hit singles, the rest of the songs must really suck", so I never gave it another thought. It turns out I was totally wrong, as the album is actually filled with fine tracks such as I Haven't Got The Nerve, which was originally the B side of the Walk Away Renee single in late 1966. I still think it's an annoying name for an album, though.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Talk Talk
Source:    Mono British import CD: The UltimateTurn On (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Turn On The Music Machine)
Writer:    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Original Sound)
Year:    1966
    When it came time for Sean Bonniwell's band, the Music Machine, to go into the studio, the group decided to go for the best sound possible. This meant signing with tiny Original Sound Records, despite having offers from bigger labels, due to Original Sound having their own state-of-the-art eight-track studios. Unfortunately for the band, they soon discovered that having great equipment did not mean Original Sound made great decisions. One of the first, in fact, was to include a handful of cover songs on the Music Machine's first LP that were recorded for use on a local TV show. Bonniwell was livid when he found out, as he had envisioned an album made up entirely of his own compositions (although he reportedly did plan to use a slowed-down version of Hey Joe that he and Tim Rose had worked up together). From that point on it was only a matter of time until the Music Machine and Original Sound parted company, but not until after they scored a big national hit with Talk Talk in 1966.

Artist:    Shadows Of Knight
Title:    The Behemoth
Source:    LP: Back Door Men
Writer(s):    H. Pye
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    When it comes to garage-punk bands of the sixties there are two that are generally considered to be at the top of the heap. Unlike the Standells, who started off as a bar band and only embraced the punk ethic when they hooked up with writer/producer Ed Cobb, the Shadows of Knight were the real deal. Coming from the Chicago suburbs, they literally got their start practicing in the garage, slowly graduating to parties and high school dances, getting banned from at least one high school campus in the process (something having to do with a female student getting knocked up, rumor has it). The Shadows (as they were originally known) cited the British blues bands as their main influence, with a dose of Chicago blues thrown in for good measure. The Behemoth, an instrumental track from their second album, Back Door Men, was chosen for a 1967 B side as well.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon
Source:    CD: After Bathing At Baxter's
Writer(s):    Paul Kantner
Label:    RCA/BMG Heritage
Year:    1967
    The first Jefferson Airplane album (the 1966 release Jefferson Airplane Takes Off) was dominated by songs from the pen of founder Marty Balin, a few of which were collaborations with other band members such as Paul Kantner and Jorma Kaukonen. The songwriting on the group's second LP, Surrealistic Pillow, was fairly evenly balanced between the three above and new arrival Grace Slick. By the band's third album, After Bathing At Baxter's, released in the fall of 1967, Kantner had emerged as the group's main songwriter, having a hand in over half the tracks on the LP. One of the most durable of these was the album's closing track, a medley of two songs, Won't You Try and Saturday Afternoon, the latter being about a free concert that the band had participated in at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park earlier that year.
   
Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    White Rabbit
Source:    CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Writer(s):    Grace Slick
Label:    Rhino (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:    1967
    The first time I heard White Rabbit was on Denver's first FM rock station, KLZ-FM. The station branded itself as having a top 100 (as opposed to local ratings leader KIMN's top 60), and prided itself on being the first station in town to play new releases and album tracks. It wasn't long before White Rabbit was officially released as a single, and went on to become a top 10 hit, the last for the Airplane.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Martha (mono single version)
Source:    Mono CD: After Bathing At Baxter's
Writer(s):    Paul Kantner
Label:    RCA/BMG Heritage
Year:    1967
    Jefferson Airplane made no secret of their residence at 2400 Fulton Street in San Francisco. In fact, the place was a known hangout for various freaks, acid-heads and hippy types. One the hangers-on, a young heiress, was the inspiration for Martha, a song from the band's third LP, After Bathing At Baxter's. The song was also released as the B side to Watch Her Ride and used in a promotional film shown on a Perry Como special in 1967. The film, showing the band members cavorting  in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, uses various editing techniques to make the individual members appear, disappear and jump from place to place as well as speed up and slow down, making it one of the first true rock videos.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    I Don't Know Why (aka Don't Know Why I Love You)
Source:    CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Wonder/Riser/Hunter/Hardaway
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1969
    In 1969 Stevie Wonder released a single called Don't Know Why I Love You. Before the record could take off, however, several radio stations decided to instead play the B side of the record, a balled called My Cherie Amour. The song became, to that point, Wonder's biggest hit, and Don't Know Why I Love You quietly faded off into obscurity. Or rather it would have, if not for the fact that the Rolling Stones recorded their own version of the tune (retitling it I Don't Know Why) around the same time the Stevie Wonder version was released. The Stones, however, did not release the recording immediately. In fact, by the time the record was released (in 1975), the band was no longer associated with either London Records, which issued the recording, or Allen Klein, who had managed to gain control of all of the Stones' London era recordings; needless to say, the band itself did not authorize the single to be released.

Artist:    Cardboard Box
Title:    Come On Baby
Source:    Mono CD: A Lethal Dose Of Hard Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Jack Lorenzo
Label:    Arf! Arf! (original label: Regime)
Year:    1969
    The Ethics were formed in Pottstown, Pa., about 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The band, which included guitarist Barry Berger, bassist Eric Kissinger, drummer Dave Dudas and keyboardist/vocalist Jack Lorenzo (who also managed the group), released a single on the Up Tight label in 1967 before changing their name to the Cardboard Box. Playing mostly at parties and high school dances, the band had a repertoire that was, according a Berger, a cross between funk and Iron Butterfly with a few late-era Beatles covers thrown in for good measure, and included their own light show. In 1969 they made a trip to an Allentown studio to record a pair of tunes written by Lorenzo, including Come On Baby, which was released as the A side of their only single for the Regime label.

Artist:    Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title:    Fortunate Son
Source:    LP: Willy And The Poor Boys
Writer(s):    John Fogerty
Label:    Fantasy
Year:    1969
    John Fogerty says it only took him 20 minutes to write what has become one of the iconic antiwar songs of the late 1960s. But Fortunate Son is not so much a condemnation of war as it is an indictment of the political elite who send the less fortunate off to die in wars without any risk to themselves. In addition to being a major hit single upon its release in late 1969 (peaking at #3 as half of a double-A sided single), Fortunate Son has made several "best of" lists over the years, including Rolling Stone magazine's all-time top 100. Additionally, in 2014 the song was added to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Artist:    Country Joe And The Fish
Title:    The Fish Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag
Source:    LP: I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die
Writer(s):    Joe McDonald
Label:    Vanguard
Year:    1967
    An early version of Country Joe And The Fish first recorded the I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag in 1965 for an audio insert to Country Joe McDonald's Rag Baby underground magazine. The band's permanent lineup recorded a new studio version of the song for their debut LP in 1967, but their producer refused to include it on the album, fearing repercussions over its strong criticism of President Lyndon Johnson's Viet-Nam policies.  Another song that did make the album, Superbird, was also critical of Johnson, but in a more lighthearted, satirical way. When that song did not cause any major backlash it was decided to go ahead and use the I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag as the title track of the band's second LP. On the album itself the song is preceded by The Fish Cheer, which was famously spelled a bit differently when the band performed it live, leading Ed Sullivan to cancel the band's scheduled 1968 appearance on his weekly TV show.
   
Artist:    Doors
Title:    Break On Through (To The Other Side)
Source:    45 RPM Single
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    The first Doors song to be released as a single was not, as usually assumed, Light My Fire. Rather, it was Break On Through (To The Other Side), the opening track from the band's debut LP, that was chosen to do introduce the band to top 40 radio. Although the single was not an immediate hit, it did eventually catch on with progressive FM radio listeners and still is heard on classic rock stations from time to time.

Artist:     Steppenwolf
Title:     A Girl I Knew
Source:     CD: Steppenwolf
Writer(s):    Kay/Cavett
Label:    MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year:     1967
     Some artists tend to branch out into a variety of styles as their career progresses. Others, like Steppenwolf, move in the opposite direction, finding out early what works best then concentrating on continuing in that vein. A Girl I Knew (co-written by bandleader John Kay) is an example of a type of song that was tried early on, but then abandoned in favor of a harder rock sound on subsequent albums. The song was originally released as a single in late 1967, but failed to chart. The following year Born To Be Wild was released, and the rest is history.

Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    Hush
Source:    LP: Tales Of Deep Purple
Writer:    Joe South
Label:    Tetragrammaton
Year:    1968
    Deep Purple scored a huge US hit in 1968 with their rocked out cover of Hush, a tune written by Joe South that had been an international hit for Billy Joe Royal the previous year. Oddly enough, the song was virtually ignored in their native England. The song was included on the album Tales Of Deep Purple, the first of three LPs to be released in the US on Tetragrammaton Records, a label partially owned by actor/comedian Bill Cosby. When Tetragrammaton folded shortly after the release of the third Deep Purple album the band was left without a US label, and went through some personnel changes, including adding new lead vocalist Ian Gilliam (who had sung the part of Jesus on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album) before signing to Warner Brothers and becoming a major force in 70s rock. Meanwhile, original vocalist Rod Evans hooked up with drummer Bobby Caldwell and two former members of Iron Butterfly to form Captain Beyond before retiring from public life.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    House Burning Down
Source:    CD: Electric Ladyland
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    The third Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Electric Ladyland, was the first to be produced entirely by Hendrix himself, rather than with Chas Chandler (with more than a little help from engineer Eddie Kramer). It was also the first to use state-of-the-art eight-track recording technology (not to be confused with the later 8-track tape cartridge), as well as several new tech toys developed specifically for Hendrix to play with. The result was an album with production standards far beyond anything else being attempted at the time. One song that showcases Hendrix's prowess as a producer is House Burning Down. Using effects such as phasing, double-tracking and stereo panning, Hendrix manages to create music that sounds like it's actually swirling around the listener rather than coming from a specific location. It's also the only rock song I can think of that uses a genuine tango beat (in the verses).

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    The Great Canyon Fire In General
Source:    CD: Spirit
Writer(s):    Jay Ferguson
Label:    Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year:    1968
    Among other things, Southern California is known for its periodic wildfires, which, fueled by hot Santa Ana winds, destroy everything in their path before they can be brought under control. In the summer of 1967, while the members of Spirit were living in L.A.'s Topanga Canyon and working on their first album, one of these wildfires took out about half of the canyon. Although the house the band was living in was spared, the entire area was evacuated and the members of Spirit (and their family) had to spend a week camped out at the beach. Now that's what I call roughing it!

Artist:    Lovin' Spoonful
Title:    Do You Believe In Magic
Source:    CD: Battle Of The Bands (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Do You Believe In Magic)
Writer(s):    John Sebastian
Label:    Era (original label: Kama Sutra)
Year:    1965
    Do You Believe In Magic, the debut single by the Lovin' Spoonful, was instrumental in establishing not only the band itself, but the Kama Sutra label as well. Over the next couple of years, the Spoonful would crank out a string of hits, pretty much single-handedly keeping Kama Sutra in business. In 1967 the band's lead vocalist and primary songwriter John Sebastian departed the group for a solo career, and Kama Sutra itself soon morphed into a company called Buddah Records. Buddah (the misspelling being discovered too late to be fixed) soon came to dominate the "bubble gum" genre of top 40 music throughout 1968 and well into 1969, but eventually proved in its own way to be as much a one-trick pony as its predecessor.

Artist:    Santana
Title:    Everybody's Everything
Source:    LP: Santana (III)
Writer(s):    Santana/Moss/Brown
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1971
    Santana's third album, released in 1971, was called simply Santana. The problem is, their first album was also called Santana. The guitar solo on Everybody's Everything, by the way, is not by Carlos Santana. Rather it was performed by the then 17-year-old Neal Schon, who, along with keyboardist Greg Rolie would leave the band the following year to form Journey.
    
Artist:    McFadden's Parachute
Title:    Black Fuzz
Source:    CD: Psolipsystic Psychedelic Pslyces Of McFadden's Parachute
Writer(s):    Darren Brennessel
Label:    PeterFonda
Year:    2003
    Although the psychedelic era itself officially covers only a few years in the late 1960s, for many the spirit of the era's music lives on. One such person is Darren Brennessel of Rochester, NY, who is the mastermind behind over two dozen McFadden's Parachute albums. Brennessel has been playing professionally since 1989, when he was the drummer for a band called the Purple Flashes, conceiving and recording the first McFadden's Parachute album as a side project. In the years since, in addition to playing multiple instruments on McFadden's Parachute albums then Brennessel has continued to play drums with a variety of bands, including Sky Saxon's Green Forests, which recorded an as-yet unreleased album in 2004. A few years back Darren sent me a special sampler collection of McFadden's Parachute tracks recorded mostly in the 1990s and early 2000s. One of my favorites of these is a tune called Black Fuzz, recorded in 2003.

Artist:    Splinter Fish
Title:    Milo's Sunset
Source:    LP: Splinter Fish
Writer(s):    Chuck Hawley
Label:    StreetSound
Year:    1989
    Albuquerque, NM, like most medium-sized cities, has had a vibrant club scene throughout the rock and roll era, with many of these clubs featuring live music. Until the late 1980s, however, very few bands were able to find gigs performing their own material. This began to change, however, with the emergence of alternative bands such as Jerry's Kidz and F.O.R., and underground venues such as the Club REC and the refurbished El Rey theater. One of the best bands to emerge at this time was Splinter Fish. Formed by guitarist/vocalist Chuck Hawley in 1988, the band also featured Jeff Bracey on bass, former F.O.R. member Deb-O on vocals, and the prolific Zoom Crespin on drums. The group released one self-titled LP in 1989, which featured a strong set of tunes, including Milo's Sunset, a song somewhat reminiscent of the Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows.

Artist:    Jigsaw Seen
Title:    We Women
Source:    CD: Old Man Reverb
Writer(s):    Dennis Davison
Label:    Vibro-Phonic
Year:    2014
    The Jigsaw Seen is an indy band based in Los Angeles that has been around since the 1980s. Their latest album, Old Man Reverb, covers a lot of ground musically, including a couple of tunes, Madame Whirligig and Hercules And Slyvia, that sound a bit like vintage British psychedelia. Perhaps that is because the album itself was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road studios in London.
       
Artist:     Animals
Title:     Inside Looking Out
Source:     Simulated stereo LP: Animalization
Writer:     Lomax/Lomax/Burdon/Chandler
Label:     M-G-M
Year:     1966
     One of the last songs recorded by the Animals before their first breakup, Inside Looking Out (a powerful song about life in prison) was covered a few years later by Grand Funk Railroad, who made it one of their concert staples. This has always been one of my all-time favorite rock songs, no matter who recorded it.

Artist:    We The People
Title:    Mirror Of Your Mind
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Thomas Talton
Label:    Rhino (original label: Challenge)
Year:    1966
    We The People were formed when an Orlando, Florida newspaper reporter talked members of two local bands to combine into a garage/punk supergroup. The result was one of the most successful regional bands in Florida history. After their first recording got airplay on a local station, they were signed to record in Nashville for Challenge Records (a label actually based in Los Angeles) and cranked out several regional hits over the next few years. The first of these was Mirror Of Your Mind. Written by lead vocalist Tom Talton, the song is an in-your-face rocker that got played on a number of local stations and has been covered by several bands since.

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It
Source:    CD: Buffalo Springfield
Writer(s):    Neil Young
Label:    Atco
Year:    1966
    The first Neil Young song I ever heard was Do I Have To Come Right Out And Say It, which was issued as the B side of For What It's Worth in 1967. I had bought the single and, as always, after my first listen flipped the record over to hear what was on the other side. (Years later I was shocked to learn that there were actually people who never listened to the B side of records they bought. I've never been able to understand that.) Anyway, at the time I didn't know who Neil Young was, or the fact that although Young was a member of Buffalo Springfield it was actually Richie Furay singing the song on the record. Now I realize that may seem a bit naive on my part, but I was 14 at the time, so what do you expect? At least I had the good taste to buy a copy of For What It's Worth in the first place (along with the Doors' Light My Fire and the Spencer Davis Group's I'm A Man if I remember correctly). Where I got the money to buy three current records at the same time at age 14 is beyond me, though.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Hello, Goodbye
Source:    LP: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1967
    1967 was unquestionably a good year for the Beatles. Their first release was a double A sided single, Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane, both sides of which were major hits. They followed that up with the #1 album of the year, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and another hit single, All You Need Is Love. To finish out the year they released yet another major hit single, Hello Goodbye. The only downside to the year was the cool reception that was afforded their December telefilm, Magical Mystery Tour, although the songs themselves were well-received when released in the UK as a double-EP set (complete with full color booklet containing stills from the film, as well as lyric sheets). As EPs were not considered a viable format in the US, Capitol Records put together an LP that included all six tracks from the telefilm on one side of the album and the five single sides (Hello Goodbye had used I Am The Walrus from Magical Mystery Tour as a B side) on the other. In the mid-1980s it was decided to use the British LPs as the model for all CD issues of Beatles material. The sole exception was Magical Mystery Tour, which used the US song lineup.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
Source:    CD: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year:    1967
    According to principal songwriter John Lennon, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite was inspired by a turn of the century circus poster that the Beatles ran across while working on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Most of the lyrics refer to items on the poster itself, such as the Hendersons and Henry the Horse.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Penny Lane
Source:    LP: Magical Mystery Tour (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1967
    Here's a little known fact: the true stereo recording of the Beatles' Penny Lane was not released in the US until 1980, when the song appeared on an album called Rarities. The original 1967 single was mono only, while the version used on the US Magical Mystery Tour LP was created using Capitol's infamous Duophonic process. A true stereo mix that had previously been available only in Germany was used on Rarities, but modified to include a series of trumpet notes at the end of the song that had previously only appeared on promo copies of the single sent to radio stations in the US and Canada. The "official" stereo version of the song heard here was not released until the late 1980s, when the US version of Magical Mystery Tour, featuring true stereo mixes of all of the band's 1967 singles, was issued on CD.

Artist:    Skip Spence
Title:    War In Peace
Source:    European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Oar)
Writer(s):    Skip Spence
Label:    Sony Music (original US label: Columbia)
Year:    1969
    Skip Spence was one of the most tragic figures of the psychedelic era. Immensely talented, Spence was nonetheless plagued by mental health and drug abuse issues that he could never overcome. In 1966, after a short stint as rhythm guitarist with a band called the Other Side, Spence was invited by Marty Balin to be the drummer in a new group he was putting together to be the house band at a club he managed called the Matrix. That band was Jefferson Airplane, and Spence stayed with the group long enough to play on their first LP. Not long after that, Spence was fired for taking a trip to Mexico without letting the other band members know he was going. He then returned to playing guitar to co-found Moby Grape in 1967. The band's first album was a critical and commercial success, but that success was somewhat undercut by their label's decision to release five singles from the album  simultaneously, causing the band to be perceived as being overly hyped. To add to the problems, their producer made the band come to New York to record their second LP so that he could be closer to his family. Unfortunately this meant the band members would be thousands of miles away from their own families, and Spence fell in with a bad crowd and started using drugs heavily. This led to a bizarre incident in which he took a fire ax to a hotel door and attempted to assault two of his bandmates, which in turn led to a six-month long stay at Belleview hospital. During this stay he wrote several new songs, including War In Peace, and upon his release headed to Nashville to record the album Oar, playing all the instruments himself. The album, recorded in seven days, was a total commercial failure, but has since come to be considered, in the words of one critic, "one of the most harrowing documents of pain and confusion ever made". Over the next three decades Spence struggled with heroin and cocaine addiction and died of lung cancer two days short of his 53rd birthday in 1999.

Artist:    Led Zeppelin
Title:    Whole Lotta Love
Source:    German import LP: Led Zeppelin II
Writer(s):    Page/Plant/Bonham/Jones/Dixon
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1969
    If any one song can be considered the bridge between psychedelic rock and heavy metal, it would have to be Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. Released in 1969 as the lead track to their second LP, the song became their biggest hit single. Whole Lotta Love was originally credited to the four band members. In recent years, however, co-credit has been given to Willie Dixon, whose lyrics to the 50s song You Need Love are almost identical to Robert Plant's.

Artist:    Simon And Garfunkel
Title:    The Boxer
Source:    CD: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bridge Over Troubled Water)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1969
    The only Simon And Garfunkel record released in 1969, The Boxer was one of the duo's most successful singles, making the top 10 in nine countries, including the US, where it made it to the #7 spot. The track, which runs more than five minutes, was later included on the 1970 LP Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Artist:    Red Crayola
Title:    Hurricane Fighter Plane
Source:    Stereo British import 45 RPM single (2011 remix)
Writer(s):    Thompson/Cunningham/Barthelme
Label:    International Artists
Year:    1967
    Houston's Red Crayola went out of their way to make sure that their debut LP, Parable Of Arable Land, got as little airplay as possible, thus insuring the album's cult status. The way they did this was to invite about 50 extra people into the studio to use whatever they could find to make as much noise as they could generate. These "free-form freakouts" were then interspersed throughout the album, fading in and out over the beginnings and endings of the songs themselves. This resulted in each album side playing as a continuous track, much of which was unintelligible noise. In 2011, International Artists Records, now owned by the British Charly label, issued a special "sonic boom remix" of Hurricane Fighter Pilot, the first actual song on the album, as a Record Store Day single. The track has long been rumored to have a guest appearance from Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators playing organ.
       

Rockin' in the Days Of Confusion # 2012 (starts 3/16/20)

    This week, Rockin' in the Days of Confusion is back in (free)-form, as we abandon all semblance of structure in favor of letting the songs flow into each other. How well that works is a matter of perception: Yours.

Artist:    Free
Title:    Wishing Well
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM promo single (from LP: Heartbreaker)
Writer(s):    Rodgers/Kirke/Yamauchi/Bundrick/Kossoff
Label:    Island
Year:    1972
    The final album from Free featured a somewhat altered lineup from their previous albums. Bassist (and one of the band's primary songwriters) Andy Fraser had already left the band, while guitarist/keyboardist Paul Kossoff was often incapacitated due to his Quaalude addiction. As a result, several guest musicians, as well as a couple of more permanent replacement members, make an appearance on Heartbreaker. With Fraser gone, lead vocalist Paul Rodgers took on the bulk of the band's songwriting duties, although the official writing credit on several tracks, including the single Wishing Well, went to the entire band membership. Following a US tour (without Kossoff), the band finally called it quits, with Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke remaining together to form a new band, Bad Company.

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Winter And My Soul
Source:    CD: Grand Funk
Writer(s):    Mark Farner
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1969
     It was 1969, and there were only three bands in the entire world recording the kind of music that would come to be called heavy metal. Two of those groups, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, were British. The third was Grand Funk Railroad. Hailing from Flint, Michigan, GFR had evolved out of popular local band Terry Knight And The Pack. Unlike the Pack, Grand Funk Railroad was built around the song ideas of guitarist/vocalist Mark Farner and, to a lesser degree in the early days, drummer Don Brewer. The power trio was completed by bassist Mel Shacher, the only member of the group that had not been a member of the Pack (although he, being younger than Farner and Brewer, had been an enthusiastic fan of the earlier band). Terry Knight himself was the band's producer, and together they made rock history, almost single-handedly creating the arena-rock phenomenon. Grand Funk (aka the Red Album) the group's second LP in six months, was recorded in a week, with all of the songs well rehearsed before the band even entered the studio. Winter In My Soul, which opens the LP's second side, is an excellent example of this. The song starts with a strong guitar riff which is quickly taken up by bass and drums before giving way to the tune's first vocal section, in which Mark Farner sings a somewhat bluesy riff in harmony with his guitar (no mean feat, considering it was done "live in the studio"). From there the song goes through several tempo and time signature changes before ending up rocking out hard and fast.
   
Artist:    Humble Pie
Title:    Shine On
Source:    CD: Rock On
Writer(s):    Peter Frampton
Label:    A&M
Year:    1971
    Humble Pie's fourth album, Rock On, was the last to feature guitarist/vocalist Peter Frampton, who wrote the album's lead single, Shine On. The song later became a staple of Frampton's live performances and was included on his most popular solo album, Frampton Comes Alive.

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Dear Mr. Fantasy
Source:    CD: Smiling Phases (originally released on LP: Heaven Is In Your Mind, aka Mr. Fantasy)
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi/Wood
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1967
            Steve Winwood is one of those artists that has multiple signature songs, having a career that has spanned decades (so far). Still, if there is any one song that is most  closely associated with the guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist, it's Dear Mr. Fantasy from Traffic's 1967 debut LP Mr. Fantasy. The album was originally released in a modified version in the US in early 1968 under the title Heaven Is In Your Mind, but later editions of the LP, while retaining the US track order and running time, were renamed to match the original British title.

Artist:    Canned Heat
Title:    Human Condition
Source:    CD: The Very Best Of Canned Heat (originally released on CD: Uncanned)
Writer(s):    Canned Heat
Label:    Capitol (original label: EMI)
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 1994
    Human Condition was the name of Canned Heat's 1978 LP for the Takoma label. By that point only Robert Hite and Fito De La Parra were left from the band's classic lineup, and the album itself went largely unnoticed. This was not the first time that the band had recorded the title track itself, however. In 1994, a 1970 recording of Human Condition surfaced on the band's greatest hits collection Uncanned! The Best Of Canned Heat. Although it's not clear whether Henry Vestine or Harvey Mandel plays guitar on the recording, most of the members of the original band, including Robert Hite and Al Wilson, were present.

Artist:    Frank Zappa
Title:    Stink-Foot
Source:    CD: Apostrophe (')
Writer(s):    Frank Zappa
Label:    Zappa (original label: Discreet)
Year:    1974
    Recorded at the same time as the Mothers' Over-Nite Sensation, Apostrophe (') is one of the most popular albums in the Frank Zappa catalog. Much of this popularity is attributable to a combination of Zappa's prodigious guitar work, along with his unique sense of humor, both of which are in abundance on the final track of the album, Stink-Foot.

Artist:    Miles Davis
Title:    John McLaughlin
Source:    European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Bitches Brew)
Writer(s):    Miles Davis
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1970
    Miles Davis broke just about every rule in the jazz world with his 1970 album Bitches Brew. One of the stranger examples of this is the fact that he doesn't actually play on John McLaughlin, the final track on side three of the double-LP. The track, written by Davis, includes several musicians who would become some of the biggest stars of the jazz fusion movement, including Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Billy Cobham and, of course, John McLaughlin himself.
   
Artist:    Rare Earth
Title:    No. 1 Man
Source:    LP: Ecology
Writer(s):    Tom Baird
Label:    Motown (original label: Rare Earth)
Year:    1971
    Although not as well known as Norman Whitfield, Barret Strong or the Holland brothers, Tom Baird was one of the most prolific staff songwriter/producers at Motown from about 1969 on, which coincided with the rise in popularity of the band Rare Earth. In fact, Baird wrote much of the band's material, including No. 1 Son, from the 1970 LP Ecology. Baird would continue with the label throughout the 1970s, writing hit songs for many of Motown's most popular artists.

Artist:    Santana
Title:    No One To Depend On
Source:    LP: Santana (III)
Writer(s):    Carabella/Escobida/Rolie
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1971
    Santana's third LP (which like their debut LP was called simply Santana), was the last by the band's original lineup. Among the better-known tracks on the LP was No One To Depend On, featuring a guitar solo by teen phenom Neal Schon (who would go on to co-found Journey).

Artist:    James Gang
Title:    Funk #48
Source:    LP: The Best Of The James Gang (originally released on LP: Yer' Album)
Writer(s):    Walsh/Fox/Kriss
Label:    ABC (original label: Bluesway)
Year:    1969
    Cleveland's James Gang was one of the original power trios of the seventies. Although generally known as the starting place of Joe Walsh, the band was actually led by Jim Fox, one of the most underrated drummers in the history of rock. Fox, who was the only member to stay with the group through its many personnel changes over the years, sings lead on Funk # 48 from the band's debut album on ABC's Bluesway label. Yer Album, incidentally, was the only rock LP ever issued on Bluesway, a label better known for recordings by B.B. King such as Lucille and The Thrill Is Gone.

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    The Return Of The Giant Hogweed
Source:    CD: Nursery Crymes
Writer(s):    Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label:    Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year:    1971
    The Return Of The Giant Hogweed, from the 1971 Genesis album Nursery Cryme, is actually based on a true story about an invasive organism brought to England from Russia in the 1800s. Genesis, thanks in large part to the sense of whimsy brought to the band by their new drummer, Phil Collins, deliberately exaggerated the story, making the Giant Hogweed a threat to civilization as we know it. Nursery Crymes itself, although officially the third Genesis album, was in fact the debut of the band's classic lineup of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Mike Rutherford and new guitarist Steve Hackett, who joined a few months after founding member Anthony Phillips left the group following the release of the Trespass album. This lineup would remain intact until the departure of Gabriel in 1975.

   

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2011 (starts 3/9/20)

    This week's show is just a little bit different. For one thing, there are no artists' sets. For another, there are no Beatles songs. In fact, ten of this week's 32 tracks have never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before now. Read on...

Artist:     Who
Title:     The Kids Are Alright
Source:     Mono CD: Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy (originally released on LP: The Who Sings My Generation)
Writer:     Pete Townshend
Label:     MCA (original label: Decca)
Year:     1965
     In 1966, after releasing one album on the British Brunswick label, the Who's manager, Kit Lambert, had a falling out with their producer Shel Talby, which resulted in the Who switching to the new Reaction label. Talby retaliated by releasing A Legal Matter, taken from the 1965 album My Generation, as a single within a week of the debut of the Who's first Reaction single, Subsitute. Substitute, being a brand new song, did considerably better than A Legal Matter, but that did not stop Talmy from trying again a few months later by releasing another My Generation track, The Kids Are Alright, two weeks before Reaction released I'm A Boy. The legal battles between Talmy and the band continued for several years, preventing the CD release of the My Generation album until 2002, when the matter was finally settled. All of the songs referred to so far, however, appeared on the 1968 collection Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy, which is where most Americans heard them for the first time.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Set Me Free
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1965
    After scoring international success with a series of R&B influenced rockers in 1964, the Kinks started to mellow a bit in 1965, releasing more melodic songs such as Set Me Free. The band would continue to evolve throughout the decade, eventually becoming one of the first groups to release a concept album, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), in 1969.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Mercy, Mercy
Source:    Mono CD: Out Of Our Heads (manufactured in England for US distribution)
Writer(s):    Covay/Miller
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1965
    One of Jimi Hendrix's first recordings as an R&B sideman was on Don Covay's 1964 recording of his song Mercy, Mercy (sometimes known as Have Mercy). The song was Covay's first breakthrough hit, going to the top of the R&B charts and crossing over into the top 40 charts as well. Possibly more importantly, the song was covered the following year by the Rolling Stones on their Out Of Our Heads album, bringing the song to a much wider worldwide audience. The Stones version of the song follows Covay's arrangement fairly closely, but, in the words of rock critic Richie Unterberger, "really upped the guitar wattage" from the original version. That's right. Keith Richards actually "out-louded" Jimi Hendrix on a recording of the same song. Granted, Hendrix, as a sideman in 1964, was under strict instructions to play it the way he was told to without any embellishments of his own, but still...

Artist:    Glass Family
Title:    Baby's Gone
Source:    Mono LP: Electric Band
Writer(s):    The Glass Family
Label:    Maplewood
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 2015
    Known as the "perpetual opening band" for such acts as the Byrds, the Doors and the Grateful Dead, the Glass Family was an important, if somewhat overlooked, piece of the California rock scene in the late 1960s. Formed earlier in the decade in West Los Angeles, the trio of Ralph Parrett (guitar), David Capilouto (keyboards/bass) and Gary Green (drums), performed under several different names before settling on the Glass Family around 1966 or so. By 1967 they had secured a contract with Warner Brothers Records, but their original recordings, produced by Richard Podolor, were rejected by the label. Undaunted, Podolor and the band returned to the studio and came up with another LP's worth of material, this time in a more commercial vein and more slickly produced. It was this second set of tunes that was released in February of 1969 as an album called Electric Band. Meanwhile, the original set of tapes sat in storage for nearly 50 years before being restored to a usable state and included as a second LP on the reissue of Electric Band in 2015. Baby's Gone is one of those long-lost tracks, and is a good example of how the band itself wanted to be presented.

Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    Mr. Blues
Source:    Mono 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:    Doors
Title:    Horse Latitudes/Moonlight Drive
Source:    LP: Strange Days
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    Much of the second Doors album consisted of songs that were already in the band's repertoire when they signed with Elektra Records but for various reasons did not record for their debut LP. One of the earliest was Jim Morrison's Moonlight Ride, which he wrote even before the band was formed. As was the case with all the Doors songs on their first three albums, the tune was credited to the entire band. Horse Latitudes, which leads into Moonlight Ride, was also an obvious Morrison composition, as it is essentially a piece of Morrison poetry with a soundtrack provided by the rest of the band.

Artist:    Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt
Title:    Different Drum
Source:    LP: Evergreen, Vol. 2
Writer(s):    Michael Nesmith
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1967
    Although released as a single and album track by the Stone Poneys, the hit version of Different Drum is essentially a Linda Ronstadt solo effort, backed by studio musicians. As originally recorded by the Greenbriar Boys in 1966 the song was a slower-paced acoustic ballad written by Michael Nesmith, who performed his own version of the song on an episode of the Monkees TV show that aired in December of that year. In 1967 the Stone Poneys recorded their own version of the song for their second LP, Evergreen Vol. 3, using the same arrangement as the Greenbriar Boys had used, but producer Nick Venet, sensing a potential hit, decided to try a different, more rock-oriented, arrangement using studio musicians, leaving Ronstadt as the only band member actually participating in the final recording. Venet's instincts turned out to be spot on, and Different Drum became the first in a long string of hit singles for Ronstadt, who soon left the Stone Poneys for a successful solo career.
   
Artist:    Janis Ian
Title:    Society's Child (Baby I've Been Thinking)
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Janis Ian
Label:    Polydor (original label: Verve Forecast)
Year:    1966
    Janis Ian began writing Society's Child, using the title Baby I've Been Thinking, when she was 13 years old, finishing it shortly after her 14th birthday. She shopped it around to several record labels before finally finding one (Now Sounds) willing to take a chance on the controversial song about interracial dating. The record got picked up and re-issued in 1966 by M-G-M's experimental label Verve Forecast, a label whose roster included Dave Van Ronk, Laura Nyro and the Blues Project, among others. Despite being banned on several radio stations the song became a major hit when re-released yet another time in early 1967. Ian had problems maintaining a balance between her performing career and being a student which ultimately led to her dropping out of high school. She would eventually get her career back on track in the mid-70s, scoring another major hit with At Seventeen, and becoming somewhat of a heroine to the feminist movement.

Artist:     Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:     One Rainy Wish
Source:     CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer:     Jimi Hendrix
Label:     Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1967
     In the summer of 1967 my dad (who was an Air Force NCO), got transferred to Lindsay Air Station in Weisbaden, Germany. The housing situation there being what it was, it was several weeks before the rest of us could join him, and during that time he went out and bought an Akai X-355 reel to reel tape recorder that a fellow GI had picked up in Japan. The Akai had small speakers built into it, but the best way to listen to it was through headphones. It would be another year before he would pick up a turntable, so I started buying pre-recorded reel to reel tapes. Two of the first three tapes I bought were Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold As Love, both by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. As I was forced to share a bedroom with my little brother I made it a habit to sleep on the couch instead, usually with the headphones on listening to Axis: Bold As Love. I was blown away by the stereo effects on the album, which I attributed (somewhat correctly) to Hendrix, although I would find out years later that much of the credit belongs to engineer Eddie Kramer as well. One Rainy Wish, for example, starts off with all the instruments in the center channel (essentially a mono mix). After a few seconds of slow spacy intro the song gets into gear with vocals isolated all the way over to the left, with a guitar overdub on the opposite side to balance it out. As the song continues, things move back and forth from side to side, fading in and out at the same time. It was a hell of a way to drift off to sleep every night.

Artist:     Yardbirds
Title:     Jeff's Boogie
Source:     45 RPM single B side
Writer:     Dreja/Relf/Samwell-Smith/McCarty/Beck
Label:     Epic
Year:     1966
     Jeff's Boogie is an instrumental track from the Yardbirds that originally appeared on the album Over Under Sideways Down in the US. That LP, with a different track lineup and cover, was issued in the UK under the name Yardbirds, although it has since come to be known as Roger The Engineer due to its cover art. The song was also chosen to be the B side of the Over Under Sideways Down single, released in 1966. Although credited to the entire band, the tune is actually based on Chuck Berry's guitar boogie, and features some outstanding guitar work by Jeff Beck.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star
Source:    CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s):    Hillman/McGuinn
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    By early 1967 there was a building resentment among musicians and rock press alike concerning the instant (and in many eyes unearned) success of the Monkees. One notable expression of this resentment was the Byrds' So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star, which takes a somewhat sarcastic look at what it takes to succeed in the music business. Unfortunately, much of what they talk about in the song continues to apply today (although the guitar has been somewhat supplanted by the computer as the instrument of choice).
   
Artist:    Quicksilver Messenger Service
Title:    Pride Of Man
Source:    CD: Quicksilver Messenger Service
Writer(s):    Hamilton Camp
Label:    Rock Beat (original label: Capitol)
Year:    1968
    Although many major record labels were participating in a signing frenzy in 1967 San Francisco, one of the most popular bands, Quicksilver Messenger Service, held out for the best possible deal. As a result their debut album did not appear on the record racks until May of 1968. By then the excitement surrounding the Bay Area music scene was already starting to die down, and the band never achieved the commercial success of some of their contemporaries. Nonetheless, the album itself was a strong one, starting with its opening track, a cover of folk artist Hamilton Camp's most well-known song, Pride Of Man. Quicksilver's version of the song manages to combine Camp's powerful lyrics with an equally powerful instrumental arrangement.

Artist:    Sly And The Family Stone
Title:    I Want To Take You Higher
Source:    CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Stand and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Sly Stone
Label:    Priority (original label: Epic)
Year:    1969
    Sylvester Stewart was a major presence on the San Francisco music scene for several years, both as a producer for Autumn Records and as a popular local disc jockey. In 1967 he decided to take it to the next level, using his studio connections to put together Sly And The Family Stone. The band featured a solid lineup of musicians, including Larry Graham, whose growling bass line figures prominently in their 1969 recording of I Want To Take You Higher. The song was originally released as a B side, but after the group blew away the crowd at Woodstock the recording was re-released as a single the following year.

Artist:    Canned Heat
Title:    Let's Work Together
Source:    CD: The Very Best Of Canned Heat (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Wilbert Harrison
Label:    Capitol (original label: Liberty)
Year:    1970
    By a rather odd twist of fate Wilbert Harrison, known primarily for his 50s hit Kansas City, decided to reissue one of his lesser-known tunes, Let's Work Together, just a few weeks before a new Canned Heat version of the song was released in 1970. As it turns out, neither version became a major hit, although the Canned Heat version did get some airplay and managed to crack the Billboard Hot 100 that year.

Artist:    Spencer Davis Group
Title:    Gimme Some Lovin'
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Steve Winwood
Label:    United Artists
Year:    1966
    Although it sometimes seemed like being British was the only way to get a hit single on the American charts in the mid-1960s, there were actually plenty of bands that were successful in the UK, but struggled to be heard in the US. One of these was the Spencer Davis Group, which was signed to Chris Blackwood's Island label. Island was, at the time, a small independent company specializing in bringing Jamaican recordings to a British audience, but was looking to expand into popular music. Since Island's distribution was limited, the Spencer Davis Group recordings were released on the much larger Fontana label. Fontana released only one Spencer Davis Group single, I Can't Stand It, in the US, in late 1964. A year later Island worked out a deal with Ahmet Ertegun's Atco label to release the band's version of Keep On Running in the US, but neither it nor its followup, Somebody Help Me, made a dent on the Billboard charts, despite the fact that both songs had gone all the way to the number one spot in the UK. Finally, in December of 1966, producer Jimmy Miller did an extensive remix of their current British hit, Gimme Some Lovin', adding piano, background vocals and tons of reverb to the original recording, as well as using an entirely different lead vocal track with slightly different lyrics. That version appeared on the United Artists label, becoming the group's first US hit in early 1967. The Miller mix is now accepted as the standard version of the song.

Artist:    Seeds
Title:    It's A Hard Life
Source:    LP: The Seeds
Writer(s):    Sky Saxon
Label:    GNP Crescendo
Year:    1966
    If there was any real weakness in the first Seeds album, it was a certain sameness among the songs on the LP. There were exeptions, however, such as It's A Hard Life, which manages to stay true to the Seeds' style without sounding too much like Pushin' Too Hard.

Artist:    Fleur De Lys
Title:    Circles
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    Rhino (original label: Immediate)
Year:    1966
    Circles was a song by the Who that was originally slated to be released in the UK on the Brunswick label as a follow-up to the highly successful My Generation. A dispute between the band and the label and their producer, Shel Talmy, led to the Who switching labels and releasing another song, Substitute, in its place, with Circles (retitled Instant Party) on the B side of the record. When Talmy slapped the band with a legal injunction, the single was withdrawn, and another band, the Fleur De Lys, took advantage of the situation, recording their own version of Circles and releasing it on the Immediate label. Just to make things more confusing Brunswick issued the Who's version of Circles as the B side of A Legal Matter later the same month.

Artist:    Supremes
Title:    You Can't Hurry Love
Source:    CD: Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits-1966 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Holland/Dozier/Holland
Label:    Rhino (original label: Motown)
Year:    1966
    I've maintained for years that top 40 radio hit its peak in late summer of 1966, when the charts were topped by Donovan's Sunshine Superman and the Lovin' Spoonful's Summer In The City. Another song in the top five that week was the Supremes' You Can't Hurry Love, which was  already at #4 in only its fourth week in the top 100. The song, written by Motown's Holland/Dozier/Holland songwriting team, ended up being one of the label's signature songs and is instantly recognizable to multiple generations.

Artist:    Dada
Title:    Dorina
Source:    CD: Puzzle
Writer(s):    Calio/Gurney
Label:    IRS
Year:    1992
    In the early 1990s I found myself within listening range of a Virginia Beach radio station that called itself The Coast. Unlike other radio stations in the area, each of which had a tight playlist determined by extensive audience research, The Coast was a relatively free-form station that played an eclectic mix of classic, modern and alternative rock. Among the bands that got airplay on The Coast was a new three-piece band from California called Dada. Consisting of guitarist Michael Gurley and bassist Joie Calio (who shared lead vocals) along with drummer Phil Leavitt, Dada made their recording debut with the 1992 album Puzzle. The first single released from the album, Dizz-Knee Land, got a lot of airplay on more mainstream rock stations, but it was the album's opening track, Dorina, that really grabbed my attention when I heard it on The Coast.

Artist:    Claypool/Lennon Delerium
Title:    Oxycontin Girl
Source:    LP: Monolith Of Phobos
Writer(s):    Claypool/Lennon
Label:    Ato
Year:    2016
    Fans of alternative rock are no doubt familiar with a band called Primus, led by bassist Les Claypool. One of the more colorful characters on the modern music scene, Claypool was once rejected by Metallica as being "too good" for them. Claypool himself has said that he thought James Hetfield was just being nice when he told him that, but the fact is that Claypool is indeed one of the most talented bass players (if not the best) in rock history. Sean Lennon is, of course, the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Unlike his half-borther Julian, Sean has never had to prove anything to anyone, and, thanks in large part to his mother's influence (and let's be honest here, money), has always felt free to pursue his own artistic path without having to bow to commercial pressures. The two of them met when their respective bands were on tour and they immediately recognized that they had a musical connection. That connection manifested itself in the album Monolith Of Phobos (a title inspired by Arthur Clarke's works), released in 2016. Oxycontin Girl begins with a bass solo that seems impossible to actually play (but of course, Claypool regularly does that) and then hits us with the lyric "She's an Oxycontin girl in a heroin world". It gets even better from there.

Artist:    George Harrison
Title:    When We Was Fab
Source:    CD: Cloud Nine
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Dark Horse
Year:    1987
    George Harrison recorded two different songs referencing his years as a member of the world's most popular rock band. The first, All Those Years Ago, was done in Harrison's own early 80s style, and was released not long after the death of former bandmate John Lennon. The second, When We Was Fab, was stylistically a throwback to the Beatles' most psychedelic period, with a strong resemblance to Lennon's I Am The Walrus from Magical Mystery Tour. The song appeared on Harrison's Cloud Nine album, which was recorded around the same time as the first Traveling Wilburys album, and features guest appearances from some of the other members of that group, including Beatles fans Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty.

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Rugs Of Wood And Flowers
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Kaylan/Nichols
Label:    White Whale
Year:    1967
    The Turtles were best known for their big hit records like Happy Together and She'd Rather Be With Me, both of which came from outside songwriters. The band had a weird side, however, that usually showed up on their self-penned B sides and an occasional album track. One example is Rugs Of Wood And Flowers, which appeared as the B side of You Know What I Mean in 1967. The song, written by vocalist Howard Kaylan and guitarist Al Nichol,  features Kaylan using a semi-operatic style that he would revive for his legendary performances with the Mothers at the Fillmore East in 1971.

Artist:    Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Title:    Ecstasy
Source:    CD: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy Is Spreading/The Great Conspiracy (original LP: The Great Conspiracy)
Writer(s):    John Merrill
Label:    Collectables (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1967
    For their second Columbia LP, The Great Conspiracy, the members of L.A.'s Peanut Butter Conspiracy were given greater artistic freedom by producer Gary Usher, who was already working on his own Millennium project at this point. The biggest change was the fact that there were no studio musicians used on the album, which resulted in a record much more in sync with the band's live sound. The album is full of strong tracks such as Ecstasy, which, like about half the songs on the LP, was written by lead guitarist John Merrill. Although the PBC would end up recording a third LP a couple years later, they would do it without Merrill, who left shortly after The Great Conspiracy was released.

Artist:    Simon and Garfunkel
Title:    Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Source:    LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And Thyme
Writer(s):    Trad., arr. Simon/Garfunkel
Label:    Sundazed/Columbia
Year:    1966
    After the reunion of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel following the surprise success of an electrified remix of The Sound Of Silence, the duo quickly recorded an album to support the hit single. Sounds Of Silence was, for the most part, a reworking of material that Simon had recorded for 1965 UK LP the Paul Simon Songbook. The pressure for a new album thus (temporarily) relieved, the duo got to work on their first album of truly new material since their unsuccessful 1964 effort Wednesday Morning 3AM (which had in fact been re-released and was now doing well on the charts). In October the new album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, hit the stands. The title track was a new arrangement of an old English folk ballad, Scarborough Fair, combined with a reworking of a song from the Paul Simon Songbook, The Side Of A Hill, retitled Canticle. The two melodies and sets of lyrics are set in counterpoint to each other, creating one of the most sophisticated folk song arrangements ever recorded. After being featured in the film The Graduate, Scarborough Fair/Canticle was released as a single in early 1968, going on to become one of the duo's most instantly recognizable songs.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Today
Source:    LP: The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Writer(s):    Balin/Kantner
Label:    Victor
Year:    1967
    Uncredited guest guitarist Jerry Garcia adds a simple, but memorable recurring fill riff to Today, an early collaboration between rhythm guitarist Paul Kantner and bandleader Marty Balin on Jefferson Airplane's second LP, Surrealistic Pillow.
       
Artist:    Millennium
Title:    I Just Want To Be Your Friend
Source:    LP: Begin
Writer(s):    Curt Boettcher
Label:    Columbia/Sundazed
Year:    1968
    The Millennium's 1968 album Begin can best be described as a cooperative effort by some of L.A.'s most talented studio musicians that ended up being a victim of its own bad timing. Conceived by Curt Boettcher (Sagittarius, the Ballroom) and Keith Olsen (Music Machine), the Millennium also included guitarist Doug Rhodes and drummer Ron Edgar (both from the Music Machine), as well as several other Ballroom and Sagittarius veterans, including guitarist/vocalists Lee Mallory, Joey Stec, Mike Fennelly and Sandy Salisbury. Most of the participants shared songwriting credits, with no one songwriter appearing on more than six of the album's fourteen tracks. Boettcher had three solo writing credits, including I Just Want To Be Your Friend, a tune that sounds like it could easily have appeared on the first Association LP (which Boettcher had produced). The album itself was widely praised by music critics as one of the best sunshine pop albums ever produced. Unfortunately, by July of 1968, when Begin hit the stands, sunshine pop had essentially been replaced by bubblegum rock on top 40 radio, while most of the new FM stations were playing a harder rocking sound favored by the counter-culture, leaving the album in a kind of commercial limbo.
   
Artist:    Tyrannosaurus Rex
Title:    Once Upon The Seas Of Abyssinia
Source:    British import CD: Acid Days
Writer(s):    Marc Bolan
Label:    Uncut
Year:    Recorded 1969, released 2002
    Despite the similarity in names (not to mention the presence of Marc Bolan) Tyrannosaurus Rex and T-Rex were really entirely different groups. The original Tyrannosaurus Rex, formed in 1967. was a psychedelic-folk duo consisting of guitarist/vocalist Bolan and percussionist
Steve Peregrine Took, that released three albums before the two had a falling out. Following the departure of Took a fourth Tyrannosaurus Rex album was released, with Mickey Finn handling percussion duties, in 1969. Sometime that year, probably following the release of the original duo's third LP, they recorded Once Upon The Seas Of Abyssinia, a track that didn't get released until 2002, when it appeared on the Marc Bolan box set 20th Century Superstar.
   
Artist:    American Dream
Title:    Good News
Source:    LP: The American Dream
Writer(s):    Van Winkle/Bowers
Label:    Ampex
Year:    1970
    Following his departure from his band Nazz in 1969 Todd Rundgren went to work for Albert Grossman as a staff producer for the new Ampex label, a joint venture being launched by Grossman (who was a well-known manager of folk artists) and the Ampex tape company. Rundgren's first project for Grossman was producing a band of fellow Philadelphian's known as The American Dream. The album was the first to be released on the Ampex label. The album opens with a recorded phone conversation between (presumably) one of the band members and his grandmother, telling her excitedly that he is in New York. The leads into a song called Good News, a solid rocker that was also issued as the b side of the album's only single. The American Dream was never heard from again after that first album, but Rundgren's career is legendary.

Artist:     Five Americans
Title:     Western Union
Source:     45 RPM single
Writer:     Rabon/Ezell/Durrell
Label:     Abnak
Year:     1967
     One of the biggest hits of 1967 came from a band from Southeastern State College in Durant Oklahoma, although they probably played at least as many gigs in neighboring Texas as in their home state. The Five Americans, having already scored a minor hit with I See The Light the previous year, hit the #5 spot on the national charts with Western Union, featuring a distinctive opening organ riff designed to evoke the sound of a telegraph receiver picking up Morse code.

Artist:    Small Faces
Title:    Lazy Sunday
Source:    British import CD: Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake
Writer(s):    Marriott/Lane
Label:    Charly (original label: Immediate)
Year:    1968
    Following up on the creative freedom that came with their switch to Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label in 1967 (and their subsequent international hit Itchycoo Park), the Small Faces immediately (sorry) got to work on what would end up being their final full-length LP, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake. Before the album was released in the spring of 1968, however, Immediate issued Lazy Sunday, the last track on side one of the LP, as a single, against the wishes of the band. As it turned out the song, inspired by frontman Steve Marriott's ongoing feud with his neighbors, ended up being an even bigger hit than Itchycoo Park in their native Britain, as well as in Germany and the Netherlands. Marriott, however, was frustrated with the band's inability to shed their pop music image and left the group later that year to form Humble Pie.
   
Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    Driving Song
Source:    Lebanese import 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1969
    By 1969 the presence of "underground" FM radio stations in most major US cities playing what would come to be called album rock was making it possible for an artist to be considered successful without having the benefit of a top 40 hit record. This was not the case in the UK, where top 40 itself had been, until July of 1967, considered an underground format heard on illegal AM pirate stations broadcasting from offshore transmitters. Momentum being what it is, British bands such as Jethro Tull continued to put out singles and EPs that were successful in their native England but difficult to find in the US well into the 1970s. For example, Driving Song was originally released as the B side of Living In the Past in 1969. As was the case with every other early Jethro Tull single, the record, although released in the US failed to make a dent in the charts, and was not heard by most Americans until the Living In the Past LP was released in 1973. Living In The Past/Driving Song also has the distinction of being the only Jethro Tull single ever issued in Lebanon.

Artist:     Edwin Starr
Title:     War
Source:     CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Whitfield/Strong
Label:     Rhino (original label: Gordy)
Year:     1970
     It was 1970, and Motown Records staff producer Norman Whitfield was facing a bit of a dilemma. A track that he and co-producer Barrett Strong had included on the Temptations' LP Psychedelic Shack was starting to get a lot of airplay, and radio programmers were asking for the song to be released as a single. The problem was the song itself. War, co-written by Whitfield and Strong, had a powerful message that resonated with the anti-Vietnam War movement. This, of course, did not sit well with some of the more conservative radio station owners, a fact that Motown president Berry Gordy, Jr. was well aware of. At that particular moment in space and time, the Temptations were Motown's #1 cash cow (Diana Ross having left the Supremes earlier that year), and Berry did not want to take any chances with his top money makers. Eventually a compromise was reached. Whitfield re-recorded the track with second-string artist Edwin Starr, amping up the energy level of the song in the process, and ended up with one of the biggest hit singles of the year (and certainly the biggest of Starr's career).

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2011 (starts 3/9/20)

    This time around we manage to squeeze in 13 tunes, including one that runs over 11 minutes in length. I'm still not sure how that happened.

Artist:    Steve Miller Band
Title:    Good Morning
Source:    CD: Number 5
Writer(s):    Bobby Winkleman
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1970
    In 1970 bassist Lonnie Turner, who had been with the Steve Miller Band since its founding in 1966 (and would return in 1973), left the band for reasons unknown. His replacement, Bobby Winkleman, immediately made his presence felt by penning the opening track of the band's next LP, a tune called Good Morning that was based on a children's song. Winkleman had been a member of the legendary San Francisco East Bay band Frumious Bandersnatch, and several of his former bandmates would appear on the following album, Rock Love. Winkleman himself has remained active in the music business, producing (among other things) a CD called Nuggets From The Golden State: The Berkeley EPs, A British anthology album on the Big Beat label that collected rare recordings from legendary Bay Area bands such as Country Joe and the Fish, Mad River and of course Frumious Bandersnatch.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Naked Eye
Source:    LP: Odds And Sods
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    Track
Year:    1974
    While touring to promote the Tommy album, the Who began developing several new songs as part of their live act. Many of these appeared, at least in part, on the Live At Leeds album in 1970. One of those songs, Naked Eye, was partially recorded in the studio around the same time, but remained unfinished when the 1971 album Who's Next was released. Over the next couple of years several bootlegs of the Who's live performances were in circulation, prompting bassist John Entwhistle to compile a new album of outtakes and unreleased tracks in 1974. That album, Odds And Sods, included the completed version of Naked Eye.

Artist:    Derek And The Dominos
Title:    Anyday
Source:    CD: Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
Writer(s):    Clapton/Whitlock
Label:    Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year:    1970
    Derek And The Dominos was originally an attempt by Eric Clapton to remove himself from the solo spotlight and work in a larger group setting than he had with his previous bands, Cream and Blind Faith. Such was Clapton's stature, however, that even among talents like Jim Gordon, Carl Radle and Bobby Whitlock, Clapton was still the star. However, there was one unofficial member of the group whose own star was in ascendancy. Duane Allman, who had chosen to stick with his own group the Allman Brothers Band, nonetheless played on eleven of the fourteen tracks on Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs. His slide guitar work is especially noticeable on the title track and on the song Anyday, which remains one of the most popular songs on the album.

Artist:    Elton John
Title:    Honey Roll
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    John/Taupin
Label:    Uni
Year:    1971
    Shortly after the release of Tumbleweed Connection, Elton John and Bernie Taupin worked on a soundtrack album for a film called Friends. The film itself was a bomb. Despite this, the album became John's third gold record of 1971, despite being released on the Paramount label rather than through MCA/Universal. Still, despite Universal now having the rights to all of Paramount's catalog, the Friends soundtrack has never been released as a standalone CD, although all of the songs were included on the Rare Masters set released in 1992. The only single from the album was the title track, with Honey Roll, a tune fairly typical of John and Taupin's work during that period, appearing on the B side.
   
Artist:    J.J. Cale
Title:    After Midnight
Source:    CD: Naturally
Writer(s):    J.J. Cale
Label:    Mercury/Polygram (original label: Shelter)
Year:    1972
    J.J. Cale is one of the most highly-respected, yet unknown to the general public, names in the history of rock music. He is credited as the creator of the Tulsa Sound adopted by Eric Clapton in the early 1970s. In fact, several of Clapton's best known songs were written by Cale, including After Midnight, originally released by Cale as a single in 1966 and re-recorded in 1972 for Cale's Naturally LP after Clapton's 1970 version of the song had become a hit. Cale's version is more laid back than Clapton's, and is itself a classic example of the Tulsa Sound.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Who Scared You
Source:    CD: Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1969
    The Doors only released two non-album tracks while Jim Morrison was alive. The first of these was Who Scared You, which appeared as the B side of Wishful Sinful, a minor hit from the 1969 album The Soft Parade. Unlike the songs on The Soft Parade itself, Who Scared You is credited to the entire band, rather than one or more of its individual members. The song made its album debut in 1972, when it was included in the double-LP compilation Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine.

Artist:    Free
Title:    Mr. Big
Source:    British import CD: All Right Now-The Collection (originally released on LP: Fire And Water)
Writer(s):    Kossoff/Fraser/Kirke/Rodgers
Label:    Spectrum (original US label: A&M)
Year:    1970
    After two albums that failed to make the charts, Free became overnight stars with the release of the song All Right Now in 1970. The international sucess of the single propelled the band's third LP, Fire And Water, to the upper reaches of both the US and UK album charts, peaking at #2 and #17 respectively. One of the album's highlights was Mr Big, the only track credited to the entire band, which led off the LP's second side.
   
Artist:    Flower Travellin' Band
Title:    Satori-Part IV
Source:    CD: Satori
Writer(s):    Satori
Label:    Phoenix
Year:    1971
    Possibly the first Japanese heavy metal band and almost certainly the first Japanese psychedelic group, the Flower Travelin' Band was created as a side project of Yuyu Yuchida, a friend of John Lennon's who, having heard Jimi Hendrix and Cream on a trip to England, wanted to introduce Japanese audiences to this new kind of music. After returning to Japan he gathered a group of musicians together and recorded the first Flowerin' Travellin' Band LP in 1969. The album was made up entirely of covers of bands like Cream and Led Zeppelin. It wasn't until 1971 (and several personnel changes) that the FTB recorded their first LP made up entirely of original material. The album was called Satori, as were all five tracks on the album. It was worth the wait.

Artist:    Procol Harum
Title:    Pandora's Box
Source:    LP: Procol's Ninth
Writer(s):    Brooker/Reid
Label:    Chrysalis
Year:    1975
    By 1975 Procol Harum had pretty much run out of steam. The proof of this was the album Procol Harum's Ninth. The only song to draw any attention at all was the album's opening track, Pandora's Box, which had been written (and partially recorded) by the band several years earlier. That said, Pandora's Box is actually one of Procol Harum's best songs. Too bad the rest of the album falls flat by comparison.
   
Artist:    Triumvirat
Title:    Million Dollars
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Frtiz/Bathelt
Label:    Harvest
Year:    1974
    Triumvirat was formed in 1969 in Cologne, Germany. Originally a cover band specializing in prog-rock they soon began writing and performing their own material. Thanks to the flamboyant virtuosity of keyboardist Jürgen Fritz, they were often compared to Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Most of the band's lyrics were written by percussionist Hans Bathelt, including Million Dollars, part of a suite called Mister Ten Percent that appeared as the second side of their second LP, Illusions On A Double Dimple. At around the same time that the LP was released, Triumvirat toured the US as the opening act for Fleetwood Mac, performing the album in its entirety at each show. This helped establish Triumvirat as one of the most visible krautrock bands of the 1970s. Bathelt left the group in 1977, and Triumvirat finally disbanded in 1980 following a final album that was essentially Fritz backed up by several guest musicians.
   
Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Something
Source:    LP: Abbey Road
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Apple
Year:    1969
    For years, the Beatles' George Harrison had felt that he was not getting the respect he deserved from his bandmates for his songwriting ability. That all changed in 1969 when he introduced them to his latest tune for inclusion on the Abbey Road album. Something impressed everyone who heard it, including John Lennon (who said it was the best song on the album), Paul McCartney (who called it Harrison's best song ever) and even producer George Martin, who made sure the song was released as the A side of the only single from Abbey Road. Commercially, Something was a major success as well, going to the top of the US charts and placing in the top 5 in the UK. Perhaps more tellingly, Something is the second most covered song in the entire Beatles catalog (behind Paul McCartney's Yesterday), with over 150 artists recording the tune over the years, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and even James Brown.

Artist:    Stealer's Wheel
Title:    Star
Source:    45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s):    Joe Egan
Label:    A&M
Year:    1973
    Formed in 1972 in Paisley, Scotland by Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan, Stealer's Wheel scored a huge international hit with Stuck in the Middle With You that same year. Their followup album, 1973's Ferguslie Park, did not have any hits to match Stuck's success, although two of the songs from the album made the top 40 charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The second of these was Star, a Joe Egan composition that hit the top 30 in 1974. After the duo split Rafferty went on to international fame for his 1978 hit Baker Street.

Artist:     Uriah Heep
Title:     Blind Eye
Source:     British import CD: The Magician's Birthday
Writer:     Ken Hensley
Label:     Sanctuary (original US label: Mercury)
Year:     1972
     This week's closing number is from Uriah Heep. The single Easy Livin' from the album Demons and Wizards was a top 40 hit, giving the band some momentum for their follow up album, The Magician's Birthday. Both albums were certified gold. Blind Eye, the second single from The Magician's Birthday, barely made a dent in the charts, but by 1972 album sales were considered a more important measure of success anyway. Both albums were notable for their cover art by Roger Dean, who also did cover art for Yes during their most popular period.

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2010 (starts 3/2/20)

    Although the show begins and ends with British acts, it's a pair of California bands that draw the most attention this time around. As was the case last week as well, our second hour features an artists' set from the Doors, albeit a considerably shorter one this time out. Then, in our last half hour, it's once again time for the full version of Iron Butterfly's 1968 classic In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. As an added bonus we have a track from legendary Memphis guitarist Steve Cropper's first and only solo LP for Stax, the company he helped make famous in the late 1960s.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    I'm Looking Through You
Source:    CD: Rubber Soul
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Capitol/EMI
Year:    1965
    If you were an American Beatles fan in the 1970s and early 1980s you probably had a copy of the 1965 album Rubber Soul in your collection, and whether it was on vinyl, cassette, 8-track cartridge or even reel-to-reel tape it was almost certainly a stereo copy. All of these US releases included a version of I'm Looking Through You that was not available anywhere else. In addition to the extreme separation between vocal and instrumental tracks (if your left speaker wasn't working, you wouldn't hear any vocals at all), this version of the song included a pair of short acoustic guitar chords there tacked onto the beginning of the track, probably by mistake. Many of us got so used to hearing the song that way that it still feels a bit unnatural to hear the song without them. So, for all you nostalgic ones, here is the version we all remember.

Artist:    Count Five
Title:    The Morning After
Source:    Mono LP: Psychotic Reaction
Writer(s):    John Byrne
Label:    Bicycle/Concord (original label: Double Shot)
Year:    1966
    Following the success of the single Psychotic Reaction, San Jose, Calfornia's Count Five headed for Los Angeles to record an entire album's worth of material. With the exception of two Who covers, all the songs on the album (also called Psychotic Reaction) were written or co-written by John Byrne, the Irish-born rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist for the band. They were also quite short. The Morning After, for instance, runs less than two minutes total.

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    Happy Together
Source:    CD: Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits-1967 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Bonner/Gordon
Label:    Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year:    1967
    The Turtles got off to a strong start with their cover of Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe, which hit the top 20 in 1965. By early 1967, however, the band had fallen on hard times and was looking for a way to return to the charts. They found that way with Happy Together, a song written by Gary Bonner and Mark Gordon, both members of an east coast band called the Magicians. Happy Together was the Turtles' first international hit, going all the way to the top of the charts in several countries and becoming one of the most recognizable songs in popular music history.

Artist:    Mandala
Title:    Come On Home
Source:    CD: Soul Crusade
Writer(s):    Dominic Troiano
Label:    Wounded Bird (original label: Atlantic)
Year:    1968
    Mandala was formed in late 1966, when Toronto's Five Rogues decided to update their image, presenting themselves as a channel for audience members to release its emotions as part of the band's "Soul Crusade". They were an immediate success, and in early 1967 found themselves playing high-profile gigs in the US, including a four-night stand at L.A.'s Whisky-A-Go-Go and a month-long extended engagement at The Scene in New York City. They also participated in Murray the K's Easter Rock Extravaganza, sharing the bill with the Blues Project, Cream, the Who, Wilson Pickett and others. Internal conflicts, however, led to lineup changes later in the year, and a new lineup consisting of guitarist Dominic Troiano, bassist Don Elliot, keyboardist Hugh Sullivan, drummer Whitey Glan and new lead vocalist Roy Kenner made its debut in Ottawa on October 8, 1967. The earlier lineup had cut a couple singles for the Decca label, and in early 1968 Atlantic's Ahmet Ertegun bought out the band's contract. The band's only album, Soul Crusade, was released in June of 1968. Although the group was primarily a blue-eyed soul band, one of the songs on the LP, Dominic Troiano's Come On Home, was pure blues. Sales of the album and it's singles were a commercial disappointment, however, and Mandala disbanded a year later, with Troiano, Kenner, Glan, Sullivan and new bassist Prakish John continuing on under the name Bush. After one album Bush also fell apart, with Kenner and Troiano replacing Joe Walsh as a member of the James Gang in early 1972. Troiano eventually moved on to the Guess Who when Randy Bachman left that band to form Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix
Title:    Red House
Source:    CD: Live At Woodstock
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Legacy
Year:    1969
    Just about every time Jimi Hendrix made a live appearance he played his signature blues song, Red House. This is the version performed at Woodstock, using the band he was calling Gypsy, Sun And Rainbows at the time, although he also was heard to say "We're just a Band Of Gypsys" during his set. In addition to Hendrix himself, the band featured Mitch Mitchell on drums, Billy Cox on bass, Larry Lee on rhythm guitar and percussionists Jerry Velez and Juma Sultan, although only Hendrix, Cox and Mitchell are audible on the recording.

Artist:    Led Zeppelin
Title:    That's The Way
Source:    German import LP: Led Zeppelin III
Writer(s):    Page/Plant
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1970
    I read somewhere that Jimmy Page came up with The Rain Song (from the album Houses Of The Holy) in response to someone asking him why Led Zeppelin hadn't recorded any ballads. Apparently that person had never heard That's The Way, from the album Led Zeppelin III. If this ain't a ballad, I don't know what is.

Artist:    Trashmen
Title:    Surfin' Bird
Source:    Mono CD: Surfin' Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Frazier/White/Harris/Wilson
Label:    Rhino (original label: Garrett)
Year:    1963
    The Trashmen were a group from Minneapolis that came up with the idea of taking two Rivingtons hits from the 1950s, Papa Oom Mow Mow and Bird Is The Word, and combining them, speeding up the tempo to insane levels in the process. The result was a huge hit in 1963. The original label lists bandleader Steve Wahrer as the songwriter, but more recent releases credit the song to the members of the Rivingtons.

Artist:    Them
Title:    Just A Little Bit
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Backtrackin' (originally released in UK on LP: The Angry Young Them)
Writer(s):    Thornton/Washington/Bass/Brown
Label:    London (original label: Decca)
Year:    1965
    Like many mid-60s albums, the debut effort from Belfast's Them had a slightly different track lineup on either side of the Atlantic, with a few of the songs from the British version left off the American album. One of the songs from The Angry Young Them that was left off its US counterpart (titled simply Them) was a remake of a 1959 Roscoe Gordon tune called Just A Little Bit. The song finally appeared in the US on an album called Backtrackin' in 1974. By then, however, LPs were being pressed only in stereo, whereas the original recordings used were all mixed monoraully. Rather than use the mono mixes, London Records chose to create "fake stereo" mixes of the songs on the LP. Although there are no production credits given on the album cover or label, I suspect Allan Klein was somehow involved in putting this album together.

Artist:    Oxford Circle
Title:    Foolish Woman
Source:    Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Yoder/Patton
Label:    Rhino (original label: World United)
Year:    1966
    The Oxford Circle was one of those bands that had a reputation for being the opening band that blew the headliners off the stage, yet never was able to make it big itself. Originally from Sacramento, California, the group appeared frequently in and around San Francisco in 1965 and 1966, but disbanded before the scene started getting national attention, with many of the members moving on to greater fame with other bands. Drummer Paul Whaley was the first to get national attention as a founding member of Blue Cheer. Oxford Circle leader Gary Lee Yoder would eventually join Blue Cheer as well, after a short stint with his own band, Kak. Also of note was bassist Jim Keylor, who was in an early incarnation of Roxy and went on to form BSU studios, where the Dead Kennedys recorded. For all that, the Oxford Circle made only one single, Foolish Woman, which was released on the independent World United label in 1966.

Artist:    Pink Floyd
Title:    Lucifer Sam
Source:    CD: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Writer(s):    Syd Barrett
Label:    Capitol (original label: Tower)
Year:    1967
    Beyond a shadow of a doubt the original driving force behind Pink Floyd was the legendary Syd Barrett. Not only did he front the band during their rise to fame, he also wrote their first two singles, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, as well as most of their first LP, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. In fact it could be argued that one of the songs on that album, Lucifer Sam, could have just as easily been issued as a single, as it is stylistically similar to the first two songs. Sadly, Barrett's mental health deteriorated quickly over the next year and his participation in the making of the band's next LP, A Saucerful Of Secrets, was minimal. He soon left the group altogether, never to return (although several of his former bandmates did participate in the making of his 1970 solo album, The Madcap Laughs).

Artist:    Ultimate Spinach
Title:    Baroque # 1
Source:    Mono LP: Ultimate Spinach (promo copy)
Writer(s):    Ian Bruce-Douglas
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1967
    Of the six major US record labels of the time, only two, Decca and M-G-M, failed to sign any San Francisco bands in the late 1960s. Decca, which had been bought by MCA in the early 60s, was fast fading as a major force in the industry (ironic considering that Universal, the direct descendant of MCA, is now the world's largest record company). M-G-M, on the other hand, had a strong presence on the Greenwich Village scene thanks to Jerry Schoenbaum at the Verve Forecast label, who had signed such critically-acclaimed artists as Dave Van Ronk, Tim Hardin and the Blues Project. Taking this as an inspiration, the parent label decided to create interest in the Boston music scene, aggressively promoting (some would say hyping) the "Boss-Town Sound". One of the bands signed was Ultimate Spinach, which was led by keyboardist Ian Bruce-Douglas, who wrote all the band's material, including the instrumental Baroque # 1.

Artist:    Allman Brothers Band
Title:    Trouble No More
Source:    CD: Beginnings (originally released on LP: The Allman Brothers Band)
Writer(s):    McKinley Morganfield
Label:    Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year:    1969
    The Allman Brothers band grew out of massive jam sessions organized by Duane Allman and drummer Jai Johnny Johanson in early 1969. The two had recently relocated from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Allman had been doing session work for artists such as Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett (it's Duane's guitar that can be heard on Pickett's version of Hey Jude). One of the musicians Allman invited to the sessions was bassist Berry Oakley, who in turn recruited Dickey Betts as the as-yet unnamed band's second guitarist. Duane Allman's concept of the new band was to have two guitarists and two drummers, and it wasn't long before Butch Trucks, whom Allman and his brother Gregg had cut a demo with the previous year, was added to the mix. The final piece came into play on March 26, 1969, when Gregg Allman accepted his brother's invitation to sit in with the group as lead vocalist. The band was rehearsing an old Muddy Waters tune, Trouble No More, which became the first song Gregg Allman ever performed with the group. The addition of Gregg as vocalist and keyboardist gave the band its name as well. It wasn't long before the Allman Brothers Band recorded their first album for Phil Walden's new Capricorn label (since Capricorn at that point did not yet have its own logo, the LP was actually released on the Atco label, thanks to a deal between Walden, Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records and the band itself). Although not a huge commercial success when first released, the album's sales picked up considerably after the band released a live album recorded at the Fillmore East in 1971.
   
Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    It's No Secret
Source:    LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer:    Marty Balin
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1966
    The first Jefferson Airplane song to get played on the radio was not Somebody To Love. Rather, it was It's No Secret, from the album Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, that got extensive airplay, albeit only in the San Francisco Bay area. Still, the song was featured on a 1966 Bell Telephone Hour special on Haight Ashbury that introduced a national TV audience to what was happening out on the coast and may have just touched off the exodus to San Francisco the following year.

Artist:    Chocolate Watch Band
Title:    Psychedelic Trip
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Loomis/Flores/Tolby/Aguilar/Andrijasevich
Label:    Sundazed
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 2012
    Psychedelic Trip is essentially an early instrumental version of what would eventually become the title track for the Chocolate Watch Band's debut album, No Way Out. Although Psychedelic Trip was a creation of the entire band, producer/manager Ed Cobb (the Ed Wood of psychedelic music) took sole writing credit for the song No Way Out.

Artist:    Standells
Title:    Mr. Nobody
Source:    Mono CD: The Best Of The Standells (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Larry Tamblyn
Label:    Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year:    1966
    The third Standells single of 1966, Why Pick On Me, was probably also their weakest, but it did sport a decent B side. Mr. Nobody, written by Larry Tamblyn (brother of Russ, I believe), is yet another example of why the Standells are sometimes considered the first punk rock band (though not by those with any real knowledge of the band's history).

Artist:    ? And The Mysterians
Title:    96 Tears
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    The Mysterians
Label:    Abkco (original label: Cameo)
Year:    1966
    Although his birth certificate gives the name Rudy Martinez, the leader of the Mysterians had his name legally changed to "?" several years ago. He asserts that he is actually from the planet Mars and has lived among dinosaurs in a past life. Sometimes I feel like I'm living among dinosaurs in this life, so I guess I can relate a little. The band's only major hit, 96 Tears, has the distinction of being the last top 10 single on the Cameo label before Cameo-Parkway got into trouble with the SEC and went bankrupt. The label's assets were bought by Allen Klein, who now operates the company as Abkco.

Artist:    Steve Cropper
Title:    Land Of 1000 Dances
Source:    LP: With A Little Help From My Friends
Writer(s):    Kenner/Domino
Label:    Volt
Year:    1969
    Despite being one of the most respected (and imitated) guitarists in the world as well as one of the principal architects (as a member of the MGs) of what came to be known as  "Memphis Soul", Steve Cropper only released one solo album for Stax, the label he helped make famous. That album, With A Little Help From My Friends, released in 1969, featured instrumental versions of some of the most popular R&B songs of the decade, including a few, such as Land Of 1000 Dances, that he had never before recorded. Within a year of the album's release, Cropper would leave Stax to form his own production company.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat)
Source:    CD: Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine (originally released on LP: L.A. Woman)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1971
    Following a downward slide starting in 1968, the Doors ended their original run on a high note in 1971 with the L.A. Woman album. Among the strong blues-based tracks on the album is The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat), an anthemic number that ranks up with other Doors album classics such as Five To One, When The Music's Over and The End. Big Beat indeed.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Love Her Madly
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1971   
    Released as a single in advance of the 1971 Doors album L.A. Woman, Love Her Madly was a major success, peaking just outside the top 10 in the US, and going all the way to the #3 spot in Canada. The album itself was a return to a more blues-based sound by the Doors, a change that did not sit well with producer Paul Rothchild, who left the project early on, leaving engineer Bruce Botnik to assume production duties. Rothchild's opinion aside, it was exactly what the Doors needed to end their run (in their original four man incarnation) on a positive note.

Artist:        Doors
Title:        End Of The Night
Source:    CD: Weird Scenes Inside The Goldmine (originally released on LP: The Doors)
Writer:        The Doors
Label:        Elektra
Year:        1967
        Sometimes you run across a song that seems to encapsulate what a band is all about. End Of The Night, from the first Doors album, is one of those songs. Apparently the band members felt the same way, as it was included on the anthology album Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mine, despite never being released as a single.

Artist:     Blues Project
Title:     Caress Me Baby
Source:     Mono CD: Projections
Writer:     Jimmy Reed
Label:     Sundazed/Verve Folkways
Year:     1966
     After deliberately truncating their extended jams for their first LP, Live At The Cafe Au-Go-Go, the Blues Project recorded a second album that was a much more accurate representation of what the band was all about. Mixed in with the group's original material was this outstanding cover of an old Jimmy Reed tune, sung by lead guitarist and Blues Project founder Danny Kalb, running over seven minutes long. Andy Kuhlberg's memorable walking bass line would be lifted a few year later by Blood, Sweat and Tears bassist Jim Fielder for the track Blues, Part II.

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)
Source:    LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released as 45 RPM single and added to LP: Buffalo Springfield)
Writer(s):    Stephen Stills
Label:    Cotillion (original label: Atco)
Year:    1966
    Most people associate the name Buffalo Springfield with the song For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound). And for good reason. The song is one of the greatest protest songs ever recorded, and to this day is in regular rotation on both oldies and classic rock radio stations. The song was written and recorded in November of 1966 and released in December. By then the first Buffalo Springfield LP was already on the racks, but until that point had not sold particularly well. When it became clear that For What It's Worth was becoming a breakout hit, Atco Records quickly recalled the album and added the song to it (as the opening track). All subsequent pressings of the LP (and later the CD) contain For What It's Worth, making earlier copies of the album somewhat of a rarity and quite collectable. According to the  song's composer, Stephen Stills, the piece got its rather unusual title when he told Atlantic/Atco chief Ahmet Ertegun "I have this song here, for what it's worth, if you want it."

Artist:    Love
Title:    My Little Red Book
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released on LP: Love)
Writer(s):    Bacharach/David
Label:    Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1966
    The first rock record ever released by Elektra Records was a single by Love called My Little Red Book. The track itself (which also opens Love's debut LP), is a punked out version of a tune originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the What's New Pussycat movie soundtrack. Needless to say, Love's version was not exactly what Burt Bacharach and Hal David had in mind.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Eight Miles High
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Fifth Dimension)
Writer(s):    Clark/McGuinn/Crosby
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1966
    Gene Clark's final contribution to the Byrds was his collaboration with David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, Eight Miles High. Despite a newsletter from the influential Gavin Report advising stations not to play this "drug song", Eight Miles High managed to hit the top 20 in 1966. The band members themselves claimed that Eight Miles High was not a drug song at all, but was instead referring to the experience of travelling by air. In fact, it was Gene Clark's fear of flying, especially long intercontinental trips, that in part led to his leaving the Byrds.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:     The Door Into Summer
Source:     LP: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer:     Douglas/Martin
Label:     Colgems
Year:     1967
     After playing nearly all the instrumental tracks on their third album themselves, the Monkees came to the painful conclusion that they would not be able to repeat the effort and still have time to tape a weekly TV show. As a result, the fourth Monkees LP, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones LTD., used studio musicians extensively, albeit under the creative supervision of the Monkees themselves. The group also had the final say over what songs ended up on the album, including The Door Into Summer, a tune by Bill Martin, a friend of band leader Michael Nesmith. For reasons that are too complicated to get into here (and probably wouldn't make much sense anyway), co-credit was given to the band's producer, Chip Douglas.

Artist:    Iron Butterfly
Title:    In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Source:    LP: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Writer(s):    Doug Ingle
Label:    Atco
Year:    1968
    One of the ironies of 1969 is that the top selling album of the year was actually released in June of 1968. The full version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, clocking in at slightly over seventeen minutes, was long the go-to record for DJs needing to take a nature break and for many people is the embodiment of the psychedelic era itself. According to legend, the song's unusual title came from mispronouncing "In The Garden Of Eden" while extremely drunk.

Artist:    Information
Title:    Oh Strange Man
Source:    British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Moir/Stewart
Label:    Grapefruit (original label: Beacon)
Year:    1969
    One of the most obscure recordings of 1969 was Oh Strange Man, released as a B side by a band calling itself Information. The group, led by vocalist David Moir and guitarist Albie Harrup only released two singles (on two different labels) before changing their name to Scarecrow and releasing an equally obscure album in 1978.

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2010 (starts 3/2/20)

    Sometimes it seems that no matter how hard you rock out, you still end up with the blues. This week we do both.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Foxy Lady
Source:    CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: Are You Experienced)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    The first track on the original UK release of Are You Experienced was Foxy Lady. The British custom of the time was to not include any songs on albums that had been previously released as singles. When Reprise Records got the rights to release the album in the US, it was decided to include three songs that had all been top 40 hits in the UK. One of those songs, Purple Haze, took over the opening spot on the album, and Foxy Lady was moved to the middle of side 2.

Artist:     Stephen Stills
Title:     Love the One You're With
Source:     45 RPM single (stereo promo pressing)
Writer(s):    Stephen Stills
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1971
     Depending on your point of view Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young) have either split up several times over the years or have never actually split up at all. It was during one of these maybe split-ups that Stills recorded Love the One You're With, one of his most popular tunes. Presumably he and singer Judy Collins were no longer an item at that point.

Artist:    ZZ Top
Title:    Asleep In The Desert
Source:    LP: Tejas
Writer(s):    Billy Gibbons
Label:    London
Year:    1976
    Guitarist Billy Gibbons takes center stage for the final track on ZZ Top's 1976 LP Tejas, a low-key instrumental called Asleep In The Desert. Warning: this one will stick in your head.

Artist:    David Bromberg
Title:    Sweet Home Chicago
Source:    LP: How Late'll Ya Play Till
Writer(s):    Robert Johnson
Label:    Fantasy
Year:    1976
    Sweet Home Chicago is considered by many to be the blues standard by which all other blues standards are measured. First recorded by Robert Johnson in 1936, the song has been subsequently modified by several notable artists over the years, including Junior Parker, who took the song to the #13 spot of the Billboard R&B chart in 1958. David Bromberg used a fairly standard arrangement of the tune for his live performance included on his 1976 LP How Late'll You Play Till.

Artist:    Led Zeppelin
Title:    You Shook Me/Dazed And Confused
Source:    CD: Led Zeppelin
Writer:    Dixon/Page
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1969
    I've heard it said that Willie Dixon sued Led Zeppelin over the use of You Shook Me, which is puzzling to me since Dixon is clearly credited as the songwriter on the label. Still, I don't know enough about copyright laws to say for sure whether this could have happened or not. Dazed & Confused, on the other hand, is a Jimmy Page composition that was performed by the Yardbirds (with slightly different lyrics) as early as 1966.
   
Artist:    Cheech And Chong
Title:    The Bust
Source:    LP: Big Bambu
Writer(s):    Marin/Chong
Label:    Ode
Year:    1971
    The Bust, from the 1971 Cheech And Chong LP Big Bambu, may just have the greatest punchline in the annals of stoner comedy.
   
Artist:    Eric Burdon & War
Title:    Sun-Moon
Source:    CD: The Black Man's Burdon
Writer(s):    War
Label:    UMe (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1970
    The second album by Eric Burdon & War was The Black Man's Burdon, a double-LP set full of long, extended pieces that laid the groundwork for War's rise to star status in the 1970s. One of the best of these extended jams was Sun-Moon, a ten-minute long slow blues number that showcases the various band members' talents.

Artist:    Johnny Winter
Title:    I Hate Everybody/Fast Life Rider
Source:    LP: Second Winter
Writer(s):    Johnny Winter
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    The shortest track on Johnny Winter's Second Winter album, I Hate Everybody is a 50s-styled blues boogie that features Johnny's younger brother Edgar prominently on both organ and saxophone, supported by the rhythm section of Tommy Shannon on bass and Uncle John Turner on drums. It's followed on the album immediately by the longest track on the album, the seven-minute Fast Life Rider, which features a long middle section of Winter jamming away against a military-type beat provided by Turner. The other band members provide hoots, hums and hollers, making the whole thing feel a bit like a chain gang recording from the 1930s.

Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    The Mule
Source:    LP: Fireball
Writer(s):    Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1971
    The Mule is a mostly-instrumental piece by Deep Purple that is best known as the track that features the Ian Paice drum solo on the album Made In Japan. The studio version of the song, inspired by Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, originally appeared in 1971 on the band's Fireball LP.

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    We Used To Know
Source:    CD: Stand Up
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Chrysalis/Capitol (original US label: Reprise)
Year:    1969
    The first of many personnel changes for Jethro Tull came with the departure of guitarist Mick Abrahams in late 1968. His replacement was Tony Iommi from the band Earth, who joined just in time to make an appearance miming the guitar parts to A Song For Jeffrey on the Rolling Stones' Rock And Roll Circus, a TV special slated for a December airing on British TV, but pulled from the schedule at the last minute by the Stones themselves, who were not satisfied with their own performances on the show. The following month Iommi went back to Earth (who soon changed their name to Black Sabbath) and Jethro Tull found a new guitarist, Martin Barre, in time to begin work on their second LP, Stand Up. Barre's guitar work is featured prominently on several tracks on Stand Up, including We Used To Know, a song that starts quietly and slowly builds to a wah-wah pedal dominated instrumental finale.