https://exchange.prx.org/p/529796
This week we have an all 21st century Advanced Psych segment, a Rolling Stones set, and a higher-than-usual dose of tunes from 1969-1970. It all starts, however, with a long set from 1967.
Artist: Circus Maximus
Title: Wind
Source: LP: Circus Maximus
Writer(s): Bob Bruno
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
Circus Maximus was formed out of the chance meeting of multi-instrumentalist Bob Bruno and guitarist Jerry Jeff Walker in Greenwich Village in 1967. From the start the band was moving in different directions, with Bruno incorporating jazz elements into the band while Walker favored country-rock. Eventually the two would go their separate ways, but for the short time the band was together they made some of the best, if not best-known, psychedelic music on the East Coast. The band's most popular track was Wind, a Bruno tune from their debut album. The song got a considerable amount of airplay on the new "underground" radio stations that were popping up across the country at the time.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Writer In The Sun
Source: CD: Mellow Yellow
Writer: Donovan Leitch
Label: EMI (original label: Epic)
Year: 1967
In 1966-67 Donovan's career was almost derailed by a contractual dispute with his UK label, Pye Records. This resulted in two of his albums, Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, not being issued in the UK. At the time he felt that there was a real chance that he would be forced into retirement by the dispute, and with that weighing heavily on his mind he wrote the song Writer In The Sun. Ironically his career was moving in the opposite direction in the US due to him switching from the relatively small Hickory label to Epic Records (a subsidiary of Columbia, at the time the second-largest record company in the US) and scoring top 10 singles with the title tracks from both albums. His success with those records in the US may have been a factor in Pye settling with the singer-songwriter and issuing a British album that combined tracks from the two albums in late 1967.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Things Are Better In The East (demo version)
Source: CD: After Bathing At Baxter's (bonus track)
Writer: Marty Balin
Label: RCA/BMG Heritage
Year: 1967
The third Jefferson Airplane album, After Bathing At Baxter's, saw Marty Balin hanging back and letting the other group members shine. Whereas a majority of songs on the first two albums were Balin compositions (both solo and in collaboration with Paul Kantner), his only composition on Baxter's was Young Girl Sunday Blues, co-written by Kantner. Balin was not completely idle during this period, however, as this demo recording of Things Are Better In The East (a finished version of which was held back for possible inclusion on a future album) demonstrates.
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Lose To Live
Source: LP: Incense And Peppermints
Writer(s): Weitz/SAC
Label: Sundazed/Uni
Year: 1967
The song Incense And Peppermints was originally a B side released in 1967 on the regional All-American label in southern California. DJs began flipping the record over, however, and the song soon attracted the interest of the people at MCA, who reissued the record on their Uni label. The song was such a huge national hit that Uni gave the band the go ahead to record an entire album of original material. For some unknown reason, the song Lose To Live, which was written by keyboardist Mark Weitz with input from the entire band, was credited at the time to C King and T Stern. Nobody seems to know who King and Stern are, leading me to believe the names appeared in the credits solely for purposes pertaining to the distribution of songwriting royalties.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: I Don't Live Today
Source: CD: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Some things stick in your mind for the rest of your life. One of those for me is seeing for the first time a black light poster of Jimi Hendrix playing his guitar with the caption I Don't Live Today. I don't believe Hendrix was being deliberately prophetic when he wrote and recorded this classic track for the Are You Experienced album, but it still spooks me a bit to hear it, even now.
Artist: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Title: Carry On
Source: CD: Déjà Vu
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
Carry On, the opening track from the Crosby, Still, Nash & Young album Déjà Vu, is a Stephen Stills song that incorporates lyrics from an earlier piece, Questions, which appeared on the third Buffalo Springfield album, Last Time Around. The song was the fourth single released from Déjà Vu, but failed to make the top 40 (which only reinforces my belief that top 40 radio had outlived its usefulness by 1970).
Artist: Beacon Street Union
Title: Blue Avenue
Source: British import CD: The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union/The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens (originally released in US on LP: The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union)
Writer(s): Wayne Ulaky
Label: See For Miles (original US label: M-G-M)
Year: 1968
Although never issued as a single in the US, Blue Avenue, from The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union, was the band's most popular song among UK radio listeners. This is due to the fact that the song was played by England's most influential DJ, John Peel, on his "Top Gear" show. One of the many garage bands I was in learned the song and played it at a failed audition for the Ramstein AFB Airman's club, although all five guys in the audience seemed to get a kick out of seeing and hearing me strum my guitar's strings on the wrong side of the bridge.
Artist: Them
Title: Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of 16) (original single version)
Source: British Import CD: Time Out! Time In! For Them (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Tom Lane
Label: Rev-Ola (original label: Sully)
Year: 1968
Following the departure of original Them front man Van Morrison for a solo career in December of 1966, the remaining four members of the band, bassist Alan Henderson, guitarist Jim Armstrong, drummer Dave Harvey and multi-instrumentalist Ray Elliott, decided to continue using the Them name, recruiting new vocalist Kenny McDowell to take Morrison's place. They soon come to the attention of American producer Ray Ruff, who invited them to relocate to Amarillo, Texas, which they did in June of 1967. Their first single for Ruff was Dirty Old Man (At The Age Of 16), a tune done in the same style as their earlier Morrison recordings and released in August on the Texas-based Sully Label. Over the next year the band would become more psychedelicized, releasing two albums on the Tower label in 1968, the first of which, Now And Them, would include a newly recorded version of Dirty Old Man.
Artist: La De Das
Title: How Is The Air Up There?
Source: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in New Zealand as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Kornfeld/Duboff
Label: Rhino (original labels: Zodiac/Philips)
Year: 1966
New Zealand had a surprisingly active music scene in the late 1960s, with bands like the La De Das at the center of the action. Formed in Auckland in 1964, the group started off as the Mergers, changing their name at around the same time they signed with the local Zodiac label. Their first single, How Is The Air Up There?, was a huge hit in New Zealand, leading a string of hit singles and three albums for the band, which eventually called in quits in the 1970s.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Almost There
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Howard Kaylan
Label: White Whale
Year: 1965
In the mid-1960s it was a common practice for a producer to let a band record its own material for the B side of a single, particularly if it was the band's first record. For one thing, it was cheaper than paying an outside songwriter for the rights to make a record that may end up stiffing, thus leaving the producer with a net loss on the deal. It also meant that at least one band member would receive royalty money if the record did sell, since royalties were distributed equally between the two sides of a single, regardless of which side was actually generating revenue. A textbook example of this practice is Almost There, issued as the B side of It Ain't Me Babe, the first Turtles single. Written by teenaged lead vocalist Howard Kaylan, the song was not considered strong enough to be included on the band's debut LP, although it did appear on their 1966 followup album.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Big Black Smoke
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
The Kinks had some of the best B sides of the 60s. Case in point: Big Black Smoke, which appeared as the flip of Dead End Street in early 1967. The song deals with a familiar phenomenon of the 20th century: the small town girl that gets a rude awakening after moving to the big city. In this case the city was London, known colloquially as "the Smoke".
Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Summer In The City
Source: LP: Harmony (originally released on LP: Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful)
Writer(s): Sebastian/Sebastian/Boone
Label: RCA Special Products (original label: Kama Sutra)
Year: 1966
The Lovin' Spoonful changed gears completely for what would become their biggest hit of 1966: Summer In The City. Inspired by a poem by John Sebastian's brother, the song was recorded for the album Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful. That album was an attempt by the band to deliberately record in a variety of styles; in the case of Summer In The City, it was a rare foray into psychedelic rock for the band. Not coincidentally, Summer In The City is also my favorite Lovin' Spoonful song.
Artist: Outsiders
Title: Time Won't Let Me
Source: Mono CD: Battle Of The Bands Vol. 2 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): King/Kelly
Label: Era (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1966
From Cleveland we have another local band signed to a major label, in this case Capitol Records, which at the time was having great success with both the Beatles and the Beach Boys. Lead vocalist Sonny Gerachi would reappear a few years later with the band Climax, singing a song called Precious and Few, which is one of the greatest juxtapositions of artist names and song titles ever released.
Artist: Knaves
Title: Tease Me
Source: CD: Oh Yeah! The Best Of Dunwich Records
Writer(s): Berkman/Hulbert
Label: Sundazed
Year: Recorded 1966, released 1991
Thanks to a distribution deal with Atlantic's Atco subsidiary, Dunwich was the top label for local Chicago teen-oriented bands from 1966 through mid 1967. As such they could attract popular bands like the Knaves, who had already released a song called Leave Me Alone on the smaller Glen label, to come to their own studios to make records. The Knaves first effort for Dunwich was a tune called Tease Me, recorded in 1966. The label, however, instead chose to purchase the rights to Leave Me Alone, releasing it in February of 1967. A followup single was released in July, but by then the band had been crippled by the loss of a key member to the Selective Service System and disbanded soon after it was released.
Artist: Sonics
Title: He's Waitin'
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 8-The Northwest (originally released on LP: Boom)
Writer(s): Gerald Roslie
Label: Rhino (original label: Etiquette)
Year: 1966
If you were to ask a punk rock musician about his or her influences, one name that would certainly be near the top of the list is the Sonics. Formed in Tacoma, Washington in 1960 by guitarist Larry Parypa, the group began to take off with the addition of keyboardist Gerry Roslie, who took over lead vocals in 1964. Their first single, The Witch, released in late 1964, became the biggest selling locally produced single in the history of the entire Northwestern US, despite a lack of airplay due to its controversial subject matter. An LP, Here Are The Sonics, soon followed, along with several more singles on the local Etiquette label. Throughout 1965 the band continued to record new material between gigs, releasing a second LP, Boom, in February on 1966. I highlight of the album was He's Waitin' a song written to an unfaithful girlfriend. The final lines of the song make it clear just who "he" is:
"You think you are happy, I got news for you
Well, Satan found out, little girl, you're through"
Artist: Blues Project
Title: The Flute Thing
Source: CD: Anthology (originally released on LP: Projections)
Writer(s): Al Kooper
Label: Polydor (original label: Verve Forecast)
Year: 1966
Keyboardist/vocalist/songwriter Al Kooper started his professional career as a guitarist, touring with the Royal Teens long after they had faded from the public view following their only hit single, a novelty song called Short Shorts. By the mid-1960s Kooper had gotten to know several people in the New York music industry, including producer Tom Wilson, who invited Kooper a fateful Bob Dylan recording session in 1965. Dylan was working on a new song, Like A Rolling Stone, but was having trouble getting the sound he wanted. Kooper, noticing an unused organ in the corner of the studio, began to play riffs on the instrument that Dylan took an immediately liking to. Kooper soon found his services to be in demand on the New York studio scene and was present when a new band called the Blues Project auditioned for Columbia Records. Although Columbia did not sign the band, Kooper ended up joining the group as a way to hone his organ skills onstage. Kooper was also interested in developing his songwriting skills, providing several songs for the group's second LP, Projections. Among the Kooper compositions on the album was an instrumental called The Flute Thing, a piece inspired by Roland Kirk that gave the band's bassist, Andy Kuhlberg, an opportunity to show off his skills as a flautist.
Artist: Luke & The Apostles
Title: Been Burnt
Source: Mono LP: Also Dug-Its (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Ray Bennett
Label: Elektra (original label: Bounty)
Year: 1967
Just as New York had its Greenwich Village music scene, with groups like the Blues Project, Lovin' Spoonful and Paul Butterfield Blues Band playing small clubs like the Cafe au Go Go, so did Toronto have Yorkville Village, home of artists like Buffy Sainte Marie, Gordon Lightfoot and the Paupers, and a coffee house known as the Purple Onion. Elektra Records had opened a Canadian division in 1965 and Paul Rothchild, who was serving as a talent scout for the label, caught a local blues band called Luke & The Apostles at the Purple Onion one evening in late 1965. He was so taken with the group that he had their lead vocalist, Dave "Luke" Gibson, audition for label head Jac Holzman...over the phone. The band flew down to New York to record a pair of songs, including Been Burnt, but then Rothchild got busted for marijuana possession and did a year at Sing Sing (or some other NY state facility). The band continued to build a following in the Toronto area, going through a series of personnel changes in the process. In April of 1967, still waiting for their single to be released, the band returned to New York for a week-long engagement at the Cafe au Go Go, which led to a return engagement at the same club in May. While in New York the band spent an entire day at the Elektra studios, recording an album's worth of material. During their May gig, the band was offered a management contract by Albert Grossman (Bob Dylan's manager) and Bill Graham, with Graham offering a slot at the Fillmore West that summer. In between the two Cafe au Go Go gigs, Elektra released Been Burnt/Don't Know Why as a single, which ended up putting a strain on relations within the band itself, with some members wanting to go with Grossman and Graham while others wanted to stay with Rothchild and Holzman. Three months later, Gibson left the band to join another Canadian group, Kensington Market, and the rest of the band quickly fragmented, only to reunite briefly in 1970, releasing their second and final single on Canada's True North label. Since then the band has occasionally gotten back together and finally released their first (and only) LP, Luke & The Apostles, in 2017, 50 years after the first appearance of Been Burnt on vinyl.
Artist: Squires Of The Subterrain
Title: The Cheatin' Gibson Girl
Source: CD: Sandbox
Writer(s): Christopher Zajkowski
Label: Rocket Racket
Year: 2012
I have to admit that I've never run across a song that compares a woman's body type to a Gibson guitar before hearing The Cheatin' Gibson Girl by the Squires Of The Subterrain. Based in Rochester, NY, the Squires are (is?) the work of Christopher Earl of Rochester, NY, who has been releasing independent recordings on his own Rocket Racket label for the better part of 20 years. The song appears on Sandbox, a 2012 album that deliberately emulates the sound and style of Brian Wilson during sessions for his legendary Smile album, which was aborted in 1967 and finally recreated in the early 2000s.
Artist: Higher State
Title: I Suppose You Like That Now?
Source: CD: Volume 27
Writer(s): Marty Ratcliffe
Label: 13 O'Clock
Year: 2016
Formed in the town of Sandgate, Kent in the UK in 2005, the Higher State are one of the best examples of modern garage rock. The group, featuring Marty Ratcliffe on guitar, vocals and organ, Paul Messis on bass and guitar and Scarlett Rickard on drums, has four album's the their credit, including their 2016 release Volume 27. All the tracks on Volume 27 were written by either Ratcliffe or Messis, including this Ratcliffe song with the delightfully snarky title I Suppose You Like That Now?
Artist: Ty Segall/White Fence
Title: Crybaby
Source: LP: Hair
Writer(s): Ty Segall
Label: Drag City
Year: 2012
Ty Segall is a multi-instrumentalist who played in various underground bands in his native Orange County, California while still in high school. His grunge band, the Epsilons, is noted for a 2007 music video that parodied the MTV show Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, which he says ruined his hometown by popularizing the area and driving up the cost of living, making it too expensive for hippies, artists and surfers to live there anymore. In 2008 he embarked on a solo career which has so far resulted in over a dozen albums, singles, EPs and collaborations with other artists. One of those other artists is fellow Californian Tim Presley, who records under the name White Fence. Presley is a veteran of hardcore punk bands such as the Nerve Agents and in 2004 formed the neo-psychedelic band Darker My Love. He has been releasing material under the name White Fence since 2010, including multiple collaborations with Ty Segall, the first of which was Hair, released in 2012. Crybaby, which opens the LP's second side, was written by Segall.
Artist: Paper Bubble
Title: Fillin' A Gap
Source: British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution (originally released on LP: Scenery)
Writer(s): Brake/Crane
Label: Grapefruit (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
Paper Bubble was actually the folk club duo of Brian Crane and Terry Brake, supporting the Strawberry Hill Boys (later to be known as Strawbs), on an album called Scenery, which was recorded in late 1969. The album, released in 1970, was heavy on the vocals and embellished with strings, with relatively little in the way of the usual rock instrumetation, as can be heard on the tune Fillin' A Gap.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Bad Part Of Town
Source: British import CD: Singles As & Bs (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Saxon/Starr
Label: Big Beat (original label: M-G-M)
Year: 1970
By 1970 the Seeds were barely a memory to most of the record-buying public. It had been nearly a year since they had released any records, and those hadn't sold many copies. Nonetheless, their agent managed to get them a contract to record a new single for the M-G-M label. The tune they recorded for the A side, Bad Part Of Town, was actually one of their better songs in quite some time, but by then there was no market for Seeds records, and the song failed to chart.
Artist: Uriah Heep
Title: Real Turned On
Source: LP: Uriah Heep
Writer(s): Box/Byron/Newton
Label: Mercury
Year: 1970
Spice was a band formed by guitarist Mick Box and vocalist David Byron, who had been in a local pub band in Brentwood, England called Hogwash. Unlike Hogwash, Spice was formed specifically to perform (and eventually record) songs written by Box and Byron. The band was filled out by bassist Paul Newton (of the Gods) and drummer Alex Napier. While playing at a place called the Blues Loft club in High Wycombe, the band came to the attention of Gerry Bron, who became the group's manager and got them a contract with Vertigo Records. Although they decided in December of 1969 to change their name to Uriah Heep, they continued to perform as Spice while working on their debut LP. By the time the album was finished, the band had replaced Napier with Nigel Olsson (recommended by Elton John) and added keyboardist Ken Hensley. The LP, which was released in the UK under the name Very 'eavy, Very 'umble and as Uriah Heep in the US, was savaged by the critics at the time of its release (1970), but has since come to be regarded as one of the foundations of heavy metal rock, thanks in part to tracks like Real Turned On.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Cat's Squirrel
Source: LP: This Was
Writer: Trad. Arr. Abrahams
Label: Chrysalis
Year: 1968
Probably the Jethro Tull recording with the least Ian Anderson influence, Cat's Squirrel was recorded at the insistence of record company people, who felt the song was most representative of the band's live sound. The traditional tune was arranged by guitarist Mick Abrahams, who left the band due to creative differences with Anderson shortly thereafter. Cat's Squirrel became a live staple of Abrahams's next band, Blodwyn Pig.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Complicated
Source: CD: Between The Buttons
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1967
The Rolling Stones' 1967 album Between The Buttons was made amidst growing problems for the band, both with their manager, Andrew Loog Oldham, and guitarist Brian Jones, whose heavy drug use was beginning to take its toll. Exascerbating the problem was the band's increasing frustration with the limitations of four-track technology, which often necessitated bouncing tracks from one machine to another to make room for overdubs, resulting in a loss of overall quality. In fact, Mick Jagger has called the entire album "garbage" (with the exception of one song that was only included on the British version of the LP), due to the poor audio quality of the finished product. Still, some of the songs, like Complicated, are good representations of where the band was musically at the time the album was recorded.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Hitch Hike
Source: Mono CD: Out of Our Heads
Writer(s): Gaye/Paul/Stevenson
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1965
The Rolling Stones' early albums consisted of about a 50/50 mix of cover tunes and original tunes from the band members, primarily Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Marvin Gaye's Hitch Hike was one of the cover songs on the album Out of Our Heads, the same album that featured the #1 hit of 1965, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Something Happened To Me Yesterday
Source: LP: Between The Buttons
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1967
The final track on the 1967 Rolling Stones album Between The Buttons is notable for several reasons. Most signficantly, it is the first officially-released Stones tune to feature Keith Richards on lead vocals (on the chorus; Mick Jagger sings lead on the verses). Second, at just a second under five minutes, Something Happened To Me Yesterday is the longest track on Between The Buttons. The third point is illustrated by a quote from Mick Jagger himself: "I leave it to the individual imagination as to what happened." According to one critic, that "something" was an acid trip, making this one of the band's more overt drug songs.
Artist: Who
Title: Pinball Wizard
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Decca
Year: 1969
The first time I heard the Who's Pinball Wizard was with headphones on. A friend had just bought the new Who single and lent it to me to tape on my dad's Akai reel-to-reel tape recorder. Immediately after starting the record I stopped the tape and lifted the needle off the turntable, thinking one of the connecting wires had come loose, as Pete Townshend's acoustic guitar was only coming through one side of the headphones. After checking things out and finding no problems I decided just to at least listen to the rest of the record, even if I couldn't tape it. So on went the headphones and once again there was that acoustic guitar intro only playing in one ear. And then it happened. Out of nowhere a power chord played on an electric guitar slammed my other ear. I once again lifted the needle and started the song again, this time with the tape recorder running. I also took a close look at the label of the record itself. The word stereo was nowhere to be found. I now have my own copy of the 45, and the word stereo is still nowhere to be found on it.
Artist: It's A Beautiful Day
Title: White Bird
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: It's A Beautiful Day)
Writer(s): David & Linda LaFlamme
Label: Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
San Francisco's It's A Beautiful Day is a good illustration of how a band can be a part of a trend without intending to be or even realizing that they are. In their case, they were actually tied to two different trends. The first one was a positive thing: it was now possible for a band to be considered successful without a top 40 hit, as long as their album sales were healthy. The second trend was not such a good thing; as was true for way too many bands, It's A Beautiful Day was sorely mistreated by its own management, in this case one Matthew Katz. Katz already represented both Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape when he signed up It's A Beautiful Day in 1967. What the members of It's A Beautiful Day did not know at the time was that both of the aforementioned bands were desperately trying to get out of their contracts with Katz. The first thing Katz did after signing It's A Beautiful Day was to ship the band off to Seattle to become house band at a club Katz owned called the San Francisco Sound. Unfortunately for the band, Seattle already had a sound of its own and attendance at their gigs was sparse. Feeling downtrodden and caged (and having no means of transportation to boot) classically-trained 5-string violinist and lead vocalist David LaFlamme and his keyboardist wife Linda LaFlamme translated those feelings into a song that is at once sad and beautiful: the classic White Bird. As an aside, Linda LaFlamme was not the female vocalist heard on White Bird. Credit for those goes to one Pattie Santos, the other female band member. To this day Katz owns the rights to It's A Beautiful Day's recordings, which have been reissued on CD on Katz's San Francisco Sound label.
Artist: Mandrake Paddle Steamer
Title: Strange Walking Man
Source: Mono British import 45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s): Briley/Engle
Label: Bam-Caruso (original UK label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
Mandrake Paddle Steamer was the brainchild of art school students Martin Briley and Brian Engle, who, with producer Robert Finnis, were among the first to take advantage of EMI's new 8-track recording equipment at their Abbey Road studios. The result was Strange Walking Man, a single released in 1969. The track includes an uncredited coda created by Finnis by splicing a tape of studio musicians playing a cover version of an Incredible String Band tune, Maybe Someday.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)
Source: CD: Shine On Brightly
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M/Rebound
Year: 1968
Procol Harum is not generally thought of as a novelty act. The closest they ever came was this track from the Shine On Brightly album that steals shamelessly from a classical piece I really should know the name of but don't. Even then, Skip Softly (My Moonbeams) ends up being as much a showcase for a then-young Robin Trower's guitar work as anything else.
