Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2434 (starts 8/19/24)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/540212

    As a general rule we generally try to present a mix of relatively well-known tunes and more obscure stuff within each set on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era. This week, though, we are doing it a bit differently and front-loading a whole bunch of tracks we've never played on the show in the first half-hour, with the more familiar tunes (including the first three Jefferson Airplane songs I ever heard on the radio, in order) coming later in the show. We do, however, start the whole thing off with a couple of hit singles...

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    The Last Time
Source:    Mono CD: Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original US label: London)
Year:    1965
    Released in early 1965, The Last Time was the first Rolling Stones single to hit the top 10 in both the US and the UK (being their third consecutive #1 hit in England). Despite that, it would be overshadowed by their next release: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, which went to the top of the charts everywhere and ended up being the most popular song of the year.

Artist:    Hollies
Title:    Stop Stop Stop
Source:    British import 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Clarke/Hicks/Nash
Label:    Parlophone
Year:    1966
    The last Hollies song to be released in 1966 was Stop Stop Stop, a tune that was actually a rewrite of a 1964 B side. The song was written by Allan Clarke, Terry Hicks and Graham Nash, and was one of the first songs to be published under their actual names (as opposed to the fictional L. Ransford). The song itself was a major hit, going into the top 10 in eight countries, including the US, UK and Canada.

Artist:    Sopwith Camel
Title:    Walk In The Park
Source:    LP: Sopwith Camel
Writer(s):    William Sievers
Label:    Kama Sutra
Year:    1967
    Although they were from San Francisco, the Sopwith Camel sounded more like their East Coast labelmates the Lovin' Spoonful, particularly on tracks like Walk In The Park. Written by guitarist William "Truckaway" Sievers, the tune appeared on their first (and until 1973 only) LP, entitled simply Sopwith Camel.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Cry Baby Cry (take one)
Source:    CD: Anthology 3
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/Capitol
Year:    1968
    Some songs take a lot of work to get just right. As can be heard here, John Lennon's Cry Baby Cry was one of the few that sounded pretty good on the first try. Written in late 1967, the song was inspired by an ad in a magazine (or possibly a newspaper), with the original signature line being "Cry baby cry, make your mother buy."

Artist:    Tyrannosaurus Rex
Title:    Romany Soup
Source:    CD: Unicorn
Writer(s):    Marc Bolan
Label:    A&M (original US label: Blue Thumb)
Year:    1969
    Legendary British disc jockey John Peel makes a guest appearance on the third Tyrannosaurus Rex album, Unicorn, reading an excerpt from Marc Bolan's Woodland Story. Peel's contribution is followed by the last track on the album, Romany Soup, which consists of a single line repeated over and over with an increasing number of overdubs (22 in all) being added as the song progresses, finishing out the album with a wall of sound.

Artist:    Modern Folk Quintet
Title:    Night Time Girl
Source:    Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 10-Folk-Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Kooper/Levine
Label:    Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year:    1966
    The Modern Folk Quintet can be seen two ways: either as a group that constantly strived to be on the cutting edge or simply as fad followers. Starting off in the early 60s, the MFQ found themselves working with Phil Spector in the middle of the decade, complete with Spector's trademark "wall of sound" production techniques. When that didn't work out they signed with Lou Adler's Dunhill Records, cutting Night Time Girl, a tune that sounds like a psychedelicized version of the Mamas and the Papas.

Artist:    Beach Boys
Title:    Can't Wait Too Long
Source:    CD: Good Vibrations-Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys
Writer(s):    Brian Wilson
Label:    Capitol
Year:    Recorded 1967-8, released 1993
    Brian Wilson was not entirely idle after abandoning his original Smile project in mid-1967. In October he began working on a new composition called Can't Wait Too Long (sometimes called Been Away Too Long). Recorded in separate sections in the same manner as Good Vibrations and Heroes And Villains, the song was never finished, with Wilson himself supplying partial lyrics for the tune. Various sections of Can't Wait Too Long have been released over the years, with the most coherent version appearing on the 1993 four-CD Beach Boys compilation box set Good Vibrations-Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys.

Artist:    Avant-Garde
Title:    Honey And Gall
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Bubba Fowler
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1968
    The Avant-Garde was a psych-pop duo formed by future game show host Chuck Woolery and Elkin "Bubba" Fowler in 1967. Although they were signed to a major label, Columbia, the duo, backed by studio musicians, only released three singles before going their separate ways. Fowler's Honey And Gall was a tune originally recorded as the B side of their 1967 debut single and then re-recorded as the B side of their second, and most successful single, Woolery's Naturally Stoned, in 1968.

Artist:    Lovin' Spoonful
Title:    Do You Believe In Magic
Source:    45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer:    John Sebastian
Label:    Buddah (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. Within the next five years, the Spoonful (and later John Sebastian as a solo artist) would crank out a string of hits. Not to be outdone, Kama Sutra would itself morph into a company called Buddah Records and come to dominate the "bubble gum" genre of top 40 music throughout 1968 and well into 1969.

Artist:    Animals
Title:    Inside Looking Out
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: The Best Of Eric Burdon And The Animals-Vol. II (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    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.

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    Get Me To The World On Time
Source:    CD: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) (originally released on LP: The Electric Prunes)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Jones
Label:    Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    With I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) climbing the charts in early 1967, the Electric Prunes turned to songwriter Annette Tucker for two more tracks to include on their debut LP. One of those, Get Me To The World On Time (co-written by lyricist Jill Jones) was selected to be the follow up single to Dream. Although not as big a hit, the song still did respectably on the charts (and was actually the first Electric Prunes song I ever heard on FM radio).

Artist:    Iron Butterfly
Title:    Termination
Source:    LP: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Writer(s):    Brann/Dorman
Label:    Atco
Year:    1968
    Although most Iron Butterfly songs were written by keyboardist/vocalist Doug Ingle, there were a few exceptions. One of those is Termination, from the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album, which was written by guitarist Erik Brann and bassist Lee Dorman. From a 21st century perspective Termination sounds less dated than most of Ingle's material.

Artist:    Santana
Title:    Persuasion
Source:    CD: Santana
Writer(s):    Santana (band)
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1969
    Santana was originally a free-form jam band, but at the insistence of manager Bill Graham began to write more structured songs for their first studio LP. Released in 1969, the album received less than glowing reviews from the rock press, but following the band's successful appearance at Woodstock, the LP eventually peaked at # 4 on the Billboard album charts. One of the lesser known tracks on the album was Persuasion, a good example of the band doing what their manager told them to do.

Artist:    Country Joe And The Fish
Title:    Death Sound Blues
Source:    CD: Electric Music For The Mind And Body
Writer(s):    Joe McDonald
Label:    Vanguard
Year:    1967
    I generally use the term "psychedelic" to describe a musical attitude that existed during a particular period of time rather than a specific style of music. On the other hand, the term "acid rock" is better suited for describing music that was composed and/or performed under the influence of certain mind-expanding substances. That said, the first album by Country Joe and the Fish is a classic example of acid rock. I mean, really, is there any other way to describe Death Sound Blues than "the blues on acid"?

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Dear Mr. Fantasy
Source:    LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: Heaven Is In Your Mind)
Writer(s):    Capaldi/Winwood/Wood
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 the title track of Traffic's Mr. Fantasy album.

Artist:    Mauds
Title:    Searchin'
Source:    Mono CD: Oh Yeah! The Best Of Dunwich Records
Writer(s):    Lieber/Stoller
Label:    Sundazed
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 1991
    Chicago's most popular white R&B cover band in the mid-1960s, the Mauds had a less than spectacular recording career. In fact, the best recordings were made for the Dunwich label in 1967, but went unreleased until 1991, when Sundazed put out a CD called Oh Yeah! The Best Of Dunwich Records. Their version of the old Coasters hit Searchin' does the Jerry Lieber/Mike Stoller writing team proud.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Two Sisters
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1967
    The Kinks have had a long, productive recording career since their vinyl debut in 1964, but not all of their records have been major commercial successes. Among the least successful saleswise, yet one of the best in terms of pure quality, was the 1967 album Something Else By The Kinks. It was the band's first LP to be mixed in stereo, and contained several of Ray Davies's finest tunes, as well as strong contributions by his brother Dave. 1966 had seen Ray Davies perfect his slice-of-life songwriting with a satirical edge style with songs like A Well Respected Man, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion and Sunny Afternoon. The compositions on Something Else, while still rooted in daily life, were not quite as satirical, as can be heard on Two Sisters. The song manages, in just two minutes, to tell the story of a married woman coming to terms with her feelings of envy for her single sister.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Somebody To Love
Source:    Mono LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s):    Darby Slick
Label:    Sundazed (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:    1967
            If not for Somebody To Love, no one would even remember that Grace Slick and her husband Jerry were once in a band with her brother-in-law, Darby, who wrote the song.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    White Rabbit
Source:    LP: The Worst Of Jefferson Airplane (originally released on LP: Surrealistic Pillow)
Writer:    Grace Slick
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1967
    A few years back a co-worker asked me about what kind of music I played on the show. When I told him the show was called Stuck in the Psychedelic Era he immediately said "Oh, I bet you play White Rabbit a lot, huh?" As a matter of fact, I do, although not as much as some songs.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Embryonic Journey
Source:    Mono LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s):    Jorma Kaukonen
Label:    Sundazed (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:    1967
    Jorma Kaukonen originally considered Embryonic Journey to be little more than a practice exercise. Other members of Jefferson Airplane insisted he record it, however, and it has since come to be identified as a kind of signature song for the guitarist, who played the tune live when the band was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Artist:    Simon and Garfunkel
Title:    I Am A Rock
Source:    CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Sounds of Silence)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1966
    The success of I Am A Rock, when released as a single in 1966, showed that the first Simon And Garfunkel hit, The Sound Of Silence, was no fluke. The two songs served as bookends to a very successful LP, Sounds Of Silence, and would lead to several more hit records before the two singers went their separate ways in 1970. This was actually the second time I Am A Rock had been issued as a single. An earlier version, from the Paul Simon Songbook, had been released in 1965. Both the single and the LP were only available for a short time and only in the UK, and were deleted at Simon's request.

Artist:    Huns
Title:    Love Is Gone
Source:    Mono CD: The Huns Conquer Ithaca, NY 1966
Writer(s):    Steve Dworetz
Label:    Jargon
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 2017
    Like most college towns, Ithaca, NY (home of both Ithaca College and Cornell University) has always had a thriving local music scene. In the mid-1960s that scene was dominated by bands doing mostly covers of current top 40 hits. Bassist Frank Van Nostrand and organist John Sweeney, however, wanted to do something different. The two Ithaca College juniors were fans of the more rebellious bands like the Animals, Kinks and especially the Rolling Stones, who were already establishing themselves as the bad boys of British rock. As their fellow students began to stream in to register for the upcoming school year, Sweeney and Van Nostrand were camped out at their own table, looking to recruit like-minded musicians to form a new band that would soon come to be known as the Huns. By the time the school year was over, the Huns had racked up a total of 51 gigs at a combination of local clubs, frat houses and parties. They even made an appearance on a mock TV show produced by fellow student Lynn Cates as a class project. Although the video of that performance is long gone, the audio dub survived for over 50 years, and has been made into a CD called The Huns Conquer Ithaca, NY 1966. Recorded on March 10, the album captures the Huns at the peak of their popularity, before hassles with the college dean over hair length (among other things) led to the dismissal of both Sweeney and Van Nostrand and the subsequent breakup of the band itself. The opening track of the CD, Love Is Gone, shows a band pretty far removed from what was popular in the Eastern US at the time; in fact it feels more like the cutting edge bands populating the mid-60s club scene in Los Angeles.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Masculine Intuition
Source:    45 RPM single B side (promo copy)
Writer:    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Original Sound
Year:    1966
    If you take out the cover songs that Original Sound Records added to the album without the band's knowledge or approval, Turn On The Music Machine has to be considered one of the best LPs of 1966. Not that the covers were badly done, but they were intended to be used for lip synching on a local TV show and were included without the knowledge or approval of the band, and that's never a good thing. Every one of the Sean Bonniwell originals on the other hand, combines strong musical structure and intelligent lyrics with musicianship far surpassing the average garage band. This is especially true in the case of Masculine Intuition, which was also issued as the B side of the band's second single.

Artist:    Luv'd Ones
Title:    Dance Kid Dance
Source:    Mono CD: Truth Gotta Stand (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Char Vinnedge
Label:    Beat Rocket (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    In 1963, 20-year-old Char Vinnedge of Niles, Michigan, who had been playing piano since the age of four, helped her brother pick out an Airline guitar from Montgomery Ward. It soon became apparent that he was never going to learn to the play the thing, however, and Char ended up buying it from him. She soon found that she had an affinity for the instrument, and by 1964 had recruited her younger sister Faith (who chose to play bass because that was what Paul McCartney played), along with drummer Faith Orem and rhythm guitarist Terry Barber, to form a group called the Tremelons. Barber soon left the group, to be replaced by Mary Gallagher, and in 1966 the band was signed to Chicago's Dunwich Records, changing their name to the Luv'd Ones at the suggestion of label owner Bill Traut. They ended up releasing three singles for Dunwich that year, the last of which was the antiwar song Dance Kid Dance. After the Luv'd Ones disbanded, Vinnedge spent the next few years studying and deconstructing the music of Jimi Hendrix, eventually coming to the attention of bassist Billy Cox and recording an album called Nitro Function with him in 1971 that for some reason was only released in Europe.

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    A Walk In The Sun
Source:    Mono LP: It Ain't Me Babe
Writer(s):    Howard Kaylan
Label:    White Whale
Year:    1965
    Trivia fact: the members of the Turtles had to get their parents to sign permission slips before they could record their debut LP, It Ain't Me Babe. Yep, they were that young when they scored their first top 10 single in 1965. With that in mind, it might be come as a surprise that vocalist Howard Kaylan had already written a few songs, including A Walk In The Sun, that were included on the album itself. The band, formed when all the members were still in high school, had been known prior to 1965 as the Crossfires, playing mostly surf music. They were the first, and most successful, artists signed to the Los Angeles based White Whale label.

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:    "E" Types
Title:    Put The Clock Back On The Wall
Source:    Mono LP: Also Dug-Its (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Bonner/Gordon
Label:    Elektra (original label: Tower)
Year:    1967
    The E-Types were originally from Salinas, California, which at the time was known for it's sulfiric smell experienced by passing motorists travelling along US 101. As many people from Salinas apparently went to "nearby" San Jose (about 60 miles to the north) as often as possible, the E-Types became regulars on the local scene there, eventually landing a contract with Tower Records and Ed Cobb, who also produced the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband. The Bonner/Gordon songwriting team were just a couple months away from getting huge royalty checks from the Turtles' Happy Together when Put The Clock Back On The Wall was released in early 1967. The song takes its title from a popular phrase of the time. After a day or two of losing all awareness of time (and sometimes space) it was time to put the clock back on the wall, or get back to reality if you prefer.

Artist:     Barry McGuire
Title:     Eve of Destruction
Source:     LP: 93 KHJ Boss Goldies  (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     P.F. Sloan
Label:     Original Sound (original label: Dunhill)
Year:     1965
     P.F. Sloan had already established a reputation for writing songs that captured the anger of youth by the time he wrote Eve Of Destruction, which Barry McGuire took into the top 10 in 1965. It would be McGuire's only major hit, and represented folk-rock at the peak of its popularity.

Artist:      Donovan
Title:     Mellow Yellow
Source:      Mono CD: Donovan's Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Donovan Leitch
Label:     Epic/Legacy
Year:     1966
     Although the Mellow Yellow album came out in early 1967, the title track had been released several months earlier as a followup to Donovan's breakthrough US hit Sunshine Superman. Ironically, during Donovan's period of greatest US success none of his recordings were being released in his native UK, due to a contract dispute with Pye Records. Incidentally, electric banana didn't turn out to be a sudden craze after all, and it is not Paul McCartney whispering "quite rightly" on the chorus. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    If 6 Was 9
Source:    LP: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA/Experience Hendrix (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    Before 1967 stereo was little more than an excuse to charge a dollar more for an LP. That all changed in a hurry, as artists such as Jimi Hendrix began to explore the possibilities of the technology, in essence treating stereophonic sound as a multi-dimensional sonic palette. The result can be heard on songs such as If 6 Were 9 from the Axis: Bold As Love album, which is best listened to at high volume, preferably with headphones on. Especially the spoken part in the middle, when Jimi says the words "I'm the one who's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want." It sounds like he's inside your head with you.

Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    Murder In My Heart For The Judge
Source:    CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on LP: Wow)
Writer(s):    Miller/Stevenson
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1968
    Moby Grape was one of those bands that probably should have been more successful than they were, but were thrown off-track by a series of bad decisions by their own support personnel. First, Columbia Records damaged their reputation by simultaneously releasing five singles from their debut LP in 1967, leading to accusations that the band was nothing but hype. Then their producer, David Rubinson, decided to add horns and strings to many of the tracks on their second album, Wow, alienating much of the band's core audience in the process. Still, Wow did have its share of fine tunes, including drummer Don Stevenson's Murder In My Heart For The Judge, probably the best-known song on the album. The song proved popular enough to warrant cover versions by such diverse talents as Lee Michaels, Chrissy Hynde and Three Dog Night.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Amazing Journey
Source:    British Import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Tommy)
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    Polydor (original US label: Decca)
Year:    1969
    After achieving major success in their native England with a series of hit singles in 1965-67, the Who began to concentrate more on their albums from 1968 on. The first of these concept albums was The Who Sell Out, released in December of 1967. The Who Sell Out was a collection of songs connected by faux radio spots and actual jingles from England's last remaining pirate radio station, Radio London. After releasing a few more singles in 1968, the Who began work on their most ambitious project yet: the world's first rock opera. Tommy, released in 1969, was a double LP telling the story of a boy who, after being tramautized into becoming a sightless deaf-mute, eventually emerges as a kind of messiah, only to have his followers ultimately abandon him. One of the early tracks on the album is Amazing Journey, describing Tommy's voyage into the recesses of his own mind in response to the traumatic event that results in his "deaf, dumb and blind" condition.

Artist:    Youngbloods
Title:    Get Together
Source:    LP: The Youngbloods
Writer(s):    Chet Powers
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1967
    The Youngbloods, led by transplanted New Yorker Jesse Colin Young, were the second San Francisco band signed to industry leader RCA Victor Records. Their first album was released in 1967 but was overshadowed by the vinyl debuts of the Grateful Dead and Moby Grape, among others. In fact, the Youngbloods toiled in relative obscurity until 1969, when their own version of Dino Valenti's Let's Get Together (from the 1967 LP) was used in a TV ad promoting world peace. The song was subsequently released (with the title slightly shortened) as a single and ended up being the group's only hit record (as well as Valenti's most famous composition, albeit published under his birth name of Chet Powers). This in turn led to the album being re-released, with the original title and artwork intact but with the LP retitled Get Together on the label itself.

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    Rock And Roll Woman
Source:    LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Stephen Stills
Label:    Cotillion (original label: Atco)
Year:    1967
    Buffalo Springfield did not sell huge numbers of records (except for the single For What It's Worth) while they were together. Nor did they pack in the crowds. As a matter of fact, when they played the club across the street from where Love was playing, they barely had any audience at all. Artistically, though, it's a whole 'nother story. During their brief existence Buffalo Springfield launched the careers of no less than four major artists: Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Stephen Stills and Neil Young. They also recorded more than their share of tracks that have held up better than most of what else was being recorded at the time. Case in point: Rock And Roll Woman, a Stephen Stills tune that still sounds fresh well over 50 years after it was recorded.

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2434 (starts 8/19/24)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/540211

    First off, I want to say congratulations to our three winners of copies of the 50th anniversary edition of Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel. Two of them, Ed Pelley of Redondo Beach, California and Travis Short of Calgary, Alberta, listen to GulchRadio online (aka KZRJ, Jerome, Arizona, while the third, Joshua Ames of East Fultonham, Ohio, catches the show on WOUB out of Athens, Ohio. All three have received their copies of the three CD set. As for this week's show, we have a mixture of some old favorites with a few tunes never played on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion before, including a track from the last Canned Heat album to be released under their original contract with Liberty Records, a classic prog-rock track from Flash and something I had forgotten even existed: a Bob Dylan instrumental.

Artist:    Canned Heat
Title:    Keep It Clean
Source:    LP: The New Age
Writer(s):    Richard Hite
Label:    United Artists
Year:    1973
    Although Canned Heat had originally signed with Liberty Records in 1967, by the early 1970 their albums were appearing under the United Artists imprint, as UA had shut down Liberty in 1970. Whether or not this was a factor in the band's decision to terminate their contract and switch to Atlantic is unknown, but for whatever reason the 1973 LP The New Age would be their last for UA. The band itself had undergone significant changes as well, with lead guitarist Henry Vestine leaving the group a week before they appeared at Woodstock only to rejoin after bassist Larry Taylor left the band to work with John Mayall. Joining Vestine and lead vocalist Bob Hite on The New Age was bassist Richard Hite (Bob's brother), who wrote several songs on the album, including the opening track, Keep It Clean, on which Richard played rhythm guitar. Also in the band at this time were rhythm guitarist James Shane (playing bass on Keep It Clean), keyboardist Ed Beyer and longtime drummer Adolfp de la Parra, who had been with the group since their second LP, Boogie With Canned Heat.

Artist:    Fleetwood Mac
Title:    Fighting For Madge
Source:    CD: Then Play On
Writer(s):    Mick Fleetwood
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1969
    A jam session is defined (by me) as what happens when two or more musicians get together and play whatever they feel like playing. Jazz, rock and blues artists in particular are prone to jamming, sometimes with recording devices running. Sometimes these jams serve as the basis for future compositions, and in some cases (the Jimi Hendrix track Voodoo Chile from side one of Electric Ladyland comes to mind) the jam session itself ends up being released in its original form. Fleetwood Mac, in 1969, included two such jams on their Then Play On LP, although one of the two (Searching For Madge) was shortened from its original 17 minutes to just under seven minutes. The other jam, heard in its entirety on the album, is called Fighting For Madge. Both tracks were named for a female acquaintance of the band, with Mick Fleetwood getting the official writing credit for Fighting and John McVie the credit for Searching, even though everyone in the band contributed equally to both jams.

Artist:    Neil Young
Title:    Southern Man
Source:    CD: After The Gold Rush
Writer:    Neil Young
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1970
    Neil Young stirred up a bit of controversy with the release of the album After The Gold Rush, mostly due to the inclusion of Southern Man, a scathingly critical look at racism in the American South. The song inspired the members of Lynnard Skynnard to write Sweet Home Alabama in response, although reportedly Young and the members of Skynnard actually thought highly of each other. There was even an attempt to get Young to make a surprise appearance at a Skynnard concert and sing the (modified) line "Southern Man don't need me around", but they were never able to coordinate their schedules enough to pull it off.

Artist:    Focus
Title:    Hocus Pocus
Source:    British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Moving Waves)
Writer(s):    van Leer/Akkerman
Label:    Polydor UK (original US label: Sire)
Year:    1971
    Although it was not a hit until 1973, Hocus Pocus, by the Dutch progressive rock band Focus, has the type of simple structure coupled with high energy that was characteristic of many of the garage bands of the mid to late 60s. The song was originally released on the band's second LP, known alternately as Focus II and Moving Waves, in 1971. Both guitarist Jan Akkerman and keyboardist/vocalist/flautist Thijs van Leer have gone on to have successful careers, with van Leer continuing to use to the Focus name as recently as 2006.

Artist:    Santana
Title:    No One To Depend On
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single
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). The version here is a rare mono promo pressing issued as a single in 1972. It is obviously not a true mono mix, but what is known as a "fold-down" mix, made by combining the two stereo channels into one. It sounds to me, though, like one channel (the one with Neil Schon's guitar) got shortchanged in the mix.

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Turkey Chase
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1973
    Bob Dylan decided to try his hand at composing music for a movie soundtrack with the score for the 1973 film Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid. Unfortunately, both the film and the soundtrack album got less than positive reviews. In fact, the entire process led to Dylan's decision to sever ties with Columbia Records, the label he had always been on, and instead sign with David Geffen's new label, Asylum. Many of the tracks on the album were instrumentals such as Turkey Chase, that one reviewer referred to as "inept, amateurish and embarrassing". Still, the album did spawn one major hit, Knockin' On Heaven's Door, which was issued as a single in August of 1973 with Turkey Chase on the B side.

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    Pride Of Cucamonga
Source:    CD: From The Mars Hotel
Writer(s):    Lesh/Petersen
Label:    Rhino (original label: Grateful Dead)
Year:    1974
    A Phil Lesh lead vocal is considered a rare treat by Deadheads, and the 1973 album Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel has two of them, both co-written by Lesh and poet Bobby Petersen. Neither of the two became part of the band's live repertoir at the time, and in fact the country flavored Pride Of Cucamonga is the only track on the album never to have been played in front of an audience.

Artist:    Firesign Theatre
Title:    Squeeze The Wheeze
Source:    LP: I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus
Writer(s):    Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1971
    I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus is the fourth Firesign Theatre album, released in 1971. Like it's predecessor, Don't Touch That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers, Bozos is one continuous narrative covering both sides of an LP. It tells the story of a visit to a Future Fair that somewhat resembles Disney's Tomorrowland, with various interractive educational exhibits such as the Wall Of Science. The piece was actually made up of shorter bits that the Firesign Theatre had used previously on their weekly radio show, but reworked and re-recorded for the new album. One of those bits, arbitrarily titled (by me) Squeeze The Wheeze, includes the album title itself.

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:    Flash
Title:    Psychosync (Escape) (Farewell  Number Two) (Conclusion)
Source:    LP: Music From The Mother Country (originally released on LP: Out Of Our Hands)
Writer(s):    Banks/Bennett
Label:    Sovereign
Year:    1973
    After leaving Yes, guitarist Peter Banks formed the band Flash with vocalist Colin Carter, bassist Ray Bennett, and drummer Mike Hough, and immediately began recording their debut album, two months before their first appearance in front of an audience in January of 1972. The album sold well enough to warrant multiple North American tours (and one European one), but both internal and external problems led to the band's breakup while on tour following the release of their third LP in 1973. One of those problems stemmed from their label's decision to release that final album under the name Flash – featuring England's Peter Banks without consulting the band itself (which is ironic considering the album was titled Out Of Our Hands). One of the highlights of that album was a suite called Psychosync that consists of three parts: Escape, written by Bennett and Banks, Farewell Number Two and Conclusion, both solo compositions by Bennett.

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Elijah
Source:    LP: Spirit
Writer:    John Locke
Label:    Ode
Year:    1968
    Since the mid-1960s many bands have had one long piece that they play in concert that is specifically designed to allow individual band members to strut their stuff. In a few cases, such as Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida or Lynnard Skynnard's Freebird, it becomes their best-known song. In most cases, though, a studio version of the piece gets put on an early album and never gets heard on the radio. Such is the case with Spirit's show-stopper Elijah, which was reportedly never played the same way twice. Elijah, written by keyboardist John Locke, starts with a hard-rockin' main theme that is followed by a jazzier second theme that showcases one of the lead instruments (guitar, keyboards). The piece then comes to a dead stop while one of the members has a solo section of their own devising. This is followed by the main theme, repeating several times until every member has had their own solo section. The piece ends with a return to the main theme followed by a classic power rock ending.

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2433 (starts 8/12/24)

 https://exchange.prx.org/p/539407

    This week it's mostly sets centered on specific years, with sets going down and up through the years at the beginning and end of the show and an Electric Prunes set in the middle.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Waiting For The Sun
Source:    CD: Morrison Hotel
Writer(s):    Jim Morrison
Label:    Elektra/Rhino
Year:    1970
    The third Doors album, Waiting For The Sun, released in 1968, is notable for at least two things that were not on the album itself. The first, and most well-known, was the epic piece Celebration Of The Lizard, which was abandoned when the group couldn't get it to sound the way they wanted it to in the studio (although one section of the piece was included under the title Not To Touch The Earth). The second, and perhaps more obvious omission was the title track of the album itself. The unfinished tapes sat on the shelf until 1970, when the band finally completed the version of Waiting For The Sun that appears on the Morrison Hotel album.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Old Brown Shoe
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Apple
Year:    1969
    Although George Harrison didn't start developing the slide guitar style that characterized much of his solo work until December of 1969, when he toured with Delaney & Bonnie And Friends, his interest in the technique is evident in the 1969 Beatles B side, Old Brown Shoe. Recorded in April of 1969 during the first sessions for what became the Abbey Road album, the song features Harrison duplicating his lead guitar track on bass guitar, making for a unique sound. According to most sources, Paul McCartney played tack piano and Ringo Starr played drums on the track, although there are some that claim Starr was out of the country at the time and McCartney played drums. Background vocals were provided by McCartney, Harrison and John Lennon, whose original rhythm guitar part was deleted in favor of Harrison' Hammond organ overdub. According to Harrison, the lyrics of the song are about "the duality of things", but presented in less spiritual terms than his later work as a solo artist. The song was chosen, reportedly at Lennon's insistence, to be the B side of the Ballad Of John And Yoko, released in May of 1969.

Artist:    Them
Title:    The Moth
Source:    LP: Time Out! Time In! For Them
Writer(s):    Lane/Pulley
Label:    Tower
Year:    1968
    After Van Morrison left Them to pursue a career as a solo artist, his old band decided to head back to Ireland and recruit Kenny McDowell for lead vocals. Them then moved out to Texas and hooked up with producer Ray Ruff, who got them a contract with Tower Records, Capitol's subsidiary label specializing in releasing already produced recordings from outside sources such as Ed Cobb's Green Grass Productions (Standells, Chocolate Watchband) and soundtrack albums for teen exploitation flicks such as Riot on Sunset Strip and Wild in the Streets from Mike Curb's Sidewalk Productions. The 1968 LP Time Out! Time In! For Them was the second of two psychedelic albums the group cut for Ruff and released onTower before moving into harder rock and another label.

Artist:    Mad River
Title:    Wind Chimes
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Berkeley EPs (originally released as 7" 33 1/3 RPM Extended Play mini-album)
Writer(s):    Mad River
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Wee)
Year:    1967
    Unlike most San Francisco Bay Area bands of the mid to late 1960s, Mad River was already a functioning band when they arrived on the scene from their native Ohio in 1967. The group, consisting of Lawrence Hammond (vocals, bass), David Robinson (guitar), Rick Bockner (guitar) and Greg Dewey (drums, vocals), had been formed in 1965 as the Mad River Blues Band in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where all of the members were attending college. By the time they relocated to Berkeley in early 1967 they had developed a unique style of their own. Once in Berkeley, the band quickly established themselves as one of the most "underground" bands in the area, often appearing on the bill with Country Joe And The Fish. In fact, it was the latter band that inspired Mad River to record an EP later that year. Following an unsuccessful audition for Fantasy Records, Mad River cut a three-song EP for the small Wee label. The entire second side of the disc was a six and a half minute long piece called Wind Chimes. The band recut the track in stereo for their first full-length album (on Capitol) the following year.

Artist:     Mothers of Invention
Title:    Who Are The Brain Police?/Go Cry On Somebody Elses's Shoulder
Source:     CD: Freak Out
Writer:     Frank Zappa
Label:     Ryko (original label: Verve)
Year:     1966
     In 1966, Los Angeles, with its variety of all-ages clubs along Sunset Strip, had one of the most active underground music scenes in rock history. One of the most underground of these bands was the Mothers of Invention, led by musical genius Frank Zappa. In 1966 Tom Wilson, who was already well known for producing Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Blues Project, brought the Mothers into the studio to record the landmark Freak Out album. To his credit he allowed the band total artistic freedom, jeopardizing his own job in the process (the album cost somewhere between $20,000-30,000 to produce). The second song the band recorded was Who Are The Brain Police, which reportedly prompted Wilson to get on the phone to M-G-M headquarters in New York, presumably to ask for more money. Zappa showed his fondness for 50s doo-wop with Go Cry On Somebody Else's Shoulder, which follows Who Are The Brain Police on the album. Two years later he would release an entire LP's worth of stylized doo-wop on Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, part of a four-album project called No Commercial Potential (the other three albums being Lumpy Gravy, We're Only in It for the Money and Uncle Meat).

Artist:     Kim Fowley
Title:     Underground Lady
Source:     Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Fowley/Geddes
Label:     Rhino (original label: Living Legend)
Year:     1965
     It's probably appropriate in a rather twisted way that the Kim Fowley tune, Underground Lady, was released on the Living Legend label. After all, Fowley was an almost bigger than life character in the L.A. (and sometimes London) record business throughout the sixties and beyond who seemed to always be on whatever scene was most happening at the time. In the early part of the decade he was the voice behind the faux group Hollywood Argyles, scoring a huge novelty hit with Alley Oop. Later, he became famous for the parties he threw, bringing big name acts such as the Yardbirds in to entertain his guests. In later decades he was the guy who introduced teenagers Lita Ford and Joan Jett, thereby fulfilling his dream of forming an all-girl rock band (though the Runaways eventually dispensed of his services as producer). Throughout all this he established a reputation as the ultimate Hollywood hustler; when you think of a guy in shades and a loud shirt that calls everyone baby or sweetheart, you're thinking of Fowley. Frank Zappa, in the liner notes for the first Mothers Of Invention album Freak Out, credited Fowley for the "hypophone". When asked about this Zappa explained: "The hypophone is his mouth, 'cause all that ever comes out of it is hype."    

Artist:    Sweetwater
Title:    Two Worlds
Source:    LP: Sweetwater
Writer(s):    Nansi Nevins
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1968
    Trivia question: who was the first band to perform at Woodstock? Most people would reply that Richie Havens was the first to take the stage, but Havens was essentially a solo acoustic act (with acoustic accompaniment) rather than an actual band. The reason Havens got to be the opening act was that the scheduled band was stuck in traffic and eventually had to be flown in by helicopter. That band was Sweetwater, who ended up being the first electric group to hit the stage at Woodstock. Based in Los Angeles, Sweetwater was made up of veterans of the L.A. coffee house scene, including Nansi Nevins on lead vocals, Fred Herrera on bass guitar and backing vocals, August Burns on cello, Elpidio Cobian on congas and other percussion, Alan Malarowitz on drums, Albert Moore on flute and backing vocals, R.G. Carlyle on acoustic guitar, bongos and backing vocals, and Alex Del Zoppo on keyboards and backing vocals. With the exception of the band's own arrangement of the traditional Motherless Child, all the songs on Sweetwater's 1968 debut LP were original compositions, including Nevins' Two Worlds.

Artist:    Grass Roots
Title:    Feelings
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Feelings and as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Coonce/Entner/Fukomoto
Label:    Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year:    1968
    In 1968 the Grass Roots decided to assert themselves and take artistic control of their newest album, Feelings, writing most of the material for the album themselves. Unfortunately for the band, the album, as well as its title track single, fared poorly on the charts. From that point on the Grass Roots were firmly under the control of producers/songwriters Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan, cranking out a series of best-selling hits such as I'd Wait A Million Years and Midnight Confessions (neither of which get played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era, incidentally).

Artist:    Amboy Dukes
Title:    Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Source:    CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Nugent/Farmer
Label:    Priority (original label: Mainstream)
Year:    1968
    Detroit was one of the major centers of pop music in the late 60s. In addition to the myriad Motown acts, the area boasted the popular retro-rock&roll band Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, the harder rocking Heard (later known as the Bob Seger System), the anarchistic MC5 and their "little brother" band, the Stooges, and Ted Nugent's outfit, the Amboy Dukes, who scored big in 1968 with Journey To The Center Of The Mind.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Come Up The Years
Source:    Mono LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer(s):    Balin/Kantner
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1966
    One of the most overused motifs in pop music is the "You're too young for me" song. This probably reflects, to a certain degree, a lifestyle that goes back to the beginnings of rock and roll (Chuck Berry did jail time for transporting a minor across state lines, Jerry Lee Lewis saw his career get derailed by his marraige to his 13-year-old cousin, etc.). Generally, the song's protagonist comes to a decision to put a stop to the relationship before it gets too serious. The Marty Balin/Paul Kantner tune Come Up The Years takes a more sophisticated look at the subject, although it still comes to the same conclusion (I can't do this because you're jailbait). In fact, the only rock songwriter I know of that came to any other conclusion on the matter was Bob Markley of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, and that's what ultimately got him in trouble with the law. Oh, and it's been alleged that some of Kim Fowley's dealings with certain members of the Runaways was, let us say, less than professional, which may well have been the reason for them severing ties with him.

Artist:     Buffalo Springfield
Title:     Sit Down I Think I Love You
Source:     LP: Retrospective (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield)
Writer:     Stephen Stills
Label:     Atco
Year:     1967
     Sit Down I Think I Love You, a Stephen Stills composition originally released on the first Buffalo Springfield album, was a minor hit for the Mojo Men in 1967. Personally, I prefer the original Buffalo Springfield version from their 1966 debut LP.

Artist:    Things To Come
Title:    'Til The End
Source:    Mono CD: If You're Ready-The Best Of Dunwich Records Volume 2 (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Kennith Ashley
Label:    Rhino/Here 'Tis (original label: Dunwich)
Year:    1966
    Despite spending a considerable amount of time looking for information on the Illinois band called Things To Come (not to be confused with the L.A. band of the same name), I still know absolutely nothing about them. The extensive liner notes accompanying the compilation CD If You're Ready-The Best Of Dunwich Records Volume 2 that contains the song 'Til The End fails to mention them at all. Even the spelling of the songwriter's first name is suspect. So if you know anything at all about these guys, let me know, OK?

Artist:    Third Bardo
Title:    I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time
Source:    Mono British import CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Evans/Pike
Label:    Zonophone (original label: Roulette)
Year:    1967
    The Third Bardo (the name coming from the Tibetan Book of the Dead) only released one single, but I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time has become, over a period of time, one of the most sought-after records of the psychedelic era. Not much is known of this New York band made up of Jeffrey Moon (vocals), Bruce Ginsberg (drums), Ricky Goldclang (lead guitar), Damian Kelly (bass) and Richy Seslowe (guitar).

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    Star Collector
Source:    LP: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, LTD.
Writer(s):    Goffin/King
Label:    Colgems
Year:    1967
    The Monkees were one of the first bands to utilize the Moog synthesizer on a rock record. One of the two tracks that uses the device extensively is Star Collector, a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King and sung by the late Davy Jones. Usually Jones was picked to sing the band's love ballads. Star Collector, on the other hand, is a wild, almost humorous look at rock groupies; the type of song that on earlier Monkees albums would have been given to Peter Tork to sing. The synthesizer in Star Collector was programmed and played by Paul Beaver (of Beaver and Krause). Tork later said that he didn't think much of Beaver's performance, saying "he played it like a flute or something" rather than exploit the unique sounds the Moog was capable of producing.

Artist:    Sonics
Title:    The Witch
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Gerald Roslie
Label:    Rhino (original label: Etiquette)
Year:    1964
    The #1 selling single in the history of the Pacific Northwest was this tune by one of the founding bands of the Seattle music scene. The Sonics were as raw as any punk rock band of the seventies, as The Witch proves beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    I Happen To Love You
Source:    CD: Underground
Writer(s):    Goffin/King
Label:    Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    Arguably the most commercial-sounding cut on the second Electric Prunes album, Underground, I Happen To Love You was inexplicably passed over as a potential single in favor of the bizarre Dr. Do-Good, which did nothing on the charts, and did more harm than good to the band's reputation. Written by the highly successful songwriting team of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, I Happen To Love You may not have fit the psychedelic image that the band's promotional team was looking to push, but probably would have gotten a decent amount of airplay on top 40 radio.

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: The Electric Prunes and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Mantz
Label:    Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1966
    The Electric Prunes' biggest hit was I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), released in November of 1966. The record, initially released without much promotion from their record label, was championed by Seattle DJ Pat O'Day of KJR radio, and was already popular in that area when it hit the national charts (thus explaining why so many people assumed the band was from Seattle). I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) has come to be one of the defining songs of the psychedelic era and was the opening track on the original Lenny Kaye Nuggets compilation (and the second track on Rhino's first Nuggets LP).

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    Wind-Up Toys
Source:    CD: Underground
Writer(s):    Lowe/Tulin
Label:    Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967    
    The second Electric Prunes album, Underground, includes a trio of tunes that relate, in one way or another, to childhood. The middle of these three is an original composition by lead vocalist Jim Lowe and bassist Mark Tulin called Wind-Up Toys, which, in pure psychedelic fashion, includes a bridge with an entirely different style and tempo than the rest of the song, which can best be characterized as light pop.
    
Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice
Source:    Mono British import LP: Smash Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Track
Year:    1967
    The fourth single released in Europe and the UK by the Jimi Hendrix Experience was 1967's Burning Of The Midnight Lamp, which appeared in stereo the following year on the album Electric Ladyland. The B side of that single was a strange bit of psychedelia called Stars That Play With Laughing Sam's Dice, which is also known in some circles as STP With LSD. The piece features Hendrix on guitar and vocals, with background sounds provided by a cast of at least dozens. Hendrix's vocals are, throughout much of the track, spoken rather than sung, and resemble nothing more than a cosmic travelogue with Hendrix himself as the tour guide. The original mono mix of the track has never been released in the US, which is a shame, since it is the only version where Jimi's vocals dominate the mix, allowing his somewhat whimsical sense of humor to shine through.

Artist:    Mystery Trend
Title:    Johnny Was A Good Boy
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Nagle/Cuff
Label:    Rhino (original label: Verve)
Year:    1967
    The Mystery Trend was a bit of an anomaly on the San Francisco music scene of the late 1960s. Contemporaries of bands such as the Great! Society and the Charlatans, the Trend always stood a bit apart from the rest of the crowd, playing to an audience that was both a bit more affluent and a bit more "adult" (they were reportedly the house band at a Sausalito strip club). Stylistically they preferred short, tightly arranged songs to the long spacey jams that bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead were known for. Perhaps they were simply ahead of their time, as that exact same approach was taken just a couple years later by another local band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, to great success. Although the Mystery Trend (their name taken from misheard Bob Dylan lyrics) played in the city itself as early as 1965, they did not release their first and only record until early 1967. The song, Johnny Was A Good Boy, tells the story of a seemingly normal middle-class kid who turns out to be a monster, surprising friends, family and neighbors. The Mystery Trend, unable to find enough gigs to stay afloat financially, called it quits in 1968.

Artist:    H.P. Lovecraft
Title:    The White Ship
Source:    CD: Two Classic Albums From H.P. Lovecraft (originally released on LP: H.P. Lovecraft)
Writer(s):    Edwards/Michaels/Cavallari
Label:    Collector's Choice/Universal Music Special Products (original label: Philips)
Year:    1967
    Fans of Chicago's premier psychedelic band, H.P. Lovecraft, generally agree that the high point of the band's 1967 debut LP is The White Ship, which opens the second side of the original LP. The basic song was composed by George Edwards, who came up with it between sessions for other tracks on the album in about 15 minutes. Once the rest of the band got ahold of it, the track was, in the words of co-founder Dave Michaels, "instantly moulded into a new entity", adding that "By itself, the baritone melody and chords are merely a bare-bones beginning. Adding the harmonies, the feedback effects on lead guitar, and conceiving the 'bolero' rhythm all came into being in a group setting." Accordingly, Edwards insisted on sharing songwriting credit with both Michaels and lead guitarist Tony Cavallari. Although the song was also released, in edited form, as a single, it is the six-and-a-half minute long LP version of The White Ship that got a considerable amount of airplay on underground FM radio stations when it was released in 1967.

Artist:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    Anything
Source:    CD: Retrospective (originally released on LP: Winds Of Change)
Writer:    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label:    Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1967
    The first album by the "new" Eric Burdon And The Animals, Winds Of Change, included three songs that were released as singles, however only one of the three got airplay in both the US and the UK. The US-only single was a song that Eric Burdon has since said was the one he was most proud of writing, a love generation song called Anything. In fact Burdon liked the song well enough to re-record it for a solo album in 1995.

Artist:    Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title:    Green River
Source:    LP: Green River
Writer(s):    John Fogerty
Label:    Fantasy
Year:    1969
    In 1969 I was living in Germany (on Ramstein AFB, where my father, a career NCO, was stationed), where the choices for radio listening consisted of Radio Luxembourg, which only came in after dark and faded in and out constantly, the American Forces Network (AFN), which had a limited amount of music programming, most of which was targeted to an older demographic, and an assortment of German language stations playing ethnic and classical music. As a result, I didn't listen much to the radio, instead relying on word of mouth from my fellow high school students and hearing songs played on the jukebox at the Ramstein teen club on base. Both Proud Mary and Bad Moon Rising had completely slipped under my radar, in fact, so Green River was the first Creedence Clearwater Revival song I was even aware of. I immediately went out and bought a copy of the single at the BX, and soon had my band covering the record's B side, Commotion. I'm afraid Green River itself was beyond our abilities, however. Nonetheless, I still think of that "garage" band I was in (actually, since we all lived in apartment buildings, we had to practice in the basement of one of them rather than an actual garage) whenever I hear Green River.

Artist:    Youngbloods
Title:    Sham
Source:    LP: The Best Of The Youngbloods (originally released on LP: Elephant Mountain)
Writer(s):    Jesse Colin Young
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1969
    Youngbloods co-founder Jerry Corbitt left the band after completing only two songs for the group's third LP, Elephant Mountain. One of those two songs was Sham, written by Jesse Colin Young. The album itself was produced by Charles Edward Daniels, later to be known as Charlie.

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    China Cat Sunflower
Source:    CD: Aoxomoxoa (1971 remix)
Writer(s):    Hunter/Garcia/Lesh
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1969
    The third Grateful Dead album, Aoxomoxoa, was an experimental mixture of live audio and studio enhancements, much in the same vein as their previous effort, Anthem Of The Sun. One significant difference between the two is that, unlike Anthem, Aoxomoxoa was written entirely by the team of guitarist Jerry Garcia, bassist Phil Lesh and poet Robert Hunter, giving the album a more cohesive sound. One track on Aoxomoxoa, China Cat Sunflower, is almost entirely a studio creation, and as such has a bit cleaner sound than the rest of the LP, especially on the 1971 remixed version of the album.

Artist:    Chicago
Title:    Poem 58
Source:    LP: The Chicago Transit Authority
Writer(s):    Robert Lamm
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1969
    Poem 58, from the 1969 double-LP The Chicago Transit Authority, is actually two pieces in one. The first is essentially a long jam session built around an R&B guitar riff and featuring some outstanding solo work from guitarist Terry Kath. About halfway through this morphs into a different kind of R&B tune, done in a call and response style and featuring the band's horn section prominently. An abbreviated version of Poem 58 was also released as the B side of the band's second single, Beginnings.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Wrapping Paper
Source:    British import LP: Cream (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Bruce/Brown
Label:    Polydor (original label: Reaction)
Year:    1966
    Wrapping Paper is the nearly forgotten debut single from Cream, released two months before the Fresh Cream album in 1966. The song only made it to the #34 spot in the UK, and was not released in the US at all until several years later, when it appeared on an album called The Very Best Of Cream. Drummer Ginger Baker made no secret of his dislike of the song, calling it " the most appalling piece of shit I've ever heard in my life", adding that Eric Clapton didn't like the song either. Nonetheless, here it is, for the curious among you.

Artist:    Hombres
Title:    Am I High
Source:    Mono LP: Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)
Writer(s):    Cunningham/Masters/Hunter/McEwan
Label:     Verve Forecast
Year:    1967
    Once upon a time there was a band called Ronny And The Daytonas, who had a hit with the hot rod single Little GTO. Like many of the bands that had surf and hot rod hit singles, Ronny And The Daytonas was actually a group of studio musicians. Unlike most surf and hot rod groups, they were based in landlocked Nashville, Tennessee. When Little GTO became a hit, they did what many groups of studio musicians with a mid-60s hit single did: they hired other musicians to go on the road as Ronny And The Daytonas. One night, on the way to a gig, three of the touring Daytonas, organist Billy Cunningham, guitarist Gary McEwan and drummer Johnny Hunter, heard Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues on the radio and were inspired to write a song of their own called Let It Out. One thing led to another, and before you know it (well, actually August of 1967) the trio (who had become a quartet with the addition of bassist Jerry Lee Masters) had a huge national hit on their hands. This in turn led to an album full of strange songs like Am I High. Unfortunately the album, as well as a handful of subsequent singles, failed to make an impression, and the Hombres (as they were now calling themselves) went their separate ways the following year.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Call Me Lightning
Source:    CD: The Who Sell Out (Super Deluxe edition bonus track) (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Pete Townshend
Label:    Polydor/UMC (original US label: Decca)
Year:    1968
    Although it sounds more like their earlier "maximum R&B" recordings, the Who's Call Me Lightning was actually recorded in 1968. The song was released only in the US (as a single), while the considerably less conventional Dogs was chosen for release in the UK. These days the US single is better remembered for its B side, John Entwistle's Dr. Jeckle And Mr. Hyde. Both songs ended up being included on the Magic Bus album, which was only available in North America in simulated stereo. A new stereo mix is now available as a track on disc 4 (The Road To Tommy 1968) of the Super Deluxe edition of The Who Sell Out, released in 2021.

  

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2433 (starts 8/12/24)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/539405 

    This week we start off with some high-energy rock, and pretty much stay there for the entire show. Seat belts recommended.

Artist:    Steppenwolf
Title:    The Ostrich
Source:    CD: Born To Be Wild-A Retrospective (originally released as 45 RPM single B side and included on LP: Steppenwolf)
Writer(s):    John Kay
Label:    MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year:    1967
    Although John Kay's songwriting skills were still a work in progress on the first Steppenwolf album, there were some outstanding Kay songs on that LP, such as The Ostrich, a song that helped define Steppenwolf as one of the most politically savvy rock bands in history. An edited version of The Ostrich was released several weeks earlier than the album itself as the B side of Steppenwolf's first single, A Girl I Knew.

Artist:    Joni Mitchell
Title:    Big Yellow Taxi
Source:    LP: Ladies Of The Canyon
Writer(s):    Joni Mitchell
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1970
    One of Joni Mitchell's best-known tunes, Big Yellow Taxi was originally released on the 1970 album Ladies Of The Canyon. The original studio version of the song hit the top 10 in Australia and the top 20 in the UK and Mitchell's native Canada, but only reached the #67 spot in the US. A later live version of the song, however, cracked the top 30 in the US in 1974. Mitchell says she was inspired to write the song on a visit to Hawaii, where she looked out her hotel window to view a mountain vista in the distance, only to be shocked back to reality when she looked down to see a parking lot "as far as the eye could see".

Artist:    Wishbone Ash
Title:    Blowin' Free
Source:    CD: Argus
Writer(s):    Upton/Turner/Turner/Powell
Label:    MCA/Decca
Year:    1972
    Known to the band's fans as the "Ash Anthem", Blowin' Free is probably the single most popular song Wishbone Ash ever recorded. The song, with lyrics written by bassist Martin Turner before Wishbone Ash even formed, is about Turner's Swedish ex-girlfriend.

Artist:     Jo Jo Gunne
Title:     Run Run Run
Source:     45 RPM single (stereo promo)
Writer:     Ferguson/Andes
Label:     Asylum
Year:     1972
     After Spirit called it quits following the disappointing sales of Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, lead vocalist Jay Ferguson and bassist Mark Andes hooked up with Andes's brother Matt and William "Curly" Smith to form Jo Jo Gunne. Their best known song was Run Run Run, which hit the British top 10 and the US top 30 in 1972, receiving considerable amount of airplay on progressive rock stations as well as being the highlight of the band's live performances.

Artist:    Gun
Title:    Race With The Devil
Source:    German import CD: Gun
Writer(s):    Adrian Gurvitz
Label:    Repertoire (original label: CBS)
Year:    1968
    One of the most popular songs on the jukebox at the teen club on Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany in 1969 was a song called Race With The Devil by a band called Gun. The song was so popular, in fact, that at least two local bands covered it (including the one I was in at the time). Nobody seemed to know much about the band at the time, but it turns out that the group was fronted by the Gurvitz brothers, Adrian and Paul (who at the time used the last name Curtis); the two would later be members of the Baker-Gurvitz Army with drummer Ginger Baker. I've also learned recently that Gun spent much of its time touring in Europe, particularly in Germany, where Race With The Devil hit its peak in January of 1969 (it had made the top 10 in the UK in 1968, the year it was released).

Artist:    Robin Trower
Title:    Little Bit Of Sympathy
Source:    CD: Bridge Of Sighs
Writer(s):    Robin Trower
Label:    Chrysalis/Capitol
Year:    1974
    Released in 1974, Bridge Of Sighs was the second solo LP by former Procol Harum guitarist Robin Trower. The album was Trower's commercial breakthrough, staying on the Billboard album charts for 31 weeks, peaking at #7. In addition to Trower, the album features James Dewar on lead vocals and bass, along with Reg Isidore on drums. The album was a staple of mid-1970s progressive rock radio, with several tunes, including album closer Little Bit Of Sympathy, becoming concert favorites.

Artist:    Rod Stewart
Title:    True Blue
Source:    45 RPM single B side promo (from LP: Never A Dull Moment)
Writer(s):    Stewart/Wood
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1972
    Rod Stewart and Ron Wood started performing together in 1967, when they were both members of the Jeff Beck Group. When that group disbanded, the two of them joined up with the remnants of the Small Faces to form Faces. Even as Faces was growing in popularity, Stewart was pursuing a parallel solo career. This has led to some confusion over which songs were Faces tunes and which ones were Stewart's. Complicating things further is the fact than most of the members of Faces (including Wood) played on many of Stewart's records, including the hit single You Wear It Well, which appeared on Stewart's 1972 LP Never A Dull Moment. The B side of that single was True Blue, a Stewart/Wood collaboration that also served as Never A Dull Moment's opening track. Things got considerably less confusing in 1975, however, when Wood accepted an invitation to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones, a position he has held ever since.

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    Loose Lucy
Source:    CD: From The Mars Hotel
Writer(s):    Hunter/Garcia
Label:    Rhino (original label: Grateful Dead)
Year:    1974
    Loose Lucy may not be the most politically correct song ever written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia, but, as one of our listeners pointed out, it's always a great jam and one of the higher-energy tunes on the 1974 album From The Mars Hotel.

Artist:    Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title:    Keep On Chooglin'
Source:    LP: Bayou Country
Writer(s):    John Fogerty
Label:    Fantasy
Year:    1969
    There are a lot of theories out there about the meaning of the word "chooglin", but according to John Fogerty, it's simply a word he made up to describe Creedence Clearwater Revival's music. I guess you'd have to say it applies to Fogerty's later solo work as well. Keep On Chooglin' John!

Artist:    Canned Heat
Title:    Woodstock Boogie (part one)
Source:    CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm (originally released on LP: Woodstock 2)
Writer(s):    Canned Heat
Label:    Rhino (original label: Atlantic)
Year:    1969
    One of the highlights of any Canned Heat performance was Refried Boogie, an extended jam piece often lasting up to an hour in length. For the Woodstock festival the band shortened it to just under 30 minutes, including solos from every band member, including the recently recruited guitarist Harvey Mandel, who had replaced founding member Henry Vestine. The song was originally issued on the album Woodstock 2 in highly edited form, cutting the running time in half. The full-length version, including a solo guitar intro, was released in 2009 as part of Rhino's six-disc Woodstock anniversary box set. Due to time constraints we're only presenting the first two-thirds of Woodstock Boogie, up through Larry "The Mole" Taylor's lengthy bass solo this week.

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2432 (starts 8/5/24)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/538643 

    This week, framed by sets from two of the grittier bands of the British Invasion, we have a show made up mostly of trips back through the years, with breaks for an 80s Advanced Psych segment and a long set from 1967.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Sympathy For The Devil
Source:    CD: Beggars Banquet
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1968
    Beggar's Banquet was a turning point for the Rolling Stones. They had just ended their association with Andrew Loog Oldham, who had produced all of their mid-60s records, and instead, (following one self-produced album) were working with Jimmy Miller, who was known for his association with Steve Winwood, both in his current band Traffic and the earlier Spencer Davis Group. Right from the opening bongo beats of Sympathy For The Devil, it was evident that this was the beginning of a new era for the bad boys of rock and roll. The song itself has gone on to be one of the defining tunes of album rock radio, and occupies the #32 spot on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Sad Day
Source:    Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richard
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1966
    Several Rolling Stones singles released in the 1960s had different B sides in the UK and the US. As a result, songs like Sad Day, which was the B side of 19th Nervous Breakdown in the US, remained unreleased in the UK for several years. Sad Day finally appeared in the UK on a compilation album called No Stone Unturned, and was even released as the only single from that LP. Neither the single nor the LP itself was authorized by the band, who had lost control of their own pre-1971 catalog to Allen Klein when they terminated their contract with the British Decca label.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Dear Doctor
Source:    CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer:    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1968
    In late 1968 four new albums by four different bands were competing for space on the record racks: The Beatles (white album), Cream's Wheels Of Fire, the Jimi Hendrix Experience's Electric Ladyland and the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet. I can't imagine four albums that influential (or even that good) ever being released around the same time again. Just to further illustrate the point we have the song Dear Doctor. Compared to most of the songs on these four albums, the Appalachian-styled Dear Doctor is, at best, a novelty number. Yet taken on its own merits the song compares favorably with probably 90% of what's been recorded by any rock band (and a lot of country artists as well) in the years since.

Artist:    Guess Who
Title:    Hand Me Down World
Source:    LP: The Best Of The Guess Who (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Kurt Winter
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1970
    Following the departure of longtime guitarist (and vocalist Burton Cummings' writer partner) Randy Bachman in May of 1970, the remaining members of the Guess Who (Cummings, bassist Jim Kale and drummer Garry Peterson) immediately brought in two new guitarists, Kurt Winter and Greg Leskiw, to beging work on the band's next album, Share The Land. The group had already recorded seven new songs with Bachman, and those were all scrapped in favor of new material, including Winter's Hand Me Down World, which was released in June of 1970 while the rest of the album was still being recorded. One of the Guess Who's most political songs, Hand Me Down World is basically a rejection of all things Establishment, and made the top 20 in the US. The album Share The Land went on to become the Guess Who's most successful album.

Artist:    Idle Race
Title:    Hurry Up John
Source:    British import CD: Insane times (originally released on LP: Idle Race)
Writer(s):    Jeff Lynne
Label:    Zonophone (original label: Liberty)
Year:    1969
    Virtually unknown in the US, the Idle Race released three LPs in the UK before frontman Jeff Lynne departed the group to join up with Roy Wood's band, the Move. Hurry Up John, a 1969 album track from the second Idle Race LP, is a classic sample of Britain's underground music scene.

Artist:    Vanilla Fudge
Title:    Where Is My Mind
Source:    Mono CD: The Complete Atco Singles (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Mark Stein
Label:    Real Gone/Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year:    1968
    When Vanilla Fudge first released You Keep Me Hangin' On as a single in June of 1967, the record flopped. Undaunted, the band continued to work on their debut LP, which included both sides of the single and was a major success when it was released in August of 1967, going all the way to the #6 spot on the Billboard album chart. Still, the band wanted a hit single, so they returned to the studio to cut two new tracks. One of these was an original composition by keyboardist Mark Stein called Where Is My Mind, which was chosen to be the A side of the new single, released in January of 1968. Unfortunately for the band, that record got such a cold reception from radio stations that their label quickly issued a special copy of the single featuring only the record's B side, a cover of Dusty Springfield's The Look Of Love (which also stiffed). It was not until June of 1968, when You Keep Me Hangin' On was reissued as a single, that Vanilla Fudge got their first (and only) top 40 hit.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer(s):    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Rhino (original label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1967
     The Music Machine was by far the most advanced of all the bands playing the L.A. club scene in 1966. Not only did they feature tight sets (ensuring that audience members wouldn't get the chance to call out requests between songs), they also had their own visual look that set them apart from other groups. With all the band members dressed entirely in black (including dyed hair) and wearing one black glove, the Machine projected an image that would influence such diverse artists as the Ramones and Michael Jackson in later years. Musically, Bonniwell's songwriting showed a sophistication that was on a par with the best L.A. had to offer, demonstrated by a series of fine singles such as The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly, which was re-recorded in stereo for release on the album Bonniwell Music Machine a few months later. Unfortunately, problems on the business end prevented the Music Machine from achieving the success it deserved and Bonniwell, disheartened, dissillusioned and/or disgusted, quit the music business altogether in 1970.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Boris The Spider
Source:    LP: Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy (originally released on LP: Happy Jack)
Writer:    John Entwhistle
Label:    MCA (original label: Decca)
Year:    1966
    For many years, Boris the Spider was bassist John Entwhistle's signature song. Eventually Entwhistle got sick of singing it and wrote another one. Truth is, he wrote a lot of songs, but like the Beatles's George Harrison, did not always get the recognition as a songwriter that more prolific bandmate Pete Townshend got. This was one of the first album tracks I ever heard played on an FM station (KLZ-FM in Denver, the first FM in the area to play something besides classical, jazz or elevator music).

Artist:    Pretty Things
Title:    Don't Bring Me Down
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Golden Days Of British Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Johnnie Dee
Label:    Sire (original label: Fontana)
Year:    1964
    Once upon a time in London there was a band called Little Boy Blue And The Blue Boys. Well, it wasn't really so much a band as a bunch of schoolkids jamming in guitarist Dick Taylor's parents' garage on a semi-regular basis. In addition to Taylor, the group included classmate Mick Jagger and eventually another guitarist by the name of Keith Richards. When yet another guitarist, Brian Jones, entered the picture, the band, which was still an amateur outfit, began calling itself the Rollin' Stones. Taylor switched from guitar to bass to accomodate Jones, but when the Stones decided to add a "g" and go pro in late 1962, Taylor opted to stay in school. It wasn't long, however, before Taylor, now back on guitar, showed up on the scene with a new band called the Pretty Things. Fronted by vocalist Phil May, the Things were rock and roll bad boys like the Stones, except more so. Their second single, Don't Bring Me Down, was their biggest hit single, making it into the British top 10 in late 1964. As was the case with all the Pretty Things' records, Don't Bring Me Down was unable to crack the US charts.     

Artist:    The Ban
Title:    Place Of Sin
Source:    Mono British import CD: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers (bonus track)
Writer(s):    Tony McGuire
Label:    Big Beat
Year:    Recorded 1965, released 2010
    The Ban was a garage band from Lompoc, California, consisting of vocalist/guitarist Tony McGuire, organist Oilver McKinney, bassist Frank Strait and drummer Randy Gordon. They made a handful of recordings for the Brent label in 1965, with the song Bye Bye being released as a single. Among the other McGuire compositions the Ban recorded was Place Of Sin, a song that was probably too far ahead of its time to be released in 1965. Unfortunately, before the Ban could generate interest in their single, McGuire was drafted, and the Ban moved to San Bernadino, adding a new member and changing their name to the Now. Later, they relocated to San Francisco, where they were snagged by the infamous manager Matthew Katz, who renamed them the Tripsichord Music Box.

Artist:    Leaves
Title:    Hey Joe
Source:    Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Billy Roberts
Label:    Rhino (original label: Mira)
Year:    1966
    In 1966 there were certain songs you had to know how to play if you had any aspirations of being in a band. Among those were Louie Louie, Gloria and Hey Joe. The Byrds' David Crosby claims to have discovered Hey Joe, but was not able to convince his bandmates to record it before their third album. In the meantime, several other bands had recorded the song, including Love (on their first album) and the Leaves. The version of Hey Joe heard here is actually the third recording the Leaves made of the tune. After the first two versions tanked, guitarist Bobby Arlin, who had recently replaced founding member Bill Rinehart on lead guitar, came up with the idea of adding fuzz guitar to the song. It was the missing element that transformed a rather bland song into a hit record (the only national hit the Leaves would have). As a side note, the Leaves credited Chet Powers (aka Dino Valenti) as the writer of Hey Joe, but California-based folk singer Billy Roberts had copyrighted the song in 1962 and had reportedly been heard playing the tune as early as 1958.

Artist:    Santana
Title:    Soul Sacrifice
Source:    CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Santana)
Writer(s):    Brown/Malone/Rolie/Santana
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1969
    Of all the bands formed in the late 1960s, very few achieved any degree of popularity outside of their local community. Fewer still could be considered an influence on future stars. Most rare of all are those who managed to be both popular and influential while maintaining a degree of artistic integrity. One name that comes immediately to mind is Santana (both the band and the man). It might be surprising, then, to hear that the first Santana album, released in 1969, was savaged by the rock press, particularly the San Francisco based Rolling Stone magazine, who called it boring and repetitious. It wasn't until the band performed Soul Sacrifice (heard here in its original studio version) at Woodstock that Santana became major players on the rock scene.

Artist:    Moody Blues
Title:    Ride My See-Saw
Source:    CD: The Best Of The Moody Blues (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    John Lodge
Label:    Polydor (original label: Deram)
Year:    1968
    Although it was only a minor hit when originally released in 1968, Ride My See-Saw has gone on to become one of the most popular songs in the Moody Blues catalog, and is considered to among the ten best Moody Blues songs by critics on both sides of the Atlantic.

Artist:    Pearls Before Swine
Title:    Drop Out!
Source:    LP: Also Dug-Its (originally released on LP: One Nation Underground)
Writer(s):    Tom Rapp
Label:    Elektra (original label: ESP-Disk)
Year:    1967
    First there was folk-rock. Then came psychedelic rock. Somewhere among all this emerged something that has come to be called psychedelic folk. Perhaps the best example of this is a band called Pearls Before Swine, formed in Eau Gallie, Florida in 1965 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Tom Rapp with high school friends Wayne Harley (banjo, mandolin), Lane Lederer (bass, guitar) and Roger Crissinger (piano, organ). Inspired by the Fugs, they sent some demo tapes to the New York-based ESP Disk' label, which had released the first Fugs recordings. They were quickly signed to the label and got to work on their first LP, One Nation Underground. The album featured a variety of additional instruments, including autoharp, vibraphone and audio oscillator (played by Harley), English horn, swinehorn, sarangi, celeste, and finger cymbals (played by Lederer), and harpsichord and clavioline (played by Crissinger). Studio drummer Warren Smith provided percussion for the album. Like later Pearls Before Swine albums, One Nation Underground was made up almost entirely of Rapp originals such as Drop Out! Unlike later Rapp compositions, the song has a rock beat, and is essentially an invitation to follow Timothy Leary's advice and follow your own path rather than the one prescribed by mainstream society.

Artist:    Blues Magoos
Title:    (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Gilbert/Scala/Esposito
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1966
    The Blues Magoos (original spelling: Bloos) were either the first or second band to use the word psychedelic in an album title. Both they and the 13th Floor Elevators released their debut albums in 1966 and it is unclear which one actually came out first. What's not in dispute is the fact that Psychedelic Lollipop far outsold The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. One major reason for this was the fact that (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet was a huge national hit in early 1967, which helped album sales considerably. Despite having a unique sound and a look to match (including electric suits), the Magoos were unable to duplicate the success of Nothin' Yet on subsequent releases, partially due to Mercury's pairing of two equally marketable songs on the band's next single without indicating to stations which one they were supposed to be playing.

Artist:    Yardbirds
Title:    Heart Full Of Soul
Source:    Mono Australian import CD: Over, Under, Sideways, Down (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Graham Gouldman
Label:    Raven (original label: Epic)
Year:    1965
    The Yardbirds' follow-up single to For Your Love, Heart Full Of Soul, was a huge hit, making the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in 1965. The song, the first to feature guitarist Jeff Beck prominently, was written by Graham Gouldman, who also wrote For Your Love. For some odd reason Gouldman's own band, the Mockingbirds, was strangely unable to buy a hit on the charts, despite Gouldman's obvious talents as a songwriter. Gouldman would eventually go on to be a founding member of 10cc, who were quite successful in the 1970s.

Artist:    Gestures
Title:    Run Run Run
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Dave Menten
Label:    Rhino
Year:    1964
    Soma Records was a small regional label based out of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, best known for the Castaways hit Liar Liar. Soma did not have the resources to properly promote or distribute a national hit, which is a shame, as the Gestures' (originally the Jesters until someone discovered the name was already in use) Run Run Run was a fine effort, sounding a lot like the early Who several months before the Who themselves first hit the US airwaves.

Artist:    Snakefinger
Title:    I Come From An Island
Source:    LP: Greener Postures
Writer(s):    Snakefinger/The Residents(?)
Label:    Ralph
Year:    1980
    South London born Philip Charles Lithman got the name Snakefinger from members of the Residents after they saw a photograph of the guitarist playing the violin and observed that his finger looked like a snake about to attack the instrument. He first met the mysterious San Francisco group in 1969, appearing with the group onstage for their first public performance in 1971 before returning to his native England in 1972 to form his own band, Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers. He eventually ended up back in San Francisco, appearing as a guest musician on several Residents releases as well as releasing his first solo albums on the Residents' own Ralph Records label. His second solo LP, Greener Pastures, included a mixture of solo compositions and songs co-written by the Residents. In keeping with the Residents' policy of deliberate obscurity, however, It is not known which category I Come From An Island falls into.

Artist:    R.E.M.
Title:    Stumble
Source:    12" EP: Chronic Town
Writer(s):    Buck/Berry/Mills/Stipe
Label:    I.R.S.
Year:    1982
    Following the release of the first recording of Radio Free Europe as a single on the independent Hib-Tone label in 1981, R.E.M. returned to Drive-in Studio in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to record Chronic Town, a five-song EP to be released on a proposed new label called Dasht Hopes. Before any of that could happen, however, the band signed a deal with I.R.S. Records, who bought out the band's contracts with both Hib-Tone and Dasht Hopes and released Chronic Town on August 24, 1982. The longest track on Chronic Town was Stumble, which helped establish the band's sound. Although the EP itself is long out of print, all five tracks were included on the CD edition of Dead Letter Office, released in 1987.

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:     Country Weather
Title:     Fly To New York
Source:     Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released only to radio stations, later included on Swiss CD:     Country Weather)
Writer:     Baron/Carter/Derr/Douglass
Label:     Rhino (original label: RD)
Year:     Recorded 1969, released 2005
     Country Weather started off as a popular dance band in Contra Costa County, California. In 1968 they took the name Country Weather and began gigging on the San Francisco side of the bay. In 1969, still without a record contract, they recorded an album side's worth of material, made a few one-sided test copies and circulated them to local radio stations. Those tracks, including Fly To New York, were eventually released on CD in 2005 by the Swedish label RD Records.

Artist:    Pentangle
Title:    Pentangling
Source:    LP: The Pentangle
Writer(s):    Cos/Jansch/McShea/Renbourne/Thompson
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1968
    Once in a while an album comes along that is so consistently good that it's impossible to single out one specific track for airplay. Such is the case with the debut Pentangle album from 1968. The group, consisting of guitarists John Renbourne and Bert Jansch, vocalist Jacqui McShea, bassist Terry Cox, and drummer Danny Thompson, had more talent than nearly any band in history from any genre, yet never succumbed to the clash of egos that characterize most supergroups. Enjoy all seven minutes of Pentangling.
         
Artist:     Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:     The Wind Cries Mary
Source:     LP: Are You Experienced?
Writer:     Jimi Hendrix
Label:     Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year:     1967
     The US version of Are You Experienced was significantly different than its UK counterpart. For one thing, the original UK album was only available in mono. For the US version, engineers at Reprise Records, working from the original multi-track masters, created all new stereo mixes of about two-thirds of the album, along with the A sides of the three singles that the Jimi Hendrix Experience had released in the UK, which were then added to the album, replacing three of the original tracks. The third of these singles was The Wind Cries Mary, which had hit the British charts in February of 1967. The tune opens up side two of the American LP.

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Dear Mr. Fantasy
Source:    CD: Heaven Is In Your Mind
Writer(s):    Capaldi/Wood/Winwood
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:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    A Girl Named Sandoz
Source:    Mono CD: The Best Of Eric Burdon And The Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label:    Polydor (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1967
    The original Animals officially disbanded at the end of 1966, but before long a new group, Eric Burdon And The Animals, had arrived to take its place. Unlike the original Animals, this new band wrote nearly all their own material, with credits going to the entire membership on every song. The first single from this new band was a song called When I Was Young, a semi-autobiographical piece with lyrics by Burdon that performed decently, if not spectacularly, on the charts in both the US and the UK. It was the B side of that record, however, a tune called A Girl Named Sandoz, that truly indicated what this new band was about. Sandoz was the name of the laboratory that originally developed and manufactured LSD, and the song itself is a thinly-veiled tribute to the mind-expanding properties of the wonder drug. It would soon become apparent that whereas the original Animals were solidly rooted in American R&B (with the emphasis on the B), this new group was pure acid-rock (with the emphasis on acid).

Artist:    Smoke
Title:    My Friend Jack
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):    Rowley/Gill/Luker/Lund
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1966
    My Friend Jack was well on its way to becoming a huge international hit when it was suddenly recalled in the UK by EMI's Columbia label. The reason, as it turns out, is that the "sugar lumps" mentioned throughout the song were in fact LSD-laced sugar cubes; a fact that apparently did not matter so much in Germany, where the song held the #1 spot on the charts for seven weeks. The Smoke was formed in Yorkshire in 1965 as the Shots, and released one single that year that did not go anywhere, in spite of (or perhaps because of) backing by some of London's most notorious mobsters. After the name change the group released My Friend Jack and ended up spending much of 1967 touring in Germany, where they released several more singles before the original lineup split up in 1968 (although Smoke records by various personnel would continue to be released well into the 1970s).

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Unhappy Girl
Source:    LP: Strange Days
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    After the success of their first album and the single Light My Fire in early 1967, the Doors quickly returned to the studio, releasing a second LP, Strange Days, later the same year. The first single released from the new album was People Are Strange. The B side of that single was Unhappy Girl, from the same album. Both sides got played a lot on the jukebox at a neighborhood gasthaus known as the Woog in the village of Meisenbach near Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, where I spent a good number of my evening hours.

Artist:    Easybeats
Title:    Heaven And Hell
Source:    CD: Nuggets-Classics From The Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Vanda/Young
Label:    Rhino (original US label: United Artists)
Year:    1967
    Throughout the mid-60s Australia's most popular band was a group of immigrants calling themselves the Easybeats. Often referred to as the "Australian Beatles", their early material sounded like slightly dated British Beat music (Australia had a reputation for cultural lag, and besides, half the members were English). By late 1966 guitarist Harry Vanda (one of the two Dutch members of the group) had learned enough English to be able to replace vocalist Stevie Wright as George Young's writing partner. The new team was much more adventurous in their compositions than the Wright/Young team had been, and were responsible for the band's first international hit, Friday On My Mind. By then the Easybeats had relocated to England, and continued to produce fine singles such as Heaven And Hell.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    I'm A Lover Not A Fighter
Source:    LP: Kinks-Size
Writer(s):    Jay D Miller
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1964
    From 1964-1966 there were major differences between the US and UK catalogs of British Invasion bands such as the Kinks. This is partly because British albums tended to have longer running times, generally containing two or three more songs than their US counterparts. In addition, many groups released songs on 45 RPM Extended Play records in the UK, a practice that had been discontinued by most US labels in the late 1950s. A final factor was the British policy of not including songs that had been released as singles (or their B sides) on LPs. These extra songs usually ended up being released in the US on LPs that had no direct UK counterpart. One such album was 1965's Kinks-Size, which included I'm A Lover Not A Fighter, a rare Kinks cover song that was on the UK version of their 1964 debut LP.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    Such A Shame
Source:    Mono LP: Kinkdom (also released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1965
    The B side of a 45 RPM record was usually thought of as filler material, but in reality often served another purpose entirely. Sometimes it was used to make an instrumental version of the hit side available for use in clubs or even as a kind of early kind of Karioke. As often as not it was a chance for bands who were given material by their producer to record for the A side to get their own compositions on record, thus giving them a share of the songwriting royalties. Sometimes the B sides went on to become classics in their own right. Possibly the band with the highest percentage of this type of B side was the Kinks, who seemed to have a great song on the flip side of every record they released. One such B side is Such A Shame, released as the flip of A Well Respected Man in 1965. It doesn't get much better than this.

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2432 (starts 8/5/24)

https://exchange.prx.org/p/538642

    This week we work our way up from 1967 until we get close enough to 1974 to announce our first Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel winner (we're still waiting for mailing addresses for the other two). From there it's 1971 time, followed by a Joni Mitchell track making its Rockin' in the Days of Confusion debut.

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Paranoid
Source:    CD: Grand Funk
Writer(s):    Mark Farner
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1969
    I spent a good portion of the summer of 1971 riding around in a 1954 Ford panel truck listening to Grand Funk (aka the Red Album) on 8-track tape. One thing I noticed was that, unlike the Black Sabbath song with the same name, Grand Funk Railroad's Paranoid has lyrics that actually make sense, albeit in a not entirely healthy way. The sad part, of course, is that there are actually people who live that way.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Love Me Two Times
Source:    CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Strange Days)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    Although the second Doors album is sometimes dismissed as being full of tracks that didn't make the cut on the band's debut LP, the fact is that Strange Days contains some of the Doors best-known tunes. One of those is Love Me Two Times, which was the second single released from the album. The song continues to get heavy airplay on classic rock stations.

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Grammophone Man
Source:    LP: Spirit
Writer(s):    Ferguson/Locke/California/Andes/Cassidy
Label:    Epic (original label: Ode)
Year:    1968
    Like most of the tracks on Spirit's 1968 debut LP, Grammophone Man combines rock and jazz in a way that has yet to be duplicated. Rather than create a jazz/rock fusion the group chose to switch gears mid-song. After a couple of minutes of a section that can best described as light rock, the song suddenly shifts into a fast-paced bop instrumental featuring Wes Montgomery style guitar work by Randy California and a short Ed Cassidy drum solo that eventually drops the tempo for a short reprise of the piece's main section.

Artist:     King Crimson
Title:     21st Century Schizoid Man
Source:     CD: In The Court Of The Crimson King
Writer:     Fripp/McDonald/Lake/Giles/Sinfield
Label:     Discipline Global Mobile (original US label: Atlantic)
Year:     1969
     There are several bands with a legitimate claim to starting the prog-rock movement of the mid-70s. The one most musicians cite as the one that started it all, however, is King Crimson. Led by Robert Fripp, the band went through several personnel changes over the years. Many of the members went on to greater commercial success as members of other bands, including guitarist/keyboardist Ian McDonald (Foreigner), and lead vocalist/bassist Greg Lake (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) from the original lineup heard on In The Court Of The Crimson King. Additionally, poet Peter Sinfield, who wrote all King Crimson's early lyrics, would go on to perform a similar function for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, including their magnum opus Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends. Other original members included Michael Giles on drums and Fripp himself on guitar. The uncannily prescient 21st Century Schizoid Man, as the first song on the first album by King Crimson, can quite accurately be cited as the song that got the whole thing started.

Artist:    John Ono Lennon
Title:    Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    John Lennon
Label:    Apple
Year:    1970
    Following the failure of Ike & Tina Turner's version of River Deep, Mountain High to break into the US top 40 in 1966 (although it was a top 5 hit in the UK), legendary producer Phil Spector reportedly lost his enthusiasm for the music business in general, only briefly emerging in 1969 to produce a couple of singles for A&M Records. In early 1970, however, he was persuaded by the Beatles' new manager, Allen Klein, to come to England and visit Apple Records, where a chance meeting with George Harrison led to Spector being invited to produce John Lennon's new single, Instant Karma! Spector applied his "wall of sound" production technique to the recording, which became a top 5 hit in both the US and UK and the first solo effort by a member of the Beatles to sell over a million copies. The song was remixed and retitled Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) for its US release. The success of the record led to Spector's being asked to salvage the taped sessions that became the Let It Be album.

Artist:    J. Geils Band
Title:    Whammer Jammer
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Juke Box Jimmie
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1971
    First they were a Boston bar band called Snoopy and the Sopwith Camel. Then they became the J. Geils Blues Band. Finally they dropped the "blues" from the name and became famous. Whammer Jammer, an early B side showcasing "Magic Dick" Salwitz on lead harmonica, shows why the "blues" part was there in the first place.

Artist:     Jerry Garcia
Title:     Sugaree
Source:     Mono 45 RPM single (promo)
Writer:     Garcia/Hunter/Kreutzmann
Label:     Warner Brothers
Year:     1972
     In 1972 Warner Brothers gave the individual members of the Grateful Dead the opportunity to record solo albums. Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir and drummer Micket Hart took them up on the offer. Garcia's effort was unique in that he played virtually all the instruments on the album himself (except for the drum parts, which were played by Bill Kreutzmann). One of the best known songs from that album is Sugaree, which was soon added pretty much permanently to the Dead's concert repertoire.

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    China Doll
Source:    CD: From The Mars Hotel
Writer(s):    Hunter/Garcia
Label:    Rhino (original label: Grateful Dead)
Year:    1974
    In a way, the Grateful Dead's seventh studio album was all about changes. The title of the album itself changed twice, first from Ugly Roomers to Ugly Rumours, and finally to From The Mars Hotel (although if you hold the cover upside down and hold it up to a mirror you can plainly see the word "Ugly Rumours"). The title of the second song on the album went through changes as well. Originally known as The Suicide Song, China Doll was first recorded in February of 1973 for the LP Wake Of The Flood, but ended up on the cutting room floor. The re-recorded version of China Doll has been called "haunting, beautiful, sad, and confusing" by one of our listeners, who added that it "depresses the hell outta me that I love this song". I really have nothing to add to that.

Artist:    George Carlin
Title:    Divorce Game
Source:    Mono LP: FM & AM
Writer(s):    George Carlin
Label:    Little David
Year:    1972
    George Carlin had been doing comedy since the late 1950s, first as a radio disc jockey in Fort Worth, Texas, and then as a stand up team with fellow DJ Jack Burns. In 1962 Carlin decided to go solo, making appearances as various comedic characters on TV variety shows as well as making frequent appearances on The Tonight Show, both as a performer and a "guest host". In the late 60s he began to shed his previously clean-cut image, switching to jeans and t-shirts, growing a beard and letting his hair grow long. His material began to change as well, as documented on the album FM & AM, with the AM side (recorded in mono) featuring some of his best-known bits that he had performed on television such as Divorce Game, while the FM side (in stereo) showcased the more controversial material he was performing in clubs. Carlin would go on to become an icon of the counterculture, appearing as the host of the debut episode of Saturday Night Live  in 1975 and starring in 14 stand-up comedy specials on HBO, which became increasingly political over time. Carlin, who died of heart failure at the age of 71 in 2008, is now considered one of the most influential stand-up comedians of all time.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    God's Children
Source:    French import 7" 33 1/3 RPM EP: From the soundtrack of the film "Percy"
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Sanctuary (original label: Pye)
Year:    1971
    The final Kinks album released on the Pye label in the UK was the soundtrack album for a film called Percy. In addition to the LP, Pye issued a four-song EP from the album as well, promoted as a "maxi-single", perhaps the first ever use of the term. The opening track from both the album and the EP was God's Children; the song was also released as a single in the UK but did not chart. None of these records, by the way, were ever given a North American release, resulting in the Percy soundtrack being the best selling Kinks import album in the US for several years.
    
Artist:    Elton John
Title:    Friends
Source:    LP: Friends (soundtrack)
Writer(s):    John/Taupin
Label:    Pickwick (original label: Paramount)
Year:    1971
    Elton John and Bernie Taupin started work on the soundtrack for the film Friends before John hit it big in the US with Your Song, a tune from his self-titled second LP (his first to be released in the US). Although the film itself was a flop, John's album did respectively well, with the title track being released as a single in 1971. The album itself, however, is long out of print and has never been released on a CD.

Artist:     Jethro Tull
Title:     Wond'ring Aloud
Source:     CD: Aqualung
Writer:     Ian Anderson
Label:     Chrysalis (original US label: Reprise)
Year:     1971
     If the first three Jethro Tull albums can be considered steps on a path, then Aqualung would have to be the destination. The first Tull album to achieve massive commercial success, Aqualung shows the band finally divorced from its beginnings as a blues band and firmly in the control of vocalist/flautist/acoustic guitarist/songwriter Ian Anderson. An expanded version of Wond'ring Aloud called Wond'ring Again was recorded around the same time and was included on the 1973 album Living In The Past.

Artist:    Joni Mitchell
Title:    Edith And The Kingpin
Source:    LP: The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Writer(s):    Joni Mitchell
Label:    Asylum
Year:    1975
    Joni Mitchell was always known for sophisticated lyrics, but after making her switch from Reprise to Asylum, her music began to take on a sophistication of its own. While still based in folk-rock, it increasingly incorporated jazz idioms to create a sound that was uniquely Mitchell's. This trend reached its fulfillment with the 1975 album The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, with songs such as Edith And The Kingpin, set in the jazz age and chronicling the  developing relationship between a crime boss and his new moll.