https://exchange.prx.org/p/552877
The Beatles take on the Standells in an unlikely battle of the bands that includes several tunes that have never been heard on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before this week. For that matter, there are quite a few tracks making their debut on the show this time around, including, in its entirety, the first rock mini-opera ever committed to vinyl (from the Who, of course). All this and a Monkees set as well! Call it an early Christmas present without any actual Christmas songs.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Pushin' Too Hard
Source: Simulated stereo CD: Best of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: The Seeds)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Priority (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1965
Pushin' Too Hard was originally released to the L.A. market as a single in late 1965 and included on side one of the first Seeds album the following year. After being re-released as a single the song did well enough to go national in early 1967, peaking at #36 in February.
Artist: Rovin' Kind
Title: My Generation
Source: Mono CD: Oh Yeah! The Best Of Dunwich Records (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: Sundazed (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
Unlike most acts signed to Dunwich Records, the Rovin' Kind had already released a pair of singles (for two different companies) before switching labels in late 1966. Their first release for the Chicago-based Dunwich was a cover of the Who's My Generation with a decidedly garage-rock feel to it. The Rovin' Kind were primarily a live act, however, and continued to do gigs throughout their brief recording career. The Rovin' Kind eventually morphed into Illinois Speed Press, who released two LPs for the Columbia label before splitting up, with founding member Paul Cotton going on to become a member of Poco.
Artist: Move
Title: I Can Hear The Grass Grow
Source: Mono British import CD: Acid Daze (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Roy Wood
Label: Rhino (original label: Deram)
Year: 1967
One of the most popular British bands from 1966-1969 was the Move. Formed by members of various beat bands, the Move consisted of Carl Wayne (vocals), Trevor Burton (guitar, vocals), Roy Wood (guitar, vocals), "Ace" Kefford (bass, vocals) and Bev Bevan, the group scored hit after hit on the British charts, yet never broke the US top 40. Why this should be is a mystery, considering the sheer quality of tunes like I Can Hear The Grass Grow. Written, as were most of the Move's hits, by Roy Wood, I Can Hear The Grass Grow was the band's second single, and ended up in the #5 spot on the British charts. Eventually the Move would add Jeff Lynne to the lineup and form, as a side project, a new band called the Electric Light Orchestra, which became an internationally successful band in the 1970s.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: Move On Alone
Source: LP: This Was
Writer(s): Mick Abrahams
Label: Chrysalis (original US label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
Original lead guitarist Mick Abrahams was already on his way out of Jethro Tull when the liner notes for the band's debut LP were written by vocalist/flautist Ian Anderson. In fact, it is probable that the album's title itself, This Was, refers to the band having already divested itself of the heavy blues influence that Abrahams had brought to the group. Oddly enough, the one song on the album that was composed entirely by Abrahams, Move On Alone (an appropriate title, as it turns out), has more of a dance hall feel to it, complete with horn section. Abrahams would go on to found Blodwyn Pig, while Jethro Tull became, essentially, a vehicle for Anderson's songwriting.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: You Can't Always Get What You Want
Source: CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1969
When the Rolling Stones called for singers to back them up on their recording of You Can't Always Get What You Want, they expected maybe 30 to show up. Instead they got twice that many, and ended up using them all on the record. The song, which also features Al Kooper on organ, was orginally released as the B side of Honky Tonk Women in 1969. In the mid-1970s, after the Stones had established their own record label, Allen Klein, who had bought the rights to the band's pre-1970 recordings, reissued the single, this time promoting You Can't Always Get What You Want as the A side. Klein's strategy worked and the song ended up making the top 40.
Artist: Shadows Of Knight
Title: Hey Joe
Source: LP: Back Door Men
Writer(s): Billy Roberts
Label: Sundazed (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
Possibly the greatest garage-rock album of all is the second Shadows Of Knight LP, Back Door Men. Released in 1966, the album features virtually the same lineup as their debut LP, Gloria. Unlike many of their contemporaries, the Shadows were capable of varying their style somewhat, going from their trademark Chicago blues-influenced punk to what can only be described as early hard rock with ease. Like many bands of the time, they recorded a fast version of Billy Roberts' Hey Joe (although they credited it to Chet Powers on the label). The Shadows version, however, is a bit longer than the rest, featuring an extended guitar break by Joe Kelley, who had switched from bass to lead guitar midway through the recording of the Gloria album, replacing Warren Rogers, when it was discovered that Kelley was by far the more talented guitarist (Rogers was moved over to bass). Incidentally, despite the album's title and the Shadows' penchant for recording classic blues tunes, the band did not record a version of Howlin' Wolf's Back Door Man. The Blues Project and the Doors, however, did.
Artist: Blues Magoos
Title: (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: Psychedelic Lollipop)
Writer: Esposito/Gilbert/Scala
Label: Rhino (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1966
The Blues Magoos (original spelling: Bloos, not surprising for a bunch of guys from the Bronx) 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 radio stations which one they were supposed to be playing.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Shapes Of Things
Source: Mono CD: The Best Of 60s Supergroups (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Samwell-Smith/Relf/McCarty
Label: Priority (original label: Epic)
Year: 1966
Unlike earlier Yardbirds hits, 1966's Shapes Of Things was written by members of the band. The song, featuring one of guitarist Jeff Beck's most distinctive solos, just barely missed making it to the top 10 in the US, although it was a top 5 single in the UK.
Artist: Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band
Title: Diddy Wah Diddy
Source: Mono CD: More Nuggets (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): McDaniel/Dixon
Label: Rhino (original label: A&M)
Year: 1966
Don Van Vliet and Frank Zappa knew each other in high school in the Antelope Valley area of Los Angeles, but did not stay in close contact after graduation. While Zappa was developing an interest in early 20th century avant-garde classical music, Van Vliet established a reputation as one of the best white blues singers around. When the opportunity came to record a few tracks for A&M records in 1965, Van Vliet, who by then was calling himself Captain Beefheart, chose a Bo Diddly tune, Diddy Wah Diddy, to showcase his vocal talents. The song was a local hit in Los Angeles, but A&M, for reasons unknown, did not retain the Captain on their roster of artists. Beefheart would record for several more labels over the years, with his greatest success being the album Trout Mask Replica, which was released on Zappa's own Straight Records label in 1969.
Artist: Velvet Underground
Title: Sunday Morning
Source: CD: The Velvet Underground And Nico
Writer: Lou Reed
Label: Polydor (original label: Verve)
Year: 1967
The debut Velvet Underground LP, released in 1967, was not a huge commercial success, despite the striking album cover designed by Andy Warhol, who also produced the album. In the years since it has come to be regarded as a true classic of both the psychedelic and punk genres. Despite all that the album has some serious flaws, not the least of which is the relative lack of talent of Nico, whose vocals on Lou Reed's Sunday Morning sound eerily like Reed's own.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: 8:05
Source: LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s): Miller/Stevenson
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Moby Grape was formed out of the ashes of a band called the Frantics, which featured the songwriting team of guitarist Jerry Miller and drummer Don Stevenson. The two continued to write songs together in the new band. One of those was 8:05, one of five songs on the first Moby Grape album to be released simultaneously as singles.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Girl In Your Eye
Source: LP: Spirit
Writer(s): Jay Ferguson
Label: Ode
Year: 1968
Spirit was born in 1965 when drummer Ed Cassidy left the Rising Sons after breaking his arm and settled down with his new wife, who had a teenaged son named Randy. It wasn't long before Ed and Randy (who played guitar) formed a new band called the Red Roosters. The group lasted until the spring of 1966, when the family moved to New York for a few months, and Randy met an up and coming guitarist named James Marshall Hendrix. Hendrix was impressed with the teenaged Cassidy (whom he nicknamed Randy California) and invited him to become a member of his band, Jimmy James And The Blue Flames, that was performing regularly in Greenwich Village that summer. After being denied permission to accompany Hendrix to London that fall, Randy returned with his family to California, where he soon ran into two of his Red Roosters bandmates, singer Jay Ferguson and bassist Mark Andes. The three of them decided to form a new band with Ed Cassidy and keyboardist John Locke. Both Cassidy and Locke had played in jazz bands, and the new band, Spirit, incorporated both rock and jazz elements into their sound. Most of the songs of the band's 1968 debut album were written by Ferguson, who tended to favor a softer sound on tracks like Girl In Your Eye. On later albums Randy California would take a greater share in the songwriting, eventually becoming the de facto leader of Spirit following the departure of Ferguson and Andes to form Jo Jo Gunne.
Artist: Traffic
Title: (Roamin' Thro' The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen
Source: LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released as 45 RPM B side and on LP: Traffic)
Writer(s): Capaldi/Winwood
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
The second Traffic album saw the band taking in a broader set of influences, including traditional English folk music. (Roamin' Thro' The Gloamin' With) 40,000 Headmen, originally released as the B side to the Dave Mason tune No Face, No Name, No Number, combines those influences with the Steve Winwood brand of British R&B to create a timeless classic.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: With His New Face On
Source: LP: With Their New Face On
Writer(s): Davis/Hardin
Label: United Artists
Year: 1968
Although the Spencer Davis Group had released three albums in the UK before the departure of brothers Steve and Muff Winwood, none of them had appeared in the US (although a pair of 1967 US-only LPs contained some of the songs from those three). In fact, the first actual Spencer Davis Group album to appear simultaneously in both the US and UK was With Their New Face On, released in 1968. In addition to Davis on guitar and backing vocals and drummer Pete York, the band at this point featured new members Eddie Hardin, who sang lead and played keyboards (and bass, using the pedals on his Hammond organ) and lead guitarist Ray Fenwick. The band itself had a totally different sound than the Winwood version of the group, as can be plainly heard on the album's opening track, With His New Face On. Predictably, the new album failed to chart in either the US or the UK, and Hardin and York would leave the group the following year to continue as a duo before reuniting with Davis for a 1973 album called Gluggo.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: Thoughts
Source: LP: Renaissance
Writer(s): Vinnie Martell
Label: Atco
Year: 1968
The first Vanilla Fudge album was made up entirely of slowed-down/rocked-out versions of songs that had been made popular by other artists. The group then created one of the first concept albums, The Beat Goes On, a highly experimental work that addresses the passage of time in various ways (such as a medley of popular tunes that runs from the Baroque era through the Beatles, including Beethoven and Scott Joplin along the way). For their third LP, the band went with mostly original material (although there were still a couple covers done in a style similar to the first album), with each of the band members contributing at least one song. The sole contribution from guitarist Vinnie Martell was Thoughts, which features shared lead vocals by Martell and organist Mark Stein.
Artist: Them
Title: Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out
Source: British import CD: Now And Them
Writer(s): Jimmie Cox
Label: Rev-Ola (original US label: Tower)
Year: 1968
The artist that comes to mind when I see the title of this Jimmy Cox tune is, of course, Eric Clapton, who included it on the Derek and the Dominos Layla album. Them's version of Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out, from the album Now And Them featuring vocalist Kenny McDowell, actually predates Clapton's by a couple years.
Artist: PF Sloan
Title: The Sins Of A Family
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets vol. 10-Folk Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): PF Sloan
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1965
Although New York born, Phillip "Flip" Sloan was a fixture on the L.A. music scene at age 16, when he landed a job as a songwriter for Screen Gems, the biggest music publisher on the West Coast. He soon formed a partnership with fellow songwriter Steve Barri. In 1963 the two of them became backup singers and studio musicians for Jan & Dean, thanks to the efforts of Lou Adler, who would soon leave Screen Gems to start his own publishing company, Trousdale Music. Adler brought Sloan and Barri with him, and Sloan was soon recording for Adler's new Dunhill label, as well as writing hit records like Eve Of Destruction for other artists. He also became a member of the Wrecking Crew, playing lead guitar on most of the songs he himself wrote, including the opening riffs to Johnny Rivers's Secret Agent Man and the Mamas & Papas' California Dreamin'. One of his earliest solo singles for Dunhill was The Sins Of A Family, released in 1965, which was produced by Barri.
Artist: Phil Ochs
Title: I Ain't Marching Anymore
Source: CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Phil Ochs
Label: Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1965
Phil Ochs' I Ain't Marching Anymore didn't get a whole lot of airplay when it was released in 1965 (unless you count a handful of closed-circuit student-run stations on various college campuses that could only be picked up by plugging a radio into a wall socket in a dorm room). Ochs was aware of this, and even commented that "the fact that you won't be hearing this song on the radio is more than enough justification for the writing of it." He went on to say that the song "borders between pacifism and treason, combining the best qualities of both." The following year Ochs recorded this folk-rock version of the song (backed up by members of the Blues Project) that was released as a single in the UK.
Artist: Standells
Title: There's A Storm Coming
Source: Mono CD: Dirty Water
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Sundazed/Tower
Year: 1966
Although the Standells' origins can be traced back as early as 1962, it wasn't until a revised lineup signed with Ed Cobb's Green Grass Productions that they became nationally successful. Their first single, which appeared on Capitol's Tower subsidiary that specialized in issuing already produced recordings, was Cobb's own autobiographical Dirty Water, which peaked just outside the top 10 in 1966. This led to an album, also titled Dirty Water, that featured a mix of cover songs, band originals and more songs by Cobb, including There's A Storm Coming. The Standells would release three more albums for Tower before lead vocalist Dick Dodd left for a solo career. The Standells never officially disbanded however, and various versions of the band were known to appear from time to time well into the 21st century.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Mother Nature's Son
Source: LP: The Beatles
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple
Year: 1968
The Beatles (aka the White Album) was in many respects a collection of solo efforts by the band members as opposed to being a group effort. Most of the double LP's 30 tracks did not feature the entire band. This was especially notable among the many Lennon/McCartney compositions. Even though John Lennon and Paul McCartney were not writing as a team at this point (although they continued to share writing credits for the rest of the band's existence), they did tend to play on each other's songs, most of which had little or no input from either George Harrison or Ringo Starr. The only member featured on Mother Nature's Son, however, was McCartney (including the drum parts). Stylistically the song links back to For No One from the Revolver album and also previews the first McCartney solo album, in which he plays every instrument himself.
Artist: Standells
Title: Dirty Water
Source: Mono CD: Dirty Water (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Sundazed/Tower
Year: 1965
The Standells were not from Boston (they were a Los Angeles club band). Ed Cobb, who wrote and produced Dirty Water, was. The rest is history.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
Source: LP: The Beatles
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple
Year: 1968
Paul McCartney wrote Why Don't We Do It In The Road while the band was in India meditating. Just in case you're one of those people who ask authors and composers "where do you get your ideas?", McCartney later said he was inspired to write the song after seeing a pair of monkeys doing it in the road.
Artist: Standells
Title: Have You Ever Spent The Night In Jail
Source: CD: The Best Of The Standells (originally released on LP: Why Pick On Me/Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White)
Writer(s): Ed Cobb
Label: Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year: 1966
The Standells second studio album for Ed Cobb's Green Grass Productions pretty much followed the same pattern as the first, with a mixture of band originals, cover songs and tunes written by Cobb himself, which included the two title track singles and a novelty piece called Have You Ever Spent The Night In Jail that closes out the album itself. Could this be another autobiographical song? Probably.
We close out this week's battle of the bands with a Beatles song that's never been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era before by the Beatles themselves, although we have played a cover version by the Buckinghams a couple of times.
Artist: Beatles
Title: I'll Be Back
Source: Mono CD: A Hard Day's Night (original US release: LP: Beatles '65)
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Apple/Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1964
The original British version of A Hard Day's Night was a full LP that included several songs such as I'll Be Back that were not from the film itself. The US version, however, appeared on the United Artists label as a movie soundtrack album, and included incidental music written by George Martin in addition to Beatles songs from the film itself. The remaining songs ended up being released on US-only LPs such as Beatles '65.
Artist: Undisputed Truth
Title: Smiling Faces Sometimes
Source: British import CD: Nothing But The Truth (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Whitfield/Strong
Label: Kent (original US label: Gordy)
Year: 1971
The Undisputed Truth was a second-tier Motown group that recorded exclusively for producers Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. They had a pretty big hit in the spring of 1971 with a song called Smiling Faces Sometimes, but were unable to come up with a strong followup single. When Berry Gordy moved Motown headquarters out to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s Whitfield stayed in Detroit, forming Whitfield Records. He took the Undisputed Truth with him, but the group was only able to score one relatively minor hit, You + Me = Love, in 1976.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix
Title: Belly Button Window
Source: LP: The Cry Of Love
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Experience Hendrix/Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1971
Following the death of Jimi Hendrix, Reprise Records got to work compiling tracks for The Cry Of Love, the first of many posthumous Hendrix albums released by the label. The final track on the LP was an unfinished piece called Belly Button Window that featured Hendrix on vocals and electric guitar, with no other musicians appearing on the track. In the late 1990s the Hendrix family released a CD called First Rays Of The New Rising Sun that was based on Hendrix's own plans for a double-length album that he was working on at the time of his death. First Rays Of The New Rising Sun ends with the same bare bones recording of Belly Button Window that was used on The Cry Of Love.
Artist: Monkees
Title: For Pete's Sake
Source: CD: Headquarters
Writer(s): Tork/Richards
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1967
It didn't come as a surprise to anyone who knew him that first member of the Monkees to depart the band was Peter Tork. Of all the members of the "pre-fab four" Tork was the most serious about making the group into a real band, and was the most frustrated when things didn't work out that way. A talented multi-instrumentalist, Tork had been a part of the Greenwich Village scene since the early 60s, where he became close friends with Stephen Stills. Both Tork and Stills had relocated to the west coast when Stills auditioned for the Monkees and was asked if he had a "better looking" musician friend that might be interested in the part. Although Tork was, by all accounts, the best guitarist in the Monkees, he found himself cast as the "lovable dummy" bass player on the TV show and had a difficult time being taken seriously as a musician because of that. During the brief period in 1967 when the members of the band did play their own instruments on their recordings, Tork could be heard on guitar, bass, banjo, harpsichord and other keyboard instruments. He also co-wrote For Pete's Sake, a song on the Headquarters album that became the closing theme for the TV show during its second and final season. Until his passing in February of 2019 Tork was involved with a variety of projects, including an occasional Monkees reunion.
Artist: Monkees
Title: Porpoise Song
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released on LP: Head soundtrack)
Writer(s): Goffin/King
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1968
In 1968 the Monkees, trying desperately to shed a teeny-bopper image, enlisted Jack Nicholson to co-write a feature film that was a 180-degree departure from their recently-cancelled TV show. This made sense, since the original fans of the show were by then already outgrowing the group. Unfortunately, by 1968 the Monkees brand was irrevocably tainted by the fact that the Monkees had not been allowed to play their own instruments on their first two albums. The movie Head itself was the type of film that was best suited to being shown in theaters that specialized in "art" films, but that audience was among the most hostile to the Monkees and the movie bombed. It is now considered a cult classic.
Artist: Monkees
Title: You Just May Be The One
Source: CD: Headquarters
Writer(s): Michael Nesmith
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1967
In early 1967 the Monkees became a real band...for one album, at least. The process began not long after the group was formed in 1966, when Michael Nesmith insisted on producing a couple of songs for the first Monkees album. Although those sessions used studio musicians, they were the beginning of a long journey for the "prefab four". Not long after the Monkees' TV made its debut on NBC the group began performing onstage to support the show. While on the road, unbeknownst to the group, Musical Director Don Kirshner supervised the packaging of a second Monkees album, which was issued on January 9,1966 as More Of The Monkees. According to Peter Tork, the band actually had to buy a copy of the album to hear what was on it. About a week later the group was back in L.A., and recorded their first pair of songs as a band on January 16th, intending them to be paired up as the group's next single. Unfortunately the song picked for the A side, All Of Your Toys, was not published by Screen Gems, which had exclusive rights to all things with the Monkees name on it. While the band was working on putting together a replacement, Kirshner did an end run and issued two entirely different songs as the new Monkees single in early February, immediately disappearing to the wilds of Florida, where he could not be reached by conventional means. This move proved to be Kirshner's undoing, however, and the single was quickly withdrawn, with only a few copies sent out to various radio stations remaining in existence. Kirshner himself was fired from the Monkees project, severing ties with Screen Gems, Columbia Pictures and Colgems Records in the process. This left the Monkees in control of their own musical destiny, and they immediately got to work on a new album, Headquarters, in the meantime issuing a replacement single that featured Kirshner's original A side, Neil Diamond's A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You, paired with a new recording of the band's original intended B side, Nesmith's The Girl I Knew Somewhere. On Febrary 23rd the band officially began recording sessions for Headquarters, recording a pair of songs before taking a week off. On March 2nd the sessions resumed with the recording of You Just May Be The One, with Nesmith on vocals and electric 12-string guitar, Tork on bass, Mickey Dolenz on drums and Davy Jones on tambourine. By mid-May the album was finished, and Headquarters quickly shot up to the top of the Billboard album charts before giving way to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band after one week. The two album remained in the #1 & #2 spots for 11 consecutive weeks. Despite this, the band was still being branded as a fake by the rock press, and subsequent recordings once again used studio musicians, albeit under the direct artistic control of the Monkees themselves.
Artist: Who
Title: A Quick One, While He's Away
Source: CD: A Quick One (US album title: Happy Jack)
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original US label: Decca)
Year: 1966
The Who's Pete Townshend is rightfully acknowledged as the creator of the musical form known as rock-opera. However, most people assume his first rock-opera was Tommy, released as a double-LP in 1969. In reality, Townshend had already composed an released a shorter rock opera called A Quick One While He's Away in late 1966, and had actually been considering one about a future society where people were able to custom order their own children before that (the song I'm A Boy being the only part to actually be recorded). Budget constraints, however, caused A Quick One While He's Away to be recorded and mixed monoraully. Even more telling is a section from one of the six songs that make up the short opera that was originally meant to include cellos, but instead features the band members singing the words "cello cello" over and over. Needless to say, Tommy was recorded with a much larger budget.
Artist: Love
Title: No. Fourteen
Source: Mono CD: Love Story (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Raven (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1967
With a title that is an obvious joke, No. Fourteen is among the most obscure of the original Love's recordings, having appeared on vinyl only as a B side to the 1966 single 7&7 Is and on a 1973 compilation album that was only released in Europe. At less than two minutes long, it would seem that the track's main objective was to make sure that disc jockeys didn't accidentally play the wrong side of the record.
This next track has not been played on Stuck in the Psychedelic Era since our very first syndicated episode in May of 2010.
Artist: Animals
Title: One Monkey Don't Stop No Show
Source: Mono LP: Animalization
Writer(s): Joe Tex
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1966
There have been at least half a dozen entirely different songs with the title One Monkey Don't Stop No Show recorded by over twice that number of artists over the past 75 years or so. The one on the 1966 LP Animalization was originally written and recorded by Joe Tex in 1965, and went to the #20 spot on the R&B chart. It is precisely the kind of song the Animals preferred to record during their original run.
Artist: Buckinghams
Title: Kind Of A Drag
Source: Billboard Top Rock 'N' Roll Hits-1967 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Holvay
Label: Rhino (original label: USA)
Year: 1967
The Buckinghams were one of the first rock bands with a horn section to come out of the Chicago area in the late 1960s. The song Kind Of A Drag, released in late 1966 on the local USA label, went national in early 1967, hitting the number one spot in February and finishing among the year's top 10 songs. The Buckinghams soon came to the attention of producer James William Guercio, who got them a contract with Columbia that resulted in several more hit singles, although no more number ones. Guercio's interest in Chicago bands with horn sections would eventually lead him to produce the Chicago Transit Authority, who became one of the most successful groups in rock history after shortening their name to Chicago.
Artist: Strawberry Alarm Clock
Title: Incense And Peppermints
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Carter/Gilbert/Weitz/King
Label: Uni (original label: All-American)
Year: 1967
Incense and Peppermints is one of the iconic songs of the psychedelic era, yet when it was originally released to Los Angeles area radio stations on the local All-American label it was intended to be the B side of The Birdman of Alkatrash. Somewhere along the line a DJ flipped the record over and started playing Incense And Peppermints instead. The song caught on and Uni Records (short for Universal, which is now the world's largest record company) picked up the Strawberry Alarm Clock's contract and reissued the record nationally with Incense And Peppermints as the A side.
