Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1646 (starts 11/16/16)

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    Friend Of The Devil
Source:    CD: Skeletons From The Closet (originally released on LP: American Beauty)
Writer(s):    Garcia/Dawson/Hunter
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1970
    The Grateful Dead spent three years and four albums trying to capture the energy of their live performances on vinyl. Having finally succeeded with the 1969 Live Dead album the group began to focus more on their songwriting capabilities. The result was two outstanding studio albums, both released in 1970: Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Of the two, American Beauty is made up almost entirely of songs played on acoustic instruments, including pedal steel guitar, which was played by Jerry Garcia. One of the best-known tracks on American Beauty is Friend Of The Devil, which lyricist Robert Hunter referred to as "the closest we've come to what may be a classic song."

Artist:    Mother Earth
Title:    Seven Bridges Road
Source:    LP: Bring Me Home (promo copy)
Writer(s):    Steve Young
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1971
    Seven Bridges Road, as recorded by the Eagles in the early 1980s, is a staple of classic rock radio stations across the world. What many people don't realize, however, is that the song was originally recorded in 1971 by a band called Mother Earth. Led by singer/guitarist Tracy Nelson, Mother Earth started off in the San Francisco Bay area, appearing alongside such artists as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Eric Burdon at Bill Graham's Fillmore West auditorium. After their first album, however, they relocated to a farm near Nashville, Tennessee, where they remained until the group's demise in 1977. The band championed the cause of young unknown songwriters such as Steve Young (who wrote Seven Bridges Road) and John Hiatt, who would later go on to greater fame. Nelson began recording as a solo artist in the mid-1970s.

Artist:    Randy Newman
Title:    Mama Told Me (Not To Come)
Source:    LP: The Big Ball (originally released on LP: 12 Songs)
Writer(s):    Randy Newman
Label:    Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1970
    Although it is best known as a Three Dog Night song, Randy Newman's Mama Told Me (Not To Come) was actually written for Eric Burdon, whose version appeared on the album Eric Is Here in early 1967. Newman's own version of the tune, written from the perspective of a strait-laced young man experiencing his first Los Angeles style party, was included on his 1970 LP 12 Songs, which came out at around the same time as Three Dog Night's cover of the tune. Newman's version features slide guitar work from Ry Cooder, supplementing Newman's own piano playing.

Artist:    Joni Mitchell
Title:    People's Parties/The Same Situation
Source:    LP: Court And Spark
Writer(s):    Joni Mitchell
Label:    Asylum
Year:    1974
    Released in January of 1974, Court And Spark was singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell's most successful album, going to #2 on the Billboard album charts (#1 in Canada) and eventually achieving double platinum status. It was her first album since For The Roses, released in November of 1972, and reflected her growing interest in jazz, combined with her own brand of folk-rock to create something that went beyond both genres. This new style is well represented on the final two tracks of side one, People's Parties and The Same Situation, which blend so seamlessly that it's difficult to tell exactly when one song ends and the next one begins.

Artist:    John Lennon
Title:    Jealous Guy
Source:    CD: Lennon (box set)
Writer(s):    John Lennon
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1971
    Jealous Guy is one of the most covered songs in the John Lennon catalog, with over 92 known recorded versions, including one by Roxy Music that was an international #1 hit three months after Lennon's death. The song had its origins in the Beatles' famous visit to India in 1968, when both Lennon and fellow Beatle Paul McCartney were inspired to write songs following a lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi about the "son of the mother nature". McCartney's new song was included on the 1968 double LP The Beatles (aka the White Album), but Lennon continued to work on his own Child Of Nature right up through the Get Back sessions that became the basis for the Let It Be film. At some point Lennon decided to abandon the nature theme altogether and wrote new lyrics for the song, which was retitled Jealous Guy and included on Lennon's second solo LP, Imagine. The song was eventually released as a single in the UK in 1985 and in the US in 1988, in conjunction with the film Imagine: John Lennon.

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    Thick As A Brick (Edit # 1)
Source:    LP: "M.U."-The Best Of Jethro Tull
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1972
    Surprised by the rock press's characterization of 1971's Aqualung as a "concept" album, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull decided he would "come up with something that really is the mother of all concept albums." The result was Thick As A Brick, which was presented as an epic poem by English schoolboy Gerald Bostock set to music by Anderson. To further reinforce the concept, the album was packaged as an entire small-town newspaper, complete with a puzzle section and an editorial page. The front page story (including a picture of Bostock) was about the various reactions of the adult community to Bostock's "scandalous" poem, the text of which was printed within the paper itself. Musically, Thick As A Brick is one continuous piece, split up over both sides of the original LP. A special version of the album was sent out to radio stations breaking up the piece into edits that could be played as separate pieces. As can be heard on Edit #1, however, the natural flow of the original piece is so strong that the shorter version, that fades out around the three-minute mark, sounds incomplete.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Brown Sugar
Source:    CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released on LP: Sticky Fingers)
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original label: Rolling Stones)
Year:    1972
    The Rolling Stones had good reason to have bitter feelings toward Allen Klein. Just as they were finally able to release their albums without record company interference on their own label in the early 1970s, they discovered that they had unknowingly signed away all of their rights to their own 1960s recordings to Klein's company, Abkco. To add insult to injury, they were forced to share copyright ownership of two of the new songs, Wild Horses and Brown Sugar, with Klein as well. As a result the songs, which were both on the band's 1972 album Sticky Fingers, are to this day also available on any album or CD that Abkco chooses to put them on, including Singles Collection-The London Years, which contains every A and B side the band put out on the London label in the US and the Decca label in the UK. Of course, the Stones themselves don't get any royalties from recordings released by Abkco, which might explain why they have nothing good to say about Klein.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix
Title:    Drifting
Source:    CD: Voodoo Soup (originally released on LP: The Cry Of Love)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA
Year:    1970
    There have been several attempts made to piece together what would have been Jimi Hendrix's first post-Experience studio LP since his death in 1970. The first of these was The Cry Of Love, released as a single LP in 1971. With the advent of CD technology attempts were made to make it a double-length album. The first of these, Voodoo Soup, was released in 1995. At this point Alan Douglas was still in control of the Hendrix catalog, and Voodoo Soup included a couple of tracks that had been modified by replacing the original drum tracks with new ones from Bruce Gary of the Knack, recorded in the late 1970s. Two years later the Hendrix family gained control of the guitarists' recordings and a new CD called First Rays Of The New Rising Sun was released, replacing Voodoo Soup. One song that remained unchanged through all three iterations of the album is Drifting, recorded on July 23rd of 1970 with Mitch Mitchell on drums, Billy Cox on bass and guest Buzzy Linhart on vibes.

Artist:    Mahogany Rush
Title:    Strange Universe
Source:    Canadian import CD: Strange Universe
Writer(s):    Frank Marino
Label:    Just A Minute (original label: 20th Century)
Year:    1975
    Although there are countless guitarists that have been influenced by Jimi Hendrix in various ways, only one has been able to capture his entire sound from a production as well as performance standpoint. That one is Frank Marino, whose band, Mahogany Rush, has been recording since 1972. A listen to the title track of the 1975 album Strange Universe pretty much proves my point.

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    Ripples
Source:    LP: A Trick Of The Tail
Writer(s):    Rutherford/Banks
Label:    Atco
Year:    1976
    When Peter Gabriel left Genesis there were a lot of people wondering if the band could survive his departure. The 1976 album A Trick Of The Tail was the band's answer to that question, with songs like Ripples showing that the group was indeed capable of making listenable music without its original front man. Unfortunately, as the 1980s approached, Genesis made a conscious decision to move in a more commercial direction, abandoning most of what had made them a great band in the first place.

Artist:    Queen
Title:    Death On Two Legs/Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon/I'm In Love With My Car
Source:    German import LP: A Night At The Opera
Writer(s):    Mercury/Taylor
Label:    Virgin (original label: Elektra)
Year:    1975
    It may come as a surprise to listeners of modern classic rock radio, but there were actually other songs on Queen's 1975 album A Night At The Opera besides Bohemian Rhapsody. The first three tracks on the album are all worthy of giving a listen to, but for various reasons never get played on commercial radio. Death On Two Legs is an angry angry song from the pen of Freddie Mercury directed at the band's former manager, Norman Sheffield. When Sheffield first heard the song, he initiated a lawsuit for defamation of character. Did I mention that it was an angry song? Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, on the other hand, is a short, somewhat whimsical piece that features Mercury on piano as well as all the vocal parts. Drummer RogerTaylor was responsible for I'm In Love With My Car, both as songwriter and lead vocalist on the song. The song was inspired by and dedicated to one of the band's roadies, Jonathan Harris, who, according to one source, was in love with his Triumph TR4.

Artist:        O'Jays
Title:        Back Stabbers
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer:        Huff/McFadden/Whitehead
Label:        Philadelphia International
Year:        1972
        The two hotspots of soul music in the late 60s were Detroit, Michigan (Motown Records) and Memphis, Tennessee (Stax Records). By the early 70s, however, Memphis was eclipsed by Philadelphia, thanks to Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, founders of and in-house producers for Philadelphia International Records. One of the first major hits for the label was Back Stabbers by the O'Jays, a Cleveland, Ohio vocal group that had been recording with only moderate success since the early 60s. Back Stabbers hit the top spot on the R&B charts in 1972 and crossed over to the top 40 as well, peaking at #3.

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1645 (starts 11/9/16)

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Paper Sun
Source:    CD: Heaven Is In Your Mind
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1967
    There were several notable differences between the US and UK versions of the first Traffic album. For one thing they had different titles. In the US the album was called Heaven Is In Your Mind when it was released in early 1968 in the hope that the single of the same name would be a hit. When it became evident that the song wasn't going anywhere on the US top 40 charts the album was quickly retitled Mr. Fantasy, matching the original 1967 UK album. There were differences in the tracks on the album as well. One of the most notable changes was the inclusion of Paper Sun, a non-LP single that had been a British hit in late 1967. The version on the US album, however, was slightly different from its UK counterpart in that the song fades out quite a bit earlier than on the original version, with the deleted portion showing up at the end of the album.

Artist:    Monkees
Title:    Daily Nightly (alternate mix)
Source:    CD: Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones, LTD.
Writer(s):    Michael Nesmith
Label:    Rhino
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 1995
    From a technical standpoint, 1967 was a year of transition. Mono pressings of albums were being phased out in favor of "stereo, also playable mono" releases, reflecting improvements in even the cheapest record players (older mono needles had a tendency to ruin stereo records). Behind the scenes, four-track technology was giving way to machines capable of recording eight separate tracks simultaneously, giving artists production options that had previously been unavailable. In some cases this transition was quite literal; albums were begun using four-track technology and completed on the new eight-track systems. One such album was the Monkees' fourth LP, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn And Jones, LTD. Preliminary stereo mixes were made of several songs, including Michael Nesmith's psychedelic classic Daily Nightly, prior to the master tracks being transferred to eight-track tape. Missing are the Moog synthesizer overdubs (played by Mickey Dolenz, who also sang lead on the tune), which were added after the transfer.

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less)
Source:    CD: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Mantz
Label:    Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    For a follow-up to the hit single I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), producer Dave Hassinger chose another Annette Tucker song (co-written by Jill Jones) called Get Me To The World On Time. This was probably the best choice from the album tracks available, but Hassinger may have made a mistake by choosing Are You Lovin' Me More (But Enjoying It Less) as the B side. That song, written by the same Tucker/Mantz team that wrote I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) could quite possibly been a hit single in its own right if it had been issued as an A side. I guess we'll never know for sure.

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    Cream Puff War
Source:    CD: The Grateful Dead
Writer(s):    Jerry Garcia
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1967
    The first Grateful Dead album was recorded in a matter of days, and was mostly made up of cover tunes that the band was currently performing. The two exceptions were The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion), which was credited to the entire band, and Cream Puff War, a song written by guitarist Jerry Garcia. The two tracks were paired up on the band's first single as well. Cream Puff War, as recorded, ran nearly three and a half minutes, but was edited down to 2:28 at the insistence of the corporate shirts at Warner Brothers Records.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Meadowlands
Source:    CD: Volunteers
Writer(s):    Lev Knipper
Label:    BMG/RCA
Year:    1969
    One of the most unexpected tracks on the fifth Jefferson Airplane album, Volunteers, was a one-minute instrumental version of a Russian tune written in 1933 played entirely on keyboards by guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. I still haven't figured out exactly why it was included on the album.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    She Has Funny Cars
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Kaukonen/Balin
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1967
    She Has Funny Cars, the opening track of Jefferson Airplane's second LP, Surrealistic Pillow, was a reference to some unusual possessions belonging to new drummer Spencer Dryden's girlfriend. As was the case with many of the early Airplane tracks, the title has nothing to do with the lyrics of the song itself. The song was also released as the B side to the band's first top 10 single, Somebody To Love. The mono mix used for the single has noticably less reverb than the more familiar stereo version of the song.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Eskimo Blue Day
Source:    LP: Volunteers
Writer(s):    Slick/Kantner
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1969
    Jefferson Airplane's sixth LP, Volunteers, was by far their most socio-political album, from the first track (We Can Be Together, with its famous "up against the wall" refrain) to the last (the song Volunteers itself). One of the more controversial tracks on the 1969 album is Eskimo Blue Day, which describes just how meaningless human concerns are in the greater scheme of things with the repeated use of the phrase "doesn't mean shit to a tree". Eskimo Blue Day was one of two songs from Volunteers performed by the Airplane at Woodstock.

Artist:    Buffalo Springfield
Title:    Kind Woman
Source:    CD: Retrospective (originally released on LP: Last Time Around)
Writer(s):    Richie Furay
Label:    Atco
Year:    1968
    Let's be honest here. The third Buffalo Springfield LP, Last Time Around, was a contractual obligation album, no doubt about it. In fact the band had all but split up by the time the album was released; as a result, none of the songs on the album feature the entire band. Still, for all that, there are some bonafide classics on the LP, including the final track, Kind Woman. Richie Furay, who wrote and sang the tune, continued to perform Kind Woman throughout his career, both as a solo artist and with his band Poco.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    All You Need Is Love
Source:    CD: Magical Mystery Tour (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/Parlophone
Year:    1967 (original label: Capitol)
    After creating a revolution with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles went to work on a major media event: the world-wide television premier of their next single. These days a world-wide TV broadcast is fairly commonplace, but in 1967 it was truly a big deal, as even major sports events such as the World Cup were only available on radio to most listeners. The song in question was All You Need Is Love, which immediately went to the top of the charts. The song would be included on the US-only release of the Magical Mystery Tour LP, which in the UK was a double EP containing only the songs from the actual Magical Mystery Tour telefilm.

Artist:     Beatles
Title:     I've Just Seen A Face
Source:     Mono CD: Rubber Soul (originally released in UK on LP: Help)
Writer:     Lennon/McCartney
Label:     Capitol (original UK label: Parlophone)
Year:     1965
     Consider the case of Dave Dexter, Jr. Dexter was the guy at Capitol Records who decided in late 1962 that there was no profit in Capitol releasing records by the hot new British band known as the Beatles that had just been signed to their UK partner label, EMI. After he was finally persuaded to issue I Want To Hold Your Hand as a single in late 1963, he became the guy responsible for determining which songs got released in what format: LP or 45 RPM single. He also set the song lineups for all the Beatle albums released in the US up to and including Revolver in 1966. In 1965 he decided to change the entire tone of the Rubber Soul album by deleting the more soulful numbers and substituting a pair of more acoustical tunes that he had left off the US release of Help! This was a deliberate attempt to tie in the Beatles with the folk-rock movement, which at the time of Rubber Soul's release was at the peak of its popularity. Not surprisingly, there are still people around who prefer the US version of the album, which opens with one of the aforementioned Help tracks, I've Just Seen A Face.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Your Mother Should Know
Source:    CD: Magical Mystery Tour
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/Parlophone
Year:    1967
    Here's a trivia question for you: what song were the Beatles working on the last time manager Brian Epstein attended one of the band's recording sessions? The answer: Your Mother Should Know. EMI's Abbey Road studios were unavailable on August 22nd and 23rd of 1967, so the band used Chappell Recording Studios instead, recording late into the night. Epstein dropped in to see how things were going before heading home. He was found dead on August 27th of that year. Could that be the real reason Paul McCartney wore a black carnation when the Beatles performed the number as part of their Magical Mystery Tour telefilm? Of course at the time the rumor mill took it as one of the many hints that Paul had died and been replaced by a lookalike.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Sunshine Superman
Source:    LP: Sunshine Superman
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Epic/Sundazed
Year:    1966
    Donovan's Sunshine Superman is sometimes credited as being the tsunami that launched the wave of psychedelic music that washed over the shores of pop musicland in 1967. OK, I made that up, but the song really did change the direction of American pop as well as Donovan's own career.

Artist:    Second Helping
Title:    Let Me In
Source:    Mono LP: Ain't It Hard (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Kenny Loggins
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Viva)
Year:    1968
    Before making it big as a member of Loggins And Messina (and later as a solo artist), Kenny Loggins fronted his own band, Second Helping, recording for the Viva label in 1968. Although the single, Hard Times, did not crack the charts, it did feature the punkish Let Me In on the B side. Loggins would serve briefly as a member of the Electric Prunes before hooking up with former Buffalo Springfield member Jim Messina in the early 1970s.

Artist:    Euphoria
Title:    Hungry Women
Source:    British import CD: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Wesley Watt
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year:    1966
            Euphoria was the brainchild of multi-instrumentalists Wesley Watt and Bill Lincoln. The band existed in various incarnations, starting in 1966. Originally based in San Francisco, the group, minus Lincoln, relocated to Houston in early summer of 1966, only to return a couple months later with a pair of new members pirated from a band called the Misfits that had gotten in trouble with local law enforcement officials. Around this time they were discovered by Bob Shad, who was out on the west coast looking for acts to sign to his Chicago-based Mainstream label. The band recorded four songs at United studios, two of which, Hungry Women and No Me Tomorrow, were issued as a single in late 1966. The following year both songs appeared in stereo on Shad's Mainstream showcase LP With Love-A Pot Of Flowers, along with tunes from several other Bay Area acts that Shad had signed in 1966.
       
Artist:    Blind Faith
Title:    Had To Cry Today
Source:    German import LP: Blind Faith
Writer(s):    Steve Winwood
Label:    Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year:    1969
    One of the most eagerly-awaited albums of 1969 was Blind Faith, the self-titled debut album of a group consisting of Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker from Cream, Steve Winwood from Traffic and Rich Grech, who had played bass with a band called Family. The buzz about this new band was such that the rock press had to coin a brand-new term to describe it: supergroup. On release, the album shot up to the number one spot on the charts in record time. Of course, as subsequent supergroups have shown, such bands seldom stick around very long, and Blind Faith set the pattern early on by splitting up after just one LP and a short tour to promote it. The opening track of the album was a pure Winwood piece that showcases both Winwood and Clapton on separate simultaneous guitar tracks.

Artist:    Kinks
Title:    You Really Got Me
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Ray Davies
Label:    Eric (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1964
    You Really Got Me has been described as the first hard rock song and the track that invented heavy metal. You'll get no argument from me on either of those assessments.

Artist:    Love
Title:    Stephanie Knows Who
Source:    CD: Da Capo
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    Following up on a strong, if not spectacular debut LP followed by a national hit record (7&7 Is), Love went into the studio with two new members to record their second album, Da Capo. By this point Love had established itself as the most popular band on the Sunset Strip, and the music on Da Capo is a fair representation of what the group was doing onstage (including the 17 minute Revelation, which takes up the entire second side of the LP). The opening track, Stephanie Knows Who, is hard proto-punk, showcasing the band's tightness with abrupt changes in tempo throughout the song. The tune also features the harpsichord playing of "Snoopy" Pfisterer, who switched over from drums to keyboards for the LP, making way for Michael Stewart, who stayed with the band for their next LP, Forever Changes.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Eight Miles High
Source:    CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released on LP: Fifth Dimension)
Writer(s):    Clark/McGuinn/Crosby
Label:    BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1966
    By all rights, the Byrds' Eight Miles High should have been a huge hit. Unfortunately, Bill Drake, the most influential man in the history of Top 40 radio, got it into his head that this was a drug song, despite the band's insistence that it was about a transatlantic plane trip. The band's version actually makes sense, as Gene Clark had just quit the group due to his fear of flying (he is listed as a co-writer of the song), and the subject was probably a hot topic of discussion among the remaining members.

Artist:    Beach Boys
Title:    I'm Waiting For The Day
Source:    Mono CD: Pet Sounds
Writer(s):    Wilson/Love
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1966
    Although it was originally copyrighted in 1964 (words and music by Brian Wilson), I'm Waiting For The Day did not get recorded or released until 1966, when it appeared on the Pet Sounds album. Mike Love shares writing credit on the finished version of the song.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    If 6 Was 9
Source:    LP: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA (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:     Left Banke
Title:     Pretty Ballerina
Source:     45 RPM single
Writer:     Michael Brown
Label:     Smash
Year:     1967
     The Left Banke, taking advantage of bandleader Michael Brown's industry connections (his father owned a New York recording studio), ushered in what was considered to be the "next big thing" in popular music in early 1967: baroque pop. After their debut single, Walk Away Renee, became a huge bestseller, the band followed it up with Pretty Ballerina, which easily made the top 20 as well. Subsequent releases were sabotaged by a series of bad decisions by Brown and the other band members that left radio stations leery of playing any record with the words "Left Banke" on the label.

Artist:    Spencer Davis Group
Title:    I'm A Man
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer:    Winwood/Miller
Label:    United Artists
Year:    1967
    The Spencer Davis Group, featuring Steve and Muff Winwood, was one of the UK's most successful white R&B bands of the sixties, cranking out a steady stream of hit singles. Two of them, the iconic Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man, were also major hits in the US, the latter being the last song to feature the Winwood brothers. Muff Winwood became a successful record producer. The group itself continued on for several years, but were never able to duplicate their earlier successes. As for Steve Winwood, he quickly faded off into obscurity, never to be heard from again. Except as the leader of Traffic. And a member of Blind Faith. And Traffic again. And some critically-acclaimed collaborations in the early 1980s with Asian musicians. Oh yeah, and a few major solo hits like Higher Love and Roll With It in the late 80s. Other than that, nothing.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    The Lantern
Source:    CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer:    Jagger/Richards
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1967
    The Rolling Stones hit a bit of a commercial slump in 1967. It seemed at the time that the old Beatles vs. Stones rivalry (a rivalry mostly created by US fans of the bands rather than the bands themselves) had been finally decided in favor of the Beatles with the chart dominance of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that summer. The Stones' answer to Sgt. Pepper's came late in the year, and was, by all accounts, their most psychedelic album ever. Sporting a cover that included a 5X5" hologram of the band dressed in wizard's robes, the album was percieved as a bit of a Sgt. Pepper's ripoff, possibly due to the similarity of the band members' poses in the holo. Musically Majesties was the most adventurous album the group ever made in their long history, amply demonstrated by songs like The Lantern. The Stones' next LP, Beggar's Banquet, was celebrated as a return to the band's roots.

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    Queen Jane Approximately
Source:    CD: Highway 61 Revisited
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1965
    The thing that stands out to me about Bob Dylan's Queen Jane Approximately from his Highway 61 Revisited album is the fact that Michael Bloomfield's guitar is badly out of tune throughout the song. Yes, the song has sufficiently deep, meaningful lyrics (it is Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan, after all), and the rhyming structure is unique, but all I can hear is that out of tune guitar.

Artist:    Seeds
Title:    Up In Her Room
Source:    LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer:    Sky Saxon
Label:    GNP Crescendo
Year:    1966
    One of the first extended jams released on a rock album, Up In Her Room, from the Seeds' second LP, A Web Of Sound, is a sort of sequel to Van Morrison's Gloria (but only the original Them version; the secret of the Shadows Of Knight's success with the song was to replace the line "she comes up to my room" with "she comes around here").

Artist:    West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:    Shifting Sands
Source:    CD: Part One
Writer(s):    Baker Knight
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
    Despite releasing six albums over a five-year period, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band never had a hit record. One attempt was Shifting Sands, one of two Baker Knight compositions the band recorded for, Part One, their first LP for Reprise Records.

Artist:     Big Brother and the Holding Company
Title:     Down On Me
Source:     CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: Joplin In Concert)
Writer:     Trad. Arr. Joplin
Label:     Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:     1968
     Big Brother And The Holding Company's first album, featuring the single Down On Me, was recorded in 1967 at the studios of Mainstream Records, a medium-sized Chicago label known for its jazz recordings. At the time, Mainstream's engineers had no experience with a rock band, particularly a loud one like Big Brother, and vainly attempted to clean up the band's sound as best they could. The result was an album full of bland recordings sucked dry of the energy that made Big Brother and the Holding Company one of the top live attractions of its time. Luckily we have this live recording made in early 1968 and released in 1972 that captures the band at their peak, before powerful people with questionable motives convinced singer Janis Joplin that the rest of the group was (ahem) holding her back.

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1645 (starts 11/9/16)

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Rocky Raccoon
Source:    LP: The Beatles
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple
Year:    1968
            I had a friend in high school named Steve Head who was probably a better guitarist/vocalist than any of us realized. Part of the reason for the mystery was because he would only play one song in public: The Beatles' Rocky Raccoon, from the White Album (although if you got him drunk enough you could coax a chorus of Froggy Went A Courtin' out of him as well).

Artist:    Fairport Convention
Title:    Matty Groves
Source:    LP: Liege And Lief
Writer(s):    Trad., arr. Fairport Convention
Label:    A&M
Year:    1969
    Britain's Fairport Convention was quite prolific in 1969, releasing no less than three LPs that year. The last of these was Liege And Lief, considered by some to be the greatest British folk-rock album ever made. The album is notable for several reasons, including the fact that it was the group's first album to consist entirely of rocked out adaptations of traditional British folk tunes such as Matty Grove, along with a handful of original compositions done in a similar style. It was also the first Fairport Convention album to feature guitarist Martin Carthy (who had made a guest appearance on the band's previous album, Unhalfbricking) and drummer Dave Mattacks as full-time members. Finally, Liege And Lief was the last Fairport album to feature vocalist Sandy Denny and bassist Ashley Hutchings, both of whom lef to form their own British folk-rock bands (Fotheringay and Steeleye Span, respectively). Like many British folk songs, Matty Grove tells the somewhat morally ambiguous tale of a low-born rascal who beds the wife of his Duke, only to have said Duke catch them in the act, killing them both. Trust me, it sounds better coming from Fairport Convention that it does me.
       
Artist:    Derek And The Dominos
Title:    Bell Bottom Blues
Source:    CD: Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs
Writer(s):    Clapton/Whitlock
Label:    Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year:    1970
    Bell Bottom Blues, from the Derek And The Dominos album Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs, is at once one of the many and one of the few. It is one of the many songs inspired by/written for George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd by Eric Clapton, who was in love with her at the time. At the same time it is one of the few songs on the album that does not include guitarist Duane Allman on it. Clapton wrote the song after Boyd asked him to pick up a pair of bell-bottom jeans on his next trip to the US (apparently they were not available in London at that time). The song was released twice as a single in 1971, but did not chart higher than the #78 spot. In 2015 drummer Bobby Whitlock, who had helped write the third verse, was given official credit as the song's co-writer.

Artist:    Allman Brothers Band
Title:    Stormy Monday
Source:    LP: At Fillmore East
Writer(s):    T-Bone Walker
Label:    Mercury (original label: Capricorn)
Year:    1971
    After two decent but mostly under the radar studio albums, the Allman Brothers Band hit it big with their double live album At Fillmore East. Much of the album was made up of the band's take on blues standards such as T-Bone Walker's Stormy Monday, which features dueling guitar solos from Dicky Betts and Duane Allman as well as strong keyboard work and vocals from Duane's brother Gregg. This was my first exposure to the song itself, and is still my favorite version.

Artist:    David Bowie
Title:    Rock 'N' Roll Suicide
Source:    CD: The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
Writer(s):    David Bowie
Label:    Ryko (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:    1972
    The final track of David Bowie's concept album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, Rock 'N' Roll Suicide finds the title character an old washed-up rock star in a song that starts off quietly, then builds to a fitting climax for one of the most influential albums in rock history. According to Bowie, the piece was conceived in the French chanson tradition, with nods to Baudelaire and Jacques Brel in the lyrics. Although the song was never intended to be released as a single, the shirts at RCA apparently thought they knew better and issued one anyway (but only in the UK) in 1974, two years after the album itself came out; the record stalled out in the #22 spot, becoming Bowie's first single in three years to miss the UK top 20.

Artist:    Seals And Crofts
Title:    Jessica
Source:    LP: Diamond Girl
Writer(s):    Seals/Crofts
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1973
    Not all singer/songwriters were solo artists. Dash Seals (brother of "England" Dan Seals) and Dash Crofts forged a successful partnership in the early 1970s, with hits like Summer Breeze, Hummingbird and We May Never Pass This Way Again. The B side of the latter song was a tune called Jessica, which infuses baroque classical riffs into what is otherwise American folk music. Both tracks were taken from the duo's Diamond Girl album, released in 1973.

Artist:    John Lennon
Title:    Bless You
Source:    CD: Lennon (box set) (originally released on LP: Walls And Bridges)
Writer(s):    John Lennon
Label:    Capitol (original label: Apple)
Year:    1974
    In June of 1973, as John Lennon was getting started on his third LP, Mind Games, his wife Yoko Ono decided that the two of them should separate. This led to Lennon relocating from New York to California and getting into a relationship with Ono's personal assistant May Pang. This relationship (reportedly instigated by Yoko herself) lasted eighteen months, a period that Lennon would later refer to as his "lost weekend". During this time Lennon began hanging out (i.e. getting drunk) with fellow songwriter Harry Nilsson and making his first attempt at recording an album of cover songs with producer Phil Spector. For obvious reasons (see above) those sessions didn't work out, and Lennon returned to New York the following year. In July of 1974 Lennon began working on what would be his last album of original material for nearly five years: Walls And Bridges. The album yielded two top 10 singles (including his only #1 solo hit during his lifetime, Whatever Gets You Through The Night), as well as several noteworthy album tracks. One of the most overlooked tracks on the LP is Bless You, a tune that Lennon himself described as "best piece of work on the album". 

Artist:     Mountain
Title:     Theme From An Imaginary Western
Source:     European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Mountain Climbing)
Writer(s):    Bruce/Brown
Label:    Sony Music (original label: Windfall)
Year:     1970
     Keyboardist Felix Pappaliardi worked closely with the band Cream in the studio, starting with the album Disraeli Gears, so it was only natural that his new band Mountain would perform (and record) at least one song by Cream's primary songwriting team, Jack Bruce and Pete Brown. If Mississippi Queen was guitarist Leslie West's signature song, then Theme From An Imaginary Western was Felix's, at least until Nantucket Sleighride came along.

Artist:    Wishbone Ash
Title:    Warrior/Throw Down The Sword
Source:    CD: Argus
Writer(s):    Wishbone Ash
Label:    MCA/Decca
Year:    1972
    One of the first bands ever to feature two lead guitarists was Wishbone Ash. The story goes that following the departure of their original guitar player, bassist Martin Turner and drummer Steve Upton auditioned several lead guitarists and got it down to two finalists, Andy Powell and Ted Turner (no relation to Martin), but could not decide between the two. At that point they decided just to keep both of them, and a heavy metal tradition was born. Whether the story is true or not, the two definitely traded off leads for the next three years and five albums, including their third and most successful LP, Argus. The final two tracks from Argus are thematically linked, as Warrior segues directly into Throw Down The Sword. Both songs are built around classical Greek literary themes and feature shared lead vocals from Andy Powell and Martin Turner.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Deserted Cities Of The Heart
Source:    UK Import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: Wheels Of Fire)
Writer(s):    Bruce/Brown
Label:    Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year:    1968
     The most psychedelic of Cream's songs were penned by Jack Bruce and his songwriting partner Pete Brown. One of the best of these was chosen to close out the last studio side of the last Cream album released while the band was still in existence. Deserted Cities Of The Heart is a fitting epitaph to an unforgettable band. It's also a pretty good way to end this week's show.

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1644 (starts 11/2/16)

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Turn! Turn! Turn!
Source:    LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Turn! Turn! Turn!)
Writer(s):    Pete Seeger
Label:    Cotillion (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1965
    After their success covering Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man, the Byrds turned to an even more revered songwriter: the legendary Pete Seeger. Turn! Turn! Turn!, with lyrics taken directly from the book of Ecclesiastes, was first recorded by Seeger in the early 60s, nearly three years after he wrote the song.

Artist:    Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title:    Just Like Me
Source:    CD: Greatest Hits
Writer(s):    Dey/Brown
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1965
    Just Like Me was the first top 10 single from Paul Revere And The Raiders, a band that deserves much more credit than they are generally given. The group started in the early part of the decade in Boise, Idaho, when Revere (his real name) hooked up with saxophonist Mark Lindsay. Like most bands at the time, the Raiders' repertoire consisted mostly of instrumentals, as PA systems were a luxury that required more space than was generally allotted to a small town band. It wasn't long before the Raiders relocated to Portland, Oregon, where they became a popular attraction at various clubs. After a hiatus caused by Revere's stint in the military, the band resumed its place as one of the founding bands of the Portland music scene. They soon made their first visit to a recording studio, recording Richard Berry's Louie Louie at around the same time as another popular Portland band, the Kingsmen. Due as much to superior promotion efforts from Wand Records as anything else, the Kingsmen's version ended up being a huge hit while the Raiders' version was virtually ignored. Undeterred, the band continued to grow in popularity, recording another single in 1964 (Like Long Hair) and going on tour. It was while playing in Hawaii that the band was noticed by none other than Dick Clark, who hired them to be the house band on his new afternoon TV show, Where The Action Is. He also got them a contract with Columbia Records, at the time the second-largest record company in the world. The Raiders were Columbia's first rock band, and they paired the band up with their hippest young producer, Terry Melcher. It was a partnership that would lead to a string of hits, starting with Steppin' Out in 1965. The next record, Just Like Me, was the first of a string of top 10 singles that would last until early 1967, when rapidly changing public tastes made the band seem antiquated compared to up and coming groups like Jefferson Airplane. Just Like Me, despite some rather cheesy lyrics, still holds up well after all these years. Much of the credit for that has to go to Drake Levin, whose innovative double-tracked guitar solo rocked out harder than anything else on top 40 radio at the time (with the possible exception of a couple of well-known Kinks songs).

Artist:    Seeds
Title:    Pushin' Too Hard
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Nuggets Vol. 1-The Hits (originally released on LP: The Seeds and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Sky Saxon
Label:    Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year:    1965
    Pushin' Too Hard was originally released as a single in 1965 (under the title You're Pushin' Too Hard), but did not make an immediate impression. The following year, however, the tune started getting some local airplay on Los Angeles area stations. This in turn led to the band recording their first album, The Seeds, which was released in spring of 1966. A second Seeds LP, A Web Of Sound, hit L.A. record stores in the fall of the same year. Meanwhile, Pushin' Too Hard started to get national airplay, hitting its peak position on the Billboard charts in February of 1967.

Artist:     Love
Title:     You Set The Scene
Source:     CD: Forever Changes
Writer:     Arthur Lee
Label:     Elektra/Rhino
Year:     1967
     During the production of Forever Changes, vocalist/guitarist Arthur Lee became convinced that he was destined to die soon after the release of the album. Accordingly, he crafted lyrics that were meant to be his final words to the world. As the final track on the LP, You Set The Scene in particular reflected this viewpoint. As it turned out, Forever Changes was not Lee's swan song. It was, however, the last album to feature the lineup that had been the most popular band on Sunset Strip for the past two years. Subsequent Love albums would feature a whole new lineup backing Lee, and would have an entirely different sound as well. Ironically, Lee was still around at the dawn of the 21st century over 30 years later (dying of acute myeloid leukemia in 2006), outliving several of his old bandmates.

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

Artist:    Love
Title:    Laughing Stock
Source:    CD: Forever Changes (bonus track) (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra/Rhino
Year:    1968
    The last record by the classic Love lineup was a single released in June of 1968. While Your Mind And We Belong Together is one of the band's most overlooked and underrated tracks, the B side of that single comes across as a sardonic epitaph for the group, with it's intro reminiscent of one of their best tunes, Alone Again Or and sly references to their first hit, My Little Red Book. Lee would soon fire the entire band, reemerging with an entirely new lineup the following year, but he was never able to duplicate the magic of the original Love.
       
Artist:    Small Faces
Title:    My Mind's Eye
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):    Marriott/Lane
Label:    Rhino (original label: Decca)
Year:    1965
    One of the biggest British hits of 1965 was All Or Nothing, a tune by the Small Faces that topped the charts that fall. In an effort to keep the band's chart momentum going in time for the Christmas rush, the shirts at Decca decided to release a rough demo of a Steve Marriott/Ronnie Lane composition called My Mind's Eye as a follow up. It turns out the band's manager, Don Arden, had given the label to go-ahead to release the song without the band's knowledge or permission, leading to the band's decision to leave both Arden and the Decca label early in 1966 to sign with Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham's new Immediate label.

Artist:     Simon and Garfunkel
Title:     A Hazy Shade Of Winter
Source:     LP: Bookends
Writer:     Paul Simon
Label:     Sundazed/Columbia
Year:     1966
     Originally released as a single in 1966, A Hazy Shade Of Winter was one of several songs written for the film The Graduate. The only one of these actually used in the film was Mrs. Robinson. The remaining songs eventually made up side two of the 1968 album Bookends, although several of them were also released as singles throughout 1967. A Hazy Shade Of Winter, being the first of these singles (and the only one released in 1966), was also the highest charting, peaking at # 13 just as the weather was turning cold.

Artist:    Joint Effort
Title:    The Third Eye
Source:    Mono CD: Where The Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Callins/Mathis/Ullareal
Label:    Rhino (original label: The Joint Effor)
Year:    1967
    The Joint Effort somehow managed to release three or four singles to the Los Angeles market, no two of which were on the same record label. In fact, The Third Eye, from 1967, was actually released on a label called The Joint Effort. All of the band's singles, from what I can tell, were recorded at the same place with the same producer, making the whole thing seem somewhat suspicious.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix
Title:    Somewhere
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Legacy
Year:    Recorded 1968, released 2013
    Although the Jimi Hendrix Experience did not officially disband until 1969, Hendrix himself was spending more and more time working with musicians outside the band as early as mid-1968. The Electric Ladyland album itself features guest appearances by the likes of Steve Winwood, Buddy Miles and Chris Wood, among others, and for years there have been even more recordings by non-Experience members rumored to exist. Among those legendary tracks is Somewhere, a piece that features Miles on drums, and, unusually, Stephen Stills on bass. In addition to a special 45 RPM single release, Somewhere is available on the 2013 album People, Hell and Angels. According to engineer Eddie Kramer, this is the final collection of unreleased studio tracks to be issued by the Hendrix family estate.

Artist:     Johnny Winter
Title:     Bad Luck And Trouble
Source:     LP: Progressive Heavies (originally released on LP: The Progressive Blues Experiment)
Writer:     Johnny Winter
Label:     United Artists (original labels: Sonobeat/Imperial)
Year:     1968
     Johnny Winter first started getting attention while playing the Texas blues circuit. His first album, The Progressive Blues Experiment, originally appeared on the regional Sonobeat label and was subsequently reissued nationally on Imperial. Unlike his brother Edgar, who gravitated to rock music, Johnny Winter has remained primarily a blues musician throughout his career.

Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    Hush
Source:    CD: British Beat (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Shades Of Deep Purple)
Writer:    Joe South
Label:    K-Tel (original label: Tetragrammaton)
Year:    1968
    British rockers Deep Purple scored a huge US hit in 1968 with their rocked out cover of Hush, a tune written by Joe South that had been an international hit for Billy Joe Royal the previous year. Oddly enough, the Deep Purple version of the tune was virtually ignored in their native England. The song was included on the album Shades Of Deep Purple, the first of three LPs to be released in the US on Tetragrammaton Records, a label partially owned by actor/comedian Bill Cosby. When Tetragrammaton folded shortly after the release of the third Deep Purple album, The Book Of Taleisyn, the band was left without a US label, and went through some personnel changes, including the addition of new lead vocalist Ian Gillian (who had sung the part of Jesus on the original Jesus Christ Superstar album), before signing to Warner Brothers and becoming a major force in 70s rock. Meanwhile, original vocalist Rod Evans hooked up with drummer Bobby Caldwell and two former members of Iron Butterfly to form Captain Beyond before fading from public view.

Artist:    Circus Maximus
Title:    Wind
Source:    LP: Circus Maximus
Writer(s):    Bob Bruno
Label:    Vanguard
Year:    1967
    Circus Maximus was formed out of the chance meeting of multi-instrumentalist Bob Bruno and guitarist Jerry Jeff Walker in Greenwich Village in 1967. From the start the band was moving in different directions, with Bruno incorporating jazz elements into the band while Walker favored country-rock. Eventually the two would go their separate ways, but for the short time the band was together they made some of the best, if not best-known, psychedelic music on the East Coast. The band's most popular track was Wind, a Bruno tune from their debut album. The song got a considerable amount of airplay on the new "underground" radio stations that were popping up across the country at the time.

Artist:    People
Title:    I Love You
Source:    Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Chris White
Label:    Rhino (original label: Capitol)
Year:    1968
    By 1968 the major labels had signed just about every San Francisco band with any perceived potential. Capitol, having had some success with the Chocolate Watchband from San Jose on its Tower subsidiary, decided to sign another south bay band, People, to the parent label. The most successful single for the band was a new recording of an obscure Zombies B side. I Love You ended up hitting the top 20 nationally, despite the active efforts of two of the most powerful men in the music industry, who set out to squash the song as a way of punishing the record's producer for something having nothing to do with the song or the band itself.

Artist:    Ventures
Title:    Out Of Limits
Source:    LP: In Space
Writer(s):    Michael Z. Gordon
Label:    Dolton/Sundazed
Year:    1964
    Although most of the Ventures albums are relatively generic, a few do stand out from the rest. One of these is The Ventures In Space, which came out in 1964. The album features a variety of "otherworldly sounds", all of which were made by electronically altering the sounds of the band's instruments, including their new Mosrite guitars. Among the most popular tracks on the album was their own version of Out Of Limits, a song that had been a national hit for the Marketts the previous year. The Ventures version of the song also received a fair amount of airplay, especially on the US West Coast.

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Coloured Rain
Source:    CD: Smiling Phases (originally released on LP: Heaven Is In Your Mind)
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi/Wood
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1967
    Traffic, in its early days, was a band with an almost schizophrenic identity. On the one hand there was Steve Winwood, who was equally adept at guitar, keyboards and vocals and was generally seen as the band's leader, despite being its youngest member. His opposite number in the band was Dave Mason, an early example of the type of singer/songwriter that would be a major force in popular music in the mid-1970s. The remaining members of the band, drummer/vocalist Jim Capaldi and flautist/saxophonist Chris Wood, tended to fall somewhere between the two, although they more often sided with Winwood in his frequent creative disputes with Mason. One of these disputes involved the choice of the band's second single. Mason wanted to follow up the successful Paper Sun with his own composition, Hole In My Shoe, while the rest of the band preferred the group composition, Coloured Rain. Mason won that battle, but would end up leaving the band before the release of the group's first LP, Mr. Fantasy. This in turn led to the album being revised considerably for its US release, which was issued under a completely different title, Heaven Is In Your Mind, with most of Mason's contributions being excised from the album (although, oddly enough, Hole In My Shoe, which was not on the original LP, was included on the US album). One final example of the band's schizophrenic nature was in the way the group was marketed. In the US, Traffic was, from the beginning, perceived as a serious rock band along the lines of Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In their native land, however, they were, thanks in part to the top 40 success of both Paper Sun and Hole In My Shoe as well as Winwood's fame as lead vocalist for the Spencer Davis Group, dismissed as a mere pop group. Mason would rejoin and leave the group a couple more times before achieving solo success in the mid-70s with the hit We Just Disagree, while Traffic would go on to become a staple of progressive FM rock radio in the US.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Rael 1
Source:    CD: The Who Sell Out
Writer:    Pete Townshend
Label:    MCA (original label: Decca)
Year:    1967
    The Who Sell Out, released in December 1967, was the last album by the group before their 1969 rock-opera Tommy. The last track on the LP, Rael, is itself a mini-opera that tells the story of a wealthy man who has taken on the role of a crusader, out to free his ancestral homeland from its current occupiers. He tells the captain of his ship to come back for him on Christmas Day to see if he is ready to return. If not, he tells the captain, the boat is yours. Of course the captain has no intention of returning, as he declares soon after putting back out to sea. The piece then goes into an instrumental passage that would be copied pretty much note for note on the Tommy album as part of the Underture. The track ends with a repeat of the owner's instructions to the captain. The events surrounding the recording of Rael have become the stuff of legend. The band spent an entire day recording and mixing the song, and were apparently so exhausted at the end of the session that they left without securing the multi-track master in a safe place. The cleaning woman came in the next morning and tossed the tape into the waste basket. She then emptied the ashtrays and other trash into the same waste basket. When the band came in around noon the recording engineer who had found the tape had the unenviable task of telling them what had happened. Pete Townsend was in a rage, and the engineer tried to placate him by saying "these things happen". Townshend then proceeded to throw a chair through the glass wall separating the studio from the control room, informing the engineer that "these things happen".

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Tales Of Brave Ulysses
Source:    LP: Disraeli Gears
Writer:    Clapton/Sharp
Label:    Atco
Year:    1967
    Cream was one of the first bands to break British tradition and release singles that were also available as album cuts. This tradition likely came about because 45 RPM records (both singles and extended play 45s) tended to stay in print indefinitely in the UK, unlike in the US, where a hit single usually had a shelf life of around 2-3 months then disappeared forever. When the Disraeli Gears album was released, however, the song Strange Brew, which leads off the LP, was released in Europe as a single. The B side of that single was Tales Of Brave Ulysses, which opens side two of the album.

Artist:    Standells
Title:    Why Did You Hurt Me
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer:    Dodd/Valentine
Label:    Tower
Year:    1966
    Why Did You Hurt Me is a bit of a musical oddity. The song, which was released B side of their second single, Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White, starts off as a growling three-chord bit of classic garage rock, but then goes into a bridge that sounds more like flower pop, with flowing melodic harmonies. This leads into a short transitional section that has little in common with what had come before and finally (somewhat awkwardly) segues back into the three chord main section to finish the song. The important thing, however, is that the piece was written by band members Dick Dodd and Tony Valentine, thus generating royalties for the two.

Artist:    Count Five
Title:    Psychotic Reaction
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era
Writer(s):    Ellner/Chaney/Atkinson/Byrne/Michaelski
Label:    Rhino
Year:    1966
    In the early 1960s the San Bernardino/Riverside area of Southern California (sometimes known as the Inland Empire), was home to a pair of rival top 40 stations, KFXM and KMEN. The newer of the two, KMEN, had a staff that included Ron Jacobs, who would go on to co-create the Boss Radio format (more music, less talk!), and Brian Lord, one of the first American DJs to champion British Rock (even going so far as to have copies of Beatle albums shipped from record shops in London before they were released in the US), and the man responsible for setting up the Rolling Stones' first US gig (in San Bernardino). From 1965-67 Lord took a break from KMEN, moving north to the San Jose area. While there, he heard a local band playing in a small teen club and invited them to use his garage as a practice space. The band was Count Five, and, with Lord's help, they got a contract with L.A.'s Double Shot label, recording and releasing the classic Psychotic Reaction in 1966. Lord later claimed that this was the origin of the term "garage rock".

Artist:    Turtles
Title:    You Baby
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Sloan/Barri
Label:    White Whale
Year:    1966
    After first hitting the charts with their version of Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe, the Turtles released yet another "angry young rebel" song, P.F. Sloan's Let Me Be. Realizing that they needed to vary their subject matter somewhat if they planned on having a career last longer than six months, the band formerly known as the Crossfires went with another Sloan tune, You Baby, for their first single of 1966. Although the music was in a similar style to Let Me Be, the lyrics, written by Steve Barri, were fairly typical of teen-oriented love songs of the era. The Turtles would continue to record songs from professional songwriters for single release for the remainder of their existence, with their original compositions showing up mostly as album tracks and B sides.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Go To Her
Source:    LP: Early Flight
Writer(s):    Kantner/Estes
Label:    Grunt
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 1974
    Nearly every major artist acquires a backlog of unreleased songs over a period of time, usually due to lack of space on their official albums. Eventually many of these tracks get released on compilation albums or (more recently) as bonus tracks on CD versions of the original albums. One of the first of these compilation albums was Jefferson Airplane's Early Flight LP, released in 1974. Of the nine tracks on Early Flight, five were recorded during sessions for the band's first two LPs, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off and Surrealistic Pillow. One song originally intended for Surrealistic Pillow was Go To Her, an early Paul Kantner collaboration. At four minutes, the recording was longer than any of the songs that actually appeared on the album, which is probably the reason it didn't make the final cut, as it would have meant that two other songs would have to have been deleted instead.

Artist:    Iron Butterfly
Title:    My Mirage
Source:    LP: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Writer(s):    Doug Ingle
Label:    Atco
Year:    1968
    One thing about Iron Butterfly's In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida album is that almost nobody remembers any of the songs from the other side of the album. That's a bit of a shame, because there are a couple of really good tunes on there, such as My Mirage, a Doug Ingle composition that helped lay the groundwork for the progressive rock movement of the 1970s.

Artist:     Iron Butterfly
Title:     Termination
Source:     LP: Evolution-The Best Of Iron Butterfly (originally released on LP: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida)
Writer:     Brann/Dorman
Label:     Atco
Year:     1968
     Termination is unusual in that it was not written by Doug Ingle, the band's primary songwriter. Instead it was composed by guitarist Erik Brann and bassist Lee Dorman. After one more album (Ball) Brann would depart the band for a mostly-unsuccessful solo career. Dorman stayed around for another year, but would eventually leave (along with Brann's replacement, El Rhino) to join Deep Purple's Rod Evans and drummer Bobby Caldwell to form Captain Beyond.

Artist:    Iron Butterfly
Title:    In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Source:    CD: In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Writer(s):    Doug Ingle
Label:    Atco
Year:    1969
    I think there is a law on the books somewhere that says I need to play the full version of Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida every so often, so here it is. Again.

Artist:    Ellie Pop
Title:    Caught In The Rain
Source:    Mono British import CD: All Kinds Of Highs (originally released on LP: Ellie Pop)
Writer(s):    Gervasi/Kouri
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Mainstream)
Year:    1968
    Despite being from the Detroit area, Ellie Pop was no relation to Iggy Pop. For one thing, Ellie Pop was a band, not a person. For another, Ellie Pop was only one of many names used by a band that was formed in 1965 in Roseville, Michigan, as the Logicals. When founder Bill Long left the band in 1966 the remaining four members regrouped as the Epidemic. They evidently held onto this name for at least a couple years, since it was reported in a May, 1968 issue of Billboard magazine that Bill Shad, owner of Mainstream Records, had recorded a band called the Epidemic while producing another band in the Chicago area that year. By the time the Epidemic's own album came out later that year, however, they had again changed their name, this time to Ellie Pop. Not long after the album, which featured songs like Caught In The Rain, written by band members Len Gervasi and Nick Kouri, was released, Long rejoined the band he had founded, and the group once again took on a new identity. It was as Featherstone that the band had its greatest success, becoming quite popular in the Detroit area.

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1644 (starts 11/2/16)

Artist:    Todd Rundgren
Title:    Little Red Lights
Source:    LP: Something/Anything?
Writer(s):    Todd Rundgren
Label:    Bearsville
Year:    1972
    By mid-1971, Todd Rundgren had already released two solo albums, using studio musicians to support his guitar and keyboards (and of course vocals). For his third solo effort he decided to do it all himself, temporarily relocating to Los Angeles for the project. Most of the backing tracks for the album were recorded at I.D. Sound Studios, one of the few studios not associated with any particular record label. This gave him a relaxed environment in which he could take his time and use state of the art equipment to its fullest potential. He also set up equipment at his home, where he could experiment on his own time. Unfortunately, after about three sides' worth of material was completed, an earthquake hit the L.A. area, prompting Rundgren to return to New York, where he completed the album with the help of studio musicians. The resulting album was Something/Anything?, released in 1972. Each of the three solo sides has a subtitle, with side three being The Kid Gets Heavy. The accuracy of this subtitle is underlined by the final track on the side, a ponderous rocker called Little Red Lights. In the classic California tradition, the song is about cars.

Artist:    Captain Beyond
Title:    Mesmerization Eclipse
Source:    LP: Captain Beyond
Writer(s):    Evans/Caldwell
Label:    Capricorn
Year:    1972
    In the early 1970s it was normal for three bands to be on the playbill at a rock concert. Generally the headliner was someone with a hit record currently on the charts, while the middle act was someone on the way up. The opening act was either a popular local band or, in some cases, a brand new group that had just released their first album. It was not entirely uncommon for the second act to actually get a better audience response than the headliner, especially if the headliner turned out to be a one-hit wonder with no staying power. It was extremely rare, however, for the opening act to blow both of the other two bands out of the water. In fact, I can think of only one time that happened when I was in the audience. It was 1972, and I don't even remember who the headliner was. The middle band was Jo Jo Gunne, featuring front man Jay Ferguson, formerly of Spirit. They weren't bad, although the only songs I remember them performing were Run Run Run and 99 Days. The opening act, however, totally blew me away with their outstanding musicianship and strong material. That band was Captain Beyond, formed by former members of Iron Butterfly (bassist Lee Dorman and guitarist Larry "Rhino" Reinhardt), Deep Purple (vocalist Rod Evans) and drummer Bobby Caldwell, who would eventually go on to have a moderately successful solo career. I was so impressed with their set that I went to the record store the very next day and bought their album (which has this really cool 3D cover, by the way). Mesmerization Eclipse, from that debut LP, was written by the entire band, although only Evans and Caldwell got official writing credits on the album, due to Rhino and Dorman still being under contract to Iron Butterfly at the time.

Artist:    Grand Funk Railroad
Title:    Walk Like A Man
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Farner/Brewer
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1974
    After starting off in 1969 with a series of highly successful albums, Grand Funk Railroad found itself in a bit of a slump by late 1973. To shake things up the band fired their longtime manager/producer, Terry Knight, and began working on a new album, We're An American Band, with producer Todd Rundgren. At the same time the group made a conscious decision to shift their emphasis away from LP tracks and concentrate more on single releases. The band also added a fourth member, keyboardist Craig Frost. A final, and perhaps more significant change, saw drummer Don Brewer take over lead vocals on several tracks, including the singles We're An American Band and Walk Like A Man, both of which were co-written by Brewer.

Artist:    Mahavishnu Orchestra
Title:    Open Country Joy
Source:    Stereo 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    John McLaughlin
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1973
    John McLaughlin. Billy Cobham. Rick Laird. Jan Hammer. Jerry Goodman. All were destined to become jazz-rock fusion stars by the end of the decade, but in 1971 the term fusion, as applied to music, was not yet in use. Yet fusion was indeed the most appropriate word for the Mahavishnu Orchestra, whose five members came from five different countries: England, Ireland, Panama, Czechoslovakia (as it was then known) and the US, respectively. The members came from a variety of music backgrounds as well. McLaughlin (who wrote all the group's material) and Cobham had met while working on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew album, while Goodman had recorded two albums with the Chicago-based Flock. The Mahavishnu Orchestra was known for its ability to quickly shift between music styles on such tracks as Open Country Joy, which appeared on the group's second LP, Birds of Fire, as well as being released as a single.The original group disbanded after only two albums, but McLaughlin would later revive the band with a different lineup in the 1980s.

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    Witch's Promise
Source:    CD: Benefit
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1970
    The remastered version of Jethro Tull's third album, Benefit, includes several songs that were released as singles in the UK, but were virtually invisible in the US until the 1973 anthology album Living In The Past. Among those is Witch's Promise, recorded just weeks before the sessions for Benefit began.

Artist:    Pavlov's Dog
Title:    Natchez Trace
Source:    LP: Pampered Menial (promo copy)
Writer(s):    Steve Scorfina
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1975
    One of the most unusual voices in rock history belongs to David Surkamp, lead vocalist for a band called Pavlov's Dog. I first heard Pavlov's Dog on Albuquerque's legendary FM rock station, KRST, around 1975. A friend of mine was so enamoured of the group that he bought a copy of their LP, Pampered Menial, and brought it over to my place to listen to (I had one of those massive console stereos that they used to make back then). I later found out more about the group, which had come from Saint Louis originally, and featured, in addition to Surkamp, an outstanding guitarist by the name of Steve Scorfina. It was Scorfina that wrote Natchez Trace, one of the highest-energy tracks on the album.

Artist:    Steely Dan
Title:    Reeling In The Years
Source:    CD: Can't Buy A Thrill
Writer(s):    Becker/Fagen
Label:    MCA (original label: ABC)
Year:    1972
    My first radio gig (sort of), was volunteering at the Voice Of Holloman, a closed-circuit station that served a handful of locations on Holloman AFB, about 10 miles from Alamogordo, NM. I had been taking broadcasting courses through a community college program that was taught by Sgt. Tim Daniels, who was the NCO in charge of the base Information Office, which ran the station, as well as a free weekly newspaper that was distributed on base. After completing the classes, Tim gave me the opportunity to do a daily two-hour show on the VOH, using records that had been sent to the station by various record labels. We got excellent singles service from some labels (Warner Brothers and Capitol in particular), but virtually nothing from others, such as ABC. This was unfortunate, as one of the best songs out at the time was Steely Dan's Reeling In The Years, from their 1972 Can't Buy A Thrill album. Tim, whose previous gig was with the Armed Forces Vietnam Network, was a big rock fan, however, and went out and bought his own copy of the album, making a copy of Reeling In The Years on reel to reel tape, which we then played extensively until the song had run its course on the charts. Thus the Voice Of Holloman, with its audience consisting mostly of guys working out at the base gym, was playing the longer album version of a song that was also getting airplay on Alamogordo's daytime-only top 40 AM station, KINN, in its edited single form. It was just about the nearest the Voice Of Holloman ever got to being an underground rock station (although I did manage to sneak in some Procol Harum, Jethro Tull and Deep Purple from time to time from the aformentioned Warner Brothers singles)

Artist:    J.J. Cale
Title:    The Woman That Got Away
Source:    LP: Troubador
Writer(s):    J.J. Cale
Label:    Shelter
Year:    1976
    There have always been artists that are well-known and highly respected among the musicians' community, yet were never able to achieve any major commercial recognition. One of the best of these was J.J. Cale, who almost single-handedly created what has come to be called the Tulsa Sound. Cale's songs were often covered by other artists (Eric Clapton in particular) who turned them into major hits (including both After Midnight and Cocaine). The first J.J. Cale album I ever came across was the 1976 LP Troubadour, which I ran across while volunteering at KUNM in Albuquerque. I was so impressed with the album that I went out and bought a copy, no small thing for a poor college student. In addition to the aformentioned Cocaine, Troubadour has several outstanding tracks, including the single Travelin' Light and a tune called The Woman That Got Away. The latter track in particular is a classic example of Cale's Tulsa Sound.

Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    Help!
Source:    LP: Shades Of Deep Purple
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Tetragrammaton
Year:    1968
    It takes brass for a band to include a Beatles cover on their debut LP, especially if they have chosen to completely rearrange the song, a la Vanilla Fudge. Nonetheless, that is exactly what happened on the album Shades Of Deep Purple, which hit the stands in 1968. The Beatles cover song in question is the classic Help! Deep Purple gives it a kind of slow, soft treatment that is both light years away from the original, and, in my opinion, quite an enjoyable listen.

Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    Woman From Tokyo
Source:    Japanese import CD: Who Do We Think We Are
Writer(s):    Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice
Label:    Warner Brothers
Year:    1973
    Deep Purple's most successful period came to an end with the band's seventh LP, Who Do We Think We Are. The album, released in 1973, was the last for vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover, both of whom had joined the band three years earlier. Those three years saw the group go from semi-obscurity (especially in their home country) to one of the world's most popular rock bands. Songs like Smoke On The Water and Highway Star had become mainstays of FM rock radio worldwide, but tensions within the band itself were starting to tear it apart. Nonetheless, the final album by the classic lineup of Richie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice featured some of the band's best material, including the LP's opening track, My Woman From Tokyo, which is still heard with alarming regularity on classic rock radio stations.

Artist:    James Gang
Title:    Tend My Garden/Garden Gate
Source:    CD: James Gang Rides Again
Writer:    Joe Walsh
Label:    MCA (original label: ABC)
Year:    1970
    Cleveland, Ohio's James Gang spent so much time on the road promoting their first album, Takes Off, that they didn't have much material ready when it came time to record a follow-up LP. The group found itself actually writing songs in the studio and recording them practically as they were being written. Guitarist/lead vocalist Joe Walsh, meanwhile, had some acoustic songs he had been working on, and it was decided that the new album would have one side of electric hard rock songs while the other would be an acoustic side. The opening tracks for the second side of the album were Tend My Garden, which features Walsh on both organ and guitar, followed by Garden Gate, a Walsh solo piece.

Artist:    Led Zeppelin
Title:    What Is And What Should Never Be
Source:    LP: Led Zeppelin II
Writer(s):    Page/Plant
Label:    Atlantic
Year:    1969
    Due to contractual obligations, singer Robert Plant did not received any writing credits for songs on the first Led Zeppelin album. By the time the band's second LP was released, Plant had been able to get out of his previous contract, and his name began appearing as co-writer of songs such as What Is And What Should Never Be. The song itself was based on a true story concerning Plant's attraction to his girlfriend's sister.

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1643 (starts 10/26/16)

Artist:    Animals
Title:    Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Source:    Mono LP: The Best Of The Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Benjamin/Marcus/Caldwell
Label:    Abkco (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1965
    1965 was a huge year for the Animals. Coming off the success of their 1964 smash House Of The Rising Sun, the Newcastle group racked up three major hits in 1965, including Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, a song originally recorded by jazz singer Nina Simone. The Animals version speeded up the tempo and used a signature riff that had been taken from Simone's outro. The Animals version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood made the top 20 in the US and the top five in both the UK and Canada.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Season Of The Witch
Source:    CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released on LP: Sunshine Superman)
Writer:    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Sony Music Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year:    1966
     Season Of The Witch has proved to be one of the most popular and enduring tracks on Donovan's Sunshine Superman album. Due to a contract dispute with Pye Records, the album was not released in the UK until late 1967, and then only as an LP combining tracks from both the Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums. Like all tracks from both Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, Season Of The Witch was only available in a mono mix until 1969, when a new stereo mix was created from the original multi-track masters for the singer/songwriter's first greatest hits compilation. Season of the Witch has since been covered by an impressive array of artists, including Al Kooper and Stephen Stills (on the Super Session album) and Vanilla Fudge.

Artist:    Vanilla Fudge
Title:    Take Me For A Little While/Eleanor Rigby
Source:    LP: Vanilla Fudge
Writer(s):    Martin/Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Atco
Year:    1967
    Vanilla Fudge made their mark by doing slowed down rocked out versions of popular songs such as the Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On. In fact, all of the tracks on their debut LP were songs of this nature, including two Beatles tunes. Side two of the original LP featured three tracks tied together by short psychedelic instrumental pieces knowns collectively as Illusions Of My Childhood. In addition to the aforementioned Supremes cover, the side features a Trade Martin composition called Take Me For A Little While that takes a diametrically opposed viewpoint to the first song, which leads directly into Eleanor Rigby, which sort of sums up both of the previous tracks lyrically. Although the Vanilla Fudge would stick around for a couple more years (and four more albums), they were never again able to match the success of their 1967 debut LP.

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    Capt. Glory
Source:    CD: Underground
Writer(s):    James Lowe
Label:    Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1967
        Electric Prunes lead vocalist James Lowe says one of his favorite vocals on the second Electric Prunes album, Underground, was on the song called Capt. Glory. Although he cites the song's "loose, silly" quality, my cynical side thinks it may have something to do with the fact that it is the only track on the album with writing credits going solely to Lowe himself.
       
Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    Get Me To The World On Time
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released on LP: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Jones
Label:    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:    Electric Prunes
Title:    You Never Had It Better
Source:    Mono CD: Underground (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Snagster/Schwartz/Poncher
Label:    Collector's Choice
Year:    1968
    Following the lack of a hit single from their second album, Underground, the Electric Prunes took one last shot at top 40 airplay with a song called Everybody Knows Your Not In Love. The band might have had better luck if they had pushed the flip side of the record, You Never Had It Better, which is a much stronger song. As it is, the record stiffed, and producer David Hassinger reacted by stripping the band of any creative freedom they might have had and made an album called Mass in F Minor using mostly studio musicians. The band, having signed away the rights to the name Electric Prunes to Hassinger when they first started working with him, could do nothing but watch helplessly as Hassinger created an album that had little in common with the original band other than their name. Because of this, the original members soon left, and Hassinger brought in a whole new group for two more albums before retiring the Prunes name for good. In recent years several members of the original band have reformed the Electric Prunes. Whether they had to get permission to use the name is unknown.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    The World Turns All Around Her (alternate mix)
Source:    CD: Turn! Turn! Turn!
Writer(s):    Gene Clark
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1965
    In their early days, the Byrds were known more for their reworking of other writers' material, such as Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man and Pete Seeger's Turn! Turn! Turn! than for the songs they wrote themselves. Eventually, Jim (Roger) McGuinn, David Crosby and Chris Hillman would all develop into outstanding songwriters, but before they did, Gene Clark was considered the band's top composer. The World Turns All Around Her, from their second album, Turn! Turn! Turn!, shows why.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Eight Miles High
Source:    LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Fifth Dimension)
Writer(s):    Clark/McGuinn/Crosby
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1966
    Gene Clark's final contribution to the Byrds was his collaboration with David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, Eight Miles High. Despite a newsletter from the most powerful man in top 40 radio, Bill Drake, advising stations not to play this "drug song", the song managed to hit the top 20 in 1966. The band members themselves claimed that Eight Miles High was not a drug song at all, but was instead referring to the experience of travelling by air. In fact, it was Gene Clark's fear of flying that in part led to his leaving the Byrds.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Set You Free This Time
Source:    CD: Turn! Turn! Turn!
Writer(s):    Gene Clark
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1965
    The second Byrds album, Turn! Turn! Turn!, featured three songs from the group's most accomplished songwriter, Gene Clark. Probably the best of these was Set You Free This Time. Clark wrote the tune following a night of clubbing with Paul McCartney in London during the Byrds' British tour. According to Clark the entire song was written in about two hours.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    L'America
Source:    LP: L.A. Woman
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1971
    L.A. Woman, the Doors' final album with singer Jim Morrison, is generally considered to be one of the band's best efforts. This is due in large part to the group's decision to abandon the heavily orchestrated production style favored by Paul A. Rothchild on albums like the Soft Parade in favor of the leaner, stripped down sound heard on the band's early albums. This caused Rothchild to abandon the project early on and hand the production reins to longtime Doors engineer Bruce Botnick. One song on the album, however, had already been recorded when the sessions for L.A. Woman got underway; L'America, which opens side two of the original LP, had been recorded for, but not used in, the soundtrack of the Michaelangelo Antonionini film Zabriskie Point using the title Latin America. A few drum overdubs were added during the L.A. Woman sessions; in all other respects the track took the same form it would have had it been included in the film. Actually, in hindsight it's probably a good thing that Antonionini rejected the song, seeing as Zabriskie Point is now seen as a serious contender for the title of Worst Film Ever Made (although to be fair, the movie soundtrack album is held in much higher regard than the film itself.

Artist:     Grateful Dead
Title:     Truckin'
Source:     CD: Skeletons From the Closet (originally released on LP: American Beauty)
Writer:     Garcia/Weir/Hunter/Lesh
Label:     Warner Brothers
Year:     1970
     After two performance-oriented albums that mixed live and studio material and one double live LP, the Grateful Dead decided to shift their focus in the studio to their songwriting skills. The result was Workingman's Dead, the band's most commercially successful album up to that point. Five months later the followup album,  American Beauty defined the Grateful Dead's sound for all but the most dedicated of concertgoers (the legendary Deadheads), thanks to songs like Truckin', which would be the band's most popular single until the mid-1980s.

Artist:     Jethro Tull
Title:     A New Day Yesterday
Source:     LP: Stand Up
Writer:     Ian Anderson
Label:     Chrysalis
Year:     1969
    The first of many lineup changes for Jethro Tull saw the departure of guitarist Mick Abrahams and the beginning of a long run by Matin Barre as his replacement. With that change, the band moved away from its blues roots and began a long transition toward becoming one of the world's leading progressive rock bands.

Artist:    Love
Title:    Your Mind And We Belong Together
Source:    CD: Love Story (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Arthur Lee
Label:    Elektra/Rhino
Year:    1968
    The last record to be released by the classic Love lineup of Arthur Lee, Ken Forssi, Johnny Echols, Bryan MacLean and Michael Stuart was a single, Your Mind And We Belong Together. Although released in 1968, the song is very much the same style as the 1967 album Forever Changes. A bonus track on the Forever Changes CD shows Lee very much in command of the recording sessions, calling for over two dozen takes before getting an acceptable version of the song. The song serves as a fitting close to the story of one of the most influential, yet overlooked, bands in rock history...or would have, if Lee had not tried unsuccessfully to duplicate the band's success with new members several times in the ensuing years.

Artist:    Bob Dylan
Title:    From A Buick 6
Source:    CD: Highway 61 Revisited
Writer(s):    Bob Dylan
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1965
    Although Bob Dylan had experimented with using electric instruments on some of the tracks of his 1965 album, Bringing It All Back Home, he went all out with his next LP, Highway 61 Revisited. Many of the songs had a whole new sound to them, while others, such as From A Buick 6, were more or less in the same style as Dylan's earlier songs, but electrified.

Artist:    Notes From The Underground
Title:    You Don't Love Me
Source:    British import CD: The Berkeley EPs
Writer(s):    Mark Mandrell
Label:    Big Beat
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 1995
    When it comes to describing Berkeley, California, the first word that comes to mind is "alternative." For one thing, Berkeley sits across Oakland Bay from San Francisco, making it a natural alternative to the city itself. This sense of being an alternative extends itself to the local music scene as well. While San Francisco was developing bands like Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Grateful Dead, Berkeley was fostering groups like Country Joe And The Fish and Notes From The Underground. Unlike other Berkeley bands, however, Notes From The Underground stayed away from politics, and were generally less experimental than their contemporaries on the north side of the Bay. The Notes took over the Fish's spot at the place known as the Jabberwock when that band began playing more out-of-town gigs, and eventually followed in Country Joe's footsteps by issuing their own self-titled EP in 1967. In addition to the five songs issued on the EP the group recorded three more songs that remained unreleased until 1995, when they appeared on a British compilation disc called The Berkeley EPs. One of these song is You Don't Love Me, which bears no resemblance to the old Willie Cobb tune covered by several rock bands in the late 60s and early 70s (including the Allman Brothers Band). This You Don't Love Me was written by guitarist Mark Mandell (no relation to Harvey), who co-founded Notes From The Underground in 1965.

Artist:    Mouse And The Traps
Title:    Nobody Cares
Source:    British import CD: The Fraternity Years
Writer(s):    Weiss/Fouts
Label:    Big Beat
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 1997
    When the first single from Ronnie "Mouse" Weiss came out, several people (including at least one promoter from Columbia Records) thought it was a pirated Bob Dylan recording. It wasn't (obviously), but Weiss would find himself dogged by Dylan comparisons for the rest of his recording career. Weiss swears the similarity was not intentional; the two of them just both happened to be slight in stature curly-haired guys who sang with a nasal twang. In Weiss's case it probably had more to do with the country and western music he had been exposed to growing up in Tyler, Texas in the 1950s and early 1960s. Still, there are valid grounds for comparison, particularly on a song called Nobody Cares that Mouse And The Traps recorded in the spring of 1967. The track takes the whole protest thing to a nearly absurd extreme, to the point that Weiss refused to release the record, calling it so negative that someone might shoot him if they heard it.

Artist:    Rupert's People
Title:    Reflections Of Charles Brown
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):    Rob Lynton
Label:    Rhino (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1967
    First off, Reflections Of Charles Brown was not actually recorded by Rupert's People. In fact, at the time the record was released there was no band called Rupert's People. The track was actually the work of another British band, Les Fleur De Lis, who had been paid by producer Howard Conder to record the song that Rob Lynton had written while Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade Of Pale was at the top of the charts (although Lynton claimed to have never heard of Procol Harum. Once the recording was finished, the band decided that they hated the song and refused to allow their name to be used. Conder, undaunted, simply invented the name Rupert's People and released the record anyway. This would have been the end of it if the record had been a complete flop. As it was, however, Reflections Of Charles Brown started getting airplay on Radio Luxembourg and BBC 1, which made it necessary for an actual band to be formed for live performances. After one early attempt at forming a band that included the Gurvitz brothers (who would almost immediately leave to form their own band, Gun), a final lineup was set in place to record further singles, showing that the blatant exploitation of young musicians was not the exclusive province American producers.

Artist:    Seeds
Title:    Excuse, Excuse
Source:    Mono British import CD: Singles As & Bs (originally released on LP: The Seeds and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Sky Saxon
Label:    GNP Crescendo
Year:    1966
    Although their management branded them as the original flower power band, the Seeds have a legitimate claim to being one of the first punk-rock bands as well. A prime example is Excuse, Excuse, from their 1966 debut LP, The Seeds. Whereas a more conventional song of the time might have been an angst-ridden tale of worry that perhaps the girl in question did not return the singer's feelings, Sky Saxon's lyrics (delivered with a sneer that would do Johnny Rotten proud) are instead a scathing condemnation of said girl for not being straight up honest about the whole thing.
   
Artist:    Critters
Title:    Mr. Diengly Sad
Source:    CD: Battle Of The Bands (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Don Ciccone
Label:    Era (original label: Kapp)
Year:    1966
    The Critters were not, by any stretch of the imagination, a psychedelic band. Still, with the recent passing of bandleader Don Ciccone on Oct. 8th I thought it might be nice to include an airing the the group's biggest hit, Mr. Diengly Sad, on this week's show. The Critters were formed when Don Ciccone, who sang and played guitar, and saxiohonist Bob Podstawski joined a New Jersey the Vibratones in 1964, transforming them from an instrumental band to one of the first American bands to compete directly with the British Invasion bands. The band soon released their first single on the Musicor label, switching to Kapp Records the following year. Mr. Diengly Sad became the group's only top 20 hit, peaking at #17 as the summer of 1966 was coming to a close. The group split up in 1968, and after a stint in the military Ciccone joined the 4 Seasons for awhile (temporarily replacing Frankie Valli, who had left the group for a solo career), and later toured with Tommy James And The Shondells. Eventually Ciccone formed a new incarnation of the Critters in 2007, releasing an album called Time Pieces that included updated versions of their first top 40 hit, Younger Girl, and a slightly retitled Mr. Dyingly Sad. Don Ciccone passed away on October 8, 2016 at the age of 70 after suffering a heart attack.

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    D.C.B.A.-25
Source:    LP: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s):    Paul Kantner
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1967
    One of the first songs written by Paul Kantner without a collaborator was this highly listenable tune from Surrealistic Pillow. Kantner says the title simply refers to the basic chord structure of the song, which is built on a two chord verse (D and C) and a two chord bridge (B and A). That actually fits, but what about the 25 part? [insert enigmatic smile here]

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Savoy Truffle
Source:    CD: The Beatles
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year:    1968
    George Harrison's skills as a songwriter continued to develop in 1968. The double-LP The Beatles (aka the White Album) contained four Harrison compositions, including Savoy Truffle, a tongue-in-cheek song about Harrison's friend Eric Clapton's fondness for chocolate. John Lennon did not participate in the recording of Savoy Truffle. The keyboards were probably played by Chris Thomas, who, in addition to playing on all four Harrison songs on the album, served as de facto producer when George Martin decided to take a vacation in the middle of the album's recording sessions. 

Artist:    Fairport Convention
Title:    Matty Groves
Source:    LP: Liege And Lief
Writer(s):    Trad., arr. Fairport Convention
Label:    A&M
Year:    1969
    Britain's Fairport Convention was quite prolific in 1969, releasing no less than three LPs that year. The last of these was Liege And Lief, considered by some to be the greatest British folk-rock album ever made. The album is notable for several reasons, including the fact that it was the group's first album to consist entirely of rocked out adaptations of traditional British folk tunes such as Matty Grove, along with a handful of original compositions done in a similar style. It was also the first Fairport Convention album to feature guitarist Martin Carthy (who had made a guest appearance on the band's previous album, Unhalfbricking) and drummer Dave Mattacks as full-time members. Finally, Liege And Lief was the last Fairport album to feature vocalist Sandy Denny and bassist Ashley Hutchings, both of whom lef to form their own British folk-rock bands (Fotheringay and Steeleye Span, respectively). Like many British folk songs, Matty Grove tells the somewhat morally ambiguous tale of a low-born rascal who beds the wife of his Duke, only to have said Duke catch them in the act, killing them both. Trust me, it sounds better coming from Fairport Convention that it does me.

Artist:    Vagrants
Title:    And When It's Over
Source:    LP: I Can't Make A Friend 1965-1968 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Bert Sommer
Label:    Light In The Attic (original label: Atco)
Year:    1968
    The story of the Vagrants could well be subtitled "Living the American Dream...Rock 'n' Roll Style." The band was formed in 1964, in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, NY, by a pair of junior high school buddies, Peter Sabatino and Larry Weinstein. The two, inspired by the Beatles' August 1964 concert at Shea Stadium, recruited Larry's older brother Leslie and soon began rehearsing in the basement of their apartment building. Next to join was the local bowling champion, a guy named Jerry Storch, who was invited to become a member of the band when he casually mentioned that he had a piano and had written a few songs. The super of the Weinstein's apartment building, meanwhile, was starting to take exception to the sounds coming from the building's basement, and the group soon relocated to the Cameo Lanes, the management of which was more than happy to have the local champ hang out there. The group finally became an official band with the addition of drummer Roger Mansour, a schoolmate of Pete and Larry whom they got to know when all three were called into the principal's office for having long hair (hey, stuff like this really happened in the mid-60s). The group soon began playing for parties and bar mitzvahs and eventually even got paid enough to buy proper equipment, such as a bass guitar for Larry (who had been faking it on a $12 acoustic guitar) and a Farfisa organ for Jerry. By the summer of 1965 the band was tight enough to get a regular summer gig in the Hamptons, right up the road from where a band called the Rascals were playing. The Vagrants were heavily influenced by the Rascals, and their repertoire, which had up to that point been mostly covers of British Invasion bands, began to include current R&B hits as well. The band cut their first single in July for the local Southern Sound label, a Jerry Storch tune called Oh Those Eyes. By early 1966 the Vagrants were one of the hottest club bands in New York. The group also started working on their arrangements, often slowing down a popular song and including long instrumental breaks, an approach that would be copied the following year by another area band called the Vanilla Fudge. As with any group of five rock and rollers, there were tensions within the band, mostly between the Weinstein brothers, who would sometimes break into an argument onstage. Eventually Leslie would split with the group to pursue a solo career (changing his last name to West), but not until the band had issued several singles, including three on the Atco label. The last of these was And When It's Over, a song written by Bert Sommer, who would go on to become the opening act at Woodstock.

Artist:    West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
Title:    Tracy Had A Hard Day Sunday
Source:    LP: Volume II
Writer(s):    Markley/Harris
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1967
    Once upon a time record producer Kim Fowley hired the Yardbirds to play a private Hollywood party. The Harris brothers, a pair of local art school students who had sent their homemade tapes to Fowley, were impressed by the band's musical abilities. Bob Markley, an almost-30-year-old hipster with a law degree and an inheritance was impressed with the band's ability to attract teenage girls. Fowley introduced the Harris brothers to Markley, who expressed a willingness to finance them in return for letting him be their new lead vocalist, and the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band was formed. Before it was all over the group had recorded five or six albums for at least three labels, churning out an eclectic mix of psychedelic tunes such as Tracy Had A Hard Day Sunday, which appeared on the second album for Reprise Records (their third LP overall), appropriately titled Volume II.

Artist:    Left Banke
Title:    Walk Away Renee
Source:    45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer(s):    Brown/Calilli/Sansune
Label:    Smash
Year:    1966
    The Left Banke's Walk Away Renee is one of the most covered songs in rock history, starting with a version by the Four Tops less than two years after the original recording had graced the top 5. The Left Banke version kicked off what was thought at the time to be the latest trend: baroque rock. The trend died an early death when the band members themselves made some tactical errors resulting in radio stations being hesitant to play their records.

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:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Connection
Source:    LP: Between The Buttons
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richards
Label:    London
Year:    1967
    Often dismissed as the beginning of a departure from their blues roots, the Rolling Stones first LP of 1967, Between The Buttons, actually has a lot of good tunes on it, such as Connection, a song with multiple meanings. Most studios at that time only had four tracks available and would use two tape machines to mix the first tracks recorded on one machine (usually the instrumental tracks) down to a single track on the other machine, freeing up the remaining tracks for overdubs. This process, known as "bouncing", sometimes happened two or three times on a single recording if extra overdubs were needed. Unfortunately each pass resulted in a loss of quality on the bounced tracks, especially if the equipment was not properly maintained. This is particularly noticeable on Connection, as the final mix seems to have lost most of its high and low frequencies, resulting in an unintentionally "lo-fi" recording.

Artist:    Johnny Winter
Title:    Mean Town Blues
Source:    LP: The Progressive Blues Experiment
Writer:    Johnny Winter
Label:    Imperial (original label: Sonobeat)
Year:    1968
    Although he had been making records for a variety of local Texas labels for most of the 1960s, Johnny Winter did not get to record a full-length album until 1968, when The Progressive Blues Experiment was released on the Sonobeat label. The album quickly gained a following among blues enthusiasts, prompting the Imperial label to reissue the album nationally. Among the many outstanding tracks recorded by the trio consisting of Winter, drummer Uncle John Turner and bassist Tommy Shannon, was Mean Town Blues, a tune the band would perform at Woodstock. The response from the crowd was strong enough to prompt Columbia Records to offer Winter a $600,000 recording deal, a huge amount for a virtually unknown artist at that time.