Monday, April 10, 2017
Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1715 (starts 4/12/17)
So you think the early 70s was all about guitars? Well, you're absolutely right, and we've got a bunch on this week's show, starting with Clapton and ending with Trower. Rock on!
Artist: Eric Clapton
Title: After Midnight
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): J.J. Cale
Label: Atco
Year: 1970
After his attempt at being "just another band member" (Derek and the Dominos) ended up only increasing his superstar status, Eric Clapton at last bowed to the inevitable and released his first official solo album in 1970. For the single from that album Clapton chose his cover of a 1966 J.J. Cale song, After Midnight. Clapton had become aware of Cale's music while touring with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends (yet another attempt at being "just another band member"), and recorded After Midnight with the help of Bobby Whitlock on organ and vocals, Jim Gordon on drums, Delaney Bramlett on rhythm guitar, Carl Radle on bass, Leon Russell on piano, Jim Price on trumpet, and Bobby Keys on saxophone. Clapton later said that learning Cale's rhythm guitar part was particularly challenging, even with Bramlett's help, adding that "I still don’t think we got it right." Cale himself was thrilled that Clapton scored a hit with the song. As Cale himself put it "I was dirt poor, not making enough to eat and I wasn’t a young man. I was in my thirties, so I was very happy. It was nice to make some money." Cale went on to re-record the song for his own album Naturally, released in 1972.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: She Lies In The Morning
Source: CD: Watt
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Chrysalis (original label: Deram)
Year: 1970
Although not as well received by the rock press as its predecessor, Cricklewood Green, Ten Years After's 6th LP, Watt, was very much in the same vein. One of the more interesting tracks on the LP, She Lies In The Morning, has several different sections, each with its own distinctive sound. Each time the song starts to get boring and/or repetitive, it changes into something completely different. The entire piece runs over seven minutes in length.
Artist: Grand Funk Railroad
Title: Mean Mistreater
Source: CD: Heavy Hitters! (originally released on LP: Closer To Home)
Writer(s): Mark Farner
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
By the 1980s the power ballad was becoming a rock music cliche. In 1970, however, it was still a pretty new concept, and one of the first bands to record power ballads was Grand Funk Railroad. Mean Mistreater, from the album Closer To Home, was actually the group's second power ballad. The first, Heartbreaker, had appeared on the album Grand Funk (aka the Red Album), and was already a fan favorite when Closer To Home was released in 1970. Mean Mistreater proved to be even more popular, and remained part of Grand Funk's stage repertoire for the remainder of the band's existence.
Artist: John Lennon
Title: Remember
Source: CD: Lennon (box set) (originally released on LP: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band)
Writer(s): John Lennon
Label: Capitol
Year: 1970
Many of today's digital recordings utilize a virtually infinite number of tracks to piece together short pieces of sound into a coherent whole. Such productions may take weeks and even months to record and put together before a final product is achieved. In 1970, however, things were much different. Generally, each instrument had its own track, and each track was recorded as an entire performance (although in many cases sections of two or more different takes would be spliced together, but this was a difficult task that could not be undone once a splice was made in the master tape). John Lennon's Remember, from his first solo studio album, is a good example of this "real time" method of recording. The instrumentation is simple: Lennon on piano, Ringo Starr on drums and Klaus Voorman on bass. Lennon, of course provided the vocals for the song, which was a direct result of his primal therapy sessions. Remember is a somewhat revealing song, particularly about Lennon's own upbringing in a world where children were taught that everything was black and white, and the good guys always beat the bad guys in the end. He is particularly critical of parents who attempt to live out their own dreams through their children instead of letting those children find their own way. The album itself is considered to be one of Lennon's finest efforts, and has shown up on several "best of" lists over the years.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)/Moon Turn The Tides (Gently, Gently Away)
Source: LP: Electric Ladyland
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1968
1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)/Moon Turn The Tides (Gently, Gently Away) from the Electric Ladyland album is the longest work created purely in the studio by Jimi Hendrix, with a running time of over 16 minutes. The piece starts with tape effects that lead into the song's main guitar rift. The vocals and drums join in to tell a science fiction story set in a future world where the human race has had to move underwater in order to survive some unspecified catastrophe. After a couple verses, the piece goes into a long unstructured section made up mostly of guitar effects before returning to the main theme and closing out with more effects that combine volume control and stereo panning to create a circular effect. As is the case with several tracks on Electric Ladyland, 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be)/Moon Turn The Tides (Gently, Gently Away) features Hendrix on both guitar and bass, with Mitch Mitchell on drums and special guest Chris Wood (from Traffic) on flute.
Artist: Neil Young/Crazy Horse
Title: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Source: CD: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Reprise
Year: 1969
After releasing a fairly well produced debut solo album utilizing the talents of several well-known studio musicians in late 1968, Neil Young surprised everyone by recruiting an unknown L.A. bar band and rechristening them Crazy Horse for his second effort, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The album was raw and unpolished, with Young's lead vocals recorded using a talkback microphone normally used by engineers to communicate with people in the studio from the control room. In spite of, or more likely because of these limitations, the resulting album has come to be regarded as one of the greatest in the history of rock, with Young sounding far more comfortable, both as a vocalist and guitarist, than on the previous effort. Although the album is best known for three songs he wrote while running a fever (Cinnamon Girl, Cowgirl In The Sand, and Down By The River), there are plenty of good other songs on the LP, including the title track heard here.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Truckin'
Source: LP: American Beauty
Writer: Garcia/Weir/Hunter/Lesh
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
After two albums that mixed live and studio material and one double live LP, the Dead decided to make a serious effort to record an album entirely in the studio that was built around the songwriting rather than the performances. The result was American Beauty, the band's most commercially successful album up to that point. Along with the followup album, Workingman's Dead, American Beauty defined the Grateful Dead's sound for all but the most dedicated of concertgoers (the legendary Deadheads).
Artist: Robin Trower
Title: Bridge Of Sighs/In This Place
Source: CD: Bridge Of Sighs
Writer(s): Robin Trower
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol
Year: 1974
One of the most celebrated guitar albums of all time, Bridge Of Sighs was Robin Trower's second solo LP following his departure from Procol Harum. Released in 1974, the LP spent 31 weeks on the Billboard album charts, peaking at #7. Bridge of Sighs has served as a template for later guitar-oriented albums, especially those of Warren Haines and Gov't Mule.
Artist: Robin Trower
Title: Little Bit Of Sympathy
Source: CD: Bridge Of Sighs
Writer(s): Robin Trower
Label: Chrysalis/Capitol
Year: 1974
Released in 1974, Bridge Of Sighs was the second solo LP by former Procol Harum guitarist Robin Trower. The album was Trower's commercial breakthrough, staying on the Billboard album charts for 31 weeks, peaking at #7. In addition to Trower, the album features James Dewar on lead vocals and bass, along with Reg Isidore on drums. The album was a staple of mid-1970s progressive rock radio, with several tunes, including album closer Little Bit Of Sympathy, becoming concert favorites.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1714 (starts 4/5/17)
This week it's 32 songs from 32 artists. How's that for variety?
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
Source: Mono CD: Singles Collection-The London Years (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1966
By mid-1966 there was a population explosion of teenage rock bands popping up in garages and basements all across the US, the majority of which were doing their best to emulate the grungy sound of their heroes, the Rolling Stones. The Stones themselves responded by ramping up the grunge factor to a previously unheard of degree with their last single of the year, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? It was the most feedback-laden record ever to make the top 40 at that point in time, and it inspired America's garage bands to buy even more powerful amps and crank up the volume (driving their parents to drink in the process).
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: Seeds
Title: Pictures And Designs
Source: LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer(s): Saxon/Hooper
Label: GNP Crescendo
Year: 1966
The first Seeds album was somewhat unusual for its time in that all the songs on the album (including both singles from the album) were written by members of the band itself. Unfortunately this resulted in a sort of formulaic sameness from one track to the next, with many tunes sounding like attempts to recapture the magic of their most famous song, Pushin' Too Hard. The second Seeds album, A Web Of Sound, also was made up of (mostly) original material, but this time Sky Saxon and company made an effort to expand beyond the formula with tracks like Pictures And Designs, which starts off sounding a bit like the Yardbirds, but soon becomes a snarling punk drone that manages to break new ground for the band while maintaining the distinctive Seeds sound.
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: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: One Rainy Wish
Source: CD: Axis: Bold As Love
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: Legacy (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
In the summer of 1967 my dad (who was an Air Force NCO), got transferred to Lindsay Air Station in Weisbaden, Germany. The housing situation there being what it was, it was several weeks before the rest of us could join him, and during that time he went out and bought an Akai X-355 reel to reel tape recorder that a fellow GI had picked up in Japan. The Akai had small speakers built into it, but the best way to listen to it was through headphones. It would be another year before he would pick up a turntable, so I started buying pre-recorded reel to reel tapes. Two of the first three tapes I bought were Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold As Love, both by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. As I was forced to share a bedroom with my little brother I made it a habit to sleep on the couch instead, usually with the headphones on listening to Axis: Bold As Love. I was blown away by the stereo effects on the album, which I attributed (somewhat correctly) to Hendrix, although I would find out years later that much of the credit belongs to engineer Eddie Kramer as well. One Rainy Wish, for example, starts off with all the instruments in the center channel (essentially a mono mix). After a few seconds of slow spacy intro the song gets into gear with vocals isolated all the way over to the left, with a guitar overdub on the opposite side to balance it out. As the song continues, things move back and forth from side to side, fading in and out at the same time. It was a hell of a way to drift off to sleep every night.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Star Track
Source: CD: Crown Of Creation
Writer(s): Jorma Kaukonen
Label: BMG/RCA
Year: 1968
Jorma Kaukonen was already starting to develop his unique "psychedelic blues" style that would characterize his band Hot Tuna as early as 1968, with the Jefferson Airplane recording of Star Track from the Crown Of Creation album. As well as playing lead guitar, Kaukonen provides the lead vocals on the track.
Artist: Open Mind
Title: Magic Potion
Source: British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Brancaccio
Label: Grapefruit (original label: Philips)
Year: 1969
Originally known as the Drag Set, the Open Mind adopted their new name in late 1967. Not long after the change they signed a deal with Philips Records and recorded an album with producer Johnny Franz in 1968. Their greatest achievement, however, came the following year, when they released Magic Potion as a single. By that time, unfortunately, British psychedelia had run its course, and Open Mind soon closed up shop.
Artist: Temptations
Title: Psychedelic Shack
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Whitfield/Strong
Label: Gordy
Year: 1970
Starting in 1969 the songwriting/production team of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong began to carve out their own company within a company at Motown, producing a series of recordings with a far more psychedelic feel than anything else coming out of the Motor City's biggest label. The most blatantly obvious example of this is the Temptations tune Psychedelic Shack, which graced the charts in 1970. Whitfield would eventually form his own company, taking another Motown act, the Undisputed Truth, with him, but would not be able to equal the success of the songs he and Strong produced for the Temptations.
Artist: Paul Revere and the Raiders
Title: The Great Airplane Strike (originally released on LP: Spirit Of '67 and as 45 RPM single)
Source: LP: Greatest Hits
Writer: Revere/Melcher/Lindsay
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
In 1966 Paul Revere and the Raiders were at the peak of their popularity, scoring major hits that year with Hungry and Kicks. The last single the band released that year was The Great Airplane Strike from the Spirit Of '67 album. Written by band members Revere and Mark Lindsay, along with producer Terry Melcher, The Great Airplane Strike stands out as a classic example of Pacific Northwest rock, a style which would eventually culminate in the grunge movement of the 1990s.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
Source: CD: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
Writer: Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
Some of the best rock and roll songs of 1966 were banned on a number of stations for being about either sex or drugs. Most artists that recorded those songs claimed they were about something else altogether. In the case of Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, "stoned" refers to a rather unpleasant form of execution (at least according to Dylan). On the other hand, Dylan himself was reportedly quite stoned while recording the song, having passed a few doobies around before starting the tape rolling. Sometimes I think ambiguities like this are why English has become the dominant language of commerce on the planet.
Artist: Beatles
Title: I'm Only Sleeping
Source: Simulated stereo LP: Yesterday…and Today
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Label: Capitol
Year: 1966
This version of I'm Only Sleeping, from the US-only LP Yesterday...And Today, predates the official UK release of the song by about two months. The electronically rechanneled for stereo mix was created from a preliminary mono mix of the song obtained by Capitol Records. The Beatles and producer George Martin made a few changes (such as the placement of the backwards guitar tracks) before doing the final mono and stereo mixes heard on the British version of Revolver.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: A Hazy Shade Of Winter
Source: CD: Collected Works (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bookends)
Writer: Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966 (first stereo release: 1968)
Originally released as a single in late 1966, A Hazy Shade Of Winter was one of several songs slated to be used in the film The Graduate. The only one of these actually used 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: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Rock And Roll Woman
Source: LP: Retrospective (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again and as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Stephen Stills
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Buffalo Springfield did not sell huge numbers of records (except for the single For What It's Worth). Nor did they pack in the crowds. As a matter of fact, when they played the club across the street from where Love was playing, they barely had any audience at all. Artistically, though, it's a whole 'nother story. During their brief existence Buffalo Springfield launched the careers of no less than four major artists: Neil Young, Richie Furay, Jim Messina and Stephen Stills. They also recorded more than their share of tracks that have held up better than most of what else was being recorded at the time. Case in point: Rock and Roll Woman, a Stephen Stills tune that still sounds fresh well over 40 years after it was recorded.
Artist: Unrelated Segments
Title: Story Of My Life
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Mackavich/Stults
Label: Rhino (original label: HBR)
Year: 1967
The Unrelated Segments were a Detroit band that had most of its success regionally. Their nearest brush with national fame came when Story Of My Life was picked up for national distribution by Hanna-Barbera, the record label associated with such well-known TV stars as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and (later) Scooby-Doo. Hannah-Barbera not being known for its hit records, it's probably no surprise that the song did not climb too high on the charts.
Artist: John Mayall
Title: Brown Sugar
Source: LP: The Blues Alone
Writer(s): John Mayall
Label: London
Year: 1967
From the invention of the first phonograph up into the early 1950s, sound was recorded onto a single medium, be it a record, wire or magnetic tape. Then came stereo. The first stereo recordings were done on magnetic tape using special recording heads to record two signals simultaneously. It wasn't long before someone figured out that you could record two different things on those tracks and then mix them together into a monoraul final recording. This led to machines that could record three separate tracks, then four, which is where things stood in the mid-1960s. The next big step was to go to eight recording tracks that could be mixed down to two stereo tracks. With all these tracks came the possibility of doing something that had never been done before: one person could make a recording playing all the instruments himself. Quite possibly the first person to record an entire LP this way was John Mayall on his Blues Alone album in 1967 (although, to be honest, he did utilize the services of drummer Keef Hartley rather than play his own percussion parts). Although it may not have been Mayall's best album (a lot of competition for that title), The Blues Alone did have several outstanding tracks, such as Brown Sugar, a song that was quite controversial at the time (and may not be considered exactly politically correct today).
Artist: Del-Vetts
Title: Last Time Around
Source: Simulate stereo LP: The Dunwich Records Story (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Dennis Dahlquist
Label: Voxx (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
Dunhill Records was a small indepent label in Chicago that got national distribution through a deal with Atlantic Records. Their biggest act was the Shadows of Knight, who topped the charts with their cover of Van Morrison's Gloria in 1966. One of the most successful other bands on the label was the Del-Vetts, from Chicago's affluent North Side (band members had matching white Corvettes, hence the name). Last Time Around, sounding a lot like the Yardbirds, was their only nationally charted song, although they did get airplay in the midwest with other songs as well.
Artist: Butch Engle And The Styx
Title: Hey, I'm Lost
Source: Mono CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Elliott/Durand
Label: Rhino (original label: Onyx)
Year: 1967
In 1966 a local San Francisco department store held a battle of the bands at the Cow Palace. Unlike most events in the city that year, this one did not tie in to the emerging hippy culture. Rather, the event drew bands that were in their element when playing high school dances and teen clubs (although the Charlatans did make an appearance). The winners of that battle were Butch Engle and the Styx. Eighteen months later Hey, I'm Lost, their only single, appeared on the Onyx label and was distributed throughout the bay area.
Artist: James Brown
Title: Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine
Source: Mono CD: 20 All-Time Greatest Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Brown/Byrd/Lenhoff
Label: Polydor (original label: King)
Year: 1970
Many of James Brown's singles consisted of a single track split over two side of a 45 RPM record, usually with the first side fading out at the end and the second side beginning with a fade-in. Such was the case with Brown's 1970 hit Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine. For his greatest hits CD collection, Polydor put the two sides together into one continuous piece. They did a good job of it too, as I really can't tell where the splice point is.
Artist: Sugarloaf
Title: The Train Kept A-Rollin' (Stroll On)
Source: Mono LP: Sugarloaf
Writer: Relf/Page/Beck/Dreja
Label: Liberty
Year: 1970
One of the Yardbirds' best-known early recordings was Train Kept A Rollin', a song credited to the entire band. In 1966 the band reworked the tune, adding a feedback drenched intro, new lyrics, and dueling guitar leads from Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. The song, retitled Stroll On, was included in the Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow-Up. Four years later an instrumental version of the newer arrangement appeared on the debut album of the Denver, Colorado band Sugarloaf, using the title The Train Kept A-Rollin' (Stroll On). For reasons unknown, the Sugarloaf track was a mono recording on an otherwise stereo LP, leading me to theorize that it had possibly started off as a demo tape, or maybe an unreleased single, that ended up being included on the album itself.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Something's Got Hold of My Toe
Source: LP: Last Exit
Writer: Winwood/Mason/Miller
Label: Island (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1969
Traffic only made two albums before splitting up in 1968 (they reformed in 1970). After the breakup, Island Records assembled a collection of singles, B sides, live recordings and one unreleased track for a third album, titled Last Exit. The unreleased track is called Something's Got Hold of My Toe, an instrumental that sounds like it was a warm-up jam that just happened to get recorded. Somehow producer Jimmy Miller is listed as a co-writer. Generally, Miller's contributions were on the lyrical side, making this particular credit a bit puzzling.
Artist: Fairport Convention
Title: Chelsea Morning
Source: British import CD: Fairport Convention
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Polydor
Year: 1968
Although Joni Mitchell wrote Chelsea Morning, she was not the first person to record the song. That honor goes to Dave Van Ronk, who released the song on his 1967 LP Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters. The following year the song was included on the first Fairport Convention album, and remains my personal favorite of the many different versions of the tune. Mitchell herself finally recorded the song for her second LP, Clouds, in 1969. The song itself was inspired by Mitchell's room in New York's Chelsea neighborhood.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Love Me Till The Sun Shines
Source: CD: Something Else
Writer: Dave Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
The 1967 album Something Else By The Kinks was a turning point for the band in more ways than one. It was the first Kinks album produced entirely by Ray Davies, as well as the first Kinks album to be released in stereo. Something Else also saw the emergence of the younger Davies brother, Dave, as a songwriter in his own right on songs like Love Me Till The Sun Shines. I'm not sure, but it sounds to me like Dave Davies is the singer on the track as well.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source: CD: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Writer(s): Tucker/Mantz
Label: Collector's Choice/Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1966
Only a handful of tunes make virtually everyone's list of "psychedelic" songs. The Electric Prunes' I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) so well defines the genre that Lenny Kaye himself chose it to be the opening track on the original Nuggets album.
Artist: Animals
Title: We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (US version)
Source: Mono LP: The Best Of The Animals (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1965
In 1965 producer Mickey Most put out a call to Don Kirschner's Brill building songwriters for material that could be recorded by the Animals. He ended up selecting three songs, all of which are among the Animals' most popular singles. Possibly the best-known of the three is a song written by the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil called We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. The song (the first Animals recording to featuring Dave Rowberry, who had replaced founder Alan Price on organ) starts off with what is probably Chas Chandler's best known bass lines, slowly adding drums, vocals, guitar and finally keyboards on its way to an explosive chorus. The song was not originally intended for the Animals, however; it was written for the Righteous Brothers as a follow up to (You've Got That) Lovin' Feelin', which Mann and Weil had also provided for the duo. Mann, however, decided to record the song himself, but the Animals managed to get their version out first, taking it to the top 20 in the US and the top 5 in the UK. As the Vietnam war escalated, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place became a sort of underground anthem for US servicemen stationed in South Vietnam, and has been associated with that war ever since. Incidentally, there were actually two versions of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place recorded during the same recording session, with an alternate take accidentally being sent to M-G-M and subsequently being released as the US version of the single. This version (which some collectors and fans maintain has a stronger vocal track) appeared on the US-only LP Animal Tracks in the fall of 1965 as well as the original M-G-M pressings of the 1966 album Best Of The Animals.
Artist: Janis Joplin
Title: Get It While You Can
Source: LP: Pearl
Writer(s): Ragovoy/Schuman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1971
The final track on Janis Joplin's last album is, in some ways, a fitting epitaph for one of the greatest vocalists in rock history. Get It While You Can is a powerful tune from Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Schuman, one of the most prolific songwriting teams of the 1960s. Joplin's version of the song originally recorded by Howard Tate showcases both her range and passion in less than three and a half minutes.
Artist: Pretty Things
Title: Walking Through My Dreams
Source: Mono British import CD: Psychedelia At Abbey Road (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): May/Taylor/Waller
Label: EMI (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
Like the Rolling Stones, the Pretty Things were a product of London's somewhat rough and tumble blue collar neighborhoods, and in their early years played a similar mix of early rock 'n' roll and R&B cover tunes. By 1967, however, the band had embraced psychedelia far more than the Stones, even to the point of rivalling Pink Floyd for the unofficial title of Britain's leading psychedelic band. A case in point is Walking Though My Dreams, released in 1967 as the B side to the equally psychedelic Talkin' About The Good Times. For some reason, however, the Pretty Things never had the success in the US that the Stones (or even Pink Floyd) enjoyed.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Quite Rightly So
Source: CD: Shine On Brightly
Writer(s): Brooker/Reid
Label: A&M
Year: 1968
In 1969, while living on Ramstein AFB in Germany, my dad managed to get use of one of the basement storage rooms in building 913, the 18-unit apartment building we resided in. For a few months (until getting in trouble for having overnight guests and making too much noise...hey I was 16, whaddaya expect?) I got to use that room as a bedroom. I had a small record player that shut itself off when it got to the end of the record, which meant I got to go to sleep every night to the album of my choice. As often as not that album was Shine On Brightly, a copy of which I had gotten in trade for another album (the Best of the Beach Boys I think) from a guy who was expecting A Whiter Shade of Pale and was disappointed to discover it was not on this album. I always thought I got the better end of that deal, despite the fact that there was a skip during the fade of Quite Rightly So, causing the words "one was me" to repeat over and over until I scooted the needle over a bit. Luckily Quite Rightly So is the first song on the album, so I was usually awake enough to do that.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Born To Be Wild
Source: CD: Steppenwolf
Writer(s): Mars Bonfire
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
Born To Be Wild's status as a counter-cultural anthem was cemented when it was chosen for the soundtrack of the movie Easy Rider. The popularity of both the song and the movie resulted in Steppenwolf becoming the all-time favorite band of bikers all over the world.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: People
Source: Mono CD: The Complete Atco Singles
Writer(s): Stein/Bogert/Martell/Appice
Label: Real Gone/Rhino
Year: 1969
Although credited to the entire band, People was the brainchild of Vanilla Fudge guitarist Vinnie Martell, who came up with the tune while the group was brainstorming for original material to record (as opposed to the rearranged and rocked out covers they were famous for). According to Martell, the song "tells of humanity evolving in time through the prisms of my own personal altered state of consciousness." Brainstorming indeed!
Artist: Steve Miller Band
Title: Brave New World
Source: LP: Homer soundtrack (originally released on LP: Brave New World)
Writer(s): Steve Miller
Label: Cotillion (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1969
It took the Steve Miller Band half a dozen albums (plus appearances on a couple of movie soundtracks) to achieve star status in the early 1970s. Along the way they developed a cult following that added new members with each successive album. The fourth Miller album was Brave New World, the title track of which was used in the film Homer, a 1970 film that is better remembered for its soundtrack than for the film itself.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: I Don't Know That You Don't Know My Name
Source: LP: Ssssh!
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
The title of this song confuses me. Every time I look at it my eyes cross. The recording of I Don't Know That You Don't Know My Name on the Ten Years After album Ssssh is, however, quite an enjoyable (if somewhat short) listen.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Electric Funeral
Source: CD: Paranoid
Writer(s): Iommi/Osborne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
When Black Sabbath first appeared on vinyl they were perceived as the next step in the evolution of rock, building on the acid rock of the late sixties and laying the groundwork for what would become heavy metal. Electric Funeral, from the band's second album, Paranoid, shows that evolution in progress.
Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1714 (starts 4/5/17)
A fairly large chunk (approximately one third of an hour) of this week's show is taken up by tracks from Black Sabbath. There's also a couple tunes from Heart (including the rarely heard Dreamboat Annie single) and...well, quite a bit of stuff actually.
Artist: Rare Bird
Title: Birdman-Part One (Title #1 Again)
Source: 45 RPM promo (stereo side)
Writer(s): Kaffinetti/Karos/Curtis/Kelly/Gould
Label: Polydor
Year: 1972
The appropriately named Rare Bird was never very popular in their native England. None of their albums charted there, and they only had one charted single that went to the #27 spot in 1969. They were much more successful in continental Europe, however. That same single, Sympathy, was an international hit, selling a million copies worldwide and hitting the #1 spot in both France and Italy. By the time the Rare Bird's third LP, Epic Forest, was released, the band had gone through several personnel changes, including the loss of the group's founder, keyboardist Graham Field. In the US the band got some airplay on college radio stations, but was virtually ignored by mainstream US listeners. I did manage to find a copy of Birdman-Part One (Title #1 Again), the single from the Epic Forest album in a thrift store many years ago. It's really quite listenable.
Artist: Crack The Sky
Title: Mind Baby
Source: LP: Crack The Sky
Writer(s): John Palumbo
Label: Lifesong
Year: 1975
The first LP released on Terry Cashman and Joe West's Lifesong label was a group that is still active in the Baltimore area called Crack The Sky. Originally called Words, the band had been formed in Weirton, West Virginia by members of two local bands, Sugar and Uncle Louie. The 10-member band successfully auditioned for CashWest Productions, the company that also produced singer/songwriter Jim Croce, and, after paring down to five members, released their self-titled debut LP in 1975. Although never a major national success (due mostly to distribution problems on the part of Lifesong), the group did manage to place three albums on the Billboard charts, two of which have since been reissued as a single CD. One of the songs from the first LP, Mind Baby, was left off the CD due to space limitations. Personally, I consider it one of the better tracks from the album.
Artist: David Bowie
Title: Star
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
After a series of mildly successful acoustically-oriented albums such as Hunky Dory and The Man Who Sold The World, David Bowie achieved superstar status with the release of The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars in 1972. The album itself tells the story of an extra-terrestrial visitor who achieves rock star status, as described in the song Star.
Artist: Heart
Title: Sing Child
Source: LP: Dreamboat Annie
Writer(s): Wilson/Wilson/Fossen/Fisher
Label: Mushroom
Year: 1975
I've always had a soft spot for Heart's first album, Dreamboat Annie. Maybe it's because the album's history parallels my entry into the world of college radio. Released in late 1975 in Canada, the album did not appear in the US until mid-1976. I had first started volunteering at KUNM in Albuquerque in late 1975. By the time Dreamboat Annie was released in the US, KUNM had moved into new facilities (with a significant power boost) and I had a regular daytime slot at the station. Having a musician's perspective, I focused on tracks like Sing Child, with its guitar solo, while the commercial FM rock stations were playing Magic Man and top 40 AM radio was playing Crazy On You. Such was the state of American radio in the mid-1970s.
Artist: Heart
Title: Dreamboat Annie
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Ann and Nancy Wilson
Label: Mushroom
Year: 1975
If you look at the label of Heart's Dreamboat Annie album you will notice that there are actually three tracks bearing the name Dreamboat
Annie. This single, however, is not the same as any of them. It is, in fact, a patchwork piece made by splicing the intro from Crazy On You (which was edited out of the single version of that song) onto the two-minute long Dreamboat Annie track that closes out side one of the LP. This new version of Dreamboat Annie (technically the fourth) was then issued as the band's third single. Although it barely missed the top 40 (peaking at #42) it was the first Heart single to hit the Adult Contemporary charts, making it to the #17 spot.
Artist: Neil Young
Title: The Loner
Source: LP: The Big Ball (originally released on LP: Neil Young)
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
The Loner could easily have been passed off as a Buffalo Springfield song. In addition to singer/songwriter/guitarist Neil Young, the tune features Springfield members Jim Messina on bass and George Grantham on drums. Since Buffalo Springfield was functionally defunct by the time the song was ready for release, however, it instead became Young's first single as a solo artist. The song first appeared, in a longer form, on Young's first solo album in late 1968, with the single appearing three months later. The subject of The Loner has long been rumored to be Young's bandmate Stephen Stills, or possibly Young himself. As usual, Neil Young ain't sayin'.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Castles Made Of Sand
Source: CD: The Ultimate Experience (originally released on LP: Axis: Bold As Love)
Writer: Jimi Hendrix
Label: MCA (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1967
Although born in Seattle, Washington, James Marshall Hendrix was never associated with the local music scene that produced some of the loudest and raunchiest punk-rock of the mid 60s. Instead, he paid his professional dues backing R&B artists on the "chitlin circuit" of clubs playing to a mostly-black clientele, mainly in the southern US. After a short stint leading his own soul band, Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, Hendrix, at the behest of one Chas Chandler, moved to London, where he recuited a pair of local musicians, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Although known for his innovative use of feedback, Hendrix was quite capable of knocking out some of the most complex "clean" riffs ever to be committed to vinyl. A prime example of this is Castles Made Of Sand. Hendrix's highly melodic guitar work combined with unusual tempo changes and haunting lyrics makes Castles Made Of Sand a classic that sounds as fresh today as it did when Axis: Bold As Love was released in 1967. The first time I ever heard this song it gave me chills.
Artist: Santana
Title: Every Step Of The Way
Source: LP: Caravanserai
Writer(s): Mike Shrieve
Label: Columbia
Year: 1972
In 1972, following three artistic and commercially successful albums, Carlos Santana and his band decided to undergo a major change in style, abandoning latin flavored rock in favor of a more experimental jazz sound. The resulting album, Caravanserai, was indeed a departure for the group. The album was made up mostly of long instrumental tracks, and produced no hit singles. Predictably, this marked the beginning of a commercial decline for Santana, and led to the departure of two of its members, Greg Rolie and Neal Schon, to form Journey in 1973.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: A Bit Of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning
Source: LP: Black Sabbath
Writer(s): Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
According to Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, the band's debut LP was recorded in one day, in a marathon 12-hour session, and mixed the following day. Most of the tracks, including the 14-minute long Warning, were done in one take with no overdubs. The tune itself is listed on the US album cover as three separate tracks, even though it is the same continuous piece that appeared on the original UK version of the album. The reason for this is probably so the band could get more in royalties for three compositions than they could for just one. The Grateful Dead did essentially the same thing on their 1968 album Anthem Of The Sun with the 18-minute long track That's It For The Other One. Both albums appeared in the US on the Warner Brothers label.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: Orchid/Lord Of This World
Source: LP: Master Of Reality
Writer(s): Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1971
Black Sabbath continued their winning streak with their third LP, Master Of Reality, in 1971. The album marked the first time that guitarist Tony Iommi deliberately detuned his guitar a step and a half on songs like Lord Of This World in order to ease the pressure on the fingertips of his left hand, which had been damaged in a factory accident years earlier. Bassist Geezer Butler followed step. The result was what Iommi called a "bigger, heavier sound" that helped establish Black Sabbath as the kings of heavy metal in the early 1970s.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1713 (B14) (starts 3/28/17)
Attention Firesign Theatre fanatics: this week we have the entire first side of Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers, also known as the George Tirebiter story. We also have artists sets from Cream and the Left Banke and of course all kinds of other stuff, too.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
Source: CD: The Grateful Dead
Writer: McGannahan Skjellyfetti
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1967
I once knew someone from San Jose, California who had an original copy of the single version of The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion), the opening track from the first Grateful Dead album. It was totally worn out from being played a few hundred times, though.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: 3rd Stone From The Sun
Source: LP: Are You Experienced?
Writer(s): Jimi Hendrix
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
Jimi Hendrix once stated that he was far more comfortable as a guitarist than as a vocalist, at least in the early days of the Experience. In that case, he was certainly in his element for this classic instrumental from the Are You Experienced album. Many of the sounds heard on 3rd Stone From The Sun were made by superimposing a slowed down recording of the following conversation between Hendrix and producer Chas Chandler over the music:
Hendrix : Star fleet to scout ship, please give your position. Over.
Chandler : I am in orbit around the third planet of star known as sun. Over.
Hendrix : May this be Earth? Over.
Chandler : Positive. It is known to have some form of intelligent species. Over.
Hendrix : I think we should take a look (Jimi then makes vocal spaceship noises).
One of the more notable spoken lines that plays at normal speed on the recording, "To you I shall put an end, then you'll never hear surf music again", was Hendrix's reaction to the news that famed surf guitarist Dick Dale had been diagnosed with a possible terminal case of colon cancer and was meant to encourage his friend's recovery (apparently it worked, as Dick Dale is still going strong as of 2016). As heard on the 2007 album The Jimi Hendrix Experience: 1966–1967, Hendrix's original overdub included two more sentences "That sounds like a lie to me. Come on, man; let's go home." that were not used on the final recording. The train sequence at the end of the track, incidentally, was done entirely on guitar.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source: CD: Psychedelic Pop (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night))
Writer(s): Tucker/Mantz
Label: BMG/RCA/Buddah (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1966
The Electric Prunes biggest hit was I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), released in late 1966 and hitting the charts in early 1967. The record, initially released without much promotion from the record label, was championed by Seattle DJ Pat O'Day of KJR radio, and was already popular in that area when it hit the national charts (thus explaining why so many people assumed the band was from Seattle). I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) has come to be one of the defining songs of the psychedelic era and was the opening track on both the original Lenny Kaye Nuggets compilation and Rhino's first Nuggets LP.
Artist: Seeds
Title: Rollin' Machine
Source: LP: A Web Of Sound
Writer(s): Sky Saxon
Label: GNP Crescendo
Year: 1966
Is there anyone out there that really thinks this is a song about a car? I thought not.
Artist: Love
Title: A Message To Pretty
Source: Australian import CD: Comes In Colours
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Raven (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1966
1966 was the peak year for the underground (and under-age) club scene in Los Angeles, and Love was the hottest band on that scene. They were so hot, in fact, that they became the first rock band signed to the Elektra label. In addition to high-energy tracks such as My Little Red Book and Hey Joe (the fast version), the album had a generous helping of the Southern California brand of folk-rock, as can be heard on the Arthur Lee compostion A Message To Pretty.
Artist: Cyrkle
Title: Why Can't You Give Me What I Want
Source: Mono LP: Red Rubber Ball
Writer(s): Dawes/Friedland
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
The Cyrkle was originally a frat-rock band from Easton, Pennsylvania called the Rhondells consisting of Don Danneman on guitar, Tom Dawes on bass, Marty Freid on drums and Earl Pickens on keyboards. In 1965, while playing gigs in Atlantic City they hooked up with a new manager, Brian Epstein, who promptly renamed them the Cyrkle (the odd spelling provided by John Lennon, a member of another band managed by Epstein). Under the new name and management, the band soon found themselves opening for the Beatles (on their last North American tour) and scoring a top 5 hit with Red Rubber Ball in the summer of 1966. The hit single was soon followed by an album of the same name that included a mix of cover tunes and Cyrkle originals such as Why Can't You Give Me What I Want. It was a volatile time in the pop music world, however, and the Cyrkle soon found themselves sounding a bit dated, and by 1968, after one more LP and a series of singles, each of which did successively worse than the previous one, the band decided to throw in the towel.
Artist: Spirit
Title: Nature's Way/Animal Zoo/Love Has Found A Way/Why Can't I Be Free
Source: LP: Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus
Writer(s): California/Ferguson/Locke
Label: Epic
Year: 1970
Spirit was one of those bands that consistently scored well with the critics, yet was never truly able to connect with a large segment of the record buying audience at any given time. Perhaps their best album was Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, released in 1970 to glowing reviews. Despite this, the album actually charted lower than any of their three previous efforts, and would be the last to feature the band's original lineup. In the long haul, however, Twelve Dreams has become the group's top selling album, thanks to steady catalog sales over a period of years. Unlike many more popular records of the time, Twelve Dreams sounds as fresh and original today as when it first appeared, as can be easily heard on the four-song medley that makes up the bulk of the LP's first side. Indeed, despite never having charted as a single, Nature's Way, a Randy California tune which starts the sequence, is one of the best-known songs in the entire Spirit catalog. Additionally, its ecological theme segues naturally into Animal Zoo, a Jay Ferguson tune with a more satirical point of view. Love Has Found A Way, written by vocalist Ferguson and keyboardist John Locke, can best described as psychedelic space jazz, while Why Can't I Be Free is a simple, yet lovely, short coda from guitarist California. Although Spirit, in various incarnations, would continue to record for many years, they would never put out another album as listenable as Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus.
Artist: Cream
Title: Sleepy Time Time
Source: CD: Fresh Cream
Writer(s): Bruce/Godfrey
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1966
When Cream was first formed, both Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker worked with co-writers on original material for the band. Baker's partner was Pete Brown, while Bruce worked with his wife, Janet Godfrey. Eventually Bruce and Brown began collaborating, creating some of Cream's most memorable songs, but not before Bruce and Godfrey wrote Sleepy Time Time, one of the high points of the Fresh Cream album.
Artist: Cream
Title: Spoonful
Source: LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released in UK only on LP: Fresh Cream)
Writer(s): Willie Dixon
Label: Cotillion (original label: Reaction)
Year: 1966
When the album Fresh Cream was released by Atco in the US it was missing one track that was on the original UK version of the album: the band's original studio version of Willie Dixon's Spoonful. A live version of Spoonful was included on the LP Wheels of Fire, but it wasn't until the 1970 soundtrack album for the movie Homer that the studio version was finally released in the US. Unfortunately the compilers of that album left out the last 25 seconds or so from the original recording.
Artist: Cream
Title: Rollin' And Tumblin'
Source: CD: Fresh Cream
Writer(s): McKinley Morganfield
Label: Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year: 1966
Right from the beginning Cream demonstrated two distinct sides: the psychedelic-tinged studio side and the blues-based live performance side. In the case of the US version of the band's first LP, Fresh Cream, that was literally true, as side one consisted entirely of original songs (mostly written by bassist Jack Bruce) and side two was nearly all covers of blues classics such as Muddy Waters's Rollin' And Tumblin'. What makes this particular recording interesting is the instrumentation used: guitar, vocals, harmonica and drums, with no bass whatsoever. This could be due to the limited number of tracks available for overdubs. Just as likely, though, is the possibility that the band chose to make a recording that duplicated their live performance of the song.
Artist: Left Banke
Title: I've Got Something On My Mind
Source: LP: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
Writer(s): Cameron/Martin/Brown
Label: Sundazed/Smash
Year: 1967
I'll never understand the thought processes that went into deciding to name an album after not one, but two of the songs on that album (with a slash no less), but that's exactly what Smash Records did with the first and only Left Banke LP, Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina. Despite what seems to be nothing less than cheap exploitation, the album actually has some nice sounding (if somewhat light) tracks, such as I've Got Something On My Mind.
Artist: Left Banke
Title: Pretty Ballerina
Source: LP: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
Writer(s): Sommer/Brown/Lookofsky
Label: Smash/Sundazed
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: Left Banke
Title: Lazy Day
Source: LP: Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina
Writer(s): Brown/Martin
Label: Smash/Sundazed
Year: 1967
Although known mostly for being pioneers of baroque-rock, the Left Banke showed that they could, on occassion, rock out with the best of them on tracks like Lazy Day, which closed out their only LP. The song was also issued as the B side of their second hit, Pretty Ballerina. Incidentally, after the success of their first single, Walk Away Renee, the band formed their own publishing company for their original material, a practice that was fairly common then and now. Interestingly enough, they called that company Lazy Day Music.
Artist: Shadows Of Knight
Title: I'm Gonna Make You Mine
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Carr/Derrico/Sager
Label: Rhino (original label: Dunwich)
Year: 1966
Possibly the loudest rockin' recordings of 1966 came from the Shadows of Knight. A product of the Chicago suburbs, the Shadows (as they were originally known) quickly established a reputation as the region's resident bad boy rockers (lead vocalist Jim Sohns was reportedly banned from more than one high school campus for his attempts at increasing the local teen pregnancy rate). After signing a record deal with the local Dunwich label, the band learned that there was already a band called the Shadows and added the Knight part (after their own high school sports teams' name). Their first single was a cover of Van Morrison's Gloria that changed one line ("around here" in place of "up to my room") and thus avoided the mass radio bannings that had derailed the original Them version. I'm Gonna Make You Mine was the second follow up to Gloria, but its lack of commercial success consigned the Shadows to one-hit wonder status until years after the band's breakup, when they finally got the recognition they deserved as one of the founding bands of garage/punk, and perhaps its greatest practicioner.
Artist: Them
Title: She Put A Hex On You
Source: LP: Time Out! Time In! For Them
Writer(s): Lane/Pulley
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
After recruiting new lead vocalist Kenny McDowell, Them moved their base of operations to California, where they recorded two LPs for Capitol's tax writeoff label, Tower. The second of these was titled Time Out! Time In! For Them. While the style of the Van Morrison version of the band was very much in the same vein as the early Rolling Stones albums, Time Out! Time In! For Them featured more psychedelic material written by the husband and wife team of Tom Lane and Sharon Pulley. The second track on the album, She Put A Hex On You, superimposes some rather spooky lyrics over an R&B beat, accented by fuzz guitar from Jim Armstrong.
Artist: Freeborne
Title: Land Of Diana
Source: Mono CD: A Heavy Dose Of Lyte Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Spiros/Carston
Label: Arf! Arf!
Year: 1968
Although the so-called Boss-Town Sound turned out to be little more than record company hype, the city itself did harbor some talented musicians, such as the members of the Freeborne, who released an album called Peak Impressions on the local Monitor label in 1968. Land Of Diana was the single taken from that album, heard here in an alternate mono mix.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: Morning Sun
Source: Mono British import CD: Love, Poetry And Revolution (originally released on LP: With Their New Faces On)
Writer(s): Davis/Hardin/Duncan/James
Label: Grapefruit (original label: United Artists)
Year: 1968
Following the departure of brothers Steve and Muff Winwood, the Spencer Davis Group attempted to carry on with new members, releasing an album, With Their New Faces On, in mid-1968. The album, however, failed to chart, despite the presence of strong tunes such as Morning Sun.
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: Kinks
Title: Victoria
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Polygram/PolyTel (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1969
The Kinks were at their commercial low point in 1969 when they released their third single from their controversial concept album Arthur or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire. Their previous two singles had failed to chart, even in their native England, and the band had not had a top 20 hit in the US since Sunny Afternoon in 1966. Victoria was a comeback of sorts, as it did manage to reach the #62 spot in the US and the #33 spot in the UK.
Artist: Gun
Title: Drives You Mad
Source: Mono British import CD: Gun (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Adrian Gurvitz
Label: Repertoire (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1969
Despite a strong debut LP and hit single (Race With The Devil), Britain's Gun ran out of bullets rather quickly. The non-album single Drives You Mad failed to chart, and the group eventually morphed into the Baker-Gurvitz Army, with ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: No Expectations
Source: CD: Beggar's Banquet
Writer: Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1968
After the heavy dose of studio effects on Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Rolling Stones took a back-to-basics approach for their next album, Beggar's Banquet, the first to be produced by Jimmy Miller (who had previously worked with Steve Winwood in Traffic and the Spencer Davis Group). No Expectations, the second track on the album, uses minimal instrumentation and places a greater emphasis on Mick Jagger's vocals and Brian Jones's slide guitar work. Sadly, it was to be Jones's last album as a member of the Rolling Stones, as heavy drug use was already taking its toll (and would soon take his life as well).
Artist: Firesign Theatre
Title: Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers (part one)
Source: LP: Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers
Writer(s): Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label: Columbia
Year: 1970
The first thing you need to know about the Firesign Theatre is that they were oriented to sound rather than vision. Their use of special effects parallels that of World War II era radio programs, which they often payed tribute to on their albums. They were also pioneers of "concept humor", dedicating an entire album to a single theme, such as the life of George Leroy Tirebiter on the album Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers. Released in 1970 the album focuses on Tirebiter (played by David Ossman), a former child actor who spends his time watching his old movies on TV. Those movies include High School Madness (a parody of the Aldrich Family radio show, among other things), and Parallel Hell, a war film set in Korea. These films are interrupted from time to time by commercials and the sound of the channel being changed to such things as talk shows and TV preachers, both of which were staples of late-night television on stations in the Los Angeles area in the late 1960s. The album title itself is somewhat ambiguous: one interpretation is that the "dwarf" is a roach from a marijuana joint and the "pliers" are actually a roach clip. Another view is that the title was inspired by a photograph on the cover of Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde album showing Dylan holding a small picture of a person in one hand and a pair of pliers in the other. Regardless of the title's origins, Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers has been called "the greatest comedy album ever made" by the New Rolling Stone Record Guide. Here we have the entire first side of the album, uninterrupted. Enjoy!
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: Up Around The Bend
Source: LP: Chronicle (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Cosmos Factory)
Writer(s): John Fogerty
Label: Fantasy
Year: 1970
When it comes to feelgood rock and roll, few songs can match the sheer joy of Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1970 hit Up Around The Bend. The song was recorded just days before the band set off on a European tour, and, as part of a double A side single, went into the top 5.
Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 1713 (B14r) (starts 3/28/17)
This week it's all (or at least mostly) about Genesis. Specifically it's about the classic Genesis lineup of Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett and Mike Rutherford, with 40 minutes worth of tracks from the Foxtrot and Selling England By The Pound albums. Yeah, the other 20 minutes is pretty good, too.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Dancing With The Moonlit Knight
Source: CD: Selling England By The Pound
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1973
In early 1973 Genesis was coming under fire by some British music critics for trying too hard to appeal to an American audience. The band responded with the album Selling England By The Pound. The title was chosen by vocalist Peter Gabriel, who borrowed it from a slogan used by the UK's Labor Party at the time. The lyrics of pieces such as Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, which opens the album, puts an emphasis on the decay of British folk culture in favor of rampant Americanization. The song itself is based on piano pieces composed by Gabriel, embellished with guitar parts from Steve Hackett and a choir effect (created on a mellotron) from keyboardist Tony Banks. Although Selling England By The Pound got a mixed reaction from both audience and critics at the time it was released, it has since gone on to achieve gold record status and has been cited by Hackett as being his favorite Genesis album.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Supper's Ready
Source: CD: Foxtrot
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1972
The longest track Genesis ever recorded is also one of their most celebrated. Supper's Ready, from the Foxtrot album, is almost 23 minutes long and takes up most of the second side of the original LP. At least one critic has proclaimed Supper's Ready to be the band's masterpiece. The song (or more accurately, song cycle) was originally released in October of 1972. The piece, with its supernatural imagery and overall theme of good vs. evil, was inspired by an incident at a British castle in which vocalist Peter Gabriel's wife Jill went into a trance state just as the windows of the room they were in suddenly blew open. Supper's Ready is divided into seven sections: Lover's Leap, The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man, Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men, How Dare I Be So Beautiful, Willow Farm, Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet), and the final section, As Sure As Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet), which combines elements of some of the earlier parts. The piece was a major part of the band's stage show throughout Gabriel's tenure as frontman for Genesis.
Artist: Genesis
Title: Firth Of Fifth
Source: CD: Selling England By The Pound
Writer(s): Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label: Rhino/Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year: 1973
Firth Of Fifth, from the Genesis album Selling England By The Pound, was originally written by keyboardist Tony Banks for inclusion of the band's fourth LP, Foxtrot, but was rejected by the rest of the band's members. After reworking the tune, Banks again presented it to the band in time for it to be included on their next LP, Selling England By The Pound. The title is a parody of the name of a Scottish body of water called the Firth of Forth, an estuary of the River Forth. The lyrics were worked out by Banks and Genesis bassist Mike Rutherford. The song, considered by many to be a classic example of the progressive rock genre, remained part of the band's stage repertoire for many years.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Woodchopper's Ball
Source: LP: Undead
Writer(s): Herman/Bishop
Label: Deram
Year: 1968
Live albums were still somewhat of a rarity in the 60s, and generally featured material that had not been previously released in the studio. Such was the case with the second Ten Years After album, Undead. Guitarist Alvin Lee flat out smokes on the Woody Herman jazz classic Woodchopper's Ball.
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title: I Put A Spell On You
Source: CD: Woodstock: 40 Years On: Back To Yasgur's Farm
Writer: Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Label: Rhino
Year: 1969
Before getting major attention for its string of top five singles (including three consecutive # 2 songs), Creedence Clearwater Revival released a pair of cover tunes in 1968: Dale Hawkins' Suzy Q and this one from an entirely different Hawkins, Screamin' Jay. Although the Creedence version of I Put A Spell On You only made it to the # 58 spot on the national charts, it was still part of their repertoire when they played at Woodstock the following year. It cooks.
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Big Yellow Taxi
Source: LP: The Big Ball (originally released on LP: Ladies Of The Canyon)
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1970
One of Joni Mitchell's best-known tunes, Big Yellow Taxi was originally released on the 1970 album Ladies Of The Canyon. The original studio version of the song hit the top 10 in Australia and the top 20 in the UK and Mitchell's native Canada, but only reached the #67 spot in the US. A later live version of the song, however, cracked the top 30 in the US in 1974. Mitchell says she was inspired to write the song on a visit to Hawaii, where she looked out her hotel window to view a mountain vista in the distance, only to be shocked back to reality when she looked down to see a parking lot "as far as the eye could see".
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 1712 (B13) (starts 3/22/17)
Due to some unusual circumstances both this week's and next week's shows are backup shows, recorded in 2015 but never aired. Enjoy!
Artist: Seeds
Title: Pushin' Too Hard
Source: Simulated stereo CD: Best of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: The Seeds)
Writer: Sky Saxon
Label: Priority (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1965
Pushin' Too Hard was originally released to the L.A. market as a single in late 1965 and included on side one of the first Seeds album the following year. After being re-released as a single the song did well enough to go national in early 1967, peaking at #36 in February.
Artist: Opus 1
Title: Back Seat '38 Dodge
Source: Mono CD: Where the Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Christensen/Becker/Becker/Parker
Label: Rhino (original label: Mustang)
Year: 1966
Long Beach, California was home to Opus 1, who released the surf-tinged Back Seat '38 Dodge on L.A.'s Mustang label in 1966. The title refers to a controversial sculpture that suburbanites were talking about at the time.
Artist: Who
Title: Odorono
Source: CD: The Who Sell Out
Writer(s): Pete Townshend
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1967
The Who Sell Out was released just in time for Christmas 1967. It was a huge success in England, where Radio London was one of the few surviving pirate radio stations still broadcasting following the launch of BBC-1 earlier in the year. Incidentally, the inclusion of the various jingles on the album reportedly resulted in a flurry of lawsuits against the Who.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: America
Source: 45 RPM single B side (song originally released on LP: Bookends)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Year: 1968/1972
Four years after the release of the album Bookends (and two years after the breakup of Simon and Garfunkel), Columbia decided to release the song For Emily, Wherever I May Find Her, from their final album Bridge Over Troubled Water, as a single, to coincide with the release of their Greatest Hits album. For the B side, they went even further back, pulling out the original tapes for the song America. The tracks on the Bookends album were deliberately overlapped to form a continuous audio montage, making this the first standalone version of America to be released.
Artist: Procol Harum
Title: Repent Walpurgis
Source: Similuated stereo LP: Procol Harum
Writer(s): Matthew Fisher
Label: Deram
Year: 1967
It is unusual to find a Procol Harum track that was not written by the songwriting team of Gary Brooker and Keith Reid. In fact, on their self-title first LP there was only one. Repent Walpurgis is credited to organist Matthew Fisher, who also wrote the organ intro for the band's most popular recording, A Whiter Shade Of Pale (but had to go to court to get songwriting credit for it years later). Fisher later said that Repent Walpurgis was based on the works of French organist Charles-Marie Widor and German composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
Artist: Country Joe And The Fish
Title: Janis
Source: LP: I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die
Writer(s): Joe McDonald
Label: Vanguard
Year: 1967
It is not well-known (yet hardly a secret, either) that in early 1967, Country Joe McDonald and Janis Joplin had a live-in relationship. As might be expected given the strong personalities involved, the affair didn't last long, but apparently had a profound enough effect on McDonald that he wrote a song about it. That song, Janis, appears on the second Country Joe And The Fish LP, I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die.
Artist: Byrds
Title: Renaissance Fair
Source: CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s): Crosby/McGuinn
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1967
Younger Than Yesterday was David Crosby's last official album with the Byrds (he was fired midway through the recording of The Notorious Byrd Brothers) and the last one containing any collaborations between Crosby and Jim (now Roger) McGuinn. Renaissance Fair, a song that Crosby was inspired to write after attending the Renaissance Pleasure Faire Of Southern California, is one of those collaborations, although the actual extent of McGuinn's participation is debatable.
Artist: Bee Gees
Title: In My Own Time
Source: CD: Bee Gees 1st
Writer(s): Barry and Robin Gibb
Label: Reprise (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
The album Bee Gees 1st was actually the Gibb brothers' third LP. The first two, however, were only released in Australia and New Zealand (the Gibb family having emigrated to Australia from their native England several years before), and utilized studio musicians extensively. In 1966 Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, along with drummer Colin Petersen, relocated to London, where they added guitarist Vince Melouney (who had himself recently moved to England from Australia) to make the Bee Gees an actual band. They came to the attention of record impressario Robert Stigwood, whose Robert Stigwood Organization also managed Cream, the Who, the Small Faces and Jimi Hendrix. Bee Gees 1st was an international success, spawning no less than three major hit singles. My own favorite track on the album, however, is an obscure bit of pyschedelia called In My Own Time. The song features several starts and stops, as well as solid fuzz guitar work from Melouney and, of course, stellar harmony vocals from the Gibb brothers.
Artist: Traffic
Title: Hole In My Shoe
Source: Mono CD: Mr. Fantasy (bonus track originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Dave Mason
Label: Island (original US label: United Artists)
Year: 1967
Since the 1970s Traffic has been known as Steve Winwood's (and to a lesser degree, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood's) band, but in the early days the group's most popular songs were written and sung by co-founder Dave Mason. Hole In My Shoe was a single that received considerable airplay in the UK. As was common practice in the UK at the time, the song was not included on the band's debut album. In the US, however, both Hole In My Shoe and the other then-current Traffic single, Paper Sun, were added to the album, replacing (ironically) a couple of Mason's other tunes.
Artist: Roy Orbison
Title: Oh, Pretty Woman
Source: 45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer(s): Orbison/Dees
Label: Monument
Year: 1964
Although the vast majority of Roy Orbison's hits were love ballads such as It's Over and Blue Bayou, his best-known song is the classic rocker Oh, Pretty Woman. The song managed to work its way to the top of both US and British charts during the height of the British Invasion. Orbison, in fact, was even more successful in the UK than in his native US, scoring two number hits on the British charts in 1964, the only American artist to do so.
Artist: Grateful Dead
Title: Mindbender (Confusion's Prince)
Source: CD: Birth Of The Dead
Writer(s): Garcia/Lesh
Label: Rhino
Year: 1965
On November 3, 1965, a young rock band known as the Warlocks recorded six songs for Autumn Records at Golden State Recorders. According to legend, it was discovered at the last minute that there was already a band called the Warlocks, so the sessions were recorded under the name The Emergency Crew. Not long after this recording date, the Warlocks officially changed their name to the Grateful Dead. Autumn Records chose not to issue any of these recordings, and most of the song, including Mindbender (Confusion's Prince) an early collaborative effort between Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, remained unreleased until 2001, when they were included in the massive twelve-CD box set The Golden Road (1965-1973). Two years later Rhino issued the first two discs of that set as a standalone called Birth Of The Dead.
Artist: Jefferson Airplane
Title: Run Around
Source: LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer(s): Balin/Kantner
Label: RCA Victor
Year: 1966
The first Jefferson Airplane album was dominated by the songwriting of the band's founder, Marty Balin, both as a solo writer and as a collaborator with other band members. Run Around, from Balin and rhythm guitarist Paul Kantner, is fairly typical of the early Jefferson Airplane sound.
Artist: Easybeats
Title: Sorry
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Australia as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Wright/Young
Label: Rhino (original label: Parlophone)
Year: 1966
While Beatlemania was sweeping the northern hemisphere, a similar phenomena known as Easyfever was all the rage down under. Formed in the migrant hostels on the edge of Sydney, the Easybeats signed with Parlophone in 1965, and hit the top of the Australian charts with their second single. From that point on, the Easybeats were the # 1 band in the country, cranking out hit after hit, including Sorry from 1966. Like all the band's early hits, Sorry was written by the team of vocalist Stevie Wright and guitarist George Young. Not long after the release of Sorry, the Easybeats would decide to relocate to England. At around the same time lead guitarist Harry Vanda replaced Wright as Young's primary writing partner; together they wrote the international smash Friday On My Mind. The Easybeats continued to record into the early 70s, but with only moderate success. Eventually Young returned to Australia, where he was instrumental in helping his younger brothers Angus and Malcolm find success with their own band, AC/DC.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: I Am Waiting
Source: British import LP: Aftermath
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1966
The Aftermath album was a turning point for the Rolling Stones. For one thing, it was their first album recorded entirely in the US, and at a much more leisurely pace than their previous albums. This afforded the band the opportunity to spend more time working on their arrangements before committing songs to tape. It also gave Brian Jones a chance to experiment with instruments not normally associated with rock and roll music, such as sitar, dulcimer, marimbas, and koto. Aftermath was also the first Rolling Stones album made up entirely of songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, including the semi-acoustical I Am Waiting.
Artist: Donovan
Title: Sunshine Superman
Source: British import CD: Psychedelia At Abbey Road (originally released as 45 RPM single and on LP: Sunshine Superman)
Writer(s): Donovan Leitch
Label: EMI
Year: 1966
Up until the early 1970s there was an unwritten rule that stated that in order to get played on top 40 radio a song could be no more than three and a half minutes long. There were exceptions, of course, such as Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone, but as a general rule the policy was strictly adhered to. Sometimes an artist would record a song that exceeded the limit but nonetheless was considered to have commercial potential. In cases like these the usual practice was for the record company (or sometimes the producer of the record) to create an edited version of the master recording for release as a single. Usually in these cases the original unedited version of the song would appear on an album. In the case of Donovan's Sunshine Superman, however, the mono single version was used for the album as well, possibly because the album itself was never issued in stereo. In fact, it wasn't until 1969 that the full-length original recording of Sunshine Superman was made available as a track on Donovan's first Greatest Hits collection. This was also the first time the song had appeared in stereo, having been newly mixed for that album. An even newer mix was made in 1998 and is included on a British anthology album called Psychedelia At Abbey Road. This version takes advantage of digital technology and has a slightly different sound than previous releases of the song.
Artist: Beatles
Title: She Said She Said
Source: CD: Revolver
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original US label: Capitol)
Year: 1966
The last song to be recorded for the Beatles' Revolver album was She Said She Said, a John Lennon song inspired by an acid trip taken by members of the band (with the exception of Paul McCartney) during a break from touring in August of 1965. The band's manager, Brian Epstein, had rented a large house in Beverly Hills, but word had gotten out and the Beatles found it difficult to come and go at will. Instead, they invited several people, including the original Byrds and actor Peter Fonda, to come over and hang out with them. At some point, Fonda brought up the fact that he had nearly died as a child from an accidental gunshot wound, and used the phrase "I know what it's like to be dead." Lennon was creeped out by the things Fonda was saying and told him to "shut up about that stuff. You're making me feel like I've never been born." Both lines ended up being used in the song itself, which took nine hours to record and mix, and is one of the few Beatle tracks that does not have Paul McCartney on it (George Harrison played bass). Ironically, Fonda himself would star in a Roger Corman film called The Trip (written by Jack Nicholson and co-starring Dennis Hopper) the following year.
Artist: Albert Collins
Title: Pushin'
Source: LP: Underground Gold (originally released on LP: Love Can Be Found Anywhere (Even In A Guitar))
Writer(s): Stephen Hollister
Label: Liberty (original label: Imperial)
Year: 1968
Albert Collins was a Texas bluesman who had been recording for various Houston-based labels over a period of ten years when he was approached by the members of Canned Heat, who offered to help him secure a record deal with Imperial Records in 1968. Collins soon relocated to first Kansas City and then Palo Alto, California, where he recorded the album Love Can Be Found Anywhere (Even In A Guitar). The album's title was taken from a line used by Robert Hite in Canned Heat's Fried Hockey Boogie and included several strong tracks, including Pushin'. Hite also wrote liner notes for the album, which was released in November of 1968.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35
Source: Mono CD: The Best Of The Original Mono Recordings
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia/Legacy
Year: 1966
Some of the best rock and roll songs of 1966 were banned on a number of stations for being about either sex or drugs. Most artists that recorded those songs claimed they were about something else altogether. In the case of Bob Dylan's Rainy Day Women # 12 & 35, "stoned" refers to a rather unpleasant form of execution (at least according to Dylan). On the other hand, Dylan himself was reportedly quite stoned while recording the song, having passed a few numbers around before starting the tape rolling. Sometimes I think ambiguities like this are why English has become the dominant language of commerce on the planet.
Artist: Black Sabbath
Title: A Bit Of Finger/Sleeping Village/Warning
Source: LP: Black Sabbath
Writer(s): Iommi/Osbourne/Butler/Ward
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1970
According to Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, the band's debut LP was recorded in one day, in a marathon 12-hour session, and mixed the following day. Most of the tracks, including the 14-minute long Warning, were done in one take with no overdubs. The tune itself is listed on the US album cover as three separate tracks, even though it is the same continuous piece that appeared on the original UK version of the album. The reason for this is probably so the band could get more in royalties for three compositions than they could for just one. The Grateful Dead did essentially the same thing on their 1968 album Anthem Of The Sun with the 18-minute long track That's It For The Other One. Both albums appeared in the US on the Warner Brothers label.
Artist: Doors
Title: Do It
Source: CD: The Soft Parade
Writer(s): Morrison/Kreiger
Label: Elektra
Year: 1969
Generally considered the weakest of the Doors' studio albums, The Soft Parade was recorded over a period of nine months, and, unlike other Doors albums, features horns and a string section. It was also the first Doors album to give individual writing credits, reportedly because vocalist Jim Morrison did not want his name associated with some of guitarist Robby Kreiger's lyrics. Nonetheless, the two of them did collaborate on one song, Do It, which is one of the better tracks from the album.
Artist: Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
Title: Prelude/Nightmare
Source: British import CD: Spirit Of Joy (originally released on LP: The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown)
Writer(s): Arthur Brown
Label: Polydor (original label: Atlantic)
Year: 1968
One of rock's first "theatrical" performers, Arthur Brown first began to get noticed in Paris, where he spent a year developing his stage show and unique vocal style with his band the Arthur Brown Set, which was formed in 1965. On his return to England he joined up with keyboardist Vincent Crane. By 1967 the Vincent Crane Combo had changed its name to The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown and was becoming a major force on London's underground music scene. In late 1967 the band went to work on their self-titled debut LP, which was released in the UK on the Track label in June of 1968. Spurred by the success of the single Fire, the album was picked up for American distribution by Atlantic Records that same year. The people at Atlantic, however, felt that the drums were a bit off and insisted on adding horns and strings to cover the deficiency. The result can be heard on tracks like Prelude/Nightmare, which opens the album.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Hey Grandma
Source: LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s): Miller/Stevenson
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
One of the most talked-about albums to come from the San Francisco music scene in 1967 was Moby Grape's debut album. Unfortunately a lot of that talk was from Columbia Records itself, which resulted in the band getting a reputation for being overly hyped, much to the detriment of the band's future efforts. Still, that first album did have some outstanding tracks, including Hey Grandma, which opens side one of the LP.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Title: Hey, Hey, What Can I Do
Source: Stereo 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Page/Plant/Bonham/Jones
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1970
In their entire existence Led Zeppelin only issued one non-album track. Hey, Hey, What Can I Do was originally released as the B side of the Immigrant Song in 1970, and was not available in any other form until 1990, when it was included in the first Led Zeppelin box set. It has since been made available as a bonus track on the Led Zeppelin III CD.
Artist: Crosby, Stills And Nash
Title: Long Time Gone
Source: CD: Crosby, Stills And Nash
Writer(s): David Crosby
Label: Atlantic
Year: 1969
In addition to showcasing some of the most popular bands of 1969, the Woodstock festival helped several relatively new acts attain stardom as well. Among these newer artists were Santana, Ten Years After and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The biggest Woodstock success story, however, was Crosby, Stills and Nash, who appearance at the event was only their second live performance. In addition to the group's live performance, the movie and soundtrack album of the event included the original studio recording of Long Time Gone from the debut Crosby, Stills and Nash LP.
Artist: Steppenwolf
Title: Magic Carpet Ride
Source: CD: The Best Of 60s Psychedelic Rock (originally released on LP: Steppenwolf The Second)
Writer(s): Moreve/Kay
Label: Priority (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1968
Steppenwolf's second top 10 single was Magic Carpet Ride, a song that combines feedback, prominent organ work by Goldy McJohn and an updated Bo Diddly beat with psychedelic lyrics. Along with Born To Be Wild, Magic Carpet Ride (co-written by vocalist John Kay and bassist Rushton Moreve) has become one of the defining songs of both Steppenwolf and the late 60s.
Artist: Yardbirds
Title: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Page/McCarty
Label: Epic
Year: 1967
By 1967 the Yardbirds had moved far away from their blues roots and were on their fourth lead guitarist, studio whiz Jimmy Page. The band had recently picked up a new producer, Mickey Most, known mostly for his work with Herman's Hermits and the original Animals. Most had a tendency to concentrate solely on the band's single A sides, leaving Page an opportunity to develop his own songwriting and production skills on songs such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, a track that also shows signs of Page's innovative guitar style (including an instrumental break played with a violin bow) that would help define 70s rock.
Artist: Love
Title: 7&7 Is
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 9-Acid Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single. Stereo version released on LP: Da Capo)
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Rhino (original label: Elektra)
Year: 1967
The word "seven" does not appear anywhere in the song 7&7 Is. In fact, I have no idea where Arthur Lee got that title from. Nonetheless, the song is among the most intense tracks to ever make the top 40. 7&7 Is starts off with power chords played over a constant drum roll (possibly played by Lee himself), with cymbals crashing over equally manic semi-spoken lyrics. The song builds up to an explosive climax: an atomic bomb blast followed by a slow post-apocalyptic instrumental that quickly fades away.
Artist: 13th Floor Elevators
Title: Tried To Hide
Source: CD: The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators
Writer(s): Hall/Sutherland
Label: Collectables (original label: International Artists)
Year: 1966
The first known use of the word "psychedelic" in an album title was The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators, released on the Houston-based International Artists label in August of 1966. The album itself is notable for its inclusion of electric jug (played by Tommy Hall), and for the band's only charted single, You're Gonna Miss Me. The B side of that single was Tried To Hide, written by Hall and guitarist Stacy Sutherland.
Artist: Blues Project
Title: The Flute Thing
Source: LP: Projections
Writer(s): Al Kooper
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1966
The Blues Project was one of the most influential bands in rock history, yet to this day remains one of the most obscure. Perhaps the first of the "underground" rock bands, the Project made their name by playing small colleges across the country (including Hobart College, where Stuck in the Psychedelic Era is produced). The Flute Thing, from the group's first studio LP, Projections, features bassist Andy Kuhlberg on flute, with rhythm guitarist Steve Katz taking over the bass playing, joining lead guitarist Danny Kalb and keyboardist Al Kooper for a tune that owes more to jazz artists like Roland Kirk than to anything top 40 rock had to offer at the time.
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