Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2316 (starts 4/17/23)

https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/469862-dc-2316

    OK, I admit it. I lost control after the first ten minutes or so and from then on let the show itself take over. And it went to some places I never would have thought of, like the hit single by Delaney and Bonnie that didn't appear on an album until after they had split up. Or that Queen song that was not written by either Freddie Mercury OR Brian May. What's with that?? And I'm not even going to ask what led to the inclusion of Peter Frampton's signature song (from his signature album, yet). Instead I'll just let you listen to this week's edition of Rockin' in the Days of Confusion yourself.

Artist:    Three Dog Night
Title:    Liar
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Russ Ballard
Label:    Dunhill
Year:    1971
    Before the Beatles came along a typical pop group consisted of three or more vocalists backed by studio musicians and performing material provided by professional songwriters. In a sense Three Dog Night was a throwback to that earlier model, as the group was formed around a nucleus of three vocalists: Chuck Negron, Cory Wells and Danny Hutton. Unlike the early 60s groups, however, Three Dog Night chose to hire a fixed set of instrumentalists to both play on their records and perform live material (most of which did indeed come from professional songwriters). One of their many hit singles was Liar, a song written by Argent's lead vocalist Russ Ballard and originally released on that group's 1970 debut LP. The Three Dog Night version went into the US top 10 in 1971.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    It Slipped My Mind
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Robby Krieger
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1972
    My first impression of this song was that it almost sounded like a Frank Zappa record. I'm not sure if that's what Robby Krieger had in mind when he wrote It Slipped My Mind, but that's what I got out of it.

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    My Sunday Feeling
Source:    CD: This Was
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Chrysalis/Capitol (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    For years my only copy of Jethro Tull's first LP, This Was, was a cassette copy I had made myself. In fact, the two sides of the album were actually on two different tapes (don't ask why). When I labelled the tapes I neglected to specify which tape had which side of the album; as a result I was under the impression that My Sunday Feeling was the opening track on the album. It turns out it was actually the first track on side two, but I still tend to think of it as the "first" Jethro Tull song, despite the fact that the band had actually released a single, Sunshine Day, the previous year for a different label.

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Fresh Garbage
Source:    CD: Spirit
Writer(s):    Jay Ferguson
Label:    Ode/Epic/Legacy
Year:    1968
    Much of the material on the first Spirit album was composed by vocalist Jay Ferguson while the band was living in a big house in California's Topanga Canyon outside of Los Angeles. During their stay there was a garbage strike, which became the inspiration for the album's opening track, Fresh Garbage. The song starts off as a fairly hard rocker and suddenly breaks into a section that is pure jazz, showcasing the group's instrumental talents, before returning to the main theme to finish out the track.The group used a similar formula on about half the tracks on the LP, giving the album and the band a distinctive sound right out of the box.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience II
Title:    Isabella
Source:    CD: First Rays Of The New Rising Sun (originally released on LP: War Heroes)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Atlantic (original label: Reprise)
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 1972
    Although it is generally acknowledged to be one of the songs Jimi Hendrix was considering for inclusion on his fourth studio album, Isabella remained unreleased until 1972, when it was included on the LP War Heroes. Hendrix had already performed the song live at Woodstock with his ad hoc band Gypsy Sun And Rainbows when he decided to record a studio version of the tune in January of 1970 with the Band Of Gypsys lineup featuring bassist Billy Cox and drummer Miles Davis. The original studio recording was prepared for single release but withdrawn as not to cause problems with Capitol Records, the label that had released the Band Of Gypsys live album as satisfaction of a lawsuit that had prevented Hendrix from releasing any new material in 1969. After withdrawing the single, Hendrix decided to rework the song, replacing Miles's drum tracks with new ones performed by Mitch Mitchell, the original Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer. On June 25, 1970, Hendrix declared the song to be ready for a final mix, but he never got around to making that mix. Instead, Mitchell and engineer Eddie Kramer did the final mix on January 31, 1971.

Artist:    Delaney & Bonnie
Title:    Only You Know And I Know
Source:    British import LP: The New Age Of Atlantic (originally released in US as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Dave Mason
Label:    Atlantic (original label: Atco)
Year:    1971
    Guitarist/vocalist Delaney Bramlett and vocalist Bonnie Lynn O'Farrell were both well-established musicians (Bramlett with the Shindogs and O'Farrell with Ike & Tina Turner) when they met and married in 1967, with O'Farrell taking Bramlett's last name. They released their first LP for the Memphis-based Stax label, which was attempting to move into the album market, in 1968. Their second album,  The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (Accept No Substitute), was released on the Elektra label the following year. Although the album was not a big seller, it caught the interest of George Harrison, who offered the duo a contract with Apple Records, which they signed immediately. Unfortunately, they were still under contract to Elektra and the Apple contracted was quickly voided. Later that same year Delaney Bramlett threatened to kill Elektra owner Jac Holzman because The Original Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (Accept No Substitute) was not available where Bramlett's father lived. Around this time, Harrison's friend Eric Clapton invited Delaney & Bonnie to be the opening act for Blind Faith's US tour, and often sat in with them onstage. Meanwhile, Holzman released the duo from their Elektra contract, and Clapton got them signed to Atco, and appeared on their next LP, On Tour With Eric Clapton. Their band also included several members who would go on to become part of Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen band and Clapton's Derek And The Dominos. Their most successful single, released in 1971, was Never Ending Song Of Love, from the LP Motel Shot. They followed it up with the non-LP single Only You Know And I Know, written by former Traffic guitarist Dave Mason, who also performed with Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. The following year the couple's marraige fell apart at around the same time their final album of new material, D&B Together, was released. Only You Know And I Know, available in stereo for the first time, was included on that album.

Artist:    Queen
Title:    You And I
Source:    CD: A Day At The Races
Writer(s):    John Deacon
Label:    Hollywood (original US label: Elektra)
Year:    1976
    Queen bassist John Deacon's songwriting got off to a slow start, with none of his songs appearing on the band's first two albums, and only one on each of the next three. His tune from the fifth Queen album, A Day At The Races, was You And I, a piano-driven piece that Deacon played acoustic guitar on. The song was also released as the B side of the album's second single, but was never performed live by the band.

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    A Trick Of The Tail
Source:    LP: A Trick Of The Tail
Writer(s):    Tony Banks
Label:    Atco
Year:    1976
    Following the departure of original lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, the remaining members of Genesis decided to start assigning songwriting credit to individual band members as opposed to their former practice of crediting the entire group for every composition, starting with the 1976 LP A Trick Of The Tail. The title track, about an alien visiting Earth, had been written by keyboardist Tony Banks for a potential solo project, and was easily adapted as a group piece.

Artist:    Steely Dan
Title:    Fire In The Hole
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Becker/Fagen
Label:    ABC
Year:    1972
    Donald Fagen's unique piano style is on display on Fire In The Hole, a track from the first Steely Dan album, Can't Buy A Thrill. The tune also appeared as the B side of Steely Dan's second single (and first hit), Do It Again.

Artist:    George Harrison
Title:    Dark Horse
Source:    LP: Dark Horse
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Apple
Year:    1974
    Stung by the hostility of some reviewers to the spiritual quality of his 1973 LP Living In The Material World, as well as his deteriorating relationship with Patti Boyd, George Harrison stung back with the release of Dark Horse, the lead single from his 1974 album of the same name. While most American record buyers assumed the title referred to his status as the unexpected winner of the "which Beatle will have the most success as a solo artist" race (his My Sweet Lord was the first single by an ex-Beatle to top the charts), Harrison himself contradicted this interpretation, saying that he was actually unaware of that use of the term when he wrote the song. His intended meaning, he said, was actually Liverpudian slang for the kind of guy who was called a Back Door Man in an old Howlin' Wolf tune written by Willie Dixon.

Artist:    Peter Frampton
Title:    Do You Feel Like We Do
Source:    LP: Frampton Comes Alive
Writer(s):    Peter Frampton
Label:    A&M
Year:    1976
    Top 40 radio programmers hated Peter Frampton's Do You Feel Like We Do from the album Frampton Comes Alive. The song was phenomenally popular, but that popularity was totally dependent on the song's long instrumental section utilizing something called a "talk box" that fed the sound of Frampton's guitar into (and back out of) his mouth. At over fourteen minutes in length, there was no way the song could get played in its entirety on tightly formatted top 40 radio stations, although A&M Records did make an extensively edited seven minute version available to stations (some of which edited the song down even further). The reality is, though, that Do You Feel Like We Do was, and to a degree still is, an "FM hit" generally associated with Album Oriented Rock stations.

Artist:    James Gang
Title:    Got No Time For Trouble
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Bolin/Tesar
Label:    Atco
Year:    1974
    In 1974 the James Gang hired their third lead guitarist since the band made their recording debut in 1969. That guitarist was Tommy Bolin, who had first come to national attention as a member of the Boulder, Colorado band Zephyr. Bolin co-wrote several of the tracks on his first album with the James Gang, Bang, including Got No Time For Trouble, which also was issued as the B side of the only single taken from Bang. Lead vocals on the song are by Roy Kenner, who had joined the James Gang shortly after the departure of the band's original guitarist/vocalist, Joe Walsh.

Artist:    Deep Purple
Title:    Strange Kind Of Woman
Source:    CD: The Very Best Of Deep Purple (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single and in US on LP: Fireball)
Writer(s):    Blackmore/Gillan/Glover/Lord/Paice
Label:    Warner Archives/Rhino (original US label: Warner Brothers)
Year:    1971
    Strange Kind Of Woman was a top 10 hit when it was released as a single in the UK in 1971. Although it was also released in the US, the single got virtually no top 40 airplay and failed to chart. It was, however, included on the US version of the album Fireball, which in turn led to plenty of airplay on FM rock radio, making it one of Deep Purple's most recognizable tunes.


 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2315 (starts 4/10/23)

https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/468840-pe-2315

    We've had battles of the bands before, but this week we have a battle between a band and an individual artist. Seems a bit unfair at first until you consider that the artist is none other than Donovan. As for the identity of the band, read on...

Artist:    Paul Revere And The Raiders
Title:    Kicks
Source:    Simulated stereo CD: The Best Of 60s Supergroups (originally released on 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Mann/Weil
Label:    Priority (original label: Columbia)
Year:    1966
    Kicks was not the first pop song with a strong anti-drug message, but it was the first one to be a major hit, making it to the number four spot on the US charts and hitting number one in Canada. It remained Paul Revere and the Raiders' best known song until Indian Reservation went all the way to the top of the charts five years later.

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:    Al Kooper/Stephen Stills/Harvey Brooks/Eddie Hoh
Title:    Season Of The Witch
Source:    CD: Super Session
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Columbia/Legacy
Year:    1968
            In 1968 Al Kooper, formerly of the Blues Project, formed a new group he called Blood, Sweat and Tears. Then, after recording one album with the new group, he abruptly left the band. He then booked studio time and called in his friend Michael Bloomfield (who had just left own his new band the Electric Flag) for a recorded jam session. Due to his chronic insomnia and inclination to use heroin to deal with said insomnia, Bloomfield was unable to record an entire album's worth of material, and Kooper called in another friend, Stephen Stills (who had recently left the Buffalo Springfield) to complete the project. The result was the Super Session album, which surprisingly (considering that it was the first album of its kind), made the top 10 album chart. One of the most popular tracks on Super Session was an extended version of Donovan's "Season of the Witch", featuring Stills using a wah-wah pedal (a relatively new invention at the time). Kooper initially felt that the basic tracks needed some sweetening, so he brought in a horn section to record additional overdubs.

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    Nothing Is Easy
Source:    CD: Stand Up
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Chrysalis/Capitol (original US label: Reprise)
Year:    1969
    Not long after the release of the first Jethro Tull album, guitarist Mick Abrahams, who was a blues enthusiast, left the group due to musical differences with lead vocalist/flautist Ian Anderson, who favored a more eclectic approach to songwriting. Abrahams's replacement was Martin Barre, who remains a member of the group to this day. One of the first songs recorded with Barre is Nothing Is Easy, a blues rocker that opens side two of the band's second LP, Stand Up. More than any other track on Stand Up, Nothing Is Easy sounds like it could have been an outtake from This Was, the band's debut LP.

Artist:    Pink Floyd
Title:    Crumbling Land
Source:    LP: Zabriskie Point (soundtrack)
Writer(s):    Gilmour/Waters/Wright/Mason
Label:    4 Men With Beards (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1970
    Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point has been described as "the worst film ever made by a director of genius". Nonetheless the film, first released in 1970 has become somewhat of a cult classic in recent years, thanks in part to an outstanding soundtrack featuring Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, John Fahey and other notable artists. One of Pink Floyd's (credited on the album cover as The Pink Floyd) contributions was a tune called Crumbling Land featuring vocals by David Gilmour and Rick Wright. Gilmour descibes the tune as  "a kind of country & western number which he [film director Antonioni] could have gotten done better by any number of American bands. But he chose us — very strange."

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    And I Like It
Source:    Mono LP: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off
Writer:    Balin/Kantner
Label:    RCA Victor
Year:    1966
    Jorma Kaukonen was giving guitar lessons when he was approached by Marty Balin about joining a new band that Balin was forming. Kaukonen said yes and became a founding member of Jefferson Airplane. The two seldom collaborated on songwriting, though. One of the few examples of a Balin/Kaukonen composition is And I Like It from the band's first album. The song sounds to me like early Hot Tuna, but with Balin's vocals rather than Kaukonen's.

Artist:    Them
Title:    I Happen To Love You (mono single version)
Source:    Mono British import CD: Now And Them (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Goffin/King
Label:    Rev-Ola (original US label: Ruff)
Year:    1967
    Following the departure of frontman Van Morrison in June of 1966, the remaining members of Them returned to Belfast, where they recruited Kenny McDowell, formerly of a band called the Mad Lads, who had in fact opened for Them on several occasions. With no record deal, however, the band was at a loss as to what to do next; the solution came in the form of a recommendation from Carol Deck, editor of the California-based magazine The Beat, which led to the band relocating to Amarillo, Texas, where they cut a single for the local Scully label. The follow up single, released on Ruff Records, was a tune called Walking In The Queen's Garden that came to the attention of the people at Capitol Records, who reissued the single on their Tower subsidiary. Within a month the record company had issued a promo version of the single that shifted the emphasis to the original B side, a Gerry Goffin/Carole King collaboration called I Happen To Love You that had been previously recorded as an album track by the Electric Prunes. This led to the band relocating to California and recording Now And Them, the first of two albums the band released on the Tower label in 1968.

Artist:    Beacon Street Union
Title:    Four Hendred And Five
Source:    LP: The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union
Writer(s):    Wright/Tartachny/Weisburg/Rhodes/Ulaky/Farrell
Label:    M-G-M
Year:    1968
    I'm at a bit of a loss to explain this track, so I'll just have to make an educated guess. The members of the Beacon Street Union were in the studio sometime in 1967 working on their debut LP, The Eyes Of The Beacon Street Union, when somebody started fooling around with the speed controls on one of the tape decks. An instrumental piece, possibly some sort of warm up jam, was on the tape. Someone decided that it sounded pretty cool speeded up, so they included it on the album itself. Four Hundred And Five is credited to the entire band, with one extra name tacked on at the end. Wes Farrell would be the producer of their second LP, The Clown Died In Marvin Gardens, and may have been on hand when Four Hundred And Five was recorded. Who knows? He may even have been the one that sped up the tape in the first place. Anyway, that's my guess. Feel free to come up with one of your own.

Artist:    Kindred Spirit
Title:    Blue Avenue
Source:    Mono CD: An Overdose Of Heavy Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single B side_
Writer(s):    Wayne Ulaky
Label:    Arf! Arf! (original labels: Moxie and Intrepid)
Year:    1969
    Known primarily as a flood-prone steel processing center for most of its existence, Johnstown, PA, like many industrial cities, had its own music scene, and for a short time its own local record label in the 1960s. Moxie Records only released two singles, the first being a 1969 cover of the Rolling Stones' Under My Thumb by Kindred Spirit, a popular local band consisting of lead vocalist Greg Falvo, guitarists Joe Nemanich and John Galiote, keyboard and keyboard bassist Jim Smedo, drummer Tom "Boots" McCullough and vocalist Carl Mundok. Although most bands got to put an original tune on the B side of singles (so they could collect royalties on record sales), Kindred Spirit instead recorded another cover song, the Beacon Street Union's Blue Avenue for their own single's flipside. As it turned out, Kindred Spirit ended up outlasting Moxie Records after the single was picked up by Mercury Records and released on their new Intrepid subsidiary label in November of 1969. The following year a second Kindred Spirit single, Peaceful Man, was released on Intrepid. As far as I can tell, Peaceful Man was an original tune (lead vocalist Falvo is listed as co-writer), although the B side of that record was a cover of an album track from the first Flock LP.

Artist:    Rare Earth
Title:    Eleanor Rigby
Source:    LP: Ecology
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Rare Earth
Year:    1970
    Like them or not, nobody can deny that Rare Earth had a sound that was uniquely their own, as can be heard on this six and a half minute long version of Paul McCartney's Eleanor Rigby. The song appeared as the final track on their 1970 LP Ecology.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Source:    CD: Yellow Submarine Songtrack (originally released on LP: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/Capitol
Year:    1967 (remixed 1999)
    The top album of 1967 was the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was also the first US Beatles album to have a song lineup that was identical to the original UK LP. As such, it was also the first Beatles album released in the US to not include any songs that were also released as singles. Nonetheless, several tracks from the LP found their way onto the playlists of both top 40 AM and "underground" FM stations from coast to coast. Among the most popular of these tracks was John Lennon's Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, which shows up on just about everyone's list of classic psychedelic tunes. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds was one of several songs that were remixed by Abbey Road Studios engineer Peter Cobbin in 1999 for the Yellow Submarine Songtrack.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    One After 909
Source:    CD: Let It Be...Naked
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/Capitol
Year:    1970 (remixed 2003)
    One of the earliest John Lennon compositions, One After 909 dates back to his days as a member of the Quarrymen with Paul McCartney, who helped him write the song sometime before 1960. The band tried to record the song during the mid-1960s, but were unable to produce a satisfactory take. Finally, as part of their Let It Be project, the band performed the song live on a London rooftop in January of 1969. The performance was included in the film and released on the Let It Be album in 1970.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    When I'm Sixty-Four
Source:    CD: Yellow Submarine Songtrack (originally released on LP: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/Capitol
Year:    1967 (remixed 1999)
    When the original soundtrack album for the animated film Yellow Submarine came out in 1969, it only included a couple of songs that had previously been released, along with four new Beatles recordings and an entire album side featuring George Martin's orchestral film score. As such, most fans did not consider it a "real" Beatles album. When the film itself was re-released in 1999 it was decided to completely revamp the accompanying soundtrack album, removing the orchestral score and including all of the Beatles songs used in the film (with the exception of A Day In The Life) . To make it sound even more like a "new" Beatles album, all the songs, including Paul McCartney's When I'm Sixty-Four, were remixed from the original 8-track masters, something that had not been done for most other Beatles CD releases. To differentiate the new album from the original soundtrack LP, it was given a new title, Yellow Submarine Songtrack, as well as new cover art.

Artist:    Traffic
Title:    Means To An End
Source:    CD: Traffic
Writer(s):    Winwood/Capaldi
Label:    Island (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1968
    The final track on the self-titled second Traffic album is not truly a Traffic song at all. Means To An End only features two members of the band: Chris Wood (on drums and percussion) and Steve Winwood (everything else). Somehow I can't picture the band performing this one in concert.

    Next we have, as promised, our first ever Battle of the Band vs. Artist, featuring the Scottish singer/songwriter Donovan and New York's Blue Magoos. All but one of these tracks are taken from original vinyl sources (the exception being a stereo remix of a mono album track), so be prepared for a bit of surface noise.

Artist:    Blues Magoos
Title:    I'll Go Crazy
Source:    LP: Psychedelic Lollipop
Writer(s):    James Brown
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1966
    You don't often hear the name James Brown and the word psychedelic in the same sentence, but sure enough, there is a Brown cover on the first (or maybe second) album to use the word psychedelic in its title. The album in question is the Blues Magoos' Psychedelic Lollipop. The song I'll Go Crazy finishes out the first side of the album. Although it is a credible rendition of the tune, the recording does not fit comfortably with the likes of (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet and the psychedelicized Tobacco Road. Apparently the band agreed, as they never recorded another James Brown cover song.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Hickory
Year:    1965
    Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do, originally released in 1965 as the B side of Donovan's first single, Catch The Wind, was not included on any of his original albums, although it has since been included on some CD reissues as a bonus track. Those CDs, the most recent of which was issued in 2002, are almost as hard to come by as the single itself.

Artist:    Blues Magoos
Title:    Love Seems Doomed
Source:    LP: Psychedelic Lollipop
Writer(s):    Gilbert/Scala/Esposito
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1966
    Unlike most of the tracks on the Blues Magoos' 1966 Debut LP, Psychedelic Lollipop, Love Seems Doomed is a slow, moody piece with a message. Along with the Paul Revere and the Raiders hit Kicks from earlier that year, Love Seems Doomed is one of the first songs by a rock band to carry a decidedly anti-drug message. While Kicks warned of the addictive qualities of drugs (particularly the phenomenon of the need larger doses of a drug to achieve the same effect over time), Love Seems Doomed focused more on how addiction affects the user's relationships, particularly those of a romantic nature. Love Seems Doomed is also a more subtle song than Kicks, which tends to hit the listener over the head with its message.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Catch The Wind
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Hickory
Year:    1965
    Scottish singer/songwriter Donovan Leitch released his first single, Catch The Wind, in March of 1965. The record was an instant hit, going to the #4 spot on the British charts and later hitting #23 in the US. He ended up re-recording the song twice; first for his debut LP,  What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid, and then again for his 1969 greatest hits album, when Epic Records was unable to secure the rights to either of the original versions. This is the original single, which had background strings that were not present on any other version.

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

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Sunny South Kensington
Source:    British import CD: Psychedelia At Abbey Road (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    EMI (original US label: Epic)
Year:    1966 (remixed 1998)
    Donovan followed up his 1966 hit single Sunshine Superman with an album of the same name. He then repeated himself with the song and album Mellow Yellow. The B side of the Mellow Yellow single was Sunny South Kensington, a tune done in much the same style as Superman. The song was also included on the Mellow Yellow album, and in 1998 was mixed in stereo for the first time.

Artist:    Grateful Dead
Title:    Viola Lee Blues
Source:    CD: Birth Of The Dead
Writer(s):    Noah Lewis
Label:    Rhino
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 2003
    The Grateful Dead established a reputation over the years for playing long extended jams. One of the earliest was their version of Viola Lee Blues, recorded in 1966 before they had their first album deal with Warner Brothers.

Artist:    Wishbone Ash
Title:    Handy
Source:    CD: Wishbone Ash
Writer(s):    Turner/Turner/Upton/Powell
Label:    MCA (original label: Decca)
Year:    1970
    One of the first bands to feature two lead guitarists working in tandem, Wishbone Ash rose to fame as the opening act for Deep Purple in early 1970. After guitarist Andy Powell sat in with Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore during a sound check, Blackmore referred Wishbone Ash to MCA, the parent company of the US Decca label. The band's first LP came out in December of 1970, with several extended-length tracks like Handy showcasing the band's strengths. Although Wishbone Ash went on to become one of Britain's top rock bands of the 1970s, they were never as successful in the US, despite relocating to the states in 1973.

Artist:    Creedence Clearwater Revival
Title:    Born On The Bayou
Source:    LP: Bayou Country
Writer(s):    John Fogerty
Label:    Fantasy
Year:    1968
    If there is any single song that sums up what Creedence Clearwater Revival was all about, it could very well be Born On The Bayou, the opening track of CCR's second LP, Bayou Country. The song, which was written by John Fogerty late at night, became the opening for nearly every Creedence concert over the next few years, and is considered by many to be the band's signature song. Oddly enough, John Fogerty had never set foot on a bayou in his life when he wrote the song, but had always been a fan of the movie Swamp Fever, as well as having a fascination with "every other bit of southern bayou information that had entered my imagination from the time I was born."

Artist:    Eire Apparent
Title:    Here I Go Again
Source:    Mono Swedish import CD: Sunrise (bonus track originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Lutton/Graham/McCulloch/Stewart
Label:    Flawed Gems (original UK label: Track)
Year:    1968
    Eire Apparent was originally part of the same Northern Ireland music scene that produced Van Morrison and Them a few years earlier. The band was first signed to Track Records, where they released one UK-only single (produced by Chas Chandler), with Here I Go Again as the B side. This led to a spot opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and an album, Sunrise, that was produced by Hendrix himself. After the album failed to catch on, the group quietly disbanded.
    
Artist:    Circus
Title:    Yes Is A Pleasant Country
Source:    CD: Think I'm Going Weird
Writer(s):    Mel Collins
Label:    Grapefruit
Year:    Recorded 1967, released 2021
    Formed around 1961 in Guildford, Surrey, England, the Stormsville Shakers were rooted in late 1950s American rock 'n' roll, and made their first recordings as the backup band for Larry Williams, who was touring the UK with Johnny "Guitar" Watson in 1965 (many early rock 'n' roll artists found it less expensive to perform backed by local bands rather than take an entire entourage on tour with them, especially overseas). By 1967, however, they had shifted their focus to psychedelia, changing their name to Circus and trading in saxophones for flutes. Although they only released two singles as Circus, they did record a handful of demo tapes, including Yes Is A Pleasant Country, written by bandmember Mel Collins, who would later go on the become a member of King Crimson (and is probably best known for his saxophone solo on the Rolling Stones song Miss You).

Artist:    Los Shakers
Title:    Break It All (US version)
Source:    CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Hugo & Osvaldo Fatturosa
Label:    Rhino (original label: Audio Fidelity)
Year:    1966
    We're all familiar with the British Invasion of the American music industry that began with the arrival of the Beatles on US shores (well, technically an airport runway) in early 1964. Less known was a Uraguayan Invasion of Argentina about a year later. Inspired by the film A Hard Days Night, brothers Hugo and Osvaldo Fatturoso formed Los Shakers in the Uraguayan city of Montevideo in 1964. They soon signed with the Argentina-based Odeon label (Buenos Aires being less than 100 miles from Montevideo) and by 1965 had touched off an entire wave of Uraguayan bands recording songs in English for Argentinian labels and appearing on Argentinian TV shows. They even recorded a new version of their biggest hit, Break It All, for the Audio Fidelity label that was released in the US and Mexico in 1966. By 1967, however, bands in Argentina were favoring songs sung in Spanish, and the Uraguayan Invasion subsided, finally dying off entirely when a military dictatorship was established in Uraguay itself in 1973.

 

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2315 (starts 4/10/23)

https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/468839-dc-2315

    This week we do a little catching up, playing several tracks that we've been meaning play for a while now, but for various reasons never got around to actually playing. Among those are some truly obscure tunes from Marvin Gaye and the Undisputed Truth, as well as personal favorites from Joni Mitchell and the Allman Brothers Band, and that's barely scratching the surface.

Artist:    Paul Simon
Title:    Kodachrome
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1973
    Paul Simon's Kodachrome was actually banned on some stations, but not for copyright infringement (Kodachrome being a registered trademark of Kodak). Rather, it was banned for the first line of the song: "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all." Apparently "crap" offended some programmers, to the point that one station (New York's WABC) even edited the offending line to "When I think back it's a wonder I can think at all" when they played the song. Not only does that line not make any sense, I can only imagine how that must have sounded with almost four measures edited out (but with one beat left in, just to totally throw off the rhythm of the song). Apparently, though, this kind of stuff is what used to make America great, if current political thought is to be believed.

Artist:    Black Sabbath
Title:    Paranoid
Source:    LP: Paranoid
Writer(s):    Iommi/Osborne/Butler/Ward
Label:    Rhino/Warner Brothers
Year:    1970
    Although it was the last track recorded for Black Sabbath's second album, Paranoid was actually the first song released from the sessions, appearing as a single about six months after the band's first LP hit the racks. The song, according to bassist Geezer Butler, was recorded as an afterthought, when the band realized they needed a three minute filler piece for the LP. Tony Iommi came up with the basic riff, which Butler quickly wrote lyrics for. Singer Ozzie Osbourne reportedly sang the lyrics directly from the handwritten lyric sheet. Paranoid turned out to be one of Black Sabbath's most popular tunes, and has shown up on several "best of" lists, including VH1's "40 Greatest Metal Songs", where it holds the # 1 spot. In Finland, the song has attained near-legendary status, and the phase "Soittakaa Paranoid!" can often be heard being yelled out from a member of the audience at a rock concert there, regardless of what band is actually on stage (much as "Free Bird" was heard at various concerts in the US throughout the 70s and 80s).

Artist:    Gun
Title:    Rupert's Travels
Source:    German import CD: Gun
Writer(s):    Adrian Curtis (Gurvitz)
Label:    Repertoire
Year:    1968
    The Gun made a huge splash in Germany and the UK with their debut single Race With The Devil in 1968. They followed it up with a self-titled LP that same year. The shortest track on that LP was an instrumental tune called Rupert's Travels that has been compared to the Mason Williams hit Classical Gas. Personally I don't hear the resemblance.

Artist:    Marvin Gaye
Title:    Sad Tomorrows
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Gaye/Gordy/Wilkinson
Label:    Tamla
Year:    1971
    When Marvin Gaye released, Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology), his second single from the landmark LP What's Going On, he chose to include an early version of another track from the album, Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky), retitling it Sad Tomorrows. Lyrically it is the same song, but is over a minute shorter than the album track.

Artist:    Undisputed Truth
Title:    If I Die
Source:    British import CD: Nothing But The Truth (originally released on LP: Law Of The Land)
Writer(s):    Peter Hoorelbeke
Label:    Kent (original label: Gordy)
Year:    1973
    If I Die, from the 1973 album Law Of The Land by the Undisputed Truth, is a good example of the way recordings were assembled at Motown in the early 1970s. The original instrumental backing track by the Funk Brothers (with a working title of And When I Die) was recorded at Motown's studio A on March 9, 1972, and was intended for Edwin Starr. The song was reassigned to the Undisputed Truth two months later, with lead vocal tracks recorded on May 17th. The group added backup vocals on June 2nd, with horn overdubs added on October 5th. The album itself was released in June of 1973, fifteen months after the beginning of the recording process.

Artist:      Allman Brothers Band
Title:     Don't Want You No More/It's Not My Cross To Bear
Source:      CD: Beginnings (originally released on LP: The Allman Brothers Band)
Writer(s):    Davis/Hardin/Allman
Label:    Polydor (original label: Atco)
Year:     1969
     The first Allman Brothers band album sold poorly outside of the southeastern US and was pulled from the shelves within a year. Meanwhile, the second album, Idlewild South, did a bit better and the third album, recorded live at the Fillmore East, was a breakout hit. This prompted Capricorn, which in the meantime had morphed from a production house to a full-blown label, to reissue the first two albums as a 2-record set for the price of one. Don't Want You No More is an instrumental (originally recorded by the post-Winwood version of the Spencer Davis Group) that serves as an introduction to both the band and their first album, and segues directly into the Gregg Allman tune It's Not My Cross To Bear.

Artist:    Fleetwood Mac
Title:    Show-Biz Blues
Source:    CD: Then Play On
Writer(s):    Peter Green
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1969
    Then Play On was the third and final Fleetwood Mac studio LP to feature founder Peter Green on vocals and lead guitar. Green wrote a majority of the songs on the album, including Show-Biz Blues (also known as Showbiz Blues), a piece that shows Green's affinity for country blues.

Artist:    Eric Clapton
Title:    Easy Now
Source:    Mono 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    Eric Clapton
Label:    Atco
Year:    1970
    When it comes to Eric Clapton's Easy Now (from his first solo album), the word most often used by critics is "underrated". The song was never intended to be a hit single. In fact, it was released as a B side, not once but twice, in 1970 (paired with After Midnight) and 1972 (paired with Let It Rain). Nonetheless, Easy Now holds up better than most of the tracks on the album itself, and has been singled out as one of the best songs Clapton has ever written. The song was also included on the 1972 LP Eric Clapton At His Best.

Artist:    Steely Dan
Title:    Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Becker/Fagen
Label:    MCA (original label: ABC)
Year:    1974
    Contrary to what you may have heard, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, from the album Pretzel Logic, is not about using the US Postal Service to mail yourself weed. This is according to both Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, who are generally known for being deliberately obscure. The fact that they both, on separate occasions, have addressed the issue leads me to take their version of the story, that the subject of the song was a young woman Fagen knew in college, as the correct one. What's not in dispute is this: Rikki Don't Lose That Number was Steely Dan's biggest hit single, deservedly so.
    
Artist:    Joni Mitchell
Title:    Trouble Child/Twisted
Source:    LP: Court And Spark
Writer(s):    Mitchell/Ross/Gray
Label:    Asylum
Year:    1974
    My favorite tracks on Joni Mitchell's 1974 album Court And Spark are Trouble Child  and Twisted, which play as one piece to close out the album itself. Both songs address mental health issues, with Trouble Child being a deep and serious and yes, analytical piece, while Twisted (originally written as a 1947 instrumental by saxophonist Wardell Gray with lyrics added in 1952 by vocalist Annie Ross) is a lightheard tune satirizing analysis itself. As an added bonus, Twisted features a short cameo appearance by Cheech Marin and Thomas Chong.

Artist:    Firesign Theatre
Title:    Channel 6 Happy Hour News
Source:    LP: Everything You Know Is Wrong
Writer(s):    Proctor/Bergman/Austin/Ossman
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1974
    The 1974 Firesign Theatre album Everything You Know Is Wrong takes on several trends of the mid-1970s, including the UFO craze, the "happy talk" TV news style, Evel Knievel (voiced by Phil Austin) and even Howard Cosell (Peter Bergman). Much of this can be heard in the final four minutes of the album's first side, hosted by the "Where It's At" team of Harold Hiphugger (David Ossman) and Ray Hamberger (Phil Proctor).

Artist:    Black Oak Arkansas
Title:    Hey Y'all
Source:    CD: Street Party
Writer(s):    Black Oak Arkansas
Label:    Wounded Bird (original label: Atco)
Year:    1974
    Black Oak Arkansas hit their commercial peak with the 1974 album High On The Hog. Although they continued to be one of the top live bands in the US, their subsequent LP, Street Party, did not do as well as their previous albums, despite the presence of catchy tunes like Hey Y'all.

Artist:    Genesis
Title:    The Musical Box
Source:    CD: Nursery Cryme
Writer(s):    Banks/Collins/Gabriel/Hackett/Rutherford
Label:    Atlantic (original label: Charisma)
Year:    1971
    In a sense, the story of the rock band known as Genesis gets underway with the release of the 1971 album Nursery Cryme. Technically it was the third Genesis album. However, the first two albums, From Genesis To Revelation and Trespass, were not really rock albums at all. It was only after the departure of original guitarist Anthony Phillips and his replacement by Steve Hackett, along with the addition of drummer Phil Collins, that Genesis became a true electric rock band, albeit one with a heavy element of British folk music. Although Genesis sounded nothing like harder British progressive rock bands like Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer, their music was every bit as innovative and complex, as plainly can be heard on the ten minute long opening track from Nursery Cryme, The Musical Box. The lyrics of the song are based on a fairy tale by Peter Gabriel about two children in a country house, one of which (a girl) kills the other by beheading him with a croquet mallet. From there, it only gets weirder (and more adult). The Musical Box is still considered one of Genesis' most influential works, and has even inspired a group of young musicians to call themselves The Musical Box.

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2314 (starts 4/3/23)

https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/467992-pe-2314

    This time around we get just a little weird from time to time, with tracks from Captain Beefheart and the Elastik Band popping up when you least expect them (unless, of course, you've read the playlist already). The weirdest part of the show, however, is our Advanced Psych segment featuring Vertacyn Arc Materializer and the Residents and, making his/their Stuck in the Psychedelic Era debut, Zim.

Artist:     Chocolate Watchband
Title:     Sweet Young Thing
Source:     Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Ed Cobb
Label:     Rhino (original label: Uptown)
Year:     1967
     There is actually very little on vinyl that captures the flavor of how the Chocolate Watchband actually sounded when left to their own devices, as most of their recorded work was heavily influenced by producer Ed Cobb. One of the few recordings that does accurately represent the Watchband sound is Sweet Young Thing, the first single released under the band's real name (Blues Theme, an instrumental Watchband recording credited to the Hoggs, had been released in 1966 by Hanna-Barbera records).

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title:    Purple Haze
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    Reprise
Year:    1967
    Purple Haze has one of the most convoluted release histories of any song ever recorded. Originally issued in the UK as a single, it scored high on the British charts. When Reprise got the rights to release the first Hendrix album, Are You Experienced?, they chose to replace the first track on the album with Purple Haze, moving the original opening track, Foxy Lady, to side two of the LP. The song next appeared on the Smash Hits album, which in Europe was on the Polydor label. This was the way things stayed until the early 1990s, when MCA acquired the rights to the Hendrix catalog and re-issued Are You Experienced? with the tracks restored to the UK ordering, but preceded by the six non-album sides (including Purple Haze) that had originally been released prior to the album. Most recently, the Hendrix Family Trust has again changed labels and the US version of Are You Experienced? is once again in print, this time on Sony's Legacy label. This means that Purple Haze (heard here in its original mono mix) has now been released by all three of the world's major record companies. That's right. There are only three major record companies left in the entire world, Sony (which owns Columbia and RCA, among others), Warner Brothers (which owns Elektra, Atlantic, Reprise and others) and Universal (which started off as MCA and now, as the world's largest record company, owns far too many current and former labels to list here). Don't you just love out of control corporate consolidation?

Artist:    Jethro Tull
Title:    It's Breaking Me Up
Source:    LP: This Was
Writer(s):    Ian Anderson
Label:    Chrysalis (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    Jethro Tull originally was part of the British blues scene, but even in the early days the band's principal songwriter Ian Anderson made no secret of the fact that he wanted to expand beyond the confines of that particular genre. Ironically, It's Breaking Me Up, from Jethro Tull's first LP, is an Anderson composition that is rooted solidly in the British blues style.

Artist:      Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Title:     The Blimp (Mousetrapreplica)
Source:      CD: Trout Mask Replica
Writer:    Don Van Vliet
Label:    Reprise (original label: Straight)
Year:     1969
     Wherein the good captain plugs his upcoming hit single (and producer Frank Zappa responds). Ah, if only real advertising could be this entertaining...

Artist:    Temptations
Title:    Psychedelic Shack
Source:    LP: Psychedelic Shack
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, such as 1972's Papa Was A Rolling Stone.

Artist:    Yardbirds
Title:    Still, I'm Sad
Source:    Simulated stereo LP: Great Hits (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    McCarty/Samwell-Smith
Label:    Epic
Year:    1965
    The most influential Yardbirds song on US garage bands, as well as their biggest US hit, was their grunged out version of Bo Diddley's I'm A Man, which hit the top 10 in 1965. The B side of that record was Still I'm Sad, possibly the first rock song to incorporate Gregorian chant. Interestingly enough, Still I'm Sad was released in the UK on the exact same day as in the US, but as the B side to an entirely different tune, Evil Hearted You.

Artist:    Haunted
Title:    1-2-5
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in Canada on LP: The Haunted)
Writer(s):    Burgess/Peter
Label:    Rhino (original label: Quality)
Year:    1966
    Formed in Montreal in 1964, the Haunted was one of the most popular bands in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as Southern Ontario. In January of 1966 the band won an eight-hour long battle of the bands, resulting in a contract with Quality Records. The Haunted's first single was a song called 1-2-5, which the label refused to release due to the song's subject matter (a liason with a prostitute). Undaunted, the band changed a few lyrics, substituting lines like "a roomful of clowns" and "a line of executives" for the original references to working girls and re-recorded the song. The label, being somewhat clueless, released the song in its new form, but messed up the band's name on the label, calling them the Hunted. Finally, the band changed labels, issuing the song as an album track on Trans World Records in 1967.

Artist:    Janis Ian
Title:    Pro-Girl
Source:    Mono LP: Janis Ian
Writer(s):    Janis Ian
Label:    Verve Folkways
Year:    1967
    It took guts for a fifteen-year-old to write and record a song that is basically an open letter to a prostitute. It took maturity to do it without either condoning or condemning that kind of life. Janis Ian displayed both with the song Pro-Girl on her 1967 debut LP.

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

Artist:    Moby Grape
Title:    8:05
Source:    LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s):    Miller/Stevenson
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    Moby Grape was formed out of the ashes of a band called the Frantics, which featured the songwriting team of guitarist Jerry Miller and drummer Don Stevenson. The two continued to write songs together in the new band. One of those was 8:05, one of five songs on the first Moby Grape album to be released simultaneously as singles.

Artist:    Youngbloods
Title:    Get Together
Source:    CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: The Youngbloods)
Writer(s):    Chet Powers
Label:    Rhino (original label: RCA Victor)
Year:    1967
    The Youngbloods, led by transplanted New Yorker Jesse Colin Young, were the second San Francisco band signed to industry leader RCA Victor Records. Their first album was released in 1967 but was overshadowed by the vinyl debuts of the Grateful Dead and Moby Grape, among others. In fact, the Youngbloods toiled in relative obscurity until 1969, when their own version of Dino Valenti's Let's Get Together (from the 1967 LP) was used in a TV ad promoting world peace. The song was subsequently released (with the title slightly shortened) as a single and ended up being the group's only hit record (as well as Valenti's most famous composition, albeit published under his birth name of Chet Powers).

Artist:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    Good Times
Source:    British import CD: Winds Of Change/The Twain Shall Meet
Writer(s):    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/Jenkins/McCulloch
Label:    BGO (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1967
    By the end of the original Animals' run they were having greater chart success with their singles in the US than in their native UK. That trend continued with the formation of the "new" Animals in 1967 and their first single, When I Was Young. Shortly after the first LP by the band now known as Eric Burdon And The Animals came out, M-G-M decided to release the song San Franciscan Nights as a single to take advantage of the massive youth migration to the city that summer. Meanwhile the band's British label decided to instead issue Good Times, (an autobiographical song which was released in the US as the B side to San Franciscan Nights) as a single, and the band ended up with one of their biggest UK hits ever. Riding the wave of success of Good Times, San Franciscan Nights eventually did get released in the UK and was a hit there as well.

Artist:    Rolling Stones
Title:    Sing This All Together/Citadel
Source:    CD: Their Satanic Majesties Request
Writer(s):    Jagger/Richard
Label:    Abkco (original label: London)
Year:    1967
    From the opening piano chord of the first song, Sing This All Together (played by Nicky Hopkins), it is obvious that the late-1967 LP Their Satanic Majesties Request is unlike any Rolling Stones album made before or since. For one thing, the Stones produced the album themselves at a time when their personal and professional lives were spinning out of control. There was also a perceived need to somehow outdo the Beatles, who were, at the time, riding high with their Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. In fact, there are several parallels between the two albums, including similar styled covers, an opening theme song that is repeated later on the album, and a general feel of psychedelic excess. Brian Jones, in particular, plays several instruments on Sing This All Together alone, including brass, saxophone and mellotron (a keyboard instrument that utilized tape loops to produce the desired sounds). In contrast, Citadel, which, like With A Little Help From My Friends, flows directly out of its predecessor, is built around a series of power chords from Keith Richards, and conceivably could have been released as a single in its own right. Although it immediately shot up the album charts, Their Satanic Majesties Request quickly wore out its welcome and has since been all but disavowed by the surviving members of the band.

Artist:     Steve Miller Band
Title:     Song For Our Ancestors
Source:     CD: Sailor
Writer:     Steve Miller
Label:     Capitol
Year:     1968
     Sometime around 1980 someone (I don't recall who) released an album called Songs of the Humpback Whale. It was essentially two LP sides of live recordings of the mammals in their natural habitat (the ocean, duh). This was soon followed by a whole series of albums of natural sounds recorded in high fidelity stereo that went under the name Environments. I wonder if the producers of those albums realized that they were following in the footsteps of San Francisco's Steve Miller Band, who's second LP, Sailor, opens with about a minute of ocean sounds (including whale songs) that serve as an intro to Miller's Song For Our Ancestors.

Artist:    Neil Young
Title:    I've Been Waiting For You
Source:    LP: The 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook (originally released on LP: Neil Young)
Writer(s):    Neil Young
Label:    Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1968
    Despite being included on the very first Warner Brothers Loss Leaders album, the 1969 Warner/Reprise Songbook, I've Been Waiting For You, from Neil Young's self-titled 1968 debut LP, is one of the least-known and underated of all of Young's songs...or at least it was until 2002, when David Bowie (with Dave Grohl on guitar) released his own version of the song as a single and included it on the album Heathen.

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

Artist:    Vertacyn Arc Materializer
Title:    Natgeo
Source:    LP: Tasting The Sea
Writer(s):    Vertacyn Arc Materializer
Label:    10 GeV
Year:    2018
    The city of San Francisco seems to produce more than its share of bands that go out of their way to maintain their anonymity. In the early 1970s the Residents even recorded an album called Not Available, intending to not release it until all of the band members had forgotten about its existence (it eventually got released in 1978 during a creative dry spell). These days the San Francisco anonymous band torch is carried by Vertacyn Arc Materializer, a band that is just as hard to describe as the Residents themselves. Their second LP, Tasting The Sea, is only available on Vinyl, and it's packaging is nothing less than spectacular. The front cover is the famous Rolling Stones "mouth" logo dissected by an actual zipper, mimicking the Stones' own Sticky Fingers cover, against a stark white background. Opening the zipper reveals a "circle c" copyright symbol. The back cover featuring "portraits" of each of the four band members: the Starbucks logo (bass, guitar), the US $20 bill version of President Andrew Jackson (drums, trumpet), Marilyn (guitar, bass, keyboards) and Homeland Security, represented by a snarling wolf (vocals, keyboards, guitar). There's even more fun stuff on the inside of the gatefold cover, but I'll let you find your own copy to check it out yourself (if you can find one; apparently there were only 500 pressed). Musically, Vertacyn Arc Materializer is harder to describe; I'd put them with bands like Killing Joke and Nine Inch Nails, with a little Pere Ubu thrown in, but even that comparison falls short of the reality of Natgeo, a track that somehow manages to name a check a famous magazine without any discernable sense of context.

Artist:    Residents
Title:    Loser≅Weed
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer(s):    The Residents
Label:    Ralph
Year:    1976 (?)/1978
    Loser≅Weed is the B side of a single released on translucent gold colored vinyl in 1978. The text on the back of the sleeve of that single claims that the record, featuring an avant-garde version of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, had originally been released in 1976, but knowing the Residents' reputation for deliberately obscuring the truth, I have to take that claim with a grain of salt, since none of my sources have any info regarding a 1976 issue. The sign ≅ that appears between the words "loser" and "weed", incidentally, is known as a congruence, or isomorphic sign, essentially meaning, in this instance, "structurally identical".

Artist:    Zim Band
Title:    I Can See The Future
Source:    CD: Multiverse
Writer(s):    Zim
Label:    self-published
Year:    2021
    The Zim Band is a three-piece outfit operating out of Buffalo and Rochester, NY. Rather than go into it here, I'm going to refer you to their website https://thezimband.com/ while you listen to I Can See The Future from their 2021 CD Multiverse.

Artist:    Simon and Garfunkel
Title:    Sparrow
Source:    CD: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Wednesday Morning, 3AM)
Writer(s):    Paul Simon
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1964
    Sparrow is one of Paul Simon's most memorable tunes from the first Simon And Garfunkel album, Wednesday Morning 3AM. The 1964 album failed to make the charts and was soon deleted from the Columbia catalog. The LP was re-issued in 1966 after producer Tom Wilson added electric instruments to another track from the album, The Sound Of Silence, turning Simon And Garfunkel into household names.

Artist:    Seeds
Title:    Can't Seem To Make You Mine
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Classics From the Psychedelic 60s (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer:    Sky Saxon
Label:    Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year:    1965
    The first truly psychedelic record to hit the L.A. airwaves was the Seeds' March 1965 debut single, Can't Seem To Make You Mine. The song was also chosen to lead off the first Seeds album the following year. Indeed, it could be argued that this was the song that first defined the "flower power" sound, predating the Seeds' biggest hit, Pushin' Too Hard, by several months.

Artist:    Who
Title:    Whiskey Man
Source:    45 RPM single B side
Writer:    John Entwhistle
Label:    Decca
Year:    1966
    Although the Who had previously issued a pair of singles in the US, the first one to make any kind of waves was Happy Jack, released in late 1966 and hitting its peak the following year. The B side of that record was the song Whiskey Man. Like all the Who songs penned by bassist John Entwhistle, this one has an unusual subject: in this case, psychotic alcohol-induced hallucinations that are more enjoyable than reality.

Artist:    Byrds
Title:    Thoughts And Words
Source:    CD: Younger Than Yesterday
Writer(s):    Chris Hillman
Label:    Columbia
Year:    1967
    In addition to recording the most commercially successful Dylan cover songs, the Byrds had a wealth of original material over the course of several albums. On their first album, these came primarily from guitarists Gene Clark and Jim (now Roger) McGuinn, with David Crosby emerging as the group's third songwriter on the band's second album. After Clark's departure, bassist Chris Hillman began writing as well, and had three credits as solo songwriter on the group's fourth LP, Younger Than Yesterday. Hillman credits McGuinn, however, for coming up with the distinctive reverse-guitar break midway through Thoughts And Words.

Artist:    Jeff Beck Group
Title:    All Shook Up
Source:    LP: Beck-Ola
Writer(s):    Presley/Blackwell
Label:    Epic
Year:    1969
    On the back cover of the 1969 LP Beck-Ola (the first to be officially credited to the Jeff Beck Group), guitarist Jeff Beck had this to say: "Today, with all the hard competition in the music business, it's almost impossible to come up with anything totally original. So we haven't. However, this LP was made with the accent on heavy music. So sit back and listen and try and decide if you can find a small place in your heads for it." With a lineup that included Rod Stewart on vocals, Ronnie Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins on keyboards and new member Tony Newman on drums playing songs like Elvis Presley's All Shook Up they definitely succeeded in making "heavy music".

Artist:    Iron Butterfly
Title:    Fields of Sun
Source:    CD: Heavy
Writer(s):    Ingle/DeLoach
Label:    Rhino/Atco
Year:    1968
    Before In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida there was Heavy. The debut LP from Iron Butterfly featured vocalist/tambourinist Darryl DeLoach, guitarist Danny Weis and bassist Jerry Penrod, all of whom would leave the band after the album was recorded, along with drummer Ron Bushy and keyboardist Doug Ingle, who would find themselves having to recruit two new members before recording the classic In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album. One of the best-known tracks from Heavy is Fields of Sun, with its Baroque-influenced instrumental bridge played and sung (an octave higher) by Ingle.

Artist:    Elastik Band
Title:    Spazz
Source:    Nuggets Vol. 2-Punk (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    David Cortopassi
Label:    Rhino (original label: Atco)
Year:    1967
     Just plain weird, and probably politically incorrect as well, Spazz was the work of five young men from Belmont, California calling themselves the Elastik Band. For some odd reason, someone at Atco Records thought Spazz might be commercially viable, and released the track as a single in late 1967. They were wrong.

Artist:    Electric Prunes
Title:    I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night)
Source:    Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Tucker/Mantz
Label:    Rhino (original label: Reprise)
Year:    1966
    The Electric Prunes biggest hit was I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night), released in November of 1966. The record, initially released without much promotion on Reprise Records, 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 Lenny Kaye's original Nuggets compilation, released on the Elektra label in 1972.

Artist:    Cream
Title:    Spoonful
Source:    LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released in UK 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 15 seconds or so from the original recording.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Back Door Man
Source:    LP: The Doors
Writer(s):    Willie Dixon
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    In their early days as an L.A. club band, the Doors supplemented their growing body of original material with covers of classic blues tunes (rather than covers of top 40 hits like many of their contemporaries). Perhaps best of these was Willie Dixon's Back Door Man, which had been a mid-50s R&B hit for Howlin' Wolf. The Doors themselves certainly thought so, as it was one of only two cover songs on their debut LP.

Artist:    Jake Holmes
Title:    Dazed And Confused
Source:    LP: Nuggets vol. 10-Folk Rock (originally released on LP: The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes)
Writer(s):    Jake Holmes
Label:    Rhino (original label: Tower)
Year:    1967
    On Auguest 5th, 1967 a little known singer/songwriter named Jake Holmes opened for the Yardbirds for a gig in New York City, performing songs from his debut LP The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes, including a rather creepy sounding tune called Dazed And Confused. Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty, who was actually in the audience for Holmes's set, went out and bought a copy of the album the next day. Soon after that the Yardbirds began performing their own modified version of Dazed And Confused. Tower Records, perhaps looking to take advantage of the Yardbirds popularization of the tune, released Dazed And Confused as a single in January of 1968. Meanwhile, the Yardbirds split up, with guitarist Jimmy Page forming a new band called Led Zeppelin. One of the songs Led Zeppelin included on their 1969 debut LP was yet another new arrangement of Dazed And Confused, with new lyrics provided by Page and singer Robert Plant. This version was credited entirely to Page. Holmes himself, not being a fan of British blues-rock, was not aware of any of this at first, and then let things slide until 2010, when he filed a copyright infringement lawsuit. The matter was ultimately settled out of court, and all copies of the first Led Zeppelin album made from 2014 on include "inspired by Jake Holmes" in the credits.
    

Rockin' in the Days of Confusion # 2314 (starts 4/3/23)

https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/467991-dc-2314

    Last week we shifted gears a bit and went with shorter tracks, many of which were from artists not often heard on Rockin' in the Days of Confusion. This week the trend continues, with artists like Jan Hammer and Tim Hardin joining some of our more regular contributors such as the Doors and Spirit.

Artist:    Spirit
Title:    Nature's Way
Source:    CD: Best Of Spirit (originally released on LP: Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus)
Writer:    Randy California
Label:    Epic
Year:    1970
    Nature's Way is one of the best-known and best-loved songs in the Spirit catalog. Originally released on the 1970 LP Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus, the song was finally issued as a single in 1973, long after lead vocalist Jay Ferguson and bassist Mark Andes had left Spirit to form Jo Jo Gunne.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    L.A. Woman
Source:    LP: L.A. Woman
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1971
    Ray Manzarek became justifiably famous as the keyboard player for the Doors. Before joining up with Jim Morrison, Robby Krieger and John Densmore, however, Manzarek was already making a name for himself as an up-and-coming student filmmaker at UCLA. Although he didn't have much of a need to pursue a career in films once the Doors hit it big, he did end up producing and directing an outstanding video for the title track of the 1971 album L.A. Woman years after the band had split up. I only mention this because, really, what else can I say about a song that you've probably heard a million times or so?

Artist:    Steve Miller Band
Title:    Steve Miller's Midnight Tango
Source:    LP: Number 5
Writer(s):    Ben Sidran
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1970
    I'm sure there's a story behind Ben Sidran, who had replaced Boz Scaggs in the Steve Miller Band, writing a song called Steve Miller's Midnight Tango for the 1970 album Number 5, but I sure can't find it.
 
Artist:    Jan Hammer Group
Title:    Don't You Know
Source:    45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s):    Hammer/Reich
Label:    Nemperor
Year:    1977
    Jan Hammer is best known for composing the music used on the early 80s hit TV show, Miami Vice, including the show's main theme, which won him two Grammy awards in 1986. Born into a musical family (his mother was a popular singer in Czechoslovakia while his father, a doctor, worked his way through medical school playing vibraphone and bass guitar), Hammer first started playing piano at age four, and began to receive formal instruction on the instrument two years later. At age 14 he was performing throughout Eastern Europe (then part of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact) with his own jazz trio, and after high school began attending the Prague Academy of Musical Arts. His formal education was cut short by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Hammer soon emigrated to the US, where he attended Boston's Berklee School of Music. He continued to play jazz, touring with Sarah Vaughan and did some session work for Elvin Jones before moving to Manhattan, where he became an original member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was one of the first jazz keyboardists to embrace synthesizer technology, and after doing more session work following the breakup of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Hammer formed his own jazz-rock fusion group in 1976. Don't You Know, on which Hammer plays almost all of the instruments as well as backup vocals, features Fernando Saunders on lead vocals. The song was the only single taken from the Jan Hammer Group's second LP, Melodies, which was released in 1977. Hammer has continued to record over the years, both as a solo artist and as a collaborator with such notables as Neal Schon, Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger. His latest album, Seasons-Part 1, was released in 2018.

Artist:    Tim Hardin
Title:    Hoboin'
Source:    European import CD: Pure...Psychedelic Rock (original released in US on LP: Bird In A Cage)
Writer(s):    Hooker/Josea
Label:    Sony Music (original US label: Columbia)
Year:    1971
    Although Tim Hardin is best known for songs he wrote that became hits for other artists, such as Reason To Believe and If I Were A Carpenter, he had a recording career of his own as well. He originally signed with Columbia in 1964, but the label terminated his contract before any of his recordings got released. Two years later he signed with the Verve Forecast label, releasing four LPs before re-signing with Columbia in 1969. The label sent him to Nashville to work with studio musicians there, but none of those recordings were considered good enough to be released. Instead, he returned to his home in Woodstock, NY, and recorded Suite for Susan Moore and Damion: We Are One, One, All in One, a cycle of songs dedicated to his wife and son, that became his first release for Columbia. Following his performance at the Woodstock festival later that year, Hardin went to work on his next LP, Bird In A Cage. Unlike Hardin's previous albums, all the backing tracks on Bird In A Cage were recorded before Hardin actually set foot in the studio, with Weather Report's Joe Zawinul arranging some of the tunes, including Hoboin', a tune written by legendary blues artist John Lee Hooker and Joe Bihari (under the pseudonym Joe Josea).

Artist:    Ray Manzarek
Title:    Downbound Train
Source:    45 RPM single (promo)
Writer(s):    Chuck Berry
Label:    Mercury
Year:    1974
    Following the disbanding of the Doors, keyboardist Ray Manzarek recorded a pair of albums for Mercury in the mid-1970s. The first of these, The Golden Scarab, was made up mostly of original Manzarek compositions, but did include one cover song, a chaotic rendition of Chuck Berry's Downbound Train that was released as a single in 1974. Although promo copies of the single exist, it is unknown whether it was ever released to the public.

Artist:    Jeff Beck
Title:    You Know What I Mean/She's A Woman
Source:    CD: Blow By Blow
Writer(s):    Beck/Middleton/Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Epic
Year:    1975
    After dissolving the group Beck, Bogert and Appice in 1973, guitarist Jeff Beck spent the next year supporting various other musicians both on stage and in the studio before going to work on what would become his most commercially successful solo album, Blow By Blow. Produced by George Martin, the all-instrumental album opens with You Know What I Mean, a tune written by Beck and keyboardist Max Middleton, and segues into a rather unique cover version of Paul McCartney's She's A Woman, a hit for the Beatles in early 1965.

Artist:    John Lee Hooker/Canned Heat
Title:    Whiskey And Wimmin'
Source:    CD: The Very Best Of Canned Heat (originally released on LP: Hooker And Heat)
Writer(s):    John Lee Hooker
Label:    Capitol (original label: United Artists)
Year:    1971
    Canned Heat was, at its heart, a group of blues record collectors who had enough talent to make their own classic blues recordings. In 1970 the members of the band got the chance to fulfill a dream. They spent the entire summer recording tracks with one of their heroes, the legendary John Lee Hooker. Unfortunately, the experience was marred by the death of Canned Heat co-founder Alan Wilson on September 3rd. Contractual problems with Hooker's label delayed the release of the recordings until January of 1971, when the project was released as a double LP called Hooker And Heat. The most popular track on the album, Whiskey And Wimmin', was also released as a single in April of that year.

Artist:      Grand Funk Railroad
Title:     Mr. Limousine Driver
Source:      CD: Grand Funk
Writer:    Mark Farner
Label:     Capitol
Year:     1969
     When Grand Funk Railroad first appeared on the scene they were universally panned by the rock press (much as Kiss would be a few years later). Despite this, they managed to set attendance records across the nation and were instrumental to establishing sports arenas as the venue of choice for 70s rock bands. Although their first album, On Time, was not an instant hit, their popularity took off with the release of their second LP, Grand Funk (also known as the Red Album). One of the many popular tracks on Grand Funk was Mr. Limousine Driver, a song that reflects the same attitude as their later hit We're An American Band.

Artist:    Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young
Title:    Sea Of Madness
Source:    CD: Woodstock-Music From The Original Soundtrack And More
Writer(s):    Neil Young
Label:    Cotillion/Rhino
Year:    1969
    Neil Young joined Crosby, Stills and Nash to perform a few songs at Woodstock, including one of his own compositions, Sea Of Madness, and would be a full member of the group when their next album, Deja Vu, came out. The recording of Sea Of Madness used for the Woodstock soundtrack album, however, was made in September of 1969 at the Fillmore East.

Artist:    Janis Joplin/Kozmic Blues Band
Title:    Summertime
Source:    EP box set: Move Over
Writer(s):    Hayward/Gershwin/Gershwin
Label:    Columbia
Year:    Recorded 1969, released 2011
    One of the most popular tracks on the 1968 album Cheap Thrills by Big Brother And The Holding Company was George Gershwin's Summertime, from  Porgy And Bess. After leaving Big Brother, vocalist Janis Joplin continued to perform the song with her new Kozmic Blues Band. The performance heard here was recorded in Amsterdam, Holland, on April 1, 1969.

Artist:    Jimi Hendrix/Band Of Gypsys
Title:    Power Of Soul
Source:    CD: South Saturn Delta
Writer(s):    Jimi Hendrix
Label:    MCA
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 1997
    1969 was a strange year for Jimi Hendrix. For one thing, he did not release any new recordings that year, yet he remained the top money maker in rock music. One reason for the lack of new material was an ongoing dispute with Capitol Records over a contract he had signed as a backup musician in 1965. By the end of the year an agreement was reached for Hendrix to provide Capitol with one album's worth of new material. At this point Hendrix had not released any live albums, so it was decided to tape his New Year's performances at the Fillmore East with his new Band Of Gypsys (with drummer Buddy Miles and bassist Billy Cox), playing songs that had never been released in studio form. As it turns out, however, studio versions of many of the songs on that album did indeed exist, but were not issued until after Hendrix's death, when producer Alan Douglas put out a pair of LPs (Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning), that had some of the original drum and bass tracks (and even some guitar tracks) re-recorded by musicians that had never actually worked with Hendrix. One of those songs is Power Of Soul, which has finally been released in its original Band Of Gypsys studio version, with background vocals provided by Cox and Miles.

Artist:    Mahogany Rush
Title:    Moonlight Lady
Source:    Canadian import CD: Strange Universe
Writer(s):    Frank Marino
Label:    Just A Minute (original label: 20th Century)
Year:    1975
    When it comes to Canadian musicians, the first names that come to mind are Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot, with the Guess Who immediately following. Often overlooked, however, is Mahogany Rush, a band that features the talented singer/songwriter Frank Marino on lead guitar. Marino has been accused of trying to rip off Jimi Hendrix, but I see it more as channeling the master guitarist rather than stealing from him. And let's face it: very few people have been able to do it better than Marino, as can be heard on Moonlight Lady, from the third Mahogany Rush album Strange Universe.

Doors L.A. Woman Sessions vinyl giveaway

So for those of you who haven't heard. All you need to do to qualify for the drawing for a copy of the Doors L.A. Sessions vinyl box set is to go to hermitradio.com and use the contact button (near the top...looks like a little envelope; when you click it, it opens up your e-mail client) to tell me your favorite Doors song. Once the names are drawn (at random) I'll be replying to the winners to get a physical address to send the albums to. Good luck, all! 

Stuck in the Psychedelic Era # 2313 (starts 3/27/23)

https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/466938-pe-2313

    This week, in our second hour, we're featuring tracks from the newly-released  L.A. Woman Sessions four LP vinyl box set. And then we're going to try to give away some extra copies of the aforementioned box set. Of course there's plenty of other stuff going on this week as well, including artists' sets from Donovan and the Beatles.

Artist:    ? And The Mysterians
Title:    I Can't Get Enough Of You Baby
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer:    Randle/Linzer
Label:    Abkco (original label: Cameo)
Year:    1967
    ? And The Mysterians' 1966 hit 96 Tears was the last song on the legendary Cameo label to hit the top 10 before the label went bankrupt in 1967 (and was bought by Allan Klein, who still reissues old Cameo-Parkway recordings on his Abkco label). Shortly before that bankruptcy was declared, however, the group released Can't Get Enough Of You Baby, which, in the absence of any promotion from the label, stalled out in the lower reaches of the charts. The song itself, however, finally achieved massive popularity at the end of the century, when a new version of the tune by Smash Mouth went to the top of the charts.

Artist:    Purple Gang
Title:    Granny Takes A Trip
Source:    British import CD: Acid Daze (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: The Purple Gang Strikes)
Writer(s):    Bowyer/Beard
Label:    Uncut (original label: Transatlantic, LP released in US on Sire label)
Year:    1967
    Formed in the Manchester, England area as the Young Contemporaries Jug Band, The Purple Gang took on their new identity when they relocated to London and became part of the psychedelic scene there. Their first single, Granny Takes A Trip, was banned by the BBC for 1) having the word "trip" in the song title (even though it was named for an actual gift shop that had nothing to do with acid) and 2) the lead singer's nickname was Lucifer. Sounds pretty circumstantial to me, but that was the BBC in 1967, the inaugural year of BBC-1, and I suppose they were still a bit on the timid side at that point in time.

Artist:    Music Machine
Title:    Smoke And Water (original mix)
Source:    Mono British import CD: The Ultimate Turn On (originally released on CD: Ignition)
Writer(s):    Sean Bonniwell
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Sundazed)
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 2000
    Before signing with Original Sound Records in late 1966, Sean Bonniwell's band, the Music Machine, recorded several demos, including Smoke And Water. The song was considered too conventional by Bonniwell's standards to be included on the group's debut LP, although it is entirely possible that if the record company had not included several cover songs on the album without the band's knowledge or consent, Smoke And Water, with its outstanding keyboard work from Doug Rhodes, might have made the cut.

Artist:    Jeff Beck
Title:    Tallyman
Source:    45 RPM single (reissue)
Writer(s):    Graham Gouldman
Label:    Sundazed/Epic
Year:    1967
    Mickey Most (born Michael Peter Hayes) was a British record producer who was responsible for some of the biggest hits of the British Invasion, working with bands like the Animals and Herman's Hermits, as well as individual artists like Donovan and Lulu. In most instances he chose the songs himself for the bands to record, something that did not sit well with Eric Burdon of the Animals in particular. Nonetheless, he had the reputation as the man to go to for the best chance of getting on the charts and he rarely disappointed. In 1967, guitarist Jeff Beck, having recently left the Yardbirds, had dreams of becoming a pop star, and turned to Most for help in making it happen. Most, as usual, picked out the songs for Beck's first two singles, the second of which was Tallyman, a song written by the same Graham Gouldman that had provided the Yardbirds with their first Beck era hit, Heart Full Of Soul. Beck would continue to work with Most for the next couple of years, although by the time the album Beck-Ola was released, Beck himself was choosing the material to record and starting with his next LP, Rough And Ready, would be producing his own records.
    
Artist:    Eric Burdon And The Animals
Title:    Gratefully Dead
Source:    Mono British import CD: Winds Of Change (bonus track originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Burdon/Briggs/Weider/McCulloch/Jenkins
Label:    Repertoire (original label: M-G-M)
Year:    1967
    One of the most successful singles by Eric Burdon And The Animals was a tribute to the summer of Love called San Franciscan Nights taken from their 1967 debut LP, Winds Of Change. The B side of that single was Good Times, from the same album. At first the band's British label was reluctant to release San Francisco Nights as a single, but eventually decided to go for it. Since Good Times had already been released as a single in the UK (making the top 10), the group recorded a new B side for San Franciscan Nights's UK release, a tune written by the band called Gratefully Dead. To my knowledge, the track has never been issued in the US.

Artist:    Chocolate Watchband
Title:    Don't Need Your Lovin'
Source:    Mono CD: One Step Beyond (originally released on LP: Riot On Sunset Strip soundtrack album)
Writer(s):    Dave Aguilar
Label:    Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year:    1967
    The Chocolate Watchband was famously unprepared virtually every time they entered a recording studio (although it might be more accurate to say they just didn't give a damn). Their appearance on the set of the film Riot On Sunset Strip was no exception. The band actually did have one song prepared for the film, a Dave Aguilar original called Don't Need Your Lovin'. The track was recorded live on the Paramount soundstage and is a better representation of what the band was all about than any of their studio tracks.

Artist:    Beach Boys
Title:    Wonderful
Source:    Mono CD: Good Vibrations-Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys
Writer(s):    Wilson/Parks
Label:    Capitol
Year:    Recorded 1966, released 1993
    After spending several months perfecting his masterpiece single Good Vibrations, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys set out to create an entire album using the same production style, recording segments of each piece separately, often at entirely different studios, then assembling them into coherent finished tracks and adding vocal overdubs. One of the first pieces recorded for this new album (to be called Smile), was Wonderful, recorded on September 1st of 1966. Although Smile was eventually scrapped in favor of the much less complex Smiley Smile album, released in late 1967, many of the original Smile tracks were preserved in the Capitol Records vaults, with bootleg copies occasionally making the rounds among collectors. Finally, in 1993, some of these tracks (including Wonderful) were released on the box set Good Vibrations-Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys.

Artist:    Vanilla Fudge
Title:    You Keep Me Hangin' On
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    Holland/Dozier/Holland
Label:    Atco
Year:    1967
    The Vanilla Fudge version of You Keep Me Hangin' On was originally recorded and released in 1967, not too long after the Supremes version of the song finished its own run on the charts. It wasn't until the following year, however, that the Vanilla Fudge recording caught on with radio listeners, turning it into the band's only top 40 hit. Although progressive FM stations often played the longer LP version, it was the mono single edit heard here that was most familiar to listeners of top 40 radio.

Artist:    Max Frost And The Troopers (aka the 13th Power)
Title:    Captain Hassel
Source:    European import CD: Shape Of Things To Come (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s):    Beckner/Hector/Martin/McClain/Wibier
Label:    Captain High (original US label: Sidewalk)
Year:    1967
    If anyone needed proof that the fictional band known as Max Frost And The Troopers was in reality the 13th Power, it is provided by Captain Hassel, which, along with I See A Change Is Gonna Come was released as the only 13th Power single on Mike Curb's Sidewalk label in 1967, a year before the film Wild In The Streets (featuring Max Frost And The Troopers) came out. Further proof is provided on the soundtrack album of the 1968 film, on which a reworked version of Captain Hassel retitled Free Lovin'  is credited to the 13th Power. Later that same year, Tower Records released an entire LP credited to Max Frost And The Troopers that included a stereo mix of the original recording of Captain Hassel with its original title restored.

Artist:    Taste
Title:    Same Old Story
Source:    British import CD: Taste
Writer(s):    Rory Gallagher
Label:    Polydor (original US label: Atco)
Year:    1969
    Sometimes a band's frontman so dominates the band's sound that the band itself becomes little more than a footnote in the history of the frontman himself. Such was the case with Taste, a band formed in Cork, Ireland in 1966 by Rory Gallagher. By the time Taste cut its 1969 debut LP, Gallagher was the only original member of the trio, and the band's sole songwriter as well as vocalist and lead guitarist. The song Same Old Story is fairly typical of the group's sound. Taste disbanded in 1970, with Gallagher going on to have a successful solo career.
    
Artist:    Donovan
Title:    Legend Of A Girl Child Linda
Source:    Mono LP: Sunshine Superman
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Epic/Sundazed
Year:    1966
    Scottish singer/songwriter Donovan Leitch first met Linda Lawrence in the green room of the TV series Ready Steady Go shortly after her breakup with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. Soon after that Donovan started referring to her as his muse, and has written several songs for her, including Legend Of A Girl Child Linda from his Sunshine Superman album, as well as the album's title track. Although she spent the next few years in California, the two of them eventually reunited and have been married since 1970.

Artist:     Donovan
Title:     Sunshine Superman
Source:     CD: Sunshine On The Mountain (originally released in edited form as 45 RPM single)
Writer:     Donovan Leitch
Label:     Sony Music Special Products (original label: Epic)
Year:     1966
     Donovan's hugely successful 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. Originally released as a three and a quarter minute long single, the full unedited four and a half minute long stereo mix of the song heard here did not appear on vinyl until Donovan's 1969 Greatest Hits album.

Artist:    Donovan
Title:    The Fat Angel
Source:    Mono LP: Sunshine Superman
Writer(s):    Donovan Leitch
Label:    Sundazed/Epic
Year:    1966
    There seems to be some confusion as to what Donovan's 1966 track The Fat Angel is about. Some critics assume it refers to Cass Elliott of the Mamas and the Papas, although that seems to be based entirely on the song title. Others take it as a tribute of some sort to Jefferson Airplane, whose name appears in the lyrics of the song. The problem with this theory is that The Fat Angel appeared on the Sunshine Superman album, which was released just two weeks after the first Jefferson Airplane album (although it is possible that Donovan had come across a copy of the single It's No Secret, which had been released in the US in February of 1966 at the same time that Donovan was recording the Sunshine Superman album). My own view is based on the lyrics themselves, which are about a pot dealer making his rounds. Fly Trans-Love Airlines indeed!

Artist:     Blues Project
Title:     Catch The Wind
Source:     LP: DJ sampler (originally released as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer:     Donovan Leitch
Label:     Verve Forecast
Year:    1966
    One of the more underrated talents in US rock is guitarist Steve Katz. One of the original members of the Blues Project, Katz always comes across as a team player, subsuming his own ego to the good of the band. When it was time for Andy Kuhlberg to play a flute solo onstage at Monterey, Katz was the one who obligingly shifted over to bass guitar to cover for him. Steve Katz did occasionally get the chance to shine, though. As a singer/songwriter he provided Sometimes In Winter for the album Blood, Sweat and Tears and Steve's Song for the Blues Project's Projections album. One of his more obscure recordings is the Blues Project version of Donovan's Catch The Wind. The song was released as a B side and included on an anthology album distributed to radio stations in 1966. 

Artist:    Jefferson Airplane
Title:    Comin' Back To Me
Source:    CD: Surrealistic Pillow
Writer(s):    Marty Balin
Label:    RCA/BMG Heritage
Year:    1967
    Uncredited guest guitarist Jerry Garcia adds a simple, but memorable recurring fill riff to this Marty Balin tune. Balin, in his 2003 liner notes to the remastered release of Surrealistic Pillow, claims that Comin' Back To Me was written in one sitting under the influence of some primo stuff given to him by Paul Butterfield. Other players on the recording include Paul Kantner, Jack Casady and Balin himself on acoustic guitars and Grace Slick on recorder.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Light My Fire (single version)
Source:    45 RPM single
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1967
    Once in a while a song comes along that totally blows you away the very first time you hear it. The Doors' Light My Fire was one of those songs. I liked it so much that I immediately went out and bought the 45 RPM single. Apparently I was not the only one, as the song spent three weeks at the top of the charts in July of 1967. Despite this success, the single version of the song, which runs less than three minutes, is all but forgotten by modern radio stations, which universally choose to play the full-length album version. Nonetheless, the single version, which was created by editing out most of the solo instrumental sections of the piece, is a historical artifact worth an occasional listen.

    The next three tracks are all taken from the recently released 4 LP box set L.A. Sessions. We have three extra copies of the set to give away this week, and we'll be having a drawing after the show airs to see who gets those three extra copies. Details on how to qualify for the drawing are included in the following segment.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    Riders On The Storm (excerpt)
Source:    German import LP: L.A. Woman Sessions (box set)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra/Rhino
Year:    Recorded 1970, released 2023
    According to recording engineer Bruce Botnick, when Paul Rothchild first heard the Doors playing Riders On The Storm at Sunset Sound Recorders he told Botnick that it sounded to him like "cocktail jazz" and that Botnik and the band should make their new album without him. After moving a bunch of recording equipment into the Doors' own rehearsal space they did just that, completing the album in six days. The last track on the album, Riders On The Storm, was vocalist Jim Morrison's final recording with the band.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    The Changeling (part 1-excerpt)
Source:    German import LP: L.A. Woman Sessions (box set)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1971
    Originally chosen by the band to be the first single released from the L.A. Woman album, The Changeling was withdrawn in favor of Love Her Madly at the insistence of Jac Holtzman, president of Elektra Records. The song, which (as heard here) took several takes to perfect, later appeared as the B side of the album's next single, Riders On The Storm, with its title missing the definitive article.

Artist:    Doors
Title:    L.A. Woman (part 1-excerpt)
Source:    German import LP: L.A. Woman Sessions (box set)
Writer(s):    The Doors
Label:    Elektra
Year:    1971
    For the L.A. Woman sessions, the Doors added two extra musicians to help fill out the band's sound. Guitarist Marc Benno, who had recently completed the Asylum Choir album with Leon Russell, was brought in to free up Robby Krieger to do more fills on the basic tracks rather than going back and overdubbing the parts later. Perhaps more importantly, the band hired Elvis Presley's bassist Jerry Scheff to play on the album, which inspired vocalist Jim Morrison (a huge Presley fan) to show up on time and sober for the sessions, something he had not been doing much of since the band's first two albums. L.A. Woman's title track (an early take of which is heard here) is often thought of as Morrison's final goodbye to Los Angeles, as he departed for Paris soon after the album's completion and never returned.

Artist:      Beatles
Title:     You Like Me Too Much
Source:      LP: Beatles VI
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Apple/Capitol/EMI
Year:     1965
    Up until 1965 only one George Harrison composition (Don't Bother Me) had ever appeared on a Beatles album. In June of 1965 his second one, You Like Me Too Much, was included on the US-only LP Beatles VI. Two months later the song was one of two Harrison-penned tunes included on the British version of the Help album. I can't help but think that John Lennon helped George out on this one.

Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Abbey Road Medley #1
Source:    CD: Abbey Road
Writer(s):    Lennon/McCartney
Label:    Apple/Parlophone
Year:    1969
    Much of the second side of the last album to be recorded by the Beatles, Abbey Road, is taken up by (depending on whose view you take) either one long medley or two not-quite-so-long medleys of songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Personally I take the latter view, as there is just a bit too much quiet space at the end of She Came In Through The Bathroom Window for me to consider it linked to the next song, Golden Slumbers. Regardless, the whole thing starts with You Never Give Me Your Money, a Paul McCartney composition reputed to be a jab at the band's second (and last) manager, Allen Klein. This leads into three John Lennon pieces, Sun King, Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam, ending finally with another McCartney piece, She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, a song with nonsense lyrics and a title inspired by a real life break-in by an overzealous fan.
 
Artist:    Beatles
Title:    Tell Me What You See
Source:    LP: Beatles VI
Writer(s):    George Harrison
Label:    Apple/Capitol/EMI
Year:    1965
    Dave Dexter's resequencing of Beatles albums for US release on the Capitol sometimes resulted in songs actually appearing in the US before being officially released on British Beatles albums. An example of this is Tell Me What You See, which came out in June of 1965 on the Capitol LP Beatles VI, two months before it appeared in the UK as one of seven songs included on the Help soundtrack album that were not used in the film itself. Most of the rest of those tunes were not released in the US until 1966, when they were included on the US-only Yesterday...And Today LP.

Artist:    Caravelles
Title:    Lovin' Just My Style
Source:    Mono LP: Pebbles Vol. 8 (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    The Caravelles (original label: Onacrest)
Label:    BFD
Year:    1966
    In the mid-1960s it seemed like every local music scene had one guy who could do a dead-on impression of the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger. In Phoenix, Arizona, that guy was John Fitzgerald, although, as can be heard on the Caravelles' Lovin' Just My Style, there was more than a touch of the Yardbirds' Keith Relf in his approach as well. The band itself was managed and produced by Hadley Murrell, a local DJ who is better known for the many Phoenix soul bands he produced. Although more than one member of the Caravelles went on to become associated with more famous bands such as Alice Cooper and the Tubes, it is unclear whether any them were members of the group in 1966, when Lovin' Just My Style was recorded.

Artist:    Yardbirds
Title:    You're A Better Man Than I
Source:    Mono Australian import CD: Over, Under, Sideways, Down (originally released in US on LP: Having A Rave Up With The Yardbirds)
Writer(s):    Mike & Brian Hugg
Label:    Raven (original label: Epic)
Year:    1965
    Perhaps more than any other British Invasion band, the Yardbirds' US and UK catalogs varied considerably. This is because the band only released a pair of LPs in the UK, one of which was a live album, with the bulk of their studio output appearing on 45 RPM singles and EPs. In the US, on the other hand, the group released four (mostly) studio LPs, compiled from the various UK releases. One song, You're A Better Man Than I, actually came out on a US album four months before it was issued as a single B side in February of 1966 in the UK.

Artist:    Harbinger Complex
Title:    I Think I'm Down
Source:    Mono British import CD: With Love-A Pot Of Flowers (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s):    Hockstaff/Hoyle
Label:    Big Beat (original label: Brent)
Year:    1966
    Most garage/club bands never made it beyond a single or two for a relatively small independent label. Freemont, California's Harbinger Complex is a good example. The group was one of many that were signed by Bob Shad, owner of Mainstream Records and its various subsidiary labels such as Time and Brent. The band had already released one single on the independent Amber label and were recording at Golden State Recorders in San Francisco when they were discovered by Shad, who signed them to Brent. The band's first single for the label was the British-influenced I Think I'm Down, which came out in 1966 and was included on Mainstream's 1967 showcase album With Love-A Pot Of Flowers.

Artist:    Steve Miller Band
Title:    Going To Mexico
Source:    LP: Anthology (originally released on LP: Number 5)
Writer(s):    Miller/Scaggs
Label:    Capitol
Year:    1969
    Although Boz Scaggs had left the Steve Miller Band following their second album, Sailor, the song Going To Mexico, co-written by Miller and Scaggs, did not appear on an album until Number 5 was released in 1970. Miller himself referred to the song as a 1969 track on his Anthology album, however, leading me to believe the song may have been among the last tracks recorded while Scaggs was still with the band. The recording also features future star Lee Michaels on organ.