https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/471620-pe-2318
This week's Advanced Psych segment answers a couple nagging questions you may have had and poses another one. Come to think of it, the whole show is kind of like that this time around. In a sense, the title of the first song sums it up.
Artist: Beatles
Title: I Want To Tell You
Source: LP: Revolver
Writer(s): George Harrison
Label: Apple/Capitol/EMI
Year: 1966
The first pre-recorded reel-to-reel tape I ever bought was the Capitol version of the Beatles' Revolver album, which I picked up about a year after the LP was released. Although my Dad's tape recorder had small built-in speakers, his Koss headphones had far superior sound, which led to me sleeping on the couch in the living room with the headphones on. Hearing songs like I Want To Tell You on factory-recorded reel-to-reel tape through a decent pair of headphones gave me an appreciation for just how well-engineered Revolver was, and also inspired me to (eventually) learn my own way around a recording studio. The song itself, by the way, is one of three George Harrison songs on Revolver; the most on any Beatles album up to that point, and one of the many reasons that, when pressed, I almost always end up citing Revolver as my favorite Beatles LP.
Artist: Jimi Hendrix Experience
Title: Rock Me, Baby
Source: LP: Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival
Writer(s): King/Josea
Label: Reprise
Year: 1967
Despite having recorded and released over a dozen original songs in Europe and the UK prior to their US debut at the Monterey International Pop Festival, the Jimi Hendrix Experience chose to fill their set with more cover songs than originals at the festival itself. Of the five cover songs, two were high-energy reworkings of blues classics such as B.B. King's Rock Me, Baby. Hendrix would eventually rework this arrangement into an entirely original song with new lyrics.
Artist: Neil Young
Title: The Loner
Source: LP: The Big Ball (originally released on LP: Neil Young)
Writer(s): Neil Young
Label: Warner Brothers (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
The Loner could easily have been passed off as a Buffalo Springfield song. In addition to singer/songwriter/guitarist Neil Young, the tune features Springfield members Jim Messina on bass and George Grantham on drums. Since Buffalo Springfield was functionally defunct by the time the song was ready for release, however, it instead became Young's first single as a solo artist. The song first appeared, in a longer form, on Young's first solo album in late 1968, with the single being released three months later. The subject of The Loner has long been rumored to be Young's bandmate Stephen Stills, or possibly Young himself. As usual, Neil Young ain't sayin'.
Artist: Chicken Shack
Title: What You Did Last Night
Source: German import LP: The Blues (originally released on LP: Forty Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed And Ready To Serve)
Writer(s): Stan Webb
Label: Blue Horizon (also released in US by Epic)
Year: 1968
One of the most legendary British blues bands that went virtually unheard in the US, Chicken Shack is probably best known as being the first band to feature Christine Perfect on keyboards and occasional vocals. The band, taking their name from Jimmy Reed's Back To The Chicken Shack album, was formed in 1965 by guitarist/vocalist Stan Webb, bassist Andy Silvester and drummer Alan Morley. By 1968 they had added Perfect and had replaced Morley with Al Sykes to record their debut LP, Forty Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed And Ready To Serve. The majority of the songs on that album were covers of classic blues tunes, but Webb and Perfect each contributed two original songs to the album as well. The better known of Webb's songs was What You Did Last Night, which closes out the album. Perfect would stick around for one more album before marrying Fleetwood Mac's bassist John McVie, eventually becoming a member of that band. Meanwhile, Chicken Shack continues to perform (and sometimes record) with an ever-changing lineup, Webb being the only consistent member of the band.
Artist: Human Beinz
Title: April 15th
Source: British import CD: Ah Feel Like Ahcid (originally released in US on LP: Evolutions)
Writer(s): Belley/De Azevedo
Label: Zonophone (original label: Capitol)
Year: 1968
The Human Beinz started out in Youngstown, Ohio as the Premiers in 1964, but changed their name to the Human Beingz in 1966. After a few moderately successful singles on various regional labels (including a cover of Van Morrison's Gloria that predates the hit Shadows Of Knight version), the group signed to Capitol Records in 1967. In September of that year they released a cover of the Isley Brothers' Nobody But Me that became their only top 40 hit. Unfortunately, their name was misspelled on the label, and since the record was a hit, the band was stuck with the new spelling. By the time the group disbanded they had released several more singles (including two that hit the #1 spot in Japan), as well as two LPs, for Capitol. The second of these, Evolutions, was the more psychedelic of the two. Although the group was known mainly for its tight arrangements of cover songs, they did cut loose a bit on Evolutions, particularly on April 15th, a seven minute jam co-written by guitarist/vocalist Dick Belley.
Artist: Wildwood
Title: Plastic People
Source: Mono CD: A Deadly Dose Of Wild Psych (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): F. Colli
Label: Arf! Arf! (original label: Magnum)
Year: 1968
Stockton, California's Wildwood only released two singles, both in 1968. The first of these, Plastic People, takes a somewhat cynical view of the Flower Power movement, which had by 1968 pretty much run its course. Musically the track owes much to Sean Bonniwell's Music Machine.
Artist: Sagittarius
Title: Glass
Source: CD: Present Tense
Writer(s): Marks/Sheldon
Label: Sundazed (original label: Columbia)
Year: 1968
Sagittarius started as a spare time project by Columbia Records staff producer Gary Usher, who had established himself as the king of surf music during the genre's heyday, working with people like Brian Wilson, Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher, as well as the Wrecking Crew (the unofficial name given to the L.A. studio musicians that played on the records he produced). Usher had been in complete creative control of his projects during the surf years and was finding out that working with people like the Byrds and Simon And Garfunkel, while financially lucrative, was creatively stifling for him, as those artists had their own creative visions and he did not want to force his own ideas on them. In early 1967, inspired by his friend Brian Wilson's Good Vibrations, Usher began working on what would become Sagittarius over the weekends and late at night when the Columbia studios were not in use. Access to the studios were not an issue (he had his own keys), nor was access to L.A.'s top studio musicians such as drummer Hal Blaine and bassist Carol Kane, who were more than happy to help out the man who had provided them so much employment over the years. The first production to be released under the Sagittarius name was a single called My World Fell Down, a piece featuring Glen Campbell on vocals that rivaled Good Vibrations itself in complexity. Usher soon took on a partner in the project, producer Curt Boettcher, who had made a huge impression on both Usher and Wilson in early 1966 when he was a producer for Our Productions, working in the same building as Wilson and Usher. Boettcher brought considerable energy and a wealth of material to Sagittarius, and in one case even a lead vocalist. Craig Brewer, a friend of Boettcher's, reportedly just happened to wander in during the recording of Glass and was drafted to provide lead vocals to the song, which had previously been recorded by the Sandpipers, a middle-of-the-road vocal combo.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Surfer Dan
Source: 12 "45 RPM EP picture disc: The Turtles-1968 (originally released on LP: The Turtles Present Battle Of The Bands and as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer: The Turtles
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1968
In 1968 the Turtles decided to self-produce four recordings without the knowledge of their record label, White Whale. When company executives heard the tapes they rejected all but one of the recordings. That lone exception was Surfer Dan, which was included on the band's 1968 concept album The Turtles Present Battle of the Bands. The idea was that each track (or band, as the divisions on LPs were sometimes called) would sound like it was recorded by a different group. As the Turtles had originally evolved out of a surf band called the Crossfires, that name was the obvious choice for the Surfer Dan track. The song was also chosen to be the B side of Elenore, the Turtles' biggest hit of 1968.
Artist: Jethro Tull
Title: My Sunday Feeling
Source: LP: This Was
Writer(s): Ian Anderson
Label: Chrysalis (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 (who got the band's name wrong, billing them as Jethro Toe).
Artist: Fairport Convention
Title: Chelsea Morning
Source: British import CD: Fairport Convention
Writer(s): Joni Mitchell
Label: Polydor
Year: 1968
Although Joni Mitchell wrote Chelsea Morning, she was not the first person to record the song. That honor goes to Dave Van Ronk, who released the song on his 1967 LP Dave Van Ronk and the Hudson Dusters. The following year the song was included on the first Fairport Convention album with vocalist Judy Dyble, and remains my personal favorite of the many different versions of the tune. Mitchell herself finally recorded the song for her second LP, Clouds, in 1969. The song itself was inspired by Mitchell's room in New York's Chelsea neighborhood.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Mother's Little Helper
Source: 45 RPM single (stereo reissue)
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1966
By 1966 the Rolling Stones had already had a few brushes with the law over their use of illegal drugs. Mother's Little Helper, released in spring of 1966, is a scathing criticism of the parents of the Stones' fans for their habitual abuse of "legal" prescription drugs while simultaneously persecuting those same fans (and the band itself) for smoking pot. Perhaps more than any other song that year, Mother's Little Helper illustrates the increasingly hostile generation gap that had sprung up between the young baby boomers and the previous generation.
Artist: Chocolate Watchband
Title: Gone And Passes By
Source: CD: No Way Out
Writer(s): Dave Aguilar
Label: Sundazed (original label: Tower)
Year: 1967
Producer Ed Cobb, years after the fact, expressed regret that he didn't take the time to discover for himself what made the Chocolate Watchband such a popular band among San Jose, California's teenagers. Instead, he tried to present his own vision of what a psychedelic band should sound like on the group's debut LP, No Way Out. Many of the tracks on the album used studio musicians, and two of the tracks featuring the Watchband itself used studio vocalist Don Bennett instead of Dave Aguilar, including the single Let's Talk About Girls. The remaining tracks, altough featuring the full band, were somewhat obscured by additional instruments, particular the sitar, which was not normally used by the band when performing live. This synthesis of Cobb's vision and the actual Watchband is probably best illustrated by the song Gone And Passes By, an Aguilar composition that somewhat resembles a psychedelicized version of the Rolling Stones' cover of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Days
Source: Mono Canadian import CD: 25 Years-The Ultimate Collection (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Ray Davies
Label: Polygram/PolyTel (original label: Reprise)
Year: 1968
As the sixties wound down, the Kinks were busy proving that if a band could weather the bad times they would eventually re-emerge even stronger than before. The worst of those times for the band was 1968, when they had trouble scoring hits even on the UK charts where they had always had their greatest success. One of the singles released was Days, which shows a band still transitioning from the straight ahead rock of their early years to the sometimes biting satire that would characterize their later work.
Artist: Lovin' Spoonful
Title: Lovin' You
Source: LP: Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful
Writer(s): John Sebastian
Label: Sundazed/Kama-Sutra
Year: 1966
The Lovin' Spoonful hit their creative peak with their third album, Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful, in 1966. The LP included four hit singles, plus a couple of songs that became hits for other artists. One of those tunes was the album's opening track, Lovin' You, which Bobby Darin took into the top 40 that same year and Dolly Parton later covered for her award-winning album Here You Go Again.
Artist: Love
Title: ¡Que Vida!
Source: German import CD: Da Capo
Writer(s): Arthur Lee
Label: Elektra/Rhino
Year: 1967
The first Love album was pretty much garage rock. Their second effort, however, showed off the rapidly maturing songwriting skills of both Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean. Que Vida! (yes, I know that technically there should be an upside down exclamation point at the beginning of the song title, but Notepad doesn't speak Spanish) is a good example of Lee moving into territory usually associated with middle-of-the-road singers such as Johnny Mathis. Lee would continue to defy convention throughout his career, leading to a noticable lack of commercial success even as he overwhelmingly won the respect of his musical peers.
Artist: Other Half
Title: Mr. Pharmacist
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets-Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer: Jeff Nowlen
Label: Rhino (original label: GNP Crescendo)
Year: 1966
The Other Half was one of the many bands that could be found playing the local L.A. clubs when the infamous Riot On Sunset Strip happened in 1966. They are also the only other band I know of besides the Seeds that recorded for the GNP Crescendo label. The guitar solo is provided by Randy Holden, who would end up briefly replacing Leigh Stephens in Blue Cheer a few years later.
Artist: Rare Earth
Title: Hey Big Brother
Source: CD: The Collection (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Fekaris/Zesses
Label: Motown (original label: Rare Earth)
Year: 1971
Like many successful bands, Rare Earth relied on outside songwriters for their hit singles, although they did have many self-penned tunes on their LPs. At first those hits were covers of Temptations songs such as Get Ready and (I Know) I'm Losing You, but by the early 1970s they had switched to the songwriting team of Dino Fekaris and Nick Zesses, who provided them with their final top 20 hit, Hey Big Brother. It was also the most political of Rare Earth's hit records.
Artist: Billy Cox's Nitro Function
Title: Powerhouse
Source: German import CD: Billy Cox's Nitro Function
Writer(s): Char Vinnedge
Label: O Music (original label: Pye International)
Year: 1971
Following the death of Jimi Hendrix, his longtime friend and current bass player Billy Cox got in touch with Char Vinnedge, the founder of the Luv'd Ones, one of the first all-female rock bands. After the Luv'd Ones had split up, Vinnedge had spent a considerable amount of time studying Hendrix's unique approach to playing the guitar and had developed her own similar style of playing, which can be heard on Powerhouse, a song she wrote for the album Billy Cox's Nitro Function. In addition to Cox and Vinnedge, the album, which was never released in the US, features Robert Tarrant on drums.
Artist: London Souls
Title: Old Country Road
Source: CD: The London Souls
Writer(s): London Souls
Label: Soul On10
Year: 2011
Despite the implications of their name, the London Souls were actually a New York City band that was formed in 2008 by guitarist Tash Neal and drummer Chris St. Hilaire. The two met as teenagers, jamming with friends in rehearsal rooms rented by the hour. After recording a 16-song demo in 2009 they released their first actual album, The London Souls, in 2011. The duo made their mark by applying a 21st century sensibility to psychedelic era and classic rock concepts, resulting in songs like Old Country Road. A second album, Here Come The Girls, was originally planned for a 2013 release, but was delayed until 2015 after Tash Neal was injured in a hit-and-run accident. Although they never officially disbanded, the London Souls have been inactive since 2018.
Artist: Electric Prunes
Title: Mujo 22
Source: British import LP: Artifact
Writer(s): Electric Prunes
Label: Heartbeat
Year: 2001
The story of the Electric Prunes begins in Los Angeles in 1965 with a group called the Sanctions. Like most Southern California bands of the time, the Sanctions' repertoire was mostly covers of popular (and danceable) tunes like Money (That's What I Want), Love Potion # 9 and of course Louie Louie, all of which the band recorded at a home studio owned by Russ Bottomly in March of 1965. At that point in time, the Sanctions were a quartet consisting of James Lowe (vocals), Mark Tulin (bass), Ken Williams (guitar) and Michael "Quint" Weakley (drums). Early in 1966 they came to the attention of Dave Hassinger, who had just finished working with the Rolling Stones, putting the finishing touches on the Aftermath album, and was eager to try his hand at being a producer. He convinced the band that they needed a new name, and eventually the group came up with the name Electric Prunes, which they felt was so far out of the ordinary that people were bound to remember it.
Even though their first single (a cover of the Gypsy Trips' Ain't It Hard) stiffed, the people at Reprise Records signed the Prunes to a rather onerous contract that left Hassinger firmly in control of virtually everything to come out of a recording studio with the name Electric Prunes on it. At first this was fine with the band (who had just replaced Weakley with Preston Ritter and added James "Weasel" Spagnola as a second guitarist), as they and Hassinger worked well together on the hit single I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night). But it soon became obvious that Hassinger and the band itself had different priorities. Lowe and Tulin had been busy writing songs, yet only two of their compositions ended up on the band's 1967 debut LP. The majority of the songs on the album came from outside songwriters, with Annette Tucker's name in particular appearing on more tracks than anyone else's.
The album provided the band with a second top 40 single, Get Me To The World On Time (like I Had Too Much To Dream, penned by Tucker), which in turn became a factor in the band being given a little more creative freedom for their second LP, Underground (although the fact that Hassinger's attention was divided between the Electric Prunes and a second band he was producing that summer, a San Francisco group called the Grateful Dead, was probably an even greater factor). This greater freedom resulted in an album that included seven original tunes among the twelve tracks, including the European hit single Long Day's Flight, which was co-written by Weakley, who had returned to the group in time to appear on five songs on the LP.
The lack of a solid hit single on the album, however, led to Hassinger becoming rather heavy-handed with the group in 1968, possibly due to his frustration with the Grateful Dead that led to his resigning as that band's producer midway through their second LP, Anthem Of The Sun. The Electric Prunes did manage to record one final single, Lowe and Tulin's Everybody Knows You're Not In Love, before Hassinger came up with the idea of the band recording a concept album written by David Axelrod called Mass In F Minor. The band played on three tracks on the Mass, but Hassinger, frustrated by the members' slow pace in learning the material, brought in a Canadian band called the Collectors to finish the project. Although Lowe, Tulin and Weakley did end up making contributions to every track on the album, it had become clear that the Electric Prunes were no longer in control of their own destiny, and after a disastrous attempt to perform the Mass with a full orchestra at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, both Lowe and Weakley left the group. Tulin and Williams stayed around long enough to complete the band's current tour with a patched together lineup that included Kenny Loggins and Jeremy Stuart (of Chad & Jeremy), but by mid-1968 all the original Electric Prunes members were gone.
Two more LPs and an assortment of singles later, the group Hassinger was still calling the Electric Prunes officially disbanded in 1970. Hardly anyone noticed. That wasn't the end of the story, however. Thanks in part to Lenny Kaye, who included I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) on the 1972 Nuggets compilation album that collected some of the best tracks of the psychedelic era on a double LP, interest in the music of the original Electric Prunes began to take root, eventually leading to both of the original band's albums being reissued in Europe in the 1980s. In the late 1990s rumors began circulating that the original group had begun to work on new material. Then, in Y2K, both original albums were issued in the US on compact disc, with the two non-album singles included as bonus tracks (it was these reissues, in fact, that helped convince me that creating a show called Stuck in the Psychedelic Era was a viable idea).
Finally, in 2001, the album Artifact appeared on the band's own PruneTwang label in the US, with a truncated version appearing in the UK on vinyl (on the Heartbeat label) the following year. The core members of the band, James Lowe, Mark Tulin and Ken Williams, were joined by guitarist Mark Moulin, keyboardist Cameron Lowe and drummer Joe Dooley for the album, supplemented by guest appearances from former Moby Grape guitarist Peter Lewis, dotarist Jim Gripps, drummer Mike Vasquez and a special guest appearance by original drummer Michael "Quint" Weakley. The band was by no means going the nostalgia route, however; rather they referred to Artifact as "the real third album that we never got to make." Although most of the original material on Artifact was penned by Lowe and Tulin, the album's final track, Mujo 22, is essential a raga style studio jam (and with over eight minutes running time is the longest track on the album).
Since Artifact came out, the Electric Prunes have since released three more studio albums, as well as one live album (recorded in 2007) and a kind of hybrid CD called California '66 made to promote a 2009 East Coast tour that never happened, that would have featured the Electric Prunes, Sky Saxon (whose death prompted the tour's cancellation) and Arthur Lee's 21st century version of Love.
Artist: Janis Ian
Title: Insanity Comes Quickly To The Structured Mind
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Janis Ian
Label: Verve Forecast
Year: 1967
Janis Ian followed up her critically acclaimed 1967 debut LP with an equally excellent single, Insanity Comes Quickly To The Structured Mind, later the same year. The song was later included on her 1968 LP For All The Seasons Of Your Mind. I don't (yet) have a copy of this album, so instead we have a rather scratchy copy of the single.
Artist: Spencer Davis Group
Title: I'm A Man
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Winwood/Miller
Label: United Artists
Year: 1967
The Spencer Davis Group, featuring brothers Steve and Muff Winwood, was one of the UK's most successful white R&B bands of the sixties, cranking out a steady stream of hit singles. Two of them, the iconic Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man, were also major hits in the US, the latter being the last song to feature the Winwood brothers. Muff Winwood became a successful record producer. The group itself continued on for several years, but were never able to duplicate their earlier successes. As for Steve Winwood, he quickly faded off into obscurity, never to be heard from again. Except as the leader of Traffic. And a member of Blind Faith. And Traffic again. And some critically-acclaimed collaborations in the early 1980s with Asian musicians. Oh yeah, and a few major solo hits like Back In The High Life Again and Roll With It in the late 80s. Other than that, nothing.
Artist: Simon and Garfunkel
Title: Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Source: Collected Works (originally released on LP: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme)
Writer(s): Paul Simon
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
After the reunion of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel following the surprise success of an electrified remix of The Sound Of Silence, the two quickly recorded an album to support the hit single. Sounds Of Silence was, for the most part, a reworking of material that Simon had recorded for 1965 UK LP the Paul Simon Songbook. The pressure for a new album thus (temporarily) relieved, the duo got to work on their first album of all new material since their unsuccessful 1964 effort Wednesday Morning 3AM (which had in fact been re-released and was now doing well on the charts). In October the new album, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, hit the stands. The title track was a new arrangement of an old English folk ballad, Scarborough Fair, combined with a reworking of a 1963 Simon tune (The Side Of A Hill,) with all-new lyrics and retitled Canticle. The two melodies and sets of lyrics are set in counterpoint to each other, creating one of the most sophisticated folk song arrangements ever recorded. After being featured in the film The Graduate, Scarborough Fair/Canticle was released as a single in early 1968, going on to become one of the duo's most celebrated songs.
Artist: Bob Dylan
Title: I Want You
Source: Mono LP: Blonde On Blonde
Writer(s): Bob Dylan
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
I Want You, Bob Dylan's first single of 1966, was released in advance of his Blonde On Blonde album and was immediately picked by the rock press to be a hit. It was.
Artist: Tim Rose
Title: King Lonely The Blue
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Pomus/Adriani
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
Tim Rose was a native of Washington, DC, who, along with his friend and neighbor Scott McKenzie in the early 1960s formed a folk group called the Singing Strings. In 1962 he met Cass Elliot at a party in Georgetown which led to the formation of The Big 3. The trio soon landed a steady gig at The Bitter End in New York's Greenwich Village and appeared on several national TV shows, including Hootenanny and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. The Big 3 split up in 1966, and Rose soon signed a contract as a solo artist with Columbia Records, releasing his first single, Mother, Father, Where Are You, in March. He followed it up with the first recorded slow version of Billy Roberts's Hey Joe (although Rose claimed it was a traditional song), which became a regional hit in the San Francisco area in the summer of 1966. The B side of the single was a cover of King Lonely The Blue, a song written by Doc Pomus and Bob Andriani and first released by The Bitter End Singers in 1965.
Artist: Animals
Title: Outcast
Source: British import 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Campbell/Johnson
Label: Decca
Year: 1966
Like many mid-60s British groups, the Animals had a fondness for American R&B music, and would often feature covers versions of songs originally released by people like Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker. In 1966, for the B side of Inside Looking Out, the Animals recorded Outcast, a song that had been released the previous year by Eddie Campbell and Ernie "Sweetwater" Johnson of Phoenix, Arizona, who recorded as Eddie And Ernie. A different song was used for the US B side of Inside Looking Out, and Outcast was not released in North America until late 1966, when it appeared, in a shorter form, on the LP Animalisms.
Artist: Saturday's Children
Title: Tomorrow Is Her Name
Source: CD: If You’re Ready! The Best Of Dunwich Records...Volume 2 (originally released on LP: The Dunwich Records Story)
Writer(s): Bryan/Holder
Label: Sundazed/Here 'Tis (original label:Tutman)
Year: Recorded 1966, released 1990
Saturday's Children was a Chicago area band formed in 1965 by vocalist/songwriter Geoff Bryan, who also played bass for the band. Other members included Ron Holder (rhythm guitar, vocals), Rich Goettler (organ/vocals), Dave Carter (lead guitar, vocals) and George Paluch (drums, vocals). With so many vocalists in the band, it was inevitable that the band would feature harmonies; with it being 1966 it was probably just as inevitable that these harmonies would be along the same lines as those of various British Invasion bands such as the Searchers, the Zombies and of course the Beatles. The group went into the studio and recorded at least five tracks in August of 1966, issuing two of them on a single in October. Of the remaining songs, one was included on an early 70s sampler album on the Happy Tiger label. Possibly the best of all the songs, however, was a Bryan/Holder original called Tomorrow Is Her Name. The recording remained in the vaults until 1990, when it was included on an album called the Dunwich Records Story on the Tutman label in 1990. It was well worth the wait.
Artist: Trolls
Title: Are You The One?
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Richard Clark
Label: ABC
Year: 1966
The Trolls were a garage rock band from Chicago consisting of Richard Clark (organ), Ken Cortese (drums), Rick Gallagher (guitar), and Max Jordan (bass). Like many Chicago area groups, they showed a stronger Beatles influence that most American garage bands, who tended to favor the rougher Rolling Stones approach. Their first single, Every Day And Every Night, was one of the last to be released on the ABC Paramount label, but was recalled and re-released as one of the first on the ABC label when it was discovered that the original label had the name of the song wrong. The B side (correctly identified on both releases) was a Clark tune called Are You The One?
Artist: Blues Image
Title: Take Me To The Sunrise
Source: LP: Blues Image
Writer(s): Blues Image
Label: Atco
Year: 1969
Formed in Tampa, Florida, in 1966, Blues Image originally consisted of singer-guitarist Mike Pinera, singer-drummer Manuel "Manny" Bertematti, singer-percussionist Joe Lala, keyboardist Emilio Garcia, and bassist Malcolm Jones. They were later joined by keyboardist Frank "Skip" Konte when Emilio Garcia left the band to become a pilot. The band relocated to Miami in 1968, where they became the house band at the legendary club Thee Image. While performing at Thee Image, the members of Blues Image became friends with members of several bands that played there, including Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and the Grateful Dead. It was Hendrix that convinced them that a move to Los Angeles would be to their benefit, and sure enough the Blues Image landed a contract with Atco shortly after their arrival there. Their debut album was released in February of 1969. After two more albums and one hit single (Ride Captain Ride), Blues Image split up in 1970, although several of the band's members stayed active with other bands for many years. Joe Lala, who shares lead vocals with guitarist Mike Pinera on Take Me To The Sunrise, later became an actor, appearing in several TV series and providing voice work for a number of animated features until his death in 2005.
Artist: Frijid Pink
Title: Tell Me Why
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Beaudry/Thompson
Label: Parrot
Year: 1968
Tell Me Why was the first single released by Detroit's Frijid Pink in December of 1968. Although it failed to make the US charts, it did climb to the #70 spot in Canada in 1969 and was included on Frijid Pink's self-title debut LP in 1970.
Artist: Monkees
Title: No Time
Source: CD: Headquarters
Writer(s): Hank Cicalo
Label: Rhino (original label: Colgems)
Year: 1967
No Time is basically a Little Richard styled rock 'n' roll studio jam by the Monkees, with Micky Dolenz improvising on the lyrics. The band, who played their own instruments on the recording, decided to credit the song to recording engineer Hank Cicalo, in appreciation for the hard work he was putting in as de facto producer of their Headquarters album. This actually got Cicalo in trouble with the brass at RCA, who had strict rules about engineers soliciting songs to be recorded. On the other hand, the royalties from the song helped him buy a house.
Artist: Who
Title: Boris The Spider
Source: LP: Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy (originally released on LP: Happy Jack)
Writer: John Entwhistle
Label: MCA (original label: Decca)
Year: 1966
For many years, Boris the Spider was Who bassist John Entwhistle's signature song. Eventually Entwhistle got sick of singing it and wrote another one. Truth is, he wrote a lot of songs, but like the Beatles's George Harrison, did not always get the recognition as a songwriter that more prolific bandmate Pete Townshend got. This was one of the first album tracks I ever heard played on an FM station (KLZ-FM in Denver, the first FM in the area to play something besides classical, jazz or elevator music).
