https://exchange.prx.org/p/541965
It's time for another battle of the bands, this time between the Rolling Stones and Buffalo Springfield. And to make it more interesting, it includes the nine minute long "jam" version of Bluebird that appeared on a 1973 compilation album (now out of print) and has never been released on CD. As an added bonus we also have a Doors set and of course an assortment of singles, B sides and album tracks from the original psychedelic era.
Artist: Animals
Title: We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (US version)
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer(s): Mann/Weil
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1965
In 1965 producer Mickey Most put out a call to Don Kirschner's Brill building songwriters for material that could be recorded by the Animals. He ended up selecting three songs, all of which are among the Animals' most popular singles. Possibly the best-known of the three is a song written by the husband and wife team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil called We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. The song (the first Animals recording to featuring Dave Rowberry, who had replaced founder Alan Price on organ) starts off with what is probably Chas Chandler's best known bass line, slowly adding drums, vocals, guitar and finally keyboards on its way to an explosive chorus. The song was not originally intended for the Animals, however; it was written for the Righteous Brothers as a follow up to (You've Got That) Lovin' Feelin', which Mann and Weil had also provided for the duo. Mann, however, decided to record the song himself, but the Animals managed to get their version out first, taking it to the top 20 in the US and the top 5 in the UK. As the Vietnam war escalated, We Gotta Get Out Of This Place became a sort of underground anthem for US servicemen stationed in South Vietnam, and has been associated with that war ever since. Incidentally, there were actually two versions of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place recorded during the same recording session, with an alternate take accidentally being sent to M-G-M and subsequently being released as the US version of the single. This version (which some collectors and fans maintain has a stronger vocal track) appeared on the US-only LP Animal Tracks in the fall of 1965 as well as the original M-G-M pressings of the 1966 album Best Of The Animals. The original UK version (titled We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place) did not appear on any albums, as was common for British singles in the 1960s. By the 1980s record mogul Allen Klein had control of the original Animals' entire catalog, and decreed that all CD reissues of the song would use the original British version of the song, including the updated (and expanded) CD version of The Best Of The Animals. This expanded version of the album first appeared on the ABKCO label in 1973, but with the American, rather than the British, version of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. With all this in mind, I looked for, and finally found, a copy of the original US single.
Artist: Mamas And The Papas
Title: Trip, Stumble And Fall
Source: CD: The Mamas and the Papas
Writer(s): Phillips/Gilliam
Label: MCA (original label: Dunhill)
Year: 1966
During sessions for the second LP by the Mamas And The Papas , it was discovered that Mama Michelle and Papa Denny were having an affair. Since Mama Michelle was married to Papa John at the time, this created more than a little tension in the group, and led to Mama Michelle being replaced by Mama Jill, who was the girlfriend of the group's producer (and head of Dunhill Reocrds), Lou Adler. Being the mid-1960s, apparently nobody considered replacing Papa Denny as well, and the recording sessions continued, with Mama Jill recording over several of Mama Michelle's tracks, plus recording a few new ones as well. Before the album was completed, however, Mama Michelle returned to the band, recording over some, but not all, of Mama Jill's vocal tracks and adding some new ones as well. As a result, nobody seems to know for sure who sang on what, but it would be a fair guess that Mama Michelle is the one heard on Trip, Stumble And Fall, since she co-wrote it.
Artist: Yellow Balloon
Title: Yellow Balloon
Source: Mono CD: Where the Action Is: L.A. Nuggets 1965-68 (originally released on 45 RPM vinyl and included on LP: The Yellow Balloon)
Writer(s): Zeckley/St. John/Lee
Label: Rhino (original label: Canterbury)
Year: 1967
After Jan Berry's near-fatal car wreck in April of 1966, partner Dean Torrance turned to songwriter Gary Zeckley for material for a new album. Zeckley responded by writing the song Yellow Balloon, but was unhappy with Jan and Dean's recording of the song and decided to cut his own version. The resulting recording, utilizing studio musicians for the instrumental tracks, was released in May of 1967 on the Canterbury label and was a moderately successful hit, peaking at #25 (Jan and Dean's version stalled out at #111).
Artist: Senators
Title: Psychedelic Senate
Source: LP: Wild In The Streets soundtrack
Writer(s): Les Baxter
Label: Tower
Year: 1968
If I had to pick the most unlikely person to record something psychedelic that actually did record something psychedelic, that person would have to be Les Baxter. Born in 1922, Baxter became well-known in the 1940s as a composer and arranger for various swing bands. By the 50s he was leading his own orchestra, recording his own brand of what came to be known as "exotica", easy-listening music flavored with elements taken from non-Western musical traditions. In the 1960s he scored dozens of movie soundtracks, including many for the relatively low-budget American International Pictures, working with people like Roger Corman on films like The Raven, The Pit And The Pendulum and House Of Usher, as well as teen exploitation films like Beach Blanket Bingo. It was through this association that he got involved with a film called Wild In The Streets in 1968. Although much of the film's soundtrack was made up of songs by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and performed by the fictional Max Frost And The Troopers, there were a few Baxter pieces included as well, including Psychedelic Senate, a bit of incidental music written to underscore a scene wherein the entire US Senate gets dosed on LSD. If you listen closely you can hear someone saying "order order" in the background.
Artist: Felius Andromeda
Title: Cheadle Heath Delusions
Source: Mono British import CD: Love, Poetry & Revolution (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single B side)
Writer(s): Denis Couldry
Label: Grapefruit (original label: Decca)
Year: 1967
Long thought to be a studio project, Felius Andromeda was actually a London-based blues band called Morgan's Roots backing up vocalist/keyboardist Denis Couldry. Cheadle Heath, as it turns out, is the name of the neighborhood in Southport where Couldry lived.
Artist: Daily Flash
Title: Violets Of Dawn
Source: Mono LP: Nuggets vol. 8-The Northwest
Writer: Eric Anderson
Label: Rhino (original label: Parrot)
Year: 1966
Fromed in Seattle in 1965, The Daily Flash are considered a forerunner of such San Francisco bands as Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service. 1966 was a busy year for the group, playing up and down the West Coast, including headlining a couple shows at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom (with the Rising Sons, the Charlatans and an early version of Big Brother and the Holding Company supporting them) and playing the Vancouver Trips Festival (with Owsley Stanley providing an entirely different kind of support). The band was not as successful in the studio, however, only releasing two singles and recording several more tunes, such as Eric Anderson's Violets Of Dawn, that remained unreleased for decades.
Artist: Kinks
Title: Set Me Free
Source: Mono LP: Kinda Kinks
Writer(s): Ray Davies
Label: Reprise
Year: 1965
After scoring international success with a series of R&B influenced rockers in 1964, the Kinks started to mellow a bit in 1965, releasing more melodic songs such as Set Me Free. The band would continue to evolve throughout the decade, eventually becoming one of the first groups to release a concept album, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), in 1969.
Artist: Sunshine Company
Title: Back On The Street Again
Source: LP: Nuggets Vol. 10-Folk Rock (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Steve Gillette
Label: Rhino (original label: Imperial)
Year: 1967
Los Angeles' Sunshine Company may not have invented the term "sunshine pop" but they were certainly one of its most ardent practitioners. Originally formed as a duo by Mary Nance (vocals) and Maury Manseau (vocals, guitar), they added bassist Larry Sims and drummer Merel Bregante when the signed with Imperial Records, releasing the debut LP, Happy Is The Sunshine Company, in 1967. Their first single from the album, Up, Up And Away, was scheduled to be released in May of 1967 but was withdrawn when the Fifth Dimension beat them to the punch. The followup title track from the album went nowhere, but their next single, Back On The Street Again, released in November, managed to make it to the #36 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. Two more albums and several more singles followed, but none were as successful as Back On The Street Again and the group disbanded in 1968.
Artist: Vanilla Fudge
Title: People Get Ready
Source: LP: Vanilla Fudge
Writer: Curtis Mayfield
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
The first Vanilla Fudge LP was all cover songs, done in the slowed-down Vanilla Fudge style that some say was inspired by fellow Long Islanders The Vagrants. People Get Ready, originally recorded by Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, is one of the better ones.
Artist: Doors
Title: Love Me Two Times
Source: CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: Strange Days)
Writer(s): The Doors
Label: Elektra
Year: 1967
Although the second Doors album is sometimes dismissed as being full of tracks that didn't make the cut on the debut LP, the fact is that Strange Days contains some of the Doors best-known tunes. One of those is Love Me Two Times, which was the second single released from the album. The song continues to get heavy airplay on classic rock stations.
Artist: Doors
Title: Roadhouse Blues
Source: LP: 13 (originally released on LP: Morrison Hotel)
Writer(s): Morrison/The Doors
Label: Elektra/Rhino
Year: 1970
After getting less than favorable reviews for their fourth LP, The Soft Parade, the Doors decided to go back to their roots for 1970s Morrison Hotel. One of the many bluesier tunes on the album was Roadhouse Blues, a song that soon became a staple of the group's live performances.
Artist: Doors
Title: Light My Fire
Source: CD: The Best Of The Doors (originally released on LP: The Doors)
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. Not long after that I heard the full-length version of the song from the first Doors album and was blown away all over again. To this day I have a tendency to crank up the volume whenever I hear it.
Artist: Paul Revere and the Raiders
Title: Hungry
Source: 45 RPM single
Writer: Mann/Weil
Label: Columbia
Year: 1966
1966 was an incredibly successful year for Paul Revere and the Raiders. In addition to holding down a daily gig as the host band for Dick Clark's new afternoon TV show, Where The Action Is, the band managed to crank out three consecutive top 10 singles. The second of these was Hungry, written by Brill building regulars Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
Artist: Music Machine
Title: The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly
Source: CD: Beyond The Garage (originally released as 45 RPM single and included on LP: Bonniwell Music Machine)
Writer(s): Sean Bonniwell
Label: Sundazed (original labels: Original Sound/Warner Brothers)
Year: 1967
The Music Machine was by far the most sophisticated of all the bands playing on L.A.'s Sunset Strip in 1966. Not only did they feature tight sets (so that audience members wouldn't get the chance to call out requests between songs), they also had their own visual look that set them apart from other bands. Dressed entirely in black (including dyed hair), and with leader Sean Bonniwell wearing one black glove, the Machine projected an image that would influence such diverse artists as the Ramones and Michael Jackson in later years. Musically, Bonniwell's songwriting showed a sophistication that was on a par with the best L.A. had to offer, demonstrated by a series of fine singles such as The Eagle Never Hunts the Fly. Unfortunately, problems on the business end prevented the Music Machine from achieving the success it deserved and Bonniwell eventually quit the music business altogether in disgust.
Artist: Giles, Giles & Fripp
Title: I Talk To The Wind
Source: LP: A Young Person's Guide To King Crimson
Writer(s): McDonald/Sinfield
Label: Editions EG
Year: Recorded 1968, released 1975
Before King Crimson, there was Giles, Giles & Fripp. The group was formed in 1967 by brothers Michael (drums) and Peter (bass, vocals) Giles, who took out a newspaper ad looking for a keyboardist/vocalist. Instead they found guitarist Robert Fripp, whose skills as a keyboardist at the time can best be described as rudimentary. In 1968 they added woodwind player Ian McDonald and vocalist Judy Dyble, who had just left Fairport Convention. This lineup recorded several studio demos, including this version of I Talk To The Wind (with lyrics by poet Robert Sinfield). Both Dyble and Peter Giles left the group later that year, prompting a name change for the band with the addition of bassist/vocalist Greg Lake.
Artist: Ten Years After
Title: Don't Want You Woman
Source: British import CD: Ten Years After
Writer(s): Alvin Lee
Label: Deram
Year: 1967
Drawing on a blues tradition, Alvin Lee's Don't Want You Woman, from the first Ten Years After album, sounds like a misogynistic putdown until you get to the very last line, which clarifies everything.
Artist: Sly And The Family Stone
Title: Underdog
Source: CD: Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-70 (originally released on LP: A Whole New Thing)
Writer(s): Sylvester Stewart
Label: Rhino (original label: Epic)
Year: 1967
Sly and the Family Stone were a showstopper at the Woodstock festival in 1969, but their story starts years before that historic performance. Sylvester Stewart was a popular DJ and producer for Tom Donahue's Autumn Records in mid-60s San Francisco, and was heavily involved with the first recordings of the Warlocks (later the Grateful Dead) and the Great Society, among others. During that time he became acquainted with a wealth of talent, including bassist Larry Graham. In 1967, with Autumn Records having been sold to and closed down by Warner Brothers, he decided to form his own band. Anchored by Graham, Sly and the Family Stone's first LP, A Whole New Thing, was possibly the very first pure funk album ever released.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Hung Upside Down
Source: LP: Buffalo Springfield (1973 compilation album) (originally released on LP: Buffalo Springfield Again)
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
In one sense the second Buffalo Springfield LP, Again, resembles the later Monkees albums in that each song was produced by the band member most involved with that particular song. Stephen Stills, for instance, produced the four songs that he wrote himself, with recording engineer Jim Messina (who would become a full-fledged member of Buffalo Springfield with their next album) receiving his first credit as co-producer on Hung Upside Down, a tune that features Richie Furay sharing the lead vocals with Stills.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Who's Driving Your Plane
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: London
Year: 1966
By 1966 Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were writing everything the Rolling Stones recorded. As their songwriting skills became more sophisticated the band began to lose touch with its R&B roots. To counteract this, Jagger and Richards would occasionally come up with tunes like Who's Driving Your Plane, a bluesy number that nonetheless is consistent with the band's cultivated image as the bad boys of rock. The song appeared as the B side (mistitled on the label as Who's Driving My Plane) of Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow.
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: Bluebird (extended version)
Source: LP: Buffalo Springfield (1973 compilation album)
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Atco
Year: 1967
Sometime in 1967 disc jockey B Mitchel Reed, from the "underground" rock radio station KPPC-FM, did some house sitting for Buffalo Springfield member Stephen Stills. Being the naturally inquisitive type he decided to take a listen to a tape he found there. On the tape was a twelve-minute long version of the song Bluebird, which had recently been released as a single and then in longer form on the album Buffalo Springfield Again. The tape soon found its way to the KPPC-FM studios, where after some minor editing it began to be heard by Los Angeles radio listeners. It turns out that this tape was actually of an earlier version than the one that appeared on the album, and is missing the quiet section with the banjo at the end of the song, which was added later. What was purported to be a nine minute edit of the extended Bluebird was finally officially released in 1973 on the now out-of-print double-LP compilation Buffalo Springfield, but has never been issued on CD. That version, however, seems to actually be the LP version up to the point where the above-mentioned quiet section comes in on the album, with several minutes of wild jamming filling out the remainder of the track.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow?
Source: Mono CD: Flowers
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1966
By mid-1966 there was a population explosion of teenage rock bands popping up in garages and basements all across the US, the majority of which were doing their best to emulate the grungy sound of their heroes, the Rolling Stones. The Stones themselves responded by ramping up the grunge factor to a previously unheard of degree with their last single of the year, Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow? It was the most feedback-laden record ever to make the top 40 at that point in time, and it inspired America's garage bands to buy even more powerful amps and crank up the volume (driving their parents to buy more potent alcoholic beverages in the process).
Artist: Buffalo Springfield
Title: For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's That Sound)
Source: LP: Homer (soundtrack) (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Stephen Stills
Label: Cotillion (original label: Atco)
Year: 1967
By mid-1966 Hollywood's Sunset Strip was being taken over every night by local teenagers, with several underage clubs featuring live music being a major attraction. Many of the businesses in the area, citing traffic problems and rampant drug and alcohol abuse, began to put pressure on city officials to do something about the situation. The city responded by passing new loitering ordinances and imposing a 10PM curfew on the Strip. They also began putting pressure on the clubs, including condemning the popular Pandora's Box for demolition. On November 12, 1966 fliers appeared on the streets inviting people to a demonstration that evening to protest the closing of the club. The demostration continued over a period of days, exascerbated by the city's decision to revoke the permits of a dozen other clubs on the Strip, forcing them to bar anyone under the age of 21 from entering. Stephen Stills, a member of Buffalo Springfield, one of the many bands appearing regularly in these clubs, wrote a new song in response to the situation, and the band quickly booked studio time, recording the still-unnamed track on December 5th. The band had recently released their debut LP, but sales of the album were lackluster due to the lack of a hit single. Stills reportedly presented the new recording to label head Ahmet Ertegun with the words "I have this song here, for what it's worth, if you want it." Ertegun, sensing that he had a hit on his hands, got the song rush-released two days before Christmas, 1966, using For What It's Worth as the official song title, but sub-titling it Stop, Hey What's That Sound on the label as well. As predicted, For What It's Worth was an instant hit in the L.A. market, and soon went national, where it was taken by most record buyers to be about the general sense of unrest being felt across the nation over issues like racial equality and the Vietnam War (and oddly enough, by some people as being about the Kent State massacre, even though that happened nearly three years after the song was released). As the single moved up the charts, eventually peaking at #7, Atco recalled the Buffalo Springfield LP, reissuing it with a modified song selection that included For What It's Worth as the album's openng track. Needless to say, album sales picked up after that. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've ever even seen a copy of the Buffalo Springfield album on vinyl without For What It's Worth on it, although I'm sure some of those early pressings must still exist.
Artist: Rolling Stones
Title: Back Street Girl
Source: CD: Flowers
Writer(s): Jagger/Richards
Label: Abkco (original label: London)
Year: 1967
Back Street Girl is a tune that was originally released on the British version of the 1967 LP Between The Buttons, but left off the US album. Instead, the tune appeared later the same year on the US-only album Flowers. The album itself was a mixture of new and previously released material; in fact, half the songs on Flowers had already appeared on the US versions of Aftermath and Between The Buttons, while several more (including Back Street Girl) were available in the UK. This led critics to initially dismiss Flowers as a promotional ploy, but in more recent years the album has been recognized as a strong collection of songs based on the social scene surrounding the band itself.
Artist: Spirit
Title: New Dope In Town
Source: LP: Spirit (reissue originally released on LP: Clear)
Writer(s): Andes/California/Cassidy/Ferguson/Locke
Label: Epic (original label: Ode)
Year: 1969
The third Spirit album, Clear, is generally considered the weakest of the four albums released by the band's original lineup. The main reason for this is fatigue. The group had released two albums in 1968, along with providing the soundtrack for the film Model Shop in early 1969 and constantly touring throughout the entire period. This left them little time to develop the material that would be included on Clear. There are a few strong tracks on the LP, however, among them New Dope In Town, which closes out the original LP. Like Elijah, from their debut album, New Dope In Town is credited to the entire band, and was included on a CBS Records sampler album called Underground '70 that was released in Germany (on purple vinyl, even) around Christmastime.
Artist: Beatles
Title: Revolution 1
Source: CD: The Beatles
Writer(s): Lennon/McCartney
Label: Parlophone (original label: Apple)
Year: 1968
The Beatles' Revolution has a somewhat convoluted history. The song, the first album track to be recorded for the band's own Apple label, was over eight minutes long and included what eventually became Revolution 1 and part of Revolution 9. The song's writer, John Lennon, at some point decided to separate the sections into two distinct tracks, both of which ended up on the Beatles self-titled double LP (aka the White Album). Lennon wanted to release Revolution 1 as a single, but was voted down by both George Harrison and Paul McCartney on the grounds that the song's tempo was too slow. Lennon then came up with a faster version of the song, which ended up being released a few weeks before the album came out as the B side to the band's 1968 single Hey Jude. As a result, many of the band's fans erroneously assumed that Revolution 1 was the newer version of the song.
Artist: Moby Grape
Title: Indifference
Source: Mono LP: Moby Grape
Writer(s): Skip Spence
Label: Columbia
Year: 1967
Skip Spence only wrote two of the songs on Moby Grape's debut LP, but they were among the best tracks on the album. The first, Omaha, was the band's only charted single, while the second, Indifference, was, at over four minutes, the longest track on the album, and was chosen to close out side two of the LP. An edited version of the song was also issued as a B side of another single that did not chart.
Artist: Syndicate Of Sound
Title: Little Girl
Source: CD: Battle Of The Bands, Vol. Two (originally released as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Baskin/Gonzalez
Label: Era (original labels: Hush & Bell)
Year: 1966
San Jose California, despite being a relatively small city in the pre-silicon valley days, was home to a thriving music scene in the mid 60s that produced more than its share of hit records from 1966-68. One of the earliest and biggest of these hits was the Syndicate Of Sound's Little Girl, which has come to be recognized as one of the top garage-rock songs of all time. It's also one of the few original garage-rock hits recorded and mixed in true stereo. Little Girl was originally released regionally in mid 1966 on the Hush label, and reissued nationally by Bell Records a couple months later.
Artist: Turtles
Title: Let Me Be
Source: CD: Songs Of Protest (originally released on LP: It Ain't Me Babe and as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): P.F. Sloan
Label: Rhino (original label: White Whale)
Year: 1965
The Turtles were nothing if not able to redefine themselves when the need arose. Originally a surf band known as the Crossfires, the band quickly adopted an "angry young men" stance with their first single, Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe, and the subsequent album of the same name. For the follow-up single the band chose a track from their album, Let Me Be, that, although written by a different writer, had the same general message as It Ain't Me Babe. The band would soon switch over to love songs like Happy Together and She'd Rather Be With Me before taking their whole chameleon bit to its logical extreme with an album called Battle Of The Bands on which each track was meant to sound like it was done by an entirely different group.
Artist: Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs
Title: Ain't Gonna Move
Source: 45 RPM single B side
Writer(s): Davidson/Kesler
Label: M-G-M
Year: 1964
In 1964, Sam The Sham (Domingo Samudio) and his band the Pharoahs, entered the Sam C. Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, Tennessee to record one of their more popular dance tunes, Ain't Gonna Move. They didn't however, have a B side, so they quickly threw together a reworked version of a song called Hully Gully Now, calling it Wooly Bully. Everyone who heard the recording was blown away, and it was decided to make Wooly Bully the A side, and Ain't Gonna Move the B side. After achieving regional success on the local XL label, the record was reissued in 1965 by M-G-M Records, becoming a worldwide hit and leading to an album called (naturally) Wooly Bully. Ain't Gonna Move, however, does not appear on that or any other Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs album.
Artist: Voice
Title: The Train To Disaster
Source: Mono CD: Nuggets II-Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond 1964-1969 (originally released in UK as 45 RPM single)
Writer(s): Hammill/Anderson
Label: Rhino (original label: Mercury)
Year: 1966
Originally known as Karl Stuart and the Profiles, this London band changed their name to the Voice just in time for their third and final single for Mercury, an apocalyptic tune called The Train To Disaster that came out in April of 1966. The band members were reportedly associated with something called the Church of the Process. When the Church began to pressure lead guitarist Miller Anderson to divorce his wife, Anderson instead chose to divorce the Church (and the Voice). His replacement, Mick Ronson, had only been with the band a short time when the other members suddenly relocated to the Bahamas, leaving Ronson behind. Ronson, however, went on to become a member of David Bowie's band, the Spiders From Mars, while the rest of the Voice have not been heard from since.
Artist: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers
Title: Checking On My Baby
Source: LP: Crusade
Writer(s): Alex "Rice" Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II)
Label: London
Year: 1967
Shortly after guitarist Peter Green and drummer Mick Fleetwood left John Mayall's Bluesbreakers to form Fleetwood Mac, the remaining band members, along with newly recruited 18-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor and drummer Keif Hartley got to work on a new Bluesbreakers LP. The album Crusade, featuring both Mayall originals and covers such as the 1960 Sonny Boy Williamson tune Checking On My Baby, was the last to use the Bluesbreakers name for many years. Taylor would stay with Mayall for nearly two years before being recruited by the Rolling Stones to replace Brian Jones in 1969.
