Rock In My World

Traffic - Paper Sun

I've featured Traffic on Psychedelic Sunday once before, but they, along with a few other bands, deserve more than one posting. Traffic was one of the definitive English psych bands, although, allmusic.com lists them as a second-tier band in their top artist listing for the genre. I'm not going to get into an argument over that, since they really didn't innovate or have the strength of players like Pink Floyd, The 13th Floor Elevators, or The Yardbirds, who are all members of the first tier.

Paper Sun was not included in the original UK release of Mr. Fantasy, their debut album, but it had been a hit single for the band. When the time came to release Mr. Fantasy in the colonies, the album was retooled, with some deletions and additions, which did not please Dave Mason, one of the band's guitarists and songwriters. (He was eventually fired from the band during their tour in 1968.)

I'll always remember Paper Sun for the trippy sitar and pretty harmonies, and for the simple chorus, "ahh, paper sun." It really is a lovely song for a Sunday afternoon.

Sing Me Spanish Techno - From the 2005 release, "Twin Cinema"
Mutiny, I Promise You - From "Challengers", a 2007 release
The Laws Have Changed - From "Electric Version", 2003
Mass Romantic - From their 2000 debut, "Mass Romantic"
Use It - From "Twin Cinema"

It's back to the sensational sixties this week, with a band I have not featured before. How could it be that I've been at these psych-rock songs for over two years and I haven't played The Troggs?


When I mentioned The Troggs, did you immediately start singing, "wild thing, you make my heart sing" in your head? Busted! In 1966, that song became their highest-charting single. As a pop-lovin' kid back then, I really didn't like that song. When it played on the radio, I think I'd tune it out of my consciousness, because I wanted to hear singing, not some guy talk-singing for 2 1/2 minutes. I didn't care much for The Troggs until a little pop gem called Love Is All Around hit the airwaves in 1968. Love Is All Around is a subdued ballad with a nice, jangly guitar part, and there are lovely strings, too. And who couldn't love, "my mind's made up by the way that I feel"?

Enjoy.
And Happy Father's Day to all of the dads in psych land.

Lost 80's Tunes
Some might argue that there's a reason these songs aren't played so much, even on classic rock radio, but I like all five of these tunes. My favorite song of the set it Zebra's Who's Behind The Door?, though, due to the whole Zep feeling Zebra established on their debut album. I just read that this album sold 75,000 copies in the first week, which was an astounding number for the times. I also love David & David's Welcome To The Boomtown, mostly because I'm a Baerwald fan.
The rest of the set is fairly metal-ish, but to me that was more acceptable than the synth-pop of the times.
I'm still trying to figure out what the hell the 80's were all about.
Here's your five:
Zebra- Who's Behind The Door?
Autograph - Turn Up The Radio - I know, you always thought this was Def Lepard.
David & David - Welcome To The Boomtown
Triumph - Magic Power
April Wine - Sign Of The Gypsy Queen

Slade - My Life Is Natural

Sometimes, I like to delve into the era spawned by 60's psychedelia, the hard-rockin' early 70's, so this week I bring you: Son Of Psychedelic Sunday!

Slade was a band that never quite became a household name in the US, even as glam artists such as David Bowie, T. Rex, and Sweet were embraced by many mainstream-loving fans. Glam made lots of people nervous, since ambiguous sexuality was a hallmark of the genre, and that's not something 15-year-old record-buying boys felt comfortable with back then. I mean, Alice Cooper and Deep Purple were more what the rocking boys were into, while girls, like my sister Val, were more intrigued by the glam guys.

In their 4-year career, Slade racked up eleven top 5 hits in their home country (England), with five of them hitting number one. Not too shabby. They're best known for their 1984 hit, Run Runaway, and as the original artist of Quiet Riot's mega-hit, Cum On Feel The Noize.


For my choice today, here's Slade with a bonus track from the 2006 reissue of 1972's Slayed?, My Life Is Natural. I love love Noddy Holder's voice, which sounds like Freddy Mercury meets Robert Plant to me. I don't know why this song wasn't included in the original version of Slayed?, since it rocks like crazy. Enjoy.

The Weepies - Antarctica - This husband/wife singer/songwriter duo will release their latest album, Hideaway, next week, but I've heard one song, and I like it quite a bit. I just love Deb Talen's voice, and I hope you will, too.
She & Him - This Is Not A Test - She is actress Zooey Deschanel and he is singer/songwriter M. Ward. Together, they create a magical step back into sixties pop and country (lots more magic than Zooey's appearance in Tin Man last year.)
Sarah Mac Band - Open Fire - When I first heard the song on my Paste sampler, I thought it was Lisa Loeb making some sort of comeback. Not so.
The Raconteurs - Hold Up - Jack White's side project released a follow-up to their fab debut, Broken Boy Soldiers, last month. I just got around to cracking it open, and it's a gem. Consolers of The Lonely reminds me just how much I miss blues-based rock bands and how thankful I am that some of the younger guys won't give up on it.
R.E.M. - Living Well Is The Best Revenge - Accelerate is the best R.E.M. release since Automatic For The People. Yeah, it was a long dry spell, wasn't it? This album rocks!

It's back, baby!

The Yardbirds - Happenings Ten Years Time Ago

This legendary English band catapaulted the careers of three of the rock guitar gods: Clapton, Page, and Beck. This blues-steeped band hinted at psychedelia in much of their early works, and Happenings Ten Years Time Ago is a classic example of this. The song, released in October of 1966, features Page playing colead guitar with Jeff Beck. There is a brilliant fuzzy break about 2 minutes into the tune, and you can definitely pick up on some of the the future Zeppelin sound from Page's deft hands. I learned from songfacts.com that John Paul Jones played bass on the cut, too, which also hints at what is to come.

And those lyrics:
Happenings ten years time ago
Situations we really know
But the knowing is in the mind
Sinking deep into the well of time
Sinking deep into the well of time

Deep, man, deep. Just remember that the knowing is in the mind, man. Oh no, I'm freaking myself out!!

The Bee Gees - Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You

Nearly a decade before they caused perfectly normal people to gyrate under mirrored disco balls, The Bee Gees released a perfectly cool psychedelic record, and it was their debut Polydor album, Bee Gees 1st. This gem is often overlooked, simply because the band became synonymous with white suits, medallions, and Saturday Night Fever. It's worth a visit, though, because the earlier Bee Gees offerings were really good rock records. No, really.

This song carries the signature Bee Gees harmonies, but there's a darkly weird chant opening the song that just creeped out my kid. Really, he yelled from the other room, "Mom, could you turn that off, it's scaring me!" (Obviously, he never saw the Gibb brothers in their white disco suits, since that would really scare the bejesus out of him.)

Anyway, enjoy the trippy Bee Gees. I have no argument with their disco-era tunes, since they really did produce the cream of the crop, and I liked those songs, even back then when I was all "death to disco."

I cracked up when I read the allmusic review of their 1975 album, Main Course. The reviewer says Main Course was "the group's first disco album -- and, for many white listeners, the first disco album they ever purchased." Guilty! But, hey, it's one of the only ones I purchased, too, unless you count those Earth, Wind, & Fire and Ohio Players records. And the one Donna Summer.

Not only did we have crappy weather over the weekend, here in the US, we had to set our clocks ahead and lose an hour of sleep in the wee hours of Sunday. I was just getting used to waking up with the sun peeping through my window, and now I'm back to stumbling in the dark.

I need to laugh.

Hopefully, this set will help:

Flight Of The Conchords - Beautiful Girl (Part-Time Model) - From their Grammy-winning EP, The Distant Future.

Tenacious D - Wonderboy - Just because Jack Black is one of the funniest people on the planet.

Weird Al Yankovic - You're Pitiful - Come on, I can't do a funny music podcast without this guy, and I love that he is poking fun at that sappy James Blunt song.

Barnes & Barnes - Fish Heads - I'm finishing off the set with two classics from my Dr. Demento years. I don't know where to find his show anymore, but I do have a couple of cds. Anyway, one of the Barnes in this band is Bill Mumy, who was also known to me as Will Robinson from the tv show Lost In Space, back in the 60's.

Julie Brown - The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun - Everybody run! This one had a video that was quite popular on MTV back in the day (and can still be seen at YouTube, of course). I still crack up when she gets to the "I ran down, and I said, in her good ear," part.

Atomic Rooster - Night Living

I thought it was high time I started featuring early prog and metal in addition to psych rock. Those genres were born from the experimentation of psychedelia, so it seemed like a logical extension of my psychedelic theme, and it gives me the opportunity to shake things up from time to time.

With a name like Atomic Rooster, you might get the idea that this is a psychedelic rock band anyway, sort of like Strawberry Alarm Clock. Make no mistake, this Rooster was crowing to a different tune. Atomic Rooster, formed by Vincent Crane and Carl Palmer in 1969, was one of the premier English heavy metal/prog rock bands. Crane and Palmer had previously been members of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, who had a huge hit in 1968 with Fire. That's Crane on the badass Hammond organ part in that song. Palmer didn't stick with Rooster for long, since he went off to drumming fame with Keith Emerson and Greg Lake in their little prog outfit, and was replaced by Paul Hammond. Crane added John Du Cann on guitar, as well, to deepen the band's guitar sound.

I found this little gem of a song in a compilation in Mojo Magazine late last year, Heavy Nuggets, which has been lots of fun to explore. This Atomic Rooster cut was pulled from an anthology of lives, rares, and B-sides, Atomic Rooster: The First 10 Explosive Years.

If you're not a huge prog fan, worry not. This song leans more toward the heavy metal sound. In fact, it reminds me of Deep Purple or of one of the songs from the Heavy Metal soundtrack, which hubby and I played ad nauseum on the car cassette player back in the day. I love the heavy-handed organ in the song, which, when accompanied by the sinister vocals, give this song that dark metal bent.

t's difficult to play just one cut from The Soft Machine's debut album, Volume I, since there really is no defining line from one cut to another, but I'll post Joy Of A Toy, even with the awkward, abrupt ending.

This is a fine piece of jazz-infused psychedelia from a band who, along with Pink Floyd and Tomorrow, led the way in the British psychedelic scene. Although band members Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt have remained relatively obscure to US audiences, they have had long and fruitful solo recording careers. One band member most everyone would recognize is one of the early members, Andy Summers, who went on to a brilliant career in one of the most successful band of the late 70's and early 80's, The Police. Andy was only with the band for a short time, though, so it seems he was not a driving influence in their work.

Joy Of A Toy is an instrumental piece that breaks up two parts of the album opener, Hope For Happiness. It's kind of light and breezy until the last 27 seconds, when the tempo picks up, then slows down again to segue into Hope For Happiness (reprise), which is rather trippy, but features some very avant-garde vocals and a weird organ freak-out midway through the song. I'm only playing Joy Of A Toy today, to spare you of all the freakiness. Perhaps when I'm feeling a bit more freaked up, I will play the entire piece.

Today's 5 features Cowboy Junkies, since I blogged about them earlier this week, and I was in the mood to hear them.
1. The Stars Of Our Stars - from 2004's One Soul Now.
2. Brand New World - A cut from last year's excellent At The End Of Paths Taken.
3. Townes' Blues - There was mutual admiration between the Junkies and Townes Van Zandt. Here is the Townes tribute song, as included on 1992's release, Black-Eyed Man.
4. Sweet Jane - from 1988's The Trinity Session. Some idiot wrote an iTunes review stating, "I was just thinking yesterday that if your band's most popular song is a cover, then that really says something doesn't it?" Yeah, it says, "We made a great record, did you?"
5. Southern Rain - Also from Black-Eyed Man
Now, as a special treat, a song I downloaded (you can too at trinityrevisited.com, a site from Cooking Vinyl Records.)
6. I Don't Get It - From The Trinity Session Revisited, soon to be released in the U.S. This features Ryan Adams along with Margo Timmins on vocals.

The Velvet Underground - Venus In Furs

Psychedelic Sunday has been a weekly feature in my blog for just over two years, but I didn't spotlight anything from The Velvet Underground until November of 2007. What was I smokin'? Each of the eleven songs included on that album deserves a separate post! Venus In Furs is the fourth song on The Velvet Underground & Nico, a groundbreaking 1967debut album from the band. The song was written by Lou Reed with inspiration from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's book of the same name. I've never read the book, but apparently it's about kinky stuff like bondage and sadomasochism. Mistress Nat would approve.

Originally recorded by band members Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison in their NYC loft in July 1965, the song was rearranged for the album cut, and, according to rock critic David Fricke, the final version is a "stark, Olde English-style folk lament." To be sure, the tempo is rather dirge-like, and the lyrics contain masochism references (shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather; whiplash girlchild in the dark; clubs and bells, your servant, dont forsake him; strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart.) Cale's viola wails in the song and gives it that sinister flavor, and Reed plays a guitar with all of its strings tuned to the same note. There is a heartbeat-like thump of a bass drum throughout, and very simple tambourine beat keeps the pace. This is a classic "head" music for me, meant to be heard in a darkened room when I'm in just the right mood.

The song remains beloved by music fans and has been covered by everyone from The Melvins to Smashing Pumpkins to Bettie Serveert. Oliver Stone used it as background music in a scene in that awful Doors movie (clip here.) Why? Well, not only 'cuz it's a cool song, but because of the Andy Warhol link. Warhol, of course, did that famous cover.

As memorable and distinctive as that cover is, I still don't get the banana.

According to the Daily Mail, today Blue Monday, is the unhappiest day of the year. How, you ask, did it earn such a gloomy moniker? Well, some sort of magic formula taking into account cold, dreary weather, unpaid Christmas bills, and unkept New Year's resolutions (see, I knew I was right about not making them!) was dreamed up by a some psych researcher at Cardiff University. Of course, he picked Monday because, well, it's Monday.

Just think, if you make it through today and can still crack a smile, you're all set for the year!

If that doesn't help, listen to my sunshine/happy podcast and you will not feel blue at all by the end of it.

Guided By Voices - Glad Girls
Ian Hunter - Cleveland Rocks - Come on, it'll make you smile and think of when The Drew Carey Show was funny.
Belle & Sebastian - Step Into My Office Baby
Vampire Weekend - A-Punk
R.E.M. - Shiny Happy People

Pink Floyd - See Emily Play

Written by Syd Barrett and recorded in May of 1967, See Emily Play was the second single released by Pink Floyd, following Arnold Layne.

I've read various accountings of the origination of this song, but according to this source, he was quoted in NME in 1974, revealing, "I was sleeping in the woods one night, after a gig we'd played somewhere, when I saw this girl appear before me. That girl is Emily." The wikipedia article claims he later admitted he made this up. Some have speculated that Emily was really Emily Young, the 16-year-old daughter of politician. She was known as "the psychedelic schoolgirl" to those at the UFO club, where Floyd were the house band.

Syd was a druggie and suffered from severe mental problems, so who knows how it really came about.

There is a black and white video on YouTube, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F94vHO7okZQ)which really reminds me more of something you'd have seen on The Monkees tv show. It's psychedelic, man!

Enjoy some good, psychedelic Pink Floyd.

Tinker Taylor - Terry Reid

In the late 60's, psychedelic rock reached its nadir and spawned hard rock and progressive rock. In '68, when The Yardbirds broke up, Jimmy Page was looking to expand his horizons and wanted to rock loud and hard, and was forming a new band. He offered the vocalist job to Terry Reid, who had been in a band called The Jaywalkers. Reportedly, Reid turned it down, suggesting that Page check out a guy named Robert Plant, who had been with Band Of Joy. Bad move on his part? Perhaps. He also turned down a spot in Deep Purple that was filled later by Ian Gillan.

Still, the guy put out some good solo work and is still out there working.
(You can find a London Times podcast online to catch up on what he's up to.)

Here's Terry with a song called Tinker Taylor, from his 1968 album, Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid. This record, by the way, also features a cover of Sonny Bono's song Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down.)

To continue with the countdown:

6. All You Need Is Love - The Beatles - The album closer of 1967's Magical Mystery Tour record, with a hopeful, if naive, message.

5. Viola Lee Blues - The Grateful Dead - The only band to have two appearances in the countdown.

4. Hot Smoke And Sassafras - The Bubble Puppy - Their only hit, which made it to #14 on the pop singles chart in 1969.

3. Hole In My Shoe - Traffic - Trippy sitar music makes this one a stand-out.

2. Nantucket Sleighride - Mountain - Really, this song was tied for first with the next song, but I decided to give Vanilla Fudge the edge with the shorter song. Here is the 17-minute version of Mountain's classic jam.

1. You Keep Me Hangin' On - Vanilla Fudge - A classic slower-tempo cover of The Supremes big hit, with a funky organ part.

That's it for 2007's countdown. Stay tuned for lots of jammin' hippy music all throughout 2008!

Old Man Going - The Pretty Things

Brit band, The Pretty Things, created one of rock's first concept albums, released in 1968, S.F. Sorrow. This album, based on a concept by the band's guitar playing vocalist, Phil May, tells the story of Sebastian F. Sorrow from his birth through his death, and it has been speculated that Pete Townshend borrowed this idea when he wrote Tommy. (And in case you're interested, there is a live recording of S.F. Sorrow, called Resurrection, featuring David Gilmour on guitar, you can read about it here.)

In Old Man Going, our friend Mr. Sorrow is, of course, near the end of his life:

Old man going.

Hopscotch of life will lead you to the grave.
Wet faces line the street, they will not be saved.
Black house youve built it will soon disappear,
Another corporation dig this year.

Old man going.

Traffic thins as you drive slowly by,
A friend wipes a flower from an eye.
Streets filled with bouquets from a cloudy sky
Theyll soon forget the field in which you lie.

Old man going.
Listen at left or here.
----

What a cool band.

The votes are in, and there were quite a few songs with 2 votes or more. I was going to make this a Top 10, but I can't just randomly pick one of the 4 songs that received 2 votes each, so you're getting a Top 13 instead.

There were two songs with 9 votes apiece, 2 songs with 4 votes, 5 songs with 3 votes, and 4 songs garnering 2 votes each, so I'm going to step up and be the tie-breaker! (Next year, I'll figure out a way to give each vote some weight, so I can be more fair about counting down.)

I'll do 7 in this show, and 6 next time.

13. From The Underworld - The Herd - Frampton's pre-Humble Pie group.

12. Pushin' Too Hard - The Seeds - The fuzz guitar and the electric piano work shine in this one.

11. Incense and Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock - A classic of the psychedelic era, but what does it mean?

10. Not Fade Away (live) - The Grateful Dead - The Dead turn a two minute Buddy Holly song into a 10 minute jam.

9. Hey Grandma - Moby Grape - Cool guitar and harmonies from The Dead For People Who Don't Like The Dead.

8. Open My Eyes - Nazz - Rundgren's early work shines in Nazz.

7. Sunrise (Turn On) - The Chesterfield Kings - A modern psychedelic garage band that sounds great, even if they don't bring anything new to the genre.

That's all for part one!

Some of my favorite songs of the year!

What Light - Wilco
The Underdog - Spoon
Two - Ryan Adams
Fake Empire - The National
Right Moves - Josh Ritter

So, I realize I have no female artists in that set. Time to do another set of all ladies!

"The Brondesberry Tapes" album was pre-King Crimson Fripp, along with Peter and Michael Giles, released in 1968. This song eventually evolved into a piece, "The Letters", on King Crimson's album, "Islands", according to Bruce Eder of allmusic.com. (I can't vouch for that, having never heard Islands.) I love the little touch of Beach Boys harmony at the 1:15 point, even though it's not exactly psychedelic. What follows that, though, is a bit of fuzz guitar brilliance, which foretold the future of Fripp's career. Enjoy.

One from the classic "Velvet Underground & Nico" album from 1967, the fabulous, ethereal "Sunday Morning."

ANd don't forget to visit my blog at http://natsthename.blogspot.com to vote in the annual Psychedelic Sunday countdown poll!

Nantucket Sleighride - Mountain

This live cut from Mountain's 1972 live album, Live - The Road Goes On Forever, clocks in at 17:34, while the studio cut of this song is a mere 5:50. What does that spell? J-A-M. Normally, I don't get into extended jams. Once a song passes the 8 or 10-minute mark, my attention wanders and I get impatient. I never would have made it as a Deadhead or Phish Head.

What you'll hear is Leslie West's fabulous guitar work, and Steve Knight's skilled keyboard work. The late Felix Pappalardi's pounding bass stands right up with the rock greats, but this probably isn't the finest example that can be heard of his work. I will get in trouble with the hubby if I leave out the signature drum part from Corky Laing, so there, I said it.

I love the way the two guitarist play off each other at the 12-minute mark, but I still think this is one jam that lasted about 5 minutes too long.

The Herd earned a Top 10 spot in the Brit charts in 1967 with this song, but they were barely known in the US. Just nine years later, though, Herd's original lead singer would go on to chart-topping almost overnight success here here with Frampton Comes Alive.

The opening bells might lead you to believe you're about to rock out to AC/DC's Hell's Bells, but once the piano kicks in, it's obvious that this song is not quite that loud and in-your-face. There's some fuzz guitar, the pleasant voice of Frampton, some requisite Beatles-style trumpet, a little orchestral bombast, and a great funky percussion part.

So, enjoy Frampton before he came alive

I'm feeling the need for another Nazz song in the Psychedelic Sunday series, and it's been a year since I featured a song of theirs. This one's from their 1968 debut album, called The Nazz. This song didn't chart, but it's memorable because of the fuzz guitar, the opening riff that always fools me into thinking I'm going to hear The Who's Let It Rain, and the always great use of that phasing effect. Ga-roovy, baby.

5 songs I've been hitting the repeat button on lately:

The Panic - The Dykeenies
The Underdog - Spoon
Boy With A Coin - Iron & Wine
Frank & Ava - Suzanne Vega
Fri/end - Thurston Moore

The Chesterfield Kings

Have you ever heard of Little Steven's Underground Garage? Well, if you dig old garage-band music and the kids who are playing that sort of thing now, this is your radio show. It's syndicated, but you can listen to the shows online when you register for the site. Anyway, in case you live in a hole hollowed out of a dead oak, you know that Little Steven is Steven Van Zandt, of the E Street Band (aka Silvio Dante of The Sopranos).

I was listening to one of the archive shows awhile back and heard a song by The Chesterfield Kings that kicked my ass. This band from Rochester, NY has been around since 1979, and their first goal was to record collectible garage 45RPM records, so they kept their pressings small. Over the years, they added LP records to their discography, but they never really hit the big time. With the release of Psychedelic Sunrise this year, though, and their continued support from Little Steven, their fortunes may change. Oh, did I mention they're signed to Little Steven's record label, Wicked Cool Records? I guess he keeps it in the family!

This album rocks from start to finish. It's got the feel of The Stones, The Who, The Standells, and Them, all rolled together, so you know it's full of good-time, kickass rock and roll. (If you're all emo or post-rock, then you probably won't dig this, so go put on your Dashboard Confessional and your Mogwai and go have your own party.)
I've got two cuts for you today. The first, Sunrise (Turn On), has a hint of The Who's I Can See For Miles, so listen for that. Next, you can sample the the darker, more psychedelic sounds of Elevator Ride.

The band's site is http://www.thechesterfieldkings.com/ and you can find Little Steven's Underground Garage by googling. Even if you never listen to the shows, his site has tons of great bands listed and lots of background information to check out.

On with the tuneage!

Today, I've got 5 songs from an album never released on CD. These songs are mp3 files, gloriously ripped from the vinyl. This is the best I've heard of these rips, and there are lots of scratchy ones floating around. I do own this on vinyl, but my turntable isn't hooked up and my copy is full of pops and cracks, since it was well-loved.

Enjoy!

Crying In The Night
Crystal - which later appears on Fleetwood Mac's "Fleetwood Mac" album
Long Distance Winner
Lola (My Love)
Don't Let Me Down Again

I Can See Through You - Episode Six

I had never heard of this band until I stumbled upon some songs while searching for mid-late 60's psychedelic tunes in some torrent files. Episode Six was Roger Glover and Ian Gillian's pre-Deep Purple band (and Deep Purple was the first real, hard rocking band I was into besides, well, Led Zep.) They tried like hell to have a hit song, releasing nine singles in Britain without cracking the charts. Such disappoinment probably gave them the stick-to-it-ivness to keep pushing for some recognition. (Either that or they were just too stubborn to quit.)

Anyway, I Can See Through You is a Glover-penned piece of psych-pop, with some cool/weird orchestration at the 1:40 mark, which ebbs and flows sort of like film soundtrack music. I can hear some James Bond flavoring in there at one point, almost like McCartney's Live And Let Die. Groovy, man, groovy.

Bettye LaVette's new one, "Scene Of The Crime," is out today. In honor of that big-voiced woman, the 5 And Out today is Big Mama Voices.

Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog
Shemekia Copeland - Who Stole My Radio?
Etta James - Gotta Serve Somebody
Janis Joplin - Get It While You Can
Bettye LaVette - The Last Time

Back in April, The Bubble Puppy's song Keep Your Mouth Shut Once In Awhile made an appearance on Psychedelic Sunday, and I thought that would be that. After all, who'd heard of them?
I kept going back to that song, though, since I liked it, so I thought I'd look for more. After hearing their 1969 release, A Gathering Of Promises, in its entirety, I realized that I had, indeed, heard this band before! Hot Smoke And Sassafras is their one hit I remember! It's one of those songs that I hear and think to myself, "Oh, that's the name of that song!"
I think the guitars stands out in this song, and the band's guitar-playing duo, Rod Prince and Todd Potter, both do some flaming-hot work here. (You can just hear the Jimi influence, though, can't you, especially near the end of the song.)

I needed to shake up the podcast a bit, since I don't have as much time to produce them lately. 5 And Out is my compromise. I play five songs fitting a theme, with a short intro, and then I recap what I played at the end.
This week, I've been able to assemble two 5 And Outs, and today's theme was Songs With 5 In The Title, because, well, the podcast is 5 songs.
What you'll hear:
5:15 - Chris Isaak (from San Francisco Days)
5th Season - Paul Weller (From Wild Wood)
Hwy 5 - John Doe (from Forever Hasn't Happened Yet)
1985 - Manic Street Preachers
Eighty-Five Feet - Sorta - (From Strange And Sad But True)

If you don't listen, you'll miss the sad news about Sorta, the band from Dallas, TX. Band member Carter Albrecht, who played keys and had been a member of The New Bohemians, was shot to deah by one of his neighbors on September 3rd. The neighbor had mistaken Albrecht for a burglar. (the complete story is here:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/090407glalbrecht.9abfe1fe.html)

According to this site (http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME04/West_meets_east.shtml) , the first rock song to employ the use of sitar music was The Yardbird's Heart Full Of Soul, but The Beatles and The Kinks were not far behind in incorporating bit of Indian spice into good old rock and roll.

Today, we'll focus on The Kinks and their contribution to this psychedelic trend. See My Friends doesn't actually feature a sitar, but Ray Davies loved the sound of the sitar so much that he convinced his brother Dave to mimick the sound with his guitar. I think he pulls it off quite well!

Hole In My Shoe - Traffic

Steve Winwood was still a young teenager when he and his older brother joined up with Spencer Davis and Pete York to form The Spencer Davis Group. He quit the group in 1967, when he was still only 19, and joined up with Dave Mason, Chris Wood, and Jim Capaldi, to form Traffic. Although a great deal of Traffic's sound leaned toward blues-rock, particularly when Winwood sang lead, some early Traffic is truly psychedelic. Mr. Fantasy, their first album (also released as Heaven Is In Your Mind in the USA), holds more psych than the rest, including Paper Sun, Utterly Simple, Dear Mr. Fantasy, and Hole In My Shoe. I chose Hole today, mainly because of the sitar music, the odd spoken-word break by a child, and one of the early uses of the Mellotron.

Bastards Of Young - The Replacements
Mountains Of Your Head - Buffalo Tom
Good Times, Bad Times - Led Zeppelin
Business Time - Flight Of The Conchords
Has My Fire Really Gone Out? - Paul Weller
Cement Mixer - Liberace

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Mona

It's high time I revisited one of the most highly lauded of the San Francisco scene bands, Quicksilver Messenger Service.

Their second album, Happy Trails, was recorded live and peaked at #27 on Billboard's Pop Album chart in 1969. Side one of the album was an entire suite based on Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love, which I'd love to feature here on Psych. Sunday, but it's quite a marathon piece for short-attention span listeners. (If I get email requests, perhaps I'll just post it anyway.)

Even presenting Mona, another Bo Diddley cover, is challenging, since there is no clear cut-off between it and the following song on the album, Maiden Of The Cancer Moon. (And this is true, really, for the entire album and song segues, since it was recorded live, and this is a jam band piece.)

Here, John Cipollina's guitar work shines in its energetic fluidity. I'm sure Diddley had no idea his song could be so hippified, but, indeed, it works in the psychedelic cowboy style.

Cold Sweat - James Brown

I like to keep my focus on psych-rock and psych-pop here on Psychedelic Sunday, but since R & B music was a foundation of rock & roll, who am I to ignore it? There's not a lot of psychedelic soul music, but there is some, and I'll get to them in future posts. For today, I'll stick to my summer-long salute to the Summer Of Love.

James Brown, who had his own label, cranked out hit after hit on the black charts, with plenty of those hovering near the top of the pop charts, woo. His smash, Cold Sweat, is also regarded by some as the first true funk single. Listen, now, to the master at work, proving he truly was the Godfather Of Soul. Cold Sweat is drenched in steamy sexuality with its driving horns and Brown's bold, passionate vocal delivery. From 1967, here's Cold Sweat.

The Beatles - All You Need Is Love

I know The Beatles lost some fans when they went all psychedelic. Some of those teeny-bopper gals and guys just didn't get into the whole trippy-druggy scene, so they stuck it out with Paul Revere & the Raiders, garage bands, The Beach Boys, etc., trying to hold on to nerdy innocence.
But, in The Summer Of Love, with all the hippies turning on and dropping out, The Beatles led the way with this hippie love anthem.

As positive as the message is, it really is a young person's idealistic message.

Nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It's easy.

I suppose that all makes more sense when you're smoking pot with a yogi, but it's still a good message. And, at 50, I'm still learning how to be me.

Whatever, it's still a great song, and it still makes me miss all the peace and love.

(By the way, for me, the psychedelic-ear Beatles are just as awesome as the earlier Fabs. Mind-blowing.)

Moby Grape would have been a great subject for VH1's series, Behind The Music. Take a brilliant San Francisco psych-rock band, throw in some bad deals with the manager, infighting between members, and the melt-down of a key band member (Skip Spence), and you have a recipe for "career flambe."

Grape's first album, Moby Grape, is one of the best pieces of 60's psychedelic music, with strong guitar work from all three players and laid-back vocal harmonies. You get a hint of many influences here (besides the LSD), including country, R & B, blues, rock, and pop, and it all blends seamlessly. I like to think of them as The Dead For People Who Don't Like The Dead.

The band was: Guitars - Skip Spence, Jerry Miller, and Peter Lewis; Bass - Bob Mosley, Drums - Don Stevenson.

Spence, like Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, suffered from schizophrenia and was committed to Bellvue Hospital in 1968 after allegedly attempting to break down Stevenson's hotel room with a fire axe during the recording of the band's second album. Although he re-emerged with solo albums later on, they were never very successful and he ended up homeless in Santa Cruz, CA. He battled the mental monsters until the very end, when he died of lung cancer in 1998. The band effectively met its end in '69 when Mosley joined the Marines. There have been reunions, but, like many band reunions of fractured bands, they just didn't work.

Trivia: For which band was Skip Spence the original drummer?

I'm finally getting around to one of the biggest psychedelic hit songs: Incense And Peppermints by Strawberry Alarm Clock.

Continuing our theme of "The Summer Of Love," here's a trippy song I never understood as a 10-year-old. Guess what? I still don't get it.

Good sense, innocence, cripplin' and kind.
Dead kings, many things I can't define.
Oh Cajun spice, sweats and blushers your mind.
Incense and peppermints, the color of thyme.

Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothing to lose.

Yeah, I think that's it. But at least it sounds good, with that requisite trippy organ and the groovy guitar.

The song actually peaked the singles chart in December of '67, so summer was over and the politically-charged and tumultuous 1968 was about to begin, an the love would all but vanish into riots, anti-war demonstrations, the deaths of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, and the election of one Tricky Dick Nixon.

This is the live version from Monterey Pop. To me, nothing says Summer Of Love like this song. Do you realize that June 16th will be the 40th anniversary of this groundbreaking jam session? HOLY CRAP! 40 friggin' years. So grab some bell bottoms and a few daisies, paint a flower on your face, drop some acid, and sing along. Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Enjoy Mr. Scott McKenzie singing Papa John Phillips' song of peace and love.

You Keep Me Hangin' On - Vanilla Fudge

Take a bouncy, Motown pop song, add a grooving psych-organ and some jammin' guitar, and heavy-handed drumming by Carmine Appice, and it morphs into a classic psych-rock jam. Here's Vanilla Fudge with their memorable (even performed it on The Ed Sullivan Show) cover of You Keep Me Hangin' On.

This week's offering comes from an obscure series of psychedelic rock compilations, Psychedelic States, which focused on 60's psychedelia from several U.S. states. This one, Psychedelic States: Texas In The 60's, Vol. 1, contains a few worthy songs, including Caretaker, from an obscure band, Michael. The song is quite Byrds-inspired and really isn't exceptional until you reach the final half of the song (it only clocks in at 2:24.) That final minute leads you through an extended, spacey, electronically enhanced guitar solo, bringing to mind the phase shifting in The Supremes song Nathan Jones (which, by the way, is the only Supremes song featuring all three women in lead vocal in unison).

Enjoy! See you next week for more from Psychedelic States. Until then, keep your groove on, man

From my recent purchase: Barry Williams Presents 70's Music Explosion

Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O'Sullivan
Beach Baby - First Class
Love Train - The O'Jays
Brother Louie - The Stories
Magnet And Steel - Walter Egan

Explicit because I use the word "damn" once. Ok?