ON THE TURNTABLE:The Zombies-“Odessey and Oracle” 1968

ON THE TURNTABLE:The Zombies-“Odessey and Oracle” 1968

North Vietnam and the Viet Cong troops launched the TET OFFENSIVE on The Lunar New Year, late January striking villages and towns throughout South Vietnam. The My Lai Massacre occurred March 16 but was not news until later that autumn, somehow it never made the news when it occurred but when it hit the news…

One morning, April 4, 1968 I was awaken to the news that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr , the Nobel Prize winner, was killed. Then, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. LBJ signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, USSR invades Czechoslovakia, and LBJ ends the “Rollin Thunder” bombing of North Vietnam. He also announces he will “not seek” another term for President. The BLACK POWER salute is seen during the Summer Olympics in Mexico, viewed throughout America and the world in “living color”.Students overtake Columbia University, Apollo 8 orbits the moon, and The Beatles release THE BEATLES aka as the White Album.

Strange how sometimes it takes months, maybe years before someone appreciates a good/great piece of music. That is the case with THE ZOMBIES “Odessey and Oracle”, complete with the misspelling of the word “odyssey” in the title and printed as such on the cover.

THE ZOMBIES, one of the original band of the BRITISH INVASION was a short lived group in The States, 1964-68 and basically a non-entity in their homeland. Their first American release(October 64) was “She’s Not There” b/w “You Make Me Feel So Good”, a 45 on PARROT RECORDS. It took a run (November 7-#22, November 14-#9, November 21-#5, November28-#4,December 5-#4, December 12-#2) to the top of the charts (#2) in BILLBOARD being bested by BOBBY VINTON’S “Mr. Lonely”. Also during the tune’s nine week run in the TOP TWENTY were the #1 hits “Do Wah Diddy”,”Baby Love”, Leader of The Pack”,Lorne Greene’s “Ringo”, “Come See About Me”,and “I Feel Fine”.

The ZOMBIES,like many other British hit makers, were sent to the States to promote their hit single. They appeared at the 1964 MURRAY THE K CHRISTMAS Shows at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre along with CHUCK JACKSON,BEN E.KING,THE DRIFTER,THE SHIRELLES, DICK AND DEE DEE, THE VIBRATIONS,DIONNE WARWICK,THE NASHVILLE TEENS AND THE HULLABALOOS. To THE ZOMBIES this was an amazing experience later chronicled on their 2015 “STILL GOT THE HUNGER” album in a song entitled “New York” which describes their welcome by others, particularly PATTI LABELE and all those wondrous nights of performing seven shows a day.

JANUARY 12, 1965, The Zombies appeared on the very first episode of NBC’s “Hullabaloo” where they performed “She’s Not There” and introduced the follow-up, “Tell Her No” (b/w “Leave Me Be” Parrot Records). Funny how I remember the aftermath of that show, trying to recreate the drum part for our next band rehearsal.

Two US hits and The Zombies basically disappear.Sure they had numerous releases but never hit the charts again whether it was at home in England or in the States. As a matter of fact “Tell He No” did not chart in the UK. FUN FACT:The word “No” is mentioned a total of 63 times in the lyrics of the song,count ‘em.

February of 1968 I hear a song on “CKLW- The Big 8” by a band called PEOPLE, the name of the song is “I Love You”. Released by Capitol Records I find it and buy it. It is not until months later that I discovered that that very single was written (Chris White) and recorded previously by The Zombies. To the utter dismay of the Zombies, this recording by PEOPLE climbs the American/Canadian charts. To make matters worse it was originally the b-side of PEOPLE’s single “Somebody Tell Me My Name. Some dj liked the b-side so he played it and…

Late 1967 the unsuccessful ZOMBIES,dropped by DECCA RECORDS, seek and receive a new contract with CBSRecords and are working on a self produced “second” album. They settle in EMI ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS, using the same 4 track machine THE BEATLES employed a few months before on “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Some internal friction and disharmony causes huge rifts in the band and after finishing the album (December 1967) they disband. A few tunes released as singles bomb and CBS is reluctant to release the finished “Odessey and Oracle” until AL KOOPER, working for the label, convinced the bosses for a release in April 1968 under the DATE RECORDS subsidiary label. And just like the singles,it bombed.

Summer of 1968 at a record store on Wall Street, NYC, I see the poster for “O and O” with the phrase “THE ZOMBIES” printed boldly on it. I bought it then and there. When it first came out, to me, it was a delight, to others it was a bizarre strange record.”Care of Cell 44”, “A Rose for Emily”,”Beechwood Park”, “This Will Be Our Year” are all gems but that final track “Time Of The Season” was phenomenal.

March of 69, fifteen months after THE ZOMBIES break-up, one full year after their album bombs at home and abroad, the single release of “Time of the Season” soars up the American/Canadian charts, #1 in CASHBOX, #2 BILLBOARD “forcing” COLUMBIA RECORDS to re-release the album (under the Columbia Records label this time) however using a faulty cropped cover.(record collectors love this shit, we do).

Congratulations go to THE ZOMBIES for their induction into the Rock N Roll HALL OF FAME 2019.God knows they of all deserve some recognition. They are still performing, and as I wrote a few reviews of their performances “they are no oldies act”. Enjoy.

ON THE TURNTABLE: January 20,1964- The Beatles “Meet The Beatles”

ON THE TURNTABLE: January 20,1964- The Beatles “Meet The Beatles” is released in the US.

Some say it was the Assassination of our beloved President JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY which surrounded the Nation in a national funk that somehow brought THE BEATLES to stardom in the U.S. Some say we needed an escape, a diversion, and these four lads from Liverpool were the escape. Yet, I’m not buying it. My reasoning is simple. First,we, the American record buying public came a many months late to the BEATLES party, having not accepted their first few records when released stateside, these same records which were huge hits across the pond. Secondly, the time was ripe for a new (television) hero for the “youngsters” as Ed Sullivan would call us. The biggest show on TV at that time was the BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, a preposterous show which made a ratings killing week after week, and that show having their biggest week just prior to The Beatles first appearance. Americans were enamored with television. And Ed Sullivan was considered a religious experience every Sunday night. Like Sunday morning mass in a Catholic household, one couldn’t miss Sullivan on Sunday nights, it would be sinful.

So here goes my thesis:

Point ONE: Prior to Sullivan (one year before) The BEATLES had 3 releases in States, all which were misses, that is NO HITS, no charting…zero. Those records were

PLEASE PLEASE ME- February 1963(VEEJAY RECORDS)

FROM ME TO YOU-May 1963(VEEJAY RECORDS)

SHE LOVES YOU-September 1963(SWAN RECORDS)which has limited if any airplay.

In early November 1963 after Sullivan witnessed the impact of the lads in their home turf England,and how their audiences responded, BRIAN EPSTEIN,The BEATLES manager, persuades Mr. Sunday Night Television ED SULLIVAN to have THE BEATLES do three consecutive weekly performance on Sullivan’s top rated American CBS television show. Never before had any act accomplished three consecutive appearance on Sullivan, let alone an “unknown” act. CAPITOL RECORDS (US) smelling something good is happening picks up the BEATLES EMI option just as The CBS Morning News (Sullivan’s network) aired a segment on BEATLEMANIA, the morning of November 22, 1963,which they have ready to repeat it on their nationally syndicated CBS NIGHTLY NEWS. However, regular programming was cancelled as JFK was assassinated that day and THE BEATLES piece did NOT air that evening, happenstance. THE BEATLES and their manager become very anxious as they await their coming to America in a few months for three consecutive weeks no less without a hit record. This could mean a disaster for the band. Some in The Beatles camp and a few others considered cancelling.

The BEATLEMANIA segment was finally re-broadcast on CBS NIGHTLY NEWS the evening of December 10, 1963. Immediately airplay for THE BEATLES was requested on radio stations across the nation and CAPITOL RECORDS rushed out I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, the boys newest single on December 26, 1963 which sold one million copies in the first ten days with one and one half million copies by three weeks time, just in time for the SULLIVAN appearance. THE BEATLES have the Number 1 hit in the land AND are appearing on one of the top rated television shows, for three consecutive weeks. BEATLEMANIA has arrived.

April 5,1964 BILLBOARD Magazine

#1: Can’t Buy Me Love (jumped 27 spots):THE BEATLES

#2: Twist And Shout:THE BEATLES

#3:She Loves You:THE BEATLES

#4:I Want To Hold Your Hand:THE BEATLES

#5:Please Please Me:THE BEATLES

 

 

 

 

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: Chapter 33-HONKY TONKYING

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: Chapter 33-HONKY TONKYING

We tried in vain to get STONES tickets for their (1969) MADISON SQUARE GARDEN performance. Skipping school the day tickets went on sale, I took the next train after my Dad’s train so as to not be caught, to Brooklyn and then by subway to my cousin’s house off of Church Ave. When I arrived I asked my aunt not to say anything about me being there to my mom, her sister, when the next spoke. She just smiled. The  box office was to open at 10AM, which it did and the shows were SOLD OUT in a manner of minutes. The remaining ticketless crowd, us included, became restless and angry.  Not too happy, my cousin and I walked across Seventh Avenue toward the Blarney Rock to get a beer (phony ID worked since summer of 68 on Wall Street but no one asks for proof) when we were confronted by a drunken “hard hat” who harassed us about long hair. It’s only noon and this dude is loaded. Sorry dude, wrong day, wrong guys, now you will find out that long haired kids who are pissed can fight. Down he went. Screw him. John left him crying in the street before putting a cigarette out on the guys forehead, all in front of a small crowd who did absolutely nothing, no lie, they just watched. After a few beers in THE ROCK  I was back on the train home before my folks knew I missed school. My aunt never told her sister.

However, The Rock Gods must have found redemption as a few night later before going to the FILLMORE EAST for a Joe Cocker Show, I hit the Garden Box Office and obtained eight (8) tickets at 5 bucks each for a newly announced afternoon matinee show of… The Rolling Stones, Ike and Tina Turner and Terry Reid@ MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, November 28, 1969, the day after Thanksgiving at 2PM. Hallelujah, I’m in.

Trouble seemed to pop up when I least expected it. Never having a curfew I was free to come and go as I pleased since I was 14 with one caveat, “Remember who you are, you carry our name”. In other words, “Don’t screw up”. One night, I had a slight verbal disagreement with my mom before going out with my friends to a house party. Mom was an obsessive cleaner and re-arranger of furniture. Me returning from the party about 2 AM, fully buzzed, quite intoxicated, and not knowing the kitchen table had been moved, bumped right into it, knocking over a chair with me falling to the floor. Lights on…Oh NOOOO. Mom was livid. She said Dad would deal with me. He came upstairs to my room, asking me if I was drinking, Yes I said, he said go to bed. That was it.

Mom not satisfied the next morning with my light sentence  announced….No shows for a while. WHAT? But THE STONES!!!!! “NO,” she said, “sell the tickets, you are not going”. So maybe The Rock Gods did not find me in good standing.

Eight tickets, four for my cousin as promised with the four remaining for me. Geez, I was distraught. Dad said privately that I should give it a few days for it to blow over. YESSSS, I thought. “But”,he added….”But, what?”,I questioned. “You need to take your sister and brother with you”. But DAD?

So my sister being all of 11 was going to see the Stones, my brother at 16 was ecstatic, my girlfriend was not happy as unbeknownst to me she had promised the other two tickets to “her” friends,WHAT? She didn’t even ask me, me the guy who bought the tickets.Yet life was still good, it’s The STONES man and I’m going . Oh yeah, I also had to cut my hair, short.

Terry Reid (third time for me) was killer as an opening act. Ike and Tina’s Revue was tight but should have been called Tina Turner’s Revue, Then the point I had anticipated, light dimmed and JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH.

Beggars Banquet :

The Best Album of 1969 even though it was released in December of 1968, BEGGAR’S BANQUET was my most played album of 1969. I got that record the moment it was released and it very rarely left my turntable for one full year. Side 1, Side 2, back to Side 1, and on and on. There are very few albums I can said that about, very few albums I listen to in its entirety without getting bored by a clunker or two. I was enamored by this collection of Stones tunes. The slick printed cover (American version which was completely different from the British cover), the photo spread inside, and the music. These songs were individually and collectively a great relief, a wonderful change in direction from the ROLLING STONES ’67 set of THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES REQUEST, which I owned but never played all the way through. The only tunes I liked on TSMR were 2000 LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME and SHE’S A RAINBOW. The rest were rubbish.

Before SATANIC MAJESTIES I was stuck on BETWEEN THE BUTTONS(1967) (US version), especially side 1 which we played endlessly at my buddy George’s house.TSMR is/was nothing like BUTTONS. But then, BEGGAR’S BANQUET is released and with that a new STONES approach to the blues.The BB album was the real deal, and foreshadowed what would become of the STONES over the next few years and releases.  To my ears Beggar’s Banquet was a Keith album as Brian Jones due to “personal reasons” is limited here to slide guitar on NO EXPECTATIONS, a harmonica on PARACHUTE WOMAN, DEAR DOCTOR and PRODIGAL SON. It was the last ROLLING STONES album to be released during Brian Jones’ life.

Side One Track 1, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL, just listen to the title before you put the needle down, WHAT? Sympathy for whom? Are you kidding me? Conga, screams, maracas, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and THE WORDS…PLEASE TO MEET YOU, seriously this is not Satanic Majesties at all. WOW.Then the voices, Get down,hit it, guitar riffs…six minutes plus of sheer ecstasy . I danced around my room so many times shaking imaginary maracas.

Track 2:NO EXPECTATIONS, Keith on acoustic, Brian in a semi-sober moment plays slide. Bill with a few bass thuds,I still play this tune on my guitar, “never in my sweet short life have I felt like this before”.

Track 3: DEAR DOCTOR, humorous to say the least..”Help me please Doctor I’m damaged”…“preserve it right there in that jar”. Sang this tune with like minded folks,we being very poor off keyed singers after a few cocktails.

Track 4:PARACHUTE WOMAN: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, some echo added to vocals, and Charlie beating it down, “join me for a ride”.

Track 5: JIGSAW PUZZLE: The drum beat is awesome, I played it thousands of time, Charlie was the man. “Me, I waiting so patiently, lying on the floor”.

SIDE TWO Track 1 STREET FIGHTING MAN: The guitar intro and then the drums…this was the tune revolutionaries were using as their theme song, well, pseudo- revolutionaries. Hey, it was a sign of the times.

Track 2: PRODIGAL SON: Not a Stones tune but a remake that they called their own.Charlie’s high hat work is exceptional, Mick’s vocals is a take on a blues man.

Track 3: STRAY CAT BLUES: This was sex, straight out.”I bet your mama don’t know you can scream like that”…

Track 4: FACTORY GIRL: I first thought this was the same riff from 2000 light years, but no. As I was working in a factory at the time this tune made so much sense.”Waiting for a factory girl…”

Track 5: SALT OF THE EARTH: This is the one that did it for me. Aren’t we all salt of the earth? and when the drums kick in….”Let’s drink to the uncounted heads”…these words made so much sense to me…and then the mention….  “A choice of cancer or polio”.

Salt Of The Earth

The Rolling Stones

Let’s drink to the hard working people

Let’s drink to the lowly of birth

Raise your glass to the good and the evil

Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier

Spare a thought for his back breaking work

Say a prayer for his wife and his children

Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

And when I search a faceless crowd

A swirling mass of gray and

Black and white

They don’t look real to me

In fact, they look so strange

Raise your glass to the hard working people

Let’s drink to the uncounted heads

Let’s think of the wavering millions

Who need leaders but get gamblers instead

Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter

His empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows

And a parade of the gray suited grafters

A choice of cancer or polio

And when I look in the faceless crowd

A swirling mass of grays and

Black and white

They don’t look real to me

Or don’t they look so strange

Let’s drink to the hard working people

Let’s think of the lowly of birth

Spare a thought for the rag taggy people

Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

Let’s drink to the hard working people

Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

Let’s drink to the two thousand million

Let’s think of the humble of birth

So, I’m stuck on the STONES, not really shouting it out but I do like their most recent stuff (1968) more than the Beatles or anyone else at this time. Then, LET IT BLEED is released …

LET IT BLEED December 1969, I have it before Christmas and bought another copy to give my girlfriend as part of her Christmas gift package.

SIDE ONE: Track 1; GIMME SHELTER, Merry Clayton, just a shout away.  Charlie hitting the cymbals, harp playing. fade out, nicely done.

Track 2: LOVE IN VAIN: another stolen tune, but one that everyone, including me plays.I saw FACES do this one night and after they finished Rod Stewart said, “I gave it a try but Mick owns it”.

Track 3:COUNTRY HONK: Didn’t make sense until you put it in perspective of HONKY TONK WOMAN. I really like this tune. Thanks Graham, I know this was you.

Track 4:LIVE WITH ME: Charlie lays it down, Bill bass lines are straight on, …“Don’t you think there is a place for you between the sheets”. What a great line but don’t try to use it. Bobby Keys nails this solo on sax, and I actually tried at the time of release to find out who this guy was.

SIDE 2: Track 1:LET IT BLEED:”There will always be a space in my parking lot”…No longer is music “I Wanna Hold your hand” we are now in a dirty, filthy basement, yeah man.

Track 2:MIDNIGHT RAMBLER: I had no idea what to make of this song, played it hundreds of times, trying to decipher what it was. THEN, I saw it live. My Lord. Now I knew. And about that moment I saw it live the ROLLING STONES became one of my all time favorite live bands.

Track 3:YOU GOT THE SILVER:It’s KEITH, say no more.The future of THE STONES.Brian is in there somewhere, so they say, but I don’t hear him.

Track 4:MONKEY MAN: A bit of Satantic Majesties kick off but then “all my friends are junkies” we are going down fast…I’m glad you are a monkey woman ,too”. Nicely, done.The guitars are intense.

Track 5: YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT: No words describe what I heard as a 17 year old male. The chorus, the horn, the acoustic guitar, Mick’s intro, “ but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need”….are they talking to me?

It’s the STONES I played all of 1969, saw a few others bands, but 1969 was…THE STONES and I saw them.

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:October 19,1995-RAY DAVIES “STORYTELLER”@ The ACADEMY on 43RD ST and two years later:October 20,1997-RAY DAVIES “Storyteller”@WESTBURY MUSIC

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:October 19,1995-RAY DAVIES “STORYTELLER”@ The ACADEMY on 43RD ST and two years later:

(taken from a review)There was much to enthuse over. Davies ran through most of the Kinks’ hits in unplugged mode; himself on acoustic guitar with one guitarist accompanying him. This nudged the audience into realizing what fine, durable songs they are: 30 years on, not one sounds dated or immature. We have long known that Waterloo Sunset, Days and Lola are classics; this treatment conferred equal status on minor hits such as Autumn Almanac and Dead End Street.

Between classics , Davies read excerpts from his autobiographical X-Ray and told anecdotes: upstaging the Beatles on a package tour, growing up in Muswell Hill with younger brother Dave and older sisters. Mum frowned on the girls playing Billy Eckstine’s That Old Black Magic: the words were too sexy. Davies then sang it, a cappella, with a cheeky smile. “Mum was right,” he said finally: If you could bottle his charm you’d be rich

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:October 20,1997-RAY DAVIES “Storyteller”@WESTBURY MUSIC FAIR. Almost exactly tow years to the date that I saw the first incarnation of the STORYTELLER SAGA. With a few changes and modifications, the story remains the same but some of the music selections have changed.It was all good

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:October 18,1969-SPIRIT/ THE KINKS/ BONZO DOG BAND@FILLMORE EAST

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:October 18,1969-SPIRIT/ THE KINKS/ BONZO DOG BAND@FILLMORE EAST The KinKs was one of my favorite bands from the early British Invasion days. They had not played live in the USA in quite some time so this show scheduled for October 18 at FILLMORE EAST was a “must see” for me. From the very first time I heard YOU REALLY GOT ME on my small transistor radio I knew these guys were different. We even played that tune with THE TRIANGLE my doomed band of yesteryear. So when the opportunity to see The KinKs live became a reality I jumped at the chance.

The Bonzo Dog Band opened the show. While the crowd waited for their “hit” URBAN SPACEMAN, we were treated to some of the best comedy, music, and visuals I had ever seen (in my limited experience). Just sheer joy, I laughed hysterically throughout their entire set. The singer pretending he was urinating on the light show, the silly hats they wore, the large eyeglasses, and hundreds of props. They were GREAT. Needless to say I purchased two Bonzo albums the next week.Then the amazing KinKs were introduced. Even though it was a short set and one without their pianist who as Ray Davies said, “cracked his skull” so Ray played piano for a few tunes. Overall, it was a fabulous set. Upon leaving the show I remember thinking, ahhh The KinKs and The Who, two of my favorite bands, all I need is The Stones and The Beatles. BTW SPIRIT, the headliners, hit the stage after The Kinks and were decent but Randy California is NOT Raymond Douglas Davies by any stretch of the imagination. So tonight it was The KinKs.

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:August 1,1995- THE KINKS @ WESTBURY

TICKETS TORN IN HALF:August 1,1995:THE KINKS @ WESTBURY

The Kinks Return–All Day and All of The Night 

Thousands Rock at Music Fair 

By Anthony Bosco

An eclectic group of more than 2,000 came out Monday night to see the Kinks perform the first of two shows at the Westbury Music fair. The band added another performance following a quick sellout of their opening night in the metropolitan area.

The band, led by brother Ray and Dave Davies in full force, reunited with former keyboardist Ian Gibbons for a quick tour of the eastern United States that stopped at Long Island this week. It was the first time in two years that the band from England has visited the New York City area.

“The Kinks have just arrived,” said band leader and songwriter Ray, 51, after playing several solo acoustic numbers to kick off the show. “A Well Respected Man,” “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” and “Stop Your Sobbing” were among the acoustic tunes Davies played before the other four band members joined him on stage. The house lights dimmed and the Kinks ripped through a raucous version of “Do It Again” from the band’s 1984 album Word of Mouth.

Several hard rocking Kinks singles followed, including “Low Budget,” “A Gallon of Gas” and “Sleepwalker.” But this was not a night of hard rock. At their most poignant, the Kinks easily slipped in and out of some of their most touching tunes.

Reading an impromptu set list from paper plates that littered the stage, Davies led the Kinks in moving versions of “Dead End Street,” “Rock-N-Roll Fantasy” and “Waterloo Sunset.”

With fans ranging in age from pre-teen to post-middle age, Davies and his cohorts reached all with their trademark hits, including “Come Dancing,” “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night” and “Lola.”

Dressed in a Union Jack suit, Davies said, “Who knows, this might be the last time?” before leading the band in the English anthem “Victoria.” The set was short, lasting no more than an hour and 45 minutes, but the Kinks, as always, didn’t let their core group of fans down, nearly spanning a career of more than 30 years in just one night.

The Kinks, formed in 1964 by the brothers Davies, were part of the first British invasion of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Dave Clark Five. A series of commercial failures and disappointing record sales has not forced the band into retirement but into another phase of its musical history.

A new acoustic CD called To the Bone has already been released in Europe and is slated for release here in the states in December or January. Davies has also recently released his first book, an autobiographical yarn called X-Ray, available in Europe and slated to be released on this side of the Atlantic in the fall.

The Kinks are scheduled to be back in New York City next month for a one-night show in Manhattan.

TICKETS TORN IN HALF July 26, 1972 The Rolling Stones/ Stevie Wonder “THE STP TOUR” @Madison Square Garden

TICKETS TORN IN HALF July 26, 1972 The Rolling Stones/ Stevie Wonder “THE STP TOUR” @Madison Square Garden

This courtesy of The Selvedge Yard:

The Rolling Stones embarked on their 1972 American tour to support the release of Exile on Main Street— which in and of itself was a push into new territory for the band, both musically and commercially. What followed rewrote the game for The Stones and the music industry, and basically set the stage for a decade of big, balls-out tours that went from being simple promotional vehicles to pop culture events. Nothing like this had been done in Rock ‘n’ Roll prior and all subsequent tours would follow the ’72 tour blueprint for scale, attempted musicality, logistics, legal entanglements, drugs, women, hilarity, hangers-on, and general debauchery. (me)The Stones did not disappoint.

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: CHAPTER 18: AND THE JUKEBOX KEPT ON PLAYING…

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD:  CHAPTER 18: AND THE JUKEBOX KEPT ON PLAYING…

“There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear”, Stephen stills wrote in the 1967 song FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH.

The music of the 60s famously captured the countercultures activism and ethos of those times. Music can inspire, it can galvanize and fuel movements, it can spread the key messages for social causes. However, do we define the music that the artists create or do the songs they sing about the social issues defined us? Sometimes it’s both as its almost impossible to separate the art from the artist.

In my generation’s time the biggest example of music affecting culture had to be the music of the Beatles. Their music created an iconic shift in our culture. Take a look at photos in any high school yearbook before 1964, and you will see the American middle-class males all have really short haircuts. However in just one years time, everyone’s hair was a little longer. The Beatles were influencing culture, as a matter of fact they changed the entire culture. Fortunately during that time the music scene was not as fragmented as it is today. With about only five popular radio stations and/or TV stations( in NY) everyone heard the same songs. It was truly broadcasting in a “broad” sense of the word as opposed to today’s “narrow” casting. Music mobilized people and songs became anthems as music was one of the strongest ways to influence our generation.

By ’67 I was an avid reader of magazines, books, news weeklies, most somewhat politically skewed to the left, well as left as I could get away with in my household. Even my newspaper of choice was the VILLAGE VOICE, a weekly out of Manhattan. My high school’s reading assignments, the general novels assigned, the poems, did little to excite me, but I read what I was asked to read, mostly.  But then, I read Ralph Nader’s UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED which intrigued me. His invitation to the auto makers to produce a safer machine was researched so well, and his requests and suggestions to the industry and to the government made so much sense. Yet no one did anything about it. The CORVAIR car, transmission gear positions on cars, safety to pedestrians, wind shield standards and seat belts.WOW, simple safety. That year Nader was “the man” to me.

THE SUMMER OF LOVE: 1967

A news item came across the screen the other day (2017) declaring that JEFFERSON AIRPLANE’S album SURREALISTIC PILLOW was certified Platinum, I’m talking a few month shy of it’s 50th anniversary of its release. That’s a long haul. The LP went GOLD back in July of 1967, THE SUMMER OF LOVE, finally platinum in 2017.

50 Years ago “it” was all over the press: San Francisco and the “SUMMER OF LOVE”. The SF Chronicle was the first to depict that designation to which I am sure they regretted almost immediately. But, WHAT WAS THAT SUMMER OF LOVE LIKE?

I was 15 and it was no summer of Love for me, summer of Confusion might best describe my circumstances. SURREALISTIC PILLOW was on my turn table yet I actually had to look up and research what the heck “surrealistic” meant and how the hell did it apply to a pillow. This was too far out.

Summer of ’67 nearly 100,000 kids head to San Francisco’s HAIGHT ASBURY  with “flowers in their hair, flowers everywhere”. It is time to “turn on, tune in, drop out”. This coincides with young adults declaring rock and roll was here to stay, it was not some phase we would grow out of. Rock was to be our music, an essential part of our being, the way we expressed ourselves. I’m in, I ready to volunteer. Frank Sinatra, not for me. Even the sounds recorded at that moment in time changed. Listen to JORMA KAUKONEN’s feedback on PILLOW. It was new, unique, and different.We took this music, our music seriously, and so did the musicians who made it . Singles were fading fast as bands/musicians sought to make a statement or two. Albums became the rage. Musicians experimented and so did we.

Our radio changed. AM stuck to the hit parade format. Recent legislation stated that AM stations could no longer simulcast on FM, so the clearer sounding FM was free to experiment and experiment they did. The AM dj’s catch phrases, their gift of gab would not survive the coolness of the FM disk jockey playing THE DOORS Light My Fire (extended version).And in June of 67 The BEATLES released Sgt. Pepper’s which had no singles on it. Truly the listening teens were FM bound.

Reporting on the “happenings” changed also. The cigar smoking, shirt and tie wearing newsman suddenly had long bushy sideburns, bell bottom jeans, smoked a joint and wrote from the heart. Journalism,the reporting of the news was way different from what it was only a few months before. Slanted as it might have been, these new writers helped me develop a better understanding of culture and politics. An example would be RAMPARTS magazine, which started as a Catholic Quarterly, but now in ‘67 it was a full blown anti-establishment rag. It’s articles raised the hair on the back of my neck; Vietnam, the CIA, The Black Panthers. And then the NewYork Times Best Sellers List had names like Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe and other non-traditional authors topping the charts. Hail, hail to THE CLASS OF ’67.These “New Journalists” led me to read authors who influenced the new generation: Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, and many other so called “muckrackers” as Teddy Roosevelt named their genre.

So what was 1967 through the eyes and ears of a fifteen year old boy? Well, January 15 the very first SUPER BOWL was held with a television audience of 60 million folks.The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10. Interesting to note that according to all research this singular event catapulted the NFL in viewership which in turn drew advertising money to football. The cost of a 30 second SUPER BOWL ad in 67 was a mere $37,500.

By February my neighbor, a guy I tried to get to take me to see the Lovin Spoonful told me about a new group he saw at Stony Brook, a local university. The band was Jefferson Airplane, yes, same group I read about in NEWSWEEK. Now, I was more than interested in that band.

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in February 1967 thereby establishing the “succession” to the Presidency which was vitally important as our Vice-Presidency had been vacant at least 16 times through our short history. This Amendment gave us a clear path to what steps were needed to take place, especially after the death of JFK when we had a void. This would prove to be politically significant in subsequent years.

In April Muhammed Ali, aka CASSIUS CLAY the Heavy Weight Champ who became a CO, was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title for refusing induction in to the US Army.

THE SIX DAY WAR (June 5-10) occurred just as we were finishing our school year. The  Arab Forces were defeated and Israel took possession of additional territories.  This news item intrigued me as I knew little if anything about the Middle East which we had studied this past year history class, but not like this.This was for real. My knowledge or lack thereof about the Middle East would soon change.

Thurgood Marshall became the first black Supreme Court Justice in October. These events made ’67 an interesting year. Monterey Pop was held (June), Otis Redding died, and SGT.PEPPERS was released. We listed to Sgt. Peppers almost every afternoon that June at my girlfriend’s house,with the music blasting through the speakers from her brother’s stereo which she placed in the front window while a group of us were playing whiffle ball in the street. Life and relationships were simple then.

My 45’s record collection seemed to grow by the end of each week: The Letter by the Box Tops with Alex Chilton on vocals is still a gem today, Light My Fire by The Doors (the edited radio version of course), The Rascals lovely Groovin’, Little Bit Of Soul, Kind Of A Drag, Expressway to Your Heart, Soul Man, Incense And Peppermints, Somebody To Love,and Whiter Shade of Pale just to name a few. However, I used more of my limited cash on albums: The Doors(first), the aforementioned Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow,  Moby Grape’s first, The Beatles Sgt. Peppers, Jimi Hendrix Experience, The KinKs Something Else,The Doors Strange Days (which my dad bought for me),Cream’s Disraeli Gears, The Who Sell Out, The Rascal’s Collections and The Soul Survivors, which I was led to believe by the guy behind the counter at the local RECORD RACK sounds “exactly” like the Rascals.This proclamation was not necessarily true and another story all together. By years end I included the newly established ROLLING STONE magazine to my mandatory reading list .

By end of 1967 heading into ’68, listening to FM radio and watching television rock was not enough for me. Like every other red blooded discophile I was drawn to the fire of live music. Having no true curfew I started to attend The Hullabaloo, a local teen club in the neighboring town of Lindenhurst. A true TEEN SCENE club serving 15-20 year olds  with an affordable  $2.00 cover. Their stage hosted a few bands each weekend (Friday and Saturday nights), many were local garage style combos, with a few noted National acts tossed in…The Vagrants, The Hassels, and Vanilla Fudge just to name a few.

During this period I saw The Critters (Younger Girl; My Dyingly Sad) at the local Roll N Ice, followed by Every Mothers Son (Come On Down To My Boat, Baby) at my 10th grade dance, The Good Rats (pre-TASTY) at a high school art show(1968), and a WMCA (NY Radio station-THE GOOD GUYS)sponsored “Sock Hop Show” featuring The Left Banke (1967).  And of course Long Island’s own The Vagrants (Leslie West), and The Hassels (Billy Joel) regularly played at the aforementioned Hullabloo.

At home I played Rubber Soul and Revolver over and over again. Two of my favorite albums at that time and probably my two favorite Beatles albums of all times.

See you next time….Chapter19:THE SUMMER OF LOVE. Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

ROCK’S IN MY HEAD: Chapter 17-BIGGER THAN JESUS

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CarnabyStreet, JohnSebastian, Lovin'Spoonful, REVOLVER, TaylorLaw, WOR-FM

John Lennon’s statement that The Beatles were “bigger than Jesus” caused quite an uproar with some radio stations refusing to play Beatles records. Living in liberal New York the noise of Anti-Beatledom was minimal, basically non-existent. As liberal as the politics of my home state might be, the radio stations were quite conservative, only playing the “hits” that had been tested in the minor markets. NY Radio would wait until others lesser known band’s song became a hit across the country before giving it a shot on the air. But not with The Fab 4 who seemed bigger than ever. The Beatles still had the instant hits.

REVOLVER was my most played album of 1966, and TAXMAN was a favorite song of mine from that collection, what a great opening tune. Years later I found that that song written as such still needed a hook during the recording process. Someone suggested, after watching an episode of the TV program BATMAN, that THE BEATLES replicate the BATMAN theme chant into TAX MAN. Hence, BATMAN became TAXMAN.

While the political innuendo of TAXMAN was not missed by me, ELENOR RIGBY did nothing for me. I later learned that not one Beatle played an instrument on that tune so that reason alone might subconsciously be why I didn’t care for it one bit. REVOLVER was the last album issued by Capitol with an altered playing order, that is one different from it’s UK counter part. In January of 1967 THE BEATLES had a new contract, one which specified Capitol records could no longer alter the tracks or the running order or remove tracks from Beatle approved albums. Just in time too, as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band could have been quite different if Capitol Records USA had still had control over songs, sequence, etc.

The fashion of 1966 was basically CARNABY STREET and with that style came the introduction of the “mini skirt”. Imagine being a 14 year old boy in high school at a time where girls were required to wear skirts in school. Then the mini skirt arrives. “Thank you, Lord” our prayers were answered. Keeping ’66 in mind, that same year Pampers were introduced and the Dow Jones year end average was 785. And of course October of 66, THE MONKEES debuted on TV, an ersatz Beatle-esk band, which caught on with the teeny boppers, as we were then referred as.

 

To recap the year, January 1, 1966 started off with the New York City Transit Strike, a 12 day event pairing a fiery Mike Quill the NYTA union leader against the newly installed Mayor John Lindsey. Lindsey was no match for the tough Irish union leader. The Transit workers received a 15% raise and The TAYLOR LAW was enacted the next year.

In July, MUHAMMED ALI once known as CASSIUS CLAY declares himself a CO, a “Conscientious Objector”. This brought more attention to the VIETNAM War and to the opposition to this “undeclared” war. I started to pay more attention to radio news reports. According to FCC regulations at the time, each radio station MUST present the news “on the hour” with updates “on the half hour”. The 6 PM and 11PM television evening news were quite visual in its coverage of the carnage in Vietnam, actually upsettingly so. In September the long running whitbread television program THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET ended.

NEWSWEEK had a featured article in its December edition about BE-INS, as in Human “Be-ings”,  that were  called “happenings” in major cities, San Francisco being one such city. The author referenced the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE as “the most popular of groups”. This was duly noted in my brain.

The USA had 500,000 troops in Vietnam, NASA’s Gemini 10 left “Earth for 3 days in space”, cigarettes were required to carry a health warning on the side package, and Richard Speck killed 8 nurses in Chicago which the news of this scared the bejesus out of me. Speck was outdone a few months later by Charles Wittman who killed 14 and injured 31 by shooting from a tower at the University of Texas to the crowd below. Mass murders, Vietnam, all too much bloodshed on the news and in print.

We had sit-ins, be-ins, teach-ins and the popular films were THUNDERBOLT, DR. ZHIVAGO, and A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. I was 14 closing in on 15 and my world was changing around me, rapidly.

For me in 1966 The LOVIN’ SPOONFUL was a band I most desired to see, I even bought a vest and a yellow shirt because I saw John Sebastian wearing one on an album cover. At one point I almost wished my eye sight would fade a bit so if I needed glasses I could get a pair like Sebastian’s.

Those big band albums from Columbia record club that my dad had, and the little kid 45’ records that my brother and I had soon met their shelf mates including: 96 Tears, Summer In The City, Good Lovin’, Paperback Writer, 19th Nervous Breakdown and Gloria (Shadows of Night). The album collection expanded as well adding Revolver, Pet Sounds, Blonde on Blonde, High Tides and Green Grass: Big Hits, Fresh Cream, Love, Animalism, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Buffalo Springfield and of course the debut by The Monkees. That Monkees  phenomena was a story unto itself.

And then there was the beginning of rock music on FM radio in NY, WOR-FM, August of 66. I needed, I wanted an AM/FM radio.

See you next time….Chapter18: AND THE JUKEBOX KEPT ON PLAYING… . Comments? jazzbus@gmail.com

ON THE SHELF-1965: The Most Revolutionary Year In Music by Andrew Grant Jackson

1965: The Most Revolutionary Year In Music by Andrew Grant Jackson

What a cover! The psychedelic colors, the swirling letters, the flowers, all immediately caught my eye. And the reviews weren’t too shabby either. So I purchased a copy for my Kindle Fire and away I go on a journey back to 1965. The author, Andrew Grant Jackson, makes a bold hypothesis’ surmising that 1965 IS the “most revolutionary year in music”. Debatable, to say the least but interesting as hell.

Jackson starts off with a 1965 “SELECTED” TIME LINE (the quotation marks are mine), one which helped to pique my interest and excitement about how the author will prove his theory. He then sections his book off to four seasons (not the singing group fronted by Frankie Valli); Winter , Spring, Summer, and the better choice than fall, Autumn. Each section title tends to lead the reader to believe the author will offer a chronological approach as a proof. While filling each section’s subsequent chapters with anecdotal information, Billboard like charting data, followed by a political climate overview of that time, the author offered his proof thematically, using a musician(s) as the anchor to each chapter. This model of presentation sometimes confused me,as I then needed to “post-reference” his said reference  AKA I needed to backtrack too many times.

The overall reading experience DID spark some nostalgia in me, having me traveling back in time to that ever present AM radio and/or the small screened black and white television the kind that needed time to warm up) circa 1965. However, Andrew Grant Jackson’s thesis that 1965 was the “most revolutionary” year in music, while exciting and interesting, was not proven to me.