Sibling Squable over Paul Revere

Paul Revere and the Raiders were a much better band than those silly costumes would indicate.  They were the first rock band signed to Columbia Records.  Their marketing set them up as the 'anti-British.'  Even more silly than the Beatles vs.The Stones.  Whatever - they made some great records.

Paul Revere and the Raiders - The Spirit of '67 (Columbia 1967)

IMO, this is their best record.  

Looks like the Winokour sisters both liked this record a lot.  Gayle Winokour put her name on it.  Sometime later, sister Debbie laid claim on it, crossed out Gayle's name and replaced it with her own. Once Gayle saw this on her record, she crossed out Debbie's name and rightly returned the album to its original owner.  All this squabbling was probably more over territory than it was about the record.  The vinyl looks like its rarely been played.

I got this at Dave's Records in Chicago - Not to be confused with Dave's Records in Berkeley.

Dave's Records

This Has Little To Do With Records, but.....

Originally posted 6/27/2015

This is where yours truly is this weekend.    Grateful Dead final shows.    Last night we were gifted with a rainbow at the end of the first set.

We got us a Dark Star, St Stephen, The Eleven, The Other One.   We'll see what happens tonight.

The Rolling Stones - Steel Wheels B-Sides

1989 saw a reunion of sorts for The Rolling Stones. The resulting album and tour - Steel Wheels - was a huge success for the band.  The tour saw the first of many things that would become staples for future stadium shows - reserved seats on the floor, giant sets, video screens, expensive beer.   It also saw the beginning of hugely expensive tickets - $35.   At the time it was an outrage.

Still - the band saw fit to produce a few B-Sides at a time when the 45 was dying.  At the time we were seeing the rise of the CD single and the silly 'cassingle'

so here we have

Fancy Man Blues (the B-Side of Mixed Emotions)

Cook Cook Blues (The B-Side of 'Rock and a Hard Place')

To the best of my knowledge, this 45 is the only place this ever appeared.  It was tough to find at the time 

I Wish I'd Never Met You (B-Side of 'Almost Hear You Sigh')

Not released in the USA.

Friday on My Mind

Not sure what day of the week this will post.  One of my quests in the record collecting world is to obtain the original versions of songs covered on David Bowie's 'Pinups' LP.  I'm almost there.  

Picked this one up at my local shop the other day.

The Easybeats - Friday on My Mind b/w Made My Bed: Gonna Lie In It.

A teenage anthem about being in a mundane job all week looking forward to cutting loose on Friday night.  Our hero claims he's gonna 'lose his head, spend his bread', etc.  Sounds like fun. 

For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.  There are consequences to your behavior.  

The B-Side tells a different story.  Is this the result of partying too hard and just being exhausted - or did our hero get in some kind of trouble that will change his life.  Jail?  Knocking up his girl who 'looked out of sight to me?'

The Birds, They Sing For Jesus

Not the rock band (Although they Byrds have a track called 'Jesus is Just Alright').   These are supposed to be real birds.  Actually, they're voices by a guy who specializes in bird calls.  

Ralph Platt - The Birds Sing His Praise

The record is bizarre pairing of church oriented music with bird chatter.  A similar effect could be acquired by placing an organ in an aviary.  The birds just make noise, they don't sing of praise.  Secretly I was hoping they would - like the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland.

Rather than train real birds to do what they do anyway, the producers decided to hire a guy instead.

I picked this up today at my local Goodwill.  When I returned to the car, some bird left a dropping on my hood.  My first thought was 'geez, what did you do that for?  Would I defile your nest?'  Then I got to thinking.  Was Jesus instructing the birds to do this because I was laughing at this album?

Mrs Miller

There will never be another Mrs. Miller.  She didn't look like your typical singer.  She couldn't sing.  Her vocals were off key and out of time.  It didn't stop her.  She had a 20 minute career.  A temporary sensation.

This particular album is her first.   The greatest hits are other people's not hers.

Here's a sample of the classic 'Downtown'  You can thank me later.

A while back, a friend had his car stolen.  It was later recovered.  This only thing missing was a CD of this album.  This brings to mind two scenarios....

1.  The car thieves put it in the player, promptly ejected it and threw it out the window.

or

2.  They listened to it and were inspired to return the stolen car.  They kept the CD for motivation to stay on the righteous path.

Personally I like to imagine some gangster car thieves driving around the hood blasting Mrs. Miller at full volume.

Wonderwall Music by George Harrison

I finally saw the movie 'Wonderwall' after being urged on by my friends at the B- Movie Cast.    (that was a link, check them out).   Don't know why it took me so long to see it.  I've had the soundtrack for as long as I can remember.  The movie was basically a psychedelic peeping tom movie.  Some guy drills holes in his wall to watch the dolly bird next door as she does various groovy sixties things in her ever changing colorful apartment.

Movie aside, I'll focus on the record which was released in 1968.

The soundtrack was by George Harrison and holds the distinction of being the first release on Apple records.  Yes folks, this is the first time the world saw the now iconic granny smith on side one and a sliced apple on side two.  It would be months before Hey Jude (the second release) and the White Album ( the next LP) would see the inner light of day.  More about the Apple label later.


Not sure where I got my copy.  It's still got much of its original shrink wrap.

It's also not really clear which side is the front or the back.  If we go by the writing on the side, the front is below.  If we go by how we normally see it, the front is above.

It comes with an insert on thick card stock listing the musicians.  George, Ringo and Eric Clapton play on some tracks.  They're not listed, but mysterious musicians Colin Manley (on guitar) , Roy Dyke (on drums) and Eddie Clayton (on guitar) appear.   Much of the music was recorded in India with Indian musicians. The backing track for The Beatles 'The Inner Light' was recorded at these sessions.


Below is the insert front and back.

Apple was set up by The Beatles to fund various creative endeavors.  The first product to hint at the company was Magical Mystery Tour which was produced by Apple Films.    The first record (this one) came out in early 1968.  The record label was a bit revolutionary at the time as it didn't mention the name of the company.  They let the image speak for itself.

Below is the label front and back.

Jamming With Edward

The rumor mill says Keith Richards hated Ry Cooder.  Ry was booked to play on some sessions for Sticky Fingers - most notably the guitar on Sister Morphine.  When the band was in the studio waiting for Keith, they got antsy and played.  Glyn Johns fired up the tape machine, and we get 'Jamming with Edward.'  It features Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Nicky Hopkins and Ry Cooder.   Keith is nowhere to be found. Mick Taylor at this point was probably only invited when they needed some tasty licks on top on an existing recording.

Jamming With Edward (Rolling Stones 1972)

The record wasn't put out there as the next great Rolling Stones record.  A special low price was attached to it.  At the time it could be acquired in most record stores for under $3.00.  The pressing I have is from a cutout bin somewhere.  $2.29 still sealed.  I don't remember this record store.  Whatever.  It was still in shrinkwrap.

The inner sleeve sports a full size tongue logo.  It's unclear at this point in time if the logo represents the record label or the band.  Currently, with record labels basically irrelevant, it represents the band and has become one of the most recognizable images in the world.

The record itself is a loose, in the studio jam sessions of anxious musicians waiting for their lead guitarist to show.   Evidently he never did.    The version of 'It Hurts me Too' that appears here is really Dylan's 'Pledging My Time.'

Solo Dead in .72

In 1972 the Grateful Dead were on a roll in the songwriting department.  They released a triple album of their recent tour of Europe which was about half new material.  Much of that material became concert staples for the remainder of their career.

But that's not all.

As I understand it, their contract with Warner Brothers was coming to an end.  Columbia wanted to sign the band.  As they were a-courtin, they signed The New Riders of the Purple Sage - Dead cohorts which featured both Garcia and Hart on the first album.  Clive Davis at Columbia was busy pursuing Dead band members for solo deals. he figured if he got all the members for a solo deal, then signing the band as a whole would be a piece of cake.

In a defensive move, Warner Brothers threw solo deals at band members as well. 

This lit a fire under them to write some more songs resulting in two more albums worth of concert staples...

First off 

Garcia  - Jerry Garcia (Warner Brothers 1972)

This one features Deal, The Wheel, Loser, Sugaree and Bird Song. All instruments played by Garcia with the exception of drums by Dead member Bill Kreutzman.

Not to be outdone, Bob Weir pulled together a solo album as well.  This one features all members of the Grateful Dead on all tracks.  It's more of a Grateful Dead album featuring all Weir songs.  Most of them were in heavy rotation until the end of the band.

Bob Weir - Ace (Warner Brothers 1972)

Includes One More Saturday Night, Looks Like Rain, Cassidy, Mexicali Blues, Black Throated Wind and Playin' in the Band.

`

The pressing I have features the deleted 'pot leaf' photo on the back.  It was later replaced with a high contrast photo of Weir.

....and joining in the 1972 fun...

Mickey Hart  - Rolling Thunder (1972)

Features just about everyone from the San Francisco scene.  Tracks include the original versions of Playin' in the Band and Fire on the Mountain.

Mickey had a second record in the can ready to go.  When the Dead made it clear they were not going with either Columbia or Warner Brothers, Warner's dropped the solo contracts leaving Mickey in the lurch.  Supposedly a second album remains in the can.

Clive Davis finally got his Dead when the band signed with Arista.