Rockin' The 60s

1960s that is.

Before forgetting more about those years, I'll attempt to reconstruct the bands I saw in concert during that decade.  I have the nagging feeling a few are missing.

March 1966
The Byrds
White Plains, NY

My favorite American rock band of the 65-66 period.  This was just after Turn, Turn, Turn became a #1 hit.  My dad took me to the show (thanks dad!). The auditorium was less than 1/2 full, and The Byrds played for only about 30 minutes, which was the norm back then.  How things would change within the next three years!

June 10, 1966
Soundblast '66
Ray Charles
Stevie Wonder
The Beach Boys
The Byrds
The Gentrys
The Marvelettes
The McCoys
Yankee Stadium, NY

Sounds like a great show, doesn't it?  Well, it wasn't.  Only about 10,000 in attendance and each act played 3 or 4 songs with long breaks in between.  I remember Stevie Wonder performing Bob Dylan's Blowing In The Wind and Uptight. I could swear I previously wrote a post devoted to this show but can't find it.

For you young 'uns, The Gentrys were one-hit wonders selling a million copies of Keep on Dancing in late 1965.  The McCoys had a giant #1 with Hang On Sloopy in '65.  Their lead guitarist was Rick Derringer who went on to have a big solo career (Rock n Roll Hoochie Koo) and become a session guitarist for, among others, Steely Dan (he plays the solo on Chain Lightning).  The Marvelettes were a Motown girl singing troupe that had a monster smash in the early 60s with Please, Mr Postman and then a string of minor hits - at the time of Soundblast '66 they were charting with Don't Mess With Bill.

 June 30, 1966
The Lovin' Spoonful
Brien McMahon High School
Norwalk CT

My mother was vice-chair of the Norwalk Democratic Party Committee at the time and they were seeking to raise funds.  I can't remember if she asked me, or I suggested, a rock concert.  I do know I was the one who suggested The Lovin' Spoonful who had a couple of Top Ten hits.  By the time of the concert, in the high school gym, Summer In The City was #1.  If memory serves the party made $900 on the show, not bad for the time.

February 26, 1967
Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels 
Brien McMahon High School
Norwalk CT 

Not well remembered today, Ryder & The Wheels were an outstanding rock n soul band with a series of hits from 1965 to 1967 - Jenny Take A Ride, Devil With A Blue Dress, Sock It To Me Baby, and Little Latin Lupe Lu.  Dynamic show at my high school.

August 1967
Neil Diamond
Jake Holmes
The Bitter End
Greenwich Village, Manhattan

I was a fan of Jake Holmes and have written previously about this and the next show on the list.  Holmes was terrific and early Neil Diamond was very good.  Led Zeppelin (specifically, Jimmy Page) lifted Dazed and Confused from Jake.

September 1967
Van Morrison
Jake Holmes
The Bitter End
Greenwich Village, Manhattan

See above, except that Van Morrison was unbearably horrible.

October 10, 1967
The Doors
Danbury High School
Danbury CT

Held in the high school auditorium.  The Doors were booked after release of their first album but before Light My Fire became a huge hit in the summer of 1967.  Sold-out show.  Though tame by their latter standards it was still pretty wild for high school kids in 1967.  I found this recording of the show on YouTube.  Sound quality is poor but gives a flavor for the brooding power of Jim Morrison and the band.

Early 1968
Cream
Staples High School
Westport, CT

A half-full auditorium to see Cream tour in support of its recently released Disraeli Gears album.  They opened with Tales of Brave Ulysses.  When they hit the first chord, fuses blew and the auditorium went dark.  After restoring power, the concert went well.  Those boys could play!

August 6, 1968
The Doors
JFK Stadium, Bridgeport CT

The 1967 version of The Doors was crisp and powerful.  By 1968 the rot had sunk in.  An obviously stoned Jim Morrison was incoherent during the first part of the concert.  He abruptly snapped out of it in the later stages but the show paled in comparison to what we saw the prior year.

Late November 1968
Jefferson Airplane
Buddy Guy
Fillmore East
East Village, Manhattan

What a showman Buddy Guy was, playing guitar behind his back as he came off the stage and walked down the aisle.  Based on their albums was a fan of Jefferson Airplane but liked them even better live.  A much heavier sound in concert driven by Jack Cassidy's bass (see this prior THC post to hear what they sounded like at the Fillmore). 

February 1969

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Darien High School (CT)

 

This was as BST was becoming hugely popular after replacing lead singer Al Kooper with David Clayton-Thomas and releasing its second album a couple of months before. Clayton-Thomas was a much, much better vocalist than Kooper but Al was much superior as songwriter, arranger ,and visionary and band never recaptured the magic of its first album, Child Is Father To The Man.  I remember the concert as okay, but nothing special.

Spring 1969

Gary Puckett & The Union Gap

Brien McMahon High School

Norwalk CT

Our senior class was raising money for our prom.  In the fall of 1968 I'd spoken with the William Morris Agency about booking The Who for their planned tour but it was postponed (if you're wondering it cost $6500 to book The Who for a concert) and eventually we settled on Gary Puckett who'd had several monster hits.  Of course, as sophisticated seniors we weren't big fans but the sophomore and junior girls loved him.  He played in our gym and when he sang Young Girl we had to link our arms together to protect Gary and the band from being overrun by the surging girls.  The song would probably have difficulty getting airplay today; actually Gary might be arrested today.

May 17, 1969
The Who
Sweetwater
It's A Beautiful Day
Fillmore East
East Village, Manhattan

The Who came to America in May 1969 in support of their new album Tommy, which broke them as a big act worldwide.  This was the second of a three night stint at the Fillmore East.  One of the best shows I've ever seen.  They opened with some of their older material, then ripped right through the entire Tommy album, and then started a wrap up.  It was astonishing, Keith Moon in constant motion on the drumkit, looking like he had no bones in his arms, Townshend windmilling on the guitar, and Entwhistle's thundering bass.

As the band and the audience grew more frenzied we noticed smoke in the theater.  Some type of announcement was made to exit the place but we ignored it.  Then we saw a guy in a suit wander onto the stage, grab a microphone and started to talk.  Roger Daltrey pinned his arms back and Townshend walked over, all the while continuing to play his guitar, and kicked the guy in the privates.  Actually, it sounds better when Roger Daltrey tells it, which he does in his recently released autobiography, Thanks A Lot Mr Kibblewhite:

" . . . this bloke jumped up onto the stage and grabbed the microphone off me.  I grabbed it back and told him to fuck off, but he kept struggling.  As we were wrestling with it, I noticed Pete crossing the stage toward us, doing a Chuck Berry duck walk.  Perfectly on beat, he kicked the bloke in the balls, then I grabbed the mic, and we finished the song." 

The next thing I remember dozens of New York City policemen flooded down the two aisles, the side doors flew open, and they pushed us out along each row and onto the street.

It turned out the building next door caught fire and they were worried about the Fillmore catching fire.  We didn't care.

Daltrey and Townshend were arrested for assaulting the guy who grabbed the mic, who turned out to be a plainclothes police officer.  

Of the opening acts, I preferred It's A Beautiful Day.  To listen to their best song see this THC post.

June 1969
Rhinoceros
Brien McMahon High School
Norwalk CT

The band that played our senior prom.  Take a listen.  Not bad, eh?


 

August 1969
Woodstock (2nd Day)
Country Joe McDonald
Santana
John Sebastian
The Incredible String Band
Canned Heat
Mountain
The Grateful Dead
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Janis Joplin
Sly & The Family Stone
The Who
Jefferson Airplane
Bethel, NY

First time I'd heard Santana and Soul Sacrifice immediately stood out (love Carlos Santana's guitar tone and Michael Shrieve was a helluva drummer).  UPDATE: Here is full version of the Woodstock performance including Shrieve's entire drum solo] The closing acts from Creedence on were phenomenal.  Show started at 2pm on Saturday and ended shortly after dawn on Sunday.  Let's end with Sparks from The Who.

115 Days In Rock

(a reworking of a post from a few years ago)

I think for each of us who love music there is a particular time and place where it most connects with us. While putting together a mix of some favorite tunes from the 60s, I realized many were released in a very short time from October 30, 1967 through February 21, 1968.

There were many fine singles on the charts during those months, including Dock of The Bay (Otis Redding); Dance To The Music (Sly & The Family Stone); What A Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong); and Chain Of Fools (Aretha takes it to another level with her alternate take), but I'm going to focus on 15 albums released in that period.

It's a bit surprising but we can ignore The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. In October The Beatles released their weakest album, Magical Mystery Tour, while the Stones were wandering in the desert, releasing the ridiculous Their Satanic Majesties Request. Hardcore Stones fans are still pretending it never happened. They were not to return to the Promised Land until the summer of '68 under the captaincy of Jumpin' Jack Flash.

October 30, 1967
Buffalo Springfield Again
November 1967
Forever Changes (Love)
Disraeli Gears (Cream)
Days Of Future Passed (The Moody Blues)
After Bathing At Baxter's (Jefferson Airplane)
December 1967
Axis: Bold As Love (Jimi Hendrix Experience)
Mr Fantasy (Traffic)
Pandemonium Shadow Show (Harry Nilsson)
Earth Music (The Youngbloods)
The Who Sell Out
John Wesley Harding (Bob Dylan)
Songs of Leonard Cohen
January 1968
Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf)
Gris-Gris (Dr John)
February 21, 1968
Child Is Father To The Man (Blood, Sweat & Tears)



I still listen to Buffalo Springfield Again featuring the writing, singing and guitar playing of Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Richie Furay. Their debut album, Buffalo Springfield, had terrific songs but was horribly produced. This was their next try and both songs and production are excellent. The tensions that were to break up the band later in 1968 were already evident as the production notes inform you that the band members were often not even recording in the same studio. Every song is good, some are great. The best:
Mr Soul. Blazing guitar from Neil; "she said you're strange, but don't change and I let her".
Rock n Roll Woman. Perfect pop. Featuring soaring harmonies, a blown-out Hammond B3 and some of Stills' best vocals.
Expecting To Fly. Ethereal. Another Young penned song. "There you stood on the edge of your feather, expecting to fly".
Bluebird. By Stills, with sparkling guitar work by he and Neil.


Forever Changes by Love. A wonderful record that remains a favorite of mine. The band started in 1965 with a proto-punk sound on songs like 7 And 7 Is. For this album they adopted a more mellow and smoother tone. Beautifully produced and sounding which is a wonder because reportedly most of the band members were so under the influence of drugs that the individual songs had to be cobbled together in bits and pieces from various recording sessions (Arthur Lee, the vocalist and co-composer of many of the songs eventually spent more than a decade in prison on gun and drug charges). The lyrics are preciously psychedelic as are the song titles, capturing the silliness of 1967:

Alone Again Or
Andmoreagain
A House Is Not A Motel
Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hillsdale
The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This

But put aside the silly titles and give it a listen.



Disraeli Gears, the second album from Cream and the one that made them as a big act in the U.S. Contained their first American hit single Sunshine Of Your Love and a series of strong tunes featuring the music of bassist Jack Bruce along with Peter Brown's insane lyrics; Tales of Brave Ulysses; SWLABR, Dance The Night Away and We're Going Wrong (a concert highlight from their 2005 reunion tour), and Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign. I saw them play in a half-empty high school auditorium during their early 1968 tour in support of the album.



I was not a big fan of The Moody Blues but there is no doubt that Days Of Future Passed is is a classic rock album.  Tuesday Afternoon or Nights In White Satin, anyone?


  
After Bathing At Baxter's. The followup to Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow album which launched the hits White Rabbit and Somebody To Love. With Baxter's, the Airplane deliberately avoided coming up with another hit single, instead opting for a woozy smorgasbord of sound and lyrics. Good at the time but it's aged badly. Best songs: The Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil, Watch Her Ride (from a Perry Como Special!), Two Heads ("Two heads can be put together, And you can fill both your feet with sand, No one will know you've gutted your mind but what will you do with your bloody hands?" - someone actually let them do this on TV) and their celebration of hippiedom, Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon (here at Woodstock, appropriately).
Saw the Airplane at the Fillmore East in November 1968. They sounded much heavier live mostly due to Jack Cassidy's thundering bass lines.



Axis: Bold As Love by The Jim Hendrix Experience. Contains two of his most beautiful songs, Little Wing and Bold As Love, along with If 6 Were 9 and Castles Made Of Sand ("fall in the sea, eventually"). No one sounded like Jimi. Links all removed from YouTube, but if you can find the live version of Little Wing from the Albert Hall concert, listen to it.



Mr Fantasy from Traffic featuring Steve Winwood. Another psychedelic pop record featuring their biggest hit Dear Mr Fantasy on which Winwood, who normally played keyboard, lets rip with some memorable guitar riffs. Other strong (and quirky) tunes include Coloured Rain, Paper Sun and Heaven Is In Your Mind along with Smiling Phases which later became a hit for the post-Al Kooper version of Blood Sweat & Tears.

Pandemonium Shadow Show, Harry Nilsson's quirky debut album, was released to critical acclaim and low sales. Without Her (with its distinctly non-rock orchestration) and 1941 (with orchestration sounding like a mashup of Pet Sounds and Sgt Pepper) are the best known tunes. Nilsson went on to write Three Dog Night's smash hit, One (Aimee Mann's version is the one I prefer). Harry is also the only person to record with all four Beatles individually. The album title comes from Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes which is what Nilsson wanted to title the album but when he could not obtain the rights in time, named it after the novel's mysterious carnival that arrives in a small 1920s Illinois town - Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show.

Reading the Bradbury novel at 12 or 13 years old I thought it wonderful.  Rereading it a few years ago I loved it just as much but realized it was really about something different than I thought all those years ago.  Funny how your perspective changes with age.



Earth Music by The Youngbloods. An underrated band, even at the time. Best known, even today, for their worst song and only hit, Get Together. Though their finest song is 1969's Darkness, Darkness, Earth Music is their best album, featuring Jesse Colin Young's warm and pure vocals. Included are a cover of Tim Hardin's Reason To Believe, the jug band influenced Euphoria and best of all, All My Dreams Blue.



The Who Sell Out. Contains I Can See For Miles, Tattoo (Live At Leeds version), an ode to  Mary Anne With The Shaky Hands, the beautiful I Can't Reach You ("you're so alive and I'm nearly dead") and Rael ("the wretched in their millions, will overspill their borders and chaos will reign in our Rael") with riffs that would later be incorporated into Tommy. Finally got to see them in concert twice during 1969.



John Wesley Harding. Bob Dylan's first comeback album. Dylan disappeared from public view shortly after his tour following the May 1966 release of Blonde On Blonde, allegedly because of injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident, but given the elusive nature of Bob no one has ever really been certain why. A double album, Blonde On Blonde was the culmination of an astonishing 15 month period of creativity after Dylan went electric which also saw the release of Bringing It All Back Home (March 1965) and Highway 61 Revisited (August 1965). On those albums were songs like Mr Tambourine Man; It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding); It's All Over Now, Baby Blue; Maggie's Farm; Subterranean Homesick Blues, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues; Like A Rolling Stone; Ballad Of A Thin Man; Queen Jane Approximately; Just Like A Woman; I Want You; Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 and Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again. Maybe he just needed a rest.
Harding was different; quiet and restrained with lyrics pared down from the increasingly ornate style he'd deployed in the earlier albums. Most of the songs were backed only by Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica. My picks (no links to originals as they are gone from YouTube):
All Along The Watchtower. Haunting. Covered by hundreds of musicians. Listen to the best cover (by Mr Hendrix) here.
I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine/ Alive with fiery breath/ And I dreamed I was amongst the ones/ That put him out to death/ Oh, I awoke in anger/ So alone and terrified/ I put my fingers against the glass/ And bowed my head and cried
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight. "Bring that bottle over here". Wacky and relaxed. He evens rhymes "moon" and "spoon"!



I'm not a big fan but Songs of Leonard Cohen was his influential first album so attention must be paid!  If you listened to early FM radio you heard Suzanne a lot. And then he goes wild (at least for Leonard Cohen) with So Long, Marianne.



Steppenwolf, the debut album from, who else, Steppenwolf! Not a strong album, but listed here because it contained the monster hit, perennial rock anthem and persistent movie soundtrack standard, Born To Be Wild (not linked here, just because), the birth of "heavy metal thunder", along with the overwrought Hoyt Axton saga, The Pusher. Axton went on to write the awful Joy To The World, a smash hit for Three Dog Night, and to star as the dad in the movie Gremlins.



Gris Gris, the debut album from Dr John, the alias of Louisiana musician Mac Rebennack who's gone on to a long and storied career as a living historian and performer of New Orleans music. A dreamy stoner's delight with the help of a magic gris-gris man who's just emerged from the swamp. Featuring Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya and the hypnotic and indescribably weird (even by the standards of this very weird record) Walk On Guilded Splinters; "Walk through the fire, fly through the smoke, see my enemy at the end of a rope". If you are not in a stupor when you start listening you will be by the end.



One of the best sounding records of the era (it still sounds great today), Child Is Father To The Man was Blood Sweat & Tears debut record. From Rolling Stone's review:

"This album is unique. More precisely, it is the first of its kind — a music that takes elements of rock, jazz, straight blues, R&B, classical music and almost anything else you could mention and combines them into a sound of its own that is "popular" without being the least bit watered down."

It was not until the release of their second album in late 1968 that they achieved big record sales, but Child remains the best work done by the band. BS&T was the brainchild of Al Kooper, founder of The Blues Project and session man (and self-promoter) extraordinaire - that's him playing the swirly organ on Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone.

Kooper recruited top notch jazz horn players to add to a traditional rock band lineup. Working with John Simon, one of the best producers of the 60s, Kooper wrote most of the songs for the album and also demonstrated a great ear for new, and little known, talent choosing to do covers of songs by Randy Newman and Harry Nilsson. He was also responsible for the creative arrangements for each song. Al's one weakness is also apparent on the record. He insisted on being the lead singer, and he was lousy at it. His refusal to relinquish that role lead to the rest of the band turning on him and he was forced to leave, being replaced by David Clayton-Thomas for the second album.

My Days Are Numbered
I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know (listen to how the arrangement builds throughout the song)
I Can't Quit Her
So Much Love/Underture

Six Months In Rock: 1967 & 1968

While making a custom playlist of some of his favorite music from the 1960s, THC noticed what appeared to be a distinct chronological clustering.  With a little further research he identified a six month period from October 1967 though March 1968 with a fantastic concentration of top notch music spanning a wide variety of styles, sounds, instrumentation and lyrics.  Some, like the Jefferson Airplane and Steppenwolf, are hard to listen to today but most hold up well.  So let's get in the WAYBAC Machine.
(Mr Peabody and his pet boy Sherman enter the WAYBAC Machine)

It's a bit surprising but we can ignore The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for these months.  The Beatles released Magical Mystery Tour in October 67, their weakest album and the singles were Hello, Goodbye (a silly and forgettable tune, though #1) and Lady Madonna (only slightly better but another hit, of course).  The only notable highlight was the presence of I Am The Walrus on the B-side of Hello, Goodbye.

The Stones were wandering in the desert in late 67 and early 68 releasing the ridiculous Their Satanic Majesties Request along with a series of forgettable singles.  Hardcore Stones fans are still pretending it never happened; THC is talking about you - GCP and Dr Rob! They were not to return to the Promised Land until the summer of '68 under the captaincy of Jumpin' Jack Flash.

We'll concentrate on the albums released in these months but before doing so, here are some of the best singles:

Dock Of The Bay.  Otis Redding,  Released after his death.  His first #1.  Perfection.  Listen to the ache in his voice.  For more see Sittin' In The Morning Sun.

Chain Of Fools.  Aretha at her best.  You told me to leave you alone . . . Whoa!  This is an alternative studio version of the single.

I Second That Emotion from Smoky Robinson & The Miracles and I Wish It Would Rain from The Temptations.

What A Wonderful World.  The last hit for one of the iconic musicians in American history, Louis Armstrong.

I Can See For Miles.  Facing financial ruin, Pete Townsend deliberately sets out to write a song for The Who designed to hit #1 in the U.S.  They fail, barely breaking the Top 10 with this guitar heavy song prompting discussions about whether the group should disband.  It's at this time that Keith Moon briefly joins up with Jimmy Page in a new band which Keith suggests calling Led Zeppelin.  When Keith returns The Who go into the studio to record this crazy "rock opera" that Townsend's written - yeah, like that'll sell!

Tighten Up.  Archie Bell & The Drells.  They're from Houston, Texas!  An infectious and classic one-hit wonder.  For more see One Hit Wonders 1964-68.

Soul Man from Sam & Dave.  Forget about the Blues Brothers; listen to the original.

Two big hits from the quavering voices of the BeeGees, Massachusetts (introduced by Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca) and Words (introduced by Ed Sullivan).  Somehow seems appropriate.

I Heard It Thru The Grapevine.  The original by Gladys Knight & The Pips (live on Soul Train), later to be a mega hit from Marvin Gaye.

Dance To The Music.  The first hit from Sly & The Family Stone.  A new and unique sound.  THC loved it.  You can read more about Sly and the band's downfall at Fat Bass, including side references to Arthur C Clarke, Prince and Bill Clinton.

And now

THE ALBUMS

Each album discussed below was released between October 30, 1967 and February 21, 1968.

Disraeli Gears, the second album from Cream and the one that broke them as a big act in the U.S.  Contained their first American hit single Sunshine Of Your Love (though not one of THC's favorites) and a series of strong songs featuring the bizarre music of bassist Jack Bruce along with Peter Brown's insane lyrics; Tales of Brave Ulysses (live version - sharp hat Jack!); SWLABR, Dance The Night Away and We're Going Wrong (a concert highlight from their 2005 reunion tour).  For more on the odd pairing of Bruce and Brown see Can You Follow?

At the beginning of Cream's tour to support the album they were still playing small venues.  THC saw them in a half-filled local high school auditorium where they opened with Tales Of Brave Ulysses.  When they hit the opening chord all the fuses in the building blew!

And Ginger Baker is still NOT dead.  Unfortunately, Jack Bruce is, having passed last year.

Forever Changes by Love.  A wonderful, wonderful record that THC still listens to.  Love started in 1965 with a proto-punk sound on songs like 7 And 7 Is (with its ultra-cool ending)  For this album they adopted a more mellow and smoother tone. Beautifully produced and sounding which is a wonder because reportedly most of the band members were so under the influence of drugs that the individual songs had to be cobbled together in bits and pieces from various recording sessions (Arthur Lee, the vocalist and co-composer of many of the songs eventually spent more than a decade in prison on gun and drug charges).  The lyrics are preciously psychedelic as are the song titles:

Alone Again Or
Andmoreagain
A House Is Not A Motel
Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hillsdale
The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This

But put aside the silly titles and listen:

Between Clark And Hillsdale
 
Alone Again Or

  It all builds to the album's final song: You Set The Scene with its giddy 1967 style lyric

Everything I've seen needs rearranging
And for anyone who thinks it's strange
Then you should be the first to want to make this change
And for everyone who thinks that life is just a game
Do you like the part you're playing?

and playing itself out in a stirring horn coda.  And then, of course, the 60s fell off a cliff right after the period we are discussing.



The Child Is Father To The Man by Blood Sweat & Tears.  A debut album and the only version of BS&T you should listen to.  Al Kooper put 'em together and THC has written about the album previously so for more read and listen to The Real Blood Sweat & Tears.  The best produced record of the era and holds up well today.  Their later records were more much more popular but without Kooper they just weren't as good.  And Al is still around; catch up with him at New Music For Old People.

Buffalo Springfield Again.  Probably THC's favorite band at the time featuring the writing, singing and guitar playing of Stephen Stills, Neil Young and Richie Furay.  Their debut album, Buffalo Springfield, had terrific songs but was horribly produced.  This was their next try and both the songs and production are excellent.  The tensions that were to break up the band later in 1968 were already evident as you can tell from some of the production notes which inform you that the band members were often not even recording in the same studio.  Every song is good, some are great.  The best:

Mr Soul (here badly lip synced on Hollywood Palace with the band goofing around).  Blazing guitar from Neil; "she said you're strange, but don't change and I let her".
Rock n Roll Woman.  Perfect pop.  Featuring soaring harmonies,  a blown-out Hammond B3 and some of Stills' best vocals.
Expecting To Fly.  Another Young penned song.  "There you stood on the edge of your feather, expecting to fly".
Bluebird.  By Stills with sparkling guitar work by he and Neil.

Mr Fantasy from Traffic featuring Steve Winwood.  Another psychedelic pop record featuring their biggest hit Dear Mr Fantasy ("play us a tune, something to make us all happy") on which Winwood, who normally played keyboard, lets rip with some memorable guitar riffs.  Other strong (and quirky) tunes include Coloured Rain, Paper Sun and Heaven Is In Your Mind along with Smiling Phases which later became a hit for the post-Al Kooper version of Blood Sweat & Tears.

Axis: Bold As Love by The Jim Hendrix Experience.  Contains two of his most beautiful songs, Little Wing (listen to an ethereal live version) and Bold As Love along with If 6 Were 9 and Castles Made Of Sand ("fall in the sea, eventually").  No one sounded like Jimi.

John Wesley Harding.  Bob Dylan's first "comeback" album.   Dylan disappeared from public view shortly after his tour following the May 1966 release of Blonde On Blonde, allegedly because of injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident, but given the elusive nature of Bob no one has ever really been certain why.  A double album, Blonde On Blonde was the culmination of an astonishing 15 month period of creativity after Dylan went electric which also saw the release of Bringing It All Back Home (March 1965) and Highway 61 Revisited (August 1965).  On those albums were songs like Mr Tambourine Man; It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding); It's All Over Now, Baby Blue; Maggie's Farm; Subterreanan Homesick Blues, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues ("when you're lost in the rain in Juarez and it's Eastertime too", for a great live version with Dylan backed by The Hawks who later became The Band listen here); Like A Rolling Stone; Ballad Of A Thin Man; Queen Jane Approximately; Just Like A Woman; I Want You; Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 and Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again.  Maybe he just needed a rest.

Harding was different; quiet and restrained with lyrics were pared down from the increasingly ornate style he'd deployed in the earlier albums.  Most of the songs were backed only by Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica.  THC picks:

All Along The Watchtower.  Haunting.  Covered by hundreds of musicians.  Listen to the original as well as the best cover (by Mr Hendrix) here. 

I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine

I dreamed I saw St. Augustine
Alive with fiery breath
And I dreamed I was amongst the ones
That put him out to death
Oh, I awoke in anger
So alone and terrified
I put my fingers against the glass
And bowed my head and cried. 

I'll Be Your Baby Tonight.  "Bring that bottle over here". Wacky and relaxed.  He evens rhymes "moon" and "spoon"!

Gris Gris, the debut album from Dr John, the alias of Louisiana musician Mac Rennenback who's gone on to a long and storied career as a living historian and performer of New Orleans music.  A dreamy stoner's delight with the help of a magic gris-gris man who's just emerged from the swamp.  Featuring Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya and the hypnotic and indescribably weird (even by the standards of this very weird record) Walk On Guilded Splinters; "Walk through the fire, fly through the smoke, see my enemy at the end of a rope".  If you are not in a stupor when you start listening you will be by the end.

Steppenwolf, the debut album from, who else, Steppenwolf!  Contained the monster hit, perennial rock anthem and persistent movie soundtrack standard, Born To Be Wild (not linked here, just because), the birth of "heavy metal thunder" along with the overwrought Hoyt Axton saga, The Pusher.  Axton went on to write the awful Joy To The World, a smash hit for Three Dog Night, and to star as the dad in the movie Gremlins. 

After Bathing At Baxter's.  The followup to Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow album which launched the hits White Rabbit and Somebody To Love.  With Baxter's, the Airplane deliberately avoided coming up with another hit single instead opting for a woozy smorgasbord of sound and lyrics and in the process coming up with some classics for the new FM-band stations.  Best songs:  The Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil, Watch Her Ride (from a Perry Como Special!), Two Heads ("Two heads can be put together, And you can fill both your feet with sand, No one will know you've gutted your mind but what will you do with your bloody hands?" - someone actually let them do this on TV) and their celebration of hippiedom, Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon (here at Woodstock, appropriately).

Later in 1968 THC saw the Airplane at the Fillmore East.  They sounded much heavier live than on record mostly due to Jack Cassidy's thundering bass lines.

The Who Sell Out.  Contains the afore-mentioned I Can See For Miles, Tattoo (see Live At Leeds), an ode to a young lady with special skills, Mary Anne With The Shaky Hands, the beautiful I Can't Reach You ("you're so alive and I'm nearly dead") and Rael ("the wretched in their millions, will overspill their borders and chaos will reign in our Rael") with riffs that would later be incorporated into Tommy.

Earth Music by The Youngbloods.  An underrated band, even at the time.  Best known, even today, for their worst song and only hit, Get Together.  THC wrote about them in Darkness, Darkness.  Featuring Jesse Colin Young's warm and pure vocals this album included a cover of Tim Hardin's Reason To Believe, the jug band influenced Euphoria and best of all, All My Dreams Blue.

THC got all these album at the time they came out with the exception of Gris Gris which he heard for the first time in the summer of 1968 and then purchased.

Let's close with one he didn't know about at the time though it was released in December 1967 to critical acclaim and low sales; Pandemonium Shadow Show by Harry Nilsson.   For more on Harry, who went on to become the only person to record with all four Beatles individually, along with references to Aimee Mann, The Big Lebowski and Steve Buscemi, see Ones.

The album title comes from Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes which is what Nilsson originally wanted to call the record but when he could not obtain the rights in time, named it after the mysterious carnival that arrives in a small 1920s Illinois town in the book - Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show.

As a boy THC read Something Wicked This Way Comes and loved it.  At the time he thought the book was about the Shadow Show.  Rereading it a couple of years ago after Bradbury died in 2012 he loved it once again but now realizes the threatening, heavily atmospheric and ultimately touching novel is really about something else - funny how time can change your perspective (see also, Charlie Freak for another example).

Nilsson's album contains two small gems that we'll end this post with; 1941 and Without Her.

Cream Of The Covers

In the mid-60s, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker of Cream brought the blues to a whole new and wider audience (a new entry in the Covers series).

Here are two of many examples, I'm So Glad (from Cream's first album, Fresh Cream) and Crossroads (from their third album, Wheels Of Fire).   You can click on the song titles to hear the Cream versions.  Crossroads is live and features outstanding bass playing by Bruce and incendiary guitar by Clapton (particularly on the second solo).

I'm So Glad was written by Skip James.  Born in 1902 and raised in the Mississippi Delta, James recorded this song and others in a 1931 recording session.  An album was released but sold poorly and James drifted in and out of music and did no further recording for thirty years.

In the early 1960s a folk-based blues revival movement began in the U.S. and in 1964 one of its founders, John Fahey, tracked down Skip James at a hospital in Tunica, Mississippi.  Later that summer, James played at the Newport Folk Festival and made several recordings before dying in 1969.  Cream's version of I'm So Glad was the first cover of a James song by a popular rock band.
Another Delta musician, Robert Johnson, the composer of Cross Road Blues, is probably the most legendary of the early bluesmen.  He made several recordings in 1936 and 1937 before dying at the age of 27 the following year under mysterious circumstances (including a rumour that he was poisoned by a jealous husband).  There are many other covers of his songs including Love In Vain, which was covered by the Rolling Stones.  This is the original Cross Road Blues.
From a cinematic perspective James and Johnson come together in the movie, O Brother Where Art Thou?  In the film, set in 1930s Mississippi, three white escapees from a chain gang pick up a black blues musician named Tommy Johnson (played by Chris Thomas King) at a crossroads.  Later in the film King does a haunting version of Skip James' Hard Time Killing Floor Blues.