Lost in the Sixties!

[Uncle Obscure]

And yet another one for my “gotta get me on of these” discs!

My work here is done. Hahaha!

 

[Doug G.]

I replaced the YT video of "Heatwave", in my post, above, with a different one of them performing it live (studio recording overdubbed on video) because the audio was poor in the other one. Plus, we get to see those three beautiful girls performing the song!

Near the end, when Martha sings, "Yeah yeah...Yeah yeeeeaaah...Ohhhhooooooo...;yeah! my heart still skips a beat.

Doug

 

[GOS]

A couple of years later, (I mentioned they were good at this) Rhino followed up with another 4-disc NUGGETS set called Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets 1965 - 1968. Despite the same ultra annoying disc holder sleeve thing and a hardcover book with fewer pages (48), to me, this is the better collection. I think it is more varied, includes more rarities and is way more eclectic, which in my book is a really good thing. This time around 101 tracks are jammed onto the four CDs. Here's a taste...

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Kaleidoscope - Pulsating Dream
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The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band - If You Want This Love
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The Yellow Balloon - Yellow Balloon
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The Rising Sons - Take A Giant Step
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Sagittarius - The Truth Is Not Real (Mono Single Version)
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Van **** Parks - Come To The Sunshine
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Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart - Words (Demo)
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These titles (some) are out of print, and expensive. Bummer. Any other ideas for finding reasonable copies of these? Like this one.

 

[Doug G.]

Rhino has always done a great job of exploiting its popular NUGGETS brand. And, here's another compilation you can add to the list... Love Is The Song We Sing (San Francisco Nuggets 1965 - 1970.) There is much to like about this 4-disc CD collection, aside from the horrible inset sleeves perfectly designed to scratch your discs when you want to remove them. LOL! The 120 page hardcover book the set is packaged in is a breezy read with interesting factoids and some great vintage group photos. Here's a representative taste of the 77-track compilation.

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Quicksilver Messenger Service - Light Your Windows
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People - I Love You
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The Grassroots - Mr. Jones (A Ballad Of A Thin Man)
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Sly & The Family Stone - Underdog
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The Chocolate Watchband - No Way Out
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It's A Beautiful Day - White Bird
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Yeah, the whole "Nuggets" series is great. They kind of remind me of the original Warner Brothers "Loss Leaders" LPs with hits and alternate songs by well-known artists and not-so-well-known artists.

I think my favorite one is the single disc "Nuggets from Nuggets" (the Day-Glo green CD). It hits you with all those transition period songs.

Doug

 

[Doug G.]

Save them live at the Copacabana in New York City in the mid 60's with my PROM DATE .... WHAT A SHOW!

You = So lucky!

Doug

 

[Quad Linda]

Get On Up - The Esquires




Moanin' - Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66




Ay-ay-poe-day - St. Steven




Can't Get Used to Losing You - Andy Williams

 

[Uncle Obscure]

These titles (some) are out of print, and expensive. Bummer. Any other ideas for finding reasonable copies of these? Like this one.

Unfortunately, no, besides the usual suspects...eBay, Discogs, second-hand thrift stores, local record shops, etc. By and large, the major labels have made it quite clear they have zero interest in releasing these kinds of things on physical media anymore. If they do put something out, it's most likely going to be a digital release. The greater consuming public has spoken and they have overwhelmingly chosen the convenience of digital music and streaming over the quality of good CDs, SACDs, etc. For now, we still have some boutique storefronts and labels like Cherry Red and Rhino that continue to release physical product. Whenever I become aware of a new release, even if it's something I'm only thinking about getting, I tend to pull the trigger if at all possible. Due to licensing agreements, even general releases are actually "limited" today. The FOMO is real.

 

[Uncle Obscure]

The always prolific Pete Townshend embarked on a fortuitous side project in1969 when he produced an album for a band that included his former chauffeur, Speedy Keene, called Thunderclap Newman. Keene wrote the track "Armenia City In The Sky" which was used on The Who Sell Out LP and it was decided that Thunderclap Newman would be a potentially good vehicle to promote Speedy Keene's songwriting ability and the rest of the group's musicianship prowess. Townshend was right. Thunderclap Newman's debut, Hollywood Dream, climbed the album charts and it garnered a Number One hit, "Something In The Air." All in all, not too shabby.

 

[Uncle Obscure]

Grapefruit is a bit of an enigma. They were the first and only band to get signed to an Apple Music Publishing deal and also the only group to ever receive a big push by Apple. Also in 1967, Apple had just signed a United States sub publishing deal with Terry Melcher, who was flown in to produce the Grapefruit studio sessions. They recorded a handful of songs with him before he returned to the states and basically disappeared as far as Grapefruit went. From that original recording session, "Dear Delilah" was released as the A-side for the first Grapefruit single in 1968. It inched up the UK charts before it stalled out at #21. But, the Beatles liked it so much they took an active interest in the band. So much so, that John and Paul produced a session that was to be for another single, "Lullaby." Now, here's where things get weird. Despite the fact that "Lulaby" is the only recording to ever be jointly produced by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it didn't get released. During Terry Melcher's year-long absence, Grapefruit hung around Apple and continued to record. By the time 1969 rolled around, the original Grapefruit lineup had called it quits, so the band was no more when their first album, Around Grapefruit, finally got released. Melcher's released version is quite different than what the group and Apple were planning. Gone was the Lennon and McCartney "Lullaby," plus Melcher used alternate versions for some of the other songs. Here's a taste of the compiled original Apple studio sessions (including Lullaby) from the excellent Grapefruit comp, "Yesterday's Sunshine (the complete 1967-1968 London sessions.")

 

[JediJoker]

Thunderclap Newman's debut, Hollywood Dream, climbed the album charts and it garnered a Number One hit, "Something In The Air."

And, of course, famously and successfully covered by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for their 1993 Greatest Hits album:

 

[Doug G.]

Grapefruit is a bit of an enigma. They were the first and only band to get signed to an Apple Music Publishing deal and also the only group to ever receive a big push by Apple. Also in 1967, Apple had just signed a United States sub publishing deal with Terry Melcher, who was flown in to produce the Grapefruit studio sessions. They recorded a handful of songs with him before he returned to the states and basically disappeared as far as Grapefruit went. From that original recording session, "Dear Delilah" was released as the A-side for the first Grapefruit single in 1968. It inched up the UK charts before it stalled out at #21. But, the Beatles liked it so much they took an active interest in the band. So much so, that John and Paul produced a session that was to be for another single, "Lullaby." Now, here's where things get weird. Despite the fact that "Lulaby" is the only recording to ever be jointly produced by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it didn't get released. During Terry Melcher's year-long absence, Grapefruit hung around Apple and continued to record. By the time 1969 rolled around, the original Grapefruit lineup had called it quits, so the band was no more when their first album, Around Grapefruit, finally got released. Melcher's released version is quite different than what the group and Apple were planning. Gone was the Lennon and McCartney "Lullaby," plus Melcher used alternate versions for some of the other songs. Here's a taste of the compiled original Apple studio sessions (including Lullaby) from the excellent Grapefruit comp, "Yesterday's Sunshine (the complete 1967-1968 London sessions.")

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Grapefruit - Lullaby
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Grapefruit - Dear Delilah
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Grapefruit - Elevator
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Grapefruit - Yesterday's Sunshine
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I can see why John and Paul liked them. They were good.

Doug

 

[kcrimson]

There are some good reference books on this period of music - one with loads of information on obscure bands is this one:

 

[Uncle Obscure]

Thanks to YouTube's kinda scary "recommended" algorithm, I got served this freshly uploaded video suggestion last night. I guess they know me...what can I say?? LOL! In any event, I have no idea how much of this is gospel, but if you have half hour to kill, I think it paints a fairly accurate (or, at least colorful) overview of mid-sixties Laurel Canyon and the California Music Scene.

Laurel Canyon Retrospective

 

[Uncle Obscure]

Since we've been tip-toeing around it, I guess some recognition of the singular music event that encapsulated and defined the sixties generation is in order...

So, who was there and what do you remember about it?

My dog-eared three day advance sale pass. $18 bucks!! At the door, it would have been $21! Highway robbery!

 

[Doug G.]

My two friends and I were going to drive there, from here, in my family's 1950 Ford pickup. We were 16 and our parents put the kibosh on that idea.

Doug

 

[Uncle Obscure]

I had just graduated from high school and was living less than two hours from the festival site, so there was no way in hell I wasn't going to go. The advance sale ticket I bought showed up on Thursday, a day before Woodstock started. By the time we arrived on Friday, we actually parked at what was designated as the last "official" festival camp site. We ended up paying the farmer whose land we were on $5 bucks (and wait some four hours) for him to tow our car out of the mud and back onto the roadway. With all of the incessant rain and mud, by Saturday night, we decided it made more sense to get out of Dodge while we still could. We wound up leaving in the middle of the night on Saturday sometime after the Who performed, so I missed all of Sunday. Ironically, after all of the news reports, my mother sent my older brother to the festival to find me. Of course, he never did, but he stayed there until the end of the festival and caught Jimi Hendrix legendary performance.

 

[Quad Linda]

My parents put the kibosh on Woodstock, too. I was 15.


It's Good News Week - Hedgehoppers Anonymous




Gimme That Wine - Lambert, Hendricks & Ross




Molly - Biff Rose
Put out 2 albums on the Tetragrammaton label
John Denver later covered this
A live performance from Playboy After Dark




Greenburg, Glickstein, Charles, David Smith & Jones - Cryan' Shames

 

[~dave~~wave~]

Thanks to YouTube's kinda scary "recommended" algorithm, I got served this freshly uploaded video suggestion last night. I guess they know me...what can I say?? LOL! In any event, I have no idea how much of this is gospel, but if you have half hour to kill, I think it paints a fairly accurate (or, at least colorful) overview of mid-sixties Laurel Canyon and the California Music Scene.

Laurel Canyon Retrospective

I zipped through it, pretty good overview with quality images, nothing glaringly inaccurate.

If you want to go down a deep Laurel Canyon rabbit hole, there's a thread on the Hoffman forum that started out on that topic and has gone all over the map.
Several contributors who lived there in the day, including the son of The Byrds' first manager.
Many others with deep knowledge & appreciation.
Where I first learned of the Where The Action Is LA Nuggets compilation.

367 pages and counting, lots of photos, I just made post #9400 there.

 

[Bill B]

Thanks to YouTube's kinda scary "recommended" algorithm, I got served this freshly uploaded video suggestion last night. I guess they know me...what can I say?? LOL! In any event, I have no idea how much of this is gospel, but if you have half hour to kill, I think it paints a fairly accurate (or, at least colorful) overview of mid-sixties Laurel Canyon and the California Music Scene.

Laurel Canyon Retrospective

There was a Laurel Canyon documentary that came out in the last few years. I saw it on HBO I think but it may have been another streaming network.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Canyon_(TV_series)

Edit: Maybe that is what's on YouTubel

 

[Quad Linda]

Bill, I saw Laurel Canyon doc a couple weeks ago. perhaps Showtime or TMC?

Summer Samba - Walter Wanderley




1-2-3 - Len Barry from Hullabaloo a Go Go




Dust My Broom - Rising Sons feat Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder




Heart Full of Soul - Yardbirds TV appearance
We caught Brian Wilson & Jeff Beck in Milwaukee on the last night of tour.