Southern California Spotlight: The Leaves - Too Many People/Love Minus Zero

Our final Southern California Battle of the Garage Bands entrant. What a rich well of music out of SoCal!

The Leaves hailed from Los Angeles. I thought that The Seeds discography was a mess with multiple releases of the same song with different catalogue numbers and different flip-sides. Man, let me tell you, The Leaves take the cake.

We focus today on The Leaves' first release, Too Many People/Love Minus Zero. It was released on the local label, Mira Records, and hit the stores in July of 1965. The A-side was composed by the band's first lead guitarist, Bill Rinehart and bassist, Jim Pons. Too Many People is a scorcher of an original. Wailing harmonica, pounding bass, double vocal attack from Pons and John Beck, snarly lyrics about fighting back against "the man" and some very nice Rickenbacker guitar leads.

With this first release, the flip-side was Bob Dylan's Love Minus Zero. A perfectly fine version, but ultimately a tepid number compared to the A-side.

Too Many People would be rerecorded for the band's LP. That rerecording is a greatly inferior version to what we have here on their debut single. The single would get released again, a full year after this initial release, with Girl From The East as the flip-side. That song would be released on no less than four straight singles from the band! And we haven't even touched on the three different recordings of Hey Joe that the band released in less than six months. Sheesh!

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Rocky Mountain Spotlight: The Beckett Quintet - No Correspondence/It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Day five of our Rocky Mountain Showdown finds us listening to a group of five students from Eastern New Mexico University in the small farm town of Portales. They went by the generic and not abundantly obvious name of The Beckett Quintet. The five students, Tommy Muncrief (vocals), Tim Taylor (guitar), Barry Dunkenson (guitar), Norm Reccius (bass), and Steve Nagle (drums), struck out for Los Angeles in 1965 searching for fame and fortune.

Not long after they got to LA they recorded their one and only single for Gemcor Records. The A-side, No Correspondence, was written by guitarist Tim Taylor and tells the tale of a boy who has "been gone for a month or better" and is waiting for his girl to write him. Sounds pretty autobiographical. But sitting by the mailbox demanding "You Better Right Me!!!" to this cheating girl is probably not the best way to get her back. Tim, she probably wasn't worth it. The chicks in LA were probably a higher cut than what you had back in Portales, anyway. 

The flip-side is a unique cover of Bob Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. The Beckett Quintet's version was released just months after Dylan's beautiful (and often covered) original. It's a greatly under appreciated version with a unique arrangement and some intriguing production. I love it. Maybe even more than the A-side. 

The A-side has been comped numerous times and the record isn't very hard to find. It was later picked up by A&M Records for national distribution. But, surprisingly, that seems to be much harder to find than the Gemcor Records version.

There is a lot more to be learned about this band over at the website, http://www.garagehangover.com/beckettquintet/. Check it out for an interview and some original newspaper clippings which recount the band playing indian reservations and sleeping on hardwood floors.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Turtles - Almost There

The Turtles weren't exactly known for  hard edge rock-n-roll, but this may change your mind (a little). 

The Turtles released their first single in July of 1965. That single, on White Whale Records, was a harmless cover of Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me Babe. But the lucky kid that bothered to flip the record over was treated to an original composition by the band's lead singer, Howard Kaylan. That song is Almost There, a pounding beat number reminiscent of The Kinks' instrumental, Revenge. The song tells the tale of a young man on a journey to see his girl. The poor lad has to travel 10 miles everyday just to see his baby. Thank goodness, like all Angelenos, he had a car to use to see her, bye and bye. 

It appears that this single is not only the first record ever released by the Los Angeles band, but also the first record ever released by the short lived White Whale Records. Not a bad start for either. 

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Togas - Hurry To Me

Not too much information about this band that went by the name of The Togas. I do know that the members were Chris Morgan on vocals, Brian Decker and Doug Decker on guitar, John Metheny on drums and Peter Parker (not spiderman) on keyboards. The band hailed from Southern California and released two singles on the Challenge Records label. Hurry To Me is their first, released August, 1965. Hurry To Me is the Flip-Side of a perfectly okay cover of Bob Dylan's Baby I'm In The Mood For You. Our featured song today, Hurry To Me, was composed by our frontman, Chris Morgan. The party dude on the right in the picture below. Producer Nick Risi also gets credit...but we are always suspect about producers getting writing credit. Feels more like a shakedown to me.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Vinyl Frontier - Bob Dylan

Minnesota Garage Spotlight - Bob Dylan and The Hawks - Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?

More garage rock from Minnesota. From the small town of Hibbing, Minnesota, we have a garage monster named Robert Zimmerman. Here he is teamed up with a Band called The Hawks, many of whom were residents of Canada, not far from the north Minnesota town of Hibbing. One of the more obscure of his releases, we present to you today, Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? released on December 8, 1965 on the local Hibbing label, Columbia Records.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

The Flip Sides of The Byrds' Singles: Change Is Now, Artificial Energy

Change Is Now

By the time the Byrds released their 12th single, the Goffin-King composed, Going Back, on October 20, 1967, they were a band in the midst of massive change. For starters, change in personnel, as David Crosby left the band shortly after recording this single. But also a change in musical direction as the band dabbled with country, psychedelia and straight out pop -- to mixed results, I might add. The Flip-Side, Change Is Now, is our featured song and it may be the last thing Crosby recorded with the band. It's likely that Jim Gordon is sitting in on drums for Michael Clarke and Red Rhodes provides us with the nice pedal steel throughout the song.

 Artificial Energy

It took quite some time for the new-look Byrds, now with Gram Parsons replacing David Crosby on guitar and vocals and Kevin Kelly replacing Michael Clarke on drums, to release their 13th single. A full 6 months had passed since their last single. The re-feathered Byrds returned to a tried and true formula -- record a Bob Dylan song! The fabulous You Ain't Going Nowhere was recorded in Nashville and showed The Byrds' full frontal embrace of country music. For the Flip-Side the band turned to an old song recorded for the previous album, the Hillman, McGuinn, Michael Clarke composition, Artificial Energy which kicked off the tepid Notorious Byrd Brothers LP released just three months prior. It's a peppy pop number with horns and, I believe, Hillman on lead vocals.

The Flip Sides of The Byrds' Singles: Everybody's Been Burned, Renaissance Fair

Day four of our Tour de Byrds Flip-Sides in chronological order. 

Everybody's Been Burned

After a four month hiatus, The Byrds returned to producing records in January of 1967 for Columbia Records with the stellar So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star. That number was written by McGuinn and bassist Chris Hillman, who gets his first song writing credit on the A-Side. The Flip-Side was, for the second straight release, a David Crosby composition. Everybody's Been Burned is another languorous number with Crosby singing lead and not a single trademarked Byrds harmony to be heard. It's really exquisite and very Un-Byrds like. 

Renaissance Fair

For the 9th single, released in March of 1967, The Byrds returned to the proven formula of putting a Bob Dylan cover on the A-Side, My Back Pages, and an original composition on the Flip-Side. David Crosby again does the heavy vocal lifting in this song he wrote with Roger McGuinn. McGuinn and Hillman lay the new sounding Byrds harmonies on thick. The goofy lyrics and hippy-dippy ethos of Renaissance Fair should make me run for the ye olde hills. But I love it, largely for the musical arrangement. Chris Hillman's bass work in particular is really something special here. 

The Flip Sides of The Byrds' Singles: I Knew I'd Want You, I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better

As frequent readers of On The Flip-Side know by now, I'm a fan of Flip-Sides. That's often the place where the edgier, less pop oriented songs were relegated. And with the Byrds, particularly the early days, that's the place to where the band originals were relegated. We're going to spend the next few posts looking at the Flip-Sides of most all of the Byrds US singles discography through the 1960s. There are so many that we will double and triple up to cover them all.

We'll start today with the first two singles, both from 1965 for the titan of labels, Columbia Records.

I Knew I'd Want You

I Knew I'd Want You was the Flip-Side of the band's debut single, the brilliant cover of Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man. Roger McGuinn gets the lead on the A-Side, but here, on the Flip-Side, Gene Clark steps to the center of the mic on his own composition. The four singers of the band, Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, Rogert McGuinn and David Crosby were rarely ever better than on Clark's compositions. Dig the lush harmonies of McGuinn and particularly Crosby's tenor. Gene Clark didn't fly all that long with The Byrds. But his three years (and occasional returns) were incredibly important to the sound of the LA based band that rocketed to fame at the speed of sound. Gene Clark's compositions were brooding, most often slow (almost awkwardly slow) with unusual vocal phrasing and puzzling lyrics. I'm guessing that is Van Dyke Parks on the electric piano hidden way deep in the mix. 

I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better

The Gene Clark composition I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better may well be my favorite Byrds song of all time. Columbia toyed with the idea of releasing it as the A-Side of their second single, releasing it as a double sided promo on red wax in the US, before deciding to put it on The Flip-Side of another Dylan cover, All I Really Want To Do. I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better is clearly the superior of the two songs. Gene Clark again has the lead on his own composition, this time a more sprightly number with a slew of suspended chords that would become a trademark of The Byrds sound. Roger McGuinn's guitar work, from the jangly suspended chords to the lead, are just perfect. 

Song of the Week: Cat Power - Song to Bobby

On her 2008 release, Jukebox, Cat Power gives us her take on an (almost) album-full of covers including songs by Hank Williams, James Brown, Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan.  All but two of the songs are covers. Today's SotW is one of the originals, the glorious Song to Bobby.  Written a week prior to meeting Bob Dylan, it starts with the image of her standing as a teenager at a Dylan concert and recounts her deep love of the artist.

Enjoy and see you on the Flip-Side

It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (bonus versions)

Lots of requests for other versions, so here you go.

Chocolate Watch Band

Grateful Dead

Marrianne Faithfull

Bad Religion

The Seldom Scene

Song of the Week: The Byrds -- It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

We close today with not one, but two -- that's right, TWO - versions of The Byrds performing It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. The blue version is an unreleased recording by the original line-up of The Byrds (Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark and Michael Clarke). It was recorded in Los Angeles in 1965, about the same time the Beckett Quintet recorded the song in the same town, and was slated to be the perfect pitched band's 3rd single on Columbia Records. The Byrds and their manager, Terry Melcher, were unsatisfied with the recording as a single and instead turned to another song which Roger McGuinn had been arranging, Turn, Turn, Turn. Somehow the Byrd's early version of It's All Over Now Baby Blue never got past a preview showing on a local LA radio station. Never even made it to an album. D'oh!

Roger McGuinn returned to Bob Dylan's song four years later in 1969. But this was a very different Byrds band. David Crosby was now a founding member of Crosby, Stills and Nash (yuck), Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke left to found The Flying Burrito Brothers with interim Byrds-alum, Gram Parsons. And Gene Clark was making some striking records with Doug Dillard. The version of the The Byrds who recorded this song were Clarence White, John York, Gene Parsons and, of course, McGuinn. This version did see the light of day in both the film and soundtrack for Easy Rider. Much slower, and much more countrified. It's still pretty cool and this line-up of The Byrds showed they could harmonize just about as well as the original line-up. 

Enjoy!

Song of the Week: 13th Floor Elevators - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Day four of our celebration of Bob Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. Austin Texas' 13th Floor Elevators released this very unique version of Baby Blue on the Easter Everywhere album in November, 1967. It was also released as the flip-side of their 4th single, She Lives. This is one bitchin' version if you ask me. Slow, brooding and as trippy as they come. All that without getting to the more cartoonish aspects of psychedelic music. The double lead guitar builds throughout the song and Roky Erickson, as always, is perfect in his vocal delivery. Interestingly, Tommy Hall's jug playing seems to be absent throughout the song -- even in the long musical close of the five minute song.

Flip-Side Trivia -- The 13th Floor Elevators were the first ever post back in October of 2008 at On The Flip-Side. It was even a song from this same album. The song was I had To Tell You. This same album also produced this post about the song Levitation back in 2010. Three posts from one album is without question a Flip-Side record. 

One of my favorite music blogs, Derek's Daily 45, has also done three posts on the Elevators. Here is a link to their post about Slip Inside This House.

Song of the Week: Them - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Day two celebrating Bob Dylan's 1965 composition, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. Today we turn our attention to the single most influential cover of the song. It is by Van Morrison's first group, Them. The band (or more likely was the case with this band, the studio musicians) recorded and released this in 1966. The production is stellar and the electric piano run through a Leslie Speaker set the standard for this song. Van Morrison is, as was always the case in these days, spot on perfect. Almost every version of the song you hear, will be derived from this original arrangement. Few, if any, surpass it, however. 

To demonstrate this version's influence, we give to you, today, a bonus. It is Beck's 1996 song, Jack-Ass. It won't take you long to listen to this to figure out why I included it with this post. 

Enjoy, comment, have fun. 

Song of the Week: Bob Dylan - It's All Over Now Baby Blue

Today is the first day of our celebration of Bob Dylan's 1965 release of his song, It's All Over Now Baby Blue. Each day this week we will feature another version of this beautiful song. So...stay tuned.

Video Diary: Alan Price Set - I Put A Spell On You

Alan Price didn't last all that long as the Animals organist, arranger and lead composer. Anxiety over traveling, exhaustion and, as is shown in the Bob Dylan documentary, Don't Look Back, Price's search for a few answers inside a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale led to his exit from the chart topping Animals. He went out on his own in the Spring of 1965. He didn't sell too many records, and, to be honest, his output was spotty. But when he was on, as he was here, it was a remarkable thing to hear. 

Song of the week: "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright", Bob Dylan

Listen - Bob Dylan performs Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (demo version)

Happy 70th birthday to Bob Dylan. Here he performs a demo version of Don't Think Twice, It's Alright, recorded in October of 1962.

Song of the Week: "Down In The Flood", Bob Dylan

Listen - Bob Dylan performs Down In The Flood

Happy Birthday Bob Dylan. The diesel engine that is Bob Dylan just keeps A-chugging along. Today we flip our hat to the man from Duluth with a 2002 live recording of Down In The Flood. The man has still got it.

Video Diary: Bob Dylan, "Blood In My Eyes"

From 1993, Bob Dylan does a major rework of the Mississippi Sheiks' original number, recorded in 1931, Blood in My Eyes.

Busker Days: Reuben, "Anok", "Blowin' in the Wind"

If you were like me, when Flip-Side Central announced its first anniversary, you quietly clicked play, lit a single candle, listened with a grateful smile, then blew out that candle and wished for many more insightful posts. But, you were also acutely aware that Flip-Side West's Busker Day first anniversary fell on a different date (somewhere in December). Yes, this is the moment some of you were waiting for: Flip-Side's first anniversary celebration of street musicians everywhere as Busker Days turns one !

You may recall that in the very first Busker Day post I mention a busker singing a song in tagalog, the official language of the Phillipines. The busker's name is Reuben, a very kind man who, with harp braced and ready, puts his songs out in a wide arc and very emphatically. You might also recall that I mention in the comments to that post that I play harmonica with him on his rendition of Blowin' In The Wind. Well, today we reach deep in the archives to pull out each of those tracks.

The first track, whose title I've translated as Anok (accent second syllable), was apparently a very big hit in the Phillipines. It tells of a young man who has tried to stay on a good path but has gone astray, fallen to drugs and ended in prison. In total despair, all he can do is cry for his mother, and his mother cries in return. If anyone knows more about this song, please join in below.

Blowin' In The Wind needs no introduction. Avid fans will recall that I pulled my G harp out at Reuben's request and joined him. You might also notice that I'm with him on the chorus too.

Enjoy!