Elektra Records Spotlight: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Mellow Down Easy and I Got My Mojo Working

Mellow Down Easy

I Got My Mojo Working

Day two at our look at Elektra Records. Yesterday we looked at the missed opportunity Elektra Records president, Jac Holzman, had in his hands when he released only one song by The Byrds...under the quizzically named The Beefeaters. Columbia Records came and stole the band away from his light grasp on what would become a hit machine and a hugely influential band. It took 11 months before Holzman would get back in the saddle with another release.

In October of 1965 Elektra released the first published recording of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The Chicago band had been turning heads in Chicago for about a year and Holzman and staff producer, Paul Rotchild, were eager to not let another buzz creating band slip away. It also bears noting that the Paul Butterfield Blues Band was a band of three white guys and two black guys. May not seem like a big deal today, but it was in 1965. It was downright unusual and even a little risky for a little known label to market them. Paul Butterfield was the frontman and harmonica player, Elvin Bishop on rhythm guitar, Mike Bloomfield on lead guitar, Jerome Arnold on bass and Sam Lay on drums. The latter two had done time in Howlin' Wolf's house band and thus had some serious street creditionals.

That first Elektra single for The Paul Butterfield Blues Band were two blues covers of Chess Recordings songs. The A-Side was Mellow Down Easy, a number originally recorded by Little Walter in 1954. The Flip-Side is the Muddy Waters standard, I Got My Mojo Working, first laid down in 1957. Sam Lay takes the vocal duties on The Paul Butterfield Blues Band's recording.

[Of note, also on that first 1965 album, was the first recording of Born In Chicago, which we featured just last week by a band called The Blue Beats. Check that out here]

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

Elektra Records Spotlight: The Beefeaters (aka The Byrds) - Please Let Me Love You and Don't Be Long

We're going to spend this week looking at some records from the Los Angeles based Elektra Records. Elektra was formed in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt and focused on re-releasing old classical music records whose copyright had lapsed.

Like every sensible human being who had seen The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan show on February 9, 1964, Holzman saw the future of music in America. He decided he needed to sign a modern rock act. But who? Who should be the first rock act on the label? There was a band called The Byrds that were getting some attention down on Sunset Strip. The band had recorded a number of demos at World Pacific Studios and they were shopping the masters around. A trepidatious Holzman decided to take a chance on the band, but for reasons that are murky at best, Holzman decided to release the record under a fake moniker, the very British sounding one of The Beefeaters. The record flopped. Not surprising. Elektra had no skin in the rock-n-roll game, The Beefeaters didn't exist and fans of The Byrds didn't even know they released their first record. 

While Holzman pondered what to do next, Miles Davis, who could also see the future of rock in America, got wind of this new group and their debut single. He called his A&R man at Columbia, Allen Stanton, and told Stanton about an LA group he should check out. By the time Holzman had called The Byrds back to sign them, they were signing with Columbia Records just days after Holzman released their first record. 

The Byrds would soar to great heights with their mega-label support and Holzman would lick his wounds and try to learn from his mistake. But more on that tomorrow. 

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

Vinyl Frontier

The Blue Beats - Born In Chicago

Despite what the title says, The Blue Beats actually were NOT born in Chicago. The band, in fact, hailed from Ridgefield, Connecticut and were Kit Miller, Peter Robbins, Lance Drake and Jack Lee. The band released two singles, both on the titan of a label, Columbia Records.

Born In Chicago is the Flip-Side of their second single, released in April of 1967, and is the only one of their four recordings that is not an original song. The number was written by San Francisco music guru Nick Gravinites who wrote for a ton of San Francisco performers like Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis Joplin, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Chicago band, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The latter first recorded Born In Chicago in 1965. This is likely where The Blue Beats picked up on it and, rather ironically, gave it a British Invasion feel. 

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

Link Wray and His Wraymen - Raw-Hide

We return today with more music recorded in a three track chicken shack in Accokeek, Maryland just south of Washington, DC. That "recording studio" was run by Link Wray where the pioneering guitarist and his brothers laid down some nasty sounding material. Today's razor blade-like recording is the Link Wray composed, Raw-Hide. This was Link Wray and The Wraymen's first release for Epic Records - his third overall - and got a release date on the first Tuesday of 1959.

Dig that nasty Danelectro Longhorn guitar going through a tiny little Premier amplifier which had been modded by Link by running the amp into two fair ground PA system speakers. The band played the number live at high volume. These chickens must have dropped some cracked eggs for a few weeks after this recording. 

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