New England Spotlight: The Blue Beats - Extra Girl and She's The One

We're going to spend a little time looking at records by geographical location. A bit of an old school Battle of the Bands, if you will. We're going to start in New England, since that is where the country started anyway. 

A few weeks back we wrote about The Blue Beats who hailed from Ridgefield, Connecticut, an affluent bedroom community of New York City. (You can read that article here.)  The quartet of Kit Miller, Peter Robbins, Lance Drake and Jack Lee kicked out two nice records for Columbia Records. Today we look at both sides of their first single. Extra Girl was written by Lee and Drake, while the Flip-Side of She's The One was written by Lee and Robbins. The single was released with a picture sleeve on September 6, 1966. The single didn't do too much, which is a little surprising as Extra Girl is quite the catchy number. Both sides, but particularly She's The One, mine that same vocal-first/pained-John Lennon influenced genre that The Merry-Go-Round and The Left Banke also did so well. 

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

Elektra Records Spotlight: The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog/1969

It's the last day of wrapping ourselves in the soul of Elektra Records. The last post had us in Detroit, Michigan as Elektra's PR man, Danny Fields, took in a show by the revolutionary MC5. As we noted, Fields called Elektra's President, Jac Holzman, and asked for money to sign MC5 on the spot. At the same time, Fields asked MC5 if they knew of other acts in the area he should take in. The response was a suggestion for Fields to drive down to Ann Arbor, Michigan and check out a brand new band that had grown out of a modestly talented band called The Iguanas. The drummer of that band, James Osterberg, was now the singer of this new band calling themselves The Stooges. The singer was now going by the name Iggy Stooge, a name derived from the trailings of his last band and his new band.  

As a member of The Iguanas, James Osterberg took in two shows in Ann Arbor by The Doors. The drummer with larger aspirations watched as Jim Morrison antagonized the audience with his detached performance. 

So, here’s this guy, out of his head on acid, dressed in leather with his hair all oiled and curled. The stage was tiny and it was really low. It got confrontational. I found it really interesting. I loved the performance [...] Part of me was like, 'Wow, this is great. He’s really pissing people off and he’s lurching around making these guys angry.' People were rushing the stage and Morrison’s going 'Fuck you. You blank, blank, blank.”' You can fill in your sexual comments yourself. The other half of it was that I thought, 'If they’ve got a hit record out and they can get away with this, then I have no fucking excuse not to get out on stage with my band.' It was sort of the case of, 'Hey, I can do that.' There really was some of that in there. (www.classicrockrevisted.com)

Fields was not totally sold but he signed the band for very little money, $5000. It was money from the same wire transfer intended for MC5. The Velvet Underground's John Cale was brought in as producer to work with this band that was hard to put in a category. Sure, you can see how they were influenced by Elektra's biggest band, The Doors, but the delicate musicianship wasn't there. Sure you can see how they were influenced by their friends, The MC5, but the speed wasn't there. Sure you can see how they were influenced by the garage bands of their day, such as The Swamp Rats, but The Stooges were more about the dirge of music. And as such you can see how The Stooges were influenced by John Cale's minimalist band, The Velvet Underground.

With Iggy at the forefront (soon to be rechristened Iggy Pop), Ron Asheton on guitar, his brother Scott Asheton on drums and Dave Alexander on drums, the band banged out a crude, influential album. The first single from the recording sessions was released in June of 1969. The songs were the band composed, I Wanna Be Your Dog on the A-Side and 1969 as the Flip-Side. Not exactly radio friendly material. The single and the album would land with a thud. But over the years the album and the band would grow to the status of legendary as bands like The Ramones, The Damned, Red Kross and The Sex Pistols would all incorporate The Stooges early work into their own recordings. 

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

Elektra Records Spotlight: MC5 - Kick Out The Jams

Day five of our Elektra Records love-fest has us traveling to Michigan.

Elektra's PR man, Danny Fields, was visiting the working class city of Detroit in the Summer of 1968 when he took in a show by a Motor City band that had already released two singles on local labels. With The Doors over a year into their legacy, Elektra Records had real skin in the game and could once and for all be considered a real national label. So when Danny Fields came to your show, it was bound to turn some heads. MC5, with their alleged propulsive live shows and radical left political proselytizing had already been lauded by members of Cream and by Rolling Stone Magazine.

Based on one performance, Fields called back to Los Angeles and told Jac Holzman to sign the band on the spot and unheard. Holzman did just that, wiring Fields $15,000 to sign them on the spot. Further, Holzman and producer Paul Rothchild agreed with MC5's and Danny Fields' suggestion to not go into a studio, but rather record their first album entirely live. Over the course of two days -- October 30th and 31st -- MC5 recorded their debut album at the Grand Ballroom in Detroit in front of a live audience.

Individually they were Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith on guitar, Michael Davis on bass, Dennis Thompson on drums and Rob Tyner on vocals. Collectively they were a punch in the face. Elektra picked the second song of their set, Kick Out The Jams, for the band's major label debut released on December 26th, 1968. The release truly marks a seminal moment in rock-n-roll history. MC5 sounded like nobody else. They were creating a brand new sound. A sound that is universally heralded as the father of Punk Rock. The Ramones, The Sex Pistols and, most transparently, The Damned all grew out of the rib that was MC5.

Kick Out The Jams showed just how fast the band evolved from their first recordings dating back to 1966. And it showed how radical Elektra Records was willing to be. The label was already pushing the envelope with the subversive and hard to control, The Doors. Now they were just flat out ripping that envelope up. Despite the label editing the now infamous introduction to Kick Out The Jams for the single release, the record was immediately banned by a major retailer in Detroit who feared MC5's political insurrection would cause a backlash at the department store. MC5 doubled down and took out full page ads denouncing the department store as capitalist pigs. In the end it was too much for Elektra Records and they dropped the band after the first album. But it was too late. The new sound was out - a very Detroit sound, I might add -- and the groundwork for the future of rock-n-roll was set with this simple little release on Elektra Records. So, right now, right now, let's....Kick Out The Jams mother fuckers!

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

Elektra Records Spotlight: The Doors - Break on Through and End of the Night

Break On Through

End Of The Night

Day four of our Elektra Records spotlight has us, perhaps predictably, moving from Love to The Doors. The two bands were closely tied and it was in fact members of Love that first brought The Doors to the attention of Jac Holzman and Paul Rothchild in the Spring of 1966. It would be a fateful introduction for all involved.

It was immediately clear to all that Elektra Records had something bigger on hand than anything they had ever had before. The Doors were the complete package: charisma, sound, musicianship, songwriting skills, willing to tour and work hard. Perhaps sensing they had finally got one over on Columbia and Capitol records, Elektra Records put everything they had into the band including preferential treatment for studio time and marketing dollars. Elektra would give the band a picture sleeve for the debut single and they even filmed the band on stage to make a video to promote the new band. Not exactly a common move in 1967. Meanwhile, the agoraphobic Love would languish in the mountains above Hollywood, literally looking down at a billboard promoting The Doors' inaugural album. Arthur Lee and his band would be left to watch The Doors make the circuit of TV shows promoting their explosive debut single, Break On Through.

The prophetically titled Break On Through, primarily composed by guitarist Robbie Krieger, was released in February of 1967, weeks after the release of the album and seven months after the song was recorded. The Flip-Side of the debut single, End Of The Night, also appeared on the debut album. It's a gentle number that really showcased Robbie Krieger's under appreciated guitar skills.  

Shout out to staff engineer Bruce Botnick and producer Paul Rothchild for elevating these recordings to a new level. 

Elektra Records Spotlight: Love - Stephanie Knows Who and Orange Skies

Stephanie Knows Who

Orange Skies

Elektra Records...day three. 

Day one of this series talked about how Elektra President, Jac Holzman, narrowly missed out on the hottest band on the Sunset Strip due to a moment of hesitation (you can read that article here). Day two talked about how staff producer, Paul Rothchild, flew to Chicago to sign a racially-mixed buzz-creating band before they could get stolen away. (you can read that article here). But that band wasn't about to become hit makers. Not by a long shot.

Day three has us here, learning from those two experiences and filled with Love. 

Elektra Records combined their first two forays into the world of rock-n-roll and finally got the rock band they were looking for on their third attempt. A bona fide Sunset Strip sensation (like The Byrds) and racially mixed band (like the Paul Butterfield Blues Band) who created songs like few others could. The band was Love and featured a roadie from The Byrds and a charismatic frontman in Arthur Lee. The band hit it right out of the gate for Elektra Records with their massive reimagining of Burt Bacharach's My Little Red Book. That single charted at No. 52 nationally and finally gave Elektra a rack upon which they could hang their hat. They were real players with a real rock band.

Paul Rothchild and Jac Holzman gave the band great latitude to experiment in the studio. That resulted in one of the wildest (and complicated to record) singles in Love's impressive sophomore release, Lee's A-bomb of a song, 7&7 is.... 

We feature today the first pressing of the band's third single for Elektra Records. This single was released in October of 1966 as Stephanie Knows Who with a Flip-Side of Orange Skies. Two weeks later the single was unceremoniously withdrawn and Stephanie Knows Who was replaced with the more radio friendly, She Comes In Colors. All three songs appeared on the band's wonderful second full length album, Da Capo.

Stephanie Knows Who was written by Arthur Lee and tells the tale of a girl with whom he was rather smitten. According to an interview with Johnny Echols in Ugly Things Magazine, Stephanie had a way about her that had many in the band fawning over her. She used to string along Arthur Lee pretty good and in turn she was his muse for both this song, and the replacement A-Side. The Flip-Side was written by rhythm guitarist, Bryan MacLean, the former roadie for The Byrds. Arthur sings over Bryan's usual saccharine lyrics and is able to pull them off with sincerity. Not easy to do when you have stanzas about cotton candy! Who knows, perhaps Stephanie may have been the muse here again.

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