On Friday 18th June 1971 at 1952 (according to Radio Times) the first edition of Fresh Garbage was broadcast on BBC Radio London. (The final edition was on Sunday 30th September 1973.) I'd had the title in my mind for a record review programme for a few years so when the opportunity presented itself, the show was launched. The sig tune was, of course, this Spirit track that opened their first album, coincidentally released on my 17th birthday in 1968. The track was edited to basically the first verse/chorus, break (good for 'coming up in the show') and the final verse/chorus.
Spirit were an accomplished and often jazzy band, illustrated in the instrumental breaks in many of their songs. Fresh Garbage was written by Jay Ferguson, who of late can be found writing music for NCIS: Los Angeles. This recording was more recently sampled by Pink into her recording Feel Good Time. I found out later that the band and Jay were quite happy for me to 'appropriate' their track and I interviewed their then lineup for an edition of the programme. (I found out years later that it's also the name of a clothing store in Belfast. Hi guys!)
Choosing an opener, or a track to come back after a break, for news for example, is important. This next track chooses itself. It's from the Bonzo's first album, Gorilla, from 1967 and opens the second side of the LP. Viv Stanshall is the master of ceremonies (vocalist doesn't seem appropriate in this case), a role he later took on Tubular Bells. Don't worry if you've never heard of some of the performers introduced here.
Intros are important for songs as well. Those first few seconds can really stick in your mind. This next track has Roger McGuinn (then known as Jim) channelling John Coltrane. Modern Jazz, and Coltrane in particular, influenced quite a few rock tracks in the 60s. We've heard Spirit earlier, and the break in the Doors Light my Fire is also heavily Coltrane. McGuinn's guitar figure in this intro here changes depending on which performance you hear. An earlier recording is around, and he plays the intro differently and when I heard a Byrds set played as a sound-check in London in the late 70s it was played more like the earlier recording than this one. My suspicion is that the hit released guitar figure isn't the preferred one. I should have asked Roger when I interviewed him.
By the way ... some people thought the 'high' reference was about drugs, where as it's simply the altitude of the plane flying the band over to London (maybe!) ... a trip they didn't seem to like very much. The track was released as a single in Spring 1966 and is sometimes referred to as 'the first bona fide psychedelic rock song'.
Love, like the Byrds, were from Los Angeles. West Coast music in the 1960s was basically split between San Francisco bands, who mostly majored on live performances, and LA bands who were more content working in the studio (over simplification ... but hey!). There is a connection between the two bands, because Love member Bryan MacLean was a roadie for the Byrds at one time. By late 1967 rock music had progressed from its rock 'n' roll and R&B roots into a more eclectic confection (with a little help from the Beatles). Love's music had itself literally progressed over their first three albums, driven mostly by leader and resident musical genius Arthur Lee. By the third, Forever Changes in late 1967, there was a level of sophistication arguably rivalled only by the Beach Boys on the West Coast. This album is often cited as the best rock album ever, and this is the opening track. Written, unusually, by Bryan MacLean and with him and Arthur on vocals.
The only substantial connection between Love and Tom Rush is their record label - Elektra - a label of which I am very fond. Rush had recorded for Prestige and then Elektra, mainly folk-blues numbers and he was an accomplished guitarist with a mellow voice. No Regrets is the closer from his 1968 album The Circle Game and was released at almost the same time as Love's Forever Changes. Most people probably remember the Walker Brothers' version of this song from 1975 and Tom himself re-recorded it in 1974. He told me that there is no personal story behind this but I still wonder.
Back to mid-1967 for a track by Captain Beefheart (and His Magic Band). This is the first thing of his I ever heard, on a John Peel show of course. The album, Safe as Milk, was heavily blues influenced and not as experimental as some of the Captain's later stuff. It does include the extraordinary Electricity ... but that's for sometime later. For the moment we follow in the footsteps of Dorothy. Two notes: the slide guitarist is a 20-year-old Ry Cooder; and the reference tone is no good for line-up!
Judee Sill was a Californian who shone brightly for a few years in the early 70s and sadly died young. She made two albums, and this is from her first, just called Judee Sill and released in late 1971. Her voice was rich in overtones which results in lush double-tracking and she is one of those people who sings in a strong accent. This song really is about being abducted by aliens ... or possible 'the rapture'.
If you only think of a wobbly falsetto and Tiptoe Through the Tulips then you are missing a lot about Tiny Tim. He had a wide musical taste, much of it from the early 20th century, and demonstrated it on his first album in 1968. The album was produced by Richard Perry, who produced that Beefheart track earlier in this list, and was the voice of the reference tone. This track includes some unsettling reverse reverberation and predicts global warming ... and starts with a laugh.
Frank Zappa told me he disliked that, as he put it, the UK public thought his music started with We're Only in it for the Money and ended with Hot Rats. Admittedly his work spans a long period and a range of styles, but personally I've always liked his light-hearted quirky stuff best. This one's from the first Mothers of Invention album, Freak Out!, released 1966, so even earlier than We're Only in it for the Money, and was said to be about a rival band ... but I don't think that's the case. This song was one of the first recorded for the album, and demonstrated to producer Tom Wilson that this wasn't actually a blues band.
Blues band ... or R&B band. Whichever, Bo Diddley influenced a lot of white acts in the 60s whether they were R&B like early Stones or West Coast psychedelia. His trademarks were singing about himself and a rhythm known as either a hambone or 'shave and a haircut ... two bits'. This was his biggest UK hit: listen out for the amazing interplay between the harmonica and the rhythm in the break.
The Rolling Stones were known to play Bo Diddley songs during their early/Brian Jones/R&B phase. There's one on their first album. They were a bit more fond of Chuck Berry numbers, not least because Keith Richard could play guitar in the appropriate style. Also from the first Stones album, from 1964, here's one.
In the mid-to-late 60s there were few places on the radio where you could hear American 'progressive' music. One, if you were up late enough, was Underground on Friday nights from the American Forces Network in Munich where Army Specialist Bob Charles would play US releases that were completely unknown over my side of the pond. One I remember, coming fitfully through the static on medium wave from Germany, was a track by Dick Hyman called The Minotaur. It was an unusual bit of rhythmic Moog experimentation with a waltz-bossa nova beat coming from a drum machine and lots of use of the Moog's ribbon controller. It was a Top 40 hit in the US, peaking at 27 in July 1969.
There are many people who remember Pete Atkin's albums from the early 1970s with fondness. It basically started with Kenny Everett, who played a track called Master of the Revels on his Radio One show and on the strength of that I, and others, bought the album. This was the first of a set of albums of great songs blending Pete's ear for a tune with (mostly) lyrics from the legendary Clive James. Besides the aforementioned master, and the beautiful stranger (as per the LP's sleeve title) there was also a Girl on the Train. The opening couplet is one of my favourites.
Another poetic lyric: this time from Donovan's 1965 album Fairytale. When he emerged in the mid-60s Donovan was repeatedly compared to Bob Dylan, basically because he drew his inspiration from some of the same sources, but he overcame that and there is generally more lightness and whimsy (and jazz) in Donovan's songs. Sadly his career as far as the UK was concerned was disrupted due to a dispute between record labels that manifested itself in fragmented release of several albums from Sunshine Superman onwards. But in '65 there was no sign of this, just some gently involving music.
Often, and especially in the early days, I would close Fresh Garbage with a long (or longish) track. Sometimes towards the end of the run this was a bit of Ravi Shankar, which led to the Indian-language programme following my slot suggesting their listeners tunes in early just in case) but in the first programme it was Dylan's Desolation Row. I didn't understand the underlying message (if there was one) but could just let the symbolism wash over me. Second guitar by Bruce Langhorn and from the 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited.
That's it for this playlist. I hope you enjoyed it.