Let's start off with something to hit the ground running: a pair of tracks that kick off Caravan's 1973 album For Girls who Grow Plump in the Night. Caravan were one of a number of bands from the Canterbury area such as Hatfield and the North and Soft Machine. By the time of this album, their fifth, they had overcome changes to their lineup to produce a fine album.
Last time I mentioned listening to Bob Charles on AFN late at night with his programme called Underground. This next track is one I first heard there, although it's become somewhat iconic since. Grace Slick is in particularly fine voice on this.
Another song from the cusp of 1966-67 is this one from Buffalo Springfield. It's written by Stephen Stills and refers to riots on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles during November 1966. It was swapped into the band's first album during it's run, resulting in some copies with the track and some (now collectable) without.
I will include occasional things that I couldn't have played on Fresh Garbage or even on later programmes I did on the BBC. I'd come across Mathilde Santing on occasional trips to Amsterdam and would go into the basement of the shopping centre behind the town hall, where there used to be a big record store, to pick up a few CDs. On one called Under a Blue Roof is this next track, which was also released as a single. You'll know the song in its original form as Hey Joe but here Mathilde subverts the message by switching genders and also note how at the end the music becomes unashamedly up-beat and optimistic.
Thinking of Hendrix, as in that last track, gives me an opportunity to link to what is probably ... or arguably ... the best cover version of a Dylan song, or perhaps of any song. The original wanders around a bit aimlessly I feel, but not this take on it.
A quick break of mood, taking us back to a tune composed in 1925 and showcasing the guitar-playing talent of Doc Watson. I recorded him playing this at the Cambridge Folk Festival way back when and found him to be a delightful guy. He included this on his second album, Southbound, showing us another side of fine music from 1966.
Another early album on my personal musical journey was the first one from Country Joe and the Fish. Joe is Joe McDonald and the Fish is either the band at the time, or guitarist Barry Melton. The album had the magnificent title of Electric Music for the Mind and Body, which just about sums it up. This is San Francisco psychedelia at its best on what was one of the first such albums to be released, in May 1967. Coincidentally it was the first LP I bought in stereo! The single from the album, which picked up some airplay in the early days of BBC Radio One in the UK is this: note the distinctive guitar from Barry.
By his third album, Happy Sad in 1969, Tim Buckley was writing his own lyrics and starting to introduce the jazz influences he would later build on. There are touches of Miles Davis on this LP, and the use of vibes gives most of it a summery, relaxed feel.
Treat these four as if they were segued into each other. There's no connection other than the title (and there are plenty of songs with this title) but I think the sequence works building from the almost-indo-blues of Canned Heat through to some Dylan surrealism ... via an early piece of electric Tom Rush and then the Lovin' Spoonful.
We'll wind down with an instrumental. On his third album, Jack Orion in 1966, Bert Jansch unusually opened with an instrumental track on banjo which also featured John Renbourn on guitar. There's some lovely contrapuntal rhythms going on this one, which is why I love it.
This final track flips on to 1978 and Warren Zevon's third album Excitable Boy, which really cemented his reputation as a quirky and dramatic songwriter. It closes the album and it closes this second playlist ... "Dad get me out of this" he sings ...
That's it for this second playlist. I hope you enjoyed it.